सारे जग में कहीं नही है दूसरा हिन्दुस्तान

Probably the closest description of our beloved countrymen i've ever come across.Kudos to Javed Akhtar for the beautiful yet not overly emotional verse:

हम लोगों को समझ सको तो सम्झो दिलबरजानी
जितना भी तुम सम्झोगे उतनी होगी हैरानी
अपनी छतरी तुमको दे दें कभी जो बरसे पानी
कभी नये पैकेट में बेचें तुमको चीज़ पुरानी
फिर भी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी
थोडे अनाडी हैं थोडे खिलाडी
रुक रुक के चलती है अपनी गाडी
हमें प्यार चाहिये, और कुछ पैसे भी
हम ऐसे भी हैं, हम हैं वैसे भी
हम लोगों को समझ सको तो सम्झो दिलबरजानी
उलटी सीधी जैसी भी है अपनी यही कहानी
थोडी हममें होशियारी है थोडी है नादानी
थोडी हममें सच्चाई है थोडी बेइमानी
फिर भी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी
आंखों में कुछ आंसू हैं कुछ सपने हैं
आंसू और सपने दोनो ही अपने हैं
दिल दुखा है लेकिन टूटा तो नही है
उम्मीद का दामन छूटा तो नही है
हम लोगों को समझ सको तो सम्झो दिलबरजानी
थोडी मजबूरी है लेकिन थोडी है मनमानी
थोडी तू-तू मैं-मैं है और थोडी खींचातानी
हममें काफ़ी बातें हैं जो लगती हैं दीवानी
फिर भी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी

This is part of the newfound patriotism after two months away from homeland. A fullish travel diary type description of the sojourn is imminent, but somebody has got to help me get over my laziness. For those looking to write some devnagri font themsleves, download the software Baraha

What's a train journey to you David - reprise

For those who have read one of my earlier posts,
http://hardtimekillingfloor.blogspot.com/2005/07/whats-train-journey-to-youdavid.html
this one would hardly come as a surprise.The rest,in order to understand my general sentiments about steel monsters on iron tracks,should go through it once.

Anyway,I mentioned in the above post how I inevitably get bored to death even on my usual 3 hour sojourn from Kanpur to Allahabad.Now since the last two times,the course of events has been slightly different. You see, my usual pick for the usual journey happens to be the Rewa Express,which I board at an insanely and ungodly early morning hour.Thats cos it is seldom late and used to run relatively vacant too.That used to part can be blamed for my most recent experiences.
The first time I took this train to go home,I was accompanied by Nishant,Mandu,Barsaiyan,Dube and Shahi.We were going to participate in the MNNIT quiz fest(yea,right!the venue was Allahabad and all of us buggers just wanted to travel on insti expense while availing the additional advantage of home-cooked food).My Dad told me about this train,and we decided to give it a try.None of us cud wake up at 5 am to catch the insti bus which'd take us to the station,so we had to stay up the entire night.Caught the bus,reached the station,bought the tickets,and waited apprehensively on the platform wondering whether the general bogey would have enough space to even dangle precariously by the gate.But surprise,surprise!Firstly the train arrived exactly on time and secondly,would you believe it,the general bogey was absotively-posilutely empty!We simply couldn't believe our luck,especially me!I had discovered the most painless way to reach home,home again!

Few things haven't changed since then.I still board only the Rewa express to go home.I still stay up the entire night in order to catch the morning bus.I still buy the ticket,I'm still aprehensive about the crowd.But one thing has changed for sure.Its no more emptyville in the general bogey.
Hell there isn't even enough space to step inside.
Actually,maybe I should be more systematic about my experience.This is what happens to me after I reach the legendary Kanpur station:
1.Time:around 6 am.I get off the bus and head towards the ticket counter.Its not really crowded.Of course,not really crowded is a relative term.Its not crowded if you compare it to the same place at a later time of the day,but its still enough to make an Aussie,who has not seen so many people in all the cities of his country combined,faint with shock!

2.Also,the last two times I have been carrying a lot of luggage(lesser visits home and more n more clothes n stuff loaded on the way back).So standing in line for the ticket isn't a particularly elevating experience,what with having to check your luggage every 2 seconds and dragging it along with you as you move ahead,slowly but surely,in the line.

