The Darjeeling Limited

It’s been a long time that I watched a good movie. Last weekend was a long holiday so I got a chance to put this movie into the player. I bought it not long ago right off the shelf after reading a short description on the back cover. Not only the interesting plot, but the good casts i.e. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. The movie was written and directed by one of a kind director, Wes Anderson.

Why did the plot get my attention? First, it was the location, India, one of the most interesting and charming country in the world. The country was so rich in culture and had a strong ancient scent. Many areas were not invaded by the new technology or western artifacts. Second, the plot made me curious of how could these three adults become brothers again through the so called spiritual journey or spiritual quest. Third, I wanted to enjoy a movie that was rich in dialogs and performance but not too much in special effect. Fourth, I believed that the movie would be shot beautifully. Finally, I wanted to challenge myself if I would get anything out of it.

Over the course of journey through India, these three brothers were arguing all the time. Three brothers, three different personalities. Nothing in common. The elder brother, Francis (Owen Wilson) was very bossy and naggy. He was taking care of everything about the journey like where to go, what to do, what to eat, etc. The middle brother, Peter (Adrien Brody) was kind of confusing and just going along with whatever. One thing that he had but the other two did not was their father’s personal belongings. The big brother always asked if that’s dad’s stuff and how dad gave you this but not him. The little brother, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) was a very typical youngest sibling. He just did not care much about anything. He was enjoy his time on the trip.

Even though the excuse for getting together was to find their mother and ask why she did not show up at dad’s funeral, the real reason was getting bonding among themselves again. I loved their conversation and logic particularly when they were talking about the Indian cough syrup and pain killer and kept taking those pills like crazy.

There were many incidents happening e.g. a poisonous snake that they bought got lose, a sexual intimate that Jack had with Rita, the train stewardess, and etc., the trio was got stranded in the middle of the dessert. Now they would have to survive by themselves in the middle of nowhere. Now, they had to deal with a matter of live and death incident. There were three Indian boys trying to cross the river and got tripped over into the rush water. They all jumped into the running water trying to help the kids. Peter was caught with one of the boys and got carried away under water. Unfortunately, he could not help the boy. They all went to the boys’ village where they got fed and attended the funeral. That’s one of the turning point of the movie. They knew and understood live more than ever. What’s to hold and keep and what’s to let go.

The scene where they had to say good bye to those village people was one of the most touching scenes. Like many people said, you meet in order to say good bye. That’s the fact of life. Then the journey went on. They finally got to the place where their mother, Patricia, became a Sister at one of the remote Church on the Himalaya foothill. Meeting their mother was like the end of the journey. All the questions got answered. All the doubts held in mind got clarified. They spent the night and woke just to find out that their mother was going away again. This time, they no need to look for their mother. They all went back to their real life and encounter what’s waiting for them.

I think it’s truly a spiritual quest. They understood each other and tunning up their feelings toward one another. They found themselves. What I got out of this beautiful movie was a great understanding of human attitude that you must accept the other people as who they are and try to work out the best way that you can live together. Off course, the real fact of life: When there is a beginning, there is an ending. When there is a hello, there is a good bye. Nothing stand still. Don’t waste time to change other people, just change yourself.

บางคำสอนของท่านพระพุทธทาส ภิกขุ

พอดีอ่านหนังสือธรรมะอยู่เล่มหนึ่ง แล้วชอบคำสอนของท่านพระพุทธทาส ภิกขุ… เลยอยากนำมาแบ่งให้อ่านกัน…

“เขามีส่วนเลวบ้างช่างหัวเขา จงเลือกเอาส่วนที่ดีเขามีอยู่ เป็นประโยชน์โลกบ้างยังน่าดู ส่วนที่ชั่วอย่าไปรู้ของเขาเลย จะหาคนมีดีโดยส่วนเดียว อย่ามัวเที่ยวค้นหาสหายเอ๋ย เหมือนเที่ยวหาหนวดเต่าตายเปล่าเลย ฝึกให้เคยมองแต่ดีมีคุณจริง”

