On watching TV and writing!!!

Television has long been called an Idiot box but the latest news is that this " Idiot box " has evolved, and now has the capacity to transform anyone who looks at it too long into an Idiot. I dont want to go into the semantics here and everyone is free to choose his or her definition of an Idiot.

With the advent of televison, there was a need for more and more programs so that more and more people could be hooked to it. This was needed so that more and more people could get away from whatever meaningful it was that they did, with their time, and spend time sitting in front of the TV munching chips or some such thing and exercising their fingers on the remote.

Then their were enough programs to fill one channel, so the next best thing happened, new channels were set up. These new channels needed new faces, new ideas, new celebrities. People began to get their fifteen seconds of fame. The fifteen seconds expanded into fifteen minutes and then fifteen hours. But at the same time, strangely, people that used to get fifteen years of fame began to get fiftten months of it and now fifteen weeks. Soon we will forget who the real heores are and who are the pretenders. After all its the age of equality for all.

We have channels for everything music, fashion, news, religion, nature, movies-- you name it, they have it. Now you dont have to go out side to smell the air, see the birds chirp, enjoy nature or anything at all. And chances are if you go out you will step into a world of concrete where a cacophony of sounds from the vehicles and people alike will welcome you. There will be no bird in sight and the greenery that you will see will seem to be asking the question : Why am I here? Do I even belong here?

Watching TV also gives you a chance to enhance your look. Look at it long enough and soon you will need glasses and the you can experiment with the way you look. You can either go for glasses or use contacts and change the colour of your eyes every day. Isnt that an amazing gift?

Reading was something that we all did before we had TV. Who can read Wuthering Heights and not be affected by the moors and the bleak hills or read Great Expectations and not feel the atmosphere in Miss Havisham's room where the clocks have stood still for twenty whole years or read Hamlet and not feel the dilemma ...to be or not to be...of Prince Hamlet? But thankfully we have Television now, it has made our jobs so much easier. There is no need to apply ones mind and read those books that made us feel that we were living in a different age. Now we can let the directors do the hard work and the thinking for us...all we have to do is sit in front of a TV and see the movie and never have to think for ourselves. Thinking after all is taxing and the latest research ( ok this might not be true but I am very sure I read it somewhere) suggests that one hour of thinking takes more energy than three hours of working out.

Shakespeare...

Shakespeare was a great man. Each of his play is replete with statements that hold true even now, centuries after he wrote them. These things are going to stay this way till either the world comes to an end or the cybernetics or bio-genetics guys make people that are not capable of human emotions as we know them today. The greatness of Shakespeare is evident by the fact that his name is not unfamiliar to many across cultural, social , economic and even language divides. This blog talks about some such statements that are hard for me to forget.

“Some people are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”. Truly said and the statement holds for almost every good or bad thing in life. As with good things we can say about the bad things too : “ Some people are born bad, some achieve badness and some have badness thrust upon them”.

“If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it so that my appetite for it may sicken and so die”. I can’t explain the relevance of this statement per se but what I can say is that (and all those out there in love will vouchsafe for it) music and love are deeply connected. A song or even just a line of a song becomes a representation of your entire love and all it stands for and you just can not have enough of it. One musical note can define what a thousand words cant.

“What’s in a name? A rose will smell just as sweet by any other name." Again that’s very well said and I guess it’s a major set back to the numerologists who make the celebrities change their names because it doesn’t augur well for them. Someone should tell them that a change of name won’t make them play a game better or improve their acting skills or whatever it is that they do. Lets take the example of rose: across cultures and communities it is a representation of love though it might have different names in different countries and languages. Their might be some exceptions but exceptions don’t prove the rule. They never do. An exception is just that – an exception.

“Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned”. This one needs no explanation, I am sure. We all agree on that.

“Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest”. This has been written in various forms and styles and found among all time famous quotes and will be found on the walls of most people that like to post such notes on their walls. But how many of us are able to do that.

There are so many other quotes that are attributed to him, which not only make for a great read but can help us understand the way we, humans, behave, The greatness of Shakespearean stories are not in his plots but in the way he weaves the characters into his play.

Another incident that comes to mind here is from Julius Caesar. Cassius is trying to convince Brutus that even the great Julius Caesar can fall a prey to the art of flattery. Brutus tells him that Caesar hates flattery. And Cassius retorts and says:” Tell him that and he will be most flattered”. Cassius was right. That happens to the best of us. However hard we try we are not immune to some praise.

Late Once again!!!

This is the second week in succession that I am late in posting something here. But this time I Have genuine reason for that and more than one. My computer has given up its ghost and it will take some time before I can get it up and running again. I, also, have not been doing well healthwise so I missed the Sunday deadline once again.Hopefully this never happens again.

The story that I started last time can not be completed because as I began to try and complete it, it began to get really bizzare and even then I could not find a good enough ending for that. And after making you read the first part I did not want you to go through the ordeal of reading the second part and ending up even more disappointed.

