Vegetable

Emaciated as a withered spinach leaf,
Skin shriveled like an overripe gourd,
She was adamantly closed to the world
Like the leaves of a cabbage.
Was she just a vegetable after all?
I vehemently refused by my tongue
But my mind had its own mind.
Doubts rushed in like the red blood
Flowing persistently in her arteries.
At least blood hadn't betrayed her,
standing next to her cadaverous body.
Could she feel our presence out there?
Was there just a hint of radiance
peeping out of her pallid complexion,
Or was it just a distant reflection of her,
as she saw the blinding light beckoning
at the end of the tortuous tunnel?
Would she open her exhausted eyelids,
to give us her stern loving looks again?
Like a sentence resumes after a comma,
We wanted her to continue her life,
and continue being there in ours.
She was unaware, unfeeling, unconscious,
just like a vegetable.

The Magic of a Single Room

              

Image from the Internet

          Gone are the days when a movie ceased to be worth watching  if it lacked a string of picturesque settings, action packed scenes with an inferno of automobiles shooting up in the air and coming toppling over each other, sunglasses - sporting heroes displaying their enviable gun handling tactics and glamorous heroines stealing the show. After watching two movies, 'The Man from Earth' and 'Exam', I recently discovered a liking  for a new genre of movies which, even though shot in just a single room, with very ordinary people and absolutely no stunts or automobiles to show off with, manages to captivate the viewer just as any other movie, sometimes even a tad bit more. No voice overs dripping with sentimentality and nostalgia, just plain footages which focus on the dialogues and performance of the actors. 

           Mind you, you do need to have a flawless auditory reception to be able to make the most of such a film. An attention to detail is crucial, on the part of the producer as well as that of the viewer. The effects of every single line spoken by a character, every minuscule action of the protagonist are multiplied manifold due to the sheer confinement to a single room. Much like, when one is sitting in a quiet room, every small detail, whether it is the spider crawling slyly up the wall or more infamously, mysterious sounds at night, assume heightened proportions in the senses. No wonder that old mansions make an excellent setting for horror films. The claustrophobic setting seems to be a character by itself, infusing the horror component into the film.

         Just in case you haven't seen the aforementioned two movies, let me give you a brief overview of  both. 'Exam' is the story of eight candidates in an exam hall, who are competing for a position in an enigmatic  company. However, when they open their question papers, all of them find to their bewilderment that each one of the papers is completely blank. Any attempt to communicate with the invigilator or leave the room will disqualify them. So which of them will be able to find the correct question and the correct answer to make it to the post? And more importantly, till what extent is each of them ready to go to, to be the chosen one? Totally engaging, the eighty minute duration of the exam has the viewer riveted onto the screen, with the suspense gradually building up with every passing minute. Not wanting to give anything away, I just want to mention that the movie is a deep exploration of human interaction and psychology, testing the mind under conditions of stress and duress, and various types of human personalities.

        'The Man from Earth' has some elements of a discourse on immortality and its implications, when the protagonist decides to have his share of fun telling his peers during a farewell gathering that 'his time to move on had come' , since he had been alive since the prehistoric ages, and he had progressed his way from a caveman to a modern man, shifting every now and then to avoid being identified. He claims to have met the Buddha, Christopher Columbus and other eminent personalities. His friends do not believe him at first, but we can see the transition in their credulity as the protagonist unfolds his extra ordinary skill of story-telling. Things take an ugly turn when the protagonist claims to have been Jesus Christ himself and that he had never really died on the cross, he had just escaped. A pious lady calls him blasphemous and another man attempts to kill him out of envy for his self proclaimed 'immortality'. This gives a chance to analyze our own feelings about immortality. Do we really want it or would we rather live a normal lifetime? The movie seems to be a prank gone all wrong, but surprising events unravel at the climax, which takes place right at the ending. 

        These single room movies, apart from being very low budget or shoestring budget movies, give the viewer an extremely rich experience. The lack of variety in setting  is more than compensated by the saga of emotions and thoughts that the movie provokes in the viewer, an ultimate treat for the senses. Whether it shows a battle of wits in a court or murder scene, or one in which a few people are stuck in an elevator with the devil apparently amongst them, they all exhibit great talent of acting and directing. And most of them prove to be goosebumps- producing thrillers as well, which can put to shame many higher budget block busters. I am surely going to watch a few more of these if I can. IMdb can help me out on this . Here is the link for those of you whose interest I have managed to garner through this article. http://www.imdb.com/list/sVai-UOL6Ow/  . These movies are probably the quintessence of  'Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication' . 

