Anthony Bourdain - The Rocker and The Shocker

Anthony Bourdain

I was thinking to write about my most admired chef Anthony Bourdain. the gonzo chronicler of food and culture in far-off places,  in my series of articles labelled as 'Global Citizen'.  But then came the devastating news of death of the master story teller on June 8, 2018 which shocked the world. I had dropped the idea to write about him  but two weeks later I really cannot resist myself. To be fare I never met him in person but his shows are so powerful that makes my grief more personal.

Parts Unknown

He had been working on an episode for the 12th season of his CNN shows 'Parts Unknown'. Which literally has opened up his unknown parts when he was found unresponsive and dead, at age 61, by his good friend and chef  Eric Ripert in eastern France.
He argued, traveling the globe meant visiting areas of conflict and also intense poverty and he didn't shy away from either. In 'No Reservations' in the Travel Channel, he went to Haiti after devastating earth quake in 2011 and reflected on his ambivalence at being there.

I'm there talking about local cuisine and that means I'm shoveling food into my face ... that a lot of those people can't afford.

He described how his well-meaning efforts to feed locals around him led to chaos and

hungry kids being beaten with stick

There was, of course, a more lighthearted side to his travels including some wild and bizarre eating experience. In Morocco, it was that roasted sheep's testicles. In Canada, it was a raw seal's eyeball. In Namibia, it was the wrong end of a warthog ( he wound up with a parasite). In Vietnam it was the still-beating heart of a cobra that had just been sliced open. The Dawn has summed up Anthony Bourdain's eating experience.

Anthony Bourdain 

 
Bourdain although undoubtedly was at pick of his carrier at his 50s but he didn't break through until he was in mid-40s. He experienced years of both struggle and success in varied ratio.
In a chilling 2016 interview to Todd Aaron Jensen of Biography.com, he told,

I should have died in my 20s. I became successful in my 40s. I became a dad in my 50s.

In his early days he dropped out of college to pursue his carrier with Culinary Institute of America in New York. To earn some money he put 12 hours shift, six days a week schedule.


Another heart filled confession of Bourdain

I feel like I've stolen a car - a really nice car - and I keep looking in the rear-view mirror for flashing lights. But there has been nothing yet.

Bourdain told WealthSimple,

I didn't put anything aside, ever. Money came in, money went out. I was always a pay-check behind, at least. I usually owed my chef, my paycheck; again, cocaine.

Until I was 44, I never even had a savings account.

Then that year everything had changed. He wrote an article for the New Yorker Don't Eat Before Reading This was in line of his massively popular Book Kitchen Confidential.



He told to Jensen

Oh, man, at the age of 44, I was standing in kitchens, not knowing what it was like to go to sleep. without being in mortal terror. I was in horrible, endless, irrevocable debt.

I had no health insurance. I didn't pay taxes. I couldn't pay my rent.

He added

It was nightmare, but it's all been different for about in last 15 years. If it looks like my life is comfortable, well, that's a very new thing for me

In last 17 years he told lot of things to us while presenting his shows or to different other persons

But what actually went wrong behind the glamour

It is very clear that we probably never know what are the causes that transpire him to take his last decision. 
Many of us wondered publicly, how could people with unimaginable success, good looks, admiration and incredible wealth feel unhappy enough to end their lives. But silently, a lot of us already understood, because we've experienced the darkness too.

No one is immune to despair and millions of people in the world are currently experiencing severe anxiety and depression, too often with thoughts that the world will be better off without them. Unfortunately due to the stigma surrounding mental illness, a lot of them hide their pain and feel ashamed. We can speak freely of cancer diagnosis ant its treatment but it remains taboo to discuss someone's psychological well-being, therapy or medications publicly. Because of this, it is important to remember that there is no shame in mental illness. The only shame is that we can't be more open. honest and compassionate about it.

The shame of suffering from anxiety and depression is only one of the numerous, complex factors that contribute to the epidemic of suicide in our society today.
Celebrities face more difficulty to express their anxiety to anybody.

Oprah Winfrey

That is why probably Oprahfication becomes so popular, which is attributed

public confession as a form of therapy

When we do something wrong or something wrong had happened to us, make a significant impact in our subconscious space. In these scenarios we may choose to hide or make a confession which draws the destiny of our mental conditions.
  
Let us try to relate June 8, 2018 incident of Bourdain's life and his interview with The New Yorker magazine, where he told

I have the best job in the world

If I'm unhappy it's a failure of imagination

A clear contrast of thought and action which stunned the fans of the globe-trotting food-tester and culinary storyteller.  
          

Parts Unknown Finale and Death Ritual

Darren Aronofsky and Anthony Bourdain had been friends since 2014, their last trip together to Bhutan in December 2017 for the season finale of Parts Unknown was a pivotal moment in their friendship.
Darren wrote a touching tribute A road trip through Bhutan with Anthony Bourden for CNN, where he wrote

Bhutan was where I really got to know Tomy

He also told

It seems ironic now that on our last day of shooting we performed a Bhutanese death ritual. We debated the fate of the country, the fate of the world. He was perplexed as to how mankind's endless hunger to consume could be curtailed.

that they concluded their visit to the Himalayan country Bhutan by filming a Bhutanese death ritual.  

