there are miles to go

Closure

2011-03-07T10:24:00.004+05:30

I close what I have started.
This calls for an end to this space of expression too. [this blog is shut down]

Grace

2011-03-06T15:50:00.004+05:30

(Part from U2 lyrics)

It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

For today: knotted hair day

2011-02-25T11:53:00.003+05:30

"Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go, Surprise!"

Caught and rescued

2011-02-24T19:03:00.010+05:30

'X' who is a train commuter gets fined for the ticket-less travel; he pays and another person ‘A’ looks at him over his shoulder, returning the cash in couple of minutes.

Wondering how? Found it simple here.

Basically, 'X' has registered with ‘A’ using a small sum; and A has a complete calculation for the probability of him and many other such commuters of getting caught for traveling ticket-less. Since that is not gonna happen so often, the commuter saves the money in the long run by not buying the tickets and A earns his bread and shelter.

What happens to his self esteem while getting caught ? Ah!

the burning platform

2011-02-17T11:45:00.000+05:30

A read for those who missed it...
Story by Stephen Elop;

It is a story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times - his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behavior.

Standing on a "burning platform," in a moments decision he was capable of changing things for himself...

Trapped in the Bell Jar

2011-01-06T00:54:00.001+05:30

Sylvia was caught; caught in the creations of mankind, in the societal norms… nevertheless she did set herself free or just trapped herself such that never to let anyone fetch her out. In this controversial novel (The bell jar, her only after which she committed suicide), she showcases her life transforming from a life amidst glamorous and adventurous lifestyle to that of herself being mentally ill, and what goes on inside and outside a mental asylum.

She had encountered all the typicals of womanhood and has also beautifully illustrated them in this work of fiction which is actually based on her life’s tale; from the goody to freaky ones, from the cowgirls to the fantasized ones; feminine truths to the core…
In the book, I simply loved the way every incident had an allegory or a reference point for the audience which made the spirit so easy to accept; like how strong can ‘somebody' smell; as strong as a whole perfume store, and how something can be as boring as going to the toilet. How she would stare; the way you stare at a bright unattainable pebble at the bottom of the deep well and how the city douses its lights in sleep, its buildings blackened; as if for the funeral…

In Arial; one of her most notable poems; she brings her identity to reality;

“And now I
Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.
The child's cry

Melts in the wall.
And I
Am the arrow,

The dew that flies,
Suicidal, at one with the drive
Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.”

Sylvia Plath "There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

Gratefully, here I go too… a decade to close, i am on the road number: 11

Life after 'new life'

2010-12-23T00:05:00.004+05:30

My affair with the new life is complete and now, I am neither here nor there – the discerns of the present from past are growing – life affects and not-affects me and in all, the present is on… there were no answers in the new life, it just put me on the road to discover them...

quick thought

2010-12-17T16:44:00.000+05:30

Tu Shahin hai
parwaz hai kaam tera
tere samne aasman
aur bhi hain

Old jokes made new by Steve Krug

2010-12-04T15:19:00.003+05:30

1. "Why are you waving that chicken around over your head?"
To keep the elephants away.
"Does it work?"
You don't see any elephants around here, do you?

2. Legendary director of biblical epics Cecil B.DeMille was filming a hugely expensive scene involving chariot, collapsing fiery towers, and thousands of extras, all shot in one take with a dozen cameras. When the action was over and DeMille had called "Cut!", he shouted through his megaphone to the camera supervisor on a nearby hill. "Did you get all that?" From the top of the hill, the supervisor waved back and shouted enthusiastically, "Ready when you are, C.B.!"

3. Interviewer: "But do you feel you've learned from your mistakes?"
Sir Arthur Streed-Greebling: "I think I have, yes. I'm sure I could repeat them exactly."
- Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore

little known strangers

2010-11-25T16:16:00.015+05:30

Most of the faces around me were unknown or maybe I could recollect very few of them from the past. As they moved around, teasing each other; screaming and pulling each others' hands, I thanked God that I was not one of them. I kept just watching them and once in a while, they looked back, anxious to know if I was still there. Quite a disquiet. I thought then engaging with strangers should not have been so difficult, but why is it that I could not even talk to anybody there. Am I turned into such an introvert or I have grown conscious having seen too many strangers so far in life.

Post lunch (again with strangers), as I was again looking at same people playing, very soon I also climbed rocks, crossed on ropes; passing from one end of the valley to another. I also experienced anxiety. Soon I was one of these very people, soon the eye to eye contacts were raised to having been seen in the morning and by the end of the day, we all sat together, facing the setting sun and I somehow remembered the early dis-comfort.

I mean, if the only people with/around you are unknown, what is the point in not talking to them? How many of these people would you meet again or even if you cross them, the flashes may or may not come to you. It will all depend on that one little talk.

Interrogations I face often

2010-11-21T19:29:00.010+05:30

Most often while I am traveling, the fellow travelers or people I meet in the process have unpredictably felt like talking to me or just inquire about something related to me. And sometimes if the conversations go little beyond destination and my appellation, there are standard set of curious questions which I face from them.

Some of these are recollected here -

"Do you often travel this route, I have seen you somewhere"

“Are you studying/working?”
"How old are you? If you don't mind telling me."

"So, what do you do there, in this office as a designer?"

“Haven’t you married as yet?”

"How is the situation there, do people live there, do they come out, considering so many bomb blasts etc..."

Often my replies are narrated in the same pace with similar words that I don’t ever do any error in repeating them.

cold eyelashes

2010-11-17T22:48:00.003+05:30

3 days and 2 nights here and I will move on.

For now, it is cold around me and I m shuddering.

Freezing breeze on the leafless trees along the barren road,

A man wearing layers of clothes, as his hibernation has begun.

Foggy and an empty sun, like as if somebody has taken its life out

Grass is craving for summer, when it can also be green…

… There is a low life ahead, still I m glad to be here.

Deferred Gratification

2010-11-09T19:31:00.016+05:30

It all first got in my head when I was reading ‘Snow’, which had this endless state of repose, and again some days back – when I was having ‘Influencer’ in my hands and I hit across – the famous Marshmallow Experiment – group of kids were given one marshmallow and promised a second one on the condition that they wait twenty minutes before eating the one in front of them. Some children were able to wait and others could not. Most of them could not resist the last few minutes. Much of the ability to wait is lost when you have an option of having at least that one ‘marshmallow’ right there – It looks in your eye and says “here and now”.

Anyway, along with this I came across other such psychoanalytic experiments which group human characters into certain types, etc. etc..

Well again when I was sitting at one of those computer hubs at the airport and talking to a friend – how she could actually defer some instincts leading her to enjoy that eventual pleasure of achieving something she quite really wanted.

As we came up “it’s the sweetness of the hope that subsides the bitter taste of the wait.”

Besides this all, wiki also talks about the deferred gratification in terms of “the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants.” And yes, in the world at present, lesser and lesser number of people can actually see beyond now and live on an anticipation, for most of them it is now or never.

