Hyperbole

Some days are just meant to be perfect. At times you can feel it right at the onset that the day will be good. On others the realisation dawns somewhere at noon. The best are those in which you just sit back at the end of the day and go through the events of the day over and over again. Day started with a long drawn haircut and a shave at the local hair saloon at Kalkaji. Despite my trepidation about the talents of the shaggy barber it turned out well. On the way to the barber shop got a call from GDC, Srinagar inviting me as an external examiner in January. Went to the Select City mall at Saket at 3. Roamed all over the mall. Just me and my alter ego. Decorations, lighting and the X'mas tree were a visual delight. Got a couple of DVDs I had been on the lookout for sometime at throw away price. Specially Pulp Fiction. Had the most amazing banana cup cake with a huge cup of coffee at the cafe in the mall. On the way out spent a magical moment admiring the fountains. White water. Co

Winter afternoon, sitting and having Cappucino at CCD in M-Block market, GK, Delhi. Setting sun is streaming in through the glass front of the cafe. The place is bustling with people out to have a good time. Chatter is all around and some western musical soundtrack is playing in the background. Sri Lankan team is batting in some One Day International in the LG plasma TV on the wall across me. I've been sitting here close to an hour, nursing my second cup of coffee. Sitting here by myself, in a state of nirvana (or somewhere pretty close) I realised that this moment will stay with me for a long time. If not forever. So why immortalise it by adding a description which will transport me back to here and now? The lights were just switched on inside the cafe and the sunbeams streaming in have turned golden making everything and everyone take a gleam of gold! This is pure magic.

Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet to satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body. It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply - I was casually sorry, and then I forgot. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Of all the lists I've seen this one is my favourite & slightly customised by me. 1. Dogs don't cry. 2. Dogs love it when your friends come over. 3. Dogs disposition stays the same the whole month. 4. Dogs never need to examine the relationship. 5. Dogs never criticise. 6. Dogs don't want to know about every other dog you've ever had. 7. Dogs agree that you've to raise your voice to get your point across. 8. Dogs don't expect you to express yourself. 9. Dogs don't care if you forget things. 10. Dogs are excited every time they see you. Great, huh?

I came a full circle yesterday. The journey which started on the 16th of August, 1999 reached a major milestone on the 19th of September, 2009. My very own dus saal baad!

I don't remember when exactly I started sketching side profiles looking towards the left. What I do remember though is that it was during all those boring lectures in school & college. In school time I used to do it on the back pages of my class notebook. I used to draw other things like cubes, elaborate geometric figures which I used to meticulously shade, cars, trucks etc. Amongst all these side profiles formed a sizeable bulk. During my college days, or lectures to be more precise, I went on with my free hand sketching on the margins of my notes. Dental Material being the deadest of all subjects brought forth my artistic talents in first year. I expanded on the side profiles, added different age groups, hair styles, ears, eyes but the nose more or less remained unchanged. Except for kids of course. 2009 May ending I went to Leh. There in a cafe at dusk I was sitting with Ayush facing the entrance. Suddenly the light went off and the candles at the tables provided mellow ligh

Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better, even of their blunders. Nietzsche Beyond good & evil. I have been attributed to be 'blessed' by this gift, and as I have no reason to doubt the attributing autority, there must be some substance in this fact. But I wouldn't know that, would I? On a different but yet in some way similar track Nietzsche also said, the highest wisdom is to have no fear!

Kahan gayab ho sub?

So this is what I believe happened in reality. Dracula was a great guy, the original romance icon. He had this immaculate dressing sense - all black & full formals. Perfectly tailored of course. Amazing dentition & a hypnotic gaze. He partied hard & only at night. The classy castle didn't hurt. He slept in a coffin, but hey! no ones perfect. Dracula got too close to the lady he loved & smothered her to death. But then, don't we all?

Been a while since I came this way. The difference this time is that I'm mobile now, i.e. I'm blogging from my cell. Times change, so does technology and so must we. This isn't as tough as I thought it would be for that matter. But all the same writing long blogs would take getting used to. Phew!

The bitch is back! It was almost like a resurrection which took everyone by surprise. Sounds a bit derogatory but then umm.......ahh....she is a bitch after all. No bashed skull, no injury, healthier then ever before. The bark is there, so is the bite. The guards had chased her out of the staff quarters, that's all. This is what you get when you listen to a Krazy Krackpot like Kakes !

