Emotional Baggage!

Emotional Baggage!

As you all know we have hit Pre-production with my latest feature film Bhindeshi Tara, I wanted to share one of our character's journey and relate it to my personal experience.

But before that can I ask you a questions?

How do you manage your emotional well-being?

Some of you might say: work out, sports, socialising, yoga, meditation etc. but I wanted to bring your focus to one thing, how we manage our emotional well-being carries immense importance in our life.

Sometimes we forget to realise we are all but emotions and feelings. That's what makes us human! That's what sets us apart from rest of the species! i.e. the ability to understand and manage our own emotions.

Yesterday, I had a tough discussion with a friend's Dad, not because I wanted to belittle him but I wanted to let off some emotional baggage off my chest. I wanted to keep my relationship healthy and firm with my friend and his family.

Sometimes we let things creep in between our relationships that does not resonates with our own personalities. Just because we start governing ourselves by some "unsaid rules", what we forget to realise about life is that it constantly changes. We also need to adjust and update our own set of rules based on what we are going through. Based upon how life is shaping us and others around us, after-all well-being is all about being up to date and flexible. On contrary, emotional baggage is all about being stubborn and making us and our relationships fragile.

This is what exactly happens with Mr. Tarafdar, our protagonist Saikat Tarafdar's Dad, a father who was willing to spoil his son's life but not change his rules around how someone (his son's girlfriend) should be? He ironically keeps imposing his own rules on people around him, that not only breaks his son's heart but also makes him suffer for rest of his life!

Hope you would choose to be more flexible in life after seeing our film. Kindly help us complete our crowd funding target by clicking here: Bhindeshi Tara Development Fund.

Until my next blog... Farewell!

@amazing_arvind
#GreenlabFilms

Monsoon Rain

Monsoon has just hit India and I wrote this poem last week, nostalgic old days.. Need to kindle love gods to make my new script (Romance/Drama) turn in to reality... Here it goes!

Monsoon rain…

I know that I can't fly, but sometimes I feel like flying…

Fly and come near to you,

To tell you how much I care about you…

I think about you when you are not near,

Countless ponder, can't help my dear…

It makes my heart cry,

With every breath I sigh,

Sigh and think about you again

Those days of monsoon rain,

Hope we’ll be together soon…

Together, so not to part in vain,

Together so never leave again...

Together so never be shy,

Shy off each other's love

Shy off what we deserve, 

Never let go another try, let's soar our dreams high

I'm sure we could fly... I'm sure we could fly...


AJ Baswan...

Lantern of heart

Lantern of heart

Shifu: If you only do what you can do, you'll never be better than what you are.

Po: But I like who I am!

Shifu: You don't even know who you are*

*Excerpt from Kung Fu Panda 3

That's the irony of life isn't it, as Shifu rightly pointed out "you don't even know who you are" our understanding is so limited by our intellect. Just a couple of days ago my two years old daughter said she was afraid. I was surprised to know how does she understand what being afraid is like? I know she is really dread of cats (She calls them Manu "Cat in Punjabi") and makes most scared face accompanied with perfect voice and tonality (I am sure her drama teacher will be very happy with her inborn talents) Then I recalled, human brain is wired for fear!  We have senses and mechanise that is hard wired to protect us from danger. one of them is called RAS (Reticular Activity System) the part of our brain that triggers agility in our muscles against foreseen danger.

As humans, we are gifted with an extra ordinary source of power, the conscious mind, which in poetic language is referred as "our heart"  or "guts" or "hunch". In reality, it is nothing but the areas of our brain that performs recording and play back of events and experiences we gather throughout life. Which in turn, becomes our opinions and values. But this human mind with all its peripherals could prove to be a bane or boon, depending upon what use you put it to.

Growing up I was so scared of dark, it was because of my brother's scary pranks I was terrified of the dark, only after few years I realised it was nothing but my perceived illusion. A notion of my experiences which led me to my belief about dark, how true...such is life! We keep scaring ourselves, living in fear due to figment of our imagination, due to the false meaning that we keep attaching about something we don't even know if it exists. I bet if you look at the root cause of the any issue, anxiety, fear or negative emotion it would be because of the false meaning that you have attached.

