New Year

Two Thousand Sikhs

Yup, Happy should be in there too!!

until next time, next post, next year :)

Quite Contrary

Jo was thinking of the day he had left his small town.. He hadnt been a happy man then .. his trade wasnt giving him the kind of money that would enable him to lead a comfortable life, it wasnt even giving him enough to survive.. and to top that he had recently gotten himself engaged to a beautiful woman. Not that it was bad in itself, but the shameless young men in his town had made it a habit to ogle at her, and the frequent fights he was having with them had put off several potential customers...he wasnt suspicious of his wife to be, but it was just that it wasnt in her nature not to smile back at anyone who smiled at her, and several guys took this as very suggestive...And he so desperately wanted to wed her, but he felt he wasnt financially secure enough to do so.. and so, one day, when she told him that she was pregnant, he didnt quite know how to react.. for all his friends knew how, inspite of his intense desire, he had been keeping himself in check... and no one would believe that there was a divine intervention in his becoming a father..

And that was how he had left the town. now several months later, here he was, in the small town of Jerusalem, looking at Mary, who would deliver the child any moment.. Here he could claim the child as his own, and celebrate its birthday every year in peace...He felt bad that she was going to give birth to the child in a stable, but he was a confident that things would take a turn for the better soon. Yes, Jo was a happy man now..

until next time, hope it was a merry christmas :)
PS: last year....

Marginal Utility

I can see all those with a fair knowledge of economics arch their eyebrows upward :).. to confess,i dont know it in depth... all i remember is the 'orange' example... and so (for the benefit of those who dont know the theorem) here goes, the satisfaction you gain by eating oranges decreases with each orange that you eat... and orange was only an example (for those who dont like oranges, and those who dont eat more than an orange at a time, i dont think you were considered while formulating the theory)... well, now since everyone is on the same page, the reason for the reference is to do with happiness... does the law of diminishing marginal utility apply to happiness..

i faintly remember the prof saying that it was only applicable to (thats when i slept off..)....and so, i will humor my thought... even though happiness can come through different sources -listening to good music, an appreciative comment, good food, pay hike, doing a good deed, landing a good job, a good spouse and so on and so forth, could it be that our chances of deriving happiness out of something- anything, could be decreasing.. if not chances, at least the amount of happiness that we derive...

if we keeping getting all the things that make us happy, maybe we start failing to appreciate them, which is perhaps what is happening to us right now... with so much of currency floating around, EMIs and credit card swipes may have changed the way we look at happiness, and made 'happiness' more easy, to the extent that even happiness is commoditised... maybe thats exactly whats wrong...
until next time, laws are meant to be broken...

Stop or my Mom will shoot....

Isnt there a movie by that name? But nope, nothing to do with the movie, but felt that the title is somehow appropriate to what this post says....

Its every Mom's dream that her children grow up to be the best possible... and she will give them proper guidance and try to inculcate the right values.. she will make sure that the paths that they choose are the correct ones, and will not affect them, or the ones around them adversely.. if she has more than one child, she will shower on each, love in equal measures and make sure they are happy...

Sometimes, she will give a good spanking, when needed.. if they dont learn, maybe she will make them go without food for sometime... she will tell them examples of children gone bad, and how they had to suffer for it...maybe she will make sure that some of the stuff they take for granted disappear, so that they realise that they are doing something wrong...

she will be patient for a long long time, but if driven to it, she will be willing to take away the life she herself created... all the tsunamis, all the hurricanes, all the earthquakes, all the extra hot summers, and the extra cold winters, all the horrible showers, wonder if the children are learning...

until next time, hope we dont get shot...

Breaking news....

Its not exactly breaking news that the media industry is looking at a phenomenal boom in the next few months.. and thats across the verticals - print, radio, television and so on..which raises the question of how much 'news' acually happens in the world on a daily basis.. is it so much that the existing entities are not enough to make sure that all of it reaches the world, and if not, then what justifies the mushrooming of more of their kind? which is, i guess, when we get into creation of news, sting operations and overall sensationalising of trivia.. when a malayala manorama in kerala would carry the 'news' that your neighbour's cow broke its tether and damaged your fence, and NDTV would get its video footage and classify it as 'Breaking news'.. you would be happy, so would your neighbour, since any publicity is good publicity.. but will i, sitting hundreds of kilometers away and not having any specific interest in bovine revolutionary tactics, be interested in the news? i guess not..

the argument would be that 'you dont like it, dont watch it', but what if all the channels/publications think its worthy news, what option does that leave? nothing, and sadly we have only ourselves to blame, because we are less interested in reading/seeing Chidambaram's fiscal policy than Nigar Khan's physical policies...

but what prompted me to think about this entire trip was manorama's week long front page coverage of the death of a malayali in afghanistan.. isnt that exactly what the terrorist group would want? extensive media coverage and a sublimal building of fear in the citizens? on a parallel note, a murderer would get much more prominence in coverage than a guy who might have saved a life..

by creating sensations out of every possible trivia that happens in every remote corner, isn't the media encouraging a whole lot of wrong things? there is a thin line between right to information and right information, and it takes a lot of maturity to walk the line...and so it aint so strange after all that lives full of trivia would slowly but surely get converted into trivial lives, for who wouldnt want their 15 secondsof fame?

until next time, what news??

Turning 35...

No, you evil people, not me.... its still a decade away, okay, 8 years away... i was referring to sachin's record breaking 35th century..During the initial years of his career, i had always been a skeptical 'okay, how long before he burns out' observer.. a bit later, when his schoolmate joined him in the team, i was supporting him - vinod ganpat kambli.. i have this default thingie of supporting the underdog...ironically, it was kambli who burnt out, and never played to his potential..well, almost never ever.. and then the match fixing controversies made me less of a keen observer of the game...

but while all that was happening, my admiration of the little master was growing, grudging at first, but growing nevertheless.. i even remember a friend during my post grad days, who was a die hard fan, whom i used to chide whenever sachin failed to score.. times had begun to change when i used to counter his high scoring with the point that he never clicked when we needed him most to applauding his efforts.. i still remember the two matches against australia in sharjah (?),centuries in consecutive matches - match winners...but wait, before i digress and throw off the non cricket aficionados, this isnt about the game, its about the man...

i think what makes him great IMHO, is that he remains untouched by his greatness.. on the contrary, it has made him better... it takes great character to resist the temptation of letting yourself talk instead of your bat, especially when there are jibes and barbs hurled at you by people far inferior to yourself... and so, when the man finally silenced yet another group of question marks after a year (between #34 and #35) its defintely an occasion for a post...

and i couldnt help but notice the contrast between the two men occupying the crease...sachin tendulkar - an all time great who has just scaled another height, and yet the epitome of humility... and sourav ganguly - who has fallen from heights, and who is perhaps just realising that in the path to greatness, humility is indeed a great asset...
until next time, bowled over.....

Sikandar

Its one of the names i have a fascination for... from the Indian version of Alexander's name to Anil Kapoor in Trimurti, it conveys (to me) someone who can conquer all, someone who is on a plane above normal humans... the reason why the name is the topic of discussion is because i happened to dine in a restaurant by that name sometime back..

while i dont consider myself competent enough to put together a food review, i can safely say that it lived up to its name..of course, i could have been extremely biased because it offered me the opportunity to indulge in another of my fascinations.. sitting at a height and watching humanity move along on the roads below... walking, driving, just moving on, into the night...

i bet thats one of God's favourite views..wonder what freud would have made out of this... a desire to be above current levels in life? a need to be objective all the time? at a subconscious level, perhaps these could be factors, but at the conscious level, to me, it is a humbling experience, like looking at a starlit sky and us humans below, because it is moments like these that seem to tell me that i am a small part of a huge canvas, an experience that i have no idea about...
until next time, 'We are all made of stars'......

Seasons...

