Ne plus ultra....

I remember listening this particular song as a child…a typical Bollywood-ishtyle children song…in which they wish to make the world as per their will…and eradicate everything else….I realize the relevance of the song today…

I know I might sound to some as a rather “out of mind” case…but I believe there does exist something like “Utopia”...so what if only it is in one’s mind…Anything where things happen as per one’s own will…where there are no restrictions/conflicts…where every person is “normal” (that’s when every person thinks like oneself)…is almost close to “Utopia”…

And yet…I would love to stay in a world that’s imperfect….in a world that’s full of people who aren’t “my type”…in a world where I have to strive to get what I want….probably that’s what keeps us all going….Perfection’s rather boring!!!

Life’s probably all about rejoicing these un-expected moments of mirth amidst tragic strifes...about smiling when you hear your favourite number during brain-hammering sessions of work….about seeing mom get you coffee to relax when your computer has crashed down…….about getting an unexpected call from your long-lost friend when your boss has just screamed at you….Ah now!!!That’s Utopia to me….

Wo(e)men---did they say???

One point of time my friends used to call me a feminist….and I would oblige them with yet more reasons to say so…..

True, I am absolutely proud to belong to the “fairer sex”...True I advocate equal rights for women…True , I believe those discriminating on the basis of sexism are worse than those practicing apartheid. And yet its also true that I feel sometime we tend to overdo it!!!

I have never supported the 33% reservation policy. I know there would be quite a few eyebrows raised when I say this…But I genuinely believe one either has the potential to make a place for oneself….or doesn’t. There’s no midway to success!!You would definitely make it big if you have the caliber-no matter what your caste, colour, creed or gender is!!So why “reserve” place for women….It, according to me, does not advocate equality for women…it attempts at elevating their social status (and ultimately lands up degrading us!!!)as compared to men. Why can’t we be just equals??

Today this feeling got further flared as I read the following link:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061211/asp/calcutta/story_7114587.asp

Why should we have an all-women book fair? Why segregate events / talent on the basis of gender? There never has been an all-men book fair…has it???Then why is the society so proud of hosting an all-women event??

When would we start living in the 21st century??...not only per se chronology but also in our maturity level???

Would they or would they not???

Is Abhishek Bachhan marrying Aishwarya Rai????Are they already married???Did they go to Varanasi for any nuptial rite????

Will someone tell me what difference it would make to any of our lives? The answer’s more of than obvious….And yet every gossip is paid heed to…Each fallacy committed by the couple scrutinized and comb-searched for some hope (-lessness)...Each photograph of them smiling/hugging/cheering/smirking/frowning gaining popularity by the day…Each expression on their (and of course their parents’) faces inspected with absolute curiosity.

These celebrities claim to be tired of this “un”wanted paparazzi torture….I beg to differ…If they really are tired why would they go to a public place to attract attention? Why would they publicize the gala time they had during their recent holiday!!!???

We, the commoners claim we are exhausted of yellow journalism…of sensationalized news items…of every news being forced to be an item! Again here lies the catch …If we really were how would the sales of these film magazines and gossip newsletters soar sky-high…??

The fact is – it’s a symbiotic relationship….Neither our curiosity nor their vanity would be satisfied without each criticizing the other. And hence the apprehensions continue….
We shall soon be revelling in the gaiety as the country’s most eligible bachelor weds the cold maiden (oops I hope I haven’t offended her admirers…!)...Would they or would they not???...
Watch this space for updates… :)

The days gone by.......

Irony, thy name is life!!!

True, very true! How else can you explain the merrymaking one indulges in to celebrate his/her step towards geezerhood…to put in sweeter terms – birthdays!!

Okay I’m getting a year older tomorrow and here’s what I plan to do…Slog at office like usual till say 7 ,with occasional interruptions of my cell buzz(or so I’d like to believe)…and then have dinner with my select set of friends…and ….that’s it I guess!!

