Fighting the second-handers

Those who have read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead will know what the term 'second-hander' means. It describes all the people in our society who live the lives of parasites, living off the efforts of others, doing some good work at times but claiming the efforts of others as their own, most of the times, if not all the time. These are people who believe that others exist but for one purpose: To serve them. They not only shamelessly live off these people, but also don't feel any guilt in doing so. In fact, they believe that it is their birthright to expect to be waited upon by these people. The movie Rocky 3 salutes the spirit of Rand without naming it in a scene in which Rocky comes to the prison to bail his brother in law, Paulie, out of the prison. Paulie starts complaining that Rocky hasn't done anything to improve his lot even after becoming rich and popular. He further goes on to say that as a friend, Rocky owes him a lot, to which Rocky retorts "Friends don't owe. They just help". Just because a friend of mine helps me, I would be foolish to assume that it is his duty to help and serve me.

I have been a member of the placement committee of our institution for sometime now, and now, am almost saddled with the task of leading it as the other people have bailed out, thinking that it is a lost cause. I don't really blame them either as the course is really grueling and nobody has the time to devote full-time to the placement activities. However, the attitudes of a few people are really astonishing. They assume that I'm there to molly-coddle them, that it's my responsibility to be in the know about everything related to placements, even about the mails that come to a common mail account, even before I myself get an opportunity to read it! They don't want to do anything about it, but still expect that I work hard at the common responsibilities that have overnight become 'my' responsibilities. Not just that, I also need to be sportive about the unsporting criticism that I get. I mean, I'm doing these guys a favor by taking up responsibilities that none of them were willing to take up, yet I'm supposed be ashamed of myself for not treating these second handers well enough! The very guy who kicked up a fuss was one whose name was also proposed, in the list of committee members, but he was more slippery than an eel in wriggling himself out of any responsibilities, yet he thinks he is entitled to order me about and that I'm bound to show subservience to him.

I'm no Jesus Christ to do all the good and hard work and still get crucified for it! Second handers are worse than pests and ought to be exterminated, or, as the protagonists in Atlas Shrugged do, must be left to fend totally for themselves. Yes, that would be a fitting treatment for them.

Removing unwanted choices

The human brain is unique amongst animals as it is indisputably the most powerful thinking engine, but what of the human mind, the content of the human brain? The human mind tends to be in a highly volatile and unstable condition most of the times as it sees choices where no other animal sees them. Battling with the choices becomes a problem bigger than survival even. Animals on the other hand don't bother about how many ways they can do something as long as they can find any way in which to do it. Only survival matters and nothing else. Luxury is not a concept that animals spend much thought on, but it is certainly not the case with us humans. We have a lot to think about. We have multiple ways of going about any given task, and so often end up spending hours upon hours thinking which way to proceed.

The human mind is also notoriously fickle and can think about a hundred different things at the same time. There is only so much that the container of the mind, the brain can compute, before running out of steam, so often, we see people getting stressed out trying to decide what color trousers to wear, what food to eat and simple things like that. The more the choices, more the overheads for the brain. Eliminating choices is seen as a regressive step, but suffering the aftermaths of too many choices where hardly any are required, is considered acceptable. Hell, we can't give up the luxury of choices. So what if it causes some confusion? In the end, aren't we all happy? But are we really happy?

I want to work on my project which is coming up for submission, work on an upcoming examination, write a poem, meditate to get some peace of mind, smoke a cigarette in the hope of getting the relaxation that the meditation failed to give (well, the relaxation lasted the duration of the meditation, but after that what? I can't possibly meditate all day!) and so on and so forth.
So, what do you think happens? Many of the things on the 'To-do' list go undone and one is filled with a sense of failure. The 'To-do' list promptly goes into the bin and no attempt to schedule jobs that need to get done is ever done again, as the results are already known. Who wants to keep failing? Quitting seems better than trying and losing out to many people and one just cannot convince them otherwise.

