Go Ah!!!

Yup, thats exactly what you do when you are in Goa... after 4 long years, i finally made the trip.. to the place where i spent the 2 best years of my life... and i can safely say, discovered severals facets of myself... and so it was a trip i was looking forward to... not just for the sun and the sand and the way of life, but also a trip to my alma mater...... and discovered that things had changed, in Goa as well as at the insti.. the people, mercifully hadnt changed, still lazy as can humanly be, oh i love them for it... :).

i saw an excellent campaign by a liquor brand -Arlem, i think the name was, which hit the nail on thehead. it said 'Its Goa...chilled' but some of the places had changed... Panjim, for example, had 2 Coffee Day outlets and an Inox... the time i left Goa, a Barista had opened in Panjim, but there is no trace of it now...

and there had been 2 theatres in Panjim which were reasonable, Samrat & Ashok, i bet they must be having a tough time now...

the 'kingfisher' neon that was a landmark is now joined by Airtel and RIM... there is a bridge to Arambol instead of the ferry, so yeah, things have indeed changed...

All the students at the insti now have laptops and cellphones.. in the three batches that i have seen there (1 senior, ours and 1 junior) only one person had a laptop and a mobile phone (the first in our senior batch and the second in our batch).. so the students dont speak much to the faculty, they call them or mail them... and there are no messages on paper, they have (i guess)e-chits...the beaches are there, so are the firangs, and the view from Chapora, and Titos, and the Mandovi still flows silently..but like everything else everywhere, the winds of change keep blowing...and like all the other pieces in my memory, the one about Goa is also frozen at the time i loved it best..

until next time, keep the change...

Hot and Happening

A hiatus for a week.. from most of everything familiar and routine.. work, bangalore, blog, mobile and so on.. and while the first three happened by design, the last one was (i guess) His version of 'Take 3 get one free'.. while i was crossing a little ford on palolem beach, i happened to forget that my mobile was in my pocket and that it was allergic to sea water..:) and thats how i got a hiatus from ringtones and messages...

The 'Hot' comes from the fact that Goa was really hot... and the 'Happening' from life per se..a really happening week, the first two days were part of the first proper vacation i have taken in 3 years (no, going home is not exactly vacation), i took up a job offer in the middle of the week (again after 3 years) and shifted house (no surprises, again after 3 years) :) And that, i guess, is why 'The Byrds' have sung

For everything turn turn turn

There is a season turn turn turn

until next time, wonder whats around the next turn....

The Answer lies

In the soft breeze that blows across your face and makes you feel alive

and the hurricane that sweeps across the face of the earth and makes you pray for life

the innocent toothless grin of a toddler about to embark on his life's journey

and the toothless grin of an 80 year old who has seen everything on his life's journey

the starlit sky that makes you humble and contemplative of life

and the stars that can predict everything that happens in your life

the minds of those who left their progenitors to live their own life

and in the minds of those whose are left by their progeny to live their own life

the white blood cells whose cancerous growth threatens life

and the defficiency of white blood cells in the immune system that threatens life

the fire whose invention changed the destiny of humanity

and the fire in you that could change humanity

the money that can be used to better millions of lives

and all the money that cant save even one life

the minds of those who ask questions but cant wait for the answer

and the minds of those who are unquestoning and accept the answers

until next time, yes, my friends, it is blowin in the wind

See D !!!

D and i wanted to see Zinda.. and being pirate friendly, had been asking the CD guy for a copy..but every weekend we asked, he had already given it to someone else, inspite of us asking him to keep it for us...and so the general conversation with the CD guy was

D: Zinda hain?

CD guy: nahi madam

and after this ritual for 3 weekends, i really couldnt blame D when this conversation happened,

D: Zinda hain?

CD guy: nahi madam

D: Home Delivery hain?

CD guy: haan madam (and takes the VCD out for her)

D: yeh nahi, hum paas main hi rehte hain, jab zinda hoga to home delivery kar dena..

naah, i told her, but she didnt do it, it would have been fun.. :)

until next time, zinda hoon main ...

Vrooooom....

When every traffic signal is seen as a Starting Grid

When filling petrol is thought of as a pit stop

And the petrol attendants your pit crew

When all the different routes you take are circuits

and turns are thought of as chicanes

You oughta know that the F1 season is on......................

until next time, everyday is a raceday..