3.Time: 6:15 am.So i get the ticket and head for the platform,more often than not,platform no.6.The train is running right time as usual,and that proves to be the only good news all morning.well,almost!you don't call it running late if its just late by a mere 30 minutes,do u?Anyway,th platform isn't too crowded either,and every single time I congratulate myself for making it awake through another nightout and being able to catch the train.But as you'll see,my jubiliation is short-lived.

4.Time: 6:21 am.So I make an effort and lift my heavy luggage one final time to get to the far-end of the platform where the general bogey is supposed to park.Now is the first time I see people mysteriously making an appearance out of nowhere and crowding around the far-end for the same purpose as me.I put my luggage before some snack shop and observe the crowd while carefully contemplating whether its gonna be another of those sessions to get inside the train between sips of tea.Somehow,I'm always able to assure myself that the crowd hasn't yet assumed threatening proportions and it'll not be that bad.I'm not too wrong either,the crowd at this point does not threaten to cramp me for standing space,which is all I ask really.

5.Time: 6:27 am.Now the time for the train to arrive draws closer.Surprisingly,the announcer always omits to announce the time for my train while she happily announces away all early morning to late noon trains!A conspiracy,naaah probbaly not.Anyway,finally when the train is already late by half-an-hour,she finally announces it'll be there in a short while(read 15 minutes).
And all this while,the crowd continues to pour in from all directions and head towards my end forcing me to pick up my luggage one time more than I bargained for,and head still farther.

6.Time: 6:54 am.I finally see the engine moving towards me at a long distance.I tighten my grip on my bag and suitcase,and so does the rest of the junta(I mean on their respective bags and suitcases).When at last the train reaches within boarding distance,I see the true force of the population explosion.I have no frikkin idea where all these people hide before the actual arrival of the train,but they sure take me by surprise every single time.

7.I scramble for space and try my best to push myself inside the general bogey even as perfectly healthy persons stuff the bogey meant for disabled people and the ones actually physically challenged give up on their quest even befor they start.I stop for a moment to think,"Man!how pathetic is that!".And thats my fatal mistake.I lose my chance in a fraction of a second and suddenly the bogey looke like it would burst.but it doesn't.Much like the country to which it belongs,it seems to have an infinite capacity and generosity.I call it quits and head for the sleeper class bogey,ready to pay the T.T.E whatever he demands.

8.Time: 7:01 am.I manage to get inside without much ado.Of course,there is no place to sit here either.The really intelligent people had headed for the sleeper in the first place and had occupied the seats with more confidence than the people who had reserved berths.I am content with the standing space I manage to get near the washbasin.There are a handful of people crowded around the same place.Its not that bad,I think.When the train starts moving,I'll adjust my luggage slightly and sit on my bag or suitcase.Its only a matter of 3 hours,after all.

9.Time: 7:09 am.And then the train does start moving.Its time for the grand finale.Just as mysteriously as the happenings at the platform,from nowhere,a sea of people enters the bogey.Where the fuck were they sitting earlier,I think??Then I realize,oh fuck!they weren't sitting!So now the standing space becomes more cramped than the general bogey(ok thats a slight exaggeration,but the effect is necessary).Phew!I look at my watch.3 hours like this?

10.No wait,there's more.It's morning time,folks!Time for nature's calls and other ablutions.And where am I standing?Oh in the path leading to the toilet obviously.I'll not elaborate any further....

But then,the train strangely enough never gets delayed between Kanpur to Allahabad and invariably makes it in a good half-an-hour less than the scheduled time.

All's well that ends well,that's what they say,don't they?
Well that's exactly why I hate them!

Back to the lab again

For those of you who might be interested,my Floyd blog is on the verge of revival. I haven't prayed in a long time and having watched the documentary Making of Dark side of the Moon only recently,I decided I had ignored the Gods long enough.

Achtung,baby!

CFG - Complete Friggin Genius: Follow-e-Dilbert

CFG - Complete Friggin Genius: Follow-e-Dilbert

This is a fellow clan member.As of now,we're the only two in the clan,but I challenge you to resist instant conversion after reading the above post.

