Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Agony
The latest report by AT Kearney talks about something as trivial as the fact that sky is blue. Yes, 800 million of Indians live on less than two dollars a day. Less than half the people are connected to the power grid. Note more than 5% are connected to the internet and all that jazz.
But, you know what? India still ranks high on happiness surveys. Surely, money or material wealth is not a source of happiness. They discovered and wrote about this in the vedas and upanishads a zillion years ago. We surely know the true path to happiness in the east.
Or, do we?
How about a village with electricity round the clock and clean water to drink?
How about adequate provision of healthcare in every nook n corner?
How about your distant cousin in the village having the chance to go to a good school?
Will that not bring any happiness?
May be we need to re-write our vedas. And give ourselves a little chance.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Cold
Laughing crazy like never before
Perhaps, never after
Chillness in the veins
Exhaust from the constant rupture
Numb feet and the gibberish
Ah, familiar
How i wish it was a dream.
A bird whispers silence into my mind
Can you a sing a song too? please
Far away in Mexico, the little girl is smiling
Her grandma wants to use the face book
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Confession
To say I'm without fear--
it wouldn't be true.
I'm afraid of sickness, humiliation.
Like anyone I have my dreams.
But I've learned to hide them,
to protect myself
from fulfillment: all happiness
attracts the Fates' anger.
They are sisters, savages--
in the end, they have
no emotion but envy.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Impossible is Nothing
For if you have gone through the rituals, you are most likely to remember the book by treybal. If you are the unfortunate Phd kind, you probably still sleep over it.
This is not about the book. This isn't even about me. It is about a man and his deepest fears coming true!
I hated it from the bottom of my heart ever since i first met with the book. Whenever i opened the pages, i felt like i was being tied to a tree and punished with a hunter! The piercing pain and the imaginary smell of the silkened flesh still linger fresh in my memory. The psychometric charts looked like the kitchen of the devil who was cooking my misery. The problems about the distillation plants made me feel sad for the african girls who were being sold in the markets of Ethiopia. I felt a strong cord of distinct similarity. When you are forced to do something you dislike so much and there is no way out, what do you do about it?
Well, not much i guess.
Time moved on. Mass transfer became a thing of history and treybal was a happy man ever after. I actually don't remember an instance where i felt anything remotely bad for him. Even when i was going through the pain, i felt sad for the guy who had actually had to write a book about transfer of mass from a phase to an other. He probably doesn't have to worry about hell as he has lived through it!
A typical hindi movie romance starts with a fight between the boy and the girl and ends up with them falling in love. I never believed in it!
Well, most of the time, beliefs shouldn't change! That leaves for some time when they are allowed to change!
I met with the book again on this weekend. I happened to meet a friend doing his Phd at MIT and he was kind enough to let me into the room where he stores this book and treats it with atmost devotion!
I didn't know what to do for a minute. Here i was, face to face with my devil. My deepest fear. My deadliest nemesis. I slowly but surely moved towards it. I took the book in my hand and began to feel it's texture. In a single momentary flash, the entire history dawned itself before my eyes. I started going through the pages. The very psychometric charts from the past began to look like innocent puppies. It doesn't feel anywhere close to a devil's workshop. I went through the pages which discuss distillation plants. I felt something melt inside me. There were tears in my eyes.
The wonder for me is that i couldn't bring myself to hate the thing i thought was my worst enemy. I felt like i was holding a teddy bear in my hands.
I think this is a lesson for every man who is scared of something. anything. The thing that you are scared of is probably not the reason for your misery. The reason lies inside you. And gladly for me, the reason doesn't exist anymore!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Happy Days!
A few other can move you.
Very rarely, few things do happen which can actually make you cry!
Shekhar Kammula, is a director with a magic wand. Happy Days is a must watch if you want to add quality to a few of your hours on the weekend.
It has everything you want from a movie and may be a lot more. The story is very simple yet immensely powerful that you actually stop treating it as just a movie. It is everybody's story. Anybody who went onto study after highschool, will relate to this movie to the highest degree of congruence. A run-of-the mill story but shot with such elegance and freshness which needs to be seen to realize it.
