Random Questions on a Lazy Sunday!

Lets take a hypothetical situation...
Imagine that you have to travel to your workplace and it takes you one hour by train. In that one hour, you get to interact with a lot of people, from all walks of life or get to read a book or daily newspaper.
Despite all of this, there is a second option of travelling to your to your workplace by car. That'll take you half an hour. Which means you get to save thirty minutes of time.
Do you really "save" time in that case? Does being able to reach your workplace early save on time? Does that mean you were wasting time when you got to make new friends or indulge in a novel, in those thirty minutes in the train?
If I choose to take the option that gives me more oppurtunity to dwell on the musings of life does that mean I am being impractical?
If I choose to go a way that asks me to stick to my principles, and leave all wordly choices, does that mean I am taking a risk? And if I am taking a risk, havent all great figures who lived on this planet taken risks?
If we believe that money is the solution to "most" of life's problems, then why are there more suicides due to unhappiness and loneliness,than due to poverty?
If we condemn rape so much why do rapists get 7 years imprisonment and the rape victims' that of a lifetime? Or why are rape victims' names changed or not given out..
If we love our country so much, and go ga-ga over Rang De Basanti and an Indo-Pak cricket match( which apparently is more like war for us), why do we never try to give the public service exams?
If we have learnt to speak the truth all the time, why is that we havent learnt to accept it all the time?
If we love variety in food, clothes and all things materialistic, why is it that variety of opinion causes so much pain?
If we believe in peace, why are there so many wars today?
If we talk of education being freedom, why are large parts of the world gripped with violence, terrorism and cynicism;surely there are more educated people in the world today as opposed to 50years back?
If we love each other so much, why is it that we notice the negative more easily than the positive?
They say that if every human devotes one week of a year towards aid, or volunteering for a charity, we wont have much to complain.
But do we have the time?
Ummm...Didnt we just save thirty minutes!

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping.
~Irish Blessing

Abhishek Weds Ash?...NO WAY!!!

When I first heard about Abhishek Bachchan getting married to Aishwarya Rai, I just sat still for sometime. Yes the news hit me hard.
Abhishek Bachchan is just one of the reasons why I respect Mr.AmitabhBachchan. Remember the episode with Simi Garewal, where the entire family had come on the show. It was amazing, just watching the kind of warmth that family exudes, when they are together.
Initially when Abhishek burst on the big screen with Tera jadoo Chal Gaya, everyone wrote him off as a damp squib. And for many many years, he just went on showcasing more of his terrible acting. Then came Dus, Sarkar, Dhoom and Small B had finally arrived. Add to that his unmistakable mischievious charm and, his intense eyes and the female species around the world were drooling all over him.
And then to hear the news that he wants to settle down with Ash!!!!!! Swami or no Swami, Horoscopes match or not Ash is the LAST person AB should marry 1
" She is older than him". " She is plastic and fake", "She isnt the kind of girl who would fit into the Bachchan family", "Swami or no Swami, rani is the best"... are some of the reasons, friends and avid fans of AB gave,when asked to comment on the matrimonial alliance. And boy! the comments werent without the tinge of sadness, shock and frustation.
And rightly so..
I have never considered Ash to be such a great actress myself. Her role in Hum dil..(" maa main uskiho gayee hu maaa"....thats it ...thats the ONLY point in the movie where she acts!) was plastic ( grand shararas and green eyes may get you the Filmfare award but not the critics' award).
What followed were movies where she would scowl, dance around trees, cry, do almost everything but act. And to think that she was chosen for the juryat the Cannes Film Festival, when she was just two awards old( Incidentally none of them were National Awards!)
Then came desparate attempts to break into the Hollywood cliques. They dont come that easy baby! When asked about her Hollywood aspirations..
"I am trying out new fronts of acting" YEAH RIGHT!
Then came the Oprah show fiasco. That was the worst put up of fake accent I HAVE ever heard!!!! "My living with my parents is such a topic"(Topic! Puhleese..who's talking about that!!)
All in all, she has never presented herself as real.
Avid fans like me can just pray that God blesses Abhishek with some common sense to find a better partner.
Till then...Dus Bahane Karke Inkaar Karna...


Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

~Benjamin Franklin

Kuljeet Randhawa

I shall meet you there
Where life is full and lively
The path to that place
Is anything but lonely

I shall meet you there
Where smiles are true and simple
Where joy is everywhere
Faith and love are tangible

I shall meet you there
Where I can hold out my hand
In need and despair
You’ll wave your magic wand

I shall meet you there
After I stand the test of time
Hoping that we, will be holding on
And waiting for our hearts to bind

I shall meet you there
After I say goodbye
And we shall meet there
Where I wont have to live a lie....

I came back from my morning walk and my brother informed me that a model Kuljeet Randhawa had committed suicide. The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t recollect the face. I sat and watched the morning news and discovered that she had acted in Hip Hip Hurray (my favorite serial at one point of time), in CATS and more recently in another one of my favourite programmes, Special Squad. Uncanny as it may seem, she was a close friend of Nafisa Joseph, who committed suicide last year. The reports say that she had everything; a wonderful career, an upcoming movie, the looks and by her general temperament, she had the best stuff going for her. That is, what the world saw and thought.

I have friends who swear that money is everything. I have friends who would do anything to put themselves up on television, colleagues who go on harping about how important it is to have contacts and be popular. I dont underestimate the power of money, nor of influence, but how do you explain the sudden suicide of a girl who had EVERYTHING. The reason, most people say is seemingly simple and a bit unusual too. She committed suicide, because she was lonely. If we look around our lives we will find there are SO MANY people around us, so actually speaking we arent really lonely. The same was true with Kuljeet. She had lots of people around her, but how many of those could she open her heart to, bare her soul to. For that matter, how many people can we bare our souls to. How many people can we talk to and feel a million times richer than the richest man on earth?

I don’t know this actress, but somehow her death teaches me many lessons. The more horrific the situation, the bigger the lesson.

That we need to hold on to our loved ones real tight and invest in deeper relationships. That we need to stop looking for life outside us and look for joy within us, that we need to live our best life, by building our ties and not finding ways to break them. That we need to find happiness in simple things...

May your soul rest in peace, Kuljeet.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality
~Emily Dickinson

Noise

Noise..
the cacophony of modernisation
the spite of bitter truth
the screams of sorrow
the loneliness in hollow
the whimpers that give voice to tears....
little fingers shut the ears and
dwell in the music of their mind
the music of hope
the gleam of a better tomorrow
the chuckles and giggles lend sound to the melody
the soft touch of her fingers on the yellow flowers
the petals fall to the ground...
blissfully unaware of a looming danger in the background
a grey black cloud of smoke rises in the shape of a mushroom
Innocence walks ahead, ignorant of fast spreading evil
Smoke....Black ....Blood....Death
Nosie...

This poem is centered around an advertisement, released just before the war in Iraq, condemning nuclear weapons. A little girl is breaking petals from a flower and walking towards the camera...and in the background a faint outline of a large grey mushroom is taking shape( the characteristic shape of an atomic bomb). What struck me was the simplicity of the ad and the way it conveyed the right feelings without any words or music.

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? ~G.K. Chesterton