Getting away!

My last day in Ropar and then I am off to Chennai...looking at a new world ahead my mind keeps going back to Morrisn's lyrics......

People Are Strange

People are strange, when you're a stranger

Faces look ugly when you're alone

People seem wicked, when you're unwanted

Streets are uneven, when you're down

When you're strange- faces come out of the rain

When you're strange- no one remembers your name

When you're strange, when you're strange, when you're str-ange

Densmore-Krieger-Manzarek-Morrison

annoncing the Judgement Day

This feeling of guilt is scrooning all over me for the past one week. Apparently, I am looking to become a to-reckon-with Journo and all my space ever talks about is anecdotes or poetry. I feel like I am stepping in the shoes of Jug Suraiya (altho, I admire the man for his achivements and sense of humor, I still dont want to go down that lane, this early in my career!).
How much so ever I force myself to talk about the crimes of London yesterday, it is still difficult for me to look at the picture holistically right now. Infact, my perceptions and infuriation has taken control of my unbiased self......And although the conclusion is forgone, that trouble makers will be upheld guilty infront of my conscience, I still would not pass the verdict, till I give both sides a fair hearing.............

" And Levin, a happy father and a man in perfect health, was several times so near suicide that he hid the cord, lest he be tempted to hang himself, and was afraid to go out with his gun, for fear of shooting himself. But Levin did not shoot himself, and did not hang himself; he went on living. "...........................LEO TOLSTOY................

Of Sardars and the 12'o'clock syndrome

I would like to clarify to the world that Sikhism is a religon I truly respect and throughly understand. The instance I'd like to share are not meant to offend anyone and are directed towards the people involved, and not towards the religon or any caste or community in particular. I could easily have been anyone in this situation ( I still wonder who tho?!?)

This is the time when Mom went looking for a comfy sofa for her beautifully built Health and Beauty Clinic. The furniture market in Chandigarh was the obvious choice for sofa hunting and a Sardarji was the first soul they'd bump into, lil wondering whats in store for them......

" Can you show us a sofa suitable to be kept at a reception?," asked Mom.
"Reception??? Well, people will come, wine and dine, dance a lil, enjoy and go. Why in the hell do you want to keep a sofa there????," comes the reply from the turbaned Sikh.

This other time I was travelling to Delhi from Chandigarh by a Haryana Roadways bus ( I ll tell you about them sometime later) when I hear an loud animated conversation between these two harmless gentlemen sitting right behind me and I'd presume you would have guessed by now, they were Sardarji's.

1st: Do you remember this guy from our village, Hansu? He's moved to Canada and is earning loads and loads of money!
2nd: Really??? But where does he keep all of it???

Huh! Goes my expression and as I casually glance upon my watch, its 1200 hrs......and there I go, again wondering about Sardars and the 12'o'clock syndrome......(lol)

Perils of a new life

I was all worked up and excited about moving to Chennai till this happened, but before you read further:
the following sentences are disturbing in nature, readers discretion is advised especially for mothers and women who have a cleanliness disorder!

"Your accommodation (an apartment on a sharing basis of 5 /6 per house if it is a double bedroom house and 8/9 per house if it is a triple bedroom house) has been arranged...."

These are the excerpts of a mail sent to me by the unusually intimidating registrar at ACJ. But thats not the disturbing part, the registrar i.e. The horrifying part is to see 9 wannabe journos sharing the same appartment. I mean can you even imagine the filth they'd be capable of creating! Ok, I ve gotta admit that I am just not comfy with sharing a room with anyone. I have tried it in the past but those ended in miserable disasters. I stayed with Saumya once for a few months last year and it was killing ( not that Aunty being around was of much help either!). I dont know how the appartment is going to be, but I can only take solace in the words of an ex-student, words I had comfortably choose to ignore, while continuing my pestering questions about the place. I quote, "You will never go to the appartment." How I hope today thats true........
I guess I am being introduced to the perils of my new life and the ghosts I had long exorcised will return to haunt me, although this time I have no intentions of being busted. Nevertheless, a rather ordinary day with not much excitement apart from the news channels which are on fire today. A bomb forgotten yesterday exploding in Ayodhya(what the hell were the police doing, anyone with no experience in all this can tell you that the first thing to be done at ground zero is Quarrantine! Guess the police aint watching too many action flicks, eh) . A terrorist attack in Srinagar(....no offences but YAAAAAAAwwwNNN.....). 10 escape Tihar Jail( After Charles Sobraj and the guy who killed Phoolan Devi, I guess the Delhi Police still hasnt learnt a lesson). London gets Olympics 2012 ( Well, thats for once I aint complaining eventhough Paris's my favourite city.......).
Its time for me to go back to the kitchen and cook up some incidents myself...ciao....

