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Showing posts from January, 2008

Public Mis-awareness Campaign

A recent ad on TV, which claims to be a public awareness campaign, shows a self-important 10-year old telling his family about his scores in various subjects. The conversation goes on like this: Family: "Maths?" 10 yr old with mock disappointment: "93" Family: "Science?" 10 yr old with mock-er disappointment: "96" Family: "And what about Rahul?" 10 yr old with a wide grin and thumbs-down: "0" Family: "Why?" 10 yr old with absolute delight: "Chicken Pox. He didn't come to the school at all." Family smiles nastily as if Rahul has acted foolish by contracting chicken pox. And all this in the name of a "public awareness campaign" for a Chicken Pox vaccine. I would request the great people behind this ad to spare us their concern for our well-being. Some other child falling sick should raise nothing else but compassion in everyone. But these amazingly conceited people make completely innocent kids

Sanyasini - My interpretation

Here is a small sketch that I made some time back. To be frank, this sage was not intended to look like this. Atleast not her expressions. But it is her expressions that I find most enigmatic. The lady is clearly a sage, a glamorous one though, but her eyes don't suit her face. In fact, I was about to erase them and draw them again but then I guess the general aura that these eyes are giving this plain sketch made me change my mind. To me the eyes don't seem like those of a sage (sanyasini or fakiran). They are seductive and convey a desire that a sage is not supposed to have. In fact would be considered sinful. She seems to be inviting or rather challenging onlookers to try to break the eye contact. She looks coy and carries the airs of Scarlett O' Hara in Margaret Mitchel's novel "Gone with the Wind". She looks like the one who by raising her little finger can make men fall all around her. But then this personality does not seem proper for a sage, does it?

In Search of my Purpose

For the past few months, I have been pondering upon the purpose of my existence on this earth. Everyone has a purpose or, as Po Bronson says in his book "What should I do with my life?", a calling. In fact, it is this book which has helped me to get motivated enough to attempt seeking my calling. Anyways, Po Bronson's book talks about many who have faced the same dilemna that I am facing and have successfully found answers to this. One important step towards figuring your purpose out is to figure out what you really feel about. So as a first step I will try to figure out things that I care about. Hmm, so here it is: 1) I definitely feel angry when I see any kind of a bias - Race, Gender, Caste, Color. 2) I feel angry when people litter or talk thanklessly about trees, rivers, animals, and nature in general 3) I feel angry when someone tries to impose their views on someone else through force and violence 4) I feel sad when I hear about people cheating others 5) I like stu

Rose Bud

Morbid Warning: If you don't like to read about death, I would advise you not to proceed. The writing is, however, the least I could do for a cousin to whom justice was denied even after she died. No one knows who killed her. The only thing that is known for certain is that she had last been seen with a school friend at the market. The school friend accepts that she was with her but did not know where she went after the market. No one knows how she was killed. However, she was found with a wound on her head next to the railway tracks where the high speed Shatabdi Express runs. Some say that she was drawn in by a passing train. But her wounds were too few for this kind of a ghastly accident. No one knows how she died. Whether it was because of excessive bleeding from the wound on her head or some internal injury invisble to the entire world? All that is known is that she died in the hospital with her hand on her wounded head so that her bandage as well as her right hand were c

Happily Re-married

It is all too easy for us to suggest that someone remarry after losing their spouse. But once someone does this, we go ahead and make life hell for the couple. Hypocrisy is too much a part of our society. Most of the times, after losing a spouse, the bereaved spouse does not consider a remarriage for emotional reasons or society. Well-meaning relatives keep on suggesting that they find someone suitable and marry again. This happens mostly if the bereaved is youngish, lets say less than 45. But marrying again is not an easy decision to take. Will you be able to love the new spouse the same way you loved the first one? Will your new spouse be comfortable with you? If you have children, you are worried how they will react to your marriage. Or how your new spouse will react to your children from the previous marriage? If all of these things work out, you get trapped in that very Indian question, what will people say? Or if you are lucky and all of the above work out, you worry about how m

Sunrise from my balcony

Date: 1/15/2008 7:06 AM 7:13 AM 7:17 AM 7:21 AM 7:23 AM Colors of the sky reflected in the windows of the apartments across the road

