Morning, yes am awake finally. So now I am back, here are the updatdes:
1. Started a movie blog with khurana and lucy and called it Pen The 70mm. Dream come true.
2. Screwed CAT again, fortunately cleared XLRI and IRMA. Going to XLRI, thanks to Sachin Tendulkar and Richa 
3. Thanks to point 2, Job has become cooler than ever before.
4.Now I feel stronger, at least 5 kgs stronger.
5.And I am still lacking muse. Help Help Help.
Hibernation is disabled and this space will blossom again, Amen!
13th September, 6.45 PM: I was with my parents at the crowded ISBT when I received a call from mausi, she sounded worried as Delhi faced a series of blast. There was a pinch of silence in my head followed by a brief hallucination of seeing ISBT getting blown up, and there I stood helpless, thirsty and sad. Scared, I am not sure if I was scared or not, but I was too numb for a lot of feelings. I was not allowed to travel back that night to Gurgaon, and I was denied the opportunity to see Manchester United Vs Liverpool on TV (i know its sick and inconsiderate of me to do that anyways) as there were news from all over the blast places.
On my way back next morning, the atmosphere was calm, silent and nauseating. The tall, dark and handsome India Gate was in shock and so was Yamuna and Vikas minar at the ITO. All that while I was revising places. I was thinking about Ahmedabad, Kalupur, yes I had been there, not only once but many times. Then Mumbai, yes, I loved the local trains, and I so much love them today as well. Bangalore, Forum et al, what not have i seen, yes I have been there. And Delhi, I have been all over the place. I have visited all these places, time and time again, but that is not the only thing common in these ‘now’ historically important. They have all been shattered by bombs, killing many, leaving many physically challanged for rest of lives and thus changing the world for a lot of us.
I am unaffected, yes, I am alive, my family, friends, they are all alive, sigh! And thus sunday’s dinner at Pizza Hut was amazing, spirited away is such a wonderful movie, Pearl Jam – I love you eddie, you are the spark of my life. My beautiful life! Ah, my beautiful life, until I suffer that loss. I will wait. This is sickening feeling, risking lives, creating divides and doing what not.
I don’t see much that we can do suddenly to make it all better, it is a huge and crazy country driven by politically defined desires and a powerful mob and clean shaved well dressed leaders. But for sake our lives we can try to keep our open and make sure that we put some value on our lives, take care of it by ensuring that we support all the checking procedures that happen in crowded places which are susceptible to blasts. We can assist those who are taking care of our security and we can question those who should but aren’t. We can keep our eyes open. We can still keep ourselvess strong against the communal bias that these attacks aim to created. This is not the time to make stupid and irrational judgements against a whole community, this is the time to keep faith strong and make sure that all this isn’t converted in some communal riot.
And we can hope, we can hope that things will change for the better. Religion never preaches what is shaping up now, killing is not religion, nor is hating or giving pain.
Man has created all the religions, god just send us here with one religion – mankind.
We transit everyday in our chewing gum lives,
continuosly, unintentionaly and forecefully,
losing flavour street by street along the path,
and reaching the end, being all the same.
I am suprised by the impulsive energy spikes
when u start aiming for the sky
is this a trivial harmonic imbalance
or another fancy movie showing life.
And, by the end of the day,
a bed agin waits for you, warm, inviting
and it quietly utter in your left ear,
another day vanishes, like the rest of them
today’s movie is over,
its time to go back to sleep
its time to go back to your life
Just writing about some things that I think changed me, or at least a part of me
A Writer and two books: Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged, yes it did make a difference, and it does make a difference in the great domain of lower minds, the indispensable engine of this world. After reading them, a lot of us start idolizing Howard Roark , in this great competitive circus, where everyone is so proudly replicating Peter Keating lives, these old fictions come up as a reality check, as an honest mirror display! There is one more impact Ayn Rand has on your thought process and that is the ignition of the ’so-what’ mindset. And believe me, the ’so-what’ mindset is far calmer that the ‘what-if’ mindset.
A Bank: Another book that impacted me immensely is the freshly completed ‘Banker to the poor’, which talks about Grameen bank, its genesis, functioning, people, and a lot of things about it. For someone who has believes that the world economy is depressingly polar, this story came as a hammer, and a followed up relief. Very motivating and logical. The biggest question that has been asked to the world still remains “How do we eliminate poverty from the face of the world”, in our lifetimes; a few answers like Grameen bank will help. Amen!
