The Heart Farmer

So haven’t you heard it yet?

“Why this kolavari, kolavari, kolavari di?...

Yo boyyzz, I yam singg songgg… “ J

OK, I have no clue what that means but hell, its way, way too cool to ignore – the above are the opening lines of the hottest south Indian song that’s hit the net and it features the daughters of the both the super men, Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan, in the same room and the guy who’s singing the song is Rajnikanth’s son in law (check out sooparr video here J). And the video’s just hit about a million views in 4 days flat, and that’s quite a feat for an Indian song, don’t ya think? And it’s way too cool n way too yummy, so check out the lyrics just to see how mad it really is.. and man, it sooo rocks!!! J

Actually I was talking with a marketing friend of mine and asked him why he thinks this video has done soo astoundingly well in such a less time. And he said that it’s cos of its simple lyrics and more importantly, its’ about something all of us can relate to irrespective of language – it’s cos it’s all about heart. J

Yup it goes….

“Why this kolavari, kolavari, kolavari di?...

Yo boyyzz, I yam singg songgg… “ J

Let me elaborate his funda by asking you this question - which one among the following would you pick - Apples, Oranges, Cherry or Heart? (Yes, come back from the song to the post! J)

So let me ask u again – of the following four, what would you choose -– Apples, Oranges, Cherry or Heart?

I bet u’d pick heart! J

In the history of the mankindzz, Love has proved to be the heart’s best dish. And think about it, we humans love the heart’s various forms of love – whether its love for our sweetheart, for our parents, love for our siblings, love for friends, love for thy neighbor, for our pets or even love for Katrina Kaif, the best food for our soul is one that is all heart.

Some great dude once said that nobody is an island; and it’s so true. We simbly cannot live alone – our hearts are built to connect. To another heart. All the time. All the while. And we’ve always been meeting new hearts after old. And in the book of our lives, our chapters make meaning not by the money we rake but by the hearts we stake - the pages of our lives are punctuated by the hearts that we make, the ones we break, the ones we forget, the ones we remember, the ones that we hold and the ones that we lose. The hearts we touch are the currency of our lives.

So if you think this post is on love, it’s not.

The point of this whole post is that I’ve come to know of this guy. He’s a distant relative of mine and I’ve never actually met up with him personally. But at every marriage or function that we attend, his stories keep popping up. He’s a fairly ordinary chap with a fairly ordinary will and a fairly ordinary life. But he has one extraordinary quirk- one that has made him nothing short of legend within our circles. For the lack of a better word, let me just call him this– I’ll call him ‘the heart farmer’. And his one true quirk that makes him extraordinary is this - he helps out relatives.

Let me explain.

Question - have you heard of stories of own relatives who sometimes fall out of luck in life? I mean, I’m pretty sure all of us have often heard stories of distant relatives who’ve ‘had it all but now lost it all’, who are ‘in pretty bad shape now’, who ‘played the stock market and lost’, who ‘darbar-ed recklessly’, who ‘lived beyond their means’, who ‘lost their old glory’ and the like. Often we just listen to these news and then forget about it almost instantly. And most often, we would want to keep distant relatives as just that – distant. But have we ever wondered what really happens to them? Have we ever wondered if there is something that we could do to help them out? Obviously, our first reaction is if they’d ask us for money; so we try to put them away at a distance.

But the thing is, yaar - sometimes it’s not money they want – sometimes, it’s just a little show of support or a few reassuring words of advice or a few kind words that they’ll need to straighten things up (yes, serious, serious ban gaya J). And yes, sometimes it is all about money too. But mind you, things can get pretty profitable too…

The heart farmer does just that.

The heart farmer looks into his family tree, looks out for relatives in distress and then helps them out: he meets with them personally, talks with them, understands their issues and tries to sort things out. And once he’s ‘fixed’ one house, he just moves on to the next. And in the process, he wins another set of hearts. And that’s exactly what he does – like a farmer who shepherds his crop, the heart farmer cultivates, nurtures and wins the hearts of his relatives.