     

My culinary debut

           December has come. Time to reside, without any worries at Home Sweet Home. I want to utilise the time to start my training as a novice cook. It is time to unearth the culinary passion in me. I know it's there within me, I just know it. Known as a hardcore 'Foodie' and having a fetish for all things delicious, I thought the time had finally arrived to give some effort back to the kitchen, after all these years of devoted hogging from it. (Only,of course I had the good fortune of having it available around me.) I think the fact that I just completed ten years of hostel life also had a substantial contribution towards my adoration towards luxury food and drink, and of course, the unbeatable, one and only 'Ghar ka Khana'. Home food...  It is the official love of my life. 

          So the morning I arrived, I was excited at the prospect of what to cook. Scrutinizing the kitchen shelf and refridgerator for prospective ingredients, and consulting my mother (admiring her deep and wise knowledge about cookery simultaneously) , I decided to make 'Alu Paneer Curry'. It was so fascinating, the process of metamorphosing a collection of deformed brown potatoes, pungent onions and various other sundry ingredients into such an aromatic, delectable and mouth-watering concoction of a dish. Creating something beautiful out of  crude materials was a form of art, and  I realised this while actually cooking. I was so delighted at having made my first dish, and also, I was starving at the time, so unfortunately I do not have a picture in which to proudly display it. However, if your eyes already haven't gone to the image, my second dish was Rajma , or Kidney Beans Curry. It was spicy red and had a tangy flavour, due to the tomato puree that had gone into it. 

             We have always been advised to eat our greens well. And as kids, we always made a long face even by just looking at them. In my boarding school, we kids used to devise ingenious ways of discarding them without the matron noticing. Now, many years later, I thought, why not make eating greens and spinach appetizing to eat, so that everyone could be invigorated with a 'Popeye the Sailor-Man' like urge to devour spinach.. Basically, the next item I made was 'Methi aloo gravy'. It was redolent of the country side, nutritious and was absolutely lip- smacking.  

           

                                                                                           

                 A glimpse of the complete lunch I prepared today.. I consider it as an important landmark of my life. A complete meal made by me. I never thought I was capable of this. But hurray, it turns out I am! I feel relieved, thinking that maybe in the future, my in- laws will not be so disappointed in me. It is an encouraging thought. Look at the image. Does it not look wholesome? Especially with the ghee melting on the rice.. I feel like having lunch all over again.

            This is just the beginning. I am still a beginner, learning the basics. Soon, I will be back with more exotic palate - tempting recipes for dishes I had once dreamed of having only in restaurants. Meanwhile, my respect has gone up for three people.. Housewives, who are the only ones who truly know about healthy and sumptuous cooking, Restaurant chefs who cook so efficiently and so quickly for petulant customers, and also  for Sanjeev Kapoor. Visit his website and you will know why. He is just as awesome as his recipes. I am  just loving my new hobby.

To Literature

Courtesy : Google Images

Mighty as a marching Roman legion,
Versatile as the varying seasons,
Pleasing as a scented morning flower,
It enthralls the mind at any hour,
And in every language and region.

Unfurling a novel world of its own
With every form that it loans,
Literature is an adaptable mould,
Shaping words into intricate gold,
Lines worthy of the highest throne.

It is an enchanting companion,
Having words as faithful minions
To strangers it is not subservient
Only ardent fans are deemed puissant
Mastery gained by few in a million.

Just as a captivating art form,
The inflections in a rhyme perform,
A dance at the tip of the tongue,
Accompanied by a lilt of a song.
Written tales into a drama transform.

Stories transport a mind somewhere far
Through a gilded door of a book cover ajar
Essays celebrate a conflict of opinion
Prose emulates the beauty of a stallion
Pulchritude and strength at par.

Poetry satiates the hungry soul
Simile, metaphors create a parallel scroll
Transcending barriers to breach
into experiences beyond mortal reach.
Ballads recount fables, never getting old.

The subtle mirth of a satirical pun,
Contradiction of a smart oxymoron
Playing cruel tricks on the intellect,
Figures of speech beguile unless outsmarted.
A benign aphorism gives advice with elan.

Literature, beauteous hidden gift of language.
In its clasp can hold readers' emotions hostage.
Exuding a exhilarating chortle one second,
The next having the spirits dampened,
Always leaving behind a rewarding message.

Courtesy: Google Images

Images from the Internet

The RatRace

     

Courtesy : Google Image

                     It is the frenzy, the maddening race that prevails in our life today. We might not actually see the race tracks, but it is very much there, carved into our paths, drilled into our minds, insidious in nature. There is a constant burning urge for people to overtake their neighbours  in this great marathon. Caught up in the heat of the moment, they forget all but the range covered by the pursuit -and the pursuit of what exactly ? If your answer to that is happiness, you are under a blinding illusion because that is one thing we are actually running away from, by participating in the competition, by entering the labyrinth and getting lost in it.

