The Melting Pot » Random

Your choice !

Varun — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:38:49 +0000

They come , they stick around for a while , some leave and some stay forever . But while they’re around they make our lives wonderful . They’re there when you make stupid plans and carry them through . They’re there right besides you when you laugh out loud after wards . They’re there when you’re going through tough times . They’re there when you’re anxious , sad and distressed . They give you the support you need . They call you at odd hours to discuss the most trivial things . Sometimes they just go on and on and you wonder would they be better off talking to a wall . They drag you to places just for the sake of company . They get you into trouble and they stick around (sometimes) to see you get out of it . They sincerely want the best for you .They’re your friends.

Some of them sometimes don’t act the way you expect them to . Fortunately , I haven’t had much of that problem but I have seen guys who have and so let this be a message for them – It would be selfish to expect others to always behave the way you want them . And so before you pull out all that bullshit from your stupid hat about a selfish and mean world , remember that you come into this world alone and you leave alone . You have to take care of your own business,man .You can either choose to spend the entire journey sulking alone or you can choose the company of your friends and make the best of what you’ve got. Life is like a glass filled half way with water – you can either groan about the missing water or you can take the glass and drink up whatever you have (with whatever you have) . You will have tough times in life but the trick is not to let them encroach upon better times . So,just let those bad times slide !

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The monsoon experience.

Varun — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:24:39 +0000

Monsoon has to be the most melodious word in India during the summer . Months of scorching sun takes a toll and the promise of showers makes the pavement dweller and the mansion dweller equally elated . When it rains , everybody’s out . The same jubilation is evident on every face,and it’s beautiful. There are some things though that make the monsoon experience typically Indian . We’ve all experienced them right form the young days to the teens and now adulthood . And they are -

* Every summer seems the hottest . I’ve never heard people say that last summer was worse than the present , it’s always the other way around . ‘This summer is the worst ever’ is a staple line .

* Rain is godsend only for the first day . Within 24 hours , it turns into a scourge – manholes , potholes , water flooding inside homes and water logging outside .

* The chances of getting caught in the first rain are exponentially higher than watching the monsoon rain safely from your room window . Everybody runs to their homes to avoid getting caught,then change clothes and run outside .

* Tea and fried delicacies have an intrinsic relationship to monsoon . Even though the dampness makes it possibly the worst time to eat samosas/pakoras/jalebis but still the queues are longest in the rains.

* The most magical experience though is the inevitable power cut – spending the time indoors playing board games in the candle light with the shower and thunder for background music was pure ecstasy . Sneakily turning the switches was some experience too .

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Tweet it !

Varun — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:12:48 +0000

Twitter is one word you just could not have missed over the past few days . Some of the most talked about events lately have had something to do with Twitter . One man who has contributed more to the popularity of Twitter in India is Shashi Tharoor even though his tweeting cost him his ministership . Other than minor side effects like losing your job and getting dumped , tweeting is actually quite fun .

Twitter is a revolution . If the world was a global village a few years back , with Twitter it’s now become a cramped apartment . From Presidents to just about everybody else , they’re all tweeting . So,what’s it about Twitter that is so mesmerizing ? Well, Twitter can’t be explained, it needs to be experienced , as any Twitter addict would tell you . It’s really quite an unattractive prospect – just write anything in 140 characters . Everybody first timer would wonder – write what ? And how much can one express oneself in 140 characters ? How much can somebody write ?! I asked the same question to myself when I signed up on Twitter . And the only thing I can say to any prospective Tweeter – Find out for yourself.

Twitter never fails to surprise . It surprises me when I find myself glued to it even after close to 2000 Tweets . It surprises me even further when I find many of my friends as addicted to it as I am .So what do people write there ? Well anything and everything . People tweet about whatever they have in their minds and you’ll be surprised most at how much you have going on up there inside your head . With Twitter,you’re actually looking inside a person’s mind – reading somebody’s thoughts . Twitter is like having a conversation . And that’s why it’s so addictive as it’s such a natural thing to do . On Twitter you follow people instead of making them friends . This also gives an impersonal feel to the whole business,which somehow allows more individual space . Each time you tweet,you know that somebody will read it . You know you’re being listened to . For a world in desperate need of it, it’s free therapy !

No related posts.

One more time !

Varun — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:07:48 +0000

Once more…

There’s nothing spectacular in a football match whose final score reads 1-0 . And if that happens to be just a league match,there’s not much one would normally read into it . One such match was played today in the City of Manchester stadium between two teams today which couldn’t be more different – one being the most successful English team of the last two decades and the other taking baby steps into footballing success buoyed by Gulf money . It was a classic clash of the new versus the old guard – One team prides itself on local home grown talent and the other being a consortium of international stars and since they were city rivals the clash was always going to be high on passion . There’s something about these derby matches that inspires lesser teams to match their more illustrious neighbours . May be we need these clashes to remind ourselves that passion can triumph over great difficulties .

