The Herculean Task

“Which of these movies is of the shortest duration?” I asked as we browsed through the 500GB Hard Disk which contained the best movies of all times.

“Why do you ask?” My friend exclaimed in a partly bewildered and partly offended tone, maybe because I unknowingly disparaged the effort he had put in by sorting the movies by their themes into different folders. This way of zeroing in on a movie seemed absurd to him.

“ ’cause I just can’t sit at one place for more than an hour and a half. So, the shorter the movie, the higher the probability that I’ll complete watching it in one sitting! ”

“But, you do sit for hours together when you read books, don’t you! Then why can’t you sit still and watch a movie?” He asked as innocently as a seven year old would ask – “Why didn’t evaporation from the bucket of water I had kept outside lead to respite from the scorching heat?” Just like a primary school teacher, I didn’t have a convincing explanation to the question. “I don’t know” I accepted meekly, as silly explanations wouldn’t have worked here.

I pondered over the question till much after the discussion was over. With my snail paced reading speed, I actually spend at least a quarter of a day to finish reading a hundred pages. And, if I’m reading non-fiction which might not be as captivating, it might take twice the time to go through the content of half the size of the fictitious counterpart. The same time could be invested in at least thrice the number of movies that would produce better results in terms of the numbers.

The next time I picked up a book, I realised that the task of reading the entire book had always seemed gargantuan. The 228 paged book that I held in my hands looked intimidating. I did what I had been doing ever since I started reading books. I counted the number of pages taking into account that the page numbers started with 5, counted the number of sections and the count of the chapters. With every chapter that I finished reading, I had a silent moment of celebration and with each section that I covered my satisfaction level grew two fold. It was after the accomplishment of the task when I found the answer to the enigma. I realised that a gigantic task when broken down into small achievable milestones makes it much easier to accomplish. And it’s equally important to appreciate ourselves for the small successes that come our way, for they form the foundation for the bigger landmark.

Skipping the Retake

Two decades ago –

This was me. “Aditiiii !!!!!!” dad used to call me in an affectionate tone to attract my attention and I used to respond by looking at his face that hid behind the camera. “Click!” a flash would appear and each time my face would light up in amazement. This was in the era when digital cameras were not ubiquitous and owning a camera that could deliver coloured pictures was a luxury in itself. The photos would be developed only after the whole reel was exhausted and the average time taken to have a look at what was captured would be around four weeks. The only way one could ensure that the pictures are perfect would be to take multiple shots.

Present -

“Oh, Please take another click !!!”  I pleaded to my friend when a look at the embedded screen made me realize that despite the careful selection of my attire, the extra inch was still visible on scrutiny. I got myself clicked until I managed to get a shot which finally was able to deceive the shrewd eyes of the lens to my satisfaction.

As we grow older, at times the drive to modify things according to our preferences takes a toll on us. Technology becomes our accomplice saying that moulding the first draft to make it look perfect is perfectly acceptable. Innocence, the most important attribute of a child is best captured in the first shot itself and the essence of the picture would be lost if the child is made to pose the way the photographer wants. Likewise, sometimes the best output is obtained in the first take and over-analysis of details sucks out the spirit from an unpretentious task. Skipping the retake can actually help us get the best results, and that too in a single go.

It takes a lot of effort to become childlike again. To start with, I now try to restrain myself from peeping into the LCD screen of the camera after each shot to see how I looked. The single takes are still the ones that top the "Like it" count on my Facebook profile!

Khuda Hafiz ..

For a city which boasts of laying the foundation for the tallest building in the world, C-11 is just another three storeyed building in International City. For its occupants, it is a ‘museum’ of (at least) half-a-year-full of memories they’d cherish forever. As the cab distanced from the hostel, on its way to drop me at the airport, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic even before I departed the country.

Throughout our stay, we had been finding ways to keep in touch with our loved ones bypassing the expensive international calling rates via phone, craving for home cooked food, surviving on low budget and cribbing about little time for lengthy assignments. Despite all this, the sadness of leaving the place far surpassed the excitement to go back home. It felt as if I was just leaving behind a joint family of 120 plus members to come back to stay with a nuclear one. (Even when quite a few had left before I did, there was an ‘informed delusion’ that C11 is where they belonged to and they’d come back)

Over the past few days, as my coming back to the 'first home' sunk in, I realized that I did not have to break the bond with my new found giant joint family at all. In fact, the members just dispersed across the globe to realize their dreams and I can be sure that I’d find a few of them in any part of the world I go. The past one year increased the size of my family multi-fold and made the world my new home :)