MJ... My Man

I vividly remember when MJ's album History (1995) hit the stores, I was in 11th standard then. It was a 2 cassette pack costing Rs 150/-. I could not buy it then as I had no pocket money and most importantly my parents did not encourage western music. It was partly due to my mother’s migraine and they also considered it as jarring and juvenile. Like any other boy in his teen, who was born and bred in a small town like Lalgudi, undoubtedly Michael Jackson (We pronounced Michael as Michale) would have been the first, foremost and only known face in the popular western music then. My first introduction to western music was the song Dangerous from the album named Dangerous. I secretly managed to tape that song and would have listened to it a million times. I would come to know of Thriller, his biggest ever hit album, only after I entered med school. There I would try "the moon walk" with the aid of talcum powder on the floor, but was unsuccessful. We would have watched his videos infinite number of times and once we even planned to perform one of his on stage acts with Gugi as MJ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC1TTz2bMmM&feature=related . We had to abandon it later due to lack of funding and also we could not get the full tape. Later, we managed to incorporate few steps of his in one of our stage performances.

I was only appalled when he became the epicentre and embroiled in many controversies. Nevertheless he remained an icon to me. Last night the news came as quite a shocker as I had a surreptitious plan to make it to one of his 50 concerts in London O2 arena and it was my childhood wish to attend one.

Well, now i think it is time for me to buy MJ’s History album at least.

Wake me up when the wars end

I have only been left with a heavy heart whilst reading, listening, seeing and thinking about the plight of innocent civilians who had been caught in the war ravaged parts of Srilanka and the rest of the world. Their only mistake being the place and their parentage.

Whose mistake is it??

Whose mistake is it anyway? If only, people could shed their egos, sit on the table to talk and realise that religion, land and money would not bother to come along when they burn up in flames, the world would be a slightly better place to live.

Altercations with ALTER EGO

Blessed is he, who conceived the idea of sub urban trains for Chennai. A Taxi travel from Mambalam to Chennai central would make you poorer by 200 bucks. Needless to mention the traffic. By Train you spend only miniscule money and the travel time is cut by one fourth. In this selfish act, I also derive pleasure by claiming my contribution in cutting emissions.

My sub urban train arrives on the dot in Mambalam and I reach Park station in exact ten minutes and by the time I reach central station its only 15 minutes, while the journey would have taken an hour by an auto and by taxi... a bit more. At central station, I sift through the display board to locate my train. There it is... on platform no.4. I ease myself to the cozy corner of my seat after locating my compartment A2. On the way I purchased couple of Tamil and English magazines. Strangely, I have the habit of reading magazines and newspapers from the last page.

As I run through the magazine pages, a nagging headache hits me bi frontally. My addiction to caffeine goes back to college days and headache is a withdrawal symptom. Unlike Alcohol, Caffeine withdrawal takes only hours to manifest. To my satisfaction I find a coffee day outlet. As chance would have it, there is no coffee... only tea... I am told.

Then why would they name it as Coffee Day? Muppets...

Anyways, the Cardamom tea tasted brilliant. The moment I finish my tea a coffee wala passes by. I frantically gather myself to chase the boy and succeed in the HOT pursuit. Finally, a cup of coffee.. A Book and coffee to keep company.. what more do I want in life?

Babes in the (outlook) magazine are stunning. Heaving a sigh, I notice a prying eye from the side. My co-traveler, an elderly gentleman is simply staring at me.

"What am I? An alien or something?" that’s my alter ego for you.


I just cannot stand someone staring at me. My psycho mind starts doing permutations and combinations to unearth the reason for his stare and it successfully narrows down to 2.

1) Carlo Bruni’s picture in the magazine in a semi compromised state.

I close it, but the stare is still unabated.

2) It must be my coffee.

ME: "Is it the coffee which is bothering you?" I didn't hesitate to ask him

OLDIE: "Yeah. Why would you drink so much coffee?" oldie with puzzled looks asks me

MY ALTER EGO: "What's your problem oldie?"
ME: "Oh.. hmmm.. I am sorry...Mr..?"

OLDIE: "Mr. John Mathew"

ME: "Yes sir! This is a coffee and the one before this was a tea"

Now his amusement turns into abhorrence.

MY ALTER EGO: "Now Oldie.. enough is enough. Piss off"

Luckily, oldie gets a call in his mobile.

"Saved by the bell,"I grumble

Anyways, Have I mentioned that I am going to Kochi for a training course?
Hope this answers your wheres and whys.

As I drown the coffee with a jitter a samosa wala passes by

"I must have it. How can I miss having a samosa?" the greedy alter ego again

Give into the temptation Rakesh my friend had once said.

This time I am doubly careful to catch hold of the samosawala out of sight from the oldie and gobble couple of samosas in a jiffy and sprint back to my berth.

"Tickets please" the TTE s voice stirs me up.

I show the e ticket, which my loving sister had booked for me. The identification I need to carry in this case is my driving license, and it is a MUST. The TTE has every right to toss me out if I am not carrying one.

"Driving license sir" TTE again.

I start searching my wallet for my driving license fruitlessly for 10 minutes.

"Uh!! Oh!! Am sorry. I don’t have it. I think I have misplaced it".

I notice a prying eye from the side. Again....

Random Thoughts

1)A model was estranged by her family including her husband and was found begging in New Delhi streets... the reason being drug addiction... Well... Who cares??? Its the media and the Nation Commission for Women(NCW). Do they care for 50% of people who live in this country below poverty line? Do they care for farmers who die eating rats and hang themselves because of poverty?

2)Breaking news on air all over about Sanjay Dutt! Who the hell is this guy? An actor cum anti social that possessed guns, which a mafia don, gave at the time of mumbai blasts! Do we have to give so much attention to this guy who allegedly had a hand in this blasts? When will the media stop sensationalizing these issues and let the law take its own course?

