Chak De - India

Chak De is getting rave reviews from all corners. I got to see the movie, last saturday. Almost throughout the movie, I found myself on the edge of the seat. My review of the movie says:

Chak De is - Thrilling, Exciting, Motivating, Patriotic and Thought-provoking, besides being a throughly entertaining movie. A must-watch movie for all Indians.

Just look at the issues covered in the movie:

• Team-building
• Hockey - our almost forgotten 'National' game
• Indian Women in Sports and their challenges at home and on the ground
• A celebrated Hero who lost it all in one missed penalty stroke and how he fights back
• Politics surrounding the Boards and Sports committees
• Above all , the idea of being one nation, rather than a collection of states and regions.

I tried to list down a few lessons I learnt from the movie. They are:

• Playing for ONE cause (one country) makes a team.
• More than one reasons/goals, just gets a few individuals fighting their own team.
• There might emerge two powerful lobbies lead by two probable leaders. One of them has to give in for the TEAM to WIN.
• Reciprocating a favour builds trust and strenthens team bonding.
• A common threat or enemy unites a divided team.
• An individual's personal reason can affect his/her performace in both ways.
• Personal challenges encourage people and help them set high goals and accomplish them. Without Team support, no personal challenges can be met.
• When there is a determination, past failures, and injuries also MOTIVATE to win.
• When there has been no past, there is all probability of history being written.
• Lastly, the coach(boss) is always right ;)

Those who have seen the movie already can comment on this post. The rest can go "watch the movie".

~ Qais

Dancing in the Rain

As it's rainy season here in India, I tend to go back to my memories of rainy days in my life. A number of scenes flash back in my mind. So, I just wish to give them some space on my Blog, as well. Why not? After all, there's no life without water, too.

From rainy days at school to getting drenched till recently, I have a good list of my romance with Rain. Getting started with my childhood, I remember looking at rain from the window. I was never tired of it and the most common and obvious pastime - making paper boats and leaving them only to see how far they reach before drowning somewhere.

Then, in my college days at Aligarh Muslim University. I remember when I planned to watch the first day- second show of the movie - 1942 A Love Story. There were three other friends with me, including my best buddies - Ansar and Fakhir. We decided to reach there a little early so that we could get tickets easily. It was a pleasant cloudy day. We had not been far when we were forced to take shelter under a tree. I was riding my bicycle and my friends were on a cycle rickshaw. We waited impatiently for sometime but then it was getting difficult to stay there as we thought we might not get the tickets. So, with Rickshaw puller relenting to our request, we started off our sojourn towards the movie theatre.

For a few minutes, we were a little worried about getting drenched but when we already got drenched then we dropped all our worries somewhere on our way. It was such a heavy rain that there wasn't any traffic on roads. People were standing under whatever shelters they could get. Most of the eyes were fixed on us as we were passing the market of Rasal Ganj which is very close to Nandan theatre - our destination. They looked at us in awe or some other feeling we couldn't understand. But, at that moment we were not even bothering to wipe the rain water dripping through our face rather we were busy talking as if everything was perfect and normal when it wasn't. Finally we reached the place. Our patience was paid; we got the tickets and the movie was a visual treat, especially the Rain song- "Rhim Jhim Rhim Jhim" .

Another incident from the recent past, happened on a friend's Birthday. His name is Disney and we call him "Diz". Diz loves to get wet in rain. We had got bored of sitting at his place and waiting for the rain to stop. With two others friends, we set out for a walk. We simply had fun on the streets of Hyderabad - enjoying the rain, singing songs and cracking jokes. Diz felt that he had a great birthday and we all felt that we had loads of fun.

Even this time, I had my share of getting drenched in the rain. Sometimes it was planned by me and at other times, it was destined by God. What about you? Thinking of your experiences ? Have a drenched journey into the Rains you enjoyed...

Don't forget to have some hot pakodas and aromatic tea or coffee on your way...