Monday, May 30, 2011

Egg and Cheese Sandwich

I have read several blogs where the blogger goes "Its been a long time since I posted...". I've always wondered why. But the answer came to me today in a blaze of self realization. Its been a long time since I posted. Three drafts. Each with a couple of lines. This has been the state of my blog since December of last year.In my defense, I could say that I was part of three plays this year and all of my creative juices were spent on those productions. Or I could just accept the fact that I was plain lazy.

So I opened my blog the other day and checked on the drafts that have been waiting for me for several months. All of them are quite interesting. Brimming with a potential that rivalled all of my other posts. The first brush strokes of a collection of masterpieces. And so I chucked them and sat staring at a fresh page and listening to Unwritten by Natasha Beddingfield.

And I sat and sat. I wanted something special. Something that captured who I really was. Dealing with my identity and conflict. I wanted slices of human life and I wanted to represent them in ways that brought out the different shades in human beings. I discarded the IPL finals where Bangalore put up a miserable effort. I chucked the Lokpal movement because I wanted the identity thingy to be there. I put the fact that i had learnt to make burnt egg and Amul cheese sandwiches in the garbage bin. But reserved a spot for it when I learnt to make chicken biriyani. I stoppered my rising outrage at the fact that PVR charges Rs 90 for tickets in the morning whle its 240 bucks in the night and decided it definitely was not a good topic. Makes me think Chennai is a better city after all with CSK and Sathyam Theatres. Then I struck upon the idea of writing about Chennai and how beautiful it is. But then i decided against it considering the anti-Chennai feel among my friends after the defeat on Saturday. I mean, I'd rather get beaten up because of something more fulfilling than a blog post. An anti-government protest march for my rights or a mass movement against environmental degradation or maybe a mass burning of Twilight books. Yeah blog post on Chennai out.

And so I decided to post about the most excited thing that happened in Bangalore after I came home this month. The election results were very very exciting and was in tough contention with the fact that I had a blast at my cousins wedding. But then the whole hullabolla about the guv's decision to impose pesidents rule made me ponder whether to write about Center - State relations in India, especially after the Indian Constitution course last sem. But then suddenly I remembered that Osama was dead. Of course that was not in Bangalore. But heck its a global village and I am definitely thrilled about the never before seen super stealthy, super secret super helo that the commandos used to sneak in and out of Pakistan. Made me believe in Bollywood movies agian. Wonder whether he  laughed at the US soldiers who trained Pak soldiers outside his house. But then again, I can't claim it changed or challenged my idea of my identity. Just made me question the identity of the people living next door.

And then realisation struck me a second time. Edison's bulb flickered alive after a long period of 5 months with 'An Idea'. I should change it to a Havells bulb. Have you seen the ad where all the bulbs turn on together at the preset time. Really cool. Maybe the one above my head will keep turning on every day at 6 or something.

See three paragraphs into this post, my sister came in and applied Iodex on my shoulder and thats when the idea struck me. What happened to my shoulder? Thats what my post is about silly!

Three weeks into coming home, I had an intense urge to eat egg and cheese sandwich. A quick look around the kitchen revealed the disappointing news that there was no cheese or bread at home. And so I trotted down to the supemarket down the road to buy cheese, sandwich bread and pack of mango flavured Amul icecream (for the heck of it). Its not exactly a Reliance Fresh kind of super market. Just an extra big provision store with a couple of ailes with stuff stuffed into the shelves. No lines and long billing queues. The guy who helped you find where the papad was will bill the entire thing while chatting with you about the weather and what you had for lunch and take the cash and bid you a nice goodbye.

And so I was walking down the main road thinking that the retail scene in India has not entirely gone to the cold freezers of Reliance Fresh and Namdharis when something bowled into me from behind. Well not into me exactly. and no one bowled a motorbike at me. The front wheel of a blue coloured bike crashed into my right leg and spun me around in the air for about 3 seconds (plus or minus a couple of seconds) and sent me crashing to the ground and the next thing I know I'm lying on the ground looking up at the sky. I dont remember whether the sky was light blue or dark blue, or whether the clouds were wispy or looked like the dome of the Sistine chapel. The next to next thing I know, I'm picking up my shopping and dusting off my leg which scraped against the wheel of the bike while the three (THREE!!) guys on the bike kept shouting at me about walking in the middle of the road. I was walking on the side. I swear. That was adding insult to injury wasn't it, so i shouted back in garbled Kannada while he tried to salvage what he could of his rear view mirror. And then random strangers began joining the conversation. Since I was the victime here, they asked me if i was alright and to my great satisfaction berated the motorists. I said I was okay and that my house was right around the corner, picked up the groceries and went home. I washed off the scrapes with Dettol and ate the egg and cheese sandwich that my mom made while watching Karate Kid on Pix. Bill Smith's kid sure can act!

