Thursday 10 March 2016

The Wicked Never Rest ...

"And so many will come and go. We will see men rise and fall. We will be there to see the end and the new beginnings. But one mortal amongst the billions of the billions will do the unthinkable. He will never stop. No matter the pain and the agony and the struggle this mortal will never stop. And thus by doing this he will eventually become one of us."

-The Book Of Prophecies.

It has been a very long time since my last blog entry. I know. I should had written before and more frequently. But the very objective of this blog entry is to tell you why I haven't been in touch with my blogging skills as of late. As you know I got back from my 2nd tour of Phuket and Tiger Muay Thai Camp in december. Once I got back I was catching up with the responsibilities and work which was waiting for me here. Then in january I decided that I would make up a list of things to do in the year 2016. Of course I can't share much about that list but the planning and organising my plan of action took the entire month of january. And then in February me and the family were in Ooty for the progress of our Hotel The Monarch and that is how february went by. But now, in the month of March I can say I am at full speed ahead with the things I wanted to achieve in 2016. Before I go into the details I want to say that I have realised and absorbed through my own actions that the more you keep yourself busy and engrossed in the productivity of yourself, there won't ever be a moment where you will feel that you are bored or that you have nothing to do. The Devil was smart when he said, "The Wicked Never Rest". I guess now I know what that means.

"All things truly wicked start from innocence."

-Ernest Hemingway

You all know that I have been practicing Mma {Mixed Martial Arts} since the end of 2010. This year end it would be 6 years for me to be associated with the sport. Al though I do confess that in the middle I did go of it for a while but when I did return to it's form of training I knew I would never stop learning and growing. And that is why I went to Phuket twice to learn a more advanced level of Mma. When I came back, I was like, "Will I be able to find the same kind of intensity here with the same discipline and techniques?" To be honest I goggled and tried my hands everywhere. While some places replied to me in weird english and some places did offer some martial arts classes, none were able to satisfy my hunger of learning hardcore Mma even though you would go to 'Martial Arts' classes but end up knowing more than the instructors. I thought I had hit a wall when I finally decided that I would travel all the way to bandra at least 2 days a week to XFF {Extreme Fight Federation}, where I had trained earlier. But to my surprise when I spoke to Shafiq Bhaijaan, the owner of Xff, he informed me that they have opened a new class here in andheri. I surely was thrilled to visit this new class but also a little spectacle of how large the place would and whether they would have the right flooring and mats and so on. But to my surprise the class was state-of-the-art and the training was more extreme than what I learnt in phuket! The Xff team has a strict no-bullshit philosophy and they make sure to kick your ass if you don't understand that on day one. Since the day I joined Xff, I make sure to train 5 days a week {Mon-Fri} and give it my best in every class. Of course after wednesday the body screams a 1,000 screams to take rest and recover but skipping even one class will make me miss a special jut-jitsu move practiced that day and when I do show up for class, I make sure to keep my mouth shut because at the end of class during our conditioning round I automatically end up screaming in pain as the instructors hit 30 hard punches in the stomach and make 10-15 shin contact kicks for us students to improve our tolerance to pain. Don't believe me? Well, come for a class and you will see what I am talking about. But now all I can say is that Mma is now not a 2-days-in-a-week activity for me but a 5 days brutal obstacle course which has become a very important part of my life. Mma everyday teaches me to be more patient and calm and humble and it shows the way to reach the zone of zen 'cause fighters always look for a fight but warriors embrace the fight and make it a part of their own soul.

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked."

-Saint Augustine

I remember it was in the month of july when I finally found The World Dance Centre and thought of taking a trial class to see how it was. Of course since I was the newbie that day I wasn't able to catch up to any of the steps. I remember I couldn't even do the warm-up properly! But what glued me to TWDC was the work ethic. All the instructors were hard-core professionals and they took care of all their students and made sure we gave our best in the class. Once the class was over I had decided that this would be the place where I would learn the new forms of Dance including Urban Funk, Jazz and Hip-Hop. Of course I wasn't regular in the beginning. But slowly slowly as I got the hang of it I started loving the classes more and more and the more I saw myself catching and matching up to the steps and picking up the steps at a higher rate I felt more motivated to learn and increase my rank to the advance level of the class. I must admit there are many dancers in class who are far better than me but it feels really good to be recognised by all the other students and also by the instructors as one of the boys who puts his best foot forward thrice a week. Our head coach/instructor Dev Sir gives a new choreography once every 2 weeks and I make sure I give my 100% to class even though it is only a couple of hours after my Mma class. I remember dancing alone in the Monarch Ooty Discotheque when I was a kid. Back then I never knew I would join such a great establishment and test my own limits in dance and learn some great forms and concentrate in the execution of the steps rather than just following the 1,2,3 and 4 of the beats.

