Its always about the people and the city...

A good writer is not because of what he writes in his books or the titillation he evokes through them. A good writer in true essence is the one who reveals himself bit-by-bit through what he writes. So much so that you end up making acquaintance with him and look forward to spending time with that person… I must be quite young when I picked my first book by Khushwant Singh- The company of Women. I took a cheap copy from Dilli Haat, not knowing much about him except that his articles appeared weekly in the newspaper. I liked his style of writing- full of acerbic sarcasm and rightly put by him, malice. He would pen things as they were, or as he felt like- just the way a child does. It was mostly offensive and usually done deliberately as a loud mouth man who has views on everything but no intention of siding anyone’s opinion. It seemed that it didn’t matter to him if people were listening or agreed. Khushwant Singh was widely spoken of as an old pervert snot and that was actually se...

Marathons are everywhere- run for a cause, run for fun, run in the night, run with celebrities or pretty much run for everything under the sun. It is a serious business afterall because running a marathon- whether half or full is a task in itself. 21 or 42 kms. is not funny. It does test your perseverance  and challenge you to push your limits... but I wouldn't say it is life changing really. It is more of a self-discovery than a life changing exercise. I of course say this with just two half- marathons experience but that's indeed how I feel. Let me begin with busting a few myths first. There are usually at least 4 week training plans for marathons. I did not train. This does not mean that you can just show up one day and run 21 kms; what it means is that if you are someone who has been fairly active in your life while growing up and still stick to a moderately active routine, you can sail through. When I say fairly active, I mean someone like me maybe who played while gro...

"Salalah...Huh?" "It's a place in Oman... You mean in Muscat? No, Muscat is the capital, Oman is the country..." "Hmm...So wanna come?" "Who all are going?" "Just me for now..." This was typical conversation when I brought up the topic of visiting Salalah with my friends. I got some cheap tickets from Dubai and knew about this place in the southernmost tip that offers visa on arrival. What was best was that the place is 1.5 hours away from Dubai and just about a weekend trip, so I was game for sure. Others didn't even know of Salalah or were not sure if it was anywhere in the list of 'to-go' places. So anyway, I went alone. I flew down for the weekend. I went for 2 nights and visited far east and west of the city. I came back awestruck, sleep deprived and as bankers would say 'double-digit' friends in return. Lets deal with the place and itinerary first and then how it went for me later. S...

Have you seen the new Godzilla trailer which gives a peep into how massive its going to be, from million angles-million number of times? Have you seen Bryan Cranston switch roles from meth cooking-chemistry teacher to Godzilla hunting nuclear physicist? I am waiting for it. I like these movies on massive creatures where a bunch of scientists turn into active enthusiasts combating for the world and end up contributing by doing pregnancy tests. I look forward to it and while I do, I have been able to notice two things for sure. One, Bryan Cranston is best as Dr. Who's who; science suits him, he looks convincing while driving complex over the top scientific experiments and can pull off 'man-with-a-mission' persona very well. Two, the reason why Godzilla can cross seven seas to make an appearance in the U.S. of A is primarily because its visa requirement is pretty relaxed. I mean come on, recall that wherever you traveled in the world, across whichever continent and country,...

I am laughing at myself every time I read the title of this post- Live Sleep Travel. I am getting an urge to quickly get to the point that I am making with these three words which are loosely or not connected. The inspiration is obviously from one of my favorite books by Elizabeth Gilbert which was later adapted to Julia Robert starrer- Eat Pray Love.   The book is her ranged autobiography of how she leaves a settled, married and yet confused and unfulfilled life in search of herself. She gets a divorce and goes on a journey wherein she travels to Italy, India and Indonesia. She learns to Eat, pray and love in these countries, in this order. (I must admit, If I was going on a spree of nations starting with 'I,' I would have included Iceland in my itinerary as well and it would have been called Eat Pray Love Bankrupt. Kind of fits in the whole real-life chain as well)   So anyway, it comes from this- from the whole gamut of my friends and the people that I kn...

Is there something bothering you? Something that you don't seem to be able to take your mind off. First things first, Welcome to adulthood. NoNo, there is no escaping it now. It might be your country's future, your failing dreams, bad relationship, unbearable job, being overweight or successful peers-it can be anything, but if it has been bothering you then you have indeed grown up. The bliss of selective memory of childhood that also works on principles of trivial preferences, and is oblivious to big terms like ego, self respect, demean and helplessness is gone. Now you have learnt to remember and mull over things. You have learnt to base things you do on likes and dislikes. You have learnt the concept of trying to make a difference while common existence and being just happy and merry doesn't suffice anymore. You have arrived to the concept of making a difference- to your life or to the world, and you have arrived to the concept of existentialism. You have learnt to judg...

I am a willing victim of Facebook. Maybe an addict as well. I am someone who wants to know everything about everyone and tell everyone a lot. Either that's vanity or being a people's person. I don't know. But that's how it is. And this happened slowly. I got my life converted to a Facebook script. It became a live journal of what you did and where you went. It was also a way to share what you like, tell how you feel and show who you are. Weird is that it was not for lack of real living people around me, it was more of 'despite them' or at the cost of redundancy. What changed was that instead of telling what happened, everyone is already on the same page when you meet them and the time that conversations fill gets filled with real conversations a bit and rest with other discussions about people we are aware of but don't know.   It did feed the need to know. People from your past who you are not in touch with are an open book. There are people I see comin...