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 >