Friday, December 11, 2009

Mr K

A beautiful day it is . Mr K puts on his hat and readies himself for his routine evening stroll.. It was past 4 ,but the heat was still unbearable ..He adjusts the brim of his hat ,turns around ,assesses the surrounding and takes long strides .
His leisurely saunter is occasionally interrupted by the unruly honking of the busy folks . He stops at the stone laid pathway leading to church for his customary bow to the angel of compassion.
He throws a casual glance sideways and finds the usual mother –baby duo there.
‘Worse off than yesterday’ ,Mr K recollects the faces from the previous day .
“I should do something, otherwise ….. ” .. Mr K thinks hard and harder …..
And Mr K walks away .......

Friday, November 6, 2009

Travel Mate

I am this unlucky chap u know.
Everytime before boarding a train, I really pray that some gorgeous beauty would be my companion for the journey and I just go on imagining all those situations happening between us.
But as luck would have it ,I always get these middle aged aunties and uncles as co travelers, with their non ending array of these pointless questions about the company I work ,IT industry ,Job security ,pay check and all the boring things u don’t really want to answer. It’s a real pain, you know, the inquisitive, sad and compassionate look on their faces when I tell them about the insecurity in the industry or about the late working hours and all.. I mean Y should they feel miserable if I work for 12 hours a day!!!!!!!aagh what a world …..
Anyways that’s not the point here.
So as usual, it was with low hopes that I boarded the Shadabdti express that evening .I had the aisle seat, which is the worst seat you can get. That bloody seat just ensures that u will be hit by all the vendors, all the people testing their strength on handrail and those people on their way to rest room. I was this hapless hopeless man by the time I took my seat especially after noting that yet another 50 something uncle is my travel companion.

I took out a Malayalam novel and decided to plunge directly into it without even an trace of cordiality so that the uncle would not even dare to ask “Where are you going?” .
I was in this half reading half sleeping mode ,when I heard a sweet voice gently pointing to my neighbor that he is in the wrong seat . The man was relieved to hear that I suppose, coz he seemed quite pleased to cease being my neighbor.

I was exalted when she thanked me for helping her put the luggage in the rack, I was beaming with joy when she asked me where I was going and I was confused when she took the window seat and not the middle seat in which UNCLE was sitting. Questions start running amuck in my mind.
Why did she ask the UNCLE to move, if she was not going to sit in that seat?
Is she expecting anyone else?
Did she move to the window seat because there is no one in it now?
A hoarse voice interrupted my actively working grey cells which were trying to decode the window seat dilemma.

“Excuse me ,u r sitting in my seat .” ..

Who said there is no GOD in this world ??? There is , and he was standing in front of me with a laptop bag on his hand , a stiffened collar and a train ticket in his hands which so clearly states that window seat is for him and him only and no one else ..

God claimed his window seat and I threw away my Malayalam novel …

It was time for serious thinking on how should I kick off a conversation with the sweet young thing ???
Where r u going???? ………Nooo ,that’s so plain and old stuff..
U studying?? ……..Naa ,she mite think I am flirting
Nice evening na??? …..yucks that sucks.
Hey I am so and so …… na too early to reveal my name ..


I was so immensed in formulating a game plan for the rest of my journey that I didn’t notice at all the guy who came near to me and I was so furious that he was intent on disturbing my concentration..
Okay sir ,wat is it that u want ????? wont u lemme enjoy the moment I had envisioned for so long ??i\I gulped down those questions and with a questioning smiling face enquired “Yes??”

Do u mind moving to that seat?” and pointing towards the sweet young thing said “We are office mates and are travelling together.If its okay for u ,could you please ???? ”

Btw who said there is a benevolent GOD .If it all there is one hes a big time sadist for sure .
It was indeed time to go back to my only real travel companion ,THE NOVEL…..

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Bubble man

There he was, sitting on a sand dume on the lighted part of the beach with wind blowing across ..
He was the bubble man blowing bubbles.

Bubble man blows bubbles.
Foamy and frothy, these soap suds
Hovering in the air, blown away by the wind.
Bringing delight to the eyes and a smile on the lips.


Children gather around the bubble man .To them it is their bubble uncle who just goes on making bubbles for them to chase .These bubbles always eludes the chasing little bundles of laughter ,however hard they run. They run back to the bubble man dejected unable to catch the wandering lather only to chase the next set of bubbles coz
Bubble man blows bubbles.
For children to chase .

religion

Came across a very interesting piece of information in the papers last day . It says ,there are about 2.2 million schools along the breadth of our beloved nation while there are 2.5 million places of worship (counting all the temples,mosques,churches,dharghas and all).
Aaaha 2.5 million!!!! That is an awful lot of religiousness in our country.

Monday, April 13, 2009

My Musings

My Musings

But wat?????
Its true that I agreed to pen down something for this month’s Walgreens newsletter, but when the noose started to tighten , I was all at seas.
I mean I am supposed to write about the most boring movie I watched or best book I have read or something along that line. To be frank, I don’t want to relive those moments of watching a terrible movie nor do I want to strangle people with the reviews of some crazy book I read.
So there pops the inevitable question, then wat???