Gone are the days when I would excitedly wake up on 24th of Nov to find a “surprise” pack that my parents would leave at my bedside…That was one surprise I could trade the world for!!!Best of clothes, accessories and everything I wanted…sometimes all would be matched in colour(I actually had a fetish for that)…the “surprise” had it all….Then Dad would pack chocolates to be distributed in school,a respite from uniform and then an evening of friends and uncles and aunties around with loads of gifts and awesome meal with all my favourite dishes….That was what my birthday meant for me…..How I miss those days…

And then came the days of adventurous birthdays....the day just got better with every passing year at the hostel…first year was more of a somber midnight celebration with practically unknown faces clapping and hogging on MY birthday cake…soon followed by the crazy days to come…I still claim my best birthday was the one during my final year in college when my friends “surprised” me during a late night walk at the meadows where I was made to cut my cake….One helluva birthday that was….

Now my dear darling parents and most of those crazy friends are physically away from me…and the ones who’re here won’t be here again…Things are not the same….but then they never are….Every birthday has been unique and as long as they’re happy dare I complain!!!??? Noibo Noibo cho(that’s a Bong touch to my birthday;))…

??

There’s a lot more to life than meets the eye..and probably its realisation time for me…Of late a lot of things have been happening around me which could categorically be termed as bizarre or to say the least unpleasant!!

Good things ,as they say,happen to good people…But the not-so-nice things which have happened in the recent past have affected “good people” the most! I do tend to question my firm belief on the “karma” concept…..What is it that rules one’s life? When does one get a reward for being true to one’s conscience?

A friend of mine had once said…”I’ll pray that your wish comes true if it is good for you”…probably that is the essence of life…things that are good for oneself in the long run happen…but the intermediate period of pain is what hurts the most…

These are random thoughts that have been haunting me of late…. Contemplation on this confuses me…and I’m quite sure, bores the reader!!!I apologize for that…But one cannot really write happy observations when such things happen…

I hope I get back to my happy self soon….but then that would require some positive things happening around….Lets see :)

Time...what's that???

Now I just have to blog about this..Its about an incident that happened with a friend of mine ….just last Saturday…..

He was to go Kolkata by our esteemed Jet airways….one of the few flight services which guarantee on-time flights…Now taken by his absolute indifference to Mr Peter Henlien’s invention( this is a bit of trivia…for all who arrived late….this guy invented a watch:))…I was kinda sure he would probably miss his flight…

But I guess God had different intentions… strangely enough he managed to start for the airport well on time... and then comes the highlight of the day…..thanks to the traffic jam of “namma bengalooroo” (read: our Bangalore) he reaches the airport at 6.15pm for a 6.20 pm flight….Obviously to face rejection by the guards at the airport who stand tall, oblivious to the traffic some 100 yards away…

My concern here is not about him missing the flight(which by the way he managed to catch)….I’d like to rather contemplate on the disastrous state of traffic in Bangalore…in fact hailing from a city like Kolkata I should know better… But it really is high time we give it a thought…..

I don't want my blog to have sermonizing overtones...All I mean is that it’s a basic thing one can do….stick to the traffic rules…so that amateur drivers like me can at least hope to sit at the steering sometime….Else it might just become a norm to be late at every occasion…. Do give it a thought people:)

Shubho Sharodiya ......

Its Shoshthi today!!!For those who didn’t get it – It’s the day that marks the beginning of the most awaited festival for us Bengalis – Durga Pujo…..

I am sitting here 3000 kilometers (not to scale ;)) away from home slogging with this Mp3 Decoder codec and behaving as though nothing’s special about the day…..but deep down my heart the Bengali in me is desperate to break away from the monotony! I do not mean to be a regionalist here….I definitely am not. But these are few moments where you miss home a bit too much…..

