Random Ramblings

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury. Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day. They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor wa

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance. After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came

Has there been some thing that you are worried about lately, something that might not seem too important that has been troubling you? ... Or that the very thought of it makes you shiver, tremble with fear or puts in the fear of god within you? Well ... I am facing one such thing of late. Somehow I have developed a fear of the fans, especially in cases where fans are a relatively lesser height, usually which I can touch easily with my palms or even elbows ... and even the ones that I can barely even touch by my fingers. This has not been without a reaon though. Recently I went to a relatives place where there was this combination of a fan being at lesser height and me being quite tall. After taking a bath (yeah ... I do take a bath ... in summers at least!) I switched on the fan, and raised my hands to wear a T-shirt. And suddenly I found something hitting my left thumb, hitting it really hard. Before the signal was sent to my brain so that I could realize what was happening, I put my h

Often, I have seen and observed human beings who think in similar way, who act in similar way given a similar situation situation. They have similar values and beliefs, and deviations adherence to these norms or questioning them seems unthinkable. It is as if giving 10 such people same set of stimulus and getting exactly the same output from all 10 of them. Not only it does exist ... it is often actually encouraged, and at times forced upon. For instance I have seen kids who are forced to become right handed just because it seems odd to be a left handed in a world full of right handed people. Even if this means labored eating and writing using by using right hand. Or almost every other unsuspecting 2-year old kid expected to recite millions of things millions of times before the guests. Often you are expected, and at times forced to have same set of interests so that you fit into the society. For instance you must like similar hindi film music, you must like and appreciate dance and

(Following is based upon a real discussion which I had today morning) As I was making efforts to keep myself afloat in the swimming pool, I overheard some conversations - "Puraa paper pataa hota hai, wo to humein mil hi jaata hai ... tab bhi hum nahi padhte hain" . .. and so on The guy who did bulk of talking looked around 15 years old and seemed like quite a spoilt brat. I chipped in with some expert comments and questions - "Which board?" "Kisi bhi board ka" After a minute of chat I gathered that he had just given Class 10 exams in ICSE board and was planning to take science stream(PCM), and he studied in a school (say SKP). He had earlier managed to do the same at his previous school (say CRK). Inquisitively, I tried to gather more information on how he manages to get the paper "Bus kuch nahi, security guard ko paise do. 8th, 10th, 12th ke papers. Wo ek extra copy karaa leta hai. ICSE ke paper out karna sabse easy hai. Koi seal nahi hoti" &quo

The Honda City brushed the vegetable laden cart, which was standing on side of a somewhat busy road. Down he got from the car, removed his goggles, headed towards the seemingly malnourished vendor and grabbed him by his collar. "Saale, tu khud ko samajhta kya hai. Sadak kya tere baap ki hai" "Saab, meri koi galti nahi ... Wo to aapki gaddi ..." "Saale, zabaan ladaata hai ... Teri to ..." Raaapppppppppppatttttt >--Slap No. # 1--< "Saab, lekin ..." Satttttttttttttttakkkkkkkk >--Slap No. # 2--< "Saab ..." "Aur aukaad mein reh ..." He grabbed the vendor by his collar, blurted out some words of which only the abuses were clearly audible and went back to his car to join his group of relatives, who were waiting for him to go for a shopping spree, all in awe of the command and control he had over the people.

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog) Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc. Figure this - A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view) , flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often

Everyone has some idiosyncrasies when it comes to watching a movie. I tried to list some of mine in this post -- Some random movie watching habits, that belong exclusively to me (Idea for this write up has been blatantly stolen from other blogs!) --> There are few movies I get extremely excited about (e.g. TZP, Jodha Akbar, RDB), and there have been few I have always been excited about ever since I saw them ... and people have been bored of hearing me recommend that movie to others (e.g. TZP, RDB, The Truman show, Forrest Gump, ... even Aaap ka surror!) While watching movies (esp. angrezi ones!) on my lappy, I often use Wikipedia and IMDB as reference (esp. to know where the story is headed for) ... Even with such references, I could understand only half the movie Memento! I love reading movie reviews. Few of the ones I follow are Taran Adarsh ke crappy reviews, Rajeev Masand (who is somewhat reliable) ... and few reviews occasionally in TOI, HT, Rediff, and other random websites.

