This weekend I watched the movie Penguins of Madagascar, I watched a movie after a really long time. Yesterday was Ugadi, the new year for us, after celebrating in my village and all the heavy cleaning that I did at home, my body was tired so I thought let me watch a movie. First of all, it’s been so long since I watched one and it’s been really long since I watched an animated one. I was confused to choose which one, and then I saw this movie, I love Penguins so I was like okay! Let’s do this!

When I was working in a school a few years ago, the most fun job I had was to do research on the movies for the kids to watch and play that movie for them. During this time, I use to watch the movies with them and I realised how animated movies are so philosophical and wondered why Adults cringe to watch animated movies.

Sorry, if you haven’t watched the movie, this is going to be a spoiler.

Okay, now the lessons:

1. Follow your path, Not the Herd.

In the very first scene of the movie, there is an egg that flows on the snowy path where there is a group of penguins walking one behind another in a straight line. There are 3 little penguins, who come out of the line and question where are they even going in the same line like everybody else, and another penguin says we just follow everybody.  At the same time, they see an egg falling off and they are on a mission to save the egg. Even though they do see death threats from other creatures, they still go ahead and save the egg somehow and find their 4^th partner in their “Adventure”.

One thing is to follow whatever is right for you and not what the majority of society says or does, and question if at all you do feel you are blindly following what everybody is doing. Questioning is the first step in itself, to find the path-in case you are confused about what your path is!

2. Blinded by the Idea of Beauty-Physical Appearance

Just like in every story, there is a villain in this movie too. The Charming Villian as they call him, Dave the Octopus who once was the star of the show in the circus, loses his fans when the cute penguins come in. He would be doing really well with his skills and when the Penguins come in, people stop looking at Octopus and then he is sent away in a cage. He later kidnaps the four penguins-Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private and tells them that everybody thinks he is ugly and the Penguins are super cute so he is been plotting revenge for many years now against them.

You see, the skills that Octopus has, the Penguins do not and vice versa. The comparisons of the external beauty with others, and the whole idea of external beauty in itself, will only blind us from seeing our own skills and leads to chronic comparisons with others, Jealousy, revenge and all that will only go spiralling downwards.

3. Revenge is an Infinite Poison to the Ego

So now, long story short-Dave the Octopus kidnaps all the Penguins all across the world, even from Bangalore hah hahaha I was laughing when they mentioned Bangalore as this is where I live. Okay, getting back to the plot, so he kidnaps all of them to make them look all Ugly with his dangerous Poison called “Ray” that he has developed.

He does inject this poison and all the penguins come out looking ugly and the Octopus is having that victorious villain laugh, he screams on the mike, that I am Happy and yet, now that I have my revenge, I feel, empty; as if what I needed all along is more revenge! Then he says to his octopus assistant Robin-that tomorrow we move on to Kittens, then Puppies, Bunnies, Pandas.

See, this is what it is about Revenge. It is never-ending, even though it feels satisfying once we have it, although it is the Ego that is satisfied, and the Ego is also never satisfied with that feeling so want more so you will create more scenarios and the revenge adds on like an Infinite Poison to the Ego

4. Accepting that we are wrong when we are wrong

There is other spy character that I liked in the movie, called Classified played by the Dog. Classified has his own rescue agency where he rescues animals. He once rescues these penguins from Dave the Octopus, and they together plan to go against Dave but somewhere the Penguins screw up the whole plan and he does not trust them anymore.

The next time, the Penguins follow their suit and this time their plan gets screwed up and they get trapped along with the penguins. 

In the end, he and his agents do come back but the 4-star penguins have already been on the mission of saving the rest of the Penguins and in the end, Classified accepts that he was wrong about the penguins and their plan and mission.

Even though he always showed himself as the most skilled and trained professional in rescuing animals, when he did see the Penguins do all the work. He did drop his ego and appreciated the work they did.

And how often, do we forget this about appreciating our peers, our friends, our family when they do a good job. The ego, of course, loves that feeling of “I know everything” and by appreciating others I am putting myself down. But it is actually the opposite, by appreciating others, you are appreciating their work and you are also raising your vibrations and not falling into the trap of Competition and Comparisons. Where everything looks equal, nobody is high or low!

5. Don’t limit your dreams!

At the beginning of the scene, these 3 little penguins question on why do they have those little wings when they cant fly. In the end after Classified, praises them, he asks how can he repay them. Since he is so skilled technically and develops super cool technology,  the penguins ask him for Jet Packs and in the end, they are flying so happily.

By saying, Who says Penguins cant fly!

If Wright brothers had limited their thinking that as humans we cannot fly, we would not have planes perhaps. So don’t ever limit yourself with your dreams, something that you feel that is impossible is may be the path for you to make it possible.

Dont you worry about how it is going to happen if these penguins were worried that they cant fly and just sulked on it. They would have just followed the herd just like everybody else, but they came out, they lived in the moment, they were happy, they took risks, they enjoyed their journey and in the end something they once thought that they cant, they eventually did!

Hope you all learnt something from this, right now in my life I am going through a different phase and I surely wanted all of these to be re affirmed. This is why I always say, things do not happen to us as a Coincidence, we are all meant to see something, hear from some people for a reason and that reason is for our growth! It is the way, Universe is helping you!

Yours Consciously

Sneha