Ode to cliches

People are basically good

Yeah,Right!!

Columbus Columbus vittaachchu leevu

That translates to Columbus,Columbus, it's holiday time!
But you don't need to know that to enjoy the song. They say music has no language,don't they?
Well,guess what, for once they are right,whoever they are,cos they seem to say a lot of horseshit too at times.I hate them!
Anyway, the point is, at times ,you really don't need to understand the lyrics.In fact,if you're listening to Tamil or Telugu songs,it sounds much better if you don't know the language,cos then you don't pay attention to the meaning,which in most cases, is mind-blowing,speaking very very euphemistically.Sample these for instance,from the song Kaadhal Yannai from the Tamil smash hit Anniyan,which I was lucky enough to watch some time back(with subtitles of course.Music is fine,but you do need to understand the dialogues occasionally):

hiroshima neethano nagasakiyum neethano
un meethu thaano en kaadhal bomb oh
harappa vum neethano mohanjadarro neethano
aayvaalan naano arayaa lamo

Roughly translated, this means,
You are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I'm the love atom bomb.
You are Harappa and Mohenjodaro,I'm your researcher.

Ouch!Yea that's what I said.It sounded so cool in Tamil.The subtitles spoiled the fun,really.
The dance club, IIT Kanpur has made a tradition out of dancing to popular Tamil numbers.This was probably my initiation into south indian movie music.In my first year, our seniors danced to Chandralekha. Great song, and they did a damn good job on the choreography part too. Both the song and the dance were a hit with the local junta.It became something less than a legend in the short and until then unillustrious history of dance club.

The following year we danced to Saregame (the telugu version) from the cult hit Boys(what a gay name!). An even more amazing song.but I don't know what went wrong with the dance.Something did, that's for sure. The practice took the life out of us. For 15 days, we could think of nothing else.Most of us had injured different parts of our bodies in trying out some rad move or the other.I,being the bulkiest and the most unfit,was really at the receiving end.I can't really blame our seniors who choreographed the dance. They didn't want it to be a normal, chalta hai kind of dance. And the truth is,neither did we.We wanted bakchodi. Something that would bring the audience to the edge of their seats. We tried our best,all of us did. And even today, some of our ardent supporters(read the people who had seen us toil with their own eyes) try to convince us that it was extraordinary.But it wasn't.We just had to see the video once to find that out for ourselves. We looked too bloody tired, at least I did. Absolutely no energy,completely betraying the spirit of such an energetic song.

Marchi ve se,thats what we say
Translation: We want to change, thats what we say

Anyway, the experience is vivid enough to be a part of another post.Maybe someday I'll cover it in an entire post,but then again, maybe I'll not.
Coming back to the issue of vernacular music, other songs I've heard are Girlfriend (also from Boys) , Pachchai Nirmae from Alai Payuthey (Saathiya's Tamil original by Mani Ratnam), Endrendrum Punnagai (also from Alai Payuthey, this one was the original version of O humdum suniyo re, a smash hit in its own right) ,Chikubuku Raile( from Gentleman) which introduced Prabhudeva to the world and some other songs from Anniyan. I do enjoy them a lot, which reminds me of Shvet's recent comment on Pink Floyd's stress on lyrics. He remarked that probably Floyd and The Doors were the only rock groups to give so much importance to lyrics.I partly agree with him. He was a bit narrow in his analysis. Groups like Iron Maiden and to some extent, Led Zeppelin were heavily influenced by literature in their lyrical content. While Maiden directly told stories as it is in their songs such as Rime of the ancient Mariner, To tame a land and Seventh son of a seventh son, Led Zep mostly alluded to famous pieces of work indirectly in a couple of songs, most notably Battle of Evermore and Misty mountain hop, which are said to be inspired by J.R.R Tolkien's works. The fact that they used famous literary works as their background made the lyrics very important. But Led Zep did pay attention to lyrics even when they were not literarily inspired. Two of their most beautiful songs, Kashmir and Stairway to heaven are testimony to that fact. While the former is an amazing vivid description of the Sahara desert(yea,yea its got nothing to do with Kashmir.Robert Plant just liked the name), the latter is arguably the most widely interpreted song in rock history. Among other things, the hidden meanings people generally relate with the song are sex,drugs(what about rock'n'roll?) and satanistic influences(they claim that if you play the song backwards,it literally sounds like a prayer to Satan himself). The last allegation was quite common to rock musicians in those days. They were widely considered children of the devil by chrisitian assholes. Meanwhile,Robert Plant has been pleading not guilty ,all these years saying that the song is just a product of his imagination and partly influenced by a book he was reading at that time(Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence).His claim does hold water too, since the book contains clear references to May Queens, pipers and bustling hedgegrows. Conclusion: for all the hype, the song is just poetic gibberish, meaning absolutely nothing at all.(Its still a great song thoh).Disappointed,eh? So was I.

