Thank YOU

Some names may find you staring at them on my blog. Some just do not. They are not on my blog. This is to say to all those who think I care for them, who believe I trust them, who understand that my world is not the same without them –

Thank you – For the Lord for making them and dropping them where I got dropped.

Thank you – For Me for finding them.

Thank you – For you guys for being there.

Thank you – For the Lord again for having the sense to make you guys humans and not animals. I would not have really been friends with you then.

Thank you – For time and circumstances to put us in similar situations for considerable periods of time until we got to know one another well.

If I have not written about you it is only because I have not been able to word what we share as well as it ought to be.

A Little About Me

In the Mornings - There is no question about any noise emanating from anywhere within a radius of 2 kilo meters. I CANNOT STAND ANY NOISE BEFORE 6 IN THE MORNING. If the world is shaking itself like a teenager gone crazy the person in front of me who has just realized that the house is going to crash has to use his theatrical skills alone to guide me out.

In the nights - There is no question about any noise emanating from anywhere within a radius of 2.5 kilo meters. I CANNOT STAND ANY NOISE AFTER 10 IN THE EVENING. Here even actions do not help. I hate people who make their presence felt after the above mentioned time.

I CANNOT get up to loud NOISE, bright LIGHT or ANY KIND of SMELL. The morning is supposed to be as plain as plain mornings can get. Alarms are okay but I spend a week or two in setting the pitch, the volume and the tone right.

DD NEWS IS A MUST. A day is not complete without watching DD News.

THE SUN MUST NOT BE UP BEFORE I DO. This was partly covered when I said I cannot get up to bright light.

Food must not get close to any kind of cloth. This includes curtains, bedspreads, jeans, rags…

I CANNOT stand any talk about ANIMALS while I am eating. I DO NOT WATCH ANY OF THE ANIMAL CHANNELS.

If you have started to think that I am a not-so-normal guy the likes of whom you would rather not bump into on your way to the park for a morning jog, stall. There is more to me than what I have just said. More of it to come in some time soon.

Happy Birthday Shilpi!!!!

Here is wishing the girl with the best hair ‘Happy birthday and all that comes with it’

I hope she has the best of everything in this world.

My Own

It is one of those days when life is as usual moving past you at a pace that may put to shame the fastest of runners, who have received the best of medals and beamed at the world. One of those days when time becomes a yard stick to measure, excuse me for interrupting, to only measure some milestones set by a middle-ager who is paid for doing nothing but just that – setting milestones. One of those again when smiles meet every face that cares to look at you. Who cares what is behind the smiles?

As the days progress, the people who I had be-friended, almost considered an extended family and with whom, I had for the first time ever felt a sense of belonging, are moving away inch by inch. One finds a job at an other company. One plans to join a production house. One left for Australia. One of the closer ones is leaving to join his Dad’s company. I shall take this opportunity to introduce, thus, some of my friends with whom I have built a bond; amidst whom a warm feeling makes itself prominent in the old bosom.

Today I feel bitten; bitten by the cold winds that I had just heard of. Not that I did not believe in it but I had never before experienced it. To feel poor you must have been rich once. I was rich. I had friends here, around me. The first two seasons of the past year I almost lived with them. Literally. This may be a badly written article, may not explain anything clearly but this is just to say thanks. I hope we shall ever remain friends. The sense of warmth that the best-days-of-my-life-yet brings is priceless. I shall remember them for ever. I do also hope it will be the same with you guys. Wherever you are I wish the best for you.

I shall reframe the same in some time when I get the time.

THIS ONE – AN ODE

A few decades ago this man, Charles Something-or-the-other, came out with this theory which claimed to explain evolution. Whether it did or not is not something that I would like to get into now. But like all things that become famous just by a stroke of luck or by the power of the men with the papers one of his expressions stuck and how. ‘Survival of the fittest.’ I do not know where he got his English lessons from but I must say he missed out on a few major ones when they were being taught. Fittest? Is that how he categorises all the creatures that have lived long enough to see the light of the day today? And how audaciously he uses the superlative.

The life that Mother Earth harbours is variegated and well spread and mixed. It has creatures that are weak, creatures that are strong and a whole lot of them who fall between these two categories. The system that evolved was one that kept in mind to involve as many number of creatures as possible. Something that goes along the lines of massism. It is very similar to the line of best fit that we have learnt in school. Society or system is something that is like the best fit area that has been drawn from before we were born. And yes, it is rigid and it is not. Rigid for a particular period of time until the area involves the big numbers. But once these masses start moving towards or away from the previous location the area also shifts. And what you see as rigid is but the shape of the area which is wrongly interpreted by you as the location. Location keeps changing but the shape generally remains same. If this society has helped me and a lot of people like me who I proudly claim are not in any way close to being the fittest, then why not? I believe, not everyone, left on their own would do things that would help them live a life of luxury or satisfaction. There are weak minds. There are people who would wither away doing nothing all their lives if they were not forced to do what society, as a rule forces them to do. Here again one may ask why should everyone live within the bounds of the restricting system to benefit others? There are also strong minds. There are minds that could work so tenaciously and smartly that they would have done better than what they could with the restraining reigns of the system. But look at the numbers. I believe the number of people who belong to former category outnumber the people from the latter category by numbers as huge as the number of stars. This is the sacrifice that is expected by the human. To put at ease the lives of people who cannot match him in terms of intellect and strength. No one asks him to do this. The constitution has no rule which mentions this. And this is where society comes in. It lays down these rules that are not really documented as much as the constitution has been. And these are the rules that one would term moral obligation.

You may say that left to desperation all men will tend to themselves – in the process of which some may perish but ultimately we will have people who are all strong minded, strong-willed and what not. And also this process will take less time and we shall see the human race at an all time high with commercial success showing on everyone’s faces and all children of all countries that have survived the revolution going to nice vacations wearing pretty clothes. But the path way I choose, the society-way or the way set by the system is still the better one because though it may be slowing down the progress and increasing the time before economic success shows on the faces of all mankind and kids of all countries, it will ensure me that atleast the kids of all countries- all countries-mind you, will see a sunny morning. These kids may not really think of me or you when they are sitting after a round of games puffing and panting but sure they would thank all the elders and their elders in the form of prayers. Maybe that is why it is a custom to respect our elders and consider them as more than humans rather than just humans who have aged just because they have lived long enough.

Who weaves who wears

As I trudged the backyards of my Granny's house, walked the streets to my great granny's house, jumped and skipped on my way to temples, played on the roads, fought with girls and guys alike, drove to school with the air of a kid whom no one cares, many an experience have crossed my path that defines the way I think, the way I act and the way I am. Over the years I have wondered if I would have been any different had the streets I have played on, houses I have lived in, people I have met, and temples I have visited been different from the ones I had actually played on, lived in, met and visited. Is it the 'Individual' that matters or is it the circumstances? Who has the bigger hand?