Thursday, June 27, 2019

Happiness is ability to eat right and sleep well

I used to think happiness is something we experience when we achieve something significant. That understanding was slowly changing in me in the recent past. Now I think happiness is being able to eat right and sleep well. That’s all. After my experiences in the last two months, this understanding has become even more concrete.

It was third week of last month (May'2019). Schedules were hectic in the office as we had some executives were visiting us. It was a tiring week and I was waiting for the weekend to begin. At last, came the Friday evening. That day, I reached home with an intention to unwind. But destiny had something else for me. My wife was on phone when I was stepping into home and she told there is a medical emergency for her father and we need to reach the hospital at the earliest. I was not in that mood. Whole of my body did not want to go anywhere, but this was an exception and need of the hour. Though I had no energy left to drive the car, I did take it out and set on the journey to hospital. We had almost reached the hospital, my phone ringed and it was a shocking news. My mother had died. Though devastated, I had my hands on the steering wheel, managed to drive the car to hospital we needed to go, parked it in the hospital premises, gave away the keys to my brother-in-law asking him to take care of the situation. Then left to bus station to reach my native.

The days which were waiting for me had nothing pleasant. Pain of separation and the situation I got into ensured I could not eat or sleep well. Luckily, I did not fall sick. But dampening of life energy and the confrontation with death (which is certain and unpredictable too), killed me partially. I survived but did not come out strong.

After coming back from native to Bangalore, hospital visits continued as my father-in-law had got admitted to hospital for a surgery. After a week, he got discharged. But he was not feeling easy at home. Within 2 days, he had to go back to hospital and so my visits to hospital continued as well. Ability to eat right and sleep well were compromised again.

Everything will pass. My father-in-law got discharged again. That whole weekend, I did nothing else than sleeping. And then Monday came, I got back to work. I thought normalcy of life got restored. That evening, I wanted to reach home early to have a relaxed evening. While I was on the way, my wife called me to report that our son is sick and asked me to reach a hospital nearby directly. I told myself, hell with happiness, get used to new norms. But my son’s sickness was not a sickness and there was nothing to worry. I felt God is kind. After reaching home, though I wanted to go to bed early, I thought of finishing few email communications and opened the office laptop. There were couple of emails needing my urgent action. By the time I was done with them, it was already past mid-night. My idea of sleeping well got compromised again.

Now, having food on time and sleeping peacefully for eight hours a day appears to be the best luxury I would get. I wish and hope that I am not asking for too much from the God.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

"ಕವಲು ದಾರಿ" ಮತ್ತು "ಬೆಲ್ ಬಾಟಮ್": ಮನ ತಣಿಸುವ ಪತ್ತೇದಾರಿ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು

ಕಳೆದ ಎರಡು ತಿಂಗಳ ಅವಧಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದ ಕೆಲವು ಚಿತ್ರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಎರಡು ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು ನನ್ನ ಮನ ಸೆಳೆದವು. ಇವೆರಡು ಪತ್ತೇದಾರಿ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಹೊಸ ಮುಖಗಳನ್ನು ಚಿತ್ರರಂಗಕ್ಕೆ ಪರಿಚಯಿಸಿದ, ಹಾಗೆ ಉತ್ತಮ ನಿರೂಪಣೆ ಮೂಲಕ ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕರಕನ್ನು ಹಿಡಿದಿಡುವ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು.

"ಕವಲು ದಾರಿ"ಯ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಕಥೆ ಎಷ್ಟೋ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ನಡೆದ ಕೊಲೆಯೊಂದರ ಜಾಡು ಹಿಡಿದು, ಕೊಲೆಗಾರನನ್ನು ಪತ್ತೆ ಹಚ್ಚುವುದು. ಸಹಜತೆಗೆ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಹತ್ತಿರ ಎನ್ನಿಸುವ ಅಭಿನಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಗಿದ ನಟ ಅನಂತ್ ನಾಗ್ ಚಿತ್ರವನ್ನು ಸುಲಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಂದೆ ಸಾಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ನಾಯಕ ನಟನಾಗಿ ರಿಷಿ ಕೂಡ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಅಭಿನಯ ನೀಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇದರ ಖಳ ನಾಯಕನ ಒಂದು ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆ "ಸರಿ-ತಪ್ಪು ಅನ್ನೋ ಚೌಕಟ್ಟಿನಿಂದ ಆಚೆ ಬಂದ ಮೇಲೆ, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಮನುಷ್ಯರನ್ನು ಆಡಿಸುವುದು ಎಷ್ಟು ಸುಲಭ" ಎನ್ನುವ ಮಾತು ನನಗೆ ಮನಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದ ಅರಿವೆಲ್ಲ ಒಂದೇ ಮಾತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇಳಿಸಿ ಕೊಂಡ ಹಾಗಾಯಿತು.

 "ಬೆಲ್ ಬಾಟಮ್" ನಾನು ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಆನಂದಿಸಿದ ಚಿತ್ರ. ಇದು ನಡೆಯುವುದು ಕೆಲವು ದಶಕಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ  "ಬೆಲ್ ಬಾಟಮ್" ಗಳು ಚಾಲ್ತಿ ಇದ್ದ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ. ಇದು ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಸ್ಟೇಷನ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ಒಂದು ಕಳ್ಳತನದ ಜಾಡು ಹಿಡಿದು ಸಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಅದು ಹೇಗಾಯಿತು, ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ಯಾರು ಮತ್ತು ಅವರ ನಿಜ ಉದ್ದೇಶ ಏನಿತ್ತು ಎನ್ನುವುದರ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶಗಳನ್ನು ಅನಾವರಣಗೊಳಿಸುತ್ತ ಚಿತ್ರ ಸಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ಪಾತ್ರಗಳ ಅಭಿನಯ, ಪೂರಕ ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆ, ಹಳೆ ಕಾಲದ ವೇಷ-ಭೂಷಣಗಳು, ಚಿತ್ರದ ನಿರೂಪಣೆ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಮನ ಮುಟ್ಟುವಂತಿವೆ. ಬಹಳ ದಿನದ ನಂತರ ಒಂದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಚಿತ್ರ ನೋಡಿದ ಅನುಭವ ಈ ಚಿತ್ರ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿತು.

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳೇ ಅಪರೂಪ ಎನ್ನುವ ಈ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ, ಈ ಎರಡು ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು ಆ ಮಾತು ಸುಳ್ಳು ಎನ್ನುವ ಖುಷಿ ಕೊಡುತ್ತವೆ.