I like him, but...

ये मसाइल-ए-तसव्वुफ़, ये तेरा बयाँ 'ग़ालिब' 

तुझे हम वली समझते जो न बादा-ख्वार होता 

Translation: Ghalib, your subject matters are good and your style is great, we would regard you as a Prophet if you were not such a drinker.

So, Ghalib was not perfect. 

Recently Chalie Sheen went back into rehab. I am a great admirer of him for his acting in general and in Two and  a Half Men in particular. I didn't know what to think when I found out that he was as bad in substance abuse in real life as he was in the TV show as Charlie Harper. 

When I was quite young, in my teenage, I discovered the books of Enid Blyton and got hooked on them. Many years later, I came to England for work and mentioned to someone that I practically grew up reading Enid Blyton and her books taught me English. He told me that Enid was not a nice woman in her real life, she used to be horrid to her children and used to neglect them a lot. Enid Blyton has written a great many children's books and they are vastly popular. I am a big fan of many of her series books like The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Five Find-Outers and Dog etc. 

Going back to the young age, I think I was in my 20s when Sanjay Dutt's film Khalnayak was released. Sanjay Dutt was in custody at the time for illegal possession of an AK47 rifle. I remember talking about the film with my friends on a morning walk. But we were young enough to know everything, and the solution was clear to us. "Both are totally different matters, it doesn't matter what happens in his personal life, we can go and watch the film." And that was decided. We ultimately didn't get to watch the film, but that's not the point. 

I have many, many examples of this type where a personal is very admirable for something that they do, but also they are bad in another regard. This mix of good and evil can be found in a whole range with the amount of good and bad varying to a great extent but the essential question is the same. 

Sometimes, the decision is clear. Michael Jackson, according to people, was a great musician. But he also had an illegal, horrible, despicable sexual perversion. I never cared for his music or his personality so I don't give a damn how good a musician he was considered to be. On the other hand, his particular perversion, in my books, is absolutely unforgivable, in any condition. So, both ways, I don't like him, and I don't care if he's dead, I am going to speak ill of him, I don't believe in that hypocritical convention that a man suddenly becomes a saint just because he's dead. 

An opposite case, I absolutely love this song called "Cliffs of Dover". I have even posted here about it. It's an instrumental piece by Eric Johnson. While doing research on the song, I came across some forum posts and found that Eric Johnson is a great guy, no conceit, very down to earth, very helpful. I talked to my guitar teacher about the song and he told me that Eric is an absolute perfectionist and works very hard to get his sound just right. All good things, easy decision - I like him!

But, back to the point, what do YOU do when you come to find out something bad about someone you admire and respect? Salman Khan is a great actor but he killed 4 footpath-dwellers while driving under the influence of alcohol. Do you still like him? I still watch his films, but I don't like him as a person. What about you?

For me the question is still open, whereas in most cases, I have a definite stand and opinion, most times an opinion that goes against every other opinion in the world, but I know. In this case, I don't know...

..I'd be very interested to get some viewpoints on this. Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

Book Review - Starman Jones

Ok, I admit it, I am addicted to Heinlein's writing. He is the only one who can get me to read regularly no matter how many other things I am busy in. I tried to kick this addiction, did not buy or read any Heinlein books in August, but then I did not read much of anything else either. I started having withdrawal symptoms and even thought about re-reading the Heinlein books I already have. Finally, I gave in.

So I have recently finished Starman Jones and after you finish a great book you miss it, and talking about it is one way to deal with that.

To be honest, the title of the book sounded very boring to me, I bought it only because it's a Heinlein book. Still, the title is completely apt, the story revolves around a boy who, in the course of the story, becomes a man (get your mind out of the gutter!) and a star.

Like an expert storyteller RAH (Robert A. Heinlein, spelling his name is not very typing-friendly), plays with the details, hiding some, describing some. He doesn't mention the actual age of this boy anywhere, other than that he is a minor. So, oldest would be 17. The time is in the future when intersteller travel has been invented and there are spaceships that can travel to other universes. Again, enough technical details are provided to make the story plausible, without going into too much intricate, and boring, details.

There are guilds for all glamorous, profitable professions, where you have to be either born into the profession or enter by nomination by a member. Such is the case for astrogators. Our hero, Max Jones, had an uncle who was an astrogator and he himself is fascinated by it. His mother marries a man whom Max dislikes intensely, and they don't get along at all. So, like a teenager with more emotions and less planning, he leaves home in the middle of the night, to go to Earthport.

On the way, he meets a stranger Sam, who becomes his friend and stays in the role throughout. He is a character who is older, and very different from Max.

The story goes through many predictable and unpredictable twists, some of them are very unlikely but again, Heinlein's screenplay always sticks to common sense and makes the unlikely possible, plausible and almost inevitable. Max progresses up through the ranks as the story goes on and like a good book, the further it goes, the more interesting it becomes.

Of course, I can't say what happens in the end, but I do want to say that Heinlein has a knack for the perfect climax. Well, most of the time. This one is also perfect. Heinlein creates a good mix of dreams and reality in his climax which makes it both fantastic and yet believable.

Heinlein also has a very sound grip on human psychology including the mindset of kids. The way he describes or rather portrays the frustration of a teen who is faced by an adult that he cannot overrule, knowing you are right and not be able to shove it in the face of an adult, it reminds me of very real feelings from my own teenage.

There is a romantic angle in the story and again Heinlein keeps it real without making it dull like an art film.

The bonus in Heinlein's books is that you just don't read a story, you evaluate morals, you think about soceity, everything is connected to you and your world and that's what make it hard to put down his books or forget about them after you have finished them.

In Starman Jones, Heinlein has expertly brought up the issue of rules and customs. It is not always possible or human to stick by all rules, and yet, if you start breaking rules where do you stop? Through the hero's struggle Heinlein makes his standpoint clear.

A very readable book, not very thick, but very un-put-down-able!

This thing called Guilt

I am just thinking - Is GUILT a natural human emotion? My way of finding out whether something is natural or learned is to look at two groups - animals and children.

Do animals have any feelings of guilt? No, I don't mean your "Tommy, you peed on the couch's leg again. Bad dog!" kind of guilt where tommy flashes a sorry face at his owner in response. I mean natural born feelings. I don't think animals have any emotion of guilt. They do what they want to do, or need to do, and do it when where they feel like doing it.

The same goes for children. If they had any feelings of guilt or propriety, you wouldn't have to potty-train them. Children also do as they please, when they please.

Somewhere between childhood and youth we acquire this feeling of guilt. If the boy is watching TV, at the back of his mind he has a guilty feeling that his mom already reminded him of homework.

When a couple is having sex, they maybe reminded of the fact that they are not married and what they are doing maybe considered sin or a bad deed in the eyes of the church and/or the society. Isn't that where the phrase "walk of shame" comes from?

As a matter of fact, there are a lot of examples where one part of your mind is busy enjoying something while a little part of your mind is busy rationalizing it, trying to put away the guilt.

Not all the things we do are fine, and there is such a thing as a good or bad, but some time, I think, we should pause for a moment and think about how much of our guilt is real and how much just our attempt to live our life our own way defying the norms forced on us by society.