คิดว่าคำสอนนี้คงช่วยใครได้บ้างในบางครั้งที่ต้องเผชิญกับปัญหาต่าง ๆ ที่เข้ามาในชีวิต จนบ้างครั้งก็อดนึกสงสัยไม่ได้ว่าทำไมคนบางคนถึงได้เลวร้ายขนาดนั้น ทำไมคนบางคนถึงคิดแบบนั้น หากเราไม่ยึดติดกับอะไรทั้งหมดทั้งปวง แม้กระทั่งความคิดของตนเองแล้ว นับประสาอะไรกับความคิด คำพูด หรือการกระทำของคนอื่น ๆ ที่เราต้องพบปะหรือติดต่อสื่อสารด้วยล่ะ หากเราสามารถค้นหาสิ่งที่ดีได้บ้างบางส่วน จากส่วนที่ไม่ีดีอีกหลายส่วน มันก็น่าจะเพียงพอแล้วไม่ใช่หรือ

In the midst of twigs…

For about two months that I had a chance to get close to nature like never before. For two months that I slowly learned about facts of life from nature.

I could not recall exactly when this event happened; all I could remember was that one morning my mom told me there was a bird nest in the midst of twigs in our front yard. She said that my father was trimming branches when he accidentally found out that one small bird had built its nest with two eggs inside. Then he told my mom. Since then my parents kept looking out for this small family reside in our front yard.

Picture of my front yard

Upon hearing the story from my mom, I walked over to the window where I could see from the inside out since I did not want to disturb the bird in the process of hatching her two eggs. It’s unbelievable to see this wonderful of nature this close before. The nest was beautifully made from many small intertwined twigs. It’s heavenly made. I could not believe that a small creature could do such a complicated task. Inside the nest laid two small eggs. At the time I looked at the nest, the mother bird was not at the nest. I did not know where she was. She might be out somewhere preparing for the new born babies.

Two small eggs

I kept taking photo almost everyday in order to capture the progress of lives growing at the front yard. For almost two months of photo shooting, I saw the eggs hatched into two little birds without fur. As time went by those two little birds gradually open their eyes as fur was slowly growing. I saw their mother diligently fed her offsprings. I observed those little birds started flapping their wings. For nearly two months, I notice the raw instinct of the animal at close. Not only me who was very addicted to this amazing scene of nature, my whole family was feeling the same way. Everyday my mom would report the news about our front-yard small family. If she did not mention about it, someone would asked her.

One hatched, waiting for another sibling

Now both hatched

A closed up shot

There was one day, my mom found that both little birds fell out of the nest and laid still on the ground. She did not know what to do at first, but then she took a spoon and gently scooped those two little from the ground and put them back into the nest. When she told us the news, at first, she thought they would not make it. My dad even said that one of them might have a broken leg. Later, couple days passed, both of them were alive. And we all were happy.

Resting and growing!!!

Each day I would spend about 5 minutes sitting by the windowsill and kept watching the life at the nest. Then I realized that what happening there was mimic a human world. In the end, we all are the same in terms of basic instincts. Before a man and a woman get married, they must have a house or build a house. Then later, they might give birth to children. Here comes the big word; responsibility. They will have to feed, coach, and care for them.

Now, we can see some furs

Until they all grow up and can be on their own, they leave the house to build their own family. This is exactly the same as the front-yard bird family that one day all of them were gone. They all flied away and left the empty nest behind. And the life goes on.

Almost ready to take their fist flight!

My family and I were kind of sad for a short while as we saw the empty nest. In addition, we did not really certain if those little birds could fly so early. But then again, we did not want to think so negative. Anyway, now they all gone. Whenever I look at the empty nest, I realize that this is the fact of life. Everything changes. Nothing is really existing. They come and go, always. Thank you nature for giving us this privilege.

Almost like saying Goodbye! Good Luck to you!

I just want to leave with some words from Gandhi: “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” I think we all should slow down and enjoy the present on what we have in hand. Right?

Sweet rainy night

Even though there were many unrested and unsolved issues in many people’s minds, certainly they would forget those on the Tuesday night of May 13, 2008 where one of the most talk about in Jazz music industry in Europe and USA, Benni Chawes, had his first concert here in Bangkok at Thailand Cultural Center. This is the Color Your Life European Jazz concert series that has been held for the forth consecutive year in Bangkok.

