Justifying a Bandh - Almost

Sitting in the corner of his shanty, Manohar kept dreading the onset of evening.....the time when his children, sleeping on a half starved stomach, would wake up and inevitably ask for some food. It was a wish he could not fulfill this evening. A question he could not answer this evening. Of course, his children would understand his silence soon enough and would not say another single word but that would only heighten his sense of despair.

Much Ado About A Tuft Of Hair

Four and a half months ago, I wrote " Me Taliban " post in a state of absolute disgust. I could not fathom how such mindless religious profiling could be demonstrated from the highest echelons of justice in the country.

To his credit, Justice Markandey Katju later apologized for his ill-informed remarks and then a week ago, a modicum of justice and sense finally prevailed and the Supreme Court advocated Nirmala Convent to reinstate the student, Md. Salim, back to school. Shooting down the conduct of the school the Supreme Court termed it "ridiculous" and thereby upheld Salim's plea of being allowed to sport a beard in school.

Untitled

~~~A year less to live...wonder whether it's a good or a bad thing~~~

Zindagi---Kya ho tum

Itna batade mujhe ae zindagi
Ke tu kis shay ka naam hai
Hai tu ek bala jo madhosh karti hai
Ya koi aanchal jo aaghosh mein bharti hai

Unclean Slate

And all this while I thought I was numb...how effing blind was I?
I am feeling-less, nothing affects me, I don't feel hurt, am a sponge ball who absorbs everything and never goes out of shape...huh...one upright middle finger to all those thoughts!!!

It pains, it hurts, it pierces the very shreds of the soul...It is my very existence. I breathe to hurt myself for every breath strikes a nail in the heart...I long to stand in front of the mirror and look myself in the eye.

Why can one not forget oneself...I so want to do it
Why is there no strength of will which can conquer self-knowledge
Why can't I wipe away myself from my memories...it would ease the passing

.....

What's with this weather mirroring my inner self...is this a way by Allah to tell me am not alone in this despair...is the whole city masked in a gloomy sky to make me not feel unwanted...does the storm rage out there to make me feel less despaired...are the trees crouching about to tell me am not the only one afraid...if that is so, I thank you Lord for this generosity but to tell you frankly, even all this is not working.

The senses are still dead...numb is still what I am.
I still cannot feel the drops of rain on my face
The strong billowing wind still does not sting the eyes
I still don't know why this is so
I still don't know why I am "Comfortably Numb"
Am not comfortable though...and yet I do not mind this
There is a certain magnetism in this state...it is appealing and alluring
It pulls me ever so close to it...and I can not help but get drawn to it
I wonder whether this is a choice I unwittingly made
I wonder whether I sort of like this
Tough questions all of these...no answers to them
None that I know of at least

Me Taliban

I belong to the Taliban and I am a Talib.....says who? Says Honorable Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju.

Oh did he...I guess he must have strong valid reasons, right? Well, he does have a reason, yes.

Gosh...so you guys have infiltrated into Indian mainland, you must be a spy, right...what else would you be in India for? Hmm...I've always been in India, you see, I was born here, have been brought up here, studied here (though we hardly study in engineering colleges:D), intend to work here too if a certain IT major does not forget me...ohh n btw, I love India too but that I suppose is besides the point.

Unravelling Love-strickness

A drop of love is what everyone lusts for

An ocean of grief is what they get

A badder bargain there never will be

And yet everyone falls for it

Are people so stupid that they cannot comprehend this uneven barter of emotions?

Plea for prayer

My youngest aunt on my mother's side is ill...very ill in fact. She's been so for the last two and a half years...pretty much everything that could be done has been done but to no avail. Not one single doctor could definitely ascertain as to what her illness is though most of them have taken a calculated guess and proclaimed it to be the dreaded C word. Medication has hardly helped and her condition has continued to deteriorate over time. There was a phase of about 4/5 months when it seemed to work and hopes of a recovery had enlighted but only to come crashing down again. Since the last 6 months not only every semblance of improvement disappeared but there has been rapid deterioration so much so that 3 days back we got a call in which the words "last stage" were mentioned. My mom and sister have gone off there to be with her. The news, though, trickling in is still bad...it's getting worse.

"Deciphering Myself"...says Love.

As I sit down to write this today...I am in a deep quandary, you see I don't know who or what I am, I am facing this massive identity crisis if i may so call it... To be fair, I was always a little abstract when it came to definitions and explanations and it sort of even made me feel proud...I mean it is a definite ego booster that even the combined intelligence of all humankind which has unraveled many a mystery and deciphered many a puzzle could not definitely conclude as regards my entity.

