What I hate about this world

It’s very hard to hate things about this world, this world! Our only home, but the people that populate it do really keep me thinking. I keep me thinking. It’s every day that we meet people who we like, who we dislike, who keep us wanting more, who keep us satisfied. But it’s not every day that we meet the people we want to be around for the rest of our lives, our friends, our loves, our company. The people we have gathered around ourselves are who we are, they represent our choices, our decisions, our judgments. A man is as his company is – so true. However, every once in a while you meet someone whom you wish will be around for the rest of your life. Because of the very selfishness being expressed in this thought, it almost never happens to be true. It’s always easier to find large groups of people than the one single person. People in groups will always behave the same way, day in and day out. Their expressions will come out to be the same no matter what. His ideas will cancel out hers, and her shortcomings will be supplanted for by him. These people will be your friends. You can belong ‘in’ the group they’ve built around themselves with such ease that you need not think of it for even a minute more. But when you find that one person, you’re so scared of letting go. I wonder if any of you reading this understand that I’m talking of a friend here, not a woman. Such friends are hard to come by. They keep you thinking, they keep you going. Sometimes, it’s not a woman who can mend things. Agreed, love can mend your life, but it also breaks your heart. Knowing a friend who is willing to keep all the selfishness in the message intact and yet still, selflessly, willing to stick around – that’s what I’ve come looking for, and that’s what I’ve found. These are the people you will eventually want to be around, not the unformity the minutes of our daily lives have to offer.

The Bucket List For The 20-year Old!

1. Always ask your friend to butter up a girl for you: THIS particular undertaking will always work out according to your wishes. Because, if you have the hots for a girl, the only way to make it known in its fullest is to tell her about it through someone else. Because whichever planet these girls you think are from, they do appreciate the efforts you don’t put in.
2. Always have a subway sandwich and some vodka before you go to sleep: As my friend Jake had to say, your dreams will be some of the best, especially if you discover them to be of you peeing in a farm filled with vegan dishes.
3. Always speak the whole truth: Though this sounds weird, surviving on this planet asks two things of you, a leverage and someone to use it against. Let’s face it, none of us are noblemen here. I agree hiding is  not lying, but especially when you have the intentions of saying it later. But no, saving some for yourself always ends in disaster.
4. Always lie in a long-distance relationship: No matter the lengths you go to to cover it up, they will never find out. Read: NEVER! And it always has to be a “meant to be” relationship – there will never be a loophole. Oh, and if you do, then please don’t lie sensibly.
5. If you’re planning to kill yourself, pick up a copy of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’: The book really imparts a perspective and provides a sound orientation session on where you needed to be headed in life next – apart from the bottom of the cliff you’re standing on.
6. Always hold your hand out when someone is threatening to break a butane lighter: That is a splendid display of courage and blood loss! Do it, it reaffirms your faith in the value of life and the importance of losing one of your fingers in what beautiful girls will hopefully call a ‘tragic accident’.
7. Make sure your girlfriend has a maximum height of 5’7″: I don’t think I need to elaborate on this one.
8. Always make it a point to sleep 30 minutes before an important exam: It refreshes you thoroughly, and once you wake up and find the test is long past, you’ll also find that you have done as much in your paper as your sincere and punctual friends have: nothing.
9. Bunk classes (while in college) to the most: When your father is footed the massive bill of fines, I’m sure your whole family will gradually begin to gain greater insight into the world of ‘The Value Of My Money’. You will also avail yourself splendid chances to get your back broken, and if you’re a man, then it’s a free test of strength!
10. Go for that ‘A’/’R’ rated movie with mom and dad: This will lubricate your sex education process as you grow up, and you should also be able to look your parents in the eyes and ask them if you could watch it again – especially when you’re 17 years old and the school simpleton.
11. Propose to your love interest across a cadaver: This way, the girl will know you don’t give a damn about the world around you and only care for her and her intentions and her happiness. If you think about it, it’s also quite romantic in that your love for her might seem overwhelming and able to break all barriers.
12. Fart when you’re about to strike the deal of your life: Just when the tip of his pen is about to touch that piece of paper, just when he’s about to scribble the signature that will either make or break you, rip out loud! According to some ancient traditions – well known all the same! – farting is a good way to let your benefactor know you won’t let him down.
13. Do mess with Varun Vohra or Aditya Nair: Read one of my older posts linked through the names. Messing with these people could land you in more pleasure than you can ever construe, nay, concoct.

And, most importantly,

yeah right!

Love Lost In A Paradox?

