Bye Bye WP

Migrated to Medium, for the love of minimalism.

This blog will cease to exist soon.

Opinions et al

I’ve been pondering how people who consume news from different media seem to have different opinions on the same subject and I just can’t shake the observations of influences by the media. For one, I’m starting to grow a contempt for the TV news. Of course, the news hasn’t always been about just facts. It’s a news story, written by a fellow human being. And such a story can’t be devoid of the writer’s opinions. In that case, the TV doesn’t give the viewer any chance to even ponder over the facts in the news story. The headlines thrusts the opinionated statement in the viewer before one has any chance of gathering the facts and forming a well-informed opinion. I once had a cousin lament about how some people are lazy to attempt any critical analysis and consume data as they come. So, if one has to draw out a well-informed opinion of something, it becomes one’s own responsibility to read extensively, before stating so. There’s no dearth of examples around us, where everybody’s rushing to form opinions in this age, because people are expected to. A recent conversation at the lunch table was,
“Hey! What’s your opinion about <latest hot news topic>?”
“Nothing. Yum… this chicken’s so good”
“Uh?!”
Well, that’s not so bad, since we’re starting to having deep or possibly intellectual conversations, but what doesn’t seem appropriate is the approach itself. Not having an opinion can sometimes be a better stand than an ill-informed one.

But, who has the time to read up extensively to dig deeper and gain a better clarity of things in this age of information? I was once asked if Twitter wasn’t just information overload and remember responding with “‘Tis all about who you follow”. Twitter helps me in identifying people from whose posts, I could get information of relevance to me and different individuals possibly use different tools for the same. And access to information doesn’t make an intellectual! Could somebody be brilliant just by passively reading up everything there, without any critical analysis? Isn’t it all about connecting the dots and patterns, and pulling out the mapped info when required and its application? Now, that’s what we call wisdom. And, while at it, I found this excellent essay by Maria Popova. I shall end thus.

Fiction.part1

Asta and Evo strolled in silent contemplation of the trolls mocking Evo’s lack of innovation in coming up with a new great product. Evo was a star in releasing amazing products to the market. Well, she was… Until she entered a lopsided phase where every new product received negative reviews unimaginable.
“I’ve always wondered at the plight of Roark’s rejections. Now I know how it feels”, Evo said with a huge sigh. She kicked a stone that rolled and rolled and hit another, which decided to drop dead on a crevice of a large rock. No, no significant snowballing effect leading to some mystical other-wordly event here; the reader may not get distracted. A small tree matronly spreading out it’s branches to make way for shadows bent slightly to brush the rock in the breeze. Evo leaned on its trunk and stretched out over the shadow.
“All’s not over yet. Leave no stone unturned.”, said Asta.
“This is the only stone I can afford to turn now”, Evo pushed the rock slightly which budged slightly aside and back.
“Leave no rock unturned is more appropriate”, Asta pushed the rock with a little more pressure.
“Whhaa…tt is that?!” Both exclaimed in surprise.
There was a man-sized hole now where the rock earlier was, leading into a tunnel!

(… more, when in the next traffic jam…)

The Mellow Experiment

The hyper self running a perpetual battle with the undesirable finiteness of time is putting up with a hard struggle, being stuck stationary in a vehicle for long hours. Literary consumption or literary creation or art consumption could mellow it down, so with the help of some ARR, Chinmayi, Lorde etc. in the background, I forcefully mellow myself, as mellow as a fresh cream cake and smooth out the tattered corners of hyperactive impatience. On a side note, mellow only by appearance and not a bite-into-able mellowness, because the state machine’s in an aggressive bite-back state. The Mellow Experiment, let this be called, lest it should go nameless when it becomes an accidental phenomenon, like The Lemon Law. Why Mellow? Because I was reminded, when I spotted ‘Nee Paartha’ on my playlist, of how I wrote ‘Sujatha Mohan’s voice beautifully mellows down to sync with Haricharan’s…’ a few years ago. Now to try to mellow the restless self down to not get caught in any aggressive cycles of pressure or stress and hack a survival mechanism in the traffic. And why just survive, when you could thrive, like Arianna Huffington says. I should probably continue this tomorrow, because I spot the treasure chest at the end of the rainbow, the light at the end of the tunnel – *ahem* my destination.

Belief : Have and Have-Not

Beliefs – they do differ;
Your belief and my lack thereof
In an entity invisible
The lack born from crunching of
Curiosity preprocessors non-stop,
In motion from childhood.

Reason awakened to values as
The only ideals to uphold necessary
As was preached by all propaganda
Shunning instruments extricated of ideals,
Blindly propagated blank instruments and
Archaic practices without rationale.

Curiosity branched into scepticism
Fueled by the mob mandates
Of opinions and individual stands.

Though not held by absolutes
When in the way comes, love
Accompany I shall, to share
Moments, as everything else
Participate, expect not, to not
Wallow in judgement or deception,
Detest not, my independent thought
In harmony shall we live with rationale.

~ A semi-atheist in a place of worship

Last Working Day

Overload of emotions
That numb out all else;
That is to be probed,
To experience and savour
And safeguard in
The stowaway of memories.

To-be sentiment not felt to be
Mandating the question of its absence
When obliteration of memories – shredded
Simultaneously pits with heart-ache
Deep within – mild, butterfly-like
Oh, the physical element may not be!
But all that’s learnt, remain
Deep within – rooted for life
Gratified by the love from
Relationships forged, rooted for life
From different quarters unexpected.

