Random Ramblings

Is there a fixed pattern of thinking one ought to follow? Is there a 'one size fits all' solution or a standard prescription for getting best out of any child? How good is it to just focus on faults of someone (especially children) and overlook the talent and good qualities he has? Are there just a few things that become indicator of your worth or how good you are? Is it always about comparison with what others are? Is it appropriate to suppress what a child actually is, in order to make him what you think he should be ? Isn't every kid special ? The movie Taare Zameen Par (TZP) provides food for thought for above questions and many more. Story of a dyslexic 8 year kid who is helped ... rather inspired by a teacher to bring the best in him. But it is not just about dyslexia. It is also about our attitude towards children. The movie blends realistic and touching treatment with creative elements in showing some elements during songs! The performances are awesome ... in fact a...

Very Far Far Away was a large and diverse country. It had many ethnic and religious groups and subgroups and castes. But there was a problem. The constant infighting had taken a toll on their country. People were driven by diktats of religion and not its principles like love or brotherhood. This had taken a toll on almost all aspects of the country. Then HE came. HE, through numerous efforts managed to establish peace. HE established a new religion. A religion without any groups, caste, gods or rituals. A religion that was driven by ethics, equality, freedom, love and brotherhood. The countrymen now channelized their energy in more creative and useful things and prospered like anything. That was few centuries ago. But many things haven't changed. The country is extremely prosperous. HE is revered even now. People now worship him. They follow few principles of the religion and any deviation is not tolerated, and punishment is of highest order. Equality is still there, although the ...

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's. - Oscar Wilde Just read this quote. Found it awesome (like many other quotes!) , and so true! Maybe people find it more interesting to peep into other's business, other people's state of affairs. You have millions of people bombarding with questions like what are you doing, why, why this and not that, why are you wearing this outfit, why you are eating this and not that, why are you writing this stuff and why not thais etc. etc. followed by million other suggestions! It might be a genuine concern at times, ... but maybe, they find lives of more interesting than theirs ... or maybe they get some scoop to tell in social circles ... or probably there is a hope that they would be as ungood as theirs own, giving them a kind of smug satisfaction! But on second thoughts ... despite criticizing these, what I will do next? Maybe, out of curiosity, I may do a wikipedia search to know more about Oscar Wilde's lif...

It was going to be a very short night. Maybe just couple of hours of sleep. Next day had few presentations, few project submissions and exams nearing. He don't care much, but nevertheless he had to pass. He was worried about that. And more so, as he had spent last few hours doing nothing except boozing. But for next few hours he had a more important task in had. That was to catch on with some sleep. Suddenly a voice woke him up. It was completely dark. Probably a power failure. Damn! His heater was not working. He was trying to sleep when suddenly that man covered all in black woke him up. He had probably left his door open. He did not introduce himself, but for no reason the two started some conversation. "What are you doing here?" The stranger asked Seems he has been caught unawares. Someone from outside world knew that he was doing nothing in the institute apart from just whiling away time boozing, gambling with few friends, sleeping, watching useless stuff on computer...

"The movie is like a wine. With passing time it just gets better and better ..." - NR on DCH Braving the examinations, I watched Dil Chahta hai for the n th time yesterday, after a long gap of maybe more than an year. The movie is awesome. I won't get into review and all that stuff, as enough has been said and written, and everything would sound so cliched. The movie has everything in place - solid performances, script,witty dialogues, characterizations, freshness, music, wonderful direction etc. etc. But I think the best part is that you can identify with all the 3 friends - Akash, Sameer and Sid. [OK ... I take back the generalization, but it is extremely true with me, and maybe with most of us!] There are moments when I feel like one of them, and the very next moment I feel like other. These 'feelings' are no way exhaustive, but it becomes so easy to identify with at least one of them at some point or the other! And yeah ... It has one of my favorite one li...

