Diary of the whimsical wastrel

I started blogging at a time when there were a lot of them out there with blogs. Blogging was the key term. It was the happening place. For many. The restless and lazy me stopped blogging altogether very soon. For almost three years. Three years. What can happen within three years?

 For some, they are pretty normal, uneventful. For some, their worlds just turned over.

And I stand in the middle. I completed my graduation, moved to Hyderabad. I learned to fall in love with new cities, I made new friends. Got my heart broken, repaired. I laughed, I cried, I was nonchalant.

And now I am done with my post-graduation as well. I taught at a college for six months.

I had never stopped writing altogether. Because that never happens to me. But I need certain spurts in between. Certain phases where I can be with myself, curl with books, do whatever I like. Take time. Of course, I don’t believe that creativity is a faucet. But in those rushed moments in the morning, rushing out of bed, rushing behind a bus, rushing for a class. I don’t reflect. I just move on. Rush kills me. Minute by minute.

Now that I have time to myself, I thought I would come back again. To a space of my own. The uncrowned wastrel of my kingdom. But then I thought. There are vestiges of what I wrote when I was practically a wizened teenager. I was more egotistic, optimistic, but less experienced, less bruised. I thought of creating a new blog.

 But then again, the vestiges make the space more real.

After all, I am still the same person who loves Cats, Petrichor, Harry Potter and words. I hope not to change.

Women…. Are they all like what you had heard the last time?

Women…. Are they all like what you had heard the last time?

There are a lot of misconceptions in the world. Like many. For instance, in Kerala,Hindus are all people who wear  ‘mundu’ and visit the temple twice a day. Christians are people who eat beef, drink, play cards and speak with a heavily accented Kottayam slang. Out of all this, I surmise the greatest number of misconceptions are centered around women. Women are gossipers, women are shopping freaks, women can’t drive for nuts and women are delicate, fragile and carry a gargantuan amount of Motherly instinct wherever they go….. Are they all misconceptions?

I've heard certain men talking about women as though they are as predictable as India’s chances at Football world cup.

And sadly, they are mostly men who had not got much chance of mixing with them; as much as they would secretly like to. Women are human beings as well; they differ just like men do. But then again…

studying in a women’s college for three years could (I’m not saying it would, but then, it might)end up in either of this two- making you a rancid, bitter individual, either having had bitter experiences at some relationship or somehow having had developed this notion that all men are frauds, cheats and chauvinists. They call themselves FEMINISTS and I can’t agree for nuts.

Or you can belong to the breed of women, who giggle and smile coyly whenever they see something that the least resembles of a male visage.  They can’t get enough out of Hindi soaps( who in their right state of mind would believe in women who make chappathis, clad in silk saris and one kilo of gold ornaments?)  and they die when some guy sort of smiles, at them. (‘Sarasan’ in Iss pyaar ko kya *%^*^%&^%) J (The more would be in this type. )

Well for one thing, when you say that a woman can’t keep secrets… well… that sort of is truth. I’ve seen men who can keep secrets  ‘like a boss’ and also MEN who suck at it worse than any woman I’ve ever seen. But in real, a woman can keep a secret if she really wants to;in a way even a Sherlock can’t get it out of her.

And then SOME  women are tell-tales in a way(generally) men cannot even dream of lowering themselves. I hate to say this, but it is common knowledge that women talk behind other women’s backs… And they do that even to their friends. The most interesting thing of all would be the accusations- the epitome of silliness. Having studied in a women’s college made me realize that one can fight(pss..pss… cold war) over a piece of bread, a gold chain, an attire, a stone, a grass blade, a pillow cover, a glob of spittle, Mars, Moon, Aashiqui 2, Virat Kohli, blah and blah and my dears, BLAH! (these above said characters are well, imaginary and they just serve the purpose of demonstration)

SOME of them take in everything- I mean, the physical details. The cut of the apparel, the ornaments, the material,  even the box in which you bring lunch in will not be spared,  and after proper scrutinization  delivers the much feared verdict… “oh! She’s such a cheapo… Look at that top..”  

UFF! There had been circumstances where I had just got so bloody sick of this excessively oestrogen filled atmosphere.