Its chilly in Bangalore... not the bone numbing chilly, but the kind of chilly that gets taken care of by a jacket, the kind thats pleasant, the kind that i associate with a hot tea, a good book, snuggling under the blanket.. and reflecting about the seasons...yes, we are talking about the weather :).. because the pleasantness of it makes it interesting... well, okay, maybe i didnt have anything else to write about... :)

but theres definitely something about it that inspires a post.. its one of the times when time makes us objective, step outside ourselves, and reflect on the things that have been happening,things that we have been doing unconsciously in the daily rigmarole of living, and get reminded of when we actually start thinking about it...

the last three months of the year.... in some places - winter.. in chennai - the time when it takes exactly 3 more seconds for an ice cream to melt (pleo, was it, who wrote that), in kerala - the time when the one and a half hour non stop bus journey to the engineering college early in the morning became all the more unbearabale, and your beacon is the hostel loo, at the end of the journey, a time long long ago... the time spent in writing mock tests to land up in a good management institute, the rush to beat the three hour clock, a time long long ago....in goa - amidst all the sun and sand and scary tests and assignments, counting days to the christmas vacation when you could go home, a time long ago.... back to kerala - balancing sales targets, and a desire to be in bangalore with the wife to be, sometime ago :)...

and finally bangalore - listening to 'Walk of Life' and smiling away at the post that just got written...yes, seasons, i guess it is just nature's clock ticking away, reminding us of the good and not so good times that have been happening to us, and around us.... long long ago, long ago and now..

until next time, nice clock, no cause for alarm....:)

Storytellers

Its partytime for the worms in Bangalore, the book kind that is.... all thanks to the Strand Book Festival.. one of the few things that rock our home's otherwise carefully managed financial boat..:)

and last weekend was no exception, as Sherlock Holmes, Calvin, Asimov, Mughals and assorted other stars came into our living room, and a slightly different kind of printed paper went out.. and like always, theres not even an iota of guilt..hehe

And since D preferred to do eyebrows while I browsed through rows and rows of storytellers, it gave me time to send a little note of thanks heavenwards, to the first storyteller i ever knew, and the best...To my grandmother, who used to tell me a story every night before i slept, who used to make sure i got my 'Poompatta' every month, and insisted that my dad bought me 'Amar Chitra Katha' regularly.. the storyteller whose stories were only for me, whose characters always seemed to be my age, or the kind that i liked... whose stories were imaginative, inspiring, heartwarming and everything else that stories should be.. who made sure that i would love stories for the rest of my life...

and since i know i can never be that good a storyteller, the books i buy are perhaps my way of passing on my favourite stories to those who come after me, for i understand that only the very fortunate ones end up getting a great storyteller as a granny...

until next time, live happily ever after...

Calls...........

Nature sends messages.
If you dont respond, she calls...
There is no such thing as a missed call.....

until next time, dont get pissed off...

Fix you...

Once again, so what exactly is it that we would love to do.. while it is an interesting debate whether we would stop loving things if we began to get paid for it, are there still things that fall outside that set, and which we would love doing irrespective of anything else...

I, for one, would love to sing for a living, not at concerts, but more of a wandering bard...would love to write a book, and be happy if 5 people read it, loved it and felt it had made a difference in their lives.. would love to have my own chat shows and crack the kind of PJs that would help create homicidal maniacs..:).. some of the above are stuff which i might be able to pull off, and some i might realise that i wasnt quite cut out for...maybe thats what living a full life is all about... doing all these and being able to say that i tried everything.. maybe thats what makes happiness...

or maybe its about knowing exactly what is it that you can do and want to do.. and then setting about achieving it whatever be the odds...which is perhaps what makes alonso world champion at 24, or sachin a treat to watch after more than decade of watching him... or an amitabh bachchan a star twice over.. maybe thats what makes happiness....

maybe its about finding love, and keeping it, and knowing that whatever else happens, that person will always be by your side.. maybe thats what makes happiness...

and meanwhile we walk the paths, some common, some uncommon and hope that God is singing to us(instead of Coldplay)

Lights will guide you home..

and ignite your bones...

and i will try and fix you...

until next time, are we in a fix??

Private eye

A few weeks back, a lil spat reminded me of the fact that we really dont know each other at all.. we are connected only by thoughts and words, and while it could be that our personality is reflected in blogs, the reverse could also hold true.. that we are competely different from our blogs..

And its not just blogs, our entire persona thats on display all the time, may only be a part of what we are.. and there may be parts of us which we even hide from ourselves.. a secret that we keep even from ourselves, thoughts and emotions which, if expressed might end up hurting ourselves and others, and could be totally against the social norms that we follow...

and while we judge people on a regular basis, unwittingly, we also end up judging ourselves..judging ourselves with a private eye, that reveals itself rarely, and lets us know that perhaps even we dont know ourselves well enough.. maybe i should try and discover more about myself .... and get in touch with the private I...
until next time, maybe we should also respect privacy....

G MS Y?

While all the wars were being fought in recent times over virtual space, one player was conspicuous by its absence - but some announcements in the last few days got the gates backwide open...

the good part is, i am not geek enough to analyse the services of the three major players in virtual space... the bad news is, that doesnt stop me from writing about it...:)

Good Ol' Bill is an icon, theres no denying it... but unfortunately he has never been able to translate that into a favourable opinion about his enterprise... while there are a lot of us who display 'Get firefox' icons, havent seen any 'I use E' (yup, bad one acknowledged) buttons... also, theres no denying the fact to a lot of us, Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc are still THE applications and they have indeed made lives a lot easier (hmm, not powerpoint,on second thoughts..hehe), and when you add MSN chat and Hotmail into the mix, MS automatically becomes an integral part of our automated life.. normally that gives a load of ammunition forworship, but surprisingly all that doesnt make us say 'I Love MS'...

Is it that we love the underdog? or is it that we hate the way MS has been getting too many dollar bills? if it is the latter, is there too much of a harm in a guy making money out ofhis ideas and work? isnt that supposed to be the mantra of knowledge working and the basis of copyrights? why should we be having a problem with the money being made? why should it be open source??

i wonder if the 'no love' is because it has changed the way we work... or is it something like school?.. none of us liked it when we had to go to school, but down the line there is also a realisation that perhaps it did do some good for us, or more importantly, it made a difference in the direction of our lives...perhaps, Bill, you have to wait some more for the idolising...

until next time, yahoo!!! Gmail is moving towards 3 GB....:)

Twins

After putting aside concepts like love and money, perhaps the two most important things in life would be the marriage and the career... and if you put a lil bit of thought to it, there are some striking similarities..

Both are things that you get to hear about early in life, but get to experience only at a relatively later stage.. and you get to hear about it from anyone who's remotely elder to you.. there are so many versions... and when its happening to you, everyone has an interest in it and an advice to give on it... and anything 'different' from the norm is usually met with a frown...

in both cases, there are roughly two paths you can take - one that you want to do due to your desire and aspiration, and the other thats financially and socially seen as 'safe'..in both the cases,the exceptions are also similar... you might want to be a doctor/engineer etc and you get to do exactly that.. and you happen to love a girl/guy who meets all the conditions and succeeds in all the parameters that are set out by those who are supposed to decide your fate - parents, relatives etc, and can therefore marry him/her without a problem.. whether the path has been by choice or forced on one, both perhaps require a certain amount of compromise.. you might end up liking the career you had no specific interest initially, and you might end up liking your arranged spouse..in both the cases, you might realise after a point of time, that it is no longer what you want, and there's something or someone else that you really want to spend your time and energy on..and yes, getting fired in both cases, is a pain....

you want to maintain that correct balance between both, and yes, most importantly, you expect both to be some kind of anchor in your life, and to derive some joy out of the experiences..and like everything else, you know that both have to end, at some point of time..

until next time, identical or non identical??

ITs a Dog's life....?

From the recently concluded IT.com in Bangalore (Image courtesy: The Hindu)

ITs gone to the dogs, you think??

