tainted glass

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year !!

2011-12-22T02:56:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year !!, a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year !!

RIP MJ

2011-11-07T14:07:00.003-08:00

RIP MJ, a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

RIP MJ

Art becomes the artist...

2011-11-07T14:07:00.001-08:00

Art becomes the artist..., a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

Art becomes the artist...

PIG # 47

2011-10-17T02:50:00.001-07:00

PIG # 47, a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

PIG # 47

The Lunchtime Musical @ Martin Place

2011-09-29T01:10:00.001-07:00

The Lunchtime Musical @ Martin Place, a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

The Lunchtime Musical @ Martin Place

Hit the road, Jack!

2011-04-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

Hit the road, Jack!, a photo by Kartik Malik on Flickr.

Thanks to Angee for the cam and uvaraj for the cycle :D

Soul Curry

2010-10-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Bachelors in the house say AYE!

Bachelors are staying away from home and feel very hungry yet don’t want to go get something to eat over a lazy Sunday morning say AYE!

Girls who feel the same as the bachelors on a Sunday morning say AYE!

Wives who have a hungry & lazy husband at home expecting you to make something for him to eat say AYE!

Husbands who have wives who won’t do that say AYE!

Madam TM, fellow TMs, guests and all those who feel hungry but depend on someone else to satisfy the hunger? LEARN TO COOK

Cooking L&G, is not just a necessary skill,

But a useful form of self defense,

A blessing in disguise,

A one stop shop for self dependency,

And last but not the least, it’s an art form.

Friends, it s a wild wild world out there. And even without our conscious efforts, we’re subconsciously cooking all the time.

Be it Cooking up inspiring quotes to make your argument more convincing,

Be it Cooking up excuses for the girlfriend’s boyfriends, husband’s wives project managers….

Be it cooking as a survival strategy when you’re parents go on a vacation J

OR Be it cooking that superb tasting meal to score points with the girl next door

The advantages of Cooking are many…

But the one reason that I cook for, is for cooking is a means to satisfy all 5 senses at the same time... When your spoon glides through a soft chocolate mousse on a platter covered with chocolate dust, covered with those brittle chocolate flakes and garnished with that delicate piece of milk chocolate and melts on entering your mouth and you can hear only one thing... you yourself going “hmmmmmmmmmmmm”

How many of you counted the number of senses that stimulated?? :D

Well, and now I request all of you to forgive me for bringing you all back to stark reality from those chocolate heavens, but in my defense, what I’m going to do now, is share a few tips I learnt from my experiences in the Kitchen…

And here’s how you should do it... a few simple tips!!

Tip 1: Burn the food. Burn your hands… Eat the burnt stuff.

Get in the kitchen and cook something... And believe it or not, for it may sound incredible how cooking taught me important lessons of disaster recovery and damage control. Not only did I pass off burnt chicken pieces as “strongly charcoal flavored kebab but also got the best chef in the family award ;)! True story! :D

And the other time when mom was going to be away for a week, she left me to fend for myself for an entire week. So my mom makes a run of the mill “alu gobi” (the legend from the beckham blockbuster!!) and then the next day when I walk into the kitchen to make the chapattis with the alu gobi, That didn’t seem very inspiring at all. The alu gobi didn’t seem as fancy as they make it sound in the movies. SO I took the dough, stuffed it with the alu gobi, deep fried them in lotssa oil! Burnt them of course… Loved them still.. and that’s how I learnt the lesson of “how not to make samosas"

Tip 2: Take the risks. Throw away all the cook books in the dustbin and try your own recipes. Experiment. Throw in whatever is within your reach and forget stuff that you don’t have… you’ll learn to be content and optimistic J besides Necessity mother of invention... they say ;) Shishir, a friend of mine is notoriously famous for even throwing in some beer or wine in the chicken coz that’s what he could find in the shelf!

Tip 3: Mix n Match – only then will you come up with new recipes that the world hasn’t had the honor of tasting. Fresh and new cocktail recipes. The so many kinds of Sambhar you taste when you’re home and miss when you’re not… Imagine if no one had mixed up random stuff you’d still be drinking only one variety of coffee at Coffee Day/barista. Only The standard mixture of rum and cola. Imagine the world without the 800+ flavours of ice cream at Baskin Robbins.. Argh!!! The pain of seeing the colorful world in just black and white!! Ah!

Tip 4: Have Fun! Feel The joy… listen to the sounds of the mustard seeds crackling in hot oil... enjoy the microwave beep in anticipation of what lies within… dance to the rhythm of your knife beating against the chopping board!!

Friends, the food lover in me tries to relate anything and everything to food, the kitchen and related art forms but I guess what I m trying to say in here is that there are a million skills, art forms, martial arts, languages, cultures and traditions, subjects that we’ve been wanting to learn for ages, since time immemorial ;) but have been procrastinating. So get up and get out there and learn something everyday! small big, significant or not, whether it fetches you money or not, whether your friends make fun of you or encourage you, just go out there and explore the world of opportunities

And now, Hungry ppl in the house who gonna join the KARTIK MALIK Cookery Classes after this meeting?? Say aye!!!

Stop the atrocities! Stop the killings!