I always had a thing for water. As a baby I was petrified of bathing or so my Nani used to tell. When I was 10 or 11 I got obsessed with swimming. I swam and swam and swam and then swam some more through the summer days. Rains fascinate me. Mountain rapids have a hypnotic effect on me and I can sit and stare into the torrents for hours. Of all the water bodies it's only the sea which somehow leaves me cold and bored. Big waves, small waves, high tide, low tide. Big deal. Boring. I drink a glass of water before stepping out of the house and there is an unspoken law that there should be a glass of water at my table when I reach my chamber in the college. There is a glass waiting when I go to attend a department seminar. I have it in the canteen, CCD , restaurant.....everywhere. I drink a copious amounts during the day, specially if I am working. I have had an issue with having some form of drinkable water with me while sleeping also. Its almost like my teddy bear. I hardly ever get

I had to take viva for the 1st year and 2 nd year Oral Histology the other day. Today it is Oral Histology for the 2 nd years and Oral Pathology for the 3rd year. God! I am so fed up with all this. This viva thing has been going on since the past one week. Right now I have to take viva for around 30 more students and there is just another 80 minutes to go. Academics really sucks at such times. Waise it would help if I could pay more attention to the viva being answered then to writing this blog but then my mind has already stopped working so what the hell!

I think that it must be after ages that an english movie affected me so much. A movie which I can put in a similar genre is Forest Gump . That again was a movie which took you along American history from a personal viewpoint. I personally had not expected much from this movie. Specially because it did not have that much a presence in the Oscars though it was nominated in a number of categories. And after watching "Milk", a pretty ordinary movie, which fetched an Oscar for best actor for Sean Penn, I was all the more pessimistic. Then this movie came along in the theaters, thanks to the strike called by film producers association resulting in the blockade of release of hindi movies this Friday. I was blown away by the picturisation /special effects/make up. The improbable story line which seemed so believable. The unusual love story which went deep into the core of your heart. And the human, genuine and touching performances by both Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Some dialog

In a nutshell the story is pretty plain and simple. There was this brown colour bitch in Sardar Patel Staff Quarters called Brownie (what else?). She was fed by the families residing there and in return she would protect them from the monkey menace . A lean animal who seemed to be so meek and docile. She would lie down with her belly exposed whenever any inmate would pass and people used to hold her in their lap and make her jump- that was how gentle she was with them. Now this would have been a pretty simple story except for the fact that this bitch was class conscious . What I mean by "class conscious " was that she had a habit of barking at and biting the Class III and IV employees. Namely the workers and the guards. There had been a spate of robberies in the flats so the inmates were fine with the extra alert nature of this bitch. If any worker had to come to work in the flats he would have to be personally escorted by one of the inmates of the quarters. Today in the mor

Today is a Blankety -Blank-Blank day. Actually it's Friday the 10 th and Good Friday for that matter, but as far as I am concerned it's a Blankety -Blank-Blank day. These are the days when till the time I do not make an effort to think my mind is absolutely blank. Like a blackboard erased of all chalk marks or a plain piece of paper. I have absolutely nothing to think about, there is no work pending, nothing as such is bothering me and everything is moving like a clockwork. The sun rose as expected, the department is running smoothly and everything that had to be tackled has been tackled. I love such days. I won't say that these days are far and few in between but all the same they are a blessing, specially after a hard week or a turbulent time. Even writing a simple blog like this takes an effort as my mind simply refuses to work. If I had to compare it to a real life situation, I would say that right now my mental condition is similar to a mountain top with a green mead

Yesterday evening I was on my way to Delhi from Jaipur by Shatabdi Express, it was 7pm or around about that time. My neighbouring seat was empty so I had plenty of space to spread my self and my luggage. I was practically sprawled across the two seats. Was deep into a book, A Wild Sheep Chase when I came across the following lines........ "Having read that far, I shut the book, opened another beer, and pulled a box lunch of salmon roe out of my pack. She sat across from me with folded arms, fast asleep. The autumn morning sun, slanting in through the train window, spread a thin blanket of light over her lap. A tiny moth blew in from somewhere and fluttered about like a scrap of paper. The moth ended up on her breast and stayed there before flying off again. Once the moth had flown off, she looked the slightest bit older." .........now at this very moment a "moth" flies right across my face. I must have jumped a foot! I am in an A/C Chair Car in which all the windo