These thoughts were buzzing my grey cells as we gathered at Mother’s kitchen for our daily evening tea .(Don’t worry folks, it’s just a reastaurant inside the tehnopark campus and not really my mother’s kitchen. “J)
So as usual me being a non stop, nonchalant irritable tattler I was yakking on what to write ,when my tea buddy casually remarked.
“Why don’t you write about your favourite movie?”
Aaaha bells rang, ideas clicked and there I was with a hot steaming tea cup visualizing the scenes of my favourite movie, aka the movie I have watched the most number of times .
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what u will get…”
“Stupid is what stupid does” (This is actually a stupid quote, but somehow I seem to like it . J)
“I am ……………”


“I think Shaw shank is a much better movie. You should write about it rather waste time on ….”
My trance was broken by that statement from my Body builder friend.
“What???? Shawshank better than ….aaaghhhh ”
Anyways, you folks know how conversation on such topics ends, right? So as to avert the consequence of a prolonged debate on such an issue, I decided to put forward the question to the most sensible guy in our group.
“Editor, you have the prints of ‘Shaw shank and Forrest before you but can select only one .Which one would you prefer?”
My confidence, my beliefs were all shattered in that particular moment when he replied “Shawshank any time”

Actually I am not against Shaw shank by any means. In fact I consider it as one amongst the 10 best ‘Hollywood ’ movies ever made and am of the opinion that it would have bagged the best picture and the best actor Oscars if the year was not ‘1994’.
Oh before I forget, I have said the same stuff about Pulp fiction also to some guys. By the way I like pulp fiction more than Shawshank. What a raw movie!!!!!

Okay coming back to the point, the year 1994 was all to blame. The ‘best of OSCARS’ year brought together three of the best Hollywood movies ever made , the gentle and inspiring Forrest Gump, the inventive and the brilliant Pulp Fiction, the simple and smart Shawshank Redemption into the limelight .
Each were a masterpiece on its accord and were well augmented by superb acting ,great screen plays ,innovative cinematography, amazing visuals and moreover masterful direction. In the end, red carpet was all Rober Zemerick’s, his Forrest Gump bagged six Oscars including best picture, actor, director and visuals. Shawshank and pulp were sidelined with just one Oscar for the ‘Tarantino’ thriller (best original screen play) and Shawshank returned empty handed. It sure created uproar as Pulp Fiction was considered as a big competitor for the Oscars and just one Oscar was like a disgrace for the trend setter of future action thrillers.



I started jotting all these down with the intention of coming up with ‘My take’ on my favourite movie “Forrest Gump”. But now on second thoughts I think I should not dare to do that . You would be well treated by a good movie review site rather than my incoherent ways of reviewing a movie and I definitely don’t want nyone to hate the movie because I favorably reviewed (read killed) it. J
So instead I would just put forward an outstanding scene/dialogue/qoute from each movie.

Forrest GUMP : the running scene
Scenario: Forrest is running across America and people start following him thinking he was running for a greater cause. The reporters swarm around him and push possible reasons down his throat.
: “Are you doing it for world peace?” “Are you doing it to fight hunger?” “Are you doing it for animals?”
Forrest’s response is at once the most simple one. “I just feel like running.”


Shawshank redemption . Morgan Freeman’s dialogue towards the fag end of the movie.
“I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain... I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope…...”


Pulp Fiction quote :Samuel L Jackson at his best

“If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.”


………………….
If you have not watched any of these three cult movies…My sincere request to you folks would be
.Run to the nearest shop.
Get the Cassetes/CDs/DVDs of these movies or download from ‘U know where’ and watch it . Please don’t miss some of the best movies of our generation.
Run, Forrest, Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

ChayaMukhi


ChayaMukhi – An ode to Prasanth Narayanan


Nobody watches dramas any more these days .Most people consider it as monotonous ,slow ,no gimmicks ,no innovation old stuff and hence in the process miss out some of the most beautiful works ever produced in any medium.
Chayamukhi is one such a gem. Written and directed by Prasanth Narayanan ,a versatile artist with an ever probing intellect ,a talented writer and a crazy director,Chayamukhi takes the viewer to the realms and thoughts never traversed before. I am a big admirer of this great artist and its not just because he was my neighbor or because he was my Guru who taught me the basics of drama but because of the sheer brilliance of his literary skill.


The play is a fusion of the Mahabharata and the present world and the entire story is told and viewed through the eyes of three petty thieves who venture into the forest and witness certain events depicted in Mahabharata.


