Hope

In The Shawshank Redemption, prison has sucked the life out of Red (Morgan Freeman). Repeated rejections of parole has made him lose all hope, hope that he will ever see freedom again. Into that life comes Andy Defresne (Tim Robbins), a prisoner who knows the importance of keeping hope alive. Andy's arrival sparks a renewed sense of possibility for Red. His life would never be the same.

Hope is the vital foundation for all future plans and dreams. Without hope, there is no reason to believe life can be better. Hopeful people never give up on their quest to beat life's circumstances.Life's difficult circumstances might just be like cages.But then, some birds aren't meant to be caged. Be that bird. You don't like how it is today? Wait, there's always tomorrow.

Red's sense of possibility is rekindled just by hanging around with his persistently constructive new friend. Thanks to Andy's proactive nature, the convicts get cold beer on a hot day, an expanded library collection, and the elimination of various prison predators who previously had their way too many times. Who knows what new and interesting things can happen when Andy/hope is around?

Stephen King's screenplay for The Shawshank Redemption is a testimony to the inspiring capacity of hope. Even prisoners can escape the inhumanity of their existence by maintaining a little hope. We all need to remain hopeful throughout our lives.I hope I don't sound proselytizing when I say so, but then for me there remains no reason to exist except hope.

By the end of the film, Red's outlook has come around completely, feeling the excitement of his life as-yet-unfulfilled. His final thoughts are, "I find I'm so excited I can barely sit or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope I can see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams. I hope."

Hope is a good thing . And a good thing never dies.

Saluting the real 'King' : Elvis Presley

It was quite a few years back that i got introduced to the legacy of lilting melodies that the 'king of rock and roll', Elvis Presley, had left behind. For this ,i must thank my elder brother,who most kindly bequeathed on me his priceless collection of Elvis gems(as i am inclined to call those cassettes and cds).

It didn't take me long to realize that Elvis was special.His songs, ranging from romantic ballads such as "love me tender" or " a fool such as i" , to rock numbers ,such as " jailhouse rock" and "heartbreak hotel" ,all had the special quality of being sung straight from the heart. And maybe because Elvis used to pen most of his songs himself, his intensity permeated the lyrics as well.

Elvis also had this truly great quality of being detached from the God-like position his fans had anointed him to. He always remembered his early days as a shy middle-class boy struggling to work his way up the ladder of fame. This genuine humility not only ensured that he avoided the traps that the politics within the glamour industry would lay for him, but it also enabled him to bring to the fore issues that no superstar had erstwhile cared for .

The following song is a sample of the aforementioned quality:

In The Ghetto

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto

And his mama cries
'Cause if there's one thing that she don't need
It's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way...

Well the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal
And he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

Then one night in desperation
A young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car,
Tries to run, but he don't get far
And his mama cries

As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man
Face down in the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto

As her young man dies,
On a cold and grey Chicago mornin',
Another little baby child is born

In the ghetto

And his mama cries



In the ghetto

In the ghetto


Though not one of his chart #1 singles(he has a career record
of 38 chart toppers to his name), this song was one of the most
popular ones.

long live the King...... 

Slow down , Don't move too fast

Written by a terminally ill eight year old girl at a New York hospital:

Ever watched children on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to rain slapping the ground?
Ever gazed at a butterfly's random flight?
Or followed the sun into the night?

You better slow down, Don't dance so fast.
Our time is short, The music won't last.

Do you speed through days Forever on the fly,
When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, Do you lie in your bed,
With the next hundred chores Stuck in your head?

You better slow down, Don't dance so fast.
Our time is short, The music won't last.

Do you tell your child "We'll do it tomorrow,"
And Then in your hurry, Do you see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch and Let a good friendship die,
'Cause you had no time To call, say "Hi"?

Do you run, run, run Worry-hurry all day?
And treat life like an unopened Gift thrown away.
You better slow down, Don't dance so fast.
Our time is short, The music won't last.

Life's not a race, so Take it slower.
Enjoy the tune Before it's over.

Its 4am , and I just can't go off to sleep.