And then there was Bob Dylan.Not strictly a rock musician, but he had tremendous influence on the genre and in turn was himself influenced by it.But he was essentially a poet.Even today, meaningful lyrics in Rock music are referred to as Dylanesque . Bruce Springsteen, the person who revived the role of lyrics rock with some extremely poetic and thought-provoking stuff, is said to be the modern day Bob Dylan . Some of his songs are musically not so rich,but the lyrics,man! I listened to Streets of Philadelphia at least 50 times at a stretch once,as much for the beautiful melancholy rhythm as for the amazing lyrics. The record still holds. And then Blood Brothers . I became addicted to this one solely because of the lyrics. A sample,

Now the hardness of this world slowly grinds your dreams away
Makin' a fool's joke out of the promises we make
And what once seemed black and white turns to so many shades of gray
We lose ourselves in work to do and bills to pay
And it's a ride, ride, ride, and there ain't much cover
With no one runnin' by your side my blood brother.

Guess what I did after first listening to the song? Sent it to my brother,what else? He loved it too.Who won't,really?

But there is no doubt that most rock groups of the 60's and 70's were just out to have fun and play their kind of music. Rolling Stones made the simplest of songs, both musically and lyrically,but composed the catchiest of tunes. The Beatles could make a song out of anything, a case in point being their song Why don't we do it on the road? from The White album or another more famous one which goes Happiness is a warm gun from the same album.Apparently, John Lennon got the idea for the song's name from an advertisement for guns that he saw in a magazine. It is creative without doubt. But just check out the last few lines,

I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown
I need a fix cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun
Mother Superior jumped the gun

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun, momma
When I hold you in my arms
And I feel my finger on your trigger
I know nobody can do me no harm
Because happiness is a warm gun, momma
Happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.
Happiness is a warm, yes it is...
Gun!
Well don't ya know that happiness is a warm gun, momma?

Make whatever you want of it,cos that's what Lennon intended I'm sure.Some say it's about cocaine,others point out to the obvious Freudian connection and claim that it's all about sex.Thats what I believe too partly.But only because of the And I feel my finger on your trigger part. The warm gun thing was borrowed from an ad, and Lennon didn't intend to drag Freud into it,I'm sure.
Another Beatles era band,probably not half as popular as them but which is said to have a much greater influence on the Rock'n'Roll movement was The Who. Its chief songwriter, Pete Townshend, was a person with a poetic tinge too, just like Jim Morrison and Roger Waters. One of their biggest hits, Won't get fooled again, is an amazing satire on the futility of revolution as a means to bring about change in the society. It describes a revolution in complete earnest for seven-and-a-half minutes out of eight and then ends with a
Meet the new boss, just like the old boss.
Hehe,clever man!

Bands like AC/DC and Rolling Stones often chos Rock'n'Roll itself as the subject, particularly the former, with songs like It's a long way to the top, Rock'n'Roll ain't noise pollution, even the immensely popular Highway to hell to an extent.As I have pointed out earlier, they were mostly looking to have fun.They did it quite well too. This was partly the message implicit in the music created by the bands of the punk era as well. In fact, Floyd had been at the receiving end of scathing criticism after Wish you were here from bands like The Sex Pistols and The Ramones for becoming too complicated in their song structure and lyrical content,drifting away from the simplicity of early rock'n'roll. Hmm...I don't quite agree with them,but they were probably right in their own way(!) Rockers were rebels,they didn't want to stick to conventions,either musically or lyrically,which is why they insisted on keeping it simple and different.Yea I don't like punk rock either!

