An overwhelming stillness
Trees frozen in motion
Leaves suspended in Mid Flutter
The city clogs up
In sweat, traffic and sloth
The scratchy heckle of crows and vendors
Lack Lustre and belief in their purpose
Sinews postpone action .
Waiting
for a
Monsoon Sky, A Heart Wrenching Smile, the frying splutter in the kitchen.
The honey twisted voice of Norah Jones..., a visit of welcome news.
Little Life Bytes.. A Sound . a murmur, a touch,
Anything
To Break the silence
Of this overwhelming stillness
An unexpected summer day in February
With it's shimmering asphalt road
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Janis Joplyn sang:
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime
So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Every morning as I stand and flail autos, who pass me by with sneering wheels ..i think of this song.
Of course since I can barely move cars from one kerb to the next without causing fatal injury to car, self and co-passengers
I would need a natty peaked cappy sort of Ram Singh along with the Benz..
But how much can you ask the good lord for , at one go ?
All of us want several things. In other words ‘to be alive’ is a sign of ,’ to be wanting.’ And yet if you were asked to make 2 boxes of your heart’s desires and label them into
• Must have- or will be hammering on heaven’s door without it
• Junk- I didn’t want it but everyone told me , it’s a must have
What would you choose?
You may find that most of those little spiders which warp your brains are figments of social conditioning. They are not real, they are just measures of success and achievement which someone else did not get and hence made it a tick mark to attain.
Now to decide, what would fill my Junk Box.
• Must become CEO by 40
o I am surrounded by successful entrepreneurs and I have given this up as a social goal to be achieved by others
• Must own house , car and showpiece spouse by age 30
o I am 33…so there goes ,the age is just a number theory
o I like living in rented houses built by other people, they are so much better located
o I do not need a car , I am concerned about greenhouse gases and I want to contribute to the solution, not the problem( Plus my friends ferry me around without a murmur )
o The depreciation value of a showpiece spouse is much higher than any other asset known to man, Correct or not?
• Must have wunderkid baby, who also wins Junior Horlicks contests.
o All wunder-kids tend to grow up into maladjusted young adults and then abuse you in front of shrinks whose expense account your foot. So this too, let it pass
Now to decide, what would fill my Must Have Box.
• Must be able to laugh uproariously at least once a day
• Must be able to give the bum’s rush to random or consistent pain in the asses
• Must be able to appreciate passionately great writing, conversation, theatre, art, poetry, cinema, music, wine, food. ( This is my tick list)
• Must have honest friends, the kind who can laugh from their gut and don’t feature in the next remake of Scream( as the double-crossing , jealous alter ego you never knew you had).( Scarce resource, limited stock but still available)
And therefore Lord, keep the Mercedes and Ram Singh, but give us the ability to
• Keep It Simple and not miss other people’s dreams
• Be so happy that we look forward to the life we wake up to every morning.
• Discover our special talent (and may it not be body smuggling, drug trafficking, spouse conning )
All right then …nice talking to you today. Amen
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime
So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Every morning as I stand and flail autos, who pass me by with sneering wheels ..i think of this song.
Of course since I can barely move cars from one kerb to the next without causing fatal injury to car, self and co-passengers
I would need a natty peaked cappy sort of Ram Singh along with the Benz..
But how much can you ask the good lord for , at one go ?
All of us want several things. In other words ‘to be alive’ is a sign of ,’ to be wanting.’ And yet if you were asked to make 2 boxes of your heart’s desires and label them into
• Must have- or will be hammering on heaven’s door without it
• Junk- I didn’t want it but everyone told me , it’s a must have
What would you choose?
You may find that most of those little spiders which warp your brains are figments of social conditioning. They are not real, they are just measures of success and achievement which someone else did not get and hence made it a tick mark to attain.
Now to decide, what would fill my Junk Box.
• Must become CEO by 40
o I am surrounded by successful entrepreneurs and I have given this up as a social goal to be achieved by others
• Must own house , car and showpiece spouse by age 30
o I am 33…so there goes ,the age is just a number theory
o I like living in rented houses built by other people, they are so much better located
o I do not need a car , I am concerned about greenhouse gases and I want to contribute to the solution, not the problem( Plus my friends ferry me around without a murmur )
o The depreciation value of a showpiece spouse is much higher than any other asset known to man, Correct or not?
• Must have wunderkid baby, who also wins Junior Horlicks contests.
o All wunder-kids tend to grow up into maladjusted young adults and then abuse you in front of shrinks whose expense account your foot. So this too, let it pass
Now to decide, what would fill my Must Have Box.
• Must be able to laugh uproariously at least once a day
• Must be able to give the bum’s rush to random or consistent pain in the asses
• Must be able to appreciate passionately great writing, conversation, theatre, art, poetry, cinema, music, wine, food. ( This is my tick list)
• Must have honest friends, the kind who can laugh from their gut and don’t feature in the next remake of Scream( as the double-crossing , jealous alter ego you never knew you had).( Scarce resource, limited stock but still available)
And therefore Lord, keep the Mercedes and Ram Singh, but give us the ability to
• Keep It Simple and not miss other people’s dreams
• Be so happy that we look forward to the life we wake up to every morning.
• Discover our special talent (and may it not be body smuggling, drug trafficking, spouse conning )
All right then …nice talking to you today. Amen
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Barbie-Ken syndrome
Rujuta Diwekar, better known as Kareena Kapoor's dietician has recently brought out a book called, ' Don’t loose your mind, loose your weight.'
Before we dismiss or accept this advice, I think the deeper question is, why has the pre-occupation with weight become such a game changer in urban angst?
