Sunday, June 28, 2009

Invincible

I never thought to be that person who would grieve the loss of a pop-icon. But here I am dedicating this blog to Michael Jackson-He who rocked my world for some twenty odd years, and will continue to do for many years to come.
Michael and I go a long way back. Somewhere in the early 1990’s someone gifted me the album “Dangerous”. And since that day all the colours were either “black or white“. Even as years progressed dear Michael always managed to figure in my life somehow. Whether it was “Give in to me” as suggested by a very special person at a point of time, or “Stranger in Moscow” downloaded after the very positive recommendation from a friend, MJ has given me music that has given shape to so many of my life memories. The drives on roads along the Mandovi in Panjim, would have been so different without his Grammy nominated “ You are not alone”. I know these words are fraught with nostalgia. But that’s what music does, a familiar tune is enough to push you down those old paths. Music lives on forever.

In the opinion of some cynics, revering Michael Jackson could possibly be a result of the mass adulation wave that rose tsunami like when the news of his death became public. But then, the eternal optimist (recent converted) that I am, I’d have to say, such was his impact on music in the decades gone by. I am not writing this to reiterate the accolades he might have to his name-we have the wikipedias of the world to do the needful on that front.
It has been asserted by some publically , and some even close to me that the death of Michael Jackson is fortuitous in that it leaves the world a safer place for children. Now, I agree allegations and suspicious out of court settlements have marred MJ’s career since the early 1990’s, add to that several rhinoplasties and idiosyncrasies and you have someones life all mangled on the front pages of tabloids worldwide. Michael Jackson was a singer and a great one at that too, the world loves/d his songs and moves, yet somehow when all the media frenzy came to do the rounds, we seemed to promptly forget his forte and decided to focus on all the negativity. I am not saying we ought to condone his misdoings, but amidst all the controversy it is imperative to remember that MJ was an individual, and like so many of us out there, had some flaws. Agreed, being a public figure everything does tend to get completely out of proportion and makes for lucrative headlines. All of us have some dark secret in our lives at some point of time, and it would be highly unpleasant to see it being sold at a few cents a piece on a newsstand. So maybe this once, we can let a great singer rest in peace, and remember him for what his music was: Invincible.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Perro Pathos

I have wanted to write a witty story with the above title for about two years now. It was first intended to be “Perro Pathos-Ek kutte ki dard bhari kahani” (Perro-Pathos-One dogs painful story). I contemplated writing about life from a dogs perspective, having encountered atleast one dog in every campus I have managed to study in or visit over the years. Somehow, the discussions and thoughts never materialized into anything substantial or into a first draft for that matter. I brushed off the feeling of abandoning what could have been a masterpiece of contemporary literature, thinking that perhaps I was meant to be scared of dogs eternally and not make them the protagonists of my Pulitzer Prize winning book.
It is only today after my 1,87,645th encounter with Rocky (christened so) and Silly (Conjured up by yours truly) at my haunt of choice for a quick chat and thirst quencher with the girls, did I realize maybe I am attracting the Rockies, Sillies, Jangos, Mochas, Thirsty-D’s the world because of my bad dog Karma.
Bad Dog Karma, you say?
This theory is essentially two fold. Firstly, my fear of dogs has only become more entrenched over the years and not dissipated as anticipated by me and predicted by some wise men/women. I have often heard that dogs can sense fear and get attracted to dimwits who are unable to mask their fears with a brave face. Some like me are even worse, and start an enchanted supplication process which entails chanting names of God, family, friends and willing them to make the dog vanish, all the while with eyes squeezed shut as a dog innocently approaches.
If this is true, then perhaps I have concluded after much thought, that the dogs approach me over and over trying to get across a message that I ought to let go of this fear. But what fails me is how they manage to coordinate their efforts across the National Capital Region.
The Second line of thought is bordering on the Reincarnation of Souls. I have a strong feeling that I was a very notorious dog in my past life, motivating hoards of dogs to fight a gory war to regain territorial control. And now, just for fun, I’ve been born a human in that very territory the dogs had managed to defeat some hundred years ago. No wonder the dogs in the general area always approach me with vengeance.
Now I don’t really know which theory has more proponents at this point, but I can definitely say this in Spanish: Mi perro es fiero y fuerte. ( My dog is fierce and strong)..and lest you think otherwise, I don’t have a dog. I just like to talk about them.
(Disclaimer: All of the above mentioned dog names are written as heard/concocted by the writer for comic relief purposes ONLY. Any resemblance to humans with similar names is purely coincidental)