And then there was a band coloured Deep Purple. No prizes for guessing. They were quite a mix. No wonder, since their lineup changed every couple of years. But like most Purpleheads(I invented that), I prefer the Mark-II lineup to all others. Ian Paice on drums and percussion, Roger Glover on bass, the legendary Ritchie Blackmore on lead guitar and the hugely underrated Ian Gillan on vocals made a terrific combo. They were an interesting band lyrically. Take their most popular album, Machinehead for example .
Highway star is a song comparing a girl and a car, referrring to both as killing machines . Intriguing? you bet!

Nobody gonna take my car,I'm gonna race it to the ground
Nobody gonna beat my car, it's gonna break the speed of sound,
Ooh its a killing machine,it's got everything,
Like a driving power big fat tyres and everything
I love it and I need it,
I bleed it yeah its a wild hurricane
Alright,hold tight, I'm a highway star

Nobody gonna take my girl, I'm gonna keep her till the end
Nobody gonna have my girl, she stays close on every bend,
Ooh she's a killing machine she's got everything,
Like a moving mouth, body control and everything,
I love her,I need her, I seed her(!)
Yeah she turns me on
Alright,hold tight, I'm a highway star

Interesting? You bet!!
Smoke on the Water from the same album has much more simplistic lyrics,directly describing an accident which the band were eyewitnesses to.During a Frank Zappa concert, some fan fired a flare gun setting the place on fire and Deep Purple watched from their mobile van as there was smoke on the water,fire in the sky, referring to the Lake Geneva nearby.
But one of my favorites from the band's stable is Child in time from the album Deep Purple in Rock . This one was the inspiration for Anu Malik's composition Aisa Zakhm diya hai from the movie Akele hum Akele tum . It is a eight-line song covering more than ten minutes which means the lyrics are not given the highest importance. But they still make a mark. Based on the Vietnam war, which was still fresh on the American psyche at that time(it still is actually), the lyrics go,
Sweet child in time, you'll see the line
The line that's drawn between good and bad,
See the blind man shooting at the world,
Bullets flying, taking toll.
If you've been bad, oh lord I bet you have,
and you've not been hit by flying lead,
You better close your eyes, and bow your head,
and wait for the ricochet.

Clearly, these guys weren't just looking to have fun.

And then, there's Floyd. I feel I can write an entire post about Floyd lyrics alone, but perhaps I'll do that in my Floyd blog
Anyway, so I guess it's a matter of genre and at times of opinion,whether lyrics really are important to the song.Love songs really woudn't go anywhere without mushy lyrics. So the one fact that is established is that you can't ignore them. They are not just a vehicle for music, but can be an equally important part of the song.

Wassisclan?

Just have a look at these ads that appeared in the Times of India, Lucknow edition not so long ago.They would have been funny if they hadn't been so pathetically sad.
Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words.












By the cold and religious we were taken in hand,
Shown how to feel good, and told to feel bad.

- Pink Floyd

Its been some time now since I gave up on religion. I was on the verge on giving up on God too, but then I realized it was only my anger against religion which was behind it. So now I'm an agnostic.
Why?I hear you ask.Well,here I'm elaborating on only one of the reasons and that too for one of the religions.But I firmly believe every religion has enough negative points to thoroughly outweigh anything remotely positive.

Hinduism. More specifically, the caste system. I respect its origins. It started when society was probably divided according to the kind of work people did, which is quite sensible. Though I still don't favour dividing society along any lines whatsoever, but this still made sense. Brahmins were the religious teachers, Vaishyas were the traders, Kshatriyas were the warriors and Shudras were mostly assigned the seemingly menial tasks. It was a hereditary baggage that everyone carried throughout their lives and passed it on in a similar way.

