Is it Possible?

Does man's weakness to talk more  increase with the level of growth of hair on his head? To phrase this question with improved clarity, "Will i start talking more if i can engineer growth of hair on my head"?

Asking this after watching Harsha Bhogle (usually my favorite commentator) in the T20 commentary box. Why does he have to talk so much when one can get a complete picture of what is happening over the idiot box and what is required is an expert's assessment of events.

 If you close your eyes, you will get the feelilng of hearing a commentary on radio - because it is only on radio you need to speak so much to describe what you see which others can't.

Can't really blame him - because his contract might say that he is paid for the number of words he speaks per match and the fees double if he can speak faster than a moving ball from Malinga..

A Therapy called Writing

I have often wondered what drives me into writing.

I routinely ask myself :Am i compelled to write something or the other always, do i plan it, what inspires me, how much i steal and how much is just a narrative of my own experiences camaflouged as humour and fiction. Should i write at all, what if i spare all my friends and enemies the torture of having to keep a track of what i write. Well, i dont have answers. Or i dont seek them. What is mostly true is that i write what i experience and i try to sound humorous. It is most often original stuff, i never steal passages or concepts, but i follow a particular style or author. RKNarayan has always been my inspiration and Graham Greene my mental mentor.

I wanted to write a novel, could never do that for want of ideas and a sustainable narrative. So i stopped writing on Sam's life. I prefer anonymity and i am always muffled by a schizophrenic thought that i would be hurting someone - so i invented the Dateless and Timeless Diary (inspired by RKN's Dateless Diary). There have been many occasions when i have written something and then struck it the following morning.

I love writing. Before the blogs became popular, i used to write on paper and make a collection of my thoughts. My permanent personal baggage includes a dozen pens received as gifts, a number of electronic gadgets and this assortment of thoughts in paper format. I have still not decided whether i should allow myself to read it.

To Think Like a Thief

This is the age of forwards. We get hundreds of forwarded mails and smses and chat-lines and there just is no dearth of unsolicited wisdom. Not all appeal to me. But the gesture of receiving a well intended, or sometimes subtly couched message, helps.  Therefore, when i received one of this kind a few days ago from an anonymous source, i thought he or she  was responding to my wailings elsewhere in this space on web. 

'A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are victimised first.' 'Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.' 'The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you.'..  thus spake the sender in his forwarded missive.

I do not claim to be a personification of honesty - i do have my contributions to the granary of lies and true-lies. But i realise it doesnt pay to be straight-forward these days. Nor does it benefit to be an open book.

Well, if you wonder how relevant is the caption to what is written above, i have to be honest that i liked that line and i lifted it straight from some article (incorrigible me!!!)

The Power of Silence

We live in an Age of Noise, to quote Huxley. The mind can no more be calm.  In this babble of distractions and delirium, we are also consumed by the noise of desire. Have no scientific proof but I strongly believe the next emotional crisis will come from this noise of desire.  Culturally, silence has lost its value.  A saint says, ‘silence awakens the sleeping seeker in me’.  A powerful statement. 

I have tried a dozen times to start practicing yoga and meditation. The attempts have not gone beyond a few classes and have always been obliterated by superior excuses. It has been a saga of false-starts. It is often like the new year resolution “Quitting smoking is very easy for me, I have done it many times”.  The only silver lining is I still believe that I should move to the next stage of mano-dharma. I am not someone who is confused between being spiritual and religious. So, it shouldn’t be too difficult!

  

Dolphins

No, this is no vanishing act..

This was my first vacation in the new job/country and after we finalised our list of places to visit  and a travel plan, i was so overawed by the prospect of having to experience such copulating interference with nature that i took two days to start. 

I wouldn't bore with my hour-by-hour diary of what i did. The best moments are to be cherished most personally and use them as nostalgic recollections in later years, i firmly believe.

Dolphins are an amazing species. Very intelligent. We wanted to watch them in their elements so took this sea ride - easily a dozen nautical miles away from shores on a not-so-sunny and slightly-drizzly morning.  It was a motor (speed) boat and before i could realise what was happening, i was in high-seas. Scariest moment, to make a mild statement. My swimming knowledge is good enough to just swim in 14 inch-deep water so i quickly calculated how much my life-insurance was worth and who would get that money because my wife and kid were with me. And suddenly, lo-behold, a large college of dolphins surfaced.

They must have been easily in excess of 100 (the motorman said there were 150 of them), but it was breathtaking. It was like watching a small aquarium filled with a riotously colorful school of fish. Dolphins are extremely frolic and intelligent. They would surface here and invite you to chase them - then would vanish and appear some 100 meters away in a different direction. You would chase them and almost reach them, only to discover that they have planned to re-appear in another direction. In this process of chase and lose, we were almost caught in deep sea and a possible storm like weather. Or it is always like that on high-seas... When the captain said we are returning amid a heavy drizzle, i thought the skies were crying for me.

The only regret in this terrific experience was that i couldn't do what the Russian and French families with us were doing - they did a scuba, a deep see diving and virtually rode on the dolphins. I  could merely thank God for endowing me with good vision and appetite to enjoy more of such stuff.

Resolution: To learn swimming immediately (The coach figured out i believed in mythology..!!)

.. and if i hadn't posted that letter

Hats Off Dear Major General Dhoni.

As if to answer me or rather silence me, you led from the front. The comparison to a shrewd General in a war will not be odious.

And some of your post-match statements were as good as your batting on the day. Undoubtedly you understand the Indian psyche better than anyone. When Sreeshant was bowling, i silently recounted that famous dialogue from Deewar between Amitabh and Shashi Kapoor:

Dhoni:  Mere paas 'home turf advantage' hai, 'home crowd factor' hai, 'luck' hai.. tumhaarey paas kya hai?

Sanga: Mere paas Sreeshanth hai.

This one will be as much momentous as the one 28 years ago. There are so many things to be said, paeans sung and mistakes highlighted. But this is not the occasion. Let us savor the sweet thoughts of a wonderful performance.