Right outside
The window, right out
The world is passing by
At varied rates
The nearby
Slowly
Crawls to gain
The farther
Swiftly
Rushes on
I try to run
With my self aside
Gaining on the farther
While the nearby
Falls
Behind
And
Thus
Escapes
Monday, March 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
savvy
to begin with a trick question:
what is common to vaio and hp?
the tv buffs with a keen eye for advertisements will get it in a jiffy...i guess!
both are advertising their latest smaller avatars of laptops
and yes, both have adequately endowed female bodies displaying their beauty in absolute glory (ambiguity intended!)
but there is still more and that is the point here:
the extremely common argument of 'objectification' attains an amazing fruition here; the female bodies displayed here are in bits (for the viewer's complete attention on what needs to be attended to)
the focus is on the torso (in case of hp) and the swaying buttocks (in case of vaio), so much so that the faces are absent from the frames. to emphasise the sheer smallness of the advertised object??
need we doubt that!!!!!
what is common to vaio and hp?
the tv buffs with a keen eye for advertisements will get it in a jiffy...i guess!
both are advertising their latest smaller avatars of laptops
and yes, both have adequately endowed female bodies displaying their beauty in absolute glory (ambiguity intended!)
but there is still more and that is the point here:
the extremely common argument of 'objectification' attains an amazing fruition here; the female bodies displayed here are in bits (for the viewer's complete attention on what needs to be attended to)
the focus is on the torso (in case of hp) and the swaying buttocks (in case of vaio), so much so that the faces are absent from the frames. to emphasise the sheer smallness of the advertised object??
need we doubt that!!!!!
Friday, January 2, 2009
bang on target
"have a blast this new year"
the word 'blast' surely has catapulted into collective consciousness in more ways than one..
and no, i am not only referring to the mumbai attacks
the new year blasts in guwahati are just a chilling deja vu of the new year blasts in rampur, UP
and probably the chilling reminder takes us to a scarier realisation about how it doesn't matter to the public what happens in the geographic and social fringes of the society as long as the nation's elite (in all senses) aren't attacked
"have a blast this new year"
should we get superstitious about this phrase now!!!!!
the word 'blast' surely has catapulted into collective consciousness in more ways than one..
and no, i am not only referring to the mumbai attacks
the new year blasts in guwahati are just a chilling deja vu of the new year blasts in rampur, UP
and probably the chilling reminder takes us to a scarier realisation about how it doesn't matter to the public what happens in the geographic and social fringes of the society as long as the nation's elite (in all senses) aren't attacked
"have a blast this new year"
should we get superstitious about this phrase now!!!!!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
the war
Is it high time for us, as individuals in this collective nation of India, to realise that we have a war upon us?
The fresh set of terror attacks (yes, we have had countless ones in the recent ones thereby giving extreme agency to terrorists to play God or whatever with lives!) have exposed, this time in a more matter-of-fact way, that we are under attack. When will our authorities get the cue (I think the terrorists are laughing at the ‘great nation of India’ being bullied just so easily without any resistance whatsoever); and instead of moving on from one blast to another, condemning them (the word ‘condemnation’ is a farce now), actually rise to the occasion and deliver something, at least something.
Granted that we as a nation of too many people have a lot of lives to spare (sounds heinous, but one wonders why lives are so cheap in India), should the masterminds of our nation let this pass as well? As yet another attack on India’s democracy and such jingoist language which masquerades their actual inabilities? I don’t point fingers at one political party/one ideology/one thisthatandtheother...neither do I find it comforting to think that our religious ‘other’ is responsible for every killing spree that goes on here and there, every single day...
As the number of individuals obliterated for no reason of their own rise, the reasons behind these terror attacks seem more and more fickle...really all this is happening so that the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ (the number of sub-groups seems to mushroom everyday) can be let out of the prisons? The alibis don’t seem strong enough...
This is not just a war on our ‘democracy’ (as our government keeps rattling off every single time something happens); neither on the ‘hindus’ (as those imposters in the name of safeguard of the so-called Hindu selves would have people believe); this is a war on our understanding; this signals the shattering of our worldviews.
The fresh set of terror attacks (yes, we have had countless ones in the recent ones thereby giving extreme agency to terrorists to play God or whatever with lives!) have exposed, this time in a more matter-of-fact way, that we are under attack. When will our authorities get the cue (I think the terrorists are laughing at the ‘great nation of India’ being bullied just so easily without any resistance whatsoever); and instead of moving on from one blast to another, condemning them (the word ‘condemnation’ is a farce now), actually rise to the occasion and deliver something, at least something.
