As it is

In life's twists and turns
Try to make things simple
Its not tough to learn
If you try to make things simple

We cry and we complain
but cant we take it as it is
a plateau will never be a plain
so cant we take it as it is

Days will be good and bad
if only we look at the positives
life wont be sad
if only we look at the positives

It may or not be true
but do consider these views
trivial will seem life's blues
so just consider these views

Now n Then

Its running through my mind
a thought so naive

I wanna be a child again
I wanna run wild again
wanna dance in the rain
play with a toy train
what loss what gain
life stayed the same

Now life has changed
everything has changed

Now its work all the time
Now its toil all the time
In this long line
others I wanna outshine
either I go up or I decline
I cant stay just "fine"

Wanna fly like a bird
have to work like a nerd
wanna have a sound sleep
have deadlines to meet
wanna go for a walk
have to attend a talk

Do I like it, probably not
Do I want it, probably not

Rat Race

Everyone competes in this rat race
some win but many lose
among them some lose with grace
others just lose their face

Its not that I dont like to win
but why someone has to lose
on someone's sorrow I grin
this adversarial nature just doesnt sink in

What do we want this world to be
People ready to kill each other
Will they do this with glee
some may but not me

I may be considered a fool
but I have my heart in place
with this I cant be "Cool"
On others' peril I cant rule

Sleeping in the Class

As I sit in a boring class,
yet another one in a long day,
trying to keep myself awake,
failing miserably at the same.
Though its just not me
enacting they are attentive,
noone's listening to the prof,
lost in their own thoughts.
As I doze off once again,
my neighbor wakes me up,
the prof goes on and on,
I don't understand a word of the jargon.
Trying to get along whats going on,
I sit straight and rub mu eyes,
the clock strikes 1 & over is the class,
Relief to all, ALAS!

The Trail's End

Hey friends

Been a long time since my last post. Frankly speaking haven't felt about anything strongly enough to write anythin. But I was watching a movie yesterday " Bonnie and Clyde " and really liked it, especially a poem in it(originally written by Bonnie Parker herself). Bonnie and Clyde were of course the pair of outlaws that formed the Burrow gang, that was notorious in America in early 30's . They were unique in the sense that they were hated by many and loved by even more. Many historians believe that they became robbers & outlaws just because of the anguish caused by the The Great American Depression, and this poem also highlights the fact that the system had a hand in there outcome(debatable). The poem is also a tribute by Bonnie to Clyde in some ways. I thought I should share that piece with all of you. So here it goes,


The Trail's End

You've read the story of Jesse James
of how he lived and died.
If you're still in need;
of something to read,
here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang
I'm sure you all have read.
how they rob and steal;
and those who squeal,
are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
they're not as ruthless as that.
their nature is raw;
they hate all the law,
the stool pidgeons, spotters and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers
they say they are heartless and mean.
But I say this with pride
that I once knew Clyde,
when he was honest and upright and clean.

But the law fooled around;
kept taking him down,
and locking him up in a cell.
Till he said to me;
"I'll never be free,
so I'll meet a few of them in hell"

The road was so dimly lighted
there were no highway signs to guide.
But they made up their minds;
if all roads were blind,
they wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer
sometimes you can hardly see.
But it's fight man to man
and do all you can,
for they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered
from weariness some people have died.
But take it all in all;
our troubles are small,
till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas
and they have no clue or guide.
If they can't find a fiend,
they just wipe their slate clean
and hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America
not accredited to the Barrow mob.
They had no hand;
in the kidnap demand,
nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy;
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped.
In these awfull hard times;
we'd make a few dimes,
if five or six cops would get bumped"

The police haven't got the report yet
but Clyde called me up today.
He said,"Don't start any fights;
we aren't working nights,
we're joining the NRA."

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
is known as the Great Divide.
Where the women are kin;
and the men are men,
and they won't "stool" on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
and rent them a nice little flat.
About the third night;
they're invited to fight,
by a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think they're too smart or desperate
they know that the law always wins.
They've been shot at before;
but they do not ignore,
that death is the wages of sin.

Some day they'll go down together
they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
to the law a relief
but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

Yes or No

Often in life one confronts situations where he or she has to make a choice or a decision to take or just state what he or she thinks of the situation. Ofcourse your beliefs can lie on either side of the line. There are two types of people you can come across, one who believe in what is called 'opinion' or others who believe in things existing as 'Yes or No' e.g. a person may have a different political lineage in comparision to another, now one may not see it as a problem as he believe its a matter of personal choice whereas the other may see his compatriot in a negative light as according to him what he believes is truth and all rest is farce. Now again, whats your perception of these two persons is governed by if you are a 'opinion' person or a'Yes or No' person. A Opinion person would consider both of them to be holding different kind of beliefs and are two different human beings whereas a 'Yes or No' person would be in favour of one or the other depending on what his believes are. Thats human behaviour. No ones wrong and no ones right, its just your perception. I guess you know what kind of a person I am...lol

Adios

The MEN IN BLUE have arrived, finally, hopefully!

When I got up this morning and saw India struggling at 204/6, the first thought that crossed my mind was- here they go again. Though it was much better than what I got to see in 2002 series( India were often bundled out for less than 100) but the expectations off late have been high. But, I am glad I was wrong. The resilience shown by Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant and Munaf was adorable. This is not the first instance in the immediate past where the tail has wagged. Bhajji and Zaheer have off late shown that they are worthy of being called all-rounders.This probably is another sign that Indian cricket is finally coming off age.

