'High Hopes'

One of the greatest joys of life, to those who live their music, is discovering a song... an incredible song... and discovering it on your own... without somebody suggesting it or telling you about it. And the joy multiplies ten-fold when you unearth the song from your existing collection, when it has been lying there all these years and you never somehow stumbled upon it... I blame Winamp's shuffle for that. Anyhow, discovering High Hopes was one of the high points of my sixth semester in college.. which isn't saying much about the semester itself.. but its true.

And the lyrics, my god, the lyrics. you cannot help but get truly captivated by the song, and the lyrics never cease to inspire... Gilmour is a mad genius, scarce doubt there... and although much of the song at the start portrays his early life, but strangely or not, i can't be sure... one can relate a lot to the lyrics.

The beauty of Floyd is, you feel the same rush that you did on hearing the songs 10 years ago, and you will undoubtedly feel the same surge of emotions decades down as well. Takes you to a different place, really does... and you don't need the alcohol or the weed to get you high, although some will argue, that completes the experience.

Consider yourself truly privileged, if Floyd figures on your list of greatest artistes of all time.

And i write this also on behalf of my trusted allies and fellow floydians... Gopal Balakrishnan and Siddharth Gupta.

"Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway
Do they still meet there by the Cut
There was a ragged band that followed our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by force of some inner tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Though down this road we've been so many times
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist growing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever"

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

man, this blog's been collecting dust.... been comfortably over a year since i last felt like blogging, and since this is one of those come-back posts -- expectations naturally high, a work of genius in the offing... so better make it good... and now i'm out of ideas. eh well, maybe some other time!

I miss her

Its been more than 60 days... thats 2 months! Over 2 months without her, and I'm beginning to really feel the pain. I miss her, really do. I've known her for over 2 years, and after getting used to seeing her almost everyday, it really sucks to find her not around anymore. Seems silly, but I just feel i could express myself so much better when she was around. She understood me. Never questioned anything I did, we hardly had any disagreements. In a way she completed me. 2 years is a long time and people feel I'm ready to move on... and that I already have... but as they say, you realize their worth most when they're gone. I know I'd been a lil harsh on her in the past few months, at times not given her enough importance, or enough time as I used to. But that in no way undermines how much I care for her. She's been around for me all the time, even at the most unearthly of hours... and has always been nice to me. I still haven't given up hope though, she's been unwell for these 2 months, but I know she'll be fine soon. 2009 will bring about new possibilities, a new start to a renewed relationship. Hope I get to see her soon....

My dear old IBM, you should know... just because I got Dell, it doesn't make you any less important. My crimson baby is smooth, and she's fast. Sure she looks pretty as hell, and has the features of a goddess. I can understand what made you so insecure... but hey, I still miss your sharp ebony features, you're still the one i turn to in times of crisis, or boredom... you're the one I've spent long hours with, cuz you're not hot-headed (like the other one, she, invariably, loses her cool in a few hours). So understand that she and I will never be able to share the same chemistry that we possess.
Ever since you've been gone... its just not been the same. Come back soon. God only knows what you're going through at that hellhole, they call the service centre.

On the other side...

Pakistan Times - November 30, 2008

EDITORIAL
By the Editor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

India’s Blame-Game!

"Going by traditional belligerence – India has of-late hideously chosen an awful course of labeling accusations against Pakistan for the tragic episode of Mumbai – sans any proof or evidence. Such an act by the New Delhi rulers – more specifically by the India media – has once again placed the peoples’ aspires for peace in the region in peril.

As is indexed in the history – it is not the first time that India has opted such a path of hostility towards Pakistan. Historians stand witness that as and when any frightful incident occurs in India – it instantly gets involved in customary blame-game. With such a mindset – in the past, India surfaced an eyeball-to-eyeball scenario at borders and that too without any legitimate reason. Yet, eventually it was left with no option but to get it reversed.

And, now soon after the Mumbai catastrophe – as was largely apprehended, Indians again started raising accusing fingers towards Pakistan. As per their habit of jumping to conclusion on the very first day of such tragedies – Indian authorities started leveling wild allegations against Pakistan referring to the minute details of how it happened as if everything was fully in their knowledge.