How often do we hear the above mentioned words? Especially in situations when there are chances of someone not taking anything well, or a comment not going down well with audience; in the situations when one needs to be politically correct and socially correct and be seen as morally upright. But if we remove the facade of the mushy gushy all-OK things, we can look into sort of ugly interiors of what respecting the sentiments mean ... and what it hides. Some of these reasons for expecting someone to respect the sentiments can be - 1. Person/ groups whose sentiments need to be respected are not open minded enough to hear a counter point of view, and my not be capable of any rational thoughts in that matter 2. There is something undesirable, or something ugly, or even something cancerous that needs to be hidden. 3. The truth might be extremely uncomfortable one, and ignorance might be a better option. 4. Deviation from the accepted norms is not desired. Reason - It has never been done so ...

Figure this - Some (publicity hungry!?) lawyer sues Mr. Narayan Murthy for showing disrespect to our national flag! Some other (publicity hungry!?) lawyer sues Sachin Tendulkar for showing disrespect to our national flag by cutting some Tiranga cake! There have been many other controversies related to insult on national flag, and pertaining to millions of code of conduct to deal with it. But, probably these two have been he most high profile ones in recent times! But all seems too idiotic to me. Probably these two persons in question have contributed million times more to the nation than those 'petitioners'. And they are being belittled on basis of doing some act which they think is a proxy for insulting national flag, which they believe is a proxy for disrespecting the country. Hadh hai ! But, a part of blame lies with the kind of laws and code of conduct that exists for national flag. Maybe, we are too much concerned about proxy for respecting a nation, than doing something c...

X to Y - "You have done this and this. It is a shame. You shouldn't have done this" Y replies- "So what? What you did in that case was also not right" This and that could be anything that is most likely to be some deplorable act. X can be anyone - an individual, an organization, or a political party. Although in public domain, it is usually political parties that are more dominant in following such approach. For instance one political party says - "X party did wrong thing by sanctioning misuse of power to kill innocent people in the village". And other retaliates - "... (blah blah blah) 13 years ago when they were in power, they allowed killing of hundreds people in their state". Such examples are many. Without taking any sides, I think this is too dominant in our system. Instead of not doing wrong or accepting the wrong doing, we often justify it saying that it was of less intensity than others and similar things! Such 'holier than t...

This is a case study in how to make a presentation or a project report in a B school. This is a study of how to copy-paste from various sources (at the same time acknowledging it) and presenting a complete package with some excellent glossy packaging! For example, the movie - Om Shanti Om had the basic template from the movie Karz. The main attraction was inspired from John Jhonny Janardan’s title track. There were generous doses of movies like Madhumati and Karan Arjun. Some traces of Maine Pyaar Kiya, some Rajnikanth movies, some Jeetendra movies, many 70s ki movies, many actors ka style and lives etc. etc. were present. Thrown in was some amount of nostalgia in order to emotionally connect with the audience. Some quotes were from various sources (The one mentioned 3-4 times was from “The Alchemist” –“ When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire”!) And then all the ingredients need to be mixed in right proportion so as not to have an ...

Philosophical it may sound, but was just wondering what is the purpose of education? a. Get good jobs, a good status in society so that you can flaunt your status, and leverage that to maximum. b. Get a good jobs, and follow the 'pre-existing' model of things good and bad without questioning and think as you are ordained to by these models. c. Make your own judgments of what is wrong and right, make your own decisions and apply a rational thought process. Or anything else ? I think it is a combination of (a) and (b).

During last few days, I had a privilege of reading one of the most accomplished works in Hindi literature - "Gunaho ka Devta" . This was the first time I read a Hindi novel after being highly recommended by 2-3 different people. I was kind of compelled to read it after initial 15-20 pages which were largely in an unfamiliar territory of Hindi literature! It is a novel set probably more than 50 years ago, and is a philosophical cum love story. It is one of those books where I can't be sure about how I feel. It is an excellently written book ( ... or maybe it was the first time I was reading a Hindi book ... but probably this is not the explanation!) , with the entire spectrum of emotions thrown in generous doses. The scenes are recreated almost poetically, emotions mentioned perfectly. But at times I am tempted to question basic assumptions of it all. At times I am tempted to say that he is preaching many things which I don't believe in, which I find improper, but the...