Light

2010-11-04T21:05:00.000+05:30

It's all there and here it is none;
Screaming and shouting as it takes all the attention;
Its worth is only because here, there is dark as well

Influencer bites

2010-10-26T18:35:00.018+05:30

Directly from the book - I definitely credit the ones who said these words-

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now. (me, "who knows about future, i rather be lazy.")
I can take any amount of criticism, so long as it is unqualified praise. (me "I do, trust me on that, but i hardly know what to do about them.")
There are three kinds of men, ones that learn by reading, a few who learn by observation, and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. (me, "And if i was among those kinds of men, surely i am the third kind".)
It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best. (me, "I wish i knew why to do and how.")
I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do? (me, "just applies head on.")
I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don’t want to buy things they don’t need to impress people they dislike. (me, "easy said than done.")
It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get. (me "lucky but unfortunate.")

These are mad, mad, mad characters!

2010-10-23T11:27:00.002+05:30

She can climb up five floors of the building with 18 steps per floor, while holding her breath and still feel this was no test
When the bitter dark chocolate is immersed in the sugarless coffee, her mouth waters as if dog's
He will pull down his clothes when it is sub zero outside and will also need a fan to dry the sweat on his body
What would she go to the touristic spot for? To watch how people look at things and pose to be clicked for a snap
She is staggeringly funny with a car at the bottom of a waterfall, then later sitting inside wondering if it rained outside
What he learns from an elephant, is to walk slow and with ears up and listening to other’s footsteps
A peep into other's shopping carts tells her what all she also needs for her home; best one for reality check.
A meeting to attend in 3 minutes and typing this unnecessary stuff, wont this be really a mad one...

my red shoes

2010-10-14T21:36:00.008+05:30

They shine as they go over the greens and in them, I wear my skin,

People stop to look or stare as these pierce sharply through the air

Any other color next to it will shame, only the deep golden bow boosts its shape,

Others would just say a wow, as the shoes greet ‘grace’ aloud

Frida, the woman

2010-09-30T19:44:00.024+05:30

I saw her only in a biographical movie, found her as a real epitome of womanhood . In the film, her character was well played by Salma Hayek, for which Hayek even won many acclamations (and she actually looked quite similar to her as well). An Artist from the times of Mexican revolution, she embodied many of feminist sensibilities and her paintings also mostly showcase female nature and experience. She is remembered as one of the surrealist artists though she never called herself one. There are many spaces/museums dedicated to Freda’s work and life, I hope someday I will get to go to these.

"I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." as she says.
Her explanation to that is, ‘I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.’ That’s real, we all know only thyself. She has depicted the themes from her life so beautifully and creatively on the canvas. Her state of immobilization gave expression, and momentum to her hands, as she painted the self; each one of the paintings has a story to narrate. Merging eyebrows, small build and Latin attire, it all gave her a dreamy egoistic existence.

Her mentor rightly said, ‘If you are a real painter, what you care of my opinion, you paint and you die.’ That gives a learning; just do what you want to do, and other opinions would no longer matter.
Her paintings are truly Spanish, full of color and passion, reminds me of a Mexican friend of mine, Andrea, who has a liking for rich and vibrant colors, some of those beautiful ones; I could recognize in Freda’s paintings.

Right from her paintings to the personal life she had, makes her an interesting character to know and to be acquainted with. Her life should have been not an easy one to have; as Frida says ‘I hope the exit is joyful — and I hope never to return.’

The Dark Side of the Moon

2010-09-27T19:50:00.024+05:30

.. a slight shine at the edge,
undetectable to many,
in the shade of brighter side of itself,
facing to the vastness of the space
or telling me
‘I am also here, gaze at me too’

Since it is not visible and is far, it builds that curiosity in us.
The face we see and the face we don’t, both must have had a dialogue, which one of us will be mysterious enough? I assume that it does exist; the unseen other, though philosophy still questions what we don’t see and touch. It has so often become the subject of literature, art and music, turned away and unknown leaving us only to speculate.

Feel weightless

2010-09-23T08:08:00.000+05:30

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
Alan Watts, British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy

Life Amidst of a Curfew

2010-09-15T12:47:00.026+05:30

It has been a while since my close ones are living in a state imposed restriction called 'curfew'. There are all sort of news being published and talked about, in most of the current sections of national media. How astonishing it is that most of them avoid describing life amidst this closer. Does anybody want to bother about where /how would the daily needs be met, how would you ever calm a hungry wolf? Life has come to a standstill as protests show no signs of ending.

Somebody just mentioned to me the fact that a single kg of tomatoes was sold behind the doors for as high amount as 200 INR. Life is becoming that expensive in the not really working condition of Kashmir. People are bound to resist. How would any of us live while you are quelled so constantly?

In fact, there is probably stoppage on their water and electricity supply as well and then we wonder, "Why so much anger on the streets of Kashmir". Stopping arbitrary people on the street and beating them when they are in small number, would such restrictions on movement help? What are the expectations of the rule; that let there be no oppositions to the cruelty. Do we really know how to run a place, do we necessarily have to rule them?

People have got to know that they can oppose, a larger lot among the protests are carried out by well-connected, thoughtful youth who are aware of their independent opinions and would not want to be treated like calves.

I only hope people who provoke this and the people who wish to control also know that there are lives slaughtered and emotionally butchered amidst of all this.

For many of us who are interested to know the 'behind the scenes', here are some thoughts published;

Get young on Kashmir

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/zeitgeist/entry/get-young-on-kashmir

‘I am turning into a mental wreck’
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/srinagar/I-am-turning-into-a-mental-wreck/Article1-582298.aspx

Orhan

2010-08-26T23:41:00.007+05:30

"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed. Even on the first page I was so affected by the book's intensity I felt by body sever itself and pull away from the chair where I sat reading the book that lay before me on the table." (from A New Life, 1995)

Touching the soul of the reader, 'Orhan' in most of his books left me in complete dis-quite through his mesmerizing mixes: cruelty and farce, love and rebel, poetry and violence, makes me know what life could be for others - there are always overlapping patterns between us.

He says,“words (and the works of literature they make) are like water or like ants. Nothing can penetrate into the cracks, holes, and invisible gaps or life as fast or as thoroughly as words can. It is in these cracks that the essence of things—the things that make us curious about life, about the world—can first be ascertained, and it is good literature that first reveals them. Good literature is a piece of wise counsel that has yet to be give, and as such it has the same aura of needfulness as the latest news; that is mainly why I still depend on it.”

Face is the index of mind... How far is this true?

2010-08-23T12:59:00.001+05:30

If a person smiles too much, would it mean that this person is really happy? I believe, it is just that the face is the indicator of our expressions but not really the index of mind. If you recognize that a person is happy, excited, sad or angry, it is just the expression from him that helped you. Deep in the mind, who knows which of the emotions is really true, his mind may be occupied with some argument he had or thinking how he hated your presence there.

Also, when somebody is happy and satisfied, by looking at his/her face, since we feel the positive energy radiating from that someone, we feel the happiness too. When I see freshness on some face, I also acquire that, or is it that I am fresh, so I see freshness elsewhere.. Same is true with my emotions :)

is cesspool too strong a word?

2010-08-18T15:38:00.007+05:30

Would you ever send a person to a 'cesspool' as you are in hate, anger and face off with him...

ah! quite a bad feeling.

dramatic dream

2010-08-13T05:20:00.002+05:30

My background is moving upwardly leading to an abrupt absence of the horizons, objects diffusing into one another, and water running like in streams and at sea shores, up there at right angles to my eye and beyond; we are engulfed inside this hologram, earth. I see no floods but rains are falling harshly enough, I have wet hair and I see water dropping from my arms. I look up, my mind asks, ‘Since this looks weird, and it is, why water is not falling off fast? and why am I so calm?”. "what is it that has struck us in the middle of the day? Ah! no, it is night?"

