On leave

Am driving down to Jageshwar - a hill station beyond Almora to spend life in the rough winter chill in a cottage far removed from civilization and its pampering luxuries.

Expect a wiser me after the New Year.

Celebrate.
Another year gone.
Just few more left for eventual obsolescence!

Friday Morning thots

Don't mix your drinks!

The reason I smell these days is taht the damn electricity is never there to heat my geyser!

Did I really say that last night?

The boss is on a long leave - Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Binge with friends
or
Explore Delhi
or
Snuggle in the blanket and read?

Ouch...

Deep something Blue's Breakfast at Tiffany's

You say that we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
But I know you just don't care

CHORUS:
And I said what about "Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

I see you - the only one who knew me
And now your eyes see through me
I guess I was wrong
So what now? It's plain to see we're over,
And I hate when things are over -
When so much is left undone

CHORUS:
And I said what about "Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

You say that we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You'll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
But I know you just don't care

CHORUS:
And I said what about "Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

Murali

My boss - decent, honest, fair and highly efficient.

I consider myself very lucky.

Gin soaked boy

Probably, my favorite English number:

I'm the darkness in the light
I'm the leftness in the right
I'm the rightness in the wrong
I'm the shortness in the long
I'm the goodness in the bad
I'm the saneness in the mad
I'm the sadness in the joy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the ghost in the machine
I'm the genius in the gene
I'm the beauty in the beast
I'm the sunset in the east
I'm the ruby in the dust
I'm the trust in the mistrust
I'm the Trojan horse in Troy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the tiger's empty cage
I'm the mystery's final page
I'm the stranger's lonely glance
I'm the hero's only chance
I'm the undiscovered land
I'm the single grain of sand
I'm the Christmas morning toy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the world you'll never see
I'm the slave you'll never free
I'm the truth you'll never know
I'm the place you'll never go
I'm the sound you'll never hear
I'm the course you'll never steer
I'm the will you'll not destroy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the half-truth in the lie
I'm the why not in the why
I'm the last roll of the die
I'm the old school in the tie
I'm the spirit in the sky
I'm the catcher in the rye
I'm the twinkle in her eye
I'm the Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly"
Who am I?

Campaign against Redif comments - II

Another example of the free speech

I have removed the comment. My only point of keeping it here was to show what shit is being poured out in the name of freedom Freedom comes with responsibility.

Very sad.
the khalistani rats ran away to canada when hindus raped their mummy in 1984. LOLOLby on Dec 10, 2007 08:20 PM Hide repliesall sikhs born in delhi are really hindus. ask their mothers. LOLOL

Dada Sachin Blah blah proves his critics wrong - Bullshit!

Imagine I get elected to the top management of a board for quite a croreful of salary. What is expected of me is consistency. I have had a glorious career with the company. My job is to get sales.

I am a bit off-color. Worse, I am so full of my past achievements, the media attention that I really am not pulling my best. Please note: offering your best does not guarantee results; but it does guarantee that you did your best to get the thing done. The probability of overall success depends on this.

I keep missing targets; lose important projects; whole series of them. Criticism mounts, mounts; people question my standing in my role in the face of many talented aspirants beneath. It mounts and mounts and one day I stand tall and give my best; and lo, it happens. The deal is through.

And then I go back to my previous relaxed state, dragging my feet along.

Would you really care to prolong my job in the next review cycle?

This is what happens in Indian cricket.
Talent has to come with application: there are times when the guy genuinely is trying but struggling and just needs some time on the beach to cool off. But worse, sometimes the guy is too big now to put in 100%.

And then one day, when he obliges with it we have the inane headlines : "Sachin silences his critics".

One knock, one match - to compensate for a few series.

People won't be rational, we all speak through our emotions; but the media has sadly also fallen for this trap.

Professionalism in sports implies applying the standards being perfected in other arenas of life - esp. business.

Because please, these guys are not making any sacrifices for the nation - they are doing their job in a very competitive market and being compensated very well for them. Try asking Sachin to relive his career without the crores and the Mercedes but only sustaining on the heart-rending pride of playing for the nation.

