Real Beauty is felt, seldom seen.

Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever ~ Johann Wolfgang

Real beauty to me is a sensation felt with sheer delight. As the old adage goes, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. Real beauty is precious, is prevalent among all of us but the irony is we so less often are able to identify it and for some it’s very much relative. Real Beauty commands respect, never demands.

As of today, commodification of humans have changed our perception of Beauty. When we say he/she is beautiful, it has definitely to do with someone’s physical appearance. The boom in showbiz and glamour has given a great setback to our pride of possessing melanin. A fair skin is considered beautiful by the so-called fairness creams and ads that simply boast to beat what nature has bestowed upon the not-so-fair you.

But 1^st let me elucidate a few beautiful instances/people who most of us can’t deny of their real beauty.

• Beauty is not in that hot skimpy nurse walking down to Charlie Sheen for a room service (Two and a Half Men types) but in a lady who had devoted her entire life in the service of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying! I consider Mother Teresa beautiful.
• Beauty is not in featuring in the Top 10 Forbes list of World’s Most Powerful People, heading a leading Political Party just to eyewash the poor and stash away billions of black money in Swiss Banks but in braving alone to fight for her people to ensure calm and peace amid an Empire’s unrest! I consider Rani Lakshmi Bai beautiful.
• Beauty is not in being a glamorous star-daughter and heading to the red carpet with an ultra-expensive designer attire, posing for the cameras (None many even recognize them there) but in winning a billion hearts through their simplicity and mellifluous voice! I consider Lata Mangeskar beautiful.
• Real Beauty is in every mother who is always by the side of her son/daughter, fasts for his/her well-being even if they’re the most notorious types. Is any child on earth ‘ugly’ for his/her mother? Motherhood is real beauty!
• Real Beauty is Sunitha Krishnan who has never breathed easy as she grew up but fighting for so many helpless, trafficked women/girls to breathe easy and survive in this ruthless world. Please find some time out to watch and listen to this video (my blog may not be that important right now).

Those wannabe models, gaudy women, drowned in sheer opulence and covered by Page 3 are seldom beautiful, as others perceive with their eyes but not brains.

Some definitely are pretty. But would you call a lady out of this elite league (who would seem to have spent a fortune on her get up for one single night) to be beautiful who litters the restrooms? Who falls flat in that disco tipsy – out-of-order with liquor spilled all around? Who throws a cigar bud on the floor right in front of an astray in a public place? Or who throws a Cola can or Bisleri bottle on the road or somebody else’s yard while driving the Mercedes??

Real Beauty is never confined to a race, sex or age. It is seamless; it doesn’t have boundaries. It is perpetual. It is to be felt and rejoiced; just like the beautiful verses of Kalidasa.

Beauty is in innocence; that helping hand; that shoulder to rest upon when you are in tears; a simple smile that heals; this precious life we live each moment & the entire creation of mankind. Everything is beautiful. Life is beautiful.

A snap of the jubilant schoolgoer kids I took as I trekked down Triund to Dharamkot (Himalayas)

Beauty is relative. Real Beauty should be apparently clear. To behold real beauty, all you need is a beautiful mind.

P.S. My post is biased towards women since the Yahoo Specials on Real Beauty is powered by Dove, where as Men prefer Cinthol or Durex. 😉

(This blog-post is a part of the Indiblogger Real Beauty contest)

The Goa trip that never happened.

Last year during Christmas when I said this on FB, ‘So many in Bangalore, but not even one company for Goa. My life sucks.‘, he was the one who silently messaged me to take leaves during this precise season for a Goa trip to experience the Goa Carnival. He would make it from Hyderabad and I would travel from Bangalore. Unfortunately, he passed away this morning and leaving a question mark to the Goa get-together, forever…

As many as 5 people have conveyed their gratitude to me for being an Inspiration to get into Blogging but the one who urged and pushed me to Blog (seeing my GTalk one-liners) is no more on earth to accept my gratitude in person. I could not but confide to my friends that he was the reason, apart from Himalayas, but all I couldn’t do was to convey my heartfelt thankfulness to him. I was late.

Now, I feel that emptiness in my life, online or offline for those witty/humorous comments on my FB/Blog posts, those LIKE hits, those FIFA discussions, the request for movie ratings n reviews, the Oscar follow-ups and those unabashed admiration and appreciation for me, have just ceased to appear. And won’t come anymore. Never.

