Karan Arjun to Past Life Therapy

From old wives' tales to a Pyscho-therapy format. From masala for entertainment to tonic for the soul. From shlokas of Veds and Puranas to a Psycho-analyst's prescriptions. From pavement astrologers, tantriks and hypnotizers to AC chambers of licenced practitioners.

Punarjanam has had a punarjanam. A re-incarnation of re-incarnation!

Many are thinking twice before pooh-poohing the notion. Amongst many circles it is no longer being looked down upon as losers' talk and lazybones' alibis.

I have personally been a whole-hearted disbeliever in this re-incarnation thoery. To chak de fatte, I frankly have felt it's pure crap, shit and rot! I mean, what is the point of being punished for a crime I do not even remember or be rewarded for some good deed I have lost all memory of? How illogical can Dharamraj get?
My views underwent a subtle change about a year ago, when my granddad spoke to me about a yog-sadhna that can actually be used to recall one's past lives! And then came the Page 1 TOI report on PLT about a month or two back, and I was intrigued no end.

I wondered if it's merely an old-medicine-in-new-bottle type panacea for man's ever nagging query of the whys of his life.

But then as I think it over, I suppose this may well be something more colossal - both in terms of giving the oriental faiths a swig of science as well as handing a new lease of life to genuine psychiatric cases.

Wonder if I could give it a try myself! Any guesses what I could have been in my previous avtaar?

!!!!!!!!!!Dhoni makes me 14 again!!!!!!!!!!

Used to be an avid cricket fan, but the match fixing controversies broke my heart. Had almost stopped watching the game, but for a few world cup matches here and there. Along came the T20 fever and I wrinkled my lofty nose at the idea like the Test cricket puritans had sneered down on the One Dayers.

But am I a happy child today! Boy o Boy what a match! What a performance! What a revival from the One-day (F50?) world cup debacle! What a wave of celebration! What an adrenaline rush! What a heart-turning-upside-down-in-the-throat situation! What a complete no-watch game for cardiac patients! What madness! What thrill!

Yaar ye to sach me anhoni ho gayi honi! long live dhoni!

Celebrating a Day

My aunt once asked me to help her with a speech on Woman's Day. She wanted the speech to have a distinct negative touch, for she is something of a female activist and like all female activists (or rather like all females, period?), she is never satisfied..hehe...
Coming back to the point, she wished to give the speech a negative touch and was not succeeding in the effort. Ergo, a consultation with the expert (ahem) was necessary, and the expert obliged with one sentence - 'The very fact that we need a special day to celebrate womanhood speaks volumes about the current position of the fair sex in this world.'

The same sentence echoed in my mind today when I observed the Archies honchos canvassing another marketing gimmick by celebrating September 23 as 'Daughter's Day'.
Now I find it honestly ridiculous. Are 'Sister's Day', 'Wife's Day' , 'Niece's Day' and 'Girl Friend's Day' round the corner? I wouldn't be too surprized.
I hope a smart Archie's rival initates a 'Stag's Day' or something like it...and it's almost a cinch a woman shall be the initiator of this idea...

An eye for a motorbike?

Kids tonsured for stealing detergent packets...Eyes gouged out for robbing a motorcycle...And the crowning glory of barbarism - ten men lynched to death on the mere suspicion of being thieves!

Can one imagine the extent of monstrosity, the barbarism, the gruesomeness of man the animal?

Is the incapability/dishonesty/inactivity of the police any justification for these acts? Most emphatically NO. Senseless Violence and Destruction are carryovers from our Neanderthal pasts - indication of dull, underdeveloped, unenlightened minds. Uneducated minds.

I have come across a few nasty jibes here and there for being a Bihari. But never have I felt more ashamed of belonging to Bihar than the day I came to hear of this news. What a blackspot!
What especially hurts is the reason behind these killings - had it been rape or murder one could have considered it. But theft? Dear me! The Taliban touch?

I hope strict action is taken against the accuseds as soon as possible to serve as deterrants. And I hope the Police take it as a slap on their faces and get into action. Let's see how many such hopes materialize.

The Kite Runner

One of the most popular books of late...a Khaled Hosseini debut creation which topped the best-seller lists.

I am afraid I have read a lot!

Probably that is why I finished this novel with the disappointment of an itching-to-fight snake meeting a dull little mongoose.

Take away the backdrop of strife-ridden Afghanistan and what do you get? (In fact, if one does not take away the Taliban backdrop the tales of monstrous terror are not very different from the newspaper/channel reports.)

An almost expected story with almost anticipated twists. The familiar threads of love-hate father-son relationship... of a weakling coming to terms with his infirmity in due course of time....of the way time turns tables on mortals.... and of poetic justice bordering on melodrama...especially this last irks a little. A treble dose of destiny coming round to give each what he deserves in a word-perfect, picture-perfect manner is unnatural to say the least!

Even the ending fails to stir the reader's interest. The worst thing anyone can do to his literary creation is to make the ending predictable - which is precisely what happens here.

At one or two points I had this feeling too that the book had perhaps missed an editing effort by the author. Ah, no. That'd be too much....must be just a feeling on my part...