Bourdain touched on mortality throughout the episode He says in a voice over

It is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes of the day. Life is but a dream.

Final Thought

Apart from his many piercing insights into the world of restaurants. Bourdain will be remembered for his enthusiasm for other culture and cuisines. With his wry smile and his world-weary demeanor Bourdain was prepared to try anything once.    

He had left lot of his followers who wanted and want to be like him. On June 25, 2018, Cia Bernales of FastCompany wrote in her article   Here's how Anthony Bourdain changed my life.

Cia Bernales

I started obsessively writing about food and travel because I so wanted to be like Bourdain. Because of him, I wanted to learn and experience other people's cultures and traditions through the food they eat

Cia could not make her a part of the show No Reservation around Philippines , her own country . But no matter her friends texted her it should have been she and she thought it was herself.

I choose her quote to conclude

But even though I never really got the chance to work with Bourdain, I wanted to be the one who tries to eat everything too. Because he taught me that it's a privilege to be given the chance to eat everything; an honor to be invited into peoples' homes and fed;  an advantage to be able to share tastes  with strangers . Everywhere I've traveled so far, I have walked. hiked, run and biked to eat because of him.

According to Bourdain, his job at a Greek restaurant helped build character, as well as the patterns that he has relied  on since ;

I learned to love work and find meaning in it. To this day, I like going to work, clocking in and clocking out , the satisfaction of job well done.

   
Anthony Bourdain always adventured to try anything once. He probably tried on June 8 to experience his life once and succeeded.

An Update on July 13, 2018
At last I have found something to relate a cause to his death. But certainly I am not certain, may be it is one of many unknown possibilities. Please read
An open letter to anyone who loves Anthony Bourdain and what he stood for                      

LION - A Fascinating Real Life Story Plays Law of Attraction

Sunny Pawar as Child Saroo

A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, who was lost accidentally, at age five, penned his life story how he was adopted by an Australian couple and later found out his biological mother after 25 years at a remote village in India.
Lion is the biographical drama film (2016) which is based on the story of Saroo.. Garth Davis, the Director of the film fared well to spread out the message of love and attraction. In an interview he told

It's a story that could work at any time in history I think. 

Story-line of  Lion

They were living at Ganesh Talai in Khandwa India. When Saroo was young his father left home. To feed the family, the mother of three children had to work in a construction site.

Guddu and Saroo

To support their mother, the brothers duo Guddu and Saroo took the responsibility to earn something in whatever possible way including stealing coal from Goods Trains. One day Guddu decided to go for a  haunt a job , but Saroo was also adamant to go with his elder brother. In a nearby by Railway Station.  Saroo was felt asleep on a bench of the station, Guddu went to search for a job, telling Saroo to stay at the same place. When Saroo woke up, he could not see Guddu around and boarded a train and felt asleep again in the compartment. The train took him to Howrah which is 1600 KM away from his remote village Ganesh Talai.       
After some harrowing experience and applying his presence of mind, Saroo eventually found a person who took him to Police Custody and then he shifted to a home for destitute children. He could not name the place of his residence but dreamed to return to his mother. Finally the authority of the home found a couple from Australia who were eager to adopt him.
With the help, love and care of Sue and John Brierley, Saroo could settle himself in the new environment. One year later, the Brierleys adopted another boy Mantosh, who had trouble adjusting as he was suffering mental illness.        

After 20 years Saroo grown up and become a businessman. He went to Melbourne to study Hotel Management. He found Lucy, an American Student and developed a relationship with her.

Dev Patel as Young Saroo

But he was always thinking about his lost home and his own mother. In a home get together with his friends he found jalebi  a delicious Indian street food, a favorite in his childhood. 

Jalebi

Jalebi  helped him to recapture some childhood memory with his brother Guddu with full resolution. Finally in full house he confided that he was adopted. His friends suggested him to search his place with the help of Google Earth. With lot of effort and painful experience he finally found some images that prodded his memory and led him back to Ganesh Talai.                 

Making the Story into the Movie and Genesis of Lion

Saroo's story was covered extensively by the media all over the world on and after the release of Lion. The director of the movie Davis accounts his feeling

Just to feel the power of the love in this story was just overwhelming. There was a spiritualism and a sense of miracle in the story, which I actually loved. I also loved Sue (Saroo’s adopted mother). I love the mothers. For me, they were the pillars of this film that the story kind of bounced between. It was this great celebration of mothers and that primality was really moving. I got very excited about it. There was a lot of layers to it. You could've made this movie in a way that very simple, but I saw a lot of complexity in it and that got very exciting.

When Davis was accompanied the real Saroo and Sue to Ganesh Talai on the day that Sue met Saroo's mother Kamla for the first time , recalls Davis

It was incredible because I suddenly saw these people at a really important moment in their lives. Obviously Sue wanted to ask Kamla so many questions, so it was such a sensitive moment. I just witnessed so much in that moment. The love that both mothers had for that son that day that I was witnessing actually set me for the rest of the movie. I'll never forget it when Saroo was standing there, these two mothers crying, and just holding him…that was the image that I held for the whole development of the movie.