In a room with two sets of long windows, mother is emptying her treasures, in a red, woolen knitted hat, threaded together to make it into a package, "where are you going mother?, where will you take this all?" I asked. Sobering away her tears, she says "I think this is all I have, for ourselves and our fortune, and we might be able to begin our lives again, in a new place. That is, if only we survive." And I zoomed out.

Looking from the bird’s view, I see men, women and children leaving to elsewhere. There are rains and the sea is replacing the sky, and between all this, there is much vegetation around and some suns’ rays, a beautiful wind is blowing but it is not cold, there is no shiver but a distress. As I am seen sweeping pass my lawn, looking up to the 'sea';

the next moment, I wake up to the tragedy of night...

may be a 'bug'

2010-08-10T12:18:00.011+05:30

"Is it that you have not been able to work on something?"
Oh! There could be a BUG, somewhere, may be in your mind, on your work-desk or in your work object. Mostly you will believe there should not be any issue in smooth functioning of things, but then that is not the case ever, it's fairest to call problems as bugs. They are definitely annoying.

There are ‘bugs’ in software we use, as everyone knows while as there are definitely bugs in one’s life. It is definitely an art also (i mean to be a bug), and I am sure lots of us can find some bugs in our lives. In real life, bugs could definitely be, as in computers, logical infinite bugs or actually conceptual errors in life which could be resolved or atleast we live with the hope of solving some of our bugs.

'missed calls, missed messages'

2010-08-04T10:14:00.023+05:30

I have always found 'missed calls' as a practical way of communicating with people whom I need to talk to (but I have less money in my prepaid number) or my way of informing the other person that you are being thought of but I don’t actually want to talk to you. Not sure if everybody relate to the idea of missed calls the way I do and the fact is, surely it has so many meanings in different scenarios to different people. Sometimes I am on the receiving end and while most often I am on the giving end. And then in another scene, I find a missed call on my phone, what would be an obvious reason of missing it?

- no ring tone and a capacity to keep my phone always silent, or just no aptitude of responding to my ‘least obvious ring tone’ (because most often I hate those melodies many people keep as their way of alerting themselves of an incoming call) or simply I receive a ‘missed call’ from a number that I don’t recognize. Other reasons include I don’t want to attend to the caller, I am showing my ‘some weird emotion’ by not attending, my phone has a problem of not displaying it to me for too long (interaction design issue or simply ‘replace your phone’ issue) and ah! there are many more…

Also lots of times I have an ability of having a 'missed message' in my cell. To be clear, this time 'missed' relates to ‘not well read’ message. So should not my phone have this in the message ‘pull down’ menu? Often, there are those messages also, which are not replied to. I can visualize the disquiet on the person’s face when there is no reply to their messages. Many times, I am also the one, waiting endlessly for a reply.

today's thought

2010-07-28T12:50:00.002+05:30

"Learning is the new form of labor"

dreams and realities

2010-07-27T18:48:00.013+05:30

Moments of your life, where you want to see the possibilities by your eyes, you see them as dreams.

The colors in your eye before and after the dream, breaking and forming somewhere, give the power to your imagination.

Childhood realities come back to you in the form of parts of a dream, recalling you of the people and things you cherished somewhere. Some exist still and some have gone.

The story lines are all set in background and you retain information about some series of events, linking many of them, and recreated by your mind, while you narrate them.

Dreams make our realities; we pace up to fulfill them in the real life and without doubt, the reality is what drives our minds to trance into the unknown… where one cease to exist and the other takes it form, the contours seem to be nothing but a blur of smoke.

Lost and will I ever be found?

2010-07-22T16:02:00.004+05:30

Lost in the jumble of new vocabulary and workings, I relate them to expressions I have known till now, from my experience. It is still to be seen how meanings will change.

Picasso said “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

I have an entry for today

2010-07-21T00:20:00.001+05:30

For this day, I pick words from Joanna Fuchs's poem,

"Your birthday's a time for careful reflection
About your life, and its future direction.
You see where you've been when you look at the past;
Most of it's great; you had quite a blast!"

Thank you all for the life I have.

Acronym Maddness

2010-07-20T15:39:00.010+05:30

For me so far, every work had its own set of acronyms, but lately what i am into; the domain of computer science and IT seem to be so much in love with acronyms that the names and the actual meanings often seemed to be forgotten or hardly known. I was wondering if these acronyms really are descriptive of what they are about. As I have got myself into something which till now, I was so un-informed about, I have started dreaming about new smart acronyms and jumble some words in my head and even design products around these. I have also started to think about having acronyms for particular things at home or in my everyday life, like what would I call the ‘morning bath and breakfast’? surely MBB and of course the regular newspapers at home are now IE (Indian Express) and TET and the famous TOI ; and from past experience I can bring to life few of them, like EMAPA, ASHA, these definitely go on n on…
a quick perusal of some of the papers on my desk are giving me even more.
AR, SAMG, NPI, CSM, DI, DR, HA

So I sign off as
MM

finally some walls

2010-07-14T06:37:00.007+05:30

Resonating space here, totally consumed me while i was looking for it. It is giving me hope that I do not have to share it, especially when I want to be on my own...

Empty floor, probably for me to loiter around while I converse.
Greens, blues and oranges, I asked where did the black go?

Daylight and no light, Gentle wind and a puff..

finally some walls for me

last night

2010-07-01T12:50:00.010+05:30

Moon is up and so are we
We looking out there and it peeping into us.
It puts some to sleep and me to constant stare
In retrospect or in possibilities.

Full moon, above the still water, between the skies
Breathing by my side, and persistently I want to close my eyes,
the one who is outside and mine.
In reel or in real
This cosmos is the full ball game for all.
Wasn’t it created so beautifully for all?

nothing is also never nothing

2010-06-29T10:23:00.009+05:30

The emptiness in ‘nothing’ is false, or as is defined in philosophy; it is, more specifically, the state of nonexistence of everything. Therefore does not really make it completely irrelevant. It is definitely compared to something, and considered an infinite pronoun.

And therefore , no-thing is a thing, a thought.

---------

Some would consider the study of "nothing" to be foolish, a typical response of this type is voiced by Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) in conversation with his landlord, one Dr. Gozzi, who also happens to be a priest,

“As everything, for him, was an article of faith, nothing, to his mind, was difficult to understand: the Great Flood had covered the entire world; before, men had the misfortune of living a thousand years; God conversed with them; Noah had taken one hundred years to build the ark; while the earth, suspended in air, stood firmly at the center of the universe that God had created out of nothingness. When I said to him, and proved to him, that the existence of nothingness was absurd, he cut me short, calling me silly.”

------------

An extract from wiki.

Kashmiri ‘khaandar’ - wedding celebrations – series I, II and III and so on

2010-06-25T12:56:00.007+05:30

After Marriage rituals

There are still something’s going on and no wonder it is really a month long wedding. The celebrations extend to seven more days, following the actual wedding.