(Seems that this is becoming a movie review blog! But I couldn't resist posting about this!) ____ I saw Dead Poet's society(DPS) recently for the second time. First time I saw it, I loved it. Second time I saw it, I loved it more! One of the Bollywood movie Mohabbatein has its plot loosely inspired from it, although DPS is based upon topic of free will while the desi version is mostly a love story, with elements of free will, discipline, tradition etc. strewn in. DPS is about an unorthodox professor John Keating (played by Robin Williams) in a prep school, who arouses student's love in poetry, seize the day (carpe diem) and follow their heart. As expected the school authorities and few parents don't like it. Its last 10 minutes are excellent, probably one of my favorites! As one of the move tag lines puts it - " He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary." Few random observations and many random thoughts - We often get so deep into things like...

He was 10 years old. When asked he said that he was 15 years old. He didn’t know why. It was just that his master told him to do so. His name was Raju. When he was born, he was named as Shivkumar, but that name did not suit his master. So his name was changed. His master owned a small juice shop in some big institute, with around 500 people. Most of these students were his customers. They visited him regularly for juice, cold drinks, eatables, cigarettes etc. This was a popular hangout, chiefly because of large credit extended by Sharmaji Raju had 3 other siblings -Two sisters of age 13 and 11 respectively and a brother of 7 years. The eldest sister worked in a small carpet making unit. She has been employed since 3 years and worked for 12 hours a day without taking and day off. Probably, in a year or two she will be married to someone from a nearby village. Probably her family would get few thousand rupees in bargain! The younger sister was employed full time with a sort of well to ...

Good Will Hunting (GWH) One of the movies is saw today ... It was a repeat telecast. First time I watched it, I thought I missed some of the subtle aspects of the movie. An it was definitely worth it! Earlier, I found it good, but now it is among my favorites it seems! In a nutshell it is about a young mathematical genius Will Hunting (Matt Damon), who works as a janitor in MIT, but is fighting with demons of his past and fears to open up with people, spending his talent and energy uselessly. It is also about a psychologist (Robin Williams), who helps Will to cope with it, to follow what he want and all that. Strangely, Robin Williams somehow reminded me of his role in Dead Poet's society, which was completely different! Apart from the script, performances few things, rather ideas stand out in the movie! Few thoughts apart from usual channelizing your energy, looking deep within yourself kind of stuff - One is that based upon a person's talent, often others set criteria abou...

I have often seen people confusing individualism and selfishness, and using both synonymously. They may usually not accept it directly, but it is often clear from their attitude and mannerisms.The moment you drop a hint that you are an individualist, eyebrows are raised as if looking at a selfish person! Yeah, both emphasize upon living for yourself, putting yourself first and all such stuff. But I believe that there is a fundamental difference between the two. While individualism is about living for yourself without causing harm to or belittling others, selfishness is essentially living for yourself often at the cost of others. It is somewhat like an analogy of making one line bigger (given two lines of equal length, drawn using a chalk) . You can either make one bigger by extending it using a chalk ... or you can rub the end of one line to make the other bigger! What say? Ayn Rand would probably agree!

An organized communal riots, gaining the proportions of a pogrom ... but the popularity of the person in command (Mr. M) increased and he got a landslide victory in elections! 5 years later - Mr M walks away (rather runs ...!) from a popular TV show when quizzed about his role in that pogrom. A (somewhat questionable!) TV sting showing Mr M's role in that riots Mr M banning TV channels which are about to telecast that! and Mr M and his aides refusing to come out clean ... Still he continues to be at the helm of affairs. He ruled the roost for a long time despite his highly questionable conduct (... without giving any defense, but rather perpetrating hatred which makes us believe more in his role!) Still, he rules the roost (at least as on Friday 26th October, 2007) ... rather he is allowed to ... Without taking any sides, I am just tempted to ask are we living in a civilized society, where we are driven more by hatred than anything else? If yes, what kind of civilized society is...

What if I suddenly realized that my life is going as per the script pre-decided by some novelist, and I actually don't have any control over it? What if my life is nothing but a non-stop uninterrupted TV show, running for 25th consecutive year with me unaware? Wat if I am actually living a century before, and am actually on my journey to know the future of the world? What if in reality ghosts are the only things that exist, and humans are merely an illusion ? What if time was actually not moving in forward direction? What if on one fine day I find that they are about to demolish the earth to build the inter-galactic superhighway? What if trees and animals suddenly interchange their roles and vegetarian plants eating only animals, while non vegetarian plants eating both plants and animals? What if I am suddenly arrested just for imagining these all as I am committing a thoughtcrime ? Seems like an overdose of fiction and movies! Am I getting, rather sinking deeper and deeper into th...

