I am a huge fan of movies which are based on Mafia and the Underworld as it is commonly referred to as. The basic plot of any movie associated with Mafia revolves around trust, betrayal, fearlessness, money and the most important, friendship. I would want to write down a couple of lines from the 1972 classic Godfather where Bonasera comes to The Godfather requesting him to punish people who destroy his daughter's life. He offers money in return. Lets just read the lines now. Here we go...
Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.
Don Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living, the police protected you and there were courts of law and you didn't need a friend like me. But, now you come to me and you say "Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my home on the day my daughter's to be married and you ask me to do murder for money"
Invitation for a cup of coffee? What is that thought doing in the great Don Corleone's mind?I kept wondering about this.
How important is a cup of coffee? I have spent countless evenings after my office hours in my house trying to think what actually Friendship is or may be what actually a relationship is. I usually do that with a cup of coffee in my hand looking at some of the pictures of my "friends" I made at college. The coffee tastes bitter and I end up being at a place where I began my journey, the state of knowing nothing.I make a couple of calls to some people and try to know how they are.I get vague replies and I'm happy with that. Some people call me really emotional, some people call me stupid, some people call me "the guy who hasn't moved on". Well it might be a case of God giving me a wrecked bicycle when he gave superbikes to the rest of the world.
My dad is a person who keeps telling me these wonderful lines which I can never ever forget. I once asked him what is the definition of money. He had a very superior smile on his face when he told me this - "I had thought that there is no definition for money till I came across this one somewhere, it goes, Money is what money does!" I said to myself then Oh thats simple and dint make so much sense to me then. Now today when I sit back and think about that definition my Dad gave sipping the last remains of a bitter coffee, everything suddenly starts to make a lot of sense to me, though the coffee seems a lot bitter this time!
The coffee is bitter indeed. All I did all these days was to add millions of spoons of sugar but still the coffee remained bitter. The great Syd Barret once said "If I were a good man I would understand the spaces between friends". We all are bad men at some point of our time and do not undertsand the spaces between friends. Our minds are driven so much by the mushy friendship songs that we forget that it is not our heart that drives the beauty called friendship but the neccessities that starts it and yes fortunately or unfortunately ends it.The transition from a bad man to a good man has to happen. It will happen.
Probably it will take me millions of cups of these coffees, millions of unanswered phone calls, millions of unreturned hugs, millions of "get over it man" lectures, millions of closed doors, millions of Pink Floyd songs, millions of glasses of vodka and millions of trips to Mysore to understand that. But I am this unlucky guy with this wrecked bicycle and I cant even see the world ahead of me on its superbike. All I see is smoke. Bitter smoke. Oops thats my coffee!
