Category: Yesterday

  • ..and while on context

    I suddenly realised that long before google came on the scene, we were used to the concept of context… a few days back, i had sent our recent goa photos to an old schoolmate, and instead of sending me a reply, the damn fellow decided to leave a scrap in my orkut account.. and so, i was forced to go to my not-so-favourite site and check it out… and while i was there, i also visited his page and couldnt resist checking out old schoolmates (or as SwB claims, peeking at old crushes, which i vehemently deny..hehe)…
    we are all out of touch, except for the stray e-mail blasts that get launched every once in a while that someone feels particularly nostalgic…and its not just school friends- college friends, colleagues from previous jobs and so on… of course, maybe its just me, but i feel its quite a common thing to lose touch with people who were once an inseparable part of our lives…(perhaps that explains the success of orkut, because it gets one back in touch)..
    and thats when i realised that perhaps, wittingly or unwittingly, we make contextual relationships- school, college, jobs.. and its not just people but sometimes even places and cities… and since these relationships are in context, they end when the context ends… and leaves in its wake, memories, which in times to come, give us those bouts of nostalgia….
    they say, as we grow older, we tend to go back to our roots, perhaps, a few years down the line, we’ll see a generation going back to a prehistoric site called orkut to relive their glorious past 🙂

    until next time, take a trip down memory lane…

  • World Wide Web

    And the lure of the web continues…. worldwide… as the third edition of the friendly neighbourhood super hero’s screen antics released on May 4th… i think i underestimated the fanbase a little bit as i was caught napping while the tickets at PVR and INOX were sold out for the weekend… but thankfully, there was a friendly neighbourhood theatre down Brigade Road, which we had never had to visit in our four year stay in Bangalore… Rex, the non multiplex in the centre of Bangalore…
    And after these last few years of multiplex movies, i had forgotten the non DTS sounds and the non cinemascope views that could be experienced in a theatre.. and so just about managed to salvage the movie from between the sightly silhouettes and massive denim coated butts,crying children and adults exercising their freedom of speech…But all that was okay, for it wasn’t just another movie, it was spiderman…
    and since it was spiderman, it brought back a lot of memories – of sunday evenings spent watching 15 minutes of cartoon on Doordarshan.. of singing along with the title song..of gulping down hated flavours of Rasna just to get the Spiderman masks that came free with it.. of wearing the masks and pretending to be the friendly neighbourhood superhero.. of gazing longingly at the full costume hung inside the classy showroom….
    they say every kid needs a superhero, but it was nice to realise that some adults choose not to grow out of their childhood fancies…. as peter parker says in the end – we are nothing but the choices we make…

    until next time, happy swinging 😉
    P.S: As far as reviews go, lets just say there’s only about 20 minutes of web, the rest is offline 😉

  • Identification Parade

    A few moons ago, Prero had a neat post on the five songs she most identified with, and asked us to make our own. And so i did, (though she says i have to make a new list 🙁 )and these were my top 5, and irrespective of what the lyricists had in mind, this is what they mean to me..
    High Hopes- Pink Floyd My anthem for perhaps two of the most wonderful years.. everything fits – the grass was greener, the nights of wonder, with friends surrounded… the causeway and the endless river..
    Time-Pink Floyd The template of a possible life, and the home town life and the plans could have fitted so well, but perhaps (andthankfully) not.
    Telegraph Road-Dire Straits Life, change, and the effects it has, the lyrics somehow capture very well our actions and their consequences.
    Cats in the Cradle (Ugly Kid Joe) Almost the same as the one above, except that this one gets more personal and human.
    Just before it gets dark – Emmy Lou Harris Perhaps there is a common theme in all the songs – of nostalgia, dreams etc. This one has the added characteristic that it was also featured in one of my favourite shows-Taken.

    And so, that was the identification parade. My favourite songs, these and other, also have a lot to do about the time i first heard them, be it during my school, engg college, post grad, first job…and so on. Somehow, they also get associated to my life and times at that point in time, and so every time i hear these songs, its not just the music that gets me, its also those bittersweet bouts of nostalgia..

    until next time, maybe life is just a song 🙂

  • Walk of Life

    What perhaps distinguishes our species from others is the straight backed walk we have… the only things that come close are the other primates.. even from a human growth point of view, parents are always waiting for the baby to stop ‘toddling’ and walk…
    In today’s cubicle to couch existence, there is very little walking we do.. no, moving between cubicles or climbing stairs is not the kind of walk i am talking of… a couple of kilometres of walk was more the kind i had in mind…i have always liked walking, but usually never find the time.. yup, my natural laziness does its bit too :).. and so when i do get the chance, and find that i had a lil time to spare, i go ahead.. and walk..
    almost a year back, when we shifted house, i had a chance… its amazing how you can ride along the same roads for 3 years, and still notice things only when you walk… the little bylanes, small shops, and most importantly people.. almost at the end of the walk, i saw the flyover… another symbol of bangalore’s development and human progress in general… it had a sign that said a lot about our existence – no walking on the flyover..
    last week, when i went to kerala, i wanted to take another walk, in time and by foot, through the roads of the city i grew up in… i could do it only in part, and therefore didnt get to see how much it had changed… maybe its good in a way, i wouldnt have wanted to see how much i had changed..
    until next time, keep walking

  • World of Sports

    Doordarshan, Sunday, 4 pm.. remember? In the days of only ‘Distant Viewing’, this was what i used to wait for on Sunday evenings.. before the days of live transmissions, this was your portal to get glimpses of international matches.. i used to curse them when they chose amatuer wrestling, billiards, chess and inane stuff i never knew could be classified as sport, and the entire show went without cricket, the only game i had an interest in..
    Times have changed, and tennis, Formula 1 have been added to the interests, and therefore last week is an eventful one to me… early in the week, my favourite Las Vegas gamble in any tennis tournament, the one i used to bet on in any match, despite whatever odds- Andre Agassi, played his last match.. he lost the game, set and match, but in a larger picture, there would be few who could match him.. i was a fan from when he said Sampras looked like something “that swung off a tree” to the time when he said “Sampras, Sampras, Sampras, Sampras, Sampras” when asked who were the five greatest players the game had seen.. Of course i hated him a for a few days when he married Graf, but then that was only a few days…in the sport that starts with ‘love all’, he ended it, loved by all..
    Monza witnessed a great race last weekend, Schumacher is now a couple of points from Alonso,and there are still 3 races left.. But that was not the only reason why Monza was eagerly awaited for, this was the place where Schumacher would make an announcement about his future.. and announce he did, his retirement. Another favourite, on a different track.. In a sport that starts when the 5 lights go off, and ends when the chequered flag is waved, he had a career chequered with controversy, but more brightly lit than any other..
    They leave behind empty spaces in an ordinary fan’s mind, empty spaces that cant be filled again,because in a different corner of the world, he grew up with them, cried when they won and cried when they lost.. Matches and races created memories that were special, memories that reminded him of how it was when they were the icons, they were the supermen.. they were the ones who he thought would last forever..
    and so, their departure also tells him that times have changed, and a new generation is busy creating its own heroes.. its a new age, one that also has virtual XBox heroes along with real ones, its an age thats isnt so easy to belong to, when he is used to a different league of heroes..and so, like with every other thing, he relies on memories, bittersweet memories… he closes his eyes, sees the stadium, hears the frenzy and remembers the days that used to be, and the times that used to be….and applauds an era that has just made a final bow..
    until next time, game over