Guess whose back...

...after an unusually long break from the good ol' blogging world!!!

Unrequited

I cross a bridge
in hope of solace
but as my ineluctable destiny
designs adversity,
a question lingers.

I seek to resist
the appalling change
but the pain is inevitable.
So in the midst of my flight
a question lingers.

I hum a bemused tune,
mystified by time.
And as the ruins of my
previous self pass me by,
a question lingers.

I see a ray of hope
cause it wasn’t long back
that I knew solitude.
Not yet vanquished,
unrequited, that question lingers.

Adversity and Genius

Shakespeare said,’ Adversity maketh the man.’ Which adversity was he talking about? Adversity-the stigma, adversity-the realization, adversity-the impetus or adversity-the hope? Is genius ‘inspite of’ or because of’ adversity? Hope, joy, pain, love, faith, suffering and adversity-are they just words? They are verbal descriptions of the multifarious emotions of humanity. Adversity is a very repulsive word. It reminds me of ‘terrible fish.’ it is a word which screams self-righteousness. A word which tries to put things in perspective in vain. A word which shames you. A word which shames me because we haven’t felt it. Adversity has not doctored our dreams unlike those of our ancestors. We know neither the zenith nor the nadir. How happy is happy enough? How sad, sad enough? How ignorant, unfeeling enough? How big, big enough? I am not a genius. I don’t know. I hope I never do. I have the gumption to say that even though adversity is a great teacher, I would prefer to not be taught. I would prefer to anchor my ship on my own-in storm and in sunshine with a pristine mind which doesn’t know defeat. Joy is the springtime orange flowers in naraina. Joy is the taste of chocolate. Gloom would be the voice of backstreet boys. Maybe, we’re just small people in a big world. Let’s discover it. La la la………

A total Fiasco

After a week of deliberation and discussion, me and Rads finally got together to see Rang De Basanti. What followed, was well an evening of fiascos.

• For starters, we were 2 minutes late for getting the tickets. The woman in front of Rads got the last tickets. After arguing and inquiring whether there would be any cancellations we made our way out of PVR. Annoyed, very annoyed.
• But soon we returned to the same spot to argue with the tikki boy. Again he refused. So after much deliberation and Rads whining. We took Tickets to "humko Deewana kar.." Which had already started (totally rads idea)
  
• So there we were making our way to the hall. But unfortunately I read the wrong audii number. And we found ourselves standing in some hall, with some English movie going on. Wondering what George Clooney was doing in "Humko deewana kar" With the whole audii giving us looks, we ran out in splits. Coz I had realized we were in the wrong hall.. Aint I smart
• The laughter soon gave way to anxiety. When I realized while buying the tickets I had not taken back any change. Which was considerable I remind you. So we ran back to the counter to get it. Where the stupid tikki boy, giggled and left to do something inside. And then we heard one of the other tikki boys, assuring a woman that if she waited, there would be some cancellation for Rang de Basanti.
  
• So we went back to the hall ( the correct one this time) And saw the first half an hour of a movie which can easily be called the worst movie I had ever seen. With dumb jokes and even more pathetic scenes. I have no idea how we sat that half an hour.
  
• Then we decided to go to the hall which was showing Rang De basanti. We asked the guy there, if there were any seats available. The guy appeared very sweet. And he told us, incase there would be any free seats he would tell us. So we went back to the stupid movie.
• Then when the interval came, we saw the guy. Who sweetly informed us that there were no seats. Disappointed we went to the snack bar hanging around, contemplating what to do. Then the guy appeared again and said there were 2 seats in the front row for Rang de basanti. We were thrilled. Wondering how anybody could be that sweet.
• Halfway through that movie (where the music believe me was louder than that auto), the guy informed us that the people who had those seats had arrived. So we got up furious. How anybody could come for a movie, halfway through it. Anyways we made our way out of the audii.
  
