Colour Assault

I'm at times appalled by people's dressing sense. I happened to be with an extremely colorful man in the elevator this morning. He was wearing, orange (closely) striped shirt, I think the background colour of the shirt was yellow, as I could see some yellow between the stripes, maroon tie with some sparse dot like design in yellow and navy blue trousers. I didn't get a chance to see his shoes. By the time I came to terms with this colour assault he got out of the elevator.

Please have mercy folks....

The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County – my all time favourite. I had wanted to watch the movie for a long time and got a chance to watch it over the weekend. Clint Eastwood and Merryl Streep were at their best, no doubt, the photography was brilliant, and everything about the movie was as beautiful as it should be.

But, after watching the movie I felt, rather, couldn’t help feeling, that something was lacking, the movie was not as profound as the book. I tried my best to stop thinking about it and even read the bits and pieces of the book again. But sadly, I continue to feel that the intensity of the written word was not adequately transposed.

“In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once ………” R J Waller

Trivial Trivia

I don't tune in to the radio often these days, today I realized why. After a pleasant experience on 14th (V Day), I turned on the radio hopefully this morning. Gosh!! It was so very irritating, screechy voices of RJs and sleepy or sometimes highly excited voices of callers. I am surprised how people even think of calling a radio station at 8 in the morning. Most of them are on the roads wading through the traffic. This is a kind of a vicious cycle, radio stations have such programs in the morning to keep people on the road entertained (supposedly) and beat out the frustration of traffi- jams. On the other hand they have become a major source of distraction and contribute to the traffic-jams since drivers are not focused. How do people find it exciting to engage in frivolous conversation early in the morning? Even worse, how do RJs do it day in and day out, with unfailing enthusiasm? One has to sincerely appreciate the brain behind these programs, their consistency and perseverance in churning out crazy contests with weird questions. Not to leave alone our "junta" for devouring it with as much enthusiasm- gross insult to the human intelligence. I wonder if the average human intelligence is really so poor or is it a fact that people like to engage in meaningless chatter as a means to escape from reality, or is it because they like to get things free. I would restrain from commenting on the human intelligence and people's mentality. But I know for sure there is no free lunch and hence, if the question asked on the radio is sensible(remote), one pays for it with his knowledge, if the question is stupid, he pays for it by further display of his stupidity, both ways its paid for.

The media have a certain amount of social responsibility as everybody knows.They sure do air some informative programs, but they don't do it during prime time. They don't air such programs in the morning when people are rushing to work and too busy to concentrate. So they come up with silly programs and contests, which do not require mental effort. But sadly due to the constant regularity of such programs and monotony of everyday life, people have forgotten the use their mental capabilities.

Anyways both sides are to be blamed for the current state of affairs, hope one of them will "wake up" before it's too late.

"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. "Bertrand Russell

Positivism

My mind is all muddled up today. What I thought would be a pleasant drive this morning turned out to be a nightmare. Rather than dwelling on the negatives, I will list out now, the positive aspects of day:
1. Liked the new blouse I wore today
2. Pleasant weather when I left home this morning
3. Fairly good songs on the radio - Valentine's Day special
4. Interesting mails and messages from friends
5. Restrained from eating junk food
6. Not much of nagging from the boss (he was not well)
7. Liked the “baingan” curry I made for dinner
8. Had to search for some papers at home, found them without much hassle
9. Early evening it seemed as though I would not be able to finish all my chores, but managed to finish most of it reasonably well

And finally thanks to my friend and her prodding throughout the day I have at last updated my blog. A technical error or so she claims, sent her mail asking me when I intend to update my blog 4 times in 4 hours.

Just before I left work this evening, she told me something I found extremely interesting, and which I think is largely true – with all due respect to my male friends. She heard one of her male colleagues saying that, the first thing that comes to a man’s mind when he meets a woman, is whether the woman will fall for him – his charms, and what are the chances that he will have a “good time” with the woman, meaning I guess, a casual affair. She was absolutely furious when she called me and said “I wonder if these guys have mirrors at home, and if they do, may be they don’t look at themselves often.”

Since I’m still in a positive mood, I hope there are (enough) exceptions to this norm as well.

Being a Woman - II

Woman is the future of man. That means that the world which was once formed in man's image will now be transformed to the image of woman. The more technical and mechanical, cold and metallic it becomes, the more it will need the kind of warmth that only the woman can give it. If we want to save the world, we must adapt to the woman, let ourselves be led by the woman, let ourselves be penetrated by the Ewigweiblich, the eternally feminine! -- Milan Kundera


Nothing to beat Kundera!!

Being a Woman

I met an interesting girl yesterday, a maid in one of the neighbouringapartments. She is from a remote village down south and speaks my language. I saw her speaking to my neighbour in Hindi. Although it's not very surprising these days to see South Indians speak Hindi, this girl intrigued me. Considering the anti Hindi protests in the South of India few years back, I was wondering how a girl from a small village down south managed to pick up Hindi. From one of her former employers I presumed, though I did not ask her. It takes a lot of courage and determination to come all the way to the Middle East and work as a maid, where the daily newspapers are filled with horrors of maid abusing. This girl, Vasanthi, has surely come a long way and I was overwhelmed by her strength. I am sure she supports her family back home and hopes to get married and settle down some day, like any other girl in her village.

Meeting Vasanthi made me think... From being a cute little girl, to a boisterous teenager and then to a responsible adult, a woman constantly evolves, physically and mentally. Adorns various roles in different phases of life, and plays her roles to the best of her abilities, given the constraints in terms of social and familial backgrounds. What hurts most is that they don't get credit for what they are and what they do and sometimes even highly criticized.

I wish to record here my appreciation for all the woman in my life, starting from my Mother to Vasanthi - whom I met for a few minutes, for what they are -personification of strength and affection, two extreme qualities, in perfect combination, resulting in a woman of substance.

Celebrate Life

How does one maintain optimism, positivism, objectivity and more than anything else sanity - in a mad house?

Is life really that bad? The honest answer would be, NO, not at all. I have absolutely no right to make a statement like the one above. Just that sometimes I feel that way.

Life is beautiful and magical.

Hope

I was feeling extremely positive when I was driving to work this morning. I told myself never ever would I tell or feel again that I’m unlucky. I said to myself that by thinking or feeling that way I let the luckless-ness seep into my life. I had decided then to write about it and capture the feeling permanently.

Now it’s late in the night, I wouldn’t say I don’t feel the same way as I felt this morning, but something is amiss. The feeling is not strong enough. However I know I’m lucky and need to be thankful for a lot of things in life, so what if a few things don’t work in my favour?

Tomorrow is a another day and there’s always HOPE!!

Lost in Translation

I think it was a dream,
it should be.
Somewhere in the world of words
we met,
clearing the webs we braved ahead,
oblivious to the intricacies of the maze,
aiming to liberate ourselves,
we surged ahead.
Engrossed in illusive thoughts,
mersmerised by written words,
we are now,
in the middle of no where,
bound more than ever.

Lost in translation.