Acting in the movie is such a natural beauty! There are several independent stories each linked to the other and create great screenplay in the process. The new actors (i have never seen them before) did a great job! The background music tracks are very soothing and impressive.
Freshie ragging, Puppy love, Hot english teacher, deep friendships, gang wars, worries about career goals, struggles to decide whether to stay back in india or move to US, growing up from kids to be men and women.
Add to that, there is also a chapter on graduation towards the end of the movie.
The movie definitely leaves you with a heavy heart and tonnes of nostalgia.
Is it just me or this is real?
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
When the gates open...
From the safety of mom's warmth.
Workers assemble at the factory..
Prayers never said.
Politicians are driven to their chambers..
Files smile at the luck.
Players enter the camp..
Sweat, Thirst and Desire.
Traders place the bets..
A shirt lost and and a feraari won.
Professor knocks it down.
The colour ain't changing. He laughs..
The old man at the sea..
Waits for his freedom.
A girl smiles and blossoms..
First love.
In a patch of land not very far away.................
A man opens fire.
He isn't one of us.
I wake up...
from a nightmare to an other.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Creed, justice and Marijuana!
My question is why is marijuana illegal and cigarettes are legal if this is the case?
A probable answer is that the primary motive of the worldwide law and political systems is not public health and well-being. But, i don't want to be cynical today.
The evening is just too pleasant!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Funny things
Trust you are doing great.
It was nice meeting you last week. We hardly talked though. Guess all the noise at the restaurant distracted you? I wanted to tell you how much i loved the way you held the flowers. And when you sipped the wine, it felt like you were weaving symphony. Wish i can meet you again soon. I call often but i don't seem to get through?
Love,
Sound
P.S: You will receive this message late as am sound and not as fast as light!
Reply from Silence:
Dear Sound,
I am silent but you are dumb!
How can i ever meet you?
Reply from Sound:
Dear Silence,
There is no physics in dreams. It's all geography.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
God of long things!
I was witness to several acts of faith over the last weekend. A trip to tirupati with family helped in a lot of ways!
Tirupati, the abode of lord venkateshwara, is a place full of wonders. The mind-boggling queues do not worry the devotees at all. Infact, they almost enjoy the long wait! The average wait-time for a chance appointment with the lord is approx 4-5 hours!! This is if you belong to the privileged sorts of queues (the ones with reco letters from prominent politicians, etc.). A poor peasant typically waits for 12-18 hours to get a sneak peek at the lord!!!!!
The 'darshan' is a big tragedy. You are already too tired by the time you reach the crux of the temple and are in no mood to pray. Also, you will be pushed off by fat khakhi-walas/poorly clad pujaris in an instant. A nanosec is all you ever get! And, people typically close their eyes in front of the god. That esentially means that not more than a small portion of the devotees actually have a full glimpse of the lord.
The story isn't limited to the main temple where the real slim lord is located. Around the main temple, lots of smaller ones co-exist. Each one has a story. Interesting ones i should say. I often wondered if several of those temples were just plain jokes by the erstwhile feudal lords. The joke would have been a result of a chance conversation between two weekend friends.
Sometime during 14th century, the conversation between a rich merchant and a not-so-popular king on a dull sunday would have been like below:
Merchant A: "Dude, am gettin bored these days! Not enough golf!! Also, my wife is in the states with her relatives!"
King B: "Ahh, sorry to hear that bro! Am bored too. My wife is back again. Let's build a temple for timepass. We will also earn a lot of mudras through ads!!"
Merchant A: "Kewl idea man!!!"