A Higher Power

An entity that is revered by millions, who are driven by a desire just to be in its presence.. its physical manifestation can be touched and felt, but nothing beyond that... as with other higher powers, there is a human who can guide you on... in front of it, superstars and common man are all alike.. people stare all agog at the throes of despair and ecstasy that it bestows on those who appear before it.. it affects people so much that it is almost treated as a human, rather than a different entity.. and yes, they say it helps those who help themselves..it knows all the answers, and offers lifelines to those who come before it..it can change your fortune, on weekends, on star plus at 9.00, its computerji on KBC dvitiya!!

until next time, oh, samay samaapt!!

Blogger...

Its that time of the year again.... and i have been seeing a lot of guys taking a sabbatical from blogging, hopefully they'll return... reminds me of the last wave of goodbye in school, hoping your friends will be there next year too - to share chocolates, to play pranks, to fight,to belong... i guess we still are the same children, hoping to still retain our small comforts while the rest of the things around us change.. and somewhere down the line, moving on, making new friends, making new comfort zones, hoping we will never have to move out of them..

and thus we are - kids who are software engineers, kids who are advertising or marketing pros, kids who are married and who have their own kids, kids who are out to discover their dreams,and perhaps fulfil them - who would have nothing in common except for the thoughts they share,the music they like, the issues they talk about, kids who may not know each other if they met on the streets.. kids with nothing in common, except their blogs...

and thus its maybe only that commonness that keeps me going, for in a life where everything else changes, and everyone changes, this has become a comfort zone .. and when i see '1 postscrypt' and agree or disagree with a parna or a deez or an aqua or an SwB or anyone of you, i feel someone is listening to me... for maybe, at the end of it all, i just want to belong...
until next time, keep blogging..

Out of control

While there was a Hindi movie by that name which pretty much succeeded in its stated objective, at least as far as audience temper goes, this title is more a description of the post, and my state of mind...remember this post, where i realised the uselessness of certain keys.. well, this post can be seen as a corollary... and yes,it aint supposed to be a serious post :)

you are sitting in a meeting that has been going on for quite sometime, one which is so important that you cant step out of it for some time, and some freak has made sure that the air conditioning settings match the natural settings of siberia, and you get a call, from nature... how useful would it be to use 'Ctrl P'..

how about the meteorology guys get to know of a seismic occurence that would result in a tsunami which could wipe out entire populations, and all they would have to prevent it is to use 'Ctrl C'...

and while we are on this horribly imaginative ride, theres something i have always wanted in life- an undo function, and i, for one would be extremely happy in my professional life,if i could have an option that said 'Save Ass'...

until next time, i'm scared, whos gonna Ctrl U?? ;)

A watered down version of bangalore!!

Yup, its true!! Bangalore has a huge floating population these days!!
(Image source: Times of India :( )

Art of Live in

Like i commented on Stone's post sometime ago, the makers of Salaam Namaste indeed did some pathbreaking stuff,as they have (apparently) made an entire Bollywood movie about live in relationships..whether or not it is a good movie is not within the scope of this post, but what is within the scope are live in relationships...of course, it goes without saying that the views are personal..

Without marriage there wouldnt be LIR (Live In Relationships, its a long phrase, cant keep typing it always).. the classification happened because of the institution called marriage.. Somewhere down the line, the wise men of the age recognised that society needs to be arranged in some patterns for it to survive, and the immediate higher unit after individual became the family, which (also)involved two individuals living together with the blessings of the law of the land.....

we are now in an age where convenience is the mantra.. from credit cards to communication through handhelds and home deliveries to old age homes, its all about how easy it can be made.. and therefore an LIR fits the bill perfectly, because from sex to apartment rentals, most of everything gets convenient... and i do agree, but with one lil reservation about an antique thing that does not have much relevance today - emotions...

we are perhaps seeing the first generation with an actual choice about relationships- live in or marriage.. i am wondering what a 'no emotional strings attached' relationship now would evolve into/result in, 30 years down the line when love and companionship might make a lot more sense... as with most other things in life, theres no second chance...

until next time, do we pass on live in genes to the next generation??

They may be dead...

But they still send me messages.. The last one i got was from Kishore,and a few days before that, i had got one from RD Burman... both of them messaged me for the same reason, that their songs were now available as ring tones, and all i had to do to was sms my choice to a certain number..i guess heaven must be a very costly place, for them to be actually selling tunes after their death... The mobile service providers must be surely making money out of this, and i guess they would be paying the record labels..

Now, do you think the above two eminent personalities, got anything from the record labels for the revenue their work would generate in the future.. because even royalties would be paid only on short timeframes like a year... but that left me wondering, we are now in an age, where we actually pledge our anticipated incomes for different purchases, in the form of EMIs.. so do you think that the artists, writers etc of this age are getting any money for the revenue their work would accumulate in the future.. what i'mtrying to say is that could RD Burman have anticipated the internet ormobile phones in an age when even telephones were a gizmo??so though JK Rowling has a share in the earnings on the internet, movies,palmtop devices etc, would she (for example) anticipate the revenues from 'Customised psychiatric sessions with your favorite fantasy character'..and even if she did, how many could she imagine?? thats what, i guess, they call loss in profit...
until next time, even royalty has limits....

Jammin' in Goa

No, not exactly, but yes, one of these days, i certainly will...a couple of posts brought back memories of the place, and hence the title..

the first one, by Mirage, brought a sweet wave of nostalgia, specially when she mentioned all the places we used to haunt.. oh yes, those were indeed the days.. i still believe that the immediate time before we get out into the world and be part of it as individuals who fend for themselves, both from a financial as well as a relationship standpoint, are the best possible days.. while we still might be suffering from doses of education,and the rough and tumble of assignments and tests, it still remains a time of at least partial abandon, coz you know dad is going to send the cheque next month too..:)

but the next one, that by an individual who works for the JAM magazine, also brought back memories of Goa (that was where i started reading JAM, and continued for almost 3 years), but accompanied by the rude awakening that as much as we like to think that the blogosphere is a mature entity, it is not always so, and sometimes the unpleasantness of the real world is dragged into it.. while i dont intend a detailed version of the controversy,in my mind, JAM has done no wrong.. but more importantly even if it has,the comments left on the post were in extremely bad taste...

and as people who have a stake in the future of blogs, it is important for us to drop in here, read about the subject, make up our mind, and offer our support.. because i think this is about an individual who seems to be doing something she believes in, and just because she happened to express herself, and that expression wasn't particularly pleasing to a group/institution, she shouldn't feel she has done something wrong, and more importantly feel isolated.. so do drop in, and for instructions on helping out, drop in here..
until next time, its Just Another Manuscrypts post!! :)

Its Party time..............

..but its nothing to celebrate, because its only a poliical parties we are talking about...

the first one is the proposed party by the CITU whose members would be from the IT and ITES communities.. and the name that i believe would reflect their objective best would be be SHIT workers - Stop Harassment of IT workers..now i am totally for the formation of an entity to protect the interests of the IT guys, but theres no need for CITU to be involved in it....

the second one has just happened at home, and the fact that its origins are in kerala is not the only thing that caught my eye.. while the founder, ex-congressman K.Karunakaran had initially wanted the name 'Indira Congress', the election commission felt it was too similar to existing parties, and therefore refused to give him permission to use that name for his party.. so, our man, not to be undone,tried to get permission for a new name, and got it!! and that resulted in the Democratic Indira Congress.. and the media went ahead and proclaimed that DIC was here,and in case there was a shadow of a doubt, there was a photo of a beaming Karunakaran, and just so it would be clear to everyone, as to who had founded the party, he made a minor modification to his party name, in contemporary style, and its now officiallyDIC(K) !!

and while speaking of acronyms, with the email scandal, injuries and the challenger series coming up, me thinks its not going to be easy being Bored of Control for Cricket in India..
until next time, GTG..:)

