Thoughts on "A Beautiful mind"

I watched the 2001 movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’ again today. I had watched it almost 6-7 years ago when I was in High School. Revisiting it again now offered many more insights into the life of John F. Nash, the Nobel Prize winning mathematician and economist whose struggles with Schizophrenia are described in the movie. The movie takes liberties with the literal narrative of Nash’s life, mainly in order to facilitate a smooth telling of the battles he had with the illness, to the exclusion of other details of his life which would only have been a distraction to the major theme of the movie. In spite of those departures, Nash’s biographer has said that the movie captures the spirit of his life and Nash himself did not argue about it much. 

 The movie is powerful, compelling and moving precisely because Nash’s life story itself is the same. No life is simple and people may point fingers at aspects of his life they find unpleasant. But a man can only try to live his life well, dealing with his own problems, not a kind of life others would want him to live. Nash was a misfit as a young man, desperate to make his mark in the world of mathematics, to the exclusion of activities one may expect a University student to enjoy. As his character in the movie says,” He never much liked people and people did not like him.” This trait of his would not have helped him make close friends, and that could have made his struggles all the more difficult. His anxiety about finding an original breakthrough at Princeton was eventually alleviated and he was even able to marry someone he loved. But the truly traumatizing experiences of his life were yet to come. 

Losing your grip on reality and watching your mind degenerate to the point where you no longer can think clearly is the worst nightmare that a mentally ill person goes through. A schizophrenic can lose touch with reality so completely that it becomes impossible for him to function in the real world. A depressive can feel as of his soul were stifled and choked; his life may seem to have ended even as ritual banalities of life go on, without him feeling the slightest desire for them. The spirit of man can still make him hold on to the tenuous hope of revival, the faintest echoes of happiness in his past calling to him to keep faith. Nash kept his faith and trusted his mind. It could not have been simple when the thing he trusted was what betrayed him. But the human mind is a mysterious realm; its powers are virtually unlimited when it comes to the personal. What is required from the soul is not to capitulate but to fight back vehemently, using its strengths to overcome adversity. 

Nash used logic and reasoning to defeat his internal demons. The incredible energy it must have consumed can make one wonder how he had any left to live on; but it is possible when the spirit is willing. Without purpose and love, he probably would not have succeeded. The mind, it has been said, is a faithful servant but a terrible master. Once it starts driving us into blind alleys, pain and suffering is not far away. Mental illness is another matter since it may not be under our control every time, though most mentally ill people have traits of character which exacerbate, expedite or even induce the illness. Nash’s story stands testimony to the power of the mind and human spirit to overcome the most debilitating of circumstances, while accepting life’s teachings and moulding one’s character according to those circumstances.

When responsibility becomes a burden

Usually having a sense of responsibility is a good thing. It gives a vagrant mind a path to follow. But there are people who have never had a wandering mind; they have always felt an intrinsic sense of responsibility towards what they do. It is, strictly, not a responsibility that they feel. They need not be reminded of their “responsibility”. They have such passion for their work that they truly love it. The word responsibility defiles that passion and love. Using it makes something which may be almost holy seem like a mere job one does to keep life ticking along. But there are conditions which dilute that passion and reduce it to a set of responsibilities that eventually become a burden.

When the circumstances of life bring such a man a calamity which uproots his entire life, something similar can happen. Even if he is resolute enough to withstand the tumultuous and torrid times, he may still lose his direction, and with that his passion for life. His life demands that you make a living. More importantly, this man demands of himself that he make a living, that he earn his own bread, that he may never be forced to beg at another’s feet for compassion. He is too proud to be irresponsible. But his entire being is revolted by this charade that he undertakes. He cannot truly care for what he does. He has tried to live like an ordinary man, trying not to be passionate. But he cannot, that’s not him. When times become testing and his sense of responsibility is stretched, he becomes sullen, morose. He begins to hate life. Then he realises that his responsibility has become a burden. Should he reject this way of life and do something else? But what would he do? Where is his passion? That question leaves him drained. And he quits for the day, having had too many of these tortuous sessions with himself. Unfortunately, the unresolved question will rear its hideous head again.