Durga Pujo is more to us (us includes everyone who’s tasted the fervor of those crazy 5 days at Kolkata) than a mere festival….Its an expression of our joys, fashion , mirth and a panorama of emotions which would probably have been latent otherwise. No wonder one tends to rush home every Pujo despite all other engagements. No wonder people dress up in their possible best to match up to the most gorgeously decorated city and its people. No wonder pandal hopping breaks all regular limitations of perm-time. No wonder there’s a different atmosphere of dhuno, khichuri, onjoli and dhhak in the air (spellings have been kept as close to the Bengali accent as possible). No wonder the “coolest” of us shrug off our image of a cosmopolitan and secretly shed a tear or two missing home.

That is the essence of Pujo – a feeling which perhaps no one would ever gauge or understand. And perhaps that is where we are compelled to go back to our roots – to feel the fragrance of “shiuli phool”, the beauty of “shorot kaal”, the breeze of “kaash phool”. …And that is where Durga Pujo attains the grandeur it so deservedly has been labeled with over the years….

Here’s wishing the world a lovely pujo and a beautiful year ahead... “Shubho Sharodiya” :)

The Cupid's touch!!!

Its been quite sometime that I posted here.....blame it on my project release or lack of interesting events in my life....Now don't get me wrong...there is still absolutely nothing "interesting" in my life..There's just this funny observation which dawned onto me a couple of days back..

Cut to September,2001.This friend of mine I'm going to write about next got introduced to me.The second thing she asks me is "Are you a NON veggie?"(after of course my name)....the response obviously elated her!!!

Now its September2006...the same old us...and she goes like " you know I don't like non veg much na".....and why so.....because madame is "committed" to someone who believes in being herbivorous!!!!

My intention is not to comment on which is better......that's totally beyond my concern...All I am interested is what "going around" can do to you...Not that I haven't met people who've radically changed after this turn of fate....yet everytime this thing intrigues me more so...Perhaps one spends ten times of his(definitely not the lady;)..lucky us!!!) salary/pocket money on phone bills, on restaurant bills , on petrol expenses....and yet never seems to mind that..Perhaps one keeps scribbling sweet nothings on practically any piece of paper around or keep staring at a particular photograph....and yet never seems to tire out of it!!!

I confess...I do not understand the logic...elucidations are welcome!!!!:)

The drama that wasn't meant to be....

Since the time that I've moved into my current residence,I haven't been following the idiot box( except an hour on Sundays...thanks to Desperate Housewives).....blame it on lack of time or enthusiasm!!!!So it was indeed more than a welcome change when i decided to step into the "hallowed" tv room last week...

Though a part of me desperately wanted to break the monotony (!!!???;))of life, the other could in no way force me to watch what a certain Ms. Kapoor calls the K-factor....With due respect to madame Kapoor,I cannot figure out how a 60year old hero (you have to logically calculate the time leaps to believe me)can marry his "friend" and still look like he's ready for a long-awaited honeymoon....and mind you it may be his 5th time...:)

Compromising with the situation and my PG-mates' choice...we zeroed on watching "reality shows".....Ah!!!that's nothing short of the "kramas"(That s how they call drama with the K factor you see)..I admit.

So we tuned in to this musical contest meant for kids below 15...sounds harmless and cute...doesn't it? So far so good..... Really talented kids show casing their vocal brilliance...and this "terrific trio"(thats what the anchor calls them) judging with an apparent facade of justice and fair play...

And yesterday this really small(literally!!) child was eliminated on what they all a "frightful friday".....everyone 's here consoling her....and the drama unfolds.....her mother(who's been coy and nice about the contest so far) shrieks out......pulls the mike.... pays absolutely no heed to her husband / daughter's protest....and complains aloud about how baseless the contest is...

I agree its human nature to call grapes sour under such circumstances....but the riot she created on the set was.....well ridiculously hilarious!!!Imagine the small child pulling her mother out of the stage ....judges and authorities trying to thaw her down....and she yells awfully loud about the contest's futility.....I mean how funny can people get???

I couldn't help but fall off my chair thinking how such people claim to be adults....who do not have basic control over their emotions....I'm sure her child holds a much saner head over her shoulders than her mom...Kudos to the child..!!!

