Sunday, October 30, 2005
One of my friends sent a wonderful write-up explaining the 'dependancy addiction' very widely prevailent predominantly among the men in the U.S!It set me thinking as to how conveniently most of us(us being the desi guys - the escapists from India living in the U.S) try to alienate ourselves from a group depending on our mood and almost magically,are able to easily sneak back in without getting noticed!
Men of our ilk have been brought up in a certain way - an expectation that is well set right from the days of kindergarten and that is to maintain some kind of a non-commited position towards whatever we do!There should be no show of even an iota of genuine emotion unmindful of whatever the situation warrants.It might be something as trivial as getting charmed by the new perfume that the girl sitting in the bench next to you is sporting ,all the while trying to seem attentive to whatever crap is being written by the lecturer on the board or something of a higher degree as to watching a sleepy child on the railway station perched on its mother's shoulder,unknowingly letting go of one of its slippers and we still seeming unbothered trying to read the bloody damned outlook magazine that the Higginbothams stall guy sold for an inexorbitant amount of money!
And there are much more of those graver situations such as watching an accident unfold in front of our eyes from the window of a public transport bus and yet trying to lighten up the situation by taking our eyes of the commotion outside and busily tearing the bus ticket from the previous journey into 20 smaller pieces!
The question that came to my mind is..Why are we behaving in a certain cliched manner?Why is there very less emotional part in most of the interactions we do and decisions we take?
In a country well known for its public displays of affection,I wonder if the desi junta would even exhibit a public display of normal human behavior.There are occasions and incidents that prove the double standards of the desis.While it may not seem unusual to see a desi hold the door for the person coming behind in the office or utter those 'hovyudoing or whats up" greetings on the stairway amidst the americans,the real test of the person's character comes when such a desi is in the 'Indian grocery store or a desi restaurant'.The desi roots start taking control of the brain and the Indianness gets exposed instantaneously with the kind of unhealthy scorn the eyes sport!Not a single smile or any sort of greeting and not even the smallest courtesy to say a sorry as their shopping cart nudges past the other desi's leg.
With that being the case,what is amusing is the amount of fun we try to have being in the background,with no real public interaction and exhibition of emotion.Why do you think around 25 unrelated souls form an egroup; like being in touch and enjoy each other's passions/jokes and ideas?
It is a part of every normal person.A tinge of hypocrisy when it comes to outrightly accepting the fact that we long for company and shamelessly try to gain attention,whether directly through some brilliant exposition of one's talent by means of a poem or a painting or a photograph or through a subtler medium such as blogs or jokes!
Its akin to the stolid guy who parts coolly from the airport,bidding adieu to near n dear ones with all smiles,but sits inside the flight and cries it out for a few seconds!
Oflate we are being exposed to so many of those confused desis,trying to paint a picture of being different from the masses,taking a dig at their own people!The feel of helplessness adding spice to the hatred!Finally,what needs to be understood is..Whatever one may say,however great one may seem to portray oneself to be and however change one may try to bring upon oneself,theres one strand of DNA in your make-up which has the DESI component well embedded in it!One need not be proud to be a desi but atleast can try to consciously accept the fact that one is!
Its the DESIRE to be different which is showing up as DESI..IRE!
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
Thursday, October 27, 2005
via this
link
I am talking about the rumours of Google's new tool -
GoogleBase,which is slated to be a fierce competitor to
Ebay and
Craigslist!
A simple yet crisp description of the service is available
here..Hope this service is not a half-baked attempt by Google similar to the Google-talk initiative!For some reason,I feel Google is not flooding the market with robust products that it could support well.Most of its releases are in the Beta phase and quite quickly start to get on the nerves of its regular users when they become clunky and start breaking often due to Server bandwidth issues.
Its not too far when Google shall turn into God!It would be like the Truman Show,where there would be this entity watching you all the time and tracking everything you do - right from which toothpaste you bought last month to how many times you ate Sushi in the last 5 yrs to how many times you sat on the aisle seat of the aeroplane to how many times you had a typo in your email to your boss(remember ..They read all our emails) and suggest you alternatives and try to virtually run your life.
It all would seem reasonable and sometimes even enjoyable to realise the decrease in the daily dose of remembering trivial things about life until one fine day,theres some moron at Google in the name of a G-Virus,who blackmails you into investing in a particular mutual fund or you being exposed to the IT/IRS sleuths for that hidden stack of illegal cash in one of the those 'God only knows'(read Google only knows) accounts in Monaco!