Goodbye, Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor, the Minister of State for external affairs and a former Under-Secretary General of the UN, has been forced to resign from the Union Cabinet due to the raging controversy surrounding the IPL Kochi team. In spite of his impeccable credentials, he has had a tough time negotiating the torrid currents of Indian Politics. His brand of politics, his being an outsider even in the Congress and perhaps his personality too has not endeared him to his colleagues in his party or elsewhere. He endeavoured to open his working to the public completely through a forum like Twitter. He attempted to establish norms of transparency and efficiency under his watch. But Indian Politics was probably not ready to accept his ideas so easily. It is an open secret that members of the Kerala Congress have harboured grievances against his sudden elevation as a Minister even when he was a first time MP. Tharoor, on his part, is not too keen on plying the beaten track when it comes to being a politician. He has enjoyed great support from the PM and the Gandhi family. That helped him land a substantial job in the government. His stature as a scholarly, articulate, experienced diplomat and his authorial success bode well for his future as a politician of the educated middles class. Unfortunately, that stature might have worked against him too.

The previous ‘controversies’ he has been embroiled in were more media creations, less important issues. The News media – much like an oily salesman hoping to sell dubious products – pounced on him because of his popularity within their audience. He has been accused of hogging the limelight. He might not have felt inclined to refuse initially precisely because he wanted to be open. But the media needs to sell its products too; the subsequent reports did make him wary. The element of his being an outsider even to the media perhaps also played a role. Tharoor probably did not have time to build strong linkages with the domestic media. Indeed it is the media’s role to be dispassionate, but how many of our journalists truly are? But these also issues betrayed Tharoor’s lack of understanding of how the Indian polity functions. His being a man in a hurry can be attributed to his own high estimation of himself – not something untrue in itself. But was such ambition palatable to his peers? His predicament offers the clearest answers. His misdemeanor in this case was puny when compared to the allegations leveled against other politicians. Nevertheless, the stink of perceived corruption was too much for the Gandhi family. Reaching rarefied heights has a major disadvantage; the fall is just as heavy.

When he announced his candidature for the Thiruvananthapuram seat, I recollect feeling excited at the prospect of someone I admired being a part of Indian Politics. His appointment as Minister offered more hope. However, the cynicism within politics in general and the Indian version of it in particular will not recede so easily. Tharoor has perhaps been a victim of his own previous success. He has misjudged matters a few times. But it is not in the best interests of Indian Politics and the country itself to hound out a person of great intellect and capability. It would be a disgrace if talent like his is sidelined because he is easy fodder while the real vultures prey silently on the populace of this nation. I hope, for the sake of India, that he’s not disheartened and returns to centre stage a wiser man, one ready to earn his spoils.

How do we live life?

Happy people are usually never bothered about the meaning of life. They are too busy living life as it comes. So are those who continually worry about that question doing any favour to themselves? I have come to think that they are not. Of course, there are questions about why someone would even ask such a question. But life works mysteriously. You never know when you will be in a position where it just seems that nothing is worth it now. It happens to the best of us. The response to such events defines people, and  also transforms them utterly.

I wonder how life should be lived then. Even after such an experience, we can retain the desire to live. Our way of looking at life has undergone drastic changes; but we still need to do things the same way as other happy people to be happy. To describe people as being “happy” is a simplistic generalization. But it serves the purpose of showing a way of living which may come closest to finding real meaning in life.

Dwelling on the past makes no one happy. Worrying about the future does no better. Only living in the present offers a chance. Each of us has a unique character and personality. Those attributes decide how people react even when they live in the present. But the reaction can also be determined by a desire for change, a leap of faith. That faith is what keeps us going. Faith in yourself, faith in life’s ability to give us happier times. It starts with complete acceptance of the present and clear understanding of how you see yourself in the future – not a specific way necessarily, but in a way that makes you feel good. Once that is done, the hard steps of shaping reality according to your dreams await. If someone were searching for meaning in life, that is all you need to tell them.

Tittering media all over Twittering Tharoor

At the outset, let me say I don’t share the discomfort many feel over Shashi Tharoor’s twittering ways. On the contrary, it is a remarkable source of inside information on the workings of Indian Government, regardless of how many really want to know about it. Tharoor has a knack of enlightening us – his twitter followers - with information on topics such as relations between African countries and India; but he also fulfils the deepest desire of a creative writer by tweeting some rather banal and humorous lines, much to the chagrin of a section of society rooted in a hackneyed vision of the political life where standards of decorum are such that we might as well use nameless, faceless logos for politicians, simply saying POLITICIAN. Unfortunately, today that evokes the image of an oily, cunning man maneuvering his way towards more power and money. So, Tharoor’s only source of inspiration brings him brickbats, notwithstanding that he may only be trying to be open and accessible, certainly not the traits of that wily homogenous creature called a POLITICIAN. Tharoor must be told that he is not expected to be accountable, secrecy being the buzzword for our notoriously un-industrious politicians.