11^th

Kahw khabar

One of the B’s immediate family member pays a visit to her in her new home. This is named after the kashmiri beverage ‘kahwa’, I could not figure out why it was named after it; seems like, this person would probably be served ‘kahwa’ at their place, and would in return give gifts to the family. The gifts are basic sweets and delicacies. In this case it was me going to meet her.

Walima

The celebration of a union of two hearts, two souls, and two beings; Walima is a festivity at the G’s home.

13^th

Phirsaal
This is the ceremony that takes place when the couple visits the bride's parents. The parents of the bride give her a set of new clothes and some gifts in gold. This is equivalent to the modern-day reception held at the girl's place in many families. This ritual is separately known as the Gar Atchun among the kashmiri pundits. The bride wears all the jewellery given to her by her in-laws and visits her parent's home. The bride's family prepares a lavish spread of non-vegetarian delicacies for the relatives from both homes. There are many gifts in gold given by the B’s extended family members, who interact with the groom for the first time. The groom is also presented with new clothes including a dusa (six yard pashmina shawl). The bride changes into new clothes before returning to the groom's house.

15th

Satyum Saal
On the seventh day from the wedding, the bride's parents and family is invited at the G’s house where the two families interact and there is exchange of roth or a traditional, long freshly baked cake (bread decorated with nuts), among the families. Sadly this is replaced with modern day bakery items such as pastries. On this day, the B’s father asks for a permission from the G's parents for the Bride to come back home to spend few days there. This is called “Phir”.

16th

Phir
The bride comes from her marital home, carrying with her, sweets and gifts which marks her contentment. Phir also in hindi means again. This event thus, also marks off the beginning of a fruitful and happy life for the couple and their families. Hereon, the two families live as extensions of each other.

God bless the union. Amen.

Kashmiri ‘khaandar’ - wedding celebrations – series I, II and III and so on

2010-06-20T23:48:00.025+05:30

Marriage Rituals

Looks like most important three days are here.

8th
A day before henna is the malmaenz (before mahendi). On this day, close relatives have come to visit us since the waza (chef) has arrived at the house early morning to start cooking. Some of them also initiate Wanwun or music sessions in the evening. The house is decorated with lights, flowers and a huge gate is installed at the entrance, the roads leading to the house are marked, as this is the venue for the marriage also. And the kitchen store is the most visited room all of a sudden. Decorating the henna trays is most fun filled; flowers, colored paper, incense sticks and candles are used to decorate the trays.
“I am enjoying the exercise.”

9th
The day starts with the thanksgiving; parents of the B and the G perform prayers in their respective houses. Maenzraat is the night of henna. The guests (men for lunch and ladies for dinner) invited for this occasion are served a delicious Kashmiri non-vegetarian (in all 75 dishes and among them hardly 10 are vegetarian) meal prepared by the waza called wazwan. G’s sisters and cousins come with a henna tray and gold jewellary for B. The B takes this jewellery and henna as a part of her main wedding adornment. This is called Sending of Thaals. There is a cake cutting ceremony on this occasion.

“I love the mouth-watering huge cake and sadly the B’s sister has to serve the guests.”

Henna, gifts from B, chocolates, dry fruits are distributed among the relatives and neighbours. All of them participate in a lively wanvun or music session. One single lady who is the main musician among them would be invited specially for singing on this day. In the more affluent families, traditional singing groups (called bachkots) are invited to entertain the guests. In the groups, the main dancer is called bacha and the musicians accompanying him include the sarangi player, the tumbaknari player and the natoo player besides the lead singer.

In the groom's house, a little mahendi is also applied on his hands (right small finger) as it is a symbol of auspiciousness.

It is followed by Mas-masrawun where the B’s hair is opened in front of all the ladies, women flock around her to see her and sing for her beauty. No men are allowed in this ceremony. After this, bride’s hands (palms and fingers) and feet are adorned with mahendi (henna) patterns. This all happens till the middle of night.

and 10th
Finally the day of nikaah and rukhsati; Nikaah happens mostly in the morning session when the nikaah guests are treated with good food. There is a bathing ritual for the B. After the bath, the B is made sit among the women

“barely any jewellary on and simple delicate clothes, she looked most beautiful ever”.

Most of the women prefer to wear the traditional dress firan at this time. Women and men sit separately in different rooms. The main nikaah is a small majlis, few men from the B’s side and some from the G’s side sit for the prayers in the nikaah. The ritual happens at the B’s home. One of the elders (closest to the B but not her father) goes to the B to ask if she accepts that she will be married to so and so guy who is a son of so and so.

As soon as she accepts (mostly by a nod) flowers, fruits, nabud, and money are distributed among guests, poor people and also taken to the large mosques etc in the city. The guests (more of women are treated with good food during the lunch time, while the men wait for the baraat).
At the arrival of the marriage procession relatives of the bride greet the procession warmly. The fathers of the bride and the groom exchange hugs three times symbolising the solemnisation of the relationship with a promise of a life-long friendship.

For the vidaai, the G waits while the rest of the bharaatees leave in advance of B and G. The bride and the groom are made to stand together (nobody can see the B’s face though, as a pashmeena shawl is covering her) and the eldest person from the B's family offers the newlywed couple nabad (misri) thrice and kisses their foreheads. As the bride leaves her parent's house, she is accompanied with ispandsooz over her shoulder to protect her from evil eye. This symbolizes that prosperity may continue to remain in the home she leaves. The same ispandsooz is taken to the G’s house as she brings prosperity to her new home while the espænd is is still burning in it.

As the B and G arrive in G’s home, the G’s mother takes off the shawl and gifts the newly-weds some cash or jewellery and the B in return gives her another gold jewellery. Exchange symbolizes the new formed relationship.

“Home is gonna change, we are one less or may be, one more.”

CONTINUES TO THE NEXT POST

Kashmiri ‘khaandar’ - wedding celebrations – series I, II, III and so on

2010-06-11T22:54:00.026+05:30

Though I was supposed to post all of them through the times, during the month of wedding - elaborate and very eventful, I did not; say I was lazy or just too occupied to take out some time to publish this all.
And now I have kind of put these different and random posts together, forgive me for all the misalignment and absence of pace in the posts. It was great to be experiencing and I guess I have witnessed maximum number of customs and rituals associated with any marriage so far.

Before Marriage Rituals

9th
What’s going on - Celebration of the onset of the wedding month. The parents of the bride (now on B) and the groom (now on G) begins formally informing their relatives and friends about the marriage dates been finalized (call up or visits them personally) . And also takes gifts to their houses in most cases.
The entire month people visit the family again in return, bring gifts and fruits and what all to their house. Wishing them luck with the groundwork and asking for if they can be of any use for the wedding preparations. Most important and widely given gift is the pack of Badaam (almonds) . Some of close ones also invite the parents of B for a dinner.
My thoughts - Marking a month from now, I am still with work and heart beats up faster with the thought of it as the days are approaching. Will it all go the way it generally goes in the most real scenes?
Strange is – the family never says yes, can you do this or that for us. It is all actually done by the immediate family members. The rush of guest is so much, that you have no time to do any preparations for the wedding. And then all the preparations will require your night hours.

