सहजच

"पिछले सात दिनों में मैंने हे खोया...." ,
नाही नाही नको नको बोर जालय आता हे song , गाड़ी तल्या ४ पैकी तिघांच अस मत असल्यामुळे अणि भारतात लोकशाही असल्याने (म्हणजे थोडक्यात ती गाड़ी माजी नसल्याने) मला रेडियो चा channel change करावाच लागला तेवढ्यात एक वाक्य आलच " आयला एवढ्या सगळ्या गोष्टी या man नि एका week मध्ये हरवल्या - काय करत तरी काय होता" "अरे हरवल्या असतील आधीच कधीतरी - पण गूम आहेत हे समजल मागच्याच week मध्ये ...." प्रत्येक सॉफ्टवेर इंजिनियर ला आपण २४ तास १२ महीने logically विचार केलाच पाहिजे अस मनापासून वाटत जस रिक्शा वाल्यांना मगरूरी अणि पोलिसांना बेफिकिरी दाखवण्याची नैतिक जबाबदारी आहे अस वाटत त्यातलाच हा प्रकार. "आवरा!! " गाडीत आवरा म्हणायचा पेटंट माझ्याकडे आहे, "मुर्ख आहात तुम्ही मुलांनो, song चांगला आहे ना, ईइका आणि सोडून दया , आणि आत्ता नाही ते पण " मुली टोमणा मारण्याची एकही संधि वाया जाऊ देत नाहीत याचा हाअनखिन एक प्रत्यय अल्यानंटर, मी विचार केला च्यायला अवघ्या दोन वीक्स पूर्वी ऑफिस मध्ये आठ आठ तास ही गाणी एइक्नारे आम्ही लगेच बोर काय जालों....., असो, तर आता maaza निषेध व्यक्त करण्यासाठी मी मोबाइलमधला "जितियें अमुक अमुक" वगैरे तत्सम जहिरात्बाज़ मेसेज फुल आव आणून पर्सनल मेसेज असल्यासारखा वाचू लागलो. आता ही ट्रिक पण जुनी जालिये पण अजुनही प्रूवन जालिम आहे :-) "के डोला रे डोला रे डोला ....." कुणीच विरोध न केल्यामुले silence is acceptance नुसार मी Radio-"DJ" गिरी बंद केलि अणि खिडकितुनबाहेर बघू लागलो, नाउ साडे नाऊ ची वेल त्यात range hills चा रस्ता, आजुबाजुला हिरवगार अणि traffic नाही.....प्लस friday night. तसही एकुणच शुक्रवारी रात्रि adrenalin level जरा वाढलेली असतेच ..........
कॉलेज नि LC दिला परवा , एका मित्राचा dilogue जालाच 'आता कसा कॉलेज नि डिवोर्स दिल्यासारखा वाटतयमहिना थोडेसे दया आता फक्त म्हनाव कॉलेज ला की जालच :-P ' हसाव का रडाव या वाक्यावर हे न समजल्यामुलेसगळे हसलेच होते .....friends च्या catagories मध्ये आता 'दोस्त' , 'कॉलेज ग्रुप' ,'शालेतला ग्रुप' , 'girlfriends' (मी optimistic आहे, या catagory मध्ये कोणी नसल तरी अशी catagory सुद्धा ठेवू नए हा कुठला न्याय :-P ), 'we are just good friends' (निदान यात तरी कोणीतरी पाहिजे - पण इयत्ता आठवी पासून एकच उत्तर आहे - work in progress :-) ) या नेहमीच्या सोडून colleagues अशी नवीन "टीम" तयार zaliye :-P आपल्याला पाच दिवस फुकट gilayala मिळणार यातल अपरूप संपलय, "मेरा ऑफिस 16km दूर है " या वाक्यातला तर दमच गेलाय सगला.....माणुस किती लवकर adapt होतो.... weekend ला दिवसभर zopa काढण्याची सवय शरीराला व्ह्यायला एकच weekend पुरला A।C। हा maza जन्मसिद्थ हक्क आहे हे पक्क zala। headphones, cell, cell cha charger, laptop,tyacha charger,LAN wires अस आयुष्य 'wiry' zalay पण शरीर मात्र गोलाई च्या रस्त्यानी चाललय :P
"काय रे खयालोमें डूबा एकदम," बरोबर आहे, song संपून १० सेकंड्स होउन गेले तरी मी अजुन channel change केला नव्हता (ही माजी खासियत आहे) सगल्या चैनल्स वर हिमेशभाई अपला "Karzzz" fedat आहे हे लक्षातआल, SFM वाले बिचारे "नवनिर्माण" mule दर तीन songs मध्ये एक तरी मराठी लाव्तातच पण ती बहुतेक गाणी अगम्य असतात म्हणुन ते पण गेल, शेवटी Sindbad the Sailor कुठेतरी सापडल "दुसरीकडे कुठेच काही नाहीये सो......" मी मिस्किलपणे (obviously) , एक सार्वजनिक उसासा......and we Rocked on..........

