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Yesterday a friend was supposed to stay over at my place. Spruced up my empty house a little bit. Got some kettle chips. (Haldiram has a few packets - one has a pink pepper flavour, which is quite tasty). Then there was some workplace crisis that he had to attend to, so he went. I accompanied him to his really pretty and peaceful home in Whitefield. While he worked, I watched 'Zero'. I really liked whatever I saw. I loved how a dwarf falls in love with this tumultuous beauty with a world of ache and someone else with a severe disability.  loved how Shah Rukh tells Katrina at one point, " I loved her because I could look into her eyes." Aren't we all looking to love an equal? Equal in our burdens, equal in our liabilities, equal in our resolve that despite everything, I will keep my heart open for you?

I love LOVE stories. My friend had no such patience. He found the movie stupid and illogical. But I thought it made a lot of sense. Of course, for love and redemption, if you have to take a risk to go to Mars, you will go. I had never liked Shah Rukh Khan a whole lot (despite my mother loving the guy so much that he was practically a family member when I was growing up. I have seen movies like Ram Jaane and English Babu Desi Mem, Guddu, etc. - movies that he himself has gone on record to say that he just could not bring himself to like.)

But maybe as I get older, I like him more - for the very reasons that he is dissed. That is old enough and still doesn't want to get out of the romantic genre. But to me, I think that's the resilience of the stubborn part of the heart that doesn't listen to the philosopher in you or the economist in you or the sage within you. It's the part that high-fives the lover in you and goes along for the ride.


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