Not Being Useful

 When you are in a job, you can be useful to friends in your network, either due to your expertise, or your position, or contacts. Maybe you can get things done. Fix a summer internship for your friend's son/daughter, or call someone to do someone a favour.

When you stop working, most of these "powers" go away almost instantly. People who knew you 'forget' you, and you are pretty useless to anyone. It's a different feeling, and can affect you negatively.

But there's also a positive. It's liberating, the feeling that you are no longer going to be approached by anybody to do things for them. You can play God no longer, you are just a human on your own. 

Freedom, at last?

Arun Joshi's 'The Apprentice'

This is an unusual book by an author that is relatively unknown. I came to know of him through a friend Vinod Ekbote's blog. Part of the reason is that his books are not easily available. I found this book while browsing at Higginbotham's Bangalore. It does not disappoint.

In one fell swoop, this novel takes in the decay of the Indian 'system' of bribery and insensitive administration, and much more than that. The destruction of our 'souls' as it were- there are references to the Bhagavad Gita but also a confession by the protagonist that he understands only a little from it.

I found it riveting, and unusual. The story is that of a freedom-fighter's son, who grows up directionless, and finds a job only to turn into a corrupt spoke in a bigger wheel. He buys sub-standard equipment for the Indian Army, and that becomes the cause of his best friend's death- he is serving in the Army in the Chinese War. There is penitence and an attempt to seek revenge, both non-formulaic.

The style of writing is one of the best I have come across. Must-read for a serious reader.

Shammi Kapoor and The Art of Being Independent

Shammi Kapoor passing away at this point may have a message. He was probably the first Indian hero to do his own thing. Particularly with his body contorting in unbelievable ways, gyrating to the rhythm of an OP Nayyar or Shankar Jaikishan or RD Burman. I used to as a teenager, love his films, and one of my favorites was his song Badan Pe Sitaare Lapete Hue, from 'Prince'. There were many others, too, like the Teesri Manzil songs, or Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyaar ke charche har zabaan par, probably one of the top 5 dance numbers from Indian movies. Rocking was an appropriate term for this guy, who seemed to epitomise the art of being happy. His son says in an interview day before yesterday that he advised his family to keep laughing and singing, never mind his condition! What an attitude.

What being independent means is probably just that. Being happy, whether you are on the street or in a palace. Freedom may be the better word. Freedom from what happens. Whatever happens, you are free, and happy. There was a story called 'Man's Search for Meaning' written by a guy, Viktor Frankl, who survived Hitler's concentration camp through sheer positive thinking and little else. Don't worry, be happy. And spread happiness.