Brainless Brawn!

Sometimes, I wonder how I got through school, having spent much of the time outdoors playing one sport or the other and in doing so have played for my state, district, school and club teams.
So the other day when my wife asked me if I had played hockey, I surprised myself in saying no, I had not. Surprised because, hockey was played around me and I had avoided the game...........The thought intrigued me. Why was the sport not on my list? On reflection, I can only come up with one reason. Fear of injury. I can recollect many of my friends being terribly hurt, while playing the game, because rules could not be enforced, at that level & brawn ruled over brain. Being a slight kid, I avoided the sport and the danger of being whacked by a hockey stick on the shin or head.
Is this a monologue on hockey? No it ain't.
The other day, an acquaintance from UP told me he had to sell his 'Haveli' for a song. Why? Jungle Law rules and he would have to face all sorts of harassment, if he wanted the right price. Brawn rules.Thugs running wild in a lawless world.
The point is, if brawn rules brain, then people are going to shy away and zero in at safer avenues. Probably the reason why I stuck to cricket which is not a contact sport and brawn can be handled with a piece of wood and my acquaintance settled in Bengaluru, where there is a semblance of law.
Parallels can be drawn to most places. States, organizations and so on!Organizations without a solid enabling & fair culture is a wonderful playing arena for the Machiavellian manipulator who will run circles around the smaller less scheming folk and will misuse power, real or imaginary.
But then do the brainless brawn have the chutzpah to figure that out? The question determines the success or failure of an entity.........

Feelings get you killed!

A while, ago, one Saturday, afternoon, caught in a quagmire of doubt, regarding the movie to watch, over the weekend, Chandrashekar, the chap at the DVD rental, pushed 'Appaloosa' towards me. I viewed the said tape, with a little suspicion, because it smelt, of a slam bang western flick, a genre I've long grown out of. Since he insisted, I lugged it home & settled down to watch, over a cold 'Budweiser'. The beer, hops & all, grew warm as the movie captivated & how? The heroine ( Renee Zellweger), if she can be called that, is brilliant. A lone lady,she drifts into this one horse town ( Where two friends- Ed Harris & Viggo Mortensen- are hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a cattle rancher) & it is not clear if she is a widow, whore or wanderer. Allison, as she is called attaches ( after getting a lay of the land ) herself to the alpha male ( Virgil Cole/Harris) in town. Soon enough she makes a play for her boyfriends, friend ( Hitch/Viggo ), because she perceives him to be younger & a sounder bet.Viggo, will not have any of it & rather brusquely brushes the lady aside.............. Later, when Allison is abducted by a group of desperado's, she attaches herself to the gang leader...................& when rescued hitches up with Virgil again. What a lady, the quintessential, High Mach & High Self Monitor!!!!!!!!!!!!! on a veritable merry go round.( http://capnagaraj.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-pain.html ) The movie ends with the job done & two good friends parting ways, because as Viggo, knows, he does not stand a chance with Allison around and her super maneuvering skills.A mans logic! As he rides into the sunset he says, Virgil & Allison, need time to work things out...... As for Allison, her punchline is -Feelings get you killed! And she proves it by surviving every crisis that comes her way, in a cold, hard world, by reading the situation well and adapting. Who did better here? The HSM- Allison Cole or the LSM- Viggo? Your guess is as good as mine!
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