Shantaram

"... And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving can become the story of your life."
Shantaram, my latest inspiration and the one of the most profound ones so far.
A friend of mine has this book. I asked to borrow it. He, normally a generous guy, refused. Asked the reason, he said that he was very attached to that book and that he thought I should get my own copy. " Kanjoos," I thought, "how attached can you get to a book written by a self confessed dope addict and gangster?" Turns out, he was right.Intrigued by his attitude, I bought the book, and now I am hopelessly in love with Gregory David Roberts, the author.

They now have a 'Shantaram tour' in Mumbai. That says it all doesnt it? Out of the countless people who have written about Bombay, the list including many prominent Indian writers, they pick an Australian guy's book and show off Bombay from his point of view.And what a point of view it is!! All of us have seen the slums of Bombay, the dirt that has settled on the apartments, the corruption,the people and their seeming callousness. We at best have come up with excuses to justify the state of Bombay. But has anyone of us said"The dishonest bribe is the same in every country,but the honest bribe is in India alone."? Has any one of us fallen in love with the slums? If I have, atleast on print,it is only because Shantaram has taught me how.


Who does not love praise? And what greater praise than these lines? "The simple and astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There's nowhere else in the world where thats quite so true."Given an unlimited leash on space , time and attention span, I would quote the whole book. But, dont worry , Thats not going to happen. Like my wise friend before me, I am going to let you discover the joy that is Shantaram. It is like falling in love, the most common experience , but unique and personal for each one of us.

The experience of several lifetimes crammed into a little more than a decade-this is the impression the book leaves on me. I thought my life was devoid of incident. Now I realize, each minute is a story. If I choose to see it. If I choose to look at the beauty.If i choose to look at the ugliness and make even that beautiful.

pics as promised

here are the pics.. first one is somanathpur temple, hoysala temple, beautiful carvings

A lone crane in the middle of River Kaveri. No pesky noisy people, no litter. What more can you ask for? 

Red tape, garbology and all that jazz

As everyone who survives in our country knows, Red tape= Government offices.Yes, when people get recruited into government jobs, they dont get an appointment letter.They get a lifetime supply of best quality , crimson tape.Their promotions depend on who can tangle it the best.I swear this is true. How else can you explain the magnificent amount of it that gets under your feet each day?

The privilege of being a student in a Government college, and working in a Government hospital(the greatest place to know life, well, thats a whole new blog) comes with the pain of having a Government office to deal with. The people who work there(I use the term loosely) have one great philosophy, a corollary of Murphy's law.If there is anyway to avoid work,Avaaaid like there is no tomorrow. I had applied for the usual certificates one has to take after graduation.That was two months ago.Fifteen days after I applied , I got to know I had some more to apply for(all the gyaan I got was thru the grapevine, the notice board only informs people willing to time travel to 2003)Ok, did the applying, getting multiple signatures on the applications, attaching all required documents etc etc. Was told to come in ten days time to collect the documents."Not bad " I thought because there were quite a few things I had asked for. I came back after the aforesaid ten days."No madam, your documents have just gone to get typed"said the gargyole who is in charge.Ok, I reflect, I will come tomorrow.Its just typing. I returned on the morrow to find that the typist is refusing to work because there is no assigned table for her to work on(beat that excuse, come on , I dare you..The whole office was almost empty!!) What does one do in these situations?I lost it, took my anger out on brave souls who call themselves my friends.Promptly lost those few I can cling to. Having learnt my lesson, I decided to preserve my sanity and make an exit.Well, slowly, unwillingly,I got the documents like a trickle from the corporation tap.

My unasked-for-advice to people who have to go through this crap.Never have expectations from the officials.If you do, you are screwed or you will have to part with cash, lots of it.Apply months in advance, sit back, let nature take its course.They like their 'in' trays to be cleaned up once a year.After all, they are also almost human.

On a more optimistic note (or atleast a note that has less resemblance to a horror story), discovered this site called Wordsmith.org.Has this feature called A-Word-a -Day.Excellent. I not only got some weird words to give my friends an inferiority complex with, I also got new concepts.Two of the more interesting-
1. Garbology- Study of culture of a race by making a study of their garbage!!! I'm not kidding, its actually a course offered in Arizona University! Well, these smart guys have extended the concept and apparently these days, garbology is used in Espionage..WOAH!

2.Erythrophobia-I quote from the site.." Pick up just about anything under the sun and, if you look long enough, you'll find someone who dreads it."
This,in addition to being the term for the fear of the colour red, apparently is fear of blushing too! Ok, what do you do when you get scared you will blush? become more self-conscious, leading to more blushing and then get scared of that also..viscious cycle, anyone?

Had the best weekend possible.Went to this place called Somanathapura on the banks of river Kaveri. Beautiful. Look out for the pics in the next blog.

essentially me

Wokay, the first one is gonna be full show off. And what do i have to show off ??I go to the gym these days..regularly too.Every single morning! well, set aside the fact that its not Talwalkers( the discount at that place is 3000 bucks.How much do they bloody charge??) and its called " Essentially You", AND is a bit small AND has a scary cat blocking the doorway everyday AND has a questionable music system(yo, whats with the deprecating smile? atleast I am fit , Your Chubbiness.)

Talking about music systems(why am I linking the paragraphs?its MY blog. I can be totally disconnected), I come to this stupid question bugging me.What kind of music should be played at the gym, ideally?If anyone gives me the 'one, two, three 'routine or "aerobic" remixes of songs that were lousy in the first place, I will A. Scream bloody murder, B.resign myself to a life of rotundity rather than listen to something which sounds like cats fighting.

Well, should the music be fast and beaty(is that a word?)Would the fast rhythm really make people do rhythmic exercise or enjoy the push ups more? I can imagine everyone doing a Michael Flatley on the treadmill.Not too easy on the eyes..and lots of potential for orthopedic disasters..ok we shall banish the beats. And we will not even bring up soothing nature music cuz Hello!! we struggled enough to wake up and go to the gym, this is gonna be like an invite to relapse into unconsciousness. Classical music being not everyone's cuppa tea, what will we play?I think the answer is Himesh Reshammiya. Before you feed me to the dogs, I shall explain.
Well, the people who love him(you poor lost souls who crawl the earth waiting for the end) will obviously enjoy the nasal disaster, and the people who hate him will work out exxtra hard cuz the motivation to build enough muscle to kill that blot on the horizon will provide surges of adrenaline like there is no tomorrow..There!! problem solved! Essentially You is going for The Nose from tomorrow.

P.S:
All Himmesh haters-my comment box is yours
All Hiimesh lovers-Please leave a comment, we want to mark you guys out for future elimination