Nice guys finish last...

जीवन के इस मोड़ पर, इक बात तो हम जान चुके हैं,

बाकी लोग ना माने लेकिन, हम तो यह मान चुके हैं

चहु ओर जो देखूं, दिखत हैं सब सुबालक हताश

It is safe to assume that nice guys indeed finish last

कछुए-खरगोश की कहानी में थोड़े lies हैं

Updated story में loser तो बेचारा tortoise है

कहानी में twist ना होता तो गाडी चलाते super fast

क्यूंकि भैय्या, nice guys always finish last

पता नहीं क्यूँ, लेकिन सब गलत ज्ञान का वितरण होता है

मेहनत का फल taste में आजकल कड़वा होता है

projects copy कर, तनिक और किया होता timepass

क्यूंकि भैय्या, nice guys always finish last

यह विचार कर, ना जाने कितने हैं जागे

की लंगूरों के हाथ प्रभु, अंगूर कैसे लागे,

हमने बोला ओ भगवन, यह कैसा है न्याय,

पहले मालूम होता, तो बुराई को हम करते high five

बस, अब तो बिलकुल नाही होवत है बर्दाश्त

हम अब पूछत हैं, nice guys काहे finish last?

भगवन बोले , अरे मंदाबुद्दी बालक!

कलयुग में करत हो, सतयुग की वकालत

यह तो कलयुग की रीत है,

अच्छाई पर बुराई की जीत है,

लो धरो, 'Gita for dummies' का latest kalyug version,

नित - पाठ कर दूर करलो any confusion,

यदि समझ ना आये तो आ जाना मेरी class,

क्यूंकि अरे पार्थ!, nice guys always finish last.

Sunday Morning musings

As I lay in bed, half asleep, trying hard to catch back the dream that just flew by, I heard a faint mellifluous voice. It was a feminine voice saying words I had heard a long time back - "नमश्कार, रंगोली में आपका स्वागत है" ( The श in नमश्कार, very deliberate) 'Sunday morning!' screamed some brain cell, waking up a few more 'reluctant to wake' brain cells. People from the 'Uni-channel generation' know what a Uni-channel is and what a 'Sunday Morning' (SM) is. It is a special day that evokes feelings and memories that lie so deeply entrenched in the brain that people might forget everything, but not the Sunday mornings and the DD schedules. I cannot remember any modern day sitcom as distinctly and vividly as the SM sitcoms. The rangolis, mahabharatas, ramayanas, jungle books, duck tales, talespins....the list goes on and on. The one day, when morning ablutions would be squeezed in during the commercial breaks. The one day, when animated serials were rationed like essential goods, the one day when watching TV was not a vice, but a virtue indeed. The one day, when watching TV was enforced by the folks in the hopes of imparting some moral values. As my mind started to relapse into a bygone era, a faint Asha Bhonsle melody stopped the relapse. She sang "आगे भी जाने न तू, पीछे भी जाने न तू, जो भी है बस येही एक पल है....." Well played universe, very well played. The Sunday Morning was over....infact a long time back.

(Beautiful Lyrics)

Book++

I have always been enamored by history and reading Indian Summer felt like watching a Bollywood adaptation of Indian History. "इस में थोड़ी कॉमेडी है, tragedy भी है, एक्शन है, रोमांस भी है, और थोड़ी history भी है" A little tolerant Indian society and we would have had a blockbuster!

Jokes apart, I found the book really interesting. The book tracks the lives of Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah against the backdrop of Indian Independence, Pakistan's creation and the Partition holocaust. The author spends significant time on Edwina Mountbatten and her role in Nehru's life. The controversial photo on the cover page in the later editions probably reflect the marketing team's effort to popularize the book by focusing on the Nehru-Edwina angle. This, I felt was rather unfortunate as the book offers very interesting insights, events and incidences that did not get enough attention. Like the incident at 2nd Round Table conference, that brought Jinnah out of his retirement, or Nehru's skirmishes with unruly crowds, or Patel's use of "साम, दाम, दंड, भेद" approach to integrate princely states into the Indian Republic. The task of integration was probably as important as achieving independence itself and I don't think many people appreciate this enough. The author has done rigorous research and some facts might be a little uncomfortable for some of us to handle. Like Gandhi's emergence in congress might have resulted in a bitter Jinnah which might have led to Pakistan, or the horrific partition killings. We all take pride in the fact that today India is way ahead of Pakistan, in spite of being born together, but we forget that India was fortunate to have Nehru's vision for 17 years after independence. Pakistan had just 1 year of an ailing Jinnah. Jinnah, for all his shortcomings was a top lawyer during those times and the book points that Motilal Nehru - Jinnah combination could have given Indian Independence much earlier than 1947, had it not been for Gandhi's entry into the political scene. Gandhi's emergence pushed both Motilal and Jinnah into sidelines and Gandhi's idealistic form of Indian independence might have delayed India's independence. The after-effects of the events, actions or even words of these people are felt even today and would be felt for many centuries to come. Such is the impact of these men!

History, that we are taught is one sided. People are completely 'white' or completely 'black'. The truth, in most cases is always in shades of grey.