Unreasoning

Uneventful, but peaceful, is a phrase i read recently, and it struck a chord in me, while i was wondering exactly what to write about...Some springs, they say, are eternal.. as for the normal ones, they have their runs, and then they have their dry runs..

i guess its the same with bloggers too, sometimes the thoughts gush and flow, and you have to put a conscious stop to it, and at other times, you have to will yourself to write a post.. while there are a million reasons to post, there are only a few reasons not to post - either no time, or nothing to write about... the time problem is quite easy to solve, but the block isnt..

i was wondering the reasons for the block - Every post's genesis lies in some kind of stimulus - something you experience through your six senses, plus maybe your dreams, which then gets converted to a thought process and then on to a post... what if the things that you experience become routine and mundane, then theres no stimulus, no thought and no post... uneventful but peaceful, has perhaps become a way of life...
until next time, everything that happens, happens for a reason..

Morning Sickness

I envy the people who get up fresh every morning... Irrespective of how early i sleep or how late i wake up, the sleep i get is never enough.. of course, to the untrained minds, this would perhaps be an expression of laziness, but its not, because once i force myself to get up, theres absolutely no inertia involved...

is it because of the amount of work i pack in the day, that invokes this feeling. maybe the body and the mind are reacting to its necessity for rest... i really dont know any other name to call it by hence the title of the post...

I would love to sleep for an entire day and see the effects. maybe i will get over it, and then again, maybe i wont.. come to think of it, theres something about the 'lazy' yawn thats so appealing... 'lazy' sunday afternoons shouldnt be restricted to sundays alone..

In fact, why does lazy have a negative connotation at all... i envy the people who get up fresh every morning... how blissful can ignorance be...

until next time, yes, that was a lazy rant...

Welcome to wherever you are....

A few days back, i read a post which brought out a couple of things that are always whirling about in my mind and so find a way some of my posts too.. one a smaller picture of the way we treat other humans, and the other a slightly larger one, of who decides what role i got in life - human,indian, keralite,middle class,all body parts functional,career in marketing etc..

A bit of thought also made me realise that there could be many ways of looking at it. One could be remaining blissfully unaware and not even contemplating about the existence ofHis plan. Another could be recognising it but not too bothered by it. A third, which i see around me and sometimes within me, is the recognition with a step further.

He made me to be here, now, the way i am. somehow, somewhere i have earned the right and i belong this way. His plan also has taken care of the pain and suffering i see around me and these are not the things i should be concerned with, its a part of the bigger canvas. The last, is where i hope to be at some point of time - a recognition of the plan but with the compassion to help out where i can...

until next time, does He have a Plan B?

The Search

It was towards the weekend that i realised that a lot of it was lost. i cant remember the single moment of realisation, but i have a feeling it was subconsciously being lost all the while, yet the extent was not so large as to trigger the alarm...

And so i started searching for it... i used it both at office and home, actually everywhere, but since i couldnt search everywhere, the search was broadly categorised into home and office..i figured it was the office because i was careful about its usage at home, what with the wife keeping a close watch and all.. i asked my colleagues, who while promising help, didnt have too much of an idea on what could be done...i even spoke to my boss and said that this was aserious matter, that he should take it up at some forum, and that i would have some of my attention on it so i dont lose it further...

i checked all the drawers and the cupboards, the loo and even the comp, since it was also in the usage domain - excel, word, the internet.. all the while i was getting clues, but nothing concrete..and then, slowly but surely the realisation dawned on me that it was being lost everywhere- all the places mentioned above and more.. and i also realised that it was being lost even as i searched for it - Time....
until next time, you think Google can help?
The trigger was a comment on one of the egroups i am a part of..

Bombay Dying??

No, it isnt a doomsday prophecy... its just a manifestation of the 'what fun without pun' phenomenon :)...

its about the brand many of us have heard of, and worn too, as part of our school life... a few days back i saw an ad of theirs, which said there was a discount of upto 60% off on bath towels (yes, occasionally i do that too), but conveniently not mentioning where their outlets were...but as luck would have it, we managed to find one (purely by chance).. i think my last visit to a Bombay Dyeing showroom would have been around 6 years back, for trouser material!! and that was in good old God's own Country, where the premium on education might also have inadvertently lent some of its sheen to the outlet from where school uniforms were bought... and therefore, it had a touch of class to it...

but this visit told a different story... most of us can judge the way a shop is doing just by looking at it... a faulty signage, casual staff, the decor, the way stuff is arranged, all of them can tell the story... and from this shop, i could sense a gradual decline from the good old days.. yes, the towels werent bad, they still have good bedsheets according to D, and the Vivaldi shirts were also quite okay, but these are perhaps the last wall of defense...

and so, while some brands have smoothly made a transition - surf, rin, lux, colgate, parle.......for some brands- dalda, gold spot, binaca, solidaire, anikspray.... this generation's memories might be the last wall of defense...
until next time, sometimes clothes make a man's memories too

The Brain

Some favor the left side and some favor the right...