Too much of trashing? OopS! :-P

The book has its moments. They come while describing the local colour. The Afghan culture is so rich and beautiful, its realistic portrayal using original words from the author's native language make for one of the best USPs of The Kite Runner. Go for it if you are curious about what an Afghan has to write about Afghanistan - this curiosity made it a best-seller after all. :-)

Fly Away....

It was not for nothing that Hrishkesh Mukherji made the opening shot of 'Zindagi Kaisi ye Paheli' a bunch of balloons receding higher into the skies. There is something utterly fascinating, mysterious, profound and yes - just a tad melancholic about a bunch of balloons flying up and up.
After several years now, I am suddenly reminded of a half-forgotten and yet not really forgotten memory.
I was nine then, and still too young to give up on balloons. We were seated on the terrace, forced to enjoy the moonlight because of the customary power cut. I remember being exteremely bored and bothered when Mom suddenly pointed out a distraction. Nothing less than a large orange and yellow balloon that came floating in! It was evidently losing its byuoant gas for it came close enough to us. I shouted 'Grab it' to Mamma, but she had stretched for it almost before I yelled. But the naughty balloon had plans of its own. It danced out of her reach, landed on a window sill for one tantalizing moment, and then, sort of making one last valiant effort - gathered all its dying energy just like an injured soldier, and flew away.
I still remember the ruckus I created for that balloon. Dad was more than willing to stem my tears and get me a new one but you see - the silly me wanted that balloon and none other.
I often played with balloons since that summer evening. Blown them and burst them, dribbled them and byoued them to the roof. But the sight of a balloon rising in a sky has always made me philosophical at worst and despondent at best. What is it? The ominous parallel to a soul leaving for its last journey? Or a childhood memory converting it into a symbol of treasure found suddenly and lost with equal abruptness? Of unkept promises? Of things that could be and yet just did not materialize even after efforts were made? Of in fact, the futility of effort? I am inclined to think it has become to me a symbol of all these. Also a symbol of the silly, sensitive and stubborn nine year old me. :)

Aye Hairat-e-Ashique :-)

Channel [V], MTV, B4U and Zoom refuse to air this absolutely drugging song from Guru as much as they do that weird Maiyya Maiyya number of Mallika darling’s, for reasons unknown (Not really unknown, if you come right down to it).

But even if they had aired it I am sure they would have chopped off the most lovely part of the ode – the initial 21 second intro music. Rehman’s true genius shines here for he has captured that essence of music, which only a few have done – its ‘uplifting quality’. The inexplicable way music seems to raise you beyond the boundaries of the earth and oppose all rules of Gravity by making you float! Had come across this feeling only once before – during the intro music of O Hansini, that R. D. Burman – Kishore Kumar combo. And now, with Hairat-e-Ashique. Keep it up, Rehman! Rather, Keep us up!

Soociiiiiiiiiiiiide!

Yes, yes, it’s the Sholay hangover. Rather RGV ki Aag hangover (ugghh)

But it’s got me thinking about this act – “Suicide.”

Killing oneself.

Man’s way of telling God ‘You Don’t Fire Me, I Quit.’

A crime punishable according to the Indian Penal Code.

A sin, according to all major religions.

An act looked down upon by nearly all as an act of cowardice and an act of ungratefulness for the Almighty who gave life oh so mercifully.

A psychiatric syndrome.

What all is it and what all is it not? What all is it under all conditions, and what all is it under some conditions? (Yeah, Relative..Smiles...)

To live life, one needs courage. But to die, too, is courage unnecessary? How many men would be able to embrace death willingly? Few, very few indeed.

Also, when we say ‘living life’ what exactly do we mean by that? According to a lovely line by Ms. Rand, life is something that has motive and motion. Have come across so many people who have neither, or have one of the two, or if they luckily have both then they are both at odds with each other! Moreover, most men do not even realize until the very end what it was they had been lacking. In short, very few ‘live’; they exist and existence does not need courage. For these ‘existers’ are as big, perhaps bigger cowards than 'suiceders'. And yet we have no moral preachings and no religious texts for such individuals.

If you analyze it, it also comes out as another example of selfishness being denigrated over selflessness –
We have the phenomenon of dying for a cause. People who have died for a cause have gone down in history as men of bravery and courage. Men who have laid down their lives for others have so many times become heroes.
And on the other hand are men who die for individual causes, for selfish motives – and they are labeled as cowards, unreasonable, irrational, fools, mentally unstable, psychiatric cases, insane and yes, ungrateful!

Another aspect – Men who ‘live for others’ are thought of greatly (and incidentally such people think highly of themselves, too – lolz. How many times have I come across such dialogues, ‘I am living only for the sake of this, this or this’!!!!) And men who die for themselves are considered criminals.

So think about it - Is Suicide an Irrational/Unreasonable act always? Is Suicide an Immoral Act? Is Suicide an act of cowardice? Is Suicide an offence? Is life always better than Death? Is mere vegetable existence better than death? Do we have a logical approach to Suicide? Are we rationaly judging Suicide?

If you see, the widely-discussed Mercy Killing debate may well enter the issue.

Controversial topic, I know – but would love to thresh it :)

And no, I am not suicidal so please do not worry!