Came across this detective short story:
The Whore of Mensa.
Check it out. Fabulous read.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Diwali shopping scenes
It was a busy Laxmi road with more moving handbags on the footpath than people. Probably the handbags moved faster than people! There were people rushing from shop to shop, looking to buy gifts for family, friends and themselves. The street was brimming with the festive atmosphere with loads of hope filled on the street.
Scene one: Popcorns
A little kid about 3-4 years old was scurrying across holding his mother with one hand and a little fistful popcorns with the other. Of course, he was concentrating more on the popcorns than anything else. What would a little kid care for more than what he has at hand? Maybe he got that after some hard time parent-convincing. Maybe he was given that as a reward for behaving like a nice boy while the elders shopped and shopped. The kid was totally engrossed. A universe within another universe. It did bring a smile.
Scene two: Chana Chor Garam
A woman was standing on the little space available on the footpath with her little assortment of the Chana Chor Garam ingredients. The entire assortment attracts everyone's mind. The taste and fun that comes along eating Chana chor in a small conical paper cup. For some it is nostalgic, for some just something to eat. Some meaning from it for everyone. But it was something else for the lady who was selling it. She was engrossed with the little pinch of tobacco, secreting nicotine between lips and gums, probably helping her survive the fast moving world. She used to take orders, prepare them skillfully and pass across. When your world stops to eat the Chana Chor, her world moves to prepare it for you.
Several such scenes flashed across... Maybe another post if the memories strengthen. Maybe.
Till then, let the kid be happy with this popcorns, parents with shopping, the lady with her Diwali earnings and all in all festive wishes to you and everyone.
Scene one: Popcorns
A little kid about 3-4 years old was scurrying across holding his mother with one hand and a little fistful popcorns with the other. Of course, he was concentrating more on the popcorns than anything else. What would a little kid care for more than what he has at hand? Maybe he got that after some hard time parent-convincing. Maybe he was given that as a reward for behaving like a nice boy while the elders shopped and shopped. The kid was totally engrossed. A universe within another universe. It did bring a smile.
Scene two: Chana Chor Garam
A woman was standing on the little space available on the footpath with her little assortment of the Chana Chor Garam ingredients. The entire assortment attracts everyone's mind. The taste and fun that comes along eating Chana chor in a small conical paper cup. For some it is nostalgic, for some just something to eat. Some meaning from it for everyone. But it was something else for the lady who was selling it. She was engrossed with the little pinch of tobacco, secreting nicotine between lips and gums, probably helping her survive the fast moving world. She used to take orders, prepare them skillfully and pass across. When your world stops to eat the Chana Chor, her world moves to prepare it for you.
Several such scenes flashed across... Maybe another post if the memories strengthen. Maybe.
Till then, let the kid be happy with this popcorns, parents with shopping, the lady with her Diwali earnings and all in all festive wishes to you and everyone.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Did you Dream
So a long day turned to a night. A night full of dreams of nature.
Did you dream of the half moonlit sky above while walking on the mountains with the wind rushing in your senses? A dream so profound that you could feel the night singing compositions to you right from the ravines of the untrespassed earth. An experience where at every step you could feel that your are walking towards anonymity along with the other beings in the night. With a continuous feeling that the smiling moon is watching over you as a vigilante, to make sure you are safe and not alone yet leaving a creepy feeling. You felt as if the moon was smiling since it knew the night better than you saw the day.
It smiled at when you got acclimatised to the smell of the trampled grass and when you suddenly got aware of the deviation in that time-friendly smell. The smell that suddenly disappeared to make you aware of all the vegetation and the changes. "Hark, things change in the darkness", said the moon, smiling ever so lightly as you kept on walking, crossing mountain after another towards the end of the night.
You stopped for a second just to feel the chill in the air and chilly it was! Chilly but soothing your beating pulse, your pushing heart so that the rest refreshened you to continue the journey. Did you dream that the torches that your companions carried made a mosaic of lights that seemed like fireflies in the night? That the long trail of torches behind you gave you a dragon like tail? A tail that kept you company into the night?
Did you feel the earth glowing a little as hours turned towards the final minutes of your walk? Slightly grey and then a blue hue? Raising your hope further for the blue sky? Did you then sit and watch the sun rise to slowly awaken your senses from the dream of your night?
Did you dream this dream as I walked this path?