A Wish, A Hope

Can I smile your smile

Can I walk your mile

Can I cry your tear

Can I hold you near

Can I wish away your pain

Can I kiss away your fears

"Ek Lau Is Tarah"

Gardishon mein rehti...Behti guzarti

Zindagiyaan hain kitni
In mein se ek hai...Teri meri agni

Koi ek jaisi apni

Par khuda khair kar...Aisa anjaam kisi rooh ko
Na de kabhi yahan
Ghuncha muskurata ek...Waqt se pehle
Kyun chod chala...Tera ye jahan
Ek lau is tarah kyun bujhi mere maula
Ek lau zindagi ki maula

Mindless Mayhem!!!

As I sit down to write this, its been more than 42 hours since that first crack of lightning which left a destructive trail in its wake…a trail which is yet to be fully uncovered…a destruction which is yet to be fully comprehended…125 killed, more than 300 injured is what the official count has been put at but trust me when I say this…they have wreaked more havoc this time round. They have killed more than 125 innocent human lives…this time they have killed many an onlooker who will forever live with the memory of such mindless terror…they have injured the soul of every Indian who will forever unsuccessfully grapple with such incomprehensible rage…what can one do in the face of such inhumanity…how do you explain the actions of such individuals, let alone justify them…what could their motivations be except for incorrigible rage…

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Always been the curious one:D
I wish I could know everything there is to know but that would probably make me go mad:D...so lets just keep it to all you wonderful people's take on urs truly...
This tag allows me just the exact purrfect opportunity...so go ahead fellas.

N I off course don't need 2 tell u to be absolutely unadulterated...straight 4m d heart, only d truth.

#1. Who are you?
#2. Are we friends?
#3. Something I have and you want.
#4. Give me a nickname and xplain y u picked it.
#5. Describe me in a word.
#6. What was your 1st impression of me?
#7. Do you still think that way about me now?
#8. What reminds you of me?
#9. If you could give me anything what would it be?
#10. How well do you know me?
#11. How do you see me in the future?
#12. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
#13. Are you going to post this in your blog and see what I say about you?

Eyes of Truth

Why is the world full of crap?
What's stopping it from going and taking a hike?
Why couldn't I laugh at those jokes...were they really inane or am I full of shit? (why the fuck does this word keep coming back to me)
Why the hell am I typing all this shit? (there, it comes up again)....I should know right, but I bloody well don't or maybe I don't wanna acknowledge that I know...whatever, how the bloody hell does it matter?
One fucked up piece of crap I am, I guess.Period!!!

P.S. If anyone has the unfortunate experience of reading this, please try and pardon my language...this is just a purely unadulterated rant....On second thoughts, don't pardon coz I dun deserve it and frankly, dun even care.

P.P.S. Haven't been visiting all your blogs...try and pardon me for that instead, I really care about that.

Dard Ki Talaash...

There is something about "being in love" that is far too appealing for the human heart...it just can't do without it. I have approximately 10 very good friends out of which 8 are either in love or trying to begin being in love or even trying to continue being in love:D. Now the other day this 9th friend of mine says to me in an off-the-cuff remark that it's probably time for both of us to dive in the depths of loveville and give romance a chance and the sober me replied that "love just happens, u can't go about finding it" although the sarcastic me was so itching to retort about the various rather appealing by-products of dear love (broken hearts, long fights, living nytmares n likes). And then he goes ahead and gives me a summarized lecture inspired by Irrfan Khan in Life In A Metro *bring the car out n take ur chance* .

Of Losing What U Once Had...

I stumbled across a couple of random blogs today which were incessantly funny (n I mean that as a compliment), reading them I could not help but admire the sense of humor of the bloggers in question...his quirky take on the world coupled with an amazing sense of wit combined to produce some really humorous pieces!!!

However, apart from being the provider of some very welcome humor, what that particular blog did was to make me realize how very unfunny my recent posts have been, I mean, yeah one blogs about what one feels like blogging and more often than not one's mental processes dictate his fingers on the keyboard and you just cannot write up a funny post as such without it coming from the heart.....but that just goes a long way to prove how seriously serious I seem to have become, where has that guy gone who everyone used to look to whenever a wise crack needed to be cracked, where has that guy gone who had no qualms about laughing at himself and making jokes of some of his most embarrassing moments, where has that guy gone for whom life was a laugh-a-thon???