Bullshit.

We are doing more for the nation sitting here and working towards the eventual trickling down of economic prosperity according to the laws of capitalism; rather than playing in pajamas. :)

But do we talk about the sacrifices we've made? We don't coz we are not making any: we're in for the money, power, self actualization, whatever.

So let's understand and put the same perspective for our sportsmen.

Because, as I said, in our hearts we know: no nation is made, unmade on the back of a bunch of guys playing in pajamas: it's only entertainment. A nation is made on a collective resonance of people giving their best in whatever they do (within the constraints of law) and in turn the best the nation can do for them is to give them the best possibility of equal opportunity so that they can give that best and let the law of markets reward them accordingly.

Bangalore Test - 1 day

Beautiful partnership, right?
I guess nobody ws expecting this magic from Yuvi and Sourav.

Since cricket hs been one of the three pillars of Modern Indian Culture (along with politics and Cinema), so often the tame psyche and lame surrender be mimiced in the national mood.

Comments on Rediff

I think the comments on Rediff are, almost as a rule, too loose. I, of all people, have no problems with looseness as along as it does not embrace malicious stereotyping, racism and intolerance - esp. in a public space.

I have spotted this problem in Rediff since years now and have been shocked by the venom. Sample this comment today on article on Rushdie's introduction to Desai's In Custody :

ADVISE TO REDIFFby Rajesh Bhagwat on Dec 07, 2007 11:43 AM YOU HAVE SEEN RECENTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN TASLIMA NASREEN CASE. MOSLEMS ARE BECOMING GROWINGLY INTOLERANT.ACTION AND REACTION ARE EQUAL AND OPPOSITE, AS PER THE LAWS OF KARMA,HENCE THEY ARE GONNA FACE EQUALLY FIERCE INTOLERANCE FROM OTHER RELIGIONS AND COMMUNITIES. ONE WORD OF CAUTION TO REDIFF PEOPLE. NO DOUBT YOU ARE DOING A GRREAT JOB BUT ILLITERATES DONT UNDERSTAND THIS. IF YOU GIVE NEWS OF RUSHDIE, THOSE ILLITERATES(OR GRADUATES OF MADRASSAS) CAN ALSO ISSUE A FATWA AGAINST YOU!!!

This is a sample. It has no relevance to the article. Very soon some Mr. Y will speak about raping Hindu women, deriding the Gods, then Mr. Z will abuse Allah. Many times their names will be just that - X, Hindu Lover, Allah, Islam

There are some people who feel that a lot of these comments (that get moderated only hours after the posting) are actually planted by mischievous (what a nice term for these assholes) elements, incl., as always, our brothers across the border. I agree somewhat : there are some patterns that keep coming.
And when Hindu Lover asks "Do you think our Gods are really powerful as their mighty one?" I smell a rat

My point is: This is not what free speech means
A protest against rights violation is a free speech
A painting of a "god" in a format unexplored is (it is also artistic creativity)
But a base abuse, threats and calls for ethnic cleansing - No.

Either rediff should disallow anonymous comments or moderate them before publishing.

This shit has been going on for too long.

Kauvva bole Cow Cow

For the first time, I woke up on a Saturday morning in my apartment here.

Hangover. No electricity. No geyser, no tea over the electric stove. Sigh.

What!!! No cigarettes! Horror!

Bundled up in the rajai and watched Evan Almighty. Disappointed.

A walk to the market. A new stray way. With boughs bowing over, puddles and broken bottles, and the dry sandy dust of Gurgaon.

Morning of Delhi December - a lazy cool zephyr and the fog yawning, rolling its mattress and leaving.

Got some ham, a couple of samosas but still not tea.

As I walked back stopped by a small tea shack. Asked him to make fresh tea for me without the mandatory half cupfulof sugar as the Jats here like it.

A cow wanders along and eyes my samosa in the plaintive and demanding fashion of a.. a.. cow. I throw the samosa to her and it breaks - steam pouring out of the hot aaloo inside. A dog makes a tentative and timid go but the cow looks up to him like - "Get along, buster!" and the dog slinkers off.

