I have always loved festivals. Apart from the obvious reason of a holiday, I love the preparations that go behind making any festive celebration a grand success. And this goes without mentioning that I Have always been rather active on this scene.
So it was Janmashtami on Thursday and due to unavoidable circumstances, I had to step out of my house and leave for Ghatkopar. In the train, I took necessary precautions to maintain a safe distance from the train windows, lest some moron hurl a water balloon filled with slime and dirt and what not. But nothing prepared me for the truckful of guys out on the streets. Then I realised that some people will never learn to mind their own buisness. I mean I am fine with the fact that they are all charged up because they are going to break the handi, but can't they just SHUT UP and reach the venue? Why the hell do they have to throw water and pass lewd comments on unsuspecting young woman on the streets? That was exactly the scene that occured with me. Not once, but thrice. I was just hoping one of them would fall out of the truck..... that ought to teach them a lesson.
If that was not enough, I had to listen to countless comments on the mask I was wearing to avoid swine flu. There was a row of bikes, with three baboons on each, and every single guy yelling at us from across the street. I just hoped they all would come under some truck ahead. Really now, I am not an evil person but such people bring out the worst in me.
If that was not enough, I saw these same people on television breaking the handi at Ghatkopar. And I felt nothing but disgust. Disgust at the thought that there were thousands of people to cheer such cheap guys.... disgust that all this was done in the name of Lord Krishna, who incidently saved Draupadi from similarly cheap people in that era. You know in biology I had learnt that sometimes nature skips the gentically bad traits so that it would not be passed to the future generation. What went wrong with us? Why do we have to put up with such people when we know they have no right to inhabit the earth? Any answers?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Kids no longer.......
I am a classic proof of having an idle mind but a devil’s workshop. I was fortunate (?) enough to have a month long break from college, but in my case it was more of a curse. The only good thing that happened to me during my previous vacations was that I gained a few kilos and hence when the college resumed, I did not resemble a malnourished kid. I really don’t know what went wrong in this vacation, for I have lost weight. I almost fainted when the needles tipped at 46 kilograms-that’s 7 kgs underweight. So in short, I ended up doing nothing constructive, instead scheming plots to survive my last one year in college.
I never realized when my thoughts veered towards my future. I am 21, so it is quite natural to think about the future which seems pretty bleak because till now I haven’t yet got a job offer. And I am still confused whether to opt for an MBA or go for M.Tech degree. As if this was not enough, my mind entered into really scary territory-marriage. It is only a matter of few years before I get booted out of my own house. Hehe. So my idle mind wandered a little more and I conjured up a list of things which my kids (What? Of course I am going to have kids. According to our society, you get married to have kids…) will miss out on growing up. In a broader sense it applies to our next generation. Here it goes kiddos-
1. Waking up one fine day and your mom allowing you to bunk school. No, no, no sweetheart, you can’t bunk it because your parents have spent an obscene amount on getting you educated at some neighbourhood school which incidentally is the mecca of rote learning.
2. Instead of asking for buttered paranthas, you ask for money to have transfat laden pizzas, samosas et al at your canteen.
3. Spending your vacations at your native place because you will be busy preparing for your next class. Duh.
4. Getting a scratch, bruise or gash and being proud of it. Because you will be clad in helmets, knee pads and what not while you are cycling thanks to your overprotective parents.
5. Waking up one fine noon to the sound of advertisements or announcements blaring on some over-amplified speakers passing through your street on an auto. That was some way of publicity I tell you.
6. Dancing like hell during Ganpati viserjan because you think it is too wild for your senses.
7. Climbing fences and stealing mangoes because the farm owner has installed electric fencing.
8. Enjoying roadside stuff with an iron-clad stomach while it’s pouring.
9. Being able to stumble upon your parent’s wedding album and being elated at the discovery. Because the photos nowadays are digitized and stored away at the mercy of your hard disk.
10. Solving a Rubik’s cube with insane concentration because unlike us, you have already seen how to solve it on YouTube. Damn.
11. Feeling the thrill of reading Champak and Gokulam (which you smuggled from your friend) under the covers when everyone else is sleeping. That’s because you have a monthly subscription of the same magazines.
12. Wading through ankle length waters. Instead the water will be neck deep because some moron at BMC failed to give orders to clean up the drains.
13. Hearing a cuckoo or spotting a sparrow.
14. Wolf-whistling roadside romeos. They are too busy in counseling sessions. Hmmm…. A good thing at last.
15. Having I-pods surgically attached to your ears because you can’t bear natural sounds.
Phew, that’s quite an exhaustive list I guess. But I guess the most important thing they will miss is being humane….I just hope our next generation has enough of compassion and honesty left in them because it not easy being all goody-goody in this world. Kalyug hai bhai, kalyug.
I never realized when my thoughts veered towards my future. I am 21, so it is quite natural to think about the future which seems pretty bleak because till now I haven’t yet got a job offer. And I am still confused whether to opt for an MBA or go for M.Tech degree. As if this was not enough, my mind entered into really scary territory-marriage. It is only a matter of few years before I get booted out of my own house. Hehe. So my idle mind wandered a little more and I conjured up a list of things which my kids (What? Of course I am going to have kids. According to our society, you get married to have kids…) will miss out on growing up. In a broader sense it applies to our next generation. Here it goes kiddos-
1. Waking up one fine day and your mom allowing you to bunk school. No, no, no sweetheart, you can’t bunk it because your parents have spent an obscene amount on getting you educated at some neighbourhood school which incidentally is the mecca of rote learning.
