Rama Drama!

Alone..Together!

2012-01-24T21:31:00.000-05:00

Fears alone,
Stronger together;
Tears alone,
Laugher together,
Thoughts alone,
Silence together,
Desires alone,
Passions together,
Constricted alone,
Liberated together,

Mind alone,

Hearts together,
Fog alone,
Sunshine together,

Cold alone,

Warmth together,
Battles alone,
Peace together,
Past alone,
Futures together,
Never alone,
When we are together!

Warrior's Princess!

2012-01-18T23:40:00.004-05:00

His Kingdom lost, in her piercing eyes,

Threatening his sanity, her beguiling smiles!

She sat in her throne , concealing her simmering core,

His Armor bore, the brunt’s of her ornamental adorn!

Her clanking bangles, speak a language of trust,

Far away must he be, to understand their beauty to nest!

Her dangling earrings, filter her wavering fantasies,

His cranky heart creaks, must labor these cascading realities!

An Earthly shiny ring, revolves her lifelong existence,

His fiery Sun ray, evolves as her eternal shadow for sustenance!

Toast to New Chapter!

2012-01-01T16:22:00.006-05:00

In our short life history, every New year is a New chapter.

You are the hero/heroine of your life and you play several roles.

Every chapter involves some old characters, some new faces and sometimes new characteristics to old faces.

At the end of every chapter, you reflect on the various colors these surrounding characters bring to your life.

You never know if these characters will come with you in the next chapter, vanish forever or some old ones reappear unexpectedly.

Your journey continues knowing all you have is the present moment with them. All you control is the moment you are creating right now with them.

After all, the final chapter of our life is already predetermined.

Accepting that impermanence, releases us from the burden of "forever" and enables us to be with them "completely forever" in the moment!

The beginning of every new chapter is Hope.

Hope that your favourite characters remain in your life.

Hope that you march into your unknown story with love,patience and deeper understanding!

Hope that you evolve into a fuller, blossoming bundle of awareness for you and others around you!

The beginning of a year is a bookmark of your life that marks your triumphs, failures, disappointments, tender moments, intimate silences and indecisive paths!

Rejoice before you march on!

Remember before you move on!

Revive before you breathe fully!

Here's a toast to your next chapter!

Drink life, feel the spirit and indulge!

Serengeti Cindrella!

2011-12-14T02:08:00.001-05:00

The rules of Serengeti have been laid down for centuries for one reason-Survival! It contains the collective intelligence of millions of years.There is a reason why the Tiger hunts down Gazelle and Snakes gobble Rats.If you wonder why doesn't the Elephants stomp on rabbits and eat them instead of starving for months to find a particular tree to chomp on leaves,the answer is a simple process called Evolution!

That's why the story of Layla,the strong hearted, stubborn but tender Lioness from Serengeti and Raja,the intelligent,arrogant but skillful Snow Leopard from Maasai Mara is unique.

They came together for survival in a strange migratory land in the plains of Maasai Mara.It had been fourteen months of drought,the longest ever both had witnessed.Layla had to feed her little precocious cub,Luna, while Raja was looking for a land to call his own. As the drought continued, Raja realized he needed a partner to conquer this land. As he saw the strong lioness migrated from Serengeti walk towards the plain, he decided to do what no other Leopard has ever done before him for millions of years. Make a Lioness as his partner in hunting. He showed Layla the lay of the land.

In the jungle, everyone has to earn their keep. To Raja's surprise, Layla proved to be more than a worthy partner.She surprised him with her moves striking with less energy while Raja would strategize for hours changing positions ten times before a kill. Raja's stealth matched Layla's straightforward kill.Together, bound by survival,they forged an unknown,unusual, unique bond.Their differences vanished under the stars filled sky as they shared stories of plains filed with rivers and beautiful deers. When the survival instinct recedes, when the necessary niceties go away, you peel a layer that's more honest and true. That's where Raja saw Layla's unique way of seeing life in the Jungle and realized how similar they were spiritually. They both 'kill for necessity"and not for the joy of hunting. They shared tid bits of their life that revealed a master canvass of each other that was being painted on each other's psyche. It was a controlled revelation yet contained nuggets of truth that both knew contained precious vulnerability. They shared in trust knowing the other could usurp the land. First hesitantly, then willingly, and on some days when their respective individualistic free animal spirit took over, none whatsoever.

In the plains of Maasai Mara, they climbed trees, hid low in the grass and counted the star streaks in the open sky together. They left clues in the trail and met at the rendezvous point in the wee hours of winter mornings. It was only a matter of time before one of them did the unthinkable. As always, it turned out to be the impulsive Leopard,Raja. He fell for Layla. He knew about her cubs, her pride but he also knew this was not based on survival probability or prosperity in the plains.This was purely a soul connection that tugged at his heart during lonely hunting nights. There was a need for sensing each other in the core that reassured and replenished each moment together with content and bliss but at same time light and warm in the grassy playground with tender touch.

Life is transient in the plains.It is cruel, unforgiving and hits you hard with reality. Raja knew he was holding on to Layla because his kill had a purpose beyond feeding oneself. When they hunted together, plotting each move, matching each one's step, arriving at same pace,backing away at right moment before plunging on the prey, what got killed was lost in their minds and what mattered most was what got created in their hearts. Raja knew the truth in that moment that Layla makes him alive. With her, it's not surviving the plains but living the plains. He felt sure that Layla felt the same. He knew that their time together was the soul nourishment that fueled the time in between when they were not together and his days were not counted by the Sun but by the intervals between their meetings. It had nothing to do with other members of his species or hers. He felt the bond that he knew was special and wanted to believe Layla felt the same.

Raja decided to let Layla know his feelings. What better way to let her know than by sacrificing his kill for her ? As Layla looked at his elaborate hunt laying infront of her, she withdrew. She wasn't sure what Raja needed. She couldn't believe that this Leopard would be so stupid to pursue someone who was from a different species altogether.The biology, anatomy and physics, all of them denied together in her core. This created a slow rift as Layla felt conflicted. Raja knew he can wait as one day Layla would know he meant the eternal bond that defied everything she knew but Layla began to sense the danger in this relationship.While she was thankful on one hand,she had a hard time categorizing this bond between them. After all, they were two independent cats responsible for their own members of their family with fear of revealing too much as they wanted to protect their identities and the free land.

There is a saying in Serengeti that says "The dreamer is entertaining, inspiring and rejenuvating but in the end, he will get you killed". Layla knew this fact and has always been a realist. She made sure she was a spectator in Raja's dreams as she knew his world revolved around her. It only made her feel more proud but as she returned with the food to feed Luna, she knew where she belonged.She was sure where her loyalties lay.She was sure she would return back to Serengeti from Masaai Mara soon.

Raja would get glimpses of their old times after that day and then suddenly she would turn into the head of pride that is solely responsible for the protection of Luna. He didn't mind the dualities as in his mind, what they had was unique irrespective of the other realities. He was happy as long as they met in the plains to do their dance. Some days, Raja would get frustrated at her lack of acknowledgement of what they have.They began to hunt separately now and share whenever Layla felt sorry for Raja. Every time she indulged out of gratitude, Raja would build more castles between them.

Layla did not understand what made Raja to be so enamored with her. She was a Lioness and he was a Leopard. She could not allow herself to be dragged into a dreamer's world that would conflict with her pride family. She knew that was her purpose in life.She liked this crazy Leopard that dives, rolls and hunts just to please her but she knew she can't acknowledge what he wants. She did not believe in his eternal bond as it interfered with her realistic world.She realized he was making it difficult to leave this place without feeling guilty. She sent him on a mission to fetch the finest of water from Nile river in Northern plains.

Layla finally left Maasai Mara to Serengeti as Raja went on his mission. She knew there was no easy way to do this. As Raja returned to find an empty plain, he knew she had left. The winter set in as the trees became bare. Raja sat alone in the middle of open ground and looked at his face in the Northern Nile water. He saw what Layla saw in him and why she left. He is but a Snow Leopard imagining a unique connection with a Lioness that has a different purpose. Layla can never accept Raja and come on his soul journey because she believes in the life on the plains. Not the one beyond it.

As Layla saw her little cub Luna join the big pride in Serengeti, she knew she had come home!

Raja began his long walk out of Maasai Mara, never to be seen again!

Life in the jungle continues unabated!

*Picture taken in Taronga Zoo in Sydney

Gyaku Gire!

2011-10-25T19:17:00.000-04:00

Ever had a "feeling" that boiled you over in an instant with your mind still grappling to put that sensation into a word, so you can describe that moment later, as you think it will help you to deal with that situation,if not,at least, have a place for it in your mind so your heart can move on ?

This is where your mother tongue usually comes to rescue. For all the greatness of English language,there are many situations, where it is just plain inadequate. But when it comes to certain situations involving technology,even your mother tongue can't help you as they hardly grew in vocabulary relative to English.

Can you remember how you felt when someone lashed at you for pointing out something they did wrong ? Perhaps you were trying to help them.Perhaps you wanted to change them for better. Maybe you told them something as it was going to cause problem to someone else. Yet, they sprang at you with vile vociferous curses.Your immediate instinct is legitimate anger,justified rage and righteous retribution! As you see, there is no one word to accurately describe that. However, the Japanese, have a term for it. It's called "Gyaku Gire"! If you show your anger/drama at someone because they told you the truth or caught you redhanded, then you are using the technique of Gyaku Gire.

Simple. Authentic. Straight forward. Even though I don't know Japanese, I can see myself saying,"Stop your Gyaku Gire!" and move on. It really helps you to put that situation in perspective instead of being confused and angry and stuck. That is the power of "situational description" words. They bring joy, calm, ecstasy, anger, hurt, love, our entire world in perspective, if we just knew how to articulate it to ourselves and others.

This made me think of other situations where i would love to have a word than be glib about it.

When you are listening to your CD collection or iPod, there comes a pause between songs and your mind races instinctively humming the prelude of next song. What do you call that ? "A Great recall?"

"Meandering" and "Wandering" sounds insufficient to explain how you actually hyperlink words and stories when someone is talking while you are on a different website,different world, inside your mind!I really wish I had a word to encapsulate that.

What do you call a tune that pops up unannounced, torturing your whole morning,before you give up and suddenly reveals itself exactly when you realize that you have been wearing your new t-shirt with tag for almost a week ?

How about the earthy smell that swarms you before rain or the tiny fingers of a baby or that dreamy perfect kiss in an empty beach during sunset at 4am in your deep slumber that feels very real ? These situations deserve their own words than some phrase to explain in lengthy fashion.

What about those you fondly recall sharing your umbrella before they turned into jerks and screwed you over ? We need a word for all those wonderful people whom you liked at one point and never want to see them again!

The summarization of entire periods and moments like Nostalgia, childhood, happy, therapy time, just doesn't do justice to the gamut of feelings we go through and experience in that situation.We need more "Gyaku Gire"s and "Mamihlapinatapai"s.

What the world needs is words that succinctly, instinctively,exactly describes certain feelings and situations, so we can spend less time analyzing,wondering,creating what-if's and spend more time, living!

If only i had a perfect word for it!

Effacing Versions!

2011-08-25T01:44:00.020-04:00

Do you know the moment when your self morphs from an excited illusion,falling into burnt dark brown earth,shrinking into an unknown version of you? A version that would make dementors lick their fingers to devour you? A version that you have to carry across the desert with no hope ? A version that after months of gloom, slowly regains the strength but more wary, less wise but sometimes with more understanding of the times you were flying ?

When you think of memories with someone and the eventual loss of that person, what probably hurts most is the loss of our version with them. The version where you dared to do things without fear. A version where the words fell on the pages without effort. A version where inspiration was a feeling that you transmuted effortlessly in to works of art. A version where you felt the movement of beating heart pumping more than blood. It's the unknown unsaid equation that both of them knew. It's a lie that both of them live up to and some of them succeed in making it true. Perhaps all great works of art arise out of it. A pretentious lie that the belief of it by the person you love,makes it true. And when that person rejects that version or doesn't acknowledge it, another version emerges.

Maybe we all are used to versions from our birth. One to Mom,one to siblings,one to granddad and one to the taunting bully in fourth grade.We get comfortable with our versions. We pat ourselves on our back at our ability to switch between our versions. There is a version where we share our secrets. There is a version where we protect those secrets fiercely.

And then, there are Versions with people who upgrade you. Transform you.

Like your history teacher who told you,"If you want to study differentiation, look at Moghul era, if you want to understand Integration, look at Ashoka.Math will help you earn money, History will help you earn respect!".

Like the day you realized your parents aren't even middle class when you asked for that donation to engineering college. Like the day you realized the job that paid you the most is not the one you want. Like the day you found that your injury to shoulder doesn't make you eligible for any professional sports.

Maybe there is a cycle to all this. An uninhibited raw free spirit version. A mishap. An accident of life events that causes you to stumble and fall. You rise up cautiously. Live carefully. Aware of pitfalls but you fall nevertheless finding a new one. You have an urge to feel integrated but your realities don't allow you to. You juggle your versions knowing well which one is real. And, when your real one takes a beating, you re-form,re-morph,re-cleanse and start walking always longing for a previous version or hoping for a newer version.

Perhaps our goal is to find a version that gives us peace.To live a version that makes us whole. To accept our versions,constantly effacing,resurfacing,refacing our core forming a new version of self!

Soul Hug!

2011-08-21T19:17:00.000-04:00

A 57 second transcending full embrace,
Revealing each others true buried face,
Holding warmly under the blue wide sky,
Feeling the fall of every escaped sigh,
Assuring the doubtful rising heave,
Soaking this moment that'll never leave,
Holding tighter rising above reality tomb,
Recreating safety of your motherly womb,
You and I disappearing in each others arms,
We and us spreading as Halo in our nerve farms,
An Unpossessed hug that possesses every core path,
Forging new meaning in the depths of our hearts!

Arrested Thirst!

2011-04-08T21:27:00.001-04:00

A million desires arrested,

Jailed unevenly in each capillary,

Packed and compressed to capacity,

Quivering every inch in anticipation,

Aching to be released, all in one moment,

When your lips quench this thirst!

New Dawn!

2011-04-03T05:40:00.003-04:00

How do you sum up the fulfillment of a generation's quest ? How do you express the collective euphoria of a common prayer being answered in exactly the same way you dreamed about for years? How does a passionate inspiration lift you to shatter your inner doubts to realize your own full potential ?

Today, just a day after Fool's day, eleven men on the cricket field,fooled you in to a magnificent trance for 510 minutes, winning the World Cup after 27 years. To understand the magnitude, I have to give you a personal history lesson.

I was seven years old when the first World Cup was won by India, which I never saw, but always heard stories about Kapil's dare devils humbling the mighty West Indies. I watched in agony the 87 World Cup when Graham Gooch swept my dreams in semifinals. I endured 92 World Cup,watching my idol, a young 19yr old then called Tendulkar,smashing the best world class bowlers to pavilion only to see rest of team members letting us down.

Perhaps, the most painful Cricket memory was watching India lose to Srilanka in semifinals of 96 world cup.The image of Vinod Kambli crying will forever be etched in my psyche. 1999 World Cup was unique for the fact that I watched the games outside my country with fellow Pakistanis surrounded by curious rednecks only to crash out again. 2003 was a highlight year. I now had an apartment with cable connection and India was not a country of snake charmers anymore. We played with grit and heart to reach the finals after one of the most memorable Pakistan thrashing innings by my hero.However,the gap in skills were exposed excruciatingly in the finals by the Aussies. By now, the unfulfilled dream had reached two decades. I have vented enough about 2007 World Cup.It is only befitting that my 1996 memories are erased by 2011 victory over the very same Srilanka.

The wait was worth it!

Today, is the culmination of an era. My Generation's era. An ascension from Young confident men to Assured middle age. From passionate impulsive heart to calm skillful execution. From peaks and lows to measured balance. From contended mediocrity to expecting excellence. From martyring dreams to dog headed perseverance. And no one embodies this generation more than Tendulkar.

Every sport has it's heroes. You have the jazzy Jordan jumping in rhythm during clutch times. The elegant Federer with his sublime forehand surrendering opponents. The brave Armstrong who accelerates his bike over right turns to dash over the finish line. What all these sportsmen don't have is carrying a billion people's expectation for 21 years. What makes Tendulkar the greatest is not his majestic cover drive of Brett Lee, but his ability to bring joy to the man who spent his three month's earnings to watch India play Pakistan. His ability to remain humble and dedicate himself to the craft for 20 years. His ability to transcend race,age,creed,nationalities by his sheer showmanship and skill. No one deserves this World Cup more than the still 16yrs old, quintessential Indian Demi-god.

Every country has it's share of events and moments that shapes the attitude and confidence of the generation who witnessed it. The Indo-China war of 1962 changed our Army forever. The emergency period in 75, took us to brink of communism. The performance of Zubin Mehta and Pt.Ravi Shankar exposed our Artistic wealth to World. A young,idealistic Rajiv Gandhi revived a nation after Tragedy only to succumb to corruption and his own tragic death.The Mumbai blasts, IT boom, Telecom revolution, World's back office,Call Center, Foreign cars, Installment schemes,outsourcing and Rahman's Oscar win, have morphed the divergent populace resulting in confident, strong, brave India. It is no surprise that 2011 World cup win is a culmination of two decades of measured strides.

Should we remain content in this glory time?

Great Nations use moments like this to shape future course.
It is time to move up to next level of excellence.As we rejoice in 1.2 billion voices cheering together, it is time to elevate those voices into nation building actions.No more kids begging on the roads. Clean water and Clean streets. Accountability of public leaders. No more farmer suicides due to lack of food. Consistency and Quality in our services.

Can Cricket teach us lessons to solve our life and country's ills ?

You bet!

All we need to do is find inspiration in our finals run chase.
Focus on task at hand irrespective of expectations.
Not try to win by fours and sixes but running hard for one's and two's.
Not depend solely on one person but knowing Nation Building is team sport.

And above all, electing leaders who perform with common sense and sense of calm when rattled,leading from the front,pulling all levels of people with care and love!

It's a New Dawn and we all have a role in it!

Dormant Panic!

2011-03-30T00:34:00.003-04:00

An impatient heart losing it's balance,

Known trigger shooting without senses,

Gathering each day the scattered pieces,

Regaining my sanity without any semblance!

Eventual ending would leave gaping hole,

Everyday churning is just hyperbole,

Tired hope wears my emotional sole,

Thirsting acceptance to become alive whole!

Perhaps its all an imaginary castle,

Conflicting inner twin with justified rastle,

Deluded assumptions is my heart's hassle,

Denying every moment with bow and tassel!

Show mercy to quieten this aching howl,

Give strength to survive if's it's run afoul,

Save my spirit to hide from my scowl,

Acknowledge my love to fulfill my soul!

Agora!

2011-03-27T12:50:00.022-04:00

What makes someone inspirational ? What drives someone to make the hardest of inconvenient choices ? What pushes sane compassionate human beings to degenerate into fanatic blood hungry animals ?

Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenabar, tries to address all these and more in a period piece set in 4th century A.D. in the great city of Alexandria, raising more questions than answers stamping it's relevance even in 2011.

The City of Alexandria is at the cusp of religious transformation. The Roman empire has fallen and a new religion called Christianity is spreading like wild fire among the oppressed. The Pagans are still holding on to their past glory while the Jews are caught in-between Christians and Pagans. Amidst all these chaos, stands firm the great library of Alexandria. Here,the most beautiful and respected philosopher-teacher,Hypatia, teaches astronomy and math to a diverse group of students. She is constantly trying to solve the mysteries of the cosmos; Is the Earth, center of Universe or is it Sun? Is the Earth round or flat ? Does the Earth revolve around the Sun or vice versa? If it is revolving, how come we don't feel it ?

It is this obsessive passion and thirst for knowledge that makes Hypatia the object of affection to three of her students. Davus, her most intelligent lovestruck slave; Orestes, who expresses his love for his teacher in front of everyone in annual play ,only to get a rude harsh rejection; Synesius,who is thankful to her courage for protecting him,a Christian, among Pagan majority.

The story revolves around these three students and Hypatia and how the events outside the walls of the library change their lives forever in a climate of religious intolerance.

The attention given to details of this period makes you sit up and enjoy the little things like the clapper used during play, the detailed statues, authentic period costumes, the CGI rendition of city streets, ocean, market place, cultural mix and the way camera descends from stars to the open veranda of Hypatia's bed as if the Gods themselves are watching with curiosity the happenings on ground.

Rachel Weisz, radiates and embodies Hypatia. There is a certain luminance in her face that fills up the whole screen and instantly makes you want to sit next to her and listen. Davus, brings his lustful love,mixed with oppressive anger towards the Pagans beautifully to screen. His repressed love for Hypatia along with the religious fanaticism in the streets,makes you think about the things we don't control no matter what the heart wants.

One of the boldest moves in the movie is how they have depicted the dangers of religion over state. It reminds you that there is a separation of Church and State not to protect Religion from the clutches of government but State from fundamental religious leaders and their intolerance. The Pagans kill innocent Christians, the Christians kill Jews, the Jews kill Christians. The director doesn't spare any group. The other bold move is to not let any character behave like holier than thou. The knowledgable philosopher has slaves, the dedicated Christian soldier goes from feeding the poor to killing the innocent simply because they don't believe in Jesus, the Roman law keepers choose the majority mob over peace and allow genocide and plunder for political gain, the Bishop picks selective passages from St.Paul to twist the meaning of verses(very much like fundamental Imams in Mosques). No character is left without their flawed side and no group is spared their ugly darker side. It takes courage and conviction to portray such uncompromising display of our fallibilities. It also makes you wonder how fragile, we as society are, even centuries later when you hear about Darfur, Kosovo and the tribal wars in Africa.

There are flaws in the movie as it almost seems like two parts. One, the times in the library and other, after the students have grown into their adult roles. The pacing could be faster and the constant violent scenes could have been shortened but considering the times, it is probably ncessary to drive home the human insanity.

There is a scene when Orestes asks Hypatia how can she be so obsessed about cosmos when people are killing each other in the streets. As a viewer, you feel he is justified while you also understand the pursuit of things that are greater than one self or your current situation, even if that situation is a choice between life or death. Socrates died drinking a vial of poison as he wouldn't compromise on his beliefs. Bhagat Singh died as he wouldn't compromise on his vision of free India. A strong passionate belief is what makes them inspirational. Having a purpose beyond self, in and of itself, makes every moment worthy of living. Even if that life is curtailed, their idea,ideology and belief lives on.

Agora is an epic drama that shows the conflict between Science and Religion, conflict between Survival and Choice, conflict between Secularism and Religious intolerance, and above all, the struggle between Loyalty and Love!

Relish it!

Phantasm!

2011-03-24T18:39:00.005-04:00

A Phantasm,
That rules our hidden microcosm,
Sharing our whispers,
Under the Silent darkness,
Stretching our hearts unguarded
Yet guarding it all when the Sun rises,
Letting it flow unfettered
Yet steering it uninhibited,
Knowing the destination is close,
Yet feeling so morose,
A sense of rowing alone,
Waiting for a sign in the glowing phone,
Perhaps it is a suppressed whisper,
That lingers and caresses,
Falling in your heart with momentary kiss,
That you were hoping to be eternal bliss,
Such is the Moods of seasons that impress
Weaving aching knots sewn by your seamstress!

Pause!

2011-03-07T00:41:00.000-05:00

A Pause, to examine that broken part,

A Toss, that flips between Mind and Heart!

A Voice, that rises up from deep within,

A Choice, that defines your inner feeling!

A Noise, that still exists in the outer layer,

A Poise, which you yearn in your daily prayer!

A Loss, which you fear will end in pain,

A Cause, which you know will forever remain!

Pause…

Accept…

Savour..

Let it be..!

Anchoring Descent!

2011-02-25T23:01:00.001-05:00

Can you stop yourself while in the middle of a free fall?

Can you withdraw when you slowly step into a quick sand where the view of rain forest is perfect knowing you are sinking deep each moment?

Can you control the racing heart that seems to beat on its own rhythm controlled by an external force?

Can you stop yourself from not obsessing about the process of getting high that makes you feel alive?

It is during times like these that you need an anchor to hold on to. A reason to restrain. A reason to hold on to sanity.

A moment of pause for self-preservation.

Self is deluded in free fall. The exhilaration, thrill, rush makes your senses disappear as you are not thinking about the final descent and lost in the beauty of the moment. The joy of thousand lives is lived in those few seconds that makes everything else immaterial, including life. The question is, can you find an anchor during that fall to prolong it? To hold on to those “falling” moments?

More importantly, when you find an anchor, will you hold it long enough to pause without getting enamoured by the surrounding beauty and find a way to enjoy the scenery, warmth and gratitude for reaching those heights?

A lot depends on your maturity in the climbing process and your ability to restrain.When you lose your restraint and loose your grip on your anchor and willingly let go off your foothold, you enter the zone of free fall. Free fall with hope!

Hope that you will reach your destination. Pure Faith! Pure Instinct with honest intentions!

It takes a lot of courage to let go as only one in a million land on their feet. For the rest, it’s an impending crash. And the part that’s broken is not made with bones.

Yet, we risk ourselves every time to climb, step by step, with a sense of déjàvu. Perhaps, the reason is that some people want to fly. They are suffocated by the predictability and safety cocoon of Earth and this climb for a jump, gives them a purpose.

A purpose to see the extraordinary in ordinary.

A purpose to live in a different plane that imbalances their soul equilibrium letting them know of its existence.

A purpose for the heart to feel alive in spite of breathlessness.

Self-preservation is for cowards. Restraint is for the fearful.

Letting go is pure giving and giving in! The falling is wrought with grave danger, but, even if you are going to crash, there is those few seconds of bliss in descent. And for these optimistic hopeful climbers, that is better than dead-soul existence on the ground!

Yes! There is a possibility of broken hearts that might cripple them for life and kill their optimism to climb again. But, if you survive, with each broken fall, you understand your inner terrain better. You realize your missteps. Maybe you will gain the perspective to anchor yourself and enjoy the Sun next time. Maybe you will gain the insight to accept and stay on the ground and enjoy the mountains and sky from below. Just Maybe!

But there are those eternal searchers who will climb relentlessly each time, jumping, sooner or later; seeking their destiny and destination to land on their feet and hearts in tact! That’s the day they will stop climbing; that's the day they will be content and peaceful having found their soul destiny on Earth!

Sigh!

2011-02-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

He Sighs
To Resuscitate himself,
As She keeps
Stealing his breaths,
Every time
He thinks of her!

Simmer!

2011-02-09T19:10:00.001-05:00

Let it Simmer,

Let it Flow!

Don’t force it,

Don’t rush it!

Sink deep in you,

Seek the real you!

Watch you emerge,

Before you submerge!

Your restraint is sweet pain,

Your constraint is lost vain!

Your sighs fill you,

Your cries calm you!

It is slow and steady,

Measured Insanity!

Longer the Simmer,

Assured thy heart a winner!

Be the Sun!

2010-12-07T02:23:00.000-05:00

You’re far away for a reason,

As She knows if you are near, it will be treason!

