गर चाशनीयों में बस्ता है ज़िन्दगी का जायका क्यूँ भला परहेज़ न रखें हम नम्कीन्यों से

If a parallel world of utopia could be created in our minds about miracles, hope, trust and “All is well”, why should I choose to make my life an exception? “Ahhhh!!! This lune and his state of psychosis” You must have cursed. But wait… I am channelizing my psychotic energies towards the much accepted direction, celebrating Life. Tadaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! After giving it due (ok may be some more was due) consideration, I have opted differently about my take on taking up philanthropic ventures. Oh!!! Sorry!!! Just a quick recap. I was losing my mind about making a decision on whether I choose to become a social activist…fulltime. Sounds downright preposterous and hilarious, right? Well now, I have finally learnt how blissful ignorance really is. So, what do you do to forget misery around? “Well, you could do your bit and leave the rest to god”, is what the good religious social activist said when I queried about joining in. I wanted to tell her so badly that a ‘bit’ will not suffi...

In times when career, boss, girlfriend, multiplex, promotion, marriage, home loan should govern my world, I find time to get frustrated. Frustrated because everything and everyone around seem to be disturbing the natural order of things or rather what should be the natural order of things. A random conversation with a friend went even more random, when she told me that I am man who is not ignorant which makes me see beyond the obvious and that I am humane which makes me identify injustice. However, she added that I am not an intellectual, so I act on what I see and don’t think and write and read before taking a tiny step. Instead of giving me red cheeks and an inflated ego, that made me more frustrated. I don’t know if she was just playing with words or she meant everything she said. But may be she delicately put me in equilibrium of “To be or not to be”.  I see people. People with biases, people with biases about people, people hating people, people hurting people. I man...

A friend said --- those who read it in the restroom purely do so to overcome digestive ailments. “Israel dropping a bomb on Gaza strip”, “Wife murders husband suspected to be gay”, “Stampede in a temple kills 23” Such news can give your body the jolt that it needs specially at those crucial hours of the day. ;) Sorry to have started with a creepy example. But it was a thought that could not be missed. I started reading the newspaper with half closed eyes and a big yawn. First news related to the Ambani brothers feud. I wonder how money divides family in such a big way. The entire country suffers due to their ‘family’ tensions. Every time they fight (the supreme court is where the family drama with corporate undertones unfolds) and one wins and other loses, the shareholder of the latter loses big money. Even the Prime Minister is said to have conducted several peace keeping meetings to make happen a very unlikely “Bharat Milap”. But the 5% contributors to national GDP seem to lac...

You stop @ the traffic signal and curse the city traffic…..your overtly punctual boss…yourself. Its ten seconds down…and the dust from the automobiles has settled down a bit. The helmet is already a little heavy for you. You take it off and inhale the dirty traffic air with comfort. Almost at the same second, a scooty comes parallel to your bike and stops. “Another addition to the misery!!!” You crib. You start thinking of useless things like how superior your bike is to the scooty standing 2 meters away. Thank god you don’t have car….you’d be stuck in traffic much longer. Did someone say "Loser"? Oh. My conscience. The rider of the bike lifts the helmet…exactly after ten seconds. Both of us look at each other......Blank stares. Realizing that in 2 seconds, we start looking elsewhere. 5 Seconds later, we look at each other again...with a pleasurable familiarity. “Ah!!! You again. Wssp? Long time hun?” But we continue to maintain a poker face...We look awa...

Although writing still gives the same joy, here are some thoughts put forward in the form of an audio recording. Just me. For now...at least in this audio. Its not a proper story. Some may find part 1 unrelated to part 2. Some may find part 2 more interesting. Give your views though. Will help me in deciding if this genre is for me ...or not. Part 1 Part 2

We do not know how to not understand. To be able to be in balance with our mysterious surroundings, we attribute everything beyond our comprehension to something that we can live with. When we made up the story of God, we found comfort in mystery and ignorance. By making Him responsible for everything, we seasoned ourselves not to look for answers all the time. The quest being less intense, we get on with our lives…unperturbed. Our forefathers who found religion in the beginning were indeed intelligent. Those who were dumb to fall for god and the like were not capable of finding the answers anyway. The revelation of my religious orientation should have been gradual and less cruel. But I just could not control the urge to dramatically deny what I don’t believe in. There is another theory which perfectly explains practice of religion by the most intelligent and bright people. They probably understand why it is absolutely necessary to be foolishly optimistic of His existence. It appe...

Wrong hours of office, wrong hours of food, wrong hours of sleeping, wrong hours of daily hygiene. Do all these wrongs sum up and produce a Lune? If they do, the resultant me has just entered the final stage of complete lunacy. A night ride on the fiero Fx on Airport road…alone… offers a mystical serenity. That could probably be the absolute absence of traffic or merely deficiency of the harshness of public gaze. Now that I have mumbled out the irresistible but worthless initial rhetoric, let me get to the point. I have not yet come in terms with my new found ‘independence’. Although I have not tried hard enough, I have presumptions that I will never be. But like with other failed ventures of mine, I will do a trial and error to find out eventually that my instincts are brutally exact. My friends seem particularly concerned about my well being…and as a gesture of companionship, call on me at oddly hours to ask…”Dude, U cool?” The deal really is that after they leave, the qualit...

गर गुमनामी का यूँ इश्तहार न देते हम, तुमसे रूबरू होने की हर गुंजाईश खो बैठते

“I feel Bangalore is a lot better than Chennai.” I wonder how many Bangaloreans I have fooled with this intelligent rhetoric. Listeners are instantly drawn to believe that I am one of the ‘rare ones’ who understands and stands for the South Indian ‘cause’. When I came to Bangalore three years back from Delhi, I was desperate and tired of Delhi’s overtly friendly neighborhoods, where folks used verbal abuse as a tactical means of endearment. Tactical because it is sometimes used for exactly what it was invented for…abuse people. Tricky affair if you can’t notice the difference. Unfortunately, my upbringing did not prepare me for such subtleties. Anyway, the moment I arrived here, I noticed the biases people have about people. Egos were at stake. It was the North Indian South Indian thing. I could notice it more because I am in a lot of ways ‘culture shock’ personified. Fellow Northis felt the “Aiyo Ramas” were too uncool. They ate tasteless, sour food and boasted of their culina...

Dodging sound waves from making sense to my ear drums and using opacity of objects to their best use…when around the TV, has sub-consciously been my routine all my life. To all and sundry, who might wonder what the MsWord abuser is up to now, let me reveal that small introspections are leading to self discovery…or lunacy. In either case, the abuse continues.  When I was watching a movie, with absolutely no horror scenes, no creepy reptiles or awkward love making scenes, I found myself hiding from seeing the main character getting a solid dosage of public humiliation in the movie. I even shut my ears to near permanent impairment to not be able to listen to the embarrassment the character faced. I missed out the whole movie eventually as, somehow; embarrassment was the central theme of the movie. I remember I did exactly this when unknown guests came to our house and I was warranted to meet n greet them. The restroom seemed safer than a BSF bunker then. I did it when a friend cho...