1987 Eurail Trip

 I first went around Europe with friends in 1987. Kind of DDLJ tour, by train, though Kajol was absent. There were 4 SRKs instead. We started at Frankfurt, and went around to Amsterdam, Belgium, parts of Germany, France, South of France, Pisa, Rome, Venice and passed through Luzerne and visited William Tell's hometown. The proof of travel..

Locations

A great (business)man once said that in Retailing, three things are important- Location, location and location. I would say the same for film shoots, dates, and much more...

Iconic locations often used for Hindi film shoots -

Juhu beach road, Queen's Necklace (Marine Drive), Malabar Hill in Mumbai.

Switzerland and Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani for song sequences/dream sequences. Austria in the case of  The Sound of Music- the charming locations added a lot to the film. The Bond films usually have exotic locations, because the story remains more or less the same. A Kannada film, Mungaru Male, had charming locations and songs as its main attractions.

St. Xavier's college for college sequences

Outdoor sets are sometimes constructed and used to great effect as in the Ramgarh village for Sholay, built near Bangalore. Are O Sambha would not be half as effective in any other place.

Similarly, if you are going on a date with someone, the location and ambience can make a lot of difference..try it out (this is not a dating consultancy-figure out the location on your own).

Anopheles Goes to Karnataka

My female friend of the mosquito species, Anopheles, recently had another small chat with me. About elections this time, among other things.

She unexpectedly came in tonight, as I was preparing to retire. Her first question, after the usual niceties, was,

"Why do you think the Congress won in Karnataka?"

I was surprised that she was so 'in' with the news of our elections. I said, "I think people expected development from the earlier government, which they did not get. They were mined only for their votes. So they changed their mind, and voted for change."

"Hope they don't start cleaning up garbage and drains," she sounded worried. "Where will we go?"

I was stunned with the realisation that one man's food is another man's poison. I said, "If they do, you are welcome to come and stay here, " pointing to a closet.

"Thanks, that's very nice of you," she said.

Then she asked me, "What worries you about the future?"

I had to think, lest I appeared to lack the essential qualities of the homo sapiens. "Terrorism?"

"Who do you think are terrorists?" was her counter-question.

"People who kill others for no good reason, of course," I thought that was easy.

"What about those who are cruel to nature? Or those who instill wrong values in their kids? Or even those who indulge in corruption, as your newspapers seem to keep proclaiming? Isn't that a form of terrorism?"

I said, "How so?"

She said, "Terrorists take the easy way out, by doing whatever they do. These guys also harm society, but insidiously, by preventing welfare of a large number of deserving people. And parents who develop wrong values among children..what could be more damaging to a society?"

I had to admit she was convincing, like a good marketing prof I knew.

I asked her, "Does your society have corruption and bad parenting too?"

She was quite vehement. "Yes, and that's why we have the fat mosquitoes who drink far more than they need, and make the life of us commoners that much more difficult. There are also those who have created blood banks so that their children will not starve for generations."

"But won't the blood get spoilt in tropical weather?" was my innocent query.

"Who said the blood banks are here? They are in Switzerland," she shot back. That was enough to send a chill up my spine, and I kept dreaming about this even as I slept.

Bliss et al

The pursuit of bliss has driven mankind into a variety of activities- from praying to making money, and several others. But a journalist has actually gone to various countries to study how happy people there are. The result is a book, The Geography of Bliss. Written in a very engaging style, it starts with Netherlands, where happiness is a subject of university researchers, to Bhutan, which measures Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product, to Switzerland, Qatar, India, and a few other countries in between.

What happens everywhere is quite educational. The Himalayan country of Bhutan itself is a calming influence on visitors and residents alike. They look at life differently, not only materialistically. The residents want monarchy to continue, whereas the king wants to bring in democracy.

Happiness is linked to living in the present, paying attention to what we do, being nice to people, having some money (though not as much as we think), having unpredictability in life (even good things get monotonous after some time?), and above all, feeling you are linked to something or things beyond yourself- the cosmos, or ancestors, or future generations, other animate (or inanimate) beings, etc...

Switzerland is boring, Qatar has no culture (?), India is chaotic but has its fans who feel at home here (I am one), are some of the findings. I am yet to complete the book, but these nuggets of wisdom were endearing.

Happiness also may have something to do with age and marital status (this is my own theory)-children seem to be happy most of the time- the cribbing increases as we age..married people seem happy in spite of cribbing..a paradox?