You soak her, in your rays,

But she can’t escape now, from her earth bound ways!

You are tempted, to cross the line,

But she knows her conflicted heart, cannot bear the pain!

Your restraint, leads to silence,

Her duties flow, feeling your presence!

Your restless heart knows, the irrefutable fact,

Her melancholy smile says, it is our pact!

It’s love without ownership,

Why struggle for guardianship?

Your heart, has her place,

Be assured, of her space!

Give her, the right energy,

Watch her grow, with your synergy!

Shine on her, everyday,

Don’t impose on her, your every say!

Know your role, in this Universe,

Your joy comes, feeling her verse!

You are partial, to what makes your heart Sing,

Let her free, to watch her fly with wings!

Do your duty, as the Sun,

Sink in her beauty, as one!

This is a test, of your inner fire,

Carry her warmth, beyond your pyre!

Attraversiamo!

2010-12-02T23:52:00.001-05:00

When you eliminate all the necessities and strip your self down to its bare bones, if you are left with just a word, you know that’s you! Unvarnished, raw,core essence of who you are. Sometimes, it’s more than a word,maybe two, rarely three but anything more than that is just a derivative or unnecessary!

Words are universal and they strike a chord irrespective of the language. An “Om”(Absolute reality) could be the basic origin of all words to someone that connects them to their inner self! A “Maktub”(It is Written) could become a little boy’s guiding light in the dark to the realization of his dreams! An “Attraversiamo”(Let’s cross over together) could be your journey over to peaceful place within your self! And when things go downhill no matter how good you think you are, nothing says it better like “Shlimazl”!

Perhaps the most profound one’s are those that makes your lips curve and smile just by saying them,like,“Mellifluous”! You feel it flowing without any hurry yet elegant like a princess walking by with gait and balance and the right curves! You can’t say “Swasame”(Breath) without sinking your breath and letting it go with love. There are some fleeting emotions that arise and vanish in a second but have a way of melting in your conscious. Not many languages have a word for those moments but the people of Tierra Del Feugo, living in the southernmost tip of South America must know about vagaries of love more than any other culture. They have a word called “Mamihlapinatapei”. It means a look shared by two strangers who feel connected in an instant yet each one is hesitant to make the first move even though they know both of them want to.

The words of necessity makes us worry. Makes us petty. Makes us suffocate in ourselves. They take the beauty out of ordinary making us miss the extraordinary surrounding us.

“Money”.

”Mortgage”.

”Salary”.

”Control”.

”Traffic”.

”Socks”.

”Deadlines”.

”Approval”.

On the other hand,words of desire,dreams and unconditional love, liberates us. Makes us pause. Makes us generous. Makes us capable. Makes us purposeful.

“Intimacy”.

“Wings”.

“Cuddle”.

“Puppy”.

“Hawaii”.

“Grace”.

The more we collect these gems, the more we are equipped to walk with our heart. Words are thoughts. Words are suggestions. Words are the fuel to our feelings. As you pick the right one, digging through all the junk inside you, buried under the layers of heaviness and feel it rising up, finding a way between the crevices of your ventricles, reaching your neck and jumping in waves from your throat,finally gushing out, being freed from your heart, you realize,you are lighter,happier with a content smile of having understood that word. When you see your listener smiling back for having received it, you know that word will now travel to spread the joy! Attraversiamo!

Inception - The Immersive Dream!

2010-07-18T16:30:00.001-04:00

“It is on the whole probably that we continually dream, but that consciousness makes such a noise that we do not hear it!” – Carl Jung

The best way to judge an act is always ask yourself what you felt in the end.

If you felt exhausted and still deliriously happy, you know it was a memorable love making session. If you felt relieved, content and peaceful, you know your baby is fast asleep. If you felt a heated argument is getting resolved without saying a word, you know you are holding your lover in your arms. If you yell “Damn!” at the last scene with 100 other people and still scratching your head yet happy you managed to hold your feet through two hours and thirty five minutes grasping the concept in last half hour, it just means you have experienced Nolan’s “Inception!”.

To say Nolan is the combination of Cameron, Spielberg and Kubrick, wouldn’t be an understatement after watching “Inception”. Inception is a high stake, ensemble, heist movie of subconscious proportions that takes you through layers of dreams each with its own set of rules defying gravity and time continuum.

At the core of this ensemble is Cobb, played by Leo Dicaprio, who is fighting his own demons due to his wife’s suicide.Marianne Cotillard devlishly plays Mal, Cobb's wife living in his dreams. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the architect of dream world. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Arthur, Cobb’s right hand man. Tom Hardy plays a charming, witty Eames who can forge his appearance in dreams. Dileep Rao plays the chemist Yusuf whose potion induces heavy dream state while Ken Wattanabe plays Saito, an industrialist who is planning to plant an idea in Robert Fischer Jr’s mind(Cillian Murphy), the son of dying Energy company giant, that will lead to dissolving his competitor’s company.

Cobb and his team are experts at stealing ideas from someone’s mind but here, the job is to “plant” an idea that will germinate and dominate that person who will feel so strongly about it as he feels it is “his” idea. He feels it is his “Inception” of that idea. Leo convinces that he can do it and gets his team on this dream adventure.

One of the most quotable quotes from this movie is going be,

“What's the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it.”- Cobb

Nolan doesn’t give you a moment to get used to his world. The movie starts with a meeting in dream world with characters you have no idea about. It moves at a breath neck pace and you are left wondering what the hell is going on. You are not quite sure if you are seeing events in dream world or real one but the slick cinematography, strong acting and urgency of the characters pulls you into those events and you go along with the ride. You realize Cobb is separated from his two kids in America and he is desperate to see them. Saito is making a proposal that’s hard to refuse but it’s dangerous. Michael Caine does his usual “I am the Master and you are my best spoilt student” routine and gives Cobb, Ariadne ,who is supposed to be even smarter than Cobb. You get to see some of the best natural, seamless, breathtaking effects as Ellen Page and Leo walk up the folded streets of Paris in their dream world training.

Unlike Matrix, where Lawrence Fishbourne takes you in to a training program and explains exactly what is happening with Agents and “real world”, Nolan, purposely doesn’t explain. He wants you to scratch your head, drop your jaw and stay confused. He teases your intellect and wants you to figure out his puzzle and maze. This is a huge risk and it will either make or break his movie but then, as the movie progresses, you get more information like you pull a person in his dream state into a constructed dream world by the architect of the team and you make the person believe it is “his” dream. Now, you can take this person below another level of dream where the two minutes in level one becomes 2 years and 20 years in level 3 and 40 years in Level 4.

YES! Dream within a dream within a dream within a dream!

The genius of Nolan is in making this an action adventure, showcasing events in each dream level where the slightest disturbance in one level, causes ripple effect in others causing the characters to levitate, fill with rain, fill with antibodies pushing the “artificial dream world ” out as mercenary armed fighters.

The charming characters, the inner demons of Cobb, the seamless effects that brings all the rules onto the screen will make the movie goers watch it again and again, decoding it, deciphering it and make it a classic!

Since the Matrix series, there hasn’t been an intelligent, complicated, high concept, entertaining movie like this. This is what makes Hollywood the “Dream Factory!”.

Watch it! Watch it again! And Close your eyes with caution!

Midsummer Mid-sentences!

2010-06-30T23:53:00.001-04:00

Complication wasn’t new to her. She has been used to it since her teens. It is accepting simplicity that would be beneath her as voting for Republican Party. However this did not make sense. She grew up listening to Eurythmics constantly reminding her “Some of them want to use you…some of them want to be used by you”.

His straightforward responses, seemingly honest tone and unassumingly un-manly behavior has thrown her off her game. It was not supposed to be this way. He was meant to behave like every other asshole that gave her shelter. She expected their advances and allowed her dignity to be willingly pillaged as she locked her soul tightly until the storm was over. She knew the ritual. She knew the motions. She knew the rationale. The mind has a way of applying logic to its convenience and blocking every inner voice from your heart. She repeated the numbers inside her head. 509.508.507. It helped her calm down.

She knew her count.

She loved her Math. When the rest of normal people complain about it, she found it fascinating. The patterns, the logic, and the way seemingly unrelated equations get joined by faith and proven by assumptions that made sense to her senseless life. She could never understand how anyone can not love this beautiful language of equations that balances and unbalances at will yet it rears its head up at unexpected places like the tilted frame of her Mother that is held by the corner flower vase creating a unique triangle that would have made Pythagoras smile in jubilation. Numbers are real. Numbers don’t talk back. Numbers don’t take advantage.

She told herself to breathe. He is not like others. He is truly caring. It is my past sins that make me prejudiced. But he is still a man. A man with a dick. And she knew she couldn’t trust anyone with a dick. It is natural. It will happen eventually. Perhaps not today. Maybe not even a month from now but it is eventuality. It is only a value for X in the equation. The impulse will take over. The hunt is in their blood. It is evolution. Prey them. Take them into confidence. Win their trust. Make them dependent. And then Pounce!

It’s been over six hours. He hasn’t invited others to showcase her. He hasn’t opened her door and barged in. Count. Stop obsessing. Count. 357.356.355.

She knew her count.

And finally he came.She decided to let him. She felt his resolve weakening as he came closer. She counted down. Maybe he is innocent. 121.120.119. Maybe it’s not impulse. Maybe he means it as an expression of love. 44.43.42. Maybe he shouldn’t have sold young girls from Nepal as the encrypted files in his laptop shows. Maybe he shouldn’t have shouted “Fuck Me Bitch!” to that 14-yr old who came crying to me. She counted down. 03.02.01.

There were no more numbers. There was nothing left to do as she stared at him with her knife in his gut!

She knew her count. She added one more to it!

Curse of a Maniratnam Movie!

2010-06-22T00:41:00.008-04:00

To say I can watch a Maniratnam movie objectively is like asking Dick Cheney to assess Iraq War dispassionately. Nevertheless, I do have the power to call my other twin Gemini during these times to do the job. Before I start I have to give a little history lesson.

They say the impact to your senses in the first 20 years lays the foundation for the rest 50 years of your life. My movie life’s foundation was filled with Mouna Raagam at 11, Nayagan at 12, Agni Nakchatram at 13, Geethanjali at 14, Anjali at 15, Thalapathi (Dalpathi) at 16, Roja at 17, Thiruda Thiruda at 18 and Bombay at 20.

While I saw many movies during these times, inevitably Mani’s creations would stand apart. His movies were filled with intelligent characters, breathtaking visuals, women who spoke their minds and a sense of believability for the most part. His one-liners often conveyed what five paragraphs couldn’t convey.

Sample:

“I need to marry Saira Bhanu”-Shekhar

“Over my dead body”- Narayan(Shekhar’s dad)

“I can’t wait that long!” – Shekhar.

His range includes, Mouna Raagam, a silent emotional journey of a strong woman; Nayagan, an epic life saga of a young 10yr old boy till his 60’s; Agni Nakchatram, a struggle between two step brothers; Geethanjali, an intimate love story between two terminal patients. Anjali, a soulful, tragic story about an autistic girl; Roja, a crisp, tense, patriotic commentary on terrorism; Bombay, a topical, insightful and poignant story of a family caught in the midst of communal riots.

You call a movie a classic when it stands the test of time. It’s a classic when you find a new nuance to appreciate even after years. It’s a classic when you can’t find a flaw in terms of screenplay or acting even after you have grown past your adulthood. It’s a classic when your opinion of that movie still holds after your exposure to other great movies. Mani produced seven classics in a decade. And then he gave Iruvar, Alaipayuthe, and Yuva to add to that list(Thiruda-Thiruda,Thalapathi and Guru doesn’t qualify, Dilse, Kannathil Muthamittal came close but not quite there yet).

With such a track record, and my genetic lenience, I wait with bated breath for Mani’s movies. I ache for another Nayagan experience. I pray it is another Roja visually. I expect an elated feeling of having experienced a new world filled with strong-minded characters when I come out of the theatre.

Alas! With each recent Mani movie that doesn’t live up to his own standards, this Mani Fan feels let down for the lack of more classic additions from his repertoire!

I don’t want Shahrukh Khan to die in the corner of no-man’s street after two and half hours of luscious beauty and mind-blowing song direction. I want him to die grandly in front of Republic parade saving the prime minister(Dil Se). I want Abhishek to turn good in Yuva after three hours of three different stories(Yuva). I don’t want to be confused if Kannathil Muthamittal is movie about adoption or Srilankan Tamil Fight or Adoptive Parent’s struggle. Mani is known for providing a clean single story arch. Not a confusing tricolor motives for his characters. I don’t want to wonder about what atrocities did Gurubhai commit by reading Ambani’s history. I want to see them on-screen without having to do my home work. I don’t want to assume the bad things that might have been done by protagonist(Raavanan). I want to be truly conflicted about protagonist and antagonist.

We are Maniratnam fans. We are nit picky. We are used to perfection. We demand a tight screenplay and flawless flow of scenes. We want to watch these movies year after year to relieve us from item songs, Mother sentiment, Cheating politicians, Mundane romance and Honest police officer fighting crime stories.

Is it Fair to expect perfection every time ? Absolutely Not!

But the thing is, when I am not impressed with Sachin’s batting, I know I only have to wait two months for his next dazzling display. When I am not impressed with Rahman’s Album, I only have to wait three months for his next musical innovation. When I am not impressed with a Mani’s movie, I HATE to wait 3 more years with the hope of it being another “Nayagan”!

So, my dear Mani, please, for this awful, small, intelligent legion of fans make a movie every year! I don’t need a Nayagan or Roja. I can live with more Guru’s as long as I get some movie moments from you to add to my collection!

Half Life Déjàvu!

2010-06-17T22:42:00.081-04:00

If the average life expectancy is 70, I am half way there today. You keep hearing, “40 is the new 30”, “50 is the new 40”, but, somehow those statements are reserved for multiples of 10 only. When you are 35, you are still 35. The only high you get is moving to next census bracket and insurance risk level. However at times like these, you look to your life partner for assurance and she came through with flying colors today by gifting me a book titled, “ How to be an Adult”!

The trajectory of Birthdays are like playing with your best friend's little daughter. You are excited in the initial stages even though you are not adept at handling a 2 year old. As time passes by and she asks you to pick the same ball she has been throwing for the past 45 minutes, you realize the pain of serving a new master. When you get to 16,18,21,25, in spite of your career not going great and in spite of having a huge credit card debt, you are still excited and feel like the rest of life awaits you. The moment you hit 28 though, the big 30 starts sneaking up. You are supposed to feel empathy for others now. You are supposed to be “somewhere” in the next two years otherwise you are just another 30 year old with more debt and an okay career, which doesn’t seem to ever take off.

Turning 30 feels like all your bluffs are finally being called out. You really get serious about yourself. You begin to make amends. Casual Sex is dangerous. Buying a home is important. Constant Cussing is considered juvenile. Yearly medical check-ups are not optional anymore. In other words, your time to mess up is officially over.Compared to turning 30, 35 is not that bad except you are even more closer to 40. But then, if you manage to shed that extra 20 pounds, even if no one tells you, you can use the “My 40 feels like 30”(although those extra 20 pounds have been in your body since Citibank sent you a pre-approved credit card when you got out of college).

I just don’t understand why those who are born celebrate Birthdays. They didn’t contribute anything to that process. Technically, it is an occasion for your parent’s hard work (pun intended ofcourse). Your mom should be going, “I never thought I carried such a glue filled, gross looking thing in my belly for doing something fun. This will be the day I celebrate how I don’t have to see that thing in same state I gave birth to for rest of my life and losing all that baby fat”. I am sure the Parents who invite the whole world for those 1-2-3 birthdays are celebrating just to prove to rest of the world and pat themselves on their own backs that this evolutionary species is still alive and they haven’t sold it or dropped it enough to have psychological trauma(not everyone is that lucky).

Maybe they should call Birthdays as (Death) Countdown days(year)! If average life expectancy is 70, when you are 10, you celebrate countdown year 60. When you are 20, it is 50. You are not so lucky when you are 35. Birthday and Countdown Day coincides! You are screwed in the middle! There is one upside though. Calling it Countdown Year will make more people stick to their resolutions for more than 3 weeks.

Perhaps the saddest part moving forward is, you cant say “F*** U” to the little 10yr old kid when he calls you “Uncle!”. For some reason, I always associated the word "Uncle" as someone with huge paunch(damn those 20 pounds), lazy(don’t ask my wife’s opinion on that) and generally talkative kinds who blabber about things you don’t give a rat’s ass about! F***! I have become a friggin Uncle!

Denial, my fellow brethren, is the root cause of happiness!
35 ? what 35 ? you mean Fahrenheit or centigrade ?

"ONCE" Upon a Time!

2009-06-02T22:33:00.005-04:00

“Once” , within the first five minutes, makes you forget whether you have an extra pair of clean socks for tomorrow’s work or whether you should leave the vessels in sink postponing dishwasher duty.

It transports you into the streets of Dublin making you a part of struggling guitarist life playing for money as well as testing his skill in music. You smell the streets he is playing in and you feel the pain in his songs. The movie is shot in handheld camera which adds to the power of this extraordinary storytelling.

The protagonist is not given a name, neither his love interest and you realize that you don’t care as you understand them at a deeper level in your heart. The story of “Once” is about a struggling guitarist’s friendship with a Czech woman who plays the piano and helps him with his lyrics. This friendship starts with the mutual admiration of talent with the guitarist asking at the end of first date if he could sleep with her. It is in this scene that you realize the depth of the characters, the awkwardness, elegance and our choices in times of loneliness. The Czech lady rejects him without angry outbursts or sad storming out from his room. She tells him a simple, firmest, NO. The character of Czech lady is that of a simple, extremely straight forward, self contained,honest hardworking,realistic woman. Marketa Irglova, the lady who plays the Czech woman, transcends beyond her nationality and reminds you why we watch movies.

Having removed sex from the equation, the guitarist makes up for his lapse wanting a true friendship, learning she has a daughter and mother living with her. She helps him with his lyrics and they develop their unpretentious love for each other.

Is it Love ?a shoulder to lean on each other ? creative energy and mutual admiration of each other ? or just plain companionship in the lonely world ? Perhaps its a mixture of all those things that makes this movie GREAT! And every mood is captured in the songs they sing whose lyrics make you pause, reflect and quietly stirs your melancholy.

Perhaps the Greatness of this movie lies in the fact that it is so strongly rooted in reality with the Guitarist still pining for his lost girlfriend and the Czech lady knowing she has a husband back in her home country,yet, you see this rare, connected, untarnished friendship that can be called nothing short of love develop between these two artists who has portrayed it so honestly that you are right there with them in every scene. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova truly lives their characters making you believe them every moment on screen and making you yearn for them to be together.

The Guitarist records his album and goes to London for better opportunities. The Czech lady’s husband comes to Dublin. Their love lingers in their music through the piano the Guitarist gifted the Czech lady and you are left with a lump in your throat at the end yet you are happy for having been a part of their lives.

Art is best when it imitates life! Life is empty without Art!

“Once” is pure art reflecting hard Life, hard choices, capturing tender moments that sink deep into our hearts long after the movie has ended!

It is a rare gem that happens only “once” in a very long time!

Nodding Chair!

2009-05-27T00:24:00.005-04:00

Nodding Chair! I used this phrase for first time, trying to explain the 20 members in the meeting room that it was not the sound of cuckoo being strangled by its neck but my chair scratching its butt..more precisely its leg on the floor!

For the rest of Hanuman tail meeting which is basically a meeting to talk about what we will do in future meetings, which is scheduled after three hours from this meeting, i wondered about “Nodding Chair” phrases. “Sleepy couch” sounds appropriate. It doesn’t belong to “Nodding Chair” oddity in its sound. I remember when my proficiency of the english language was less sophisticated than it is at present, my favourite used to be “Rotating Head” whenever i gotta migraine.

While the Director was fudging the numbers and showing profit, i wondered about “Piss me off”. Sometimes when u got too much time and you have no access to caffeine, the strong, often times knowing reassuring phrases doesn’t make sense. How can u piss ME off ? and why would it be an irritating utterance ? If at all, it should be Piss me ON- so there is a threat that I might unzip and piss on him. But off ? that just doesn’t sound right. I think it must just “Piss off” asking him to hold his piss. Now..that is one filling up..torture. Cheney, forget about waterboarding. Try “Water holding”. Serves them right for “pissing you ON”!

The English language ofcourse has other enticing, aesthetic, soul filling phrases.

“O Thou invisible spirit of Wine,if thou hast no name,let us call thee devil” (written when Shakespeare tasted a cocktail of Martini mixed with two shots of rum, one shot of vodka and three shots of tequila, which Daniel Craig borrowed in Casino Royale). The Thou..hast..thee..lines are the best cure of insomnia. I recommend reading Doctor Faustus by Marlowe if Shakespeare can’t shake your eyes. People who spoke in those times must have been very polite. Although if you go through history, more people were killed during those times. I mean they carried their weapons in their hips..and rode horses. Imagine then..jumping up and down...without automatic secure lock for their guns. Riding their horses with lashes on the back of poor animal screaming “Hyah...! Hyah.....!” and then suddenly when the pissed ON horse jumps up “Dishooom....!”.

Their last words must have been “Thou..shalt fucked ye hast no balls but gunpowder smelleth..Amen!”

Coming back to “Nodding Chairs”, “Scrotching Underwear” comes real close to perfect phrase to explain the scratching itch! All Superheroes have that problem..except the one true hero who showed how to avoid that problem....a la..Clark Kent...Superman..who eliminated the scrotch itch by shamelessly showing off his undies in front which made for in both speed and performance(lucky Lois Lane). If ever there was a running race err...flying race between Spider Man, Superman, Han-cock(maybe there is no hyphen there) and Batman, the winner is scrotchless itchless underwear less(but Underwear front) Superman, hands down!

The next one is “Shaken but stirred”! Made famous by Mr.Bond..himself but more appropriate for California dwellers due to the constant earth quakes. Am sure the electronic retailers can borrow that and coin “Retuned but restocking fee’d”. I am sure the married brigade would re-phrase it as “Married but screwed!”.

Perhaps the one phrase that still rings in my head to hold on and stare at my director who still thinks i am ACTUALLY intently listening inspite of my Mungerilal expression is, “Yes I CAN, TWO MORE MINUTES for Lunch!”

Rahmaniac Moments!

2009-01-13T17:57:00.003-05:00

And the Golden Globe for Best Original Music Score goes to AR Ruumen!

They might have bungled the name. They might have been as surprised as everyone else knowing Clint Eastwood was in the nomination ballot. In the end, it was hindi music that resonated in Beverly Hilton last evening. AR Rahman representing over billion people accepted the award for his individual genius! A Rahmaniac moment that is now part of another proud Indian moment!

No! It is not an approval from west that we seek. It is more of an acceptance of talent at global level!

For 16yrs, Rahman has engulfed us with his music and strangely each one of us has our very own life moments entwined with Rahman’s music. At the end of day, it is not the awards that one remembers but how his music intersperse our very own life moments. Nostalgia wouldn’t exist without them.

I remember my first “Rahmaniac” moment.

It was 1992. For the first time in the history of my hostel, Eighty kids ranging from 7 to 17, are completely silent and transfixed at the TV screen for four minutes and twenty seconds. The song that was playing on screen was “Chinna Chinna Aasai(yeh hain chota sa)” song from Roja. A new kind of sound. A new kind of rhythm. A unique interlude. At the end of it, we were all smiling at each other. We knew we were transported into a new realm that we had not experienced before.

Every fun moment from there on with friends involved his beats, rhythms and mesmerizing tunes. There was water bottle throws with “Humma Humma”(Bombay) during India losing their world cup matches. The blaring “Urvashi…Take it Easy”(Kaadhalan,Hum Se Hain Muqabla) from the corner tea shop directed at girls walking into college. Mindless Dancing on top of the theatre seat to “Tanha Tanha” (Rangeela) feasting on Urmila Matondkar running on the beach (a la desi Baywatch moment)! Whistling non stop to jiving girls in "Usilampatti PenKutty" in college festival! And finally, our very own “slumdog” moment with “Pettai Rap” in dorm room! College wouldn’t have been so memorable without Rahman!

When you are in love, Rahman’s melodies have a way of exploring deep into your own emotions that seems to move with the waves of his keyboard. The stillness and depth in “Nahi Saamne” (Taal), the sereneness in “Swasame”(Thenali) , the high notes mixed with aching voice in “Khamoshi Raat”(Thakshak) forms a perfect background to your own love story.

The summer of 2006 was unusually hotter in Atlanta than the previous summers. Taking refuge in the mall theatre, we settled on a heist movie, "Inside Man". There was a bunch of desi college kids who sat on the side row and wouldn't shut up even after the trailers started. However, as the movie started, there was a surreal, out-of-body experience for both of us. The sound and image on screen did not match each other. The sound was "Chaiyya Chaiyya" song going full blast in Dolby surround sound but the images are that of a van moving in Brookyl bridge with Clive Owen in it! As we looked at each other, the common indian bond stood up with pride as we clapped together, as if to tell everyone, "THAT'S OUR SONG"!

A quintessential memorable moment made possible by Rahman!

Perhaps the most profound Rahmaniac moment is how Rahman leaves you with a lump in your throat every time you listen to “Maa Tujhe Salaam”(thai manne vanakkam-Tamil)! After 22 years, I was displaced from my India to US . Without Rahman soothing this displaced soul with "Yeh Jo Des Hain Mera"(Swades), "Tamizha Tamizha"(Bharath Humko-Roja) and many others,life outside India wouldn’t be same!

There are few indians who transcend and transport you by their sheer skill, patriotism and above all, weaving art from "heart"!

Tendulkar, Manirathnam and Rahman are those individuals for me!

Go Rahman!

Grab the Oscar for us!

And even if you don't, A BIG Thank You for being part of our very own moments!

Tagged to Tell!

2008-03-08T16:25:00.005-05:00

I am finally getting to a tag by Priyamvada. I apologize for the delay but I hope this makes up for it!

The most enticing part of this tag is that you really don’t have to think, “again”!

It is a link to post five of your previously written blogs relating to the keyword “5 people who you have already met on earth”...or is it five people who irritate you the most….umm...i think it is…five people you love to hate…lets just settle with five groups of folks...you are stuck with...some with choice...some without your choice. (Alrite...the keywords are Friends (your choice), Family (not your choice), yourself (stuck with it), your love (she is stuck with u) and anything you love (your escape pods)).

You always start with Family and Friends just to make them feel good for putting up with your bullshit!

The one that gives a window into my life is the one I wrote when I reached my big 30.

After watching the great many “last rites” scenes from “Gandhi”, “Indira Gandhi”, “Rajiv Gandhi” and “MGR” funeral, and also feeling morbid when I was admitted for Kidney stones (two jugs of beer apparently for the cure), I wrote “How many would attend your Funeral ?. Apart from these two, I rarely write about family or friends unless a tag from respected blogger forces me to oblige, like this one .