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.” - Albert Einstein I guess most of us would have wondered how relative things are. Uninteresting things appear to move too fast, and good things get over quickly ... at least it seems so! The way time seems too pass in different settings, the way things in recent past seem to be too distant, just because the set up and the surroundings have completely changed. Hanging out with friends in college canteen just a few days ago seem to have happened ages ago; and at the same time, things in college which happened two terms back seemed to be a thing of recent past! Why only time? A change in atmosphere/ surroundings can completely change the way we look at things. Same thing which appear trivial piece in the jigsaw puzzle of universe, when viewed from college campus may look extremely essential when viewed from inside a wild life sanctu

One of the important tools used by marketers for identifying potential market is market segmentation, in which subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics are grouped together. Using similar concept, people can be segmented based upon their basic philosophy or their basic approach towards life. It might be extremely difficult, as not all may express their beliefs openly. Maybe few sort of weird approaches mentioned below might help. One such method can be segmenting on basis of their movie or book preferences. For example a person whose favorite book is The Fountainhead or 1984 is likely to be different from a person whose favorite books include Sidney Sheldon and likes. Or a person who likes reading The Catcher in the Rye over and over again might be different from the one who prefers Eric Segal instead! Similarly a person whose favorite movies includes likes of Jaane bhi do Yaaron or Rang de Basanti would be different from a person relishing Suraj Bar

There was a family of 3 frogs - Ma Frog, Pa Frog and kid frog. Like may other frog families and many other insects, reptiles and amphibians, they existed peacefully within confines of the well. The world outside the well didn't mean anything. In fact many of the residents were unaware of the existence of the outside world. One fine day, Kid frog told his parents - "I want to go out and explore the world". His parents were initially reluctant, but they grudgingly granted his wish, with an understanding that the kid would be back in well after some time. The kid went out and moved around in the vast world. And how different it was from the world within the well. It was beautiful. Things he never imagined ...they actually existed! Yes. There were few things that were quite eerie, and some made him desire to run back to his home. Nevertheless, the world was different. Quite a contrast to the world he had seen in the well! He continued his journey, and loved exploring the wor

What you need to make your day ? There can be a zillion answers Maybe, getting a promotion and a pay rise, or getting a praise from an unexpected quarter, or maybe getting your pay cheque on first of every month ... probably getting something you earned or you deserved! ... Or maybe, getting a call from an old friend ... just to have a chit chat! ... and few more such standard answers. Or maybe, the answer lies in something extremely trivial Like - Watching a really funny poster on roadside Eating an extremely spicy roadside chaat, and desperately asking for drinking water. Or seeing a 6 year, class 1 kid smiling at you and in the process showing off his front teeth which aren't there. Or cracking a really bad PJ and laughing for minutes together, and realizing that you are the only person who laughed ... and this making you laugh even more! Or discovering that old chocolate lollipop in a store and relishing it! Or reading an interesting line in a newspaper article. Or listening to

"If only I had ..." "I should have ..." "I shouldn't have ..." "It was too harsh on me ..." "That wasn't too fair ..." ... and many more such common refrains we hear, here and there. The underlying thing remains the same - regretting things which could have been different, had some decision or some input been different. Often these phrases seem to be excuses for things having gone wrong or unfavorable, and often they are the reasons why others did better than us. But, if I lost to any of other factors which I may regret, there might be some other factors in which the person who wins may regret. Maybe, there wouldn't be any person in the world without his share of regrets, including the most powerful or the wealthiest person or most successful person in any field. Probably, that young business tycoon sitting in his ivory tower still feels bad having fought and broke up with his girl friend few years ago, but he chose no

"Hi, How r u doing ?" "I am fine" "Howzz life ?" "M doing great. Life is great." "Great. Life is great at my end too... you tell, What's new ? "Nothing special. Enjoying at Delhi" How many times has this or one of its variant been repeated! Maybe often, be in case of two friends catching up after quite some time catching up probably on a social networking site like Orkut, or catching up through chat or mails. Maybe, in case of a telephonic conversation, it may last a bit longer getting to some the specifics. But more often than not, the script is similar. Usually people are always doing great, they are always happy. The facade usually remains similar. But how much of those times do we actually manage to look beyond the facade? Maye, very rarely. Maybe many of these goody goody things are quite 'good' if not great. But often behind this are many layers - layers which are hidden from majority of the outside world by means

Below is one of the signs I saw at the extremely busy Platform number 1 of Allahabad railway station recently ---> I wonder, How 'secret' or 'intelligent' the department's services would be !

"Freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want, as long as you say what they want to hear" - Freedom of expression – One of the hallmarks of great societies of the world; one of the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution. But is it all in theory? Take the case of Tasleema Nasreen or M.F. Hussain or students of MS University, Baroda or many others who dare to express things against the norm, but have to face wrath of some self-appointed moral police every now and then? … Or consider countless others who do not even dare to express, because of the fear of consequences from likes of Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or infinite others self appointed guardians of our culture. Yes. As a nation we have had fairly decent record on this front, if not anything great … but that is not enough. It must be made much better if we need to progress as a society. But where are we heading for ?

This is a song by Silk Route, and I have been listening to this in infinite loop since few hours now. (Actually I never heard this song earlier. Heard it first during a performance by Silk Route in our insti recently!!!) The tune is nice, but the best part are the lyrics. Some of them do fill me with a mixture of self-consolation, self- pity, and just a smile with few questions in the eyes !!! Among many lines, I especially love - " itney bure bhi hum nahi…" and " duniya ki is bheed me...Sabse peeche hum khade " In long run, this may probably not end up being considered as a great song, but maybe it will be a cult song in future ... or maybe it is a cult song even now! _______ Lyrics of the song (copy pasted from after google search) " Zaara naazar uthake dekho Baithe hai hum yahi Bekhabar mujhse kyon ho? Itne boore bhi hum nahin Zamane ki baaton mein uljho na Hai yeh aasaan janana Khud se jo agar tum pooch Hai hum tumhare ke nahi Teri aankhon ka jaadu Poor

"Isn't it strange that in hope of a better future, the present is often screwed, and this continues even when the future has become present ... and in the end when we look back, we often realize that we have lived only in hope of a better future, and it never really translated into a good present"

"Events in life are not governed by a normal curve, nor are they by an exponential or any other exotic probability function. They are in fact, just an output of some random number generator." No matter what likes of Stephen Covey or anyone says or philosophize about life, we cannot undermine the impact of things over which we don't have much control, on our lives. Yeah, It is about the decisions and actions we take but they may be just one of the many many inputs, and one of the extremely few over which we have some control. What say ?

He was bored. It was last term of his MBA. Placements were still at least a month and a half away. Number of subjects in this term were very few. He sat at the local canteen nibbling a samosa and leisurely chatting with a friend who was apparently having a hot cup of coffee, but had actually become cold coffee in last 25 minutes. He was not so bored, and wished that his bored friend becomes not so bored. "Why are you so bored" "I have nothing to do" "Nahi yaar. Kuch to hoga? Classes" "Yeah. I have one at 3: 30 PM" "What you'll do till then. Still 4 hours to go" "Dunno" "Have you read the Harsha Bhogle Article on India's tour of Down under? Those cheater Aussies" "Yeah. I read it on internet yesterday. Seriously ... Too much hai yaar ... But seems that notheing else is happening int he universe in last 2 days ... hadh hai " "No. A different one came in today's newspaper" "I haven&#

Much has been talked and written about the Indian tour of Australia, of double standards, of sportsman spirit, of 'integrity' or absolute lack of it, of the extent a team can go to dominate, of the yardsticks used to evaluate 'our team and 'their team'. And it feels bad that Indian team has been at the receiving end of all these. Yes. There have been other teams at the receiving end in the past, if not to this extent. It has been a height of double standards by the Australians coupled with incompetent and probably highly biased umpiring. It makes me feel that "All teams are equal but some teams are more equal than others" Like many others, I usually accept that errors are part and parcel of the game, and criticize them, but usually like to take that in stride and not make a fuss of it. But there are times when these 'errors' are not actually 'errors' but something much more and may probably make us question the very basic terms like 'sp

Mera New year reolution ... rather wish ... is the entire song "Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya ..." (the Non-smoking part of it !!) How about this ! Esp. the lines ---> ________-- "Barbadiyon Ka Shok Manana Fizul Tha Barbadiyon Ka Jashan Manata Chala Gaya" "Jo Mil Gaya Usi Ko Muqaddar Samajh Liya Jo Kho Gaya Maein Usko Bhulata Chala Gaya" "Gham Aur Khushi Mein Farq Na Mehsoos Ho Jahan Main Dil Ko Us Muqaam Pe Laata Chala Gaya " ________-- Almost th whole song is covered! Still ... Amzing philosophy methinks!