Broken record

Come to think of it, i think there might have been a reason behind the 'dumb post'... after a period of regular writing, the posts start getting a bit monotonous... like getting stuck in a certain groove.. to the extent that i know broadly what all i could possibly write here, and expect to write exactly that when i sit down to write the post...remember the time when i used to write only stories.. just about the time that phase ended,i had contemplated quitting the blog for sometime, because a twist in each tale is quite a task to accomplish, especially if you are doing only that... but it isnt that easy to let go, and so,after a bit of thought, i decided i wouldnt restrict myself with any constraints...

but after a lil look at the last few posts, i have realised that maybe it is not something i do consciously, getting into the groove, that is, but the problem is that sooner or later, i will sound like a broken record, and that definitely isnt good news...but guess what the twist in this is..

if i do decide not to write according to a pattern, then i have to consciously write posts that do not fall into a pattern, and knowing me, THAT would then become the pattern... yes, i also realise that i have written a post almost as dumb as the last one, and that wasn't exactly conscious..uh oh, do you think i am already in the groove?

until next time, this one is just for the record :)

Dumb Post

If the state of being bored is boredom,
and the state of being free is freedom,
and the state of being a star is stardom,
and (coincidentally) the state of a king is kingdom,
what would the state of being conned be??

until next time, not to worry, this post is just random :)

Point Being...

Have finished both of Chetan Bhagat's books - the hugely popular 'Five point someone', and the heavily trashed 'One night at the Call center', and that doesnt mean i can write book reviews..:) because like i have repeatedy said, i am really bad at them, but that doesnt stop me from commenting on books anyway...

I happened to read ONATCC first, and i felt it was a fairly good book.. i doubt if it is meant to provoke a deep analysis of self and the cosmos.. but it does give a peek into the working of the industry that employs a large percentage of today's youth, and the lives of these guys..its a racy book and more importantly excellent value for money.. to all the literary critics, i would say that we sit and laugh at the 'No Entry's and the 'Meet the Parents' fully understanding that theres hardly any cinematic value to it.. in the nation's lingo its called timepass, and theres no harm if an author caters to that need at all.. and so, in essence, the book wont change your life, unless you took a day off from work to read it or something...

Five point someone also has a good pace, and while there are occasions which are too 'filmi' (like x thing happening to the exact x person at exact x time, which is too convenient for random coincidence), it is still a good read...i think the difference between the two books is that while FPS is a first person experience (for mr.bhagat), ONATCC is perhaps in a setting about which he only has another person's view of...and while the prologue in ONATCC says that the book is written primarily to accomodate the larger sections of youth untouched by the IIT (which is the setting in FPS), i feel that FPS also applies to most of the residential colleges because all have grading systems, weird profs, love lives, canteens, and stereotype characters.. i think that made the book successful, because most of everyone could identify it with the (arguably) golden era of their lives - college days..So, point being, i am really bad at reviews, but you should read the books :)
until next time, we pass time, and time passes us :)

Time.....

Finished reading a book a while back, titled 'Emperors of the Peacock Throne'.. it is a chronicle of the mughal empire, starting from Babur to a little beyond Aurangazeb's reign.. While the book did give a lot of interesting tidbits that were contrary to popular knowledge (like the fact that anarkali was actually part of akbar's harem, and was at least 13 years older to salim) a more interesting thought crept into my mind, as i read the last few pages of the book...

the entire mughal era, spanning over 300 years has been condensed into 500 odd pages of well written history (well written because it is more like a story than history).. but while i read about the conquests of babur, the administrative policies of akbar, and the feuds ofaurangazeb, these are, in my eyes, only characters in history.. what i later realise, on more thought, is that these are also humans, who had their own thoughts... and while these characters are at least represented in the books, there are millionsand millions of characters who were part of the background - ministers, soldiers, common people.each of them had a life, some boring, some interesting, some routine, some filled with adventure,but each with a story to tell... but perhaps never told by anyone..

the point i am trying to make - while we run around doing things that are seemingly vital at that point of time and place and our lives, perhaps we do not realise that in the absolute vastness of time and space, it is maybe of no significance.. or maybe it is, in some way we cant fathom -through children and grandchildren and so on... we would like to think so...not that we should stop what we do, but somewhere, sometimes also remember that we are but tiny cogs in His vast machinery, and realise our humble role...
until next time, how ever is forever??

Memories

...of the relatively ignorant bliss of childhood... of the roller coaster ride of adolescence, the exhilrating times of youth... so far.. and perhaps as we grow older, the realisation of middle age, and the inevitability of old age... by the time we reach the twilight of ourlives, perhaps these memories become one of the pillars of our lives...

something that we never work towards, and assume that our minds would automatically record and catalog it - by person, by time, by taste, smell and hordes of other things that cant be described..