Overload of emotions
Ought to be poured out
Before stowaway into.

Mangaluru

Watching me with a stern command to sleep
Depriving my hyper self, though medicated
Of the modern world norms of connectivity
He leaves me with no choice, but
To relapse into my pool of fond memories;
Fishing out the vivid images of wanderlust –

Holding hands into the serenity of sunset
Streaking the shimmering waters with hues
That were multitudes amid frothy whites.

Ferrying across backwaters sultry and eager,
Watching the educated masses turn uncouth
In the chaos of boarding and disembarking.
Riding the roller-coaster of a town bus
Unruly, yet ruling the roads with autonomy!

Filling the tummy to heart’s content, while
The hoopoes and jackdaws chirp over the
Elevated canopy overlooking the foggy terrains
Sit we, sighing at the sheer beauty
Tranquil and not a single decibel to the ear
Yet picturesque in million sights to the eye.

Bliss was, beholding the Nethra goddess
Adorned with hundreds of boats and nets
Swaying away with a shimmer, while all I
Could do was shudder with surprise,
At the sudden sight caught at a turn.

On and on, I could go; I really could
For, this (and more) was Mangaluru to me,
Serenity among the occasional chaos that was.

Getting sick could put you in a reflective, nostalgic mood. Should soon finish the travelogue from few weeks back.

Set Free

Flailing amid ghosts of uncertainty
In the throes of thwarted ambitions
Bound to thy sentiments; let go me!

Soar I, in the illusion of wings sprouted
Departing the canopy into the clouds
Grounded though, in reality, I was
Crashing came the unwitting cognizance –
Toils of conformity from love or remorse;
Bound though, bound thee, never free.

Weakness of the single moment, fear I
Haunt it will, with a shrewd eye,
Mocking the oxymorons that are I.

Morph into a snake that sheds at will
Conceal in a cocoon, coward-like
Retract into a shell, far from sight
Burrow into grounds, deep inside
Options check off I, into oblivion
Born I was into something, nought else.

Remove again the cord, as from the womb,
Reborn I shall be and survive.

Picking Way through Poona

I wrote after long.

Will continue to edit…

How to find an Adventure in an Apparently Drab Environs?

There’s this place you pass by once in a while and have always wondered what lies behind those only walls that fall within your line of sight, but which looks uninhabited when compared to the rest of the city. You’re still curious and you find that your EB office exists in that neighborhood. So, how do you land in an unexpected trekking experience?

Miss the due date for the electricity bill payment and get ready to visit the EB Office for reconnection (the best part – while cancelling the plan for Interstellar).
Ask your Building Security for the way to reach and get all confused, though you already know it from a friend and make him angry when you argue, so buy in his confident statement.
Get down at the previous stop only to discover that it’s the next stop, unlike what the Security said, so ask a couple of people for more guidance, who point out it’s a ‘walkable distance’ (a normal grammatical mistake our people do; some people auto-correct : it’s a walkable <break> walking distance).
Follow the advice and walk, only to discover you can’t even spot the huge-bridge-landmark even after passing all kinds of existent vehicles on the road.
Pay double the price a previous cab offered – rejected under the optimism of ‘walkable distance’.
Arrive at a neighborhood totally unlikely for an Electricity Board office, get into a building totally unlikely for an Electricity Board office and walk into the office totally unlike an Electricity Board office.
In all the excitement, conveniently forget that our Government offices still are medievally cash-transaction-types, so after some sarcastic humour from the officials, begin the next hunt for an ATM.
Keep eyes all tightened to spot that ATM board that appears pretty close on the opposite side of the road, which you’ve no idea how to get to.
Carefully cross road, criss-crossing among the whizzing vehicles of the highway, get to the median, heave a sigh of relief and repeat for the other direction.
Follow the only possible path that people seem to be taking – though not a path in strict terms – flanked by weeds.
Carefully, trek the mounds (wish you had worn trekking shoes), jump over a few rail tracks, wait for the train to cross, jump over a few rail tracks – uh! ‘Huge wall means dead end!’.
‘No wait! People appearing out of and vanishing into thin air at that spot! Must be a teleporter there!’
Find a narrow wall-less spot, guarded by a huge tree with roots running all over and a tiny temple and vanish into thin air just like the others.
Voila! You arrive at the ATM surrounded by a few scattered shops(for whom you wonder)! (Make sure you’re dressed that you blend into the environs, nothing flashy).
Wonder if that tiny provision store nearby, stocks the hair serum you need, so that you don’t have to make a detour to the super market before going home (And hear friend utter sarcastically ‘If you actually get it here, then I’d take the bus and always come here to shop’).
Go back through the apparition spot, jump more rail tracks and trek your way back to the road.
Carefully cross road, criss-crossing among the whizzing vehicles of the highway, get to the median, heave a sigh of relief and repeat for the other direction (Ok, I cheated – copied this from above).
Get back in time to the EB office, ignoring dead stuff on the way that you’re not supposed to see, as warned by friend and yay! – Achievement unlocked.
Linger on the way outside, when you hear people talking in pretend-English to gain some nuggets of information – ‘Hey! In Bombay where ya?’ ‘<TODO : Recollect>’.
Go home with happy memories of adventure.
The End.