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Saturday, May 24, 2008

Today I slept only at 6 am. Since I was up till then anyway, I decided to see the sunrise, something I was seeing after what seemed like ages. It was such a quiet time of the day, I had forgotten. In the east, there was a red glow, just highlighting the edge of the trees while the west was still dark and brooding, with the moon shining on brightly in the center. Birds of every type seemed to welcome the day, there was one particularly melodious birdsong which was lovely to listen to. Apart from that, complete silence. I could imagine the bustle of the walkers beyond the boundaries of college, hurrying along with their heads down, oblivious to anything and those others who sauntered around, talking to everyone, drinking in the liquid pure air.

It made me sad, watching the sunrise today. I felt sad that at one point of time, I was capable of waking up to see it without fail, that I was a part of those walkers, a part of this surreal time. I had forgotten that summers in Bangalore weren't all that hot because the summer mornings were so delightful and cool, that the college campus was actually so pretty devoid of people, that such silence was possible at a time of the day, that the world was capable of looking young and unscathed. I missed being an integral part of it all..the early summer mornings, heading off for a walk or a swim with Mom playing the Suprabatham (always M.S.'s version) followed by Bhaja Govindam, coming back to a nice cool bath and continuing with the rest of that day having woken up into that lovely time with a fresh outlook in life.

Instead, I now wake up sometime in the middle of the day, into a dusty, noisy atmosphere that does nothing good for my temper and I sleep at an unearthly hour, my eyes smarting and red and my head heavy. I think its time for some discipline, some real improvements in my life..its time to cut away all the lose ends and ensure that my life is not full of gaping holes. Once again I resolve this, once again my resolve will break....thats what life has become, a series of unresolved resolves!

But someday I will actually wake up and see the sunrise again, and may be that day will signify some kind of turning point, some definitive realisation of what my life has become and what I have become. Because, though I know what's happened to me it hasn't hit me hard enough yet, I've started living with it. But there's still hope, as long as there is the awareness that life was better. As George Harrisson put it, "Sunrise doesn't last all morning...All things must pass away". Someday, as long as there is a sunrise, this phase will pass...

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Slang-uage

"Hey, you wanna go hang in the club today? The guys are also coming."

"Cool! I'll also come off."

"So, 'ssup? What's the latest on that chick ya? I heard she's doing W?"

"Doing? She can't be doing da."

"As in, you know what I mean man"

"That's a sidey way of putting things dude."

"Dude, don't pull your superior knowledge of the English language on me ok."

"Aiyyo, fine da. Hey, so really what's the news man."

"Macha, IIT coaching is not something to be made fun of ok."

"Dude, chill, why you getting so hyper? Really sidey man. Shit da, I was supposed to call her. Damn I forgot, she's gonna kill me!"

"Chillax ya, don't chumma get worried."

Its pretty hard to imagine life without fuck, spaz, screwed, acha, challo, faff (I think we used to call it ramble on or something) and haan. But it did exist like that at one point of time. Its weird I can't even remember what we spoke like then. Its even more weird that most of the people I conducted these conversations with have finished college or are starting it and are moving out of here soon. I wish I could spend one more evening filled with gossip and pepper babycorn in Indiranagar Club with them and talk like we used to.

To the IC gang..you'll always be special!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Why do things in life have to go wrong? I know its an over-done, rhetorical, whiny question, but really..why? Just when everything seems to be coming together, when you've just reconciled yourself with your stupid mistakes of the past, it comes to your knowledge that you've made yet another stupid mistake (or its someone else's and you have to suffer for it), something with far reaching repercussions for you and the people you are closest to, them being dragged in unnecessarily, just because things have a tendency to go wrong in your life.

Its unfair, its tiring and its irritating beyond belief to have constant and I mean constant upheavals in your life. This is not one of those 'I hate myself' posts. Now I'm just plain bugged that things won't leave me alone, that circumstances keep changing and I am caught hopelessly compromised, having to come up with some solutions. I am practically in a perennial damage control mode. Really, really taxing.

Can't you just let me be? I'm not hurting you.....please?