2009-08-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

It was a nice breezy evening. There was a live jazz band band playing in the background. We were all having dinner at a friend’s party on the terrace of his house. it was all just perfect! except for one little thing... the food was vegetarian !!!

Now vegetarian food doesnt suit me all that well... but sometimes you just gotta put up with somethings in life..The party went on and we all had fun. eventually the party ended and we all headed home, I was with a friend in his car. Now on our way back we were passing by residency road and outside the Catholic club I see a banner that reads, “The grill masters club…. You need not be a member to attend. Theme for today’s meeting “Stop the atrocities, Stop the killing!!” That caught my attention so thought why not go inside and have a look… and lo!behold! What do I see inside?

All the vegetables that you can think of sitting in a public speaking forum and having an impromptu speech contest about atrocities on vegetables. The eggplant was sitting there peacefully in his bright shiny purple long coat. The baby corn in his cute lil green baba suit, the peppers in their usual bright colors red green yellow. Miss Lady Finger in her gracefully draped green saree. The cauliflower was grabbing all the attention after her recently released blockbuster where she was paired with potato in the evergreen Alu Gobi pair.... and guess who walked in wearing an "I hate Popeye" at this "Stop the atrocities" meet.... Spianch...Mr potato and miss onion flirting in one corner trying to cook up a spicy gossip and carrot and radish feeling jealous. Mr Green Cabbage was sitting with his pretty wife Purple.

And when I entered, believe it or not if looks could kill I would’ve been dead. Every single vegetable in there was staring at me as if I was some murderer, guilty of genocide.

Ah and then the contest began.. topic was “atrocities I witnessed with my fellow vegetables”… And then began one after another painfully vivid and touching stories of atrocities. Did you know, baby corns are the most common victims of infanticide. Vegetable names are only used as insults –“The couch potato”! offensive jokes are made about their death - what did one vegetable say to another - I ll see you on the chopping board!! The egg plant is burnt alive to make something they call baigan ka bharta. Or sometimes even chopped and thrown in hot oil .. only to feed to some glutton vegetarians never ending hunger. But the worst is the cucumber… it is stripped naked and then chopped into little pieces. Even when they make fun of their mothers they dont spare the vegetables .. yo momma thought square roots were vegetables ... I mean who does that? How cruel can we get in the name of vegetarianism and then glorify it! And we speak of it as if we’re so considerate that we don’t eat chickens, but kill plants instead. What kind of justice is this.

I was just thinking about all this when someone knocks me from the side and says “Dude, what happened?? Vegetables haunting your dreams. ? ha ha”.

Yes that was my friend. Yes I had dozed off in the car. And yes I had a dream a rather scary one about atrocities on vegetables. And that really got me thinking about how we conveniently think killing plants is ok. So next time someone calls me a vegetarian im not going to say “proud to be”… im only going to be able to say “guilty as charged” …

What's the point???

2009-06-19T23:47:00.002-07:00

I write this for i have a point to make. You’ve come here and I’m sure you have a point to make too. People these days don’t have conversations until and unless they have a point. If I talk for just 2 minutes, someone listening is bound to ask me “what’s your point?” A story cannot just be a story. Someone has to ask what’s the point. Nothing important is ever pointless.

Knowingly or unknowingly, whether we like it or not, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, we, you and me and every single soul who walks this earth has become a slave of this dimensionless entity called a point.

Yes, a point is dimensionless. No length no width, but still powerful enough to enslave us all. A speech, a movie, a discussion, a presentation, an article, an act, a gesture, the itmc manual, a point is everywhere. But now is the time to introspect, to reevaluate, and ask ourselves, do we need the point? And based on years of research and my own meandering experience, the only thing I have to say is, you don’t need the point.

Why do we wake up sometimes in the morning and just don’t feel like gong to work. Why do we want to go to some exotic place and breathe in everything tahst around? Do you feel like sitting on a swing and just go swwwwiiiiing????? Why??? Whats your point???do you have to have a reason for everything? If the point was so necessary in our lives, phrases like “chumma da” in tamil, or “aise hi” in hindi, "emni" in bangla, “just like that” all really meaning the same, wouldn’t exist! Friends get rid of the point. Throw it away.

If I were to divide 100 by say 3, you know what I would get as a result, 33.33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 trust me I could go on and on for ever till eternity or even use the excuse of a word in the mathematician’s world “recurring” but I would still never ever be accurate. And all this inaccuracy, because I chose to use the stupid point. If I had just said 33 and 1/3^rd things would all be fine. The point is the root cause of all inaccuracy in the world that I’m sure you can do without. I repeat, we don’t need the point.

I’m sure we are looking forward to the day the world comes to an end. Are we not? Pardon my sarcasm here but do realize that none of us like things to end. We don’t like the fantasy stories that our grandmothers tell to come to an end. You don’t like good day to come to an end. In fact out worst nightmare is that day when the earth stops rotating, comes to a stand still, a full stop. And I don’t know if you see what I’m getting to already but a full stop, a poorna viram, a point symbolizes the end. Do you know why a judge who sentences someone to death breaks the nib of the pen he uses. Cause he doesn’t want that pen that put that full stop after the death sentence to announce anything that gory. A point brings good things to an end. We don’t need the point.

Have you heard of two parallel lines of thought ever having an argument? They were leading perfectly peaceful lives till they intersected at a point. A point creates clashes

and believe it or not, that’s one of the reasons for its existence.

