Author: manuscrypts

  • Next Blog >>

    There have been a few times where i have pressed that particular button on the top right corner..most times curious whether i would find somebody from my list as the next blog.. that would be a good random experience/ coincidence, isnt it?
    these travels take me to blogs of various kinds, many of them in languages i cant understand.. some of them with the regular blogger templates and others in which people have put in a lot of effort on the template and customised it totally… but the majority of those blogs usually have zilch visitors, and mind you, some of them are quite good… and again, many of these have been around for quite some time..i wonder what motivates them to keep on writing..
    frankly, inspite of the ‘i write for myself’ philosophy, i couldnt dream of sustaining the blog if none of you guys commented… i guess its a matter of mindset – expectations from the blog… i think the reason why blogger has that button has some similarity with my reason for blogging..a search for people who think like me, well maybe not like me, but think something that will interest me..
    the reason for this discourse, you ask? a certain aquatic lifeform 🙂 commented sometime back that the ‘right clique’ was growing.. i started off a reply and realised that it was a postable thought.. and in these desperate times, when, like bollywood, good subjects are so hard to come by, such thoughts are precious..hehe..well, the reasons why the clique is changing – adding blogs that interest me, linking back people who are kind enough to link me, deleting blogs which are confirmed to be inactive (i’m sure hek will be back soon 🙂 ), deleting blogs whose content do not appeal anymore (extremely rare cases), deleting blogs whose owners wouldn’t mind me taking them off. in fact, i would go a step further, they wouldn’t know i put them here, so they wouldnt know i took them off either..hehe.
    so thats why the list keeps changing… because though all blogs are special places, those on my list are extra special to me..
    until next time, specialise 😉

  • Darna Mana hai / 2

    the title because it has been inspired by RGV’s ‘Darna mana hai’.. 6 stories, one ending..here we have only 3, but all have the same ending..
    Story 1 : Shot of a young chap grinning from ear to ear as he greets his old friends at a night club…A red car cuts a screeching turn as its driver competes with an old lady for the same parking space. Our hero stops the roughneck, starts a conversation. Looking lost, the driver tries to recognise our hero. Stalling for time, our hero continues with the conversation by complimenting his friend on his biceps. Finally he says, “Hai na Bunty?” But the tough guy turns out to be someone else! By this time… the old lady deftly glides her car into the parking lot much to the chagrin of the roughneck. He goes back to his friends who compliment him. zoom to his face, he says…

    Story 2: An award nite for ads. The winning company’s top exec goes on stage to pick up the award, while the team looks on. Once on stage, he beckons to the team to join him on the stage. teamspirit… and how does boss celebrate, zoom to his face, he says…

    Story 3 : he held on for as long as he could. finally he walked painful steps to the teacher and whispered something to her. sadist that she was, the 2nd standard class teacher looked at her watch, 20 minutes left for close of class. she told him, “only 20 minutes left, wait”he refused to give up, and looked pleadingly at her.
    *a rare moment of understanding*.
    she said “okay , go, but come back soon!”. as he stood in the loo, and felt a wave of relief, zoom to his face, he says…

    The ending
    “number 1, mera number 1”

    ever since i saw McDowell’s surrogate advertising, this one was coming!!
    until next time, hold on to your high spirits.

  • Leaving on a jetplane

    Son: I’ll be leaving soon
    Dad: Where? Why?
    S: I’ve figured out my career plans
    D: thats good news, so i guess you must’ve chosen your college
    S: Yes
    D: you almost scared me, hope you have chosen someplace nearby, so you can come home often
    S: thats what i wanted to speak to you about, i want to go abroad
    D: abroad!! i think i know where… but why? you have the best places to study here.
    S: maybe, but it helps to have a global perspective.
    D: but what about your culture, religion.. you are at an age when you can be easily influenced by their thoughts, customs
    S: that could happen here too, and i guess, it already is..
    D: yes, but there you hardly have any relatives, there’s no one to watch out for you
    S: thats how we learn, dad!! besides what about all those cousins of mine, i thought you were quite proud of them, the way you used to go on with ‘how well that boy is doing now..” besides thats the most happening market now.
    D: its all just a phase, a fantasy waiting to be shattered and what if you end up like one of your illustrious cousins, marrying one of them?! your mom would die of a broken heart!!
    S: Dad, you are just letting your imagination run wild. as for the shattering,they have been saying that for decades now!!
    D: maybe, but i dont think the locals take kindly to us going there and taking away their jobs.
    S: its just survival , dad.. whoever gets it done cheaper!! and look at the scene here, unemployment is rampant!!
    D: but we are improving, nowadays they say that cutting edge tech work gets done here…
    S: no, dad, thats what everyone thinks, but the real action gets done there.. its certainly our guys, but despite whatever we claim, we still only have a miniscule share of the software pie!! and who knows, maybe i’ll come back here and work..
    D: thats what they all say, but they end up settling there… they even have a term for it – brain drain!!
    S: the job is a decision i shall take later, but i have decided, i am going to India!!

    a conversation i hope will happen in the US,a few decades from now!

    until next time, remember that a broad isnt everything!!