Decade finito

Amidst all the new year celebrations, an important event seems to have been overlooked.( Yeah, I count 1-10 as one decade and not 0-9, my blog, my rules) Its a new decade too. The previous decade has ended. Maybe, its a moment to take a stock of this journey. Where was I at the start of this decade? I think this was the first complete decade that I remember from the beginning to the end.

The single biggest change that has been influential in almost everyone's life i believe would be in the field of technology. Who would have imagined in 2000 that mobile video chatting would be common in 2010? Can anyone forget those 56kbps lines, the screeching sounds of the dialup modem, trying so very hard to establish contact with the digital world so that one could check emails. The ever so long wait for the images to download as each big fat pixel barely managing itself to squeeze itself out of the anorexic telephone line. The ever so reliable floppy disks. The dreaded 'Error reading drive' messages that made even the holiest amongst us mutter out a few curses. The omnipresent big red 'coin' STD boxes that were the 'stationery mobile phones'. Now, they are replaced by the young, sleek ones. Like senile old men, they stand alone reminiscing about the good old days, while looking down upon their younger versions. And the mother of all changes, the Internet. We have all become 'wired in'...everyones choosing the blue pill. No takers for the red pill i guess. Oh Neo!, where art thou? Maybe I should 'Google' him

Global warming, doomsday, nuclear war, terrorism....whilst everything else looks bleak, the only space that looks promising is Technology. It has been one crazy decade and as the new one begins, indications are that it should be one helluva one too! Happy new decade to the chosen few who found the above crap interesting enough to read up until here!

Hibernating thoughts

As the fall season draws to a close, signifying the the beginning of the winter season, multitude of thoughts run through my head. Its the hibernating season, a season to preserve, possible a season to look back, season to muse, mull and reflect. Have things changed? In some sense they have, but in some sense this winter is no different from the previous winter and it may be a long shot but the next winter may not be all that different. If life were a phrase, it would be 'Same old, same old'; a song, it would be U2's 'Stuck in a moment'; a movie, it would have been 'Groundhog day'. Everything is a manifestation of everything else. Changing forms, while one stares at the cave walls, the shadows play around making you believe that things have changed but in reality, there is no reality. I think I hear Plato laughing.

Blogger matrix

Agent Internets: Why, Mr. Blogger? Why do you do it? Why switch on the internet and login to your blog? Why write a new post ? Do you believe people are reading this shit? For more than narcissism? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it validation? Or acknowledgement? Perhaps information dispense? Could it be for fame? Or is it instant gratification? Or Freedom of expression?

Cognitive baises, Mr. Blogger. Vagaries of your thought process. The unfair rationales of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify a post that is without meaning or purpose. And all rationales as useless as your browser history. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as freedom of expression. You must be able to see it, Mr. Blogger. You must know it by now. You can't pretend to not understand. It's pointless to keep posting. Why, Mr. Blogger, Why? Why do you persist?

Mr. Blogger: Dude, I don't know [pause] You were right internets, you are a time killer.

Heavily Inspired by this

Choices

Choices are the darnedest thing. When you have none, you want one; when you have one, you want some; and when you have some, you just want none! Life is indeed, an eventual outcome of the choices that we make. Maybe, it is an outcome of the choices that we don't make. In fact, its the unchosen path that haunts us more. The anguish, pain felt by walking down the imaginary 'What if only' road can be heart-wrenching. Maybe, unbearable for some.

It seems to me that eventually, the choice is between the 'head' and the 'heart'. Yeah, you may have a million choices, but they all boil down to those that your head wants to take, one that is logical, rational. And the other that your heart wants you to take, one that resonates with you at an emotional level. Should I do this or not? Should I take this step or not? Should I head down road x or z? Every choice is eventually a showdown between the head and the heart. And this showdown leads to dilemma, confusion, indecision, frustration, anger. I remember the cartoons, where they show an angel and devil on the shoulders of a character, and they both fight it out. The showdown is akin to those fights.

Maybe, God wanted it to be this way. He put all senses right between the head and the heart. Maybe to give unbiased inputs to both. So whenever there is a 'case' to be considered, the two lawyers battle it out with their arguments. While the heart has emotions, feelings in its arsenal, the head has logic and rationale in its quiver. The dreaded 'Guilt' and 'regret' arguments are used by both. Then, theres is the 'Past history' thing. The head throws the heart's past record in the face and says, "Your honor, these are the previous cases of forked roads, when the 'heart' way was chosen. And unfortunately, my esteemed friend here has always misled the court on a path to failure".

Very rarely do I find that the head and heart agreeing on anything.Man! it would have made things so much simpler. Maybe the head and the heart can never reconcile on any matter, maybe theres no common ground, maybe thats the way things are supposed to be. Who knows, God must be bringing popcorn and coke to watch the daily soap opera, with us mortals tearing ourselves apart at the crossroads. Maybe like Neo, we have already made the choice and are here just to see why we made them. Probably the thunder and lightening are God's 'LOLs' and 'ROTFLs'. (Dear God, it ain't funny anymore)

Whatever it is, the dichotomy that choices bring is something that we will never be able to escape. Lesson learnt: God may not be rolling dices, but maybe you should.