Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free?
If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me
Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street?
If you've ever seen a one-legged dog then you've seen me
Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?
Have you ever seen a scarecrow filled with nothing but dust and wheat?
If you've ever seen that scarecrow then you've seen me
Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze?
If you've ever seen a one-armed man then you've seen me
Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?
These things that have comforted me, I drive away
This place that is my home I cannot stay
My only faith's in the broken bones and bruises I display
Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free?
If you've ever seen a one-legged man then you've seen me
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Three Things is Too Much!
Yesterday was a good day. I said Hakuna Matata before I went to sleep. And that doesn't happen very often these days.
I had appointments with a couple of companies for the afternoon, so I didn't do much in the morning, was psyching myself for what was to come. One good thing about life is that it has only so much it can offer, and soon comes a time when you are doing the same things again. And again and again. My friends in big cities will agree to this. So it is when I meet people, to discuss business with them, the "Play" button needs to be pressed and I'm more or less on autopilot. Last April I was roaming around in Ahmedabad, looking for investors and asking for their partnership for the Diploma Project of NID, this April I'm just finding businesses and making calls. The rest of the things just happen. Not much has happened mind you, I'm yet to sign MOUs, if I ever get to sign any.
So at 2:18 sharp I leave for Grafico, a husband-and-wife venture into web, print and corporate brand identity business. They are the minds behind MachuPicchu, a lounge coffee shop, I meet Mr. Ashit Parikh and we have a good meeting, half an hour later I leave after asking Mr. Parikh if he is in any way related to a Prof. Suresh Parikh from Sardar Patel University, Vidyanagar, who is my father's professor and guide and lifelong friend, but he said he didn't know the professor but knew a photographer whose name was Mr. Suresh Parikh, from Baroda.
During our meeting, I spotted an external hard-drive on his desk, it was the vertical 500 GB Western Digital drive with a circular light in front and a morse-code type design on the egdes. I have the exact same drive with me, I've been using it since over two years now. I wasnt getting excited about the exact same piece of hardware, but I have seen my share of computer stuff and till now, I haven't seen that particular drive with anyone, so the child in me was a little amused at the co-incidence.
Next, Chavi Media and Communication, Balaji Plaza, armed with a small print-out of a google map pointing to its exact location I was sleep-walking towards it. After ten minutes of walking in the afternoon I decide to take an auto, only to find the laziest auto-wallas who flatly said no. Why? Its afternoon time, we rest at this time, they said and resumed listening to new ringtones on one's mobile phone. Finally I do find an auto, but cant find the place. So for twenty minutes we roam around Wayfinding: The Indian Way. Which is, by asking pan-wallahs and auto-wallahs. Finally an auto-wallah who happened to be standing at the very place I wanted to get off said "Never heard of Balaji Plaza." I spotted the building's name-board which was totally lost among the clutter of the shops' name-boards. I enlightened the rickshawallah and mused at the British Museum Search Method and the accuracy of it.
Finally, after an anticlimax of sorts, I manage to enter what was their office, and meet Sanjay, a very polite little person. I spot a wall clock on the wall. Its an Ajanta wall clock, the exact same design as the one in my house's living room since more than ten years. Thats the clock i saw thousands of times in my life. And it was there, on that wall. Ajanta is the world's largest clock manufacturer and has many, many designs. I had never seen this design anywhere, till now. Well hell, I thought. Thats two things!
The meeting goes on and we're discussing possible collaborations. He has no immediate needs of my skills except for this one thing he's not sure about discussing. A news site they host and update (www.tarkash.com, the seventh most popular hindi site in the universe), needs some fictional characters, and to show what he's looking for he shows me a sample. He opens a folder, in it are hundreds of random photographs. One photograph he is looking for, after a few minutes he finds it. I must desctibe it now.
She was a rocker-chick, wearing a black leather bra and black panties holding the guitar making the panties redundant, on her knees in an inverted-Y posture.
16th Frbruary, Lucknow, the time is 10 p.m. and I'm there with my friend and colleague Preet, with Aditi and Simran, who are from Lucknow, we are sitting at a Cafe Coffee Day, sipping coffee. My train to Gujarat was at 11:30 but had been postponed by 3 hours (at least, and the railways was sorry for informing this). A guy walks in, his name is Siddharth and he is Aditi's friend. We're clicking photographs which end up on facebook (one is my display picture right now), the girls push him into a photo with his sleeve rolled up so his tattoo is seen. The tattoo on his right arm is of a girl holding a guitar, on her knees in an inverted-Y posture. He fondly shows the jpeg file on his mobile to show what his rocker-chick looked like before ending up on his arm forever.