But again, when you attempt a generalization you can very well go sadly wrong. Because I have seen women who have those, no different from the “so-called” manly attributes generally applied to men but then again, are sadly absent from them these days. A rocking sense of humor, propriety and a social sense. A habit of perpetual news paper reading. A gift of a gab, smartness and calibre. I don’t even understand why these were originally attributed to men. No clue! Out of ten men of my generation, 1 might have these (hopefully)and the remaining will have “awwieeee…..”  and “kili poyeee”( with the figurine of Bob Marley but lacking in any kind of his sense, whatsoever. That poor man must be rolling in his grave) to offer. (sigh!)

So, dear men and women,  generalizations and pinpointing can be tricky. My dear men out there, before you generalize  women, please give a thought about your breed. You guys are getting excessively, dangerously  simple to generalize as well…

P.S… ( You should try to restrain from it if you find a woman who talks behind her friends’ backs and watches Hindi soaps.Cheers to that!)

Ganesha on the Dashboard- A saddening but delightful read

“Ganesha on the Dashboard” by V.Raghunathan and M.A Eswaran caught my eyes in a book fair that promised a huge discount margin and a display of interesting works. The title was attention-grabbing enough and the reviews added to the appeal. And this piece of nonfiction having read, I found myself resonating to the DNA review, “A saddening but delightful book”. A curious paradox, one might wonder, but this makes up the gist of feelings one goes through on reading the book.

Published by Penguin books, the book is most reasonably priced at Rs.299 and is definitely worth the amount. The cover illustration by Joy Gosney is beautiful as well provides an insight into what the book is about. There had been some serious research done behind the work, and the book is provided with valuable footnotes and appendices.

The book is all about the extremes of absurd superstitions that we Indians delve into and the shocking lack of scientific temper of our country. A country that has spawned number of international scientific figures, isn't it a paradox that our country is also the one in which people dying of poverty and “stone idols being fed milk and fruits” coexist? Excerpting from a precis of the book,

“Take the way we go about buying a car. We identify an auspicious date and time, then proceed to break a coconut, plonk a plastic deity of Ganesha on the dashboard, and zoom off at a great speed, refusing to wear our seat belts.”

The book is one hundred percent accurate in describing the “incredible” Indian sensibility and is informative, quirky and at times funny. The several chapters devoting to the explanation of scientific temper and science vs. Superstitions are simply delightful to read about. Each chapter starts with a quotation and an interesting story or a tidbit about the chapter. To those who aren't much interested in science, don’t recoil. The book, unlike your deplorably uninteresting Physics textbooks, makes scientific facts sound interesting and once you've read the book, tadaa!  There you are, about five times enlightened than before. I managed to learn a lot about Kepler, Einstein and Roemer than from my discarded physics text books.

So, does the book go wrong somewhere? I guess the extremities of scientific arguments of the authors can prove a bit unsettling to the reader. The arguments for astrology being a pseudo science are acceptable but when the belief in “gods” is being questioned, I guess that’s where the ‘saddening’ part comes in. Science has made our life a lot better and the right perspective about science or the scientific temper is integral to a good future. But then,the age old battle of science vs. Religion creeps in. One major truth in our life is that no matter how tough we appear, we all hope for miracles secretly. Whether we see them true or not, hoping for miracles, praying, meditating, all this can make people happier. (Hormones responsible for this are called endorphins, again the science part.J)

So when we read that there is no point in praying, instead run to you makeshift labs, well! Belief in a supreme force, the knowledge that there is something to lean on, can be a motivation, a source of hope and is essential for a human being; false or otherwise. And so here it is- a book well worth reading, “saddening, but delightful”.

A Cuppa Heaven!

Quite recently I happened to pick a book from the Chicken Soup series at a book exhibition in Kochi. Memories sort of engulfed me; I can vouch, for Chicken Soup series used to be a thing of the past, marking the reading habits of me and my chums during our sixth and seventh classes, along with musty copies of Nancy Drew, Harry Potter and Malory Towers.

