Fascination with Reality.

Reality fascinates, it does.

Not long before reality shows had the major chunk of audience, until it was grotesquely over done, then followed by big screen to its grave.

What people do in real life and real time is probably the primary question to which we seek the answers…ironically though. How could we be so anxious and inquisitive about something which comes to any of us most naturally? We and people around us still get angry or happy, they do go quite or jubilant, they still fight or even cry….so what is the big deal..?

The answer probably reflects the very horrors of reality in its literal sense.
The logic is simple, what one has, generally, is not enough to fascinate one, majorly it’s about what one doesn’t has. Emotional stimulus of people is pretty much adulterated, we have acquired the skill set of projecting the appropriate emotional response under specific circumstances to an extent that we almost command them, rather it being a natural and peripheral adornment to one’s honest reaction. We are a victim of our own lies. It is like, the more one fakes it, the more one looses it.

It could probably win a few situations, but the damage one does to one’s self is beyond repair. Because if it is natural, it will come anyway, but when one starts ensuring one’s convenience it could happen that one is bereft when one needs it most, and the worst part is that one wouldn’t even realize the miss, as a quick alternative would be around.

Don’t know for how long it has been in use, don’t know for how long it will be used, but one thing is for sure the more one uses it more used to it one becomes. It ruins so many relationships, so many lives, so many dreams, so many expectations….but the practice goes on……a wonderful working solution…somebody said.

People and Peace

Privatizing Peace.








The enemy has changed, it’s no more a customary or defined by regular attributes such as flags and uniforms and neither is it affected by sovereignty or borders.

Enemy today is devoid of any such status symbols. The yard-stick for gauging power is no more indigenous resources but technology and science.

And so the definition of peace has changed and, it is no more an instance or an objective, it has become an obligation and a process that needs to sustained and maintained round the clock.

Not disregarding the blistering issues and events that still haunt the nation more often than frequently, what is remarkable is that the “unfortunate event” that disrupts peace is not the focal point but its expectancy and its aftermath is what claims the major chunk of attention and analysis, not to mention the subsequent weaving of it to rather weird aspects, often devoid of any sense or logic, much to the irritation and disheartening of a sane common man.

Peace, hence, and has grown beyond the scope of state machinery and percolates well into culture, religion, industry and simultaneously enables the smooth flow of people, and their thoughts without any hassle or qualm.

One might just wonder that while we are bearing the sweet fruit of privatization we experimented with earlier, why would one not think of privatizing peace as well, so there again we have an industry where it’s the people who deliver and it’s the people who receive.

Our existence in synchronization with globalization today would require the defeat of all such elements which ever led to any differences of any sort.

And knowledge is the right answer to it. Knowledge is today’s weapon and shield, and it’s the duty of everyone to share it as much as possible, democratization of knowledge is imperative. In fact the essence of democracy lies in the inference that it’s a collation of all possible, probable and different interpretations over a uniform understanding. To be different is as much democracy as much it is to be similar.

Such an ecosystem can be established if and only if in our ethnic, religious and historic differences we are successful in introducing benevolence and patience, so that movement is not only among the individuals but also between communities and nations.

We are Social, absolutely.

It was an evening family get- together, everyone was appropriately dressed to the occasion, the food and the conversations were full on. Observantly and willingly, I for a moment thought of detaching myself from the ecosystem of the evening.

I could see brightly lit faces, everyone was upbeat, lot of sharing was happening around, besides food, a lot of information and experience was being transferred.

Suddenly it struck to me, though everyone was wearing the brightest smile, but somehow “happiness” was missing.

By definition and by nature we are social. We enjoy the presence of people around us, we have different strength of families, joint or nuclear, but still they are families. To encourage this our mornings are scheduled in parks, afternoons in offices, and evenings with friends and family or an occasional get-together. Some who prefer to stay aloof are often viewed with a frown and a set of visual questions.

Right from the beginning we are encouraged to be with friends and spend some time, all the more, if one is not so inclined. It is customary to have a circle of your own. It is so deeply embedded in our behavioral conduct that, at times it gives me an impression that, maybe it is an enforcement more than it being a choice. And if that be so, then why, what is the objective like….?

















Is it like to keep one away from loneliness…okay…but then what harm could it do to one..? Only one would get more to time to spend with one’s self, and one gets to think…. And that is okay…..So are we like discouraging self thinking, as it could probably lead to radical thinking, which would obviously be different from current set up. So are we like promoting the “comfort zone”, where in all and everything supposedly suits us, but why so. Is it actually for the greater good?