But then the above isn’t as shattering. What couldn’t be endured is the loss of the only son, worse, the only child of his parents, at just a tender age of 29…Inexplicable and unbearable grief.

His last few overwhelming updates on Facebook :

And what he last wrote on Orkut:

He’s my goodwill friend, Sandip Sarkar.

Circa 2008. (2nd from left)

Of all the hits on my blog till date, I owe every single one of it to you mate. May your soul rest in peace.

5-Minute-Motivation Videos

With FIFA kick-starting in a couple of days, I couldn’t help myself writing a blog post dedicated to the spirit of sportsmanship, to a game. A beautiful game. My support will as always be rooted for good ol’ Argentina.

Here, I give you four kick-ass videos that have indeed kicked my butt big time with the sort of inspiration and vigor they offer, infusing in you, the spirit of that Sportsman who could go to any extent…any…to get that GLORY for his NATION, his TEAM, n his INDIVIDUALISM! I get all the more charged up listening to the speeches (below with the videos). I am filled with vivacity & life watching them. Simply makes me have a burning faith-  ‘Impossible is Nothing’.

Being an athlete of yesteryear, I crash and burn with these. And I will continue to.

VERSUS 2009 Full Trailer

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This is the Original VERSUS ad in 2009 which was remade by Nike later and released in 2010.

The speech is quite a fire-up one. Here it goes:

Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting: The Theory of Evolution claims that “only the strong shall survive”. Maybe so, maybe so. But the Theory of Competition says “just because they’re the strong doesn’t mean they can’t get their asses kicked”. That’s right. See, what every long shot come from behind underdog will tell you is this: The other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds may be turned against you.

Fair enough… But what the odds don’t know is this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of test. One where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking, just remember: out here, the results don’t always add up.

No matter what the stats may say and the experts may think and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if someone decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling “Uncle”. And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, “We got ourselves a game“

Any Given Sunday – Peace by Inches – Al Pacino

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Below’s the speech from ‘The Godfather’ star:

I don’t know what to say really. Three minutes till the biggest battle of our professional lives. It all comes down to today. Now either we heal as a team, or we’re gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play-by-play, till we’re finished. We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you. I’m too old. I look around, I see these young faces, and I think… I mean I’ve made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me, and lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know when you get old in life, things get taken from you. That’s part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life’s this game of inches. And so is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.

I mean… one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow too fast, you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING! Between LIVING and DYING!

I’ll tell you this – in any fight, it’s the guy whose willing to die who’s gonna win that inch. And I know if I’m going to have any life anymore, it’s because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because that’s what living is! The 6 inches in front of your face…

Now I can’t make you do it. You’ve got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think you’re gonna see a guy who will go that inch with you. You’re gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it, you’re gonna do the same for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen. And either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die, as individuals. That’s FOOTBALL, guys. That’s all it is. Now, what you gonna do?

Derek Redmond: (1992 Barcelona Olympics)

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I saw it once, twice, thrice. I got goose bumps. I got my heart heavy & I couldn’t stop the whimper breaking out of me. For an athlete knows the pangs of another. So truly heroic…HATS OFF – Derek Raymond, Take a bow!

Kerri Strug: (1996 Atlanta Olympics)

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Yet another, I am not giving up, come-what-may video.

The list would go on…grab some and let me know. Just do it!

Success!

Just stuck my mind – the definition of Success which I almost got by rote during childhood to address the public, iff I ever got a chance! And I did.

Read these lines when I was a kid in a monthly/fortnightly magazine called “Wisdom”. Although, that very issue of Wisdom isn’t with me but I am so fortunate to be living in this ubiquitous world of Internet! Anything is searchable and retrievable!

The most inspiring lines to me since then were  “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived” which have always instigated me to work and feel the empathy for the deprived/destitute. I may not be truly dedicated in a total eradication or upliftment but I believe,  I could, as an individual who’s much better off than most people on earth, make a little contribution and make sure at least  ‘one life has breathed easier because I have lived’ in this world!!!

Here go the lines:

SUCCESS

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

~~~~~by Ralph Waldo Emerson