Oh and read the Dresden Files. Makes for better reading than this. Guess its too late now though.


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Theory of Relativity

The hands of his watch told him it was a few minutes past two. Isn’t she done with class yet? He looks out the window expectantly. No one. He turned back to his Physics teacher. “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states....” He liked physics, a lot. But now, he could not concentrate. He was waiting for her. Every Tuesday and Friday during the second slot after lunch, she walked past his classroom on the way to the labs. Her half laugh, her eyes, her hair. That moment defined his entire day. 

Slowly the first of them trooped past, talking and laughing. Uniforms and faces filed past the window. She wasn’t there. He threw caution to the winds and turned around to look. Her friends walked past. She was nowhere to be seen. Did I miss her? He bit the end of his pen as he watched the stragglers hurry to catch up. He looked back at the teacher disappointed.

“...When you sit on a hot stove for two seconds, it feels like an hour. When you sit with a beautiful woman for an hour, it seems like two seconds...” Everyone laughed. He tugged at his tie and added one more doodle to his page. Suddenly his partner nudged him - a blur of white outside the window! He turned around again. False alarm, just the peon. Suddenly something hit him on his head. The duster. The class laughed again, now at him. “Hari, I’m standing here. Not outside the window. Pay attention in class.” 

 He ducked under the table to pick up the duster, dodging sly comments. He came back up to see her standing outside the window, looking at him, giggling. Their eyes met. She smiled and slowly glided away. He looked down at the duster, a smile playing on his lips. Einstein was wrong. That felt like eternity.  

A Certain Picture

In love, in life,
You paint a certain picture
Gilded frames and canvas
And rainbow hued brushstroke

A face, a smile,
You paint a certain picture
Her lips, her hair,
The gems in her eyes

You love, you pray
You worship that picture
You feast on its beauty
It feasts on your time

Incense and myrrh
Fruits and sweetmeats
You spare it no expense
The golden haired picture

And then it is over
The love, infatuation
You rant and you cry
What, when did it go wrong?

It lies in a corner
You kick it, you stab
And then while you cry
 You again ask why

It’s been a month and a half
You’ve almost forgotten
You abuse and stab, only
When drowned in the bottle

And then it’s forgotten
The pain and the hurt
The fury and angst
Lie, worn down by time

Then again it is time
To paint a certain picture
To caress the canvas
With rainbow hued strokes

And so it is taken
Battered and bruised
To the old storeroom
The graveyard of memory

Its canvas is torn,
The paint dulled and peeling.
The frame almost broken
Beset by decay and mould

Flimsy strands of memories
Hold it together
A spiders web of emotion
Fills in the gaps
   
And so it lies forlorn
Lonely, not alone
Amidst broken furniture
Hopes and dreams

Other pictures adorn the walls
Other pictures still to come
No graves, no headstones
In the graveyard of memory

Friday, October 15, 2010

Rocket Science

Discovery Channel once told me that the space vehicles of today are the greatest and most complex of human achievements. The biggest geeks, the best minds and the force of a thousand wills mesh together and the inferno that results is what gives birth to the modern space rocket. I am not a rocket scientist and I really don’t intend to spend my days computing the Orbital Velocity of the next payload. But sometimes, boys and immature young adult males like me are faced with a task more daunting and insurmountable than throwing a man into space. That, my friends and disciples, is the apparently simple task of wooing a girl. Many of us have been so lost in deep space when going through this phase that we have prayed fervently for a guide or a spiritual guru who will hold our hands guide us through the turbulent times. If nothing else, at least a manual or textbook that quenches our thirst for knowledge . Unfortunately the world has ignored this great need and a large amount of the collective knowledge in this field has been lost to the ravages of time. Whatever remains is held as a closely guarded secret by a few secret brotherhoods. There the knowledge is shared and whispered in shadowy gatherings into which entry is forbidden unless the dress code is strictly followed (black hood with matching cape). And so ordinary guys like me do not have the good fortune of walking into the local bookstore and going over to the ‘Lifestyle’ section to pick up ‘Wooing Girls – An Everyday Manual for an Everyday Guy’ or ‘Help Me!! I’m in Love! – 101 Tips to Get That Girl’.


Unfortunately, life is never in bulleted points or flow charts and pivot tables. It’s more akin to a collage comprising of a big stack of doctor’s prescriptions mashed together and then subjected to several trips though a shredder. Deciphering love from that mess is not child’s play. It requires patience and an eye for detail with copious amounts of dedication, expertise and creativity. Innovation can get brownie points too. In short you need to live the life of a rocket scientist, because the task that is to be accomplished is much more complex and intricate than rocket science.