The story starts with Hidumbi seeing the second Pandava prince Bheeman in te forest and falling in love with him .After some intimate days with Bheeman whom she loves no ends ,presents him with a mirror. ChayaMukhi, the magic mirror which shows the person you love the most when u looks at it. It was Hidumbi’s prized possession and all she could see in it was Bheemans face. Expecting to see hers on it when bheemasenan looks at it, she hands him over the mirror as a gift. But to her dismay, it was Panchali’s face that filled the mirror when Bheeman gazed at it and she resigns to the fate that Bheeman never loved her as much as Panchali.
On returning to the Pandavas, Bhemaan hands over ChayaMukhi to panchali for safekeeping and asks her never to look at it. As days passed, Bheeman became more and more curious to know whether his face would appear if panchali looks at it .So one day he asks panchali to have a look at Chayamukhi and glistened the beautiful picture of the warrior prince Arjun. It shook him no bounds to learn that even while being with him, its Arjun whom Panchali always love and never him.
As with the vanavsam, Pandavas always move him from one place to another and finally they come up in the VIrad kingdom. There Draupathi disguises herself and becomes the first mad to the queen of the Virad .One fine day, the queen sees Draupadi gazing at Chayamukhi. Intrigued by the mirror, she gets the mirror from Draupadi and looks at it. Instead of seeing the wrinkled, old and tired face of the king of Virad in the mirror, there appears the picture of a young man in the army.


Time went by and entered Keechakan .He got fascinated with draupathi the moment he set eyes on her and decided to make her his wife. One day draupadi shows the mirror to keechakan and he sees a blank image on it .Confused, he realizes that he ahs never loved anybody In his life even though he have had many affairs. He realizes the biggest loss in life and changes instantly, he started loving draupadi with all his heart. As his love for draupadi grew ,she got afraid and tells bheemasensan about keechahan and they decided to kill him .Under some false pretext,Draupadi invites keehakan to her room where Bheeman was hiding. Severe fight ensues and meanwhile keechakan gets hold of the mirror and looks at it while getting beaten by Bheeman . The mirror displays the face of Panchali and bheeman gets stunned seeing it . He realizes that there is no difference between him and keechakan . They both are in love with Panchali and are ready to die for her while she is in love with some else . It seems to him that there fight is meaningless because whoever wins or whatever happens ,panchali is never going to love any of them . Nevertheless Bheeman somehow manages to kill Keechakan and finally crying throws the mirror to the ground,

Chayamukhi shatters ……….

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Office Talkies

Now a day’s office is pretty fascinating. Long gone are those days where life was monotonous and everything was like a photocopy of the previous day with only issue s and pressure from the top level changing. But now it aint the same anymore. There is an automatic spring in my steps at the mere though of going to office.
It is no longer dull neither can It be termed boring and every single day has an element of surprise in it .
Last Monday it was the news of secretively kicking out people that hogged the limelight .By Tuesday names and numbers started to float around .Silent lips muttering secret prayers, offers to please the almightiness ,hope ,cynicism all were ripe. By Wednesday, rumors gave way to factual stories and more detailed screenplay .The time, the mode, the reasons, the aftermaths, the angry hues, the emotional tumults, the desperation, the sorry plight of the unlucky all became known to one and all. There were hushed voices all around in the pantries, in the restrooms, at the corridors everywhere and there were sighs all around for not being the numbered few. People were talking and discussing as never before and it seemed as if an invisible bonding has been generated. Developments continued as my watch struck 8:30 am on Thursday morning. Numbers were coming all over the country now and even from other Multi National Giants. No one bothered to check on the amount of fiction on this news; it just passed from one lip to another. By Thursday afternoon, an overwhelming gloom started to spread over the entire floor. Then came the news of resignations, the skirmishes at the HR’s room, security being called to intervene and control the frustrated lots. .It was no longer an environment to work and rather all were trying to gather gossips from here and there.
Everything kind of settled down by Friday evening, engineers went back to their normal monotonous jobs and more work to secure their bread and butter . Came afternoon and so the Facility departments mail. It was clear and crisp,
”NO more uncontrolled local calls from PSTN and VOIP folks .U guys are gonna get a password for it and every call needs will be preceded by afore mentioned password ”
In short, it meant in addition to your movements, your printer usage, your overseas calls, your mail box we are goanna monitor your telephone usage also. I was pretty pumped up on seeing the mail . It opened up our lives, and now we are in a game, guessing what would be blocked next .
Wild ideas started to soar with my PA suggesting that the axe would fall on the communicator(official chat window) next.My peer’s opinion was that they would install doors that would only let you in and out on swiping ,an efficient way of getting the exact number of hours spent within the office .T hen there was this idea on the usage of vending machine limiting just 2 coffees for an employee. I was of the opinion of having a chair that would release you from its grips only after 12 hours of work .

I mean, the point is its no longer boring ,its pretty exciting and innovative .Yesterday I went around saying to my project mates that secret closed circuit cameras and microphones are erected at meeting rooms and cubes and so be aware of what one say . I don’t really know how many people believed it but definitely hushed voices became more prominent after that. Take my word guys ,it is interesting ..
Just waiting for this weekend to get over so that I can continue being intrigued and engrossed by my employers.
It is indeed a funny life.