Last few days have been a very different experience for me. One that has made me think of all the things I have missed out on life and all of that I never told anyone.
Death is inevitable for all of us. But as life passes by and you have lived your life, not just you, but some of your loved ones also expect death to be round the corner. Not that you want it to, but you just know it. Maybe we even prepare ourselves. The hard one to handle is the blind turn. When you least expect.
In my 30 yrs of life, I have not seen death this close. What it does and how it impacts. A son who suddenly feels he is not the boy of the house anymore. A daughter who tells me there was so much to tell her dad and he left without hearing anything. A wife who has not know a life without him in over 36 years.
Personally, for me it was a big loss, cos I could never ever express my gratitude to him. It used to be a celebration whenever I visited their house. And yet I used to avoid the visits, since I could not find time. I was in the same city a week ago and yet I avoided meeting him, thought to myself, next time I will make it up. I am heartbroken cos I know there is no next time now.
I wept when we took him through to the funeral. The bellowing smoke was burning our eyes, but none of us turned away for even a moment. And in some time, the about 6 foot tall uncle of mine was nothing at all…May his soul rest in peace.
Life has to move on. But one thought anchored in my mind is that, death often is uninvited, unexpected. And there are no second chances here. Keep your heart free and don’t have anything left to be told, done or experienced. Sound clichéd, I know. But it sounds a lot different when you say it while walking back from a funeral.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Grave Security Threat!
I am not one of those people who read every single news bit out of a news paper. But pictures, sports pages and certain words do grab my eyes. I happened to read a small column news on a grave security threat that is looming over our governmental offices.
“New Delhi: The Union home ministry, in a recent advisory to all officials, has warned government officials that watching porn at the workplace could pose a risk to the nation’s security. Sources said nearly 2 lakh hacking cases were being reported every day. Though the advisory does not specifically mention pornography, officials said porn surfing was common in various ministries. “Despite repeated warnings by the home ministry, officials of many vital wings of the government keep surfing pornographic sites during office hours using official computers, resulting in penetration of spyware from foreign hackers,’’ a ministry official said.”
They are advised to be cautious while doing so from now on. Pick and choose your porn source.
I like this circular. I mean its prob pretty tough on these guys. They are working very ‘hard’ and they also need to stretch out and enjoy their life a little. A very considerate circular.
I wonder if there was some annexure which spoke about safe sources and the one that could be avoided. Our intelligence services might have to be put on a high alert, just so that our govt officers are not going to unsafe porn sites. Its worth the effort, atleast we will not be hacked.
And you guessed it right; security threat is not the word that got my attention.
“New Delhi: The Union home ministry, in a recent advisory to all officials, has warned government officials that watching porn at the workplace could pose a risk to the nation’s security. Sources said nearly 2 lakh hacking cases were being reported every day. Though the advisory does not specifically mention pornography, officials said porn surfing was common in various ministries. “Despite repeated warnings by the home ministry, officials of many vital wings of the government keep surfing pornographic sites during office hours using official computers, resulting in penetration of spyware from foreign hackers,’’ a ministry official said.”
They are advised to be cautious while doing so from now on. Pick and choose your porn source.
I like this circular. I mean its prob pretty tough on these guys. They are working very ‘hard’ and they also need to stretch out and enjoy their life a little. A very considerate circular.
I wonder if there was some annexure which spoke about safe sources and the one that could be avoided. Our intelligence services might have to be put on a high alert, just so that our govt officers are not going to unsafe porn sites. Its worth the effort, atleast we will not be hacked.
And you guessed it right; security threat is not the word that got my attention.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Eat Pray & Love
Just the other day, I was very strongly recommended to watch this movie. I am generally not a very cruel critic of any movie, and my comments are not directed only at this movie, but a very general observation.
Eat is Italy, pray is India and love is Bali. For those of you have not seen the movie. The shot where in Liz arrives in India is anything but deplorable. She is in a dingy rickety ambassador taxi, the driver is in full throttle with no sense of driving etiquettes, there are children on the street who are narrowly missed, there is a cow in the middle, a biker who almost knocks over. All this is familiar to us, of-course. But is that it?!
What’s itching me here is the shallow imagination of an American who probably is having a blind eye to any sort of developed canvas in a country like India. I will not fault him, he probably does not know where it is on the globe. When you look out from a well, often the world seems to be a lot smaller. And then you got to use your limited competence to imagine, how a world would be.
Let me go back to how Kolkata looked in the movie. I am not saying all this is not present in India. There are places which will resemble exactly like how they showed. But then, the scene depicts what India is through the below average screenplay. Italy – for ‘eat’ part of Liz’s journey was a treat to the eye. Why should the meaning of India be poverty? There was a lot of scope for the author / director – whoever was the one who decided the sequence to showcase a changing landscape. From the airport to the ashram. That would have been a lot more realistic.
Why I am voicing it out here is not cos I am craving for any acknowledgement from the western society on how India is changing. But as an Indian, I would urge people who are here to take photographs, make documentaries, make movies – open your eyes and tell the truth. India is spread across spectrums, be in nature, be it wealth. With over 24 Hollywood movies pending permission to be filmed in India, I hope someone is coming here for a more realistic setting and not an ego massage for the American public on how much ahead they are.
Since we are talking about the movie, it’s an absolute treat to the eye – the Italian landscape, the food and the Bali sceneries. It’s a treat to the eye as long as you can avoid looking at Julia.
Eat is Italy, pray is India and love is Bali. For those of you have not seen the movie. The shot where in Liz arrives in India is anything but deplorable. She is in a dingy rickety ambassador taxi, the driver is in full throttle with no sense of driving etiquettes, there are children on the street who are narrowly missed, there is a cow in the middle, a biker who almost knocks over. All this is familiar to us, of-course. But is that it?!
What’s itching me here is the shallow imagination of an American who probably is having a blind eye to any sort of developed canvas in a country like India. I will not fault him, he probably does not know where it is on the globe. When you look out from a well, often the world seems to be a lot smaller. And then you got to use your limited competence to imagine, how a world would be.
Let me go back to how Kolkata looked in the movie. I am not saying all this is not present in India. There are places which will resemble exactly like how they showed. But then, the scene depicts what India is through the below average screenplay. Italy – for ‘eat’ part of Liz’s journey was a treat to the eye. Why should the meaning of India be poverty? There was a lot of scope for the author / director – whoever was the one who decided the sequence to showcase a changing landscape. From the airport to the ashram. That would have been a lot more realistic.
Why I am voicing it out here is not cos I am craving for any acknowledgement from the western society on how India is changing. But as an Indian, I would urge people who are here to take photographs, make documentaries, make movies – open your eyes and tell the truth. India is spread across spectrums, be in nature, be it wealth. With over 24 Hollywood movies pending permission to be filmed in India, I hope someone is coming here for a more realistic setting and not an ego massage for the American public on how much ahead they are.
Since we are talking about the movie, it’s an absolute treat to the eye – the Italian landscape, the food and the Bali sceneries. It’s a treat to the eye as long as you can avoid looking at Julia.
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