And so were created dozens, hundreds, thousands and lakhs of temples across villages, towns and cities alike. Back then, the population must have been fairly low and the temples were never really crowded. But, the prosperity of last several centuries (read good rains) resulted in a population explosion leading to crores of devotees on streets. They all have a single-point agenda. Stand in a queue and visit a god! We devotees typically keep a score. It's similar to a fico-score. We call it the darshan-score. The one who drank the maximum 'theertham' (holy water distributed at the temple after darshan) and climbed the highest number of steps is the most reliable devotee. And temples usually issue blessings at lower interest rates (like a bank issues cheap credit for ppl with high fico scores) for devotees with high scores!!
Whatever that means, the fact is that the long queues are constant throughout the day at all kinds and sizes of temples. All that a true devotee has to do is chant "govinda govinda" ! It acts like a crocin pill to the fever caused by all the evils of capitalism, inefficient democracies, inadequate educational institutes, poor form of justice, pathetic infrastructure and gallons of corruption.
God bless.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Itinerary
August 31 3 PM: Arrival in Tirupati
September 3 10 AM: Arrival in Delhi
September 3-9: Ladakh
September 10: Arrival in Hyderabad
September 14: Arrival in Mumbai
September 16: Departure to Boston
September 17: Hell breaks loose.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Tryst with destiny
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity."- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Happy independence day!
She lay on the bed...
I walked up to her, and turned her around. She looked at me lazily, and I could see myself in her eyes. I had loved her for years now, because everything about her was so unique, precious, and beautiful. She smiled at me, and her milky white skin shone in the morning light. I took her in my arms, caressing her tenderly, and knowing that she was now mine, for now, for ever.
She looked at peace, like the creator had thought out every inch of her design. She welcomed me with open arms, and I lost myself in her warm embrace. I knew I didn't want anything else in the world ever again: no money, no house, no doors, and definitely, no Windows.
My Angel.
My MacBook.
-Anon! :)
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Stuff inside a pumpkin and the french revolution
And so is everything else.
Tonight will be my last day at my dearest apartment flat in an innocent corner on the planet, called powai. This small town is special to me for more than a thousand million reasons. I was a toddler when i came here back in 2001. I now am a fully grown adult and many of my impressions and ideas about the universe were given shape here. Thanks to my IIT days, most of them are worth cherishing!
The dearest flatmates, (guys both of them), shashi and the freaking idiot, bapu gave me some wonderful time. It was an honour staying with you guys as i know you both will be amongst the most important people on the planet by the time we reach our 60s.
I will miss the flat, definetly! My bike has been standing in the parking space without a shade for years now! And, god bless, it's still in a working mode! If there is one thing i hate about the whole thing about my flat, it's the landlord. Whenever i see him or hear from him, it dawns upon me that evil is real too and omnipresent. But i still wish that god blesses him with any of his favourite disease.
It's a well know fact that home is where heart is. I testify!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Hack yourself!
Try these. These are not the traditional computer hacks, dey got more to do with your body!
- Hold your breath longer
- Think while you sleep
- Scratch your leg to make it to the loo!
http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-body-hacks-257746.php
you know more?
Scott Adams is not worried about the future!!
Below is an alleged letter from a 10 year old to Scott Adams (of Dilbert's fame) which finally resolved all his worries about future of mankind and the planet!
-----------------------------Start---------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Scott Raymond Adams,
I am a 10-year-old boy who is an avid fan of your comic series, Dilbert. I know that it has achieved immense fame by the fact that it is shown in over 1600 newspapers around the world (at least, that was the way it was the last time I checked). I still want to know if the Dogbert's New Ruling Class (DNRC) newsletter is still available for new subscribers. I really wish to subscribe, even though it is only tri- or quad-annually, because it seems like it's better to have a regular update about your works and some random stories about people who send e-mails to you than to have to wait for the next book.