I hate being pushed around. My chief editor comes to me at 11pm, just as I am about to drift into my world of dreams, and asks me to write a couple of obituaries(that's how he puts it !) . Its like being extricated from heaven and asked to dwell in a graveyard. Even an undertaker would creep at the thought.
But then, I like the guy.Terribly hardworking the chap is.Besides with a deadline hanging over his head , like the sword of Damocles , I daren't pick on his already high strung nerves. Or else, who knows, the obituary might just be mine!
So I comply with his orders. I set myself upon writing "a couple of obituaries". I have even never seen any of the two guys, whose achievements I am documenting posthumously. By all means, I had stayed clear of their paths; and I hope that they too would if they don't happen to like my humble efforts.
So for the next two hours I rack my brain . I try to come up with something that atleast sounds whimpering.For that's how we seem to remember the dead: cry over their tombs for a few hours, and then banish them from our thoughts. Some wise chap once said "the dead die only because we forget them". But then why am I speaking all this rot? Maybe the work has got to my head.
And then, for the next 3 hours, I sit orkutting. I catch with up with all my friends: for who knows, tomorrow may never come.
Writing these notes of remembrance has helped me appreciate the love around me. So I make a promise to myself to give each person around me his/her share of affection that he/she deserves. I am gonna try my best to let every single person have whatever he/she expects from me. Cause I wanna make them happy.
For who knows , what if tomorrow never comes.

Romancing Rupee Appreciation!

The cacophony of the written word on the phenomenon of rupee appreciation (it’s not a one-off incident), which dictates many of the economic policies, has somewhat obscured the critical issues, owing to the embellishments of variegated theorists. This piece intends view the causes and effects of the phenomenon from a novel perspective: through love, something that, quite ironically, money can never buy.

In love, absence makes the heart grow fonder: what makes the rupee appreciate?

Large inflows of any foreign currency (for instance, dollar), in the form of foreign investments by the FIIs and the FDIs , enters the market by buying out the rupee, leaving the market flooded with the dollar. The demand-supply law of economics proselytizes that the price of a product rises with an increase in its demand. So with the increase in the demand for the rupee, its supply in the market decreases, and hence there is an upswing in its price (remember this whenever your girlfriend acts pricy!). Hence, surge in capital inflow, leading to an increased demand for the rupee, is the chief harbinger of the rupee appreciation.

Who looses sleep over it? : The affected parties

The recent rupee rise against the dollar has occurred amidst squeals of protest by exporters of textiles and other manufactured goods, besides services. Software services have, particularly, seen their competitiveness suffer. In an environment where a sizeable portion of their income comes from export, the software behemoths are especially wary of an unbridled rupee rise washing out a chunk of their profits.

The reason for this hoopla is simple: the exporters get paid in dollars. While the number of dollars received for the goods/services exported remains the same, the subsequent conversion into rupee yields lesser than erstwhile used to. An item which would earlier fetch Rs 45/ dollar, now garners Rs 40 only. A simple solution would be to start charging in the currency (like euro or yen) that dominates the rupee. But obsequity on the part of the policy makers rules it out.

While for importers rupee appreciation is a delectable proposition, as it makes imports cheaper. Yet in stark contrast the domestic manufacturers go up in arms, fretful of their inability to compete with the higher quality imported products.

Undoubtedly the most flustered of the whole lot is the RBI, which is the pivot upon which the whole economy rotates. The RBI has to constantly intervene in the market, with rapt cogitation, to ensure balance between the capital inflows and the rupee flow (liquidity). One wrong move could snowball into a vicious capital inflow-rupee appreciation-liquidity-inflation-higher interest rates cycle.

“How to get her out of your head?” : government’s riposte to the effects of rupee appreciation

Numerous expedient measures have been tried in the past to tackle this conundrum.

A comprehensive package of Rs 1400-crore was doled out by the Central Government in July this year, as a palliative to the exporters. The package included: increased rates of tax refunds through the duty drawback scheme, and availability of pre and post-shipment bank credit at far easier terms. Alongside this another package of rs 600-crore was given to the SMEs(Small and Medium Enterprises).But these are short-term solutions . In the wake of a nearly twelve percent appreciation of the rupee against the greenback, only an increase in productivity and efficiency can truly make the Indian exports competitive at the global stage.

The software firms, which already enjoy a tax exemption, weathered the storm with minimal governmental assistance. A deliberate effort was made to diversify from the US (which takes up around two-thirds of the total Indian software export) to the developed markets of western Europe and Japan, and the developing markets in South America and eastern Europe. Also many of the software companies hedged their dollar income against the rising rupee by converting into the latter(a ruse offered by the government). Still, what will pinch the software firms is the fact that the lobbying in budget 2008 to extend the tax sop has come a cropper. Come 2009, and the net taxes for them would increase to 22% from the present subsidized rate of 15%, further cutting their profits( what role would that play in the placements this year?).

