Prodigal Blogger ;)

I'm growing incorrigibly infrequent. Not that it matters to anyone, but for all those who have taken the time to go through this chronicle of my musings, its because of a sad mix of lethargy, weird office timings, and a comparitively restricted access to the net. Also, the usual impediments of shifting to a new city, adjusting to a new way of life.

Speaking of which, I should say, my present flatmate has done me a great favour in placing that amazing invention of science and technology, a TV, in the flat. And just in case you you're already thinking, no, I'm not a parasite...we share the cable bill! :) Almost 5 years without the continual presence of the dumbing-down machine had almost turned me into an out-of-touch weirdo who only knew new songs from the radio or the net, and only knew news from the papers...ok, also from the websites. Or so I thought. Now I'm happy for the 5 saved years of my life. :)

The world of the small-screen today amazes me. Everybody is in a rush to bring on another 'me too' programme on the floor, and in the process, scaling newer peaks of inanity. 20 young girls are competing to win 2 (unknown, average-looking, one of them being an epitome of uncouthness) guys in an attempt to find what they think is true love. How? Well, by dancing on tables, baring their bodies and god oh god, going to the extremeties of uncivic behaviour...its a pain to even discuss any more. But what's more, the show has an amazing TRP, is extremely popular and has had me glued to the TV sometimes (though for different reasons: i like to follow how and to what levels of uncouthness people of my age can go to, to win that chance to be a VJ).

Like I have said earlier, WE ARE A VOYEURISTIC PEOPLE, and its not just us in India. The formats for most of these shows are less bolder copies of what's been tried and tested in that mecca of television/film entertainment, the US.

(I did manage to catch up on a great documentary on the Roman Emperors in The History Channel-one of the few saving graces that still lends TV some respect. But they are few and very badly advertised, so you see...)

And yes, there's a new rendition of the Mahabharata on air, courtesy the Ekta Kapur family. The new stylised look really has my curiosity piqued, hope the actual drama is as sleek as the trailers are. However, a Ganga in semi- mordern turquoise blue jewellery may be a bit too much for the aam junta to stomach. But then, its (K)ekta, so lets just see.

Oh, education seems to be the latest parameter of status amongst the town-based upper-middle class. A fresh add-on to the boost in consumerism, is it? Pay some money and ship your child off to some school/college in a fancy hill station, so what if its the mid term? Oh and yes, the kewl factor comes from saying "my kid's studying in la-la-land". You see, the school/college's name is too bleak to be remembered. My honest doubts if the parents remember them!! Yeah yeah, I know, its not a new thing, this buying seats in fancy places: what IS new is the growing urgency among town-based uppermiddle/ midle class people to fall in line. Sheez, takes away the right to snigger at those "bade baap ke aulaads", yaar!!

Speaking of education, just took a new course, in the form of Amitav Ghosh's "The Glass Palace". Unlike most other contemporary writers, the man holds magic in all his works...and I'm talking of the 'meets-your-expectation' level that happens when a reader, fascinated with one work, goes on to another. Hosseini failed to meet it, Coelho seems, in his own way, erratic, but Ghosh, now that's a man who knows his mind, and exactly how to execute what's on it! Can't wait to start on his latest "The sea of popppies". And before anyone even thinks of doing it, a word of warning: DO NOT, PLEASE DO NOT say, "why, sheldon and dan brown do it always". For one, they do not, and more importantly, it's sacrilege to compare the two kinds of writing.

My life recently has been revolving a lot around numbers. For all the days of business journalism classes that I spent in bed, someone somewhere was making a note. And He, in his great sense of humour, has thrown me right in the center of business and journalism, in that order. As a correspondent(equities) in a global news agency. Huh, who would have thought?

Well, will wrap up now... just a parting thought: how is it that most girls and guys today, i.e, ones in the age group of 19-25, all somehow look, talk, think, and carry themselves in exactly the same way? The number of clones that surround one makes it almost impossible to remember names, identities. Someone should find a generic term for all of them!!

B E M U S E D.totally.