2. Instead of asking for buttered paranthas, you ask for money to have transfat laden pizzas, samosas et al at your canteen.
3. Spending your vacations at your native place because you will be busy preparing for your next class. Duh.
4. Getting a scratch, bruise or gash and being proud of it. Because you will be clad in helmets, knee pads and what not while you are cycling thanks to your overprotective parents.
5. Waking up one fine noon to the sound of advertisements or announcements blaring on some over-amplified speakers passing through your street on an auto. That was some way of publicity I tell you.
6. Dancing like hell during Ganpati viserjan because you think it is too wild for your senses.
7. Climbing fences and stealing mangoes because the farm owner has installed electric fencing.
8. Enjoying roadside stuff with an iron-clad stomach while it’s pouring.
9. Being able to stumble upon your parent’s wedding album and being elated at the discovery. Because the photos nowadays are digitized and stored away at the mercy of your hard disk.
10. Solving a Rubik’s cube with insane concentration because unlike us, you have already seen how to solve it on YouTube. Damn.
11. Feeling the thrill of reading Champak and Gokulam (which you smuggled from your friend) under the covers when everyone else is sleeping. That’s because you have a monthly subscription of the same magazines.
12. Wading through ankle length waters. Instead the water will be neck deep because some moron at BMC failed to give orders to clean up the drains.
13. Hearing a cuckoo or spotting a sparrow.
14. Wolf-whistling roadside romeos. They are too busy in counseling sessions. Hmmm…. A good thing at last.
15. Having I-pods surgically attached to your ears because you can’t bear natural sounds.
Phew, that’s quite an exhaustive list I guess. But I guess the most important thing they will miss is being humane….I just hope our next generation has enough of compassion and honesty left in them because it not easy being all goody-goody in this world. Kalyug hai bhai, kalyug.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Morning Glory
I have started loving mornings. It’s true that I was always an early bird, but that was because I had to attend school at 7.30. It was more out of compulsion rather than choice. I can't even call myself an owl because I have never stayed awake except when it is something life threatening like my exams or when I am reading Harry Potter.
For a week, I decided to get up early in morning and just sit at the sliding window. No thinking, no contemplating whatsoever. Just picture this- sitting peacefully at the window with piping hot tea and all that you get to hear is……silence. I enjoyed how the wind howled and rustled away the leaves ever so gently. The leaves swirled in harmony, rising and falling in rhythm with nature’s heartbeat. It was their secret dance and I was more than thrilled to have discovered it.
I seriously thought cuckoos are an extinct species at least in cities, but here there was one cuckooing in all its glory perhaps to attract his mate. Seriously the kind of efforts the male species put into wooing……
Well you won’t believe it, but it was so quiet that I could hear the announcements at the railway station! That was the only artificial sound invading the surroundings that time. I am yet to miss the calls of aaji every Sunday morning. She sells Nashik kurmure which she carries in a large plastic gunny bag. For all these years, she has not missed a Sunday and over the period of time I have seen her wrinkles become promienent and her eyes becoming cloudy. I always used to wonder if she had kids or not because it pained me to see her carry the load on her head and hawking in the streets when she should be playing with her grandchildren. Looking at someone else's life, you realise how sorted your own life is.....
The most irritating sight and sound early morning is the Ghanta Gaadi or the garbage truck. All I can see is an overloaded truck ringing across the streets with flies and stench announcing its arrival way before you can see the truck. Not a pleasant sight at all.
But seriously all those late nighters must give this experience a shot once. If you omit the garbage van arrival part, most of the experience seemed to have a pretty calming effect on me. Never knew getting a piece of peace was this easy.
For a week, I decided to get up early in morning and just sit at the sliding window. No thinking, no contemplating whatsoever. Just picture this- sitting peacefully at the window with piping hot tea and all that you get to hear is……silence. I enjoyed how the wind howled and rustled away the leaves ever so gently. The leaves swirled in harmony, rising and falling in rhythm with nature’s heartbeat. It was their secret dance and I was more than thrilled to have discovered it.
I seriously thought cuckoos are an extinct species at least in cities, but here there was one cuckooing in all its glory perhaps to attract his mate. Seriously the kind of efforts the male species put into wooing……
Well you won’t believe it, but it was so quiet that I could hear the announcements at the railway station! That was the only artificial sound invading the surroundings that time. I am yet to miss the calls of aaji every Sunday morning. She sells Nashik kurmure which she carries in a large plastic gunny bag. For all these years, she has not missed a Sunday and over the period of time I have seen her wrinkles become promienent and her eyes becoming cloudy. I always used to wonder if she had kids or not because it pained me to see her carry the load on her head and hawking in the streets when she should be playing with her grandchildren. Looking at someone else's life, you realise how sorted your own life is.....
The most irritating sight and sound early morning is the Ghanta Gaadi or the garbage truck. All I can see is an overloaded truck ringing across the streets with flies and stench announcing its arrival way before you can see the truck. Not a pleasant sight at all.
But seriously all those late nighters must give this experience a shot once. If you omit the garbage van arrival part, most of the experience seemed to have a pretty calming effect on me. Never knew getting a piece of peace was this easy.
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