A Tale of Corners

A Tale of corners

The room juxtaposed a dark and a lit corner. A gleam of sunlight made its way through the half-open window stealthily. Some shackles seemed to have broken. They kissed one corner of this room, as if a mother had met her son after long. The sun glinted on the other half of the window. Like a father wanting his other son to do as well, it tried to pierce the half-window to let its rays in. But the rays waited at the window every day until the dusk set in. 

It had always been like this.  The dark corner had always been dark. The lit one always lit. A whiff of arrogance drifted from one corner to other. The gloomy brother had not come to terms with its life. It was difficult to do so. Very difficult. 

It is easier to live in misery. But it is difficult living in misery with a blissful person. All the things you lack are at other’s disposal, making you feel more vulnerable and wretched. You watch all the happiness you want so closely but it belongs to someone else. So close and yet so far.

The dark corner was living on a hope. A hope that on some propitious day, the wind 

would shove the other half of window and the sunlight would never be biased again. It would be as fortunate as its brother corner. A thirst that has kept it parched for years, will be quenched. 

The thought kept it sad and wishful. Its days went by in anticipation. It protected a 

dream. A dream it believed would change its identity. It won’t anymore be a dark 

corner. But all things are not meant to end the way they sound good. That day never 

was in script. One fateful day, a gigantic bulldozer razed the building. Razed the room and its corners. The wreckage lay scattered, much like the dreams of the dark corner. 

Succumbed to its fate, the rubble lay submitted. Perhaps, the dream it saw should not 

have been harbored. It should have accepted the way things were scripted. It would 

have lived sans the sunlight but happy and content. Content - that not all corners get 

the heavenly kiss of sun. Content-that not all corners can be lit. But it lived on a dream, at the whim of hope. The hope crashed, so did the dream. 

Next morning, the sun lit the spot brightly on the debris. The spot that till yesterday belonged to the dark corner… 

Words of silence: True story

The other day, while on a local bus, I realized a thing.

It was just another scorching summer day in Delhi. After waiting for over 15 minutes for a not-so-frequent bus service, I felt blessed to have got a seat at least. Beside me, a man made frantic gestures with the hand communicating with another man sitting in front of him. I instantly knew he couldn't speak sadly. I moved to a seat in the adjacent row to observe him. He used a zillion hand movements, some amusingly colourful and some plain-to convey all that for which we need words. I could see the eyes -flinching, opening up, stern, relaxed-all set that one could do with them. The man in front of him acknowledged and occasionally retaliated with little gestures. He seemed like describing an event which he narrated as smoothly as we speak with the crutch of words. I was simply in awe with how expressive a person can get without uttering a single word. I didn't get a slight drift of what the story was but I knew the description was vivid and full of life. I found myself an some others staring at him at times, in amazement. It is that time when you realize how lucky you are to be blessed to have speech. And no matter how many such movies you see , you realize the awe when such special expressive people confront you in real time. After a while, he signaled the other one for destination station and left the bus. He left me with a thought: Do we need words to express. No, I guess.Sometimes, silence can speak and speak better..

Isn’t Ambition same as greed??

 ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’ A line of thought that did rounds in 2011 centered around the death of iconic Steve Jobs. Quite a fillip for the ambitious crowd! But another line of thought, a rather spiritual one, has always focussed on contentment. To stay satisfied with what you have and bask in its happiness. As I write now, the fine line that separates ambition and contentment remains the perplexing issue.

If being content is suppressing ambition, not wanting more-then contentment is futile. And if contentment is mere suppression of greed, the question that arises is- how are the two entities AMBITIOUS and GREEDY different. Just that the former is seen in good light and the latter is an evil cousin? Or that being ambitious is having bigger aims and having greed is having bigger fantasies? I see no difference. The literal sense only obfuscates the issue. Both are quite synonymous with their intents- attaining A GOAL.


So, What one  should be? Content? Ambitious?For me, one can’t be both content and ambitious at once. If you are content with the present scenario, you will never be that hungry (read: ambitious) for your future goals. As the whole world propagates to strike a balance between the two, I am skeptic if such a state exists.

Its a tough call to pick one. Its infeasible to pick both.
Dilemma remains.

Bollywood:Sensual or Gross?