Dilemma

I had always been a great ' एसाप्नीती ' fan - you know the little - 100 or so - word stories which aim at teaching something 'worthwhile' and 'teach lessons of life' and blah blah.... well neway i used to find the stories pretty amusing & without any forwarded emails back then where else would one find short & sweet way to pass time? So the thing is, yesterday, during 'the purge' of my room i came across the book and there was one story, heavily titled 'existential dilemma' (don't even ask what its marathi counterpart - that is the actual title was, i conveniently ignored it ;-) ) So here's the story -

A man is running hard to escape a hungry tiger. He tumbles in panic and rolls off a valley. He is falling to what promises to be a certain death in the gorge below, when he just manages to clutch at a small tree that is growing on the rock face( see even 'original' hindi films have their climaxes copied :-P ). He hangs there for dear life. The choice is a bleak one. Above him is a hungry tiger and below him is a deep gorge. There is death on both sides. Just then, the dangling man’s eyes fall upon an 'abandoned' beehive that is a few feet above the tree that he is frantically hanging on to. There is honey dripping from the beehive. The man shuts his eyes and puts his tongue out to catch the sweet honey. It is his moment of fleeting bliss!

The story ends here! Wow, humans are a contemptible lot, damn it, at least Essop definitely was!

Well ,these days I have lots of time to kill, so you know why not learn something about 'existence' and all , I think there are two basic explanations, pretty obvious ones -

(1) Here is this man facing a certain death and, even then, all he can think of is petty satisfaction of his senses. The story tries to show what trivial levels men can sink to even in the face of worthy challenges.

(2)The other explanation is that the human condition is hopeless anyway. We are caught between the tiger and the gorge. It is the drops of honey that make our lives worth living( full SRK sentiments :-P ).

I favour the second analysis,obviously, though I worry that the first one is correct and I am merely rationalizing - something that that we all do - something which sounds better than compromising.

Also,while imagining the situation I found myself looking ridiculous, you know head extended, mouth open, eyes shut, waiting for honey to fall.Won't it be easy to just let go?

P.I.C.T. - एक पर्व

'Don't shout in the exam hall damn it take it outside!!'..... shit, let these not be the last words that a teacher ever said to me....
i am feeling dizzy here,my hands are shaking ,i
want to shout,scream,yell on top of my voice,yet
i feel stupid i don't even know what i want to do,i am not sure what i am trying to express and what is being expressed, i want to be with my friends but at the same time i want to be left alone with my thoughts,my memories and yet i sway with the crowd, do the stupid dance and curse and scream like its the end of the world..i don't want to let go of the euphoria but the feeling is still here,every handshake,every hug, i wish it wasn't the last but it is and its at that particular instant of letting go that it hits me,it hits me hard,so I try to scream louder, try to jump higher,punching the air endlessly not wishing to stop..man the feeling's still there, a pit in the stomach , a tremble thats refusing to go away, a nostalgic shadow thats slowly,very slowly making me realise its THE END no more tricks, no more games it ends here,now....Before i realise an hour's gone and i am heading home...OMG i forgot to have a last look at the college gates ,receding...like i always wanted to...i turn around,i am speeding away, i crane my neck, i try my best,oh come on.... why can't i see it...its gone, i've come too far now..........

