Skip to main content

The Forties

Having returned from the roaring version (the latitudes in the southern hemisphere) recently  I find myself at a crossroads.  In terms of my present life spent on the planet as measured in years and if there is anything remotely roaring about that.  Not quite a mid life crisis it is a time to ponder what was but I have concluded /decided to focus on what could be..

Coincidentally happened on a couple of movies recently that shed some perspective on this very situation - in a kinda sorta way..

One from Hollywood called 'This is 40' starring Paul Rudd (who I recently became acquainted with - in some other role and who is one of the protagonist in the said title) with some woman who I have never seen before but played her part well of a vain somewhat spoilt mother of two (and happens to be the real life wife of the director - who I suspect also threw in his kids in a kid role to save dineros).  My fave (one of) comedian, Albert Brooks lent a nice supporting cast as the father of Paul's character.  This Southern California lifestyle maxed to the hilt couple with their daughters is coping with their respective passions and trying to figure out whether marrying was the right thing to do a decade or so ago.

The other version (with not quite forty somethings) came from Bollywood in the Occident titled 'Dil Kabbadi' which I later found was a take on Woody Allen's creation called Husbands and Wives.  At any rate the cast was skillful and playful as the role required it to be.  A story of relatively older couples without kids in modern India and their experiments with truth (as in in and out of marriage).

Interestingly the masters of moviedom in either continent gave respective productions 2 stars, so I am not sure if my palate is consistent with the larger demographic.  Any rate I found these light-hearted takes on the silliness that a social contract of marriage brings and the societal pressures it produces on those in that contract.

Comments

  1. marriage is a self-created crisis of mammoth proportions.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...