I don't really need to point out what went wrong.The society changed, the system of carrying on the family work changed, but the caste system did not. For all our claims at being a liberal society, the caste system still runs right through the societal fabric. Shudras or as is the language of the times, scheduled castes, are still looked down upon with ridicule, though now the ridicule is mixed with a seething rage due to reserved quotas in education and jobs. In the same way,the scheduled castes still hate the upper castes for all that is wrong with them, even though their own leaders have constantly let them down. Today, Vaishyas may become engineers, Brahmins may become businessmen, Kshatriyas may become doctors, but they can't shake off the false mould in which they are cast. One of the prime reasons for this is politics,or more accurately, politicians.

There are no issues in elections now. You're a hindu,eh? Well,vote for the BJP, what else?the majority community is in danger,only the RSS can protect them. And muslims? Well, well Mulayam Singh is your deifinitive neta. After all, he kept mum even after one of his own ministers literally issued a supari for the head of the Danish cartoonist who drew derogatory images of the prophet, which clearly shows the lengths he's ready to go, or rather the level he is ready to stoop down to, in order to express solidarity with the minority community.
But then again, Mulayam is also the leader of the backwards, just in case they didn't notice. And that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about the upper castes. He's pro-kshatriya,even to the extent of withdrawing all investigations against an alleged murderer. He's pro-brahmin,the proof of which is that he declared Parshuram Jayanti a holiday. I mean this is what brahmins want,don't they?

What the fuck,man! I'm supposed to be a brahmin too. But clearly,I'm not proud of it. I don't mean I'm ashamed of it either. But why the fuck should I even be conscious of it? My family has had nothing to do with panditai for generations. So what makes me a brahmin? But I see proud brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras all around. One particularly funny incident involves a true brahmin batchmate reprimanding me for not being a true brahmin because I don't pay attention to my studies. I know, I know how incredibly hilarious the logic sounds, but try not falling over laughing. I mean, sure, a student is supposed to study well. But I,being a brahmin, should pay extra attention to it. Come to think of it, since brahmin means student anyway, every single student is a brahmin. This is what the caste system was supposed to be. But we've reduced it to marrying a girl/boy of your own caste in order to preserve your caste(whatever the fuck that means) and casting your vote in the favor of the most blatant liar with a criminal record just because he is "one of yours".

It is pathetic. That's an understatement.

Look at the hate we're breeding,
look at the fear we're feeding,
look at the lives we're leading,
the way we've always done before

- Guns N' Roses

Who wants to live forever?

Mama,oooooohh......I don't wanna die,
Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

Words just keep ringing in my head.It's a great,great song really.But the words assumed a new meaning for me last sem,when the news came.

IIT Kanpur student commits suicide.

It was a junior of mine.I never actually met him.I heard his name only after his death.But then I saw his face in the papers,and I became cold.Of course I knew him.So what if I'd never talked to him.But I'd seen him around plenty of times.He lived in the same hostel as me for an entire fuckin year.
Of course I knew him.

Why did he do it? Nobody will ever know,I suspect.Reportedly,he called his house minutes before he took the drastic step,and didn't really give a hint of the turbulence in his head to anybody.Academics?His CPI was a more than decent 8.Some people say that he mugged all the time and still couldn't get beyond 8.That he was frustrated with getting a 'B' in every damn subject.I want to believe it,but i can't.

What bothers me about it?everythingI guess.I guess everyone is disturbed by a suicide.But I have this rather disturbing thought at times.What if the cause wasn't really as big and he had realized this before he died?

He jumped from the 6th floor to his death.I'm a mild acrophobic.Part of what scares me about heights is the time it takes to reach the ground.I recall jumping from the 3m diving board in a swimming pool and the part I hated most was when I was suspended in air and was conscious enough to realize it.This is what brings me to think;he jumped from the 6th floor.Perhaps he was guided by an extrememly strong impulse,thought that is highly unlikely.But still,I shudder to imagine that he might just have regretted his decision after he had actually jumped.What if that was the case?What if while he was travelling through air,perfectly conscious that those were the last few seconds of his life,he started to think that maybe he shouldn't have done this? That it wasn't so bad after all,whatever it was.Maybe his life was flashing rapidly before his eyes,maybe he had in his mind an image of himself as an infant and his mother holding his hand.Maybe at that very moment,he thought he wanted to see his mother again,and again and again.The brief time in which he hit the ground,then,would have been unbearbly torturous.I keep thinking about it.Just can't get the thought out of my head.