Once upon a time, almost everything sensual was taboo in Indian movies. A harmless kiss was enough to ruffle the conservative feathers of censor board. End result:  movies used themes and acting prowess to make their mark. Na, not anymore. Seems no one is prudish these days. If anything, the ideas have become bolder  with each flick. The Bollywood film makers have found one success formula to bag profits- Add 50 ml a sensual non-sense item number featuring a voluptuous actress wearing a flimsy dress  to a 25 ml solution of  adult jokes chipped now and then.Mix them thoroughly and garnish with a Page3 face ! And look what you get-A non-sense story with absurd logic and glam overdose-a perfect recipe to rake in the moolah!! But gradually the sensual oomph factor has turned from sensuality to disgust and gross exposure show!


Every other movie now banks upon a cheap looking item song with repulsive lyrics that will leave you wondering what role it had in context of the story that was going on. the so called sex symbol will do a pole dance , with a few lusty men singing in chorus around here. the number implicitly and even explicitly talking sexual content! The movies are increasingly using the bold tag in a hitherto conservative country and talking about the 'forbidden fruit'! But how far can they go with this body show?

It is good till it is sensual. But when it gets gross, its something absolutely unwarranted. The likes of Taare Zameen par and Rang De Basanti also thrived in this decade of sensuality. Why then the Munnis, Sheilas and Chamelis over-riding the plot .So, why are the movie makers running out of creative ideas to keep the audience engrossed? Have the theater actors run out of steam? I guess Bollywood movies are running awry with some non-sense stuff making the buzz. But nobody is complaining. The crowd is happy with the show, the actresses with the symbol  and the directors with the money. This trend of imitating the recipe will go on and third class flicks will keep on coming. After all, old habits never die.

Few Recent Epiphanies

CHANGE: Changing , I have learnt, is more about envisaging a change rather than longing for it. A longed change is like building the terrace without the ground floor. In the dream of the beautiful terrace, many of us forget the drudgery of building some unattractive floors under it. Without this work, the vantage view of terrace will elude forever.As the adage goes (however trite it may be) No pain, No gain! Changing is not about a holistic revamp. It's about enhancemnt, moving forward. A little change can fix the entire leak. A big change might create a bigger hole!

MOVIES AND LIFE:Life, like movies, has its share of ups, downs, drama, tragedy,ecstasy and other sister emotions.But the difference surely is that life has no  fairytale endings. If it has, it is because they have been made to end that way. Ends depend on means.

THE MOMENT:No time is better than the present moment. Procrastination is like an infinite loop in C. It never ends. More often than not, it spawns new seeds of procrastinations. Phew! Now that was some sort of an observation !!

What governments and girls have in common ( No offense to either !)

Caveat: if you don't have any humor bone, then close this tab and search Euro Crisis.  Because that money debt thing was damn serious, when i last heard!  :D

For  rest of you who think they can laugh along here it goes...Na! I am not the one having very keen interest in government ...neither the one who is the Adonis of girls but I whiff a  non-sense humour that is conceale these figures. And yes, it sounds fun. The analogy is there, if you look deep. Without any personal experience, I inferred a lot from what happens around!I present my case

1) Government has populist policies. Keeping all happy without the reforms. Girls make sure they don't hurt anyone but also ensure they don't do good to even one of them. That is how you stay sweet to all and sweetest to none.
2)Government takes time to come to decisions ( of national importance obviously!). Girls take time to come to decisions ( of not-so-national importance like dressing-up , choosing between two lipsticks at a store, blah blah!)
3)Government puts it best face at crucial moments (closer to elections). Ditto for girls just that crucial moments are parties and all.
4) Government talks a lot. Point made.
5)Government knows politics. Yes, you got the rest of the sentence right!
6) Government has 2 houses-Upper and lowerhouse. Girls have two (maika n sasural). Okay. Okay, this one was lame :D
7)Finally, Government is dangerous when it uses its authority.

HENCE PROVED, government is feminine!!


Well, needless to say, there are some differences too like--

1) Governments don't like Barbies.
2) Governments are not generally beautiful.
3) Governments have no liking for Richard Gere and George Clooney!
4) Governments make it to Hindu's front page. Girls make it TOI's front page!(  No offense TOI ji)

You are what you read, or see!