Do you know what it feels when someone POINTs a finger at you? Derogatory, looked down upon, condemned, blamed. See how the point comes into action yet again when someone has to be blamed. A point blames.

And does it not kill us all when we see mails from our managers with action items and note the use of bullet points there. It kills us. Also notice the use of the word bullet prefixed to the point. No one ever uses a chocolate point or a flower point.

A flower point can a fragrance emit.

A chocolate point can fulfill.

But a bullet point KILLS.

A point creates clashes.

A point blames.

Can we just let a story be just a story?

Can we not point fingers and learn to work as a team?

Can we rise above the petty trivialities of a dimensionless entity and not be obsessed with it?

Just remember, If you're concentrating really hard on a point, you're missing out on the big beautiful world, right around it!

Raindrops ...

2009-06-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

A raindrop if i could be

Born from a cloud on a wandering spree,

Where i would fall i would never know,

But the look of joy everywhere is what i would see.

I would paint the sky with colors so bright,

A rainbow from just a ray of light, pure white,

I could cease to exist and be re born,

But if i could be born just once again,

I would only, as a drop of rain...

Religion...

2009-05-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

“Religion is the opium of the masses", they say
That’s a drug to me, an addiction! Nay??
An amusement for all who can afford,
Greek & Latin for the unaware of language, or even a word!
An occupation for some and a profession for the rest,
Reason to kill for some or to take a bullet on their chest,
For the masses, eh? I ask all those who claim,
That all this insanity is to do with the name of God??

The Lord must be very patient, I’m certain
To witness what we do in his name,
And bless us still with all he has,
And we proudly let all his work go in vain…
Worship Him, that we do,
But in ways and means that men tell us to,
Doubt His ways, His presence too,
But believe words that men speak to be true!

Profanity, Insanity, Cruelty, and actions so dirty,
Forgotten words are honesty and integrity,
And apparently, all for the sake of the All Mighty!
“Kill thy neighbor”, for he doesn’t agree..
Kill him and all those who are free
Of chains we create, of walls we erect,
Of gallows we call temples,
And the devil we everyday resurrect.

Wake up man, shed no more blood,
Or wait if you want and let the world burn.
Stand up, be the wall against the fire.
Protect your brothers, and some respect you may earn.
Protect yourself from the ghost and the opium,
Clean the air, rid the water of the scum,
Trust, within you the God and the powers that reside,
All else, can forever, just stay aside.

"Just For Kicks" - A Garden Special

2008-11-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

"Just for kicks" is my debut into the mocktail world... Conceived and blended with very simple ingredients and the outcome was a very fresh drink with flavors so distinct, you cant miss them but blended so well, you will not be able to identify them...

I would've loved to keep the ingredients a secret and have you guess them while you try it but as this is my first I'll let you try it at home and tell me how it is. A garden special with the tangy flavor of pineapple blended with the freshness of mint, sweetly fizzed up 'just for kicks' with a little bit of sprite.. And in true Bond style 'Shaken not stirred' ...

Enjoy your drink!!

Bliss.. Unplugged!!

2008-10-25T11:27:00.001-07:00

Picture this.. you wake up to the rising sun, stretch a little and look out of the window casually before you get on with the do-this-and-then-that-and-so-ons of everyday life, and you see .. not some people rushing to work, not vehicles noisily moving through busy traffic on main road .. but perfectly clear blue skies and a huge hill garnished with some low moving clouds set in a serene setting. In case you were wondering, I'm not describing an oil painting on the wall or the visualization of a piece by William Wordsworth but what i experienced a sometime early this year back at my Uncle's place far away from everything you hate about the city. You walk out of your room, out the door and walk into a lovely sprawling lawn covered with grass so green that all city residents put together won't match it with all their jealousy !!!

Bhagyalok, Village Doonga, about 35 kms from Dehradun city, from where you will have to travel at least a good 10 kms to get the newspaper every morning, but if you want your favourite fruits and vegetables you just have to walk to the backyard!!! From your every day breakfast fruits to exotic vegetables, or the rarest of flowers combined with the joy of having nurtured each one with your own hands, or just simply watching them grow is an experience in itself. Lettuce, Purple cabbage, potatoes, spring onions, coriander, green chillies, lemons, exotic bell peppers, cauliflowers, cabbage, broccoli, name it and you'll find it somewhere in the backyard !!

I Was there last winter and believe me when i say winters are cold there.. but when the sun rises, its grandeur fills up the air and all you can feel is the warmth of the Sun ... the air is pure and clean and if you were to listen carefully, all you'll are the springs flowing or the birds chirping or the breeze filling up the lungs of each one who's lucky enough to breathe from it. One whiff of that breeze if you were to breathe, your insides would be filled with happiness and pleasure. Nature is the best detoxicant and it's best served out there in the open, away from the chaos of the urban civilization.

And after reading all this if you've been transported there already and already visualizing it ... hang on .. you ain't seen nothing yet... go there once and you'll know what you've missed in your life so far!!

Cheers!

A room full of Land Mines ...

