Ennui

The power of boredom is such that it can force creativity to come out in a weird manner.

The following contents will try to capture one such outburst.

Courier companies have a strange way of functioning. I called up one such company to inquire whether they send or receive a certain item. Their immediate answer was in the negative. People who answer calls plonked in their chairs at call centres are not too forthright to give information and even if they are, the responses are usually , “No sir, We don’t know, sorry you have got the wrong information etc.etc.” The moment you tell them that the same product with a definite Consignment number has been dispatched from another city; they quickly change their stance, wake up from their laziness and agree to you.

Banality of it all is befuddling.

Yet, I empathise with their jobs and sometimes wonder how many times do they really smile before answering the calls or the most important training lesson is forgotten the moment training is over.

Yes, this post is a result of boredom and laziness.

Make posts while boredom shines.. Now, really!

A Rude Awakening

He woke up to a rude reality. It took him a long time to understand that he would never be able to see his perspective and he should quit the false hope that someday he would. Truth was all consuming yet it had a strength to it.

Past has a strange way of catching up and words that had a resonance of times gone by; hit you hard. Detachment is difficult to practise. A word from someone who has some significance in your life will rankle you, however a word from a complete stranger wouldn't affect you a bit. The power of emotions and attachment is overbearing at times. To distance yourself from the emotional baggage is sometimes the only way to preserve your sanity.

Let insanities roll in a quagmire of feelings and come out, hopefully sane.  

Heavy sword of Expectations

A life sans expectations is quite an unbelievable scenario. As human beings, it becomes inevitable to want something or the other from life.

"Why are people not like the way I want them to be?"
"This job is not getting me that extra kick, I want it to give me that spunk."
"Why can't people just leave me alone"
"Wish he could change his attitude."
"His nature could be altered."
"Why are people so callous?"
"My business should give me 30% return by the end of 2013."
so on and so forth...

These are a handful of thoughts laced with expecting: situations, people and life to be like how we would want them to be. Truth being, people, situations and problems will never ever change; we would have to learn to adapt. To wear a cloak of insulation; insulation against getting affected by what people say, events that are beyond our control and anything that displaces sanity.

How does one follow these words? Tough, of course. As time passes, we would like to believe,  we shall too pass through what it offers and what it doesn't.

There is no foolproof guarantee for anything except death.
We do not want to die but are not keen on living either.

Life becomes what we maketh it to be.

I cannot pretend to recount all that he told me, but I gleaned from what he said that he was the genius who presided over the contretemps of mankind, and whose business it was to bring about the odd accidents which are continually astonishing the skeptic. - The Angel of the odd by Edgar Allan Poe
 

"Katha Collage" - Influencer !!

Badebhai Sahab by Premchand
Directed By Naseerudin Shah
This tale of two brothers, narrated in the first person by the younger (the carefree, irresponsible but unknowingly brilliant one) about his older sibling, (the dour, studious but irredeemable mediocre one) is a study of contrasts of many kinds: a contrast of mindsets and approaches to life: a contrast of tradition and modernity, and a contrast of natural brilliance and natural dullness.
No sides are taken by the writer in this hilarious study of two people who should be alike in every way, but are obviously touched by different stars.
Chhote Bhai - Vivaan Asad Shah
Bade Bhai - Faisal Rashid

Shatranj ke Khiladi by Premchand
Directed By Naseerudin Shah
This delicious satire set in the days just prior to 1857, about two indulgent feudal lords obsessed with the game of chess at the cost of everything else, personal or political, has uncanny echoes of the modern apathy of most of us.
The fate that catches up with these decadent gentlemen is one which probably awaits all those who refuse to be drawn into taking a stand about anything except their own misguided sense of pride.
Mirza - Rakesh Chaturvedi
Meer - Manoj Pawha

Sankraman (The Circle of Life) By Kamtanath
Most of us on hitting middle age, are often startled by memory flashes of or own parents and by how similar to them we have unconsciously begun to sound or look or behave. The realization that we could not possibly have been any other way is sometimes bitter, and always inevitable. The writer has perceptively captured this remorseless circle of life in which all of us are caught. These three pungent, straight-from-the-heart points of view of a man, his wife and their son are set in a middle class home of Uttar Pradesh, but are representative of parents and progeny everywhere.
Pita - Naseeruddin Shah
Putr - Rakesh Chaturvedi
Maa - Seema Pawha   

Courtesy: Handouts at the venue

I am still reeling under the heady effect of these plays. Humour has the capability and the elan to say the truth as it is. Such a narration of the truth doesn't seem to ruffle any feathers.

To realize how I could see a clear glimpse of myself in each character, though, through the glaze of humour, the impact of the realization lessened. However, the truths of who we are can never be escaped from.

With passage of time, we all would like to believe that we are evolving. The tough question we need to ask ourselves is: Are we?

Words fail me currently to say what I want to. An Experience sometimes can just be, well, experienced. 

The Character

It is music which decides; whom it will influence and through whom will it shine like the morning light that disspates the darkness of the soul.

I looked for the answer from my previous post and it took me some time to realise that music chooses it's people and Music is the one with character. One could be simply sitting and out of nowhere the most humdinger of sounds play in our minds like beautiful notes. The experience is ephemeral, though it seems, truth is, it is anything but that.

The quality of any sound is to play like a soothing piece, however, if one is in a poignant or disturbed frame of mind then the most elegant, soulful sound becomes jarring and instantly one wants to block it out. This again is based on individual experience and music to one ear could be dissonance to the other. Interpreting sounds into melodies or noise solely rests on the faculty of how one is feeling..


Somehow everyone gets affected or rather influenced by music. It is an escaper, and a great one at that; makes you gallop away from whatever is playing in your head repeatedly and the sound of those thoughts are replaced by the sound of music. It helps in overpowering in a positive way.

To such an empowering phenomenon. I take a respectful bow.

Setting of Music !!

The setting was pulsating, rather, because of the music it felt pulsating, strip it sans music, serene and surreal. Such is the impact of music. It has the ability to transform not just a place but also a person. The place in point is Bandra Fort.

Now the above lines are a result of Indian Ocean's invigorating impact. They have a soul in their renditions. A soul is different from a character. So that makes me ask myself, "Which music has character, rather, is it the musician who has the character to play soulful music/melodies etc or the other way around?" Answer to this eludes me. I will search for it and post it soon.

Music, as The Bard said, "be the food of love then play on."

Play on, certainly.

Overrated days like Birthdays etc.

It is simply another date in the calendar and a reminder, for some grim, for those who wear a couldn't-care-less attitude, about the passage of time. Time the ever constant in the mundane, in the chaotic, in the pain, the joy, the ecstasy, the banality, the meaningful and stops at the Dead.

All I am saying is that why do we have to lend so much significance to the already significant? It is a known Unknown. We all know the importance of time. Nothing can ever stop it, our beings will cease to be, Time nevertheless moves and how.

Celebrate every moment in the ticking Clock. Maximise it. To leave some event for the future seems useless. Do it now. However, Destiny says, "What will be, will be and the time has to come for everyone."
It can be perplexing but therein lies the fun!

To Time and beyond. If there is any.