I saw a malayalam movie recently, a movie i was looking forward to seeing, featuring my fave actor and directed by a one movie old director, who had set an extremely high benchmark with his debut movie.. and thankfully, it delivered, and how!! it reinstored my faith in actor whose performance screamed out that all he needed were good scripts and he would do the rest.

that was a necessary digression, because even the trigger for a post has to be acknowledged, specially one as deserving as this movie...the story of a man who, while having never accomplished his dream, retains his faith in his intellectual abilities, and hopes that he can live his dream through his son. a man who has to balance his duty towards his father with that towards his son.. and while he focuses all his energies on all these happenings in his life, gets struck with alzheimers.... i cant remember a malayalam movie in years which can come remotely close to this one .. and no, thats not because of any ailment, its because there hasnt been a movie like this in years...:)

its a movie that made me think.. day after day after day, we go around focusing ourselves on the short term and long term things we aspire to do.. some get a joy out of a night with friends, some get it with the knowledge that their investments are safe and sound, some get a joy out of having achieved something..but all of us get a joy out of remembering the good times we have had in our lives... what if we cant remember those.. in His infinite wisdom, perhaps he has answered this too, for if we dont know that we cant remember, theres no pain... we will live small lives, with joys and sorrows we would never remember later...
until next time, remember to drop in again :)

Beginnings and Endings

Saw a lot of new year resolutions on blogs, and that sparked a little post in my head, and it was given a little more sense of direction by a couple of posts - by Aqua and Hyde...

It is customary to fix a few resolutions on New year, or so they say.. from going to the gym to stop being rude to others to control on number of parallel love lives, it could be anything, depending on subjective fancies..some of us keep it, and some of us just keep it...

On a larger canvas, by the time we reach the age when we can decide about ourselves, and have quite about decided on ourselves, there are some goals we set for ourselves - personally,professionally and a lot of things that are general, and having to do with the fact that we will be living a certain number of years on the planet... things that we must do (we feel),things that we aspire to do, and things we would love to do... (i wonder if the higher power interferes while we set these)

as we progress in life, and as our lives progress on us, a lot of these get changed, because of time, the people we interact with, and ironically also because of the sheer inertia that prevents us from changing our habits... (i would love to be at x kgs all my life, but i cant wake up at x am daily to exercise)..and suddenly one day, when we sit staring at the stars, we realise how much we have changed,and how different we are from the original age when we had set these goals... the arbit comments we make on ourselves like 'i had never thought i would do this' are only words and we are perhaps not aware of the statement's depth...

maybe the initial ideals were right, and maybe the current 'us' is right... there is no way to anlayse the paths that might have been... do we owe something to the first time we set our goals, and do we owe something to a higher power which might have set a goal for us...meanwhile, life happens, and perhaps we only happen to be in it....
until next time, whats happening??

Papa Preach!!

It must be because all of us are around the same age, or maybe its the template way of our existence.. anyways, have recently read at least 3-4 posts that have to do with parents' retirement.. and again due to the typical way of our existence, its mostly dads who are written about... also interesting are the comments, that in some way identify with the situation...

while i do agree that retirement in some way creates a void in life thats difficult to replace, i have also begun to think that the above set of dads have achieved more than what we have, or will... and thats perhaps the better way to look at it...

They have the respect of their sons, daughters.. they have settled themselves well, and even provided for their children.. they may perhaps have never known a career crisis... and they are proud of the work they have accomplished in their career...they havent worked so hard that they never had time for the little joys in life.. they have passed on a value system to their next generation..they can look back and say that they did justice to their parents, in terms of time and attention..

yes, they might offer you advice that you wouldn't follow, and bore you with what they did and how, but that, i guess is a nice way of knowing about a way of life that once was...

until next time, father figures...best

Two thousand sicks

No, i wouldnt be able to manage that many sicks

so the few below are my picks..

Its another year, so lend me your ear

and listen to this year's list of what will be fun to hear...

Harry will object to the British tabloids' findings that he is a half blood prince.

Ajay Devgan will become the first actor in the world to respond to all incoming calls.

Paris Hilton will finally get married and become a Desperate Housewife.

Pawar politics will not hamper the future of Indian cricket.

Yana Gupta will get intelligent enough to play chess, and perhaps then checkmate me ;) (that should be easy)

Natwar Singh will get cholesterol conscious and have less oil in his food.

Ekta Kapoor will launch Kkaun Banega Mera Pati?

Williams, driven by Narain Kartikeyan will narrowly lose to Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Young Indian bloggers will get the global recognition they deserve.

English Premier League champions ManU will thank this blog for its continued support.

Aamir Khan will get married to Kiran and on his honeymoon will hear a familiar voice saying kkkkkkiran, if you aren't happy with The Rising, Main Hoon Na....

Radha will remain a character in Hindu mythology and will not reincarnate in the form of people like Panda.

until next time, that does make a Happy New Year, you know :)
PS: Last year's list