Sunday, October 13, 2013

"... I don't know you, but I'm going to find out..."

As usual, the Sunday started late. the phone was already beeping with some of the messages and one missed call form a friend of mine. i remembered dreaming about cleaning up my house and today being dussera (or is it tomorrow?) i knew it had to be done. so i jumped from my bed and initiated a series of actions that are needed to be done in any given morning. and then i started with the Operation SpideyKill.

... as the afternoon was setting up, i knew i was only slightly behind the 'normal' Sunday schedule and so with laundry all set on the Fuzzy Mode i was online... a minor blip occurred when i tried to mediate by leveraging my position between the two fractions of my family, separated by geography and age and maturity... didn't go that smoothly... with mild anger and bitter feelings i had to resort to my way of dealing with such unpleasantness... i fired up my music player, closed my eyes and listened to Armin Van Buuren... it helped...

... and after a while, i was on Hindustantimes' website and landed on this article under 'The Big Story' where they've argued how three seemingly unrelated stories happening miles away are affecting India... the Syrian Crisis, Sino-Jap face-off and Obama's decision to pull of the military from Afganistan... just couple of paras into the article and i slept into my daydreaming mode (it happens all the time! although this may be the first time i'm mentioning it!!)... i thought (of myself as a representative of India) visiting Japan and telling their political leaders that we (Indians) are now sick and tired of all this fighting and stuff. so let's help each other in building stronger civilizations and while we may not be able to reciprocate the help provided by Japs in the same capacity, we will make it with our generosity and gratitude...

... and not to forget a public appearance to appeal my fellow countrymen to conserve our natural resources just like the United States of America. i imagined myself in a TV studio making a case for this comparison... "the americans are sitting on the depositary of oil and other such natural resources and the arabs are happy because they are getting all the money to build ice skating rinks in the middle of a dessert! we should be a better nation with the wisdom for not spending the money in such a wasteful manner..."

... and now it's evening, i'm feeling hunger pangs and a craving for tea as well... so, it was nice blogging here! :-)

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

"Look intelligent, act intelligent, be intelligent, but fall in love with someone with whom you can be stupid"

the lure of communicating in 140 characters or less has spoiled me to the core. and to be more accurate it is not even an act of communication. it's akin to broadcasting on an electromagnetic frequency and those who want to listen to you save your frequency on their device; a device which allows you to save as many frequency channels as you want.

and of course, a very happy birthday to meetu d! :-)

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The book of love is long and boring; No one can Lift the damn thing. It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing.

well... this blog is not done. not yet.

... i remember i used to read the 'foreword's by authors very keenly... and i always wondered why they write them on such important dates... from the traditional Independence Day to Republic Day or even Guru Poornima... i guess it added some kinda weight to the 'foreword'... it surely made some mark...

... everything was going just fine... i cleaned up the porch, took bath, made some tea, watched Made of Honour and then Skyfall and then The Butterfly Effect and then Solaris and then The Fountain and then i even let that song play... it played on and on and on... till the time i finished checking-out my twitter feed and facebook and email and news and twitter feed and facebook and email and news... you got the drift...

... "... she practically raised them. mausi must've been five year old and mamaji another year older. she even kept sitting beside me when i was sick... and in the end... when she needed care the most..." my mom left that conversation; her voice softening and braving to fight off her tears... we got down from the rickshaw at the gates of Beneras Hindu University only to hop into another one... and the topic changed... memories lingered...

... they had their own charm... the way they engaged us in conversation... narrated the stories... lived their lives... and then they just left... or maybe not...

Sunday, May 26, 2013

we haven't met in a long time but let's not chance it for the next life

Yesterday, a young family traveling in a car met an accident near Lonawala on Pune-Mumbai Express Highway. It could have been another 'news item' for most of us; except that the family included my friend's wife & son, his brother, sis-in-law and niece. both the kids about a year old.

their car hit a stone (apparently removed from the central divider) flipped over before coming to halt. while my friend's brother (who was driving the car) and son appeared unharmed, his wife (seated in rear) suffered a collar bone fracture.

his niece suffered head injury and sis-in-law (seated as co-driver along with her daughter) is in ICU on ventilator with internal bleeding in brain.

while we can analyse and debate many things that contributed to this unfortunate event, what pains me the most is the fact that my friend's sis-in-law was NOT wearing the seat belt.

her side of the door (not manually locked from inside) flung open due to the impact of the accident and she along with her daughter were thrown out of the car.

i do not want to use their misfortune as a pretext for spreading 'wisdom' but if you're literate enough to read this, you've already received the message.

thanks for spreading the word and keeping yourself safe.

originally posted on FaceBook

Thursday, January 10, 2013

"If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." ~ Bruce Lee

i think 'the end' is a relative term. relative because of the characters that are involved or the context in which it appears or it could be the a combination of both or some other elements... all that brohalla about equating various natural calamities with the end of this world, simply ended! ... as it appears... we made it through... the year ended not the world... 

... but then, 'the world' is a relative term. relative because of the characters that are involved or the context in which it appears or it could be a combination of both or some other elements... for some, the world did end in 2012... all that was known of it... wrapped in white sheet of cloth, placed on pyre and lit up, reduced to ashes and immersed in Ganges... 

November 12th 2012

In the memory of my Chacha Ji ... a long battle lost, many hearts won!

remembering you... Atul