Rambling…

Some relationships are doomed from the very beginning. Yet or maybe the fact that they are doomed is what makes people get into them. As they say, no one will ever know if it is more painful to get punched in the balls or to get through pregnancy, since no one will ever experience both, I can safely say that this is a woman’s perspective.

Throughout history, a woman’s sexuality has been one of the most feared and revered things. It is something she fears herself, maybe because she is afraid of carrying the testimony of this sexuality on her physical self. Is it because she has the power of creation, that she is burdened with the responsibility of reigning in her sexuality? Metaphorically speaking, a woman’s sexuality is like a raging river, it can create and destroy. Man with his curse of foresight and deliberation, has curbed its path into a social structure called family so that this heady source of energy can create more than destroy, like dams are built to use a river’s potential to the maximum. The beauty of it is lost, but it is the only way to control the chaos and uncertainty that results from leaving it as it is. But just like every power of nature that man thinks he can control, every once in a while dams break and a woman’s sexuality goes out of control wrecking havoc in its way.

Resuming my original train of thought, the reason women get into doomed relationships is probably because of the control thing. Sex is all about giving and taking control. It is a twisted way of taking control, by giving control to somebody. Unfortunately when you make yourself a weapon, the first person you end up hurting is yourself. I guess the answer to safety is neither control nor to be taken control of, provided safety is your motto.

Perfection

(Wrote this for my brother who is undeniably the best brother in the world!!! He turned 21 last monday)

Little pink fingers and pink little toes,
Droopy little eyes that caught fire when you smiled
You awakened my first instinct to protect,
You were the first baby that I ever saw
I was afraid of dividing my share of love with you,
Then you came along and multiplied the love in my life
First time is a trial run,
Second time around it is perfection
You are mom and dad’s little perfection
Happy 21…Wish you all the happiness this world can offer
And then some more from me!!!

The Life That I Have

(Poem by Leo Marks that was used as a poem code in World War II. Recently in the news for being part of Chelsea Clinton's wedding vows. What can I say except... beautiful, beautiful poem!!!)

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause

For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours
And yours

Gaga over Gaga!!!

(P.S. The author is an ardent fan of Times of India-esque titles. Punny, no?)

We are, whether you like it or not, in the age of Lady Gaga!! Now what is so great about Gaga? Is she a singer or entertainer, rock or pop, vintage or new-age, straight or gay, man or woman…no one knows. Yet she sells over 10 million albums and 35 million singles worldwide. In an era of overwhelming media explosion, where marketers are vying for every nook and cranny of a customer’s mind space, Gaga holds her own. She provides the high levels of stimulation that audiences require, to sit up and take notice. In short, when musicians and performers are throwing visuals and sound-bytes at you from all directions, she smacks your head into attention with her outrageous costumes and inimitable act. Interestingly, her costumes have a story-line to them and form a medium of expression, making her a truly visual artist in the league of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein.

Finally, what about her music? She has as much to do with music as Lalit Modi with cricket or Katrina Kaif with acting. For all you hardcore music buffs out there who believe musicians are to be heard and not seen, don’t worry…for every Lady Gaga there is a Susan Boyle.

For the record I love Lady Gaga as much as Susan Boyle!!

Strictly Professional!!

My writers block has lasted one and a half years approximately. Meanwhile I have been sacrificing inane reports and presentations by the dozen with every passing week, at the altar of a monster. Anyways about time I wrote something else, so that my professional life does not screw up my personal life.

I read an interesting article about Lalit Modi today, funnily titled “A Tale of Two Tweeters” obviously talking about the on-going war between Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor. I have had the highest regard for Tharoor ever since his tryst with the UN and his very well written articles in The Hindu, not to mention his somewhat intellectual handsomeness. Lalit Modi on the other hand I know as the mastermind behind the IPL and a marketing genius who redefined sporting entertainment internationally with a relatively tame sport like cricket. Now as we all know, the recent controversy opened a can of worms for both parties concerned and led me to think about how scandals and controversies form a perfect excuse for the media to give a low down to the parties concerned.

