Conformity

From the time of birth, you are expected to conform - the way you behave, where you learn, what you learn, how you dress, who you are seen with, what you buy and how you use it, what you eat, where you eat it and how you eat it, and so on and so forth...

some of us conform and live our entire life based on the rules that have been already set without our permission...

and then there are some of us, who refuse to walk the trodden path, who refuse to conform to the set standards, and evolve our own... and we behave, eat, learn, mingle, buy and do things exactly the way we like it... and over a period of time become part of a set of others, who we identify with.... until the time we feel that we are conforming...

until next time, i'm a non conformist, is that okay? ;)

Goa

is a state...
of mind... :))))))

until next time, < /vacation >

Crib

Twenty nine years back, they had to buy me one

These days, i make my own :)

until next time, why is no one wishing me ?!

Echoes

2002

Them: Coming for the concert?

Me: Nah,not a Floyd fan

Them: Comfortably Dumb, huh?

2007

He: Finally figured out what Floyd is - Nursery rhymes for adults

Me: Is that a momentary lapse of reason?

He: Nope, the final cut

Me: I'm lost for words

until next time, keep talking :)

A part meant

As part of the hunt for our next residence, D and I have been visiting several apartments in various locations, sometimes even getting ambitious and looking at ones in the vicinity of MG Road, and have had some ridiculous figures thrown at us.

On one such occasion, in a particularly plush place, the conversation went thus

Us: so how much are you expecting to get for this?

He: 65,000 per month

Us: Can we do part payment. As in, do you have an emi option?

Until next time, ghar ghar ki kahani

Of Carrots

I'm always amazed at the sudden increase in the value of an employee as soon as he informs those above of his intention to leave. Thats around the time when the higher ups suddenly think about increasing his portfolio (if he is leaving out of sheer boredom) or removing stuff from his plate (if he is leaving because he is overworked)... Whichever way it is, the employee is suddenly flooded with stuff that is supposed to entice him to stay...

And then, unless it was a well planned effort by the employee to force his superiors to improve his condition, it goes this way that, in response to all the halwas, the employee says,

"mujhe gajar pasand nahi hai"

until next time, Hari Sadu, H for Hitler, A for Arrogant.... :)

Faster, honey, faster....

Is that what its come to now.... love, that is? the romantics are an endangered species... gone are the days of roses and chocolates and the slow romance. from what i see around, its gone faster and faster and faster until its now come down to speed dating...

no, i dont want to do a moral policing act here, wouldnt do good to sound like a prude and tarnish the otherwise hep nature of this blog...hehe.. so let me just write about it... I thought that it was merely a Valentine Day phenomenon, or in the case of the next weekend, a hangover, but apparently not.. because i have been informed of at least 3 separate events happening over this weekend and the next, and whats more, these are sponsored by brands ranging from chewing gum to fashion brands...

Since i havent been attending any, i'm guessing the agenda based on what i have seen in movies, and heard from others.. rows of guys/girls sitting in a fashion similar to their regular office cubicle existence and getting around 10-15 minutes with someone from the opposite gender before he/she moves on to the next... me thinks thats exactlywhat is needed after the pressures of a 'perform or perish' existence at work... but i guess to each their own...

You think they have the speed daters have a customised lingo of sorts? like say, "Take off your clothes" means remove your inhibitions an be open

"Don't worry, i have protection" means that the person is well settled in life, has a good bank balance and is insured etc
But like i said, to each their own, for there might be people having fun when their partner at speed dating reacts to their attempts to make an impression by looking at the watch and saying, "faster, honey, faster, if you do it well, i just might come with you !! "

until next time, that title was a fast one :)

Star Track

Lights, camera, action......cut. Thats exactly what happened to the poor fed-ex. After she got too stressed with the lights, and had had enough of the paparazzzi cameras following her, she decided to take some action,and went in for a cut, without knowing that a Rajnikant would happen to her... Bald and the beautiful, i say!!

Speaking of hair, the guy whose career did a 180 after the haircut, is now lying in a hospital bed, after collapsing during a stage show rehearsal. Reminds me of a song in one of his old hairy films- "lagi, lagi hain yeh dil ki lagi"...

The heroine of that particular film is now all set to play Sita in Raj Kumar Santoshi's epic project, with her real life husband playing Ramkara,er, Ram. Since i think it would have been better to have a nysa looking ram and sita, and since i dont particularly like either of them, all i shall say is Fool aur Kaante..

until next time, yup, lazy kiya re!!