So, what's the solution? Put a premium on your mind. If you don't value your own mind, who will? Do only the things that you feel deserve your mind's and subsequently your brain's efforts and trash the rest of the things. Try to cut out the choices as far as possible. Wherever you have a fork ie a spitting of ways, try to eliminate some of the options to leave you with a single or at the most two ways so that you can go and make your move. Choices are seductive, but they are the devil's agents. The more of them you have, the more the confusion. Now, by choices, I mean the frivolous ones, not the important ones. Frivolous choices are those that come disguised as convenience and luxury. Mahatma Gandhi used to fuss a lot about the kind of clothes he chose to wear in his youth, but later, he realized that clothes did not really make the man, as popularly thought. It was just a frivolous choice. He roamed about semi naked till his death, but did it matter in any way? It only increased his popularity!! Cut the clutter out and allow the mind to breathe! And then watch it bloom!

Rocky completes a full circle

The saga of Rocky has come a full circle, bringing a proper conclusion to a series of movies that delivered powerhouse performances, sequel after sequel. The story of the underdog boxer rising to dizzying heights, biting the dust and resurrecting himself all over again was truly the stuff of dreams. To me, it meant a lot more than just another movie series. In fact, Rocky was phenomenal in several aspects. At a time when sequels were looked down upon, it was Rocky that set the path for the others to follow, and how! Each sequel had something new to offer and were not merely an exercise in squeezing out more money out of a successful franchise.

Penned and directed by Sylvester Stallone, the movie was what gave the struggling Sly a firm toe-hold in the movie industry. Though the producers were initially skeptical of casting Stallone in the lead, the man with the slurred accent and a cerebral palsy induced sneer delivered a phenomenal performance in Rocky, which was termed a 'sleeper hit' on account of the low investment and phenomenal returns that it earned. The accompanying music scores too were very popular and had the original theme by Bill Conti recurring in all the subsequent Rocky movies with the exception of Rocky IV.
If one looks back, none of the Rocky movies really have any elaborate story or plotlines, yet what made them the success that they were was the fact that people could relate to every aspect of the movie.

Even though Rocky lost the fight against his opponent Apollo Creed in the first Rocky, he had made his mark. A rank nobody went the distance against an established champion and earned the love and respect of his fans. Rocky II saw him fighting a rematch against Apollo and winning it in the last round. Rocky III sees him getting complacent and lax and he pays the price for it, by going down against an aggressive boxer, Clubber Lang. I was almost in tears when I realized that Rocky went down and out. The resurrection of Rocky with the help of his new found friend Apollo Creed, combined with the excellent soundtrack 'Eye of the tiger' by Survivor, made for a superb movie. I'm sure that the movie has motivated a lot of people to overcome their obstacles and fight their inner demons. I'm one of them. I listen to 'Eye of the tiger' every time I feel down and it peps me right up. Rocky IV was about avenging the death of Apollo at the hands of a burly Russian fighting machine, Ivan Drago. The montage in which Rocky trains in the cold and frozen wastelands of Russia was in total contrast to everything that he had done till then, and it too was brilliant. Stallone even jokingly claimed credit for bringing the cold-war to an end with Rocky's line "If I can change and you can change, everybody can change!!".The soundtrack 'No easy way out' too was bang on target.

The storyline of Rocky V was surprising dull and lacklustre and die-hard Rocky fans felt let down with the way Rocky chose to make his final exit. Apparently Stallone too was not happy with it and so he came back, one final time with Rocky Balboa.

Initially I had my doubts as to how good the movie would be, given the fact that Stallone has aged considerably, but all those doubts were firmly laid to rest by the movie, in which Rocky comes back against all odds, trains hard, concentrating on building mass, as speed is not something that he can hope to improve upon, given his age and reduced reflexes. He delivered another powerhouse performance and the movie is considered to be the most authentic boxing movie of all time. In a salute to the first Rocky, Stallone aka Rocky Balboa goes down to the current heavyweight champion, Mason 'the-line' Dixon, in a split decision, after going the distance all over again. Though he lost the fight, he won hearts right, left and center. He proves that anybody can achieve anything, as long as the desire to perform and excel is present. If a guy can come out of retirement, get the heart and the guts to take on the reigning champion in a boxing ring and perform as well as he did, it just means that there is no such thing as 'Impossible'. This movie gave the saga of Rocky the most suitable conclusion possible.