Part 2

The rise of nations, the fall of fiefdoms, man on the moon and women's right to vote - among a lot of other developments, the rise of the human civilization in the last few centuries has been marked by these successes on the march towards perfection. The march to civilization has invariably been preceded by uncivilized behaviour!

Apart from close room wheeling and dealings, some active, some passive, mostly bloody developments have always been a part of any change - in ideas, in boundaries, in evolution. Note that here I am referring to the evolution of the human race and not Darwin's conception of the origins of man.

In a lot of literature then, evolution is marked by revolution - aka the shedding of some token blood at least, even if its just an assassination!

Early this week, I got a chance to be witness to some bigger, greater and more powerful at work than what has passed so far - I saw 'Soldiers of peace'...

In an era that is marked by hate and discord, by bombings and madmen posing as leaders, where caste/class/religion-based politics are the norm, or ethnic cleansing a part of a nation-state's identity itself, where nuclear knowledge is used as insurance and kickbacks by the armaments industry are vital to any government's survival, in a world where a lot seems to be topsy turvy, somewhere, suddenly, this came as a glimmer of hope and I hung on...

Agreed, the film is a simplistic look at definition of violence itself. Agreed, it puts too much faith in the individual himself and seemingly absolves governments of their responsibility to ensure, nurture, and sustain peace. But the film works. Watch it to believe me!

This part of the evolution of the human race is about a journey, a mindset, a "hate the sin and not the sinner", and sustainability of the planet is critical to sustainability of the human race itself, a literal "put yourself in the other's shoes", challenging the existence of the notion of the "other" itself!

Is this an evolution in the true sense of the word? Does it even make sense to be so naive, so simplistic? Are we really heading for a crisis otherwise? Can violence be replaced by constructive criticism and acceptance? Or by humane and imminently less bloody means of negotiation and reconciliation? Are we evolved enough to be able to play to rationality and not silly "I you" identities when it comes to issues of national and international importance?

I don’t know.

But I hope. And that, my dear friend, is good enough to start with!

Out of charge, out of mind and how evolution does not always lead to a revolution - Part 1

So, my laptop has been acting up. Nothing dramatic, just the new commonwealth bug I presume. Things don't work, fall apart, u know, the usual. So my beloved runs out of charge every two hours or so. Nothing unusual, you might comment, however, consider a wire-dependant net connection coupled with erratic electricity supply and a sneezing fit that refuses to go away and voila, you have the perfect Bhavana recipe for 'not being connected often enough' ::read that not logged in the whole freakin 24 hours::!!

Simply put, I am losing my mind over this - the limitations of technology, where mere thoughts are not enough to post on a blog, one has to physically log in and type; where mere images are not enough, one has to search/draw/paint/link whatever one is trying to depict; and where, on the eve of the Commonwealth Games, we are still grappling with one crisis after the other, rains notwithstanding! Argh!!!

Its wet when its not humid and traffic-jammed eternally in the capital city aka meri Dilli!

Yup, am the perfect image of the angry young woman right now!!!!

Yours,

cribby!

P.S. Of course, there are bright spots but the focussed person that I am, want to revel in the anger-phase a bit more so will dwell on those only in the next post, happy waiting and hating !!;P

Achoo! Atishoo!

You know why when we sneeze we say atishoo? We are simply asking for a tissue! :D:D

PJ Alert in reverse!! hehehe

One of my dear friends used to love to comment whenever asked to pass on a tissue - this tissue has issues!

But seriously, I mean, how horrid to be used so, to wipe anything from dirty hands to bat boogers, from soaking up split tea on the table to cover up a bleeding cut. A tissue's job description is the stuff either legends or your worst nightmare are made of! But it’s not ephemeral like Raymonds' “A complete man”! A tissue is v.much there, not that it has a choice, but still, its there and that is what matters..

Maybe, the naive simplistic creatures that we are, we arn't seeing it right. Maybe its not "use", but 'usefulness'? So we don’t use tissues but actually find them useful and extremely so? In their simplicity lies their "we can't do without them" relevance. This is akin to saying we don’t merely use water but find it critical to our existence....

If only a tissue could be man. Or men could be as good/useful/dependable/multi-facted as tissues:: sigh::, maine abhi tak shaadi kar li hoti, by God ki kasam!

yours,

sneezy! Hand me a tissue please!

Finally, Da Bangg!

when the crowd hoots as Sallu Bhai cracks open a door

and rolls with laughter when the evil men’s bones crack;

Where the wit has one asking for more

and the whistling sounds like part of the sound-track..

Where the lead actress is fully covered yet sizzling

and the item girl has a thousand men nuzzling..

Where the dialogues are rude, crass yet real,

Where the fight sequences look surreal

and an "ordinary" thanedaar has enough power to command ten cars

where a cop is corrupt yet fair

where the villains all look like grizzly bears

For that heaven of melodrama

I pray

Dear God, let Bollywood awake

Into that magic of movies, let Bollywood, forevermore break!

Amen!

P.S. Needless to say, I enjoyed Dabangg, lock, stock and barrel. Dear Bollywood, can we have more such completely unreal, surreally brazen-comic-book-style-action-sequenced, crassily-rustically-dialogued, magically-cutely-romantic yet realistic dramedies with mad-bad heroes please!!

When Delhi gets humid...

...it reminds one of Bombay - right from getting soaked in the rains, wading through puddles of water to make it for social engagements, to never-ending serpentine-like traffic jams, everything in this wet wet city so closely resembles the maya nagari that I for one forgot to miss my adopted city for a full one week! Seriously!!

Achoo! Yup, that's part and parcel of the monsoon special. And a broken red umbrella (twas my fave, sobbbbbbbbbbbbbbb) and 2 perfectly nice pairs of chappals down the drain, literally!