• Descending down the steps, this other guy came running to us. And sheepishly handed us a card, trying very hard to not make eye contact told us "Monish(probably the supposedly sweet guy) asked me to give this to you. Its his number incase you ever need to make bookings or anything" And the ran away. Me and rads looked at each other in amazement. Bookings? Right! Thoroughly disgusted we tore the card. And went to Barista.
  

I know it doesn't sound that disgusting when you hear about it. But when it happens to you, you're like okaaay. Oh well. This is Delhi, after all.

Divide and rule

‘You don’t give wine and caviar to someone who is starving, you give them dal-roti. You give kurta pajama to a naked man, not a pashmina shawl.’ I quote the words of a lady in this week’s ‘We the People.’ If you give them dal-roti, they will equip themselves to have wine (if the have/develop the taste). 49.5% reservations in some of the premier institutions of our country and other centrally funded colleges is yet another corroboration of the level to which Indian politicians can stoop in their ‘quest’ to garner votes. It is a step towards racism which is against the ‘humanitarian principles which make our country a citadel of secularism.’ I know that you are beginning to get the drift.
52% of our population comprises of OBCs. It logically follows that the majority of the population is ‘backward’, the civilization, the second generation after independence is backward. But lets just stop here and ask ourselves what we mean by backward. Backward in context of OBCs does not mean regressive. If I remember correctly, the Mandal commission enlisted 3741 castes that were deprived of their social and economic rights. The concept in totality is itself backward because Mandal used 1931 data which even in 1980, when the commission was conceived, was backward, let alone 26 years after that!!!!!! Moreover, from the reports I have followed, some of these castes are doing very well. The others are basically farmers. But………..hey, wait a second. What happened to the land reforms, abolition of zamindari system and land ceiling? Had these measures been avidly implemented, there would have not been a need to name these sections of the society in a manner as retrogressive as ‘backward classes’, in a manner which shouts blind childish venom. What scares me is that children are not behind this. The venom is not innocent but unwavering in its intensity.
Coming back to NDTV, I couldn’t catch the whole show because the screen kept saying ‘3641 MHz’ but what I do know is that the section representing ‘backward classes’
Stormed out of the studio during one of the commercial breaks. So ingrained in us is the historical absurdity of an ‘us versus them’ feeling, so artificially strokes are the ‘rivalries’ by the media and purile politicians, that sometimes we forget the very idea of democracy and equality. I am against the reservation because I feel it will lend ‘credibility’ to the appalling process of self alienation (eg. Hindutva) that some politicians have started propagating. Moreover, the drop out rated of reserved SC-ST candidates is shocking in higher education-around 97%. I think we should empower these students by giving them basic education so that they become capable of entering these institutions on basis of merit rather than caste certificates. Flagging of fees can also prove to be an effective method.
Evidently, politicians don’t read Ayn Rand. Plato and Aristotle seem a million light years away.

So here we are at the end of what I call a well-deserved break. School starts this Monday unfortunately and its back to our droning existence... though there will be some studying, I doubt anyone of us will be serious! Anyways I got some updates
Sports:
Arsenal reached the Semi final of Champions league. Guys this is a hoot. hehehe one of England’s "supposedly just turned weak mortal team" is the only English team left in the competition.. Heeee haaa. And talking about English mortal men.. Their cricket team seems to have a Midas touch.. hehee haaaa. Oh who can resist a barmy army bashing!! Not me at least! They have been defeated by 4-0 lead. Ooh they were awesome matches.. That is if you were an Indian supporter. Though they had their chances of coming back into the game.. They never capitalized on any opportunity.. And it seemed through out all the matches.. Once pieterson gets out all of them fall like a pack of cards... oh well so much the better for us! Oh well love you guys (Indian team of course) keep winning! And I also think Australian captain Ponting needs a reality check and while he’s at that perhaps a piece of humble pie! After a very well fought test series.. Where I think South Africa played extremely well.. He had the audacity to say "Oh they never deserved to win". Well Bugger off racist chauvinistic pig, leading a bunch of sledgy guys (xcept Brett lee of course) !
TV:
If anyone watches American idol... a past check Ace Young saved yet again.. And who ever thinks Chris is good looking well.. Hasn’t seen Ace yet.. He’s tooo cute!! I prefer American Idol to the indianized version.. Which is pathetic... from what I hear the guy with the best voice got voted off. And the three guys who are left look like horses... And aman verma is very annoying.. So are anu malik and his female counterpart.. The only judge deserving I feel is sonu malik..
And in Kasauti.. Lol just joking. Don’t worry I wont go there!
And oh By the way.. The Apprentice is coming back!! YAY!!
Education:
Have you heard of the quota!! Bloody hell all politics. Now politics has also started affecting education.. For all the people who don’t know The Amazing Indian government has proposed 49.5% reservation for minorities in IIM's IIT's!! Quite perfect na. Considering it’s damn easy to forge these documents... and as if getting into these damn places wasn't tough enough!