I've been reading a lot these days...and thinking...and while my reading sojourn has taken me to the wondorous territories of the Mahabharata, my thinking has, of late, known no bounds, egged on by the myriad, amusing things that happen all around me all day. And when the potent combination of the written word and the flights of fantasy crowds in the mind, there is hardly any respite but in writing....so, here goes!!
Blogging seems to have gained a new status these days..Mr. Bachchan's doing it, SRK does it, and now, Amir Khan is doing it..to tell the world that his caretaker owns a dog that's the namesake to the king khan, no less!! And since our famed country of the billion worships almost anything that the stars of the silver screen do, well, what can I say? Chuck all your games, DVDs, Ipods out of the window...it's blogging all the way!! Who's the father of blogging? My deepest condolences to him/her ( ok..the mother, in that case) ...or has blogging finally achieved its aim?
Well, well, on a more pleasant note: "what's the english name of the vegetable commonly known in hindi as aalubukhara?" Yes darlings, we are talking of Panchvi paas..blah blah...
Oho, and the question was categorised under the subject "English", mind it!! :) Times, they ARE a changing, aren't they? Need i say more? Good luck SRK. I have immense respect for your energy and dedication, as much as meets my common eye..but please.....can we get a break from precocious 10 year olds payed to smile inanely into the screen, and weird contestants who claim: 1. to be "top model"s 2. that the capital of Pakistan is Istanbul? Please?
Indian thrillers ( the movie variety) have finally come of age. RACE is a fabulous conjencture by the famed duo of Bollywood thrillers, Abbas-Mastan ( is that how they still spell their names, or has the numeroblahblah bug gotten to them too?). Infact, this cross between Sidney Sheldon and Robin Cook with dashes of Ludlum and The Bold and the Beautiful thrown in between has turned out to be a potent and mind numbing cocktail of entertainment...full paisa wasool, and you don't mind the fact that characters like Miss Kaif and Miss Reddy cannot act to save their souls.
Oh, we ( as in the Bongs of the world) celebrated 25th Baisakh, that generally corresponds with the 9/10 of May every year once again, with much love and respect for the Grand Old Man of Indian Literature. Righto, it was Tagore's birthday. And to commemorate it, Eden Gardens in Kolkata saw a celebration of the same prior to the IPL match scheduled for the day, complete with SRK joining in for the rendition of the national anthem ( it was written by Tagore, you dorks!!:)) And guess what? The Knight Riders won the match..after a long spell of defeats. So there. What say? A little respect for our own people, and our tradition has never done any harm, has it? Speaking of which, yours truly's reminded of the great enthusiasm and love with which neighbourhoods arranged for their own cultural nights to commemmorate the same. A long time spent away from home had rusted the memories of these enthusing efforts: the long hours of rehearsals, the practice sessions, and then, finally, the final show: renditions of poetry, songs, dances, dance dramas, dramas written and choreographed by the Great Tagore. My humble respects to him.
As I wait for this peaceful lull to end in the general torpidity we call "life", I relive my childhood and savour the everyday happiness of HOME: the happiness of being woken by my maa, of asking for money of baba to buy that book, of fighting with my brother, of turning the volume down before granpa comes home:) And suddenly, I don't want to leave anymore...
Oh and in case you are still wondering, an aalubukhara is called a plum in english. Main paanchvi PASS hoon.

this one's by someone i know, and liked
dhoop ...
khidki se chan kar aati halki bhini si dhoop..main ... baithi hun apne us kone main...khidki ke us kone main jahan meri aankhon ke saath khelti hai dhoop...perchaiyan banti hain bigadti hain...mere aas paas cheezein badalti hain..log badalte hain... aate hain jaate hain...apne saath bahut kuch late hainkuch chod jate hain.. kuch apne daaman main samet kar le jate hain...main baithi hui apne daaman ko dekhti hun..us main har rang se sarabor khilkhilati hai dhoop....khidki se chan kar aati hai dhoop...
- gunjan singh

FLUX

There's apprehension and excitement again. The mixed emotions of melancholy and exhuberance, like the first vernal showers that bring calm, and the pox, colours the mind. The vernal showers, did i say? Or rather, like the first burst of summer that drives the cold away...only to burn. Oh yes, that is it..like the sunshine that cleans the sick room post convalescence...The past two years have taught me a lot, and taken away a lot from me. It has taught me how to enjoy the simple joys of life, and to rise above the pettiness of haggling with life. It has, in more ways than one, shown me that my travails and troubles are not the ultimate: there are others who have seen more of them, and others who have braved them. The smile can break a lot of barriers, as can humility. Also, it is not enough to smile and brave the world: it is equally important to do something to better your position. God really helps those who help themselves. Cliched? true, nevertheless. And yes, the returns of humility are unending. Do not jugde people by their looks, like books with jazzy covers, their content is often mind-numbingly inane. The call is yours: the jazzy cover, or the exhilarating content that lifts you above the mundane trash we call existence,the sisyphian journey that yeilds no results.
A lot of lessons that demand a lot of questions and a lot of answers. Why is it that childhood friendships are never recreated in later phases of life? And why, oh why is it that the few people that you think you can look up to end up to be great dissapointments? Is it because the child's mind is easily impressionable, or because the burden of this rigour sucks out the charm of idealism? Or idolatry for that matter. Oh but that is another story....
A lot has been taken from me too....wiped out in the senseless mire of the de rigeur, till the final 'why' surfaces. But life is, sadly, not the sublime literature that the greats create. So, instead of stopping and turning life round on its hinges, the 'why' only serves to make it worse. Like Plato's cavemen who are happy cooped up residents of the black cave till one of them see a glimpse of the world outside, one slips into a deeper sense of abyss....damned are those who have asked, 'WHY?'
Where then, lies the answer? What then, is the solution? One might never know, I am afraid. The snows that lure the residents of the plains more often than not turn out to be a wet soggy mess....the whiteness does not allure then. A few prized friendships and a few reshuffled ideals are all that one is left with at the end of the journey...only to continue to find life ahead, in a new start. We are all phoenixes, aren't we?
Cheers to life, then!