Now that I'm done with a proper introduction, I'll move on to more important matters. I like all of your books, but I'm especially intrigued with your philosophical works, God's Debris and its sequel, The Religion War. I like the way that you can exploit Occam's (I hope I spelled that right) Razor to the extent that it sounds refreshing and new, and yet doesn't seem like you're insane. I know that there's a warning in the introduction/prologue of God's Debris about how the ideas in the book are powerful and are not suitable for people under 14. I think that that is complete mish-mash, because, as you said in Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, people know what to expect in a book. You (probably) won't get sued or ridiculed because somebody's religious parents found out that their children doubt their beliefs now because of something in a book. Actually, the law protects you from that kind of stuff because of the first amendment, which says that everybody has the right to practice freedom of religion, unless it is designed to hurt others, like a cult. You definitely aren't gathering a cult (are you?) right now, so you're completely free to do whatever you want in a book.
However, and this may sound contradicting to what I said in the last paragraph, the ideas in that book are extremely powerful. I wonder if you could incorporate hypnosis into a book, because it seems like you, a trained hypnotist, did. I was completely and totally transfixed as I read those books. The best part is, your (or rather, the Avatar's) explanation of the universe completely makes sense because we can't judge god! That is the one thing that keeps your idea alive! You simply don't know what god thinks like because he is another being, totally different from human beings.
There is only 1 counter to your idea of the universe, and that is if there is an omnipotent god, he would still need something to create him. In a sense, that other entity is the real god, and the one that we worship is only a subordinate. Then, that entity would need another thing to create it, and so it would span infinitely through lesser and greater. The same thing is true about the shape of the universe. I believe that the universe is finite, because if it was infinite, it would have to travel faster than the speed of light and that would rip a hole in the space-time continuum and so would suck all light outside of the universe at infinite speeds as well, forming a huge counter-vacuum that would make the universe uninhabitable because every shred of matter that formed would be sucked outside the universe through the hole in the space-time continuum and cause the universe to oscillate at, again, infinite speeds between infinity and nothing. I could bore you all day with my talks about the universe and all of that uncertain stuff, and I know that you need the whole day to write back to all to your e-mails and draw your comics.
I am an atheist, but my Grandmother is a Christian and my Grandfather is a Buddhist. That is why I could adapt so easily to the idea that god is really only probability and matter. It makes perfect sense!
I have some last questions for you. I would be extremely pleased if you could answer them for me in the e-mail that you (might!) send back. They are as follows:
• Is it true that you have involuntary muscle spasms in your drawing hand?
• Is it true that you once had speaking problems?
• In Pleasanton, California, is it true that you own a restaurant named Stacey's CafĂ© ? If so, please note that I lived there before and so would like directions to the place.
• Do you really believe that affirmations can make you achieve your goals, no matter how impossible they are?
Thank you for your time taken reading this e-mail.
Bobby [name withheld]
P.S. Get Google everything. It's better and more hassle-free. I have the Google Taskbar for my laptop and i can open every single thing that you could imagine from it, including the daily strip for Dilbert.
------------------------------------End------------------------------------------------
ROTFL!!!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Road Trip
Team: Chussi, Parmar, Bagla, Misra and Me!
Day: Sunday
Result: Pune missed!
Pics available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnightsaint/
Friday, July 27, 2007
River
Weekend log
(based on true fiction)
Location: Kolad
Time: Timeless
Characters:
Amandeep – Arsenal’s no.4
Ankur – smiling Buddha. The smile continues even when he has just lost a cellphone!
Ashwin – the drunkard
Deependra – dancer!
Faraz – The lost brother of Pogu, the deer.
Murtuza – weird
Jimmy – dummy cat
Nagpal – the man who knows everything. But, ofcourse!
Harshvardhan – The foot-bomber
Rebecca – The newsreader
Meenal – Girl with the candy
Sandeep – The kid on the new block!
Shantanu – dumsy boy
Shomik – tiger in the den
Suresh - dreamer
Subrata – the guy who lost everything in the stock market
Prince – the prince
Milind – sensitive girl
Harsh – businezman and a scuba diver from
Dhwani – the princess
Sneha – two tea spoons of sugar
Samir – watchman at a chemical plant who needs to shout just to feel he is alive
Amit – guest appearance
Vinit – guest appearance. Avid reader of books and magazines. Also likes to talk about this habit.
