Just Thought...

- that one of the most meaningful poems that I've read...and can relate to..is "If" by the great Rudyard Kipling ... http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm

One wonders....kitna badhiya sochte the us samay mein....kitni unchi soch thi...and this, coming from a man whose country which has nothing great to write home about in today's time...whatever happened to the thoughts left behind by people like him? Only worth teaching in classrooms, is it?

Just Thought...

- Why does Lord Shiva do a taandav (a form of dance, an angry dance) when he is angry?

I was curious about this, so I searched the net for an answer...and true to its promise (the internet today can give you answers to almost every qn of ours!), found some great explanation...those who want to read the full article, click here. I'm just putting an excerpt here --

Shiva is believed to assume two states - the superconscious state (samadhi) and the tandav or lasya dance....Shiva showed the uddhat dance, which He had performed earlier, to Sage Bharat through the chief of His attendants (Tandu). He also made Parvati perform the lasya dance, with great enthusiasm in front of Sage Bharat. Lasya is a dance form performed by women wherein the hands remain free. Sage Bharat and others later taught this dance, performed by Tandu known as the tandav dance, to man...

...This dance is of seven types - 1. Anandtandav, 2. Sandhyatandav (Pradosh dance), 3. Kalikatandav, 4. Tripurtandav, 5. Gouritandav, 6. Sanhartandav and 7. Umatandav...

...Of these seven types the verse (stotra) Shivapradosh (alias Pradosh) describes the sandhyatandav as - Shiva performs this dance in the evening with Gouri the creator of the three worlds seated on a throne studded with precious stones...Of the above seven types the Gouritandav and Umatandav are both fearsome in nature. In this dance Shiva assumes the form of Bhairav or Virabhadra and is accompanied by Uma or Gouri. He performs this frightful dance in the crematorium...during such a destructive, fearsome dance Shiva not only destroys the world but also frees embodied souls from bondage. The crematorium is chosen for the dance to depict that the ego of the embodied soul is reduced to ashes. Deities as well as demons are enthusiastic to accompany Lord Shiva during the tandav dance...

I like and believe in the explanation given below...I also understand the fallacy in my question above -the Taandav is not an "angry" dance only- but still my question remains -- why a dance form to explain/exhibit the Truths that He wanted to convey?

Is it possibly because even God was getting bored of teaching the "Truths and Lessons of Life and Living Life" in the same rudimentary way -- by word of mouth of gurus and the written word?

We all are His children and like it or not, need His Teachings (and His thappads and shabashees) once in a while...Is it His way of symbolically telling us that Change is something even He has to follow...so Man, you'd better embrace it willfully...

Or is there actually no reason behind it? Is this one of those cases of Origin, where a thing/stage/position just comes into existence for the world to follow, without any particular rationale which one can pin-point?

(P.S.: I am not satisfied my reasoning of the above, so please contribute with all your comments and knowledge...)

What's in an "About Me" Anyway?

I really can't get myself to write on this one topic..."About Me" ...and like the mad street dog that you're really scared of, this question keeps popping here or there everytime I sift my eyes on a site...like this one too...I realized that at some point in time, I had filled the "About Me" section on this blog too...don't know what crept into me that I read it...my gosh! what a loser of an "About Me" that was!! Not that the current one is going to send flutters down anybody's stomach on reading this about me ;) ...But, honestly, what should I write here?

Which takes me back to my teenage days...in those days, like a lot of other teenagers, I too underwent a phase of introversion...that feeling of being a misfit in every circle...I mean, there is this one time when one is neither fully accepted in the grown-up circle nor does one feeling as child-like as one used to a couple of years ago (remember that feeling of "ab main bachcha nahi reh gaya" thomping in the head 24*7??) ...

So, at that time, I had - painfully and over time - made an "About Me" ! which went --

Who Am I?

I am Me. Myself. The sum of all that I think, do and react to. I am also the sum of all that I don't do or react to. I am You, Him, Her and Them. I am your mirror. I will be as you are. To me and to you.

Duh!! Sometimes, I think...am I moving forward in life or backward? Or is it just that I had time then and not now? (Psst! I think the second one is just a lame excuse for the lack of inclination!!!)...Lol...but I think that this small piece from the past is better than any of the ones that I try coming up with today ;)

The Shifting...

Had some drafts-to-be-posted in my folder...don't remember why I hadn't posted this one then, but ... here goes --

Shifted to our new office – “our own premises” – on the 1^st of December, 2010. Yippee!! Feels great to come to your office and realize that the place belongs to you…not to mention the real estate appreciation!! :-P

I’m sitting here in the new office, having finally found a place for my lappy (on a shelf in the saree rack!)and myself in front of it…the work hasn’t started full-fledged as yet because the interior decoration work is still pending…will take a week approx. for the office to be fully functional.

