Lapses

I was woken up at an ungodly hour today by the beep of my mobile. Squinting sleepily I groped for the Snooze only to find it wasnt my old enemy the alarm but a birthday reminder. This actually roused me enough to see why on earth I had set one in the first place. My love for gadgets border on the passionate but there are still some things I feel which can be kept out of the technology loop-remembering the birthday of a friend is one of them. I used to pride myself on my ability to remember friends' birthdays, aunts' anniversary you name it and I had it in my head (and heart probably). But lately I often find I need these memory jogs now and then, be it a mobile reminder or the ever-helpful yahoo which would remind me of my own birthday if allowed to. What happened to the days of sharing, feeling, belonging?
This is not the cliched harangue about how technology has taken over our lives and made us dependent robots.blah blah. Its much worse.Earlier it felt nice to make people feel special on their special days, now its at the most a tedious obligation (except for a very chosen few). Birthdays were excitement, suprises, cakes-with-candles. It just doesnt seem to matter anymore. What changed? Is it the 'times', people moving away to distant places.. or is it just me?
As I write this I realise I still havent wished my friend during my whole "busy" day...wonder where I am (We are) headed.

It only takes a spark...

...to get a fire going

Goverment bus: Wednesday,10:00 A.M.

Drip
Drop
Swelter
Splash
Squish
Squash
Shove
Push
Ouch
Your stiletto
My toe
Metal rod
Slippery
Lurch
Balance
Grandma
Chivalry
Peanuts
Sports Page
Umbrella
Whack
Signal
Ringtone
PL
Late!!
Breakdown
Taxi
Month end
Woe

WYSIWYG

After a great evening of Bob Dylan covers at my favorite pub, feeling happy with the world in general, I had just started writing something when midway I realized it was utter crap. Something about feelings and emotions and other blah. Why would I want to subject others to something I myself couldn’t even bear to waste disk space by saving?
I wish some of the people writing blogs would also do the same. Stop and reconsider! Spare a thought for people visiting their pages (which given the ominous omnipresence of blogs these days is difficult to avoid). I can hear some indignant hisses…yaya we know you are just baring your immortal soul and your innermost philosophical thoughts and couldn’t care less who read it. To prove it these blogs even have names like “goawayfromhere” or something along the same lines. Ya right!! Poor you having people peering into your blog when you specifically made it clear they are unwanted. Ever heard of a diary? Doesn’t cost much (maybe a bit more than the internet)…and maybe a more appropriate place for those musings. Give it a thought.
The smug ones feel they are home safe…they don’t go in for thoughts and such like on their blogs. No siree they are the ones providing meaningful insights (they think) into contemporary issues. They also cover fundamental beliefs, sibling rivalry and the impact of your goldfish’s death on your childhood. Throw in a “relevant” picture for effect (not content with mere words blogger allows graphic torture also).
Don’t get me started on the poems. You’ll find one below if you use the scrollbar (for those who only orkut/yahoo/msn/solitaire on the comp: it’s the rectangular thingie to your right) which proves my point (what do u mean what point…this is a blog…im allowed to write any damn rubbish I want and have it certified as aesthetic and meaningful). Anyone who discovered “touch” rhymes with “dutch” and not “couch” has started writing poems. And they are of course emotional, soulful or commemorating some memorable event (the goldfish’s resurrection?) as the case may be. They also get their friends to write in happy thoughts…gunpoint maybe? Ohh I forgot…rhyming is passé…some of them unable to resolve the touch-dutch-couch (this is NOT meant to be controversial whatever it may sound like) do away with that altogether. The vaguer the concepts the better the poem.
These days I actually like the “I-ate-sandwich-for-lunch” write-ups better. At least what you see is what you get.

"Dont reserve what we deserve"

Came across this piece and cudnt resist posting it!


In a significant move today, Congress announced 50 % reservation for all Left Handed people in IITs/IIMs. Said a congress spokesman , "In 60 years of independence there has not been a single left handed CEO. It is time to set the system right ...I mean left " . This reservation will be over and above the existing reservations taking the total reservation to 99.73 %. In order to take care of the fractions, the government also announced an increase in the number of seats taking the total IIM seats to 1000.
The official bill would be signed soon by the PM's office ....with his left hand. Predictably, the Communist parties cheered this announcement saying that "We have been on the left for years and it is time the system is set right....I mean left....no Sorry ... , AWW What the... any side will do as long it is not the American one" . This was a move which was long overdue and if the parliament had not held it's seasonal sessions throwing flower pots at each other, it would have been passed right back when V P Singh was still the prime minister and Lata Mangeshkar could actually still sing in the sonic frequency range. This move is not totally unexpected. Indeed before enjoying comparisons with another hugely popular figure , Homer Simpson, ex Prime Minister V P Singh had actually considered reservation for left handers but made it as a second priority as with it, it would have taken just too long to screw up a nation.