An apt example in this case is Tiger Woods who transformed overnight from the greatest black sportsman in the world (unquote Oprah Winfrey) to a wife-cheating lout, sex addict, and what have you. His murky sex life has now become the focus, with his golf success incidental, while clearly it should be the other way round. Similarly for Modi, his vision for sporting entertainment is being over-shadowed by news about his previous criminal convictions, cocaine habit and allegations of corruption. Now one may argue that Tiger Woods’ case is different from Lalit Modi’s since while Woods’ sex life is unquestionably private, Modi’s corruption might very well be criticized because we as audiences and consumers are being manipulated. Our emotions, time and even our money is being toyed with and used for personal gain. To summarize, Woods’ flaw is personal while Modi’s is professional and hence deserving of our wrath as audiences/his consumers. Here is when I pose a crucial question to myself and every one of you that is reading, Is there really a distinction between one’s personal and professional lives? What we do professionally is just to fulfill a personal need or desire. The device is professional, the objective is always personal.

Next time when someone criticizes your work in office, slap him! Don’t worry about professionalism!!

Movie & Musings

Today I watched a beautiful movie called “The Kite Runner” based on the popular novel by the same name authored by Khaled Hosseini. The story, which is somewhat autobiographical, “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee” without mincing words. I wonder what it is in mankind that sheds a tear for the loss of another. Is it the same mankind or another-kind that rapes and plunders everything around it? Undeniably we all have in us that dark, perverted animal that sleeps somewhere deep inside. For some unfortunately this animal roams freely, controlling their thoughts and actions.

The Kite Runner is a story of such pure love on one hand, and violent hatred on the other. The ugly and oppressive regime of the Taliban is portrayed by bodies hung by the roadside, women stoned in public in a stadium, and men and children without limbs. When a guard checks the protagonist Amir for weapons and tells his companions that he has a soft body you feel your bile rising. There are many such moments when you find yourself writhing and rejoicing in the destinies of the characters. This in my opinion is the mark of a great movie, which The Kite Runner undeniably is.

This brings us back to the stark realities in Afghanistan. When a country is banned from movies, television, videos, music, dancing, hanging pictures in homes, clapping hands, equipments that produce music, statues, pictures, you cannot blame the country’s people for watching public executions in soccer stadiums. This does not have to do with Islam. This has to do with human nature.

Love or something like that...

Recently I was listening to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. It was so beautiful and I was awestruck that he could compose something like that when he was completely deaf. It is said that he composed a lot of his music inspired by his “Immortal Love”, a lady named Antonie Brentano, whom he never married, but wrote impassioned letters to.

(Un) surprisingly there is very little information about this mysterious woman who even Beethoven didn’t know much about. Now the train of thought that Im pursuing here is, if he had married her or did have a longish affair with her and dumped her she might not be his “Immortal Love” anymore. As cynical as one might think this is, for love to be immortal or eternal it has to be unrequited, unconsummated or one that ended with tragic consequences is my personal opinion.

Take the case of any of our legendary love stories, Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, popular Arabian tale of Layla and Majnun, our very own Devdas and Paro (adapted into many a Bollywood movie including Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus which they had the cheek to send to the Oscars!!), Heer Ranjha, still a favourite in Punjab and Pakistan (infact Punjab has other tragedies like Mirza Sahiba, Sohni Mahiwal, etc), Kovalan Kannagi or even Kovalan Madhavi of Tamil epic Silappadikaram and many more.

These are no happily ever after stories; these are stories full of longing and angst, where lovers rebel faced with treachery and deceit. These stories have lovers struck by the blow of fate in the prime of their love, life and what not. I wonder if only these guys had got together or married or had many kids, would their love be as celebrated and as legendary. Even Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal’s love became stuff of greatness only after he built the hauntingly beautiful, near perfect Taj and made it her tomb (Let us for one minute forget those forwards we got where the Taj was originally supposed to be a Shiva temple and blah blah).

One of my retirement plans is to write the greatest love story where the lovers get married at an “appropriate” age, have two kids, send their kids to good schools and colleges, plan, invest and insure for their old age, have no diabetes, blood pressure or prostrate problems and live happy till a ripe old age of 90 and 95. Now that is some love story and 40 years down the line when I retire it will be some story to tell!!