So next time you face any fear ask yourself this question "Is this real or just some vague imagination" then let your heart (or brain) guide you like a lantern in the dark... Go forth and conquer!!

Faith means living with uncertainty feeling your way through life letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark - Dan Mailman

Birthday Thought 2015

Birthday Thought 2015

11/08/2015 Strathfield @ 6.05 AM

Life never gives you a chance to make things go your way. I can firmly vouch for this considering my personal experience of good 35 years I have spent on this planet. At the same time, you want to steer life into the direction you want to go and the tricky part is… it never stops when you want to do that adjustment. 

The theory of change says “making the distinction between desired and actual outcome” now the real challenge is… this is good for theory but in practice you are just bombarded with one thing or another until you decide enough is enough. This is my life and I have every right to live it my way! How cool is that? But it’s easier said than done!

During last 365 days, I have contemplated on this action. It has been tough! every day, every night, every week and every month I had to suffer the pain of being lonely and joys of being together. Pain of being rejected and joys of getting up and going again, the pain of stepping outside my comfort zone and joys of feeling accomplished every time I had hit the target.

Basically, this year was pretty much like the year before and the previous one and the one prior to that, but the only difference was my response to the setbacks and challenges. My approach was totally brand new and cutting edge.

I remember Tony Robin’s quote “it’s all in the meaning you attach” I can give myself thousand and one reasons,why things are not the way I want? But it won’t matter much unless, I give it a pretty damn reason to believe it and it works both ways. So the only piece of advise I’m going to give myself for the next 365 days is… Come up with good enough reason! Why or why can’t I do anything! I hope my experience would further help me to cajole, motivate, inspire and lead to my purpose!

Good luck to me :-)

It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it -Amelia Barr

My Travel Diary 3 - Hathras to Hong Kong in 21 Years

Hathras to Hong Kong in 21 Years

I don't exactly remember when the last time I went for a Bromantic trip (term coined to amplify brotherly love :-) ha! Actually I immediately fell in love with the term "Bromance" when I first heard it off Facebook (another benefit of safe social networking, thanks to all my wise FB contributors and to the nutty ones too...lol) Yeah, I guess it was summer of 1993 or so... that was the last time when two of us (the Baswan brothers) got out on a solo road trip. That was to a small town 230 kilometers Nothwest of Delhi and I guess we went there to resolve my brother's astrological mystery looming over his fate. As we didn't known his exact time of birth. We were hoping to get some clue from the super efficient Hathras Munciple administration (that was wishful thinking at its best ha!)

Another compelling reason for me was to taste the super delicious Hathras Rabri (type of condensed milk custard) and my granny's handmade meals that I used to relish ah! started drooling already thinking of that yummy alloo gobhi with poori and halwa! God bless granny for creating those neural pathways that taste is still safely registered at some hexadecimal address in my memory. It is actually a bit crazy to compare the two cities and by far there is no correlation between the two, apart from the only two cities in the world I had made solo leisure trip with my brother as of now. Later one is actually one the greatest countries in south of China where as former is just some small town of western UP (India) only importance in present is it's my brothers place of birth.

To me that bus journey from South Hong Kong island to Hong Kong Central was no different from Delhi to Hathras. Probably because I had the same company that no other person can give in this world. That is why they say relationship is the best thing to cherish forever, this reminds me of famous lines from fast and furious 7 paying tribute to Paul walker...

[last lines]

Dominic Toretto: [remembering the time he had with Brian] I used to say I live my life a quarter mile at a time and I think that's why we were brothers - because you did too. No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter mile away or half way across the world. The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room, right here, right now. Salute mi familia. You'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother...

Coming back to Hong Kong, after some painful cross border experience (actually may be second worse, worst was Shalu losing her passport in Thailand) this time we were travelling from Shenzen to Hong Kong and for the first time in my life I crossed over from one country to another on foot. Just cross the bridge from Shenzen to Hong Kong and you are in a different nation wolla!

We took train to Hong Kong central and  first thing I noticed on way out was Coca Cola hording at Hong Kong Central just like at Kings Cross in Sydney. That reminded me Coca Cola actually had set up their first factory in Hathras ending 26 years of political exile from India and we got to drink one straight from the fresh red crates during our first solo trip to Hathras 21 years ago. It was probably one of the first coke bottles on the first day coke relaunched and guess what? It was served in Coke's trademark 250 ml bottle. I felt pretty swish (didn't know much about coke at that time) but I just had it as my brother was keen on tasting it and I tell you he wasn't wrong.