         

                   Friends compete with each other for better scores and ranks in studies and academic activities. If only we could be confident enough of ourselves and let go of rivalries, co operate with each other, we would not only let go of all embitterment but also make a marked improvement in our performance. Agreed, part of the reason this doesn't actually happen is that the Indian education system asks for it. The disparity in the supply and demand of seats in colleges and companies makes it inevitable that quite a pandemonium is created across student circles. It spawns distrust, jealousies and also depression for all those who cannot keep up with the rest. This can have quite a debilitating effect on the entire student community. If only it could be a relay instead of an individual race, where we could pick up a baton from our team mates to win as one team. Everyone would be happy, everyone would have achieved. 

                   Okay, for the moment let us set aside academic competition. Lets take a look at some of the more ridiculous forms of warfare that go on among people, especially youngsters. The clash to own better gadgets, better clothes, and hell ya, even the clamour to get the most likes on pictures on Facebook!! (How many times have you been implored by companies and products with the line 'Like us on Facebook'?) . It has gone to the level that now Mr Zuckerberg is planning on deleting all the fake profiles conjured up for the sole purpose of canvassing 'Likes' and inflating their public profile. Apart from these, there are other innumerable comparisons being done like best bike, prettiest girlfriend, richest boyfriend, best gifts received on birthdays...blaaaaah. Leaving intricate details aside, the broad picture shows an extreme form of depravity and materialism that has seeped into the life of youngsters today.

               Even though I can't say I really enjoyed Karan Johar's 'Student of The Year', it had one point worth noting. A single competition to win the school's most prestigious award marred all friendships,even turned the students bitter towards their parents. There would be no worthwhile memories to be left behind, just a single trophy in the hands of a single person. Even in the domestic scene, we see siblings competing to outdo each other, to earn a wider share of their parents' attention. They don't want to share rooms with each other because they want a bigger room for themselves. More the belongings, better the life, that's what they think. Where is the love, damn it?  Do we want to grow up remembering the steel cover of our laptop, or do we want to grow up on the loving bonds of our parents and siblings? Are memories of our gadgets and clothes going to live with us or will our memory ring with the uncaring laughter and joy of your family members' sweet voices? Although this is totally our choice to make, I will end the rhetoric of this paragraph by saying 'Hug your sister or brother, mother or father today. Show them you love them now, do not wait till later, because later never comes. Take that one holiday from your work to spend time with your family.' It will do a whole lot of good for you.

               If ever we can slow down, sidestep our race track and leave the maze altogether, we will find richer pastures to explore, a brighter horizon and have more prospects for adventure. And one day, we will see that we will have reached a point analogous to our former finishing line, but the difference is that, we will not stop there, we will keep on going further, as there is no real finishing line in life. Also, the satisfaction we will get will not be one of having defeated our friends and family, it will be one of having done good ourselves. I will add the cliched line 'Compete against yourself, not against others'. Because only we have the power to truly forgive ourselves, others will never forgive us completely. We are not rats scuffling for a block of cheese, we are humans, capable of learning from each other. After all, as the famous philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthi said ' Everyone is a student, and everyone is a teacher.'

Images from the Internet

The Festival of Lights

Setting the skyline ablaze,
It celebrated its own grand arrival.
Diwali, the festival of lights was here.
Scintillating fireworks danced in the air
flaunting their vibrancy.
Resplendent lamps adorned homes,
beckoning to the Goddess Lakshmi.
Little boys burst noisy crackers
on the crowded local street.
Being boisterous made them happy.
Troubling innocent passer-bys,
they giggled mercilessly,
and then gorged on sweetmeats.
Draped in their finest saris,
the women personified harmony.
Praying and chanting devoutly,
they wished for love and prosperity.
Celebrities hosted luxurious parties,
with sumptuous dishes and savouries,
The aroma wafting in the air.
It was the festival of grandiosity.
For some, it wasn't.
College students missed familial bonds.
It was one of the rare times
rooms became tidy and immaculate.
That was the very least they could do.
Taking a stroll on the beach side,
they admired the luminous ambience.
Lighting a few sparklers now and then
to watch the beauty dazzle away.
A few girls remained aloof,
Diwali was too mainstream
for them to participate in.
From the prison compound,
he gazed at the unbound sky.
It seemed to taunt him,
exalting in illuminated glory.
Nostalgia swept cruelly over him.
He longed for his wife's caress
and his daughter's laughter.
Diwali, came and left.
And gave different gifts to all.


Images from the Internet

Eighteen years of Enlightenment

               

                    It has now been officially eighteen years since my formal education began. Going back from now, currently in my final year of engineering, to those fun and frolic filled playschool days : eighteen long years.To think of it I had just my first two years tucked away in the comfort of home. At the age of three, one fine morning I was sent off to this strange and unknown place known as 'school' . Man, I cried. Wailed my heart out to be precise. My parents were abandoning me, or so it felt like. How tragic it was, really.