  • Losing the marbles

    “You didnt reply to my letter”,said the younger one, A.
    “which one?”, the elder, M, responded.
    A: the one in which i questioned some decisions taken at the sports club’s last meeting on the marbles.
    M: i had asked the club secretary to respond. as president, i dont have time to reply to all the letters that come to me. and if you wanted to tell me something, you could have spoken, instead of sending a letter.
    A: maybe, but a letter from the vice president of the club is not exactly any letter,specially when the subject is the last meeting and the decisions taken then. and more so, if the decision has to do with the marbles, our principal assets.
    M: i was only putting the rights i already had, on paper.
    A: thats arguable.
    M: Dad had always said that the elder son, thats me, would be in control, though the ownership is for both of us. ask ma.
    (Ma: dont involve me. your dad started the club and ran it. i have no idea about its activities.)
    A: which means i’ll have no say in any decision on the marbles.
    M: not so, just that i will be taking the final decison
    A: but many of the marbles are doing well now because of my efforts.
    M: maybe, but they wouldnt be anything now without the entire set. stand alone, their value would crash in a jiffy.
    A: your itch isnt about the sports club at all, is it? its about me standing for the school election and getting elected.
    M: i dont even want to talk about it. you didnt even ask me for an opinion. and if you were so interested in the club activities and playing with marbles, you wouldnt be in school politics. i bet that silly girlfriend of your must be the brain behind it,since she’s into the cultural scene herself.
    A: my intention was only to get more support for the club activities at the school. and ifyou were so interested in my life and activities at the club, you would have ventured an opinion without me asking for it. and i dont think you need to bring my girlfriend into this. in any case, yours was also very much into dance till recently!!
    M: whats the point discussing all this now? what do you want from me?
    A: either more powers as VP of the club or independent control of the marbles whose reputation i built.
    M: the board will have to decide that.
    A: whats the use, since dad’s death, you have been playing around, garnering votes. now, many of the old guys have left, and the rest are your puppets.
    M: thats an unjust accusation.
    A: i think i will have to move in other ways to get whats rightfully mine.
    M: thats your wish.
    The vultures were waiting and this was when they decided to come to the party. As one onlooker put it, after the founding father’s death, it was only a matter of time before the sons lost their marbles, literally!!
    until next time, keep playing games…

  • The calling…

    thats a good band, but this post aint about them, its about us..
    virtual acquaintances- to each other, thats mostly what we are..
    my tryst with yahoo messenger began during my post grad days, i think it was the place where ‘manuscrypts’ as a term originated… all my yahoo friends were people who were known to me ‘really’.. so there was no question of ‘virtual personalities’..it’s only blogging where most of the people i know are ‘virtual personalities’.. to a certain extent, they are only as virtual as their photos online.. but then again,i think i’ve seen only simon’s, pradeep’s and wings’. to be fair, images helped me find a cousin who blogs, but that, i think, was only an aberration…i have never been too fond of blogmeets, simply because i love the anonymity and the’someone, somewhere’ feeling (no, not the ‘made for you’ one, a little more ordinary)..
    more importantly, to maintain a forum where judgements are made only based on thoughts and words, not the physical manifestations… to put it a lil more bluntly acne, dandruff, body odour etc dont matter on the net.. at a similarly superficial level, nor do complexion, looks etc… personalities are what they write…but, increasingly, i find that more friends are being made on blogs than in real life,maybe because, there is no compulsion, i can read someone’s writings, if i like what i read, i’ll be back, else i wont.. simple, and no baggage.. and people take hints much better online..hehe..
    maybe its easier to reach a comfort level this way, without the regular constraints… the next step in evolution, is to find out whether once the comfort level is achieved, can it be scaled upto the real friends level? times have changed, havent they? from building friendships in the real world and facing the challenge of maintaining them online to building friendships online and facing the challenge of maintaining them in the real world?
    someone in the list is coming to bangalore, so here’s calling all creatures of the web, what about a meet over coffee??
    until next time, virtually yours…