That lady was probably in her early 30s, seemed like a resident of a well off locality, probably wife of some well off businessman in the town. (SEC A type, in marketing jargon!) . She seemed to be coming after a shopping spree, although calling it a 'spree' would be an exaggeration, as all he had was a small bag. It seemed that she could not get a car that day and hence decided to take a rickshaw to her way back home. "Ae rickshaw" , she blurted After some negotiations, the elderly rickshaw-waalah obliged, and she kept calling that person as "rickshaw" ! I was just reminded of a sequence from movie Lage Raho Munnabhai where Gandhiji says - "If you want to judge a person, observe how he behaves with a person having a lower standing than him" !!! I smiled, nodded my head once and went ahead !

Recently I read about the New Zealand cricketer Craig McMillan announcing his retirement at an age of 31, the age when players are often in their prime. Although he wasn't anywhere close to being a great player, he was certainly a good one, having played some good knocks in recent times. There was not much hue and dry, or fanfare and all, though there were some usual courtesies exchanged and all. I was just wondering what if he had been an Indian player and done he same ? In fact, first of all would he have taken a similar decision here, considering various stakeholders! Maybe, there would probably have been tons of news channel smelling something fishy, many fingers raised here and there and few extreme public reactions, and maybe politicians coming in to plead him to consider his retirement once again and return to game. Rest assured, the player who has retired might probably not have been let to live in peace ... at least for few days! And the decision to retire might have an el...

1 holiday, 6 movies! 8 movies in a span of last 32 hours! Huh … That was too much … A mixture of good cinema and utter crap … of hardcore realism to escapism … of typical and offbeat … of some popular to some watched by a handful … a mixture of many differents actually! Just writing a purposeless random review of all of these – 1. 1. City of god – Excellent! Brazilian movie, at best understood with help of subtitles and visuals. An excellent depiction of a Brazilian slum, where kids having guns is not an uncommon site; where crime is a way of life. 2. 2. Love actually – Beautiful! A mushy love story … rather many mushy love stories …Karan Johar types, if some parallel has to be drawn to our desi phillum industry … with everyone from a school kid to Britain’s prime minister is falling in love. A good watch nevertheless! 3. 3. Jhom Barabar Jhoom – Crap Only good things are nice songs … but not that interesting with random jhoom baraabar...

Ever wondered how many opposites coexist within you, within me ... probably within all of us? I live in present. Yet that present coexists with memories of pasts and dreams of future. I face life as it comes. Yet there are times that I become an escapist. I am often practical and rational. Yet there are moments when actions seem to have only one explanation, and that is irrationality! I may look at the problems and issues in hand, while I wander in the dreamland in the same very moment. At times, I am concerned about many things happening across he globe, and the very next moment I become completely oblivious to my very surroundings We may be attached to a million things. Yet we long for moments where we can break all these shackles and wish to break free. There are moments when one feels that the world is beautiful. Yet there are other moments when all surrounding us is just a big bad world. There are moments which seem like hours, yet there are many hours that seem like a fraction of...

He waited for almost 2 hours. The Captain was about to come. He was about to be given a hero's welcome in his home town, a not so big city. And why not ? After all he had won the world championship after beating arch rivals in a nail-biting final, when people had almost written them off at the beginning of the tournament. They were now the world champions in that format of game. This was a shorter version of the game. But things were never the same. He was among many people who burnt the captain's effigy few months ago. They were protesting against him. They even tried to attack his house and car. Reason - Extremely poor performance in the World cup tournament., which was another version of the same game. The captain was then just an ordinary player, who performed miserably in the tournament. Back then, he was even referred by someone as a disgrace to the team by few people. But now it was a different situation. The noise was becoming louder by each passing moment. The captain ...