War of the worlds

Its a conflict between .....
the extrovert and the pervert.....
the orthodox and the paradox....
the conscious and the presumptious....
the inventor and the creator.....
the chained and the pained.....
the frivolous and the incredlous....
the ability and the disablity......
the time and the rhyme......
the bending and the impending.....
the physical and the philosophical......
the dumb and the numb......
Its a conflict of my worlds.....
between myself and thyself......
the mind is the battleground,
and the soul is that bleeds.....
Its a war between......
the consicous and the odious....
and lest the my dies....
the thy shall never rest.....


The conflict between myself and thyself arises more often than I would desire. And on days like today, puts forth questions I have no answers to.....and in the end, when I give up in despair, I find solace in the words of Robert Graves.....

He is quick, thinking in clear images; I am slow, thinking in broken images.
He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images; I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images.
Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance; Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.
Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact; Questioning their relevance, I question their fact.
When the fact fails him, he questions his senses; when the fact fails me, I approve my senses.
He continues quick and dull in his clear images; I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.
He in a new confusion of his understanding; I in a new understanding of my confusion.

Good Morning World...

I hate Saturdays....not coz I have something against them but its jus the day wen a lotta things dont work out!.....I mean to start with, early morning you get a newspaper which looks like a weekend paper that gets you all worked up and excited but in the ends up as a sneak preview to the Sunday paper ( I swear its such a piss off!).....and then more often than not you have to go to work( can u believe it! work on weekends!) where you anticipate having a blast in the evening, tis Saturday nite after all........by the time the evening dawns your woes are manifold and a disappointment sets in, no plan works out most days and I end up sittin at home havin a lonesome drink, watchin the idiot box and dozzzzzzin off in the end.......

But today's a special Saturday morning, coz all you people who posted the comments on my blog have made it special for me......Its an amazing feeling that hits you as soon as you know that someone cares......I ll never forget this day and neither the people who stood by me all these years....

Thanks Raush....you are an inspiration.....I am serious. I guess I havent told you this but for as long as we have known each other, I have appreciated you for being the person you are. I mean I saw everyone ( and that includes myself....) cribbing about something or the other like learning the guitar or about hitting the gym or wateva....but you always had a drive to chase wateva you wanted.....be that your regular piano lessons or hittin the gym( am i not supp 2 mention that??..).......Its was just so amazing....be the same always.....

Thanks Shanti Aunty, Lotika di and Charu Di and all other lovely people in Kathmandu..... I love you all soooooo much and altho there's been a distance between us in physical terms, you people have always been and would be close to my heart......thanks a tonne.....and hey, Charu Di you aint the lonely journalist in family any longer......we've got a team now to stand up and fight the Business women!.......lol!.........love you all........

Thanks all the Anonymous people who cared...please post u'r name there coz i'd really want to thank you personally..........but neways i'd still love you.......and be there with you all through thick and thin....................

I am coming ACJ!

Its weird where life takes you......it was a dream I fostered all through my life.......and along the years, I thought it would remain a dream forever......and then with a sudden twist of fate, all changed.....I ve got an admission to ACJ for Broadcast Journalism, something I have always wanted to do......so I am off to Chennai for a year.......Its like a dream to be able to chase my dream and god knows I am going to chase it hard........I am prepared for the world.Its the world that needs to worry now, coz when I hit it, it wont be prepared for my blow............

"The lessons of life are not at the end of the journey, but along the course itself...."