2008-06-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

A room full of 34 land mines, a bomb squad of 10 people who had less than a minute of preparation and very little room to move around, and a tricky set of mines cause they had to be diffused in a pre decided sequence or else they would all blow up. And 30 seconds or all would blow up anyway. Would you strategize or would you pray? We strategized in the little time we had but managed to diffuse only 16 and it all blew up. Right in front of our eyes. All of us survived and I was chosen to tell this tale. Are you wondering how?? It was coz the bombs were made of yellow sheets of paper that we had to cross out with a marker to diffuse during a team building activity inside an auditorium in Mysore!!

If that sounds like fun, you bet we had the time of our lives on the ITMC trip to Mysore, right from the minute we left, driving down from Bangalore the previous evening, till the minute the bus dropped us to our homes the following evening. The ITMC trip to Mysore was for a team building exercise that Srinath and Sujatha from the ILI had planned out for us, and it turned out to be so much more than just that.

From walking at midnight looking for a tea stall and walking back coz we didn’t find one, to the breakfast where our madam president wouldn’t let us eat coz we were getting late for the session (which we ate to our hearts content anyway), from the session where we we’re faced with a myriad of perspectives and opinions, and we learnt the difference between winning to win, and winning to defeat, to the dance moves that one could perform within the constraints of a bus seat with no leg space irrespective of the song being played, from learning about people’s ways of communicating with the animal kingdom to being rewarded with encouraging words of your peers who got to know things about you which probably even you were unaware of, it was an experience that I possibly cannot put down on a sheet of paper, but will cherish through a lifetime.

It was a beautiful sunset, flavored with a slight drizzle and great company that we started out with, only to return with absolutely no energy left, friendships to last us a lifetime and a million memories to cherish forever. Cheers!!!

A Click .. Suits a GUI .. Not your life..

2008-05-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

A click on your mouse can send an email, can take you anywhere on the internet, can shoot the enemy in your favourite FPS game, can download any song you wanna listen to or can get you a recipe in an instant, can probably change the lighting scheme of your room, but a click to get you through life .. bad times, arguments, suffering... be careful what you wish for ..

Adam Sandler just had to go through a long nightmare to learn his lesson in the movie 'Click', but i'm sure there have been times where you wish you could just get past that one sickness or just one argument or just a couple of months to get to your dream a lil faster... Hold on !! chill .. you will get past it .. that's life .. don't start leaving life behind, or even worse, don't keep life for later .. coz it's that every moment that you live, live it well, or not so well, suffer, curse someone, argue, and then make up for it, be an ass, or dream, feel good, celebrate happiness... that's life .. life's not just about getting it done with, its about living it...

How often do you see ambitious guys and girls, forget everything and work like there's no tommorrow.. and why ?? just so they can have a better life for themselves and their families... but just stop for a moment and rethink .. are you losing the good life that you could have had today for a better tommorrow, and before you know it, you're working for a better day after!! and in the process of doing so you fast forward your life and tend to miss out on those years of the life you were looking forward to and now it's gone... when you realise it's usually too late to go back all those years and re live those moments... there's no rewind button .. and you don't wanna be late for your own life..

so STOP !! look at the bigger picture.. rethink your motives... and start again but this time having thought a lil more about what you REALLY want !! don't keep clicking the next button for your life like in an installation .... think about it ..

P.S. : watch the movie .. its worth a watch .. :)

And God said...

2008-05-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

"dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux" - Let there be light, and there was light. But don't you think that he must have meant it for all the times that mankind spent in darkness. Coz for the other half of the day he had the SUN !!
And all this because of an interesting observation i made over the last few days. Be it a bright sunny morning or an even sunnier afternoon, people riding two wheelers have their lights on !! without even realizing it and unnecessarily wasting precious energy in the process. Its now become almost a daily ordeal for me to point it out to at least a couple of riders that they could do without the lights.
On contemplating a little i came up with a possible reason as to why this happens and i realised that whne these people get back home it's usually evening or night, implying they'll have the lights on theor two wheelers on. And they'll just be too tired to think of anything else so all they do is shut the engine and walk home. if only they'd shut the lights before they kill their engines they would never face such problems.
So all people who use two wheelers, or even people who drive cars for that matter, shut the lights, and then kill the engine. So let's give your light full attention, and not deprive it of what it deserves when the hot sun is around !!

The 'Mad Ad' World

2008-05-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

A newbie is at a German coast guard radio station when the voice at the other end of an incoming message says “May day, May day!! Can you hear us?? We’re sinking...” The German at this end says “Hello, Zis is ze German Coast Guard”. The person at the other end, obviously with a panic stricken voice says, “We’re sinking, we’re sinking.” The German replies “What are you sinking about?” ‘Improve your English.’

That was just an ad for an English language school. Just to tell you what modern day advertising has become. The same ad a couple of decades ago would have highlighted the number of courses they offer for a variety of students and the experience they have or maybe a few alumni who have made it big after their course.

Moreover, in the 1950s, when the television quickly became the hottest consumer property - no home could be without one. And so where the sets went, the advertisers followed, spilling fantasies about better living. Ever since, the consumer only got richer, with more money to spend, but smarter as well, knowing pretty we’ll what not to spend on. He was no more the guy who would buy an expensive watch just coz an attractive sales person was selling it or just coz his tennis idol wore the same brand on TV.