19th
What’s going on – Livun is an exceptional ritual found only in the Kashmiri wedding. There takes place the cleaning at both the boy and the girl's houses. For this ritual, an auspicious time is being decided for the respective families.
My thoughts – Does that mean after this day, we don’t need to clean the house? Or did not we clean the house every day?
How do u manage cleaning everything, literally everything – from the backyard to even the curtains of the last room anybody would enter in the house, anyways… lets go on..

23rd
What’s going on – tamulszatun, (winnowing of rice) – marks the preparation of food. From this day onwards, women will prepare the ingredients of the food served at the wedding.
My thoughts – This lady talks too much and she wants money for even touching the rice, she needs to just pretend that she is cleaning. I like the ‘espand’ smell while it is burning in the espandsooz (a bronzeware, intricately carved vessel).
Strange is - the fact that everybody comes to sing songs and look at the rice, but it is only the ‘szatanwajin’ (the lady who comes to clean an already clean rice) who touches the rice, rest of the invited women are looking at the rice and talking about the latest happenings and what to wear, colors and what suits in which month, the disturbing rains and cost of chicken, mutton, ec cetera.
Cleaning the spices and keeping them ready for the chef (Waza) who makes the main course of food for the invitees on the wedding day, goes on for the next few days . All these people also receive cash from the respective parents of the bride and the groom as a token of thanksgiving for coming and also out of love.

3rd
What’s going on - The day of Bismillah - 7 days from the wedding – many women are invited to start the sangeet for the B. They are served the traditional and popular Kashmiri tea, Kahwa. A minimeal (only mini in its saying) is served and the B’s mother greet them with almonds, money, sweets in each woman’s lap as they enter.
My thoughts – This is a miniwedding... oh....
Great... Finally playing and listening to the traditional music will be amazing. Will it be cold on the day of marriage? let’s get all the things in place for this function, I still need to think of what can I wear on her big day, and will the space allow so many people’s gathering, will the rains spoil it all?
Strange is - The weather plays important role, and everybody says, however the weather will be on this day, exactly it will be like that on the day of wedding as well. The little sunshine means the bride is lucky or a bad weather gives an indication that the mother at the in-laws will not be cordial.

CONTINUES TO THE NEXT POST

Ms S Azmi

2010-05-16T12:19:00.003+05:30

"One learns from all of life’s experiences. You want to forget the bad but the fact is it has happened; it has shaped the good and made you who you are."

the traits

2010-05-12T10:23:00.003+05:30

While each of the traits below is important, which of the five are most necessary for you?

Courage
Determination
Responsiveness
Patience
Decisiveness
External Focus
Expertise
Openness
Efficiency
Independence
Spirit for doing
Imagination
Flexibility
Inclusiveness
Clarity
Passion
Versatility
Imagination
Flexibility
Spontaneity
Responsibility
Accessibility
Resourcefulness
Empathy
Intelligence
Adaptiveness
Precision

GE follows these for their organization..

Spoonful

2010-05-02T20:49:00.007+05:30

I'm about to go to jail about this spoonful

In all a spoon', 'bout that spoon'
The women goin' crazy, every day in their life 'bout a...
It's all I want, in this creation is a...
I go home 'bout a...
Doctor's dyin'
just 'bout a...
These women goin' crazy every day in their life 'bout a...
Would you kill a man dead? yes, I will! just 'bout a...
Oh babe, I'm a fool about my...
Don't take me long! to get my...
Hey baby, you know I need my...
It's mens on Parchman just 'bout a...
Hey baby, you know I ain't long, 'bout my...
It's all I want, honey, in this creation, is a...
I go to bed, get up and wanna fight 'bout a...
Look-y here, baby, would you slap me? Yes I will! just 'bout a...
Hey baby,
you know I'm a fool a-
'bout my...
Would you kill a man?
Yes I would, you know I'd kill him
just 'bout a...
Most every man, that you see is
fool 'bout his...

Alternately - see this

http://spoonfulzine.com/

ASHAAWWANM - a play

2010-04-29T01:46:00.007+05:30

Cast; three women, ANM in a white sari, ASHA in a black blouse and a white sari, and AWW in black bordered white sari…

Them and the whole setup behind them in black ink

ASHA, “I m the one in charge of gathering seeds and sowing”

AWW, “I gave them the soil and some water”

ANM, “Did not I provide them the right fertilizers”?

To each other and to me “Who is the title-holder of their upbringing?”

My Next Destination

2010-04-15T20:50:00.002+05:30

I was planning to write about this when I started the present tenure here in Delhi and I knew nothing on how long this is gonna last. Now, when it is coming close to its end, I decided to pen down my thoughts about my next destination. Where will I go next?
A place with new life and new people but some old, I should have memories but less, highways or the lowlands, warm or breezy, walled or loose pieces of land together…
It’s time to get ready to stumble upon the next experiences.

Or do I owe the self some halt?

Valued

2010-03-11T09:14:00.006+05:30

The sense of worth comes from what you have been put on to, and the appreciation of the same as completed by you.

what is in my name?

2010-02-24T23:16:00.005+05:30

Him “What does her name signify – she surely doesn't belong to the larger lot, and is definitely different from the fewer ones, whom I've mostly known.”

Me “ Do I come across what one conceives from my name or am I a misnomer?”

I type this as I think of yesterday’s event when somebody asked me the connotation of my name, and I described the sense.

Has the name come from the being or the being came from the name? And how much does it define the real you?

She saw them

2010-02-12T16:07:00.004+05:30

She saw them together though she is away
The bee wants to sway
They are there for long,
And she will hum a song
Nothing lasts for ever
Not even the reflection in the mirror
The threads are going weak
Playing the music back,
She will only bear

innovating today

2010-02-02T12:04:00.004+05:30

We have started innovating for the current project and I am realizing for that, do we know the needs well or we assuming too much, and then sometimes nobody knows the needs, not even the user. I am learning how to extract information from raw data and analyzing it to meet our needs or theirs. But is it that for now we innovate and give solutions to what we know and what we have comprehended as researcher, innovate beyond their current known needs and may be it will work and may be it will not. I guess I am bemused with the information overload.

finishing perfume

2010-01-22T15:23:00.010+05:30

The first memories of a scent takes me back to my English teacher in my school, She was this rich fat lady really careful with words she used. I always admired her aroma which I, most of the times, related with what she was wearing. Somehow I felt the aromas were related to the clothes she wore. And back at home, it was always the glass bottles which mom used to hide behind her mirror; at that time I had no understanding of how the male and female odor would differ. Ma used these beautifully shaped bottles specific for specific occasions and some particularly for her regular week days. She used to hide them from dad, whom she believed, never spent his bottle and always finished hers. I still remember the orange liquid in a twisted one, which mom was fond of. So in all, I always had this fascination of relating the perfumes to people who use those, and try to remember the scents. Friends back in school used to tease me for the big nose which helps me save all the fragrances there.
I moved to college, perfumes got replaced by deodorants and their effects. Now, last few years, the focus is again shifted to the perfumes. Though bottles have stopped to matter, and now the essences have become important. Perfumes have this lasting effect of the person which enters my sense.

Most analytical noses would tell and recognize the aura of the person, highly complex unmistakable code of a personal odor ('perfume', the book was highlighting it all the way). I think I should make use of my long nose little more than I normally do.

