Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven)

Name: Bacheha-Ye aseman/ Children of Heaven (in USA)
Release Date: 1997
Written & Directed by: Majid Majidi
Cast: Amir Farrokh Hashemian (ALI); Bahare Seddiqi (ZAHRA)


Just one word: Terrific!

This is the first time I watched an Iranian film and fell in love with it. It’s a movie about two little kids and their lost pair of shoes and it has the potential to put to shame 99% of the movies we have been able to churn out in the past few years.

The last time I saw such splendid performance from a kid was from ‘Apu’ in the ‘Apu’ trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and perhaps that’s the reason I liked it so much- To see the world from the eyes of a kid, a kid from a lower middle class/poor family and the strong emotions which bind them and the small little things which make them cry.

I remember once crying for a pen, a costly pen which mom had bought for me and I lost it on the first day in school, and how frantically I kept searching for it even after school in my classroom and then hiding it from my parents.

But the scene which I liked the most was when Ali & Zahra communicate by writing in their notebook sitting next to each other and pretending to study under the watchful eyes of their parents.

Perhaps Indian film makers should also learn that you don’t need big budgets, or copied plots from Hollywood movies or stuntmen from Australia or scores of naked women or people dancing in the Swiss Alps to make a great movie.

All you need is a heart.

This ...is....Sparta !!

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The Fool Circle II

The placement week has ended and it has left me heavy with a lot of last minute mugged jargons and numbers But more importantly it has left me introspective, trying to answer all those HR questions which most Fortune 500 companies would ask you in their interviews or application forms:

What are your long term goals? How do you see yourself 10years from now? What is your purpose in life? Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses?

And every time I sat answering these questions I knew something was wrong. Its not that I can’t faff, infact I can do that quite gracefully, anyone who knows me can vouch for that!

But what troubled me was that I really didn’t have a clue as to what my long term goals are in material terms? Now I am not talking about spiritual or Meta physical goals. I am talking about numbers, about the real world material stuff. I don’t have any idea as to which organisation I would like to lead or how much bank balance would satisfy me?

So as most MBA’s would do when they don’t have a clue to what they are looking for (and when google is of no help either), I widened my search and started analyzing my behavior and all the incidents which keep happening with me and all that I have desired or wished and chased in the past 25 years of my life.

And what I discovered is both amazingly startling and chilling.

The Fool Circle

'Well not too far away in the future a day will come when I will also complete my 6 terms here and get a diploma and a farewell party and also a convocation ceremony and I don’t know how my emotions will run then? '

http://pratikchowdhury.blogspot.com/2006/02/this-one-is-for-my-seniors-here-at.html

That day in the future has arrived and I am standing on the doorstep of this dream called IIMK, probably looking at the K’ hills for one last time and saying my best wishes before I start on the journey ahead.

And I am not sad, surprisingly- rather I am grateful that it went on the way it did with all its bitter sweet memories. I am grateful for all the fun, for all the friends and acquaintances, for all the gyaan, for all the KLPD situations I was in, for all the close shaves and near catastrophic situations, for all the parties, for all the chat sessions, for all the tragic/comic romantic episodes, and for all mindless things which one does in a B school!

But of all I am most grateful for the lessons it taught me with failures, with unsuccessful stories, with being on the wrong side of the fence, and getting the raw deal. Perhaps it has made me hungrier and perhaps made me realize that my journey has just begun and I have a long-long way to go before I can look back with pride and say ‘What a life it has been!’