(An old draft... This is a more morose post than usual.)
A friend of mine told me a while back, after a huge, humungous, teary fight with his pretty half, that it was oddly comforting for him that they both shed tears during the conversation. I say conversation here, in the nicest possible way, because the only other "dialogue" of that type I have seen is between George W Bush and a tyrannous oligarch. Let's Nuke em!
I did, like always, disregard his statement as foolish, selfish and inaccurate.
In fact, I still consider it foolish and inaccurate. But the scale of accuracy here being much much smaller...
Ubiquitous as love probably is, I find it hard to believe that something as utterly lousy and materialistic as a few drops of salt water is a measure of it. It isn't that hard to make a person cry... its pretty easy actually, as numerous Tamil serials will attest. To use that as the cornerstone of a relationship, like saying "I made him cry! Yipppeee!!! How touching" is about as valid as celebrations of the one billion population mark a few years back. Momentous, yes. Historic, surely. Not much else.
To my friend's credit, he didn't mean it this way at all. The poor guy was probably looking at the silver lining. I got nuked, but hey, cockroaches make great pets...
IMO, and I'm putting my foot firmly in my mouth here (with great difficulty, owing to a slight decrease in appetite thanks to a new diet and a great loss of flexibility thanks to an old sprain) and going on to say that he was accurate as far as the tears were concerned. However, when Insecurity, and her good friend, Ego, conspire to make your tear ducts leak like a Lapis bathroom pipe, you know you're on shaky ground. In that case, just state dehydration as a medical reason and file for break-up.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
It was good while it lasted...
Ah well... so CSK didn't make the finals and I'm gonna have to eat a lot more than oats for breakfast. Dhoni can't really win everything and Murali was going to have to go for more than 6 an over. Hayden didn't start with 40 on the board, and neither did Raina with 2 sixes against his name. Funny really... The law of averages worked out individually, but what were the odds of everything falling apart on one day.
Credit goes to RCB though, and to one of my absolute favourites, Anil Kumble. To bounce back from the bottom of the table to this is no mean feat, and unlike Chennai, who've looked pretty much just above average the entire tournament, the two finalists are peaking at the exact right time.
Peaking. As in present continuous. As in, you haven't seen anything yet. The final tomorrow is gonna be amazing, and I don't mean Sivamani's performance.
Ah well... It was good while it lasted. No more monstrous walks down the track, glorious cover drives, porous deep fielding, slick-oiled palms and gritty comebacks. No more chants of "Yellow jersey always wins!" and drum beats to Azeem-o-shah after the presentation. No more absolutely Gay comments about Dhoni's "power and agression" and "amazingness" from a certain commentator who's name seems to imply that in the South African winter, Rum-is King...
Ah well... It was good while it lasted. At least now we'll all root for the same colors when Sachin goes out to bat, without that uneasy, terrible feeling of treachery that arises from a decade and more of hero-worship. We can go back to blasting the Australian school of cricketing, and stop reasoning that Sri Lankans are almost Indians after all.
Yup. It was great while it lasted.
Credit goes to RCB though, and to one of my absolute favourites, Anil Kumble. To bounce back from the bottom of the table to this is no mean feat, and unlike Chennai, who've looked pretty much just above average the entire tournament, the two finalists are peaking at the exact right time.
Peaking. As in present continuous. As in, you haven't seen anything yet. The final tomorrow is gonna be amazing, and I don't mean Sivamani's performance.
Ah well... It was good while it lasted. No more monstrous walks down the track, glorious cover drives, porous deep fielding, slick-oiled palms and gritty comebacks. No more chants of "Yellow jersey always wins!" and drum beats to Azeem-o-shah after the presentation. No more absolutely Gay comments about Dhoni's "power and agression" and "amazingness" from a certain commentator who's name seems to imply that in the South African winter, Rum-is King...
Ah well... It was good while it lasted. At least now we'll all root for the same colors when Sachin goes out to bat, without that uneasy, terrible feeling of treachery that arises from a decade and more of hero-worship. We can go back to blasting the Australian school of cricketing, and stop reasoning that Sri Lankans are almost Indians after all.
Yup. It was great while it lasted.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Manmohan playing in the IPL? Definitely... Maybe
It's the end of the IPL season, but Manmohan Singhs just getting started! A paddle sweep behind the wicket for the NC and a cross batted swat to the DMK. Add to that numerous, calculated chips into various parts of the heartland.. Phut! Bam! Boom! You can almost imagine him saying, turban and all, like Dhoni in the Pepsi ad "All you coalition raaascals! Miiind it!".
A blob of uncontrolled glee would probably be an accurate description of what I was when I plonked myself down on the couch early this morning. The eleven o'clock news was on, and strangely, everyone looked wide awake! A few seconds later, my grandma came rushing to find me dancing, though with a single leg. Happiness was ubiquitous... I could find it swimming in my soup, twittering around my ear and dancing on the boundary lines almost nude. Forget jockey... they've got the next best thing to naked right here on prime time television.
Ooops. IPL Fever...