Infact this series by itself has given us a lot to admire in this team. The first test was a showcase of batting prowess of India, the 2nd second was an example of how not to surrender and keep fighting and the third(till now) has 2 things to be noticed i.e. we can bat and fight no matter what conditions are there and our tail can bat and bat well.

I personally felt utmost happiness watching the grit and determination shown by gambhir,laxman, tendulkar and co in the 2nd test. A lot of times in the past India easily succommed to pressure on the last day but this was not to be the case this time around. Batting for 2 days straight and losing just 4 wickets was a huge achievement especially after having fared poorly in the 1st innings. This speaks volumes for the confidence these guys possess. I emphasise on confidence because talent was something that we always had in abundance, it was just a matter of application.

But, something that has still not been seen is an amazing display by the bowlers. We certainly have a better bunch of pacemen then we ever had and they have been performing decently. But this bowling attack has not been able to make up for the one odd less than average batting performance. Once that starts to happen, I am sure theres no stopping the men in blue.

The Countdown is on

Taking a break from my views on the world around, I am here discussing my last few days in College. And I couldn't think of a better time to write this piece than in one of my classes. My teacher probably is under the impression that I am working on some program or maybe he knows I am busy with something else, and has got sick of trying to make us work.

So how has this week been? Not very good, contrary to our expectations :(

I am thinking of the first week we had in college and how we became one big group of friends. There was an instant chemistry and we all hit off instantaneously. As time went by, things kept changing and so did our group. The base remained the same but some people left and some came. Everytime after someone left we used to think that now things would remain the same but how wrong we were or who could have thought that the last week would bring a shocker. I am not here to comment on who is/was right or who is/was wrong, just that ain't feeling very good about it. But then life doesn't stop no matter what. We still have a long way to go and I still will hope that no more problems come amongst us though I know it maybe Hoping against hope but hope is all that there is.

IPL

Who says IPL is going out of India, its just changed its name-INDIAN POLITICAL LEAGUE. The mega event of Indian Politics is back and seems its bigger.How I wish I could have said, bigger and BETTER. But, sadly our politicians don't give us that privilege. Below the belt remarks have become fashion of the day. Manmohan and Congress attack Advani & Advani and BJP attack Manmohan.

It just looks as if issues and ideology have no space in this great extravaganza of Indian democracy. All this talk about secular and non-secular forces is crap. Each and every party is an equal shareholder in this. Just that some use it to woo the hindus, some to woo the muslims and every community that exists. Besides that what issues are there, no1 mentions economy, no1 mentions national security, no1 mentions the education system,corruption and everything that should be talked about and isn't. Though I wouldn't say that only the politicians are to be blamed. I think the media is an equal party to all this drama. For example, I totally agree that Whatever Varun Gandhi said was absurd and nonsense( i.e. if he did, I dont wanna court controversy myself...lol) but did it really deserve the airtime it got. The media takes shelter that its their duty to report such instances but were they really reporting. For 1 week, the only thing that was there on the news channels was Varun Gandhi, as if the rest of world had seized to exist. I am sure our dear PM and PM-in-waiting both say some substantial things in their press conferences and public meetings but all we get to see is masala. I think the media is working for TRP's rather than journalism.

Coming to the latest news i.e. Advani challenging Manmohan Singh to have a live TV debate. I somehow like this idea a lot.Mr Advani being a seasoned politician that he is, always knew that the congress would never accept this proposal as his counterpart is nowhere near him when it comes to debating and oratory skills, probably used it as a ploy to score some brownie points among the voters who were the proponets of such a concept. But despite that Congress could have handled it better but on the contrary Congress' reply was really funny, They ofcourse refused citing that we don't have a presidential type of election and our voters vote for the MP, not the PM. I think we all know what parliamentary system we follow but despite this, I think we don't always vote for the MP, the national leadership matters a lot. While voting we all need to know what exactly our probable prime ministers stand for and taking forward what congress said, why don't we have local debates between the MP candidates as well. I think it would be a good idea because afterall our country has to move forward from where votes are cast on the basis of religion or on the basis of how much money a specific candidate is offering for a vote. For this there will have to be a conscious effort from all sections of the society, till then its all a masala movie and this time Manmohan and Advani are playing the leads.

Is Slumdog Millionaire INDIAN!

Slumdog Millionaire, the oscar winning movie set in d slums of mumbai has "taken indian cinema to a new level" some say. To that statement I would agree in parts. First of all, I dont feel that We need an american academy to judge whether our cinema is good or not. Indian cinema has always been a force to reckon. Look at TIME'S top 100 movies of the 20th sentury. 3 outright Indian movies make d cut. Whether you agee with the list or not is a different issue altogetther. Shekhar kapoor is a name that sells in the west(He gave us Masoom,Mr India & Bandit Queen). The list of examples showin that Indian Cinema has conquered the world goes on and on.Now comes the question whether its Indian or not, I dont think just beacause a movie is set in India, it can be called an Indian movie because otherwise a lot of our movies wont be indian as indian directors love "foreign locales". The movie has been directed by a british and d lead actor is an NRI(even kal penn is an NRI,we dont consider Harold n kumar series as Indian). But, a very strong Indian Connection does exist. AR Rahman, Freida Pinto(She is no NRI as some people have said) and Anil Kapoor, who it seems has just been missed by everyone. I personally feel Anil Kapoor's was arguably the best performance in the movie, how short it might have been. The world is hailing Rahman and Freida but our Mr. India has somehow been ignored.Getting back to the core issue, Slumdog Millionaire is an Indian story being potrayed by largely indian actors but through the eyes on a british director. Whether you call it Indian or not, its your take!