Imperial Rhapsody

Seriously awesome..Thank you Vrinda for this one!

Imperial Rhapsody

(sung to the tune of Bohemian Rhapoody, by Queen)

Lando: This is the good life
This is a fantasy
Working on Bespin
An escape from Reality.
Leia: Open your eyes
Stand up to their guys and see.
Luke: I'm just a farmboy, I need some sympathy
Cus who's my dad, I dunno
Little whine, little moan.
Han: Anywhere the Force goes, doesn't really matter, to me

Piett: Vader just killed a man.
Raised an arm up in the air
Now his life is no longer there.
Vader, we had just begun,
And now I've gone and lost the reb-el scum.
Vader, oooooooo.
Did mean too make you mad
If I'm not alive again this time tomorrow,
There'll be a new admiral, as if nothing ever happened.

Yoda: Too late, my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time.
Luke: Goodbye everybody, I've got to go
Gootta leave you all behind and learn the Force.
Piett: Vader, ooooooooooo,
I don't wanna die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.

Luke: I see a little silhouetto of a man
Palpatine, Palpatine, can it be the Emperor?
Thunderbolts and lightning, very very hurting me!
R2-D2, R2-D2,
R2-D2, R2-D2,
R2-D2, Where'd ya go? C-3PO O O O O O OH!

I'm just a farmboy, nobody loves me.
Rebels: He's just a farmboy, with a dead family.
Spare him this life of such mundacity!
Han: Spice'll come, spice'll go. Jabba let me go.
Jabba: Boo shuda! (NO, we will not let you go)
Han: Let me go!
Jabba: Bo shuda! (We will not let you go)
Han: Let me go!
Jabba: Bo shuda! (We will not let you go)
Han: LET ME GO!
Jabba: WILL NOT LET YOU GOO!
Han: LET ME GO! Jabba: WILL NOT LET YOU GO!

Han: LET ME GO!
Jabba: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

C-3PO: Oh R2-D2, R2-D2, R2-D2, Come along.
Leia: C-3PO has a rebel put aside for meeee, for meeee. for MEEEEEEEEEE!

(Stormtroopers start headbanging)

Luke: So you say you're the dear old dad of mine?
But you cut my hand off and left me to die!
Oh Vader, can't do this to me, Vader.
I know there's some good, I know there's still some good in you.

Obiwan: May the Force be with you.
Use the Force to see.
May the Force be with you,
May the Force be with you, alwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays.

Han: Anywhere the Force goes, doesn't really mat-ter, to meeeeeeeeeee.


Saturday, May 10, 2008

Lawyers' Bangalore

Sights and sounds from around my workplace in the hols:

The Karnataka High Court

A View of V. Soudha from the 6th Floor of the City Civil Court

That's the Offiicial Liquidator's car: Fancy eh? (don't ask me why this is underlined, some technical glitch)

Vidhana Soudha - Well I sure got my fill of it in the Hols.
Karnatak High Court: Note - Not the Court of Judicature
Pigeons in front of the High Court
Isn't it good? :)

Sambhar Guide: Part I

People write reviews on a lot of things: movies, retaurants, books, albums, drinks and so on. I have decided to take the funda to a whole new level and write about.......drumroll please.......Sambhar!! Ta-daa! I think a good knowledge of the Sambhar in an eating joint makes all the difference about visiting that joint. It tells you whether you have have a good accompaniment to your idlis, what the general quality of other food will be like, what will be the ghee content and so on. So I have decided to address this vital topic.

First stop, closer to home, home being college in this case: SLV Upahaar (Nagarbhavi, also found liberally scattered throughout Bangalore).

One would not suspect this small hole of producing mind-blowing Sambhar. It does. The first mouthful on the uninitiated tastebuds produces and explosion of intermingling tastes, making it a singular experience. The Sambhar podi used by the samel-kaaras at SLV is undoubtedly potent and fantastic. There are so many different sensations and flavours captured in that one bite: a hint of coconut here, a dash of garlic there and several other spices that I am woefully unaware of; getting the combination just right. It is just spicy enough to make your nose run at the last moment, yet the spice never hits you in the face, knocking you out cold. And of course, the underlying essence of ghee...absolutely delightful! Sambhar Maami reccomends it with a capital R; enjoy it with your idlis or with some good old saadham or even just drink cup-fulls of it. The experience is always rewarding!


