Sunday, November 13, 2011

In the Quest for Perfection

Life is wierd. It tries its best at first, to show you that there can be more to it. You dont want to believe - you are not really interested. There is work to be done, and responsibilities to be shouldered. But life keeps pushing all its beautiful things right in your face. And you cannot help but notice. The warm look in your friend's face - when he gently insists that its late and that you should be dropped home. You try and resist - you are after all a big girl, and you can manage. You have always managed in the past, and there is no sense in believing now that things are different. But then you look in his eyes, and realise that you should just let go - it would make him so happy. You give in.

There are many other such things - which life keeps pushing. The beauty of the full moon, hidden in clouds. The sound of the sea in mild tide. The sudden wind blowing your hair gently on a humid evening. The fragnance of roses from the flower shop on the way to the station. The gentle warmth of the sun after battling through meetings in the heavily air conditioned office. The fullness and perfectness of the magenta sun as it gives its last rays of light before it moves on to the other side of the world. The mischievous grin on your neighbour's son as he sneaks in through your door to retrieve his ball. These are a few things which you just cant resist - they make you feel human.

But then - just when you start believing that your life is perfect, and you have made your peace with the fact that you are destined to live in a particular way - life starts bitching. It then takes such a marvellous hair pin turn, that you start spinning out of control. Suddenly - its not so perfect anymore. And you are left feeling confused.

I saw "Rockstar" recently. Definitely not one of the best movies - it was overly long, and they could have easily ended the movie perfectly an hour in advance, instead of dragging it endlessly to infinite boredom. Sometimes, you just cant help thinking that Bollywood movie directors are either complete fools, or are just plain sadists. They just dont realise that people - their target audience are a tired, tired bunch, who at the end of a long week just dont have the patience to appreciate BS.

But the music was simply amazing. And they managed to show one thing perfectly - that the perfect love story simply cannot exist. When 2 people are in love, any one of the scenarios will happen. 1. They end up together, but eventually break off. 2. Society's rules doesnt let them stay together. There will be angry parents, dozens of rules, things like caste, religion, war, etc stopping them from being happy together. and 3. Everything works out - society just gives up being its bitchy self, and accepts that nothing can stop the 2 of them from being together. And then, one of them dies.

Some people may argue that perfect loves stories do exist, and this is just what they show in movies. But believe me - I have seen a lot of life, and surely, at least one of the 3 things happen. The whole question is - when does one give up?? The practical ones just give up, and settle for things which are less than perfect. The idealists ..... what happens to them?? And when they reach the point when they just cant take heartbreaks anymore - what do they do????