Pursuit of Happyness.....

Few days back i watched a movie, 'The pursuit of happyness' starring Will Smith(as Christopher Gardner) and his real life son Jared Smith. What moved me most while watching this real life story was the persistence, father-son relation and stubborn will of Chris Gardner. The movie is down to earth and dialogues are heartbreakingly real.

The story is about Chris Gardner, who makes a living by selling bone-density scanners. The movie is about struggles when he hits a low point after he and his 5-year-old son are evicted from their San Francisco apartment. Gardner acquires an unpaid internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm where he struggles to keep appearances while forced to carry a suitcase with all his belongings to work. Along with his son, Gardner faces many hardships, including living in a shelter, but continues to strive to carve his place in the firm and to pursue his dream of a prosperous, happy life.

Few of the scenes in the movie are very eye catchy, like the one where Gardner solves the Rubicks cube puzzle in a cab, in front of a person from a stock brokerage firm, where he hopes to get an internship.

In the movie Gardner tries to define his views about happyness.. He realizes what Thomas Jefferson, the third US president wrote in his Declaration of Independence, that all men were endowed with the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Jefferson had specified the pursuit of happiness as a right, not happiness itself. "And I thought about how he knew to put the 'pursuit' in there," says Gardner, "like no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it."

Everybody has their own idea of happyness, Gardners wife leaves him to pursue her happyness, her idea of happyness is a good home, food, clothes, money to spend... A crazed man tries to steal Gardner's bone-density scanner, which he thinks is a time machine. That is his way of pursuing his happyness of time travel. Gardner finds happyness in being a stock broker, being a responsible father.. He pursues it by enduring all difficulties.. Some of the scenes in the movie are very moving, for example, Gardner does not keep the phone receiver down between calls so that he can save few seconds, he does not take breaks to drink water, by doing all this, in a day he could save 9 minutes.. wow can u imagine the struggle he puts in.. all to pursue his happyness... Gardner makes his son believe that the toilet room in the train station is a cave and they have to hide from dinosaurs in the cave, and spends a night in the toilet room.. His struggle in the personal life to achive happyness has been beautifully portayed and Will smith has done justice to the role.Gardner pursues happiness and finds it as a father having fun with his son, while watching a match in the stadium, enjoying time on the beach, or spending the night in a luxury hotel although he knows they might soon have to sleep on the street again.

Gardner, who sees his son playing basketball with so much enthusiasm says that "No matter how well u play, some day u will have to leave this and find ways to do job to earn money for living". seeing his son disheartened by his words, Gardner feels guilty.. he says to his son "Listen, dont let anybody tell you that you cant do something, not even me. People cant do it themselves, they say you cant do it.. you've got to dream... And you've got to protect your dream.. you've got to pursue your dream".

The scene where chris explains his son how 'Probably' is different from 'Possibly' is also nicely shot .

Another notable part of the movie is the scene where Gardner comes to the interview for internship in a old shirt with paint spilled all over it. The moment he enters the interview room after seeing the mess and noise in the stockbroking firm he says " Wow, For half an hour i have been sitting outside thinking about the excuse i can give for wearing cloths like this, but now i dont have to." he also says to the panel "I am a kind of person who tells 'I dont know' if i dont know the answer for something, but tell you what, I will find the answer.." Gardners positive ness and sense of humor is nicely portrayed in the scene where the interviever asks him "Mr. Gardner, what would you say if someone comes to an interview without a shirt on him and i give him the job, what would you say Mr. Gardner" and Gardner Replies "He must've had on some really nice pants."

There are hundreds of other scenes that i liked in the movie, but it is best felt when watched. The movie gives a new paradigm of looking at things, with inspiring true life struggles and incedents in Chris Gardners life..

Now i recognize the importance of knowing about peoples life, earlier when somebody used to read biographies and autobiographies i used to think, why should someone waste their time in knowing what happened in someone else's life.. But now i know that life is a school and experience is the best teacher.. Knowing about people is like education, we can learn from their mistakes and put things that worked for them into our lives..

There are very few movies which you remember for years, just because of the way you felt,the way you started to think, the way you involved yourself when you were seeing the movie. This movie is one among those few..

And About Chris Gardner, he later started his own finance-consulting-stock brokerage firm by name 'Gardner Rich'. The company went public in 2005 and Gardner, still holding 75% shares amassed millions... He is a true legendary inspiration...

My hometown - Chikmagalur.