And for those of you who may turn around and cheekily remark that maybe, just maybe, I am a bit self-patronizing when it comes to my sense of humor, that maybe I was always this non-funny guy who could not crack a joke to save his life, that maybe all my so-called wise cracks were plagiarized.....I would request them to have a look at these
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/05/blackboards-tale.html
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/05/love-is-4-letter-word-it-means-nothing.html
http://cataclysmofreality.blogspot.com/2008/06/celeb-talk.html

These, according to my humble opinion are some of my tending-towards-humor posts, so that answers one question comprehensively.

However, the answer depresses me more coz it alludes to the fact that I have lost something...it's not as if I never had it...how much more okay would it have been if I never had it, at least I would not be going through this sense of loss, it's so much more harder to lose something after experiencing it (analogical statement) but then the reverse take on this would be that at least one had the privilege of experiencing it first hand rather than being one of those who always base their opinions and experiences on hearsay....
So tell me guys, is it better to have it and lose it or rather not ever have it and be immuned from the sense of loss???
Fyodor Dostoevsky, through his character, asks "Isn't a moment of bliss enough for a lifetime?" A very pertinent question it is too, is it necessary to experience bliss throughout life, can one not live with the memory of having experienced that single moment of bliss, is that one single moment not enough to act as a life source for ever? And if it's not, then are we being greedy in demanding a lifetime of bliss???

Ok, enough of this rant.....to think of I started talking about the loss of humor in myself and ended up talking about what-I-don't-know-yet....just goes such a long way in proving the meandering nature of my thoughts these days, come to think of it...not only my mind, my whole life is one meandering mess right now.Period!!! But let's not talk about that now coz there's only a fixed amount of self-deprecating that I can take at one time.

Neways, this is Saim signing off from here, lots of love to all of you...dun 4get 2 answer my question...till next time, so long.....c ya!!!

Fear Psychosis

They say our society is degrading...that we are losing our cultural and societal ethos...that we are so fueled by our materialistic needs that relations and friendships are being thrown off the wayside...that the young have drifted away from the rich cultural heritage of our civilization and are giving newer and uglier definitions to the terms love and respect....and I have given more than my share of staunch rebuttals to these allegations time and again...citing the points that that pining for materialistic gains is actually just a way of making life more comfortable...that we are in fact hard selling our cultural and societal ethos rather than degrading them...that inspite of our lust for $s, it's love that we all crave for....however, all these views received a jarring slap yesterday in the light of a comment by a simple, illiterate man who earns his livelihood through sheer hard work and is striving to make a better life for his children.


The man in question is a tea-stall owner and an acquaintance of a friend. This man has 4 sons, all of whom he has admitted in a good English medium school in view of giving them a quite decent groundwork to excel in life. During our casual conversation over a cuppa, he remarked..."u know beta, my son tells his mother to come well dressed to school to pick him up...says that her modest clothes make him feel ashamed in front of his friends." All of this the poor soul said with a smile on his lips, even a hollow guffaw followed...but in his eyes I saw the real meaning of his casual remark...I saw fear...fear of being unwanted by his own children once they roamed greener pastures, fear of having an uncared for old age, fear of paying the price for his modest upbringing. This fear of course has been embedded in his heart by actions of other young people that he has seen/heard.


Maybe such actions are aberrations rather than being the norm, maybe it was just a childish statement from the child in question...after all, young minds are highly impressionable...maybe the child would in due time understand that it's not the clothes that his mother wears to his school that matter, rather the sacrifices and hardships that his parents are undergoing to send him to school in a "clean dress" that matter utmost...maybe the child turns out to be the epitome of respect that parents deserve...maybe...we all wish so for everyone....but till that day a deep fear will linger in the minds of his parents...that question will continue to hound their waking hours and haunt their dreams....and it's this fact which belies me to question "Are we guilty of the allegations that *they* shove on us?"


RED HOT SONG OF THE MOMENT:- Yaad Teri Aaye from the movie "Ugly Aur Pagli"....check it out!!!

Opinion Required!!!

An eye for an eye may make the whole world one-eyed, but it's non-application would surely lead to the 1st person becoming completely blind.

This is a quote which I once used in a G.D. to justify a point.
Would like all you beautiful people's opinions on the justifiability of this statement.