This is just another incoherent random collection of arbit thoughts ... rather questions, one of the posts of "direct dil say ..." kind of posts. Some of these are within some corner of my heart occasionally venturing to the surface and often close to the outer word but are once again sent to the same obscure corner of the heart where it was before. What motivates us to do things we do? I think more often than not we are guided by the fact that everyone else is doing it. There maybe a small element of "we wish to do it" ... but again after some probing it comes to XYZ is doing so OR others are doing it kind of things. Maybe it is too deep rooted. Why do people expect us to be different ... yet be like "everyone else" ? Maybe, it is due to a kind of peer pressure, or due to a fear of 'rejection', Or is there any other reason? Why are many people not even open minded enough to realize the need of being open minded. And how can we make them realize t...

Dictionary meaning Hospitality - 1. the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers. 2. the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way. Indians are believed to be one of the most hospitable people. It may be true to quite an extent, but there are some elements which seem strange. Say the obsession with eating, or to put it in some other way, guest eating well being a surrogate of a good, hospitable treatment. This may be more visible in interior or 'traditional' parts of country where ofter the person who is 'guest' is supposed to be 'following' or 'eating' thing served by the host. Plus there are some unwritten rules like you need to be always smiling, you need to get along well with everyone irrespective of age, believe with XYZ rules and all and blah blah. To hell with what you believe in, to hell with what you like or dislike, to hell with what you are as a person! It all rem...

This is one more post with nothing in particular. It was just that I was feeling like writing something crappy as no one was listening to me. I was watching a movie, not studying, was in a mood to do nothing in particular, getting bored and all that stuff. Actually I was browsing through people’s Orkut profiles. They have written such a nice bunch of krap. I mean all sounded so unreal, so phony. I mean, every second guy is a cool guy. That I must have seen million times by now. This all scares hell out of me. I mean I don’t say that I am someone great or someone like Howard Roark or John Galt, nor I can be. I don’t have such great ideals or morality or any such krappy stuff. But it all sounds so unreal and millions tonnes of aaattitude and exhaggerations thrown in. Dude … they are so arrogant. I mean, they are such idiots that they think that only they are the only human beings on earth, and others are just crappy combination of cranky bones and muscles. And all those artificial and c...

This is just a random take on some of the Bollywood movies. Have tried to represent on a graph, with two axes. This classification is quite intuitive and may at times seem devoid of logic. It is inspired by techniques of perceptual mapping in marketing research and somewhat from strategic mapping. But this is about my take on it, with minuscule impurity of the world view. Also, a classification doesn't automatically label a movie being good or bad. This is done with no particular end in mind. It was just a random time waste ka idea while watching a movie and surfing the internet in parallel (Please click on the pic to see it clearly) My personal favorites are available in my profile though !

The lights faded. The shooting for the day was over. The hero retreated in his van, away from the public glare. He was one of the most popular man on the silver screen in the tinsel town. He had been ruling the roost since over a decade now. It was he who dictated shots to the directors and producers. He was linked with half a dozen ladies, mostly the top most beauties of the silver screen, before tying knot and breaking it up with his schooldays buddy. He enjoyed public adulation to the maximum. The public once went gaga over him, only to love to see him fall after a string of flops, before he came back with a bang with the biggest grosser of the decade. This was four year ago. Since than there has been no looking back. He had delivered 9 blockbusters in a row since then. He now commanded highest billings in the industry. Calling him a superstar would e an understatement. Now he called shots. The public loved to imitate him. He enjoyed the limelight earlier. He had always dreamed to ...

Feels good to have the following published on IBNLive website ... wo bhi photu ke saath :-) http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/iday2007/blog_story.php?id=46747 Below is the direct copy paste from the above link (sans photu) _________________________________________________ In history, very few nations can boast of having a journey as monumental as India’s. We were once considered to be sone ki chidiya few centuries ago, we lived as a British colony for few centuries, and then we became known by the western world as ‘the land of snake charmers’ and are now considered being a potential superpower. Yet, India continues to be a land of contrasts. Our GDP is growing at a rate of 9%, yet there are places which remain decades or even centuries backwards. Businessmen are entering into exclusive club of world’s richest men, yet a fourth of the population lies below the poverty line. We have 5 star hotels coming up, yet there are hordes of people who cannot afford even a square meal per day. We are ...