Massage Parlour

He was not exactly sure whether he should have come here at all.. the reason he was in two minds was because on the one side, he had felt the massage would do him good.. it was not exactly the best times of his life - a thoroughly competitive professional life, with all the perks like backbiting, idea hijacking, impossible sales targets etc, and a not so rosy personal life with looming problems like kids' education, lack of enough savings etc.. all in all, his confidence was at an all time low, and a massage would really do him good...

on the other hand,he had also heard a lot of not-so-encouraging things about massage parlours, about how they served as a front for a whole bunch of shady activities... he had been tempted to go for one of those which offered services at one's home, but he wasnt quite sure how his wife would react...But after the first few minutes into the place, he lost all his discomfort, because he was being treated like a king..

and although he knew he was paying for all of it, the sheer extravagance of the service floored him... while they gave him the initial generic massage,they asked him whether he would like to talk a bit about his professional life too, and as the conversation progressed, he felt a lot of his self confidence return... and as it moved further into his personal life, he felt that he had the solutions to all the problems, which a few hours back, he had felt were insurmountable...

a few hours later, he left the place, leaving a huge tip, and thanked profusely his good fortune,which had made him seen the ad on a rare lazy sunday, and when he had finally made the decision to go to the place which boldly said 'Massage Parlour', and in little fine print said 'all kinds of ego massages provided'...
on a sidenote, is a belief that one has controlled the ego, also an ego??

until next time, alter the ego........

Life Talkies

Have not been watching a lot of movies recently, at least not as much as i am used to watching.... a part of it is because that there are not many good movies coming out, especially in the two languages that i watch,malayalam and hindi.. english has always been second priority.. read lots of english books and no books at all in the other two, so i guess it fits like a puzzle...

it is something a lot of people have been lamenting upon - the drastic decrease in the quality of movies that are being churned out... though i do argue that some of the 'Factory' products as well as some of the 'multiplex' targeted movies in bollywood are good stuff.. but even thats not happening in the malayalam movie scene...

have heard a lot of arguments on the movies' influence on life, and vice versa, on which of these is actually true.. to cite a common example,are more people becoming part of the underworld because of the increasing number of movies being made on them, or is just a case of reel life being taken from real life...what i am wondering about is, can the lack of meaningful cinema be due to the fact that life per se has become less meaningful now.. if reel was copying real, then the superficiality of the current way of existence would automatically make movies frivolous and time pass, and nothing more deep than say, a face pack (oops, wrong example?).. on the other hand, if real was copying reel, then these movies would make us even more superficial than we are now... thankfully, movies aren't all pervasive...

until next time, screen yourself...

Smells Like Teen Spirit

The post has nothing to do with Nirvana, so apologies to the Cobain fans... but yes, the title does have relevance in a totally different context.. Since the entire country and its media have decided not to skirt the issue, i thought it might make sense for me to raise the issue here.. yup, its all about ms.mirza'a skirts and all the above puns were intended..:)

While it is known that the guy who made the initial remark about her dressing on court had both supporters and detractors, it is also quite clear to those who have seen at least one game of contemporary tennis that its quite impossible to play the game with a long skirt on.. that would get us the kind of results we might get if we compete in swimming with a formal suit rather than a swimsuit.. of course, it would give us the necessary excuses for not winning competitions, and perhaps ask for a reservation for people competing in burkha/suits in international sporting events. But all thats not the point here.. the issue would have been sidelined if sania had merely stated the obvious - that the clothes she wears are a demand of the sport she plays, and anything else would leave her at a disadvantage.. but as this article would have us believe, she is not comfortable wearing such clothes...

i have a couple of points to note though - firstly, all the women in the sport wear similar attire, but most of them, if you exclude the williams and sharapova do not offer scope for eye candy like sania does.. the kind of images that ToI splashes are proof of that, and i am very sure a little adjustment can stop the really extreme exposure that she offers, that is, if sania wanted to stop it.. secondly, for a person who flaunts attitude tshirts on a regular basis, the discomfort seems to be slightly out of character...

So at the end of it, she seems to be taking her rapt audience for a ride, with remarks about discomfort and actions which seem to be totally out of sync. and thats the only reason for the post - unfair ridicule of mass intelligence, ours!!

But, i also do think she's just another teen, who loves her game, is quite at ease with its requirements and also loves her religion and is quite at ease with its diktats, and is confused, like most of the people at her age, on how to balance the different things in her life.. so maybe we should just let her be and be mature enough to let her enjoy her game, cheer her for her exploits, let her handle the perks her performance gives her..

maybe we should stop splashing images that make her think that the number of navel gazes she serves are more important to her audience than the number of aces she serves.. we have enough tennis barbies, why try to make a sania barbie, and spoil a talent?
until next time, maybe she needs a break :)

For what i came.....

I finished reading a book recently, 'vertigo' by ashok banker... set in mumbai a little over a decade back, it explores the existence of a guy in the initial stages of his career, battling career debacles, an alcoholic mother and a stormy love life... no, i am not good at reviews, coz i rarely read objectively, which i think, is absolutely necessary to write a good review, but the book is definitely worth a read...

there was a quote in it, which appealed a lot to me, and which, if delved into, could give a lot of clarity to our existence... 'What i do is me, for that i came'.... we are what we do in life, from a personal as well as professional point of view.. to debate it further, in a perfect existence, our actions are such that there is hardly a difference between work and personal life...we enjoy doing it so much that it is no longer 'work', at least not in the way we treat it now.. imagine someone paying you for listening to music, reading, blogging, sleeping...yup, a very utopian kind of existence, but it sure would be wonderful, but i guess like all utopian theories, this one fails too, because i dont think there would be too many people who would enjoy cleaning public infrastructure, or pizza delivery, for that matter.. which i guess is why things are the way it is right now...

but its a good thought nevertheless, each of us doing exactly what we love to do, and therefore feeling that we have made a difference by our existence.. the first key being finding out exactly what it is that we would love to do.. and since that doesnt throw up too many practical answers (in the current scheme of things, that is) i suggest we get back to what we regularly do...

until next time, a post is what you came for, right? ;)

Fwd: 55

1. The police had only a couple of clues on the serial killings, the message on the bodies - "the murder number and 'of LV'" , and the victim was a criminal. They tried the known criminals' database for the initials 'LV', with no luck. They had no hopes of catching the killer, but how many would die?

2. He sat at the window, happily gazing at the vast metro. A killer out there was decimating his competition. And he knew he wouldn't die, because he had worked out the clue. And the news said murder #55 had just been committed. So when the guy barged in and shot him dead, he was surprised.

3. He waited outside the door. He had hoped to stop after the last one, but RGV insisted that the title was registered, he would have to do one more before they made the movie based on the encounter specialist. He barged in and shot the criminal point blank. This time,there was no clue.

until next time, i got it from here, try it out...

Onam

Oh yes, very much God's own festival... and yes, He had a major role to play in it.. Legend has it that the demon king Mahabali, who ruled over Kerala, was so good, that Indra, the king of Gods, felt a tinge of professional jealousy, a God size tinge... so he politely took an appointment with Vishnu, who had, by that time, made it a habit of rescuing Indra from all the shit he was constantly falling into.. Indra convinced Vishnu that the yajna that mahabali was conducting now was only a smokescreen, and it was part of the long term strategy to overthrow Indra...

And so Vishnu, who knew all about the matrix, morphed himself into a brahmin lad, went to Mahabali, and asked him for three measures of land, and the measure would be His foot.. Now Mahabali, was famed for his generosity, which was king sized, and immediately agreed, inspite of advice from his spiritual guru... What he needed was a lawyer, for, like most other cases, it was the fine print that caused his downfall.. for Vishnu, just bloated himself and in his first measure took up heaven, and in the second , earth and the other planets.. i guess, by now, mahabali would have totally lost his composure, and, in response to vishnu's query on where he should keep his third footstep, would have said 'mere sar pe'.. vishnu, wily God that he was, did just that, and pushed Mahabali into the netherworld...

Vishnu might have felt some pity, for he gave Mahabali permission to visit Kerala, once a year to see his subjects.. and the day he comes back, we Keralites celebrate Onam and sing our own versions of 'Those were the days, my friend....'