The first time that I heard about Benni Chawes was dated back to the past couple months. There was one day, I was walking around the music section in B2S (again) and looking for some new interesting music. Inside the jazz and classical music room, one of his songs was playing and I was stunned by his voice and the melody as well as the arrangement. At that moment, I didn’t know who the singer was so I walked over to the player and tried to look for the CD cover. There was one foreign customer skimming through the CD so I was kind of standing and listening to the music as the tourist skipped the tracks. Then, I saw the cover and it said Benni Chawes. I decided to get myself a copy. As I was driving back home and listening to his music, I totally agreed with the critic’s voice that Benni’s voice was superb. He got so many awards for his voice performance. (If you’re interested, you can read more about him at www.chawes.net)

Tonight I headed for the Cultural Center with an anticipation of a night full of beautiful smooth jazz music. However, I didn’t think that it would be a sold out concert. But that didn’t matter. The rain was kept pouring and no sign of stopping. So in terms of logistics and surrounding, it would be wet and damp and muddy. People were going to be late. And it’s true. The concert was late for 50 minutes because of the traffic. Leaving all those annoying factors behind, tonight’s concert would be featuring with an acclaimed European quartet, Anders Bergcrantz Quartet and a Swedish trumpet soloist (for whom I could not catch his name).

The concert started with a performance from the quartet. Then followed by a trumpet soloist, who was very great. After that Benni took the stage by singing the song title “Fly with me”, which was a medium tempo and enjoying track. He performed 7 tracks from his album “Up Close” and one standard jazz titled “Shadow of your smile”, which was an extremely beautiful song. However, I felt a bit sad that he did not perform the track “Have a Little Faith”, which I liked it very much. As the concert progressed to the mid of the program, Benni was showing his talent in voice, which he called “the Human Bass”. He just wowed all of the audience in the hall. He’s so incredible. Also, the quartet performed some tunes alternately and their performance was lively and upbeat especially the pianist.

I would say the night was full of sweet scent of music and it’s really going well with the rainy night. Combining the two elements, you would find yourself let loose of everything that bothering your mind and enter into another world that full of comforting and pleasuring feeling.

Bye bye old, hello new…

April 30, 2008. What’s the day? Was there anything special happening on that day? What did you do on that day? Did you recall anything? Well, for me it’s just an ordinary day with some sorrow. It’s the day that the telegraph was stopped servicing after 133 years of operation.

When I heard the news, I felt like an old friends of mine going away. It even made me down when I saw the news on CNN. Not many people these days know what telegraph is. If you don’t believe me, try asking someone near by. You might be surprised when you heard the answer.

You might think that I am too dramatic about it. But I am not. All my life has been in and out of the post office very often since I was a child. I cannot recall my feeling of the first time that I received my first letter, my first postcard, or my first telegram. Nonetheless, every time that I receive the paper form of communications, I am very happy. It’s a feeling that hard to described. It likes being lost in time.

I remember that we, Thai kids, had to study how to write a letter and a telegraph. I don’t know if kids in other countries would have to learn such things. A teacher said that when sending a telegraph, the message must be precise as it’s cost you by words. You must not waste any words. I recalled that I had to go to the post office and sending telegraph to myself out of my curiosity. Now, I don’t know if they are still teaching how to write a telegram in school any more.

On May 2, 2008, as unexpected as the telegraph news, I received a LAST telegraph in Thailand history from a good friend, who I never thought of before. I was very delighted. At that moment, I knew that it came to an end. The mix feeling for joy and sadness. A joy of getting the last telegraph. A sadness of knowing that old thing was being discharged.

On the same day, at night, I got a call from my long time friend and we talked about the ending of telegraph. She felt that it’s such a shame that there was no more telegraph in Thailand. The same thing as we might not see any more of typewriters, dial phones, sewing machines, cassette tapes, and etc. The old is replaced by the new.

However, I accept that things change and it’s the fact of life. Nothing is last forever. Anyway, I still think that we should not take the old things for granted. It’s because of the old; therefore we can enjoy the new.