I don’t think I have written anything about me in a blog but the intelligent reader can always figure out who I am from all of my blogs and you all hope I become too famous so you can write a biography and make some money off it! (ohh...i love being narcissistic).

Blogs about love! Now, who can escape not aching in love, not wanting a certain kind of love, not cherishing the polarities in your love, not pining for your lost love, not pondering why certain triggers makes you breakdown in pain!

Love is a paradox with simple solution of accepting your self, loving your self and above all forgiving your self!

I am a pure Gemini which means you never know which twin you are going to meet at any given point of time!
Like any true desi, I love Cricket and I love Cinema!

The milestones in my life is remembered by the movies I watched in those years. I love to share my thoughts on movies that have been satisfying and not so satisfying!

I enjoy writing on things that are not so significant but they fill up our daily life!

I am also a passionate patriot (maybe Obama will borrow this line ;) )! I wonder about Desi and Un-desiness, the immigrant vacuum, the search for home, the search for Utopia, the root cause of racism. It is these epiphanies in your life that makes you move on with wonder and hope inspite of all the cynicism surrounding you!

Hope you enjoy these blogs as much as i have enjoyed sharing them!

I am supposed to tag 5 more people for this topic! All my old blogger friends rarely blog nowadays (like me)! Nevertheless, i will tag them to see if they come out of hibernation.
Pincushion,
Jessica,
Lotus Reads,
Purple Breeze,
Phantasmagoria.

Blindness of Color! Part One

2008-03-01T14:20:00.003-05:00

It’s a poignant moment in the movie. You are enthralled and wondering who will be revealed as the traitor. And suddenly, you hear a huge laughter behind your seat. You turn to find three South-Asian college kids talking so loud that you wish you had your baseball bat with you. You tell them to be quiet which they don’t listen but the incident remains with you.

You are at a restaurant where the African-American waitress doesn’t give you the service you deserve. In fact, she is not only giving you a poor service but also condescending. You realize your evening with the family has just been ruined.

You enter the best retail store for suits. Three Caucasian men pass by without offering to help you but you notice they are attending to people who have entered the store after you.

You are standing on a red light and an illegal Hispanic driver halts to a screech and hits your bumper. He has no insurance and your insurance company raised your monthly rates for no fault of yours.

Every instance above has nothing to do with race but somehow they end up being everything to do with race.

When you live in a multi-cultural environment, there seems to be an invisible scorecard against each race. Our lenses are filled with collective prejudices and stereotypes which seem to make a constant impression on our psyche no matter how much we try.

For long I have wondered,
What is defined as racism?
Who should be called as racist?
Why do we judge people?
Is it Narrow mindedness?
Or is it harsh truth?

As you dig through the layers of your psyche, you reach the core of your existence and analyze how you judge people. What is the key factor that determines your judgment? What makes you trust someone and loathe someone else?

Like a man who didn’t turn back and realized he had a tail all along, it hits you!

Patterns!

Patterns of behaviors.
Patterns of faces.
Patterns of experience.

It is patterns that make you like certain faces instinctively. It is patterns that make you wary about certain others. Instincts are developed by past patterns.

Every experience deposits goodwill or ill will. You soak the person’s color, origin, height, weight and his “energy meter” with you with each experience. As you grow, this pattern database grows building your internal “prejudices/stereotypes” based on your “limited” experience. Among these interactions with other race (even your own), some are people you know and some you don’t. When you don’t know the person, the only attributes that gets into your database are his/her physical features including color.

What every person belonging to any race doesn’t realize is that, there is a social ripple effect when they behave badly. When they behave badly in public, the ripples are larger. They might be sowing the seeds of discontent for first time in someone’s mind or reassuring someone’s already prejudiced experience with that race. It is not necessary that racial judging happens only with someone from other race. People in the same race loathe at the behaviour of their own kind as they worry they will be branded the same way. Bad public behaviour accelerates racist tendencies more than anything in this world.

Is it possible not to judge someone by their color when you know there is a big reservoir of experiences and opinions from your own life regarding them? Not initially. That someone has to prove beyond doubt that they don’t fit the pattern in your head. You are forced to prove to them that their idea of generalization is wrong. I don’t blame them for assuming “I will also fit a certain pattern according to their experiences or knowledge or lack of it regarding a certain race”. But I will be disappointed if they continue to judge me based on it, inspite of proving otherwise. Now, that person is what I would call a “Racist”. Someone who can’t get beyond his initial prejudices, and see the person for who he really is!

Perhaps that is the challenge. To be open minded inspite of our personal experiences and give every individual a chance they deserve irrespective of where they come from and retain the awareness that every seed has the potential to grow different and bigger and stronger than its previous generation.

We can’t get rid of the patterns but we can be aware of the fact that your patterns and reasoning have holes in them. You don’t have to judge every individual based on it and give everyone a fair chance!

At the end of day, we are all Humans!

Ambivalent Hearts!

2007-11-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

Is it staying for others or leaving for oneself?

Is it fear of change or search of dreams?

Is it killing a baby or Right to a woman’s body?

Is it killing for human crimes or crime on human life?

Is it technology for connecting people or tool for disconnecting society?

Is it acting on your instincts or denying with reason?

Is it Love marriage or arranged acceptance?

Is it happy ignorant people or smart unsatisfied Minds?

Is it exhilarating passion or calm daily existence?

Is it achieving a goal or enjoying each moment?

Is it Heart or Mind?

Is it Love or Sex?

Is it People or Money?

Is it Character or Skill?

Is it Past or Future?

Is it Questions or Decisions?

Is it right or wrong?

Is it me or you?

Perhaps, it is not supposed to be clear. Perhaps, the mystery is the ambivalence. Perhaps, life itself means existing in ambivalence, choosing a balance between choices; sometimes left extreme; sometimes right, and in the end, choosing a path which feels right in the moment without regrets.

Tagged - 8 Random facts about me !

2007-07-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

When the tagging-cycle continues and reaches you, you always wonder, how did they come up with the number ? 5 things you remember, last 7 times you messed up, 9 places you would visit if you had money. But with this one, i love the number 8. It's an even number. It somehow doesn't sound threatening, almost, takes a backseat. It sure sounds a lot but has a humbleness to it. So, before i digress more, and knowing atleast there is one person who will read this who tagged me (thanks Priya), let me jump into it.

Random Fact 1 - I talk the way i write. I write the way i think. I talk whatever i think which lot of folks around me don't appreciate much ;)

RF2 - I abbreviate wherever possible.
"How's ur day going buddy ?"
"SSDD"
"Mine is MSSDD"
"Good for u..YMFTYT".
For notes, refer below.

Randon Fact 3 - I grew up without my dad and my wife grew up without her mom. That difference is glaring to our friends as they ask her about taxes, how to hook different cables behind the HDTV and directions while they come to me for "Why do u think Tamilians always talk in English with fellow Tamilian ? " kinda stuff.

Random Fact 4 - I have very less BS tolerance. Towards most things in life. Movies, People, and Procedures (except INS, you can't mess up there).

Random Fact 5 - I used to have huge authority problems and blamed it on my rebelliousness but it is slowly vanishing as I am the Boss now and have begun to appreciate even Bush ;)

Random Fact 6 - I hate others judging anybody and feel it is my responsibility to judge others :)
I blame such dichotomies on Linda Goodman's definition of Geminis.

Random Fact 7 - I don't do well with quiet people even though i am extremely attracted to their ability to be quiet which often times i have realized it is because they are stupid and dont have much to contribute(although the exceptions are of the "I am so full ..so i dont have to spill" kinds).

Random Fact 8 - I HATE those who don't laugh at my jokes and think i am not that funny. I can forgive them even if they hide my tv remote but not laughing at my jokes gets me really riled up ;)

Now, since I haven't blogged much this year and not sure who is reading this anymore,i propose the first 8 readers of this blog to continue the tag and not break the holy circle of Third Series Worshippers :)

Here is all the wonderful expansions:
SSDD - Same Shit Different Day
MSSDD - More of the Same Shit Different Day
YMFTYT - You're More Fucked Than You Think
BS - Bull Shit

Ensoy!

Sivaji - Catch Me If you can afford !

2007-06-12T20:48:00.000-04:00

For all Rajni Fans in the US, the wait is finally over. It will truly be a worldwide release! Sivaji in India, June 15th. Sivaji in US of A, June 15th! Whoohoo! As a die-hard Rajni fan, I rushed to all the websites offering tickets for “Thalaivar” movie. The ticket prices made me jump out of my seat with joy. I was hoping the organizers would be stupid enough to raise the regular ticket price of 8$ by only 3 or 4 dollars. No. They have restored my faith by doubling it to $16. Whoohoo! Not only that, they have had the better sense to triple it on opening day. That Serves those movie-crazy-Tamilians right. Especially the Rajni Fans who would jump off a cliff for “Thalaivar” if they have to.

Here is the Ticket Stats. It will cost you $21 per ticket on opening day in Atlanta. It would be $16 for rest of days. And I am even more thrilled that the organizers have found another venue to spread the wonderful class system based on your affordability. Here comes “VIP Tickets” for $26 and your kid sure deserves a “VIP Kids seat” for $13. I do not know if the VIP seats will be any different from “regular” seat, but the internal grapevine tells me, the VIP seat holders will be given special tissue paper to wipe their own seats, while the regulars, even if they bring their own tissues, will not be allowed to carry it inside. That’s the spirit!

I do see some of my friends whining and screaming about the atrocious prices for Sivaji and even threatening to boycott the movie. So long Suckers! I already see the first day booked fully in NJ. Who cares if you boycott? We can always count on Rajni fans to pay $26 per ticket when the cost of DVD will be only $20 when it comes out after two months. If we can’t milk an easily available, gullible, Rajnikanth fan (that’s 90% Tamil population in US), then, as businessmen, the organizers have no financial acumen. After all, in the world of fans, the Rajni Fan stands alone on top! So what if you pay $8 for a Spiderman movie that cost $300 million to make? This is a Shankar-Rajni-Rahman combo. Nothing but wind...errr...i mean…Nothing beats it!

The blame should go to the unappreciative Tamil audience in US. The folks who bring Tamil movies get burnt every time they try to show a decent movie (Paruthiveeran…hmm...can’t think of any other worthy candidate in recent times...but that’s not the point I am trying to make). While so many struggles go behind the scenes to bring a Tamil movie to US, ungrateful Tamilians don’t even bother to show up! They have the temerity to rent pirated DVD’s for $2 and worse, make copies of those pirated DVD’s and distribute to family and friends! I remember watching the movie “Kushi” where there were only 5 people in the whole wide theatre. Later, I realized I counted myself in 5 different seats. I do have the tendency to switch seats so I don’t feel haunted (and it was a time after Sixth Sense). So, I am very happy that finally the Tamil movie organizers have arrived at a moment in history where they can squeeze all those dollars that were cheated by these Tamil-movie-lovers-of-US. Perfect timing!

I say, let us raise the ticket amount to $40. After all a Rajni movie comes only once in 3years.And it doesn’t even require a story. So, it is a guaranteed success. Maybe after this, the Tamil-movie-going public in US will realize they need to patronize the hard working Tamil cinema organizers! Vazhga Tamil! Vazhga Rajni! Vazhga Sivaji thantha Koperumangal!

P.S: Are you asking what about me? Heee…Heee…I am going to wait for the original DVD and watch it in my big screen in basement. Admission to anyone who brings their own beer and doesn’t borrow mine!

Hype-O-Critical!

2007-04-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

“Good is not good when better is expected”, said Thomas Fuller.

It is the curse of Heroes to rise up when the time demands. They became Heroes in the first place because they did so in uncompromising fashion when you were just a kid. They did it not once, but consistently over a period of time with unflinching integrity and panache. They made you feel proud. You related directly to their heart and the way they executed their skill with passion. They transported you into a whole new world, and made you notice the nuances.

And then, you grow older! Sometimes Wiser!

You see different people executing the same skill of your hero in a better fashion. But you still want your childhood heroes to rise up and match the rest you know from other parts of the world, so you can thump your chest to say “He is my childhood hero! I used to walk miles to see him display his skill! He was a part of my growing years!”

As you witness their current form, you realize, they have aged. Their perspectives have changed. Their execution leaves a lot to be desired. Their reflexes are not as sharp as they used to be. There are flashes of genius in their new avatar that reminds you of their peak, but then, it lacks consistency. It dawns on you that you were just trying to re-create nostalgia for a period of your own life that doesn’t exist anymore!

The failure and reaction to first round knockout in World cup cricket raises bigger questions about our inherent cultural deficiency, than the failure in a cricket game. It goes back to our resistance to change, in all walks of life. Lata Mangeshkar was singing until sixties. Azharuddin was forever the captain before being shown the door. Karunanidhi is still the chief minister and so was Jyoti Basu. It is the lack of breeding the next generation, worse, not wanting to let the next generation in which is the root cause of stagnant growth.

It showcases how tolerant we are towards performers who were once good but not anymore. We hope that Shah Rukh can act with same energy as in “DDLJ”. We wait in anticipation that Tendulkar will be playing the “Desert Storm” innings against Australia again. We pray for another “Nayagan” from Manirathnam. Every time they disappoint us with their performance, inconsistency, and lack of skill, we lack the most important quality to accept reality- Candor. The simple ability to, “tell as it is”. To be honest. To encourage dialogue. To accept responsibility.

Maybe we can blame the 24hr news network or worse, multitude of 24hr television stations who are forced to feed the public with sensationalism. But, when you throw the 4th estate also into it, we end up being not only hypocritical society but hype-o-critical. Hype the news. Be vociferous in your criticism but do not commit the sin of “telling as it is” because that would make people be reasonable.

Candor has never been a part of our culture. We have been raised with the notion of not raising our voice in front of elders. As students, we have been asked to sit quietly instead of pestering with questions in classes. Deep down, the message is hammered into our psyche that, if you question, you disrespect. If you speak your mind then you are committing the sin of offending someone. More so, if we offend our past heroes, for their present performance.

Unless we change this basic paradigm, we will remain in mediocrity for years to come. The real journey to be a civilized nation begins only when we take responsibility and accept the truth. By denial, by elevating personalities and performances where it doesn’t exist, we fool ourselves in the long run. If we don't learn soon, we, as a nation will be forever living in delusions of grandeur, vacillating between adulation and mob-behaviour.

C & C Indian!

2007-03-17T19:04:00.000-04:00

It is not difficult to find a C&C Indian. One out of every 3 Indians belong to that category. And the remaining two, have no choice but to be part of that club lest they decide to be a wannabe with some other culture. The reason is simple. The psyche of India is very much intertwined with C&C.

Cinema! Cricket!

It is the mirror of our culture. It is the mirror of our identity. It is a part of our joys. It is a part of our frustrations. We adore film stars. We admire film directors. We worship cricketers. We criticize our stars. We ridicule our directors. We hurl stones at our cricketer’s homes. We are emotionally invested in them without objectivity because they are a part of our psyche growing up.

Perhaps it has something to do with the kind of existence a C&C Indian has had.

He is usually born in to a Middle-class family. They struggle to pay the bills during month-end. He belongs to an education system that is based on rote and marks obtained. Added to that, he has to contend with a reservation system in college Admissions. He can’t pursue higher education until he earns enough to feed his family. He can’t be cavalier with anything in his life UNTIL he finds out he is free in the three hours spent in a dark theatre. He identifies himself in a character shown in big wide white screen--Bollywood! Not to be left behind, there is also Tollywood, Kollywood and other woods that I am not aware of. But the important point is, he is FREE! He has escaped and found himself in a visceral medium. He has had found hope. He has experienced freedom through a character that gives him company during his survival days long after the movie is over. He celebrates his victories by going to a movie with his family. He escapes with his broken heart in a lonely theatre. He bonds with his friends playing Antakshiri (Movie Songs game). The Cinema, just became a part of his life.

On the other side of the spectrum, the only “freedom” he has experienced is with a cricket bat or tennis ball. Buzzling streets, screaming auntie’s whose glass window just got broken, rival street teams, records in pitches, an open field where all his survival-existence is forgotten, living in the moment, for the moment. And when he watches his national team play and win, it is not a victory for 11 players being controlled by BCCI (Board of Control of Cricket in India) but, it is a victory for him to move on with his life for few more months with hope and joy in the happiness of that victorious moment.

NOW, you know, why it is so important that the Indian Cricket Team Wins or India produces movies that make us escape/experience the moment for years to come! Most importantly, why the Indian Cricket Team should not LOSE without a fight or we do not produce movies that absolutely suck. They give us Hope. And, not just to the survival mode middle class indians. But to the entire haves and have-nots of the billion people whose main source of identity is still generated by these mass mediums.

That’s why a Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dravid, Manirathnam, Ganguly, AR Rahman and World Cups are very important.

The Indian cricket team just lost against Bangladesh in World Cup. The right word would be “SUCKED BEYOND BELIEF”. But then, it is not new to C&C Indians. We are "OPTIMISTS BEYOND BELIEF"! We will take sick leaves to watch you-AGAIN. We are disappointed by GURU not being another Nayagan. We are not so thrilled with Rahman music anymore.But then, we will not stop supporting you or losing faith in your abilities.We will read every word with intent in Cricinfo about you tomorrow. We will wait for deleted scenes in GURU to justify your lapses in screenplay. We will order the next cricket package in pay per view sacrificing the remodelling of kitchen in our homes. You are a part of our Operating System. We can't help it. We just hope the next generation of C&C will be too. But please, DELIVER!

Free "fucking" Fall!

2006-12-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

When your mind is fucked up by the thought of her, wondering how it was nothing but fuck and slowly, over time, it became more than fuck and at the same time, fucking became making love and the journey within the making love included fucking, going back and forth, losing breaths, missing heartbeats, lost in sensory perceptions, heaving together, sighing together until you are so fucked, you don’t exist and she doesn’t exist, both bodies hanging and floating in mid air, and as you stare into her closed eyes, in that moment, it suddenly dawns on you, she has fucked your heart like no one has, ever, and a deep immersing wave showers you with the realization that in this crazy game, you both have fucked each other to such an extent that the rest of non-fucking moments is going to be so-fucking horrible reminding you of this fucking moment that has made you experience ecstasy, feel the soul, stretch your bodies to its limit yet feel full in every way, a wave that finally eclipses all kinds of needs buried before only to sow an even greater undeniable need, that of her, for the rest of your fucking life that you might have to spend without fucking her, making you realize how fucked up your life is and how many other lives you are fucking along with hers, unintentionally in the first fuck and intentionally in every subsequent fuck, losing yourself more, needing her fuck in every nerve, pretending to be a fucking good guy until you are sucked back into the fucking game with her, indulging with more vigor, not knowing what the fucking point is, yet knowing it makes all the other fucking shit going in your life bearable, not giving a fuck about society, family, and all the fucking bastards who offered advise without having a fucking clue, “fuck them”, “Fuck her”, this time with anger for making you a fucking dependable animal on her, for making you feel the loss of her engulfing smell while she is wrapped around you, for making you feel like, you are all the fuck that matters to her, for meaning her words in every thrust and for proving her heart by making each fuck unbelievable , never saying no and always feeling more than you can ever handle, more than you ever wanted to handle until you sink deep down in your self only to scream aloud but stifled inside your throat like a fucked up moron whose heart is split, silencing all the fucking desires, trying to forget all the fucking memories , suddenly not knowing what was your old fucking self before her and the pain of ripped heart splintering through you, swarming you with an ache, sinking you in an abyss, plunging you in moral quandary, not wanting you to raise the question of how can this be wrong when it feels so right, evaluate what should be done, what can be done, not having the courage to bury the old, accept the new, not sure if you would want that old when this new turns old, but knowing she has fucked you up totally and trying to make sense of all this fucked up emotions which was never there before, never experienced before that even after months of trying to be fuck-sober , she rises in your heart in un-fucking moments giving you a panic attack, making you unstable, bleeding for those fucking-times of smiling together, holding together, aching together ending in blissful-complete-moments, making you cry for that one thing she gave you more than all the fucks put together!

She LOVED you for who you are, as you are and now you know, so do you!

She finally gave the ROYAL FUCK of it all, without fucking, when she left you!

Art, not for the sake of Artiste?

2006-12-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

From Michael Jackson to Mel Gibson, Borat to Michael Richards, should you judge their creations because of the shortcomings in them?

Do you stop buying MJ’s CD’s because you believe he could be a child molester?

Do you stop watching Mel Gibson’s movies because he is anti-Semitic?

Do you stop laughing at Michael Richards jokes in Seinfeld because he thinks less of African-Americans?

Where does one draw the line? The immediate reaction is of NO. I love “Beat it”. Why would I not listen to it? Brave heart is one of my favourite movies. Why can’t I enjoy a creation of art for the sake of Art? Who am I to judge someone else? But the moment you think you are enabling someone by paying for their skill, who, then uses that money to do horrible things, where do you stand morally, ethically as a human being?

If Nike makes soccer balls employing kids in Pakistan, do you PAY for that merchandise? If a diamond has been bought in a conflict zone which has the blood of poor miners, do you not care and pay thousands for them? You cannot stop the whole world but you can always say NO from your end, within your circle of influence. Granted you may not know all the hands an item has exchanged before buying it, but once you know, it matters what you do with that information. There was an “extrapolated” ad a few years ago to tell us, if you buy gas, you are enabling the Sheiks, who enable the terrorists, so stop filling gas. NOW, that is extreme activism. I wouldn’t go to that extent. But you do have a choice.

Perhaps the bigger question is “Why relate related-things in unrelated activities?” Say, Sports and Politics. Should we allow India and Pakistan to play Cricket when our soldiers are fighting the very country in the border? It may not matter so much to me but if I had my brother in Army fighting in Kashmir, putting his life on the line for the country, while a bunch of civilians want to enjoy Sachin hitting Shoaib Akhtar for a six, it belittles and makes his sacrifice and the sacrifice of thousands of lives less meaningful.

Like everything else, if the insult is directed at me/my country, then you decide to take some action. If Mel Gibson had said, “Stupid...f***king Indians!”, I wouldn’t be caring to question whether I should be watching his movies or not. But when it he curses about some other race, if you don’t join them in their protest, how long would it take for him to move to the next? If you don’t punish the artiste by ignoring his art, especially artistes with influence, you could be next on their list!

Maybe it’s time to sacrifice our few moments of pleasure in arts for the greater good of generations to come!

GURU-Music Review

2006-11-20T22:22:00.000-05:00

5.30am. Bangalore. India.
Eyes wide open. Sitting in the edge of my bed after committing a merciless murder. The death of an innocent cockroach which was trying to climb into my PJ’s looking for a warm space which it definitely would have found had it not been for my quick thinking on the feet (pun intended ofcourse) that wanted to test the strength of this tiny insect which is supposed to have survived the stomping of Dinosaurs. Not True. It died instantly.

The Audio CD of GURU that I had purchased yesterday from Landmark was staring at me, taunting me with the question,”Are you a true Rahmaniac not listening to me even after six hours of purchasing me? “. I was seriously having a conversation with the CD explaining the fact that ever since I arrived in India, am still trying to find my personal space and it was because of that I had ignored it for few hours and it should not judge me for the genuine lapse. I was glad it finally understood. I don’t want to be counted as a traitor (such feelings are common when someone wakes up so early when he has never done that before in years).

The disappointing trailer of GURU made me depressed wondering, ”Another Mani failure in Hindi ?”. But I know I will never change camps based on box office but only based on heart-office(Nenja Nakkitta pa- You almost licked my chest with that sentiment-translation for the tamil-handicapped). I popped the CD in my laptop after making a quick decision not to tinker with iTunes to load in my iPOD (where else can I boast I bought a new 60GB-iPOD-Woohooo-it ROCKS).

Awaiting with bated breath for the GURU experience. Mani-Rahman-Gulzar combo after Dil Se. Let the Journey begin!

First Song. Hmmm…Nanna Re..Nanna Re..fast beat..hummable so quickly..surprising. Rahman songs usually take about 4 or 5 listening to actually get into your system. Shreya Ghosal singing with joy. I can sense the attitude.Nice…lots of drums…Rahman SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)…beautiful percussion..predictable..which makes it sweet…since I have been missing the familiar Rahman signatures…wow..the song…is changing tracks going up and down..like Saawariya from Swades song…okay..the Nanna Re..Nanna Re..is getting to me…Clear crisp Na..Re..repeatable rhyme. Song over.Feeling good.

Second Song. I read in the CD insert that this song called “Tera Bina” is dedicated to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan by Rahman, remembering our maestro’s association with the maestro from other side of the border. I still remember that album and especially that line “Rishthe banthe hain badi mushkil se..lekin tootene keliye bas ek hi lamha”(Relationships happen with so much difficulty but it only takes a moment to break it..awesome line).So, the expectations are high. Let me see.

Mind-blowing start. “Dum Dare Dum Dare..Mast Mast..dara..Dum Dare Dum Dare ..ohh hum dum”. WOW! I am able to hum it in the first line itself. A familiar tune but sooo lovable and gets into your system instantly sounding fresh. I love the chorus of Dum Dare. The interlude is starting with Sa Re Ga ma..typical..quintessential Rahman.I am swaying..slowly..unconsciously…moving from left to right..and moving back and forth..moving my hands..animatedly…ohh the dum dare..again..niceee…a sitar interlude..the background..aaaah..chorus..and a different sound of a rajasthani lady like voice..lending rawness..Rahman has sung this…only he can sing like this….the song is changing track without losing the flow..engulfing you in all-encompassing-beats…simple..tune..beautiful rhythm..once again familiar tune..but the interludes and percussion in the middle making it a worthy tribute indeed…this Album is heating up..really good..let me go to the next one.

Okay. Starting like a dialogue.BHAM! A real heavy clean bang on the drums.I know this song has been sung by Bappi Lahiri the Disco king of 80’s. I loved Bappi Lahiri music and his clothes too for those who try to put him down by his wardrobe collection. IT IS COOL! Whoa! Joye..Joyee…sound in beginning. Another repeatable line humming. This is the third song with that same kind of lyric-style. Maybe it’s a concerted effort on the part of Gulzar-Rahman-Mani to have this on all songs. Let me move on with the song. Ohh..one more repeatable line..”Yammo..Yammo le”. Sounds like Abhishek is selling something in the movie for this song as is evident from the lyrics. Amazing interlude. Simple strings. Talking to different people in the lyric.I didn’t knew Bappi can sing so well. I am glad they didn’t make Abhishek sing for this song. Another repeatable line “Joyyein..Joyyein..”. Lots of chorus. Sounding naughty. Chitra jumping in.She is sounding so young. Bappi singing like talking but doing a great job as he breaks into tune seamlessly. “Yammo..Yammo le” is getting addictive now.Song over. Short and sweet. There seems to be a theme emerging in this album. Moving to next one.