As a child, the moment i stepped out of my house, my eyes would fixate on those beautiful mountain ranges of mullayanagiri and baba budangiri. Backyard of my home offered a elegant view of the 'giris'. The festival seasons, especially deepavali, were still more exciting because the flame lighted a top the hill would be seen as a tiny little bulb glowing in the sky... I had always wanted to go see the beautiful place closely. Mullayanagiri... the highest point of Karnataka... is in my hometown of chikmagalur..The words used to be so thrilling... But actually, not as thrilling as the experience of visiting the place itself. I visited the 'giris' with my team recently. Here are a few snaps from the trip..


This is 'Devirammana betta' one of the three major hills in the range. The Hill is very steep and pointed. Hundreds of devotees climb the hill during first day of Deepavali to get the devi darushana.. More than seeing the god, its the beauty of nature that the people rejoice. This is the reason i think temples are built in places where nature reveals its vastness and beauty.. One can see a small white temple a top the hill..




Have a closer look at the photo you can actually see rainfall in the backdrop of the hill. It was a thrilling experience to see rain pouring down from the clouds at a certain place and other places being cloudy and sunny... This is the view of Devirammana betta from Manikyadhara, Baba budan giri...





This again is a view form Baba budan giri. In the lower half of the snap you can see small dried out plants. These plants are kurinji plants. Kurinji grows at an altitude of 1300 to 2400 metres, and they blossom only once in 12 years . The flower last blossomed in Aug-Sep 2006. I missed out a chance to see this wonder of nature and now i will have to wait till 2018 to see that happen again. The Nilgiris, which literally means the blue mountains, got its name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms gregariously once in 12 years. The flower turns the entire mountain purple and makes the mountains a pleasure to watch. see the picture below to find out how the mountain looks during neelakuringi blossoms..


I got this pic from a website giving info exclusively on kurinjis http://kurinji.in


Anyways, find few of the pics taken from baba budan giri ...

Sitalayyana giri is a hilly place on the way to mullayanagiri. Our team first stopped in sitallayangiri, washed faces in chilling water and decide to have a walk within the mountains...

Then we reached mullayangiri. I stood there for a while looking at the beauty, trying to point where our chikmagalur is..

Just look at the shodow of clowds on the land.. how amazing...

After reaching mullayanagiri we have to climb a little distance by feet to reach the top point where there is a shiva temple.


Magfi and Sasi, my teammates can be seen in the above pic...



What i didn know about mullayanagiri is that there are beautiful caves in the mountain top. The caves run very deep ans skewed. we could not go deep inside because it was very dark, and we were afraid that we may get lost in the cave without finding the proper route back.





The above pic was taken inside one of the caves.The cellphones were not bright enough to illuminate the caves.

Within the cool breeze of wind and the shadow of clouds , we sat and relaxed for a while...


Basu and i went to take few snaps on a projected,pointed pinnacle.





At that point i was on top of the world.. i can say, on top of Karnataka,literally...

On the way to Baba budan giri from mullayan giri there are some eye catching views.


We stopped at a point called Kavigala gandi that gave view of mountains all around..








The day was so amazing. I had been looking at those mountains since my childhood and it took me 20 years to actually go see that place. And i am so happy that i also got an opportunity to take my team mates to my hometown and visit the wonderful place again with them....

The Purpose....

Everything in this universe has a purpose. Well it is left to us to discover and figure out what is that purpose. This brings to me the question of "The Purpose" of this very particular blog... Why should i write blog? what purpose can i give to me writing blog?
am i writing it so that people will read it ? No, nobody visits this blog, its not even indexed with google, so it will not turn up in google search. Only way to come to this blog is by directly typing the URL. And how many people in the world will be curious enough to come to this URL and know what is written? very few... Then does it mean this blog has a very faint purpose?? No.... This blog gets a purpose because of my choice.. I choose to write. why do i choose?? I choose because when i write blogs i think.. I think about things, i think about rights and wrongs, i think about people, i think about my life, i think about choices i should make, I think about what i like, i think about what i dont like..... My brother-in- law used to say 'you should write down the things in you mind, it will bring clarity of thought'. So, i write because it gives me clarity about things. I write so that i can give opportunity to myself to know what i am, how i feel about things.. the more i write, the more i know about myself. I write because it makes me feel good about myself..

So, the Purpose of this blog is to make me think... to discover myself....

