It ain't the age. It's the mileage.

One thing I particularly dislike about some elderly men is that they think they are all Eugene Levys from American Pie. So according to them they are cool, chilled-out gentlemen and their age gives them the license to do/say what they like.

I can’t understand why they can’t act their age, why do they have to share weird jokes with young females and why they do all the unmentionable things they do.

Some years back I met this pot bellied 55 + colonel at my cousins’ regimental dining-in party. He’d greet you very nicely by shaking hands and would keep shaking till you fall below your decencies and draw your hand back. When I got tired of his patting my back, his unnecessary flattering talks and his cheap preposterous jokes about desperation levels in the army, I asked him what his age was.

“FFFFFifty eight…. But I am so young at heart!!” responded the colonel reluctantly. He said ‘Fifty’ as if it were the ultimate F-word on planet.

Young at heart and slightly old at other places.

“But see young lady I am still in shape”

Yeah, and round’s the shape.

“Yeah colonel, you look 18, with 40 years of experience” I said.

Next he asked me if I had met other officers of the regiment.

Losing My Religion

I either like movies which are completely trashy and make no sense at all or the once which are intellectually stimulating. I would lie if I say I don’t have atypical disinclination towards movies which leave me morally dissatisfied as after that there is a continuous argument and justification session inside my mind.

Rang De Basanti left me without a solution. I agree it created an impact which was felt during anti-reservation days in Delhi and Jessica Lall’s hearing. I wouldn’t mind kissing Mr. Mehra’s feet for this but I still believe man-slaughters are no solutions to a problem and it scared me to think of individuals who were drawing too much inspiration from the carnage in the movie rather than interpreting the fight of consciences. Even then I went to the theatre twice to check out my teenage heartthrobs.

Don was clearly a victory of evil over the honest and we all loved it. We enjoyed SRK’s incredulous ways of killing people and were over-awed when the movie ended. My young cousins’ ‘gangster obsession’ sent chills through my spine as they thought it was the best way to lead a life nonchalant to morality.

I haven’t seen Guru as yet but when Nikhat Kazmi (TOI) says it I believe it. Mani Ratnam’s tried to make a hero out of an ordinary businessman via smuggling, bribing and evading taxes. And with the reviews I have got, you don’t need a clairvoyant to tell that the movie will be a sure-shot hit.

I don’t blame all these guys for making such movies because after all cinema is meant to reflect what’s true, what’s happening in the society and more importantly what the audience wants.

I blame myself for not minding the truthlessness of characters, for even considering contention that success is commendable no matter which route it comes from and for wanting to believe that my hero is right & has a reason to whatever he does (being totally indifferent to how many people he kills or schemes against).

I wouldn’t lie but it is a part of my character now. I deliberately blind myself to things I do not want to see. I raise doubts expecting to be wronged. I believe people disbelieving their pasts and misdoings. I think more of my interests than everyone else’s. And with all this I welcome 2007.

To this I’ll repeat what I wrote as a post long back.

“Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it’s to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?”

“I do” says Dunbar.

“Why?” Clevinger asked.

“What else is there?” says Dunbar.