Ads were no more just about highlighting your product or your campaign. They were about grabbing your audience’s attention and hitting straight where it got the audience thinking, set off a long lasting relationship with the consumer, made a bond for life, touched that chord of the consumer’s life, and got him emotionally attached to the ad as if the characters in the ad were his own family. As if it was you who came home on the night of karva chauth and took your wife by her hand, drove her to a beach and showed her the moon through the sunroof of your elegant Chevrolet Optra. And all of this within a crisp 45 seconds or at best, a minute and a half. The whole objective of advertising was now the audience and not the product being advertised. As Toyota very aptly put it “we don’t fit you in any other car, we build the car around you”!!

Another thing that still remains and I hope will always remain with the institution of advertising is creativity. The beautiful mix of humor, fantasy, wordplay, out-of-the-box thinking AND keeping it simple at the same time requires some real creative genius don’t you think???? A man waiting in the elevator whole day, getting tired but still holding on already has the sympathy of everyone watching when he finally meets a cute girl he’s never seen before. Everyone’s happy. “you will meet your soul mate in the elevator today”. Vodafone horoscope alerts@ Rs 30 per month.

Advertising and creativity go beyond television too. Picture this. 3M, the popular brand, makes glass so strong that they make compartments of it, fill them up with real currency and fix them up at a bus stop. People tried their luck with golf clubs, hockey sticks, baseball bats and what not. To gain nothing but a little sweat, of course. Brandvertising!!

The latest trend in advertising is creating social awareness about issues, or get across social messages or inspiring the audience more than selling their product. Two kids start fighting on the street on a mutual agreement; literally getting their hands dirty, just to distract their dad’s who’re involved in some stupid quarrel. Daag acche hain. Surf Excel. Or a citizen starts asking questions about a politicians qualification or workex before he decides who to vote for. Or “How about we name bad roads after the contractors that built them” Babu Lal marg. Estd 6th dec 2007... Don’t just wake up every morning. Awaken. Tata Tea. Not sure how fruitful it is in selling more of your tea or soap but sure its waking India up.

But advertising is not always good and right. Creativity can be misused. Surrogate advertising. Advertising for alcohol and liqueur isn’t allowed. So advertise for packaged mineral water, or music cds or excellence awards under the same brand name while we all know you’re trying to sell either scotch or vodka or rum.

Being blatantly misused as well these days is Sleaze. Why else would you need barely clad women to convince you to buy the latest version of your minty fresh toothpaste. According to psychologists, advertisers want you to feel a certain way about their product, create mental associations, and want you to feel the same way about the toothpaste and the girl. Sleaze is exploited everyday in advertising. As someone rightly put it - ‘Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths.’

Advertising has begun to have negative impacts on people as well especially children. Parents complain "In general, my child refuses to eat anything that hasn't danced on TV." Or the misconception that fair implies beautiful, has led many a youngster into depression coz he/she is dark. I mean what the hell happened to “Tall dark and handsome, or the dusky beauty every guy craved for”????? Which world are we living in, Dear who’s who of the advertising world.

So, all that matters in the end is whether they’ve managed to create a lasting impression on you that lasts beyond the ad, till you get to the store to buy the product or even longer. Good or bad, they couldn’t care less. If you buy the product, or even give it a second thought, they’ve done their job and they’ve done it well. Love it, hate it, like it, loath it, but you just can’t ignore it.

Missing Calcutta ...

2008-02-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen all of Calcutta (pardon me but that's what i still prefer to call it even after the official name change) in the little over 18 years that i've lived there, i haven't even experienced half the things they talk about the city and the charm associated with it, and i haven't even been to half the famous places in the city but even now if i hear or read anything about the city, i can visualise it and relive the experience that Calcutta holds. I know quite a few Calcuttans and one thing that definitely goes with being a Calcuttan is having friends who'll keep complaining about how much they've heard about Calcutta and that they know its never going to stop. My friends, i'm sure, would agree.

It's just another city with all the stuff cities are made of, but the passion that comes along is Calcutta.

Can you name a city in India where the streets are lined up with Brasil flags and posters of their entire football team, the people have their faces painted with the Brazilian colours before the many Football World Cup finals they've played in??? Have you seen football matches where the you distinguish the two teams playing from having worn or NOT-worn jerseys on the field? And even that gets really tricky in the rainy season, (If you've been to Cal you know the answer), because the players of both the teams look alike anyways ( I'm not gonna tell you why, find out if you can). Name a city that has a birthday :) !!!! And trust me when i say this, no article ever written about calcutta can ever be complete without a mention of the phuchka !! for those alien to the term, im sorry but the english language doesn't have words to describe it so im just gonan suggest you make a trip there and experience them !!! And of course the week long festivities of the durga puja and the locality plays and the non-stop eating that goes on during the pujas. Xavier's, my School and all that i would give to go back there. All my friends. Goopi Bagha and all the satyajit ray movies i could sit all day watching ..... that's my Calcutta. ah ! I miss Calcutta ...

Oh Calcutta!! Oh Calcutta !!!

Anonymous ...

2007-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

" Lines,
Lines can keep you in,
Lines can keep you out,
Some lines you can't understand,
Some lines you can erase,
Some you can't,
Some lines you wait for,
And some lines make you wait,
Lines can keep you alive,
Lines are with you till the ned
But the only lines that matter
Are the ones you make ... "

" Slavery isn't abolished,
It's just a whole lot more sophisticated,
What matters is that you remember
The only boundaries, are the ones in your head..
Because while the World stops all those it can,
It's against the ones it can't.
It takes a little to reclaim your life. "

Good morning !!