Coming soon: Saravanaa Bhavan - The God of all Gods!

Sambhar Tip: Most places are liberal with their sambhar so don't scrounge! Take large helpings with every bite and ask for more, they will be free of charge. A good sambhar is as good as any cocktail, being the foremost achievement as far as spice cocktails go. So, go ahead and indulge!

Last night while doing projects, I was letting the i-tunes shuffle function on my comp take me through the vast and wonderful collection of music that I have. I've recently acquired a lot of new stuff, so haven't heard a substantial portion of it. And then 'Mr Tambourine Man' started to play. At around the line yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, I felt a lump develop in my throat. The funny thing is, I was only half listening to the song, the other half of my attention being focused on the project. That is the effect Bob Dylan's music has on you , the sheer beauty and simplicity of it, the endless stream of brilliance that flows from his pen - together the combination is addictive. 'Mr Tambourine Man' holds the same eternal fascination and love that I have for all songs about escapism (the immortal 'Over the Rainbow' being the foremost among these). The lyrical imagery created by the song; the evening's empire, the smoke rings of my mind, the haunted trees, the essence of the song (for me) summarized in the line I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade. A song about running away, following the unknown stranger into undiscovered lands, being content to just follow for once and not take the decisions. No one could've have put it better than Mr Dylan.

I have been addicted to songs and artists in the past, but usually because of the adrenaline rush that their music gives me (U2, Oasis and so on). Only Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan have been addictions of a different nature, holding my attention because of their vast and breathtaking scope of their music; Pink Floyd in their complex other-worldliness and Dylan with his stripped down, back to basics mini philosophical discourses.

Mr Dylan fell seamlessly into the role of Mr Tambourine Man himself, he cast his spell on me. 'It Ain't me Babe', 'Masters of War', 'Desolation Row', 'Its All Over Now, Baby Blue' and several others followed, the first and the last songs in the list also producing lumps in the throat in due course. Such is the power of a man who impacted a whole generation, spearheaded (with ample help from other artists of course) the counter-cultural revolutions of the 60s, whose impact and voice reverberates to this day, still addressing concerns, remarkably trivial or remarkably far reaching..yet always remarkable. I had the good fortune to catch the VH1 showcase on his tour to England. While staying there, he was interviwed by a journalist from some British paper. To say that he thrashed the other man's ethics and profession would be an understatement: "You've got too much to lose by printing the truth."

Mr Dylan, I salute you!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Alaipayuthey, kanaa..

You might wonder who I'm putting on the mysterious act for. Not showing my face in photos and so on. Truth is, I don't know myself...I only hope that person knows.

Man to woman "So what do women want anyway?"
Woman to Man "I'll tell you. Can you keep a secret?"
Man to Woman "Sure. Cross my heart and swear to die."
Woman to Man "Come closer then", leans towards his ear and whispers, "We have absolutely no idea!"
Man to Woman "I knew it!"
(Being a summarized version of the exchange that takes place between Hillary Swank and Harry Conick Jr. in P.S. I Love You)

I want to write one of those embarrassing letters, which are usually written by well-to-do women in Agatha Christies'; the ones they get blackmailed for by their former lovers.

Will it ever happen to me? I wonder. Somewhere along the way I became cynical, self-obsessed and irritated at the thought of any intrusion into the well oiled mechanism that is (or was) my daily routine. But now I'm bored, I want something to happen. The question is, is just wanting it enough?

Sigh and its such nice weather...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

The Hallowed Clay











Can you imagine actually being there. The very ground where the champions of the champions walked on tennis's toughest surface. Where Justin Henin is the undisputed queen and Rafael Nadal is everybody's hero. The very courts which have stumped Roger Fedrer all these years. This would be a spiritual experience!