Image source: m4masti.com

Ever wondered if the morning page of newspaper you open first says something about your unique quality. It is something more than just an interest.The other day, I realized - the news we want to read does actually show the things we prioritize over others. So, here's what it is!
1. The sports page:  You prefer a $200 million football transfer over a  $200 million scam. You prefer sledging over parliament chappal fights. You relate better with Indian squad rather than the reshuffled cabinet team. You think you actually were meant for the post match analysis where some previous cricketers who got lucky are talking shit. If you open this page of the newspaper first without giving a rat's ass to the front page, you are not an idiot as your dad says, you actually are more concerned with men's victories, the ecstasy of triumph and how winners mean bussiness. You believe biggest jackasses are the guys running the sports and that you would do a better job, even if you do it part-time. You know the difference between a neo sports and a star cricket match. You make a facebook status after every great sports feat. Life is a game for you and that is a cool way to ruffle through your time. Keep criticizing the bad players, no matter how you suck in the game. You are the one and not the only though--- sports pundit!
2. The oomph page : the sallu-aish relationship has made you read the whole article  but not the cliched india-pak relationship. You stop on pics that made it to the hottest magazines. You know this movie will flop terribly just by a little trailer-wondering how the director didn't realize that. You think you have a better dressing sense than most of the page3  celebs and if given a break by a very own godfather, you can rock the rumour mills and the glam show. You have a taste of English shows although sometimes you laugh just because of  the filled  laughing noises. You even grow interest in the rumours of your social network, with the latest updates of breakups. You check relationship status of people on facebook and read profiles to know their interests.Look no further, you were always meant to be the guy who loves limelight. You are the legendary ---Glam king. Go rock the party, you beast. You were always meant to be there.
3. The editorial: you are an ias or an MBA aspirant who was told to read this stuff. You either have already left it or You somehow have got addicted and feel no less than a shobhaa de or a vir sanghvi. You develop a pros cons mindset for smallest things in life - be it buying a pen. You feel enlightened and make sure you have a thing to say for any discussion. Wikipedia is the second most opened page on your laptopm after Google. Your facebook status are about how bad society is, even if you can't do a fucking thing to fix it. You share intellectual links on fb, and people take no pain even understanding the headline.You hate the politicians. You know what separates toi and Hindu. You hate people who speak shit confidentally. You were even associated with school debates where you ended up thumping the table, asking where justice is? You are the special gyan guru whose mind is a database of facts and figures. take pride!
4. The city news: you read about the bus accidents, rapes , murders, thefts, and snatchings. You think police is lame and the justice lamer. You find no reason why India TV sucks. You double check your home lock before leaving.  You drive slow and avoid going alone at places. You smell crime everywhere and are mostly using the punch line -pata hai wahan kya hua. You hate the city for its condition. but care a shit when throwing wrappers on the road. You think you are the only one who understands how cruel the world is and that there's no place for innocents. You argue with the vendors, always suspectimg they are overcharging you. You are grumpy and believe in sabse pehle khud ki jai Karo. You are the smartest city citizen, go fight the world.
5. Front page: really?

What are u chasing in life

Pessimist: Man, this life sucks more. You can do all the hard work but all you get is criticism.

Optimist: It is not true. You have to bide your time. Rewards pour in later.

Pessimist: Come out of your fictional world. There is no Bollywood ending that makes everything perfect in the end. Sometimes it remains as it is. Life isn’t that long. You need rewards to keep you going.

Optimist: Fictional world?I am telling you what Hindu sacred book tells us-to concentrate on work and let go the thoughts of rewards.

Pessimist: Oh really? Then what inspires you to do the work if not the end result?

Optimist: Inspiration comes from satisfaction of doing work.

Pessimist: And passion comes from aiming at the lingering reward. Is your ideology man passionate?

Optimist:  He is passionate to perform.

Pessimist: Only perform? That can be forever. It can go on and on. You obviously need an incentive. A spur to perform. A reward to aim at.

Optimist: But if you think of that reward too soon, you are never working your way up to it. You have to look at the current rung of the stairs and not the top rung. Otherwise, you can trip and fall on the ground.

Pessimist:  It is your timid perception. I see it as the one who has the inspiration to reach up the flight of stairs, has a goal. That makes him go up quickly and outrun the world.

Optimist: That is where your philosophy backfires!

Pessimist: Where?

Optimist: To outrun the world. All you need is to outrun your own targets. If you are outrunning others, you are outrunning the standards they set. You can’t define yourself according to their standards.

Pessimist: What if even after outrunning yourself, you are far behind others and miss the reward hence.

