My Experiments with Truth... And Mom's Samsung Galaxy S2.

Magic is Poetry wrapped in Jeans, yes? :)

I am no huge fan of Bukowski; that arrogant, anarchist and defiant anti-hero battling the literary elite. He was a dirty, dirty man by all accounts. But the poem in question 'The Laughing Heart' that makes its appearance in the latest Levis commercial is a work of staggering tenderness and innate beauty. 

The Laughing Heart -
by Charles Bukowski 

 your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Astounding, isn't it? :)

The company has chosen his words as the new anthem for today’s denim wearing generation. 

Frankly, I can't blame them. It is a brilliant idea. 

It seems to enforce the belief that the new definition of cool is to own a pair of jeans that tells the world you believe in Bulowski's view of a better future .'Your life is your life...' does sear through the brains of the impressionable lamb-like youth who own 75 pairs of jeans already.

More Jeans. More Poetry.

The world is a happy place. :) 

Confessions of Roadkill on the Tech Highway.

You won't see me in bluish-green pictures looking like an Avatar reject.
You won't find the iconic white earphones dangling from my ears.
You won't see my eager fingers moving around a sleek touchscreen.
It takes me a few minutes to figure out that when people are discussing Cupcake and Froyo, they aren't discussing what to treat my hungry tummy to, but versions of Android.
And when you say the word tablet, my first instinct is to think Crocin.

This is the truth as I know it.

While I am not inherently excited by technology, as I sat staring at the mail from my grandmom which ended with 'Sent from my iPad', I am more determined than ever to like it. Wait, love it and embrace all that changing technology brings with it.

Give me a crash-course in all things technology, please? :)

Image Source: Ben Heine Photography

In Search of the Perfect Coffee in Bombay.

It has been raining incessantly the past couple of days, and the clouds still look happily full, the way a child looks after a bowl of ice-cream. The weather is just right for it...

I close my eyes and find myself transported to a beautiful outdoor cafe in the middle of a small, busy square. As I sit back and breathe in the aroma of freshly brewed espressos, I look around to see a network of echoing alleys filled with gossiping shopkeepers and enamored tourists. The town appeared to consist of a dozen streets made for hours of mindless wandering. Expensive, spotless establishments gleam at the town's center while beautiful, old-fashioned hotels are hidden away behind wild creepers. I imagine myself reading 'Pride and Prejudice' or some such lumbering classic befitting the serene setting. I sit there for hours in a happy daze...

I awake from my reverie to discover that the cappuccino I had ordered twenty minutes ago has arrived. The waiter at Barista has been kind (or conversely creepy) enough to draw a heart with cream on top. The coffee arrives in a standardized and conspiratorially small mug, designed so the customer has to pay much more than what was deserved while not even keeping the option open of stealing that silly mug. Win-win for the cafe guys. I hardly ever go to Barista unless a friend has a discount coupon. 

Hypocrite, you say?

Who passes up an offer for free coffee, I retort.

The same goes for Cafe Coffee Day(CCD). The Tropical Iceberg which tastes exactly like the Iced Eskimo is alright, though. The fact that the more appetizing items on their menu are always, and I repeat, always missing is yet another capitalist conspiracy against the cafe-going customer, I presume. And the music playing makes me want to weep like the windows on a rainy afternoon.

But there's a whole other reason I dislike The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It tends to have too many people pretending to write novels, and too few people pretending to read novels. It just has this pretentious arty vibe to it that I don't enjoy. Its only redeeming aspect are the adorable tea bags that I'd just like to steal and stash away for a rainy day stuck at home.

This is lamenting the utter lack of cafe culture in this city of dreams.
If the coffee is good, the cafe isn't. Or vice versa.

If you live in the city, do share your perfect coffee haunts.
If the offer of a free coffee and my lively company isn't enough, I promise to tell you about the best ice-cream in the city in return :)

Image Source: Albaflickr's Photostream

18 Going on 80. :)

As part of our grading in the subject Presentation Skills, I had to deliver a 3-minute speech to a class of faces bored with speeches on economic recession, financial reform and the like. I chose to speak on a topic dear to me, and gave a persuasive speech on how reading, though a conventionally unpopular (especially given my age) hobby is a brilliant one. I spoke about how my grandfather inculcated a lifelong love for books in me. I prepared a short Powerpoint presentation that played in the background that elicited a variety of 'awww's and 'so sweeeeeet's. I shared the story due to my firm belief that stories have a more lasting impact than statistics and pedantic facts.

I've put up the slides here. Do take a look. :)

Oh, so that's what people are reading at Tihar Jail.

I never fail to be surprised by the innate ability of the internet to house some of the most bizarre and brilliant things. Look what I found as I was glancing through the Open Magazine website!

The list of books people are reading in Tihar Jail's largest library. :O

Tihar's Jail number 3 has 6,000-odd books, all donated in myriad languages.

From Vikram Seth and Tarun Tejpal to Orhan Pamuk and Karl Kruszelnicki. 

WOW.

P.S. And guess what? I don't see any Chetan Bhagat! Muahahahahaha.

Why Quantitative Analysis does not entertain me.

We Own the Sky. :)

This is some pure magic by M83.

The world's greatest nations have reached some kind of inflexion point or the other. The Americans are battling a myopic administration and an astounding deficit. The Chinese are fighting callous public servants and and incompetence. Europe may be headed for a double-dip.

Here in India, our anti-corruption protests are finding resonance in countries around the world. 

The burgeoning middle class that grew up with blind faith in parliamentary democracy has been jolted out of complacency by Anna Hazare and team. They are igniting minds all over the nation in a manner Kalam never could. In the background of the 2G scam, the uproar around the CWG, the massive amounts of money being found in Swiss banks, we are slowly sitting up and becoming politically aware. And active.