I don't know what im gonna miss most or whether i'll ever be able to point out that this is the thing i miss, maybe its everything, maybe its nothing....four years, four loong years, so many things happened, so many things changed, so many new people,friends....and here i am at the other end looking back,trying to make sense of the jumbled up memories,trying to figure out how it shaped my life, how it shaped me......

I remember the times(and there were quite a few :P) when i had cursed the college,cursed me for my choices,cursed everything,blamed everything to college and yet i know now,in fact i guess i always knew that this would be the place i would cherish the most,i would miss the most...there have been so many things...good, bad, worse, perfect, ectastic!, irritating, frustrating, stressful, seemingly unending, positively dreadful....and like everyone else i've had my share of good and bad things, but right now,at this point i feel.....'content', grateful that it happened,thankful that i got a chance to 'live it'

Well im gonna try my best to hang on to these things,never forget what it was like,never forget how it felt an hour before graphics or ACAC exam, never fade out the dread that used to fill up my insides just before picking up 'problem chit' in practicals,the trembles that i used to feel while signing my name on the result attendance sheet with the result lying just a few inches & seconds away...........now i understand how Akash in DCH would have felt when he looks at those college students goofing around...its never going to be the same not in PG or anything.....all i can think is.....

"Chal Apulech Asane Ata Durun Pahuu....................................."

------------------------------------------------------------Pic-- courtesy - Nachiket( :) )

A SOAPY Affair!!

I absolutely have never managed to understand whats the deal with these soaps,i mean come on, barring aside the 200 years old grandmas and the 10kg makeup on a 40kg body and the ridiculously blunt thrashing of instruments that they call music,a wisp of a storyline, completely satanic vamps and so-well-behaved (read idiot and with zero self respect) bahus and extremely spoilt children, these so called family dramas rope in such a strong viewing that I am literally starting to think whether theres some big picture over there that i am honestly not able to grasp.

Actually on a TV show I saw Ekta Kapoor giving such mouth-shutting and prompt replies that I admit I was quite impressed, she is not so stupid after all then. She says its for
people to get away from their daily hassles ,fine so you tell them a story which has so many
glitches and hitches that they'll end up thinking,'at least my life is definitely better than
this',kewl accepted,people do end up feeling better if they see someone else who is in much
more trouble than they are,Ekta-1,Me-0.

Then she goes on saying that things are dumbed down and storyline is made mildly predictable because people after their day of hard work wouldn't want to strain their brains much and expect a straightforward recreation,Ok.Then show them Tom,Jerry na,will work better,and whos to guarantee that the deadly characters in her soaps won't give more headache? And a touch of mystery or thrill doesn't necessarily tire one down on the contrary it might revitalise the mind.Deadpan plots might just end up making us feel more droopy sucking out all the will to do anything after one episode....OOhhhHHkkkk so thats the trick you will lose the will to get up,to change channels and the next serial begins in a second, wow hats off,I really hadn't seen this coming,Ekta-2,Me-0.

Finally,she says it bridges generation gap,WHAT?? Aunties and gradmas see young people romancing and the concept of girlfriend,boyfriend is made clearer to them like how they behave and talk to each other and all making the aunties more liberal minded,Holy cow,now I am completely out cold.Shahrukh Khan has been trying to do the same thing for 20 years and only thing he has managed to do is to make girls think that boyfriends have to behave like he does in his films.Should a love story MUST have some family opposition and the girl or boy being spoilt at first ,usually the boy ,with him suddenly becoming an angelic person after marriage because of the 'tyaag of bahu'.At least the bits and pieces that I have seen the supposedly young people portrayed there DO NOT behave the way a sane young person would behave.Ok I am taking this one to save me the shame..Ekta-2 Me-1.

Of course,things are changing and they will hopefully and there have been a few good exceptions at least marathi ones that I have come across but right now lets just hope the
American Writers Association Strike ends soon and we can get back on the usual dosage of the
Prison Break,Lost and many... :-P

But I can't help thinking,I just can't that Ekta Kapoor might end up criticising these
shows better than I have managed hers..:-P