Of course, times have changed now, the Congress is ruling,and they are worse than in the times of Indra, Onam is celebrated more in UAE, America, Europe, Bangalore and other assorted places where Keralites reside in more than 3 numbers, but in spite of all that, its still Onam, and i still get a smile on my lips, even if its in memory of the good old times - yours, Mahabali, and mine too....

until next time, happy Onam to all of you...

Granted...

Wish.. we all do.. for different things - more money, a better life, that prized job, with which we think our life would become a little better than what it is now, momentarily or for a lifetime... and like always, we forget what has been granted to us without asking, and what we have taken for granted...

a loving set of parents, a good education,food when we are hungry, shelter when we need it, a lifestyle that is comfortable, money to take care of our needs, all senses intact, a couple of arms and a couple of legs, enough of thinking ability to enjoy a good book, a taste for good music and good food..

and while taking this for granted we also assume a lot of things - from the newspaper and milk being delivered in the morning to our surviving the day... that we will not fall sick, that the vehicle will not conk, that nothing will rock our personal or professional boat, that a natural disaster will not befall our peaceful existence, that we have all this because we deserve to.....

and also in between there are some moments when we take a look out of our coccooned world, and see others' version of reality, a life where survival itself is the biggest victory, and then we wonder... at least for sometime..
until next time, what if you could grant wishes.....

Tech Republic

Upfront, let me admit that an intense subconscious jealousy might be the reason for the contents of this post, but thats a big 'might'. and before i start off, let me assure you that i have nothing against the people i write about, only sympathy at the way they are being used.. and it may not be a situation which applies to everyone in the industry... disclaimer over, post start...

A few days back, i read an article that a reputed software company is going to start a beauty salon, on its campus.. the reason being that since the employees start work early and end late,they may not have time to get a haircut or facial, and so the oh-so-concerned employer is taking care of it... sometime earlier, i had also read about how creches were the latest HR craze in the silicon towers..reason being that employees shouldnt be bothered about finding a safe parking place for their toddlers... i assume the forthcoming attractions would be a work station which will double up as a dorm at night, with facilities for brushing/shaving etc, entertainment facilities for the last generation of visiting parents, express mating services coz baby, who has the time for love and romance, mini sperm banks and artificial insemination procedures, so that the correct genetic ingredients can be used to make a perfect tech kid who might be able to start programming after uttering the cursory 'papa' and 'mama' utterances, and its formal introduction to them, and yes, before i really lose it, please, a toilet seat instead of the regular seat....

Welcome to the tech republic, founded on the toil of a million professionals who bravely walk that thin line between their retina and their monitor, and their fingers and the keyboard... who are led to believe that their work is making a difference to millions of users whose life has been made easier because of the billion applications/programs that are being churned out... who are worth so much, thanks to their ESOPs, that it would make every other kind of professional hide his face in shame, but who wouldnt have the time to enjoy it.. whose life, for me, is still an enigmatic code... er, before we got diverted, wasnt the whole process about improving lives? i guess,like every republic has its own set of martyrs, so too does the tech republic...
until next time < / post >

Weight and Watch

A long long time ago, long before watching one's weight reached fashionable proportions, we used to have a simple routine at home, that of measuring our weight every month...

Having hovered around the twenty and thirty kg mark for a long time, crossing the 50 kg mark was a big priority in my wishlist... But we humans are funny folk.. its been a long time since i crossed the magic figure, and now i exercise so that i can keep it somewhere close to that figure.. like the saying goes, the more things change the more they remain the same...in childhood, it was about increasing the weight till it reached there, and now its about decreasing it...

however, i have always wondered when exactly the body weight increases, when exactly was it that i crossed from 49 kg to 50 kg.... like the movement of the hour hand of a clock, we never manage to know the exact moment... not for any particular purpose, just curiosity...
until next time, wait a second, and think about it....

Login

Karma was a good movie... Dilip Kumar did a decent job.... simple.. but no, this is not a movie review, this is about the other kind of karma.. not so simple..

as a kid, and a hindu one at that, i was given a basic understanding of karma and its functionality.. in retrospect, i do believe that it was used more for preventing any unruly behaviour on my part.. karma was the 'thing' that would get back at me later if i did any wrong..like in the case of most other things that were told to me, i fell for this one too.. but maybe that was good, anyways..

but as time passed, the belief in the flawless machinery of karma gave way to a questioning attitude, and then onto absolute disbelief... it could have been that the machinery was having a slow race competition with the indian judiciary, or with some file in the massive indian bureaucracy,anyways, it seemed to be winning.. there was no retribution from 'karma', and that was from experience..not that this knowledge was used in some diabolical plan or for some evil purpose, but the belief had been shattered...

More time has passed, and like most other things, the belief system has also come full circle, and most likely is here to stay, because unlike the first time, this is a self learning, and not something that has been drilled into the conscience.. but i do think that it is time for the karma machinery to get a good overhaul, maybe get more efficient... and like the new nationalised bank accounts, become accessible with a simple username and password..

so we could actually redeem our karma reward points!! yes, there would of course be the regular issues like 'Forgot Password' or an occasional nasty case of hacking, but overall it would be much more convenient... getting movie tickets, that new job, discounts on stuff we badly want to buy, a good marriage/ love life, not getting soaking wet in rains, getting back power supply ..would all be possible with just a karma account... and to get the points, one would have to do good deeds.... a win-win situation..
until next time, think about the possibilities!!

Retro!!

A while before i was born, there was a generation i would have loved to be part of... they are identified by a number of descriptors - flower power, hippies, love and peace etc.

the 70's was their time, and the protests against what was then conventional in society, were made in several forms - from agitation on the streets to men wearing their hair long and from groupism and drugs to song lyrics...That generation was very clear in their belief that society and humanity as a whole were going on a path that wouldn't quite turn out to be the right one, in the years to come... from the wars that were being fought for all the wrong reasons, to the pressure exerted by society on them to conform, they felt everything was going wrong.. and they fought it, by turning the tables on the way things were functioning then.. by just walking out with long hair and unkempt beards and staying in groups and resorting to drugs... not all of it was good, but they made a point...

This generation is also seeing wars, but with wrong reasons on both sides. 9/11 wasn't right, but nor was the attack on iraq... 7/7 was not right, but nor was the gunning down of an innocent guy.. but i dont see terrorism as the biggest enemy, for it can be resolved if people can be made to sit and discuss issues.. and though that was putting it simply, it still can be done...

the bigger enemy is us, for we have forgotten humanity... in a purely materialistic society, where technological advancement and career/economic advancement are the indeces of society's and the individual's development respectively, there is simply no time to lend a helping hand to those more unfortunate than us, because MMS scandals, the status of the brad pitt-angelina jolie affair, the ambani feud etc are more important to us...but when i see a 'go slow' movement thats gathering steam in Europe, and a 'blank noise' happening around me, i think we might be in for a fight.. a neo flower power movement, and a way to drag us back to a better path...

until next time, how can we play a part??

Key Bored!!

Maybe we trust the machine too much. Or maybe we expect it to do too much for us.. well anyway, the damn key on the computer keyboard does not work, or was too bored to work, and so i had to manually shift all the stuff to our new office....
i should have known, have tried to esc a lot of times, but failed!! wonder whether we really ctrl the machines, or they control us.....

until next time, is there an alt??

So....

Once upon a time, a couple of years back, the job got a bit boring in the afternoon..

so he decided to make a blog on rediff...

so blogs became a regular feature, twice maybe even thrice a week..

so it went on, the search for co bloggers..

so a few friends were made, but rediff was becoming boring...

so he decided to experiment with the template..

so html was shifted around, but it still was boring..

so he decided to shift to a new location...

so whats so great about that, you might ask..so he'd say, its really nothing great, just that he has been writing

so much in this place that he just found out that this one is actually post number sau...
until next time, i'm waiting.. someone say 'so sweet' :)

All tied up

Culturally and emotionally, it has changed a lot over the years - from this to this !!
until next time, happy rakhi to all of you :)

Remix Hits...

