The End

He got up and pulled on the sneakers, it was time to start his daily nocturnal ritual. Today also the surroundings were no different, everyone was asleep, except a teenage kid who was still busy reading 'Murder on the Oriental Express'; it was unlikely he would sleep before the dawn breaks.

Neil started walking, rocking with every step. This is what he liked the most, this child-like fun while he walked and everyone else slept. He was careful not to touch anything around, leaving no marks or traces of his presence. But he soaked it all in. Everyone breathing, and sleeping, and alive.

He walked along, stopping once in a while to look around, but never long enough to be noticeable. There was enough thrill in what he was about to do and there was little sense in spoiling it for a face half revealed, an eye only half shut or an arm hanging out as if calling out to him. But he did risk it everyday, knowing when the sleeping senses would be perceptive enough to notice this presence, and he always moved ahead before that.

Today was a special day for him because there were many nines in the date, just one less than last year. And he liked this number still. A lot.

WnM - movies

W and M are talking on the phone. M, as usual, is going for a movie and getting late. W, as usual, isn't impressed with what M does to entertain himself.

W: What are you doing?
M: I am going for a movie?
W: What? Movie? Again? Didn't you see one last week also? I just don't believe this!!!
M: Huh!
W: I hate this!
M: Huh!
W: And I hate you!
M: Huh!
W: What movie is this?
M: Its a Hindi movie.
W: AND I am sure it has a name!!!
M: Its called...err... 'Teri Jawani, Meri Mohabbat'.
W: WHAT? Why are you doing this to yourself? Please M...I can't live like this. I need someone who sees no movies, certainly not Hindi movies!!!
M: Huh!
W: I need a break-up!
M: Huh!
W: RIGHT NOW!
M: Honey its already movie time, and did I tell you that it has my favorite actress Jamuna playing the lead.
After a pause.
M: And we can have a break-up the next time we meet. This will also give you enough time to purchase me a nice break-up present.

W starts sobbing, and then the dam breaks and she starts crying, followed by some serious howling. Suddenly M remembers that he must have made a blunder somewhere in the conversation and tries to rewind it all back in his mind. He finds nothing wrong in his replies. But his past experience tells him that its time for sorry and missing the first half of the movie.

Reluctantly he walks away from his friends who all give him sympathetic glances and nods. M misses Jamuna on big screen. AGAIN.

Moral of the story: Never reveal the name of the one who fires you dreams and imaginations to your girl friend. And if possible DO NOT watch any Hindi movies either.

Too Much Love Will Kill You!

Came across this recently...meaningful in many ways for so many of us...



I'm just the pieces of the man I used to be
Too many bitter tears are raining down on me
I'm far away from home
And I've been facing this alone
For much too long
I feel like no-one ever told the truth to me
About growing up and what a struggle it would be
In my tangled state of mind
I've been looking back to find
Where I went wrong
Too much love will kill you
If you can't make up your mind
Torn between the lover
And the love you leave behind
You're headed for disaster
'cos you never read the signs
Too much love will kill you
Every time
I'm just the shadow of the man I used to be
And it seems like there's no way out of this for me
I used to bring you sunshine
Now all I ever do is bring you down
How would it be if you were standing in my shoes
Can't you see that it's impossible to choose
No there's no making sense of it
Every way I go I'm bound to lose
Too much love will kill you
Just as sure as none at all
It'll drain the power that's in you
Make you plead and scream and crawl
And the pain will make you crazy
You're the victim of your crime
Too much love will kill you
Every time
Too much love will kill you
It'll make your life a lie
Yes, too much love will kill you
And you won't understand why
You'd give your life, you'd sell your soul
But here it comes again
Too much love will kill you
In the end...
In the end.

The new LSD - Saree, Nashta aur Cockroach

Well these are some of the projects my friends in office are working on, and somehow this sounds good together. The LSD connection suggested by Vikram, though there is little connection as such!

Wish I could write more on this, but that would be impossible. So this is it!

Disasters

Its so weird, every day I read news online and there is always some natural disaster (maybe at times assisted by humans) causing unimaginable deaths across the globe.

A few examples here.

Moscow Smog

Pakistan Floods

Leh Flash Floods

China Landslide new

I wonder if it was always the case, and we see it more now due to better coverage and more reporting.

What's you status?

