black and grey

shadow of doubt

the world of darkness
is nearing
closing in on you...

how do I know?
i switched off the lights when I walked out on you, silly you!


hope

and the glimmer beckons me
where to i know not
so i keep walking to the end of the rainbow
where the pot of gold
i pass by silvery lights
and red glowing rubies
and several other gems that hold no value for me
should I stop here?
near this bed of rocks
there is no end in sight!!!


PS : A little too much of nirvana nad pearl jam..and no end of the math!

"Music n movies

So typically Hollywood movies do have a popular soundtrack. But not half as influential on the success of the movie as in Bollywood.

Yet there are some movies, which use a famous or a well heard song at the most appropriate occasions to bring out the real meaning.

So for anyone who has watched "In America" a story about Irish immigrants remember the following scene.

The elder daughter singing "Desparado" by Eagles at a school Talent show searching for her father in the audience and meanwhile him stumbling down the stairs of ther apartment building..drunk..
Dont your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky wont snow and the sun wont shine
Its hard to tell the night time from the day
Youre loosin all your highs and lows
Aint it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why dont you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin, but theres a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before its too late


Or the scene in Squid and the Whale with the older son runnin away from his troubled life ( his parents having divorced)

Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, dont help them to bury the light
Dont give in without a fight.

Bombay and Germany...no connection at all.

This post possibly belongs in the book blog. But then again, its already been reviewed once. It was the review which made me read it.

Maximum City is a book about Bombay. Suketu Mehta does a good blend of his life on returning to his homecity and the story of the city itself. So I spent most of my trip and back to Germany (and I have been meaning to mention that one way or the other :) ) reading this book. On the train ..(and german rail system is amazing!), on the flight, etc. On a side note, I really had fun riding the rail. I believe I travelled at least 5 different types of trains..at varying speeds..going upto 240 km/hr (and not even feeling it..).

I had a couple of days to see some of Germany (after my conference) and I did my best. The book gave me wonderful company. I remember sitting at Karlsruhe station waiting for the connection. I was reading this book with at most concentration. Suketu Mehta was explaining the life of a bar girl. The whole courting process, and suddenly I heard at least 10 dogs barking at hte same time.
Apparently some search party was out, there were these men in uniform with trained dogs. The dogs had been barking quite randomly at the passengers getting out the train. For a second, I looked around to realize that I might be looking a little suspicious sitting there alone. The dogs luckily showed no interest in the sweets I had in my backpack.

Germany was very tourist friendly, inspite of language issues. But then again, I possibly visited only the touristy areas. I got a chance to take treks in the black forest, eat the original black forest cake. Meanwhile, I reading about another life filled with murder and mayhem of black collared workers/ mafia in Bombay. The starking contrast of where I was ..and the city I had lived in most of my life left me with this unworldly feeling.

The disbelief of what I was reading and beauty of my surroundings, have made the whole experience quite surreal. Bombay and Germany..no connection at all..except in my head!

Dreams and Reality

Its amazing how something that was a big deal for days together, when it is over..or when it just doesn't work out they imagined way just turns into nothing.

All the excitement, the enthusiasm, the expectations become nullified in an instant.

In a way dreams rarely ever turn into reality, cause if they did why would they be dreams in the first place. Then again, if they never become real why dream at all?

Perhaps sometimes, the fun of it all is in the excitement, the
expectations, in dreaming those impossible dreams; in being brave to want something that may not happen.

Change is a reality....

The faces that were a norm fade away into deep corners of memory. New surroundings take control and over time become normal. Once in a while an unexpected tidal wave, brings about new breezes. The scent of old memories take over. The surroundings become hazy as the sweetness in the air consumes everything. For a few moments, life just goes back a few years. The rest of the day is spent in this dazzling unreality of past and present together at the same time!

gripes nd likes.. on trivialities..

irritated with how people misuse public toilets

amused by how people talk with actions on the phone " can you find it..its in that cupboard..its sqaure" the guy draws out a sqaure shape with his hands..
I feel like telling the guy, I can see it..but the guy at the other end clearly cannot!

feel good when strangers on the road make it a point to say hello and smile..

amazed how the right song on the radio can change the mood in the room for the better..

still find it fascinating when there is sudden burst of rain from the sky..and the whole scenery blushes in greenery.


I decided that the cover of a book can decide whether i will pick it and browse through it.. so that one cover can make or break its sales..by a lot if there are more readers like me!

First impressions dissolve into oblivion when you really get to know a person. And even though you were not wrong about your first impression, they are only a small part of their character.