Evidently, Chicken Soup series are great; they used to be great back then, and they are great even now. The guys have come up with a new indulgent series of CS for the soul; a collection of books devoted to satiate the indulger in you. There were four books at the exhibition; CS for the coffee lover’s soul, tea lover’s soul, chocolate lover’s soul and wine lover’s soul. I would have picked up the first three if I had money, that is, if I ‘had’ which evidently I didn’t, so I ended up in picking up the first.

I have had the fortune to meet several coffee lovers in my life; ardent, passionate people for whom coffee is not just a beverage, but a way of life. I remember my friends Elizabeth and Anu, who cry when they see exotic coffee caskets at departmental stores. One day Anu woke up at the middle of the night; saw a brand new bottle of ‘Bru’, which she didn’t exactly had an access to and roamed around the house, murmuring “coffee, coffee”.  J

The book is full of quotes, humorous anecdotes, stories of addiction, stories of love brewing, and a lot more. I implore the book fanatics to try and get one of CS books on your favorite indulgence. There are, in every story, tales of the best coffee beans getting dried into the finest powder, the addictive aroma of coffee brewing, and the soft whiff of coffee and cream, which leaves you longing for your favorite cup of Java.

I recollect the escapades I personally had with the beverage. Late night preparations for exams would obviously top the list, the dark murky liquid with darker precipitate settling at the bottom of the cup- the concoction called black coffee that we call “kattankaapi”. The same thing that you gulp down when you are down with fever, sometimes with an added pinch of pepper or ginger powder.  The numerous cups I have had from railway stations and college canteen, which had tasted the same, thanks to the monotonous coffee machine. But I remember a coffee I have had from some railway station in Karnataka (this happened when I was little), which remains till date one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had. Then there are cups of coffee from south Indian vegetarian restaurants, made by guys for whom the aroma of coffee is, as I said earlier, is a way of life. Curling up with a book and a cup of coffee is my idea of heaven on earth!

Actually, what made me write this is, a couple of days back, I went for a competition with a best buddy, who for me, had been a real ‘partner in crime’ since our first year in college, and went to this famous coffee shop to have a cup. A blast of coffee scented air greeted us on entering the shop; a mixed whiff of coffee, cream and cakes (Sheer heaven!). A group of guys were discussing good films over their coffee, well known names of celluloid popping up in their discussion. We had this extremely bitter cup of coffee (which appeals to top notch caffeine lovers, but not to me, I presume) along with a gooey, creamy, chocolaty dessert. I don’t know what did the trick, a day off from the humdrum college or a good time with a friend, we were in good spirits that day. But honestly, I think it is coffee that did it. Coffee is really, a pot of heaven.

A true tea lover as well, “coffee or tea?” for me is like “Mammooty or Mohanlal?” to a Malayali. Still, coffee is a mood-changer, spirit-lifter, like no other beverage. To all those females who shy away from a cup in the fear that coffee makes you dark,

“Seriously, seriously?”

 A lot, a lot, a lot can happen over a cup of coffee.

YOUTH DAA.... YOUTH. (ENGLISHE KOLRADA....)

It’s been ages since a new post. It’s not a creative vacuum but I guess I need a constant spur to talk about things. Something on which I should feel an urge to talk about. And guess what, I’ve found this amazing TV channel which can give you a thousand reasons to cry; a thousand reasons to laugh. Sounds like a phony book cover but yes... A youth channel which makes you curious about who exactly is the ‘youth’ intended. It makes you wonder if you are a Kryptonite. Well the thing is, once you watch this channel, you would bloody well want to be a Kryptonite.

I debated a lot whether I should be revealing the identity of the channel. (Well what’s the issue? Four or five people read this blog anyway, including me :p) But the channel authorities have two or three other channels, which feature bearable programs, and there is this great actor who is, I guess the general manager of the channel. (So you get the general picture.) But the youth channel...