To STAND UP or not to stand up

Those days are over. So they say. The days when you would expect people close to you to champion your cause. The days when you could go ahead and actually make promises for your friend on his behalf, knowing fully well, and being certain of the fact that even if this particular promise does not sit well with him, he will still go ahead and fulfill it...never mind the abuses and kicks you will get later!! That, of course, is between you two.
They say that such FRIENDS type friendship, or even, such Jhankar Beats closeness is only for the movies......impossible otherwise. Really? Well well. A sad place the world is, then. So here goes guys........now is the time to play 'save your skin, dude'. But to what rewards, huh? You are an insecure wreck, without even three people you can really call friends ( and that includes your spouse/parents/ etc etc, sorry to say that out aloud!!). And come on..it is not really all THEIR fault. You ahve used your 'friends' for your benefit, even if that is for something as simple as companoinship, and then at the first instance that he faces trouble, you have dumped him. Okay, so you say, "why the hell should i take sides when it is his and X's fight? Let them solve it!!" Come on...again.....you don't do it to make your friend come of age..you do it to save your pallid skin, so that YOU are not striken off from either his, or X's christmas list!!!
But dude.....you know what you have done in the process, don't you? You have just lost another Friend, and that is it. You have just lost a potential support system......and a voice that could have stood up for you, in case yoyu land up in a soup ever. Well, well....every man to himself!!
But then, ofcourse you are strong enough to live by yourself, right? Hmmm....you had better be. For, if you are not, God Save you. Why? Simple....in your bid to not take a stand, you have given so much offence to so many people, even you do not expect them to stand by you in real times of need, do you? Or are you that naive? Ofcourse you are not.
So sweethearts, learn to TAKE A STAND, FOR YOUR SAKE!! you know the saying, ' one bird in hand worth two in the bush', right?
GOD BLESS

What of it all?
What of it all?
A question that has been haunting me for quite a long time now...no, not the way ghosts do, but like the vernal showers: intermittently. What of it all? This constant rush to 'keep up', to folow in line with everything, to be accepted as 'cool', to be regarded as someone of worth, to keep up academic scores....numerous things people do...almost kill for to attain....WHY? WHAT OF IT ALL? Is it absolutely necessary to fall in line with the multitude? To go "...muah muah..." and "hieeeeee" when you meet people, like they all do? So what if they think you aren't 'cool' enough? You don't WANT to be one of them, do you? So then, what of it all?
Let them go!!! Make them see their own vacant, stupid selves through your nonparticipation!!!What of them all? They will all be gone with the winds.........sanity would not stay in the world otherwise

OF CYNICISM AND SUPERIORITY

OF CYNICISM AND SUPERIORITY

There is another breed of people that infest the world. Beware of them. They do not tread the popular path. They do not even try and be a part of all that is established. Oh no!! Infact, they conciously avoid ALL that has been established as norms of this society. Oh yes. Why would they tread even remotely the same path as the silly sick society does? They deserve far better, don't they? They are the breed of cynicism and dangerous superiority. The society, everything about it, and even the people are way beneath them to be a part of it. And they retain the right to insult just about anyone and anybody with a blast of their putridly shallow knowledge base. In fact, they can keep a very well maintained facade of knowledge, hiding behind this facade. We are all too wary of their pungent sarcasm to actually challenge them, aren't we?
Huh, for all their uniqueness, they cut a sorry figure, they do. A person who does not have the minimal ability to adjust to his/her surroundings, treat everyone with courtesy, and attain some shades of humility is a sad creature. For, the essence of a dignified living is in keeping your own, despite being among others, and NOT in consciously secluding oneslef, or ridiculing others.