Potpourri

Sitting on a comfortable couch and legs spread out all over the place, some food to munch on and complete power of remote control in your hands, is heaven anything other than this? Watching TV mindlessly, is the most passive activity one can ever indulge himself into and hence it is so addictive. Even to watch a movie in a cinema hall, one needs to do some work, but watching TV in the given most favorable conditions, nothing can beat the passiveness of this activity. I do a lot of this when I go home. It struck me the most this time that the news channels have increased so drastically on the TV. There are channels like, NDTV, Aaj Tak, Channel 7 and I don't know how many more! They work 24 cross 7 (as they proudly claim). The site is pretty funny. The bottom 1 inch of your screen would be covered with the share market values, continuously wrapping around. The right or the left corner would flash the name of the channel (its the most important one, because without that it would be r...

Hey, see this picture. I found it simply amazing. Irony.

why do i write a blog? if it is to just put down thoughts a journal is enough it must be that i wish people read my blog and it must be that they hear my thoughts giving speeches is tough journals are not enough why do i write a blog? is it self love? is it even honest or it is just things in showcase? bunch of filtered nonsense never trying to cross a fence keeping readers in mind expecting replies nice and kind as i write these lines i feel the contradictions within should i publish it but i will contradictions continue and so does the life....

Today I am going to learn how to put image files on the weblog. So let me put up some pictures.

Sitting in a air conditioned office maintained at 20 degrees commenting on the summers in Chennai sounds a bit hipocritic. But I don't stay in these offices for long and I have to get back to the room where there isn't a a/c. And even otherwise, one has to go on the raods. Coincidentally, I had to even venture out during morning for 3 days in last week and its unbelievable how hot it can get. What used to be wonderful in Bombay was, a summer assured best quality mangoes. But here even that consolation isn't there. I wish I could go to some place else. But being myself my enthusiasm to actually pack bags and go out on weekends starts and ends before the weekend begins and here I am on a dull saturday morning (almost noon), whinning about summers in Chennai. The only thing I am looking forward to is a huge glass of iced tea in the lunch today. It is very thoughtful of the current mess managers to plan a iced tea in the lunch menu on Saturdays. (People say it is immodest to sa...

Yesterday some topic about rhymes with the word "day" came up. And a friend of mine, who is always waiting for such topics, made a quick 3-line poem which made not much sense to me, but was a good rhyme. So now here is my attempt at another meaningless rhyme. yesterday I met a girl at the signal she came to me to sell me a bangle she said she had no money could I spare a penny? I thought I ofcourse could but the bangle looked ugly did I care? did I care? so I got my money bag but then the signal turned green she was so pale she was so lean 8 years old she must have been I hurried a bit, to find the money but realised I didn't have any I fumbled, got nervous was I mugged, did I lose the money where did all the money go she was so pale she was so lean 8 years old she must have been did I care? did I care?

When I am gone. Come on take me down Once it’s lost you know we won’t ever have it back And there was nothing I could do to change the facts You know I tried, you know I tried I threw you all I have I should have known It never falls just where you plan And there are rules I was not meant to understnad I should have known, I should known Understand I should have known, I should have known And so I’m giving you the gun Put your finger on the trigger I’ve known you in the morning with your soft eyes dreaming You were the one Who could blind me with the mirror And I can’t see And I don’t need this no more You put your lovin’ on the cross You know you sealed it in the darkness all along Did you think that I could roll away the stone I’m just a child, I’m just a child You know I tried, I’m just a child, I’m just a child So I’m giving you the gun Put your finger on the trigger I’ve known you in the morning with your soft eyes dreaming You were the one Who could break me with the whisper And ...

I hate the way songs work on me. Atleast the good ones. I am almost always scared of every good song I hear, because when I hear a good song, I am scared it will huant me. Then I listen to a stupid dhoom macha de tune and then feel better to have come out of the enchanting music. But then again it comes and traps me. Takes me to different times, places and reminds me of the words and walls. All those which have never been there. Also to those which had been there and would never be there. Songs so good and so evil at the same time. There plays the string of guitar, and brings a smell along. Then comes a deep voice. And a curtain shakes with a wind stroke bringing in a bleak sun ray. Then again there is beat, and I see a happy dinner table, with me running around it. But in the end nothing is clear. More smurred than the song is clearer. And then again I play that dhoom macha de tune.