Friday, June 19, 2009

The evening was quite luminous
Then the night descended
And changed everything….

The perception, the visage of love
Was distorted and dark
The thoughts transitioned
Dancing their insouciant outlandish dance
Their serpentine caress
Albeit the sagacious charm

Resuscitated soon after though,
The dark attenuated to grey
The chimera abated

It’s a manic world as they say
But somehow it’s just right.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Revolutionizing the Inveterate Systems

As I step into the Patiala house courts grounds for the first time, I am confronted with a bleak reality. Amidst the deplorable state of cleanliness and the general disarray I am forced to face the thought that perhaps we need to awake to the need for a radical change –a radical shift in the functioning of administrative divisions.
Given my newfound optimism in life, I was able to cast a blind eye to the disorder at the passport offices, but a quick trip to the MEA offices for apostillization had me thudding back to reality.
Going with the optimistic tone that I am trying hold here, I will shed only minimalistic radiance on the reasons that compel me to think what I’m thinking.
An average citizen of the country in need for a basic service such as renewal of travel document, flutters to the passport office with much hope having taken the day off from work. He/She hopes he/she has all the documents mandated and progresses at snails pace to the window. Fast forward thirty minutes and he/she has been reprimanded for being in the wrong queue, with the wrong documents and for having created a commotion. The hopeful innocence has trickled down his/her forehead by now and all that is left are fractious fragments of doom.
Another dampner for the complete novitiate could be a sense of complete disillusionment upon arrival. With forms in tow and faith in his/her heart the fledgling arrives promptly at 9 am and looks around for a friendly face and sees none. If he/she could just ask someone -where to go and what to do? So without a scintilla of doubt that his/her resilience would pay off, he/she strides purposefully toward the mass of crowd that looks like a queue. Come, 10 am and our novitiate is standing in a corner sipping water, letting the five varied answers he got from the crowd do their own sordid dance in his/her head.
It would suffice to say that given the rapid development we are observing today in infrastructure (Cometh Commonwealth Games 2010) and other corporate miracles being witnessed everywhere, it is excruciatingly important that the administrative departments progress proportionately if not in tandem.
Perhaps it is time we develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Model Business Processes (MBPs) for these wings of the government. It would be interesting to wonder how this might be conceptualized. To begin with the Government can hire consulting firms to study the AS-IS processes of various departments involving interface with the general populace. Followed by which they can carry out a gap analysis and come up with a model process which would expedite the functioning of the department at the same time enhance customer satisfaction (After all we are paying taxes and a fee for the service!). Development of standardized practices all across would result in readily available information at various portals to the citizens of the country to prevent redundancies and omissions, which in turn further enhance the functioning of the departments.
A simplistic illustration; If there are large displays indicating the process of acquiring a new travel document detailing layouts, instructions and lead time, the time devoted to answer incessant questions at application windows could be avoided. Also, we observe that token numbers are distributed to applicants for which they are required to queue up hours before the counter opens up. Now, would it not be easier to install token dispensing machines and utilizing the excess manpower on other domains such as enquiry counter, extra form verification counters, helpdesks?
I would be wrong to say that things have not improved at all over the years-they have indeed. But if we are to say that we are fortified and liberal in our existence as a nation we must replace the hackneyed ways with a professional optimism.