The last week in the old office is worth a word, Bloggie…the roller-coaster that it was…got to also know more about human nature. Our land-lord, Mr. Tapan Ghosh (‘Tappu’ for us), who was so sugary-sweet till 10^th Nov. (that’s the date on which he used to get his rent every month) started to “keep an eye” on us as if we were going to take away his switch-boards!! All this, while maintaining a “smile” on his face…and in the end, admitting that, “ aamar toh ghor khali kore diyechen” (literally: “You’ve vacated my place”; figuratively: “You’ve taken away my income source”) …it’s worth noting that Tappu doesn’t work; his only sources of income are rent from his property and income from shares (if he can make any money in this market!)

Anyways…the mazedaar time was in the last 2-3 days, when all the packing had to be done…sarees which had come for work, worked sarees and all the sundry items that had to be taken there. We ‘decided’ that this was an uphill task and worked doubly hard to ensure we carry the minimum no. of worked sarees to the new office. So on the penultimate day, we started packing for the dispatch…and man! Did we rock! A record no. of parcels was made ready before half the day was over! Kudos to the whole packing team to put in the effort and ensure that the goods were ready to go on time! To their credit, it was because of them that we were able to finish off a lot of the other packing the same day.

The next day was a crucial one. We had to ensure that all the sarees were safely packed. Each plain saree also costs around 4K-5K, so we were concerned that there shouldn’t be any mistake. So out came the note-books, the format of coding the parcels, the double-counts, et al.

The last hour made me realize one thing, which XL has also made me realize…no matter how much you plan and execute before the dead-line, there is a chunk of work still left to be done at the last hour. This chunk, incidentally, appears small in the beginning, and as large in the end!

Finally, the packing was finished, barring a few brick-bats, which we thought we’ll put in a sack and take it along with us (how ingenious!). Once the truck was stuffed with the bigger bundles, we got down to packing the ‘brick-bats’, realizing only after half an hour that this packing itself is going to take us another 2-3 hours!!. The sack ultimately turned into 4, and then we realized, “oh! The chairs and a table are still left!”….ummmm….errr…oops! “Hey, get back to work, guys!”

The task of unloading and taking all the goods up the first floor in the new office was another peak to be won…this time around though, the “method-in-madness” approach was followed and the best thing we did was to follow and channelize the flow in which the coolies were comfortable. Lo and behold! The unloading was done in half the expected time! It’s amazing to see the speed of the work when it is done according to the comfort of those actually performing the task. (It did help us that we had thought of the sequence in which the goods had been put on the truck firstly.)

Once in, we breathed a sigh of happiness…we had finally come to our new office J J

What (Do) Women Want...Jhootha Hi Sahi...

Saw the movie “Jhootha Hi Sahi” the other day…nice, quiet, gentle movie after a long, long time…nothing great, doesn’t have “Blockbuster” written over it, but you come out of the movie theatre with a good feeling. To be honest, it’s not a multiplex movie. (Considering the Indian market where we have stand-alone cinema halls as well, where ticket prices would typically be competitive.)

I liked the movie, but I feel like criticizing right now and the movie’s caught my fancy…so here goes..

The movie is about this nincompoop, stupid, not-ambitious, tact-less, low-on-self-confidence dud Sid (John Abraham) (you can choose to call him kind-hearted, not-too-intelligent, guy-next-door, but that would only mean you are a relative of the director and writer! :P) who finds a trap for himself when there was none and labels it as helping an NGO and saving lives! To its credit, the story is spun around pretty tight around this plot, but one can’t help but see that there was an opportunity for the poor guy to keep himself and his miserable life out of so much trouble!

You say, but if he had done this, he wouldn’t have found his lady love Mishka…heyy…it’s a Bollywood movie buddy! The hero can find his lady love on the stairs, near the golgappa-wala, in a mandir…just name a place!! On a serious note, yeah, where else would he have met this sweet girl with suicidal tendencies, right?

And Mishka – ah! What a girl! She was in love with Kabir (Madhavan), who had promised to take her to Paris from London so that she could pursue her painting there. But he did not. So, for some weird reason – as with almost all break-ups – they broke up. Then she starts talking to this NGO guy who brings her out of her trance of committing suicide at night and stammers when she is in front of him in the day – why? Because, to him, she is beautiful! Cheez!