The first stage is quite easy for most people. This is where you lay your foundation. There may be a bit of starting trouble; nothing an enterprising rocket scientist will find difficult though. You need to ensure you build a stable platform from which you can dream of launching the perfect rocket. Launch into the depths of space and explore the intricate secrets of the vast unknown and unexplored expanse of the universe(s?). This stage involves a lot of taking. So you talk and talk... and talk some more; text a little and chat quite a bit and of course, talk a wee bit more and blah and blah. During these conversations you get an idea of the necessary requirements to build the rocket. So try and listen to what is being said.


The first thing you figure out is the design for the rocket’s body. The basic design for every rocket is the same. All rockets have these essential requirements – a cone on top, a cylindrical, or semi cylindrical body and a nozzle at the bottom. The extra features, though essential, depend on each rocket. The secondary rockets that help in guidance, fins that keep you on course, the aerodynamic design and all of the other things that have to be there to keep a rocket in space and not go crashing into the sun and cause a supernova, which in all probability will wipe out all life in the near vicinity (let’s say a few hundred light years in all directions).


The rocket can be made of several materials. The substance that has to be used to make the rocket is also essential – different for different rockets. If you ask me, they have to be custom made for each. The information on the raw materials to be used can be got through those conversations I mentioned earlier. The ratio, in which the compositions are to be mixed, is totally up to you. Keep in mind that the material has to be tough enough to survive the intense stress and strain involved with takeoff and space travel. It has to bear the rigours of outer space – intense heat and cold, ultraviolet and radioactive radiations, meteorite collisions and god knows what else; alien attacks perhaps or even violent moral police fleets.


What is left to procure for building the rocket is the stuff that brings everything together - a huge amount of nuts and bolts and screws. They may come in different shapes and sizes and may seem inconsequential because of their size, but remember, ‘for want of a nail, the war was lost’. The entire superstructure may come crashing down because the nuts and bolts were not screwed in correctly. If you have a long space journey in mind, keep in mind that unless everything is gelling right and is in harmony (yeah, I believe in all of that crap), your rocket will come apart mid flight. There has to be some glue that holds everything together.


Then you figure out which propellants are to be used. Fuel is very important for a rocket launch. Not only does it get you off the ground, it also keeps you in the air (or space if you reach that far). The type of fuel depends on the rocket you are building. Some have solid state propellants, some liquid. Some have a slush of oxygen and hydrogen. It always depends on the make and size of the rocket and the distance you wish to travel. But be very careful. If you use the wrong kind of fuel, you could blow up mid air.


Now that you have everything you need, you start with the process of building your rocket. Please do not outsource it. Then whoever it is that you commission to build it will use your launch pad to launch your rocket and embark on an all expenses paid trip to Andromeda. Work diligently. Put your heart and soul into it. Your rocket and you should be like a samurai and his katana. The swordsman takes part in the forging process, so that when the sword is ready, his soul is intertwined with that of his sword. They go into battle as one entity. Such should be the building process for your rocket.


But it is when your rocket is fully built that you face the hardest part of the mission. The Launch. The day everyone is waiting for. Here, even the bravest and most valiant flounder. But if you are enterprising, determined and a true son of the soil, you will succeed. If all goes well, your rocket will launch without a hitch. There may be some problems with charting out a course in the beginning, but all of that can be sorted out. So, Bon Voyage!! Enjoy the journey! Don’t forget to send me postcards!!!


Not all of us are that lucky though. The production costs may go up suddenly, straining your finances, or you may not find the right components and the rocket will sit there half finished. Or, like it often happens to me, the launch may fail. Many get panicky and take-off too early, before the rocket is totally space worthy. Sometimes, it’s just a simple case of being dumb enough to use a cheap and faulty switch. All that work may go to waste if that all important red button doesn’t work. The fuel may refuse to ignite at that crucial moment or aliens may decide to attack Earth on that day. Then again there are instances where your rocket may end up being commandeered by pirates, or you suddenly find out on the day of the launch that the exact same model has already been launched in Ugandaland and the pilot is currently on a joyride around the Milky Way.
The worst is when you choke at the last moment. (What if this is not the right time? WAIT!!) And you wait for clear skies or the sun to come out or for that divine sign that gives you the all clear to launch. (Is that it? Yes it IS!! No its just Superman). I’m a bloody choker sometimes when it comes to the take-off. At times like that, I really begin to understand what Graeme Smith must feel after every major tournament. All that time and effort, simply gone to waste.


And there they stand, the ghosts of launches past. Some of them lie unfinished and deformed. Others stand proud, pointing skywards, knowing that all they are now is shell of memories filled with smoke, hot air and broken hopes and dreams. They stand in the rain of a million memories as rust and time take their toll. A thousand faces wipe away what’s left until all that remains is the painted picture of a painted face.


Well, kindergarten really got to me and so did that old Scottish king and the spider. Even the Agni failed to launch several times, right? So don’t be surprised if you see a picture of me on Facebook which shows me shaking hands with Orion.



Wait a minute. Damn I forgot to include an engine!!