Benazir

Its only now setting in...but the disbelief and shock is still there...

Its very very weird, but I am actually feeling kind of low still. Am surprised it affected me so much...

I hope her soul rests in peace...

Cheese Cake at Mocha!

I was waiting yesterday in Mocha for some friends and Cheese cake (Orange Cheese cake to be precise, I wasn't given a choice)....

Wrote this wonderful piece of poetry there...

Waiting for the cheese cake now,
After the waiting for others failed.
Failed to materalise, failed to realise!
Am waiting on cold solid steel, white on the surface, dark to the core,
Unlike the failure...dark on the outside, soft on the core!

So how would this cheese cake be?
Sweet? Sure...tasty? hopefully.
Like a woman...very soft and desirable!
Unlike the 'very soft' Octopus,
And the 'very desirable' Steel.
It would hopefully be like a woman...both...

No coffee, no whisky!
But there was rum last night,
And also some floating around before it all wore off!
Sadly not much though...and not for long...
A desirable hangover...

Well, my cheese cake came (though the friends never did) before I could finish this poem. It was, at best, extremely disappointing! Looked extremely soft and absolutely desirable...pretty much like a woman, though not really!

Maybe a wonderfully cooked and beautifully garnished 'Octopus' can also look soft and desirable...so whats the difference? Women and Octopus...tentacles...but even women have them! I wonder...

Shalimar the Clown

Started reading this book (Shalimar the Clown, dodo!) today in the loo (other books in my life haven't been so lucky), and found the first few pages quite interesting.

Couldn't go beyond page 6 as my bowel movement was rather impressive today and I found it foolish to just sit in the loo and read (especially because Bangalore has cooled down quite a lot in the past few days and my loo is much more suitable for a cold dead turkey than a warm cold blooded mammal)...

The first character introduced is called 'India'...odd for a name, but if we read a little deeper maybe not so. India is named so because of Indus which flowed through the ancient North Western India (now Pakistan) and kind of demarcated the Indian territory in the olden days from the 'Greater Persia' in the West.

Now, The name Indus is a Latinization of Hindu, in turn the Iranian variant of Sindhu, the name of the Indus in the Rigveda (Wikipedia)!

So much history behind a name...no wonder carrying forward with a name like 'India' would not be an easy task. But I still find it extremely interesting...

Getting carried away while sketching...

Sandy told me that I am getting carried away with my sketching...and surprisingly I liked when he said that! Me and sketching? Hahahaha...it actually is very funny!

I never ever sketched earlier...and now I do it as much as I can. As Muzayun's blog says...there are miles and miles to go...but I am getting there. I will be there baby...

Some gyan on sketching now (may be helpful for some late starters like me) -
- While conceptualizing, sketch small and sketch a lot
- Once overall broad concept direction is finalised, become a graphic designer and refine the 2D views
- Sketch a lot and sketch very very fast while doing the above. Make as many options as possible and then later on combine elements from the many options that you have to finalise.

Well, there are many many more things about sketching and I dont even know what are those, will publish some from time to time...

Thought from the past!

Lal Cha from North-East...

It was very early morning and I was waiting alone in a private bus stand in Guwahati. I had just come from Tawang, but had reached the town at 3:30 am and it wasn't possible to go home then. Initially just waited on the road and once the waiting area opened at 5, waited inside.

I had made a couple of Assamese friends in the Sumo on my way from Tezpur and the three of us were waiting together. There was this guy outside selling Lal Cha. Lal Cha is basically lemon tea without milk and its quite amazing. It was just 2 bucks and very hot and I had many a steaming cups, which was a treat on a cold winter morning.

Inside, there was a special stall for buses going to Manipur and I inquired about traveling there. The guy on the booth was extremely friendly and tried selling me the tickets for the next bus itself (in fact he was also ready to make the inner line permit, then and there only)...and only I know how much I wanted to give in. But I had been warned and warned and warned again by everyone about my safety there! I had come so close to saying yes...

So odd...its a part of India, but so unsafe that its recommended that you don't go there! But why would anyone want to kill me, I am doing nothing? And I guess that's where the problem lies...we fail to understand. Its easy to look at things only in our own way and miss the other person's perspective. And maybe this is exactly what happened there...and still happening. We fail to belong to others' world and still try to make it our own. Whats the right thing for us may not be the right thing for others...and sadly this does not even cross our minds. For us our right is The Right! But what do they get from our right? Loads of unwanted guests...even people like me, who just want to see a beautiful place, experience a beautiful culture and then go back never to return. What do I give to a land that I claim to be my own? Nothing...

Am having Lal Cha after a long time in office right now as there is no milk...am glad I am, because it took me back to that chilly morning in Assam and the Lal Cha on the road! I am uncomfortable and disturbed, but am I ready for action...am I ready to stand by something that I believe so passionately that I would do anything for that?