Not exactly a revolutionary topic for a post, but maybe its like one of those old songs we have forgotten, and get suddenly reminded of, when we hear a remix... and so it is, a topic which keeps cropping up now and then, or rather a remix of different topics....

it seems like a cycle - forgetting and remembering... especially with music.. maybe that explains the success of remixes.. of course, the videos play a major part, but yet, there must be something about a song that inspires remixes... these days, maybe we really dont get time to enjoy a song, rather , enjoy it so much and so many times that it gets imprinted in our minds..because the next 'happening' song is just around the corner.. and so a 'refresh' is inevitable every few months.. a reminder about songs we used to like...

SwB wrote a post sometime back about not knowing the words of the national anthem.. maybe this generation considers 'Jana Gana Mana...' also as a relic of the past, a baggage that must be shedded.. in this day of fading geographical boundaries, maybe there is no space for patriotism, maybe it has lost out to the MNCs and call centers that provide the daily bread...

having said all that, i do know an old song that was quite a hit from the 40s to the late 60s. in fact, our generation and those after us also know it, though it hasnt been quite that popular, but the 'pokemon/ harry potter' generation kids also stand in attention when it is sung every morning in school... if we remixed that song, it perhaps would replace a 'Rock Anthems - Remix', and the #1 selling album for some time would be "National Anthem - Remix"....
until next time, Jai Hind rocks... or is it Jay Sean??

The Morning news

He walked around the room, as if caged. and every minute, his anger grew.. for the third morning in a row, he had not got the newspapers. he had already called the vendor a couple of times, in the last two days. he had thought that at least today things would return to normal. but it didnt seem like it would. and it was no fun going down two floors of stairs to see if the paper had come, and discovering that it had not. he loved the view from the terrace, but living on the second floor had its own drawbacks. in irritation he called up the vendor again.

'Sir, we have already sent it" said the vendor

'well, i havent been getting the paper for 2 days now. tell the paperboy very clearly it is the second floor'.

'sir, it could be that the people on the ground floor have been taking your paper. dont worry, sir, i have given the boy special instructions.

'ok. i will wait.'

saying so, he ended the conversation. he decided he would resume his 'caged walk' on the terrace,with an occasional peep downstairs to see if the paper had come.

the boy had been getting a beating for no fault of his own, for the past couple of days. apparently some guy had not been getting the newspaper for two days now. he knew the house, and also knew what might be happening to the paper. he had told his boss, and today, his boss had given him some special instructions. he hoped it would work, he hated getting beaten. he reached the house, and took the special bundle, special, because the two newspapers were bound together with a cord. and with all his might, heaved it towards the second floor terrace.

at that exact moment, the man looked down... and hard hitting news got a whole new meaning!!
until next time, this is the lead story!!

Silly points

I have a feeling that my esteemed host, Blogger, is beginning to have problems with longish posts... have been trying for quite a few days now to post, but though the system accepts my test posts, the moment i post my real post, there are problems...maybe thats the way it is now,from blogger to cricket, short is sweet.... and so small posts and twenty twenty cricket may just be the future...

But having said that, i do recall a good punchline i saw recently for some local crickettournament which said 'The future of cricket is limited'... i really believe they were also referring to the indian team.. inspite of having perhaps the maximum number of potential match winners in a team, as a whole, they just ain't good enough.. although it is said that the sum of the parts is always lesser than the whole, we have a sad case of some of the parts being too big for the whole!!

Meanwhile, have been hearing the Pakistan captain Inzy requesting the English team to play a test in Karachi, but the English team has been vehemently refusing citing security reasons... i am actually wondering, after 7/7 and with Javed Mian as the proud dad after his son's marriage to Dawood's daughter, Karachi might just be the safest place on the planet, at least, as far as cricket venues go...
until next time, maybe maybe Dawood XI vs Dravid XI is the future....

Time, and time again.....

Alarm. brush. tea. shave. shit. newspaper. fm. tv. morning headlines. bath. dress. kickstart. petrol. traffic.honk. abuse. good morning. meeting. mail. excel. tea. word. monster. boss. powerpoint. lunch. good afternoon. crib. meeting. call/wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend. browse. blog. meeting. agency. tea. socialise. bitch. consultant. boss. plan. mail. good evening. deadline. tea. browse. shutdown. traffic. honk. #$^%&%. tv. plan. music. eat. post. tv. goodnight.

all through the day, we race against time, and at night, while we sleep, time races ahead...
until next time, who's winning??

Hogwash

Howling was a worried author. Though her books were appreciated by the masses, she hadnt been able to reach quite the same level as a cetain mr.erle stanley gardner. and she was quite sure that it was mostly due to the one star character that gardner had created - perry mason. yes, thought Howling, that was what she needed - an iconic character. she didnt want to take the competition head on, so the character couldnt be a lawyer. there was only one profession that could offer the same kind of thrills, mystery, sex and intrigue - a private detective. and thus was born Parry Hotter. Parry, a take on Perry, and Hotter, because Howling thought hes character would be, well, a much hotter proposition in the market. and what followed was

Parry Hotter and the Philosopher's Stone

Donald Chump had everything - money, power, hair, a successful reality show, but in spite of all this, he was a worried man. women hated him. inspite of all the pheramone perfumes and pickup lines that his staff wrote for him, he simply couldnt woo a woman. But he still had some hope, for legend had it that a philosopher in ancient greece had found the secret of what women really wanted, and had capsuled the secret into a stone. Chump was told by his advisors that if it existed, there was only one man who could get it for him - Parry Hotter. Chump only told him two words - You're hired!! And thus begins Parry's journey to Greece and its past. Will Parry get the stone? Will Chump become a lady's man??In the very first book of the series, Howling has created a character that looks all set to become an icon for generations to come.

Parry Hotter and the Chamber of Secrets

It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the second book of the series, Howling has raised controversial questions on America's legislature, the Clinton administration and the nation's esteemed judiciary. Parry Hotter has been hired by the opposition to investigate rumours about the secret happenings in the presidential chambers. As he gets sucked into the vortex of political manipulation, lust, greed, scandal, sex and power, the tension mounts. Will Parry get his cover blown? Or will he get the job done?

Parry Hotter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In this new novel, set in the war torn middle east, Howling has tried to take a moral stance on global issues. Parry Hotter has been enlisted by a rebel group to help its leader escape from the heavily guarded military base at Azkaban. Battling double agents, regime loyalists, lookalikes, and deadly arab damsels, and torn between loyalty to his nation and global sympathy, Parry has to decide - is he saving a tyrannical dictator or an old man who stood up to the most powerful nation on earth?

Parry Hotter and the Goblet of Fire

Its a threat as old as the world itself. Countless people have fought it and countless have succumbed to it - drugs. In his new adventure, Parry Hotter is on the trail of a mandarin who holds the secret to the most potent drug in the scene today. Known as the goblet of fire, the addictive potion has already killed thousands and is well on its way to destroying millions more. as parry hunts the mandarin of death from the jungles of colombia to the beaches of goa, and the drug infested streets of hong kong to the teeming nightlife of London, he comes face to face with the troubles of a generation, which is in search of itself.can parry douse the fire thats eating up an entire generation??

Parry Hotter and the Order of the Phoenix

In her stunning new novel, Howling brings Parry full circle. Thanks to Parry, Donald Chump is now quite a lady killer. But in his quest for more power, he has created an army of deadly female assassins. With the help of the Philosopher's stone, he has manipulated them to having only a single mission - helping Chump become the most superior power on earth. from models and actresses to princesses and heads of state, chump continues to lure more and more women into his army of assassins. he has named them the 'order of the phoenix' for the sheer lust for them could make men rise even from their ashes. As the world awakens to the threat of Chump, it becomes evident that there's only one man who can save the earth from the clutches of chump - Parry Hotter.