This movie is all about unconditional love which we sometime call God gifted or to reach the God's kingdom its the only path.  

Heartwarming and Heart-wrenching moments 

It is obvious that  the movie overall shows heartwarming moment when after the turmoil of being lost and finally the overwhelming joy of reunion.
But the fate and stories of two brothers of Saroo are really heart-wrenching . After the separation with Guddu at the Railway Station, Saroo did not know that his brother was killed in a railway track while he was asleep on the bench of the Platform, the day when he was also lost.
Mantosh, the other adopted child of Brierleys is mentally challenged, He is depicted as a symbol: a touching reminder that not every child lives a life as full as Saroo.
In a podcast Sue describes the story of Mantosh -

Every parent’s nightmare: the untold story of Mantosh from Lion.

The Story that relates Law of Attraction

Sufferings, which is inevitable in our life. These come to us in different form and leave marks in our life. Question is how we see these sufferings and experience in our own life. The full story is a reflection of Thich Nhat Hanh's   No Mud No Lotus : The Art of Transforming Suffering.

Abhishek Bharate as Guddu

Guddu the Dreamer and loves to Visualize

Guddu is the character that amplifies the notion
of Lotus. He is always smiling, hardworking, caring for his family, no matter how poor are they. Takes every opportunity to earn something to help his family. Guddu always helps Saroo to pass the hardship in smile. By his loving care, Guddu becomes the best guide of Saroo.
It is also pathetic that Guddu never returns home either. He fell to his death from a moving train.
But the legacy is kept intact with Saroo, that is why Saroo never forgets to dream and visualize going back to his mother and home.   
Guddu focuses on the acceptance of the presence of suffering. He knows the consciousness of suffering is the first step in living a happy life. Saroo in turn, when he becomes Brierley, never denies the presence of suffering. He always keeps the dream of his own mother and home alive in his mind consciously and for this reason the dream becomes implanted into his subconscious platform. Eventually this subconscious helps to create circumstances and Saroo finds his own mother.
As Thich Nhat Hanh points out

Most people are afraid of suffering, But suffering is a kind of mud to help the lotus flower of happiness grow. There can be no lotus flower without the mud.

Saroo acknowledges the darkness in order to see light. Saroo declares in full house get together that he is adopted, never loses his courage to tell his identity.

Lion shows Dream can be manifested as reality

Priyanka Bose as Kamla, the mother with Saroo when they reunited after 25 years

Kamla always dreams that one day her child would return, In an interview the real mother confirms that she never gave up hopes and lived her life with firm believe on her dream.
Kamla as if spends her life in a prison (of hope) after losing two of his sons in one day. But harvest her psychological passion differently. As Viktor Frankl, in his book Man's Search for Meaning, expressed his experiences as an inmate of Auschwitz Concentration Camp with a description of psychotherapeutic method , which tells about identifying a purpose in life to feel positivity and then immersively imagining that outcome.
According to Frankl, the meaning of life is found in every moment of living. life never ceases to have meaning even in suffering and death.
Kamla faces death of his elder son Guddu and suffering for her missing son Saroo. Probably death of Guddu makes her stronger to haunt for the purpose of her own life.

Frankl accounts this in his own words

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory..

Saroo also still wonders about his own mother and how heartbroken she still might be over his disappearance from the face of her world  
Hence the mother and son duo makes it happen.

Daughter and Son of God - the real Brierleys 

What John and Sue does here, cannot be expressed in words. They adopt Saroo and later Mantosh

The Real Brierleys and Saroo in their home in Tasmania

and give utmost care to be successful in their life. Sue's account on the process of adopting Saroo is a heartwarming experience. Sue tells about Saroo when he arrives to Australia first time,

He was just very happy to have this amazing, clean little bed, to have toys, you know? We came home from the airport, within an hour he had a beautiful meal laid in front of him, he was just so happy to be there, and just to see his little face relaxing, enjoying those comforts, was quite amazing really. Very special times for us as a family.

For the full interview please click the link on the cation of the above photo.

And also read and see the faces of Real Vs Reel here - Lion Movie vs. the True Story

Only thing we can make up here that we come across various events not by chance but there is a purpose of everything.

Conclusion

Saroo's mother never looses her believe that her son would return and never moves away from the village. Saroo never looses his identity when he left for Australia and being adopted their. He grows up as Brierley and keeps hope alive in the mind to meet her mother one day.
There is so much reality in the story that coincide the principles of Believing.

• Believing that it will happen - it works in each and every main characters of the story.

• Visualize it - starting from Guddu, Saroo , their mother and Sue and John visualize their dreams as if it had already happened to them.

• Acting as if - Saroo is very consistent in his feeling, wishes, dreams and has never given up. Her mother lives her life on strong hope and Sue and John extend their full support to reach out.

• Taking actions towards the Goal - Saroo took all possible steps to find out his biological origin.

At the end of the story Saroo comes to know that his actual name is Sheru. The name Sheru comes from the Hindi word Sher which means LION.  

     

Saroo with his two mothers

 
The book  A Long Way Home can be read and the movie LION can be watched AGAIN AND AGAIN.