Affluent and successful business empires are being formed, somewhere the Barbie-Ken stereotype has been established and fat farms, ashtanga yoga instructors, gymns, dieticians, and sports chains are raking in the monies much before the patients are losing it!
The truth behind this phenomenon is simple-
Playing the part, looking the role , is deemed important, sometimes to the exclusion of knowing the job. We have invented a new stereotype, society's latest Playbunny is the, 'Executive'!
A friend of mine who was on the interview panel of an engineering college was taken aback when merit was pushed over for looks. The rationale being , 'Hey if you send a good looking chick on a project, the customer will get some eye candy to feast on, equaling healthier business pipeline and repeat orders from the client.'
Ironically while film is moving toward realistic cinema, real people are becoming fetishes.
It's the same in most professions, finance being a prime example. Several acquaintances who are deliciously endowed but with several corridors of air between their ears, have charmed multi-national banks out of their pants. The logic behind their employment and success in the portals of high finance-
If you are a rich old businessman and have lots of the Gandhis's to invest, you were more likely to hand it over to a pretty lady/or a hunk of beef that just a person..
No MBA College teaches you this, Brealey Myers-The Principles of Corporate Finance, almost the 101 book in any MBA Finance course, does not feature the Barbie-Ken theorem in whole or part, yet somehow senior management from the best institutes across the country employ this theorem most diligently.
But do these financial houses ever think of the ethics of this engagement? Morals aside , a person who can barely count , whose special talent is treadmilling not numbers should not be given the responsibility of mismanaging someone's hard earned or ill gained money.
When the wheels of Roti, Kapda, Makan turn on lycra shod bods...the resultant outcome is pretty simple. If you aren't born pretty ..Get Sculpted, that will do just as well!
Everyone's doing their buttocks and noses, you don’t plan for a holiday, you plan for your next weekend at the fat farm. Someone somewhere has to start .... to STOP.
I support the health regime of eating right and yogiing away, same as the next person.
What i resent is this impassioned race to turn everyone into a stereotype, to not acknowledge intelligence or beauty unless it comes in a commodified package of height, weight and liposuction.
Today the number of your trainer may be part of your cocktail hour conversation, but if we continuously reward and recognize form over content , our children will grow up devoid of substance. It's already happening , look around you and you will find teenagers who are growing up with a belief that any activity which involves using the brain belongs to Dorkville, young adults who suffer from the mall withdrawal syndrome.
Any movement starts with one person. Let this one start from you.
Don’t start a relationship with a bank because a Ken or Barbie promise to service you.
Don’t hire people , because all else being equal they seem to have the potential to demonstrate better boob or butt cleavage.
Don’t give people promotions because all things being equal, they are the only people in your team ,you would like to start a dalliance with. It's a conscious decision..
Give the Rag Doll the same opportunity as the Leo Mattel one.
Give diversity it's due.
Before we dismiss or accept this advice, I think the deeper question is, why has the pre-occupation with weight become such a game changer in urban angst?
Affluent and successful business empires are being formed, somewhere the Barbie-Ken stereotype has been established and fat farms, ashtanga yoga instructors, gymns, dieticians, and sports chains are raking in the monies much before the patients are losing it!
The truth behind this phenomenon is simple-
Playing the part, looking the role , is deemed important, sometimes to the exclusion of knowing the job. We have invented a new stereotype, society's latest Playbunny is the, 'Executive'!
A friend of mine who was on the interview panel of an engineering college was taken aback when merit was pushed over for looks. The rationale being , 'Hey if you send a good looking chick on a project, the customer will get some eye candy to feast on, equaling healthier business pipeline and repeat orders from the client.'
Ironically while film is moving toward realistic cinema, real people are becoming fetishes.
It's the same in most professions, finance being a prime example. Several acquaintances who are deliciously endowed but with several corridors of air between their ears, have charmed multi-national banks out of their pants. The logic behind their employment and success in the portals of high finance-
If you are a rich old businessman and have lots of the Gandhis's to invest, you were more likely to hand it over to a pretty lady/or a hunk of beef that just a person..
No MBA College teaches you this, Brealey Myers-The Principles of Corporate Finance, almost the 101 book in any MBA Finance course, does not feature the Barbie-Ken theorem in whole or part, yet somehow senior management from the best institutes across the country employ this theorem most diligently.
But do these financial houses ever think of the ethics of this engagement? Morals aside , a person who can barely count , whose special talent is treadmilling not numbers should not be given the responsibility of mismanaging someone's hard earned or ill gained money.
When the wheels of Roti, Kapda, Makan turn on lycra shod bods...the resultant outcome is pretty simple. If you aren't born pretty ..Get Sculpted, that will do just as well!
Everyone's doing their buttocks and noses, you don’t plan for a holiday, you plan for your next weekend at the fat farm. Someone somewhere has to start .... to STOP.
I support the health regime of eating right and yogiing away, same as the next person.
What i resent is this impassioned race to turn everyone into a stereotype, to not acknowledge intelligence or beauty unless it comes in a commodified package of height, weight and liposuction.
Today the number of your trainer may be part of your cocktail hour conversation, but if we continuously reward and recognize form over content , our children will grow up devoid of substance. It's already happening , look around you and you will find teenagers who are growing up with a belief that any activity which involves using the brain belongs to Dorkville, young adults who suffer from the mall withdrawal syndrome.
Any movement starts with one person. Let this one start from you.
Don’t start a relationship with a bank because a Ken or Barbie promise to service you.
Don’t hire people , because all else being equal they seem to have the potential to demonstrate better boob or butt cleavage.
Don’t give people promotions because all things being equal, they are the only people in your team ,you would like to start a dalliance with. It's a conscious decision..
Give the Rag Doll the same opportunity as the Leo Mattel one.
Give diversity it's due.
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