Coda - The Movie

I didn't decide to watch Coda because it won the Oscar's this year; I did so for no apparent reason with no idea about the movie. 

20 minutes or so into the movie, I realized this was adapted from 1996 Hindi movie Khamoshi: The Musical.  Khamoshi was remake of 1996 German movie and in 2014 this was adapted into a French movie and finally, in 2021 Coda. 

I haven't even watched Khamoshi (love the songs though) leave alone other German and French ones but Coda was awesome!! 

Kids in this country (and most developed and developing countries) live in the Velvet Rut, if it's not already, sooner or later it will be the primal problem for this planet. 

I mean, here's a piece on the ridiculous of college admission essay: 

Let’s start here: It's not fair for us to ask teenagers to describe their personalities. Teenagers are endearing but ridiculous people who can barely heat up a cup of ramen noodles and whose brains won’t be fully formed for two more presidential terms. Any teenager who is asked to describe themselves and doesn’t say, “I am scared and confused and my hormones have sort of turned me into a werewolf,” is lying.

Obviously, parents are writing many of these essays. The “Varsity Blues” scandal—in which wealthy parents paid big money to a fraudulent admissions scheme—showed how far parents will go to give their kids a leg up. Incredibly, many applications include the pointless step of making students check a box to verify that the application contains their own work, which is a verification system so ineffective that it makes the “I am 18” buttons on adult websites seem like the security at a Swiss bank.

Some parents of means will hire a college admissions essay coach. These services, which commonly cost well north of $100 per hour, typically include glowing testimonials from satisfied parents, such as this one from a mother in Rhode Island:

“Julie helped my daughter take her essay from a disjointed, boring story to an essay with great flow and flair.”

Powerful testimony! Apparently, the initial essay was so bad that even someone with a genetic predisposition towards the author couldn’t hide her disgust. The writing was, it seems, such a disappointment that—judging from the words of the woman who carried the author in her womb for nine months—it made a dirty limerick scrawled in a bathroom stall look like Beowulf. But the author hired an essay coach, and now she goes to Duke! What an outstanding system!

In summary, it's ridiculous to ask the kids to write an essay about their life when most kids live a very similar lives inside their heads, decoupled from realities of life and not fully grown brains.

We live in a world where future citizens have no sense of anti-fragility and their main slogan is "me, me, me" and self train themselves to constantly seek pleasure. From food to technology leave alone developing an innate sense of morality they are inept to the core. 

But I am so glad my generalization was wrong. There are outliers kids in this and every other country. 

Ruby is one of them - for starters, poor gal she wakes up at 3 am to help her family before going to school. She knows how important is to self sacrifice and living a life beyond the fellow human primates do. 

There are some phenomenal kids such as Ruby who take responsibilities for their families at a tender age (I am talking below 10 years) and develop maturity which most 40 year old men don't have. 

I salute all those kids.  Maybe, this beautiful blue planet still has hopes for humanity. 

Please watch Coda. Teach your kids to be like Ruby. Learn to appreciate what you have in life. Be responsible. Get the hell of yours and your kids velvet rut.