Song is called Mayya Mayya. In the CD Insert Mallika Sherawat is shown for this song with Arabic costume (Nice Choice. Keeping up with Mani’s lucky charm of one item number song with hot actress). I think this song would probably come in the movie when Ambani went to work in Turkey in oil fields.Sung by Maryem Toller, maybe Turkish singer.Sublime heavy beat.Haunting Flute in background.Sounding familiar. The violin is reminding me of Thiruda Thiruda(Chor Chor). Ohh…no..the interlude dialogue sounding like Dil Se-Tu Hi Re..but..still lovely…I can think of Rahman bits from so many songs..but who cares..it is flowing..beautifully..i am dancing to the rhythm….omg..Rahman..songs are rarely so likeable in first listening..guess he is going all out…the trailer music coming inbetween..”arree malida..malida..”..beat picking up..in speed..with “maiyya..maiyya..”…a mini symphony going on..in the interlude with fast dialogue..and ..the colossal of instruments..all playing together in synchronous..fashion..with high pitch..ending..followed by haunting flute….WOWWWW! I think I am going to be listening to the mini-jugalbandi between instruments in the end for a long time while driving to work…Rahman has not experimented much and I LIKEEEE it but at same time..brought his signature in all songs…Next one…please…

After all the dhoom-dham..this song begins with a simple shehnai sound..(okay am not a musician..so if the the instruments are wrong..let me know)..wait a second..i have heard this…damn..it sounds almost like the “Poongodiyin punnagai..” song from Iruvar(another Maniratnam classic in tamil about two political rivals)..neway..just the starting bit..with a typical Rahman synthesizer..the one that comes in “Azhagiya cinderella” song from another Rahman tamil movie…another repeating line..”Aye..Hairathe Aashique..”…Hariharan…its got to be him..looking at the CD..Yes..it is Hariharan and Alka Yagnik…Ghazal style..niceee pause in the song…with a crisp clear tabla..kooooool….slow..swaying..with.. “Dum Dare “ repeating line from third song…coming in this song….with slight change..cute…okay..70’s style…interlude..interesting…going back to standard beat..Alka Yagnik..playing with Hariharan through the song..looks like the Hero and Heroine are playfully romancing..in the movie..the pause in the song..makes ur heart skip a beat..”Dum Dare..” humming with the Shehnai(or maybe clarinet..i think it is clarinet)…the song getting in the same tune even in third para..Alka surprising is elevating the song with nice elongation of words..Hari is doing the same..cute…beautiful melody..and Rahman singing DumDare..sounding good..now..the Dum Dare line being sung half by Rahman and Alka..and ending….good..not great..heard before..sounds like the “Naina..Naina..milaike…” from Saathiya..

Udit Narayan is singing this one called ”Baazi Laga”…sounds like music from 70’s…the ones where bunch of guys go in scooter and sing with women sitting behind…different flavor..lots of chorus..Udit sounding..happy..as usual..in this song..talking about money..the clarinet is sounding like blues..music..familiar tune..this maybe my least favourite in songs so far..but then..knowing Rahman..after 6 or 7 listening I would be hooked to the interludes..okay the song is picking up beautifully..some little boy singing “lalalalaa”…could be Udit’s son..who knows..standard tune..even though it sounds fresh..okar..the crescendo..rising now..and ending with a bang..okay..song..for now..

Last song…should be a slow one..since I sense there is a pattern here..yes..slow one..keyboard..ohh..beautiful…lyric..saying..
“We are awake for such a long time..let us..sleep for a while..
There is little darkness left..let the morning rise..
The half unfinished dream could not be completed…
Let us sleep one more time to finish that incomplete dream…”(literal translation..it sounds like metaphor for low point in life..in the story..)

Wonderful…Big Sad Chorus..Humming…engulfing you in epic proportions…Music talking all the emotions..making me sad..Mani is going to crush me with this song…tugging at my heart…the sound of Iruvar..when Prakash Raj talks..in the interlude.. ohhh…Rahman now singing the same…more slowly…making me choke in the throat…high pitch…same lines…wow..i can sense the epicness of this movie..with the those moving lines..being sung like a National Anthem…My expectations have gone through the roof..listening to this…about this movie..maybe another “Nayagan” ? I really wish…it is…I pray it is…Big chorus..of the tune..with “aah..ahhh” sound…symphony style..sad music…WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! What an END to the Album! Certainly the USP song of the movie when I come out of the theatre I think. Abhishek probably dies with Aish. Reminds me of “Thenpandi Seemaiyile” song..from Nayagan..where the entire movie flashes before he dies. I am assuming pretty much the same happens here.

Now..all I have to do..is wait for the movie to see how the other Genius (Mani ofcourse) has interpreted these songs…That’s it folks..buy the original CD..i hate to see Rahman losing his hard work in illegally downloaded songs and pirated cd’s. If you are true fan of Rahman, that’s the only way you show your loyalty. Cheers!

ET to ER!

2006-09-04T18:32:00.000-04:00

You never know when it hits you. A whiff of earthy sand? Gentle caress of frail cold breeze? Silent pause in your favourite movie as two lips melts in each other? Or the extended humming in the interlude of a haunting melody?

There are all kinds of Emotional Triggers(ET) that swarm you into Emotional Restlessness(ER)!

When the trigger is pulled, it’s like the sudden spilling of open paint boxes on your psyche. The rope called sanity that you were holding until then slips through your fingers. The heart gets congested with flooding memories that you thought you had escaped from. Breaths begin to fall stumbling one after another, irregularly, as your mind gets gripped by an unknown ache that you know so well. You can see yourself falling from the skyscraper in slow motion with only one way to go…DOWN!

Maybe they are emotional black holes that lurks deep inside us moving from one ventricle to another, until the emotional trigger shoots them, causing our heart to shrink sucking our feelings of happiness in an instant. You feel the internal heaviness as you become restless and replay old memories, lost opportunities and hopelessness as a unique cocktail of all of these emotions in different proportions are served, each time. You begin to dodge these landmines and tread carefully in each of your activity for the next few days. You stop listening to music. You stop going to that particular place. You avoid talking to certain people. You shut your self until you feel normal again.

If Life is made of moments, then each moving experience, plants a trigger in us. A ticking time bomb. You never know, when, one of them will blow up and make you restless. While some of them last only a few minutes, there are this special feeder bombs that take hostage of your entire day or even weeks by feeding on our weaknesses, desires, dreams and our uncanny ability to imagine idyllic possibilities. It’s a hook, line and sinker with no control!

The wiser ones say time heals. You certainly hope time gives us acceptance, if not, clarity. Maybe the culprit is choices or the lack of courage to exercise any of them. Either way, you just hope this process of cleansing in painful overwhelming of ER eliminates the power of feeder bombs and leads us to a place where you are less immune to ET.

Peace in the knowledge of self! Peace in our actions! Realizing that, it is futile to succumb in emotional quagmire by making someone a priority when you are just an option for them! Realizing that it is futile to regret, when we can choose to move on and be happy! When you have hit the bottom, there is only one way to go. UP!

Window of Offensive Opportunity!

2006-08-28T02:05:00.000-04:00

“I have seen it done better!”

A Sly remark. Unjust. Unwarranted. Quick. Sharp. Your nerves boil in an instant. Just when you thought you could stand that person, they had to make you feel unskilled, incapable, unworthy and above all, disrespected. While your mind is blanking out with these thoughts, the offender has moved on to next item on their list. The conversation has moved on. You just lost your “Window” to get back. You lost your “Window” to ask “How can you? “. You lost your “Window” to say “How Dare You?”

Maybe you are not accustomed to being rude to someone. Perhaps you have the tenacity to stay above the fray. Maybe it's your inability to come back quickly with a witty comment or equally offending statement. I am sure you even tried using that “window” of opportunity once but it back-fired big time since you had only one repartee in your bag. And the verbal attacker made sure the rest of the argument is about your response than the original insult.

More often than not, these verbal attacks come from family and friends. Peers and superiors have a different way of bullying but it is the close ones that hurt the most. When you let a verbal abuse slide with reasoning like love, age, respect, it wrecks your peace of mind, self esteem and self respect. You are squirming all day inside replaying those dialogues. And worse, you say YES to all those things that you wanted to say NO with them. The pile of frustrations and disappointments mount and one day, you burst out “F*** OFF!”, when all they said was “I thought you didn’t like coffee!”

Instead, if you get back within that window of few seconds, quickly and immediately, protecting your self respect with verbal self defense, then you take control of your life. You don’t pile the shit. You clean the mess, then and there! Standard responses like “Is that So? “, “Really?”,”And you know me so well to judge me, is it?” always helps, especially if you can’t think on your feet.

The next time your Mom tells you, you are no good; tell her, she needs to watch her mouth! The next time your brother says you are no good, tell him to mind his own business! The next time your hubby says lose twenty pounds, ask him to take a look in the mirror! Life is not worth living, putting up with verbal attackers. Use your window of offensive opportunity to DEFEND your own SELF!

Clanking the "KANK"!

2006-08-17T01:57:00.000-04:00

The most awaited movie of the year in Bollywood has finally been released and ready to be ripped apart by critics and viewers alike. There was no lack of motivation to see this flick as my wife digs Abhishek and I dig Rani Mukherjee (now stop thinking nasty), and above all, our living room was hostage to two wonderful kids of visiting friends, who made our hearts pound faster with each thud on the hardwood floors.

The 8’oclock show started promptly at 8.30pm and we were excited to find the ‘first’ seats (Row 1, Seat no.1&2 right under the 20ft. screen). My loyal friend called in to convey the happy news at that exact moment,
“The Movie is only three and a half hours long! Enjoy!”

Dhoom-2 trailer and Kabul Express trailer followed and I was quite amazed by the glimpses of Dhoom-2(Svelte Aish,Smoking Bips..Train in Desert..!). Maybe, just maybe, our guys are finally reaching international standards in Editing, Sound and other technical areas. Now, if only I could say that for screenplay (there are exceptions ofcourse).

The Movie started amidst usual noisy desi-aunties looking for diapers under the chair and uncles looking for a spot to spit their worn-out paan! Enter Shahrukh Khan in the usual Johar-movie-style entry (Basketball, Cricket…now Soccer) with a penalty kick and lifting of his jersey after the goal (now…who wears so many layers under the jersey?). Rani enters the movie looking pretty in Manish Malhotra designer-Saree but also glum as she is wondering if she should wait for the perfect species to mate or go with available meat (Abhishek)! Shahrukh tells her to be sensible and not wait for the elusive Himalayan Goat curry! Meanwhile Amitabh comes on the screen as the Desi-Pimp-with-Angrezi-Memsaab! Abhishek, on the other hand, is introduced as Desi-Party-Dude-deeply-in-love-with-hot-desi-teacher Rani! Preity Zinta makes her initial presence as the bitchy-wife-uncaring-mom-ambitious-woman routine as she misses play boy hubby’s match winning goal (and this is just first 5mins of movie...don’t lose the patience)!

After 4yrs, Rani “tries” to enact how married couples behave after 4yrs.She apparently vacuums and cleans every inch of her NY apartment which only costs a measly million bucks. Paying hundred bucks to a cleaning lady is impossible! Meanwhile Shahrukh limps (whenever he feels like) as his football dreams have been shattered by a car accident right after he told Rani to forget Himalayan Goat Curry (1-very significant piece of information to remember in the movie)!

Blah..blah..blu..Glu..Glah..flu...after two hours, Rani runs to Railway station in middle of night after a fight with her party-paneer and voila! At exactly 5 mins before,Shahrukh has a fight with his home-made-halwa and both unhappy spouses meet at Grand Central! They see each other and Shahrukh confesses his love for Rani uttering those memorable words “I even remember the date and time of falling in love with you (refer 1 above)”! It’s not like love at first sight or a slow realization of deep connection. It’s more like “you are looking for spicy goat curry and I am looking for Bengali Rasgulla”!

While on the prowl with Chandigarh-Mami, our old-Horny-desi-pimp, Amitabh, finds the wild irresponsible, irritating, not-moving-your-ass-to-find-a-new-job-standing-in-middle-of-road-Indian buffalo, Shahrukh , canoodling with his Bengali-Bahu-Himalayan-explorer, Rani! Pimp gets a heart attack, and Bengali-Bahu feels guilty, the “new lovers” decide home-made-food is more important for survival than the five-star-khana they have been relishing and decide to end their quest for hidden-treasures!

Preity slaps, Abhishek throws, and Chandigarh-mami hits a same-side goal! Mini-Olympics ensues and they are banned for substance abuse (that too enjoyable abuse…if it wasn’t good, they could have returned to Olympic village happily in their original choice and didn’t have to reveal their happy-ending-episodes)! The spouses get more pissed off hearing their episodes as they had more opportunities than these losers and still they beat them to the punch! After tears, more tears, extra unnecessary 5 reels, the most awaited moment of the movie arrives! THE CREDITS! My spinal chord, which by now, had locked into an awkward position got relieved by the hurrying Punjabi lady’s handbag slamming at the base of my pituitary gland!

Now, to be fair, I did enjoy the movie! Some of the dialogues were really good and some of the portions were glaringly missing like making the case for Rani to look outside marriage and the reasons for feeling Shahrukh as “the one” for her! The makers got confused into making this about “looking out phases” in marriage and love story! Nevertheless, a very good desi attempt!

“To be or Not to be?”
“Depends on whether you are Rich & Thin or Fat & Middle class :)”

Filler Spoilers!

2006-03-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

“You know, Indian team is not bad. You know, Kaif played awesomely. Really Awesome dude! You know, Kumble was even more awesome. You know finally the south Indians are displaying that killer instinct like Punjabis!”(Score: You Know=3, Awesome = 3)
.
.
.
Score after 5 minutes, You Know = 20, Awesome=13! You sure have come across someone, who has this uncanny ability of spoiling the conversation with their excessive usage of supposedly cool quirky fillers! Most of the times, we are the culprits!

The strange thing about these fillers is that, you realize they are seasonal. They are also highly addictive. They embed in your conversation without your knowledge. And before you realize, they have crept into your daily lexicon and taken up the position of every third word in your unfinished sentences that you utter non-stop to the apparently-intent-listener who is actually thinking ,“Will you shut the F*** Up?”.

Ofcourse it can be argued that it is just your lack of ability to speak proper English and that while you grope in mid-air for appropriate connectors to sentences, you spill these fillers which kinda-sorta fits in that place and makes sense to the listener. But the spoiler part is, when you use them in millisecond gaps that forces the listener to re-sort your words in that short span to understand what you are trying to say, as by now, they know, if they don’t do it, they will be buried under the pile of You know, Awesome stuff!

Perhaps the reason is not their lack of conjunctions, but the speed in which they think, that forces them to jump to 3rd sentence in their head while they are coughing up the first one. The culprit for incessant filler-words could be the time delay between Brain-Mouth-co-ordination. Either they have to trust their temporary memory to hold the 2nd, 3rd, 4th sentence until their windpipe can breathe some air or end up choking to death on trying to spit too many words! Jeez! Fillers save lives! Now, that is Suweeeet!

Maybe I should change the title to “Filler Saviors”!

Being a loyal Capital One customer, I have to ask you, “What’s your Filler?”!

Known Unknowns!

2006-02-24T14:12:00.000-05:00

Why do you always feel it takes less time while returning, than while going, to the same place? Does it have anything to do with the concept of home? Returning to Safety? Or is it because your mind was working hard, mapping the path, forming new neural patterns while going and once formed, it relaxes while returning in the same path, so you feel it was quicker?

Why are you compelled to watch a movie you love when it comes on TV, even though, you have that DVD staring in your face from your rotating-DVD-rack? Is it because you feel a free meal is being missed? Is it because there is no other interesting program on other channels? Or Is it because when you were channel surfing and hit upon a particular scene in that movie, it brought back happy-memories that you want to re-live?

Why does the traffic light changes from Red to Green exactly the moment you stop in the red light, when you waited all along from the corner of the street, staring, willing, hoping, it would change to green so that you may not have to apply the brakes and come to a full stop ?

Why do you always miss that left leg sock when you are getting late to work? And why is it that no matter how many times you tell yourself in that moment that you should make sure all these leggies are in one place, you never get around to doing it, until you remind yourself again, the next time, you are in same situation?

Why do you have to search for only “those” things crazily that you kept them in a “Safe” place? Why these safe places are the hardest to find? They might have been chosen because they are hardest to find for “others” but somehow, if “others” didn’t know about it, why would they “look” for it?

Why do Men, no matter how much they are coached, no matter how many times they are told, always feel it necessary to give an objective opinion, when they are asked by their women, “Do I look good?”.

Why do you always feel the gas-station owner is cheating you when you see the numbers rolling near the dollar sign while filling gas? You can almost visualize the numbers rolling slower in some other gas-station except that you can’t remember which one. And the same feeling creeps in when you are in Taxi, whether you are going to Airport or coming from one!

Why do Men always misread the civil, slow, interesting conversation between their Mom and Wife as final signs of bonding, when in reality it is a verbal duel between two possessive intelligent beings engaging in unintentional, intended put-downs, that they both smile and endure while thinking of next missile?

Do you really want to figure out the reasons behind these 'Known Unknowns'? Because,once you do, am sure, there will be new category called 'Unknown Unkowns' to tackle.

Even though i am borrowing from that famous Rumsfeld quote,
“There are known knowns; there are things we know, we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things, we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know, we don't know. ”-there might actually be some truth in it!

I guess we should just let them be because the moment you think you have conquered it, I know, you will be scrambling like a chicken with it's head cut-off in the closet, looking for that right sock!

Pic Source: http://gregmonaco.blogspot.com/

Un-Technology!

2006-02-14T16:42:00.000-05:00

Instead of sleeker iPods, SUV’s that look like trailers and Mother-Of-All-Bombs, I wish scientists concentrated more on issues that affect us profoundly.

A new drug that alters your gene to change the color of your skin! No more Racism!

A new “pound-less” pill that lets you lose weight overnight! No more Prejudice!

A new tonic that alters your behavior to cure your smoking/alcohol addiction! No more Self-screw-ups!

When I was in my Eleventh grade, I had to give a speech on “Greatest Inventions of 20th Century!”. As I was preparing for the topic, my hostel warden, passed by. Since I respect him a lot, I asked him what he thought was the greatest invention of Mankind in 20th century.

And he replied, “Invention? I don’t think anything has been invented completely by Man!”.
I was taken aback and asked him “How can you say that when we have cars, airplanes even the fan that is revolving on top of us.”
“Well, what is the fan made of?”
“Hmm…Iron...maybe steel.”
“Where did u get that iron from?”
“From…Earth”
“So, you have harnessed something from nature, changed its shape to use another part of nature (air) to make it work. Maybe you can say mankind does invent things partly. To me, it’s all discoveries of nature!”
I remember that conversation to this day. And every time we get cocky about our new and greatest “invention”, nature slaps us on the cheek with a Tsunami or an earthquake.

I think, we, human race, have drifted from worshipping and understanding nature(stone age till time before 16th century) to harnessing nature(Industrial Revolution) to the current stage of “Manipulating Nature”(Cloning, messing with genes etc.). We study History mainly because we may not commit the same mistakes again (even though it keeps repeating itself) and understand our roots better. And one thing that is clear today is that in spite of the technological advancements, people seem lost. Clueless. Unhappy. Less connected in an “always-wired-mobile-everything-everywhere” world. I think we have safely reached a stage where enough energy has been spent on inventions that satisfy our external needs without filling the void that is inside.

We need technology that eliminates hatred. We need technology that doesn’t discriminate someone based on their religion, race or sexual preference. We need technology that makes it a level-playing field for rich, poor and the ones in between. We need technology that protects, enhances, and serves Mother Nature. Not provide new tools to cut forests, new tools to dig oil from oceans, new tools to destroy habitats quickly. We need technology that connects, not the minds, but the hearts!

It is time, technology (Science) works for the development of our spirituality and not for materialist pleasures that leaves us empty in the long run!

I(a)m-Perfect Lover!

2006-02-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

I haven’t been tagged since the time I got out of school, where my glasses were color-coded with wordings “I am” on left and “Blind” on right. I have decided to ward off my “MSM” memories and start my list on Shpriya’s request for 8 qualities you would like in your perfect lover(for those of you still wondering what “MSM” is, its “Mommy Save Me!” memories) .

So here it goes!

1) Someone who has enough imperfections in her that I can help her to overcome but not so much that I need an in-house therapist!

2) I should be able to pick my nose, bite my nails, dust my dandruff and scratch my balls without wondering if I would be “denied” for those reality “bites” or “scratches”!

3) Someone who laughs at my jokes- Genuinely- even if they are not funny and even if I am repeating it for the 1472nd time.

4) Someone who knows instinctively my “Happy Hour” cycle. (Alrite! Alrite! More like “Happy 10min“ cycle )

5) Someone who can come up with creative slurs to cuss, to keep me on the tip of my tongue, so I can spit back with more imaginative ones, both of us enjoying the creative cussing process, forgetting the reason why we fought in the first place!

6) Someone who knows my tangents as I deviate from one topic to another, over the course of the day and even weeks and knows exactly what I am talking about when I start most of the topics in mid sentence-“I think it’s bcoz she wanted to take care of his mom.That's why she wasn’t part of that group!”

7) Someone who would always say “I will try it at least once. If I don’t like it, then it’s a no-no!”. To “everything” I ask of her.

8) Someone who wants to find a cure for Aids but she shouldn’t be a doctor. Someone who wants to feed the hungry in Uganda but she shouldn’t be in a missionary position (oh…C’mon! I meant the Nuns).
In other words, someone who thinks about the less privileged and be extremely happy that she is channeling all that worldly service minded energy…on ME!

Honestly, there is no lover who is perfect all the time but you always have those perfect moments with her, when she fills you with that strange mixture of love, lust, passion, need, desire and generosity, transforming you to make you feel like a complete man while she soaks in the immersed feeling of complete woman…(tick…tick...tick...)...“Now go pick up the trash that’s stinking up in the kitchen” ;)

Happy Birthday to a Dear friend!

2006-01-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

Poetic(?) Discards!

2006-01-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

While in “Down Under”,
If you fall down under,
Would you call that,
“Down down Under under?”

In your sleep,
In that dream,
If you’re sleeping,
Do you dream a dream?

When every Buyer,
Has got a seller,
What do they mean by,
Seller Market doing good,
Buyer Market not so good ?

When you are a 7 wanting to be 10,
In skill, looks, personality and life,
You got to remember,
You can only cook what’s in the pan!

If all Men cheat,
And ignoring the small percentage of gays,
Doesn’t that mean,
Most women cheat?

When Jesus loves all men,
When Mohammad preaches love for all mankind,
When Buddha worked for the peace of human kind,
What’s your problem with “Brokeback Mountain-Jerusalem Edition”?

Munich!

2006-01-10T01:01:00.000-05:00

“Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values!”—George Jonas/Tony Kushner/Eric Roth

The greatest aspect of Munich is not the visual treat that you see inside the dark theatre for over two hours; but the questions it raises, after you have experienced it!

Are you really civilized if “Revenge” is the path you take for the salvation of your country?

Does the phrase “One man’s Freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist!” hold true?

When survival is at stake, do the methods of how you get out of it matter?

You struggle with these questions and there is no one right answer!

The movie starts with the incident in Munich in 1972 Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes are held hostage by Palestinian Terrorist group called ‘Black September’ and later assassinates them while most of the people involved escape Scott free! The Mossad (Israeli Intelligence Agency) hires Eric Bana to lead a team of 4 to hunt the people involved and kill them.

The first part of the movie is about the killing of each member of Black September involved (?) in Munich as the team hunts down one after another in the list using varied methods. You join in the team’s adventure and enjoy the thrill ride as they move from one city to another.

The director lets you get into the skin of these characters without compromising the length. You feel the struggle of Avner(Eric Bana) as he battles between his time with pregnant wife and the obsession of the job to be done; You get a glimpse of the camaraderie and bonding between the team members; the irritating nature of Carl (Ciarin Hinds) who questions the validity of the list; Robert’s (bomb specialist- Mathew Kasovitz) battle between his religion and the things he is doing; the craziness of Steve (Daniel Craig) who just wants to kill Arabs and the calmness and wit of Hans (Hans Zischler). You also get a very interesting scene when Avner meets the man who is supplying him the location of the people in the list!

Just when you think, the movie is slowing down, there is a magical scene between Avner, a lady in bar and Carl. And it hits you immediately; the story has taken a sharp turn. Fear sets in. It is not a one way street anymore. And it is in this fear that sometimes, you are clear about who your friends are. Most importantly, who are not your friends! There is another poignant scene when Avner and his team have to share a room with PLO fighters who are with the very men they are going to kill. You realize, both sides are fighting for a feeling of “Home”!

The last part of movie is where you see the genius of the script or cinematic manipulation, depending on which side of the equation you are. In a weird, strange way, you sympathize for the assassins of the Black September in those final moments in Airport of Munich where the innocent Israeli Athletes were killed. You can see Spielberg taking over those portions in his inimitable style of personalizing an external event with personal touch that is universal. As a viewer you can’t help but wonder how someone can forgive oneself from the horrors you have committed, where you have been dragged in the name of religion and homeland, fighting for a cause, for an ideal using any methods that will serve their purpose!

There are several characters in this movie that just deserves a huge applause purely for their ability to become those characters. First one among them would be Eric Bana, an Australian who becomes a complete Israeli for the role. Geoffrey Rush, another Aussie, displays a huge range and control as Ephraim. Ciarin Hinds, an Irish, who fits into the role like a glove. The final credit for one of the best supporting role is Ayelet Zorer, an Israeli, who plays Eric Bana’s wife. She does it with such compassion,love,intelligence and screen presence, that in the end , you truly believe, without her, there is no redemption for Eric Bana!

Munich is an experience!

"Shower"ing Thoughts!

2006-01-03T23:38:00.000-05:00

Are you the kind of person who counts backwards from 60 in the shower because you had just applied your shampoo? Well if you are, then you must go through what I do everyday (with a huge presumption that you do take bath everyday).How do people come up with that one minute prescribed exact time for shampoo? And what happens if you leave it longer than a minute? Does your hair turn grey? Has anyone tested these kinds of things? Do they assume people know how to count or a clock is required when you are in the shower? But then, it is also recommended that you should close your eyes while applying shampoo, which means even if a clock is available, you can’t open your eyes to see it. That definitely leaves us with only the option of counting. And it is in this awkward, naked, shampoo dripping, counting backward, silent moment that you hear hissing sounds. Maybe a snake has escaped through the attic and is trying to find a spot in the corner of your bathroom or is it just your nephew who is flushing his toilet in second floor? Now in the time I was thinking about this, did I miss a few seconds? And to add to this state, you are not supposed to apply water in your head and you have obediently turned your warm shower off. When the time is up, do you know the exact position of the knob which you had set before entering the shower after rigorous three minute testing on your toes, knees and hands for perfect warmness that your epidermis can absorb? I know I have already lost more seconds between 17 and 12 or did I count forward from 33 in that frenzy of snake crawling up my legs? And why do people have to give you instructions when you are in the shower? All you can catch in that shivering still frenzy from your wife is “Don’t forget to do it atleast today”. What today? Shouldn’t there be a line before that sentence? Or did she say it already? Do I dare to ask her again or did I miss my count again? No…I was at 11.Or 9? Maybe I don’t have to worry about my missed seconds since the forward and backward counting might have cancelled each other and I might actually be on time…3,2,1……turning the shower back on…Jai Shree Ram!…Halleluah!…Allah hu Akbar!…offering prayers to all Gods so my skin is not scorched from over-heat or the other extreme where I jump with a huge cold stiff shoulder shattering the tempered glass bathroom!

