Wordpress beckons

I am finally moving to wordpress. I never did like the name of this blog and wanted to change it for a while. I kind of started experimenting with wordpress and finally have decided to make the change today.

So please update bookmarks and RSS feeds to http://onelife2live.wordpress.com

....dont know how long all of this will last. It is possible that I may just get bored and say 'enough of it all'.

Justice??

Did the gods who created this beautiful world also create mankind and his disasters?

Did the gods who created innocence and children also create Nithari and Child Labour?

Did the gods who created Love, Chemistry and Magic also create Jealousy, Sadness and Heartbreaks?

Did the gods who created Motherhood also create the need for a 'Women's day'?

What kind of poetic justice is this?

Character of a City

What makes a person like a city or dislike one? Many a time I have used in my conversations with people, the term 'character' for a city. This thought comes from listening to the 'Dilli' song from 'Delhi Heights'. It is a pretty cool song and I thought it was a nice collage of Delhi.

Anyway, going on to the character thing. In every discussion, there have been enough defenders for each of the large cities.. the Delhi ones swear by Delhi...of course, the Mumbai-kar loyalists are the loudest and definitely Chennai has its bunch of lovers......a friend from Chandigarh claims nothing like her city...

But the thing about Bangalore...its a strange one...folks staying in other cities view Bangalore as this cool and fun place to be, which it is...but the number of detractors today that Bangalore has inside amazes me (for whatever reason) . Today most of the folks from Delhi or Chennai staying here dont like Bangalore.....given a chance, they would quickly shift out...

To me, its not so much about the traffic and infrastructure etc...its more about what can you associate with the city, what I call the character. Character is the essence or ethos of the city that needs to be felt. For me, when I travel or visit any city, if I can get a sense of that, then I consider my visit satisfying.

At some point, people have stopped making an effort to like Bangalore or understand the possible character of the city. When I started living here in Bangalore, it still had the 'small-town' nature, very laid back and it was just a clean beautiful city. Now I think Bangalore is in a confused awkward adolescence stage. Shes no longer a small kid nor is she an adult yet equipped to handle the growing up...yet the city is still an all-inclusive city which has accepted all into her folds (despite the politicians)

Like any city, there are the problems. But it's not all bad...
Well, maybe a Rabbi song for Bangalore is what is needed to prod folks into making an attempt to like the city ...

What's with stereotypes?

What is with stereotypes? For all the loud claims of our nation being such a diverse melting pot of cultures, I think we also probably have the largest number of stereotypes. Of course, there is absolutely no scientific thought to this claim…
But over time, we have built such strong stereotypes…

Of course the most I have encountered are about the Madrasis and the Sardars. While it is a guaranteed laugh for many a party, I actually there are quite a few people who do believe the stereotypes. The fact that a CNN-IBN can run a poll on North Indians and South Indians and perpetuate the stereotypes is probably a proof point. It’s almost a sort of urban legend….people have heard the same stories so many times in different contexts that it becomes a reality…

So therefore Delhi-ites are all showy….the Madrasis (of course that’s half the country) are the ones who don’t know to enjoy life…they just love their curd rice….etc etc…

Well, this post was a result of Ideasmith’s post on ‘Men from the Metros’. So women, pick your city and you know how the men are….Somebody create a guide for the women!! :)

At the least, it’s a great read!!

Moments

The moment has passed..
And the world is new..
Did not know that
New roads appear everyday

But then the question stays..
Do I wake up now?
Or wait for the demons to sleep?
Or will that never be?

I long for the moments of familiarity
But now I know that day is gone
So wake up to a new moment..
For the new demons and angels await

Wake up, oh child in you…
For the world is too beautiful
To not see it through
The eyes of the child….

~ Me

Ode to the Wind

Bring with you the dawn,
Take away with you the night,
The night that has been too long,
Give me a brand new day

A day of sunshine,
A day that makes me want to fly
Set me free as you are
Make this day worth my while

If you did bring something,
Bring me the whiff of joy and love,
Hold my hand today,
For the way seems all unfamiliar

Bring me the wisdom
Bring me the good tidings,
Set me free as you are
Make this day worth my while

~ Me

Before Sunrise: The space between

Time and again why this is such a beautiful movie....

I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.

Where are the Happies?

Is it me or is the world so sad in general? Every blog that I seem to read has melancholy, sadness, nostalgia, disappointment and wistful thinking all over it....if not that, it is just intellectual ignorance written in the best possible English....
Where is all the happiness or is it that the happy people are all enjoying too much to sit in front of a computer and pen their thoughts...hmm...point to ponder....

The Angels

The bard says “all the worlds a stage”
But pray tell me,
What act plays out here now?
What part do I fulfill?

He says, have patience
There is a reason for every act
Trust the director
And play the part

Friend, foe, angel……
I know not…
Trust the moment …
This too indeed shall pass….

Thank the angels
For they are here for you….
You may not know them….
But know that they are there for you…

~ Me

Where are the dots....

...Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life....

- Steve Jobs @ Stanford

I wonder how my dots will look a few years from now... :)

This speech is probably one of the oft forwarded email forwards...but for the inspiring words that it has...his delivery of the speech was quite a let-down. I happened to see that on youtube.