I hate that politics around the place of work

2010-01-08T19:46:00.003+05:30

When there is uncertainty of parts and also when people claim for respect for their terms, know that it is where you want to voice the least. Most of the equals might also tell you that you talk less, so be it. It is surely that the little you are in it, you will get pulled in the least, a tip is don’t even smile, otherwise surely somebody would think you agree with him/her, the best way is no eye to eye contact and mere nod. And more specific when the tittle-tattle happens just in front of you or behind or in groups, I would say let’s think of the glass of water in your hand or the phone which needs attention. Rest, if burying does not happen easily and the stomach complains, some of it you can definitely ooze out at your best ones. When work is more like an argument of eyes and may be in some cases words, deeds are forgotten, I would say live it since you are doing something that you like…
You now know what keeps me away from the regular 9 to 6 job and in our case 9 to 9 working ways. But then somebody says that is professional stability. I should as well try the steady self.

my coffee experiences

2010-01-05T17:00:00.004+05:30

Alone, with someone and with many,
Light and dark
Sweet and not sugary
With paper or with no words to read
Angry or the happiest
Loved or envied
Cup, mug or even a glass
Eyes on somebody or on nothing
Filled up and empty cup in front of me
Relaxed or just in hurry
Snipped pass or sat off
With all the hearts and with none

the hills of waste

2010-01-05T10:22:00.008+05:30

A hill of waste on my side, this was what I saw sitting in Sid’s car while I was coming from his home to my work place. A surprise in the middle of the street makes you think what are we doing to our waste and where does it eventually go? Here? Just couple of kilometers away from our own habitats?
We have dumped yards of waste produced by us, the urbane and we do not realize how are we contributing to the forming of these hills of wastes (soon closer to our own surroundings) and how we polluting the environment. Does anybody know the way out of this? Or we gonna soon be engulfed by our own created mess.

Let’s do our bit – reuse, repair and recycle.

2010

2010-01-04T11:14:00.009+05:30

2010 is my year and unknown to me are the days ahead...
You ask me about a month from now and I know where I will be. Beyond that, i am surely not aware of it. Who and what shapes the days ahead will decide what would I think of it a year from now. And the ambiguity of experiences is such that I have no hold. So let’s live this month about which I know a bit.
As this person sitting next to me asks me about my resolutions for the year ahead, I remembered the song ‘light in the dark as I search for the resolution’ and I sang it for myself ‘I should clear the wreckage from the blast’.

"Garden Party"

2009-12-19T15:55:00.003+05:30

lyrics

I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same

But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself

People came from miles around, everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus, there was magic in the air
'n' over in the corner, much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise

Played them all the old songs, thought that's why they came
No one heard the music, we didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou", she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave

Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck

'n' it's all right now, learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself

books-why, what and how

2009-12-17T09:50:00.004+05:30

My quick bites from Pechakucha

Let books be your dining table,
And you shall be full of delights
Let them be your mattress
And you shall sleep restful nights.
-Author Unknown

A GOOD BOOK IS A……
• “Pitiless mirror”
• “Necessity”
• “Good friend”
• “A home-cooked meal. Intensely satisfying”
• “Lovely-full day”
• “Pleasure trove and mind gym”
• “An affair to remember”
• “The best thing In bed”
• “Destroyer, exhilirator”
• “Faithful lover”
• “Makes up for all the unhappiness in the world”
• “A muse-mistress”
• “An invitation to an alternative universe”

I READ OUT OF GREED
I READ OUT OF NEED
I READ OUT OF FEAR
I READ TO SOMETIMES CLEAR
I READ OUT OF COURIOUSITY
I DO FICTION MORE, IT’S SO LEFT TO ME
AND AS A RULE, MY BOOKS ARE NEVER LENT.
AND THERE’RE VERY FEW FOR WHOM THE RULES ARE BENT.

The decent swine flue patient

2009-12-13T09:22:00.005+05:30

I happen to be a swine flu patient, though for a short time, but yes, or was I pretending as one. Neither could I breath nor cough. I held them both. People around me looked at me with suspicious and thought I was goanna ruin their life or atleast mine. I was feeling low and down. People at the terrace opposite to mine, would have been suspecting the same thing as I guessed. What if I was the one swining around, how would things change suddenly? And even when I was in a public space, if somebody coughed, everybody gave a glance that side. I held mine.
Soon I seemed to be doing ok and got people less worried.

those loose ends

2009-12-06T02:06:00.010+05:30

A sweater I have, worn out and faded,
Tainted and not my size any more.
And they say it should be given away,
Maybe repaired with no more loose unraveled seams.

Words I wrote, unsettled and dark
The eyes damp and my veins cold.
Aristotle says to perceive is to suffer,
And I suffer too, dwindled grays and loose they stay.

The land has those loose ends,
Belonging neither to one frontier nor the other,
And it says do I need to be there or here, or
may be nowhere and still somewhere.

The loose laptop, it shows up and sometimes not
Plays the game of hide and seek.
Resides in me, its inability to perform,
I hear the clunk, waiting for the loose seams to mend.

For me to be complete again, for these gaps to be filled again.

odomos and me

2009-11-28T00:19:00.009+05:30

Odomos is the creme which can be applied on our body to avoid the mosquitoes. Actually the main purpose of using the odomos creme is to be free from mosquitoes, but looks like it also helps in making sure people stay away from you. As far as the smell goes, it is as annoying as it can get, be it on yourself or on others. I would rather prefer the mosquito biting me. I have a disliking for the existence of this creme, which is been pronounced these days, thanks to few people in my life and therefore the post.

I pulled the chain

2009-11-21T18:37:00.014+05:30

Going to anywhere from somewhere, I have never encountered a chain pulling episode in a train. In my experience of so many years with Indian railways, I did come across this for the first time, that too in a train in Bihar. And actually not very surprisingly it was me who did this. The train stopped in exactly half an hour (took my entire strength pulling it) when according to my understanding this is supposed to be used in emergency. What does emergency exactly mean, i could not figure that out, maybe I should have got my foot chopped off or what exactly should it be, and who decides the sense of emergency. All the many eyes on me and nobody dare to touch the chain, I somehow managed pulling it and with a consent of a Train Superintendent.
Seems that it is also possible for a driver to override the alarm chain pull in most of the circumstances, but thankfully this time, he saved my soul as I hauled the chain solely to get the train to stop convenient for only this self.
I was left on a station at no-man’s land to find my way out. While I watched the sun set at the station, this note was appearing on my pages.

When it all ends

2009-11-16T19:29:00.008+05:30

When you are almost dying, nothing changes
You just see the moment passing by you, minutes pace and this is all

When the thoughts become words, nothing stops you
They run in your mind, you listen and they soon become real, words and thoughts both

Memoirs of living, when chase you
Either you want to be free or entwined, you keep it all on the sill

And when a ball is dropped on you, it bounces in front of you
It calls for your attention, you notice it or not, it leaves a spot on your head

the drama

2009-10-13T14:33:00.007+05:30

Abstracts from my recent read “In spite of the gods”

- Continental plates shift at a rate that is imperceptible to non-specialists. Then one day the pressure reaches its breaking point. What for decades has gone undetected by almost everyone suddenly becomes apparent to all. Likewise, the ascent and descent of a great power often happens until a single event makes a new situation plain.
Wondering when is/was such a moment for India?