Lost!

2005-12-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

A sense of clueless ness where your mind is under a grip of aching want that you quite don’t know what it is but you feel it pervading you, immersing you into a state of inertia where all purposes seem pointless and you know, you are LOST!

Feeling lost,perhaps, is the most lingering emotion of our life that doesn’t get as much importance as “Happy” or “Sad” yet you seem to endure it as much as them. Is feeling lost, being sad? Not in the complete sense but there is sadness for the loss of things you have and more importantly, the things you don’t have. A Yearning. A Desire. A Need for a particular kind of person, particular lifestyle, an acceptance in the way you like it! It is strange to see how you can lose something that you don’t have. But what the mind can conceive and perceive, it tricks us into believing we can have them even though it has not transmuted into reality. And that’s where the loss for the things/people you don’t have comes from. A disconnect between the mind, heart and reality.

Being lost wasn’t such a bad thing when you were young. It had that sense of adventure, sense of awe and above all, you were never afraid at heart. You always knew you would find your way back. There is also that phase where your career is not taking off or you don’t find the job you’re looking for. But this lost feeling has hope even though at times you feel angry and agitated. And you have age by your side then. You know if you fall down, you have enough time to get up and keep running. But the worst kind is, feeling lost when you are made. A stage where certain things have a sense of inevitability about them and you can’t shake the applecart because you are sunk half way into the ground. Lost without hope of recovery!

You live out of your roles. You live out of yourself with your mind constantly preoccupied with yearning for the things you lost – without having them! You can sense how slowly you caved in to giving up your dreams without trying. How you don’t have the courage to make the hard decisions because your life yarn is intertwined with so many others and one selfish act can rip many. How you have cocooned into that existence without really living and always feeling your mind someplace else. You’re just standing still clueless as life passes by you and you look for a calling, hoping one day you will find it and find peace.

Who knows? Maybe the very things you are looking for is in the very place you are trying to run away from! If only you can stop feeling lost!

Pic Source: http://away.com/photos/behind_image/abrahm_lustgarten/china-gobi-march.html

How OLD are you ?!!!

2005-12-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

I turned 15 when I was 7, when my Dad slapped my mom in front of me!
I turned 7 when I was 15, when my Grandmother hugged me after her surgery!

I turned 18 when I was 10, when my mom finally left my abusive Dad!
I turned 10 when I was 18, when I had a pillow fight with my roommate!

I turned 25 when I was 13, when my mom dropped me at my cousin’s place to study!
I turned 13 when I was 25, when I bought my first car!

I turned 30 when I was 21, when I squeezed her palms reassuringly at the altar!
I turned 21 when I am 30, when she squeezed my palms in her deep slumber!

My pains make me older!
My smiles make me younger!

My needs shrink as I get older!
My heart expands as I feel younger!

My age is determined by my emotional shards!
So, what’s the point of Birthday cards?

The Immigrant Vacuum!

2005-12-08T16:05:00.000-05:00

They say beware of what you dream. It may just come true. And when it becomes true, you lose your survival instinct. The rope called survival necessity that was holding you back, suddenly disappear. And you rise above, floating high, aimlessly.

You enter the land of dreams. You make a decent amount of money. You wear nice clothes. You drive a big gas-guzzling SUV. You meet your own kind during weekends while trying to blend in with the locals during weekdays. You sit with thousands in the freeway in an orderly fashion and wonder how organized the traffic is compared to the chaos in the streets of New Delhi. You admire the strange perkiness and courtesy as they wish everyone ‘Hey, How u doin?’. Your manager is not watching your back as you browse Samachar.com for the first one hour at work. You go into meeting as your Boss makes it clear what he needs done and you go back to your seat knowing exactly what needs to be done. You go back home without too many complaints as your wife asks you, Chinese or Italian take-out tonite? Your eyes get used to beauty around u and after few months, you don’t even notice them. After few years, you don’t even appreciate them since you expect them that way.

What am I complaining about then? A good Life? A well-oiled system? Lack of Chaos? Lack of uncertainty? Boredom? I guess it’s the lack of feeling of being part of something bigger than you. Like sharing the smile with total stranger because India had just won a Cricket match; feeling the immense human energy that flows, stinks, surrounds you until you gasp and search for your own little spot in the market; riding an auto-rickshaw whose driver spouts more philosophy than Socrates;watching the passage of one rupee from one hand to another, trusting total strangers, to buy the ticket from the bus conductor sitting in front of the Bus and the extra flowers that the flower vendor throws in because you are being nice to your wife. It is impossible to be lonely in the world’s most populous democratic country.

When the materialistic needs of self get fulfilled, you grow to realize how wrong you have been in your priorities. It’s like Family. You fight your best to run away from their unjust judgments about you, from their inconsiderate taunting and when you finally manage to go to different city far away from them, you long for that morning coffee, you long for that irritable little neighborhood boy who hangs around with the cricket bat in your yard, you even long for those ‘know-all’ relatives who pop up at the oddest of hours, only to eat your share of curry and vanish! Maybe it’s loneliness that makes you long for these things since am sure two weeks back at your home, you will be longing for the quiet ‘Law & Order’ episode in your room.

There is a huge immigrant baggage that you bury deep under layers of economic and infrastructural necessities. Once you reach the threshold of materialistic comforts, you slowly begin to wonder about your acceptance in the society you live in. Sure, no one questions your place in this country but can you really BE a part of this society? The problem could very well be inside you than theirs since every immigrant wants the economic security and infrastructure of their adopted country and the matters relating to heart from their home country. And as time moves on, you are just stuck in-between forming your own unsure identity.

A new self emerges from the amalgam of your life experiences with loss from the place you came from and yearning for the lost things in the place you decide to settle. A constant nagging feeling trying to balance your needs and wants. As you vacillate between these two choices, you realize you either have to sacrifice one of them or make sure what you miss is compensated on the side you decide to stay forever.

Maybe I just need to take a trip back home to fulfill my vacuum!

How many would attend your FUNERAL ?!!!

2005-12-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

Questions like these pop in your head when you’re brought into ER room at 3am for Kidney stones and you are screaming in pain at a scale of 12 on a 10 point scale and the ER-nurse is busy counting the number of letters in your long-desi-name asking you in that southern accent, “Is it r-a-m-a-sh-aan-d-ar-en?” and all you can muster to reply is, “Gimm-eee…daaaa…F&%#@# morphineeee!”.

Once the ER-special episode is over and you slowly slip into that unconscious and see a glowing light slowly approaching you, you wonder, how many would really attend if you were to die NOW!

Serious question but remote possibility for kidney stones, but then, we Indians, tend to be overtly emotional and sentimental even for urine test(which some of us confuse for sperm sample since they just give the plastic cup never explaining what it is for!).

So, the count begins.

My wife (1) – Obvious choice! If she has tolerated me for a decade, she sure can tolerate the funeral expenses for one more extra week.

My Mom (1) – Since she is on vacation in US and her visa doesn’t expire until March of next year.

Friends at Work (10-20) – Will probably declare a holiday for my department but considering “Clients come first”, I think it would just be my region in the department.

Friends in Atlanta (10–20) – Since many have enjoyed my rhetoric on “Why apathy is the root cause of all evil” or why it helps your heart to say “Yes Dear” in the long run!

Friends in US (5-7) – Depending on rates at airtran.com or southwestern.com on the funeral day!

Relatives in US (1-2)—Can depend on at least one of the two cousins to turn up and the other one depending on whether he decides to pick his cell phone after seeing the caller-id!

People from India(1) - Don't expect anyone other than my brother to spend and come for my funeral!

That’s it? Is that all? Is it really over? Am I missing any more categories?

So, if I die today, I have been able to piss-off, cause pain, irritate, bring joy, pour sarcasm, and give love only to minimum of 29 and a maximum of 51 people?

Damn! And here I was, thinking, it would be at least 100!

Maybe I should spend more time in the real world giving more reasons for people to miss me when I am gone (or carry my body to India and say free food to 100 people in my will)!

Pic source: http://www.rantmorgan.com/howto/death/death.jpg

I say You Say!

2005-12-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

I say, “Unborn Killing!”
You say, “Right to Choose!”

I say, “Time for Charity!”
You say, “Money for Charity!”

I say, “Speed before accident happens!”
You say, “Slow down to avoid accidents!”

I say, “Unrealistic Movie!”
You say, “Escapist fantasy!”

I say, “Karl Rove!”
You say, “Michael Moore!”

I say, “India!”
You say, “US!”

I say, “Be Prepared and have kids!”
You say, “Have Kids and be prepared!”

I say, “Horror!”
You say, “Romantic Comedy!”

I say, “Socialistic Communism!”
You say, “You say Capitalistic Prosperity!”

I say, “Existential Conclusions!”
You say, “Divine Interventions!”

I say, “Burn all Bridges!”
You say, “Calculated Risks!”

I say, “Outdoor fun!”
You say, “Indoor quality time!”

I say, “Freedom in Renting!”
You say, “Happiness in Owning!”

I say, “Big Picture!”
You say, “Details!”

I say, “Experimentation!”
You say, “Keep it in your pants!”

I say, “Passion!”
You say, “Loyalty!”

I say, “Genetic dysfunction!”
You say, “Behavioral deficiency!”

I say, “Selective listening!”
You say, “Inconsiderate Moron!”

I say, “It’s not the whole truth!”
You say, “It’s a complete lie!”

I say, “Grey!”
You say, “Black or White!”

I say, “Empathize!”
You say, “Justifications!”

I say, “I love you!”. You say, “I love you!”. In the end, nothing else matters!

Picture Source:http://www.pbase.com/ykeesing/root

Are you "COOL" ?!!!

2005-12-08T15:52:00.000-05:00

It’s not WMD. It’s definitely not 911 or e-mail or Internet. The award for the ”Word” of the decade goes to the coolest word in the new-age lexicon, ’Cool’. From a non-existent eighties to limited edition usage in early 90’s,”Cool” has made a big splash in late nineties and is here to stay. Being cool; wearing Cool; acting cool; walking cool; even spelling cool in a “kewl” way; it has slowly permeated every aspect of our life and suddenly become an important factor in our daily decision making process. Even Friends are chosen based on their “Cool-Quotient”.

What is being cool? I know being polite (yeah right!), obedient (what difference does it make between one and ten lies?), caring, lovable, honorable, confident, etc. But no one ever taught me how to be cool? Perhaps it is one of those things you figure it out yourself (like Love, Sex, Marriage). All of us use it in many different contexts. ”Cool! That’s awesome!”, ”That’s a cool dress” ,”She is Cool”, ”I am cool”, ”The Manager is very un-cool”. What do we mean by it?

When you say “That’s a cool dress”, do you mean, “I am surprised you would dare to wear that crap? “ or “You don’t look that weird that would stop me from hanging out with you?”. Or are you are saying it’s a nice dress. But if you felt it was nice you would have used the word nice. Why “Cool”? Perhaps it was ‘different’ not nice. So if something is different, is it Cool? Now I am very un-cool trying to figure this thing out and worse, sweat about it. My coffee-break mate was more candid about his reason for using it. He said he is just too tired of saying ‘Ok’ all the time. He said Cool kinda sounds, you guessed it, cool.

The problem with being cool or acting cool is that no one really knows what it really means because it’s very subjective. What you think is cool might be plain stupid to someone else. After intense analysis and research of personal cool-compliments, my definition of being cool is having the “Could care less” attitude!
“Are you disappointed that you were left out of team?”
“Cool! I could care less!”

“Are you hurt that you were not invited? “
“Cool! I could care less!”

“Are you not worried about piercing your ear and tattooing your forearm? “
“Cool! I could care less”

The moment you decide to do what you want to do without worrying about other’s approval, you display Confidence; Certitude; Assuredness; Attitude; in other words, ”You are Cool”. Being cool is being comfortable in your own skin. It’s not the outfit; it’s the attitude in the outfit!

Lifetime Movies!

2005-12-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

I remember the first time I watched “Nayagan”. Lost in the dark theatre , seeing the eyes of young Velu Nayagan ,his helplessness, loss, anger, pain,wondering what would happen to this orphaned kid who looks just like me; empathizing, sympathizing, despising , feeling his injustice as my own ,his need for retribution as mine, his love, his fears ,his ironies and how all those elements come together in that climatic act, when I knew he was going to be shot yet wanted someone to scream and save him, that queasy feeling in my stomach saying something bad was going to happen , palms sweating ,heart filled with strange sorrow, holding that loud crying scream inside my throat so I wouldn’t burst …and finally unable to hold them, my tears tumbling down along with Velu Nayakkar getting shot, as Ilayaraja weaves his melancholic magic in the background! SIGH…that’s what I call a “Lifetime” movie.

A lifetime shrunk, felt, experienced in those three hours. A surreal experience that I know would travel with me the rest of my life! Few movies have evoked such emotions in me. ”Satya” took me to Mumbai , ”City of God” took me to Rio De Janeiro, ”DDLJ” wanted me to fall in love, being ”Godfather” was all I could think of during a stage of my life, “Gandhi” invigorates my patriotic fervor every time ,”Anjali ” makes me wanna adopt an autistic girl, “Bombay” makes me angry at the stupidity of fighting over religion, “Droh Kaal”, “Kalyug”,”Salangai Oli”(“Saagara Sangamam” in telegu),”Mahanadhi” and the list keeps growing as I grow.

Its surprising how those 2 or 3 hours, live inside you as pockets of consciousness, pockets of entity, pockets of experience, all bottled inside forever to cherish, forever to recall! You may not even want to watch these Lifetime movies again .You don’t want to re-experience some of them bcoz they have given you that moving, visual visceral experience already and ur afraid you may not feel that again!

Somewhat akin to not wanting to see your old friends now, as you have changed and they have changed and u don’t want the current existent self to destroy that sweet memory of idyllic ideal past! But sometimes you want to go back to that idyllic past with them so you can share new ones and similarly you want to re-experience that lifetime movies again to appreciate an aspect that you didn’t know existed before. It may not be the same experience, but u know it will still be satisfying because u know it has already taken you once to that plane of “illusory reality with a happy or sad closure”.

There are other kinds of “Lifetime movies” which is significant not bcoz of the movie but bcoz it represents a time of your life and reminds of the people you watched it with. I remember the first movie i watched with my girlfriend (“Indecent Proposal”) sneaking without anyone’s knowledge, finding a theatre where no one knew, only to pretend I didn’t know her for the rest of the movie bcoz of the party-pooper sitting next to me who was from “known” circle. The movie (“Muthu”) where i remember the bus ride more than the movie bcoz I was not part of the bus structure, hanging two feet away, holding the last window in one hand and some stinking drunkard’s collar on the other, hoping the strength of his sweaty shirt would save my life; the movie (“Khal-Nayak”) where after my initial attempts to shush my loud-mouthing whistling friend, I took the plunge to join his act ; the movie(“Magalir Mattum”) where we clapped incessantly when no one else was clapping in the theatre; the movie(“Vaaname Ellai”) when i jumped the hostel wall ,broke a thousand rules ,only to find the hostel warden in the same theatre!

Movies have become the pages that I can turn to look into my past anytime. I know they would continue to form new exciting pages of my life! It would be a lifetime of movies and movies that would last a lifetime! How about you ?

Motorcycle Diaries!- Movie Review

2005-12-08T15:31:00.000-05:00

“Going on a journey with a map requires following directions - going on a journey without one requires following your heart.” - Tom Krause

There is a moment in everyone’s life where you know, some part of your self has changed irrevocably. For some, it is sudden, like the loss of a family member. For some, it is a slow, mutating process inside you, like that of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, riding on a beat-up Motorcycle with his friend, Alberto Granado,on a 13,250km road-trip across Latin America.

The movie starts off in an unpretentious manner where Alberto, a biochemist by profession, explains his life-long ambition of going on his motorcycle (“The Mighty One”) across Latin America before he turns 30 in six months. Ernesto, his best friend, 23, accompanies him. You can feel the excitement of a road-trip across the continent and wish you were sitting at the back of that Bike as the Director, Walter Salles, takes you through some amazing, empty road, wide-open field shots with blue sky hovering over the riders. You are transported to the muddy roads of Argentina, green fields in Chile, Mountains of Peru including an amazing view of Machi Pichu and the backwaters of Colombia splintered with changing sceneries and emotions of a young man.

There is a great cinematic effect on movies that don’t try to be cinematic because you can feel it’s real and authentic. Not for a moment you doubt the audacity of the characters or the situations because of the way the characters speak, act and the way the situations transpire in front of your eyes. There are no trick shots, special effects or torturous villains. It’s a pure and simple slice of life story, drawing you into the plight of two travelers with nothing but hope, love, anguish and, ofcourse, no food and money.

The story moves from funny trip mishaps in Argentina to free-spirited adventures in Chile to angst at the plight of workers in Peru to sadness of Leprosy patients in Colombia. Very rarely, you find a movie that captures the essence of the purpose of road trip. This one gets it without compromising the length of scenes, without over-dramatizing the plight of poor and leprosy people and above all without any lengthy dialogues which is very important for a subtitled movie. The pacing could have been a little fast but it might have compromised on the essence. Rodrigo De La Serna (Alberto) gives the most natural, glib-talking funny yet loyal buddy performance while Gael GarcBernal (‘Che’) looks, feels and acts honestly without over-doing it.

The movie reminded me of the train trip sequences in “Gandhi” and how it changed him to understand the real India. ’Che’ went on to become a great revolutionary leader as part of Cuban Revolution and wrote the book “Guerilla Warfare”.

A must-see movie that leaves you with an experience of a satisfying journey!

Daily Pockets!

2005-12-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

Are you the kind of person who shakes your head animatedly as if in a seizure while driving? Well, I do when Rahman’s ‘Fanaa ‘ song plays in my car CD! Immersing in my favorite song oblivious to the outside world while I am in autopilot mode in the highway is almost spiritual. It’s a daily pocket of time that is just between my car, my song and me! I am not a husband, not a father, not a professional, during that time. Just me! A closed time warp filled with melodies and beats.

It’s impossible not to get carried away while the beats of 'Fanaa' fills inside the tinted glass windows!

’Hone ne do… Dard kho…Dabaa…’!

My fingers tap around as if I am Sivamani’s protégé beating those unseen drums around my steering wheel!

‘Aaona Aaona…Hona hai Fanaa’!

Lost in the amazing percussion of Rahman, I increase the volume as I step on the gas and a gleeful smile spills over as my speedometer rises to 85.

’Aaona Aaona…Hona Hai Fanaaa!’.

My mind whizzes through the dance floor as the song enters the string portion rising my adrenalin.! My whole body swings back and forth as the guy in Ford Explorer in adjacent lane thinks I am licking the steering wheel! My left foot taps unconsciously as my hips move sideways!

‘NiNisasa NiNisasa gagasa’!

My voice tries to keep up with the rhythm in the alaap

’Papaninipa Papaninipa ninipapama ninipapama Saaaa’,

as I scream at my highest voice, comfortable in the fact that if someone thought a cat was being strangled, I will be long gone from that spot before they recover. As the song winds down with the beat vanishing into my rear speakers, I feel an elated exhaustion as my CD player moves to next song. It stuck me that everyone has his or her own kind of Daily pockets. A pocket of time spent just by them, for them, replenishing, recharging and unwinding!

I realized what I thought as quirks with my other half were actually her time capsules! Her scholarly pursuits in bathroom (she loves reading in bathroom), has made me add a bookshelf (Vital), TV (Essential) and Internet (Desirable) to the bathroom in our dream home which would be bought the day after winning the lottery! Her other pockets include watching Jacques Torres at food network (what’s with Women and chocolates), re10-reading Pride and Prejudice and other Jane Austen uptight English women stories! I, on the other hand, apart from my wanna-be-symphony-conductor in car, I love my early morning ‘not asleep not awake’ moments where I try to re-enter my dreams after hitting the snooze button twenty times. Nothing seems impossible in those early morning controlled dreams; whether you want to be Neo, Darth Vader, Spielberg or talk with Salma Hayek (yeah right!).

These satisfying fillers in the day are more important than we think. Without them we would be out-of-breath, cluttered, racing towards each chore without a moment for ourselves! So take a break to unwind through your daily pockets! Enjoy your very own Fanaa song before you are consumed by your work!

Source of Cute Puppies Photo:
http://jilmil.blogspot.com/ by Pallavi Barua

Give Me!

2005-12-08T15:23:00.000-05:00

Give me sex not just love – Husband to “loving” wife
Give me love not just sex – Wife to “loving” husband
Give me time not money – Old Age home inmate
Give me reason not a lecture – Teenage daughter to parent
Give me courage not reason --Patient waiting for Chemotherapy
Give me reason not rhetoric – Lila Lipscomb,mother of dead soldier, to Bush
Give me food not sympathy - Kids in Ethiopia
Give me Life not fear - People in Dahfur, Sudan
Give me medicine not just support – Aids patient in South Africa
Give me hope not just flowers – Russian Mother in Beslan tragedy
Give me my country not with illegal immigrants – illegal immigrant protester
Give me equality not just talk about equality–African kid in local college
Give me my job not corporate reasons of cost cutting– Outsourcing victim
Give me faith not Jihad – A moderate Muslim in London
Give me credibility not the other guy’s distortion of me – John Kerry
Give me the vote not for my record but because Kerry is useless - Bush
Give me Freedom not occupation – People in Iraq
Give me truth not necessarily the whole truth - Lawyer’s in most countries
Give me patience not knowledge– First grade teacher
Give me knowledge not failures – NASA after failure of Genesis project
Give me melody not just noise – Music fan’s opinion of Rap

Maybe if we can listen to what people really want and give what they actually need, the world might become a better place to live!

The only way to end Give me’s is to have more Give you’s in your life!

Faces!

2005-12-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Early morning, deep slumber face.
Cursing the alarm, hitting the snooze face.
Hearing wife talking to herself in bathroom,puzzled face.
Coffee aroma from kitchen mixed with some other kind of flavor, smelling face.
Realizing the other kind of smell is the open bathroom in the bedroom,disgusted face.
Walking in sleep to brush and hitting the shoulders in sidewall, screaming face.
Humming a tune that irritates your wife while brushing, mean face.
Switching the TV and sipping hot coffee, bright morning face.
Seeing George Bush smile, pissed off changing channel face.
Only to hear Kerry Flip Flop in the other channel, annoyed face.
Wife urging to move your lazy ass, being interrupted face.
Feeling the forceful shower and dancing in bathroom rain,eyes-closed happy face.
Looking at shower clock,canceling the dance with Preity Zinta in reverie,rushed face.
Trailer changing lanes in front of your tiny Honda, scared face.
Admiring Blonde lady in next lane,missing hitting the car in front,‘Oops!' face.
Reaching office and eyebrow shrinking looking at ‘to do’ list, swamped face.
Hearing blaring radio from the newbie in next cube, wondering ‘what the’ face.
Attending another unnecessary meeting, pretending to listen,’Get me outta here’ face.
Your team member claiming your work as his own, ’what trick did he pull’ face.
Newbie's lunch box smell driving me to nearest restaurant,'Hungry beast' face.
Warding off sleep and calling other friends at work, ’I am so bored' face.
Going back home thinking ’Law&Order,Donald Trump,Scrubs’ excited face.
Wife cuddling in couch expecting romantic speeches while u burp, sorry face.
Getting back in mood and kissing, ‘lover boy’ face.
Only to be disturbed by your uninvited neighbour, ’Damn!’ face.
Wondering when he would go, exasperated face.
Hitting the bed and stretching the arms, tired face.
Looking at the stars through window, smiling to oneself and drifting to dream face!

So many faces, wonder which one is real! Maybe it is buried deep inside! Introspective face!

The "Other" Woman!

2005-12-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

Who knew that an open computer screen could shatter your family into pieces in an instant? She stumbled on my emails to “her” as she wanted to know how many teaspoons were required for that special recipe she was making to surprise me. When I came back and found her sitting in my chair, I knew, Mr.Hyde has been found.

Love is a strange phenomenon with unseen, unknown number of dimensions. It’s not necessary that one person fulfill all those dimensions. I didn’t expect the woman of my home to understand my need of the "Other Woman". Maybe I should have been a better Man and told her the truth up front. But strange as it may sound, it was my love for her that stopped me from telling her the truth. Maybe it was because I was conflicted in my own head as to where my relationship with "her" might take me ultimately. Every day I was confronted by thousand questions. Do I have the courage to abandon my family for her? Can I live with that guilt and still be happy? Or is sacrifice a greater virtue? Duty or Love?

As she sat in that chair with tears rolling down her cheeks, I knew her heart was broken. I had cheated on her and I didn’t have any excuse except that my heart was with the ‘Other Woman’. All that this beautiful woman crying in front of me had was my respect and admiration for her sacrifice. She had trusted me and I had used that trust to betray her hopes. There was no melodrama. Just grief. Funeral homes had more charm than my home during those first few weeks she found out. She was sure I was going to leave her and the little one for ‘Her’. She conjured up scenarios where ‘She’ seduced my innocent heart by sashaying her little skirt in front of me. She obviously had to be a paid escort or a slut sleeping with everyone in her street, according to her.

A person’s true intentions are revealed only when you threaten to take away the most important things in their life. And I was already seeing its effect at home. During Breakfast. During Lunch. In front of the little one. Ranting. Screaming. It was hurt bleeding in words. People won’t tell you where they bought that special lamp hanging in their wall but the moment you have an extra-relationship, the whole circle of unwanted-uninvited-unbearable relatives know about it. Even though she didn’t mean them, I knew I had to make a decision. My assurances weren’t going to make her believe that I wont leave the family but I had to do what my heart wanted.

I finally decided to bring the ‘Other woman’, my girlfriend to the lady of my home, my mom!

Life in the Equilibrium!

2005-12-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

Perhaps we live our entire lives trying to maintain our equilibriums. Equilibrium in our relationships, where you have forgiven the past sins and not pre-occupied with the fear of current one being committed. Equilibrium at our workplace where you hope your past performance will serve you well and your current projects will keep you from getting fired. Equilibrium in our financial security, where you have come to terms with your past poverty and hope the current reserves will carry you good for couple more years. It seems we keep yearning for that peace of mind; settled feeling; like the calmness and beauty of vastness of ice in Alaska you saw last week in Discovery channel! Until that happens, a part of your brain remains in siege of the problem. Your Life is on hold. You are incapable of enjoying and experiencing even the good things that happen in the interim because there is a bigger problem still lurking at the background.

You hate that queasiness at the bottom of your stomach when the deadline to pay your bills near. You hate that hospital smell that seems to have consumed the rest of your life. You hate the fact that so many people have it easy in their life because they got their little Daddy’s dough. It’s a perennial depression swallowing each part of you, slowly but surely. You are exhausted from hoping when it would be over.

