Get married? Why?

I was reading this book the other day,and a friend of the main character asks " So, you married?". Our hero replies, " Yeah, I have a girl and my fiancee and I got one in the oven"...so this guy replies " Gotta have kids man, else what's the point?"

Ok, so you realize that my taste in books is not that good but you get the idea...somehow this line stayed with me and I got to thinking...is that really what its about? Having kids...proving to the people and to the society that I have contributed, done my share? As we approach this juncture in our lives, we all have our own reasons...love, family pressure, sex, society, age etc. for either going for it or against it. Is having kids the real reason behind this concept of marriage?

Ok, you love someone, get hitched and have a great life. Every single day is a joy. Fine. But isn't that the ultimate selfishness? You shy away from responsibility and risks. Seventy years down the line, you look back and what do you have? Nada,zilch.

On the other hand, you get married to the wrong person and well,thats the end of that. If by any chance you get to seventy years, and you look back...nothing to be proud of!!

Guess we will find out within the next ten years.

Update: 07/01

Maybe I was not clear, but what I wanted to stress on was not on the reasons FOR marriage, but on the CAUSE for it. A subtle, but I feel significant, factor. When it comes to contributing to society, what do you do? Spending money is easy, but leaving something more worthwhile is difficult - what could be more powerful than leaving a legacy? In my experience, whenever a child succeeds in some way - good marks,awards, whatever - the praise goes to him/her, but one alwyas knows that its the parent who has made it possible. They realize their aims through the child...maybe later on, we will be fortunate enough to experience this. Right now, we can only hope.

A Paris Affair

All of us have been hearing about the 250 crore wedding that was organized by one of the richest Indians in the world - Lakshmi Mittal. The headlines have been about how people looked in "awe" and "gaped" as he rented the Palace in Versailles, dressed his daughter in gold and how Javed Akhtar scripted to Farah Khans' choreography and Shah Rukh's dance blah!blah!blah!....I think its disgraceful that he spent so much money. Of course, its his money and its for his daughter, but jeez...$60 million is just way too much. And I am sure that a lot of the poor and starving farmers and miners will have a lot more than mere blessings to give to him. Why expose his daughter to this wrath, especially on such an occasion....And what business sense does it make? He needs a PR person...fast. Last time when Jaya Amma spent around half that amount in India, her government turned belly-up. And that was for Jaya, Mittal is a mere mortal !!.

The Times of India says, " Though many guests received prime pieces of jewellery, including jade necklaces, along with their 20-page, gold-edged invitation books, some guests complained that they didn't get any such pieces. Apparently, a caste system was at work even when it came to the A-list."...YUCK.

Here's one more like minded person here.

And my friend remarked that with Mittal and Bharat Shah spending money like this, Indians are 1 and 2 in this particular area. No.3? That's the wedding of the King of Spain!!

Maria Mania

If you haven't heard of Maria Sharapova yet,then you must be deaf. She is the hottest thing to hit tennis since Kournikova, who came with a bang and left with a whimper.Sharapova seems to have her head straight, and she is progressing rapidly in Wimbeldon.

Here are some notes from The Herald:

Sharapova entered the tennis consciousness last summer, when as an 86th-ranked wild card she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, best performance ever by a wild card. During the next 12 months, she won three tournaments, reached the third round at the Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the French Open and soared in the rankings to No. 15.

Sharapova's success is the byproduct of talent, hard work and a decade of sacrifices by her family.

She was born near an oil refinery in Siberia, and her family moved to the Black Sea resort town of Sochi when she was 2 years old to escape the Chernobyl fallout. At 5, she hit some balls as part of an exhibition in Moscow and was spotted by Martina Navratilova, who told Sharapova's parents, Yuri and Yelena, their daughter had a special gift and could benefit from lessons.

In 1994, with $700 in his pocket, Yuri arrived at Miami International Airport with Maria, and they boarded a bus to Bradenton, where Maria would enroll at Nick Bollettieri's academy. They left behind Yelena, who could not secure a visa. Maria didn't see her mother for two years.

What's up with Autograph?

This Tamil movie has been the craze you know, I can't remember when the last time a movie was discussed like this by us...I guess the film scores on its acceptance that the only important thing that you should remember from school, college etc is your girlfriend!! No really, the film does have some memories about teachers and places but when you actually distill the story, its about the three women in his life and his commitment to the fourth.

Cheran's cleverness is not in the screenplay, acting or the casting - its in the story. Everyone of us [almost] will relate to atleast one of the girls. If we take the first, all of us have had some sort of crush on the school figure...so you tend to identify with the awkwardness and shyness...all the innocence and naive thoughts. And then there is the college girl - where boys become men, or atleast think they have. Fight for a girl, get thrashed, lose her - whatever. The third girl represents today's trend - all this funda of friendship and platonic relationships.Its an unfortunate being [or is he fortunate?] who has not faced atleast one of these in his life.

This leads me to one of my strong beliefs about the success of a movie.Its a sure thing if you can somehow relate to it. I don't mean to say that it should just be about girls or about superheroes or events exactly mirroring your life or things like that. My point is that if you can see yourself behaving in the way the events unfold onscreen ,then the movie is a good one. Try this, it will work.

Of course, it helps if you have crap like Boys hit the theatres before your movie releases. Anything is better than that kind of nonsense. My current favorite is Gilli, and if you apply my test, I like the movie because in college one of my names was Delli [a subtle reference from my friends to the fact that I did my schooling in Delhi]. So whenever I hear Gilli, Gilli.... I think "Delli, Delli" Yeah!

Initiation

Hi guys,

Well, here I am finally with my blog...been threatening everyone for a long time...remember the date June 25th 2004!!!!

-Ram