Parry Hotter and the Half Blood Prince

Parry Hotter has retired from his life of adventure. But even he cant resist a challenge, especially when there's royalty involved. The young prince of england is ready to be coronated. all england is in joy, but a dark cloud is in the horizon. it has become known that theres someone who wants to assassinate the prince. as a pall of gloom envelops the royal family, it also becomes known that the villain in the piece is none other than the illegitimate son of the prince's mother and her businessman lover. Raised by his grandparents after his parents' horrible death in a car crash, he is known as the half blood prince.

As he battles the vested interests of tabloids in search of scandals and former royal employees turned bestselling authors, the world expects magic from parry, but has he met his match this time??

until next time, i can see brickbats and broomsticks chasing me.....

Ad Mad World...

Advertisements, that which are used to market things we may or may not want... but now, television commercials have become a source of entertainment all by themselves, irrespective of whether theproduct/service is interesting to us at all.. and so, that got me thinking, do we relate to ads in the same way that we relate to fellow humans also...

We have the ads that are about the things we have to live with the mobiles and service providers,which are essential for us on a routine basis... kinda like relatives.. dont necessarily have to like them, but not exactly disposable either.. of course, among these we might find some ads that we love, just like some cousins/aunts/uncles etc who are special to us and nice people who happen to be relatives...

and then there are ads, which may not have any relation to what we want, but we still like them and may even adopt the product/service because of this liking.. like friends... of course, the friends hopefully last longer than the particular ad campaign...in general, we most usually like the ads that have a bit of humour in them, or the ones that give an emotional tug, or the ones that remind us of us... i guess we relate to people in a similar kind of way...

yes, i am into marketing and am working a lot these days, work which includes ads... and yes, it would have been still okay if it reflected only in the posts i write, but when, during introductions, when i respond to 'Hi, i am Xyzee', with a 'Hi, I am stressed', i guess there is a problem somewhere ;)
until next time, does it all add up??

The English have gone, but....

Remeber the scene in 'Pretty Woman' where Julia Roberts goes into the swanky clothes store and gets politely thrown out, because they serve only a certain elite clientele, and she certainly didnt fit that profile. i remebered it too, a few days back....

The city has got itself a new eatery, perfectly located at the most happening mall here... the name of the restaurant is that of the first 'real' train that ever ran in India,and they have a theme that matches it, complete with a section that looks like the inside of a railway carriage, and bells which are sounded regularly, followed by announcements.. the music,is of course, instrumental, thankfully old hindi tracks... and thats enough of description..

So, we landed up at the reception, partially wet from the rains which insists on keeping me company these days, where we were met by a very neatly dressed lady... we were given a 'top to bottom' appraisal and obviously we werent impressive enough (well, what can a faded jacket, denim, a beard without a moustache for company, and a 'got wet in the rain' look muster!!), for she politely said that we would have to wait for at least an hour before she could get us a seat... nice try, ma'am!!

to be fair, there was a crowd there, and i would have been happy if that was the reason.. but the guys have taken the ambience very seriously, and were behaving with us, exactly the way the English used to, with a contempt underlying all words and actions...

once upon a time, we got the British to do it to us, but these days, we do it all to ourselves!!
until next time, i guess its only food... for thought...

Playing Favourites

I once had a tshirt, a full sleeved one with wide horizontal black and red stripes.. it was my favouite tee, around the time superman was my fave superhero.. and this one looked like one of the costumes of lex luthor. i used to wear it a lot, to the point where someone commented that it had somehow got stuck to me....

a few years later, when i was asked whether it could be thrown away,i replied with a nonchalant yes. i was told that the reason i was asked was because of my near obsessive relationship with it, until a few years back... 'That one??!!", i responded, and immediately set about destroying photographic evidence for the association, and since that was my 'best dress', the evidence was considerable.. as the years have passed, i have come to realise that this was not an isolated phenomenon. i guess all of us do it, at different stages of life, cutting of our association with many of the things we used to cherish till only a few years back.. in most cases, we dont mind the growing up, we get tired of the stuff we have been loving for quite some time and in fact go to some extent to exile the memories, but sometimes the wheel turns all around, and we end up yearning for the 'evidence' that can bring back the memories...

and all this is not just limited to inaminate things like books, clothes, food, music, hairstyles..its evn with people... there are times in our life when we dont acknowledge people who might be closely associated with us, and there are times when we repent this, and when i am a little older, i think i'll have more 'times' to add on.

the concept, i think, is called growing up, and it works on both kinds of things - the ones we used to love, and the ones we are used to loving....
until next time, 'now playing' what favourites?

English July

i have always believed that it all balances out, sometimes in the end, sometimes much before that..and it applies to evrything, from the micro level of a person's life - his career, personal life etc to the macro level - in terms of cities, states, nations, politics and everything else big and small that we see around us, and then, even further to the things that we may not even be seeing or understanding... and last week actually reinforced the idea a bit more....

If there has to be one place that can be termed as the most 'happening' these days, it has to be Great Britain. First it was tennis. In all the Grand Slams, if i had to choose the one i enjoyed most, it has to be Wimbledon.. it must be the grass, and the sheer power and excitement that it generates.. yes, it is only the surface we were discussing.. and if one would have thought that nothing could match this excitement, London got the news that it had to set the stage for the Olympics 2012. Considering that it happens only once every four years, and is undoubtedly the best place to showcase athletic ability, that, old boy, could turn out to be a much more exciting ballgame!!

And just in case one thought that at least the weekend would be uneventful, Silverstone had the scene set for the British Grand Prix - Alonso, Raikkonen, Schumacher....exciting would be an understatement.

And with all this happening, London had a blast, literally, and unfortunately, quite a few of them....
Until next time, i guess it isnt just the English weather thats unpredictable....

Of Parents and Children...

A generation which believed in arranged marriage, the security of government jobs, which hated being in debt, looked forward to the coke cans brought by relatives who were lucky enough to go abroad, whose aim was a home by the age of retirement, who made annual trips to their 'native place' in second class railway compartments, for whom Bombay was the land where dreams could become reality, who heard live commentary of cricket matches on AIR, who went to the airport with family to receive or see off those rare people who were fortunate to go abroad, who forwarded the lovemaking scenes in movies because they were shy, who accepted that bureaucracy had to be oiled with bribes, for whom Amitabh Bacchhan was just an angry young man trying to fill the shoes of his predecessors in vain, who belived in getting home by 6'o clock,whose only idea of balance was the kind they had at the bank, and maintained a work-life balance without realising it, who believed they were lucky enough to get the rin shakti and taste the thunder, and would get confused with anymore choices than available in the market, for whom the movies and a dine out were rare occasions to be savoured, who believed in making pickles at home,for whom razors were blades, and who would be appalled at 'that time of the month' being advertised, and for whom the only discs were the flying ones their kids played with, or the ones that were suddenly supposed to land from space one fine day, just like subhas chandra bose who would reveal himself from anonymity one day, who had to carry their entire water supply on train journeys, who firmly believed that a woman's place was at home, whose only idea of shares was the kind they would be getting from their parents, who still hadnt quite decided between capitalism and socialism, who believed in keeping their refrigerator in the living room coz it was a status symbol, who could look out of their windows and marvel at the sights that nature made, whose mailboxes got full only when the entire family went for vacation, who believed in one life-one job, whose retirement plans included staying with their offspring, who made financial plans for their parents as well as children, who loved having their kids on their lap, and looked in wide eyed amazement at the silly things their grandchildren did, a generation with hardly any choices...
A generation which believes in arranging their own marriage, the insecurity of the job market,which lives a life on EMI, has difficulty deciding between diet or regular coke, whose aim is a home by the age of retirement, one each in 3 metros, who hate the fact that their hometown doesnt have an airport and so increases their transit time by a few hours, for whom reality is what you make out of your dreams, wherever you were, who see live webcasts of championships on their handheld device, who are lucky if their family receives them after international trips, forget local ones, who forward the lovemaking scenes in movies because of the overdose, whose only interaction with the bureaucracy is a tacky webpage, for whom Big B is the biggest anyone could be in Bollywood, who regularly make and break plans of reaching home by 6'o clock in an effort to get that elusive work-life balance, while maintaing a portfolio with the right equity-debt balance, who would switch to a different brand at the slightest dissatisfaction, for whom the movies and a dine out are rare occasions,because home deliveries and home theatres are so much more convenient, who actually like 'Mothers Recipes', mostly the packaged kind, for whom razors are like most other things, disposable,who believe that sanitary napkins were just another FMCG product, period!!, for whom discs are of two kinds- the ones you go to when you want to party and the ones that give you music and movies, like the recent one you bought , a movie about some forgotten freedom hero by Shyam Benegal; who love the idea of 'pet bottles', coz you actually dont need a 500 ml bottle for such a short journey, who firmly believe that a woman should be allowed to work from home, if she so wished, who rack their brains to decide which shares to invest in, who dont care a hoot if it is capitalism, socialism or bipasha basu's jism, just so long as they have a blast, who are sligtly uncomfortable about the fridge in their kitchen coz it lacks the usual inbuilt TV in it, who watch on Windows the marvelous 'nature' screensavers, whose mailboxes are full and overflowing from all the vacation snaps from other family members, who sometimes contemplate whether a life is just a job to be finished, who believe in making safe retirement plans coz they know their children wouldnt have them in their plans, and make plans for their children so they dont run the risk of getting sued, who love having their children as their laptop wallpaper, and look in wide eyed amazement at the silly things their parents did...a generation with multiple choice in education, career, sex, food, entertainment ...life!!