Note: This post is intended for the guys. And “they” consists of the girls.

As long as I know that they do fall for me, I don’t need a girlfriend! After a circumstantial break-up with my previous (and first :P) girlfriend, I realised I was worth more than I could imagine. I was apparently good material for you-know-what, and this nicotinic blood shot straight to my head to deliver me to a new world. I went crazy; all of a sudden, I was born anew. But in spite of all this, I would like to stay within that paradox, if possible for the rest of my life. Knowing that there’s someone out there who will like you for who you are is a beautiful feeling, if not ego-inducing, but that can’t be helped. It makes you believe in yourself if you already don’t, and that’s always a welcome addition to your persona’s arsenal. It reinforces your other beliefs, it fortifies the truth that is your perception of the world, and it eliminates the need to always ask for a second opinion on matters – after all, there’s another person out there who takes your word for it! Let me tell you, they’re of all kinds. You may not know this, or you may have chosen to ignore it, but you will come to realise this at some point of time.

😛

Like Joey Tribbiani says, “just grab a spoon”! They’re also who me and you are, and they also have the problems as us. If you’re judging them based on some preconception that go like “girls are aliens” (Dexter), “I can’t look them in the eye” (me till a few days back), and so on and so forth, you’re completely mistaken, misled and more prone to blunders. I’m not saying I’m Dr. Love. I’m just saying open your eyes a little more. Radical feminism doesn’t say you have to revere them, nor does it set them apart. It only means they have more problems than you do. Even they wanna bunk class, even they wanna headbang, even they wanna light up, even they wanna drink, even they wanna provocative T-shirts, even they wanna do the things you do. You both are from the same society, most probably the same state, probably the same era, and the same state of mind. Maybe they don’t do those things because they think someone’s looking; if you turn your back to her for a few moments, she could be going mad on ‘The Trooper’. It’s all up to you. Varun Vohra once said, “If you make a decision, stick to it”. It’s up to you to pick the time to live up to it! Take a step forward. Forget the world behind you.

Salaam Bombay!

SALAAM BOMBAY! I have never been to Mumbai. I don’t know the language they speak. And I know of only a handful of people from there. But the ongoing terror strike gripping the city has brought me from indifference towards an unexplored city to a firm believer in the spirit of the people who inhabit it. Even though the terrorists have taken into consideration that Mumbai is the financial capital of India, an important port and dock location, and the capital of a very politically prominent state, I have come to realise that it is the people who make it all of this, and these are the people who are now in grave danger of losing their lives at the hands of hubristic individuals who think they are causing damage. I can agree that buildings worth crores and crores of rupees are being brought down, along with them their value and history, and I can agree that tourists are being unfairly targeted in a country which is not their home, but I will also contend that we Indians will stand and fight as though those buildings were our homes, those people were our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. The spirit to stand and fight is, here, not restricted to patriotism, but towards a greater order of peace that we believe in. There is a Sanskrit sloka that goes like this:

Loka samastha sukhino bavanthu

It is a prayer chant that means “may there be peace in this world”. Loka is Sanskrit for world as well as universe, because ‘loka’ is our home in the living. It is a line that does not invoke religion or any a God, but invokes only peace.

Pakistani insurgents are not strangers to us, and we have steadfastly borne the brunt of the anger of those seek to part us from our people and our lands. The ‘Deccan Mujahideen’ may have claimed responsibility for the attacks, but we care not for who they are or where they are from. Our concern is not terrorism. Our concern is not death. Our concern is well-being. Death is not our business, life is. In the footsteps of our fallen brother, we will have many more tomorrow who will hate you not for who you are, but for what you have done. Trespassing patriotism is the betrayal that comes with disloyalty towards those whose salt you have consumed, but going the other way, we believe that an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind (quote by Mahatma). What is the purpose of the guns you fire? What is the purpose of the grenades into our homes? What is the purpose of the sirens you set off in the peaceful nights? Do you believe in a conspiracy theory? Do you believe in our division? Do you believe in the death of our spirit?! If you do, then you think wrong. In the all-pervading prevalence of truth and justice, how long can you hope to live as such?

My salutations are to the people of Mumbai, their spirit, their will, and their strength in being able to bear attack after meaningless attack and still be able to wake up the next morning, wash the blood off the streets, say their prayers and walk out the door. It is the belief we have in our neighbours and in our friends and family that keeps us going. And when the day comes that all the bullets are exhausted, when all the guns are starved, when all the militants are strangled and when terrorism is but a word that will hang limply in the air, we are the people you will be in the midst of.