“Hello … Is anybody sitting here?” “No”, she said, making room for him to keep his book on the library desk. She kept wondering why he would come to sit on the same table as hers in the library, while others were lying empty and more importantly, when they did not talk much in first 3 years of their engineering. In fact, they usually did not get along well, especially after many spats earlier during their college life. They did not see eye to eye in any matter be it scheduling of tests, sharing of notes, or even sorting out an issue with a faculty member or anything. In fact, once in the canteen they were arguing over petty issues like who should get the sandwich first, as both ordered same thing nearly at same time and the sandwiches came at an interval of 2 minutes. But there was more to it than plain not getting along. It was after all a matter of image. If he relented, his image would be tarnished in his group, and more so in the boy’s hostel. Same was the case with her. ...

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.” – Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) There are some premises on which you build your thoughts and opinions; and often there are times when you visit these very assumptions and question them. These are usually when we find that something is not in sync with what we believe in or what we believed as self evident. Assumptions exist at different levels. At individual level, it these are usually the core beliefs upon which we base our other beliefs and attitudes. Most of them have been passed on to us, as part of our environment or teaching. There are some assumptions on which institutions like the legal system are based, like principle of natural justice or principle of equality of all men. And there are assumptions in bureaucracy about seniority being equivalent of competence. Those in favor of caste based reservations (in principle … and not just poli...

(Disclaimer: I am NOT justifying any action or behavior. I am just speculating why people usually act so) _________________________________________________________ “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” – The Truman Show (a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey) The above line explains a great deal about why we hold on to some beliefs as gospel truths, and form our judgment about things and act in a specific pattern. This movie (which I feel is still quite under-rated!) had Jim Carrey, a person whose entire life had been a live, non-stop, unedited television show. He lived in a world which was completely artificial; everything, everyone knew that everything were fake. But the person was real. His emotions were real. He was conditioned to a certain realities of world, and believed in it. The makers of the show did not want to show him what the ‘actual’ world was. He was made not to want to explore the outside world, made to fear things that could have led him ...

Love him or hate him. You just can’t ignore him. That has been the case of our music director turned singer turned pop-star turned actor Himesh Reshammiya. So, when his debut movie Aap ka Surroor (based upon one of his music albums with same name) released, it was bound to be in the news. Last Friday a group of nearly 15-20 people, including me went to catch this magnum opus . The promos offered an ample scope for masala in the movie, and that was the main reason for going to see it, rather than catching some good cinema! We all decided to wear caps to PVR, but only a handful followed the dress code. My cap coupled with unshaven looks made me appear like a true Himesh fan, and I felt proud of it, especially when I was about to watch a probably classic! The entry of the hero with a song As-salaam-walaikum generated a tremendous applause. He sang each and every song in the movie, apart from chanting Gayatri mantra and Dard e Dil from Karz . Nearly every dialogue he said generated t...

After a failed attempt at jogging, I roamed about aimlessly when an idea struck me to have a ride in a cycle, couple of which is lying in the “recreational area”. I was longing since long to ride a cycle sans motor. There was no particular reason for this feeling; it was that just I wanted to have a ride. The 2-3 km ride was a tiring experience, especially for one who is having this after a long time; but I was gleeing all along. As an infant, I loved going about in a tricycle. Then I became too big for it and got a cycle. After several attempts and many falls, I mastered the art. I used to flaunt it in front of my friends, who flaunted theirs. As I entered teens, the bicycle seemed smaller; so I got a bigger cycle. As years progressed, I learnt to ride a 2 wheeler. Now I started to find the bicycle too childish for my tastes. I tried to reason out why I should get a 2-wheeler to go to a particular place. Sometimes I succeeded to get it, and sometimes I didn’t and had to go around in...

A wierd kind of feeling has been making me feel wierd since few hours. I wish to sleep, I long for it after a tiring day, yet I decide against it for some time. I longed for wi-fi connectivity in my laptop, but am not feeling like using it. I felt like spending hours in air conditioned library and computer centre of institute, but am spending time in hot and humid weather. I feel like having a nice stroll, yet my will powerfails me after pain in my legs after a round of partly unsuccessful atempt at jogging. I wish to finish up some long pending tasks, but feel like leaving it up to 'tomorrow'. I long for solitude to spend time with myself, yet the silence seems too be so deafening. I long to converse to some friends, but then for no reason I feel like not troubling them with my blabbering. I wish to write something endlessly, but words words fail me.