A Movie: I love movies, from ek ruka hua faisla to Amelie, from the incredibles to Raincoat, from Memento and the butterfly effect to Ghost World, I love them all. They entertain me to the core. And in this midst of all these great movies and the great directors, arrived ‘Into the Wild’, the only movie that I have gone back again and again and again. I just can’t get enough of it. And even if the movie’s magnetic field diminishes, the music and lyrics of this movie takes over. I once told about this movie to my simple very motherly mother, she quietly asked me ‘Everything’s ok son?’, she surely loves me a lot . Time to quote from a song from the movie
When you want more than you have, you think you need…
and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place…
cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.
A Person: Ravi Gulati. Met him only twice, and I am a fan of his, admiration comes up naturally for this IIM A graduate who runs a subtle NGO called Manzil based in Delhi where he teaches under privileged kids necessary skills. One of most humble persons you will ever meet, and he will surely make you rethink and ask ‘What am I doing?’, anyways I think I am still young, and I cant run away saying that for a long time. Though I admire him a lot, but I wouldn’t say that he changed me, in that category only one person can fall, and that’s ‘She’, call it obvious, call it bourgeoisie, call it rule-of-world, but I am a different person when I am with her, a different person for her. We are two different ends of this world, but it clicks and it clicks pretty well for our comfort. I am always asking questions, feeling sad, wanting to do this to do that, and she has a pretty simple solution to my mental turbulences – ‘Why do you think so much’ and thus she conveniently shuts me off. But I guess it’s time for me to tell her on a public platform, thanks for being there!
There are more things that changed me, events, more people, my stay at my college DA-IICT, my stay at Mumbai and Bangalore, troubled times at home, my dad’s drinking habit and his management skills, and perhaps a few more. And my own belief that a person changes completely in a span of 4-5 years, lets see, if that continues to happen.
This is not a tag post, but i would like if some of my blogmates pen a similar post, it would be interesting, so requesting the following to pen the same:
Luthra, Shakti, Ankit, Richa, Naresh, Navin, Kamiya, Steve, Biraja, eesha, Desh, Vineet, Prateek
Venue : Indian Habitat Centre
Date : 31 May 2008
Time : 5 PM
Event : Asmita Group presents street play
It was a long Friday, stretched longer till Saturday morning in office, assisting Ankit in his work; 2 hours of sleep and up I went to greater Noida for some work with Prabhakar. Here goes the whole day. Tired and sleepy I request Prabhakar to visit IHC as we have Asmita group presenting street plays today, ah, street play, and I see those pictures in mind, kurtas, loud throats, social message, aggression, amazing actors, stunned audience, an observant director, many questions, few answers. Nostalgia, the word ‘street play’ triggered nostalgia.
The stage was set, and then there was this explosion! The first street play talking about road safety had around 25 artists, and the sudden outburst of energy shook the awaiting audience. ‘Gaddi jaandi hai chhalanga maar dee, ho mainnu yaad aaye mere yaaar dee’, the play very subtly talked about how indifferent everyone is about road safety in a highly crowded city like ours and how we deny to take control of whole situation. Be it the drunk truck driver, politically shielded bus driver, a young biker or just one of us walking on the road, it makes no difference to us whatsoever, until we become part of the victim list. Lack of thought, that’s all, traffic is such a wonderful example of the great Hindustani instinct of ‘we can but we won’t’.
The second one was called ‘Rahul Boxer’, and displayed ego VS ethics, how all of us want to prove a lot of things all the time. That urge to win, to exceed, to leave the world behind, irrespective of the ‘how’, we keep aiming. It’s a different world these days, more competitive, more needs, more desires, higher aims, lower reasons! We are living it, kind of. This was done by a few novices, and considering this, it was wonderful.
The third one, again by a few other novices talked about a young rape victim, a ten year old school girl, who was raped by her tuition teacher. Time and time again, questions have been raised on the respect rape victims must receive from police, judiciary and the society, still many unanswered questions revoked. Let alone successful trials of rapists, I am not even sure if the number of rape cases registered are even a fraction of total rapes that happen in a society which feeds everyone with dignity and pride, teaches every man to walk with high head and broad chest. They say the world is nearing its end, I say it hasn’t yet evolved fully, and it’s still a man’s world.