But the rain Gods rained home this scary truth; we truly and honestly are so not ready to host the Commonwealth games, not yet. Controversies, scams, and public shame notwithstanding, the capital's infrastructure is under serious threat of collapsing, probably bang in the middle of the arterial Ring road! And since I am no celeb, (not yet ;D), I can unhappily note this without the fear of having to retract from "mis-quotes"!

It saddens me. A nation on the cusp of being inducted in the coterie of global superpowers, the world's largest democracy, the second-fastest growing economy powering the world's economic engine and gang-raped, heckled and abandoned by its own leaders - political, bureaucratic being the active agents and business leaders who by accepting such a state of affairs, abet this passively.

We are a nation of "jugaad" - I am sure we will somehow manage to pull it off, the balloon show notwithstanding, is it enough to always just pull it off? In the post-games euphoria of having managed to pull it off despite the recalcitrant rain-Gods (Yay us!), will we this time around too go back to status quo? Arre bhai, kaam toh ho gaya na! Is it enough to always, just be "enough". How about "exceed" or "out do" or "stupendous"? Why can we not expect to go beyond expectations without exception? Why can we not aspire, inspire, perspire? Why do we take the easiest possible way out and do just the bare minimum? With our nation, ourselves, our lives? Why are we "blessed" with such a self-assured-santusth-I-will-not-move-my-a*-unless-I-want-to attitude? Why do we accept? One billion people on the streets, protesting against being taken for granted, can move mountains, literally, policy passivity and inaction or limited action against "those entrusted with upholding the secular, democratic traditions of this nation with honesty and integrity" who are still just mere mortals toh can still be reformed.

But we accept. The ones who realise that is an unhappy state of affairs either run, away, or weep, silently. Then they too accept. Sab chalta hai. Siwaye public transportation (especially banned during the commonwealth games which have brought the ordinary citizen nothing but misery because of callous and incompetent fools responsible for "implementation"), water (the taps run dry despite "extraordinarily excessive" rains) and roads (which don’t last beyond one season), sab chalta hai yahan.

Hiss!

Notes

Maya nagari is a popular term that refers to Bombay:-)

'Jugaad' is colloquialism for quick-fix improvisations.

Daag ache hain!

and no I don't mean "Daag - the fire"!

In a water-starved yet hygiene super-conscious country like ours, one may think that such a strong brand association would be difficult to sell. But therein lies the success of marketing - for it resonates with the "higher sense of aspiring for the greater good"!

Think about it, if getting messy helped someone then yes, Daag ache hain.

This gets even more interesting when one extends it to the metaphysical level - aka our life's canvas. Just for a moment, putting past-life "karma" aside, imagine that a new-born enters the world with a clean, pure white canvas. Over the course of the next few days, his first touch, his first sensation of hunger, the first smiling face he sees, another infant he catches sight of, his own image in the mirror when revealed to him for the first time, all make up his "first memories". To these, he keeps adding to, for the rest of his life - his first exam, first best friend, birthday, stomping of feet, first act of deceit or lies he finds out about, his own first act of rebellion, his first kiss and so become "experiences". His life canvas is by now, a myriad of colours - some pleasing to the eye, some more complex. Its like one of those abstract pieces that seem to have colour randomly splashed about.

On the white canvas that we all start off with, there seem to emerge spots of messiness that seemingly add to us but also take away from us - our innocence, leaving us sometimes scarred, sometimes scared.

You know, in the big picture, time lends to itself the quality of timelessness. While for some lucky ones, the big picture emerges to be actually a nice clean simple easy to understand picture - of the sort that has a house, children, birds chirping in the background that most of us first drew in pre-school, for some though it really does boil down to being a complex patchwork, akin to a work of expressionism. Its there, but somehow, the picture emerges only when you think about it. Daag is case mein bhi ache hain - the memories, experiences and thoughts that sum us up - not all good (like turmeric stains, don't believe me? Ask your mother!), not all pleasant (like grease stains, yuck!), not all wanted (all stains? if one just looks at the washing expense and irritation it presents).

The life canvas is about these being all adding up eventually, with the bad "daags" teaching us something about the journey that is life...or if not, simply, adding to the bigger canvas - even if we don’t like it, eventually, Daag ache hi hain!;D

Notes

'Daag' translates to 'a stain'.

"Daag - the fire" refers to an extremely sloppy, pointless and irritating film released in the late 90s. Never ceases to amaze me the drivel that Bollywood is capable of dishing out and that stupid Bollywood aficionados like me subject ourselves to!

when the heavens cried

"yesterday, I told the wise blue sky above all my sorrows,
opened my weary heart, battle-worn, torn.
My mind, numb, refusing the sunshine to let me borrow,
I spoke forth, cried some more, finally stood all-alone, forlorn.

Today, the skies weep,as if in deep grief
and my weary heart, allows me a shut-eye, though very brief...."

Conflicted!

Conflicted, confused, the last few days have left me amused
profuse though out-pourings of everlasting friendship
a few days away
can sound the death-knell of a kinship!

Where art thou
the rising star
the knight in the shining armour
turned out to be a wretched czar!

Promises never made
still seem broken,
never-realised 'laters'
turn to distances becoming greater.

One has to move on
I am told
all safe-havens
tend to unfold.

Who is real, who is true
Honesty and integrity seem to have value no more.

Tis the age of freedom,
I am told
commitment is a whore
friendship is a chore
the engagements once pleasant
now seem like a bore

Tis ok to say rum pum bum
While the sun is shining
we all shall sing
after the sunset though,
tis a different thing.

Life, it is an old witch
who teases with the elusive golden snitch.
If you are a seeker,
your destiny is made
else tis best a farewell you bade.

In the mirror is reflected,
tis is an age of the conflicted!