"If evil is inevitable, how are the wicked accountable? Nay, why do we call men wicked at all? Evil is inevitable, but is also remediable."

-Horace Mann

The 1st thing we do when we make a fitness plan is to Run. Yup. The most basic and yet one of the most affective forms of exercise. Today, thanks to treadmills we can have the opportunity to run at home itself and cover long distances by running at the same place. But thanks to technology and the developments of Apps I came across Nike+ a unique app made only for runner and for fitness freaks who like to challenge themselves by covering vast and long distances, outdoors or indoors. I should thank my Chaddi Buddy Saideep Israni for introducing me to the app. Since the time I have downloaded it, I use it every time I go for a run. I run more on the treadmill at home and even though that may sound soothing, I make it tough  by wearing the Elevation Mask and by seeing the stats and miles covered by others on the Nike+ app. {My main focus is always Saideep as he really runs a lot!} So by activating the app and marking my progress I see what is my ranking on the Board and this in return makes me more motivated to run a lot more than when I previously use too. Almost 2-3 years ago my max limit use to be 4-5kms. But now I don't run less than 7-8kms per session. It takes me 60-65mins to complete that distance {8kms} but even though it is a tough ordeal, reaching your target kilometre is a feeling of exhilaration and joyous victory. So I run as many days as I can but whenever I do I make sure it is challenging me.

"None of us feels the true love of god till we realise how wicked we are. But you can't teach people that - they have to learn by experience."

-Dorothy L. Sayers

I have always challenged myself. And a guy like me needs a fight, needs a purpose and a goal to feel alive and that is why till today and maybe for the rest of my life I will always wander and be on a quest to find the next thing to achieve and to master. When I came across Mma all those years ago I knew then that it would be the next big challenge in my life and even though today it is one of the toughest arts to master I know I have got the hang of it and will only get better at it over time. But nothing and I mean nothing prepared me for Parkour. I was one day heading for my dance class when I noticed a Studio opened at the ground floor of my building. It stated that it has Dance Fitness, Aerobics and Parkour. At first, I didn't pay much attention to it 'cause I thought it must be one of those small rooms converted into a studio and that there won't be sufficient space to do any activity properly. But just a couple of weeks ago, I thought, "What the hell! Let's go check it out anyways. What do I have to loose?". I went in, saw the place, liked it very much and I also managed to see the Parkour class going on. The sight of seeing these young boys flipping in the air and balancing their landing with the utmost precision really intrigued me and I told the owner that I would like to come for a Private Trial Class. So this tuesday I finally went for my very 1st Parkour Class. At first, we did some full body stretching and a couple of jumps and light drills to warm the body up. And once we were done with that, the head coach Roshan {His name actually isn't Roshan but I call him that} brought out all the obstacles in which I had to perform. What happened after that? Well, let's just say I was pushed like I was never pushed before for the next 60mins. I was jumping over obstacles, learning techniques I never thought I would and jumping of barricades and taking high jumps and hanging in bars and rotating myself in the air. And after peeling of the skin in my hands and drenching with sweat like I was caught in the rains of mumbai, I was satisfied and sure that Parkour had officially become a very important of my fitness and my life. I always wanted to conquer my fear of heights and falling on my ass and now I am certain that Parkour is the way I will finally achieve that.

"O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

-T. S. Eliot

Fitness isn't the only thing that is keeping me busy. I had mentioned earlier that because of technology and apps people have found great tools and ways in which they can be motivated and also learn many new things. And one such app is the Goodreads app. It is an app for people who read books and this app helps you find the books you like to read and also share your thoughts with the goodreads community. Last year I had signed up for the goodreads reading challenge in which I had to decided how many books I will read in a year. Last year I had decided that I would read 12 books {One book per month}. Unfortunately I didn't reach my target. I had completed 9 books by the end of last year so this year I took it to myself that come what may, I will complete my reading challenge {12 books yet again} and I am happy to inform you that in the first 3 months of 2016 I have completed 5 books already! I have read 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi, Code Name Johnny Walker, The Crossing, Black Eyed Susans and Born To Fight. All of the mentioned were engrossing books in their own right and I truly enjoyed reading every page in them. I make sure to read one Fiction book and then one Non-Fiction book in that order 'cause I believe I get to steer my imagination with the Fictional Thrillers and I gain knowledge with the Ever-So-Real Non-Fictional true stories. Books now have become a very important part of my daily schedule and I take a lot of interest and thought as to which would be my next read. Speaking of my next read, I have decided that I would be reading this book titled 'Intensity'. It has a great rating on the site and readers have called it one of the most engrossing thrillers of all time! So I guess 2016 would be the year in which I finish my 1st ever goodreads challenge. And speaking of challenges there is something I really wanted to share with you. A few weeks ago, I had decided that I would write up my next blog entry just as I am doing right now and I had started doing that with the utmost zeal and concentration. I had thought about the points and the breakdowns and how the blog will look when I had finished writing it. But as I started writing it, I realised that I am not writing a blog but intact a Story! I was like, "Mimoh, this isn't a Blog anywhere and neither is this a short story you can upload. This is an attempt to actually write a novel!" And now, whenever I get time, I open up my laptop and write up a new chapter in it and go back to the old chapters to see if they need any corrections or alterations. I don't know if I will ever share the story with the world or not but what I do know is that I am going to finish writing it and by the time it is done, I would had finished writing my very 1st novel, a thought which had never occurred to me ever because before that I was just a blogger but soon I can say that I am a proud blogger and an amateur writer as well.