I totally enjoyed the drama yesterday.....I'm sure TRPs have soared ...thanks to the lady's wrath.And what seems more interesting was that the channel authorities have realised it too....I'll conclude with what they promised at the end of the show last night...."to be continued....";)

A glint of thought!

I really do not know what has struck me of late....I have actually been thinking on things around me more deeply than I ever have....Please excuse me if you find this post too vociferous as it might just be...

It is related to a class of people which we usually call "under-privileged".My mother,who resides in the City of Joy(wonder if the city's worth that name!!), mentioned the other day about this strange profession she noticed .It was a man who had immersed himself till the neck in a filthy gutter to retrieve all the polythene wastes that might be clogging it...And more so,as mom found out, it turned out to be his full - time profession. I mean , how outrageous is this....a gutter which we refuse to even pass by as they threaten our olfactory cells, is actually a person's workplace...

I had read in the papers sometime back about the Government being pro-active in making India a better place by eliminating traces of poverty....Ah!!I thought ,another tall claim....But today when I think about it...It compels me to wonder....How exactly does the Govt. intend to implement this claim?Whose life would be at stake if such a thing is actually put to force?

It is indeed a great idea to eliminate poverty,to make the people around aware (I keep wondering how...though!!) and be more environment conscious. If one doesn't pollute the environment with polythene bags then this man down there in the gutter is spared from his filthy job.....but does one think he' s thrown out of his job...??!!What does he do for a living then?

The state Govt. of West Bengal is pondering on abolishing pull-on rickshaws that have been so far been a trademark of Bengal.True, they are nothing but subjecting a poor person to utter misery as he sweats through the streets as a rather well-fed Babu/Bibi enjoys the "ride".I confess of having "enjoyed" the same as a kid .....But then what does he do when the rickshaws are shoo-ed off the streets??Does he not earn the label of "Bekaar" in the process,thereby adding to his woes???

Intentions may be noble , but as long as they do not unite with practicality,have no meaning what-so-ever.So if we actually have to release these people from the highly in-human job they do.....we have to arrange for an alternative profession.Else we shall never achieve what we intend to....

Here's to the noble intentions!!!!

Déjà vu!

My mood today has been more reflective than any other day in the recent past....blame it on the weather...So the post that's going to follow shall have absolutely no elements of gag!!

I had this sort of feeling long back in school...say when I was in the seventh standard or so...when we were to write this essay on "Child Labour".Normally , any essay to be written required me to refer at least a desk-full books from the library or beyond(those were the times when the art of CtrlC + CtrlV were obscurities to me).As a norm therefore,I referred to quite a few books on the same topic.Its strange-the ways in which a child's mind may work!!It struck me,during the process of study,how oblivious we are to the comforts we have in life...how we take all the care/nurturing for granted...how we play past(almost literally) the so-called attention bestowed by our parents....and that was the day I went and thanked my parents for who they were.......

Years have sped by after that day.I live in a new century now.Its been five years now that I am away from home...since I have lived at home for more than three weeks.I do miss home...but I have accepted the reality that one has to move on in life.

And yet last evening...as I glanced through the pages of Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha" ...I realised how I had struck a deja-vu...how I got back at thinking the same way as I did in Std.7....how I began to treasure my childhood more than ever.Its striking how the book unfolds a Geisha's life from her point of view since she was a toddler....without a moment of boredom.It speaks volumes about her transformation as she metamorphoses from a child who had no aim in life to a lady who epitomised elegance and charm.But what struck me most is the child's struggle to survive in a big bad world without anyone she could call her own....and successfully so.

After so many years today,I am compelled to think the same way I thought years back.After so many years today,I again realise the worth of having a secure childhood.After so many years today,I feel like going back to my parents and saying a heartfelt "Thank You"...just like that....

Bon - appetit:)

Till yesterday the word "Mast Kalandar" meant no more than a hummable piece of music....and today I am smitten by it. .. Its one of those new eating joints that have been sprouting out everywhere around 80ft. road,Koramangala(Bangalore but of course).