We thought that was an accomplishment! it was probably the first coke bottle of my life lol... Although we got used to Thumbs Up much popular alternative to Coke in India till date. I quickly gathered my focus back to finding our hotel coach pickup point at Hong Kong Central it was bloody confusing and we frantically ran from one exit to another finally making it. Once again we came back at the same spot the big coke hording except this time we chose to have some beer instead... bloody grownup kids I tell you :-)

Blissful Wanderer

Blissful Wanderer

One day early in the Morning

very smooth and crisp weather

I saw a man in the park

clad in white silky Leather

I smiled he nodded

We started opposite merry go round

 Sunrise on my face, thoughts of lost and found

I ran like a pony, lost free on ground

Once, twice and thrice we passed by

I got this feeling if he was that guy?

Suddenly, I saw a big gust of wind rewind

Some itchy, joy and sorrow blitz through my mind

It was bliss, it was weird

I wanted to ask him all about my thoughts

Heaven is a place on earth

Haven is a place on earth

Is that true, is that true?

Funny he knew what I wanted; all he said was just nod

I could not ask his name but later realised

he was no one else but God...

Arvind J Baswan

My Travel Diary 2 - How to eat a Chinese Pizza!

My Travel Diary 2 - How to eat a Chinese Pizza!

First of all finding a pizza in Chinese city of Shenzen is a big ask, where homes are smaller but malls are bigger than a football stadium. Albeit a bit hungry we were almost on the verge of giving up pizza hunt after a 2 hour long journey visiting a manufacturing unit in city's east to another supplier in the west. Although, I must says I'm thoroughly impressed with Chinese infrastructure and town planning skills, I have never seen an eight lane road in any city's central district where you can zip through one end of the city to next in minutes without traffic jams. Yep you heard it right! "No crazy effing traffic jams" that is a delight in itself. Although living in Sydney has killed my visual appetite for seeing so many heads in a glance but coming from India I guess it was not a big shock.

Speed rail journey was fantastic didn't feel a bump as it shot up to speed of 160 Km/hr during our journey from Guangzhou to Shenzen, great roads, metro, hotels and food, wait a minute! I'll come back to food in a while, I know this journal is about Chinese Pizza and I'm rattling praise over Chinese infrastructure but I've so much to tell that it won't fit in one journal. Only thing that really sucked was what probably is India's strength IT and Internet. Facebook and Google are still banned in China and we got a shock of our life not being able to upload pictures on internet, in fact the hotel had excellent wifi signal but no internet bandwidth attached to it ha ha! 

Spending few days without internet, I felt as if my right arm was chopped off. Reminds me, how much of an internet addict we have become specially FB and Google. Bro chuckled "They (communist government) don't want people of China wasting time on unnecessary FB'ing and Googling" but to me it was a bit of learning to come out of our robotic lifestyles and spend few days without smart phones and internet to make us realise our human existence again. 

So coming back to Chinese pizza hunt, we found this beautiful shop hidden on the second floor of luxury mall complex in the Suburb of Nanliang that was the first pizza shop I had seen in last 4 days so we quickly jumped in. But hang on! We need to order the right pizza and my brother's newly learnt Mandarin wasn't skilled enough to communicate our needs hence the sign language. Here comes two crazy Indian guys in whole of Nanliang ordering pizza in sign language and my brother trying to explain chicken in sign language was hilarious (don't ask me what he did) the Chinese word for chicken is "Choo Chee" I was rolling on the floor. 

Finally made through the order and a delightful 12" inch pizza accompanied with fresh fruit salad and bubble tea arrived. It was a little bigger than we imagined and the pizza base had no hold (not sure why) so had to be eaten with two hands using a wrapper glove for comfortable and hygienic meal. It was probably a pizza of a kind that I had never had not even when I was in Italy. 

Nevertheless we weren't able to finish it and the left over was beautifully gift wrapped for later, see pic attached. So when in China learn some good sign language :-)