Amid such a situation – tension is still seemingly rising between the two nuke neighbors – in an apparent action replay of the threatening posture – which India adopted subsequent to attacks on its Parliament in 2001 pushing two countries closer to a cataclysmic war.

The speed with which the Indians are making disclosure after disclosure regarding identity of the attackers and how they approached Mumbai clearly shows that New Delhi was bent upon misusing the occasion to malign Pakistan and to distort its image.

The very fact that the militants themselves disclosed their identity as Mujahideen from Deccan and also made certain demands exposes claims of the Indian authorities who are giving external dimensions to a purely internal problem of their country.

The tragedy has highlighted the ground reality that there was growing anger over India’s oppressive policies against minorities and they are giving vent to their annoyance in violent mode and manner to draw attention of the comity of nations to their plight.

Yet, India is trying to mislead the global public opinion to make Pakistan a scapegoat – which can not be tolerated and shall not be allowed to occur. We feel that it is an apt time that India should mend its’ horrendous approach by avoiding blame game that would raise the regional temperature – which would not be in the interest of any-one.

Instead of getting engaged into any futile exercise of accusations – India must pay heed to the bona fide demands of its people, majority of whom is living far below poverty-line – facing toxic fiscal dilemmas.

Truth and realism manifests that peace, progress and prosperity – surfaces through an affluent society, backed by a proper fiscal system. Thus, why not to lay a solid focus on such a vision – instead of getting engaged into wastrel scuffles – with useless tricks and tactics? "

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

.... Just thought we might want to take a peak over the fence and hear what our respected neighbours have to say on this horrendous atrocity and what they think about us.

National Security? No Thank you... Its not for us.

I remember, when I had to write an article on the Indian growth story, how its there for real, and how India has progressed over the past few decades ... I told Taha, who was writing the counter argument, that his job was a lot easier than mine; that at a time when Indian economy was booming, and everything was going right for the country.

Today I feel I should've traded topics with him... simply because, I myself have very real doubts about this much touted 'Indian growth story'. Who cares about economic growth when the people of the country have been robbed of the most fundamental freedom of freedoms... their freedom to life. Who cares about the 8% GDP when one cannot walk the streets without fear. Who cares if we'll be the next economic superpower or not, if the country doesn't know the face of peace, and if corruption compromises National security. I feel ashamed, angered, frustrated at the state of affairs in our country. And I feel like a hypocrite (and partly helpless) for sitting here and typing this rather than being able to affect change in the system, which is what matters.

6 terror attacks in 6 different cities of India in 2008 alone... some sort of an infamous record, that. Certainly a record to not be proud of. What's absolutely infuriating is the ease with which these motherfuckers have been able to conduct their operations, do their routine and follow their plans to precision, with the entire country looking on in dispair and sheer helplessness. How is a country brought down to its knees with such ease and such frequency!? Its just not done.

How do our politicians have the audacity to even show their faces in public... they should be ashamed of themselves, not being able to protect their own soil. But thats if they take a break from gorging on the fat piles of money and from the revelry they indulge in, drunk on power and position. What they will do though, is they'll "Condemn terrorism". Ofcourse we condemn terrorism, isn't it a given. Have we reached that stage where we're required to state that explicitly or else people will believe otherwise. Its outrageous. Alright so we condemn terrorism, fair enough, but what after that?! Do we condemn it enough to ensure it doesn't happen again?! Or atleast do our best, in our capacity as a nation to guard against it? Can anyone in this country stand up and claim we did our best to protect ourselves from these attacks?

Its a bloody farce, National security... its almost as if no-one in this country cares, no-one except the families of the unfortunate innocent lives that are lost in these attacks. Terrorism, violence and mass-killings have become so common and so ubiquitous that we as a nation have just grown impassive to it. It doesn't alarm us anymore. Everyone, including the politicians seem to have just put their hands up as if to suggest "Get used to it, We're a poor country and we have fucked up neighbours. There's nothing we can do about it." Are you fucking kidding me!

It just is not possible to believe that our national security is so damn weak that we never seem to get the slightest sniff of any of the terror attacks that happen. I'm not ready to believe that our Intelligence is so weak. And if thats not the case, the only other possible explanation is that we've been compromised. Time and again, our security is compromised, either by the underworld, or by our politicians, or by our security forces. Somewhere along the way, we're being sold out for money, or power or fear. But bottom line being, we as a people are increasingly becoming self-centered, and 'India' as a nation has taken a backseat.

