DEV OF ANAND

Main Zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya....The evergreen joie de vivre of  Dev Sahab has inspired and will continue to inspire millions. 26th September happens to be his birthday and on this day I have chosen to write about his zeal for life...I am not talking about Dev the actor or the director...I want to write about Dev the enigma...the forever young phenomenon of Indian Cinema. 

Thanks to my father's persistent admiration,Dev Anand became his dear friend. Dev Sahab had just about 40 contacts in his phone and my father's name did figure there. I got to talk to Dev Sahab several times over the phone...mostly on 26th September to wish him on his birthday and I just cannot forget his musical 'Hellloooo' and a very stylish 'Thank you so much...God bless you' 

I also got to meet him atleast on 4 occasions, twice at his luxurious Anand Dubbing studio, once at the Lucknow Airport and once...well ....to our most pleasant surprise...he graced our residence by paying a visit. 

'Fans from all parts of the world come to visit me in Mumbai...but I feel elated to be visiting a fan's house' Dev Sahab said...with a humble pride. 

Dev Sahab has impacted my life in many ways and the most impressionable of them is his exuberance, let me explain that…If we don’t have a possibility of a dream our reason to sleep will only be resting and if our nights don’t show us a dream to be realized, our days might become meaningless...just squandering our precious moments of life waiting for a purpose makes this life a tiring journey…our fresh morning is a result of an anxious and not a peaceful night. Dev sahab taught me to be anxious...restless and ever demanding.

The second influence of Dev Sahab’s philosophy on me was his romance…well ...more than anything else, the romance for life. When you love something,  you tend to love everything about it and just imagine what will happen if we love life …we will love everything about it…every person that it it introduces, every place that it takes us to, every moment that it makes us experience….love them all and you are bound to get it back. In his autobiography, aptly titled as ‘Romancing with Life’ Dev Sahab underlines his sorrows and disappointments too…but in such a manner that they too sound glamorous and enticing. I owe my love for life to you Dev sahab.

I also picked up from this symbol of positivity, how to handle failures. Even the greatest thinkers and philosophers and exponents of spirituality will be humbled if they get an insight of Dev Sahab’s ability to detach his past…good, bad or ugly. Dev Sahab neither regretted his failures nor he celebrated his success. He truly imbibed Bhagwad Geeta’s philosophy of  Karma and Bhagya…what we do is our Karma and what we get is our Bhagya and never the twain should be equated with each other.

And last but not the least…Dev’s youthful charm…never count your years of existence, have a regulated lifestyle,  derive your intoxication as you take sips from the alcohol called Life. Always keep on learning new things and never ever become outdated….

I can go on and on when it comes to talk about you Dev Sahab…have never felt the void eversince your mortals went away…your spirits live around me …through your philosophy more than your films…Happy Birthday

Empowering God

Right and wrong, good or bad, fair and unfair, legal or illegal…plurality of choice in life is our biggest predicament and yet, we have to take a decision. These decisions are usually guided by our approach towards this quandary which should either be adventurous or rational, but we most of the times tend to chose the third option and that is the escapist approach and that is where we involve our eternal , omnipresent and 24*7 mate  THE GOD !

Let me take an  ultra-adventurous point of view, but  before I dwell more into it, allow me give an honest disclaimer. My belief in my Gods (I love the plurality here) and my religion like any other believer is impeccable. I have a very strong relationship with My Gods and this relationship has stood the test of logic. I am glad that the model of religion that has been presented to me by my family, society and community allows the peripherals to play, mock, interfere or even construct it, in a way such vulnerability might make it weak but it strengthens the followers. I follow my religion with a skepticism that makes my insecurities vanish away.

Coming back to the point, let me ask a question to all my readers as a precursor to this discussion and that goes like this….. IS OUR GOD POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TRUST HIS FOLLOWERS? (don’t miss the oxymoron here)

I know that only those with extreme and insensible devotion or even the callous non believers would have the common answer and that is NO even though their reasons for saying so will be different. I however would proceed further by assuming that the answer to the above Question is yes.

