Interpreter of Maladies
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
about SWADES and my self-realizationsI watched SWADES around a week back. Both of us, as mere audience in a jam packed hall, were quiet throughout the movie. I tried to hum with the songs but the impact of the motion picture was stupendous enough to mum my musical meanderings.
As a person, I always run from responsibilities. I am the kind of frog which would love to stay in its well, knowing there's a bad bad world outside, but who cares !!! But this was different. I could recognize the same helplessness that I feel when I look at a child selling water for 25 paise a glass on railway stations. I could also sense the humiliation when I see a malnutritioned child, his impoverished family. I can stand on my high pedestal and proclaim the nuances of physics, maths and chemistry to an elite crowd but has my science been able to help those, that need it the most ?
SWADES does not make you acknowledge those realities but it helps you re-recognize the facts that you have shied away from. I could understand Shahrukh's falling in love with the simplicity of the village. After all who hates the picturesque and scenic beauty of India? The filmmakers love it, so do the NRIs. But India isn't only this. This is only a small fraction of India. The beauty of Kasauli, the backwaters of Kerela, the waterbanks of Rishikesh...no this isn't what India is. It is time people rise up to see that India is also uneducated, underemployed and impoverished to the core. As Shahrukh's character says in the movie 'I dont believe we are a great country'. Yes, we are great because we have a rich culture, a proud heritage, a diverse geography and a unique sould. But we are the unluckiest people on the globe, because we have never utilized our own greatness. We have never repsected our own heritage, except to flaunt it in front of foreign tourists. We have never tapped into the problems and have only harked about greatness, greatness, even more greatness.
Saying this, I also realize, I have been an equal contributor to this mirth. How have I, an educated, well paid, Indian citizen, helped the masses. Forget the villages, have I ever done anything for the street urchins in my own city. The answer is an obvious no. There are many people who belong to the same sect as mine. Who know everything, have resources to help but they dont because, they have more pressing matters to cater to.
I made a start only a little time back. I started doing my own bit to educate the underprivileged kids. Telling them what matters in life; to count money; to understand road signs; to sign their name; to open a bank account. My engineering doesn't come straight into the picture but yes, I feel a strange fulfillment by doing this. I have somehow discovered my soul in the process, unearthed the reasons for my own existence. But I know this is not enough. A certain me can't change the world. It has to be a bigger contribution, more meaningful, more emphatic.
SWADES is not a remarkable movie. But it is a movie which would mean a lot for sleeping beauties like me-people who have deliberately lulled their own conscience to sleep because they have more pressing matters on hand. It is a wake up call and it is high time that people like us pay heed to it.
Friday, December 10, 2004
storyFrom the barren lands across the dried banks of the river,
where the sun is so hot, it has burned the green grass,
where girls grow faster than maize and barley
i come from that land-
a small town girl with big time dreams
raring to go before others
thats coz she has no first mover advantage
she is a back bencher of the civillization
started after others had learnt their lessons
she is neither faster, nor smarter than the crowd
still she thinks she is special
her mom thinks so-and-her neighbours think the same
though she is only-
a small town girl with big time dreams
with eyes ready to burst
and a tongue ready to lash
a dignity, thats afraid of its existence
a dignity, thats her only true friend
dreams dont cost, so she dreams a lot
loses her words and stammers often
the accent, so archaic, yet truth in her eyes
her only fault being-
she is a small town girl with big time dreams
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
listening to good old Bon Jovi after 3 years - do you believe me !!!Its been 3 years since I picked up this dust laden cassette from my closet. Its a childhood favorite, something that I have never forgotten. Its not my favorite music but yes, I have lived on it. Now that I want peace and silence in life, Bon Jovi music seems to be, at best, tangential. But something you have grown up with; it takes time to get over it. I remember sitting with friends in the garage- our old guitar, the arcane keyboard and the hoarse voices. Its not a joke but we would just stay awake screaming NEVER SAY GOODBYE. Till my mom would actually drag me to bed and march the rest back to their homes respectively. As I am listening to the same music on the walkman right now, I can feel the tingle in my bones. The excitement of Bon Jovi, ah its magic. I want to be the same, wild kid, again. When "She's a little runaway" was the theme song for me. And now, the sophisticated, peace loving, me, cant even endorse my first love. I have graduated to ghazals, Nora jones, leaving behind, the Bruce Springstee, Bon Jovi and Joe Satriani. Its the same little poor escapist inside me.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
the writer bug -it finally got the better of meThis has nothing to do with my literary meanderings...just wrote it two minutes ago and I still cant reason why have I written this...might be incpired by "Jassi jaisi koi nahi" that I saw yesterday :-))))
jo sab kuch tum le jaoge
paas mere kya bach jaayega
naye naye chikane pankhon ko
agar kaat kar le jaoge
mujhpar ye akash hansega
jo sab kuch tum le jaoge
nahi paas adhikaar bachega
na koi astitva bachega
na hi koi swapn bachega
bas main tumse jud paoongi
kya jeevan ki yahi hai asha
mere is antarman ne jo
baandhe the khwabon ke dore
ooncha udne ki abhilasha
kshitij se bhi oonche kuch sapne
agar sirf abhisaar bacha hai
jeevan mein bas pyaar bacha hai
to kya jeevan vyarth nahi hai
mera aur tumhara saathi....
agar mujhe kuch de pao to
udne ka adhikaar na cheeno
mujhse mera vishwa na cheeno
ye saara aksah ne cheeno
I was doing this on-demand analyst report on Google today and the company never really ceases to amaze me !! The founders are under 40, they own around 20% of a $1.5 billion company and what more...they are competing with Microsoft and the likes. Its amazing !!
Innovation =GOOGLE and probably its the biggest buzzword going around right now. For instance this blog, its an absolute manifestation of the prowess of the company in web-search and web based services. I liked the way the company has grown. I mean if your net income grows by 700% in a period of 2 years, its not a mean feat to achieve that. While doing the analysis, I did came across pitfalls and shortcomings but they are nothing that cannot be overcome by Google as it grows. It anyways is a very young company right now and is competing with market incumbents like Microsoft.
The simple and biggest threat is Microsoft, coz of its sheer size. The company devours a market it takes head-on and it size, revenues, market capitalization along with the monopoly in desktop PCs are factors that might even surpass and overcome GOOGLE's innovative genius.
I know this is boring for some of you...but the company has really excited me in these last two days and I just thought about telling thist o everyone in my blog...hope nobody minds !!!