11 June 2020 | Abilities
Originally published on Wordpress
11 June 2020
One Quote
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- APWBD (J. K. Rowling)
A very short one today. And quite in contrast to what the quote above signifies. I feel our abilities are a consequence of choices (either ours or our parents)
A lot of us have been called ‘talented’, ‘genius’, ‘able’ at some point of time in our lives.
What does that really mean? Is it something inherent? Genetic? That we’re born with.
Or is capability / ability to do something that we acquire by training for a long period of time / obtained by education.
I don’t know. But what I know is this — mediocrity always is content where it is. But the truly great, they not only keep aspiring for something higher (need not be materialistic) — but make you feel like you can truly achieve something of import in life as well.
If you don’t know something in life, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.
One Song
I was going to post the ‘Hum Honge Kaamyaab’ song from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, but that’s for a darker post. As my father pointed to me today, probably it’s also better to write something positive in these dark days.
So here’s one for you Baba. To the idealist and optimist in you. From the pessimist in me.
Was Shah Rukh Khan inherently able in this movie as a man with Asperger’s syndrome, to overcome all the unfathomable difficulties? Or was it the consequence of his upbringing that he ended up achieving what common folks would scoff at? I don’t know.
One movie scene
And of course, Tamasha. (There’s also ‘Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ — so we get 2 scenes today! — some rules are meant to be broken. Genius is knowing when / where to stop.)
I won’t elaborate much today. It has been a busy week — but “Isn’t the point of art less what people put into it, more what they get out of it?” These 2 movies have been a saviour for one of the most confusing phases of my life. I cannot watch them without going back into those years and thinking how directionless I was, then. And yet, hopeful.