Life has a habit of throwing up various surprises at regular intervals - some good some bad. Some are like earthquakes that shake the very building and foundation of our existence. When one faces such a situation in one's life, he has two choices. One is to let the debris fall on him and get buried in the broken fragments and pieces of life and the second is to sterr clear of what is shattered and past and start building afresh. The second choice,definitely, takes up a lot of courage and grit but is the one that every sensible person should go for. Though people more often than not find it really difficlt to forget what has happened to them and several end their lives. Definitely not a good choice.

But we should always try and look at the brighter side of things. Every cloud has a silver lining, and as someone has very rightly said that if all the people in the world were to put their sorrows in a heap most of us would be very happy to come back with our own set of sorrows. On that note I will take leave and hopefully I can get my computer back to work soon enough and maybe I will write a mid week special post.

Weird!!!!

My post here is two days overdue. My sincerest apologies to all those who came here on Sunday to find something new, but had to leave disappointed because the old post from last Sunday was the latest development here. But once it was two days late, I had more than half a mind to let it wait till next Sunday. Then I thought, this blog is about discipline and it’s better late than never.

Once I had decided that something had to be written, I was lost for ideas. Then I began to think and there were a couple of things that got my attention. The most remarkable was an excerpt from the Ramayana, one of the two epics of the Hindu mythology. That excerpt is very relevant because althought written nobody knows how long back it describes the situation of the world today in pretty great detail. Then there was this conversation, I had, with a Doctor friend of mine about the importance of society in building an individual. Then there is this little one act drama tha is looking to find a place on this blog for quite some time. But, what finally won a place here is quite strange. I thought of this in a moment of inspiration and that is the only thing in its favour. It's definitely not the best things I have ever written but most definitely the craziest.

“
It was a holiday. Jamie knew all his friends would be going out and having fun, but not him. He had to stay home and do nothing. Maybe watch TV, but that would be the most fun he would have. His parents were going out leaving him all to himself but he was not very unhappy about the last fact. A part of him was glad - no company was better than his parent’s company.

“ Keep the door locked all the time from the inside” his dad called out.

He was pretending to be asleep so he just mumbled something in return. His father had not even waited for his response so even if he had said something it would have been a waste of breath. Jamie didn’t like wasting things.

Not even twenty seconds had passed when there was a loud knock on the door.

“Who could it be?” thought Jamie “ can't even let a guy sleep in peace”

He waited for some time for whoever it was to go away but there was knocking again and this time it didn’t stop, just grew louder and louder. Jamie got up in anger, threw the sheet away and went out ready to take on whoever it was banging his door like drums. He wouldn’t be the only one who would have a bad day today, Jamie thought to himself. Jamie opened the door and to his surprise the very friends he thought would be out having fun were standing at his door. He was pleasantly surprised and it took hardly a nano second for all his anger to melt away - no melting takes time- to vaporize.

“ Come on in guys.” He called out to them.

“ That’s why we are here” said one of them as they walked in to the room. There were six of them. All of them were pretty ordinary, no one had any feature that would make them stand out. It was a writer's nightmare if he had to sit down and start describing them because at the end he himself would be confused who was who let alone make it clear to the reader. In this story or the part we are going to deal with it is the number that’s important so we are not going to even try to describe them. They were six in number.

Jamie was pretty excited about having his parents out and friends in. Barely five minutes ago he never thought he would get so lucky.

“ Lets play cards. Get out your money guys and lets gamble like…err gamblers” Jamie said.
“That’s why we are here” said another of the guys and sat down on the table.

The table had six chairs and now there was no room for Jamie.

“Ok so since six players can play we have to find a way to choose who goes.” said Jamie.
“Ok, Lets do that now we are here” said one of the six guys.

But before anything could be decided a voice was heard from the outdoor.

“Jamie the soccer team wants you to play cards with them.”
“Who left the door open” was Jamies first thought.
“What is this soccer team” came second and this went to his larynx which moved and this was heard.
“ The guys on the second floor” A prompt reply from the outsider.

All the six guys were looking at Jamie with an expression that said “ Ok now we know the six players on this table. Go”

Jamie resonded wth a stare: “Hold your horses. Let me see what this thing is about and I will be back in a second.”

He thought maybe his dad wanted to take the playing cards with him and this was just a way fof getting him down and bring the cards along. So he quickly picked up the new pack of cards and left before any of the six guys had any chance to complain.

“ I will be back” he said quickly and rushed out.

Jamie knew everyone who lived on the second floor except that one apartment.

" The soccer team must be living there”

The only link Jamie had with soccer was that he was once roughed up by the soccer team at his school for using their room.

He always hated any soccer team since then and why any soccer team guys wanted to paly cards with him was beyond him.