Arguing with your Boss is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that while you are getting dirty, the pig is actually enjoying it.
numa numa...
its all a dream...
ineffable
iChat
“Happiness is a byproduct of an effort to make someone else happy” - Gretta Brooker Palmer
On mobile by www.fring.com
not at the desk .. leave a msg..
we're not ducks on a pond, but ships at sea..
I am off finally :)
Type 57sc
Most Relationships fail not because of the absence of love....Love is always present.... Its just that, One loves too much, and The other loves too many.....
Change doesn't happen when circumtances improve... Changes happens when you decide to improve the circumtances....
http://www.wix.com/birdonawirefilms/birdonawirefilms
Awesome Mausam!!
Available
I got video camera+DVD Burner....hahahha now i m thinking of film direction...
Never fear shadows, they simply mean there is some light nearby!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qt8UUtatLY
IM+
http://gaatha.com/blog/
invention is better than cure..
"I don't mind going to work every day. But the 8 hour wait to go home again is a real bitch !" - www.vijayforever.wordpress.com
2mrow is holiday ....yes.....

is sooooooooo sleepy at work :(
The tongue is a funny thing to have - it makes you overeat and then makes you say you never will!!
:)

The Valley Burns

It's not working at all. I am not sure how serious the government is (State, Centre) on resolving this ever escalating state of violence and lawlessness, but then how can anyone be anything but serious about this. Omar Abdullah seems sincere enough, but is he capable enough to handle one of the worst phase of violence the valley has seen for the past many years.

Indian news dailies are covering the news, and so are the valley-only newspapers. You can read about what one of the valley-only daily Greater Kashmir writes. What's surprising is the absence of any talk on Kashmir in the baggies outside India - BBC and CNN. Usually one sees a lot of reporting about India in BBC at least.

There is little we can do sitting so far off, but pray that sanity prevails and this vicious and mindless cycle of violence ends.

Pressure Post - hairless Aparna, Arpit's hairy legs and Upma

I am under tremendous pressure to write an interesting and entertaining post. Plus I need to write a brain dead post to ward off the accusation of writing intellectual posts on my blog. I was accused today morning of writing a boring blog with no latest gupshup.

So let me just start off with how Aparna maintains herself so hairless and smooth. Its an age old and time-tested ancestral recipe, and I am about to reveal it here. Basically what you need to do is mix some special type of haldi (kastoori haldi, i think) with chandan (or some other two similar sounding ingredients) and use it on yourself. A few months of patience will pay off by removing all possible unwanted hair on your body; special care, however, has to be taken to not apply it on your eyebrows (rather obvious). But how exactly it is to be used remains a mystery. I only saw the mixture being prepared, but I suspect that you might have to add water/ oil/ wine before doing whatever you are supposed to with it.

I have a scoop on Arpit as well, but I shall not reveal it on a public platform. But here is quick update on his body hair. He has hairy legs (very hairy indeed) and smooth makkhan-like arms. His facial hair is unusual and makes him look a bit like a mongrel Chinese stuck in India. The hair on the head is shabby at best.

Aparna also makes awesome Upma (her first Upma attempt today with ma's recipe) while Arpit's tea is a perfect balance of Milk, Sugar and Assam Tea. I thoroughly enjoyed them both (the tea and the Upma).

As promised some images from my phone today. Absolutely unrelated to the post, but I had this irresistible urge to post them somewhere!

Office in the night



View from office



View from office



View from office



View from office



Office lift with Sachin's reflection



Headless Saibaba



Outside office



Outside office



Outside office



Sachin enjoying his chai



Vinishree, Kavya and Kavan

Smart Guard and Security Services

Plus there is a roaring lion and a Suryavanshi emblem.

I guess the guy (or maybe the dame) who started this company has a direct lineage from the Suryavanshi clan. And Lion obviously looks good, perhaps even to convey that they are not dogs (often dogs who bark and snarl, do not bite). These guys also bite.

This makes me feel very relieved about the security offered at our office space. We are safe because we are guarded by guards who are trained (presumably) by someone whose ancestors were Survayanshis. Lord Rama is perhaps the most well known Suryavanshi, but there are many others like Manu, Harishchandra and Sumitra (the last king of Ayodhya from this dynasty).

Suryavanshi was also a movie which starred Salman Khan and was released way back in 1992. The female lead was Sheeba (an import from Middle East) and his antagonist was Amrita Singh (ex-wife of Saif Ali Khan). Before its release, it was quite an eagerly awaited movie but ended up as a disaster at the box-office. I, however, remember enjoying the movie completely.

Kantishah ke Angoor

Well, this does sound like a catchy line for a blog post, and a soft porn movie too :)

Here is a quick review on a movie I saw last night and thoroughly enjoyed too - UDAAN. I went in thinking this would be a typical parallel-feel-good-cinema kind of a movie and would either end with darkness or lots of light. But the movie is unusual in treatment.