Did you dream of the half moonlit sky above while walking on the mountains with the wind rushing in your senses? A dream so profound that you could feel the night singing compositions to you right from the ravines of the untrespassed earth. An experience where at every step you could feel that your are walking towards anonymity along with the other beings in the night. With a continuous feeling that the smiling moon is watching over you as a vigilante, to make sure you are safe and not alone yet leaving a creepy feeling. You felt as if the moon was smiling since it knew the night better than you saw the day.
It smiled at when you got acclimatised to the smell of the trampled grass and when you suddenly got aware of the deviation in that time-friendly smell. The smell that suddenly disappeared to make you aware of all the vegetation and the changes. "Hark, things change in the darkness", said the moon, smiling ever so lightly as you kept on walking, crossing mountain after another towards the end of the night.
You stopped for a second just to feel the chill in the air and chilly it was! Chilly but soothing your beating pulse, your pushing heart so that the rest refreshened you to continue the journey. Did you dream that the torches that your companions carried made a mosaic of lights that seemed like fireflies in the night? That the long trail of torches behind you gave you a dragon like tail? A tail that kept you company into the night?
Did you feel the earth glowing a little as hours turned towards the final minutes of your walk? Slightly grey and then a blue hue? Raising your hope further for the blue sky? Did you then sit and watch the sun rise to slowly awaken your senses from the dream of your night?
Did you dream this dream as I walked this path?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
All in good faith!
So here i visit a temple and see these big charts put up along with a Nariyal ki maala. The names on the charts read: Enjoy Group (8th maal), Tiger Group, Rapture Group, Only Friends Group (mind you!), New Generation Group (just anachronistic) and some such others.
Quite an enthusiastic bunch eh? Yeah these are the same ones who dance wildly (but in good faith!) in front of a wall of speakers that is fitted in a vehicle carrying a decorated pandal. No, they are not drunk! How can you even think of that? So what if they dance like they are inebriated, or leer at the chicks who pass by, or treat the boys along with these girls with contempt! No, it is just in good faith!
So the procession goes across moving at a pace that matches the rate at which the Harry Potter movies are released, sound which matches the inside of a very loud multiplex, and spirits which match a new years party. No, I don't mean they are drunk, they are just in goodspirits faith! Then they reach the Mandir and donate the maala and move on. Probably to the nearest bar / tharra joint depending on the political support. (Come on now, they do so much hard work, don't they deserve this?)
Civic sense? What is that? They just know hic... hic... sense! All in very good faith!
PS: Check out this awesome post by one StupidusMaximus. Very good read!
Quite an enthusiastic bunch eh? Yeah these are the same ones who dance wildly (but in good faith!) in front of a wall of speakers that is fitted in a vehicle carrying a decorated pandal. No, they are not drunk! How can you even think of that? So what if they dance like they are inebriated, or leer at the chicks who pass by, or treat the boys along with these girls with contempt! No, it is just in good faith!
So the procession goes across moving at a pace that matches the rate at which the Harry Potter movies are released, sound which matches the inside of a very loud multiplex, and spirits which match a new years party. No, I don't mean they are drunk, they are just in good
Civic sense? What is that? They just know hic... hic... sense! All in very good faith!
PS: Check out this awesome post by one StupidusMaximus. Very good read!
Friday, October 22, 2010
About Love
This piece is really touching -
"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
By Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
And why to Tweet?
Most of us are on Facebook. Most of us update our status regularly. Some of us do it to present a funny line, some to follow others who are writing about recent topics (like all those Rajnikanth jokes), some to tell others that "This is what i am doing right now, and i would just like to make you feel bad" (Like, I am in LA and going to have this weekend party in Vegas, I am sipping a Margarita on a weekday, I got this, I got that... Also, i love animals and help me protect them while i go hunt for my Gucci leather handbags).
And then there are some who update status messages more than once a day, hoping to elicit some response, hoping to hit certain spots. There are also some highly cryptic updates and you expect to stir some kinda of responses... And this is where Twitter can help you.
Twitter, mind you, is not a Social Networking website. It is a Social Broadcasting platform, a much over-used term for it being 'micro-blogging'. Here, loads of people throng, follow you, respond to you, put you on lists, black-lists, make fun of you, join you in making fun of others and beyond all this, converse with you. Unknown folks, hiding behind a handle and a DP. That is the amazing part of Twitter.
On Twitter, you can say anything and everything that you want (No holds barred till a point though!), crack all sorts of jokes and keep mum. If someone likes it they will respond. There is no 'like' button, mind you, that will feed your ego. There are different set of comments. You can take your rants to Twitter instead of FB! (Rant less though because people still read!)