The match wasn’t the classic derby match . Manchester City is no longer the poor country cousin . The vast amount of money that’s been pumped into the club lately has made it into a favoured destination of star players from across the league . United on the other hand were hampered by injuries to their captain-defender and came into this match after being knocked out of Europe and a disappointing draw from last week . The star-striker,who was snagged from a smaller club when he was barely out of his teens , started this match carrying a unhealed foot from a couple of weeks before . Trailing the league leaders by 4 points with the end closing in United just HAD to win this game . Manchester City too had a lot to be fired up with,a win today would have pushed them into contention for a berth in Europe next season .

The match was going to be cagey and that it was . Both teams were more or less evenly matched After half time,United just had to push for a win . But every time they did , they came across an equally resolute defense .The ball had been kicked in for ninety minutes and every time it was headed out by defenders . Every time a player weaved his way into the opponents’ domain , a precise tackle would end the run . And many times, players would slide in with the sole purpose of hurting the other ! This was the script for most of the match,I repeat ‘most of the match’ . In the last minute of the match , it happened . The smallest man on the pitch jumped high enough to head the ball into the opponents’ goal for the win . The ball kicked into the penalty box was just like the ones which had been kicked all day long . There was nothing particularly outstanding about it . But what was extraordinary about the outcome was that the smallest man on the pitch,who rarely scores over an entire season had managed to score and that too with his head . He wasn’t meant to score,he was old,a work-dog whose job was to tread every piece of land within the playing field,he was the unlikeliest man for the job, even the ball was targeted for the taller striker right next to him . But he did . He did it not out of some heroic urge , that would be too flamboyant ! He did it because this was what he was supposed to be doing . He knew that the taller defenders were favorites to get to the ball , they had been doing it for the entire match . He knew that nobody expected him to score for he wasn’t a striker . But he jumped . He persevered and in that last moment when everything worth seemed done and dusted , he flipped the script .Let somebody else be flamboyant,he could do it better . Sometimes ,you just need to put your blinders on and slog . Forget about what happened before , ignore what’ll happen afterwards and just do what you do one more time . One more time …

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fear not thy horoscope !

Varun — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:43:54 +0000

Chances are that if you mention to your friends that you read horoscopes and believe them to be true you’d regret it . Frankly, I’d be surprised if somebody got away with it without a handful of jokes and sermons . It’s one of those things that people wait for you to mention so that they can tear you down . My advice would be to give a silent hearing to that little voice inside your head before troubling your throat !

But the point is that a lot of people read horoscopes . Otherwise ,we wouldn’t have early morning shows and dedicated column space in newspapers . One of the best things to come out of the media turning into businesses is that you get an accurate idea of what the people are watching . If it’s on then people watch it . Simple .To begin with,is it even possible to predict the future ? Would every person born on my birthday be like me ? If that’s the case then it’d mean that the entire human population is just multiples of a handful of personality types . How can a billion Cancerians or Virgos have the same kind of day ? I personally find the idea of knowing the future contradictory . Knowing the future means having the power to alter it and if it can be altered how is it the future ? If somebody tells me I’m going to meet with an accident tomorrow and I don’t get out of the house the entire day then that means the ‘future’ was wrong . And if the future can be predicted accurately then it must be certain . No action of mine will change it , in fact my actions would be the stepping stones towards that future .

Many studies have found that people believe in predictions because they want to believe in them .Every time an astrologer tells them their personality traits , people subconsciously look for these traits within . And when they find instances to prove that they have the trait , they believe the astrologer to be true . But even with all the clinching arguments against astrology , I don’t think there is anything wrong with people turning to it . An anxious person staring in to the abyss gets his spirit uplifted when he’s told that the future isn’t that bleak . A little bit of reassurance can do wonders . And so what if it’s humbug if it helps people . The idea of an all powerful God helps when one is in trouble . Knowing that somebody up there has got your back is reassuring .One can think of astrology as psychotherapy for the masses . Somehow , I believe that this is what it’s meant to be . Wearing a red t-shirt wouldn’t help you in the exam but believing so helps a student de-stress . When I read the horoscope in the morning and it tells me that I have a great day ahead , then I don’t mind if it’s divine or not . And if the same horoscope tells me I need to work harder and be careful then it helps me too .

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A small village nowhere..

Silhouette — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:16:17 +0000

He wakes up on his own. He doesn’t have a watch but they all wake up at the same time, 4.30 in the morning at the call of Muezzin. He washes his feet, hands and face with ice cold water, arranges his prayer mat neatly on the mud floor of his hut, and prays to the Almighty Allah.