There are some people in this world..when you look at them you know they are nice..that you would have to dig hard to find anything bad about them...

And one fly moving across the screen can make blogging tedious!!!!!!!

printed impressions

Aren't books the most wondeful things in the world? I hope that the printed word never goes out of fashion, even as I type this up and realize there is almost zero chance these words ever getting printed :) but hopefully some chance of being read!

I was sitting in the public library today and realized that what boon it is to any given community to be able to afford a free library. Why, you don't even ever have to take stuff home. You can basically sit there all day and read everything, from newspapers to magazines, fiction to how to do..help books. Anything and everything.

I used to read a lot of Louis L'amour stories and the heroes were all self educated, learned men.
In particular I would be facinated by the fact that a person could know a lot without ever stepping into a school. It struck me today that if you have access to libraries then you just need to become literate to become educated.

If educated means being aware of the surroundings, to know what is going on in the world, the ability to learn more and more then its just a few meters away! And any man, woman and child can be educated at will free of cost!

nasha yeh pyar ka nasha hai :)

Kudos to Amit Paul! He made a song which I barely remember, into a memorable song. Now, I was all set to forward his singing on todays episode of Indian Idol 3, for I cannot remember him ever making an impression.
No offence to Udit Narayan, but this chap made the song come to life. The scale changes, and the soft voice, it was so good that even Alisha Chenoi asked for an encore.

Its amazing how good singing can bring life into simplest of songs. I have to admit I have heard him sing three times already and felt compelled to write this.

As an aside, well not quite an aside but an add on, Ankita Mishra (the wild card of Indian idol 3) actually has managed to impress with her performance on the (what I would call "Sideiest ) very generic songs. She has a style which gets attention, whether that qualifies to make her a playback singer I don't know.

Of course given the structure of Indian Idol and all of these singing competetions, more often than not who sings well or performs well rarely is connected to who wins. So let us see, cause I was really disappointed with the results from last year!

Meanwhile, both Star TV and of Zee TV (the originator of singing competetion Sa re ga ma pa) have a corresponding show, which very often showcases a higher quality singing talent. Its really hard to follow all of them simulateneously so I have stayed loyal to Indian Idol. Partly because of the ease of getting hold of the videos !

For the uninitated, you can watch Amit Paul in the Part 12 of the July 13th episode on
http://indianidolclips.blogspot.com/


PS: For those who expected something else on reading the title..I apologize ;)

exagggggggeration

"its not even between 10.3 and 10.4..." this voices keeps insisting loudly in the coffee shop.



"When are people going to realize, that this is a study envoirnment for most of us regulars here",
I think to myself.

Can't help wondering though how that conversation must be going as I move out of his voice zone with my headphones. Perhaps, he will say next

" Its not even between 10.35 and 10.4. And when you do this again, you find its not even between 10.355 and 10.4 ! ............"

Naturally the next thing to remind ourselves here is that the best story tellers are ones, who know exactly how many times to repeat a particular thought. Who know how many times is enough to
explain the gravity of the situation and yet not loose attention of the audience.

At the thought..I go back to my books leaving you my unknown (possibly non=existant) audience to ponder over what you think makes a good story teller!

Get those moles out. Got to dig 'em roads..

Recently I have been complaining to my friends how the muncipality (county management...whats the word people here in US?) is not very different.

My friends argue .."oh its different, look at the powerful machines they have? In India they would have 50 people working on it!"

I argue back, saying "Oh but they have 5 people staring at the machine digging the road!"

Agreed, thats not much of an arguement, cause they do get things done faster here. But you cannot disagree with me when I tell you that they really like to work on the roads, as they do in Bombay!

Take for instance this road I walk by everyday to work. In last 5 years they have dug it up three times for sure. For various reasons. They dig to put new electric cables..
they dig to beautify the road...and my god...the latest..They dig to make the road NARROWER!!!

Shallow waters run deep

"No depth, very shallow!", the traveller proclaimed after stirring the "stream" water with his feet. Techinically it was possibly not a stream. But as far as he could see there was water in both directions. He decided to break his journey at this particular patch near water, where there was more vegetation.

The cool breeze blowing across the water brought relief from the hot mid-afternoon sun. He opened his bag and took out a few pieces of bread with pickles he had packed for lunch.

He spent the next hour gazing at the stream munching on his lunch slowly. Once in a while a fish would look up to him from the water. The fish got excited when he threw bread crumbs into water. Once in a while a bird would sweep past the surface of the water, preying on the fishes.