Last evening was a rare one where my friends and I agreed to go in for a pure vegetarian dinner...and I do admit of not being particularly happy with the decision...at least initially.But I was pleasantly proved wrong.As I found out later Kalandar means "happy person" in Persian.True to its name ,the pure Rajasthani/Punjabi menu sure leaves each eater there "happy".

We gorged ourselves with parathas,dal makhani(ow my Gawd!!!that was one awesome thing..!!!),raita etc etc....gosh I'm already salivating!!Firstly, it's wonderful to see that the paranthas are wheat, thank heavens, not maida. The only things orange and yellow,as they claim here, are their interiors.

One look at the food served at Mast Kalandar and you know its been cooked with a lot of care to appease the taste buds as well as health-conscious minds(at last I can have parathas and not feel guilty !!;))I always thought healthy and tasty food are kind of antonymous - but definitely not any more.

My friends sure are blessing me for having suggested the place...And I publicly apologise to the soul whose suggestion to eat there I had so scornfully rejected!!I'm actually contemplating on going green:).

Bon - appetit Bangalore!

I call it a work-stopper!

Its 6.30p.m. now.......Work's more or less wrapped up.Its time for me to head for the place I presently call home.But I choose to glue my nose into the 17inch in front of me instead...Courtesy: Mr. Orkut Büyükkökten.Who-so-ever told this Turkish gentleman to brew up the site...was indeed far sighted(pun intended).

I always boasted myself of being able to exercise self-control, if anything.I prided myself on not freaking out if I saw something really captivating on the store-window...of being able to check my rapacity every time I encountered a Death-by-Chocolate(trust me people!!!!;)) ...of restraining from over-spending on the plush multiplex culture(I shall talk about that in one of the forthcoming articles for sure)every weekend....But alas!!!not any more..I daresay.

Blame it all on our dear Orkut dotcom.Its strange how it has managed to grip me into its fanatic(if I may say so)world....so much so that I cannot but refrain from visiting it at least once in every couple of hours.

Agreed, it does help you get in touch with those long-lost(well,not always) friends and acquaintances.In fact I myself met up with my school seniors/classmates in good old Bangalore last weekend,thanks to Orkut.But I must confess its a total work-stopper(I do not guarantee the existence of this one in the dictionary)!!Our office server has banned it(the reason being obvious of course)...and yet one shall always find a conflux of Software engineers waiting at the library internet with absolute patience only to "surf" Orkut.I fail to fathom why!!!

... And yet now I am compelled to put an end to this article(readers,you may please breathe a sigh of relief)....as Orkut beckons me.Such is the magnetism of it.Long live Mr. Büyükkökten.Long live the world of Orkut.:)

call this a prelude...if you may

Okay so here i am.....they say too much of thinking isn't good for health...I relent to that thought...end my dilemma and hereby enter the blogosphere.

So far my encounter with blogging has been restricted to posting comments for my friends..and thats where the idea of writing my own blog cropped up...somehow i hated the thought of signing up as "anonymous" every time.:)

By convention I am required to introduce myself(somehow seems highly analogous to one's entry to the world).Well I am all of 23(I strictly do not believe that women shouldn't be asked their age...Why not??) working (as every second person is)in the so-called Outsourcing industry that predominates Bangalore. A Bengali(don't dare say Bong;)) by birth, an engineer (work for Toshiba,to be precise)by profession and a blogger by choice.That's me ....And trust me there's lots more to that.

So if you're sure you are fine with the first 3 paragraphs and actually (???%%$$@@#???) want to delve further more into my blog...may i continue??!!!

A cliche , as it may seem , I'd like to tell the tale of how my blog came to be known as "Sentience".I was chatting with a friend of mine..and simultaneously thinking as to what i should call this space of mine..and "eureka"(come to think of it,eureka itself is a decent name..wat say??) I got "sentience".I hate to quote the dictionary..but didn't have better words to describe it - The faculty through which the external world is apprehended..thats sentience for me.I intend to make this space a faculty through which I can express myself to the world.And if you do not mind trowelling more into all that ...do check out for this space..