He spends his day hunting wild animals for food and collecting dry wood for the hearth, not to forget collecting for the six months he and his fellow villagers spend huddled inside their huts during winters waiting for the warm rays of sun to pierce through the thick veil of ice and frost. He has just lost his daughter to Pneumonia, the most common child-killer here in the villages of North-Pakistan, settled in the lap of the World’s toughest mountain range – the Karakoram.

He does not have enough food, nothing grows here except for apples, apricots, wheat and if they’re lucky, potatoes. They plough the world’s smallest fields with their own hands and sometimes, goats. The rock-strewn peaks and sharp edged cliffs do not leave any scope for ground-water, much less any fertile land. The valleys are covered by apple orchards, pretty as they look. The village school is a flat ground the size of an ordinary kitchen-garden where children of all ages (mostly boys), line up each morning to sing the national anthem. Then, they sit on the ground in a circle and scratch at the ground with sticks, repeating the tables their teacher taught them last week. There is one teacher for three villages like this one. The school opens only during the summer months. It is impossible to sit on the cold earth and scratch at the two-foot thick hardened snow in the winters. Their pretty reddish-blond hair is actually caused by a disease called Kwashiorkar. Most of these children have loose teeth due to calcium deficiency.

The village is a group of mud-and-stone huts with a hearth in the centre where they light a fire by burning yak dung. The smoke burns the eyes and goes out through a small hole in the roof, cut out for that purpose. The village is connected to the world by a trolley. It is a vegetable crate which hangs over a rope and carries one person at a time, operated manually. You fold yourself into the crate, and then you pull the greasy cable with your hands, sliding the crate over a five-hundred metre deep gorge. If it broke, you’d fall. If you fell, you were dead.

There are no banks, no doctors, no lawyers, no government. But when you live here, first things first. Survival.

This is the current position of more than a hundred Pakistani villages, based in and around the Karakoram. There are a number of Indian villages that are based along the outskirts of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK) which share the same life as the village I described above. It makes me wonder. What about the government, Indian or Pakistani? What about education, independence, sovereignty? But why would they be concerned about these when they have so many other more important things occupying their minds. Food. Clothes. Fire. Warmth. Children. Death.

Humanity and Socialism seem so superficial when you see these Muslim men and women struggle everyday of their lives. What they need is, a bridge over the ravine that connects them to the World. Proper schools that give their children atleast a basic education so that they can step out into the World with their head held high; proper medical facilities so that they don’t get used to losing their sons and daughter who aren’t even born yet. Proper transport system, so that they don’t look stupid losing their lives crossing over a gorge, falling from a vegetable-crate.

Did you realise that this area is the most fought over piece of land in the history of mankind? Yet, it’s people are so neglected that it’s disgusting. What is more important- thousands of human lives, blood pumping through their veins, their eyes awaiting the fulfilment of promises made to them by the Sarkar, their hearts beating together defying the harsh altitude and forces of nature; or a few hundred kilometres of barren mountains? You decide.

If you want to know more, and if you care, please read “Three cups of Tea”, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

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The A-Z of India…

Varun — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:00:18 +0000

A – Ambassador,the car . The quintessential Indian automobile.

B – Bollywood.It is the national obsession .Nothing binds us better.

C – Cricket.When we are not watching movies,we are cricket-ing.

D – Dogs . Weve all been chased by one once in our life.Also the first abuse.

E – Eunuchs.The hijras are a peculiar phenomenon of the subcontinent.

F – Festivals.There are more festivals in a year than there are days.

G – Garibi.From beggars to slums.We now have slum tourism.

H – Hanuman.The monkey god.The original superhero.

I – India.We love our country,in a strange way.

J – Jugaad.One solution for all problems whether it is a car or career.

K – Khichdi.A popular Indian dish and occasionally concoction of everything.

L – Laddoo. The favorite sweet.

M – Marriage.Big Big deal in India.

N – News.From neighborhood gossip to newspapers and news channels.

O – Offices with tea sipping,lazy,arrogant babus.

P – Pakistan,the enemy for all seasons and few reasons.

Q – Queues.They are everywhere from temples to banks .

R – Rickshaws.They tread where nothing else dares.

S – Samosas.Some say it is a Persian delicacy,but we have made it our own.

T – Tea.Chai is India’s favorite beverage.

U – UP.Uttar Pradesh fascinates us like nothing else,bhaiya.

V – Village.We love our pinds and gaons.This is real India.

W – Why,When,Who,What ? The gossiping and inquisitive Indians.

X – Add XX and you have a taboo.Prefix SE and you have crossed the line.

Y – Yoga.

Z – Zero.We invented it.

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Destination Designed!!

Nabeel — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:38:10 +0000

After Going through the article written by Amratya sen which was published at the ndtv site. I was reminded of my own post which was written 2 years back which i would like to re-post in order to share my insight on this topic.