2007-10-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Its early on a Monday morning .. I just happened to wake up early so thought I'd write about mornings.

Mornings to me are the best time of the day. I may not be an early riser and people have been surprised to hear that i can be at work by 8 - 8:30 am, but i feel that the freshness of a morning cannot be replicated. A deep long drawn breath of the morning air can open up your insides like nothing else and fill it up with enthusiasm and energy to begin a brand new day with more freshness that what they show in a nescafe ad... :)

If i asked you to guess the sounds I'm hearing as i write this, you would normally guess chirping of birds and other Nature sounds, wouldn't you? Contrary to all of that all i hear is the annoying rustle of the auto-rickshaw engines, honking of a few cars, in other words a trailer of what I'm going to listen to a lot more of soon. The chirping of birds i do hear but very faintly in the background ... In an urban scenario i can't expect too much more i guess but I am really glad at least the air is clean and i know its not going to be for long when all the pollution kicks in.. what takes the cake though are the mornings of some place far away from the businesses of a city, amidst nature. The hills or the forests, Nature has a music of its own, and fragrances no one can imitate... ( it brings me joy even to think about it :) )

But none of the noisiness of a city affects the freshness a morning brings to me. The fresh and cool air, i just can't get enough of.

Go out for a drive, park the car somewhere in the middle of nowhere where you don't have the company of a variety of noisy engines and only have nature by your side giving you company, and maybe a hot cup of tea in an earthen cup ... what a great start to a day that would be !!!! A few places where I've enjoyed that kind of a morning are a small town called Doonga ( although i don't have too many memories of that trip years ago ) and Mysore and my hometown Calcutta of course.

Although i do have to go to work after all that, a morning like this can kick start even a Monday morning when quite a few would be cursing the end of a relaxed weekend :)

Morning light had begun to set in and this is my favourite part so I'm gonna go to the balcony and enjoy as much of it as i can get ... :)

Have a nice day & Keep smiling :) !!!

Think about it ..

2007-10-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

" मज़हब नहीं सिखाता आपस में बैर रखना,
हिन्दी हैं हम, वतन है हिंदोस्तां हमारा " - इक़बाल

Satisfaction NOT Guaranteed !!!

2007-10-15T21:31:00.001-07:00

A recent ad film on TV hit me when our Mr. SRK is standing on the rooftop of a skyscraper and is screaming out loud against satisfaction. Is satisfaction a bad quality to possess?? Isn't the state of being satisfied where we all want to be?? Then why was he cursing all Indians for having this quality??

A little thought into the matter brought out a new perspective to satisfaction altogether. As the cliched saying goes, 'there are always two sides of a coin'.. i began to wonder why it didn't strike me earlier.

Satisfaction as we all see it, usually refers to a state of being content, a state of peace !! Isn't it. I'm sure most would agree. Its good to be satisfied because it means not committing one of the seven deadly sins of GREED...

But where the problem lies is what we are satisfied with. Are we satisfied with too little or are we never satisfied with anything at all.

Ambition takes a backseat if we are satisfied with too little or with whatever we get and we never ask for what we deserve or never move out of our comfort zone to get what we can achieve, materialise our true potential.

On the other hand if we're never satisfied we're plain and simple greedy. Are we?? Are we being greedy by not being satisfied with what we have, ever.. cause if we are we're never going to strive for more and more and more. and is it justified to label us greedy just cause we aren't ??

Where does one draw the line??? :)

Can you Imagine ???

2007-10-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

" .................

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world" - John Lennon

Is the 'Grass' really greener on the other side ???

2007-10-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

What's with all the doping in sports ???

Is that gold really that important that sportsmen these days don't mind risking lose everything they or their nation were ever proud of ??? Has it become a competition of which nation can afford or make the best and totally undetectable drugs ???

Marion Jones had the courage to confess what she had done and how she had won all those medals but what is the price she's paying .. was it all really worth it .. She lost all that she had ever achieved .. people have lost faith in the dignity of sportsmanship and in the nation's integrity .. is victory so important that you don't mind losing against your conscience ??

" winning is not everything, it is the only thing " .. Is it .. Really ??

Stop !!!

2007-10-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Stop !! What's the hurry ???Just take a minute to think ... where do u wanna go so fast that getting there 10 minutes late is just not an option ??? what would the damage be ??? Would you also kill if that's what it takes to get where you want to be ???

I bet all of you can identify with the questions I've asked. Or at least you know so many people who would fit into that description.. But really what's the hurry. Did you know India has the world's highest accident rate in the world. more than 11 lakh people die of road accidents and India contributes a whooping 80,000+ to that figure.

Just today two people on bikes were killed due to an accident with the blue line buses in Delhi less than 2 hours apart and less than 3 kms apart. And invariably the crowd, the media, the news channels blame the buses and other heavy vehicles for the accident. but did you even for a second consider that it could have been the biker's fault too. I'm eye witness to bike riding that can shock you out of your wits!!