Hail the cupid: the RBI

In the theatre of the Indian economy, the RBI plays the protagonist. To control rupee appreciation, it primarily buys out the inflowing dollars . These then become our forex reserves. What the RBI effectively does is : increase the supply of rupee back into the market , and increase the demand of dollars by buying them out. Thus the value of rupee automatically decreases against the dollar, which is forced to rise.

But like any love story, this one too has its twists. Increasing the supply of rupee in the market could lead to floods(also termed as ‘liquidity’) .Though this boosts the purchasing power of the people, it also increases the demand of goods, leading to an increase in their prices. This simple phenomenon is complexly termed as ‘inflation’.

To counter this, the RBI must mop up the excess rupee from the market by selling government securities. This is termed as ‘sterilisation’. Yet even this method has limitations whose articulation is beyond the scope of this article.

Arguably, the best solution has been demarcated in the budget 2008. Heralding a distinct policy change, the RBI now plans to work in close tandem with the Central Government, and will restrict or/and direct the capital inflows itself.

But will the story have a happy ending? Just wait and watch...

Sudipta Mukherjee

The wealth that can't be stolen !

Have you ever wondered how queer life can be? Just when you pinion all your hopes onto something to get the happiness that you seek, you are left empty-handed ;like the beggar groping in the dark for the solitary round piece of alloy that just slipped out of his fingers. What a pity! For the tantalizing prize that the beggar mourns, is nothing more than a metal pittance: an inanimate object , shrilling a hollow cry on being dropped , a common trait of all things empty . Yet it is a trophy aspired by the beggar . A trophy that the tramp awaits all day. He doesn't grapple for it like the other beggars. No , he weighs his gravity far too much to act so shamelessly. Yet , a trophy which he secretly admires. For him, it is THE trophy that will bring him happiness.

This is life making a mockery of us. A flatter to deceive. The whole scheme is to make us believe that happiness is an intangible, discarnate entity dangling from the mane's nest, and that, it could be obtained only by pelting the beggar's metal scraps at it.We are abetted into believing that gross objects shall bestow us with happiness. What a farce! How can the gross ever capture the subtle?
The futility fraught with the enterprise is the same as with trying to chain a shadow or cage a dream . Chasing after the palpable to attain the ethereal doesn't merit a prudent man. So doesn't idleness.

A prudent man understands that happiness can't be snatched or stolen: it has to be earned. One's endeavours should be directed towards trying to create wealth for the future. By wealth , one means objects that can give us the joy that we seek . It could be sowing the seed of a relationship that nourishes us with the love and warmth it brings to our life .Or it could be the effort to inculcate in ourselves the qualities that we admire in others: seeing the fountainhead of all virtues glistening in one's heart immerses one in profound solace.
The method matters far less than the motive: ultimate joy is in giving what one has, and not in ruing and snatching at what one doesn't.

beyond the realm of failure and success

Failure might be exasperating, yet , sorrow is beautiful !
Success might be unfulfilling , yet, joy is so complete !

The torture of a parched desire pales against the bliss of a granted wish, leave alone the happiness of a realized dream. Yet why do we waste aeons in the vice of a damning mirage , when moments of joy clamour for our heed. Is it the choice that maketh the happy man: as poet Frost elucidates. Or is it the cruel fate that wrangles every drop of hope from us : baring us to the pangs of loneliness instead of blessing us with solitude.

Is it peace that my heart longs for, or is it the sweet joy of platonic love for what it weeps . I even doubt I would be happy if my heart were elated , I am unsure I am it. I even doubt my being the mind , sometimes the very whirlpool of disturbing images , sometimes the peaceful lake of serene thoughts. Am I this body? I doubt it. In fact does it matter who am I, for my search is for happiness.But then can I make myself happy, unless I find myself.

So does the path to happiness pass through the dense woods where we find our true selves.Or as George Bernard Shaw proclaims, life is about making oneself , and not finding oneself : life is all about setting goals and achieving them at all costs, for life is a race where the winner takes all. But does he also take happiness, or , in the din of success, the music of happiness becomes inaudible.

This blog is dedicated , for some , to unravel the mystery of happiness, for some , to scale the glorious peak of happiness, for some, to enunciate the silence of happiness , and for some ,to realize the dream called happiness.