Artist

Nature paints new pictures everyday. Each different, and each beautiful. I have the priviledge to be able to view sunrise from my balcony though the sunset is hidden behind high rise buildings. Each sunrise is unique and reminds you how lucky you are. The color of the sky changes as often as life changes its course. Yesterday, I saw flocks of small birds diving around in the sky, today it was eagles who were circling the orange sky. When the sun appears above the horizon, its crimson sphere is reflected in the apartment windows across the road and at times you have to stop and wonder whether you are actually witnessing this haunting exchange or is it a dream. The fumes of a high flying jet approaching the sun are glowing red and discernible from a great distance. Slowly the last star is extinguished and the entire sky turns bluish White. Half-an-hour after the sun rise, if you look at the sun, you will never be able to believe that this is the same forbidding monster that was so gentle

At the beginning

This is the title of one of my favorite songs sung by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis. The song also featured in the animated movie "Anastasia". The music and the tune is energetic and pleasant and makes you feel happy. For those who are interested, here is a link to the video: Video - At the Beginning Here are the lyrics for those who want to karaoke :-): ----- We were strangers Starting out on a journey Never dreaming What we'd have to go through Now here we are And I'm suddenly standing At the beginning with you No one told me I was going to find you Unexpected What you did to my heart When I lost hope You were there to remind me This is the start Life is a road And I want to keep going Love is a river I wanna keep flowing Life is a road Now and forever Wonderful journey I'll be there When the world stops turning I'll be there When the storm is through In the end I wanna be standing At the beginning with you We were strangers On a crazy adventure Never dreamin

Indians are not Racists - and lets prove it.

Well, I have never seen cricket as dirty as in the current India vs. Australia cricket series. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Wrong decisions, tiffs, arguments, and the worse of them all, a ban on Harbhajan Singh who has been accused of Racial abuse against Andrew Symonds. News channels are going crazy about this and all over the net there are angry comments for and against both the teams. If Australian team is making the racial discrimination story up to wrongly implicate Harbhajan, it is a dirty trick to play. But at the same time, if Harbhajan (which I doubt) did hurl racial abuse at Symonds, that is wrong too. To people who advocate racial behaviour against Symonds just because there is an attitude problem in the Australian team members, I would like to say that this is not acceptable. Any kind of a discrimination against anyone is not acceptable. Especially we, Indians, should not become a part of this dirty, regressive behaviour because we have long been on the rece

Taare Zameen Par

which means "Stars on the earth" is a movie about a 9 year old boy, Ishaan, who suffers from dyslexia, which his parents and teachers fail to understand. As a result he undergoes physical and verbal abuse when he fails to pass his exams or fails to interact well with the children of his age. His family removes him from his school and packs him off to a boarding school so that he can be disciplined and get rid of his "attitude problem". Being separated from his family, breaks Ishaan's spirits and he stops painting, at which he is really good. A temporary arts teacher is pained by Ishan's silence and tries to find out the cause of his depression. He reads his notebooks and identifies Ishaan's condition as dyslexia which had also affected him in his childhood. After this, he visits Ishaan's family and tries to make them understand that their child needs emotional support. At first the father is defensive but later realizes the truth. By this time, with

Men, when will you get used to women around you?

I was shocked by the horrifying molestation of two women by a mob on the New Year's Eve. But the report published in HT today about a survey they conducted in Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kokatta, Bangalore and Chandigarh, is all the more shocking. Have a look at it and please tell me that you were not one of those 500 men they questioned: Indian males rear their ugly heads What will it take to make these men look at females without passing any judgements about their characters? If a girl is having fun in a bar, who are you to decide whether she is a one-night stand material or a woman you want to marry and keep hidden inside your homes. She has not asked you to judge her. Guys, please accept that it is her life and only she has the right to choose how she wants to lead it. Yes, females have lives of their own too. To start from the basics, guys please bear in mind the following things: 1) Women are human beings. 2) They breathe, think, feel, and live like you do. 3) Not being "

Safety - A right denied to Women

Ok, alright, A Happy New Year to all. But I really hope that the New Year teaches a really good lesson to those hooligans who took upon themselves the task of ensuring that atleast two girls in Mumbai never feel secure again in their lives. On New Year's Eve, these 2 girls stepped out to celebrate the occassion but fell prey to a perverted mob of men who molested and humiliated them. If you want to be shocked, click on the following link: Mob molests 2 Women on New Year's Eve These girls had as much right to be out on road on the New Years Eve as the monsters who molested them. Who gave these men the assurance that they could get away with such a lecherouos and criminal behavior? A little drink and holiday spirit brought out the demons inside these men and bared them for all to see. The girls were ultimately saved by the police but I am sure that nothing can heal the scars on their psyches. The thought that these men will now go back to their offices amongst female colleagues,