Saturday, 21 July, 9 AM, Vikhroli
Talking about music, I have a sub-story. The title is “Ashwin- the drunkard”.
Below is the conversation between us a day before.
Ashwin: dude, whatsup? I just started drinkin. But wil meet u guys tomorrow morning!
Me: Ok!
@ 12 midnight
Ashwin: dude, am really drunk. There is a lot left! I don’t think I will make it tomorrow morning.
Me: dude, I need you tomorrow morning. Just drink slowly whatever is left. I will wake u up in the morning
Ashwin: Ok!
@ 2 AM
Ashwin: dude, am drunk. In a very bad shape. Am driving to pune with friends
Me: WTF!!! Dude, just go back home.
Ashwin: my friend is crying. I can’t go back. I will start at 4 in the morning and reach u guys.
Me: Ok!
@ 6 AM
Ashwin: dude, my car broke down. Am stuck in lonavla.
Me: Asshole!
The traffic got worse. Everybody was sweating pretty badly. Milind started with his theories on how we could have avoided the traffic if we had started early. All I could do was listen and hope!
Traffic soon cleared.
Hope works!!
The bus started moving at its maximum speed which was around 40 kmph. The urban world soon started fading away and rural
Prince started burning his chimneys. Samir started shouting. Sorry, talking. Shomik was silent except when he had to make some fun of harsh. The group of freshers in the back seats were trying to cool down from their boiling points. Slowly but surely, things were a changing!
Saturday, 21 July, 6 PM, Sai Farm, Kolad
Everybody settled in. It was too late to visit the waterfalls. Guys chose to play cricket instead. It was a lot of fun! Especially the part where people go to fetch the ball for long periods of time.
The light got poorer by the minute and flood lights came out. It started raining.
It was time for football, ofcourse. The real fun didn’t even begun.
Jimmy drove down with his car along with a fat guy. They call him Ashwin back in the jungle. Imagine a guy, heavily drunk from 2 non-stop days, walking with swagger. He started hurling abuses at everyone and anyone from the moment go. He almost bet Subrata in darting at 10-5 but subbo came back strongly to beat him 20-13!
Sunday, 22 July, 5 AM, Sai Farm, Kolad
Sunday, 22 July, 6 AM
The guide kept on shouting instructions from the back and in the moments of thrill and laughter, they were often missed! It landed us in precarious situations. Ashwin and Milind managed to miss so many of the instructions that after a while, the guide stopped shouting at them!
The hands started tiring. Our team luckily had 7 rafters which meant that only 6 could raft at a time. That gave us room to take some quality rest!
We soon reached the shore. We had to lift the raft onto a small hill and walk further upwards to reach our bus. Luck, as it usually happens, turned a blind eye on us! The bus wasn’t there and we soon found out that the driver was sleeping somewhere away unreachable. We fortunately found Amit’s driver nearby, who btw reached the rafting spot separately in his car, early morning on Sunday. According to him, he got very lucky as he got to raft separately with this beautiful bunch of ladies from
They were not huge waterfalls but were big enough to cool your eyes and mind. Shantanu soon found a hidden spot and I joined him to research it further. He taught me a few things about science and award winning photography and I started admiring his presence of mind!
The cameras started rolling and the flashes all around make it look like a movie shoot!
Sunday, 22 July, 7 PM
The light was fading away. It was time to leave Kolad. The bus started its way back and we soon realized the hunger again! Man, we ate so much!!!!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Walk on water
especially, if you don't know how to swim.
And if you do, make sure it's not a holiday for the rescue team.
enough of instructions.
now, please go jump!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
the one who must not be named
Not the dealthy hallows (its scheduled to be released on july 21), this is about the movie, order of the phoenix! the movie does rock and roll and more.
are there any people who don't like harrypotter and the story? well, i do know that the count is greater than zero. and this is for all those who still are not bitten by the bug.
at the end of movie, harry has this to say,
"we do have something that voldemort doesn't. something to fight for!"
For all those who are rock-hearted to not like harry, here is what i have to say, "we atleast have something to wait for!"