"Nothing happens by chance, there is no such thing as luck.There is meaning behind every little thing, as such a meaning behind this." - Richard Bach, Nothing By Chance
There she was again on that computer screen, ready to be morphed into a virtual reporter again. Its too bad that I read Richard Bach books in my teens, if I had recently read them I'd have hit the roof and dented it, now all this gets is a blog entry.
I had appointments with a couple of companies for the afternoon, so I didn't do much in the morning, was psyching myself for what was to come. One good thing about life is that it has only so much it can offer, and soon comes a time when you are doing the same things again. And again and again. My friends in big cities will agree to this. So it is when I meet people, to discuss business with them, the "Play" button needs to be pressed and I'm more or less on autopilot. Last April I was roaming around in Ahmedabad, looking for investors and asking for their partnership for the Diploma Project of NID, this April I'm just finding businesses and making calls. The rest of the things just happen. Not much has happened mind you, I'm yet to sign MOUs, if I ever get to sign any.
So at 2:18 sharp I leave for Grafico, a husband-and-wife venture into web, print and corporate brand identity business. They are the minds behind MachuPicchu, a lounge coffee shop, I meet Mr. Ashit Parikh and we have a good meeting, half an hour later I leave after asking Mr. Parikh if he is in any way related to a Prof. Suresh Parikh from Sardar Patel University, Vidyanagar, who is my father's professor and guide and lifelong friend, but he said he didn't know the professor but knew a photographer whose name was Mr. Suresh Parikh, from Baroda.
During our meeting, I spotted an external hard-drive on his desk, it was the vertical 500 GB Western Digital drive with a circular light in front and a morse-code type design on the egdes. I have the exact same drive with me, I've been using it since over two years now. I wasnt getting excited about the exact same piece of hardware, but I have seen my share of computer stuff and till now, I haven't seen that particular drive with anyone, so the child in me was a little amused at the co-incidence.
Next, Chavi Media and Communication, Balaji Plaza, armed with a small print-out of a google map pointing to its exact location I was sleep-walking towards it. After ten minutes of walking in the afternoon I decide to take an auto, only to find the laziest auto-wallas who flatly said no. Why? Its afternoon time, we rest at this time, they said and resumed listening to new ringtones on one's mobile phone. Finally I do find an auto, but cant find the place. So for twenty minutes we roam around Wayfinding: The Indian Way. Which is, by asking pan-wallahs and auto-wallahs. Finally an auto-wallah who happened to be standing at the very place I wanted to get off said "Never heard of Balaji Plaza." I spotted the building's name-board which was totally lost among the clutter of the shops' name-boards. I enlightened the rickshawallah and mused at the British Museum Search Method and the accuracy of it.
Finally, after an anticlimax of sorts, I manage to enter what was their office, and meet Sanjay, a very polite little person. I spot a wall clock on the wall. Its an Ajanta wall clock, the exact same design as the one in my house's living room since more than ten years. Thats the clock i saw thousands of times in my life. And it was there, on that wall. Ajanta is the world's largest clock manufacturer and has many, many designs. I had never seen this design anywhere, till now. Well hell, I thought. Thats two things!
The meeting goes on and we're discussing possible collaborations. He has no immediate needs of my skills except for this one thing he's not sure about discussing. A news site they host and update (www.tarkash.com, the seventh most popular hindi site in the universe), needs some fictional characters, and to show what he's looking for he shows me a sample. He opens a folder, in it are hundreds of random photographs. One photograph he is looking for, after a few minutes he finds it. I must desctibe it now.
She was a rocker-chick, wearing a black leather bra and black panties holding the guitar making the panties redundant, on her knees in an inverted-Y posture.
16th Frbruary, Lucknow, the time is 10 p.m. and I'm there with my friend and colleague Preet, with Aditi and Simran, who are from Lucknow, we are sitting at a Cafe Coffee Day, sipping coffee. My train to Gujarat was at 11:30 but had been postponed by 3 hours (at least, and the railways was sorry for informing this). A guy walks in, his name is Siddharth and he is Aditi's friend. We're clicking photographs which end up on facebook (one is my display picture right now), the girls push him into a photo with his sleeve rolled up so his tattoo is seen. The tattoo on his right arm is of a girl holding a guitar, on her knees in an inverted-Y posture. He fondly shows the jpeg file on his mobile to show what his rocker-chick looked like before ending up on his arm forever.
"Nothing happens by chance, there is no such thing as luck.There is meaning behind every little thing, as such a meaning behind this." - Richard Bach, Nothing By Chance
There she was again on that computer screen, ready to be morphed into a virtual reporter again. Its too bad that I read Richard Bach books in my teens, if I had recently read them I'd have hit the roof and dented it, now all this gets is a blog entry.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Prince of Persia
An unopened box of Prince of Persia, a newly released virtual interactive simulation, is on my table, untouched since a week. I won it in a bet, and had it in my hands but the shiny plastic cover is still on it. I am excited about the game, the level of interest is not an issue. Why couldn't I open it?