Optimist: So what, you missed the whole point. I was never running after the reward. I was running after self-satisfaction

Pessimist had no answer.

Where is 'Common’s wealth’ going? Rubbish! More importantly, Where are we commonly going?

Indians, games and the disease of procrastinating….

As am scribbling this down, the most awaited event for India is just a ‘September’ away. The capital, meanwhile, combats against the tag team of scams, deadlines, star-back outs, potholes, seeping out ceilings, foreign sport bodies, media vilification, and opposition charges. But hey no-this isn’t an article which will harp on about cliched topics like “Why London is ready and Delhi is not?” or something like “Boycotting games!” All these can be elaborated fastidiously by our eminent Indian writers at the helm of Indian paper media. This article touches ‘macro-intricacies’. I strongly feel India, as a country, needs a holistic political revamp. This will usher new blood in the system and jettison the lax dispensation. The slack event handling is one thing, slack system is another. This ‘disease’ is contagious, and yes-it is definitely not new-fangled! The games plight is a mere micro sample of national predicament. For years, we have been culprit of this sluggish attitude-not only as a nation, but as an individual. Accept it or not-we (and yes me too) are suffering from an Indian disease of procrastination. We love to put off everything from snoozing an alarm to holding CWG. Moreover, we, startlingly, swank it.” Hey, I studied for 2 days and pulled off 75%. Howzzat? Observed my dexterousness? “. It insinuates hollow claim of managing a task that could have been made immaculate. The games, am sure, will be thrown in oblivion a fortnight after media gets a brand new spiced up stuff. Delhi CWG will be hailed as an achievement of Indian sports. Everything else will be subdued. The disease of procrastination, meanwhile, will be passed on in new veins.

We are born fearless, but gradually shun the virtue

The idea of this post was planted in my mind around two-three years ago when I was watching a show on ' Discovery' .The show did a demonstration about how infants understand the 'fear' of depth. To start with, they made an infant crawl on a glass floor with half surface over plain area and the other half over a deep area. The glass created a mirage as if the half line of glass surface was really an edge and as if you would fall tripping the half. Initially, the little infant crawled all over the surface, without understanding the meaning of depth and what it entails. He walked with the same speed on both halves. Then, the scientists threw objects down the deep half by removing the lid. They made sure the baby observed it and re-covered the lid. Gradually , baby started to understand what the depth factor can lead it. In a week or so(don't remember the time), the infant stopped on reaching the half line and preferred not to crawl on other half!!!

So, what my point is that the fear of depth was injected in baby. Naturally, he was born to face the world fearlessly. That's what we learn in life-to not confront fear , rather evade it!!

Isn’t Ambition same as greed??

 ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’ A line of thought that did rounds in 2011 centered around the death of iconic Steve Jobs. Quite a fillip for the ambitious crowd! But another line of thought, a rather spiritual one, has always focussed on contentment. To stay satisfied with what you have and bask in its happiness. As I write now, the fine line that separates ambition and contentment remains the perplexing issue.

If being content is suppressing ambition, not wanting more-then contentment is futile. And if contentment is mere suppression of greed, the question that arises is- how are the two entities AMBITIOUS and GREEDY different. Just that the former is seen in good light and the latter is an evil cousin? Or that being ambitious is having bigger aims and having greed is having bigger fantasies? I see no difference. The literal sense only obfuscates the issue. Both are quite synonymous with their intents- attaining A GOAL.


So, What one  should be? Content? Ambitious?For me, one can’t be both content and ambitious at once. If you are content with the present scenario, you will never be that hungry (read: ambitious) for your future goals. As the whole world propagates to strike a balance between the two, I am skeptic if such a state exists.

Its a tough call to pick one. Its infeasible to pick both.
Dilemma remains.

My 'Click' Theory

You can't probably give the whole credit of this philosophical derivation to me, but am sure that i have thought of this as one of the most important word in a person's life-CLICK!!