Please don't mistake me for taking the bus driver's side on this but I'd ask each one to at least look at both sides of the coin. The bus drivers are in a hurry of their own but the bikers are no less guilty. If you ever happen to stumble upon the statistics of the number of bike riders riding without a license I wouldn't have to speak a word more.

And let's not even get to the process of issuing licenses !! I could get you a license without even you moving out of the comforts of your house, in fact having sat in a car or on a bike is also not a mandate !!! Rs. 600 for a 2-wheeler license and Rs. 1000 for a 4-wheeler license are not exhorbitant prices anyway ;).

And to top it all there's bad news for those few sincere citizens who still believe that the RTO is the place you go if you want to apply for a fresh LL or DL. A friend of mine happened to think so and went to apply for an LL for a two wheeler with all relevant documents. The first question he was asked at the RTO was "Which driving school ?" and to which his answer was a sincere "None". He was asked to come back a week later and when he returns in hope of getting ahead he was simply returned all his documents with his application saying a particular document was missing ( which was of course deleberately removed from the set he submitted !!! ). Moral of the story: ' Want a DL, go to driving school !!! ' so that the guy sitting at the RTO can earn a little more money, after all how much does his job pay him C'mon [:)]!!!!

And then we come to reasons why so many accidents happen ( trust me the license Scandal is the least of our issues ). We blame the people driving the vehicles but you might be shocked to hear how very guilty the so-called innocent pedastrians are... Jay walking is dangerous and people know it all very well. But when you're in a hurry do you even care what the cop tells you about walking on the pavement or the zebra crossings??? People on the famous park street in kolkata push aside the lonely cop and say step aside sir, i'm in a hurry :).. how very convenient i must say.

And what makes you think that just a monetary penalty is gonna stop people from driving rash??? You think a fine of rs. 1000 is gonna even make a rich kid with a rich dad think twice before driving rash again or do you think a fine of Rs. 100-300 is going to make youngsters apply for a fresh license. And at other times even a Rs. 100 note is enough to get away for an offence which should be penalised with at least Rs. 1000 or more as long as it goes unnoticed into the traffic polices' personal funds !!!

Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai or Calcutta - Its the same story everywhere.. Whats the hurry i ask ??? Whats the hurry to get driving without a (a legitimate one i must add ;) ) license ??? Whats the hurry to get to your workplace 10 minutes early and what stops you from leaving 10 minutes early rather than try and make up those 10 lost minutes on the road putting 10 other lives in danger including yours ??? If only you can just STOP n THINK !!!

Chak De !!!

2007-10-08T02:52:00.001-07:00

Chak de !! ... Yes, that seems to be the new cry of the nation. Be it for an individual who needs some inspiration or a whole team that needs to be motivated to defeat the opponents. And the credit goes solely to the movie by Yash Chopra.

It’s the tale of a hockey player surrounded by match fixing allegations who makes a comeback and regains all respect by coaching the women’s team to a World Cup victory after 7 long years of a life of misery. But that my friends, is not what the movie is all about.

The movie is all about everything that we need to prosper as a great nation, succeed as a great team and only lastly succeed as an individual. We tend to forget at times that we’re Indians and we only identify ourselves by the state we come from. It feels like we live as citizens of various states rather than of ONE country. We fail to realize that a team is one entity and not a composition of various individuals. This is the first lesson that Kabir Khan, the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team teaches 16 girls from different states, that they’re here to play for one country. To be a team member means to be able to give up self interests for the team goals, to overcome to desire to succeed as an individual for the sake of the team.

Respect one another and treat everyone equally regardless of one’s background and knowledge or skill is lesson number two. Skill and knowledge can help you but won’t take you far if you don’t succeed as a person. Personal biases shouldn’t exist in a team if there are any intentions of the team to succeed. He says that the team can learn how to play hockey but what they need to learn more importantly Respect.

The very fact that we need to put our nation and our team before ourselves in whatever we do stirs up a lot of patriotism as well among people who think patriotism is a word used only for the freedom fighters. All in all, a great movie to watch. Great acting, great direction, great movie!!!

Failure !!

2007-10-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered why someone on a winning streak keeps winning and someone out of form just keeps losing?? Why one failure in the day can make the simplest of tasks seem herculean??? And the confidence from one victory can make you jump over the highest mountains as if they were the tiniest hills ???

I'm in that situation today where one defeat has almost destroyed my enthusiasm and momentum that carried me so far. Just yesterday I could have conquered any task and a day later i feel like a complete loser. Why??

I've heard them say "Tough times never last, But tough people do.."!! what does it take to be tough?? What makes them survive through thick and thin?? What drives them??

I sound like I've lost the only battle i was out to fight!! But i know better.. a small defeat cannot destroy me. Because i will reassess, re inspire and restart !!! :)

To a better tommorrow !! Cheers !!

Religion .. Ever a wonder !!

2007-10-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

"Religion is the opium of the masses",

An amusement for those who can afford it,

An occupation for some and a profession for others,

Reason to kill for some and reason to die for for a few others...

And a million other perceptions for the million others...

( incomplete )

2007-10-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

During my training days at Mysore City ...

Walk On ..

2007-09-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

I am what I am,
I am what I chose to be,
The guy in the mirror doesn't like me,
Am I what I want to be... really?