If we caused the imbalance in the equilibrium, we accept its consequences as our own making. Sometimes it’s necessity that forces us to disturb it. Sometimes it’s the fault of our loved ones. But the worst kinds are the ones where you or your loved ones had no part in it but you’re the one to suffer from it! Poor parents! No parents! Single parent! Born with a handicap! Waiting for Green Card in the terrestrial black hole called INS! A freak accident where you are not at fault! Being fired by your firm because they didn’t make their numbers or some blind auditor saying he didn’t know how 9 extra zeros got after the number 3 to SCC!

When Life hits you with one of those, you see your life’s priorities shifting places like numbers in a slot machine and you realize all that matters is to have someone say ‘I love you’ everyday; to have friends who accept you for what you are and as you are; to have at least two people who believe in your dreams no matter how far-fetched and crazy it is.

Maybe those are the things we should be really worked up about. Those are the things that we should work for in our life. Meaningful, fulfilling, satisfying relationships. When you have that, no matter how many times you lose your equilibrium, you can still be happy! Because Life don’t mean much without people who genuinely care for your well being!

Before Sunset!- Movie Review

2005-12-08T15:08:00.000-05:00

Ever had that feeling where you are completely lost in your strange imagination of sequence of events between you and the most sophisticated woman you have met till that point in your life? She just gave u a smile, walked past you and is sitting three rows in front of you in the local Bus. You create in your mind those little impossible realistic events between you and her where she happens to live near your apartment; she is your best friend’s cousin; she gets stuck in the road because her scooter broke down. You miraculously happen to be in that exact spot helping her; You walk with her to her home talking politics, women and shoes, Men and infidelity, soul mates, your dislike for searching the missing pair of socks, her love for the depth in ghazals, cold coffee, Calvin & Hobbes, her dilemma with size of heels, why Men don’t file their nails, why kids always find the urge to shower u when u pick them up, everything and anything under the sun as if there was no one else on the road.You can’t help but admire her laugh. She can’t help but notice the way she is teasing you. You don’t want the evening to end but she is standing at the gates of her apartment. You try to act appropriately so as to not ruin your chances and she feels the connection strongly and doesn’t want to enter her home. The moment lingers on as u say, “Goodnight!” You are sure in your heart, its love! A hunch! An instinct! A voice deep within you telling, “She is the One”!.

And then suddenly,you are thrown from your seat as the Bus comes to a halt and you hold the steel bar in front of you trying to wake up from ur ‘realistic’ dream. She stares at you and gets down from the bus leaving you dazed, crazed, confused, happy and sad at the same time. You don’t know her name. Her number. You realize it's too late to stop the bus and follow her. Suddenly you see those magic events you had built up,crumbling down but you are still hopeful. Hopeful that u will see her again. She might be sitting at the doctor’s office or she joins the company as new trainee and assigned to you or she is your sister’s classmate. Those sweet moments that you conjure up in the vacuum of daily drudgery lingers on for a long time in your life and brings a smile to your face every time you think about it!

“Before Sunset” is one such movie that takes you back into those moments of your life!

It’s about two people, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), who spent one great evening together (prequel-Before Sunrise) and decided to meet after six months in Vienna. They neither have each other’s phone number nor address. The first movie ends with that promise and the second one starts with Jesse signing his new book in a small bookstore in Paris after eight years. His book about that one night with Celine has become a bestseller. We understand Celine didn’t show up after six months as Jesse sees Celine standing in the corner of that little bookstore.

They have few hours before Jesse has to catch a flight to NY.

From the awkwardness of meeting someone very close after so many years, the characters chatter away slowly walking down the streets of Paris without any cinematic gimmicks. The movie is almost shot in real-time in the streets of Paris. It’s real. Honest. Emotionally charged. And like your ‘realistic’ dreams, it gives you a sense of ‘it could happen’. Both Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have acted brilliantly. You feel for the lost opportunities of the characters involved yet get excited about the future possibilities between them. There are two kinds of directors. One who is visually oriented –Oliver Stone, Spielberg, Kubrick, Maniratnam etc. and the other who is dialogue oriented – David Mammet (Glengarry GlenRoss), SpikeJonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich), Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) etc. While the former genre amazes you, the latter stimulates your intellectual senses. You get a rare dose of that heavily dialogue-oriented movie genre that transports you in to a different plane as it plays along.What surprises you is that to make a good movie, you don't need big actors,big budget,eye-popping special effects but just a simple strong narrative as this movie proves!

Intelligent, smart, witty, moving, emotionally honest, touching, slice-of-life movie after a looooong time!

Don’t Miss it!

Are you really UNIQUE ?!!!

2005-12-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

I think I am. I know, you think you are. But are we really?

We would like to believe our pains are unique. Our joys are unparalleled. Our marriage is unmatched. Our kids are extraordinary. Our choices profound. But the fact is that millions have lived through them before us. Millions will go through them again, after us. So, Is there anything really unique in this life of ours?

You are Born. And if you are in India, 45 others along with you at that exact instant. You top your class. So does hundreds who are in different schools. You think Math is for people who love abstract paintings. So does everyone who can’t multiply. You dream of becoming a revolutionary leader who would transform India in to an economic super power and wipe child labor, poverty and corruption. So does thousands who are currently making money for multi-nationals. You complain your dad is an alcoholic who can’t understand your smart mother. So does thousands who live in middle class poverty. You fall in love and think your love is like no other love. And yet there are millions who would claim in the same breath, their love is supreme. You think yours is the most peculiar marriage story. So does millions who swear on the drama of missing rings, relative’s tantrums and Husband’s cold feet. You are certain your baby experience is the most breathtaking ever. So does the billion in China.
Your Car.
Your Home.
Your Family.
Your Language.
Your City.
Your Country.
Your Goodness.
Your Devilry.
Even when you think your suffering is the most unique and you are the chosen one by God to be the most tormented soul on planet, there is a little kid in Sumatra who is laughing at you right about now. Every little possession that you claim, pride and thump your chest with, there are millions others who already have them or had them or in the process of getting them at this very moment.

Perhaps the folly is in trying to be unique instead of accepting the fact that you are no different than anyone else. Whatever you do, has already been done. Whatever you write has already been written. You are not inventing. You are not creating. All you do is discovering for yourself what others before you have already discovered, experienced and understood. For all one knows, the uniqueness is not with respect to others but with respect to your very own self. You became unique by doing something that you didn’t do yesterday. You wrote something today that you didn’t yesterday. You learnt something today that you didn’t know before. Maybe that’s the goal of our life. The quest to find a new ‘You’, by pushing our limits of uniqueness within us until we breathe our last.

So cheers to a constantly evolving UNIQUE YOU!

House Of Flying Daggers! Shi Mian Mai Fu !

2005-12-08T15:03:00.000-05:00

“The ultimate satisfaction in a movie is when it exceeds high expectations.”
-Me (So what if I am narcissistic ;))

A good movie takes you up two notches but a great movie takes you up four notches. You get to see them once in few years. If you are lucky, maybe once a year. I call them Lifetime Movies. They have a strange power to immerse you into a visceral world. Take you on an emotional rollercoaster, from smiling to crying to shocking to screaming for the characters involved. You feel restless and your heart begins to palpitate as you wonder what would happen next. When it finally ends, you are still sitting in your seat, your emotions washing away slowly as the credits go up. You have a mixed feeling of sadness and happiness. Sad that it is over and happy that you have just had a satisfying experience. Zhang Yimou’s ‘The House Of Flying Daggers’ is one such movie.

If Yimou created unforgettable colorful paintings in THE HERO, this time he creates a literally ‘moving’ drama filled with suspense, betrayal, strategy, action, friendship, loyalty and above all passionate love. I was afraid I would be reading the subtitles and miss the whole impact of the beautiful images. But Yimou makes sure that it doesn’t happen by avoiding any lengthy dialogues.

The story begins with a simple plot. The movie is set in 859AD China. There is an uprising in Tang dynasty by an underground rebel group called ‘House of Flying Daggers’. One of the captains, Leo (Andy Lau), in a Tang province, learns that a blind girl in the local harem is a member of the rebel group. He devises a plan with his friend and fellow captain, Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), to trap the blind girl. Zhang Ziyi, of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” fame, is the blind girl, Mei. The movie hooks you immediately in the opening sequence of Mei. The local Harem has butterflies embedded in the floor, musicians dressed in blue, drums with red roses imprinted in middle and to top it all, Mei, stands in the middle of the room, looking like an Indo-Chinese doll wearing a dress that seductively slides from one shoulder. She dances to a mesmerizing tune, swaying her scarf across the room. As Leo threatens to arrest her, they both indulge in a unique game called ‘Echo’ where Mei has to echo the beat made by Leo with her scarf beating the drums. The scene rises in crescendo with each beat as the game finally ends in Mei being captured. Jin rescues Mei trying to win her trust so she may lead him to the leader of House of Flying Daggers.

Love is a strange thing. It happens in unseemly places at unexpected moments and questions all that you believed in until that moment. And here, it happens in the jungle, as Jin and Mei, escape the deadliest of Tang Soldiers. Mei tries her best not to get caught up in Jin’s charm while Jin feels conflicted between his loyalty to Tang Dynasty and his care for Mei. The Tang soldiers follow them relentlessly as each fight betters the previous one. Daggers flying like boomerangs in a field of wild flowers; Arrows traveling right in between your eyebrows in the big screen; Bamboo sticks falling like pellets on the ground as Mei and Jin run; the action sequences are balladic, swift and spectacular.

Zhang Ziyi gives her best performance as she wades through various shades of her character and kicking butt with élan when she has to. Meanwhile, Takeshi Kaneshiro, is the first Chinese actor I know (which is very few) who can emote. The chemistry between them is electrifying although I have to say, they kiss pretty badly.

Just when you think, you have figured out the movie, Yimou, brings a complete twist and you immediately scream in your head, “Oh Shit!”. The next ten minutes that follows the twist, you, as the viewer is conflicted. Your mind understands but your heart doesn’t want to accept it. Mei’s predicament becomes too complicated a knot to untie. As the Tang general sends his army to House of Flying Dagger’s hideout, in the midlands of snow-falling forest, one of the most beautiful heart-wrenching climaxes transpires. This sumptuous, romantic,martial art saga ends with the same song that Mei danced in the opening sequence.

A must-see!

Posting the picture of Takeshi Kaneshiro because my wife wants me to. As if drooling over Colin Firth, Clive Owen and Hrithik are not enough!

Fahrenheit 911-Docufeature Review!

2005-12-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

My first documentary feature(really?) that I watched in theatre. After brushing the fear of deportation by INS or being put on FBI watch-list if I go to watch the movie, I finally saw the movie last week. Just one word to describe it ---Brilliant. Very rarely you see a movie full of wit, satire, irony, sadness, regret, shock, helplessness, anger and finally determination.

Determination to see the ouster of George W. Bush from office...(too bad I can’t vote). Are there cheap shots at Bush? —Yes. Are there points of view about Bush Administration that is one sided? –Yes. But are there indisputable facts that makes you think about credibility of Bush Administration? – Most definitely yes. If not for any other reason, you can make your decision to vote out Bush purely on the “Incompetence” criteria for the job of President of US.

The movie starts with “Is it all a dream?” poking fun at Ben Affleck standing behind Al Gore declaring victory in the mother-of-all-2000-elections. You are sucked into the movie right from that frame. The movie pretty much moves chronologically from there. It shows the discrepancies in 2000 election where you are shocked to see the convenient coincidences in Florida Election. Then 9/11 event, without showing the collapsing of the twin towers one more time, proving Moore’s sensibilities for the families involved.

He takes you through the Saudi connection, patriot act, and Bush family’s relation with Saudi Business groups namely Carlyle and UNOCAL. You are startled to know where Hamid Karzai (current Afghanistan President) comes from. You feel nauseated to hear a congressman say “We don’t really read most of the Bills that gets passed in the house”. You are astounded to see how the Bush administration used fear psychosis before the Iraq War.

The second part of the movie is about Iraq –the Why’s, How’s and finally the “What the…”’s. I have always felt that the people who have the right to criticize the war are the one’s who have their family in armed services. They are the one’s making the ultimate sacrifice. This movie has Lila Lipscomb as a sort of heroine to drive home the point of “unjustified sacrifice”. The camera follows two Marine recruiters and how they scout for people from the lowest of the classes to make the greatest of the sacrifice for their country. Moore ambush’s the senators and congressmen to sign their kids for Iraq war since they supported it.He rides on a Ice cream truck reading Patriot Act infront of Capitol Hill.Antics like these makes the movie both entertaining and thought provoking.

He does not leave the democrats Scot-free. They supported without asking the tough questions. They did not come forward for the 20000 disenfranchised black voters in Florida. They kept quiet when they should have been fighting for the people who voted them. The movie is interlaced with Moore’s opinions and Facts. As a responsible viewer, it is for you to figure out which portion is what. It is not Moore’s responsibility. The following link would help you in that.

Fifty-Six Deceits (although most of them seems to knitpicking! )

Bottom line, it is a movie to be watched by every responsible citizen of world and make your own judgements. You will be re-invigorated, more informed and feel responsible for the vote you cast as you come out of the theatre.

The HERO - Movie Review

2005-12-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

“Good is not good when better is expected”, said Thomas Fuller

And when you enter the theatre expecting “Great”, you know deep inside, it’s not going to measure up. But the first forty minutes of the movie, did come very close to it. That’s saying a lot about “HERO”.

After the initial shock that the dialogues are in Chinese, you hurriedly try to get over it since the movie has already started. There is a voice-over explaining how China is divided into six regions-Qin, Zhao, 3,4,5 and 6. (Don’t expect me to remember all the Chinese names). The ruler of Qin wants to unite all six regions. The King’s logic being without wars there can’t be everlasting peace. The King has summoned Jet Li, the nameless warrior, since he claims to have killed the three deadly assasins, Long Sky, Broken Sword and the Flying Snow (wonder who picks the character names for martial arts movies).

You know you are in for a great adventure when Jet Li climbs the steps of Qin King’s palace as the camera pans out showing thousands of warriors standing outside the palace. Jet Li begins to tell his first conquest of how he killed the brave warrior, Sky. Great directors go beyond the normal scene and give you an entirely new way of thinking about that scene. Zhang Yimou proves he belongs in that group by combining chords of music and Sword Play. A musical-sword-orchestra executed in slow motion in rain enhanced by the sound of each raindrop in the sword. It’s a visual treat.

Next, it’s the story of conquest of Broken Sword and Flying Snow where Yimou now mixes the art of Calligraphy with Swordsmanship. The assembly of Qin Army with their equipment to fire arrows, outside the village of Zhao, is a sight to behold. You see the prowess of Snow in action. When you see a 11 by 6 m screen completely filled with falling autumn yellow leaves and two women (Snow and Moon, disciple of Sword) involved in a wild, acrobatic, leaves dancing action sequence ending with all the falling yellow leaves turning Red, all you can do is sit back and enjoy. With each story of conquest, Jet Li , gets 10 feet closer to the King. And you immediately guess the Nameless Warrior is there to kill the King. Just when you think, is that all? Is it going to be a short movie, Yimou, brilliantly pulls you back in the story when the King says “All the stories you have been telling me is Bullshit” and gives his version of the story. Jet Li, corrects the King’s story with another version. The movie takes a tumble from there on.

With multiple versions, each shown as flashback, your attitude at the end of it,is like “Whatever”. After an hour, you get used to picture perfect shots; slo-mo/wire action sequences and they take you one step further batting water droplets with swords in the lake. You go through the motions as the story has taken three somersaults. You are just waiting when it would return back to the “real” version. I was strangely reminded of the pain of last half hour of “LOTR: Return of Kings”, when I got out of my seat 4 times, thinking the movie was over. All the Wow-factors of the first 40mins,vanishing with each passing minute. And finally when it ends, you wonder why Yimou forgot to scream, “CUT” half hour before. Nevertheless, it is a movie to be watched in Theatre.

To repeat the first quote, “Good is not good when better is expected”. Expect Good not Greatness.

Is being Good,being Boring ?!!!

2005-12-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

If being good is being predictable and being predictable is always boring, are good people, boring? Of course, first we have to define what “good” is and we all know that definition differs from everyone. Let’s take relationships. If a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, boyfriend/boyfriend and girlfriend/girlfriend (just to be politically correct) share everything they have between them, just to show that they “love” each other or to say,” I tell you everything, now its your turn”, what’s the surprise? Wouldn’t the relationship become stale after few years?

Someone w(v)is(c)ely said, ”A man without vices is a man without virtues”. If a good man is someone without vices, should we conclude that he doesn’t have too much virtue? Vices definitely give purpose to relationships. Without the drama of trying to get rid of vice in the other partner, it’s just salad without the dressing. It might be good for health but would you taste it everyday of your life? Life is about solving the mysteries, a journey to understand the puzzle, an exploration more than the destination. And in these “tell all” relationships, over a period of time, it becomes “know all” which sets the rote that leads to boredom. Perhaps the biggest paradox in relationships is that women love surprises yet they want to “know” their man fully. And when they understand him fully, they don’t want him anymore since the guy is so predictable and therefore no surprises! While there is a comfort in knowing what your man is going to do, if the man is not willing to stray from expected behavior, the relationship will become the peak-hour traffic at I-285, crawling at snail’s pace. Secrets in a relationship lead to Mystery about the person. Mystery leads to Unpredictability. Unpredictability leads to Curiosity. Curiosity increases Anxiety. Anxiety increases Heartbeats. And when your heart beats faster, it leads to Passion in the relationship.

Does that mean people in relationships need to have secrets to sustain the interest? Yes, as long as the secret is not about an affair or their sexuality. That would be a surprise surpassing all your expectations. When familiarity breed’s contempt, when routines consume your life, when habits become necessities, it’s important to surprise yourself by doing something you would never do! Both for you and your partner!

To me, people who are good are usually “Safe” players. They like routine. They like rules. They work 9 to 6.They have fixed roles for their lives. Wife, Kid, Father, Friend. They trust the news on TV. They are hospitable to a point of ‘beyond self’. They follow the life’s time-table to have a kid before 30,keep the job, follow their parent’s advise even at 40. They are contended simple human beings without too many complexities. Is there anything wrong in it? Absolutely not! Just not the kind of person i would choose to be in a long-term relationship!

So, Don’t be Good! Don’t be too bad! Be Unpredictable! Surprise your partner!

Moments!

2005-12-08T14:51:00.000-05:00

So it is one of those days where you get up after cleaning the mess by your little baby and hope there is enough diapers left in the closet for the rest of day and all you can fantasize is that some day, your lazy husband would hold the kid for few minutes instead of being glued to the television all the time and still expect you to cook three times a day since you are the one without the job now, as it was your fault to get pregnant and sacrifice your career for the sake of those innocent eyes staring at you, refusing to leave you out of sight even for a moment, and just when u sit on that couch feeling elated that those tiny eyes are falling to sleep, the wide open closet stares at you with that last piece of diaper and now you have to catch a bus to go to the nearest medical store as you change your dress quickly before your girl's overactive bladder reacts and you run to catch the growling bus which is in a hurry of its own as you try to hold on to the steel rails in the steps, balancing your sleepy kid in the hip and at that exact moment, shaken by the sudden impact, your kid begins to imitate Pavarotti, screaming at her loudest voice, as u try to calm her, the bus conductor mercilessly rushes you to move to the front and you try to nudge the imbecile morons who wouldn’t move ,for lack of space or lack of courtesy and ,suddenly, out of nowhere, you feel a set of hands pulling you down to the seat next to her, taking your crying baby from you, as your little girl suddenly calms down from the new smell of different woman as you heave a sigh, smiling nervously at the generous lady and thanking her with your eyes for giving you, your first moment to yourself that day and you begin to pray, the last diaper holds on for the rest of bus journey!

Do you have the courage to be CRAZY ?!!!

2005-12-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

Do you have the courage to run naked in the street to make a point about nudity? Do you have the courage to resign your job, start over from scratch, in a new dream career? Do you have the courage to walk to your workplace because you believe Gasoline pollutes environment? Do you have the courage to say, “Michael Moore is great” in Republican Convention?

Do you have the courage to be Crazy?

Extreme achievements come from extreme amounts of belief. All great achievements have come from people who deviated enormously from the norms. They were able to do great things because they believed in something that was outrageous even to think. There is a fine line that divides eccentrics and Achievers. If their beliefs don’t work they are called eccentrics, even stupid and if it did, they are called Geniuses. Napoleon was stupid to wage a war during winter in Russia. On the other hand, if he had succeeded, he would be called the greatest strategist in the world.

When I see someone with pink fried Hair standing straight with a bikini clad women tattoo in their right arm, my first gut reaction is “How can You? Don’t you have a mirror? “. On second thoughts, I know he has the courage to do what I could never even imagine. I am bound by social norms and controlled by societal acceptance. I am afraid of being called crazy which restricts me from experiencing something new while the pink fried hair KISS fan is not. He is FREE, not controlled by someone’s approval and believes strongly in his self-expression (or Self-Attention).

When we have so many unwritten rules of life fed constantly from childhood, it can only take a person who doesn’t follow rules to achieve greatness. You can be always become successful following the rules but you can never be Great. If you have to be Great, you have to think outside the box. To think outside the box, you have to be CRAZY. You have to believe in the impossible, outrageous, incredible, because when it’s successful, you will be a crazy-SOB-rich-ass! Just ask the guy who thought Wookies, Drones, Jedi’s and Dark force were ruling the space!

Imagine someone suggesting in NASA, “Let’s have two stuntmen in parachutes and ask them to catch a satellite when it falls into Earth’s atmosphere”. Huh? Well, they tried it with project Genesis. Imagine someone saying, “Wanna become Invisible? Try my Cloak ".Yeah Right! Imagine someone saying “Why don’t we sell Water ?”. Sell Water? The most natural ingredient that covers 70% of Earth ? How about the guy who said "Let’s have a tool to pick food from the plate called Spoons! ". Just some of the "Crazy" ideas that aren't that crazy anymore.

We have to go beyond our personal limitations, public criticism, social norms, family cynicism and enormous belief in ourselves to be Great! Being Crazy is having the courage to attempt something that no one has ever done. Being Crazy is pummeling through criticism and working harder. Being Crazy is in having a vision of your goal. Above all, whether you are successful or not, being crazy is BEING FREE. The Freedom to be you. The Freedom to do what YOU want to do! So Be Crazy! Be Great!

Are you asking whether I am going to run naked to my work place because its casual wear on Friday? Are you Crazy?

Conjectures of Love!

2005-12-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

I came, She saw and He saw it too!

I came to see if it was just Lust!
She came to see if it was Love!
He came to see wondering what She hoped to see!

She was pushed into this because He didn’t see her!
I was pushed into this because I had seen her!
He was pushed into this because She dared to see someone else!

With each step, she could see-through her own motives!
With each step, I could see why she deserved better!
With each step, He could see where he went wrong with her!

She realized finally that she can be seen by someone!
I realized finally that I can trust her to see the real me!
He realized finally that they are too far apart to see each other anymore!

While I was seething through, hoping for the distance between us to disappear,
While He was searing through with shattered ego and lost opportunities,
She felt her seesawing moral contradictions come to an end as she stood close to me!

I saw,
He saw,
As She turned back,
Seeing herself walk with renewed strength and a new self towards an unsure future!

New World Order!

2005-12-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

“Economic immigration will accomplish what Religion could not in thousands of years. UNITE PEOPLE!”

Jonathan Reeves working as foreman in Bangalore. Srinivasa Reddy managing Call Center in Uganda. Ho Chin Minh selling fishing boats in Tasmania.

Perhaps in the next 50 years, the above job profiles may not look so strange. Slowly but surely, the low income population of developed countries whose jobs have been outsourced, will have no choice than to move to different countries to survive. What do you do with the set of population whose jobs have been outsourced? Learn a new skill at 35? 45? 55? If you say, go back to college to a 45 year old man, who has another 15 to 20 years of service left in him; he is going to laugh at you. It’s not an age for college or developing new skills. What are the choices left for a guy in his 40’s, who was a foreman, all his adult life? He can move to different stream. Earn significantly less as a salesman in Wal-Mart store. But will that pay for his son’s education? Daughter’s College Fee? His wife’s Medicare bill?

The only viable choice seems to be to immigrate to another country where there is a better job for him and his family has a better chance of survival in that country’s economy than their own. This discarded by-product of capitalistic economy will become the new immigrant community in developing economy of some other country. All through History, the highly skilled, willed, people from developing and under-developed countries moved to Developed countries for a better standard of living. In 50 years or less, I can see the low-skilled workers earning less than 30K per annum, living in US and Europe, becoming the victims of Capitalism and Globalization, settling in Developing countries.

A New World Order is slowly being created! Every country becoming more multi-cultural than it is now. We are more connected than ever with people from other countries and cultures. The effect of labour strike in China is felt the same day in a store at Wal-Mart in Queens, NY.There are new rules of engagement between countries. Multi-culturalism becomes commonplace because of fusion of population from economic immigration. Prejudices gets altered and even shattered in some cases. White, Black & Brown makes no difference. The only difference between Haves and Have-not’s is Jobs. Only Religion is Economy. Only God is Jobs.

An ever-shrinking world means an ever-integrating economy of countries, a fusion of cultures, a fusion of race, a fusion of minds and hearts. Will we have problems in transition? Absolutely. Will the world go back to protectionism and not bother about other counties and people? Possible but unlikely!

Or Is it all just mumbo-jumbo-world-peace-world-economy-one-race-utopian-prophecy by me? No harm being an optimist before someone nukes the hell out of this world!

In the Good Ol'days!

2005-12-08T14:41:00.000-05:00

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I wanted to be an ‘Archaeologist’ because I could spell it!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I had only one channel and no one fought for the remote!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I knew True freedom meant learning to balance myself in bicycle!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I believed Rajnikant can REALLY catch a bullet in mid-air!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I thought I was a great singer when my mom asked me to practice in an empty room!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I believed in Satan because my brother experimented pillow-strength on my face!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I posed for Colgate every time Sujata from third bench turned and smiled at me!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Love was Simple, Singular and Eternal!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Everybody was a friend, rich or poor, good or bad!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Loyalty meant sharing my answer paper to all my friends in exam hall!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
My intentions were not tainted by my motivations!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
I meant what I said and did what I meant!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Changing the world and being a Hero was always possible!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Impossible only meant not trying enough!

In the Good Ol’ Days,
Life meant School, Friends, Grandma, Mahabharatha on Sundays and Street Cricket!

Maybe my good ol’ days are over but twenty years from now, I know, today, will be a part of my Good Ol’ days then. So I better make it as good as the previous one.Without regrets.Without sadness.Without self-imposed Limitations.And always grateful for what I got in my life,RIGHT NOW!

Phoenix Prema!

2005-12-08T14:39:00.000-05:00

“I want to see Rajan”, I told Hari firmly.

I didn’t expect him to understand why. He didn’t know the history between Rajan and me…he didn’t have to..