I have been recently told that my blog looks deceptively long. Only then I noticed that the way Blogspot sorts and saves blog entries is really meant for those who blog regularly. It makes monthly archives and even if one entry happens in a whole month that month appears in the archives. So now I should really consider expanding my blog before I hear another comment. This comment is the motivation to start blogging all over again. Talking about the techniques for saving and sorting, I wish they applied to our brain. We experience things and we want some of them to be with us forever. We wish to remember all possible details. But the 'time' is an evil enemy of memory. It slowly goes on erasing out the details. To counter effects of 'time' we try to re-iterate things in our heads making sure, we still remember them. But time is much more powerful. So there we are, forgetting every moment we ever wanted to remember. What usually remain are empty archives just keeping some ...

Life happens to be like a deterministic turing machine. I wish there was some amount of alternation allowed along the way. I remember a day when I decided to learn cycling and also started learning and then there was a left turn and a right turn. I turned left and bang!! I crashed into a huge tree and next what I remember is a month with a fractured leg. Now I would be crazy if not curious to know as to what would have happened had I taken the right turn instead of left!!! (I am sure my cycle wanted to know it). There are tons and tons of these junctures when I feel that there are lots of options and why not check on each what happens. But life doesn't allow us to do that. I mean, there are people who feel "it would have been so much better if I was never born" or on the other hand, "man, this world would have been bad place without me". And most of us get fits of both, and it would have been so amazing if we could really know what would have happened! There is ...

My association with Chennai has been for quiet some time. Not as deep as I have now. But, my father works in a bank whose main office is in Chennai and my mother has been a great fan of silk sarries from Chennai (if that sort of thing can be called an association?). But yeah, now I have been in Chennai for two whole years and that's surely long time. What is the sort of feel this city gives me? Its hot, humid ( I mean really humid, more humid than Bombay!). Water is a constant problem. Its traditional and just suffering from a drastic cultural crisis due to increasing IT companies coming in. I must say Bombay and Bangalore really handled this well, may be because they were not hell bent on being "cultural". And there are actual dress codes for students in college. (Imagine college forcing a dress code in Bombay or Calcutta, students would surely retaliate). The auto rickshaw drivers here put any sane person off. And names of places around are each a tongue twisters. Traff...

Today I finally saw Mangal Pandey. A good, well-made movie. Let me be more detailed. Things which were "really" good: 1. Aamir himself. His hairdo. His acting. Of course he had the maximum footage and so a lot of scope to show his skills. But you may pick any random 5 minute scene from the movie and you would still appreciate Aamir's performance. The amount of plasticity Aamir is able to get on his face is tremendous. The transition he made from a burning fire to a twinckled smile in his eyes in one particular scene was just too much! 2. Rani. She played a prostitute. I still feel she has too soft features for the role, but she acted well. In her first scene she created a huge impact, without uttering a word with just expressions. The carefree attitude that the role demanded was carefully put in by Rani. 3. Sets and film technique. I personally felt that the era was captured well, and huge amount of effort (and of course money) was put in for this. And I guess, it paid of...

Mangal Pandey and Aamir have been in news now for very long. After long waiting, finally, the movie will releases in India on 12th August. Ofcourse the good time for sales (3 days away from the independence day). In Chennai it will come in Melody. Aamir has not done a single movie after Dil Chahta Hai which was 3 years back (though Titan and Coca Cola Ads were plenty). Now the trailors for Mangal Pandey are all over the place and seems like all the hurdles (political and otherwise) have subsided. Only consideration now is, is movie going to be worth all that waiting? Just read about the pre-releases for the movie in U.K. And news paper reviews there are rating the movie very highly. I only hope they are trustworthy and the THE movie is really good. Do hit the theatres. (I am not a distributor).

Don't be scared reading the title. I am not subjecting anybody to thoughts and debates about death and life and philosophical issues related. But however, there is a cause of worry. Because today I have resolved that this blog will no more be dead. Every once in a while there will be random non-sense for completely jobless people like me to read here. (Mainly I being the only reader of this particular blog). I am not sure as of now what that random nonsense will be, but nothing that you will miss anyway, for sure! Well, why only today did I make such a resolution? Murphy's laws are at work for you (= me). Only when you(=I) thought that your (=my) day was going "not too bad" here you read this resolution.