No use giving a typical review of the movie, you can read it here, here and here. Let me talk here about the grayness of the movie here. The movie has only about 3 characters and the whole story revolves around them - Rohit, his father and his six year old younger half-brother. The one character which stands out is the father, full of darkness, but with glimpses of light and some rare love as well. Easy to hate, but impossible to dismiss. Lots remain unsaid about why and how he is the way he is, but there are enough glimpses throughout which act as clues. In fact there is lots that's left unsaid and that makes the movie even more delightful. The intelligence of the movie lies in treating its audience as intelligent, and as audience you do feel good about it.

The end is surprisingly resolved, though still open ended. One can easily take the movie forward after leaving the theater.

Despite the duration, I strongly recommend the movie to all movie lovers. This one surely remains with you even after you are out of the theater. And if it doesn't, consider yourself unfortunate.

p.s. I never saw the promos, but here is one for those who still thinking about watching it.

...and yes, you need to see the movie to know more about Kantishah ke Angoor :)

Kashmiri ‘khaandar’ - wedding celebrations – series I, II and III and so on

My long time friend Muzayun has posted a series of articles on the rituals associated with a typical Muslim Kashmiri wedding. These are drawn from her own experiences over a period of more than a month, when her elder sister got married.

A delight to read, these give quite a lot of tit-bits on these events which usually happen behind closed doors and not seen by many outside the immediate family.

You can find the series here.

Perfect Strangers

'So are we perfect strangers once again?', I asked.

She didn't respond, still looking out of the window into the constant rain. She would occasionally shiver in the cool Napoli breeze, but refused my offer to use my jacket. There was something about her, something unusual. She would go silent when others would find it easy to talk, and smile and talk her heart out when you would least expect her to.

Somehow I had assumed that my question would bring her out of her stupor, but I slowly realised that I was wrong. This was my third attempt in the last one hour, and she had been quite for a long time this time. I could see a small tear building in her left eye, but wouldn't dare make a move. We were after all only strangers, and she might take me wrong. So I just waited as the tear dried off, even before it could roll down. She was holding something back, and it was taking a toll on her.

As I stared at her face, she turned and looked right into my eyes and said, 'Yes, that's exactly what we are.'

Before I could respond, she was already out in the rain, soaked to the bones and walking fast into invisibility, uncertainty and wilderness. I thought for a moment, but then reluctantly followed her into her dark, unknown world. She was too precious to be lost, I was ready to lose myself for her.

We already were strangers who knew each other too well...

failed conversations

Conversations can be complex. Especially about subjects where people have diverse views and they intend to stick their ground, no matter what. It requires skills to have meaningful and useful conversations, conversations that can build on divergent views and result in all parties take something back.

Most often, however, such high voltage conversations degenerate into futile debates and arguments. And sadly one voice amongst many can spoil a conversation with tremendous potential. Its rather sad, and most often unavoidable. We are at times incapable to listening to a different point of view, because we are so convinced that we are right, often in situations where there may not be any right or wrong at all. Its an opportunity lost.

We are passionate about our views, but it makes a lot of sense to be sensible and realise that there can be many right views. Who knows, a minute change of mindset may trigger a much bigger and a very positive and welcome change in us.

We should listen. It always pays.

Trimurti - Hindu trinity and their spouces

Trimurti, meaning "having three forms", is the term applied to the three main Hindu gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This Trimurti or triad represents all aspects of the Supreme Being. The Trimurti is depicted as a single-bodied, three-headed man. This symbolises the fact that the three forms are aspects of one Supreme Being. They are respectively the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe.



The Trimurti is no longer worshipped as a deity. Even initially, it was worshipped as a representation of Brahman, the Supreme Being, and as a single entity. Later, each god was separated from the single entity and considered a deity in his own right. Today, Brahma is not worshipped, but Vishnu and Shiva both have large followings.



Each God in the trinity has his consort. To Brahma is Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge. For Vishnu is Lakshmi, the Goddess of love, beauty and delight. For Shiva is Parvati, the Goddess of power, destruction and transformation. These are the three main forms of the Goddess, as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the three main forms of the God. The three Goddesses are often worshipped in their own right as well as along with their spouses.

Saraswati - Brahma - Sadly no image available for reference.

Lakshmi - Vishnu



Parvati - Mahesh/ Shiva




References:

www.hindunet.org
www.gurjari.net

Switching Time Off

Sometimes you do not want to know the time, you may not necessarily wish for the time to stop, but you may just want it to be unknown to you. As if nothing like time exists.

You do not want to know if its day or night outside. If its the time for the morning newspaper, or the lunch, or afternoon tea, or dinner. If its the time when your neighbours come back home, or when they take their dogs out for a walk. Or if its the time to sleep.

You do not know if its the time to cuddle up with you loved one, or if its the time to make love. Or time for midnight coffee break. Or the time when you want to be alone, in a dark room looking at the walls and blank in your head.

Can we really escape time? Do we need to? Want to? Sometimes maybe?