Once you form a small community (metaphorically speaking) on Twitter, you would know what it is all about. You associate handles with people. Ok, @so and so is a pun master, @so and so cracks very good jokes about current affairs, @so and so gets me the latest news (not breaking news mind you) even before they hit the newspapers! and so on! It is fun, entertaining and addictive at first and later fizzes out to a controllable degree.
It is very good if you follow the right people, and not just follow pretty people!
Well then what was the point of this post? Excitement that my Tweet got published on the second last page of the oh so widely read Pune Mirror? (I bet hardly few go beyond Watsa's column!) Angst about people updating their status often on Facebook? Confess that i am pretty much addicted to both Facebook and Twitter?
No. I just wanted to tell folks to try Twitter. At first, read what people write. Then write. Then you are on your own!
And then there are some who update status messages more than once a day, hoping to elicit some response, hoping to hit certain spots. There are also some highly cryptic updates and you expect to stir some kinda of responses... And this is where Twitter can help you.
Twitter, mind you, is not a Social Networking website. It is a Social Broadcasting platform, a much over-used term for it being 'micro-blogging'. Here, loads of people throng, follow you, respond to you, put you on lists, black-lists, make fun of you, join you in making fun of others and beyond all this, converse with you. Unknown folks, hiding behind a handle and a DP. That is the amazing part of Twitter.
On Twitter, you can say anything and everything that you want (No holds barred till a point though!), crack all sorts of jokes and keep mum. If someone likes it they will respond. There is no 'like' button, mind you, that will feed your ego. There are different set of comments. You can take your rants to Twitter instead of FB! (Rant less though because people still read!)
Once you form a small community (metaphorically speaking) on Twitter, you would know what it is all about. You associate handles with people. Ok, @so and so is a pun master, @so and so cracks very good jokes about current affairs, @so and so gets me the latest news (not breaking news mind you) even before they hit the newspapers! and so on! It is fun, entertaining and addictive at first and later fizzes out to a controllable degree.
It is very good if you follow the right people, and not just follow pretty people!
Well then what was the point of this post? Excitement that my Tweet got published on the second last page of the oh so widely read Pune Mirror? (I bet hardly few go beyond Watsa's column!) Angst about people updating their status often on Facebook? Confess that i am pretty much addicted to both Facebook and Twitter?
No. I just wanted to tell folks to try Twitter. At first, read what people write. Then write. Then you are on your own!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Symbols...
A festive season just gave way for a breather till the next one. Dassehra did make me think of some things. This was a FB status I had put up:
I think Raavana was and is a misunderstood soul... Just like Duryodhana from the other epic... They have become a symbol of hate, a hate that should have been directed at our own infected soul.
That made me think whether Symbols of Hate are probably more pure than the Symbols of Love. But then, what is more complicated? Hate or Love? What is more underrated? What is overrated? (I know some opinions about this already!)
And why do we require these symbols? Just to convince our self, consciously or subconsciously that the effigy or the Symbol trapped in the effigy is not what is within us when we hate?
Who knows... Who really knows...
I think Raavana was and is a misunderstood soul... Just like Duryodhana from the other epic... They have become a symbol of hate, a hate that should have been directed at our own infected soul.
That made me think whether Symbols of Hate are probably more pure than the Symbols of Love. But then, what is more complicated? Hate or Love? What is more underrated? What is overrated? (I know some opinions about this already!)
And why do we require these symbols? Just to convince our self, consciously or subconsciously that the effigy or the Symbol trapped in the effigy is not what is within us when we hate?
Who knows... Who really knows...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Instincts and feelings
Life itself is a big storehouse for stories…
Some can be penned, most cannot be given justice… as the gap between the feeling and the thoughts and the words is a lot. Sometimes though one small word or a small smile, or just a coincidence takes you close to that original feeling. The moment. That defining moment...
People you meet along the road, the strangers who become necessities… Moments that encompass your memories…
Some can be penned, most cannot be given justice… as the gap between the feeling and the thoughts and the words is a lot. Sometimes though one small word or a small smile, or just a coincidence takes you close to that original feeling. The moment. That defining moment...
But time drags you back… :)
Sometimes we have to run 100 M dash, sometimes the long and tiring marathon… But most of the times we are running the obstacle race… and sometimes we are blindfolded to make it more tough for us… So all we have is instincts!
Instincts and feelings… these are the most humane qualities… lets cherish them!
PS: I had written this in an e-mail while talking to some friends... Brought back some memories with it.
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