The fourth and the last play again talked about violence again women, and primarily talked about eve teasing and domestic violence, about the grand male ego and their ‘needs’ from their woman. There are times when people compare American marriages to Indian marriages and feel proud that we have such a small divorce ratio, I believe that this isn’t something to feel proud about but to worry about. The main reason behind all this is lack of aggression from the females, their acceptance, and their diffidence! Things may be changing, and changing for the better, but even today, girls are fed with the thought that their husband will be their god, I never heard somebody telling a guy something even similar about his to-be. Had there been any more resistance and a little less acceptance from women, the divorce rate would get higher, but again the dependency matrix and the ethical grooming keeps them away from any revolts. Evolution is not even mid way.
Thanks to Asmita theatre group and Arvind Gaur jee for such a day. It leaves me sad at the end of all such events, thinking what am I doing? I know I am lazy but I know that if I keep looking I will find the way sooner or later, back to hunting!
If you keep digging, there is a very high probability that you will find answers, and here i find another definition of what I used to think is my brain child
pentropy (pen-tro-pee) n. The tendency for the ballpoint pens at rest on your desk to suddenly and surreptitiously take flight, until none remain. (Once thought to be the result of filching co-workers, now believed attributable to the inexorable contraction of the universe.)
hahaha, thanks to The BradLands
Every time there is an important news hovers around on our television screen, it give me an unavoidable muse to pen down some agitation on media, and now its high time for both media and my part to get it done. ‘Arushi Hatyakaand’ is all over the place on media. A teenage girl was suspiciously killed a few days back and police was investigating the whole issue. But the judiciary of this country has moved out of the courts and now stays in cameras owned by few television news channel and in mikes of few young (they call themselves) journalists and news reporters.
It is wonderful to see the rise of media in this nation, and I would say that it is good luck for both the media and the crowd that today media is so strong, but what is this strength being used to, where is the focus pointing towards. All the news are not presented as news or something which should help people one, get aware of what is going around in our surroundings and in wider geography, second, helping people, police and judiciary to arrive at conclusions which may help in solving tricky issues and third, awakening the crowd to the things they have been blind so far (certainly not the scare-them-all-sansani way). The focus is on handpicking news which can be converted into ’stories’ (and this word is as literal as metaphorical here), adding a lot of drama in it, music effects and picture effects to a sense shaking effect (this is what we call technical advancements, futuristic technologies) and most importantly they are able to hit the market, they have their money, their advertisements, their viewers, and above all their TRP. Kudos, you are such winner in life.
And sadly enough, a tired day worker, a young school going kid and a frustrated housewife ‘follow’ these news closely with a presumably intense sympathy, which isn’t anything but sheer curiosity. And, no better example of the same but ‘Arushi Hatyakaand’, everyone wants to know ‘kya chal raha hai?’ with this story getting new twists and turn every now and then, everyone is so curious about every minute detail that is being investigated. This surely sets sky-high expectations for the police and others working on the issue.
The electronic media market has expanded like the universe, and there is no stopping to this big bang, this has openly called up for work force, a very large number indeed. And all this has been quite sudden from a nation’s point of view, but the nation has responded very well at one of the two layers of this need. Layer one, the people who are going out finding news, they are eager and jubilant people, got lots of energy and they want to use this adrenaline rush to very actively do whatever’s being told to them. But, Layer two, the decision takers, the ones telling these young people to do what they are doing, where the hell have they drowned their brains. How do they come up with idea of showing ‘mera Khali ghar aaya’ or ‘Chhat par billi chadhee’, while you are doing all this, doesn’t this thought ever click you ‘what the fk am i doing?’, if one is so blind to the things he is doing himself, how do we expect him to be a sane eye which shows us the world.
Few of these news channels are giving a bad name to media and they need monitoring, journalism is still one of the most meaningful occupation one can get into, every day of your life adds value to this world, it is so different from something mundane like software engineering (come on diwakar don’t say that, you love your job, don’t you!!!), and with such an opportunity at hand if you let it go, its sad for both the giver and taker. But, this shall also pass by, as we know that ‘Change is inevitable’.
