Thursday, 22 January 2015

Pigeon-attack!

Pigeons (n): an idiot species often confused as 'birds'; lives in buildings, are full of shit - one organism can shit-bomb an entire car, single ass-edly; no sign of intelligence has been so far been reported among this common-place species. Upon observation, one may well be reminded of certain human groups, who, suprisingly, may be defined as above.

My musings over pigeon behaviour has been a result of me whiling away my time by
A. sitting in a coffee shop, with a view of the bustling street outside

B. Sitting on my bed, looking out of the window where, much to my annoyance, a pigeon(s) would often sit

C. Others, like: I once saved a pigeon's life by bringing my car to a screeching halt when I suddenly noticed it was "crossing" the road. I was taken aback at the sight of a bird walking! I helplessly honked;it scurried and zigzaged out of the way. The.bird.was.walking.!

Once I even taught a pigeon to fly! It was sitting on the window sill, ready to shit-bomb. I immediately ran and made wild gestures and loud sounds to make it fly away. It "ran" from one end to the other and back again, not knowing what to do. I bit my upperlip, calmed myself, and just pushed it off the sill (¡facepalm!). It almost fell to the ground but then it realised the power of its own wings.

Jokes apart, these species is known to have pushed the real birds out of their habitats, and are the bullies of the bird world. So guys, please, do not encourage the breeding of pigeon communities. They also spread illness among humans.

Over.and.out.

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Decoding pk

The recently released movie pk has received extreme responses. For me, it was a thorough entertainer with new kind of humour, storytelling, and exceptional acting from Aamir - as always! He takes the passion for film-making to a totally different level.
The message that struck me deep down moved me and the emotion that flowed through was strangely unsettling and comforting at the same time.
Every person leaves home to find something...some purpose. On the way we may get lost, may get blinded by some fascination and lose track, get into bad company, break a heart and get ours broken too. What WILL happen is we WILL learn a new way of life, WILL get stronger, WILL become smarter, and hope to get back home, successful. Almost all of us would also have dreamt big, made friends (sometimes, regretted later), succumbed to desperation and take the twisted a d strangest of the measures, only to get back on track. Then there are some who are out to prove something to someone; may fail miserably and just give up and drift away...away from joy, away from love.
But, then there are some who go through hell and still manage to wake up day after day, with a glint of hope and a bundle of faith, to face the day. It is for these precious ones that i pray. For there are times in our lives where we may slip and fall through. It is at such times that we just need that one person who we can just look at and draw strength from. For it is that assuring look, that makes us brave.
May God bless these beautiful and vulnerable people with that one person, a real friend, who will help you return home; it would indeed mean the world to them!

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

The state of a nation

"..what advances a nation or a community is not so much to prop up its weakest and most helpless members, but to liftup the best and the most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest service to the country." - Jamsetiji Tata. Going by this, it is no wonder that India as a country fails to come out of the swamp of mediocrity. We seem to uphold "please the underprivileged" mentality rather than "foster the strength of the strong" or "encourage the less privileged to do better". As long as we are led by our wrongly placed morals, India can stop dreaming of becoming a superpower..or whatever!

The citizens are restless; the good brain is leaving the country owing to unfair performance measurement systems and inexplicable judging parameters which invariably go in favour of the "underprivileged" instead of the deserving ones. The energy of the productive population is drained out in fighting for a right and fighting against injustice. Mind you, this is a vulnerable patch. Directionless energy of any youth will eventually, but certainly, become a nuisance to the community. We need a guide, an icon who commands respect and not just attracts the media's spotlight. Her/His ideas need to percolate to the execution level and not get diluted on the way. This may perhaps happen when the s/he is within reach for the masses. The restlessness of a population is a highly potent change agent. If handled well, it will work wonders. Anything done otherwise, will invite an uprising.

I am no intellectual, but to figure out a logical outcome of a demographic situation, it does not require one. It is the doers who lack the conviction. Great ideas and honest intentions will keep cropping up; it will make sense only if we try doing it. Something may work on paper but it doesn't always materialise as conceived. This is true the other way around too...

Friday, 15 November 2013

Sir Sachin Tendulkar - the Star!

I am not a fan of cricket. My story is similar to a few people who lost interest in the sport when match-fixing came out in the open. To correct myself, I am an ex-fan. There was the 'felt-betrayed' phase followed by the depression and ultimately the 'i-don't-care' phase towards cricket.