Long gone are those days,
When I did what you'd tell me to do,
Time has come when I have to do the things
That will take me to where I aim to be.

I'm sure it'll pain to get there,
Pleasures may not be,
But i'm also certain at the end of it all,
It'll really hurt if I don't make it
And my dream will cease to be.

'All it takes is pressure and time'
Time I got, Pressure i need to build
Cause only when my insides explode
And my Passion screams out loud,
Will I take that small step forward,
And make my own Destiny!!!

Let's Take Things Away

2007-01-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

Today, let's play a game
A game in which no one loses
Whether you win or not
You'll tell by how you play.

One by one, from life,
Yours, mine, everyone's
Whoever has any reason to whine
Let's take things away..

For just one day,
Let's take Light away
Life'd be so cold!!
What would you do?
If you could see no one,
And no one ever saw you..
Would we do half the things we do??
We would bump into each other
But would we know who's who??
Mirrors, moons wouls cease to be.
We'd have nothing to "show" or "hide"
From friends or enemy!!

If next, we took anyone
Between Love or Hate away,
The other would no longer be.
Being so different,
Each still needs the other.
You wouldn't love th eones you do
Wouldn't hate anyone either.
Why would you then even care??
No one would

If then we took away from you
Your Religion
Imagine how happy Lennon would be!!
Anyway, would you believe in anything
"Who" would b your God??
Would you still find him within you??
Or standing beside you??
And where would you go,
To wash all those sins away?
Would you "sin" at all??

Let faith be the next to go.
The world would be a lonely place
Or would there be chaos everywhere
Would you believe me if i said..
Sorry, such a thing would not be.
Who would you go for help?
Who would you ask?

I guess i've taken enough away
For this to be a game..
But look back and see
How did you play?

Free Falling

2007-01-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

One day far ahead I want,
To stand at the edge of the cliff
(With a parachute, don't worry)
And dive down..
Only to see what i'm gonna feel.

Will I scream,
And waste more moments
Miss out on more things
Go past so much reality
With my eyes closed
Only cause i'm too scared to look
At the End

Will it be quiet around me
As if watching a movie on mute
In a 3D theatre
With action all around
But as silent as a lake
Will I be at peace
Even though i know what's waiting
At the End

Will i feel the wind in my hair
like in a roller coaster ride
Only straight down..
Like driving a fast car
Fuelled by gravity,
A rockstar playing on adrenalin...

Or will everything slow down for me?
For me to see everything i wanted to
Each leaf of every tree
Each crack in the mountain
And the faces it makes to mock me
Can i turn around and look at the sky too?
To count every star
Think of all happy moments
Relive them if i can
And not worry 'bout the end at all..

Or will i be frantic
For everythng i can grab
Every small thing i can hold onto,
To stop the End
Does knowing the End help at all?
Or how soon i'm gonna get there?

What will it be?
What will i see?
Be it scenes from my memory,
Or just a silent movie
Reality "TV"
I'll surely tell you
But if you go first
Be sure to tell me

Tainted Glass

2007-01-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

Looks so beautiful,
The artist creates images,
Gives the plain glass colour,
And looks, or so he thinks!!

The world plauds his masterpiece,
Understand deeper meanings,
But only of what they see on the surface
Created by the artist...
What an irony..

They claim to see beyond
What their eyes show them.
Each one tells his own tale
And mere fools, they drink to it too..

Isn't there something more to it.
Have they seen everything..
Isn't there anything that they failed to notice?
The fate of the glass beneath.

Lying right beneath the paints and the colours,
Is the helpless glass.
Having lost its character and true meaning,
Merely being used by the artist
To gain the fame he always wanted.
Having thrown the glass to lie unnoticed,
Lie alone having lost all its charm..

Where all it ever wanted
Was to be a gateway to the true Light.
Show the light its true colours,
The spectrum of colours it holds within.
Just be what it was meant to be.

The artist took away all its beauty,
Gifted by Nature,
Instead gave it 'fame',
Dressed it up, Covered it up
Murdered it
And left it devoid
Of all it ever wanted

This Side Or That???

2007-01-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

The door slams home,
Am i locked inside,
Or am i free at last..
How can i tell?

Have i just begun a journey,
Of a thousand miles,
Or am i finally home..
How can i tell?

The door separates two worlds,
Also connects the same two!!
Inside from outside,
The closed to the open,
Can you tell one from another??

Look at the door..
Does it have a "Welcome" sign,
Or one that says "Thank you for coming"
Which one would you rather see?
Through which one would you rather go?

"You're confused!!", screams the voice inside,
"Help me decide, help me, help me please", plead I.

He says dont look at the door, fool,
Look at what you see,
If you see the door, you're home..
If you see the horizon,
You have a long way to go, son..

Stars

2007-01-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when i look up in the sky,
There are so many stars..
Wonder who put them there

I look around me,
There are so many stars..
Wonder when they'll realise they're stars..

Ever wondered whats beyond the stars you see,
What lies beyond the eye can see..
If someone else sittin elsewhere,
Wonders the same...

Ever thought what lies within the stars around me,
What lies within those restless hearts,
If they'll ever meet the star within them,
Will they even recognise if they do!!

These stars are wonders,
The almighty hand crafted each one,
Every single one, right from the guy who lives next door,
To the big-ol' Sun!!!