"This is still better"

on the weekend we watched a movie called rehguzar, starring jimmy shergill. its a story about an individual who makes it big and the backdrop is dubai in the movie. its been shot in labour camps. so, i had huge expectations from this movie since 1. its shot in dubai. 2. the video-walla said so, well he said that about apna sapna money money. and i really dont want to start on that. 3. its shot in dubai. =).

ok, so the verdict the movie sucked big time. the acting is terrible, especially the actress.but theres a scene in the movie where she is supposedly doing a documentary on labour camps in dubai and takes a picture of the actor and he gets mad. it reminded me so much of this time in the US when my mom was taking a picture of a homeless guy on the street and he got wild and ran towards my mom to take away the camera. and my mom was wearing a sari so she couldnt exactly bolt into the car either. it was a pretty scary sight. and my dad quickly intervened and apologized. and then the dude asked for cash. my dad gave him a dollar and then he (homeless guy) gestured to my mom take more pics. :0)

however, theres a certain apathy that sets in when you get older. when i was young, when we were in turkey. i remember there was this elderly man selling napkins and me and my sister felt so bad we gave him our pocket money and when the poor fellow gave us the napkins in exchange we didnt take it. when we used to visit india we used to have a purse full of petty change specially to give those who used to beg on traffic lights. or if we went to haji ali. and we would always make eye contact with them and always feel sad. its so different when you are older, its almost like youve become immune to it and you see everyone in the same light. you try to rationalize things that "why cant they work, they are fit enought, they just dont want to. begging is easier". very different from when you were a kid and you took things on face value.

in dubai its very different, theres no begging on the streets. so you dont face that guilt. im saying guilt for a lack of better word. its probably not guilt but that feeling you get that you arent in that position. coz u were lucky not to have been born into it. when i came to the US, to my shock, there were homeless people. in the worlds most powerful country. and shockingly some were coz of their own will. once, i was with a friend and we saw these two teenage girls who were obviously homeless. my friend started talking to them where what why etc. both run away from home. drop outs from school. one of them had run away with her boyfriend, the other one just didnt want to stay in the countryside anymore and wanted to be in the city. most of their money went into smoking pot. but were still begging coz they hadnt eaten in two days. my friend took me aside and was like listen can we treat them to lunch. i was like huh? part of me was like why should i buy lunch for these girls who are totally undeserving. and have so to say done "apnei per mein kulari marna". then part of me was like stop being so cheap and its ok. "kisikei pet mein gaya" so its alrite. its the thought that counts. so we treated them and then later when they were done eating. they didnt thank us and my friend who is part of a religious church gave them this invitation to a church get together. at first, i was very cynical and was like she only treated them so they would come to the meeting. or like initially when we became friends she would urge me a lot to come to these get togethers. but when i thought about it, whats the harm in going. one theres so much to learn in this world. why should one remain ignorant. and when i did go, it was very interesting lot of the things that were said were so similar to islam. and plus you have interesting dialogues and peoples and your misconceptions are cleared. and i got one thing out of it is that all faiths teach the same basic thing that one is to be good and do good. and perhaps by coming to these meetings the girls have a change of heart and decide to go back to school. basically what im trying to say is there is good in everything. its just upto your perception.