Certainly the media could not comprehend how an incumbent minister could encroach upon territory it considers firmly its own. How he could bypass the traditional route of delivering political news, they probably thought. After all, the media has taken on the self-appointed job to affect stings on any member of that secretive group who has the misfortune to have his secrets betrayed. It usually does a good job of it too. But I fail to understand what purpose the ‘stings’ perpetrated upon Tharoor have served, other than to increase the ratings of a few TV shows and to make a reluctant, controversy-tainted celebrity of Tharoor, who, as he tiredly and ironically said, never had such problems with the international media during his days as undersecretary-general of Communications at the UN. The English language press too has taken the gauntlet; they have front-paged every little hiccup of Tharoor’s and given disproportionate, perhaps, even biased coverage to events like this IPL controversy. Where are the stories about Lalit Modi’s conviction for alleged use of drugs and kidnapping in the US? Perhaps, sections of the media cringe at Tharoor’s accent, wonderfully thick as it is. Or perhaps, they did not apprehend his sudden ascent in the muddied waters of Indian Politics even though he was an outsider. Or, may be, it’s just cynical marketing through a manufactured controversy involving a celebrated diplomat of yore. Whatever the truth, Tharoor may have been reminded of that quote: Once bitten, twice shy. The media, it seems, has lost the plot. Perhaps it needs to be the victim of a sting too. How many of those in the fourth estate truly understand the nature of their work? Have they forgotten what ethics and balance in reporting means? Are they themselves as cynical now as to follow the money and for the rest, well, let it go to hell, honey? Tharoor has made some errors of judgment, as in the case of his visa tweet. When you cut your teeth in Indian politics that is only expected. But has the media been fair to him? You only need to compare coverage given to silly matters like “Cattle Class/Holy Cows” with real issues of corruption and graft involving Sharad Pawar. Perhaps Tharoor is a soft target, an easy punching bag to people seeking a way to sell their news. But does that justify the media? Introspection is the word.

Disgrace by J.M.Coetzee: A review

Disgrace won the Booker in 1999; it was J.M. Coetzee’s second Booker and was followed by the Nobel Prize in literature being bestowed upon him. He is a writer of the highest pedigree and immense skill. This novel glows with such aesthetic beauty that you are left with a wonderful sense of blithe satisfaction after a reading. It is about David Lurie, Professor of Communications at Cape Technical University in South Africa - a sensual man, a disciple of the romantic poets, Wordsworth in particular. He is over fifty but his passion for women is undimmed. He has had two wives, but has not been successful in those relationships. Unheeded indulgence of his passions is the way out for him. But when his gaze turns to 18-year old Melanie Isaacs, it is only time before trouble erupts. This is a conservative South African University after all, not given to tolerating the escapades of elderly professors. The scandal that hits him, notwithstanding Melanie’s own role in the fling, uproots him from the University. He would rather quit than beg for forgiveness for a guilt he cannot feel.

That takes him to his daughter Lucy, who lives a peasant’s life on a farm in the Eastern Cape. But the South Africa of the day, in spite of Mandela’s reconciliation, is a place where history has taken an ugly turn. Suddenly, the former oppressed have tasted power; and some would be only too willing to wield it against their previous masters. As it is, Lucy and David’s worldviews clash. But when an act of horrifying brutality rips apart their life, the chasm between them is opened wide. Lurie no longer has the luxury of continuing his old ways. He cares about his daughter too much, though often they don’t see eye to eye. Lurie must change himself and in the process, he must also redeem himself. He must find answers if he has to live with honour. He must learn to be humble and to accept the realities of life. Along the way, he must also find a reason to live.

Coetzee’s prose is never pompous, but graceful, silky and even, at times, melodious. The scenes are set alight by a descriptive ability which always enthralls the imagination. The narrative grips you throughout. His intuitive grasp of the atmospherics of a scene lets conflicting strands of thought brew together until they are ready to explode. And that is handled with the skill of a master artist, who knows the way to tell a beautiful story. It is a work of exceptional power and aesthetic beauty.