No one is naive enough to believe that the Jan Lokpal Bill will be the end to all corruption in the country. Team Anna's version of the bill is not bereft of flaws. A citizen's ombudsman is but one measure in the entire policy framework that can inculcate accountability in a nation's culture. Most of us experience corruption at the point of interaction- when we apply for a PAN Card or Passport, when we are caught by the cops for speeding, even to make sure an FIR is taken seriously. A variety of policies under different sectors and their effective implementation can be the only way forward. The UID for every Indian citizen, irrespective of income level and even gender, under the Aadhaar scheme is a brilliant initiative to tackle under-the-table corruption. We must look at the Jan Lokpal Bill as a first in a series of changes that can empower the citizen and induce meaningful development. And that is why I support Team Anna.

In a city where the only thing you get for free is the air you breathe, it is refreshing to see people wake up from their complacent stupor and drive change. It is in the spirit of democracy that their voices be heard and given heed. 

Yes, we own the sky. :)

In honor of the day I discovered that the word 'Happify' exists. :)

One of my many quirks is that I find ineffable joy in the pursuit of all things weird and wonderful.

In the spirit of revealing quirks, here's one for the wily old gossip-mongers: I publicly announce my love-affair with words that are strange, obscure and rare. 

After an hour or so of being mesmerized by the Oxford English Dictionary, that corpus of all things boring yet beautiful, I discovered that 'happify' is a word. A real word. It means, of course, to make someone happy. I love the word enough to contemplate making it my middle name. ^_^

After solemn deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I must impart my newly-acquired wisdom and corpus of obscure words with each and every one of you. I do this in the spirit of social service and happifying, because who knows, you may want some of these words at the tip of your tongue while convincing the irate police officer that you weren't driving drunk.

1. Petrichor- The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.

(You will not believe how glad I was when I found there is a word for this! )

2. Nod-crafty -- Given to nodding the head with an air of great wisdom

3. Paradobre- A defense against bores

4.  Hypergelast- A person who won't stop laughing.

5. Kankedort- An awkward situation

6. Vicambulist- A person who wanders city streets

7.  Selcouth- Unfamiliar, strange, marvellous, wonderful

8. Onomatomania- Vexation at having difficulty in finding the right word

9.  Jocoserious- Half serious and half in jest

10. Apricity- The warmth of the sun in winter.

This made me smile :)

11. Fard/infucate- To paint the face with make-up, so as to hide blemishes.

(Hilarious! Excuse me, as I visit the washroom to fard. :D)

12. Shot-Clog- An unwelcome companion tolerated because he pays for the rest.

13. Psithurism- The sound of wind in the woods. 

14. Influous- The phenomenon of ignoring one's horoscope when it's bad.

Care to tell me which words happified you the most? :)


Image Source: Flickr

The View from 5'2" Blog Awards 2011!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why am I giving you Blog Awards?

1. I like the way you write. Or I like you.
2. You need something to smile about if you lost money in the stock market, and did not bet any money on gold.

How can I receive a blog award from The View from 5'2"?

1. By sucking up to all the short people you know.
2. By being awesome. Simple as that.

I've seen a lot, and trust me, a lot of posts giving away awards like they were free coupons for a Talwalkars gym class. It will start with a sentimental thank you to the person who gave you the award, enough to make the person pick up a tissue or two to manage the leaky 'happy-cry' nose. Then there will be a lame picture off the second page of Google Images (first page is too obvious) which will have something written on it like 'I Love Your Blog' or 'Best Blog Award' or worst of all, a pink rectangle that says 'Lovely Blog'. I've seen the same bunch of rectangles bespeaking blog awards doing the rounds. 

Awards should be original and non-interchangeable rectangles, for them to really mean something to the recipient. In that spirit, every image here is a picture I have clicked of something that means a lot to me. 

So without further adieu, I announce my 5 favourite blogs and bloggers :)

I start backwards, to maintain suspense and all.

My Favourite Blogger#5

Felicity, from The Black Waltz

You write beautifully. And your sketches are just out of the world. :)

Your blog award is a picture of my college bag, which has 2 badges of The Beatles, one that says 'Jamming in Mumbai' and one that includes words like 'Abey Shaane'. :D

My Favourite Blogger#4

Pythoroshan. 

You get an image of the third ever cheese omelette I ever made. This is a huge huge deal because I NEVER COOK, not because I hate cooking but because I have cookingophobia. 

 My Favourite Blogger#3

Isha, from Chai Paani etc.

You once wrote a post called 'In Loving Memory of Elanor Rigby'. That's all it took for me to fall in love with your writing. 

You get an image of the rakhis my sister and I will tie to each other this year. :)

My Favourite Blogger#2

mgeek

Simply because you are too smart for us lesser mortals to ever understand what you write, and for the fact that you are interested in throwing me a birthday party at McDonalds next year, without having ever met me thereby putting your life at risk because I may just be a serial killer.

You get an image of the bhutta I devoured this evening as it drizzled. :)

And now,

My Favourite Blogger of All Time

is

Karishma, from Tangled Up in Blue

I love you, Karishma. :)

Your warmth and kindness reflects in every post. You are one of the most perceptive and sensitive people in the blog space. If I ever fall ill, I'd want you to be my doctor, please? :)

You get an image of my cute-as-hell shower cap. :)

I'm not going to tag anyone here.

It will utterly ruin the surprise for the winners if they just wake up one morning to see a comment on their latest post saying 'You've been tagged.' 

Stumble upon my blog some day, and discover that you are genuinely appreciated here. :)

Lots of love to all the 112 followers of this blog. You know I care about every single one of you. :)