Not fever as much as fanatical, all consuming adulation of the Chennai Super Kings... I mean, who doesn't love Yellow! It's bright, take that KKR! It's bubbly, take that Preity! It's Gulti, take that DC!
Now you know what fanaticism is. A complete disregard of logic and personal emotion in favour of hollow adoration of the greater good. This could beat Fascism in its idiocy. Lets say it does, Prima Facè...
Most of you're probably thinking, Definitely, Maybe... which reminds me... that movie is just amazing. I mean, its probably much of a critic favourite, but then movie critics are grouchy and sadistic old men who forgot there was a time when they could see these kind of movies and go out of the theatre thinking they might even meet someone beautiful, interesting and of similarly romantic disposition. Sigh. By the time the movie ended, I was wishing it was April again... to be perfectly honest, I was wishing that round about half way... this inspite of an extremely intelligent, sexually liberated Racheal Weiss (character)...
In any case, if rom-com's with incredibly cute female leads appeal to you, catch this movie on DVD. Definitely.
A blob of uncontrolled glee would probably be an accurate description of what I was when I plonked myself down on the couch early this morning. The eleven o'clock news was on, and strangely, everyone looked wide awake! A few seconds later, my grandma came rushing to find me dancing, though with a single leg. Happiness was ubiquitous... I could find it swimming in my soup, twittering around my ear and dancing on the boundary lines almost nude. Forget jockey... they've got the next best thing to naked right here on prime time television.
Ooops. IPL Fever...
Not fever as much as fanatical, all consuming adulation of the Chennai Super Kings... I mean, who doesn't love Yellow! It's bright, take that KKR! It's bubbly, take that Preity! It's Gulti, take that DC!
Now you know what fanaticism is. A complete disregard of logic and personal emotion in favour of hollow adoration of the greater good. This could beat Fascism in its idiocy. Lets say it does, Prima Facè...
Most of you're probably thinking, Definitely, Maybe... which reminds me... that movie is just amazing. I mean, its probably much of a critic favourite, but then movie critics are grouchy and sadistic old men who forgot there was a time when they could see these kind of movies and go out of the theatre thinking they might even meet someone beautiful, interesting and of similarly romantic disposition. Sigh. By the time the movie ended, I was wishing it was April again... to be perfectly honest, I was wishing that round about half way... this inspite of an extremely intelligent, sexually liberated Racheal Weiss (character)...
In any case, if rom-com's with incredibly cute female leads appeal to you, catch this movie on DVD. Definitely.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The electorate puts their hands up...
Defeat. The ingnominy not as much as the shock, perhaps, for LK Advani. The perennial Lakshman of the BJP seems to have trouble crossing the last rekha into the Prime Minister's office himself...
The last two decades have been, to say the least, interesting in Indian Politics... the fall of the India.INC, the subsequent rush of people occupying the vaunted chair (as many as 6 in one decade) and the rise, rise and fall of the BJP. The third innings of the INC has found favor with India again, the voters showing us that sometimes, who we vote for is as much a product of our textbooks and bedtime stories as it is of performance.
The Congress, to be quite fair, is like a Noblewoman with a very large train... the "dynasty" has such a fine, studded history that any lesser leader donning the gown would invariably trip, fall and make a mockery of themself. So after a prolonged period of finding someone good enough to fill in the post of captain, they just decided to cut their losses. So they take that nice, decorated gown, put it up in 10 Janpath, and become just another party with "flexible ideologies", but with an illustrious background that, this being India, guarentees them so many votes every time.
LK Advani, on the other side, has looked very much a lost man. Vajpayee was lucky, in a way, that his prime ministiership was supported by a very cohesive, structured and focused party leadership, credit going in no small amount to Advani himself. But the best of things have a strange way of blowing up in your face, and Indian Voters have a habit of blowing up the best of things. So as the NDA fell, BJP crashed, their flamboyant young leader was tragically killed, their flamboyant senior leader caled it quits, a lackluster party president came into favour, and all of a sudden, the venerable Lakshman, chanting "Ram,Ram", understood what a blindfolded man in freefall must feel like. To take the past and future away from a man, and muck up most of the present, was not really setting the stage for a victory 5 years on.
And so it is, that today, as recession washes up on our shores, that the Aam Aadmi seems to have taken note. Every political analyst mourning the ignorance of the electorate seems to be mistaken, for the geo-political map of India now seems to say, Saffron is too expensive to be given more than a sprinkling, and in dire times, we will trust the Hand at the end of our own arm, even if it IS after our hearts.
The last two decades have been, to say the least, interesting in Indian Politics... the fall of the India.INC, the subsequent rush of people occupying the vaunted chair (as many as 6 in one decade) and the rise, rise and fall of the BJP. The third innings of the INC has found favor with India again, the voters showing us that sometimes, who we vote for is as much a product of our textbooks and bedtime stories as it is of performance.