We see so much of this kind of writing all around the place...but somewhere the majority of folks(including me) still plough on with their mundane existence awakening ourselves to the 'practicality' of life and just holding on to the dream till they get so bogged in surviving each day that they cannot stop to think of their dreams....

Damn the rational mind!!!

Give me a show....

I want to become really famous. Does anyone know of a reality show that I can take part? Preferably someone where you can add a few racial slurs...oh..i can vow to give gaali..i dont mind it at all...

Its just crazy how the world is going gaga over a stupid TV show. Its amazing how hypocritical Indians are....we have probably one of the most complex societies that has a lot of foundations on casteist and completely racist lines. We are a society where we still fight against discrimination by gender...female infanticide...we have still dalits being persecuted...we have state-sponsored religious cleansing...

Yet we take the righteous route as if we were the symbol of equality...

Its turning out to be the biggest comedy event that I have seen in recent times. External Affairs Ministry making public statements and Tony Blair condemning the racial slur in the British parliament...
What is wrong with this world????

oh...by the way, I wonder how many of these righteous people actually saw the slur...Until yesterday, Shilpa Shetty was becoming a largely forgotten actress with no special talents to really speak of...now she represents an entire nation...
Seriously, something wrong with the world....

Maybe we should request Shilpa Shetty to become the PM of UK...its time we took on the imperialists.... :-)

Another part of me....

I was thinking about multiple personalities and split personalities and how it impacts people. Is there a split personality in all of us which we may limit to certain settings and forums?

I think blogging in many cases could be a manifestation of this 'other side' of the person. I could be a very extroverted kind of person but my blog could be a reflection of the introverted side of me or vice versa. The side that I would want to keep away from the 'social image' that I carry amongst people.

In some ways, a lot of my blog posts have been in some sense, 'melancholic' which may not be the image I usually carry... (of course I could be completely wrong in how people perceive me..the Johari window, they say)

Maybe different people have different ways of harnessing and managing the other side of them. Is that why we hear about people who could be introverted in a social offline setting but are really the 'dude' when they take on an avatar online.... (Rediff Bol's shady TV commercial comes to mind...)

While I was discussing this with a friend about how a blog could reflect the anti-thesis of what you are normally....she brought the idea of this being like a personal diary....possibly...but a blog is in some ways a little different too...you still do want a few people to read and understand what's going on in your mind and respect you for that...whatever said and done, it does sometimes help build perspective within yourself...

We are the Game...

This post is totally disoriented and will probably have no semblance of sanity but then it is a Friday.

What if all of life was one massive computer game with its multiple storylines and plots. Then, for every decision there would be at least 2 paths. There would be a parallel universe where the same characters exist but with a different story and plot. Of course that has to be true given that we are all part of the 'Matrix'. No program exists without an alternative subroutine.

In some philosophical way, this is probably true. At every point in time, we are always confronted with decisions which may or may not have a deep impact on how your life's paths turn. There is always a Sliding Door in front of you. What you do going forward is just a function of whether you took the door or not.

I have no idea or recollection why I started thinking of this. The only thing that came to my mind was 'deja vu'. In this computer game of life, maybe deja vu would be the cheat code which would allow you to make the decision of whether to take the door or not....some sort of a time travel thing so you know what the door leads to...

Too many things in my head, I guess...I am not making sense to myself...
Let it just be known that 'We are the Game'.....and next time, do take the door...

Jagjit Singh - Na Mohabbat Na Dosti

ना मोहब्बत ना दोस्ती केलिये
वकत्त रुक्ता नही किसी केलिये

दिल को अप्ना सज़ा न दे युऩ ही
इस ज़माने की बेरुखी केलिये

कल़ जवानी का क्या हशर क्या होगा
सोच ले आज दो घडी केलिये

हर कोइ प्यार डुण्ड्ता है यहा
अप्नी तन्हा सी ज़िन्दगी केलिये

वकत्त के साथ साथ चल्ता रहे
यही बहत्तर है आदमी केलिये

ना मोहब्बत ना दोस्ती केलिये
वकत्त रुक्ता नही किसी केलिये


- Jagjit Singh

(Its difficult to type it right in Hindi. So for any purists,take a hike!)
Update:I also realized that depending on what Unicode font is installed, the font may show some mistakes....

No..not a retrospect on 2006

IBNLive Sagarika Ghose's Blog calls it a new baby....Count on her to hyperbole it by a notch. While it is indeed good to see a lot of citizen activism, I think this lady takes too much credit for doing it. I think we did have some good things going on the last year. The most important of them, to me, would be the Right To Information act being actually used by quite a few folks....a lot of factors, not just CNN-IBN... (but to their credit, they have managed to create a mark in their short lifespan....)

While this all augurs well and it is great to be all happy and gay, I just hope the Indian media does not become the trash that American media has become...(and I am afraid that's where we are heading).

As I have observed in many of my previous posts, we are all happy about all the good things happening and are generally optimistic....and I know it is inevitable but it would be sad to see us all aping the American way of doing things and 50-60 years down the line, the next generation starts thinking about the 'good old days'.....

On a completely different note, her imagery of a new baby brings to my mind Rushdie's 'Midnight Children'. The first time, it happened when India was being born....Now are we looking at the next generation of Midnight Children? I have no idea when they were born or whether they are yet to arrive....but definitely something significant is happening around us......and it is indeed a fortunate yet challenging time for us to be in India when this transformation is happening around us....