- No objective in the development agenda can be met if we do not reform the instruments in our hands with which we have to work.

- Academics have coined an ugly term “coopetition” defining behaviours when two parties compete in some areas but cooperate in others.

- There is not a thought that is being thought in the west or the east that is not active in some Indian mind.

- Sometimes it seems that in India the modern lifestyle is just another layer on the country’s ancient palimpsests, simply adding modernity to what already exists. Most Europeans tend to think of modernity as the triumph of a secular way of life: religion becomes confined to worshippers private lives. In Europe the past is the past but in India, the past is in many ways also the future. Its past continues to be visible in its present.
Many people would find it Debatable!

I am happy

2009-10-12T21:04:00.005+05:30

The birds twitter my morning,
the cold breeze makes me breath deep,
and I gaze far.
I am happy

When the memoirs are revisited,
tears drop down the cheeks,
and I know the grief.
I am happy

Mother calls me her hold,
I remember all from the start,
and I feel blessed.
I am happy

Frost is arriving,
sow shows the promise of next year
and i imagine the scene.
I am happy

Time took me places,
I saw, wrapped, absorbed,
and i matured.
I am happy

God in the flurry i see,
in the spirits of many around me,
and i share.
I am happy

Then, I felt it right,
now I wish for the joy of the other,
and i try to smile it away.
I am happy

Life came across many,
distinctive and precise,
And it’s a please.
I am happy

I am happy that i am a gloom,
I am happy that i recognized it soon,
I am happy I perceived a lot
I am happy that my life is only a sort.

my welltip today

2009-10-06T11:04:00.003+05:30

"Tell the story of the last time you felt so much love in your heart,
you thought it might burst."
hm.. wasn't it right now?

Monalisa

2009-10-05T00:09:00.001+05:30

Where is the smile and where am I seeing it? In me or on her?
She surprised me with the affect she has on the world, with the size of her picture and the smile she exhibits.

touch , the sense

2009-10-01T11:29:00.003+05:30

Touch is what made man love, undergo and respect.
“Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own webs from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch”
John Dryden

my last snowfall

2009-09-25T21:05:00.003+05:30

I try to remember when the last time it snowed on me, it was as white and clear as I was dark. Heard for some, blizzards come and go as affections, but then for others, some leave their affects forever and so did the last snow.

dogs and kids

2009-09-17T21:53:00.004+05:30

When you look at a kid, you feel a kind of relaxation which you find when you are with a dog too; you feel the forces of contentment. Surely I couldn't hold one for ever or obviously, can't stop the growth of the other.

Me and hairy men

2009-09-11T20:49:00.003+05:30

Getting to know your liking for the characters will be something which will appear to you only when you know anything about them. Until then, it is something which is invisible to you, and once it is visible to you, you play and enjoy the desire to have it forever.

as unfortunate as it can go

2009-09-08T20:53:00.002+05:30

A mess is certain, when all is going bad; there are less chances of anything to go right.

gargi is typing

2009-09-07T21:40:00.001+05:30

There is a wait for the words to be visible, while I see them there; my eyes melt to watch, where will they disappear again, into the world of obliteration? They appear, they tell and they leave.

I hate moon

2009-09-05T07:25:00.004+05:30

Contradicting to what I am aiming to write, moon is what puts me together, the world around me disappears, my brain comes to rest and I feel I can still live, it has its clarity in its spots, which reminds me of my ambiguities, therefore the detest.

Hot weather

2009-08-09T00:38:00.004+05:30

Weather, when hot, calls for your attention and it brings the sweat out, does it also make you more emotional?

incapabilities of deserving

2009-07-31T21:37:00.007+05:30

I have repeatedly felt inept to have;
deserve the feel,
like the puzzle pieces questioning all I am getting,
I don’t.
It may seem like a stretch, why would it hold on
and to what,
my in-capabilities of deserving?
Still I remain hopeful;
I would recognize my capabilities of loving.

The being, on the day

2009-07-21T01:33:00.006+05:30

I find myself to be born, repeatedly every year on this day and today again, the years are counted. If only we did count the number of years we actually lived and the ones we actually passed, I might have a little more, a little less.

wants and writes

2009-07-20T00:07:00.005+05:30

And he wants;
What he did not do himself,
As a result of less efforts and not his,
Unproblematic to do than difficult to live without,
Something which is far,
As impressively described by the other,
Delectable to have,
Life with rather than life without

where would you not like to wait?

2009-07-19T19:35:00.007+05:30

The traffic jams, and the bus stops,
Wanting to say something,
At a beauty parlour,
Queue at the cash withdrawal,
For a flight to take off,

strengths of laborer

2009-07-19T00:08:00.003+05:30

I have always found laborers occupied in delivering, or showing what they can deliver.
He sweats to earn the everyday.

ability of doing

2009-07-16T21:22:00.003+05:30

When you know you can do things on your own, it stops you from possibilities of delivering the task to some one else. You might have got different results.

scary situations

2009-07-09T14:40:00.004+05:30

The situations go scary when they are beyond what you expected those moments to be, forgetting the surprise element involved.

shoulders of a man

2009-06-21T03:20:00.004+05:30

A recall of values and attitude, this man’s shoulders reminded me to bear, to sense, to do.

writer

2009-06-10T02:21:00.004+05:30

The writer's best tool is the ability to draw out subject's secrets and use them.

travel through mountians

2009-06-09T14:48:00.002+05:30

In the middle of solitude, silence, sloppy paths and unknown faces, it came and left a smear somewhere. Encounters, I thought were destined to settle or stay, like tattooed somewhere on the heart, If the future is uncertain, why not bet on the present?

episodes and endings

2009-06-05T20:16:00.007+05:30

Sometimes the story has an end with a new beginning while as most often, there is just an end and no such beginning.
While walking back from my school today, my thoughts took me some 8 months back. It was the first day and I was walking the same street with a hope of reaching a conclusion for my quests and today when it is that day, that day and that end, I am still walking on the same street with a similar hunt. Nothing has changed.
And I realize from tomorrow on, there will not be this routine and the curtains would descend slowly on to this episode of life.
Here on, a new chapter will start taking it's shape.

Independently Interdependent

2009-06-01T13:32:00.007+05:30

We are moving towards this state of independent interdependence.
Earlier we used to have fights for independence and there was always a struggle for existence in which the fittest survived, but now it’s the era of INTER-dependence, there is a new kind of consciousness--one that recognizes the interdependence of everyone on the planet.
The history books we read focused on the individual rulers and people in power as if all changes came from those who were in positions of authority. But the reality is that ordinary society created much of what a man is today. It’s that ordinary and extraordinary man who with likes of his, struggled alone and collectively to bring about changes.
Let's celebrate all those who independently contributed to this dependence.

My arguement for "desires"

2009-05-27T13:37:00.007+05:30

For the desires to be achieved, let’s not have them, or else their reach keeps getting tricky.
Their possibility of realization is as difficult as 'x' which tends to approach infinity, but what happens at infinity is undefined.
I am trying to relate here to something in mathematics, which I was always poor at.

todays thought

2009-05-24T16:19:00.002+05:30

Life is about evolving, wiser to go beyond the stereotype or stay more realistic?
Ah.