Everyone just seems to be passing the buck when it comes to carrying out the post mortem on these terrorist attacks. Nobody is ready to take responsibility. Its just sad that our country is so obscenely polarised and 2-faced. There's not an aorta of growth in our thinking, No sense of maturity whatsoever. People are daft enough to kill their own countrymen on the pretext of communalism and regionalism. All within our own country. People continue to be narrow minded, continue to be content with living out a 70 year old life, making whatever money they can in the process, support their family and die peacefully. The only agenda pursued by our people is that for Money or for Power. Nobody cares about the welfare of our state, nobody dares to dream about making India the United States of the 21st Century, barring a few good men, which I'm sure there exist. Even the Unites states of America doesn't harbour regional violence the way we do. And to think of it, we're One Country. A bit ironic, don't you think! Maybe we should call our selves - Potentially United States of India.

When time refused to pass by

The best thing about Diwali (apart from the obvious - the delectable offerings of sweets and some lip-smacking food) is the family get-togethers, getting to meet relatives you haven't met for a while, catching up.. and basically having a good time. Luckily this diwali week, I wasn't working, and so got to experience all of that and more. Now, there is a downside to it aswell- entertaining guests - and boy, I'm so not the guy for that. I can be the worst host especially when I'm doing it all alone.

So then it happened.... the longest and most excruciatingly boring and awkward 4 hours of my life. (seemed a lot like 20 though). My folks decide to visit some friends a couple of days after diwali, and I decided to take a raincheck, thought I'll put in a few good hours of studies, when i really planned to catch a good afternoon movie or something. And just as I made myself comfortable on the couch with some choco-mocha cookies and a glass of tang beside me... the intercom buzzed and the voice on the other end went "Bhageria saab se koi 'Rajeshji' milne aaye hain" ... the watchman at the gate was lucky enough not to have caught the most disgusted expression on my face, if he had, there'd be no questions asked and "Rajeshji" would have been told to turn away, come back another day, preferably at a time when I'm tucked away nicely in my office chair, sipping on hot chocolate and doing whatever it is that i do.

annyyway, by the time i could think of all of this.. the damn doorbell rang... enter Rajeshi from Rajasthan (You just can't make this stuff up!)... yeh, apparently he was a really distant relative, whom i'd never heard of, let alone seen, before and he'd come down for a few days to meet everyone. To his (and my) sheer badluck... my folks were out and wouldn't be back before 5 (it was 12:30pm then).... i figured, well, how bad can it be, he'll prolly come back the next day or something ... turns out he was on the first flight back the next morning, so he'd stay until they returned. (Suddenly the thought of it being a well-orchestrated social experiment with me as the test subject, didn’t seem far-fetched)

A customary exchange of greetings followed, and he took a seat on the couch to my right. I executed the modus operandi, that I had rehearsed in my head for this very situation – which pretty much included offering the guest some food and drinks, making a distress call to my dad (one of the many to follow) and indulging in some serious small talk, of proportions I never knew I even was capable of. Turns out we had nothing in common, he’d been in Rajasthan all his life, and he spoke strictly in Marwari, though he understood Hindi to some extent. Now while I don’t take pride in my Marwari speaking abilities, I’m equipped enough to get by such sticky situations. Anyway, after couple of hours had gone by, I happened to glance at the clock through the corner of my eye – you know that sinking feeling you get within – It was 1:15pm. SonOfABitch! How in the name of hell was it just 1:15! It couldn’t have been.