The activity around the stream increased as time was closing in on sundown.
More bird swoops, more fishes travelling across the stream. Other gentile animals he could see across the stream from him, drinking water from the stream.

Time passed and, soon darkness had surrounded him. He sighed and set up his tent right there. The sigh was more to signify the speed of time passing then from being stranded at near the stream for the night.

As far as he knew there weren't any wild dangerous animals in that part of the country. All night through, he observed and heard life around him.

Next morning as he set off on his journey again, he sat down near the stream to fill up his bottle with fresh water. He stirred the stream with his hand and let the water settle before he took a dab at it. As he stood up to leave, he glanced at the stream. "Shallow waters can run deep after all!"

Parental Guidance (PG)

This post is long due..and since am writing it at a point when I don't remember anything but the basic thought.. pardon the lack of flow.

Been watching tonnes of Gilmore girls over the past few months until I couldnt lay my hands on any new seasons! For the uninitiated this is a series on WB about a mother daughter relationship. The premise is that Lorelai Gilmore got preganant when she still in high school. She brought up her daughter Rory on her own without marrying Rory's mother and any parental support.
Anyway, that apart she was young when she had the child and they are more friends than mother daughter. They never hide anything from each other.

In all its the so called "perfect" mother daughter relationship..

Yet inspite whenever Lorelai has to take up the role of telling her daughter that something she is doing is not right she is always in trouble.
Rory at somepoint is sleeping with a guy who has always been in love with her but is married now to another girl. But the minute her mother points this out..they have this cold war thing for a couple of months, until both of them accept the situation.

Or for that matter when Rory wants to quit university and take a break for a year, Lorelai cannot
understand this. She can only think that she is throwing away her dreams. For an intial period she can not be understanding!!

Sure, this is drama..and they have to create situations.. but real life is sometimes like that.
I guess telling your kid that what they are doing is no good is hard, because every teenage kid wants a "cool" parent than a guiding one.. Influence in any form when different from what we believe is unpleasant..If its a friend we can shrug it off..if its a parent we might even be coerced into agreement. All I could think was that it cannot be easy being a parent.. no matter how cool you are !!

Delhi heights

I am not first to blog about these lyrics (google made that obvious.). Its a song from Delhi Heights..music by Rabbi Shergill and sung by Sonu Nigam.
The lyrics are by Rabbi Shergill himself..and it took me way too much effort to figure this out..
really I thought people were more updated than that!

I couldnt ignore these words as I was listening to the song..hope you like them too.


Kitne der tum baatien karogi
Filmo ki aur falshafo ki
Kitne der arzoju aad mein chupegi
Coffee ki aur kehkaho ki
Kitne Der us dil mein rahega
mere naam per ek sawaal

Home Sweet Home

Once again when I am home I rediscover the printed media in desland.

The cannibal ..more bodies are discovered..as Delhi police find the missing children. Was this guy dealing human organs?

Dogs create a havoc in Bangalore..A child mauled to death by 10 to 12 dogs. BMP claims it must have been a hit and run accident..dogs dont attack people.
That whole week..paper was full of such incidents.

Meanwhile Shilpa Shetty makes the news big time with Big Brother show..admist the protest of several immigrants in Britain against the new immigration rules. The racist issue is up for discussion yet again..

Ash's engagement to AB junior..The Bacchan'ns walk to Sidhivinayak temple. Ash will act or not after tying the knot is upto her future in-laws..apparently the newpaper claims.

Indian team under fire again. Someone tries to attack Chappell at the airport..


Television set..

Sawaal kar le kar le...SRK dancing to money tunes trying to buy veiwership for KBC III!

Tulsi ma..bees saal purana sawaal phir uthega..ansh ki maut ka badla...

Awesome advertising..
Take the Haynes undergarments..no tag add
Or Motorola..cheap stylish phones gimmick..

Some new serials to watch

Jab Luv hua..plays on Zee TV same time as KSBKBT and works well in terms of avoiding adds on both channels..
Mohalla Mahobbatwalla..is entertaining on SABtv..
BEst of all " Ek Chabbhi hai pados mein" Plays on Star Plus Saturday nights at 10PM..

Finally had my first and second genuine masala puri in banglore fast food places..

Saw A mall in Bombay..never been to one before. Totally dig the few minutes I was at crosswords..
The number of books just made me want to be there forever..so many new indian authors..am so glad htey are getting space..

Also ate paneer chalupa for the first time..had tonnes of gobhi manchurian..sweet corn soup..

It all ended too soon.. Been back here for three weeks now..and want to go back home again..