After these underhand dealings surfaced, I hardly followed the game. I was content with the updates when milestones were recorded in the cricket and around these events, I would be drawn to the sport like a moth to flame. There are the star-players, who I enjoyed watching in action - MS Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid, Bhajji, Gayle (after the famous 'gayle-ic storm'). But it was transient. Sachin, undoubtedly, was the highlight for me. If it is an interesting match and has the devouts on the edge of their seats, but doesn't have Sachin on the screen, I just shrug and turn around. Secretly I would chase Sachin's records, and the relevant cricket info to stay abreast of the happenings. More so because the people around me spoke cricket!

In retrospective, I feel, the reason I retained the little interest in cricket was because of sportsmen like Sachin, Dravid, and Kumble, in that order. When Anil Kumble retired from active cricket, I was surprised. Having grown up watching him play, the thought that he would have to do something as absurd as "retire", had never even crossed my mind. Cricket meant these players, period. After this was Dravid's turn. When Dravid left the field for a different role in the game, I knew we were growing up. Now, here is the God, announcing his cross-over from active play to a "being-around" role. Yes, yes.. Sachin is not going to fade out into something as trivial as "being-around", but for me at this point it is as overwhelming.

Sachin, for a far-off fan of cricket such as I, you are cricket to me and you are the reason I respect the sport and follow it. I do not know if it would be the same henceforth. Love and respect, Sir Sachin!

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Feeling the Fight Club feeling

It perhaps feels euphoric to thrash someone, like, real heavy punches and broken bones and all. But the bloody mess left afterwards, would make me want to wake that person out of his unconsciousness and kick him in the shins again for making me create that mess.. [Do I sound twisted?!]



----------------------------Would like to write more on this, any thoughts?-----------------------

Monday, 17 June 2013

"Introduce yourself" and finding my way through it.

The thought of blogging had always been on my mind but my laziness got the better of me and never quite started one. I did; however, note down the topics on which I would like to write but, err... that was about it. Just wrote down the titles.

Today, at last I have successfully brought myself to figure out the labyrinthine ways to create a blog. I scroll through the first few fields- name, DOB, user ID password, blog address, introduction - that was it! The moment I saw this field, I lost interest. The "About me" field anywhere has always been a tough one for me.
In school, you join in a new club - introduce; enter college - introduce; want to learn a foreign language- " cool!" I sign up and the first class - "presentez-vous!"; Applying for a job - Tell me about yourself; MBA - Introduce and the trickiest of all, when you succumb to a typical Indian arranged marriage, the "describe yourself" in matrimonial pages. aarrgghh..! makes me want to rip myself apart...

Frankly speaking, I have never answered this question in all honesty and I doubt that everyone does. The "fine-tuning" may vary in intensity from person to person; but, mostly an introduction is sort of a "make-up". The intentions, however, may not necessarily be vile.

I thought, it is perhaps the fear of not being accepted by a desired community or a group, that makes us twist and manipulate the real person that we are. Unintentionally, we behave differently with different people so that we do not violate any "social protocol". A thought started forming. I asked myself, why does our introduction change as regularly as we give it; sometimes, even altering the core traits? Ruminating over this, I realised that as we meet new people, face new situations, we are continuously in the process of adapting; learning and unlearning. In this process, we get influenced by a certain..umm...event. Events, like a book that I read, a movie, or a person I meet. The thoughts and the beliefs shared during these transactions would seem to manifest as my behaviour becoming a trait. It made me wonder if I am losing touch with my original self? If I am faking by importing behaviours? I desperately started looking for a genuine reasoning to explain this.
I feel, this only human. This how our behaviours evolve. When you come across something so powerful and convincing, you tend to emulate it. We are different people with unique set of IQ EQ and Social-Q and when we find something slightly similar in another person, we latch on and desire to be a part of that group because,, here, your skills, attributes, thoughts are acknowledged and appreciated. It perhaps is the innate human nature to, (a) be accepted (b) conform, or (c) intimidate, that manipulates the portrayal of oneself. Mind you, we always look for something 'similar' in the other person, not different. Eventually we may begin to appreciate the difference, but that's not the point here. That's not how we socialise. We socialise by looking for similarities.

So, the projection of oneself anywhere, is driven by the need to socialise. When we introduce, we highlight the qualities and beliefs that we feel are unique to us along with showing the side that makes us a part of that situation.

Saturday, 15 June 2013

Inked by destiny

Everyday I see these scars, the scars you scarred me with; I preserve them, I nurture them, for they remind me not of a tragedy but of my strength; the strength I fought you with; every time that you scarred me with your abusive ways, I treasured them like a trophy; for it reminds me that I always emerged stronger than you; i was the powerful one; Like a tattoo I will take them to my grave; Like a memory they shall remain; like a flame I shall pass it on to who you again choose as the object of your abuse.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013