Yepp..with GoogleBase..it does sound true..the cliched phrase..
"ALL YOUR BASE BELONGS TO US - GOOGLE!"
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Listened to songs from
Majaa tuned in by Vidyasagar and this is what I felt..
I generally don't try to give much attention to the lyrics,but this time tried to concentrate on the lyrics while listening and I guess that was a bad decision..
The songwriter/director must be someone either desperately trying to project 'sex education' to the masses or someone very badly starved of sexual intercourse.Because 2 of the 5 songs had lyrics vividly describing the act using a variety of allusions and 1 song was no allusion but direct raw description!I wonder if there is a censor board that listens to songs and bans them!
The weird thing is ..these songs tend to create a lasting effect on the masses,may be even for months/years that even small children seem to sing them with great enthusiasm.It is pathetic to listen them sing these in the saptaswarams and anthaakshari and local diwali programs!
1. Chee Chee Enna (ShankarMahadevan, Harini, Viji, Savitha)
Very catchy song...But it kind of resembles some old song..Upon repeated listening,I started to like the song for its tune.
But as I said earlier, what struck me was the way the whole song was laden with lyrics directly describing intercourse!Right from the starting words to the mourns of the female all through the song,it immediately brings a clear picture of the scenario being described.Wondering how sleazy this song is gonnabe visually ..
2. HeyPangali (Udit Narayan, Tippu, Manickam Vinayakam)
A typical Udit Narayan number sung through the nose!But it was a very peppy song,the only one which seemed to be a normal,jolly song without any hidden meaning or unnecessary allusion to anything!
3. Solli Tharava (Madhu Balakrishnan, SadhanaSargam)
A melodious number,well sung by Madhu and Sadhana Sargam.But again,why can't it be anything other than love/love-making?Is there nothing else to write a song/poem about?"penmai thadumaarumae..maanam kappal yaerumae..." :O
4. Thaimasaam (Shankar Mahadevan, AnuradhaSriram)
Anuradha sriram as usual rocks this..'uppukaruvaadu' like jalsaa number!Great song to look forward to for the dance sequence!What starts off as a song describing the guy's feeling in a paddy field goes on to become the call from the male to the female to join him in matrimony.Then the second part of the song suddenly shifts gears and starts talking about the logistics and modes of lovemaking!
Guess the female in the song is much more aroused..
"Un pattinaathar kovanatha pazhudhu paaruyaa"..which loosely translates to check your briefs!!
"unaku yaeri poachu kozhuppu..
nee maasathula muunu naalu enga poyu paduppa?"...No comments..
What the hell is wrong with these guys and I wonder if the singers would themself object to such lyrics or just turn a blind eye?
5. Podhumada Sami (Kailash kher)
The first "thanananannaaaa" bit is awesome..This guys called the Nusrat Fateh ali Khan of India!The pronunciation of the words were not that bad..
This song again portrayed the dejected hero's tryst with love!An excusable song consider the ones above!
Majaa...Worth a listen..!Watchout for the lyrics though.....
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
Friday, October 14, 2005
I have been getting such emails lately,under the disguise of paypal.It seems like a genuine email until you try to click the provided link.The link,infact leads to some unrelated website.
Wonder what Paypal is gonna do abt this...
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Wish I had known this when I dropped my
cellphone in water last week!
The poor little gizmo rests in peace/piece at home as I start my search for the next best thing!
Few things I realised from the accident...
1)Don't have your cellphone in vibration mode and set it atop the washbasin/kitchen sink!The phone magically moves,as if its bitten by the sleepwalking bug, due to the vibration and due to the smooth texture of the sink.
2)So,the phone fell into the sink/into a vessel with water.Don't try to wash it with hamam soap and clean it with a towel!Okay..now listen..I din't do that kind of a stupid thing!
3)Try to remember the phone number of atleast 1 or 2 of your closest buddies and save the embarassment from asking them to send their phone numbers through email!It sends all the wrong signals as to..What the hell...u know me since 6 yrs and u ask for my cellfone number now??
4)Try to have an iota of cellphone geekiness and fiddle around with the sim card/settings etc well before the doomsday/accident occurs.
5)Don't panic and get caught unawares about the basic functions of the phone.If you notice there are atleast 5 or 6 buttons other than the number buttons on the phone and I don't know why they are there!Just a call and end-call buttong should have been enough!