Perplexed ? I'll analyze that. Lets not make this start as a philosophy lecture. I'll kick off with a real-life example. Recently I watched a Soccer match involving Spain and Switzerland. Spain, Euro Cup winner, star studded squad was up against 24th rank not-so-mighty Swiss. Match started, as expected-Spain looked dangerous, hardly giving the ball to opposition. First half read 0-0 with Spain kept hungry for debut goal in Africa. The match turned on its head in 52', when Fernandes of Swiss sneaked a goal , taking 1-0, sadly for Spain they never equalized.Vicente del Bosque's team predictably dominated possession but were hit on the break seven minutes into the second half as the Swiss recorded a first win over Spain in 19 attempts.Neither the veteran Villa, nor Torres clicked but a 23-year old boy from St.Etienne did click-and now he has a story to tell his grandchildren 50 years later! A look at table below says it all:

left column stats--spain

right column stats-swiss

Match Stats

Spain

Switzerland

25(5)	Shots (on Goal)	9(2)
9	Fouls	19
12	Corner Kicks	3
2	Offsides	1
74%	Time of Possession	26%
0	Yellow Cards	4
0	Red Cards	0
1	Saves	5

So, what i want to say is simple: Though Spain worked hard, they never clicked!!On the other hand, Swiss clicked when it mattered, on a world cup day, against the champs. They rose to the occasion and delivered!!

I can relate to this theory too. I always finished in the top three in my class all my life till 11th standard. The big stage was ready. the 12th and entrance exams mattered. What was needed was a click from me and couldn't click:(. Many colleagues of mine, who clicked at the right time-got better colleges.In short, all my 11 years of invincibility was drained by a single flaw...

Over the years following this failure, i realized about this click theory-it doesn't matter whether you click or not all life, you got to click when the moment arrives!

In Cricket, my favorite game, what separates the good batsmen from the great ones is that great batsmen always deliver when their team needs them!

Simplicity

Sometimes after finishing a task, I sit back and ruminate how the process got so abstruse and mingled.Perhaps, it had a straight path and I ended up following a meandering one! Sometimes, while writing, I focus on adornment so much that the message remains unsent.Sometimes, too many thoughts try to outwit each other.All you need to know while walking your path is one thing-Destination. And the rest , I feel, falls in place. Take Sachin Tendulkar- the biggest living legend in India.He has nearly all the records in the book.But what he does is actually very simple-He pads up daily, walks to the field and gives his best.The rest falls in place. How we live is also too 'complexed'.We bear grudges, feign emotions, giggle because the adjacent person is doing so.Actually, we forget that we can be natural and live with an identity that is unique. Perhaps, the rest will fall in place.

May be, what i perceived is wrong. May be, am partially true.May be, am just literally impressive.Or may be, none of these. But I have had an epiphany-that magical 'Simplicity' is the solution to this convoluted life.

Circle theory

It is a thing I have always believed in, but thought of penning it down now. The analogy is something I can take credit of ;)

It is a common realization that once you get over things, they seem smaller than they did. I always thought of this as an analogy with circles. Here is what it is :

 Assume life to be a circle of  infinite radius. When we are in a problem, we are actually inside another circle enclosed within the big life circle. Lets call it : PROBLEM CIRCLE But since we are inside the problem circle, we don't know its radius. We assume it to be a big circle oblivious of its size. We get scared while confronting the problem. When we get over the problem, we move out of that circle and realize that it was a circle of nanometer radius, almost negligible compared to LIFE CIRCLE. Thus, we realize actual weight of the problem when we go out of it..

For example, tenth boards seemed herculean that time. But looking back, we know it wasn't worth the nerves.

The circles of problems are disguising thus. Small when we're out of them and  big when we're stuck.

That ‘Enigmatic Night Factor', with knobs on!!

Don’t know if that happens to you too. Every night i sleep pledging that i won’t screw tomorrow's day like I did today but somehow i feel that pledge gets saved in a RAM like volatile memory, as it effaces away with the dawn. That’s what i refer as ‘Enigmatic Night Factor’- every night it makes you feel like a ‘stereotype Indian neta’, who toys with pledges and promises more than any living body(at least that’s what their image is!)
Wait….There’s more to it than what meets the eye. It’s not just a factor that creeps in and persuades you to take pledges. If it had been that simple, i wouldn’t have called it enigmatic! If you don’t screw a day, a rare but possible scenario in my case, then this factor still comes to haunt you-this time masked as complacency. You keep thinking “ hey! that was a nice day for me, I did it, blah, blah…” and somehow you activate your ‘complacency hormones’ ( i didn’t say i am a biological personnel, i can use that term:p:p)…So, are here with a ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde’ factor, as you never know what it’s up to….but you know one thing for sure …it’s here for your undoing!
That’s why i call it ‘ The Enigmatic Night Factor, with knobs on”…