Okay that’s it from me. And for all those people who are wondering how I feel now (about the Brett lee situation).. I am perfectly fine.. I dealt with it.. Took time but oh well. I am always going to think he’s proof that perfection exists. But I can live! Lol. And considering you've already heard all about the ride of our life "the auto ride" to be more specific. I wont speak into it! But I am only going to add.. There was a point when I seriously thought either I would loose my hearing or the driver would get us killed!
Shubhz

the auto ride

well rads and me went to shubhis place yesterday and then went to shop to GK and the best part of the entire day was undoubtedly the autoride (we took an auto from GK to get back home ).
the horn for one was straight out of a toddlers squeeze toy and as if tht wasnt enough the music BLARED leaving shubhi quite convinced she wud go deaf by the end of the journey.and to top it all i was sitting in the middle with radhikas beautiful hair lashing on my face every minute!!!
but it doesnt end there coz apparently the autowallah got bored of listening to us(heaven knows if even we cud listen to each other wid tht volume!!)and increased the volume further!!
and then suddenly decides to walk out of the auto in the middle of the red light!then the light turns green and hes still fidlling wid the engine.
and finally we reached saket and shubhi started giving him directions and he then turns off the music thankfully coz we were all trying very hard to avoid the speaker we actually thot tht autowallah had turned it down seeing our reactions but no!! it so happened tht after he understood where to go he ,without warning, started the music louder than ever and if we hadnt reached shubhis house soon after im sure we would have jumped out of the auto laughing!!

This, that and the other

Our daily lives can easily become filled with stress, pressure and confusion so much so that we can end up…….. feeling like crap. At times it’s the drudgery of everyday, at others, a fight with a friend. The former is easier to overcome. Voila a favourite book, funny movie. The latter can be very dangerous. Anger clouds your discretion and everything you say becomes right and the other person starts mouthing mindless things. This doesn’t happen every day or every week or even every month but when it does……….you know it has. You know it has dented your friendship irrespective of who’s right and who’s wrong. Maybe you’re both right. Maybe you’re both wrong. You are after all different people with different aspirations, ideals and motives irrespective of what the history book says(ha!). Walk a mile in the other person’s shoes before you say no to their request for a new pair. Maybe you took it too seriously. Maybe you weren’t being serious.
Sometimes, you feel disappointed and in despair because someone you counted on let you down. People can fail. Even your best friends or those you love the most can fail. Accept that. If you’re wrong, apologize. It’s better than living with a guilty conscience. last but not the least, don’t clutter your mind with worry, it leaves less room for the good stuff! And as I always do and will say, eat chocolate.

Note: I only fight with my mom and with shubhi both of whom are very special no matter what crap I say when I am mad. Besides, I haven’t fought with either of them for a long time which is why I was able to put everything in perspective with a cool head. I wrote a poem today.

I am singing a voiceless requiem,
A requiem to the past,
I am beckoning the future,
A promising rendition of the past?

Now, I sing a happy note,
I hope it isn’t a lone jaunt,
I hum with care, the crescendo,
Not a distant mirage.

A voice from inside tells me to go on,
I will hark.

ps:I am blogging so often because I don't have much to do. An idle mind is a devil's workshop.