There is an order to things, one thing should happen after another for the sake of integrity of what the things stand for. You respect the things and want to experience them the way they are designed to be experienced. You start a book, read through it and only then you can enjoy the climax near the end of it. One does not randomly read a book. Or watch the second part of a movie before the first.
In the same spirit, I was waiting. Waiting for me to play the old Prince of Persia (POP) games. Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia
I played and enjoyed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in 2007. A bit late on reviving the franchisee, I made up for it by playing the game many times. Thereafter, I promptly installed the part 2, POP: Warrior Within the and started to play it, but somewhere in the game I lost interest and couldn't keep track of the story. Too much past-present swapping happened in one stage and I tried to make sense of it but couldn't and was frustrated and eventually gave up the game. Needless to say, part 3 wasn't even installed.
Many months pass. News of a remake. Name? Just Prince of Persia. Read the reviews, waited for the game to hit the shores of India, waited for the money to buy it, and finally won it and had it in my hands.
But I had to play Warrior Within and The Two Thrones! The story must go on.
So I removed the earlier game boxes from The Tower of Games, and open part 2, and install it, and start playing it. Thats when it happened, moment of clarity ~~~ * !
The game looked so old! One generation behing current games, and most of all, I had abandoned it once. I instantly saw why. All the reasons came back. Of course they come back.
And so I abandoned the game again, only this time, much faster. To hell with it :-) to hell with all such illogical mental bonds.
Realization. Denial. Analysis. Acceptance.
Peace
:-)
There is an order to things, one thing should happen after another for the sake of integrity of what the things stand for. You respect the things and want to experience them the way they are designed to be experienced. You start a book, read through it and only then you can enjoy the climax near the end of it. One does not randomly read a book. Or watch the second part of a movie before the first.
In the same spirit, I was waiting. Waiting for me to play the old Prince of Persia (POP) games. Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia
I played and enjoyed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in 2007. A bit late on reviving the franchisee, I made up for it by playing the game many times. Thereafter, I promptly installed the part 2, POP: Warrior Within the and started to play it, but somewhere in the game I lost interest and couldn't keep track of the story. Too much past-present swapping happened in one stage and I tried to make sense of it but couldn't and was frustrated and eventually gave up the game. Needless to say, part 3 wasn't even installed.
Many months pass. News of a remake. Name? Just Prince of Persia. Read the reviews, waited for the game to hit the shores of India, waited for the money to buy it, and finally won it and had it in my hands.
But I had to play Warrior Within and The Two Thrones! The story must go on.
So I removed the earlier game boxes from The Tower of Games, and open part 2, and install it, and start playing it. Thats when it happened, moment of clarity ~~~ * !
The game looked so old! One generation behing current games, and most of all, I had abandoned it once. I instantly saw why. All the reasons came back. Of course they come back.
And so I abandoned the game again, only this time, much faster. To hell with it :-) to hell with all such illogical mental bonds.
Realization. Denial. Analysis. Acceptance.
Peace
:-)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
2nd Day
Waking up in the morning, one tries to make sense of things which help the mind become aware of the context, this subconscious process if misses a step, it leads to very interesting feelings.
" I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was-I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost." Jack Kerouac, On The Road
The first thing that came to my mind was the date. 2nd of March. Panic. 2nd of March?! What happened to the first of march? Panic. March!! 2009!!! and so on.
Talking to one of my friends last night, discussing a similar topic: age and birthdays. She said "It suddenly hit me, on my 25th birthday last month, I realized I was 25 and couldn't believe it. I was like "Shit! Yeh kya ho gaya?""
Days are going by very fast. Tomorrow isnt too far, neither is the next month. So one can put things off and not worry too much about it, but if today feels just like yesterday and tomorrow looks just like today, all the time we've got is right now, and its a good time to do things.
" I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was-I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost." Jack Kerouac, On The Road
The first thing that came to my mind was the date. 2nd of March. Panic. 2nd of March?! What happened to the first of march? Panic. March!! 2009!!! and so on.
Talking to one of my friends last night, discussing a similar topic: age and birthdays. She said "It suddenly hit me, on my 25th birthday last month, I realized I was 25 and couldn't believe it. I was like "Shit! Yeh kya ho gaya?""
Days are going by very fast. Tomorrow isnt too far, neither is the next month. So one can put things off and not worry too much about it, but if today feels just like yesterday and tomorrow looks just like today, all the time we've got is right now, and its a good time to do things.
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