Flashbacks of a Fool

If you haven't watched Flashbacks of a Fool, I'd recommend you do. One of my favourite quotes from the movie:

"I used to think that the only thing you needed courage for is going forward, and then I learned that the only thing you need courage for is standing still."

Can't stop thinking about that line. I'm at a point where I'm still contemplating what to do with my life. I have certain notions of what I want to do, but I'm sure those will change in another 5 years. As I contemplate taking a leap and throwing myself into the unknown, this line comes to mind, and I start questioning whether it's a lack of courage to stand still that propels me to take the jump now ...

The movie reminds me of early adolescence and how it never really stops being part of one's life: friends, notions of romance ...

Pearl Jam

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about good music, and the lack of it in the current day. He happened to mention a band that I had oft heard mentioned, but had never really paid much attention to, Pearl Jam.

The conversation stayed with me, and I got around to discovering this gem of a band today evening, while winding up work. I started listening to the popular ones, "Even Flow", "Alive", "Jeremy" and the like, and then I chanced upon this acoustic version of "Cordruoy":



And boy, am I completely blown away. Thank God for digital records & YouTube. Music fills a void in us like nothing else can.

This is serious classic stuff. The passion with which the song is sung, and the simple haunting melody of the song captivates you. I started reading up on the literature of the song & the band.

Apparently the band stayed away from making music videos, the biggest marketing tool for a band, because they wanted their listeners to form their own mental images when they listened to the music, and did not want to stilt the imagination of the listener by the commercial video (probably the reason I didn't pick it up earlier).

How awesome that a band should risk losing millions in sales, for the sake of principle!
This is what great music is all about: extremely personal, pure in principle, lending expression to people, and to paraphrase Jack Black from The School of Rock, "Stick it to the man".
It is what inspires a kid to pick up a guitar, to shake us out of your comfort zones, and to lose ourselves, if only once in a while.

The other music that shaped my taste and has kept me company the last few years (while I toiled away for the man) was Pink Floyd, Queen and Led Zepp.
Of late, I'd started looking beyond these, for want of new material. But nothing quite hit the spot like this one did.

And although embarrassed, I'm kind of thankful that Pearl Jam didn't happen to me until now. I can now look forward to listening to some fantastic material over the next few months.

peace out !

Warm Regards and Gentle Reminders

These are two phrases that get me worked up these days.

The significance of effective communication in the workplace, cannot be undermined. Especially when interacting with counterparts across the seas over mails, it is important to maintain a degree of decorum and civility.

However, there is a thin line between being civil and being overcautious.
Qualifying greetings with Warm, Cold, Hot, Gentle etc .. somehow reeks of psychophancy and servitude.

Not only is this incorrect grammatically, it also manages to make the regular non-qualified usage of these phrases unpleasant.

The fact that people have started getting used to these forms of communication makes the correct usages that much less acceptable, to the point where I have to now think twice before I send out a reminder mail without mentioning the word "Gentle".

The warmth or the Gentleness of a piece of communication is and should be determined by the style of communication and the content therein, and not merely by dangling an adjective in front of the word.

Please leave it to the recipient of the mail to decide if your letter felt warm or gentle or oily or wet. In the meantime, on your part, please focus your efforts on making that mail convey the point as well as possible.

Does it get better ?

When does one get past a mundane existence and jump into an exciting one ? When does one get past the rigmarole of routine, and start doing the things they really want to do, the things that add meaning, that gives them happiness ?

The experts say, it takes roughly 10 years of repetitive routine for anyone to become really good at their chosen field.

It's irony at its worst. Just when you start getting better at something, another phase in life comes in, parenthood for instance, and you spend another 10 years trying to be good at that. It's futile.

I'm reminded of the starting monologue from Annie Hall. It goes thus:

Two elderly women are at a resort, and one says to the other "The food at this place is so terrible", the other woman responds "yeah, and in such small portions too"
That's essentially how I feel about life, full of loneliness, and suffering and misery and unhappiness, and it is all over much to quickly.

In some less philosophical musings, I'm quoting movies instead of people and books. Welcome to my world & my generation !