“We have been brought up the way our Parents and Teachers wanted to bring us up. if the priority in Youngster`s lives today is Luxury, and indifference towards others, it is because their parents care for none and wish to live in luxury. if students today are languishing in coaching classes slogging away for marks, it is because their parents and teachers want them to become scoring machine.
if every student you meet believes that he should be a Doctor or an Engineer and earn lots of Money, it is because his Parents Teachers and Relatives have conditioned him to think like that.

They just end up doing what their parents want ,with out giving enough time to bring out their talents which they find hidden inside. before they could say , some thing about their dreams , they are asked to do this/that. after passing out from the college, they realize what they have done to their God gifted Talents (extra activities including ,writing,sports). Parents need to give their Children enough space and Hinder, so that he/she could think of her own and achieve those Dreams which we often look back after moving the stage, ones we wanted to be. your sons and daughters are going to make it big one day. once they go that stage, they will not come back to the age of a child.so let them enjoy for being what they are……. (From the archives dated May 2006}.

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A Strange Problem

Nabeel — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:26:50 +0000

I have a strange problem these days
The power to hate with all my heart
Is ebbing by the day

I want to hate the English
{They ruled us for the two centuries}
But Shakesphere sidles up
To whom i owe so much

I want to hate the Muslims
But ghalib stands before me
Tell me,is it possible to stand up
To him?
I want to hate the Sikhs
And Guru Nanak fills my vision
And my head is bowed

And this Kamban,this Thiagaraja,this
Muthuswamy…
A hundred thousand times I tell myself
They are not mine
They`re from the place far South
But the heart does not rest
Till they are made mine

And that lover
Who Betrayed me the first time
I`d as soon kill her as look at her!
I do see her,but

Sometimes she is a friend
Sometimes a mother
Often like a sister

And i drink from the cup of love,and still
All my days
I wander like a madman
In search of someone I can
Hate with all my heart
and ease it for a while
But precisely the opposite happens
Somewhere,sometime
I find someone
I cannot help but love

Day by day,this disease of love is growing
Rooted firmly in the fantasy
That one day my love
will show me paradise

– Kanwar Narain
{translated from the hindi by pratik kanjilal}

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Cheering for the other side ?

Varun — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:07:43 +0000

This is arguably the most crucial moment in the history of Pakistan . It is fighting for its soul and identity . It is at war with itself . The old timers in South Block are concerned with the consequences of having an extremist Pakistan as neighbor . There concerns are well justified but there’s more at stake than just having a trigger happy nuclear armed state as your neighbor . So , I find myself cheering on the Pakistan Army in it’s offensive in Waziristan . We have more to lose if Pakistan is to go the Iran way or worse gets dismembered -

1. Wagah Border Ceremony – The elaborate retreat ceremony played out every evening at Amritsar is quite a spectacle . It attracts foreigners and locals al;ike who swarm in great numbers to the attari border to catch the shenanigans of the Pakistani Rangers and the BSF jawans . Patriotism is at peak value as the gigantic men strut about with their Kalashnikovs and stomping their way through the evening . It is a colourful ceremony that takes the attendants from their vicious patriotic fervor to share bonhomie with their brothers across the border in a matter of just over an hour .

2 . Sports – The India-Pakistan match is truly a war on the field . With both countries regularly at loggerheads over one issue or the other , the hostility trickles down on to the field and makes for a spectacle . The joy that engulfs the nations whenever their team triumphs over the other is unparalleled anywhere else . In friendlier times , one can find supporters for the other team on the other side of the border . One can find Indians supporting Pakistan against Australia or the other way around . This is something that is peculiar to the subcontinent .

3. Bollywood – Indian films are officially banned in Pakistan but unofficially the country is gripped by Bollywood fever . The Khan trio enjoys as much fame on the other side of the border . Piracy is a huge business in Pakistan and apart from economic consequences for the pirates , Bollywood too will suffer . How will Sunny Deol and Co make films without their enemy for all seasons – Pakistan ?

4. The Arts – Like it or not , India and Pakistan share a common cultural heritage . No matter how much the Islamists and the Saffronists try to disconnect Pakistan and India , the truth is that both are intertwined . Both sides are enchanted with music and poetry . Literature dealing with the Partition and the relationship between the two people is a genre in itself .

5. Fixation – Both countries are obsessed with one another . Both compete with each other over every insult and compliment . The most important thing for both nations isn’t if they fare poorly but to ensure that they aren’t below par than their neighbor whether it be poverty , illiteracy , corruption . We’ve so gotten used to this fixation that we’ve nearly turned a blind eye to more pressing concerns . The other keeps us sheltered in a cocoon of our own making . And we’ll always have a ready made ‘interference’ and ‘foreign hand’ story for all our failures .

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