Shantaram - a book review

Shantaram.

“It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming of my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn’t sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it’s all you’ve got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make between hating and forgiving can become the story of your life.”

When the first page stares at you with these words, it becomes hard to put down that book. Add to that an Australian author who has lived in the slums of Bombay, and you almost expect to be taken on a ride into a spiritual dimension. The story of Shantaram is a story of adventure and courage, a fictionalized account of the life of author Gregory David Roberts who escaped an Australian prison and moved to Bombay to spend almost a decade of his life in the slums and underworld of this city.

The narrator is a man called Lindsay, who escapes an Australian jail and arrives in Bombay on a fake passport. Here he befriends taxi driver Prabakar, who finds him a place to live in a slum away from the eyes of the law. This slum is to be the home of Linbaba, as Lindsay is called, for the next few years. While he runs a makeshift first-aid centre in the slum, he also engages in criminal activities like smuggling and counterfeiting, and eventually starts gun-running to Afghanistan. For those of us who are ignorant to the underworld this book serves as text book in crime.  Lin’s experiences in Bombay range from falling in love with the beautiful Karla, who introduces him to the world of prostitutes, to meeting the motherly Rukhmabai of Sundargaon, who christens him “Shantaram”, or man of peace. Interspersed amid the numerous characters like Rukhmabai, Prabakar, Karla, and Kader is the blood, sweat and tears that go with a life of extreme poverty - all narrated with genuine affection, passion and generosity. This love and generosity towards the characters and circumstances is what sets Robert’s work apart. What could have been a mere narrative of poor people’s lives is transformed into an extraordinary piece of fiction.

I was initially daunted by the shear size of the book, weighing in at 936 pages it is comfortably wider than the width of my forearm and my forearms may not be as wide as Gregory David Roberts’ but they are pretty wide. At a time where stories have never seemed more disposable it is a relief to find one that merits all that time and paper. I recently found out that this is the first volume of a projected four based on his own life. Johnny Depp has agreed to play the lead role in the screen adaptation of Shantaram.

Shantaram is not just a book; it is a sojourn, a spiritual journey into life that shows that even the most complex and powerful systems have at their core a simple and beautiful pattern.

Social Intelligence

Since being at Red and Yellow I have been analysing different aspects of myself in relation to others and it has become obvious that social intelligence is just as important as IQ, emotional intelligence and even spiritual intelligence. We are all innate social beings and raising our social intelligence is essential to living a healthy, happy life.

I used to think social intelligence was simply the ability to thrive in social situations but it clearly runs a lot deeper than that and relates to every aspect of college life, social life and work life as all these different areas ultimately become one single web of social interaction.

In order to simplify my life I like to categorise people into two compartments: Those that are real and those that are fake! Some people seem to be permanently putting on an act and this obviously comes as a result of needing the constant attention of others but there are some people who seem to do this while still coming across as being genuine while others are clearly hiding something. A great way to simplify this phenomenon is the Johari Window which shows that there is the part of ourselves which we know ourselves and show others and the part of ourselves which we keep hidden from others. Then there are parts we don’t even know about ourselves but which others can see and I believe it is all of these aspects combined that keeps the web of social interaction ticking. (see attached image)

One of the key aspects of Social Intelligence is the ability to instantly recognise people’s inner emotional state; this is widely known as empathy and is the one of the keys to excelling in the social arena. This can be taken a step further by how well we are able to offer a person our full attention and seek to understand them rather than simply trying to make our own point. Since being at Red and Yellow I have noticed how some people seem to have an ability to synchronise with those around them and are generally “well liked” as they give the people they are with their full attention. Then there are the people that struggle as they are so self engrossed that they seem to operate within a vacuum.

There is an actual condition called Dyssemia in which people are completely inept at reading social non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and body language, they will generally be perceived as being insensitive towards others and generally just have a tough time forming relationships. Then on the other hand we have the “social butterfly” that always seems to be in synch with everyone around them. Wherever we fall on the scale there is one thing I can tell you that is an absolute, undeniable fact which is: Social awareness stretches into how the social world actually works and is the difference between success in life and utter failure because decoding social patterns is how we build alliances without alliances we are alone. 

So then, what about social networks, in other words Facebook and why has it become so integrated with our physical interactions?

Clearly one of the most influential people in our generation is Mark Zuckerberg – in order to make Facebook the success that it is he needed to have a finely tuned radar when it came to understanding human behaviour. He obviously knew we all genuinely like to be connected to our friends and that it’s a practical way to communicate, but going back to the Johari Window I believe that what has made Facebook such a success is that gives people a much larger platform to show parts of themselves which they haven’t shown before. Let me give you an example: Most of us share pictures and photo albums on Facebook, now this was originally meant to be so that our friends could see what we’ve been up to but now unless you block “non-friends” everyone can see what you’ve been up to and since Facebook I have noticed that everyone is now a photographer and life has become a stage, but without the lighting.