Mama, I'm falling from the sky
mama, did it need to be so high?

When will I ever hit the ground?
now my mind is beginning to wander around...

...my life,I don't want it to flash
before my eyes,I just wanna crash

I don't know what I'm doing,I'm sorry
in death,as in life,I will be a worry

But please please don't cry for me
just look up at the sky for me

I'll not be near,I'll be very far
I don't even know if I'll be a shining star

But I'll see you from the sky
Oh Mama,I don't wanna say godbye

Why did I choose to die
Mama,I'm still falling from the sky...

Hard time killing floor blues

Hard times here and everywhere you go,
time's harder than ever been b'fore,

And the people are driftin', from door to door,
can't find heaven,no matter where they go,

Say you got money,you better be sure,
these hard times will drive you from door to door

Makin' it look easy is tough all the more,
I'm still knockin' on heaven's door

You better take care now, where you go,
you might just end up mopping the floor

Train(s) of thought

Acknowledgement: The following post is guilty of shameless plagiarism.The idea is inspired by Kaushik's orkut profile.He's changed it now,though,so I feel pretty saintly being honest about it.

Ok this happens to me nearly everyday during most lectures.I can't focus in class.Absofuckinlutely not!It has been happening since the first sem,but this sem,my 6th,has seen me scaling new heights in lack-of-concentration-in-class.This is how my mind usually plays tricks on me.

Venue:Lecture hall 11,mostly
One of the Profs is blabbering away.Say Dr.Mazumdar.I'm taking his example because he's so loud in class that even the most sleepy souls can't catch forty winks.Not that I ever sleep during lectures.Nope,thats the other problem.I am as awake as,well,any fully awake person(I thank Scott Adams for inhibiting my ability to quote appropriate analogies).
Anyway,the point is,if I can daydream in this lecture,the rest of the Profs don't really stand a chance.

A typical train of thought: (Song playing in head)Whooo are you,who who,who who?Who the fuck are you,who who,who who? Man!If Pete Townshend isn't God,I don't know who God is!Wonder if my band members will ever agree to cover The Who songs.Probably not,they're already on an overdose of Floyd. Vinny will kill me if I mention more classic Rock'n'Roll.Hmmm...what bands does that genre really spawn?Rolling Stones is probably the flagship band.Actually,it sounds pretty similar to The Who. And Floyd? can never be sure about their genre.But who cares? They're Gods anyway.Huh,what?Oh shit,he asked a question.What the fuck is going on anyway?Alternative Iron making,shit!Gawd!what did I do to deserve this?Oh,he's coming this way.If you're there,God,now is the time to prove it.Phew!he asked Neerav.Well,Okay I'm beginning to get convinced.Concentrate,man,concentrate!
Now what is Hiran asking?How would I know?Nishant seems to have an idea.How is he so attentive in class?Shit,people are writing copious amounts of stuff.When did he say all this?
Well,there goes more photocopy money flying!Money,so they say,Is the root of all evil today!
I can never get how Money is Floyd's only top 20 hit in the US? That is another reason for me to believe that Americans are assholes.But they make some great movies.Ooh man,The Shawshank Redemption. Why didn't it win an Oscar?Oh yea,the Americans are assholes!Gotta watch Mystic River asap.Once I get over with this goddamn quiz!Oh,shit!got practice tonight.But Panty isn't coming.So probably we'll just do Highway to Hell.Phat jayegi yaar!The chorus part is so fuckin high.Lets see if Vishnu can help me out with it.Will junta come to see a rock show here?Hmm,maybe we'll put up the list of songs a few days before the show.Smoke on the water,Highway to Hell,Run like Hell ought to draw some crowd at least.
How much time left?10 more minutes!Lets see what's going on.Hmmmm......no idea.
Arre yaar,gotta prepare at leats one good dance before the sem ends.The boys really want to take a team to other colleges.Oh,the prize money for Groovin.Gotta talk to Pathak today.
Will we be able to go to Allahabad for Gnosiomania?Well,Dube and Shahi are ready.Not sure about Mandu though.Lets see if Nishant and Barsaiyan agree.It'll be fun if they do.
Just 2 more mins,hmm...120,119,118,117......

