This post started as a comment in response to Navya’s comment to my last post. But once it assumed its current length I decided to put it as a separate post. So, ideally this one should be read in conjunction with the last para of my previous post & Navya’s comment on that.


So let me start by presenting you a scenario.

Let’s assume there is this very difficult but extremely prestigious exam on Nuclear Physics that people from world over take. Among the numerous participants, there is one 42 year old eminent Nuclear Scientist & a 14-year old class Xth kid. Now when the results, come in our kid or whiz kid (whatever you wanna call him) scores 97 out of 100..Amazing…people stand up to take note, a 14 year old scoring 97 in such a difficult exam. He was hailed everywhere, got standing ovation wherever he went, was interviewed by media as if they have no one else to interview etc. etc. No denying that for a 14 year old to achieve what he did deserves all accolades that he got. But our eminent scientist let’s just call him Mr. K (scientists like such names) scored 98 which was highest among all participants. For a 42 year old nuclear scientist to score highest in a nuclear physics exam is commendable but no miracle.

Now entire public, media and our whizkid himself is demanding that he is declared the topper of this exam notwithstanding that Mr. K scored higher marks. Almost everyone is saying that kid is pure genius (which is something I am not denying) and so he deserves this honour but my problem is he is still the second best in absolute terms. May be if we revise the merit list on Score/Age basis, he would top it but on absolute score basis, Mr. K deserves the honour of topping this exam.

Case of this TZP kid – Darsheel – is same – he may have done great for his age and therefore deserve a special jury/critics award but not the best actor one. That should go to the guy who acted best irrespective of whether he has done 150 movies before or if he is 42, 52, 62. Now, limited question is, are you seeing him as a kid who acted exceedingly well or an actor who acted well. And when I look at him from latter point of view, I don’t see him as the best MAN. But then that’s merely my two Singapore cents.

Personally, I also believe that people are getting swayed by superb emotional appeal that TZP holds and therefore over-rating the kid’s effort (which doesn’t mean that I don’t think he is excellent but just that I don’t think he is something humanity has never seen before) but then that’s an extremely personal view which I won’t even like to present as an argument.

And finally to all Darsheel supporters – IQ comment in my last post was extremely light hearted, just in keeping with the tone of the post and it was not meant to disparage the intellect of any terrestrial or extra-terrestrial being (or for that matter, artificial intelligence of any super-computer even). And I hope no one took any offence to it, if you did my heartfelt apologies.

321 years back an apple fell and Newton discovered gravity. Today, it was turn of sensex to take a fall and for Indian investor to discover gravity. And what a costly way to discover that – 6.6 lakh crore is what it cost M-cap of India Inc. to discover that whatever goes up comes down. Hopefully, that would drive some SENSE in sensex.

Btw, if you heard me say 6.6 lakh crore, i.e. because I am sitting in Singapore 6 hours away from India. Am pretty sure, had you asked someone in India, they would have said we lost 6.6 crore “Nanos” today. Yups am talking about Tata Nano - supposedly the best thing to have happened to India since Sachin Tendulkar. And, I must say am in no mood to contest that. People might tell you that this would make Indian roads more congested, air more polluted and neighbourhoods more cluttered (where is the parking space anyways?). But I am willing to dismiss that as an elitist view, because I don’t think anyone who made such comments takes a bus to office or cycles his way through. To me, Tata Nano is yet another step towards empowerment of Great Indian Middle Class. And, given huge petrol/diesel subsidies by Govt. of India, for once government is literally fuelling the aspirations of Indian public.

And that reminds me, if you are a foreigner, have recently found yourself in India and wondering why no tourist or business brochure ever told you that most important city in India is Perth. Stay calm, don’t waste your dollars or euros in buying latest map of India, because Google is right when it tells you that only known ‘Perth’ on face of earth is in Western Australia. India has just won a cricket test match there and that’s all. It’s amazing, how we as a nation starved for sporting success goes overboard with any little piece of success that comes our way. We flaunt it so much that it becomes embarrassing at times. But then for all the dollars we pump in global cricket circus, there is something to show at least.

But there ain’t a circus more amusing than Politics and politics can’t get stranger anywhere but in subcontinent. After all where else would you find seasoned politicians asking a 19 year old to run a country? That’s right - Mr. Bilal Zardari/Bhutto must be the most important teenager after Harry Potter in current times, after all he is prime minister elect for running the most unstable democratic government in world. Sounds similar to calls for Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi to take up prime-ministership in aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. Wonder when would people in this part of world will get out of feudal age mentality and graduate to democracy in true sense of the word.

And finally, now that we have discussed, cricket, politics, business and sensex, fitting closure to this post would be a mention of Bollywood. And in current times, when one’s EQ (Emotional Quotient) is being measured by asking if he/she cried while watching Taare Zameen Par or not, how could I discuss something else. I must say that the movie is top rate, kid has really done exceedingly well and Aamir Khan has created one of the finest cinematic moments in form of the song “Maa…”. But “best actor award for the child” …well, where’s your IQ buddy?

Wish this didn’t happen - wish that happened differently - wish I could do it again.
But fortunately or unfortunately none such wishes are ever granted because Time is a one way street. There are no U-turns, There ain’t any going back. If you didn’t refill fuel of joy at the last gas station, you just will have to wait for the next. If you let go of any moments, they are lost forever – not to be regained, not to be rediscovered. You can find similar moments further ahead in your life but the ones you wasted, are gone for good.

We keep waiting for things to happen the way we want them to happen and during that wait we turn a blind eye to moments that are waiting to be embraced and enjoyed. As time ticks by, we grow impatient and then we pick the hammer made of our perceptions and start striking those moments hard, hoping we would succeed in moulding them the way we want to see them. While a few of us succeed, but far more of us only succeed in disfiguring and destroying the moments. And soon, we are just left with battered moments all around us.

And then you wish you had done things differently. You had smilingly hugged those moments as they were rather than ignoring them for ones which were never to be. You wish you had held those moments tight rather than letting them go, hoping they would return. But when has time ever come back? When it drifts - it just keeps going further and further away.

And therefore, may be key is to not try and wait for time to change but to step up and change the way you look at time. Key is not to sit and say that’s how I wanted my moments to be but to start enjoying the moments as they are. And may be in the process they may just lead you to the times which you were wishing for.