6)Don't just expect your phone to be used only for talking.Things have changed in the past few years.People expect their phone to take pictures/show movies/play games/chat/browse email/sing songs/act as remote control for the tv/act as modem to be connected to the internet on the road and whatnot!
7)Don't be surprised to see phones that could be used for other purposes too..the ones that could be used as pen..the ones that could be used as a cigarette lighter..the ones that have a bulb attached to be used a torch light..the ones that could be used as a shaver..Bottomline is..a phone should do anything and everything apart from being a means for talking!
8)Textmessaging is not as cool as it seems to be!The text letters embossed over the number panes are too small and mostly 3 poor ltl alphabet thingies share 1 single button!Even the liliputians would have a hard time to locate them and press them correctly!Considering the amount of time and effort the text-messaging needs,I would rather hit the talk button and speak my heart out to the one I was trying to textmessage in the first place!
9)Daytime minutes at the end of the month is akin to the last piece of bread for a beggar!People save and use it as judiciously as possible as if it would be the end of the world if they were to overshoot the free allocated minutes.
10)As much as it seems trivial,life without a cellphone seems to be miserable.So..y'all buddies out there.Please take a minute and send me your cellphone numbers to raaapi@gmail.com .I promise I shall call you once I get my next little cellphone!
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Thayae Yashodaa from Morning Raaga!
One of the very few movies,where I felt so good about Indian movies having songs interlaced with the story!
All the characters in the movie acted with great elan,making it a simply superb memorable movie!
I have heard some of my friends not being fond of fusion kind of music.Hope this music from Amit Heri changes that opinion!
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
Sunday, October 02, 2005
It does feel good to be liked by someone and no reason is needed for that feeling.
It is amusing to realise someone hates us to the core and that too for no apparent reason...
Blogging is like one of the those date calender thingies,where we forget about tearing off the daily date page and suddenly one fine day realise,its not been updated and do it all at one go.
Almost 75% of posts in the desi blogworld is related to movies.Amazing to realise that even with the current movies being pathetic beyond any redemption,this much of an interest,the tinsletown is able to sustain among the junta.
I wonder how interesting it would have been,had blogging co-existed with the moviegoers during the sixties and the seventies,when the movie world was experimenting and coming out with classics,that were to be spoken about even after 40 years of their creation.
There are Bloggers,who write stuff that matters to them alone - Well,thats fine - its probably an online journal for them and them alone to come back later and relive the memories;some that write stuff that matter to them and to a few others - Thats also okay,considering that they tend to add their piece to educating people and some others who write stuff that doesnt matter to anyone - I don't know how they still have the passion to keep going,when all they do is rant,rant and rant adding no possible value to both their blog as well as the bloghopper.
Money is a trivial thing in life.Well,thats what everybody likes to say and believe.But then,unfortunately it is far from the truth.Money does play a part in the way people behave.Its shown how extreme people(both friends and relatives) can go to,when it comes to parting with their rightful share of the money they owe or repaying a loan that was offered to them in good spirits.As much as it might seem to be disgusting to read,it has to be acknowledged that Money does help quite effectively in figuring out the 'real' nature of a person.Its like one of those litmus papers which helps to differentiate pretty accurately!
Writing about politics,constitution,freedom of speech and commenting on a few editorials from wall street journal and Times - Does that mean someone is erudite and interesting?Hehehe..Ofcourse to them it would definitely seem so always..
To others though,on the contrary,its akin to that pathetic guy whos failed in 4 subjects in his university exams and the next day at college,tries to cover up his sagging ego by coming up with doubts and questions during a boring class with a dumb lecturer on the dias,waiting for the bell to go off.
Not able to come to terms with real-life inadequacies and miserable failures leads to generous,undeserved assumption of intellect and megalomaniacal attitude that more or less finally leads to a suicidal outcome!
People tend to crib a lot when they are unhappy,but what they don't realise is,they don't devote the same amount of their time and feelings when everything is going fine!Why do people try to expose their unhappiness more than their happy times?Human life in itself very short,when compared to the age of the universe and theres is no reason 'not to be happy' in that short span of life.
The theists seem to speak less about the 'God' that they believe in and the so-called loverboys talk very less of the girl that they are devoted to.It is the hypocritic proclaimers of atheism and the so-called romantically challenged individuals that through their endless rants,indirectly end up thinking/talking more about God and girls respectively.
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh |
^
