Its always about the people and the city...

Offices are crazy places...most of them. They are full of disinterested and dispassionate people giving there best, or trying to appear so for the sake of earning money to do what they like. In terms of personal endeavors, its full of single people hoping to finally find that 'someone' they couldn't find in school/ college/ friend's circle. There are bored married ones who look for visual pleasures from alien men/women's proximity while thankfully there are those who do not think in this regard at all.   We are all well aware of the presence of 'Anti-sexual harassment' committee in our institutions. In fact I recall few sessions on introduction of such a committee and reaction of people. There were non-Indians in my first job who got extremely traumatized that their cultural difference and behavior may get tagged as harassment one of these days. By definition, patting a women's back or calling her by any name not perceived to be acceptable is also ha...

A lot has been said and out-poured recently about Article 377 of India and the latest Supreme court verdict. Principally I would be with the masses who have termed this as sheer stupidity, going backward, violating right to freedom and practice personal preferences. But being a devil's advocate that I am, I tried to figure out why was this done. I mean, no matter how 'dummy' our democracy is, the judiciary is obliged to provide valid reasoning behind everything being said or done. Another point about court verdict is- it does not try to get influenced-emotionally or in any way by the populist opinion and demands. So a Supreme court would not really log on to Facebook accounts to see how the young generation feels so strongly about something (which is mostly based on peer influence, half baked believes and several other motives including impressing someone, making an image, attracting attention etc. etc. but sound logic and reasoning.) ...

You would've probably heard  of this phrase recently if you watched 'The Perks of being a Wallflower.'     The Perks of being a Wallflower- Misfit toys scene     It actually refers to a children's book called "The Island of Misfit Toys." In this story, all the weird toys are sent to an island to live together. They are all defective and mostly unwanted. Irony is, they think of themselves as really special!   To understand this concept, which by all means I believe today we are more than aware of, picture the characters. There is a bird that doesn't fly but swims, a boat that can't float, a beer with wings, a train with square wheels and jelly squirting pistols. So much so that toys are misfits even because of their names! It is commendable how many parallels can be drawn from them. On one hand, characters and their 'mis-fitted-ness' is kept simple for a child to understand, on  the  other, it pose...

This is the first time, for no particular reason, that I did not finish a piece in one go and had a chance to drop a word about it to a few friends. A mention of this topic had unidirectional reaction. It was simple. Most male friends turned and made humming sounds to put a sound curtain, others dug their head in a pillow to filter 'noise,'  while few were generous to spare extreme reaction and gave a sweet blank look of no comments.   The female friends on other hand, without going into the details gave a casual look of being clueless or biased or worse, ignorant. My feedback is that they knew less about it than the boys. Boys had secretly researched about it to update self created Wikipedia section of their brain or maybe had a practical situation thrown at them at a point of time... Girls had of course taken it personally and rejected the idea, most of them...   So my point is not to stir the territory, I just succumbed to the series ...

I wish India was a Turkey eating nation, or that someone had attached a gimmick or financial sense around this festival...then Thanksgiving would have been popular by now. Alas! there is no way India would celebrate any festival that does not crop out of mythology or history or just a belief. I remember as a child when we had to write an essay on India, It would invariably begin with "India is a country of festivals." Then it would transcend from diversity to languages and religions and the usuals... I like festivals in general. But that is probably because I like anything that acts as an excuse to get together. Doing something for the sake of tradition... or routine of tradition, strictly on numbered days in a  year, doesn't really bother me. But coming back to Thanksgiving, its sad that we Indians are in a way on extreme edges. On one hand, I know how certain political/ radical groups and other Individuals I personally know have been dead against the ...

“Bhakt-jano ke sankat, kshan mein door kare…om jai jagdish hare…” Music and chants, first thing when you wake up will go down as one of most undesirable things in list of waking up to what in morning…but this was different. This was my Dad saying his usual morning prayers with loud ting-ting of bells. I’ve heard him do this for years unknown. It has always been the same. I am half asleep with this ringing in near vicinity. I know where to notice if he fumbles or eat the words he forgets…I know the stanza he loves as his voice gets deep and pitch high…its been the same. It has always been exactly this…Even when I would return weekly from hostel in Delhi or fortnightly from the job in Gurgaon. This was same at the time of quarterly visits from Calcutta and Mumbai…And this time, after 6 months from Dubai… ------ I had mixed feelings, and guilt. I did feel like chicken as well. It has been less than a year that I moved to Dubai and since then, this was my first proper visit back hom...

As the winter onsets on Dubai, its almost a year I came here. In all fairness, I can't point out why I moved. I was desperate to move out of India, yes. Today I can say, after having traveled to over 50 cities in the world, including the likes of London, Berlin, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Singapore, I made a good decision. I don't know what gave me courage or conviction to move, because I was giving in to a hunch...but guess desperation gives you unparalleled strength. I had visited Dubai in August 2012 when I saw it as a tourist, unknown to the fact that I will be moving and living here after 3 months. Such is fate... Anyway so I have been a tourist, I have lived here, I have received guests here and traveled from here. I have seen perceptions and experienced little reality in whatever time I spent here. For the sake of education, my own as well since its time I understand a little history of this country, and origin of names of hundred roads and familiarity wit...