Granted that we as a nation of too many people have a lot of lives to spare (sounds heinous, but one wonders why lives are so cheap in India), should the masterminds of our nation let this pass as well? As yet another attack on India’s democracy and such jingoist language which masquerades their actual inabilities? I don’t point fingers at one political party/one ideology/one thisthatandtheother...neither do I find it comforting to think that our religious ‘other’ is responsible for every killing spree that goes on here and there, every single day...
As the number of individuals obliterated for no reason of their own rise, the reasons behind these terror attacks seem more and more fickle...really all this is happening so that the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ (the number of sub-groups seems to mushroom everyday) can be let out of the prisons? The alibis don’t seem strong enough...
This is not just a war on our ‘democracy’ (as our government keeps rattling off every single time something happens); neither on the ‘hindus’ (as those imposters in the name of safeguard of the so-called Hindu selves would have people believe); this is a war on our understanding; this signals the shattering of our worldviews.
Friday, October 17, 2008
beaching about 'bangal ki khadee'
the name bay of bengal always struck a musical chord in my young bengali heart
no other state could boast of having an entire bay named after it
(well logically, east bengal also should share a pie of the glory, but what the heck!!!)
somehow, the hindi term 'bangal ki khadee' sounded too lame, as if it were a smelly canal they were referring to
********************************************************
we hit the road, the train, the station, the auto, the bus, the stench, the smell, the chips and the stones and reached bay of bengal...a sorta long way away from hyderabad
(also gulping some beer, wine, vodka, brandy in between)
ah! for the sights of the sea, the sea, the sea
and yet, something looked the same
dejavu filled the senses
i have seen this sea
my cronies frowned as if to say 'we told you so'
*********************************************************
the water was warm, and slightly cool, a tingling sensation but nothing new
the water was muddy (in chennai pondy)
after all it was the same sea or bangal ki khadee
and now for some slices of less fiction:
no other state could boast of having an entire bay named after it
(well logically, east bengal also should share a pie of the glory, but what the heck!!!)
somehow, the hindi term 'bangal ki khadee' sounded too lame, as if it were a smelly canal they were referring to
********************************************************
we hit the road, the train, the station, the auto, the bus, the stench, the smell, the chips and the stones and reached bay of bengal...a sorta long way away from hyderabad
(also gulping some beer, wine, vodka, brandy in between)
ah! for the sights of the sea, the sea, the sea
and yet, something looked the same
dejavu filled the senses
i have seen this sea
my cronies frowned as if to say 'we told you so'
*********************************************************
the water was warm, and slightly cool, a tingling sensation but nothing new
the water was muddy (in chennai pondy)
after all it was the same sea or bangal ki khadee
and now for some slices of less fiction:
Monday, September 22, 2008
cuisine india (?) tidbits
That
1) Potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums/chillies were brought by the Portuguese; almost entire India, and rather very notably, the Bengalis, started using potatoes (especially potatoes)in almost everything, including biryanis.
2) Kashmiri Brahmins, like Bengali Brahmins, eat meat, but prefer their meaty delights without onions and garlics!
3) Pork isn't banned by any Hindu religious texts; but somehow, the devout practitioners (the meat-eating ones) seem to believe that they are rather 'dirty' and hence should not be eaten.
1) Potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums/chillies were brought by the Portuguese; almost entire India, and rather very notably, the Bengalis, started using potatoes (especially potatoes)in almost everything, including biryanis.
2) Kashmiri Brahmins, like Bengali Brahmins, eat meat, but prefer their meaty delights without onions and garlics!
3) Pork isn't banned by any Hindu religious texts; but somehow, the devout practitioners (the meat-eating ones) seem to believe that they are rather 'dirty' and hence should not be eaten.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
back to where we belong: english writing india
I have been recently re-inducted into the cult (no-cult) of Indian fiction in English and I realise how much I have missed by strictly following a disciplinarian (read Calcutta University) diet (rather overdose) of British English literature.
Somebody inform those humbugs that Indians write English too, and often quite masterfully as well!
I must say that the preoccupation of Indian writers with the medium of English is strikingly present almost in every piece of writing that I have read so far. They all seem to question the position of English vis-a-vis everything that can be considered Indian.
Somebody inform those humbugs that Indians write English too, and often quite masterfully as well!
I must say that the preoccupation of Indian writers with the medium of English is strikingly present almost in every piece of writing that I have read so far. They all seem to question the position of English vis-a-vis everything that can be considered Indian.
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