People syndrome

People are assholes by default. But not all of them. I know this because i am people. There are more than 7 billion of my kind on this planet and one can safely assume that quite a lot are terrible beings. They succumb to human frailties like ego, envy, anger, gossip and such exciting but ridiculous energy-consumers on a daily basis. It's a way of life to be concise. However, despite all things bad and worse, people are wonderful too. One of my excuses for continuing to believe in them. Because if i give up on strangers-who-could-be-admirable, then there's no point in assuming anything. If i can assume that there are terrible people, then i should also assume that there are really nice ones too out there. Those who make you want to believe in random individuals without expecting too much. If people don't believe in people, who will? 

Give and takeaway

You feel bad for the beggars at the traffic signal, don't you? So, what do you do about it? 

Let me take a guess.

1. You offer money hesitatingly.

2. You offer money promptly.

3. You ignore them.

4. You keep looking at them without paying them. 

Yes, the word is pay in case you haven't noticed it yet. We pay them off because we feel guilty. That's the price we pay for being better off—strictly comparatively speaking—with the vehicle we are in/on at the point of confrontation. But there's a mighty catch in place. The so-called beggars are thorough professionals. They take their work seriously. Just like any of us would about a career. Do you REALLY think they'd go back to not being beggars if they hit a jackpot in their daily/monthly/yearly collections? Unfortunately, going by the NGO records, they won't. At least that's not what happens in Indian cities. However handicapped or disparaged they appear, they know they are simply making a living on the kind-cum-unkind roads. And it's totally up to you whether you'd want to part away your hard-earned/not-so-hard-earned cash. Because either way, it's not a guilt trip as you like to believe. Both the parties are merely doing their job. 

MO: When i have two coins with me and there's a beggar in front of me, i give one away and keep another to myself. That way, both the beggars are happy. 

Words, anyone?

It just occurred to me today that words are the only constant in our life. Other than oxygen, of course. 

[Please tell me i'm wrong in less than 20 words.]

Words have been around us from the moment we took birth. They kept changing and yet they are so damn constant. They are always there through one medium or the other. A TV/radio playing in the background, people chit-chatting and you gossiping. Come to think of it, the only time words don't really make themselves known is when we read. 

Some are gems while others are precursor to noise.

The resulting question: Is that why we don't tend to remember every single word while it doesn't take us too much to register smell or taste or touch in our mind? 

Worrior

When in doubt, he worries—and vice versa. He keeps worrying what if whatever good he has fizzles out. Slip slowly out of his hands without him even noticing it. After all, hasn't it happened before? What if he doesn't wake up feeling like he did today? What if he wakes up as a different person altogether? What if the one he wakes up next to doesn't see in him anymore what she claims to see? Come to think of which, that wouldn't be as bad as him not seeing in her what he has become so used to by now.

Of course, these are just worries.

Lame thoughts at best and brilliant nots at worst.

But at the same time, he can't get over the pattern in place. He once assumed he won't be able to do without certain things but as time passed by, he managed to. He changed, didn't he? Or things changed? Or was that how it was meant to be? For all his eidetic endeavours, he can't really remember much, does he?

One of the many questions why waking up everyday hoping nothing changes has become his greatest worry of late.

Hopefully, this too shall pass. Like everything else did.

What you sea isn't what you land

Red (Morgan Freeman) doesn't remember seeing an ocean. He has heard rumours and seen images in his dreams establishing its blueness. Being institutionalized since his teens, he can only take a guess. The prison walls define his boundary and he doesn't have the freedom to enjoy freedom either. However, thanks to Andy (Tim Robbins), he manages to keep his hope alive and ends up on a beach—for the first time in his life. He primarily moved from being landlocked to a place which was bluer than sky, warm and had no memory of him.

Having grown up by the Arabian Sea, there was an inherent connection in place. We played cricket on a pitch-black ground that was at the mercy of tides. Not a week went by we didn't get a whiff of dried fish. Things didn't change even after my family shifted to Sanpada from Trombay. The bridge that connected Bombay to New-Bombay flashed more than enough for a sea voyeur. This was before i moved to Gurgaon. A place that is as alien to sea breeze as Palestine is to sustainable peace but nonetheless warm and with no memory of me.

Present, now

I have a bit of a fever. My neck is sprained. Inspired by Kamasutra, i even cut my thumb trying to chop onions sideways. Thanks to the resulting pain, there's a bulge in my armpit as well. I didn't really sleep tight last night due to recurring bad dreams. My eyes are of bloodshot hue as i type. I guess i've strained my groin too while running unnecessarily in office. I can't sit like a lady anymore. But guess what? I've never been happier in my whole fucking life. I don't remember any phase involving me where i was damn sure of what was going on. No, not in school. Not in polytechnic. Not in college. Not anywhere else. For probably the first time ever, i am at peace with what's happening. I was arguably one of the fastest transcribers around and i treasured my job as a film journo but my current profile allows me a new sense of high. Never-seen-before ocean, never-fought-before waves. I completed a month in it yesterday and i continue to be optimistic about the future. So darn unlike me! Maybe this has something to do with the fact that i'm in love. And the person in question happens to be my answer for making everything seem alright. So, to steal her words, i am content although i work for the marketing team. OK. Bad pun. Explains why i get those nightmares!

Found in mistranslation

"Manithan unarnthu kølla, ithu manitha kaathal allae...Atheyum thaandi, ithu punithamaanathu.." - Gunaa (1991)

I don't entirely understand the Tamil words mentioned in a song from the aforementioned film starring Kamal Haasan and Roshini. If only my Tamil was as basic as my Urdu! However, i can safely presume that it's beautiful. Way too intense. So touching that it doesn't really matter whether i get it completely. Or not.

Update: It means "That man should be provoked by our love, this is not mortal love. Way beyond that, this love is divine."

Wonderful, isn't it?