Friday, June 12, 2009

13 Thoughts for the day

1. What goes around comes around. It's all Karma.

2. Mangoes taste sweeter than they did ever before. Is it me or is it them?

3. Cracking up in a murder mystery where the protagonist is going through a sombre phase , is something that needs to be given a try. Thrice.

4. Body Shop should have a sign saying "Mudra not allowed inside".

5. Bollocks to the literal interpretation of "Corgito, Ergo Sum"

6. Assam tea tastes brilliant even at 41 degrees.

7. God bless the empathetic officials at the collection counter at Passport Office.

8. The Bertlitz Spain guide is waiting to be devoured.

9. Life is now adorned by 4 new books I can't wait to get my eyes into.

10. Playing chauffeur to '' Betty Crocker -gone-berserk' and 'Whacko-laughing/maniac-movie-watcher' is quite fun!

11. Wearing a kurta(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurta) invites less leching on the roads.

12. You can't resist what IS.

13. 'Coming Back to life' is the new anthem.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The day ends, the journey concludes

My heart still beats with the myriad hues

My mind dwells in memories past

The friends that were, the friends that are

The night descends, with promises in pockets

I wander a little, my thoughts astray

The questions slowly give way to calm

My walk is not aimless, my steps are firm

The journey untold has just begun.

Monday, April 13, 2009

10 Travel Faux Pas

1. Requesting the ground staff to give you a 'nice' seat, attempting to explain the word 'nice' by contrasting it with the few lecherous inhabitants of my city,particularly like the one in front of me in the check in queue, only turning up in the aircraft to find out that you are sitting next to the very definition of 'not-nice' spilling onto the next seat, but who turns out to be quite harmless in the end.

2. Wearing slim fit jeans so that someone who can ordinarily sit quite comfortably in the most uncomfortable seat in the history of all uncomfortable seats EVER, has to squirm and fidget every five nano seconds.

3. Traveling without a perfume strung below your nose to ward away drafts of fart smell from a co-passenger.

4. Looking forward to an airplane meal only to discover that the meal was just a good looking substance perhaps a hybrid of stones and sawdust.

5. Stuffing twenty books in your backpack to make your suitcase lighter only to realize the precious worth of your fragile vertebrate.

6. Not wearing socks and having your feet break off from your body once frozen, when the aircraft crew thought it would be prudent to simulate arctic temperatures.

7. Waiting out the queues while boarding and feeling witty only to realize that the overhead compartments are all full leaving you looking perplexed and burdened.

8. Writing THIS when the plane is about to land and being told to bugger off with the diary and pen however only a tad more politely.( They can't expect me to jump off now, lets get real)

9. Using the washroom right after someone has spent an enlightening hour clearing their bowel.

10. Spending the entire five hours of the flight whiling away precious night hours with silly activities like day dreaming.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

If I were born in Delhi again, I'd like to be a man please, Here is why: ( Yes, I believe I just went a step down on the Women’s lib)

1. I would be able get drunk at a bar all by myself without harboring tortuous thoughts of sordid and lecherous men coming my way to beat me up and/or pass lewd remarks.

2. I would be able to drive at 1 am at night with the windows rolled down-enjoying the tranquility of the night, and appreciating the width of the roads without having to worry about heart palpitations at the sight of a car nearing mine.

3. I would be able wear shorts in the sweltering heat without thinking 49 times about the repercussions of that minuscule decision.

4. I would be able to take a walk at leisure without having to look behind my back.

5. I would be able to stop the car and relieve myself on the road. (Not really sure if I’d do that though, but it makes for a valid argument)

6. I would be able date ten people at the same time and still be the epitome of morality.

7. I would be able to go to Nehru Place feeling non-descript even if I looked like Hugh Jackman.

8. I would actually be able to act on capricious cravings for chocolate-chip ice cream at 2 am.

9. I would be able travel in DTC at 10 pm and befriend the listless conductor.

10. I would be able to embark on a sightseeing adventure to parts of old Delhi with just a camera in tow.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

What's Your Story?

