Friday, March 30, 2007

Are you Happy?

This post is being written in posterity. When a moment died.

There is one Gospel. One Gita. One bible. One koran.
Catch-22.

They sometimes treat you like mosquitoes and just after spraying baygon in your face ask,
Are you happy?


Thursday, March 29, 2007

Anger

A man must do
What a man must do.
And if it be writing. Then so be it.

Reasons why a person gets angry.

1. Things don't turn out the way anticipated.
2. One is short tempered.
3.One is generally angry.
4.The circumstances change suddenly.
etc.

To get angry is usually an impulsive gesture, but some of us channelize that anger properly and use it for a purpose.Or one generally starts getting this feeling when one goes to sleep.

On analysis the reasons can be identified. But what is robbed is a sound sleep.The primary reason for this post's existence.A bozo once said between an input and a person's reaction lies a vacuum. In this vacuum lies a person's discretion on how to react(something to this effect).
IIIly anger is an input...and i in a vacuum. When in a vacuum listen to this song.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Performed by Bobby McFerrin

Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy
The land lord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don't worry, be happy
Look at me I am happy
Don't worry, be happy
Here I give you my phone number
When you worry call me
I make you happy
Don't worry, be happy
Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got not girl to make you smile
But don't worry be happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
So don't worry, be happy (now).....

There is this little song I wrote
I hope you learn it note for note
Like good little children
Don't worry, be happy
Listen to what I say
In your life expect some trouble
But when you worry
You make it double
Don't worry, be happy......
Don't worry don't do it, be happy
Put a smile on your face
Don't bring everybody down like this
Don't worry, it will soon past
Whatever it is
Don't worry, be happy
Random Again

You should write.
Compose.
Begin for
if not a beginning
what else
remains here.
The last
that one knows.
The first
that one would believe.

Coincidences Galore
In lifetime
This one
or the other.
Mine
or yours.
Here
or in another world

It is when one is alone.Insecure. That one feels light.
To loose. To drown. To let it go.

To be free.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Boot Polish.

I am the kind of person, who ,when in conversation on the phone, questioned , what's New?,usually ends up replying, "i took a bath today". Once one has this bare idea about me, one can guess how often i shine my shoes.

The last time i remember indulging in the act was when my placements were on. So my shoes are a veritable combination of dust leather, grime etc. Of late i need to wear them daily, a consequence of being in employment. And i do have a job which involves fair bit of traveling in Mumbai. The fastest medium of traveling in Mum continues to be sub urban trains also referred to as locals.
Locals use locals to travel locally. Smartie me.

So one has to use the stations often. Their is this old Johny Lever Song ..Joota polish karega...
Be it as it may, the other day, i had those moments when i try to pump money back in the economy and try to alleviate people above the BPL . So i apprehensively put my foot forward for a polish..and was satisfied by the experience. Next i handed a 5 rupee coin to the protagonist expecting some change back. And no he doesn't even look at me. I gulp the affront and tell him excuse me..He says saab paanch rupaya lagta hai. Viola shit..5 rupees for a simple boot polish.

So i decide , no more caring for the economy when it is filled with these looters. I have proudly stopped using their services.

You see different people use different sales pitch, like the 3 sugar cane juice walas( they have adjacent shops) at Andheri station keep shouting.. bolo..bolo..ad infinitum. Similarly Polish walas keep banging their brush on their pedestal ( wooden box uses as a holding device to keep a person's feet in position when the shoe is being polished.)

In an ideal world they would go on with their sales pitch and me with my traveling, but imperfections abound. It started with a simple observation by me, whenever i passed by them on stations their frequency and pitch becomes higher. Alarmed i started looking around.

In standard ten ,their was this story of The Umbrella Man, where the protagonist' mother gives people the frosty nosed look(or something like that)

I saw something like that in their looks when they looked at me, then at my shoes and back at me.I was angry. In a federal state like India it is no body's business how i keep my shoes. But invariably i got conscious whenever i passed any one of them at the stations, only to see that look in their eyes and the brush banging sound.If you have seen Requiem for a dream it was like the sequence in the movie with the unforgettable soundtrack playing in the background which keeps repeating. My soul was on fire and begged for revenge.

So one fine day I unleashed my new pair of shoes and there was peace all around. No scary looks. The soul's fire extinguished. And peace all around.

But my feet are hurting. Call it new Shoes itch. Well as they say ..even Peace has a price.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Hubris

Suketu Mehta just like Fyodor Dostoevsky reaches the elixir in the middle of his book and then fizzles out. A question remains, Why is it so very tough to leave on a high point. Why does a book become some kind of Apology towards its end.

Movies Update : Turtles can fly, Now and Forever, Crimson Gold, Salaa-e-ishq. Pan's Labyrinth is waiting to be viewed for some 2 weeks now.And could not complete Bicycle Thieves. It really is tough to watch movies older than 50 years in one sitting, for the kind of society and people it depicts is almost like some alien stuff without any special effects.

Water and Black Friday are the movies i want to watch..let's see..If time finds its way.

Book Update : Anita Desai's daughter done, Suketu mehta. Might start Shantaram or Godel, Escher,Bach. The later has made a beginning and sounds interesting. It makes me realize a long cherished dream , to go back to mathematics once i find some time for it.

Mathematics was one subject i loved because of the teacher who taught me Maths through 2nd to 5th standard. I was no great at the subject and struggled as much as every other person struggled. But Still.

I walked out of science in my 4th standard, because i didn't like the teacher or she beat me up or something. Later many better teachers came but that impression wasn't to be changed.

Also reading this book introduces me to two fields about which i know nothing. Music and Arts. Yes i am a very normal person who can't differentiate paintings from renaissance or the age of inquisition or anything. I merely know these words, nothing more.

Coming back to Anita Desai. That name has to remembered not for Fasting, Feasting(royal Bouncer) but Games at Twilight. For those who did their 9th and 10th sometime when i did or later than that, there was this new idea where the whole course in English was revamped. And it was titled Interact In English. One page inside the book and you could see another small name...in collaboration with University of Plymouth UK. It consisted of three books/year. Workbook , Literature reader and Main course book. We never touched the workbook which for me was a great relief. Though my dad had made 3 attempts and my English teacher in 8th a solitary one, One thing i was very sure i was not interested in learning English grammar. Never.

That perhaps remain the reason for my English, for being what it is.

Games At Twilight blows you away even when you are a kid studying in 10th.

Hubris . False . Pride. and how a word is murdered. Associations. Derogatory word. Good Word. Bad word. I have lost it.




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