A major reason for me being drawn to advertising is my obsession with human behaviour and the psychology behind why we are the way we are. In order to be successful in advertising we have to be able to gauge social trends and this means being plugged into the people around us. So then, Red and Yellow is the ultimate playground and also the ultimate classroom when it comes to social behaviour.

Limitless - a film review

Limitless:

Relativity Media

Directed by: Neil Burger

Screenwriter: Leslie Dixon

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Johnny Whitworth, Andrew Howard

Bradley Cooper headlines a down and out New York writer (Eddie Morra) who is suffering from monumental writers’ block – he hasn’t written a single word of his long overdue novel and bumps into his ex-brother-in-law (Johnny Whitworth) who gives him a sample of a new drug called NZT that fires up the synapses and makes his brain work at 100% capacity.

Immediately after taking the first pill Eddie winds up cracking out his novel in a matter of days and this gives him an intro to the limitless possibilities of NZT. He learns to play the piano in a matter of hours, he can recall anything he has ever seen or heard which gives him the ability to fight like Bruce Lee and speak any language he wants to. Eddie quickly realises that his genius intellect is wasted on writing books alone so he enters the investment game and accumulates millions of dollars in a few days, this attracts a lot of attention from some of the major players and this is where he meets financial mogul Carl Van Loon (Robert Deniro). Carl uses Eddie’s vision to predict stock prices and strategizes a deal for a merger in a Fortune 500 company. There is a catch however: Once the pill wears off Eddie crashes back into his former self.

Limitless is driven by the typical Hollywood scenario of the villain trying to bring the hero down and yes there are holes in the plot however it gets away with it because of the sheer brilliance of Cooper’s performance. It was fascinating to watch Cooper’s transition from complete train wreck to unstoppable bullet train; he has incredible sensitivity as an actor that allows him to merge completely with every archetypal shift.  

Limitless poses the question: What would you do when every single block you have ever perceived to be preventing you from achieving your dreams is gone and you are able to unleash everything simultaneously? It reminds me of something someone said recently: “Things are only impossible until they are not.” Films like this give us a glimpse into aspects of ourselves we have not even contemplated yet.

Whenever I walk out of a cinema I like to look back at the expressions of everyone so I can gauge the whether my perception mirrors theirs. After this we were all in the same energetically charged state and I thought to myself: “This is what filmmaking is all about.”  You could argue this film could have answered more questions as to what we would do when we access all of our brains but sometimes we just want to be ripped out of our reality and be taken for a joy ride.

Royale Eatery – A Dining Experience

Tuesday 26 April 2011

It was a cold and stormy night with torrents of rain gushing down Long Street so it was a relief to find myself inside a cozy, warm environment that is the Royale Eatery. I was immediately struck by how comfortable the patrons looked as they were hugged by American-Diner style sofas and how the décor was strung together so tastefully under beautiful dimmed lighting.

I have been hearing enticing stories about Royale since it opened years ago and so had rather high expectations to begin with. Since turning vegetarian a little over 9 months ago I have been receiving endless feedback on their hamburgers and the word on the street is that they are some of the finest hamburgers on the planet. If only I wasn’t such an animal saviour, however a good friend of mine who is vegan told me about Royale’s Chickpea burger and guaranteed that it would blow me away. By the time we ordered our food it was already 10:35 and I had eaten rather handsomely earlier so I opted for a dessert instead and considering I don’t drink alcohol anymore I needed a sugar rush to blast me through the rest of the night, and thus my sugar dose was delivered in the form of a Malva pudding and ice cream with honey and crunchy caramel something that literally shot me to the moon and back. It was sensational. It felt as if the universe had conspired to place me in that precise spot surrounded by those beautiful people and delivered a Malva pudding of such magnitude that it changed my outlook on life and I briefly saw rays of sunshine coming from the moon.

It is not always easy to give a completely objective view on a restaurant as the overall experience can be drastically altered simply by one’s mood entering the restaurant. On entering my socks were literally soaked from the long walk down Long Street however my spirits were lifted by the people I was with. There is only one thing that can ruin a perfectly fantastic mood and that is:  bad service. Perhaps it was due to the fact that we were all so beautifully in synch but when I ordered my dessert it was as if the waitress literally took the words out of my mouth, she knew I wanted that Malva Pudding and she knew I wanted another cappuccino too. Infact all I had to was look up and make eye contact and without even having to open my mouth I got exactly what I wanted and so did everyone else.

 

The attention to detail at Royale is superb: I loved the fact that the menus are made to look like old fashioned, worn hard cover books and the overall branding is a lesson to be learnt for all restaurants. The theme felt coherent and I got the sense that the eyes behind the overall design were playful and yet restrained in all the right areas; the layout and design of the furniture was thoughtful and even the wall covered in hats which borders lightly on the “kitsch” side of the fence seemed to tell a story.

 I will be returning to the Royale Eatery very soon and I’ll tell all my friends about it. They struck a chord with me as they seem to do with everyone else, so at least they have their advertising taken care of and in the restaurant business word of mouth is the literally the word of God.