If I ask you today, ‘what is you story?’ Your answer would probably be a nonchalant shrug followed by a hackneyed “the usual”. If you ask me the same question I’d say the same albeit semantic differences. Now let’s dig deeper…is that really true?

Everyone has a grand plan, a blueprint of sorts. Some make one for themselves; some have it partly drafted for them…by life. And all through we try to ensure that we live according to those charted out plans. Illustration#1 to prove point: Finish School-College of Choice-Work/Another Degree-Marriage-Kids-Work-Blah-Blah. And then that becomes our story.

But is that really our story?

Whatever billions of people humanity has managed to produced, it has taken pride in compartmentalizing each of those billions into these rigid silos. As time progresses, the number of silos will start to dwindle until an age dawns (in the near 3020) when there’d be just two classifications: the follower and the nonconformist.
Coming back to the NOW, I can assertively state that all our efforts are directed towards following that path which is generally prone to fewer deviances from the Model Societal Path 2000 henceforth referred to as MSP-2000. Now that’s brilliant really because it offers tremendous succor. But is that really the way God intended it? Billions of creatures called human, and one MSP -2000? Now that can’t be right. Maybe there is something awry and vapid about our orientation then.
For those on bordering on peripheral agnosticism and atheism the above thoughts might be incomprehensible, however as the history of disclaimers go, this is just my thought and totally subject to belief. ()

Test#1 Ask a complete stranger what he/she does. In most cases we would be told of academic/professional pursuits. (In case of non availability of those: entrepreneurial/prospective pursuits would be elucidated).
Thought#1 Are we letting the definitions we created to spell out our lives, define us? Is the MSP-2000 creeping into our souls and fettering our spirits?

The way each one of us is fine tuned, genetically and spiritually, is inherently different. If we realize that, then how that is we don’t realize that our lives our not defined by the acts we undertake or the decisions we make to ensure sustenance. Yet, it is these life choices that have been established as the benchmark for introduction, evaluations and my least favorite: judgments.
Each experience for every individual is unique. A music concert attended by thousands would engender different memories and thoughts even though the stimulus is the same. That is something so fundamentally beautiful about life. Our experiences form perceptions which get intermingled with our thoughts which in turn give birth to new experiences. And that is what defines us.
We might all have come with pre-downloaded MSP-2000, but our experiences change every instant. We may have just one life to live it, but there is never one story.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Joie De Vivre-Making the Most of Ill Health

Being under the weather gives one a lot of time to think. In between naps that stretch through the day, and vile medicines, throw in some rumination for good measure. It's fascinating really, the realms the head can traverse when it’s supposedly on a "time out".
Amidst capricious thoughts of launching a career as a waitress in some roadside cafe in Antibes, my mind assaults the stomach with cravings for all sorts of food which are indeed prohibited on the other side of good health. Alas! The book I am reading with its graphic narratives of truffles, Bresse Chicken and Burgundies, is like an anathema, but only till the time I reach the chapter on gelatinous snails. Now THAT I can pass.
Another observations that dawns in my clogged up head for want of gastronomic delights, is that how television has nothing good to offer when you actually do have the luxury and liberty of devoting more than ten minutes to mind numbing movie marathons.
As I convince my self to watch the fifty eighth rerun of that movie which I already saw twice post my resolve to not watch it in the first place, I realize that the aroma of tea offers much comfort to me even as the decadence that has been brought about by excessive medication and rest refuses to let up.
I browse through the pages of a glossy magazine promising to reveal all on the haute couture of the working wardrobe. It is exciting this promise, I must admit. I feel like a dilettante in this world of fashion and accessories to be honest, and it’s valid to tell you the truth. I really can’t afford that Lambskin Chanel worth thirty thousand rupees.
Last of all I’d like to thank the inventors of muffins. They have been the best of friend in these trying times. The kind of best friend you eat though.