The Congress, to be quite fair, is like a Noblewoman with a very large train... the "dynasty" has such a fine, studded history that any lesser leader donning the gown would invariably trip, fall and make a mockery of themself. So after a prolonged period of finding someone good enough to fill in the post of captain, they just decided to cut their losses. So they take that nice, decorated gown, put it up in 10 Janpath, and become just another party with "flexible ideologies", but with an illustrious background that, this being India, guarentees them so many votes every time.
LK Advani, on the other side, has looked very much a lost man. Vajpayee was lucky, in a way, that his prime ministiership was supported by a very cohesive, structured and focused party leadership, credit going in no small amount to Advani himself. But the best of things have a strange way of blowing up in your face, and Indian Voters have a habit of blowing up the best of things. So as the NDA fell, BJP crashed, their flamboyant young leader was tragically killed, their flamboyant senior leader caled it quits, a lackluster party president came into favour, and all of a sudden, the venerable Lakshman, chanting "Ram,Ram", understood what a blindfolded man in freefall must feel like. To take the past and future away from a man, and muck up most of the present, was not really setting the stage for a victory 5 years on.
And so it is, that today, as recession washes up on our shores, that the Aam Aadmi seems to have taken note. Every political analyst mourning the ignorance of the electorate seems to be mistaken, for the geo-political map of India now seems to say, Saffron is too expensive to be given more than a sprinkling, and in dire times, we will trust the Hand at the end of our own arm, even if it IS after our hearts.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
So... who did you vote for again?
Today's the big bad day... counting day... the day when every news channel does a day long jig with constant vote updates, expert comments and weird conspiracy theories. I would just love to say the excitement s been keeping me up this late (read: 1.22 AM) but i just came back form a night show of yet another bad Tamil movie.
Actually that IS unfair... this wasn't just another bad tamil movie... it probably is, and will remaing until the next TR movie comes out, THE bad tamil movie. I won't tell you what movie it is, because I'm a sadistic jerk who's hoping you ll wander innocently into it, with nothing else to do and boredom at your neck, and stagger out 2 hours later with a dazed, faraway look.
But I digress... I was wondering how similar the election process and the movie today are. Both have too much media coverage, both are way too long and both leave you with a feeling that you should have left after the first half, because the second is so much worse.
But then again, this is probably the only season news channels cover politics with any zeal. They have this off season, you see, that lasts for around 3 years... they like to call it the "Celebrity, Glamor and other stuff you cant get enough of" season. Then they have the actual "Lets cover politics" season which brings all their political analysts out of hibernation. (and us in there) Their exit polls are all priceless, and their predictions are even better... even if they make up their minds to do it, voters giving the polls could never combine their votes in so many different ways. Probably they ve forgotten who they DID vote for... i mean, when a shopping mall offers you 30% off just for casting your vote, who cares what gets you the little blue mark as long as the mark gets there...
So who did you vote for again?
Actually that IS unfair... this wasn't just another bad tamil movie... it probably is, and will remaing until the next TR movie comes out, THE bad tamil movie. I won't tell you what movie it is, because I'm a sadistic jerk who's hoping you ll wander innocently into it, with nothing else to do and boredom at your neck, and stagger out 2 hours later with a dazed, faraway look.
But I digress... I was wondering how similar the election process and the movie today are. Both have too much media coverage, both are way too long and both leave you with a feeling that you should have left after the first half, because the second is so much worse.
But then again, this is probably the only season news channels cover politics with any zeal. They have this off season, you see, that lasts for around 3 years... they like to call it the "Celebrity, Glamor and other stuff you cant get enough of" season. Then they have the actual "Lets cover politics" season which brings all their political analysts out of hibernation. (and us in there) Their exit polls are all priceless, and their predictions are even better... even if they make up their minds to do it, voters giving the polls could never combine their votes in so many different ways. Probably they ve forgotten who they DID vote for... i mean, when a shopping mall offers you 30% off just for casting your vote, who cares what gets you the little blue mark as long as the mark gets there...
So who did you vote for again?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The shame of being caught cheating...
Sigh... well... sorry.
I tried... I shouldn't have cheated... at least not on you... your were perfect for me... as random and undemanding as they get... then i got ambitious, thought i had focus, fell in with bad company and dumped you... for a year that too...
*cries*
Ah well... now that the public apology part is over, my Blog is ready to have me back... I experimented a while with themed writing... decided I would blog about College only, thinking it ll kend me focus and improve me consistency.... as with most of my bright Ideas, this one flopped and I found i was scrapping most blogposts that formed because they didnt conform to the stated purpose.
Stated purpose, I scoff at thee...
Fingers Crossed.
The third innings begins... Ciao
I tried... I shouldn't have cheated... at least not on you... your were perfect for me... as random and undemanding as they get... then i got ambitious, thought i had focus, fell in with bad company and dumped you... for a year that too...
*cries*
Ah well... now that the public apology part is over, my Blog is ready to have me back... I experimented a while with themed writing... decided I would blog about College only, thinking it ll kend me focus and improve me consistency.... as with most of my bright Ideas, this one flopped and I found i was scrapping most blogposts that formed because they didnt conform to the stated purpose.
Stated purpose, I scoff at thee...
Fingers Crossed.
The third innings begins... Ciao
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