They say life is made of moments. And I had a lot of moments with Rajan.
The bicycle rides with him to school. The mindless gibberish all night in the terrace of our building. The day he jumped into water to save me even though he didn’t know swimming (next door Shekhar uncle had to save both of us). The day he understood he can’t touch me freely anymore since I had become a “big” girl, the day we shared our first kiss...when we realized we were more than “friends”, the day he asked my dad to marry me,the day he waited for me in the Kerala border hoping i would come to lead a wonderful life...with him forever...

Well, much has happened since then. They say time heals everything. They sure did for a long time until my last prognosis, which gave me utmost 3 months to live. I wasn’t afraid of dying. All I could think when I found the news was I should see Rajan one last time. I just didn’t want any regrets before my death. And one of the biggest regrets of my life was not giving Rajan,an explanation.

Tell him why I didn’t stand up for him, for our love, even though I knew it was the best thing that would happen to me . Tell him why I wasn’t strong enough. Tell him how stupid I was to believe in a myth called Society. Tell him how I believed in sacrifice for the happiness of my parents although I did not question how they can be happy when I am unhappy. Tell him why I was such a coward...and didn't come on that fateful day...

Guess finally its time for this 80 year old grandmother to stand up, muster the courage and strength to see her old boyfriend and share my true feelings. After all, he is the only reminder of my childhood…my first love..and certainly the happiest days of my life…

Picture Source:http://www.santharia.com/pictures/quellion/rise_of_the_phoenix.htm

Take those Shades Off!

2005-12-08T14:36:00.000-05:00

Take those Shades Off, so you can feel the changing rays of sunlight in your eyes!

Disconnect that Cell phone, so you can connect to the person standing next to you!

Shut-down that Computer, so you can shut-up your constant need for information!

Turn-Off that Television, so you can turn-on your wife cooking in the kitchen!

Open your heart, so you can close your prejudices!

Stop focusing all the time on self, so you can start doing something for others!

Bury the skepticism, so you can dig out the positives!

Look at the big picture, so you can blind yourself to petty misgivings!

Don’t blame your circumstances, so you can praise your conviction of choices!

Rest your mind, so you can work your body!

Wake your ambitions, so you can dream yourself to fulfilling!

Give your best, so you can take the experience of doing it!

Live in the moment, so you can die without regrets!

Love for what it is, so you can stop the hatred for what it is not!

Life is a Joy!(Yeah Right!)

2005-12-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

I just heard my friend got his Labor Certification for Green Card. I am really happy for him…(didn’t u see my fake plastic smile while saying “Oh really ? Congratulations” while screaming “Damn” inside my head..).He was elated..that..he got it in six months..(just what I needed to hear..before I break my keyboard..)..while mine is stuck in a black hole called Texas INS for the past two years.

Whoever said ‘Life is a bitch’ must have been the first candidate who got rejected at 485 stage. Now I know how philosophers are made. You see..now I have to come up with some philosophy to move on…to be nice to him..to be nice to others…so I started wondering things..like…”Life is not measured by Labor,GC…its about travelling more..enjoying family..spending time in Hawaii..”..(oh..shut the justifications...u got f****d…just deal with it…than rationalizing). But I guess we can’t move on until we do create a personal philosophy that is filled with great inspirational stories…(basically stories of people who got f****d more than you).So I started looking for some…

Imagine the guy who goes to doctor and the doctor tells him..”I am very sorry..wish u had come last month..you just moved to advanced stage of cancer” or the guy who has a disease with a name that u can’t spell nor say it..and they tell him…”this disease can be treated only when ur less than 10yrs old…”... I don’t think I am in that deep a hole…but I guess we do live in a world where things get better as time passes by..

Imagine my Grandma, who had to wash clothes , clean the vessels all her life and finally ending up with hip transplant..and today I take more time trying to put the clothes from washer to Dryer..or my 1600$ camcorder I bought a year ago costing just 600 bucks today…or how I missed the internet age by just a few years and the “possibilities” that come along with it… but..it got me thinking “Does technological advances mean a better quality of life ? it’s just another flavor to life that wasn’t available before..( who am I kiddin ?..)..
Anyway..i think I can't regret too much about things that are not in my control..and I got enuf stories..and analogies and rationalizations..to move on to my friend’s party happily…knowing that there are other’s who got screwed more than me!

Written on:Tuesday, 29 June 2004

Is the Fastest always the Greatest?

2005-12-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

Stephano Baldini, Mizuki Noguchi, Roman Sebrle. Who the hell are these people? In a world of short attention span, you can’t blame why we don’t remember the winners of Marathon and Decathlon in the recently concluded Olympics. If I had said Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones or Shawn Crawford, we wouldn’t be asking twice who they are. Has the world come to believe the fastest as the greatest? In the world of recognition and respect, has 26 miles lost to 100 m? Or is it just a reflection of how success is defined in our current world?

When you delve deep into how every action is judged nowadays, you realize the fastest is considered as the best. Just see who gets the bonus at the end of the quarter. It’s usually the one who does the job quicker. Doing a job faster is perceived as doing the job efficiently because people don’t have time to analyze and judge whether it was done in an effective manner with long-term credibility. ‘Get the Job done’ has become the motto of most companies, not ‘Get the Job done rightly no matter how long it takes’. Performance is directly proportional to how many jobs did you complete. Quick-fix solution has become order of the day. Instant gratification is more important than long-term liabilities. We have gone from “Lets figure out how to do it effectively” to “Lets do it right Now” to “Lets do it right now before I get fired”. There seems to be an in-built clock that’s telling us to do things faster, quicker. Not necessarily doing it right or efficiently.

Would you choose to have your car fixed immediately with some long-term problems or have it completely repaired but would take 2 weeks? Would you choose to fix the code that would get the client up and running or do analysis of the problem, find out the origin of issue and then solve it which would take a month? Would you choose to work on your marriage, which might take few years or get out right now and find another partner? (With 50% divorce rate in US, you know what half the people here are choosing). ‘Fix now, worry later’ has become a part of our culture because we strongly believe there may not be a ‘Later’ in most cases.

We even want our Kids to grow quickly. I saw my friend praising his wife for teaching his daughter the entire syllabus up to third grade while she is just in her first grade. I asked him what are you gaining by doing that? Why would you want your kid to grow so fast instead of letting her enjoy her moments as a kid? His answer was that she would have an edge over her competition. Is growing up early worth it? While Sharapova, Jody Foster, Olson Twins might make you think so, Martina Hingis, Tatum O’Neil, McCaulay Culkin prove otherwise.

Measuring someone’s success by his or her age has become the cynical way of determining someone’s worth nowadays.
‘Look at that young manager.’
‘See he bought a house at 25.’
‘It’s surprising he is getting paid so much so young.’
‘Sorry you are too old to do this Job’.
It’s not about how far you have come from where you started in life but “How soon did you make it”. There doesn’t seem to be much glory in endurance, perseverance and patience in today’s world. Infact, they take so much time, either you don’t have time for it or it is just plainly boring to follow through them. Right now, it does seem like the Fastest is greatest!

Who cares about the Marathon runners anyway?

In the End, is it just about “feeling-good”?

2005-12-08T12:41:00.000-05:00

The Voter-get-out Armies are ready. The Lawyer Armies are ready. The Media-Army is ready. The battle lines have been drawn. Sides have been picked. No! I don’t believe in the undecided voter at this stage. The only ones allowed to be undecided at this stage are Animals, Aliens and people living in Timbuktu. I am glad it’s going to be over and scared of the unfavorable outcome at same time. While I look at 50% of voters and think, how can you guy’s get it so wrong, the other 50% look at me and say, “You have no idea!”.

Great truths are often found in simple ways. Buddha attained nirvana under Banyan Tree. Newton found gravity under apple tree (What’s up with trees and history of world? Maybe a subject to research later), Ben Franklin found electricity while flying a kite and Rama found the American Bush-psyche while being lectured to in a Barber shop (the only way to get my name alongside those greats is to write it myself!).

“Are you from India?”
“Yes”
“So can you vote in this election? “
I flinch knowing it is Georgia and deeply republican forte.
“No I can’t! But I am watching it closely!”
“Well! We are all voting Bush here!”. I told myself, of course you’re. I see the confederate flag hanging in your store. I didn’t want to continue the conversation since I did have a knife under my throat. Literally!

He continued with his ranting.”Am sure you support Bush unless you like French!” followed by a Bollywood-villain style loud laugh.

“I am so happy Clinton or Gore weren’t the President during 911.They would not have kicked anyone’s ass”. And at that exact moment, i could see in my mind a big white circle forming behind my head.Nirvana! The hidden magic bulb above my head also started sparkling!

So, that’s what this American Bush-pysche is about. Bush kicked someone’s ass. And he did it in spite of the whole world saying No! Isn’t that Leadership? So what if Saddam didn’t have WMD.He would have got it one day, maybe, 20years from now! Isn’t that imminent enough threat to warrant a pre-emptive action?

A friend of mine said “Dude! We had the guts to go in and occupy the country in 30 days. Just see how powerful we are!”. There was a sense of pride and arrogance in him, which comes only with being born in the greatest nation of the world. I am sure I would have that arrogance if I were born here. But I know just like the other 50% of America, I would probably be marching for a different kind of war. War on equality of races and women’s pay, War on Corporations influencing policy, War on Election reform where the winner doesn’t take all electoral votes in a state, there by disenfranchising someone’s ‘other choice’ in a state. Why should I even bother about this election when I can’t vote? Guess its because I have chosen to live here and would raise my kids here. This has been a country of hope for so many immigrants that when you see the country being polarized, it adds to the woes of the immigrant community wondering about their place on this land.

Over the course of past one year, I have come to realize that this campaign has sent out strange deep-seated messages that represent each party. These powerful, hidden messages are the motivating factor for everyone in US being so worked up.

If you are a Republican, you must be
1) Angry White Man.

2) Staunch Christian (thereby Homophobic)

3) Who believes United States of America is the entire World. They could care less about what other people in the World think.

4) Who believes that there are BAD guys and Good guys in this World. None in-between.

5) Who believes that America’s way of life is being threatened by immigrants and minorities. (to some extent, even NAACP)

6) Who believes America’s greatness is being challenged and the only way to show its power is kick some ass, whether you’re right or wrong, because it massages their low self-esteem and pseudo-patriotism.

7) Believe more in character than action.

If you are a Democrat/Centrist, you must be,
1) Hating Bush.

2) A Moderate.

3) Holds a World-View of things, usually analyses issues, and facts.

4) Believes a lot in individual freedoms. Abortion, right to research, right to speech etc.

5) Who believes America should mind its own business than poke its nose in other country’s affairs.

6) Who believes in inclusiveness than excluding people.

7) Believes more in action than Rhetoric.

A democrat/centrist can become a republican if they feel they are right but the reverse will take a long time and lot harder. It’s about the mindset of Republicans that scares me. Stubbornness. Unwillingness to accept facts.

In the end, a week after Nov.2, I will still be battling with my ever-shrinking bank balance, every-day-threatening job scenario, pending Oil-change for my car, bills for my Best-Buy purchases and whether my wife will be in special mood tonight! It won’t be about Abortion, Supreme Court judges and people dying in Iraq.
If my candidate wins, it will be a feel-good feeling that would make me proud for doing my part (even though I can’t vote), which would immediately vanish in a month, as I will have my own pile of shit to deal with. If he doesn’t win, I would go back to blocking Fox news for another 4years!

May the Best Man (my man) Win and Let’s hope for a better America for the goodness of the World!

Written by:Monday, 01 November 2004

Why “Smart” people can never be completely happy?!!!

2005-12-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

You have a deep urge to know how stuff works. An irresistible intellectual curiosity that ponders questions like the corporate influence in the expansion of British Empire, or socio-economic impact of flattening world, or why Men have nipples when they have no use for them. You understand the nuances in the writings of a poem or prose because you digest the impact of a phrase and react accordingly; Smile; Make a Pouty face; Bite your nails; Curl your hair; caress your goatee(scratch your balls, pick your nose for the intellectually unclean ones). You can appreciate the verbose dialogues in Glengary Glen Ross or Before Sunset or Good Will Hunting! Your definition of perfect day will always have a place for Upamanyu Chatterjee or John Grisham or Alvin Toffler. And above all, you have been in love, lost some love and always in search of a new love. Guess that should put in context who I mean by “Smart” people.

Although it might sound like an oxymoronic topic since smarter people are supposed to figure things out before it’s too late, nevertheless, it is true because of the various creative addictions of these intellectual nomads.They lack the ability to be completely happy because when the moment arrives, it never matches up to their ideal scenario inside their head. They always compromise since they have experienced something better in book world, cinema world and virtual world and if they do enjoy it, it needs to be arrived on their own volition without any disturbance from their vagaries of moods. Alas! How u wish they were just simple, normal human beings!

Their other creative addiction is that their attention span lasts only until they figure things out. That goes for people too. Once they have “conquered” the issue/people at hand, know how it works or atleast know how it “will” work in the longer run, then they go in search of something new that they haven’t figured it out yet. Something that they can spend their rest of day, week, month and years to agonize about and fill their void inside.

That’s why the idea of “Lost love”, “Lost opportunities” and “Lost dreams” is so addictive. Nobody can go wrong with the above three since now they have a constant problem for their minds to be pre-occupied with inorder to escape from their mundane daily drudgery.

With “Lost love”, after the initial feelings of rejection, they slowly start to build an internal tomb, where they retreat and torture themselves with “What-If” scenarios and begin to nurture those possibilities. Over a period of time, the idea of the person is much more alluring than the person itself because you have spent so much time on glorifying and romanticizing the idea of perfect love and given it a face. It’s not that they don’t know that it is just an idea. But if they abandon that idea, then all there is left is that empty feeling and they know they can’t allow that to happen. They are already addicted to this pain of lost love. They enjoy the sadistic pleasure of torturing oneself with a lost cause because it makes them feel alive. It enables them to appreciate the subtleties that they wouldn’t notice otherwise. Without them there won’t be poets, writers or any artist for that matter.Perhaps the folly lies in their assumption that this torture makes them feel they are DEEP. Deep in emotions; deep in experience and above all, deep in exploring the depths of their soul. Maybe it does!

Without these addictions, the smarter people are just simple,plain and uncomplicated alias Boring.They become a part of those “Happy” people who are content with their lives, watch daytime soaps and wonder what happened to Jassi. They become a part of that crowd which laughs at silly jokes, thinks Katrina is an European Dominatrix and believes people below 50 are allowed in Larry King Live.

The biggest irony is that smarter people wish they can be like those contended simple dumb souls. Have that peace of mere mortals who just live without complicating every situation and accept things without questioning. You wish!

Re-defining "Home"!

2005-12-08T12:29:00.000-05:00

8 Schools, 7 cities, 3 countries, 4 jobs! And after 28yrs, one wonders where “home” is? And an even more significant question that one ponders is what do you call as “home”?

Is it the place that is most familiar? The place where one has lived the longest? The place where one gets a sense of belonging? Or is it that place where you spent your childhood when time stood still and you didn’t expect your best friend to ever leave from the place you lived?

Maybe it’s the place, which you appreciate as a growing teen. Its probably the smell of your street as you raced from school in your first Bicycle or the smell of tar that kissed your knee when you did an “Arc” in your new Bike to impress the girl from Block E.

Perhaps nothing deserves the title of being called Home than the “most-hated-by-parents” sidewall, where you sat for hours with your friends, talking about every crush since first grade, ripped the morality of every Politician, passionately defended your sports heroes, and sometimes sharing pure meaningful silence with your buddies with a strong sense of bonding. If “home” is a place where you are accepted unquestioningly without being judged, that sidewall ranks high among all other places.

The closest thing that comes to the sidewall would be the cheerful, witty Nair’s tea-shop outside every college. Even after a decade, he remembers every “tea group” that encroached his shop and had made it their “Home” for those short yet memorable years. Would visiting Nair’s tea shop give you a sense of being home?
They say home is where the heart is! And I have my heart in all those places. To feel completely fulfilled, I would have to create a place that is a combination of all those places and people. Unfeasible. But What I can do is, make a new Home with new memories and new people.People who would accept you for what you are and not what you could be.

When you pick the phone and hear the voice of your high-school friend, you know in your heart, you are home. You realize, being home, is a feeling .It is not embedded in some physical location. It’s the people that make a place your Home.A place where you can be yourself, feel safe, confide, confess and know “you are going to be Ok bcoz you are not in it alone!”

Who says we can’t make our home wherever we are ?

Is a Satisfying Lie better than an Awful Truth?

2005-12-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

When you realize you have made a mistake, would you trust the other person to forgive you and tell the truth? Or tell a satisfactory lie to avoid hurting the other person? Perhaps the most glorified virtue of our times has been ‘Telling the truth’. ‘Search for truth’. ‘Finding the truth’. When in reality, truth is just a point of view of a person, Family, Society or Country. A widely expected expectation of behavior. An accepted norm in society. Words like Morality, Ethics, Values and honesty can never be defined absolutely by someone since there are no absolutes about them. It is always tainted by prejudice and conditioned behaviors from our childhood.

Does that mean lying is a virtue? That depends on the intent of lying. When you get injured in a minor accident, do you tell your far-flung parents the truth? Or tell them a satisfactory lie that ‘You are OK!’? When you have a patient who is going to die in a week, do you tell him the truth or give him a satisfactory lie that he will get well soon and let him die happily? When you know you have cheated on your wife, do you tell your wife the truth and break her heart? Or do you tell her a satisfactory lie since you know you won’t do it again? (You definitely tell your wife so you fix the problem. You can’t trust yourself too much ;)). Kind Lies. Not hurting Lies. Safe lies that doesn’t alter the balance of things in your life.

To understand why people lie, we have to understand how people react to truth. There is usually a slap or two thrown around. Cussing. Cringing. Crabbing (that’s two hands holding ur neck and shaking vigorously). And finally a loud siren from deep throat that alerts all your neighbors to dial 911 asking for animal services, as they fear an unknown species has escaped from their local Zoo. Yes. Truth is awful. Truth Hurts (not the music band that remixed ‘Kaliyon Ka Chaman’ even though our guys stole back the stolen song with additional beats). People are just not equipped to handle the truth. Our parents protected us from harsh realities. Our government protects us from everyday terrorist threats. Your friends avoid confrontation by not telling the truth. It is our nature to get comfortable in new situations, new job, and new people in our lives, wanting to believe that we know them enough to feel safe in that environment. So when you learn the truth, it’s like applying brakes to your life. It takes time to restart your vehicle. Even worse, if you make another mistake before they have actually recovered from your previous admission of truth, you better LIE.

The fact is, in any situation, there are only FACTS. There are many hidden facts that both the parties involved do not know. And that’s the real truth. They never told those facts to each other in the first place. They lied and to cover it, they lied more. And one fine day (not the Michelle Pfeiffer-George Clooney Movie), all those lies fall down like a deck of cards and you go from King Size bed to small couch in living room (Unless it is a Sleeper Sofa).

So, Should you lie? Or tell the truth? Truth always triumphs. What they forgot to tell you is that it always triumphs, the first time. When you tell the truth often, it means you messed up each time. The only way out is not mess up in the first place. Messing up is like jumping off a cliff. The emotional high while falling down is exhilarating. Exciting. Even the view is better. But telling the truth is your parachute to land safely on ground. If you don’t, you will end up with a thud! Or you just have to lie to yourself that you are an aerial geologist exploring the type of soil!

Written on:Friday, 14 January 2005

Universal Unifying Symbol!

2005-12-08T12:14:00.000-05:00

Its not the hand shake, its not the salute, its definitely not the folded-hands to chest “Namaste”.

Yes! Its the instinctive, moving of ur head to the guy who almost hit you with his motorbike and swinging your scarcely used left hand to spring up, fold all the fingers and raising just the middle one, with a stinging stare in his direction!

The award for universally unifying symbol goes to “Giving the Finger!”.

The universal symbol, that makes even the obedient, PETA member, who wouldn’t squat a mosquito, to vent his frustration, anger and take a stand against the atrocities of the vehicularly challenged!

From Australia to America, Asia to Antarctica (apparently the penguins have learnt this art to show their dissent against the substation folks!), Papua old Guinea to Bitua New Guinea (both ruled by Lalloo’s cousins), it’s the symbol that is most widely used to convey exactly what’s on a person’s mind and understood in an instant without a long lecture on how to change lanes!

Its use extends beyond the Interstate highways and the side lanes with two wheelers!
Women use it to ward off losers who think they are gifted with Lord Krishna’s flute music in their whistling sound and the Gopika in front would be doing a “la Elizabeth Berkley” after hearing it. But they don’t know what’s really coming when the Gopika turns back!

Polticians use it all the time! When they raise their index finger and middle finger to show the victory sign, all they are saying is “I didn’t mean to raise the index finger”.

Employees all over the world express their deep gratitude to their bosses once they reach home with this symbol and at the manager’s office the day they get fired!
Environmentalists use it on Oil companies and Oil Companies return the favour by drilling more!

Relatives use it when you ask for help and you use it to them when their turn comes!
Your girlfriend uses it when she finds out your online affair and you use it when you find out about her date with Ex!

Your company uses it when they lose their quarterly earnings and you use it when you miss your bonus because of it!

The guy in customer service uses it because his job is getting outsourced to your country and you use it because he put you on hold for 20mins and then disconnected!
Perhaps the only place you don’t feel like using it is when your kid screams at 3.30am after you have worked non-stop for 18 hours and all you can say is ”Its because of that symbol you’re here Beta!”

P.S: I can already see lot of fingers raising for this blog, but hey isn’t that the whole point ? Chill!

Resurrection of Dreams!

2005-12-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but glad I had them” – Robert Kincaid in “The Bridges of Madison County”.

We all carry an emotional pain that is ever lurking behind our ventricles. It’s called the pain of dead dreams! Every time there is an occupation of our dreams by reality, it feels like something that you built so lovingly for years has been smashed to smithereens in a second. Dreams! What would we be without them? They lift our meaningless, rudderless lives and gives us reason to an aimless life. Do you remember the endless dreams that filled our minds as a kid-Astronaut, Amitabhbachchan, Spiderman to the eager and hopeful days of our school with dreams of Archeologist, Actor, Dancer, Singer and finally making informed dream choices in college as Filmmaker, Sportsmen, Writer?

What happened to them now? Where did the sails lose its direction? Is it when the lifeboat entered the rough winds of reality? Did we get lost in those winds? Or Did we become complacent blaming the lack of strength to fight inevitabilities? Is there such a thing called inevitable when you are pursuing dreams? Did we burn the dreams because we were surviving? Or did surviving itself become a dream because we were afraid of extinction?

Dreams die! And it gets a special burial in a special place in our hearts. We have learnt to live without looking up at the stars because it reminds of the astronomer who never flew. We have learnt to stop wondering about being Asha Bhonsle because it reminds us of the ambitions of a bathroom singer. We have learnt to watch the awards shows without emotions because it reminds us of the filmmaker who won only in front of the mirror. Old Dreams! Innocent, bold, focused, impossible, assured, confident!

New Dreams! Realistic, pragmatic, timid, cautious, precarious, unsure and even ready to change the dream when the going gets tough! Have we become so weak, scared, and happy to simply exist than actually Dream? What happened to that young kid who had the confidence to cure all diseases and change the world? Has cynicism and skepticism robbed his ability to wonder and Dream?

We can displace dreams, re-define them, change them but we can’t afford not to have them at all! The day we stop dreaming and believing in our dreams is the day we lose our soul! We have sacrificed enough of our dreams over the years. Let’s not bury anymore. Let’s have the courage to ‘Resurrect our Dreams’!

Don’t we owe it to the small kid in us who dreamed Big and Impossible?

Written on:Friday, 03 September 2004

Let's have more Tragedies!

2005-12-08T12:05:00.000-05:00

Why on earth would I utter such a thing? Well…since the only way to move our politician's ass...seems to be some tragedy, where they can conveniently place a flower garland at site, donate some money from Prime Minister's relief fund and move back to their couches until the next tragedy occurs, there doesn't seem to be much of a choice!

Amma finally realizes that "thatched roof" can actually catch fire! Not just that...there are schools with thatched roof that has built-in Restaurant inside them! Isn't that ridiculous? Let's ban all schools with thatched roof within two weeks!! Good Job! The government has finally taken action!

Don't act naïve and ask "Wasn't there an accident a year ago in Srirangam where 60 people died in a marriage hall due to fire accident ?" Why wasn't there a ruling to make sure all buildings had enough exits and followed the fire code(if there is indeed one) on every building(including schools)? Now I am talking Greek and Latin! How can the government be responsible ? When the accident happened last year, they made sure all Marriage Halls took fire safety measures. This year it is Schools. They are two entirely different things. Ah...I see!

What about the entire "slum" areas that are covered in thatched roof? What about the people who live in the fragrance of "Koovam ", the great River that spreads its joy all around Chennai ? Well, we have not had a fire accident there...yet! We'll worry about them when we have to cross that bridge (Napier).

Sun TV, because of the mere fact they own a camera, broadcasts live Pictures of the Kumbakonam accident! Let's award them "Most Sensitive, authentic, accurate News broadcaster" award for showing all the charred dead bodies of kids piled on one another! What about the warning for "gruesome,nauseating footage ahead"? Hmm…we will think about that after you have vomited for a week, had nightmares for a month and if you are still in shock…who cares ? Now you won't forget Sun TV! Would ya?Even the CNN's, MSNBC's and even Fox is a wuss compared to the dare devil news coverage by Sun TV! Bravo!

Let's keep it coming!

Maybe at this time, I should look back on the various tragedies in India and the measures taken after them, if any!

Floods in the North East, Andhra Pradesh -- Annual Affair - people die invariably and since 40 to 100 people die every year it can't really be considered a tragedy! A tragedy is something that's sensational, something that would catch the media's attention like ransacking a theatre bcoz "Girlfriend" is too hot or Tendulkar having yet another low score!

Don't be a pinhead to ask questions like "What about India's super Computers that are used for Weather forecasting? Can't they detect Floods? Can't we evacuate the people before they arrive and save lives ?

Isn't it Sriharihota in Andhra Pradesh,where they launch fancy Satellites, each year ?

Hmm...do you really see the weather forecast and plan your day ? Wake up Dude!
Bus Accidents due to overload -- Well, what do you suggest ? It's not Government's mistake that India has a population problem! It's not their job to restrict the number of people getting on board.

Train Accident - Well...not an issue unless you're travelling in one of them! (Keep the faith in LALLOO!)

Mid-Air Plane Collision - Is it even Possible? Hell Yeah! The world's first Mid Air Collision at Chakri Dadri between Saudi Arabian Airlines and Kazakhstan Aircraft in 1996 killing 351 passengers.

Who is to blame?

One of the reasons quoted is antiquated air traffic control equipment. Now they have improved the equipment. We haven't had a single mid air crash since then. Just the regular 737 crashing into homes at Patna killing 60 (July 7,2000)!

But again, who has time to ponder over these silly issues? Question the government on the measures following tragedies and monitor continuously on their effectiveness?

Don't I have some files to send to the Client before 6 PM?