and a generation in between, that cant quite figure out where it belongs, and is, well, in between.. a generation which maybe has the options, but cant quite make the choices...

until next time, bridge the gap...

Of red and black figures....

He sat looking at the latest figures, some of them encouraging, while some quite the reverse. Now he had to make plans which would ensure that he wasnt chastised for the figures, and also reach an agreement on the next month's figures - low enough so he could achieve them easily... both daunting tasks.

He was thankful that none of the figures were in red, that was the worst that could happen.. but even then, these were not the kind of figures that inspired people.. but he had a plan in mind,he would talk about competition, and how they used unfair methods to get the numbers they got,of how the solutions he gave were not given the kind of respect they deserved, but the Calvin kind of dialogues always got him into trouble, so he would have to tread carefully..

he believed that he could think and act for himself, but his parents had little faith in him, well, only as much faith as could be, on a 10 year old, who did all he could, to talk his way out of the dismal marks he got at school..

He was waiting to become older, when he wouldnt have to go through all this nonsense. he would start working, and then he would be able to do exactly what he wanted, and not bother about justifying to others about figures at all.....

until next time, the battles are still the same..:)

Frozen in Time

It is as though people have accepted the fact that there are lot of things they have to do, but they have only 24 hours in any given day to do them. and so, as a part of technology's efforts to do something about it, they brought out a gizmo called media center, a comp system like no other...So you can record your favourite programs while you are out missing it.

if you think thats what any VCR worth its salt used to anyway do, you can also pause live TV, while you attend that all important call.. and after you are through doing it, you can just go back to your comp and resume the telecast of the match you were watching before you were so rudely interrupted.but there are lots of stuff i am wondering about - if the program was so important, you could have switched off your phone or put it on voice mail..okay, so you maintain that lovely balance between your work and home, so you cant afford to do either...

so you miss the match for 10 minutes... now, that stupid friend of yours, whose interest in thematch is equal to yours, calls you after the match is over and tells you the graphic details of the finish, when you are still 10 minutes away from the finish.. wouldnt that be fun?? so the options - soon after that important call, you call up all your friends and inform them that you are watching the match 10 minutes delayed, so they better not call (of course among them, theres also the friend who sends you the suspense of thriller movies by sms)... or you call them up and get them also delayed by 10 minutes... or stop having a social life, so there are no friends who can call you... or pray that Microsoft derives a way where it automatically gets your friends list from messenger and also freezes their telecast simultaneously (and therebyhave them curse you, like they curse the power supply - " that b****** has got a call again!!), or spend more money and enroll in a course that teaches you time management, or maybe we can increase our office time and see all the stuff we wanted to see in our youth and middle age, after retirement.....

or we can stop trying to fiddle with time .. and maybe try to fathom why some things are best left the way they are..

until next time, wait and watch??

Point of view

He wanted to die. he just wanted to die. he wasnt sad, nor was he in any kind of trouble. but he still wanted to die. to all the people who enquired, he asked what the whole fuss of death was all about.

he asked them whether they knew what happened after death. all of them had their pet theories, but no one was too sure. he said that was exactly what his problem was. he wanted to know what happened after death.

maybe the experience was heavenly, that was why no one ever came back. maybe they had to go through hell to get back. whatever it was, he was just dying to see it!!
until next time, i wonder, i just wonder :)

The Story of Storeys

After a little bit of thinking and a small climb, he reached the first storey. he knew all the people there. they asked him what he was upto. he told them to guess. he also told them to come to the next storey in a few days time, and he would get them to have some fun. they were curious enough to come, and he guessed they were having fun, because when he told them he was going to the next storey, and they could visit him in a few days time, they loved the idea.

and so it went on, storey by storey.. on some storeys, he met a new set of people he didnt know. some of them joined him. he also noticed that on some storeys, there were few who dropped out, but he kept climbing. maybe they were tired, he wasnt.

after quite a few storeys, he realised that most of the people who were with him initially, were gone. he had seen some of them saying goodbye, some had just disappeared. he was also quite tired now, because most of the storeys had been made in such a way that there were a lot of twists and turns. he should know, for he had made them.

i think you know what i am talking about. exactly the problem, you have started guessing right. and though you might be having some fun, you are kinda tired of all the storeys. all this twisting and turning can be quite tiresome. there are still lots of stories out there. but for now, lets rest a while, and maybe discuss the view outside.

we'll still make stories, but not all the while :)

until next time, nobody ever gives ME any stories!!

The Choice

It is said that one's timing has to be deft,
while choosing among the options in sight,
for what is right may not be left,
and what is left may not be right...


until next time, maybe we dont have a choice at all.....

Moving On

He had been thinking of moving from his current residence for quite some time now. Previously, everytime he had decided that he would move, he had encountered problems - sometimes financial, sometimes an emotional tug of moving away from his regular premises, and sometimes the sheer lethargy that prevents one from moving on... but this time he was sure he had got it all right...

He was a bestselling author, all of two books old, and though he had struggled a bit in his early days, his first book had been such a big hit that it ensured that he would never again have to struggle.. but as is often the case, his first book had taken a lot out of him, emotionally and literally, because like very many authors, his first book had pieces of his own life in it...

He waited a long time to write his second book, and though it never managed to scale the heights of its predecessor, it still sold on his name.. and though the critics said its author would never again write as good a book as the first, it raked in enough moolah for him to enjoy himself and let money take a backseat...

that was a long time ago, and during the initial days after his second book's success, he had a whale of time for a long time... which was the reason now, that he decided that he had to buy himself a good house in a new locality... because it was time for a third book.. he had no clue what he would be writing, but that didnt bother him much, he was sure he would get an idea soon..

And so he had chosen a plush locality, extremely fashionable, and more importantly that which housed a whole lot of authors.. of course, it wasnt that all important authors lived there, in fact, most of them were like him, writers of one or two books, who now wanted a peaceful locality in which to sit and think of ideas that would help them write a book... exactly the thought that was taking him there... he was sure his next big idea was waiting for him there..

however, what he didnt know was, none of the authors in the locality had published a book, after they had started living there, and the residents of the surrounding areas were now calling the locality by exactly the same name as they had called it earlier, only now they meant it in a different way.. the locality was called 'Writers Block, ' and he was moving into it....
until next time, planning to move?