J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has always been a controversial novel – both reviled and celebrated in equal measure. Sundry guardians of morality and upright behaviour, whom Holden Caulfield - the book’s angst-ridden teenage protagonist – would probably have called ‘phonies’, have always panned the book for its disturbing themes of sexuality and its use of obscene language. Still, the book is among the most read in American schools. Though it was meant for adults, it finds great resonance among adolescents due to the subject, conversational tone and language which reflects a teenager’s vocabulary almost perfectly. Salinger boasted in college that he would write the defining American novel someday. He did not miss the mark by much.

It is essentially the story of an adolescent who faces struggles as he grows up in this imperfect world. Once Holden leaves the sheltered environs of his home for those prep schools that purportedly make something of teenagers, he sees things he cannot understand. Why people act as they do, he probably asks himself. Why does someone behave so snottily when you have probably never met him before? Why is money such a cause for resentment even among kids? The list could be endless. Holden is himself a caring, kind and honest boy before he goes to these schools. That makes it difficult for him to see what adult life is all about. He flunks schools out of this apathy to the ways of the world. Most teachers and students are ‘phonies’ to him, his ultimate insult to people who are contrived or conceited in their behaviour. When the book starts, Holden is flunking yet another school - Pency Prep – and this time he decides to leave without a word to anybody. He makes for New York, his hometown, but does not want to go home yet. So he checks into a rundown hotel and thinks he’ll have a vacation before heading home to face his parents’ inevitable wrath. Only, he spends the time drinking and feeling so alienated that he’s badly depressed most of the time. He has an encounter he did not want with a prostitute, which finally ends without much action and with some regret. He meets up with a girl he has known in the past, but he’s fed up even there. He encounters three women in a bar who are among the most bizarre characters you would ever see. The whole world seems to him to be full of phonies. There are two nuns he meets at the Grand Central station in NY and he donates some money to them. They are probably the only ones he thinks are genuine of all those people he meets during his little getaway. Holden has a little sister Phoebe, who is very perceptive and intelligent. She is the only person he really likes. He turns so morose now that he wants to sneak in to his home and see Phoebe late at night. She’s very happy and animated to see him but also guesses the reason why he’s there. During their talk, he confesses to her that the only thing he wants in his life is to be like a Catcher in the Rye, someone who stands at the edge of some cliff and catches children who stray close to it while playing in the rye. It’s only a metaphor for a person who wants to save himself from impending adulthood, which he thinks is akin to falling off a cliff.

He and his siblings are all good at English; it’s the one subject he does not fail. So he has an English teacher Mr. Antolini he likes who he goes to after seeing Phoebe. He gives Holden a place to stay overnight and also gives him advice on life. He says to Holden, “you are not the first person to be confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour” and then he tells him to try to engage with the world. It’s all perfunctory to Holden, who, on a fancy, decides next morning that he’ll leave everything behind to live a solitary existence in the woods, doing menial jobs to survive and allowing only people he likes to visit him. He tells Phoebe about it, but she is adamant about going with him. It probably makes him see some sense and he decides that he would stick it out and see what happens. The ending does not offer any fixes to life’s problems and Holden himself is probably unsure about his future. But he ‘thinks he will apply himself’ in his next school. That perhaps makes the novel stand out as more gritty and realistic than other works on teenage delinquents.
We are all pristine early in our lives, untouched by the ugly realities of life and the need to adapt. But as you grow up, you have to deal with all kinds of people, many of whom you don’t like. The whole business of life is such that it cannot be attempted without adapting yourself. The book shows this aspect of human life, how humans become indifferent towards others and only think of themselves, how they tend to be conceited and shallow as they mature into adults. Life makes people like that. It makes youngsters like Holden become frustrated, alienated from the world and leads to the existential angst that people talk of in teenagers.

A final word on the literary style of the novel: Salinger intuited that the best way to make Holden believable would be to write from his own perspective. The novel uses a style called the Stream of Consciousness, where a person’s thoughts are one with the narrative. So even an aside such as when he describes how the Ossenburger dorm room makes him feel tell us a great deal about him and enhance the incisiveness of the novel. His use of teenage colloquialisms used in the 1940s NY sets the tone and frequent profanities only light up various facets of Holden’s character, like the word ‘goddam’ which underlines his dislike for something when used in that sense. Overall, it sets the feel of the unfolding of a teenage story, told from his perspective.