The Little Joys of Life

I love watching kids sleep. When adults sleep they snore, they talk, they grumble, they rumble, they growl, they scowl. But kids will sleep quietly and innocently. It's not sleeping so much as recharging their batteries for an assault of mischief and naughtiness. I love it.

The Simple Act

There is a mall about 3 kilometers from my house. It's a fairly big run-of-the-mill mall with the usual stores and a multiplex. It also has basement parking facility that I happen to use regularly. When you exit the mall, you come onto a four-lane two-way road with an island dividing the two. The railway station is to the left and and the residential areas are to the right. Naturally, most of the cars that get out of the mall need to turn right but there is no gap in the island to turn right. To head right, you take the left and there is a U-turn approximately 20 meters down the road from where you can head home. However, since this is a lightly used road most cars right and go the wrong way for about 70 meters before turning onto the correct side of the road. It is a simple act and I'm sure most Indians would call me a fool for relating this to the mess that is our politics, governance and daily life. And yet.

A Man Who Sold His Country..

In India there is a man who sold his country. He took money from those that want to destroy this country so that he could be rich. In return he simply had to ensure that India would lose. And now the ruling party want him to run for parliament. Somebody please let me out.

The Problem with Relationships

There is a problem with being involved in a close relationship. It's not the fear or loss, of rejection, of being someone you're not. It's the fear of being yourself. I speak only for myself of course.

Measure of Success

It was a beautiful spring morning in Atlanta. After a couple of hours of work I walked out for a smoke or as we ironically called it, "Fresh Air". The skies were a beautiful blue with scattered clouds strewn across. The air was cool, pleasant and still fragrant with the smells of a spring morning. To summarize, it was an exceptionally beautiful day and I wondered why it was that I had to trudge back to a desk and 2 monitors rather than go for a walk around the Lake which was only a few minutes drive away. That's when I decided, when I can choose what to do and when to do without fear of the consequences, I will be successful.

It's 2:11 am on the 28th of February 2009

I've started writing this piece without knowing what to write about. All I know is I feel like writing. I have to be up in approximately four hours but the bent body and the tired mind don't equate to good sleep. I want to listen to a Bhimsen Joshi CD, there's something powerful in his voice like Enrico Caruso and Pavarotti. Sadly, all I can hear now are the stray dogs that act like they own the night. My neighbours feed strays like it guarantees them a flowery path to heaven. The strays though, unaware of the possibly divine consequences, are definitely very canine and of the very territorial variety. They guard their territories by barking the sanity out of my mind. Someday I shall make them listen to an entire day of proceedings of the Indian parliament. It's only fair.

It's the middle of the night, life is dark and so is the sky. It's the time when I should be snoring and dreaming. But the gentle taps on the keyboard do enough to remind me that I'm awake and this is not a dream. I wonder what my dreams are. I would often tell my father that I don't have a dream for my future. What I meant was that I had so many dreams that I did not know what to do. Now that I'm a few years older I still feel the same. I want to be many things. I don't like attention so the motivation for me is purely internal satisfaction. When I'm in a relationship, I try to impress my girlfriend, I want her to feel proud of me, I want her to give me some amount of attention. But since I'm single with no girlfriend in sight or sound now the only things that matter are things that make me feel happy or satisfied. I don't know why the world believes that selfishness is a bad attribute. I'm selfish, I think about what makes me happy and so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else I see no problem with my attitude. I should be left alone and when I die the next instant or minute or decade from now I will leave no trace of my existence. The world belongs to those who are yet to come, not those who have already gone away.

It's silent now. My not-so-dear conservative canine friends are probably re-charging their batteries for another round of heated political arguments over the benefits of democracy vs. plutocracy with their crazy liberal counterparts down the lane. I'm always in support of such healthy debate, I just wish it weren't carried out within barking distance of my window. With the curtains pulled and no lights on, the glow on the laptop makes it appear to be floating on air. I remember buying this laptop for my father. It was a matter of great pride for me. I also remember how proud my father was when I bought this for him. There are some what-if's and some if-only's in life that are really painful. What-if I had done this for him and if-only I had some more time etc. The truth is you've got to take what you already have and appreciate it. The past is that and only that, the past. Therefore you move forward, whether you've learnt your lessons or not. As Douglas Adams once wrote "You live and learn. At any rate, you live".

How I'd Like To Spend Sunday Mornings...

I like to wake up early on weekends. I feel that wasting any part of a weekend is a terrible idea so I'd love to wake up really early, around 4 am. This is also the time of the day when we breathe through both nostrils so maybe I'm taking in more oxygen. (See (g) ) I love taking a long walk. The roads are silent, the lights are off in most houses and the dogs are too bored to make a sound. A long walk at 4 am on a winter morning can put me in a trance.

I love to follow this up with a nice and heavy breakfast of scrambled, eggs, sausages, baked beans on toast and some nice strong coffee with milk (not burnt a la Starbucks). The breakfast experience is further enhanced by a bunch of Sunday Editions of the leading dailies. Ideally, I'd have breakfast by a balcony facing the sea. A cool breeze blowing accompanied by the relaxing repetitive laughter of the waves.

The only correct way to enhance the end the morning is to listen to Guru Dutt and Hemant Kumar songs on a good audiophile stereo.

There are few better ways to enjoy life.

Windows

The windows have grills, the door has 3 latches. There's a safety door with a latch and a lock. The gate is locked.

All this to keep thieves away. Yet I feel like I'm the one in jail.

No wonder those houses in Goa seemed beautiful. There were no bars on the windows.

Haiku by a foodie

Diet:
Quiet day working out
No more carbohydrates
Suffering existential angst

Sometimes...

it is really embarassing to be Indian.