A Bowl of Elusive

I have lived in a lot of cities. And I have travelled alone since I was 15. What made this possible was the fact that I speak well. I have no problem communicating with people when I travel. This makes everything easy. But today, I am at Bhadrachalam. Its a small town located on the AP-Telangana border and almost nobody understands Hindi or English. Telegu is the common language and I can't speak enough Telugu to even save my ass. I am here for work. But work becomes so tough when your associates can't make head or tail of what you're saying to them. I am screwed. I am actually calling up my associates in Hyderabad to help me with my conversations. What makes everything more complicated is my knack for micro-management. I like to see to it that my work is completed correctly, on time and I like confirming it with my own eyes. I barely ever delegate my work as I just can't trust anyone else with it. So here I am in this strange town, struggling to be ...

There are days like these when sleep eludes me. I'm not particularly stressed tonight but I just can't seem to get my head down on the pillow. What's that you're asking me?  Am I thinking about something? Hell yeah, I am. I am thinking about everything. I'm thinking about the one that got away. I am thinking about that cute classmate from school who texted me the other day. I am thinking about my grandma who's back at my ancestral house in Sambalpur and how she'd be waking up in another hour or so and would go about her morning rituals, prayers, etc. And I'm thinking about tomorrow. It's another day and it's dangerously close now. And I'm still awake. The problem with this scenario lies in the aftermath. I'm gonna be drowsy all day tomorrow. And I'll have chest pain due to gas. Gas. Kind of a gross topic to bring up on my blog, isn't it? Moving on... I haven't found time to work on my stories in weeks. ...

My teenage was slightly different than that of my peers. While they spent most of it obsessing over girls they couldn't get, I spent it obsessing over the girl that I had got. I had a steady girlfriend all through school and I spent most of my time with her. It seems kind of unlikely and hard to believe now but that’s how it was. I had described her in an earlier post and it led to people thinking that I was a major womaniser but that won’t be an accurate description. It was just one girl and it started pretty early on and lasted longer than usual. We were together for over six years, Megha (name changed) and I, and it was almost amazing. I say “almost” coz we ended things on really bad terms. When I look back now, I can be objective about it. I am older and a lot more mature than I was then. Like many people, I too take pleasure in analysing my past and thinking about how things could have been different. It’s a futile exercise, I am aware, but I can’t help it at times...

One of my all time favorite songs, performed by some amazingly talented music students, I came across this video the other day. And I have been hooked to it ever since. A.R. Rehman's "Jiya Jale" from the movie "Dil Se" is by far one of the most beautiful songs in the history of Indian Cinema. And since he is a globally renowned musician, with an Academy Award in his kitty, I feel its safe to say that this song stands there with the Bests of Music. Amazing rendition by the students of Berklee College of Music, its a must watch video. I have shared it from YouTube. I have no idea about the copyright implications, but just wanted to clarify that I DO NOT have any right over this video, am just a fan.  And I am giving my readers a treat for their soul.

The Valentine's Day kinda seemed like the best time to publish this post. Coz I am gonna talk about "love". Not the Archie's/Hallmark version but the real one. You know, the love that keeps people together for life. I have talked about it earlier and to some loyal readers, I might have seemed like a sceptic on this matter. And that I definitely am. But my cynicism is not specifically aimed at the virtue of love but towards the way people express it these days. And again, here I have to set you straight. I have absolutely nothing against the exchange of roses or chocolates. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore chocolates. I just feel that amidst all these Valentine rituals, the "love" aspect gets misplaced at times. Yet again, I am not saying that things were better before the "Western Culture" affected India. Coz really, they were not. Our views and ideas about love were strangely idiotic in the last century and for most part of the c...

Are you a woman? Are you looking for the Perfect Man? Have you found him? Any woman who claims to have found the Perfect Man is living in a bubble. She is yet to be disillusioned. There are no perfect men. Yes, I said it. But ladies, before you start male bashing, please consider the number of times you have been let down by men. I bet its 9 out of 10 times. And if that's the case, don't you feel that maybe its time you started resizing your expectations? Loads have been written about the fairer sex. Everyone tries to understand women, analyse them. I just wish the same efforts were extended to men. And no, I am not asking you to rationalise the deeds of a rapist. I am asking you to try and understand the common man. The normal guys, the husbands and the boyfriends of the world. These are the guys that face the maximum amount of criticism on the hands of women. The problem is with the comparison. A man is not compared with other men. Instead he is compared to th...

The other night, I traveled from Bangalore to Hyderabad on an Orange Travels Bus. It was an A/C Sleeper (1+1). That means it had cabins with berths similar to those on a train. I got on the bus at around 11;30 pm. And by that time, two out of four berths in my cabin were already occupied. I settled down on my berth. About a half an hour later, while I was busy over a call with my girlfriend, the last passenger of my cabin boarded the bus from another stop. It was a girl. And that's all I can tell you.  She entered the cabin with a handbag and surveyed her surroundings. Three guys. And I bet that's all she saw. I happened to glance at her face at this moment. And I caught an expression of doubt, suspicion, terror, panic. Discomfort, I could have rationalized. But panic?  You see this is what the world has come to. A girl finds out that she has to spend another 7 hours around three men, each of whom looks educated and civilized, and her first reaction is terr...