Its amazing how when you are thinking of a particular concept or idea and the universe suddenly starts throwing things your way that echo your thoughts. I read somewhere that its a Psychological phenomenon, but its hard to believe that all that is psychology when it seems too ridiculous to be chance… Anyway I digress… This is a follow post to this post: At Stake…
A couple of days back I was talking about how sometimes ethics and helping someone might push you to an uncomfortable choice between them. I even gave an example of a story about a Barber who is driven to make a similar choice when the Dictator of his country walks into his shop for a shave. You can read that story here: Just Lather, That’s All
Today I got an wonderful example of the exact opposite situation. This one was thanks to a beautiful short story, The Missing Mail from the book Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan. The televised version of the story is embedded below (If you cant see it, you can view the video here: Malgudi Days: The Missing Mail)
The story is about a postman and one of the families of Malgudi. The postman is a wonderful man and is present at every important instance of the life of Kamakshi, the daughter of the family. When its time for her marriage, he also helps in finding the perfect groom for her.
A couple of days before the wedding the postman sees that the family has a letter informing them that the uncle of the bride is critically ill. The next day he receives a mail that the uncle has passed away. Fearing the marriage might get postponed, the postman takes the call of not informing the family until the ceremonies are well past.
This again was similar predicament but handled in a different way, but the things at stake were different… Ironically in both stories(the other one being of the barber) the final choice seems more acceptable for the reader. I believe its in interest of the writer to work in favor of the reader’s sentiment.
If the postman had done his job and delivered the letter it wouldn’t have been a good story. In choosing a different path the writer suddenly added depth to the character and whats more gave the audience what they wanted.
Thats the important distinction between stories and life. Stories are sometimes over simplified to meet the reader halfway. In that simplification the writer makes the call as to what details are important to the reader but you don’t get that choice in life, all details are there and you make the final call.
So where does that leave us… In all the pondering on this topic the one certainty that I encountered was that its impossible to judge what is the best choice. Its also important to realize that the maker of the decision probably had different priorities than you…
How you feel is relevant only to you, but what you do (even as a result of how you feel) is relevant to everyone around you ….. the hard truth. So i guess it comes down to saying,either … i am going to play this one for me, or…. i am going to play this one for someone/everyone else.
Inception has easily been one of the most entertaining and gripping movies I have had the pleasure of watching. As I sat in the the theater dumbstruck trying to navigate the mind and ideas of Christopher Nolan there was a weird sense of Déjà vu…
Thirty minutes into the movie I remembered what it was that seemed so similar… Actually what I remembered forced me into a smile and simultaneously made me extremely excited…
Five years ago, I wrote a short story – The Question. The story was little over 3 pages long and has been one of my best short stories till date. Turns out there was a lot of common ground between the concepts in Inception and The Question. While the common beliefs formulated the core of my story, in Inception they were the minor details of the story telling. Yet the similarities were clearly there…
After the movie I stood outside the theater(like many others) discussing the finer details of the movie with my friends. Among the people there I was only sure that my friend, Swetha had read that story five years ago. I told her that the movie had in parts reminded me of my short story and she immediately echoed my thoughts. Apparently she too had remembered my story while watching the movie!
The most oddest thing about the whole incident hit me only a couple of days ago. When I had first written “The Question” I was extremely vary about how it would be accepted, so I sent a proof copy of the original draft to a couple of my close friends. You wont believe that one of the proof readers’ response of the story was “This will make an awesome movie!”
Its an odd set of coincidences… You can feel free to read the story here: http://blog.chandrahasa.com/archives/333 and decide for yourself if the similarities are significant enough… I would love to hear your thoughts!
Ps: The coincidences don’t just end there; that reviewer, a very close friend of mine has gone on to become a film maker!
You have the power to cure all the world’s diseases but the price for this is that you must kill a single innocent child, could you kill that child?
Thats the question asked by the protagonist during the climax of Swordfish… I have thought about that question many times, asked it to a few ppl too… Frankly, the answer might tell you something about yourself; About if you can in metaphorical terms ‘pull the trigger’ when the time comes… But what is usually ignored is that, this question is not entirely complete…
The amount of information given is very small compared to what is put at stake… One might wonder about what is to happen to the child after being spared or what about the people of the world, will they live forever? But that actually also does not matter… the question is just a test… there is not child in harms way or no cure for all world’s diseases…
But what if you have the choice to choose between an ethical compromise and helping someone?
What if someone approached you to help some deeply in need. Your heart goes out for the person in need but you doubt the authenticity of the person in front of you. Would you extend you hand to help them knowing full well that you might be getting conned or would you walk away knowing somewhere in your heart that you possibly refused to help someone who direly needed your help.
You might consider weighing your options… but what if the decision has to be made at the moment?
Lets raise the stakes…
What if the help is not insignificant for you? What if your help would be a huge boost for the person in need?
Thinking? Lets see how far we can go with this
What if the help is very significant for you? What if your help would could save someone’s life?
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I read a short story a long time back, it was about a barber who was visited by the Dictator of the land. He had in his hand the sharp blade and in front of him the throat of a tyrant who had tortured and destroyed his country. Professional ethics dictated that he do his job and not be biased the political situation…
What would you have done?
During the entire time he is shaving the Dictator’s beard, the barber mentally tries to make the decision… In the end, he does his job. The Dictator walks away a clean shaven man…
So did the Barber make the right call?
I believe, the amount of information given is very small compared to what is put at stake…
Yesterday I was reading a short story I wrote about 5 years ago. I was amazed at how my writing has changed over time. While I hope that I write better now, there is one thing I know for sure, the past ‘me’ had unlimited spirit in writing.
Just reading through five pages of text gave enough perspective to juxtapose the twenty year old me and present me. Sadly I wasn’t too thrilled at what I saw… Read More
Mood : pensive Music : Sajdaa by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan & Richa Sharma on My Name Is Khan
Hillarious in parts and crazy rest of the way, HTTM is a comedy about three friends(and a nephew) who get transported to their teenage times in a Hot Tub. The comedy is original and the redeeming part of the movie.