“Whatever. I should get over with it and get back to my game of cards in my room soon”

He saw the room, in the apartment he was planning to go in to, open. He walked in ...cautiously…there was no one there. Jamie quickly moved in and picked up the baseball bat, lying on the floor, and swung wildly behind the door. Fortunately there was no one there. He moved in to the second room…it was empty too..but he could sense someone was in the room and another guy was standing by the bathroom door. He was just standing there and looking at him. The other guy was lying on the shelf in a position that can be said to be uncomfortable in the least. All in all it was a bizarre setting. Something took over Jamie and he picked up the guy lying on the shelf and put him in a sack lying nearby and tied him and started hitting him with the basebat. The guy was alive for he was flinching with every blow and moving but he uttered no sound and the other guy just stood there. Jamie was relentless in his beating and something told him that thugh he was hurting him , he was causing no major damage so he wasn’t too worried. The other guy just looked on and soon Jamie turned his attention to that guy, but he thought he was getting late for his game of cards and what he did to one of the guys was enough for them not to play a prank like that on him again. As he was leaving the room he looked out of the window and saw his dad coming back. Oh! he couldnt let him come up and see his friends in the house.

Jamie ran down and stopped his dad as he was about to board the elevator.

“ Dad why are you back”
“ I think I forgot the keys to the car.”
“ You don’t have to worry. You just wait. I will get them for you.”
“Ok.”

The elevator was taking forever in coming down and Jamie was restless. He decided to run up the stairs and he told his dad to wait while he got the keys.

On the way up to the stairs he met death. No he did not die nor was he going to die soon but he met death looking for somebody....”

This is already a long post and I am going to stop here for now. But I will continue if any of you want to know how this ends. I warned you in the beginning it is a result of a moment of inspiration and one of the craziest thing that I have ever written or I will ever write. I don’t know if the next part will be what I have in mind now because by then it might seem crazy to me myself. But I will not write it down now. It will be, if its meant to be.

Why I dont get April Fooled?

(A Note: I is not me, maybe some of me but not all, for sure)

Come first April, and the mind brings back memories of that 1 st April many many years ago…

It wasn’t a big deal, and I am sure some people have gone through worse 1 st April’s. But, for me that day will never be forgotten. I was in a boarding school then. I was not used to the boarding life and in fact I never got used to it (because fortunately, I was taken out of the boarding school and got to live with my parents…but that’s another story).

They tell me, when any of the family used to come visiting, I used to catch hold of their legs and beg them to take me out of there (That no one actually did, made me wonder if anyone loved me at all. I am sure, if I had to live in the boarding school for a few more years, I would be convinced I was unwanted). Oh! One thing I forgot to mention here—I was the youngest kid in the boarding, about five or six years old.

One fine morning (the date,as I later realized, was 1st April), I was shaken into reality from the deep, dark, secret realms of my dreams (I dream a lot, but that again is another story) by some loud shouting children, calling out my name.

“ Rahul, get up, someone’s here to see you.”

I woke up, and like always, the thought of someone coming to see me filled me with great joy. I thought maybe this was my rescuer. Maybe this time I will be able to catch hold of that leg and they wont be able to break my grip. Maybe this time they will take pity on me and take me with them.

“Who’s it?” I asked.

“ Well, someone you want to see”, said one of the kids with a twinkle in his eye. I had seen that twinkle in his eyes when he was with his parents. So, I imagined that it was my parents who had finally discovered that they loved me and couldn’t stand to live without me. I don’t know, how many of you have been in a situation like this, but the happiness I felt in those five seconds was pure and unadulterated. It was bliss; it was heaven to be alive in those few seconds. I ran (bare feet, mind you) up the stairs and into the waiting room where the visitors were made to wait. I reached there in record time (To this day, I think it’s a pity no one timed my effort).

The silence of the empty waiting room welcomed me. Yet, I was not one to give up hope so easily. I thought maybe whoever it was, was going to surprise me. I looked here and I looked there. I looked behind the door and even under the table. It never occurred to me at that time that only a dwarf could fit under that table, and I surely don’t have any dwarfs in my family. At that moment I heard laughter, jeering and shouting behind me (How heartless children can be…Ok before you say anything I accept that it was all done in good humour…but it was still heartless). I realized then, it was all a joke.

So there I was, standing with tears welling up inside me, looking at the wall, as the kids stood at the door having a good laugh at my expense. I dared not turn and face them. The moral victory would still be mine. All I had to do was to keep the tears in, get a smile on my face, turn around and join the club. Well, that was what I thought but try, as much, I could not do that. All I was able to do was run back (another record time) to my bed and wet my pillow with the most innocent tears ever shed. I was not to be rescued that day either but in the span of those fifteen minutes I experienced pure joy and extreme sadness.

Though there was a silver lining to the dark cloud . Never again, to this day, have I been fooled on an April Fool’s day.