In Pathaan, Shah Rukh Khan spoke of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using gold as the adhesive. It makes renewed pots more valuable. This ‘golden repair’ is an appreciation of all that’s mended in some way. I knew about this idea before. But when has my brain succeeded in reminding me whatever is the need of the hour?
I liked the movie because it reminded me of Kintsugi, because I wanted it to be done on my life. A friend who watched it with me said there’s nothing new in the movie. True. For some reason I was reminded of Stalin talking about welcoming criticism when he says:
“Critics are sometimes abused because of imperfections in their criticism, because their criticism is not always 100 per cent correct. The demand is often made that criticism should be correct on all accounts, and if it is not correct on every point, they begin to decry and disparage it…”
“…How can you expect an ordinary worker or an ordinary peasant, with his own painful experience of shortcomings in our work and in our planning, to frame his criticism according to all the rules of the art? If you demand that their criticism should be 100 per cent correct, you will be killing all possibility of criticism from below, all possibility of self-criticism. That is why I think that if criticism is even only 5 or 10 per cent true, such criticism should be welcomed, should be listened to attentively, and the sound core in it taken into account. Otherwise, I repeat, you would be gagging all those hundreds and thousands of people who are devoted to the cause of the Soviets, who are not yet skilled enough in the art of criticism, but through whose lips speaks truth itself.”
I don’t know how you would contextualise it. For me, it did on different levels. One of which is the irony that Stalin said this. And if he did, why not take it seriously?
***
Two students came to me and spoke some academics, before leaving they asked “can we get a follow back, sir?” First of all, I follow more people than I am being followed by. They didn’t leave me until I opened my phone. But, if their IG handles are named not after their names and so weirdly, how will I know?
Should I stalk and find out? Is it bad? Am I bad’s dad? Well following on IG does not amount to stalking!
Digressing, I just realised that the celebratory gesture ‘dab’ is ulta of ‘bad’. If something bad happens, why doesn’t dabbing undo it and reverse things? Yet, we dab.
Lesson is, instead of cursing “sir doesn’t like us.” They chose to ask.
***
There is something sad that happened in life. That’s why I’m writing nonsense. But, who can write 100 per cent nonsense? There will be a 5 per cent sense.
Let me enjoy life 5 per cent at a time like I enjoyed 5 minutes with a friend today.
Reason Demands 
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