Political parties in the opposition have reacted differrently . BJP leaders promised to take a rath yatra first before visiting the issue. Jayalalitha promptly unveiled a statue of herself at the Meenakshi temple. Shiv Sena Supremos insisted that unless all Maharastrians were classified as left handed , he will ask his loyal Sainiks who numbered 7 at the time of going to the press, to burn a few trains( headed out of state). However if they are classified, the Shiv Sena will unlilaterally volunteer to restrict itself to looting shops belonging to right handers. TDP leaders announced a left handed technoclogy park and made a SWOT analysis and a statistical model about the impact of this move and announced the the formation of a sub commitee which will explore the advantages of making a powerpoint presentation using only the left hand. Dewe Gowda after a brief period of confusion in trying to differentiate between the right and the left , finally managed to get a few moments with the press and reacted , "What about the left handed farmers ? It is not right...I mean left to ignore them " before his last words were drowned by his snoring.

Passing the Buck

Recently I was subject to an eye-opener. Pleased with a bargain I had managed to wangle I confided in my colleague the joys of owning a divine pair of leather (not those shiny smelly kinds, the real stuff) strappy sandals which did NOT give you corns, for a mere 500 bucks. He gave me this weird glazed myopic look (he takes off his specs when the cute fresher who’s just joined comes to take printouts near his cubicle) and patiently asked me if I didn’t think that Rs 22,500 is too much for a “lousy pair of shoes”. Naturally it was my turn to gape. Was he deaf or just being his usual annoying self?? Enjoying my stupefaction he put on his owl specs and declared that the term “buck” meant a “dollar” and that “we Indians” in our perennial habit of aping the U.S. think it “cool” to substitute our native lingo with terms like this, our food for pizza (hey I like pizza n that’s not even technically American its Italian) and our music for noise (have they never listened to Dylan?). So when I say 500 bucks (by now poor me is wondering what possessed me to tell him in the first place!) I’m actually talking $500. Ahem!
Totally irritated with his supercilious attitude (hadn’t noticed HIM substituting his Reeboks for chappals) I actually went and hunted around a bit, and what do u know…came up with some interesting facts.
At some point people believed the word “buck” came to be used as slang for dollar as a reference to black male slaves. They were used as beasts of burden and hence called “bucks”. Since these slaves could be traded for other goods, they were referred to as a unit of money i.e. “bucks”. So it all pointed to slavery->America->dollar and determined not to let Mr. Know-it-all have the last word I snooped around a bit more and came up with the real stuff. Apparently the slave story was just a myth (good we make progress!) and a “buck” came to mean “money” as deer-skin was used in trade as a medium of exchange. So you could trade 10 bucks (or 10 deerskins) for a chicken (or whatever it was they ate in those days).
So now you know…a “buck” is just “money”…it has nothing to do with the U.S. (unless you think money and the U.S. are synonymous and in that case theres no hope for you anyway). Feel free to (ab)use it in any way you like…and while you’re at it teach those close-minded souls out there that both pizza and pav bhaji make your mouth water and if Ravi Shankar met Roger Waters they would have made great music together!

Old wine in a new bottle

So ive finally taken the plunge...cut the umbilical cord...moved on for headier shores (no im not babbling...used to blog in a different space before and got my own blogspace now thats all....what do u mean thats all?? its quite a bit!!)
I used to always wonder why people bother penning down information about themselves on the 'net' for the whole disinterested world to see...i mean c'mon we have enough trouble "finding an identity for ourselves" in the "real" world, to bother about making a "virtual" impact"! So this is more of an experiment...testing the waters so to speak...rather than a conscious effort to let you get an idea about "who i am"-that is a process of self-discovery which has not ended yet.
My friends put me down as a skeptic. The dictionary defines "skeptic" as "One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions"...hey i dont do that. I most emphatically disagree with this idea of theirs and I doubt theres any truth to it. Oh well who am i kidding...you'll discover it soon enuff anyway if you happen to wander back to these ramblings sometime.

Insomnia

As the sounds of the day fade into the night
The lights grow dim, not a soul in sight,
I bury my face in the pillow and sleep feign
When the well-known shadows come calling again.
Nameless faces looking out with blurred eyes
One or two i even recognise.
A dash of red, a patch of blue
Cry out from a greying mildew
Fragments of my life floating in the debris
Memories buried longing to be free.
A shiny bicycle colliding into a wall
Tears embarrasment and laughter after the fall
Bewildered after reading graffiti on a neighbour's car
Searching a clear sky for just one shooting star...
Familiar comforting smell of tobacco and musk
A soft hand with long fingers guiding me till dusk
Did i live in that red-and-blue house once?
And wasnt that music strains from my first dance?
Feelings that make you soar then make you weep
Never letting you stop to trap that elusive sleep.
Something in the darkness draws me to it
Hesitantly at first then right into the pit...
It envelops me in its greys and blacks
Pouring into the crevices and cracks.
At first i am enchanted by its mystic caress
I revel in its eternal embrace
But i become a slave to its magnetic powers
Sleep eludes me for many hours.
In vain I claw and tear at the never ending night
Eagerly wait for the dawn of the first light
As the first rays filter through the window frame
My captor grows tired of his cruel game.
Laughingly he recedes, unaware of my plight
Only to return gleefully the next night.