Stories of how he straightened out his once wayward brother is now legend. His US educated brother could not find a job in recession hit US and had to come back to India in shame and with a bruised ego. People started ridiculing him that the lakhs that his dad put into his US education was like ‘throwing money into the sea’. And as a result, his bro kept to himself, started avoided everybody, got into drinking, gambled with quick rich schemes and eventually got into drugs. The heart farmer eventually took control of his brothers’ life. He understood that his brother was good with web designing and had an US degree to boot – he just needed his chance and the heart farmer gave him just that – he funded his brother to start up a small web designing company. That was six years back – today the company is in a position of rejecting work as it has too much work in its hands and is generating profits every year…. and guess who the main stake holder in the company is? J

And this is what the heart farmer does. And in the process, his kin and kith is now steadily emerging as a richer and powerful clan in society, all because of this one man. And as for him, he’s also become a wealthier man, definitely wealthier by heart and yes, wealthier by bank. And he still spends his time looking deep into his family tree to find more of his relatives to earnestly help them out.

So what would I do if I had an extra two hours in a day? I want to start my account as the heart farmer of my kin. And to be honest, I’d like to think I’ve already started, in my own little way:

• Since I stay away from my parents now, I’ve eventually got into this unlikely habit of not calling them sometimes for as long as a week (yes, missed calls from worried mom = lots J). Once I’ve realized this, the first thing I did is set up a system where I call them once every two days. Similarly, I’ve done the same thing where I simply call and chat up with my sister and brother, who also stay in different parts of the country. It just keeps me a little more connected with them in spite of us being separated by distances. I was feeling a little ashamed saying that I don’t call my near and dear so often but after I’ve talked with a few friends of mine, they echo my same sentiment that in the days of nuclear families and rising aspirations, sometimes these lil important things get forgotten and the number one reason is the lack of time. J

• I realized that I haven’t been calling my favorite aunts for quite a very long while – these aunts are the ones who basically brought me up when I was a kid. And I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been able to keep in touch with them for a long, long time now. Again, the blame is on the lack of time. But now I’ve set up reminders to call them at least once every two weeks and things are going pretty much according to plan (touchwood J). In fact, my cousin is in the arranged marriage market and since I’m known as the resident metrosexual of the family, he’s asked me to spin doctor his profile. J

• I’ve started connecting more with my old friends. I’ve decided to deepen my friendship beyond the one-off ‘Happy B’day’ message on facebook. In fact, I’ve started scouring supermarkets on the weekends for gifts on discount. I buy them in bulk, gift wrap them personally and give it to my friends when I meet them or call them over for beer. They usually get bowled over with the unexpected show of warmth. In fact, that’s where this song (yes the song again J) came up – last Saturday, a long lost friend of mine came over for a couple of beers and we played this song on loop and heard it some 50 times in the background while we kept gossiping ‘bout the good ‘ol times, the good ol’ friends and the good ol’ college days.

• Since I usually have a few hand wrapped gifts at home, I sometimes randomly give it to kids I see on the street. Usually their parents go crazy when I do that and I just leave them to themselves to figure it out for themselves. But the feeling of being that wierd mysterious gifter kinda gives me a super kick. J

OK, now would you believe I wrote this post for a contest? And it’s actually turned out into something else now. But the initial idea was that it was to be this serious post written for the Surf Excel #Get Smart- IB blogging contest. Surf claims that if you use their product, it would save you two extra hours a day. So the premise is – what would you do if you suddenly found two extra hours in a day? I had got myself into this mode where I had this very, very serious post and then the song happened…. J

Well, my answer is if I had two extra hours a day, I’d use that time to start my innings as the heart farmer of my clan. Hopefully, like the original heart farmer has shown, ek din, mera clan will also grow richer and powerful due to the effort of one man, a.k.a moi J. And if you could expand this concept to more people out here, we’d have a multiplier effect of having many heart farmers in this part of the world. And who knows, one day, if this concept really catches on, we could be looking at an India full of heart farmers, cultivating, nurturing and winning hearts all around the world. J

So here’s me starting my score as a heart farmer… but the important big question is - are u? J

And the song goes, “pa pa pa ppaan- pa pa pa ppan- pa pa pa ppaan- pa pa ppaan- …….

Why this kolavari, kolavari, kolavari di?...

Sariyaa vaasi…?”

J

more comments and thoughts on this same subject on my other blog here. Pics courtesy-mai baap google.