Social behaviour

2009-05-21T18:37:00.002+05:30

Greed and competition are not the recall of suitable human temperament. Greed and fear in the society are in fact being created and amplified. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
Read it somewhere and found it quite convincing.

my name is

2009-05-14T17:31:00.003+05:30

My name is
Life
Black
Fidget
Breathe
Sound
Uncertain

Your name is?

Inspiration:“My name is red” a fiction.

monday blues help

2009-05-11T14:04:00.006+05:30

Early morning music and murmur some song
Smile to strangers
Have a lunch and sit outside in the sun
May be sweat; go walking to your work
Drink water
Call up somebody and laugh out loud

the language of things

2009-05-05T01:11:00.004+05:30

"Design in all its manifestations is the DNA of a society"
- Deyan Sudjic in his book "the language of things"

Dark cloud

2009-05-02T20:19:00.004+05:30

They say "every cloud has a silver lining". So does the present cloud also have one? And how does our thinking change with every cloud we pass through.

the last day of salone

2009-04-27T02:37:00.016+05:30

Today was the last day at the Salone, and in retrospect I am putting down my thoughts of these 6 days. I visited more than 300 events out of the 478 events inside Milan (FuoriSalone) excluding the entire day of visit at countless exhibitions at Rho (Salone del Mobile).
This was my first time to witness a design event at such an extensive scale and right from the beginning I was completely taken aback by the number of people coming down from different places to attend this event. During this week, i found Milan discovering itself so beautifully with so much of life in it.
It really got me excited. Design Week in Milan was a real new experience to observe and be an active part of it even if it was only as a “spectator”.

Thanks to the Interni guide to the event and websites like; http://www.internimagazine.it
http://www.fuorisalone.it/2009. I constantly kept a watch on the events being featured on the world leading design magazine websites and reporters from all over the world, and visited those events specially. I had also subscribed to the editor’s special featured events per day from http://www.fuorisalone.it/2009/

My initial impressions were mostly created by my friends. But from the first very day, I started watching it uniquely with many strangers who loved design and had always something to say.

And between these visits from one to another I tried to bridge the gap and tried to see what is coming out of it. What is it that is the ultimate goal of this fair and what are the new trends in design and the design movement? What is so much of pop and show all about?
How is each designer and design company reacting to the present economic crises? And is anybody even reacting at all?
What I could see was a complete distinction in doing things, from different design worlds, for e.g. Italian way of doing anything and everything was mostly so glamorous while as Dutch or English was so thought provoking and basic.

Salone also had some negations for me, like for issues like the so called “Sustainability” which was seen only in the displayed items and hardly anything in practice. The city was all beautifully lit and so much of show off in different ways, paper pamphlets and what not. So much of crap generated throughout the week was mind blowing.

Do we as one world really need to have such fairs with so much expenses made? Don’t we still have a huge population of people below the basic level of living condition, and when will we have fairs which showcase opportunities and design work done to reach that larger lot.

On the positive side, I also felt world is moving towards transparency and open details. Most of the products spoke for themselves and materials were left to their actuality.
Munificence is the future. Something “Free” is no more a sale or publicity strategy. It is definitely just ‘free’.
People by large are slowing down, not many are interested in speed, and earnings. Everybody is feeling accountable to their actions.
Van Leeuwen who is honored as Europe’s best design graduates says “I think that people are realizing more and more that they shouldn’t just be able to have everything, and instead should use what they already have”.
The future will shape up from our present. Wish we all move away from that thoughtless consumption of yesterday.

For those who want to see and read more;
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/search.php?search=milan+design+week+09&image=0&button=search
and there are definitely many more design links available online.

art of cooking

2009-04-19T15:26:00.005+05:30

Lately this activity has turned into something more than just satisfying my hunger... It makes me happy. As long as you eat while you cook, I guess you will surely love what you are doing. Though cooking just for your self is not that exciting, since there is no body to complain or credit, but surely it gives me happiness, a pleasure both to my appetite as well as to my mood. While I observe what is happening to the food in the pan, I question what exactly does it need to possess this skill, or just all of us acquire it to some degrees as we live life.
And sitting here in the kitchen, I am thinking when will my experimental cooking extend to luxurious cooking…

One of those late evenings

2009-04-15T23:14:00.006+05:30

Late evenings at home when you don’t know what to do;
Counting crows and cars outside from the window or simply standing on your balcony as the sun sets in front of you is quite a quiet one. But soon you will get bored of that, though you still have the evening out there waiting for you to do something.
Making a cup of coffee or for people like me, a good aroma of tea and doing this multi tasking of reading your current interesting book with that cup of beverage can definitely be called a nice evening with yourself.
Or even a phone call to one of those ‘not heard from’ friend is a relief from that quiet environment around you, especially if you are no idiot box type of a person. By ‘no idiot box’, I mean those who stay away from indulging into the world of television.
Oh, how can I forget the regular chat windows which you can open up talking to your friends and typing fast to all of them. That even brings many emotions together, right from laughing with one to feeling concerned with the other. But lately I have given up this one as my fingers feel they need a rest from taping on this keyboard.

There is definitely work to be done. Just looking at it and mere plans of doing it soon will not help anything. Why doesn’t work inspire now?

white silence

2009-04-07T05:19:00.008+05:30

Silence is white and it has a calm smile.
It looks astonishingly at the noisy atmosphere of mind and speech.

no words needed

2009-04-03T18:01:00.003+05:30

As long as there are people that you're not going to like, there'll be people that don't like you.
and you will definitely get to know it.

dematerialization

2009-03-31T18:14:00.004+05:30

"My strongest desire is to be free from gravity, feel free from every kind of bondages, I want to float as a bubble."
Kuramata

Roads less travelled

2009-03-27T16:02:00.003+05:30

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

lies

2009-03-21T15:50:00.017+05:30

I have jotted down some lies from all over;

Life is easy.
“I never take help from anybody”.
Rosio “I don’t like men”.
We are all equal.
“I don’t love Adrian”.
“World does not need money”.
Sary says “I am a boy” .
“I don’t think about the past”.
We know how to lie.
“I have moved on”.
“World does not need wars”.
You are allowed to scream inside a library.
World peace is round the corner.
“Bush did the best”.
“I don’t like black”.
Communication is not the most important thing.
“Everything is alright”.
Many women have fallen for me.
Osama is a sweetheart.
I love when people replicate my idea.
It will just happen on its own.
I dont care what other people think about me
I never had a craze for my class teacher

will keep adding as i get to hear more ;)

Individual happiness

2009-03-20T16:07:00.003+05:30

I was talking to a friend the other day; what is it eventually that we are working towards in life?
“to be happy”.
And is it about individual happiness?
Each one of us works towards achieving it through our own efforts. It is definitely about building that self-worth based on efficacious individual choices and actions, that include our relationships, our career choices, our everyday lifestyles etc.

But it so happens that it is never individual. It is so depended upon all the other factors and people around us.
When it is about one single soul, then why have so many lingering factors? And I am still questioning what that minimal state of being happy is?
And how much of it is about the pursuit, or about the enjoyment of happiness?

Quoting somebody;

2009-03-15T02:26:00.005+05:30

You studied, you worked, you got married, it works for mostly everyone,
For the rest, life still goes on…