Its raining crap

Thanks to the new job, my visits to Europe has doubled since I was born. That makes it two. Many of my friends were surprised that I didnt post pictures of yours truly saying 'prost!', but dint tell them that "I wannabe, but was cannab'd". However I would have loved to tell them about a new zing that opened somewhere close to my hypothalamus the first time I set foot in Bavaria. It should have been the near absence of fault. Or it should be the civic sense of the inhabitants, it could be the cleanliness or it could be absence of noise and people. But I could not tell them out of fear of being dubbed as the new globe trotter on the block and be subjected to other user experiences. Guess I overcame that fear today. Of late, I've been wondering how long it will take us to have atleast one of the cities like there. The infrastructure was not all. The citizens there seemed to be driven by a completely different set of values which made visitors follow them too and...

A year has passed since we started questioning faith; pointed fingers at others while burning our hands in candle light vigils. For sensationalists that marks another day among the many other martyr days they celebrate. This one is the most recent…and definitely not the last. Wonder how many got amused at their emotional outpour one year back and the complete lack of worthlessness a year later. I wonder how many swore at ‘them’ with the support of the stranger standing alongside. One year later I’m not sure they recognize each other. We blamed everyone, our neighbors across the border and our people inside, the state that governs and the media that reports-everyone. We left ourselves out of the equation. The collective outrage fuelled by the over emotive residents of a city is slowly burning out to a selfish reality- a fear of surrendering hope. Amidst crass commercialization, a recession hit, inflation prone, powerless, weather beaten, misgoverned, corrupt, maoist infected, te...

Year after year it seems like there is a meteorological reality-show to see how wrong they can get with their predictions on the advent of the monsoon. Infact, psepologists (esp the kind that appears on news channels), astrologers and and our meteorology dept should send atleast one team (I am sure they will have many) to the now drab ‘Great Indian laughter challenge’. I remember reading reports that it was going to be an early monsoon. And the real story started only a week after even the usual dates. And when it indeed starts raining, their expectations of 'heavy showers for the next 24 hours' almost repeats everytime it rains. And as if the rain can sense this building expectation it decides not to rain for 4 days consecutively. And when you almost start forgetting your umbrella, there it comes! Like every other season in India, people tend to greet the monsoon and hate them as well. And usually it is an exercise in unison. They greet it when it appears and starts ha...

What is so great about South Africa, that makes it in-vulnerable to an election? Or what is so bad in India that makes it vulnerable to IPL? South Africa had their general elections on 22 nd April. The day when Deccan Chargers won their 2 nd match   thanks to Adam Gilchrist & Rohit Sharma’s exploits. ( Click for match info ) While elections   - and the fear of a security lapse were the main concerns to shift the IPL to SA, how come it could be managed so well in SA. This debate would have already suffered the fate of a once fearsome cobra ending up as a soup in a street side ‘thela’ in Cape Town; but guess the after-taste is keeping the cobra from a peaceful digestion. Agreed that the magnitude of elections, the size of the electorate, the cultural diversity, civic apathy etc are insurmountable walls of difference between the two countries.   Just statistic is enough to kill the debate on similarity of the two nations - India is twenty times larger (over 1 billion peopl...

There’s no originality in the title. I agree. As words form sentences hereafter, it becomes more hazy as why am I doing this than doing anything else. In the course I am also presenting my set of reasons to find a place in virtuality.  The sense of “am I doing something great?” has always crossed my mind. Bereft of any pursuable vocations and most of the time in a crude primordial seizure of multi-tasking, (“One thing at a time” is a non-existent figment of an anonymous writer’s fable) the vocation of publishing a commentary never was a serious thought. Recording my personal memoirs or “Diary writing” was a risky proposition… I was too scared of being honest…and was extremely prone to violent shivers and trembles as I visualized my closest friends guffawing over my flights of fantasy. I could not surmount the barrier of self-publishing. My fantasy was still about giving sound bytes to earnest journalists who surround me while they jostle and heckle each other to capture ...

Saw “Samsara”, a movie that happened just by chance. (The Wikipedia defines Samsara or sa ṃsāra as the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and other related religions.). The director Pan Nalin ,’s biography itself was quite interesting. And in the movie, all vital aspects of movie-making present a completely absorbing movie experience. The premise is not out of the world, but realistic. The cinematography is stunning, convincing performances by the lead actors, backed by an unusual story line. But what made me come back to blogging after a hiatus is the message I imbibed from this movie…through an unexpected monologue by the female lead. She talks about the plight of women in history and how the deeds of males are usually eulogized and respected…taking specific mention of Budhha and his wife Yashodha. (many people might recollect only as an afterthought that he was married and sired a son before leaving on his path of enlightenment) Wom...

What? Food rationing in the US??? Australia, UK follow suit…? When I read ‘Malthus’ in my economic textbooks, never thought theory would be put to practice so soon. Never imagined that I would witness a situation as precarious as food rationing in US, Australia or the UK. The debate still continues whether prosperity in the developing world or the mad craze to convert food to fuel is the reason behind the current food shortage. I don’t want to extrapolate on this bit. Thought I’d express my “shock and disbelief”. (Why waste a chance?). But what does a consumer like me do? Read news articles and extrapolate views on how inflation is screwing up my already inflated monthly expenses…? Culturally with half of the population that fasts atleast one month if not more, due to various religious beliefs and another half which starves, I am not sure whether it is our food consumption patterns that are to blame for this situation. But I do remember almost all the beliefs and philosop...

For some reason, I have always been a supporter of people who downplay their attractiveness, who despite their good looks are modest about it. It could stem out of an insecurity of not figuring in the top 100 of the ‘People’ magazine or it could be my angst against vanity. So much that I have been a great advocate of using un-model like faces in advertisements and films. But on careful introspection I have realized that mankind is almost maniacal in its desire to change everything around them into attractive elements. While almost all design improvements are about making functional products, there is a huge stress on it being aesthetic as well. That is about product designs. But the industry who has gained most from this predilection for looking good are the liquids, potions, lotions, soaps, gels, scrubs, masks and what not that adorn your wardrobe. Not to mention the clothing and fashion industry…and many more such ancillary industries who work towards ‘appreciating’ the beautifu...