Resigned to my fate, I decided to turn on the TV, and started watching the match between India and Australia, hoping he’d respond positively to that move. I got nothing. Eh, so I said to myself, fuck it! Lets just watch the match for now. And I did; and so did he. There wasn’t much dialogue for the next hour or so, except when he asked me the way to the loo. For what its worth, he seemed comfortable, even if I was under intense pressure of being a good host (at one point, there was a very real thought of bringing the guitar out and playing a lil something for our guest, I sure am glad that though passed quickly)

Anyway, the afternoon trudged by nice and slow; and the minutes turned into hours, slowly but surely; had our lunch in between all of that and by 3pm, he was nearly snoring on the armchair, his head thrown back and falling to one side every 3 minutes, after which he’d recover to his original posture, try to watch the match... but clearly he wasn’t a man of cricket. Now, could’ve changed the channel or something, but the twisted mind that I have, somehow it seemed better this way, less awkward and I was free to move away from there, walk about, go to my room, listen to some music, or even study for that matter (seemed a very good option at that point) .... so I offered him a nap in one of the rooms, since he was drowsy and tired from the travelling, it seemed a fair option too. But he refused! The man refused to take a nap!! When clearly he couldn’t stay awake to save his life! Maybe he found it awkward, I couldn’t know. So then I switched the channel to some hindi film of the ‘90s that the cable guy was showing, hoped that he’d enjoy it and eventually took a seat on the far side of the sofa, picked up my math book and started solving probability sums. That was the plan originally... so I can hardly complain. Anyway, dad came back by 5, 10 mins earlier actually, I thanked him for that, and he took over from there on.... while I went to my room and watched the movie I intended to watch 5 hours ago.

A 'supposed' Comeback

the date on my last post read... Oct 5, 2007!! .......... 2007!!!! if this were my hotmail acc, id be busy makin a new one by now, those losers n their loser tactics to retain members! anyway... it seems like light years since the last time i visited the blogosphere... the reason would majorly be attributed to my all too famous laziness... yeah, can u beat that! im too lazy to visit blogs n sit n read! Im That Lazy!

But i atoned for all my sins today, i visited the blogs of all the ppl i know, read about 30 odd posts, commented on a majority of them (twas a real joy reading all the posts, it realy was) ... n returned to my own dilapidated blog, which was crying out for a new post, a new article, a new something, i guess it was mocked at by a whole bunch of other bully blogs for growing stale while their authors kept them fresh n tidy!

I dunno, there are times i'm brimming with thoughts and opinions and emotions, i feel i could write a book on any topic thrown at me, and there are other times when i just have nothing to talk about, nothing to appreciate, nothing to complain about, no thoughts, no feelings, im just neutral towards every damn thing in this world. Though the latter occurrences are quite rare, but they are there all the same.

aaaaalllllllriiiiighhhtttt.. that was a whole lotta crazy talk right there... but moving on....
Lately i've been having this urge to be just unconventional n do something different, try something new, rid myself of the monotony, or just make each day worthwhile, do something constructive, or destructive, or something sweet, or mean, or crazy or wild, or something new or enjoyable, or not so enjoyable, even if it means breaking a glass at mocha n then gettin into a tiff with the manager n creating a scene there cuz of the obscene amount they fine me. (100 bucks for a damn glass!!)

Among other News:

>> My BE Proj's gone to the dogs... in the process of retrieving it... time's running short, panic beginning to set in... lol, dimple n brett if y'all are reading this... don't worry, we're doin much better than a month ago.. hehe.

>> Recently visited God's own country... Kerala. A fine fine place... absolutely beautiful, got meself one of those ayurvedic massages, rode on an elephant, slept on the hammock for a record 7 straight hours during the day! , ate those traditional south indian meals, tried fishing with a local at kumarkom, (well, he did the fishing, i gave him company :p), all in all... a fantastic trip.

>> SYB course is On full throttle... got myself a bunch of good hardworking individuals. Watch out for the launch of "Soul-Food & Symphony" soon.

>> Attended My last SPACE & Technobreak... A whole lotta fun!! did all sorts of crazy ass shit... this needs a separate post all together.. there's no way im describing the fests in a few lines...

>> Turned into a JPMorgan-ite, I think.

>> Broke my cell. (cellphones and me, the chemistry is never good enough) Well, broke would be a harsh word for it.... it was in horrible condition anyway, i just hit the final nail in the coffin. Now it won't display anything.

>> Went to Mussorie, Auli, and Rishikesh.... the best trip everr!! skiing, trekking in knee deep snow, river rafting... the works! Really gonna miss this bunch of BE ETRX.... each and everyone of them... these 4 years have been a joy.



Well, thats it for now.... hopefully the title of this post will be proven wrong n i'll make more frequent visits to the blogosphere and post some more worthwhile reads... adios.


--------------------------- Thats all Folks! ------------------------------