And if someone is reading this.. let me tell you...
You are here because you were sent here by your choice. Your choice to look out for something.. You had a purpose behind that choice... Everybody does something with a purpose, people browse with a purpose looking out for something... and i am here because of the same reason you are here.. "The Purpose".. well for me its ' My Purpose' that i have written about above..

People make choices through out their life, in a way every moment of life is a choice, you can choose how you want to act, how you want to think.. "Choice" is very powerful.

Here I can quote a dialogue from one of my favourite movies,"The Matrix", where Agent Smith tells Neo that he cant win and its pointless to fight, But Neo replies that he fights because he chooses to (His choice can bring in a new purpose to his fight, the victory)....

Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace - could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to.

Evolution of a naive mind..

" Baagilolu kai mugidu olage baa vachakane shileyalla vee gudiyu Jnana degulavu"......
These are the lines writtten on the arch of the Public library in my home town of Chikmagalur.. It means " hey observer, pray before you enter this place, its not a sculpture, its a temple of wisdom".... How true is that...

It usually so happens that we hear people say about wisdom words, their view, their opinions.. Those remain just words until we realize.. When we actually realize those words it actually strikes like a lightning. The spectacular meaning those simple words carry, which when realized shows the vastness of it. The example of library given above is one such thing..

I was just reflecting back on how i have changed in the past years and what triggerd those changes. These are the few things that i think triggers change in a person

Realization of something
People
Books

Let me tell about my experience with these things.

"We have to be happy always".We hear people say it all the time, these are just plain words till a simple realization, that can bring about a new paradigm in which we see and perceive things. One can think about hours together on these words, the more u dig, the more u explore. I felt like i have found a new world when i realized that ultimate purpose of life is to be happy. If u are not happy now u cannot be happy ever, no matter what u have, no matter what u get, u cannot be happy until u want to be happy. This realization happened when i was going throught a tough time personally. And again the words "Difficulties makes u a wiser and humble person" striked. If i had not faced tough times and difficulties i would not be as wise as i am today...I also learnt "Passion, Commitment and consistency are the things which will take one to his goal".... few simple realizatons like these have changed me and my way of looking at the world..

I look back and see how i was in a coocon in my previous days. If only i had met people earlier and realized that those people can change my life, i would have been a better person than i am today. My friend used to say "let it be any person u can learn something from him". That has been happening all along for me. I met this guy whom people hate, i learnt how to handle rejections.. I met this girl whom guys run after, i learnt the 'rules of attraction'. Hundreds of people i have met have made me realize that its not about how many people u meet, its about how they have and can impact your life. A classic example, One of my earler room mates, Santosh. Here comes the point of my earlier blog about first impression. I did not have good impression about him at all when i met him for first few times. But the arrows are pointing otherwise now and i say he is a walking encyclopedia. Talk about anything under the sun, he has information about it and more importantly he has opinion about it. He doesnt feel shy to ask straight away about things he want to know. I think this quality of his has given him so much knowledge about things. I used to sit in front of him and hear him talk for hours, may it be ramayana & mahabaratha, Nature of people in different parts of india, Biology, Linguistic influences, prostitution, america, Business, Cooking, Rivers, Friends(The Series),Kalidasa,Jayalalitha,Lalu etc.. I know its a wierd combination of things to talk about but thats how he was.. After 6 months of staying with him i have realized that there is lot one can learn from being with like minded person. Number of people have influenced me in strong ways, few of my friends, My brother in laws, my sisters, my parents.. I am today a combination of realizations and learnings that i have had from these people...

Othello was one of the first books that i read. I was in high school and at that time i used to read so that i can answer people when they ask what i did during summer holidays.. Obvously i did not get anything out of those books at that age.. But lately i have realized that one single book can change your life. Its not about the number of books we can read, how much can we read anyways, even if i read 1 book a month, in a year i can read 12, in 30 years of my life i can read 360 books. A Small Library in our college itself has 65000 books. So its definitely not about numbers. If one can read 1 book a month consistently for 30 years he will be one of the most knowledgable and wise person on earth. My brother in law used to say, u have to read a lot, ready books, ready any piece of paper you get.. Now, i feel some books have greatly influenced me.. may it be few short read books like " who moved my cheese", " The present" or the real thought provoking books like "7 habits of highly influential people", "Rich dad poor dad", "Cash flow quadrant"," the monk who sold his ferrari" they have all influenced me in some way...

Maybe all these evolution happens in everyone. But today i am glad that i looked back and cared enough to figure out what has influenced me, what has made me to change for better....