Anyways, so the motivating and stammering continues, to the extent that he sleeps in his shop in the day…only to stay awake at night (you might interpret it as sleeping in the day because of the ratri-jagaran, but if you see a continuous cycle, it’ll tantamount to what I am saying). If he is awake in the daytime, it is to have coffee/take walks with her. The only guy who seems a little bothered about the business is his best friend, played by Raghu of Roadies fame.

Cruising through most of the boring songs and goof-ups and cover-ups, we find the group in a party where Mishka bumps into – who else – Kabir, with his new girlfriend. Kabir is bitter and Mishka is hurt again, but suddenly – as if a bolt came from Above – starts dancing to pump herself up. And that’s the most famous song of the movie. Kabir, obviously, can’t handle this insult of not getting enough attention from the lady as well as the script! :P so he fights with his girl and decides to woo Mishka again.

Now comes the intriguing part…what type of a girl is Mishka? Mishka loves Kabir. They break up. To get over Kabir, she wants to commit suicide. To avoid suicide, she calls this (wrong) helpline number of an NGO, where she meets Sid. Sid helps her get over Kabir. She gets comforted and ‘in appreciation’, falls in love with Sid! Then Kabir comes back and decides to woo her again. She is confused for a little while (the reasons for her confusion are as stupid and she makes no effort to communicate with Sid to clear it) and then chooses to go to Kabir! However, she wants him back only “as a friend”! OK…so…that means she doesn’t want to be in a steady relationship for the time being, right? Hmmm…No. Suddenly, en route to the airport in Kabir’s car, she realizes that this Mishka is Sid’s Mishka!! Lo and Behold!! Stop the car! Begin the taking-the-bags-out ceremony…

And Mr. Kabir, the man who supposedly wants her back, gets angry and drives off. Bye, Madhavan…it was nice meeting you…happy to see you didn’t have the decency like Ajay Devgn in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam…

So Mishka calls Sid and asks him to come to the bridge. Now, it is Major Mishka’s wish that the cadet reach there before the bridge opens up or else, he can take the highway…

…and so Sid runs, literally! Thankfully, Raghu and the gang catch up with him in a car to put some sanity into him and reach the bridge, which is about to open. A cop tries to dissuade them, but little did he know that this was a Bollywood script and crew…our homegrown Clarke Kent dodges, runs and jumps the opening bridge, obviously not without the usual stunt of hanging from the edge, having a near-death experience…seriously, does all this impress the Indian girl or the Indian girl who stays outside India??

But it does impress Mishka. And they all lived happily ever after!

Baah! I knew I said I liked the movie…but it was humbug!

Of Xlers...

Met Utpal the other day (24th Aug, to be precise) on his short visit to Cal...must admit, it was a very refreshing meeting...after a long time, got a chance to unwind with someone of the same wave-length...brings me back to campus.. :) (oh! I am hopeless in that regard - talk about campus and I'll straightaway reach Dadu's, Bishu Da's, Cafeteria, GH-3...and everywhere on campus!) ...

...was/am very pleased to learn what he is doing...methinks his work profile is the best one on campus! He is actually doing the work of an MBA - managing businesses. Most of the other profiles which come on campus are confined to particular departments only. His is something which transcends functions. Which is "awesome" in my books...With all due credit to the other profiles and companies...and the work done by my friends...

Which brings me to another friend's work...Ashima's doing some good work with this NGO she has joined...She's continuing her work in her company; doing this on the parallel. Proud of you Highly!! (Don't know how much details she would want me to divulge at this stage...will ask her and get back!)

...And while I am at it, how can forget Chabs! The guy's going to go places...am not supposed to say much in this regard too (as of now) but I sure want to say that my friend's got the guts! Here wishing you all the best buddy!!

Sachit's on the move too...he's joining L&T Treasury from next week...Way to go buddy! ATB for your stint there!

And Baggu's got engaged...!! Waah! Ye hai na icing on the cake...very happy for you man! Wish you both a gr8 life of togetherness...3 Cheers!

Just thought... (Melancholy Special)

kabhi kabhi lagta hai na...ki language mein kisi cheez ko ya kisi situation ko explain karne ki kitni taaqat hoti hai...it can depict one's state so accurately that its almost eerie...ever heard of kashmakash...

in 4-5 months, life has changed so much...so much...now I cannot look back...am not talking about my wants here...but I have lost the liberty to do certain things in my life...like looking back at my will...like going back to my favorite chapters (psst! I do go back...but that's a secret!) in Life...some of the blockages, I have created...some have been created by my present situation...while some have been created by people who matter...kuch "mere mann" ke bhi blockages hain...main kya karoon?

feel like a man stripped...of his freedom to enjoy his life as he wants...but I know, I had lost it 6 and a half months ago itself...