It is 2pm in the afternoon and the year is 2004 I don’t know the exact dates but my good old friend Premachandu has just woke up and he wants to do something. It is at this time that he finds the telugu movie ‘Aa Naluguru’ in Bhargava’s computer and decides to give it a try and unfortunately for the hostel he likes the movie. The story does not end there he is inspired and wants to inspire others and so at 5 pm just when the juniors are going for snacks he stops them to teach a lesson in ragging and takes them to Bhargava’s room. Show 2 of ‘Aa Naluguru’ starts with 20 odd juniors now as audience, Bhargava is away for his evening rounds around the hostel. It is 8 pm the same juniors have just finished their dinner and are going back when they find Prem waiting near the steps for them. He takes them again to Bhargava’s room for Show 3 of ‘Aa Naluguru’ while Bhargava is still away for his night rounds around the hostel. Now it is 10:30 pm the batch of 20 odd juniors are about to sleep so Prem decides to give a little consideration, he leaves them but with a condition that they must send atleast 20 others to watch the movie. So a new batch of 20 juniors has arrived and Show 4 of ‘Aa Naluguru’ starts and Bhargava is still away now for his midnight rounds (he should be a hostel warden). It is 1 am in the night and the new juniors are also inspired and they are going back to sleep. Prem has spent a fruitful day helping others get inspired but he is a little tired now after watching 4 shows continuously and wants to sleep now. But he will surely wake up tomorrow and history will repeat itself with atleast 4 shows of ‘Aa Naluguru’ while Bhargava is busy with his daily routine.
The core theme of this movie is to live for the sake of others which was also advocated by Swami Vivekananda. I have always wondered how people are inspired to completely change their lives when they meet or see an inspirational person. Each individual chooses his inspiration based on his or her natural inclination. Some people like sportsmen and actors, some people like politicians, some people like scientists and some others may like saints. But the common thing is people try to model their lives based on the lives of their role models i.e. sources of inspiration have great power within them which can change others around them. And sources of inspiration generally try to lead their lives in order to make others happy. According to Superstar Rajinikanth, “Hero is one who emits positive energy”. Thalaiva is always correct. I will try to prove this in this blog.
In an electric circuit ‘sources’ supply power whereas the loads ‘consume’ power. So the ‘loads’ are invariably dependent on the ‘sources’ for power. In the simple electrical circuit shown below Sachin is the source of inspiration for 1 billion Indian cricket fans who are the ‘loads’ or the ‘consumers’. In electrical language Sachin will be called as the ‘Active component’ and the 1 billion Indian viewers will be called as ‘Passive components’. This is also true in cricket language since Sachin is the one ‘actively’ involved in the game and the viewers are ‘passively’ involved in the game. In the circuit below you can also see that the energy emitted by Sachin is positive. Hence proved Thalaiva is correct (Words of wisdom need no degree).
From a layman’s perspective Sachin has to work very hard to be a cricketer and it is a lot of pain and the consumers don’t want to go through all that pain, they just want to sit and enjoy. What is not very clear is the fact the consumers don’t just want to sit and enjoy, they also want to be like their role models, they want all the glory (name, fame, money, power, status etc.) that comes with it but they don’t want the pain and sacrifice that comes with it. Not just Sachin any hero has to make great sacrifices to win the hearts of the general public. But the youth of today is like the young Indians cricketers who want to make as much money as possible and they use cricket as livelihood to be rich whereas Sachin enjoys the game, wants to learn new things in the game and in the process he has become rich. This is true in any profession. But what sadness me most is the fact that India is the country with the largest youth population and most of them are trying to be more and more passive and lazy ‘consumers’. And they think it is ‘kewl’.
The youth of today are wasting the most productive periods of their life by being passive ‘consumers’. This will not only affect their lives, but it will indirectly affect the whole country and in a global scenario the whole world. The most common pastimes of younger generation today are:
1. Watching every new movie (there so many good old movies watch them instead)
2. Watching sports matches (but not getting inspired to work like the Sportstars)
3. Browsing facebook or other social networking sites (greatest time consumer)
4. Reading useless gossip about movie stars (passively enjoying again)
5. Reading negative news about India (there is so much positivity in India just look around)
6. Browsing for deals on consumer products (like iPhonu, iPadu, iPodu, iMacu etc. etc.)
7. Consumption of alcohol (again it is called ‘consumption’ so it will make the person ‘consumer’ and not a ‘source’)
8. Job search (Many also have to apply for jobs and in a period of recession it is hard to find the right one. But what you might want to note is the job seeker of 2010 is in California or in Hyderabad having biryani at both places. He is trying for 6 pack abs, listening to ‘kewl’ music, sports ‘kewl’ dresses and has a ‘kewl’ new iPod. This is progress as the job seeker in 1980 was living in poverty with not many good clothes to wear and not much to eat.)
9. Making money through evil means (Kanchana)
10. Consummation thoughts (Kama)
Perhaps the last two are historically the strongest enemies to man, it is not a new age thing. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that worldly people were full of ‘Kama Kanchana’ long back in 1860s and today many Indians make money in ‘Sweat Shops’ called consultancies cheating their own brother Indians (Kanchana). And I don’t have to talk about ‘Kama’ you all know it. But you can see not one of them is productive and people are generally busy with it. A movie dialogue that I modified a little ‘Cheat a million people and sell them an iPad that they don’t need and you will be called ‘Steve Jobs’, but if you cheat yourself you will be called a ‘Fool’.’ Let us not be fools; let us not try to reason all our follies; and let us not have opinions without actually knowing about something deeply.
Japan produces fast cars, China produces cheap goods, France has best nuclear technology, America has great business creating skills and India has been producing visionary human beings like Swami Vivekananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Ramana Maharishi and even scientists like Sir CV Raman, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, and CNR Rao who have sacrificed their lives for the country and its people. But does anybody atleast try to follow their footsteps, forget about following them, does the youth of today know anything about them. Do we atleast know that Swami Vivekananda is the National Youth hero and his birthday is celebrated as a National Youth day? Do we know any of his teachings and are they really practical?
Most of the people get away with it saying all these teachings are not practical in current society. God bless them because AR Rehman, Sachin, Rajinikanth, Michael Faraday, Tesla, Einstein and many other believers of God have ‘Actively’ contributed to the society instead of ‘Passively’ enjoying and all of them have been ‘Sources of Inspiration’ to many in their fields.
So the choice to be an ‘Active Source of Inspiration’ or a ‘Passive Consumer’ is yours. But Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita 6:46 has said ‘Tasmad Yogi bhavarjuna’ he did not say ‘Tasmad Bhogi bhavarjuna’. A bhogi is a ‘consumer’ and all the Kauravas were bhogis and you know what happened to them. Therefore, consume less and contribute more in your own field and be a ‘Source of Inspiration’ to others.
Life is long, blog is also a little long this time but I think many will read on till the end. “Emit positive energy and you will be a hero”. I personally agree with Superstar Rajinikanth and I believe his words though I don’t believe his stunts. No Indian movie is complete without a song so here is a song by A R Rehman ‘Pray for me brother’ it has great lyrics. Are you searching for a reason to be kind?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1Ic5IKObQ
God Bless All,
-Balaji
P.S. I wrote this because I was getting bored of being passive and it was getting hard to communicate with so many friends on phone. It took 3 hrs = 1 movie the standard Indian pastime.