                  Okay, now fast forwarding the sentimental aspects of schooling. Let's get into the technical part. Just why do we need 'schooling'? I am sure all of us would have pondered over this question at some point of the other, especially during the dejection associated with exams. We appreciate Pink Floyd for their song 'Another Brick in the Wall', whole- heartedly empathising with the line 'We don't need no education!!'. But maybe, the double negative there does imply that we actually do need education. Without education, we would have been very different from out current selves. We might not really have been ill mannered blokes, without knowing a thing, as we imagine sometimes. Because education is not just confined to the compound walls of a school or college. Education occurs at every step of our lives, whether we realise it or not. Any dictionary will tell you that education refers to transfer of knowledge and skills from one party to another. Every time you learn a new thing, however inconsequential, you are being educated.

                 However, formal education has its own share of credit. The whole process of going to school and college just consolidates education , making it formal and infusing discipline into us. We are not really born with an innate desire to learn something every day. It teaches us how to interact with people, we start with our friends and teachers. It is the first time we are pushed out of our comfort zone. We are taught that there are people out there who don't really care about our well being. We learn to defend ourselves and be strong. We learn about ourselves, discover our interests, and this is what makes us productive individuals later in life. We learn to respect others point of views, and more importantly, learn to respect ourselves.

               Tolerance is fostered in a person when he/she learns that anyone is free to have their own opinion and views. When this happens on a large scale, education can be used as an effective weapon to sensitize the population, infusing values and morals into individuals. Education teaches us the power of forgiveness. Religion is a type of education which teaches us the importance of self control. This is why we often see an inverse relation between the education rate and crime rate in an area. We are taught the right kind of living, it cements our conscience. Isn't it strange, that all the points that I have mentioned above, do not, at any point make any adherence to the benefits of learning facts from  prescribed textbook. Because, that is where formal education actually fails.

             We will never ever be able to recollect the details of what we read from a textbook, if asked to do so many years from now. well , unless you have an 'eidectic' or photographic memory. Pouring over my 'Computer Communication' textbook before my exam, my mind was elsewhere, trying to make some sense out of me having to study that obscenely thick textbook. And in a moment of epiphany, I realised the real meaning of education. You may have already got this eureka moment, in which case please forgive my slightly delayed cognizance. I am, however delighted to proclaim my moment of enlightenment. And here comes my inference- Education is nothing but LEARNING TO LEARN. The facts that I was exposed to in   that dreaded textbook were going to make it easier for me to learn something new I will be learning later in my career, as I know I will never be able to remember the exact contents ever again. In fact, a day has passed since that exam got over, and I already feel ignorant about the concepts of computer communication. However, hopefully a few concepts have been ensconced somewhere deep in my subconscious, and it is this  which is going to make further learning easy. I am now better off than a beginner. What a relief. 

            We all need a cross between formal and informal education. We shouldn't let the former hinder the latter, and we should use the latter to enhance the former. We should expand our minds and be able to question everything. Curiosity is the ultimate precursor to a correct education. If we are not curious about something, we will never learn it. Learning how to question is education. Learning how to entertain other's views while maintaining your own is education. Having the interest to learn new things, anything under the sun is education. Speaking in economic terms, education is the ability to create 'human capital'. The phrase I have used 'Learning to learn', in the language of economics translates to increasing human capital - 'the ability to increase your knowledge, skill and value as you continue doing something, thus improving your remuneration over time'. Education gives you the ability to give back something to society. The fact is that educated people will be able to get a higher value of salary and get promoted in future years, because they have the ability to work on their existing knowledge base and improve their own human capital. Labourers end up doing the same activity time after time, not being able to create anything new in future years than what they were making before. Creativity is the beauty of a right education.

             Education is adventure. I say this, because, if you want to know something, and you read up about it, you will be transported many miles to your destination, to the person, place or thing you want to know about. And the medium of education can vary. It can be a person, a book, a laptop, a television, an advertisement, practically anything which has the ability to provide knowledge. It just a person's choice what he/she wants to get exposed to and wants to learn. Personally speaking, I can safely conclude that in my four years bachelor degree course, I have learnt much more by reading about stuff I don't know about on my dear laptop and living independently in my city than all the collective knowledge I have gained attending classes. So, if you are one of the few people in the world who have access to the resources for an education, whether formal or informal, be blessed. And also do learn something from this wonderful revelation by Mark Twain 'I never let my schooling interfere with my education.' and an honest advice by Frank Zappa, 'If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want to get educated, go to the library. '

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