19 Mar 2013

Stalking K



‘K’ – it bags all the privilege in the film & television industry. Call it astrology, pseudopsychology, sheer luck or mere coincidence, the letter K is auspicious for its beholders. The K serials are money minters, the people born with the K surname do hold higher brownie points for future stardom than the non-K holders, the people having had their surname changed to something from the premier K  list have earned their share of fame, awards and money from the industry.  These are facts, stated as well as observed. 

‘So are you telling me a letter can actually contribute a certain percentage to success?’ I asked one of the stars who was born with the K surname, who also coincidentally is a good friend. I’ll address him as K for now. 

‘It’s more about convincing your mind’ K told me. ‘Once your mind knows it’s a part of the K – Gang, it does feel accepted; even be it solely a connection or similarity of the surname.’ 

‘So once the mind feels accepted, it would work better towards the goal, right?’ I asked K.

‘It’s like all the ingredients are in the bowl, now you just need to make a good dish out of it.’ K told me as his phone rang. He had to leave. 

 How could a single letter motivate somebody so much towards success? After all it is said what's in a name? (I say, A LOT! But what's in a surname?) I wanted to understand more of this. I decided to go and meet an astrologer who helps K with the naming and mahurats of the films he works in. 

I finally got an appointment after a fortnight. With a lighter pocket, I asked the astrologer ‘How does the letter K contribute to the success of people in the film and television business?'

He opened his orange booklet and pointed at few geometrical figures embedded with text. ‘The planets support the letter K, and deem it as most auspicious for the people in this line.’ He told me with a smile on his face.

‘What happens to remaining twenty-five letters?’ I asked him. He removed a massive red box file. He flipped through a few pages before he continued

‘In business, it’s A, H, B.
W, K, R and J get its footage in real estate.
M, W for educational institutions.
But it is subject to change depending on various traits of the individual.’

 Here I had two viewpoints about the letter K; the astrological one and the one sans the ‘astro’ element , the logical one. I had to pick one to answer my query. You know how unanswered queries can literally haunt you and make you go restless as if a mosquito has pinged you.
I once again thought about both the viewpoints. I was stalking every word said by both – the astro and the logic. I was recollecting. I needed an answer. I decided to text K to know more about this letter game. The reply helped me place the full stop.

‘I would have been a star even if my surname didn’t bear the initial K. 
But the guy who changed his surname to bear an initial K few years back,
 is also a great star today.
Goodnight
K’

So yeah, I got my answer;
‘a letter can actually contribute a certain percentage to success, if you think it can…’
It’s not a letter game, but a hardworking mind game.

7 Mar 2013

Stalking The Mind

The sun set, like it always did. The crowd enlarged; there were all sizes, types, shapes and personalities. The promenade resembled a mini version of the Kumbhmela. The only difference was that here people wore clothes.

With the purpose to 'chill', I and my friend decided to laze around on the promenade and add a bit of 'value' to our chilling spree. (It actually was really hot! And just to disgust you, the sweat flowing generously from the crowd did make it stinky). So here we were, two humans with great knowledge of psychology (dude, I topped the finals and you didn't), decided to put psychology into practice.

We randomly picked up the concept of 'mind control'.

'So wanna try it?' my friend asked me as she frisked her pocket for the Oreo cookies. None were to be found. The morsels were. Gobbled Instantly. (Yes, we do keep biscuits in our pockets, that too the yummy chocolatey ones. Too bad, if you're feeling tempted or disgusted. Go get your own pack!)

We decided to experiment with a theory; not exactly sure about what it preaches, so we made up part of it or rather completely modified it. Tell me who doesn't these days?

We needed to stare at some sweating person SITTING on the promenade. Then we needed to talk something in our mind like 'Look at me' or better still 'Come and give me a Rs.1000 note.' We needed  to BELIEVE that the person would listen to our command. We needed to BELIEVE that the person's mind would receive the message and act upon it. Hopefully more than act - more than Rs. 1000.

Gazing. staring. Glancing...

We began searching for our target. Everyone just seemed the same - sane, sweaty and visibly a part of the crowd. We needed a person we could remember forever. The person had to be worthy of our newly formed mind control theory.

Gazing. staring. Glancing...

A robe. Pyjamas. Loose.
Dusty hairdo. His hair were longer than mine.
Props - broom.
Accesories - way too many.
Gait - not sure what to call it - walk, jump, switch path, twirl.
Verbal utterances - mantras and sounds 'Lola Hola'.
A Sadhu claiming to know magical. mantras, probably a shy one who couldn't participate in the Kumbhmela, or maybe sent back from Spain.

This one looked like an interesting person (if he believed to be one; I mean these guys do think they are above people. How cool, we have atleast somebody whose worse than us.) to apply mind control upon. He walked in his different fashion. We stalked him. We needed him to sit so we could focus on him. A few moments later, he sat. We positioned ourselves opposite him. He stared at a dog who was lying there and hit his broom on his back. The dog barked and ran way.

We, the eternal dog lovers, turned more keen to make this Sadhu pay.
We began. Our minds chanted to his, 'Apologise to the Dog'. We didnt know how long it was before we still chanted 'Apologise to the Dog'.

He got up and began walking. We stalked him. Was he going to apologise to the dog, who now sat near the kiddie playing spot?

He arrived near the dog. He held his broom firmer than before and raised it.

He cried. He apologised. He walked away.

I and my friend had to rejoice, right? After all, our mind-boggling experiment had worked.
We felt too clean, our hair felt too neat, our clothes felt too tight, we felt highly sane. It felt our mind was still stalking his. We instruted ours to stop stalking his. We felt clean, neat and sane again. But I'm not sure what the kids around us thought when we burst into laughter for the next ten minutes..

Nor did we care...