Very few amongst the believers would disagree that GOD is a very good manager. He is managing this Universe with utmost perfection. The optimum use of resources, timings of the events managing the past, future and present, nature , vegetation , Planets and millions of living species.  You actually have to be a GOD to do this mammoth Godly stuff.  While the solace for him is the fact that all the species other than men don’t approach him to be the ‘Granting Commission’ for all kind, the worrying fact is that the ever demanding humans are growing in geometrical progression.  Going by the biological evidences, The humans are the most equipped creation of God and yet they use less of everything that they have and keep going back to him every time they are challenged by a novelty or an adversary.  And the God has to listen to  them all, and the real trouble happens when two people of set of People have contradictory demands…for example If India is playing the World Cup Final against Pakistan then 120 Crore Indians want India to win while about 20 Crore Pakistanis want Pakistan to win…Tell me what will you do if you were God….

My answer is straight…If I put myself into God’s shoes I will simply say

‘Hey Man…I have given you enough abilities and cognitive power to take your  decisions…I have empowered you to think and act…so sort it out yourself.’

 Come to think of it…he has empowered us with strong emotional, social, mental, physical and spiritual faculties and we? We keep these faculties in a closet and allow us to be swayed by biases, prejudices, preconceived notions, dogmas, mindsets and what not….and I believe that’s an insult to the giver. Are we potent enough to empower the God or it should be the other way round? Just think about it.

So if you believe in God...learn to believe in his creations and you being one of the strongest...have to

decide for yourself what is good and bad, fair or unfair, right and wrong for you…for we can’t have the same verdict for the different sets of people for facing the same or a different power. According to me …we the people are in the best position to judge a situation…religion, social beliefs and constitution can become our reference points to some extent but they cannot be definite.

Reincarnation of the Concience

Our conscience is a result of our upbringing, education and experiences. It looks reasonably fortified at the outset but its weak defense gets exposed when it comes under the attack of desires. Its vulnerability is exposed and we are stripped of our virtues in no time. 

Chapters of religious scriptures and the morality lessons from the teachers and guardians,give us our basic thought process, our parameters of good and bad, our reasons to love and hate, and the power to discriminate between right and wrong. 

Our mind sets are conditioned and are then frozen in a closet. The journey of life and the junctions of our experiential journey only reiterate our hackneyed scholastic wisdom. We claim to be forward looking people but we are most of time seeing our future wearing  the glasses of past. We welcome learning but only in the predetermined colonies of our mental township.Even though the momentum of compulsive academics sometimes tries to tread the unconventional, very soon it settles for the customary avenues, apparently they are more fertile for the monetary crops. Risks are avoided, experiments are discouraged and path breakers are condemned and as a result we continue to live in a walled society, generations after generations

Our Conscience is the most vocal shield in our system and yet in absence of any maintenance contract or absolutely no updating of anti-virus protections, it becomes an outdated and incompatible with the daily dose of life updates, still we carry with our worn out conscience…we refuse to grow. Our moralities get into the conformist mode and that is where we start writing the last chapter of our life…the living obituary. The first and the most 

Important aspect of growth is to break the existing model and make a new one to meet the new demands and this process goes on….Is it that simple? is the most inevitable question. My next novel Reincarnation of the Conscience will dwell into many such questions and will suggest answers through its characters, plot and philosophy, Infact, I as an author of this book would be happy if it makes you ask many more questions from life…so that your remaining part of life gets an assignment.

Reincarnation of the Conscience is a story about three men who decide to change the course of their life when they had no apparent reason to do so. Their path breaking efforts brings in front of them unprecedented situations, intriguing people and uncertain spheres. Still they come out winners. In the pages to follow you shall see how the challenges of change, conflicts and complacency make us review our strategy…When the future is asking us new questions, we must change our answers. 

This book will help you in revisiting your conscience to see what renovations it requires to cope up with the changed set of surroundings

Get ready for a roller coaster ride of emotions, get involved with characters and feel their joy and pain. Remember it is in their struggle, you will find your answers.

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