The cow has a mouthful and then drops it off the mouth. The interior is so hot that she licks the tongue on her nose, airs it and even puts it against a steel post nearby. Has another mouthful, this time whales it down but still does the tongue dance.

I get up, pay the three bucks and walk back.


Happy to be alive.
Happy to be where I am.
Happy to be what I am.

Song: Free falling.

A stray comment by Modi to Taslima - Is this democracy?

AHMEDABAD: Continuing to target Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said her description of him as a "merchant of death" was an "insult" to the people of Gujarat and warned there will be no let-up if her attacks do not stop.

So guys/girls, next time you insult me, you're insulting the people of Uttar Pradesh!

This ties to a previous post - http://blandspice.blogspot.com/2006/11/world-according-to-media.html

One of the weaknesses of democracy in third-world countries (yes! I believe we're still that) is that it gets reduced to the simplistic definition of ability to hold fair elections.

The foundation of democracy was the dawn of age of reason. The French revolution. Liberty Fraternity Equality.

From there emerged the concept of modernity. I will try to define that in the words I learnt from Dipankar Gupta's excellent Mistaken Modernity.

Modernity implies a base equality where all men are equal irrespective of birth and what they do. From this base, given the assumption of semblance of equal opportunity, they are equipped to distinguish themselves thereon. In our country, this would translate into good and complete education till school for everybody and college for those who want to study further.

Modernity implies respect for the dignity of the individual. In this aspect it is the complete opposite of totalitarianism - where the faceless state implies sacrifice of the individual at the altar of the collective.

Unfortunately, democracy in India has largely become a sham after the foundations laid by heroes like - Nehru very largely (*my opinion), Rajaji, Azad, Patel, Periyar, Kriplani, Morarji, my grandfather and others - due to the non-implementation of mass education reforms. Many a time what we see is the old feudal mentality in the cloak of democracy.

"Isne Indiraji ko gaali di... maaro sale ko"

What happened to Hussain, Taslima, Rushdie is not a symptom of democratic temperament - the symptom is inclusiveness of dissent and difference and not the fascist drive for syncretism and blanking out of everything we don't like seeing and hearing. Everybody gets the platform to air the opinions, people decide what to listen and ignore. As long as the means advocated do not violate the fundamental rights of others, let them air it out. Please note this caveat. Hitler would not be able to defend his anti-Semitic agenda under this as his means were violating the fundamental rights of Jews. Instead he could have demanded transparency, debate - for his grievances. If proved wrong, he would have to be willing to accept the decision; democracy implies adherence to these standards: it is not simply a tool for power.

Democracy is as much about listening than speaking.

No one man speaks for a state, religion , ethnicity.

If there are hundred men, and twenty demand something, they are still a minority. If they are 51, they are a majority they have some claim.

But if they are 85 demanding the violation of 11 - "Fuck you! you can be 99 and still you can't do it."

Despite the vibrancy of images of goatherds, burkha clad ladies, Rajasthani women in motley of colors and Bhils lining outside poll booths that is not democracy my friends. It's only the road.

Give them the choice, but also give them the abilities to make the right one.

Respect the individual.

Don't presume to be a state, a nation, a civilization that has stood weathered and tested for 5000 years, a tribe that has grown, grown and grown.

Christmas hols

kahaan jaun apne chhote se budget par?

These are going to be the last big leave for me for some time, or so says my boss.

Grime

Days are rolling into years, and years into a lifetime of nothing.
I still walk alone, live alone and sleep alone.

Empty apartments.
Silent maids in the morning.
Indifferent dust on the CDs.
Empty fridge and inbox.
User busy.
The screaming silence of the room.

The irony of organizing an unshared space. An entire life.

I run through this dark, lonely path through the jungle and still see no road. Thick vines of mediocrity dragging me back.

I only see the edge approach now; and a fog beyond.

Somewhere, somehow, sometime - I have to break everything off and jump off this cliff.
Either land into freedom or die trying.