But on the contrary one feels most c o m f o r t a b l e , p l e a s e d , s a t I s f I e d , e v o l v e d , a t t a c h e d when one is all by oneself, often alone.

One feels such when one is leaning against the balcony admiring the canvass of the sky, or on rooftop feeling the breeze, or your face cupped in your own palm staring at so busy world and seeing nothing, or hands folded against one chest and a sigh in your breath, or admiring the free moves of a kite in an open sky, or smiling at a kid busy in its own world.

Eventually unable to figure it out explicitly, I appreciate the difference between belief and acceptance.

Groups and Talks.

Group talks have always interested me. There is something fascinating about them. In early years of my life, the talks were more homely and the gentry were in-house, kind of. Then on in academic life the talks was more casual and nonchalant and gentry was heavily gender biased, courtesy not so impressive interpersonal skills, with the better humans, and prettier too.

In early days I can easily picture myself hovering around, a bunch of beautiful ladies of home, elegantly draped in bright sarees, their discussion being complimented by the clinging sound of their bangles and by most honest expressions, it used to act like a magnet for me. I was so much into it, that there was a time when I believed I could actually sniff it happening.

Such meetings are most frequent under the umbrella of some family event, time is post meal, post lunch is most favorable. Initially I used to stand and attend, with experience I learnt to crawl and merge. They used to be so much engrossed in their talks that my encroachment was often ignored, but it was not long before somebody would notice me, probably she was not being heard, may be. And then everybody would turn to me and I used to greet them with the expression, “Did I do something wrong ?”… well, I knew the answer. On my walk away, I could hear them, asking my mother, why he is so keen in all this…even she didn’t had the answer to it. Neither had I.

But honestly I owe a lot of my learning to such events, for some reasons:

1. Nobody is praised
2. Nobody is talked ill of, either, and that’s the beauty.
3. Nobody from the group is discussed, so safe to be in.
4. The one, who reveals most sensational stuff, is hailed most.
5. This adds a lot of competition to it.
6. Secrets revealed, would sure leave me in awe.
7. But for my attendance, I would have never, in my life, could have been aware
8. People discussed, are so much different as they were known, otherwise.
9. One gets an idea, how is one thought of in accordance to one’s conduct.
10. You stay updated.

Rarely, if the subject of discussion happens to pass by, the expression is priceless. Not only of the group but of the subject too….

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Sometimes I wonder, why I always try to assign or align an event with an event.

As a young boy, in junior-middle class, obviously, it would have been nice to wear a wrist-watch, but I don't know why I made an agreement with my self, that I would ask for it, when I would clear my class tenth, and honestly, I had no qualms about that agreement. It was as close, as if I deserved to wear a watch, if only I did well in my results. Now I am glad I did well, else it would have been my cell phone, helping me out with time tracking.....but what if were not able to "earn" that either...!

How good or justified it is, as a logic, I have no clue.
Am I to find the reason in my upbringing, family, culture, nationality, ethics, I have no interest either.

So, by the same line of thought, Anubhav and I had decided, post our last exam we would go for a movie, more importantly, my first ever movie outing with a friend.
It was 1999...and yes we were struck heavily by the SRK syndrome, most part of my generation is,may be was, then.

So it was KKHH, both of us, on his cycle, in our school uniform, minus the tie...it was close to formals, to think of it today, went through with the show. Post show, it was all praises and discussions, right from the specific frames, general acting, the " 7 letter letter" angle, the entry, the twists, " that " look, little khalsa, " toota-tara " , friend-ship bands, anjali's we analyzed everything, and of course,the most famous..... " you won't understand " .

Now all this till we got on the bicycle. Then on, when it started "rolling" and I could feeling the wind in my face and through my hair, with the sun, yet to show up, it wasn't long before I started with the songs, and Anubhav often joining me in between, where all he could catch up with the lyrics, and as an effect the bike was like meandering along the road, and that was more fun, only till it took a sharp turn and I had to choose between my elbow and face to get scraped by the road, and I guess I made the right choice to bring me back to the real world.

But it wasn't that bad, the movie-effect was potent enough to see me through the accident and the pain. The movie hangover outlived the pain, for sure. Today when I hum those songs, it all comes back...the same old way....plus a smile.