Who knows? Probably the mafia would have paid a lump sum to sensationalize his issue and to gather a public movement in support of him.

To Mr.Rajdeep Sardesai and Mr.Prannoy Roy....We don’t care for Sanjay dutt!

3)India would be better off without these so-called Communists and a Pseudo secular Indian National Congress. Can anybody make a bloody mess of such an important deal? They did! Why wouldn’t the left oppose it from the word go! What on earth were they doing when all the preliminary discussions were taking place? Was Mr.Prakash karat hibernating? Probably he wouldn’t have got the wake up call from his Chinese masters! Dear Mr. Karat, rename your party as Communist party of China!

And a Muppet PM to add insult to the injury!

A man to remember ( and to practice??!!)/ Gandhi revisited

Recently, Lage raho munnabhai a bollywood movie had created a whole new wave about Gandhism. I happened to see the movie and as an entertainer it was nowhere near Munnabhai M.B.B.S. but I must say that I felt good at the end of the day for the message it carried (Gandhigiri). I must also confess that it had induced me to read more about Gandhi, father of our nation and a man who inspired the likes of Martin Luther king and Nelson Mandela. I started to debate within myself about his relevance in today’s world, how feasible his principles are to practice and how much those principles hold good today. Here are my thoughts………

A glimpse of Gandhism

Satya (Truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence) are two pillars of Gandhism. Brahmacharya (celibacy), Vegetarianism (rather tee-total), respect for other religions were also his main principles. Gandhi used fasting as a form of protest and to exert mental control.

Gandhigiri in 2006

I personally consider celibacy and vegetarianism are illogical in today’s context for very obvious reasons. This leaves us with the pillars of Gandhism namely Satya and Ahimsa.Are both these principles practicable?

Yes and No

On a broader context, as a nation if we start enacting laws or act based upon Gandhian principles it would mean that we are being soft towards terrorist minds and people like Mohd. Afsal guru would go unscathed. And when Pakistan makes another kargil like attempt we as ahimsa vadis will be gifting whole Kashmir to Pakistan. Likewise Ladakh and Sikkim to China, Assam to ULFA, Nagaland to Naga Rebel group which would ultimately lead to disintegration of India and she would cease to exist in the future.

But when it comes to day-to-day deeds it could certainly be inculcated in our own way. It would definitely make a world of good when it is applied in personal life and make the world a better place to live. In the society, it could be a tool to fight corruption (as in the movie), dishonesty, immorality etc., but certainly it would need a mass movement headed by a mass leader like Gandhi or wait for the great Gandhi himself (if you believe in rebirth).

Gandhi’s principles are simple yet difficult to practice. May be we can utilise his principles on as and when basis.

Finally, a quote that captivated my eyes…

“ An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind”. How true it is…

A conversation to forget!

“Okay my dear sons… That’s it! I shall see you on Thursday and many thanks for helping me. Good day!”- That’s my consultant after a hectic day in the hospital.

Rumbling noise in my tummy starts mounting every second and I decide to go for a kill straightaway. We (an Indian, a Pakistani, a Sinhalese) hit the restaurant very next moment. I get myself a plate of fries and settle at the usual table in which my name is not written. My Sinhalese colleague joins me and the Pakistani vanishes into thin air (I always suspect him for that).

(Earlier in the day my Sinhalese colleague and me were involved in an animated conversation about the problems in Srilanka,Islamic terrorism etc.,)

He restarts the conversation on the same sensitive topics as I gobble down the fries (the only edible thing in our restaurant) and start sipping my diet coke (trying to kill the pathogenic intestinal flora. ha.). I succeed in pulling him out of that conversation finally. Then it just happens….

My colleague (SE): Alright! Where are you staying?
Me: In Walnut Grove. With my friend.
SE: Oh! What’s your friend’s name?
Me: (I tell him the most common name in the world)
SE: Oh! He is a Muslim! (I could see the amused reaction in his face)
Me: Yeah!
SE: How are you adjusting with a Muslim?
Me: What do you mean by that?
SE: Are they friendly?
Me: What are you talking about? He is my Friend and I have (n) number of Islamic friends.


The discussion enters onto heated lines. One of his points is that the Islamic friends who are in Lanka support Pakistan when they play against Lanka.
I say, “I don’t know about that but it’s not the case in India”.
I tell about the amicability between religions and the secular feeling among the Indians and cite an example that the president of India is a Muslim himself and reads Gita everyday apart from doing Namaz 5 times a day.

Finally, I wouldn’t be able to convince him that Muslims are not separatists (after all the deliberations).

The end result: I reach home with a headache…

One thing that still irks me;

Why so much hatred?

A talk to remember...

A talk to remember…

At the stroke of midnight hour Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru made his historic Tryst with Destiny speech to the constituent assembly after an address by the President. Here it is...


Tryst with Destiny 14-15 August, 1947
-Jawaharlal Nehru

Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still
larger cause of humanity.At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes, and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future ?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom, we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the One we shall take today. The service of lndia means the
service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work and work hard to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments. To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we appeal to join us' with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell. I beg to move, sir, that it be resolved that:
After the last stroke of midnight, all members of the Constituent Assembly present on this occasion, do take the following pledge:

(1)At this solemn moment, when the people of India, through suffering and sacrifice, have secured freedom, I a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, do dedicate myself in all humility to the service of India and her people to the end that this ancient land attain her rightful place in the world and make her full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind.
(2)Members who are not present on this occasion do take the pledge (with such verbal changes as the president may prescribe) at the time they next attend a session of the Assembly.
Reference:
Constituent Assembly Debates