Think of a cafe, where the music is really loud and noisy, the waiters are as reluctant as you could have, and most of all the coffee is as bad (or as good) as the coffee we could make at home. I know one such cafe. And surprisingly I visit it quiet often. Its called "Bay Watch" (yeah, thats the name. Probably as bad as it could have been too). So why on earth would I go there. Probably because I might be crazy or may be because such a place will never be crowded 'cause nobody will go and so there I will be. But sadly that's not the case. Its not only me but a whole bunch of people who love going there. And yet again the relevant question: why on earth? Well, forgot to tell you a small point, it is right opposite to the (Besant Nagar) beach. A whole patch of sand spreading for some distance and then white froth of waves coming ahead and going behind creating a rhythm of its own. It is an open air cafe on the first floor, wind blows into you, as if, when it would reced...

Once upon a time there was a town. Town, because it wasn't really a city so developed and neither was it a village where all that happened was farming. So it was a town. A good combination of vocations used to be practised there. There were people working in all sectors one can think of. There were tool developers, mobile builders (I mean carts etc. not the todays mobiles), people doing food processing, cooks and there were farmers. But farmers were quiet poor as they only made raw goods while the rest processed it. So over the years the farmers tried to change themselves. They brought in more exciting methods to get better crops but even that reached a saturation. So slowly the previous generations started discouraging their descedents from getting into the farming business. It was hardly a business anymore. It so happened that hardly anybody was left in the town doing farming. But as one would guess this was the trend in almost all the towns and villages. Overall, finally there ...

I used to wonder how script writers might be coming up with movie scripts. Some of them would have a message to give, some would have a drama to depict, some may just want to entertain people for a couple of hours while some would want to leave an impact. Each could have a different motive. But what if someone wants to just make a movie about nothing? I mean, it seems like a bizarre idea. A movie about nothing. May be movie with certain characters whose life is as slow as an ordinary person and the whole two hours nothing really "happens". There is no theft, no robbery, no revenges or mystery. Isn't it a difficult task? There could be so many problems in making such a movie. Firstly, what will exactly happen in the movie? How long really would such a movie be? And who on earth will like to watch such a movie and most of all which distributors will buy it even if finally made? But there is a movie like this that I know. Its a movie about nothing, really. And it has m...

Kids are usually asked what they would want to be when they grew up. Kids give different answers parents get amused at them. Its quiet a usual phenomenon and all of us will have a story to tell about us or our kids or our nieces or our nephews. Like I had this friend. He and I went to school together. He always said that he would love to be the motorman. Taking the local trains up and down Mumbai. It was quiet a unique answer. Later sometime, in Mumbai one motorman was stoned and beaten badly for not running trains on time. (Almost for no fault of his). That's when I vaguely remember my friend telling me that he had changed his plans. Coming to talk about changing plans, almost nobody wants to be a management information officer as a kid. Its where we end up. Or rather I should say we lead to (Euphemism). That's when one thinks that may be as kids I should have been asked some other question. May be kids should be asked what would they want their usual day to be like. Or atleas...

Do words have a past? I would guess they do. For example the word 'neutral'. It takes me back to the history class, which I so badly wanted to end. And then to the stuffy chemistry labs. Also reminds me of a punch I got right in my face for being neutral in my friends' fight (each of them wanted me to take his side). What it reminds me the most of is a short story I had read a few months back. It was a story called No one will laugh by Milan Kundera in the book Laughable Loves. Briefly it is a story of a reputed writer who has been asked to give an opinion on another article written by an amateur writer. The reputed writer is in a catch because he hasn't liked the article at all. He isn't willing to hurt the later by telling his frank opinion but at the same time doesn't want to diplomatically give a neutral opinion. Life gets really tough as he insists on not being neutral. Had he been neutral life would have been much better for him materialistically. Bu...

With CD players and music systems being played all around I miss the fun of listening to radio sometimes. The hush of the channels subsides and the right signals come along and then starts the unpredictable sequence of songs. You only hope that the next song will be good but it leaves you disappointed. After a couple of songs you decide that hoping doesn't help and comes a great song. VJ's entertain you giving crispy details about songs never heard before and verbose ads leave you wondering how entertaining will this voice be in person. Radio though lacks visuals serves as a background even when you want to concentrate on something else. I sure miss listening to the radio and the childhood memories attached with it.