You get the picture,don't you?

Get busy livin',or get busy dyin'

'What're ya watching,dude?'

'Ahem!The Shawshank Redemption'

'Fir se?launda pagla gaya hai'
Translation: 'Again?he has lost his marbles'


Gotta get over it.But I can't,really can't.Why do I love the movie?Oh there must be plenty of reasons.Everybody loves it,after all.It's a nine-fuckin-pointer on IMDb,so I guess it would have been more of a worry if I didn't like it.But no,it's not just that.There must be something special about it.But I can't figure it out,even after watching it for,what,the 23rd time?I donno,stopped counting long back.
The triumph of human spirit?Yeah thats a good one.That's the message right?

Get busy livin,or get busy dyin.
Goddamn right!Can that be the reason?Maybe a depressed soul like me enjoys uplifting experiences.No,it doesnt uplift me.It reaches inside me and gets hold of my guts and shakes me so bad it takes me forever and more to get over the experience.I'm no Andy Dufresne,nor can ever be.He is meticulous to a fault,calm,composed,at complete ease with his surroundings.But not institutionalized.

These walls are kind of funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways.

I've come across fellas who found movie far too slow till the escape part.This was what I was told before I watched it for the first time.A good movie that gets amazingly exciting towards the latter part.Hell,I don't need exciting! Not if the non-exciting part is even remotely close to this.
I'm getting tired of exciting stuff.It's too early,I know.It might also be valid to say that I really haven't done much exciting stuff.I don't know.And I don't care.To me,Zihuatanejo appears a nice place to be,as compared to say,Las Vegas.

Zihuatanejo.
say what?
Zihuatanejo.It's in Mexico,a little place on the Pacific Ocean.You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?
No.What?
They say it's got no memory.Thats where I want to spend the rest of my life.A warm place with no memory.
Zihuantanejo.

And the music.The movie has a fantabulously haunting background score.Especially during the escape sequence.That in fact,may be one of the reasons why I've watched the movie so many times.Well at least the last two times can be accounted for.Everytime I need to listen to the score,I have to watch the movie again.To begin with,its only that part.But then I start with selecting particular scenes,which isn't an intelligent thing to do when you love every single scene in the movie.And that's how it has come to be....
That's the beauty of music.They can't get that from you.Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
You bet I have.

It's a romance,really.I'm sure Dr.Neelakanthan would agree.Being in touch with the actual and the imagined,inner self and outer self.That's what I was told most recently about romance.
Isn't that what the movie is about?or at least Andy's character.I'm sure it is.He lives in the prison like a free man.
Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget. Forget that there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. That there's a - there's a - there's something inside that's yours, that they can't touch.

They can't touch.....no they can't.

No sanity,please!we are humans

It's scary.The world is running out of sane people,though I am inclined to think its not exactly a novel phenomenon,but I'm realizing it these days more than ever.Probably I'm insane in my own way(Oh thats a terribly diplomatic statement.I hate it,but I'm using it more and more these days.Respecting others' points of view is a tough job,and this is a handy tool).
It would be a valid question to ask,what in Jesus-fuckin-Christ's name is sanity anyway?Oh I just made an offensive statement,didn't I? Now even as the christian fundamentalists will be baying for my blood for using their prophet's name in a derogatory manner,the preservers of hindu culture will be offended by the fact that I used a christian deity's name in the first place.Well,while I'm at it,let me go ahead and seal my fate completely.I think it is plain stupid for all the muslims of the world to raise in protest against some cartoons published in a newspaper with miniscule readership and no standing at all.Did they ever stop to think that if they had spared us the protests,probably nobody would have noticed the cartoons anyway? I am also sick and tired of Hindus raising in protest whenever anything remotely resembling their 50 million deities is portrayed in an insulting manner.And anyway,I have hated christian guts as long as I can remember.It is the most blatantly hypocritical religion there can ever be.
Other followers,don't start feeling too smug about yourself,I hate all religions.I hate the very concept.I hate anything that is a reason to hate anyone else.yea that sounds contradictory,I know.But I can't help it.If hating extremist points of view is an extremist point of view in itself,so be it.