Me Myself and the crazy world

So, like many of my other friends back home, I also went through the process of "Upnayan Sanskar" when I was in college (yes that late, for I could never agree to it, felt weird... but anyways). The ceremony has started being considered as a step into adulthood, but alas it wasn't really. The ancients divided life into phases, one of which was the "Brahmacharya Ashram", when the purpose of a man was to learn whilst not being bothered by the temptations of life. An important part of that ritual involved shaved-head-dhoti-clad boy requesting alms from the elder women around, requesting "Mata! Bhiksham dehi." (Mother, please provide alms). It is a ritualistic tradition, to be followed since things are done like this here, now. But I wondered what it meant in the day of old. Then, young boys, prince or paupers alike, would go about their days of learning, requesting alms from the community. Did that make the time socialist ? At first I thought ...

I sat idly in front of the television set watching Indian channels. It's been long since I had really sat like this watching Indian serials, those were a luxury in this foreign land. And even more so, been never a fan of MTV India, lest it played things like Coke Studio or Dewarist. And coke studio is what I waited for, since I had scrolled and saw it in the listing. But right now some top 20 were playing. I sat, absentmindedly watching, for that is my nature while I go into that pondering mode. So is my nature that I lose sense of what is happening around while doing things that interested me more, like flying my newly acquired heli. A nature acquired from long hours of study sitting in front of television during my kid years. Yet it was not so that I did not know what was playing, nevertheless I paid no attention. Entertainment is art. Some say art defines the state of affairs, I thought differently. Maybe the state of th...

The days of old Every year during summer vacations, we used to visit our hometown. That was a time of reunion with all brothers and sisters, dadi, bua, chacha, taiji and "tauji". The term Tauji, seemingly bursting out of the term Tau, encompassed the thought of "elder" and awesomeness. With his quiet demeanor and the incapacity of getting angry no matter how hard we tried to get on his nerves, a chill crawled down our spines when he would address us with utmost respect as if we were not kids. The days of old, when we used to go around the city, a bunch of rowdy kids with our dog, discovering new alleys and roads with our gang leader kukku didi. It was fun. We were kids then. The new days Kukku didi has a school going kid. She made us mama, mausi long back and it never mattered. We were still kids, a little grown up though. My own kid sister now has her kid, and I am mama to another kid. But mama always meant utmost fun and frolick, after all I am blessed wit...

It started with a warm sunny morning. He sat there soaking the sun, drinking the cool spring water. It was extremely serene outside. The kind of day that everyone desires but few experience. The day was perfect to take a plunge in the pool and then lie in the sun. Wasn't too cold, nor too hot... Just perfect. But then he had to fly. It was his prerogative to fly. And a prerogative he loved and enjoyed as if it were his life. That was he was destined to do, and that was what he always did. Fly... He started and was soon soaring over the high cliffs. The ground underneath was green and calm. He could see the shimmering waters of the river below, shimmering like a million diamonds in the sun. He could see the green grass on the banks, as if a carpet was laid. He could see the shadows cast by the foliage of the mighty trees of the forest below. There was peace all around, he was in an almost soundproof shell with just the din of the wind was all that could be heard. It was like ...

Truth, as defined by the Oxford dictionary and as would be widely accepted means "that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality". Is it a good thing? As again widely accepted, it certainly is. At least it is considered so by those who are, or should I say, try to be righteous. So considered a good thing, by us commonplace people who try to be rightful in their way of life, in accordance with their beliefs and social principles. Still!!! Another truth lies in the fact that most of the time we all righteous, commonplace people refrain from it. I do not proclaim that we all lead a life of blatant fibbery, but rather that we strive for a safe separation from the truth. But why do we do that? Amidst it's all godliness, this truth hides a bitterness that is all overpowering. It defeats the pertinent abilities and has the effect of dragging the human nature, at the receiving end, towards acts that can no longer be considered kosher. The effects might be short liv...

Picking up my bolg almost after eons now, I was wondering what to write about. But then what better to write than what facebook says, and the only thing "it" says, what's on your mind. Being an avid fan of order and rules in person, it comes as a surprise to me, myself, that I am unable to relate myself to the usual norms, customs, practices and traditions that we all tend to follow. I'm not a perfect man, nor is anyone else. And so to keep this imperfect world in order we do need some guiding principles. Some tend to be the laws of our land, which also, of course, sometime fall short or far fetched. But I do not find myself much in disagreement to those, for those are still open to amendments. What bothers most are the so called unwritten laws that we tend to drag the baggage of, in the name of traditions, culture and what not. Who made these traditions, who wrote that we need to follow a specific moral code and what is this moral code anyways? How do we say that som...

मन समर्पित, तन समर्पित और यह जीवन समर्पित चाहता हूँ देश की धरती तुझे कुछ और भी दूं!!! Had been thinking of writing a blog post on the day of our Independence but there were too many thoughts in the mind that it was too difficult to pen down one. With the advent of social media and with almost all of the educated, semi educated and literate youth on social networking sites, it has become quite to easy to congratulate each other on our Independence day and show ourselves that we belong. And to carry on with this pretense a lot happens without thought, without assessing credibility of information. An immense contribution from preconceived notions of a few, a mere desire of many to flow with the currents and then those few who have an obsessive compulsive disorder of posting everything without a thought. This all was fine with me until recently when it started encroaching upon my belief system that stands on one single ground of "thought". Ever since Anna has taken up the cu...