Written on:Tuesday, 20 July 2004

Phases!

2005-12-08T12:03:00.000-05:00

A Revelation! You don’t know when it happened, how it happened but u know you are out of it! The Phase is finally over! In the middle of the day you realize you are not thinking about her anymore, your mind is less obsessive and you know you have moved on. The end of a ‘painful breakup phase’. Your kid comes up to you and says “Mom! I am not a kid anymore!”. The end of ‘smothering your kid with kisses in public’ phase. You get the courage to tell your co-worker that you can’t put up with his bullshit anymore. The end of ‘being rookie’ phase. You tell your Husband ‘You’re not going to pick up his dirty laundry anymore’. The end of ‘being the submissive wife’ phase.

Phases! What would we be without them? We define Life through them; we learn what Life is through them. Given a choice, I wouldn’t want to go through them but when you are out of it, you are glad you survived through them. Each phase tests your character. Your strength. Your attitude. Your perseverance. The strangest thing about phases is that you may not know you are in one until it is almost over. Your best friend who is in love with a Chinese woman is not going to like your suggestion that he likes her because he couldn’t find any desi’s to date. Because he is in the ‘Phase’. Tell the smart intelligent financially independent wife to leave her abusive husband; she is not going to listen because she is in the ‘Phase’. Somehow it’s a process that each one has to go through themselves to realize that they have reached the dead end where there is nothing to give anymore. Why did you waste your time all those years? Why weren’t you smarter not to take this decision before? Because you wanted to make sure whether the problems were a phase or a never-ending repeating story. And because you were in a phase of ‘it will get better’, you didn’t want to get out of it.

Each phase shows a different avatar of us. From a timid shy child to talkative teenager to worried early twenties to confident thirties to explorative forties, each phase takes us on a new adventure with ‘us’ as the hero morphing our character along the way. Someone asked me what my age was and I told him 18 and he couldn’t stop laughing. Ofcourse, he didn’t know that I measure my age by the number of phases I have been through in my life. The more phases you go through, the more you become prudent, sensible and mature. A 25yr old with 15 phases is lot more mature than a 35yr old with 10. It’s the experiences that are the real indicators of age not the number of years from birth.

Reminiscing phases can be good as well as bad. We all can recollect our worst phases in an instant because those are the ones that have shaped us more. I have often wondered when someone cries for the pasts even though their present is much better, for whom do they cry? Do you cry for the pain caused by someone? Do you cry for the lack of comforts at that time? Or do you cry for the people who aren’t there anymore? And then it stuck me! We cry for the helpless ‘little girl’ or ‘little boy’ in ourselves, who was put in that situation without anyone to protect. You know you became an adult in that moment. You grew old in an instant with all your innocence and wonderment lost in a second. You stopped believing in Santa’s, Superman and Cinderella’s all at once. Would it have been better if you didn’t have to go through that phase? I don’t know.

We don’t choose the phase we enter into. But I know I am not afraid of them anymore. I have been through them so many that I know it’s an inevitable part of our life. As we get older, we have the strength to steer its course. The Phases don’t control us; we control them. The question is whether you have the courage to plunge into the ocean of phases, swim through the tides, weather the storms, know when to change course and reach the lands. Whether you drown in it or swim across with your chin up determines who you are. But when you do survive them, it would be a journey worthy of your life! Maybe it is the ‘Life’!

Written on:Friday, 24 September 2004

Un'verse'al Person!

2005-12-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Poetry Appreciation! Somehow I never get it ! Not that I don’t try. I sincerely read the lines…try to appreciate the effort in the rhyming, eloquence in the flow of words or the use of metaphors. But in the end (assuming its not a long one bcoz I never reach the end in long one), somehow I am left with a sense of “ok-now-what?” or “ok-so-what-was-this-about?”. Maybe I lack that sensitivity to understand…to get down to that emotional state of the poet to perceive things through his eyes! (Just seems way too gay to me or is it just too much effort?) Perhaps an honest introspection would reveal my inability to write a poem...ergo...vis-à-vis (should stop watching Matrix Reloaded too many times) I can’t appreciate it with an open-heart since they are doing something I can’t! (What an egotist ;))

Why can’t I be magnanimous?

Well…now I have to come up with a contrived logic to overshadow my real reason (which is I can’t write poetry) with a supposed logical explanation. And that is…most poems seem farcical. First of all, normal people don’t talk like that! Prose seems the natural way to express things.
It is honest.
Hard hitting.
Straightforward.

They say things as they are. If they want to say “she hurt me with her words” they say “she hurt me with her words” instead of
“Her lips moved to spit venom
that I would endure all my Janam”

Well…cud find only a hindi word to rhyme(no cure for Poetic Stuntedness)!
Moreover most of the poems wallow in self pity, emanate loser attitude (ok...i am gonna get killed on this one) and just seems to be sad, depressing reflection their owner’s self . Maybe poems are born out of confusion and sadness or maybe I just haven’t read enough poems to see the brighter ones. Whatever it is…I think the burning question is “why can’t they say it in simple terms? “

Top 10 Zombies in India!

2005-12-08T11:59:00.000-05:00

We all love countdown programs,somehow it keeps our interest more than others,since you really don’t have to think much during those programs and also u wanna know where ur favourite song or movie is ranked in it (obviously depending on the ranking of our favourites we decide whether we like it or hate it). Being a desi in Pardes, one of the few ways to demonstrate patriotism is talk incessantly about india, wonder when India would have a decent infrastructure like US and ofcourse yap about how farce our democracy is (compared to US that can have someone make a funny movie about their president while he is in power and we can’t stand two women kissing in a movie). So I thought let me make my own countdown of patients that are in “emergency” ward in our country and if someone doesn’t attend to them soon, any one of those patients can turn out to be like the zombie in “28 Days Later” and we don’t have to worry about the existence of a country called “INDIA"(bcoz it won’t be there!)

Pateint No.10 in Ward 12 --- Social Welfare System

Wonder how long we will be talking about Food,Shelter and clothing as an issue .Guess as long as there are people without it in our country.
In the new world order with terms like terrorism, jehad, Infidel etc., the people without these three basic necessities of life are the perfect candidates for the “school of advanced shooting of innocents” run by religious fundamentalists.
We still have children begging at traffic lights, farmers committing suicide, ill-treatment of handicapped people,huge neglect of AIDS patients (3.9 mill. according to UNAIDS and ofcourse rising unemployment). With 550 millions of Indians, 25 and under, we better fix these problems soon lest we become another Afghanistan.

Pateint No.9 in Ward 20 --- Strong Patent Laws

Stealing someone’s idea without any guilt or the fear of being reprimanded has become a national hobby, be it movies/songs/products/Research papers etc. One industry that would benefit the whole country by establishing Patents is healthcare.
The SICEclearly shows the reluctance of Pharmaceutical companies from US to enter India as they are afraid counterfeits of their products would be in market in no time and there is no protection of their products under Indian Law. Having patent protection law is a two way street. We lost Basmati to world and Ganesha is being used in all foreign art/fancy things. If we could patent all that’s indian and use the existing intellectual property, it could be a starting point for showcasing real indian innovations at world level.(instead of drum-beating our ego with inventions made 5000yrs ago)

Pateint No.8 in Ward 17 --- Federal System

Lets not trumpet the idea “we are all one" all the time because we are not. Each state people are different. Instead, lets celebrate the differences and live as one. No longer can a central government dismiss a legally elected state government.
“United states of India” sounds great.

Pateint No.7 in Ward 14 --- Removing Social Apathy

Forget about sympathy and even empathy for someone who is handicapped or some kid begging on the streets. People have become so numb to these things that they have apathy towards social evils. They yell and scream if it happens to them but until then they have a "who cares attitude". A country is developed only as broad as the minds of their people.

Patient No.6. in Ward 16 --- Develop Alternative energy

Brazil uses 70% Bagasse—Sugarcane waste to fuel cars. The government needs to encourage R&D and develop a scientific temperament (Kalam’s favorite two words) among our children. Maybe we did not have an Intel in India to develop Vinodh Khosla , but I hope today’s companies will not let go of the economic potential of Brain power.

Check out the following link for a project called The Pedal Power Generator which converts power generated by pedaling to electricity. This helps people in village save 150rs. per month which is lot considering their income.

Patient No.5. in Ward 8 --- Develop Micro-Enterprise

Perhaps the greatest idea of micro-Enterprise came from Gandhiji who insisted we make our own clothes.Let’s not get caught with only High-tech innovations in a country like ours and encourage micro enterprises that generates real employment for poor people like making Papads,Pickles, arts and crafts etc. Give all the fillip to small scale industries and not bury Entrepreneurship in red tape.

Patient No.4 in Ward 9 ---Accountability in Social and Political Structures

Cameras in every government office, balance sheets in internet and access to Media to all public records.Television/Radio/internet are always on the look-out for when the government would screw up.(Remember Tehelka ?).We need more expose’s of public corruption and accountability of individuals.

Patient No.3 in Ward 3 --- Health Care system

Affordable Medicine. Something a rickshaw-wala doesn’t hear when his son or daughter is handicapped or has jaundice. Yes, we have government hospitals . But, would any one of us risk it ? Most of our villages don’t even have proper drainage system. We were so lucky that SARS appeared first in China instead of India. Do we have a system to control epidemic diseases ? Our country was a victim of Plague not long ago. If an epidemic occurs, trust me, rich or poor, it will make no distinction.

Patient No.2 in Ward 2 --- Law & Order

Perhaps the most important area that needs immediate attention. It shocks me to hear that people in US complain about delay in call response to a 911 emergency which is at an average of 6mins!!!

All India conviction rate is at a shameful 6.5%.How can the people of a country feel safe and secure, when only there is 6.5% of a chance that someone who robbed your home or someone who killed your neighbor would be punished inspite of being caught ? That’s a scary reality.(Again we wouldn’t worry about it until it happens to us)

Patient No.1 in Ward 1 -- Population Control

According to 2001 census, our population density was 324 persons per square kilometer. By 2050, we will be 544 persons per square kilometer. Check the following site for the projected chart of India’s population until 2050.

Future India

Its not very heartening to see we will beat China by a significant 200 million by 2050.

We need to FORCE people to have children according to their income. Set a minimum age for having kids at 25 for men and 22 for women.If you violate it,he loses all benefits of government(as if there is a lot..but nevertheless some start). If you have more than 2 kids,then government approved “complete circumcision”. If you need space to breathe,we need to go the “sterile” way.There is not much time left.

When do you get really PISSED ?!!!

2005-12-08T11:56:00.000-05:00

Is it when you are in a real hurry and your bathroom door gets stuck?

Is it when everyone in the room stares at you for something you didn’t do?

Is it when you are asked to strip six times in the airport because your goatee fits their ‘Profile’?

Is it when you call the satellite installer after 5hrs of waiting and they ask, ‘What Installation?’

Is it when your colleague takes credit for the work that you did by sacrificing your weekend?

Is it when someone wins a Sports car in ‘Price is Right’ for guessing the price of toothpaste?

Is it when you know you are absolutely right and everyone else disagrees with you?

Is it when your friend gets his Green Card in a year while yours is stuck for years in a black hole called INS?

Is it when someone from your country says something outrageous and everyone assumes you belong to the same pack?

Is it when a restaurant run by ‘Brown people’ treats you badly because you are brown?

Is it when you realize that there is no toilet paper too late into the game?

Is it when you find out that people who came after you were being seated in the restaurant because the Maitre’D couldn’t spell your name?

Is it when you discover after browsing the DVD’s for an hour in Blockbuster that you forgot your rental card?

Is it when you buy the camcorder from Best Buy and two months later, they slash its price by half?

Is it when you marry according to your parent’s wishes and the husband turns out to be mamma’s boy?

Is it when someone cuts you off in the left most lane and drives at 20 below speed limit?

Is it when someone says ‘Whatever’ when you ask his or her opinion?

Is it when newscasters dump stories of tragedies for Paris Hilton’s pooch?

Is it when someone ‘Not good enough’ says you are ‘Not good enough ‘?

Is it when someone talks in a language you don’t understand in front of you?

Is it when you arrive at a party on time and find you are the first one to arrive?

Is it when your Mom praises the ‘Other Sibling’ no matter what you do?

No matter what the reason is, when you are really pissed, take a deep breath and swear your lungs out!

Once your anger has been spilled, you can move on with the knowledge that ‘Life is Not Fair’.

Unless ofcourse your bathroom door is still stuck and you are waiting for toilet paper to grow!

Lord of the Pandavas!

2005-12-08T11:54:00.001-05:00

The much awaited final part of the "Lord of Pandavas" is out in theatres and what a ride it is! You were treated to the emergence of Kauravas and pandavas and how they enter into exile in first movie, the second in the trilogy showcased the period of Pandavas in Exile and how Duryodhana tries to expose them..and all the preparation for the War of Kurukshetra. In the Final chapter you have all the pieces coming together,all the sub-plots culminating in the "Greatest War" that dwarfs the "Battle of Middle Earth" in more ways than one.

Only Manirathnam could have created those massive war scenes with a landscape of various war formations ("Vyuhas") of kauravas and Pandavas. The logistics and visual treat would remain forever in the eyes of viewer.The way the camera moves each time Arjuna shoots an arrow across the battlefield(Legolas re-invented ?) and the "hulk" wrestler Bheema throwing soldiers in air is a treat to watch. One of the greatest achievement of this movie is the message of "Bhagavat Gita" which seems to be the whole purpose of the trilogy.Without boring the viewer with "vedanta" and Karmic principles, Mani handles the telling of philosophy akin to "Neo" being ported to "Matrix like" environment and explains the key principles in short stories interspersed during THE War, which is a masterful directorial maneuvre.

With LOTP, you get the combination of Matrix philosophy + Lord Of The Rings action multiplied three times over. The design of new creatures in Rakshasas makes Olliphaunts look like puppets. In LOTR the viewers had a clear idea of Good and Bad. In LOTP you have the amazing Duryodhana who smirks,squirms and you can feel his disappointment,anger and frustration.Just like Gollum , Duryodhana would be a character study for a long time in history of Cinema. Surprisingly the bad guys more often come as good in this movie like Karna,Bheeshma,Drona all great warriors and scholars sticking to the wrong side for right reasons. This is what makes LOTP an epic.

The "grey" shades of each character lending depth to the whole narration. You would think the movie can't top the rendering of Gita but the whole fun begins after that. You are taken into each War startegy meetings and how each army outruns the other. The Scene where Abhimanyu gets caught in the "Vyuha" and fights till the end would remind you of all the great Samurai movies.

The treacheries,Conches,Creatures,hundreds of horses,bows,arrows,sword fights..drama..makes Lord of the Pandavas,a movie for Lifetime...

"Dude....i told you not to wake me up when am in a good dream...??!!"

Desi Un-desi!

2005-12-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

"We are going to be seeing lot of desi’s today." The very sentence from my wife subconsciously takes my body to Orange alert level.(Damn Tom Ridge!). Why? Just Why? They are your own folk. Your own blood and some of them, from your own place. Aren’t you happy to be seeing them? Yes...and on second thought... No! Yes, bcoz I might see someone in my own frequency...which is as rare as Sunny Deol delivering a dialogue under 10 decibels..(dude...don’t think too much of urself...).No, bcoz the remaining 95% of people I meet, emanate unpleasant "desi-aura".

Is it the unabashed stare that scans u from top to bottom like airport security personnel?

Is it the stern, un-smiling faces that walk past you when u r in the middle of a smile with ur jaw half opened to say Ho...w before swallowing the rest ?

I decided to settle this queasy feeling by deciding to define what are the things that makes a desi…undesi…(which right now is vice versa in my head). Maybe oneday...(Utopia?) people might say…if the following things are NOT seen in a person, then he must be a desi…

Not ask someone how much they earn ?

Not ask someone what caste/religion they belong to ?

Not judge someone by the amount of money he or she makes..

Not put Rangoli outside their apartment to prove their identity..

Not take Dowry…and even worse gloat about it…

Not talk in their own-native-language in front of someone who has no clue about their language

Not segregate men and women in a party…(all women inside...all men in patio...just don’t dare to cross that border)

Not grind another desi in an interview until he reaches a breaking point to say.."I don’t know" and then smile having proven their "intelligence"…

Not talk loudly in a theatre...

Not throw all their guard down when they enter desi area/movie…(what’s up with kids running in the theatre…get a babysitter or don’t go to the movie)

Not scream in their cell phone while talking in a public place…

Not brag they are related/know someone popular or "influential"…(who give’s a rat’s ass about it anyway except another "undesi" ? )

Not talk just about their kids, food , family and husband/cricket …(in that order..)

Not gossip about another desi…

Not wear Lungi/Dhoti and walk to Walmart…

Not claim they know something when they have no clue about it…

Not invite someone because they want to get invited…

Not speed and overtake the moment u see a desi woman driving the car..

Not keep count of every act as a debt to repay…(isn’t it ur turn to gift us ?)

Not get offended when someone has a different opinion than theirs…(Can you believe he doesn’t like Aamir Khan’s acting ?)

Not poke their nose in someone else’s affairs…

Not think the only way their son/daughter can repay is by marrying the spouse of their choice...(Art of emotional blackmailing...by Indian Parents)

Not always protest…for the sake of protesting without trying to understand the facts...(ransacking a theatre for showing movie "Girlfriend"? Puhleese... )

Not share the pictures of their prospective spouse to everyone..(and worse..ask other’s opinion about them)

Not patronize other desi’s because they are elder…

Not give poor customer service…because ur just another "DESI" !!!

Not always feel the urge to showcase their supposed intelligence…

Not talk about Web services at a dinner party…

Not think some movie Hero is God...and his word is gospel..(okay...lemme hide from the Rajinikanth fan club…members of US)

Not "Stare-Stare some more-take a walk and then Stare again" when a desi woman is dressed in westernized clothes in a mall or farmer’s market…

Not screw another desi at work…

Jeez..the list just doesn’t seem to end…am sure y’all can find more to add to the list.

The crux of the issue is that I wish a lot of desi’s would be decent in their behavior, broader in their outlook on things, be courteous and respect their own folk(myslef included)…and agree to disagree respectfully!

Do You have Real Courage ?!!

2005-12-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

It’s not always the blood-donating kind in the battlefield! Certainly not fighting in the street with the guy who brushes his arm intentionally with your girlfriend!

Real courage is doing the right thing no matter how inconvenient your action would make your life!

Real courage is standing up for your girl against your parents!

Real courage is not lying in your resume even if you desperately need the job!

Real courage is reporting your company for fraud when you find them cheating!

Real courage is speaking your mind when everyone else disagrees!

Real courage is refusing to pay bribe when you are in a hurry to get the job done!

Real courage is refusing to rent/buy pirated VCD/DVD/Cassette!

Real courage is to be honest with your friends even if it would hurt them!

Real courage is to say, “I don’t smoke/drink” to your friends!

Real courage is to say, “I don’t know”!

Real courage is to get up every time you fall in life!

Real courage is not taking the easy route!

What? Are you asking me whether I follow them? R u Crazy ?

Just was in a self-righteous utopian world for a moment and by the time I reached the end, my boss entered the cube and I had to pretend as if I was working!

Real Courage is continuing working on your Blog even when your Boss interrupts ;)

When a Woman takes "Mirchi" into her own hands!

2005-12-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Over 200 women attack and beat-the-crap out of Akku Yadav, notorious criminal, until he dies, in a courtroom in Nagpur. My first gut reaction after reading this news story was “Wow! Awesome”. It was a mixture of bewilderedness, shock, joy and vanquished feeling as if I was part of that crowd. I am sure I would have felt differently if Akku Yadav was a good guy or maybe he is. But 200 women must have had a better reason not to think so than my internal “proven until guilty” logic. I think the very fact that a bunch of normal, working women, doing something as outrageous as this proves his guilt. He should have known better than to mess with the Indian Women! If she can be considered submissive, passive and sacrificing, the same woman also knows how to wield a kitchen knife to test the depth of your liver.

It can’t get more cinematic than this story. I am reminded of the last scene from “Mirch Masala”, when all the women working in the spice factory, ambushes the lustful Subedhar (Naseeruddin Shah) to protect the honor of Sonbhai (Smitha Patil). It also reminds us, how as a society, we have caused so much despair and helplessness in the justice system that these women had to take this extreme measures of killing another human being (very much like the movie when the women lose hope after all the men in the village decide to send Sonbhai to satisfy the lust of Subedhar).

What happens when people begin to take matters in their own hands? What happens when they lose trust in the justice system? Judges? Policemen? Politicians (yeah right!) ? It would be mirror image of all vigilante movies playing in reality and a society of free-for-all. While I am rejoicing at the instant-justice-system, I am also sad at how we have come to this stage. A stage of being despondent, forsaken, abandoned by social institutions like police, lawyers and courts. The reality is that, it can happen anywhere, to anybody and not necessarily, the bad guys getting killed in the end. And I know majority of us wont be yelling and screaming about it until “it happens to us”. How long can a society survive in a system where the conviction rate is 6.5%? Would we learn from these incidents and recognize that we have an epidemic in terms of credibility of justice system rather than a denial that it’s an exception? Will a day ever come when I can say, “Shit! That’s an Indian policeman and I am in a No-entry zone!” than thinking “I got 500 bucks, its all rite, if I get caught!”?

Dude,What were you thinking ?!!!

2005-12-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

A Man survives a snowstorm, stays hungry for 10 days, fights with a polar bear, loses a leg and still goes on to conquer the Alps only to be picked by a helicopter on his way down!

O...k...a…y!

Am I supposed to praise his valor, courage, and chivalry? Or ask,
“Dude...what were u thinking?”

Why do people climb mountains?

Is it bcoz they have such low self-esteem that they have to explore the stinking mouth of death to tell, “I did it” (assuming they survived) to few of their friends? (What a cynic!)

What motivates a person to climb, step after step, all alone, over 3500 feet? (Might be the “Shit! I can’t go back now!” expression when they look down).Is it Pride? Bragging Rights? Some skewed logic where they value adrenaline more than their need to conserve their own blood? Maybe they are passionate about Nature. I don’t know. But I am sure the mountain climbers would argue, “They climb mountains bcoz IT IS THERE! “. Great Answer! And am sure the mountains would still be there when they retrace their way back in less than half the time! (Didn’t u hear the thud sound?)
I agree we need some excitement in our lives. Need some challenges that push our physical and mental limits. I would rather ride a roller coaster, go at 120 miles in a racetrack, take a free fall, go Para-sailing…and even get married! (Well I already Am. who am I kidding?) That’s my idea of having a thrill! Not climb Mount Everest or K2! Why would anyone in sane mind want to do something that can get him or her killed? Am I a wimp for choosing to live a little less on the edge? Guess I like the idea of a living wimp than a dead Mountaineer!

The ones who intrigue me are the kinds who outlive the Super-Hero era (6-12) in their life! I was watching this 16-17yr old kid trying to skateboard on top of side rails and jump into the road, with the background score of his Mom screaming, and an audience of his buddies clapping. To do that he takes 20 hits to his “nether” regions (hopefully no permanent damage “there”), forty “F***ing jeez” falls, free blood donations to the concrete sidewalk and finally, when he achieves the feat, thumping his hands into air, this “Kodak moment” turns into a “Godzilla meets my Dishwasher” moment with the sound effect of his Skateboard crushing under the wheel of an oncoming Corolla! Would he at least listen NOW?!!!

Is the Journey really worth the“END”?

Guess, only that Skateboarder with 15 stitches can answer!

Do I Really Need to Know ?!!!

2005-12-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

“Anna Nicole goes from 40B to 42C”

“ Whitney Houston slips in stairs! “

“John Kerry has a Botox!”

Do I really need to know these? These are news that I don’t want to know and don’t really care. Nevertheless they are trivial and harmless. What scares me are the supposedly intelligent, revealing, insightful news!

To drive home the point of how “insecure” America is, Stephen Flynn, author of “America The Vulnerable” says there are more than 400 million people, 122 million cars, 11 million trucks, 2.4 million rail freight cars, 8 million maritime containers and 56,596 vessels that entered the U.S. at more than 3,700 terminals and 301 ports of entry in the year 2002 alone! And Terrorists could use ANY one of them ANYTIME! Great! Now I feel very safe! Did I really need to know that?

Why would anyone want to share such information? I am sure the guys itching to make something happen in US soil, must be going “Yippee!”, looking at the vulnerabilities in the US entry system! If he (Stephen Flynn) is really concerned, let him go share this grave issue with the Senators, Intelligence Committee’s, and Law Makers. Not the general public (and the perpetrators!). This kind of book defeats the very purpose it is written for. Is it Service or Disservice? Maybe it brings to light the security flaws to administration. But given a choice between the people fixing the Loophole and people using the Loophole, whom do u think is going to get to us first?
I am not quite sure how in the name of “Freedom of Press/Media”, they list the things that can go wrong, discuss the various ways someone can kill you, as if the Terrorist’s didn’t have enough ideas on their own! There was a reporter in Iraq who gave the location of a unit’s next attack location. Duh???

How does it help a normal citizen to know which strategy or formation is being used to attack in War? I care how many people got wounded, how many innocents got killed. Do I really need to know how an AK-47 is used?

Tom Ridge: We have increased the threat level to Orange!
Public: And what does that mean?
Tom Ridge: It means there could be a terrorist attack in Malls, Highways, prominent places, Wal-Mart’s, Bridges, u name it.
Public: So am I not supposed to be going to those places?
Tom Ridge: Oh no! We cannot change the American way of life! We just raised the alert level so if something happens, you can’t say, “Why didn’t u tell me?” And I can say, “I told you so” (Moreover there has been too much coverage about John Kerry recently!).
Public: Do I really need to know what threat level the country is in when you have no frigging clue about it?

Did we really need to be shown the pictures of Prisoner abuse? How does that help me in any way? All I am thinking is that the entire moderate Muslims are going to be pissed looking at it! There is a difference between telling a story and showing the story. And a wise journalist would have chosen not to show them because it endangers the innocent American enjoying the Pyramid of Giza, who now, might be given a permanent berth there because of the pictures!

Maybe i should make a list of things that I really don’t want to know.
1) Not know the strategies of nation’s intelligence on TV when I know the enemy is also watching!
2) Not see the video of some guy screaming for his life before his head being chopped!
3) Not know how much danger I am in without telling me how to protect myself!
4) Not know the different ways of being attacked under the topic of “How You can be Protected”

Am sure you can add more to the list!

I guess I got enough problems of my own and I expect the media not to scare the s**t out of me!

If I was Vincent Gambini (watching ‘My Cousin Vinny’ too many times), I would be ranting
”I gotta job where I am stuck bcoz of Green Card, my wife is itching for her EAD to get out of home, I lost out on the low percentage on mortgages, my boss is a pain in my ass; I got no money and now u tell me I gotta little problem called Homeland Security where terrorists can chop my head anytime…Not to mention your BIOLOGICAL CLOCK - my career, your life, our Green Card, and let me see, what else can we pile on? Is there any more shit we can pile on top of this? Is it Possible?”