A.R Rahman...the concert...

Everybody wants their slice of history....I dont know that yesteday i got a slice or not but ...yes..without doubt...I can say that it gave me something to cherish in midst of my ordinary life...(I aint a pessimist...just used d term "ordinary life" to exemplify..the extraordinari-ness of the event..!!!)

Now, I neither want this to be an informative piece about the longitude and latitude of the place where it happened...nor do I want to glorify..the sponsors...(kurz.. I have no commercial interests...!!!)..the sole aim  is to talk about the performers and their virtuoso performance...which included various pioneers of fusion music.!!

When all the dust was set and all the smoke was clear......there was smoke(previosuly i was talkin about smoke in the arena..!!!) and A R Rahman...on the stage...with the rendition of "Jaage Hain Der Tak.."...gettin you and you hair up...and giving a sweet tickle to your lachrymose gland...!!!what a start...to a great concert....All the cameras..came out and went up ,with their pround owners...tryin to catch the saga and making it part of their digital treasures..!!

Next in the queue was the title track of "Delhi 6"....giving all the "hindi- speaking ppl.." a great sense of belonging in this far-flung place in Tamil Nadu....dats why i say nuthng connects India...like music and cricket.....after this it was turn for " Ring Ring Ringa.." which got all the lewd ones..(including me and my friends..)go berserk....this time no regional...fellings..came up..as being lewd..comes naturally to everybdy..!!!(did I hurt...those who call them.."sharif..."?? Lets show them {.!.})....After a few minutes of pause came out Rahman wid his trademark high pitch giving all his throat to the song "Dil Se...."..making the crowd go crazy..

After all this it was time for some real musical treat in the form of instrumentals..which obviously got a boo boo from the hit-centric masses who only regard film music as an existing form of music...!!!
Next, there was disappointment blended with mild exchange of expletives...on the fact that why was the performer singing all hindi songs...in the tamil heartland...(I want you views on the same!!!)
Then came out Hariharan..the maestro of Carnatic music....with the evergreen..."Bharat Humko Jaan Se Pyara..." dissolving all regionalism ..as all heads went high with pride..( I really want to know..how many of them knew what they were proud about....!!!!). The tricolour waved.........to glory...

"Tu Hi Re...."...." Rehna Tu"...and various other hits were also served on the platter...!!interspersed with talks...from Rahman...as to what went behind making of his various musical masterpieces...Its always good to hear people...who make sense....!!!It makes you grow....(stop measuring your height after talk shows..!!!!)..
The show concluded with Rahman going full throttle in the much awaited..."Jai Ho...nd..." Vande Mataram.."...causing the last rush of adrenaline....Fireworks...fought the darkness...!!!

We were on the highway......again.....!!!
Two french females....were also on the high- way.....!!!rolling the grass..in a paper...nd all dat..

Orkut Knows...!!!!!

Do you have a count of how many times you would have keyed in ur email id and password into the orkut login screen..........dont lie ...u must have lost the count....as i have....(n for those..of u who are..not on orkut...take my words...u are in the list of sinners........!!!!!!!!!!

Have we ever paused on a scrap.....a photo....or a friend request......to strain our neurons .....why we are so addicted to these social networking sites........??i dont knw about u but......i knw a bunch of ppl.(including me..)....who are ready to sacrifice their dinners ..just for being there.....ONLINE!!!!!!!

all of us must have heard of one addiction or the other....(kudos to those of who have tried.....it in some form...)...The reason for any addiction...is the sole intension of getting pain or pleasure.....

So the ques is.....how does orkut...satiate ur needs....to an extent to b called an addiction.....

There are many things..(read features)in orkut...which directly stem from the very basic human behaviour patterns....

All the features in some way or the other....can vicariously make u feel the way u wanna feel..

i mean.....things.....which u like doin in real..life..those small things..and talks which make u feel happy and contended....

Lets....start...from the very basic idea of scrapping...comes out from the very basic human desire to talk......(can be a dialogue.......or a group talk...)...now..if u have keenly observed ..ther is this new feature...a small tab..in each scrap...which says "view this conversation"...which is to help u if u scrapped somebody..and forgot the context when u log in after a week or so.........

so..u keep on forgettting...and we'll remind u..........dont u think..thats making u weak(so what....all addictions make u weak..).......but it makes u feel gud...rt..

The whole thing..is like a virtual....outing...with all..the friends.........all.the pics..all the videos......nd wht not...

Now...lets concentrate.......on the updates...about..who does..what....who has added new pics..who has received new testimonials.....who has updated his /her status.....

This reminds of a whole bunch of friends sittin in a room at 3 in the night...gossipin about..about the whole....group...who did..what.....

