When life imitates art!

Social revolutions always take place when circumstances demand so. Whenever a society is stirred, troubled at heart, people will speak up! At times, this socio-emotional outburst is a result of the influence of some inspirational politician or some moving book. However, as they say life imitates art, I dare to say art influences life as well. Speaking of which, our movies have had their fair share of impact on society since times when animation was invented. This can be in the way people dress, wear hairdos or more importantly think! I was not born back then, but I think Raj Kapoor movies always dealt with social problems; be it Shree 420, Anari, Prem Rog & so on. He artistically communicated society’s problems at that time (I despise his skin show though!) through a media, which was influential & easily available. Well kapoor is an item of the past now & many have come and gone since then.

We grew up on some funny mithun & govinda movies that taught our neighborhood boys nothing more than break dance (may be I am wrong & they represented the diasporas in some obvious way). Now that our generation is facing life, two most influential movies that stirred our hearts & minds are; Dil Chahta Hai & Rang De Basanti. DCH established the concept that friends can be more than family & relatives at times. It also conveyed, no matter how hip we dress up (yeah all the goatee stuff, branded clothes & perms I am talking about) we still like being Indian & are quite conventional at heart! RDB took DCH’s message a step ahead. When people thought we couldn’t have another Bhagat Singh ever again, this movie gave our society the reason to believe that whenever time demands, a Bhagat Singh will be born in the world. What more, youth got so motivated, Supreme court had to reopen Jessica Lal murder trial & Government had a hard time defending reservation for the medicos! This movie had a simple message; when the common man speaks up, nobody can curb his voice. To prove this you don’t need a balle balle dance sequel in some malhotra-designed wardrobe! Hail the good times coming back to Indian cinema!!

Where is the party tonight?

Growing up, my idea of entertainment was about a pleasant chit-chat with relatives, family & friends. Well back then how many people actually went to some hip coffee shop or some pizza joint to share some hot spicy news? Indian culture predominantly epitomized the idea of fun as some family friends getting together over a cup of evening tea with some Marie biscuits or some local gujju brand chivda! Things always change & although we change with times (not really we like the way we are as Indians & our Indianess down the heart!). Life has changed so much since the open economy revolution of 1992 & its impacts can be seen on common life as well. How many family members (our generation) still return from work at 5 in the evening, practically none! Yeah right we make lot more money than what our dads made when they were our age, but weren’t they a little more grounded than what we are right now?

Introspecting my own lifestyle, now if I have to unwind, I go to some theatre or a mall visit with some friends, well either ways, it involves spending money. At times, everybody is so busy that I myself go to the neighborhood Barnes & noble or the local mall & end up spending more money than I needed to! I remember myself criticizing this American way of life, but just a matter of time & I see me being a part of it. Down the heart I knew I always had more fun over the family get together & unplanned social visits I used to have when nobody was this damn busy. We all know it’s the simple things in life that make a profound impact on our expectations from our life. However, I now realize it is very difficult to maintain & conduct this simplicity. I know everybody out there is missing the same element that I am, but I think now that I have realized it, I will make efforts to try to keep things the way they were. After all, so what if you can’t drop by anymore without any prior notice to your friend’s place as you may wonder if she might be busy, you can always call & visit!