Leap of thought

Huh..so just realized that I have 10 followers. Cum on, seriously!! You guys!!

So well, today is not just any other day to sit down and write down a post. Today is leap year day! This day is the "fields medal" day of or Earth. Given its scarcity, people should have made a big deal about this day as to doing something significant, something difficult or something impossible. Considering all the fuss about New Year's day that comes every year or Valentine's day (a.k.a depressing day of the year), this day is damp squib. Believe it or not, (some really old or obsolete) tradition in some parts of Europe has it that a woman may only propose to a man on leap years. (thanks to wiki!). But if you ask me what I did special for today, my answer is, absolutely nothing. But I am writing this blog, and I am pretty sure you have figured out that this ain't significant either. The title is just a testimony to the day, and not to the magnitude of value of thoughts. I have warned you. So read along if you got time to burn.

I am not a master of segue, so sorry for the abrupt transition. But my mind is. I was thinking about all the people who were born today, and how they get to celebrate their birthdays on the same date only once every four years (if they follow a solar calendar that is). Then my mind wandered to all the people who don't get to celebrate their birthdays at all for a variety. Now I got a bit sad. I always get sad on my birthday but that is because I got one less year to live, and I know that I am nowhere close to where I want to be. If you ask me where I want to be, my honest answer is I have no idea; I am like a wanderer. (But if the hiring managers for those companies to which I have applied for job or internship reading this, I am process oriented, goal driven and analytic.) Aaanyway, so I decided to watch a movie to burn off some time (to my MBA group members, I am doing this only after completing all  required assignments for the week). You can't speak out your mind nowadays! Sheesh!

So the movie was Zindagi na milegi dobara, a hindi movie, a new one, and apparently the last one I got to watch in theatre before leaving to US for my studies. It's a great movie to say the least. It is about three friends (if I had a nickel for every Indian movie that starred with "3 friends"), who get together after 4 years for one of the guy's bachelor party. They will go to Spain, and will participate in 3 sports, chosen by each of them. The movie is about how they go about doing it, the incidents that affect the personality and beliefs of each individual involved. It is a very breezy movie. You should check it out if you got a chance.

In that movie, one guy is a financial investment banker, second one is a builder & heir apparent of a large business, and third one is a writer. Needless to say, lot of these guys have money to burn (obviously, they have decided to have bachelor's party in Spain all the way from India!) So this investment banker guy, he was kinda lower middle class when he was young, had lost his father at a very young age, and so made his life to make himself well off in future. And he did. His flashbacks and majority of sequences are about how he gave importance to career (not to money directly), and stresses the value of money in every transaction of his life. I had to mention that he gives importance to career and not money as I think there is a subtle difference at least in my opinion. Money can be obtained in innumerable number of ways; it is at least admirable to think of obtaining it through one's career (in contrast to say....say stealing or as Frank Abignale Jr did..minting :-))

But his perception about all this would change when he gets to meet  a very lively, live-in-the-moment, and veryyyy pretty (Katrina Kaif) girl in the journey, and he falls for her (obviously) and decides that he would follow her in the journey (to Morocco) and not worry about his investment banking career. One of the "awwww" moments in the movie, and I remember a lot of audience talking about how they want to live a bit extra after the movie. I call it the movie hang over.

The friends would do three (not-so-recreational) sports in the movie: deep sea diving, sky diving, and bull run. My mind right, it is pretty fucked up; it does its own segue. I was like, okay, all is right, you don't want to worry about your career, you want to do all this crazy stuff with this new pretty girl you have just met. All expensive stuff. That's because you have got the money Mr. Investment Banker. A business class flight ticket from London (where he is from in movie) to Madrid airport is  a cool 1600 euros at least? Add to that the awesome villa they were staying, the expensive recreational sports and not to mention the impending journey to Morocco. You can't do all the bloody thing if you ain't got money. That's what I thought. I know!! In one of the scenes after deep sea diving, this girl would would ask him, "Why I saw tears in your eyes (this guy would be overawed after the experience). Were you ever in tears when you received your paycheque?" Smooth lines, but the reality is that it was this paycheque that helped him to have this experience and hence, the tears of joy.

I am not arguing that money buys everything; there are many many things I personally know that any amount of money cannot buy. But it is about the fact that glorifying certain things above money, but those that cannot be had if it weren't for the money. You cannot just live life by grazing around doing whatever you want. We humans aren't designed that way. Two or three times a day, we get a primitive feeling that almost suppresses every other reaction; hunger. When you are hungry, you got to eat, and to eat..well you know where I am going.

The reason I am saying this is that I have seen many people get absolutely carried away with the message of of the movie, or with those innumerable posts I get to see now on facebook walls.
But I am digressing. This post is for the normal folks -- the average Joes, Moes and well...anyone. Just because you had an epiphany to have fun in your lift, you cannot and shouldn't leave everything behind. It is finicky and cowardly. Take everything you see/hear with a pinch of salt. It is understandable that you want a break, you want to go away. Everybody feels that. But not everyone is in the same capacity to do it. Imagination has no limit, and that's why it's a bitch. But you got to understand your reality.