In this busy world ..nobody has time..to actually.....do those..things in person....(but most of us long for these moments...)...so when this longing...is met...or rather fulfilled..on orkut transcending....geographical boundaries......with almost nothing to spend....the joy gets multiplied and takes the shape of an addiction.....which u ar enot ready to give up.....!!!!!!!!

Are you confused??Think and answer…. If your answer is affirmative ,may be you are one of those who would like to continue reading, I don’t say that the naysayers will not read it..but they will soon…lose ..out in reading this…cribbing and oblizing blogger’s generations with various adjectives…of course creative ones…!!!

An old proverb says...either stand in the sun ,or stand in the rain..dont stand in the shade!!!

Contextualizing the funda….into the realms of confusion….what we can interpret is that ..u either be thoroughly confused…or insanely organized…no..point being a little confused and a bit organized…and when I talk of confusion and organization it spans …almost all spheres …of lyf…relationships, friendships, work, studies and anything and everything under the sun…

All said (Jat the risk of being called an imbecile jerk…a redundant use…to emphasize..J),you must be thinking that what is the point of this whole….finger exercise…( I mean…typing…no PUN intended…J)!!!

On a serious note…why I just started talking about confusion….I see around …I find a lot of motivated souls..throughly confused…(including me….)all pumped up from inside determined to do “something” …but not able to find that ‘something’ ….all those madly organized ppl…will call..them confused…but those are the ones…who do something that did not existed previously….. unlike…the organized ones..who are busy …and happy following …paths predefined by others….)…

Now…what solution will u give to these motivated-but –confused entities…..

For the smart ones..this one liner is good enough…

“Its not essential to know who Sharon Stone is, its better to know who you are…..

And for those who are a little less wet on their wetware….no advice...as no confused souls fall into that category..!!!(snobbish I Know….!!)



After reading this….dont u …think….the blogger…surpasses all…barriers…of being confused…??

India Unbound

Its always good to know about yourself and things around…you…they call it awareness…and I think it starts from self awareness….(“Charity begins at home” and all that cliché….).On the outer periphery(although it should be the core…) of self awareness lies knowing about one’s country…..one’s homeland…!!


Poets have always seen beyond and stated both obscure and the obvious (and that’s aint easy..i tell u…)….that’s why they always amuse the confused…(and creative….) and find a ubiquitous mention.


“You wont forget the smell of the soil…and come back a million times, wherever you go..”( “Patriots” …don’t go out and start smelling the soil!!!!)..It’s just a figure of speech …though with a lot of meaning…

Ohk…now enough of random thoughts….in three different paragraphs…Connecting the three gave me a thought to read something about modern history of India…..(ancient history wouldn’t have helped….as world has moved on quite a lot from then…although the teachings still remain relevant..)
The book I stumbled upon was INDIA UNBOUND by Gurcharan Das.

Although it has 400 odd pages…which are still in the process of being read…

What I could gather till now was that the main agitprop of his discourse is that ..Why is India still not as developed as …as compared to the countries which became autonomous at the same time as India did…??

Do you know the answer?

Check your response against these.

Which one is yours??



A. Oh, common….we all know the reason.



B. Don’t I have any other work.!!!



C. I see, so u know better than me..huh…!!



D. **&^)(%&*()*((0)!!!!



E. Confused!!!( Hey …you people are my favorite!!)



People with answer option A…Whatever is known by all…may not be correct…its good it to verify it yourself…



People with answer option B…”then go do your work…why are you wasting time reading a blog…



People with answer option C…Ego’s have caused enough disasters for our world…so please keep it aside…!!!

People with answer option D… You are too explicit..you render me speechless…!!!



People with answer option E…You will add a lot of value to yourselves..!!



So ,decide for yourself… I say it is worth a read… !!!

Poets and poetry have always been accused of too much symbolism and an abundant use of inexplicable metaphors and various literary mechanisms. But as they say, to understand life you have to live it (another metaphor although not that obscure), same is the case with poetry, and for living a poetry the prerequisite is, to think.





But if piece of creativity takes you through a lifetime and churns out all the emotions you would have experienced while your are “here”, and compels you to think while transporting you into a different world then I think its worth a look or even much more than that.





The title track of Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming movie ‘Kaminey’ falls into the realm of such kind of expression with some of the best lines ever written by Gulzar.





The track starts slow for a few seconds and then the tempo rises and by the time its ‘there’ you are so much involved with the carefully observed lyrics that you start feeling drowned, such a feeling you can only have at a time just minutes before you are about to die, not necessarily the physical death but may be because of world-weariness in which you see yourself walking on road to heaven ( I wish there was a ‘Stairway to Heaven’…)thinking about all the good ,the bad and the evil you did and done to you. While walking, in your mind there is a vacuum with no music , no sound, just scenes of things you cherished, those moments of pure, genuine and unrestrained joy and ecstasy ,the kind of happiness you get when you take out your parents out for a drive in your car with their favorite music.





