Fre(e)ading

I always thought that reading for free in a bookstore is not decent. How would they make their money, if everybody started reading sitting in the comfy chairs? Well,my morality stands corrected after I did the same some days back. I felt sneaky while doing it but then I was just one among the many.

'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' has been an object of my curiosity since I read about Hermione reading it in the last Harry Potter book. The exorbitant price pushed me into reading it on the spot. I blame my behaviour on the price. The over-rated book took over my over-rated morality.

I learnt a lesson in the process "it doesn't hurt to be cheap :P", at least not physically.

Full-circle

Times in my life when I am astonished at how my parents and me have come a full-circle, are a few more than what I would have anticipated some years back. My parents have started listening to me not just hearing me out, I have started taking decisions for them, they are mute spectators when I call the shots....ok, am i sounding like a dictator here?..not that they didn't listen to me before but now the balance of power somehow seems to be tilted towards me than ever before. And all this in a very nice way; subtle way of them resting after decades of toiling, sacrificing and agonizing; obvious way of them evolving with times and wanting to give in to the younger influence in their lives.

My 'dad-daughter' activity this weekend makes me reflect on this more than any 'mom-daughter' activity ever. Maybe I just take it for granted that my mother has started listening to me and my opinions, however bizarre they might be. She certainly has changed her views on feminism, politics, casteism and I am getting there with gay marriages.

Dad and daughter replacing the front-door lock is a play fit to be enacted on Broadway. The tools strewn all over, raised voices, sweltering heat making it worse, all in all, the drama involved would make Uncle podger seem mild.

"Pa, its not done that way, will you just let me do it..." was the turning point when my father started assisting me and not the other way round. He just said "OK" and went on to hand me tools. He did not shout as to how he was right and I couldn't do it. He did not say how many times he had done this before. He just said "OK". After decades of playing second fiddle here I was, tightening the screw.

When the screw was going in circles I could see my life was doing the same.

Rocking the young

Shut up and Vote !!!

Mohana is woken up by the jarring noise of the stopping fan. Another day starts with the power cut. She goes to brush her teeth greeted by the air swishing out of the pipe. After battling her way out of the house she finds her heart in her mouth each time the rickety bus falls into a pothole, or should I say a crater? Are you going to stop me here and say 'Deja vu', say that our system sucks, politicians are selfish, the country is going to dogs, etc.?

There might not be a panacea to all your worries and questions but there is certainly one question that the Jaago Re! One Billion Votes team would like to ask you..."so, what are you doing about it?" We lose our right to complain when we don’t exercise our duty to vote.

Janaagraha and Tata Tea together want to rock the young, not to sleep but out of their slumber. And they are doing this in style with their Jaago Re! One Billion Votes ‘Shut Up And Vote Tour’ courtesy Thermal and A Quarter, a pioneering Indian band. Rock shows for democracy is an innovative concept to integrate youth into the democratic framework of our country. The ‘Shut Up and Vote Tour’ by the rock band hopes to stir the conscience of the progeny.

So, get out and vote first, then you can make all the noises in the world to stop the jars and swishes from your fans and pipes.

(first posted on: http://jaagore.com/blogs/readComment.php?id=28)

Gossipice (gossip + spice)

   Early mornings are 'Internet time' for me. After my walk my mind is all fresh to absorb information - both the useful and the useless brand. Though my ever-whining conscience does drag me to the useful, let me admit that I don't reject Gk which people might call gossip. When I say gossip its strictly family and friends related. The circle is so large that I usually don't have time for the 'Kareena-Saif' variety. No offence to them, they are pretty good at churning out 'news' spicy enough for the front-page of certain newspapers but not for me.

   I discovered recently that I can get more 'news' by just reading what my people write on each others "walls" and "scrapbooks" than by actually talking to them, that too just a mouse-click away. No wastage of time or resources on meeting people, e-mails or even phone calls. What my third cousin wrote on my first-cousin-once-removed's wall might be more authentic news than what I get second hand from an aunt. Yes, I am slightly jobless right now to be reading 'wall-to-wall' gabfests.

    The concept of privacy settings hasn't sunk into most peoples minds. It gets even more interesting when friends put up photos and status messages without realising that some 'friends' also happen to be close/distant relatives or at least that the parents are also friends outside of the virtual world. I have had people frantically trying to reach me through all modes (e-mail, scraps, phone calls) when I congratulate them on their 'engaged/committed' status not to thank but to forbid me from telling anybody who knows their folks.

   Thanks to all the networking sites I am well updated but I don't think its helping me attain sainthood any soon. But what the heck my 'spice less' life is sprinkled with some 'gossipice'.

P.S. to the crow post

I found out today that apart from his daily cartoons, another passion with R.K.Laxman is to observe and sketch crows - because they are immensely intelligent birds and are unfairly dismissed by fretting preople as a nuisance. 

Hmmm....I guess I could accept them as my forefathers now ;)

मेहमान पल भर के

हे मानव ! ज़िन्दगी है छोटी

फिर आँख क्यों है रोती ?

जन्म से अंत तक कई जगहों में रहते ,

लेकिन कहीं भी मेहमान पल भर के |

 

माँ का कोख बस नौ महीनों का ढ़ेरा,

फिर लगाना कई गोदी का फेरा,

वह भी जब तक चल न सको,

बढ गए इतने, हाथों में टिक न सको |

 

बचपन का वस्त्र  भी रूठ जाता,

जब शरीर उसे न अब भाता |

प्यारी है खेल क्षेत्र की कलियाँ,

मुर्जाये, जब ज़िन्दगी बने पहेलियाँ |

 

माँ का प्यार भी बिछड़ जाए,

पिता का भी न रह पाए |

मेहमान खुशियों के घर का,

जब तक पलटे न सिक्का |

 

पैरों से धरती जब खिसके 

मेहमान हो शर शय्या के |

अरे ! देह के भी मेहमान तुम,

जब तक आत्मा हो जाए गुम |

चिता पर भी न टिके,

उड़ गए, संग आग के |

 

इस छोटी सी ज़िन्दगी का,

मुनाफा है लाखों का |

फिर क्यों एक दूसरे से लड़ते ?

दौतल के लिए मरते ?

हे मानव! तुम मेहमान पल भर के |

 

 

 

 p.s. written in 1998

My 'crowing' forefathers

Every morning my mom places a cup of cooked rice on the parapet wall on the terrace as an offering to the crows. She doesn't usually care if my dad is getting late for work or that I am really hungry. Until she finishes this ritual none of us get a morsel. She is so regular that the crows are hovering around the building around that time. It wouldn't be an exaggeration if I say that my mom has stopped looking at the clock in the morning. The crows tell her the time. 

According to my mother crows are our hungry forefathers and we should be feeding them to keep them satisfied. She has never been able to answer my supplementary questions like all our politicians. If crows are our forefathers how come they eat non-vegetarian food after death? Aren't they being disloyal to the norms they set? But why crows, why didn't they take birth as some other bird or animal?

The scientific explanation given till now has been that we are helping in the propagation of a scavenging species, a la crow. And the only way of making the God-fearing people adhere to the ritual was by concocting the story about crows being our forefathers. 

I am still looking for explanations. Help anyone....

Disclaimer: I am not trying to mock any ritual but only trying to understand it.