I, for one,hate taking sides..

on a side note, can intellectual property be called virtual estate??

until next time, posticide :)

A Generation Awakens

Well, Mr. Mehra, if the editing was slightly slicker, they wouldnt have fallen asleep in the first place.. hmm, yes, that might have been a bit unkind, but those overboard reviews did irritate me.. and so, no review, but an argument on the thought process behind the movie..( yes, i am making an effort to be intellectual..hehe)

while i do not dispute the fact that an attempt has been made to create an awareness in the minds of today's youth, perhaps the similarities of the azad-bismil-bhagat singh scenario and the occurences in the current times are too strong a stretch of imagination...the nation's freedom was something that each individual would feel strongly about, but today, so many generations have been moulded to the 'adjust' mentality towards corruption, nepotism, and the casual way to administering a country that it is too difficult to pull them back colletively..how many of us would not pay a bribe in this day, this era IS about convenience and what money can do for you... and therefore it is an issue that has to be addressed at an individual level..will this movie make you do that.. it didnt make me..to paraphrase what madhavan said in the movie, if you want to make a difference join the police,the army, the IAS, politics and live your ideals..

in my mind the movie that made a better impact was farhan akhtar's lakshya.. it was a casual selfish individual's journey towards becoming a heroic soldier, and somewhere along the way, his realisation that there was more to the world than just him - society, nation and his responsibilities to them...that movie didnt work at the box office, so perhaps mr.mehra is right after all in trying to arouse the fervour in his own way...
until next time, nothing can awaken those pretending to be asleep....

On a different Note

Rs.1000 - a single reddish note.

She gave the single note to the salesgirl and smiled in satisfaction. The money was equal to a day's pay for her, but it was worth it. She had gotten herself a bottle of tan lotion, something she could use on her vacation to the beach. she was looking forward to the sun, the sand, and the time away from her relatives.

She took out the 10 notes and counted them again, just to be sure, and smiled in satisfaction. It was the money she had earned in a fortnight, by selling groundnuts on the beach. Enough money for a short trip home. She was looking forward to a few days away from the sun and the sand and a little time spent with her relatives.

until next time, the price we pay...

And who'll be the judge of that??

'Oh, thats not bad for his experience and ability' immediately took me to SwB's post sometime back on how we judge each other based on what we do, and where we have reached in our career.. its a regular occurence in many discussions - the interest and attention generated is very much in proportion to one's designation, place of work, salary, job profile et al...but whats also regular is that we are judgemental, period..

where i come from, families also get judged by the jewellery the woman of the house wears for functions.. at other times, they get judged by the talents of the kids they produce, ridiculous as it may sound... in other places,the wedding functions thrown are indicators of the family's stature and financial position..

And its just not reality alone, on the virtual paths we travel, there are those of us who judge blogs on the comments generated, and those of us who like to think that we are above such trivial things, and judge based on the quality of the post, or who all link to the blog...

perhaps its because we are so used to finding happiness outside ourselves, that we are forever searching for others to compare with, and get the satisfaction that ' i am better than him/her'..its funny because even when i write this, i have to force myself to be non judgemental...and its also funny, we forget about the judgements when we compare favourably, and think about it only when we dont match up.. a defense mechanism automatically pops up, and we argue on why it isnt exactly as rosy as it looks... and so it shouldnt surprise anyone that the conversation ends with 'but i bet he slogs till midnight...

until next time, and they say judgement day is coming...

Legacy Issues

Yes, i can understand the techie eyebrows shooting up, but its nothing to do with system related legacies..its more to do with the original usage of the word, long before they had thought of computers...Like i have said in a post not too long ago, in addition to the fact that we love reading, there is also possibly a subconscious reason for buying books.. it is perhaps a way of transmitting ourselves to those who come after us.. because the books we have read also tell a little something about the kind of persons we are, and also share the ideas that in a way shaped our thinking... i also write the date of purchase of the book so i can sit back a long time later and smile at the books i used to read...:)

I have started collecting Ashok Banker's Ramayana series, also because of the fact that it might be slightly more appreciated than the ramanand sagar vcds..:).. though i bought it quite a while back, i started reading it only recently.. the author has a disclaimer that there are lots of versions of the ramayana, and he has tried is best to be as true to the original version by valmiki as possible...but he has written it very clearly keeping the current generation in mind... there is definitely a difference in the style of storytelling..

this is almost like a desi 'Lord of the Rings' interms of characterisation and narration.. for example, i am not too comfortable with a 'Harishchandra Avenue' in Ayodhya or Shatrughan being called 'Shot'!! but its still a good book..and so while i may be leaving behind a legacy, i should keep in mind that books are also the perspective of the author and can be way different from what i would want it to be...
until next time, dont believe everything you read :)