Beeping Bips

On Koffee with Karan, John had this to say about Priyanka

"I've worked with her, and i never heard her say no to anything"

anything, John? hmmm

until next time, spilling the beans?

Big P

Big B for President.

And they blame South Indians for making chief ministers out of actors.

until next time, India Poisoned !!

How green was my valley

The old Bangaloreans, whenever i meet any of them, have a common complaint.. that there used to be a lot of greenery in Bangalore until a few years back, and now there is a distinct lack of it, thanks to bangalore becoming a tech hub, and the mass influx..

i beg to differ though, i think the greenery has just changed its form, these days i see it in mainly two forms - one, as dollars flowing in due to the technopolis tag, and two, the look on my face wheni see the techies spending it ;)

until next time, matter has multiple personalities :)

Copy, right?

A while ago, the literary world was in uproar over a certain Kavya. Of course, the same world had put her on a pedestal a few months before that, but it all ended up with the somewhat catty "How Kavya got Dissed..."... her crime was that she had copied lines, okay , paragraphs from other books. well, copied would be a harsh word, she was inspired, or in her own words (pun unintended),had internalised too much of what she read and liked...

I have just finished the last book of Ashok Banker's Ramayana series, and although i didnt like it in parts, i enjoyed reading it on the whole.. he has been successful (IMHO) in recreating the saga,and most importantly, made it sound real.. of course i always believe our myths were reality a long time back, but then i have been a sucker for mythology, and had even suffered arun govil and deepika gladly.. :)

Now that we have dealt with the boring prologue, lets deal with my issue. The Ramayana series is not an original piece of work, not if you go by plot, or characters, which to me are important components of any literary work.. but hey, no one is raising any issues with it. is it because the ramayana and mahabharata have already been written by various authors throughout history? and is it because, there is no one to authoritatively speak on behalf of valmiki or veda vyasa and claim these works to be the most obvious examples of copyright infringement?

Maybe, the difference is that, what Kavya did can be classified as plagiarism, and this cannot be because due credit has been given? But do you think Kavya could even have begun her book if she said that her work was an inspired version of works that had been written earlier? By that logic,aren't we assuming that M/s Valmiki and Veda Vyasa wouldnt have had a problem with recent authors getting inspired by their works and writing their own versions? And maybe, just maybe, a long time later, in KBC 15, it could happen that someone could lose a lot of money by answering 'Ashok Banker' to 'Who wrote the Ramayana?'

until next time, who determines the right to copy?

PS: Having said all that, Mr.Banker's series is a must read, for those who know the Ramayana, as well as those don't, for its a story well retold.

Bollywood Capers

After this, i guess the most aptly titled movie would be this. (I See You, starring Arjun Rampal). Never before would the producers of a movie been more aware of the consequences of their venture. After the movie, the brave souls who tried to sit through the movie ended up exactly where the makers had anticipated - ICU.
Someone even made a movie (with him as hero) based on his ability to act, again aptly titled Asambhav !!

At least after Don, he should have realised that there is a reason why his parents, in their infinite wisdom, had named him Arjun Rampal. Stick to the bloody ramp !!

until next time, still reeling?

Eye of the Beholder

Me: D is going to the eye doctor today

Alec Smart: Hmm, i can see why. But you've been married for almost 4 years now. Isnt it a bit of a late reaction?

until next time, eye for an eye, i say ;)

Options

Not the kind thats given in KBC, more of the kind thats given in mobile handsets and computers.. Both of the above, at the time of purchase, are loaded with a set of features that the manufacturer feels, are enough for the model to give its user a good experience... But of course, the user doent exist in a static world. he sees other people around him with models that are loaded with features, perhaps the same model with better downloaded stuff. and so, even though his model might be giving him a good experience, he tries to better it by downloading stuff and installing more features.. some of these do help him get a better experience, but some of these end up spoiling the set or the comp totally..maybe, the manufacturers have seen all this happen before, and therefore they have a little option given in between all the features, that says Default Options... and all is back to the way it was before...

Perhaps we live life the same way we use the devices too, unfortunately, the manufacturer in this case doent believe in resetting to the default options... however, it is possible that he has left enough features for the user to get back to default options..

until next time, no locking the options....