"Speaking frankly and speaking the truth are two different things entirely. Honesty is to truth as prow is to stern. Honesty appears first and truth appears last. The interval between varies in direct proportion to the size of the ship. With anything of size, truth takes a long time in coming. Sometimes it only manifests itself posthumously. Therefore, should I impart you with no truth at this juncture, that is through no fault of mine. Nor yours." How was one to respond to this? He acknowledged my silence and continued to speak. "You are probably wondering why I called you all this way here. It was to set the ship in forward motion. You and I shall move it forward motion . By discussing the matters in all honesty, we shall proceed one step at a time closer to truth." At that point he coughed and glanced over at his hand resting on the arm of the sofa. Came across these lines in A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami . What was intriguing was that I was struggling

So here I am at 7:45pm. Travelling by Shatabdi yet again. This train is going from bad to worse. Torn curtains, cracked and dirty windows, broken foot rests, dirty toilets and even the quality of food is going down. Where is my freaking soup and bread sticks? Damn that Laloo ! Well that is not why I am writing this so let me get to the point. I am intrigued. There’s this female sitting diagonally to me. Around three rows to my right. Newly married with bangles, sindoor , bindi , a foot long mangalsutra , make up and stuff which proclaims look at me I am freshly (can this be used?) married. All that was missing was a neon sign on her blinking "I'm married FINALLY". Total behenji . North Delhi- Subzi Mandi- Govindpuri stuff. Around 28 to 32. Which is rather late if you are not a professional. What amazes me is that I can’t make out if she’s amazingly good looking or rather plain to look at. She has all the desi criteria for a fresh bride. Fair, reasonably tall, slim. Pe

How can a thing which is so simple to say can get so complicated to comprehend? Is it me? Am I really so bad at putting things across? And I thought I was pretty lucid till now. Or is there a deeper malady to all this which I can feel yet not diagnose. I've become so numb. I've become so tired, so much more aware..................

The story starts in the year 2006 0r maybe 07. One night while surfing channels I came across U.S Top 10 on Star Movies. There I watched the trailor or of a movie called "Into the Wild" for the first time. I got very intrigued by the plot of a young man hitch hiking all the way to Alaska to see if he could survive in the wild. Amazing cinematography had to be there when the subject involves mountain and forests. Even the song they played in the promo was very apt. Meaning ful and inspiring. I took down the name of the movie on my cell so that I don't forget. The chances of such an off beat movie ever coming to the theaters in Lucknow were pretty remote so tried to get it from the local video parlours and the various music shops. As expected no one had even heard of it. My search continued for a couple of months more and I looked for it even in Bangalore and Delhi without any success . The story restarts after a long break in March, 2009. We went to Gurgaon to meet Ayus

What a night! What dreams! I saw rabid monkeys, someone out to kill me, my old school- Presentation Convent and L.K. Advani of all the people in this world. The supersonic, psychotic monkeys (or maybe one monkey with her baby) was in Jammu . Out to get my ass, I was saved by Suzana who's trying her best to get a nip on the monkey. I was standing in the lawn and she seemed hell bent to bite me for some reason. The monkey is zipping on the boundary wall and propelling herself from the shesham tree near the waterfall. Divya is also there and I'm equally perplexed as what is she doing there, all the way from Banda . In the end I try to kick her and she almost gets a nip on my leg while Suzana is almost going to get a nip on her.....and I wake up with a start! Before this in another dream I have this information that someone is out to kill/hurt me and I am put up in a hostel. I'm more wary then afraid. Nitin is in the room next to mine and I'm sitting there. A window/g

Saw a weird dream in B'lore. I was wearing my black short kurta and grey tracks and was standing near Tawi bridge on the Jewel theater side. I had two hundred bucks in my pocket. As I stood there waiting for a mini bus to come it started raining. As I was waiting for the bus to come and take me home I saw a sewer manhole right before the bridge opening up and Pakistani soldiers coming out fully stocked with arsenal. They were in brown pathani suite which is their uniform. This was war and I was the only witness! As I watched I could see the Pakistani army taking over the bridge. Tried to run towards the stadium but saw that it has already been taken and an army picket has been set. I could see that they were consolidating their positions before starting for the final assault. Everything and everyone would be removed. I had to get to the other side. Warn everyone at home. Try to run away to the hills with my family. My cell obviously was not working. I had just 200 bucks on me and w