The lyrics takes you in retrospective mood for that one last time, in which you ask and answer to yourself, what do did u do with your life and then you say I made its life difficult with all my desires ,my dreams, even if I listened to my heart it took me nowhere. The words flow further and the protagonist says that he asked his life to give him all the impossibilities which is explained in the actual lyrics with just the right metaphors. He, then answers himself by saying the ways of living have always been like that and will continue to be like that.





In the next stanza the protagonist talks about all the betrayal, the helplessness he felt when he found that everybody in his life were different ,not what he thought them to be , the wicked ways of life of which he himself was a part of sometimes.


The belief in conviction behind the lyrics might have prompted Vishal to go behind the mike himself and giving that much needed world-weariness feel to the song.





Forms of art, unlike science always have a hint of optimism( though not always)in it ,following the trend the song ends saying however ‘kaminey’ the world is you never stop dreaming and doing things to realize them. Hence the protagonist trudges on.





So, go on live a lifetime, what if its only for 5 minutes and 57 seconds.


I think I lived it 30 times..while writing this!!!!!!!!!!

Disconnected!!!!!!

I was just getting up on the MMTS and i was thinking about what am i gonna talk wid the kids in the class.....the first thing which connects them wid me ..is the religion..its nt hinduism...islam ..u gt it rt..is cricket....!!!!!wat else.....second place may go to the talk about movie stars..i.e all the superstars and megastars of south india.....they call it tollywod..and the scope may also extend to WWE...superstars...in which only a hanful of them are interested...but....number is good enough...to bet a mention in the list ..of things we like.....

Then i start thinking....is this connection...excitement...fan following....going to bring them any good at this stage....

Its so disconnected....the very ppl..who can do nothing ...absolutely..nothing...120% nothing...(i dont comment on whether they want to do smthng or not..).....they love to talk about them...idolize them..worship them..put them in their bedrooms...and wht not...!!!

They say media and press is for connecting masses....i doubt..or may be i am too sceptical.....they are ...spresding more diconnectedness..in the society ...especially among the kids..

with so much of exposure to media..right from the beginning....and given our hit-centric culture....the idolization...is inevitable...

The thing that comes out is that ..if they show same kind of connection...wid themselves..they will go far ahead....or ..atleast ...they can go...much farther in life..than they will go ..worshipping their icons....

I may sound narcissist......may be selfish..just thinkin..bout oneself..

but i call it....being constructively selfish....!!!!!!!

The whole essence of the term"constructively selfish"..lies in the first word..rather than the second...it constructs ...everybody ..around...its that kind of selfishness....

all this time u tried .....being selfish..but hey...lets try this kind of selfishness....and hope ..its much better than the previous one.....

Getting back to the children.....i dont blame ...if they absorb the exposure they are given...as they are doing ..(most of them...).....Its ..the responsibility...of the elders...or may be peers...(if they are peer enough...)to ...make...children realize....!!!!!!

Now..i pause ..and think.....why only children.....look around and we can see....disconnected ....adults.....who love living .....disconnected......!!!!!!!

Now u will say ...why to bother..about ..these ..disconnected....ppl......!!!!!!!

The situation...gets worsen..when...u have to spend most of your time....wid these type of ..entities.....!!!!!

And finally..the only way....to refute..my argument.....is may to b call me the MOST DISCONNECTED PERSON.............!!!!!!!!!so go ahead nd decide for yourself.............

The natural extension to the argument of “Outliers” is that, if Gladwell has been able to recognize a distinct role of the initial advantage of “successful’ people. Then how do we make use of this realization(subject that to condition that we are more convinced than unconvinced about his argument….). This realization if dawns on the people who are successful can make a lot of difference to those who are not that well off(according as society standards). They should become compassionate about or let me say ,they atleast become aware(use of the word compassionate makes the second lot of people sound weak….which is definitely not the tiniest of my intensions….in fact its vice-versa) of the advantage they had initially.

Talking to few “successful” people surrounding me…..has been a revelation….most of them are very joyous taking all the credit for all their hard work and success(and why not!!!!!...they say…..)you can almost feel a hint of contempt and haughtiness emanting out from them……(exceptions do exist…..) while they are talking about their story, unless you encounter a person wrapped in bandages of pretended modesty….and keeps telling that he has done nothing, its all just luck (which obviously is not the case…..Remember the 10,000 hours of practice….).

So, what should emerge out successful people is the continuation of success. They should try giving the much needed initial advantage (in whatever way they can….) so that success is perpetuated, rather than sinking deeper into their own world.