There are a few Malayalis who feel a stab on their sensibility when some fellow Malayali goes... “enikyu malayelem kurachyu kurachyu...”I’m proud to say that I’m one among them. And I’ve noticed this syndrome is seen in people who had spent practically their whole life in Kerala. Or once you spend two or three years elsewhere, you go like, “these mallus are so difficult to put up with.”Give them a big solid whack on their ass and they will go screeching in solid Malayalam. I once had this classmate who was always going like” I flunked in Malyalem, guys... I need tuition. AWWWWW..... (The universal noise made by wackos.) And people go around appreciating her. It troubled me a lot that the same treatment was not meted out to Maths flunkies (They need it the most, you know? :))

But very few of us feel agitated when somebody does injustice to English. I don’t know why, maybe because it is still perceived as an alien tongue. But a language is a language. The above mentioned channel is a mixture of disrespecting English and disrespecting Malayalam. The guys over there have somehow developed this notion that Malayalam is inferior, and as ‘youth’, “vee talking in inklees....” My question is, what exactly is wrong with our mother tongue? It IS a beautiful language. And the channel guys don’t need to fear that Non-Malayalis would care to watch their programs. They would run for their lives. And the reason why Malayalis like us (read me and my friends) watch their programs is that 'WE' HAVE AN EXCELLENT SENSE OF HUMOR.(pun intended)

You might think I’m exaggerating. Well, here is an excerpt from one of their fashion related programs.( did someone say fashion? Njan chirichu chaakum :P)

Anchor: ( don’t call them ‘VJ’S. “ANKOR” IS MORE THAN ENOUGH.) We should change our attitude, dress, fashion. All change. Hope you all segments. Thank you.

Whoa!

I know I’m having fun having tuned in to this channel the whole day. I hope this is not a sin.

 I’m not saying that everyone should be speaking in flawless English. But please don’t degrade a language like this. More importantly, please don’t keep such a besmirched concept about “what youth want.” And thank you channel guys, for making us laugh so much.

An age of pseudo aestheticism.

About five years before the scenario in Kerala was very different. Kids hurrying for an endless series of tuition, parents in thick framed glasses talking of studies, studies and studies.., the pranksters and naughty ones ending up as the obvious black sheep of the family, and most often ending up in drama institutes and centers catering to art and acting. That my dears, used to be a very bad period for people of art. 
And... now the whole vista is different. Almost everyone(let's say, two out of three) you meet is a photographer, and my God, that art has flourished like no other had in these years.( courtesy to a popular post saying even a monkey with a DSLR is called a photographer these days.) And again, brace yourself against those umpteen pages of Tinku photography and Pinku photography. Good photographers, God bless them, are having a very troublesome time, it seems.

Music is another area where a huge transition has occurred. With all due respect for music bands like Avial, whose music was and is genuine and are undoubtedly talented,what with their music and the huge appreciation it had garnered, every other mallu 'rock band' is having members clad in lungi and going about screaming pathetic versions of otherwise beautiful folk songs whose beauty lies, I must say, their pristine state. ( They must be feeling down too, I surmise.) More than music, I guess musicians are more focused on the number of facebook proposals they get.( courtesy to a lewd interview of a faceless singer who was getting "marry me" proposals heaped upon him,
on a  very famous Malayalam 'youth' channel which has a very serious case of misconception about what youth want.) I went to a movie with a friend yesterday, and a song really had us in splits by the end of it. The song was good( read bearable) but the singers, Oh My God, had this seriously constipated look on their faces.( btw they don't remind us of the 'Life in a metro' guys, OK...Maybe a little... oh no, they don't.)

We know that the whole history of art, right from the times of Chaucer, had been interspersed with periods of aestheticism, romanticism, classicism and in between flashes of puritanism. This sudden surge of love for art in Kerala is definitely something to be proud about, I agree. I guess even our parents are slowly getting rid of their B.Tech mania for this artistic movement and forcing their kids into music lessons and photography coaching.(Maybe this is because they have finally begun seeing the big fat unemployment club or the "Mech ,EC or civil, we do IT" club.) This is exactly where it goes wrong, as well. Why the heck aren't we happy with doing what we like? Why do we have to wield a DSLR because everyone else does? Why do we have to force toilet jokes and swear words into our movies JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT? Why do we  to get subjected to a parade of lungi dances and songs just because some guys were innovative about it?

Art is great and is the best thing to live life. But it can be the most disastrous thing if people are just copycats about it.
 DISASTROUS.