"To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness."

-Confucius

But wait, there is more. I have always been a fan of Astronomy {Not astrology. People always get confused when I tell them that} and the Universe and everything in it. Before joining films I wanted to go to Nasa and explore the cosmos. But now I think that why can't I do both? And that is how I came across this site called Coursera. It is an amazing site where universities from all around the world offer courses on mostly all the available subjects there exist. From Music to Social Sciences to Geography and of course Astronomy. And even though I finished my 1st Astronomy course last year, I decided that I wanted to venture more into the subject and that is why I signed up for the Astro-Biology course which is being conducted by the University of Edinburgh. I am in my 4th week now and viewing the lectures, writing the important points down and answering the quizzes makes me feel I am back in school and passing on to the next lecture is surely an exhilarating experience. I surely will sign up for more courses in the future 'cause I believe one should never stop learning. One should always learn something new and something which intrigues the human mind. But besides training, reading and studying, I have also signed up for my very 1st Comedy Improv Workshop. It is so much of fun I tell you and also a task 'cause there they teach you how to create comedy within a second's notice 'cause true comedy is always what comes automatically. Al though this is my 2nd workshop of this year {I did the Inside Out Acting workshop in january} I know this wouldn't be the first and last time that I would be doing an improv comedy workshop. I am hungry to learn more and the only way I can learn more is by finding that next new level which I need to cross and that next target which I need to Achieve.

“The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.” 


― Sigmund FreudThe Interpretation of Dreams

By now you must be thinking is that all you do in a week? But I say there is still a lot more that I can do and I should. My day starts by 8am and now I sleep of by 12am and in between apart from the above mentioned I make sure I give the No.1 importance to my Work. I go to mostly all the auditions that are being held. I meet Casting directors, Producers and Directors and I make sure I am in the loop with all the news of the new films that are being made so I can get the opportunity to show case my talents yet again. Apart from auditions, I love relaxing by watching American Television which includes American Crime Story, Supernatural and House Of Cards to name a few. Besides television I also am a huge fan of Video Games and now I am completely engrossed in Tom Clancy's The Division which is a treat for all game lovers. I am also deciding to learn a new language and although I know what language that is, I would like to talk about it some other time. Who knows maybe I may also share some words and sentences with you in that language in my next blog. And the main reason I wrote this blog today wasn't because I wanted to share my routine with you or the things that I am doing in my life. I know by having that agenda I would achieve nothing grand and neither would you. What I wanted to share was that we humans, if decide as a single individual that we will never be bored again, that we won't waste our time in thinking about what to do and actually go ahead and do it, we would really astonish ourselves! Now, I astonish myself everyday. And because I am so engrossed in my own activities throughout the day I have tagged myself as the Lone Wolf. If you go to my Snapchat {search mahaakshay} you will see all my posts with the #LoneWolf because now I do everything on my own. I watch movies in the theatre all by myself {a thing which I really love}, I see youtube videos of Parkour and Hip Hop, Comedy Improvs and Interviews of Legendary Actors. I make my own Breakfast and clean my own clothes. I truly live the life of a Lone Wolf, something which I am really proud of and something that I always wanted to do but never did until now. So I guess the Devil was right when he stated the fact that 'The Wicked Never Rest'. I don't know how wicked I am but what I do know is that I will make sure I will never sit idle again. And I will never stop learning and growing and becoming a better human being. I care two hoots about what people think about me but I do care a lot in becoming the best version of myself whenever I brush my teeth and cut myself while shaving. And that is why I will always be on a quest to find the next challenge and the next obstacle and the next battle to win. I hope you all who are reading this also find new challenges and ordeals to overcome and I wish you the very best in your chosen field of endeavour 'cause nothing and I mean nothing is more satisfying that reaching your goals and the feeling of victory of the human soul.

“One must be cunning and wicked in this world.” 


― Leo TolstoyWar and Peace

This is Me, Mahaakshay Chakraborty and this is My Story.

With All My Might,

Your No.1 Fan,

Mahaakshay Chakraborty.
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