THE GAME OF SURVIVAL

            The video posted here is ‘The Game of Survival’ from ‘The Bear’ filmed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, the French film maker.  We have been captivated by the survival techniques employed by the enterprising bear cub to wriggle out of a sticky spot.

            Haven’t we all been faced with such tricky situations in our day-to-day life from time to time?  Would it be an exaggeration to say that it is a jungle out there we navigate everyday?  May be not, for I certainly can spot quite a few ferocious lions, cunning foxes, cowardly lambs, chattering monkeys and squealing rats around me.  We regularly learn to side-step potential quicksand and find our way through the unknown wilderness with lurking dangers in the jungle landscape of our careers.

        Our social lives are a different game of survival altogether.  A potentially threatening situation for many of us is striking a conversation with strangers.  The English are blessed that they have a tailor-made topic for initiating conversation-the weather.  The glorious vagaries of the English weather are a fool-proof conversation kick-starter.  With weather like the one Chennai enjoys (!) what does one ask? “Isn’t it hot/hotter/hottest today??”  Forget anyone responding favorably to that, it would be a definite conversation-stopper.  Many thanks then to our unctuous politicians, swash-buckling cricketers and vainglorious movie stars for being the fodder to keep our small-talk going on forever. Religion, caste and language may separate us but these netas, princes and badshahs bridge our differences.

            Well, for many of us (yours truly included) the biggest survival game would be the daily challenge of arriving at work on time and leaving work before time.  Hmm, a tough life, indeed.