Category: Life Ordinary

  • For what i came…..

    I finished reading a book recently, ‘vertigo’ by ashok banker… set in mumbai a little over a decade back, it explores the existence of a guy in the initial stages of his career, battling career debacles, an alcoholic mother and a stormy love life… no, i am not good at reviews, coz i rarely read objectively, which i think, is absolutely necessary to write a good review, but the book is definitely worth a read…
    there was a quote in it, which appealed a lot to me, and which, if delved into, could give a lot of clarity to our existence… ‘What i do is me, for that i came’…. we are what we do in life, from a personal as well as professional point of view.. to debate it further, in a perfect existence, our actions are such that there is hardly a difference between work and personal life…we enjoy doing it so much that it is no longer ‘work’, at least not in the way we treat it now.. imagine someone paying you for listening to music, reading, blogging, sleeping…yup, a very utopian kind of existence, but it sure would be wonderful, but i guess like all utopian theories, this one fails too, because i dont think there would be too many people who would enjoy cleaning public infrastructure, or pizza delivery, for that matter.. which i guess is why things are the way it is right now…
    but its a good thought nevertheless, each of us doing exactly what we love to do, and therefore feeling that we have made a difference by our existence.. the first key being finding out exactly what it is that we would love to do.. and since that doesnt throw up too many practical answers (in the current scheme of things, that is) i suggest we get back to what we regularly do…
    until next time, a post is what you came for, right? 😉

  • Fwd: 55

    1. The police had only a couple of clues on the serial killings, the message on the bodies – “the murder number and ‘of LV’” , and the victim was a criminal. They tried the known criminals’ database for the initials ‘LV’, with no luck. They had no hopes of catching the killer, but how many would die?

    2. He sat at the window, happily gazing at the vast metro. A killer out there was decimating his competition. And he knew he wouldn’t die, because he had worked out the clue. And the news said murder #55 had just been committed. So when the guy barged in and shot him dead, he was surprised.
    3. He waited outside the door. He had hoped to stop after the last one, but RGV insisted that the title was registered, he would have to do one more before they made the movie based on the encounter specialist. He barged in and shot the criminal point blank. This time,there was no clue.
    until next time, i got it from here, try it out…

  • Onam

    Oh yes, very much God’s own festival… and yes, He had a major role to play in it.. Legend has it that the demon king Mahabali, who ruled over Kerala, was so good, that Indra, the king of Gods, felt a tinge of professional jealousy, a God size tinge… so he politely took an appointment with Vishnu, who had, by that time, made it a habit of rescuing Indra from all the shit he was constantly falling into.. Indra convinced Vishnu that the yajna that mahabali was conducting now was only a smokescreen, and it was part of the long term strategy to overthrow Indra…

    And so Vishnu, who knew all about the matrix, morphed himself into a brahmin lad, went to Mahabali, and asked him for three measures of land, and the measure would be His foot.. Now Mahabali, was famed for his generosity, which was king sized, and immediately agreed, inspite of advice from his spiritual guru… What he needed was a lawyer, for, like most other cases, it was the fine print that caused his downfall.. for Vishnu, just bloated himself and in his first measure took up heaven, and in the second , earth and the other planets.. i guess, by now, mahabali would have totally lost his composure, and, in response to vishnu’s query on where he should keep his third footstep, would have said ‘mere sar pe’.. vishnu, wily God that he was, did just that, and pushed Mahabali into the netherworld…

    Vishnu might have felt some pity, for he gave Mahabali permission to visit Kerala, once a year to see his subjects.. and the day he comes back, we Keralites celebrate Onam and sing our own versions of ‘Those were the days, my friend….’

    Of course, times have changed now, the Congress is ruling,and they are worse than in the times of Indra, Onam is celebrated more in UAE, America, Europe, Bangalore and other assorted places where Keralites reside in more than 3 numbers, but in spite of all that, its still Onam, and i still get a smile on my lips, even if its in memory of the good old times – yours, Mahabali, and mine too….

    until next time, happy Onam to all of you…

  • Granted…

    Wish.. we all do.. for different things – more money, a better life, that prized job, with which we think our life would become a little better than what it is now, momentarily or for a lifetime… and like always, we forget what has been granted to us without asking, and what we have taken for granted…
    a loving set of parents, a good education,food when we are hungry, shelter when we need it, a lifestyle that is comfortable, money to take care of our needs, all senses intact, a couple of arms and a couple of legs, enough of thinking ability to enjoy a good book, a taste for good music and good food..
    and while taking this for granted we also assume a lot of things – from the newspaper and milk being delivered in the morning to our surviving the day… that we will not fall sick, that the vehicle will not conk, that nothing will rock our personal or professional boat, that a natural disaster will not befall our peaceful existence, that we have all this because we deserve to…..
    and also in between there are some moments when we take a look out of our coccooned world, and see others’ version of reality, a life where survival itself is the biggest victory, and then we wonder… at least for sometime..
    until next time, what if you could grant wishes…..

  • Tech Republic

    Upfront, let me admit that an intense subconscious jealousy might be the reason for the contents of this post, but thats a big ‘might’. and before i start off, let me assure you that i have nothing against the people i write about, only sympathy at the way they are being used.. and it may not be a situation which applies to everyone in the industry… disclaimer over, post start…
    A few days back, i read an article that a reputed software company is going to start a beauty salon, on its campus.. the reason being that since the employees start work early and end late,they may not have time to get a haircut or facial, and so the oh-so-concerned employer is taking care of it… sometime earlier, i had also read about how creches were the latest HR craze in the silicon towers..reason being that employees shouldnt be bothered about finding a safe parking place for their toddlers… i assume the forthcoming attractions would be a work station which will double up as a dorm at night, with facilities for brushing/shaving etc, entertainment facilities for the last generation of visiting parents, express mating services coz baby, who has the time for love and romance, mini sperm banks and artificial insemination procedures, so that the correct genetic ingredients can be used to make a perfect tech kid who might be able to start programming after uttering the cursory ‘papa’ and ‘mama’ utterances, and its formal introduction to them, and yes, before i really lose it, please, a toilet seat instead of the regular seat….
    Welcome to the tech republic, founded on the toil of a million professionals who bravely walk that thin line between their retina and their monitor, and their fingers and the keyboard… who are led to believe that their work is making a difference to millions of users whose life has been made easier because of the billion applications/programs that are being churned out… who are worth so much, thanks to their ESOPs, that it would make every other kind of professional hide his face in shame, but who wouldnt have the time to enjoy it.. whose life, for me, is still an enigmatic code… er, before we got diverted, wasnt the whole process about improving lives? i guess,like every republic has its own set of martyrs, so too does the tech republic…
    until next time < / post >