Office conversation (pretty close but not verbatim)

C comes to C’s friends’ bay at 9:30 in the morning. They usually have breakfast together at Anna’s Cafeteria. C is really hungry. She has already expressed her hunger. Meanwhile, C’s friend gets interested in her jazzy pink specs.

C’s Friend (holding C’s spectacles in hand and examining them): “Hey, what’s the power in these? Must be between -1 and -2.”

C: “Yeah, -1.25 hain.”

C’s Friend: “Ok. Why don’t you go in for laser vision correction. I had -8 power; I underwent the treatment back in ’97. It’s safe and it’s worth it. The treatment gives you freedom. No more lenses and specs…”

C: “I am OK with specs. Some people have issues maintaining specs and looking good and all. I have no issues.”

C’s Friend: “I underwent the treatment because that time I had been caught by the navy bug. I wanted to become a sailor. I had taken the written exams and physical test at INS Hamla; cleared both rounds and was awaiting medical test dates. So I had to get the correction done prior to the medical test.

My vision correction was a gift from my grandfather. He was a navyman, naa. It was his last everlasting gift for me.

He passed away in ’98.”

By the time I underwent the laser correction, I had to choose between literature and travelling. I had to choose: become a sailor or become a poet… And I chose the latter.”

C (nonchalantly turning to A, who’s been busy at her work all through this conversation): “Hey, chalna breakfast ke liye. Mujhe bahut bhook lagi hain!”

Common dialogues in Malayalam Movies

• Nഅമ്മള്‍ക്ക് ഒന്ന്‍ കുടണ്ടേ!?
  Meaning: “Don’t we need to get-together?”
  The context: Any situation can be an excuse for drinking: Marriage, tragic events, death of somebody close to the protagonist, the female lead leaving the hero for somebody else, etc. Reel life copies real life for sure in Malayalam. Thereafter, begins the great drinking sessions of നാട് ചാരായം or English rum, seeing which may make many of the uninitiated viewers puke!

• Hmm… നിന്നോടെആനു അഗറ്റ് പൂവാന്‍ പരെന്യെദ്ധ.
  Meaning: “It is you whom I told to go inside.”
  Context: Chauvinist husband telling wife to go inside when he is discussing ‘important’ matters with any of the following: Relative(s), Friend(s), Villain(s), നാടുകാര്‍, ഓര്‍ Drinking companions/ ശിങ്ങടിമാര്സ്
  
  90 per cent of the time, the wifey will weep/sob, and obey the husband quietly. If only real copied reel?! Hehehehe!
  Note: But in movies centered on women’s lib or where the wife is portrayed as ‘modern’, she will back answer him! How dare she? In this case, this scene may be followed by arguments and debates. She may even walk out of the house with two lightweight, well packed, clean suitcases!

• സഹായിചിലെങ്ങിലും ഒബുദ്രോഹികെരട്ദ്…
  Meaning: If you cannot/will not help, please do not harass.
  Context: Poor innocent man pleading with മോടലാളി /policeman. Famous example, Mohanlal to Shammi Thilakan in ഛെന്കൊഇല് (sequel to കിരീടം).

• ഏഎ കാല്‍ വേനങ്ങില്‍ ഞാന്‍ പിടിക്യാമ?!
  Meaning: I will fall at your feet, if needed.
  Context: Bride’s father pleading with the groom’s father for failing to fulfill marriage terms and conditions. Or a person pleading with his debtors.

• നിങ്ങള്‍ എല്ലാവരും സുഖം ആയിത് ഇര്രികണം. അധ മദി ഇന്നികെ. ട്രുപ്ടി ആയി.
  Meaning: You all should be happy. That is all I desire. Am contented.
  Context: Elder brother/father/mother telling the insensitive, ‘modern’ outlook city returned/ educated brother/son when the son does not value family values, traditions, togetherness, and other such boring & mundane stuff.

Strangeness in Pune

The other day, in the evening, I saw a PMC bus leaving the Balewadi Stadium bus stand. Between the bus driver and the windshield in front of him, there was a stray dog happily standing… and walking slowly from one end to the other! The driver was happily driving the bus! He looked like he was friendly with the dog!

Go ahead and adopt a stray, seemed to be his message to the world and the nonchalant passengers seated in the bus.

Yesterday morning, it drizzled and then rained in Pune. The cool morning outside, with the smell of wet earth, infiltrated and blended with the warm glow of the lighted brass lamp inside. I felt something unexplainable and out of this world.

I finished reading A Luminous Rebel… a short biography on Osho. Am halfway through Paul Brunton’s A Search in Secret India.

Aur inn sab ke beech main... bomb blast in German Bakery.

100

Just a personal note to all my blog readers: 100 posts up. This post being the 100th (Just noticed the milestone when I published the 99th post).

It took me five years (February 15, 2005: first post) to come up with 100 tidbits and slices from my life. Each post acted as a catalyst; each post put forth new questions and answers; each post killed some part of me; each post gave birth to a new me.

At this moment of my death and birth, I thank all my readers, who followed my posts through all these years: K, G, R, M, L, A, Eroteme, H, A, S, and all the Anonymous ones out there.

This blog would not have grown without you: my readers.

Thanks for all your valuable comments and feedback.
Thanks for your gentle persuasion... egging me to go on even when nothing came through.
Thanks for your patience and support.

Om Namah Shivaya! May He bless me to write more posts.

Dil toh baccha hain ji

Listening to this song for the last two days at my workplace, I have come to realize that not many songs have held this sort of magic for me.

The song from the movie, Ishqiya, is one of the best picturized songs that I have ever seen in Indian cinema. You just need to watch Naseeruddin Shah (just in this song) to know how subtle acting can be... Nostalgia, introspection, honesty: the song interweaves all these elements and more effortlessly.

Gulzar has pulled out yet another rabbit from his hat...
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's voice brings out Khalujaan's hidden pathos and hope alive...
Vishal Bharadwaj's score is perfect.

Vidya Balan, as Krishna, can take the baton, with conviction, from Rekha as the new seductive temptress. The opening scene itself will take your breath away.

If you haven't watched Ishqiya already, then you should. Abhishek Chaubey is a director to watch out for; that is, if Vishal did not ghost direct the movie!. And watch out for this song...

Go, fall in love stupidly. Once more. All over again.

A quantum leap of faith

“You never make any decision in life. Before you decide, the decision is already made. You feel/think you have choices in life when you really don’t.”

Words from the book I just finished: The Human Touch by Michael Frayn.

Free will has really been the most misunderstood concept among laymen, according to maharishis since time immemorial. Quantum physics is talking the same language as theirs:

• Each of us is actually “alone” in time.
• We live in the past. There is no future. You really never know what will happen tomorrow.
• All is one. The seemingly real boundaries of “I” are created by the body/mind complex. You can never point out and say where “I” ends and “Other” begins.
• None of the natural laws exist beyond our mind and thoughts. Things just behave the way they do.
• Time and space do not exist beyond our mind and thoughts. These concepts being purely brought into existence for our convenience and for us to relate to the world. Just like all measurement units.
• Language cannot express many truths. Language and our imagination are limited.
• There are no constants: π, speed of light, etc. All these are subject to change. In other words: relative.
• Physics has reached the realm of “inexpressible” and “unthinkable”. Equations will need to involve variable constants!

I am taking it all in. Standing and wondering at the meeting points between these two seemingly distinct schools of thought: mysticism (for lack of a better word) and Quantum Physics.

And right now, it is fun: Reading, relating, and laughing out loud at fallacies of my mind.