It was the peak hour in Bangalore. I just needed to cross the road and drop a cheque at an ATM. I expected to be back in 2 minutes. But it wasn’t going to be an easy journey. It was the 100 feet ring road in Koramangala at 8 PM on a weekday. People were returning after another mundane day at their office. There were bikes, cars, buses and more and more of the 3. The traffic signal (which is not usually followed) was a bit far away. So why was I supposed to spend those extra few minutes. So I just went with the shortcut. There were four stages. Two lanes while going and two while coming. So I began my journey. Stage 1: The vehicles were coming at full speed. I waited for more than two minutes, but wasn't able to make a first move. Then I decided " bahut ho gaya ... ab to cross kar ke hi rahunga ". So, there I went. But I was soon on back foot as I was nearly knocked down by a speeding car. He blurted some abuses at me which I couldn't hear due to clamoring of vehicles...

One of my friends let us call him AK got admission into an IIM. Being a sarkari institute there are some conditions to be fulfilled. One of them is physical and mental fitness certificate (or sanity certificate!) from a civil surgeon or its equivalent. This entails rounds to one of the many sarkari hospitals, as the ones from private practitioner are not allowed. So began my not so long, yet a long journey through few government hospitals of the city for a work that was supposed to last few minutes. First was the Jaideva Institute of Cardiology. But there they declined stating that that is an autonomous institute. We left thinking that “Hadh hai … autonomous hua to kya hua … hai to sarkaari … and these stupid requirements of the Institute”. But we got the address of next location and continued our quest. Next location was Sanjay Gandhi hospital for accident. The doctor had gone for breakfast and we were told to wait for few minutes. We kept on bugging the receptionist/ nur...

These days almost every TV channel has its own talent hunt show, inspired by Indian Idol, showcasing judgement and other talent of of who is who of the music industry. Some of them even managed to have warring personalities like Annu Malik and Alisha Chinoy to share the same dais. The talent is often amazing, yet at times it seems so melodramatic, so contrived. Each disappointment comes with a Pandora box of emotions, and then some inspiring and some harsh words by the judges. Who knows how much truth is there in it. For example a recent 'speech' by Himesh, “Mujhe tere ghar roti chahiye!” Maybe it was a promotion of his acting talent before Aap ka suroor releases. And then there are participants making a case for themselves, so that people vote in their favor. Yet, few survive this ruthless competition. And then comes a flurry of emotions, probably with an attempt to influence the decision. But it seems, this has become more of a norm then exception. More often than no...

Recently I read a quote in TOI: " What is difference between Indian democracy and American? Ans. In American demoracy it is OK to kiss in public, in Indian it is OK to pee in public but not to kiss in public " Moral police, what do you say? Probably you would love people to be forever in the dark and not make any choice out of their will, but rather they would love to see them towing to their line of thought, or rather lack of it, pollute the culture of free will and people taking responsibility for their actions (if it exists !), and ransack the place where they read this thing, if at all they do.

Why is it that we often dream about those things which we know we won’t be able to get, and even if we get it, the price may be too heavy? And yet dream on till it becomes too painful to live without that dream. And become a prisoner of your own dreams; the dreams that were supposed to set you rolling, dreams that ought to give direction.

The vegetable vendor yelled. It had been an hour since she ventured out in a somewhat posh locality to sell vegetables. This has been her routine since around a decade. She made a small profit in a day and on some good days the profit touched Rs 100 mark. But in most of the days it was much less than it. She managed few hundred rupees, usually breaching the Rs 1000 mark a month. That was barely enough to make her family earn a decent living. She had been living with her 3 children, which she had before leaving her abusive, alcoholic husband. Like many others she dreamed that her children will have good education. She was an illiterate but she understood the importance of education for good living. This was one of the reasons she did not allow any of her children to work, though occasionally they helped her. Today seemed a bad day. Not even a single buyer since an hour. Finally one lady showed up. She was a 30 something, stout, seemingly snobbish lady with loads of make up. She cam...