Dusk and the sea

This photo-art was published on the website of "Mumbai Mirror" on 29/Jan/09.

Extract from the website:

Dusk and the sea

Posted On Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 06:50:49 PM

This beautiful picture of the Mumbai seafront at dusk was sent to us by Paromah (paromah@hotmail.com), who wrote:
'This picture for me, symbolises life's hope for tomorrow. Sun down, the calm of the sea, the yonder sea, helps to calm down any mind after a day's work. The pleasant feeling created just by the sky meeting the water, feels like it makes you belive that everything does come full circle.'

Mumbai Pictures / Sun down - Sun rise - Jan '09

Mumbai @ Sun down. 28/01/09. By P.S.

Mumbai @ sun down. 28/01/09. By P.S.

Mumbai @ sundown-28/01/09. By P.S.

Mumbai @ sun rise. 26/01/09. By P.S.

Hair Cut

Sometimes, we find ourselves letting go. Letting go of ourselves, our inner feelings, to a point where we will ultimately rest numb, where we don't much care or bother about things around us, about ourselves. Life is anything but simple.

Try as you might to keep it simple.

A broken heart lies as an open wound. A failing relationship makes you stop thinking, Loss of loved ones tear you silly.

It's all in the game, the gamble that's life. The uncertainty of not knowing, of wanting to know but being unable to ascertain.

Amongst many, i found myself letting myself go. Waking to dreary days, to hopeless-ness, the will to fight, had almost but gone.

Sometimes, what we all really need is a boost of change, change in terms of scenery, people,days. Sometimes we just need a jolt of something else, something different than the usual to help get up, pick up what's left, and move forward if not completely on... yet.

A hair cut. Helps. Can help. Looking different, helps you feel different. When you look at a new look in a mirror, you feel like seeing potential, feel like being +ve, feel like smiling a little more and then you realize that you didn't remember the last time you really smiled or laughed out loud with sheer happiness.

Sometimes, a change in the way you dress helps oust the numbness into a sort of "almost there gladness".

Some of us, leave and start new lives somewhere else, to leave behind and forget the endurance of having gone through a hurtful experience.

A normal human reaction, is to curb a real reaction from the heart.

I was feeling a sort of numbness these past days, cause of various reasons that i'd probably enlist into another blog article, but, i got myself a new hair cut, hence a new me found me looking at herself in the mirror. Thinking: this is'nt that bad. If only, we could as simply cut out the complications of a life in general....

But no, we can't cause then we wouldn't want to move out of the "safe net" we build for ourselves. We can't cause then we wouldn't yearn to see things differently or experience newer avenues.

It's all about re-visiting your self that you sometimes forget about once in the maze of a daily life.

All about setting up plans, knowing they could change or not change, but willing to live it up anyway.

It's probably as simple as a new hair cut in the mirror. The shorter, longer aspects of it, don't matter really at the end of it. What matters is the way you cut it finally.

Colaba Attacked

Colaba,
Is a place,
That houses some few famous bars,
Plus some other random places,
Where people go and meet new faces….
It is like a haunt,
It’s where we chill and have good songs…
It’s where we meet when it’s been “real long”...

Mumbai is my city,
Although it isn’t green,
What happened here,
Is like a bad dream.

I felt my heart shatter,
As I saw the gun fire,
I didn’t know who was hit,
Because I was thankful i was the one who was missed.

I stood on the ground,
With my feet not moving, For a while,
I heard no sound.
People were running,
I knew something was amiss,
People were scurrying,
I knew I couldn’t dismiss.

Could it be a fight?
I thought, as I started running with all my might…
Can it be right?
To shoot without sight?
Who were you aiming at?
I wish I could ask,
What did I do?
And why do you want to shoot me to?

I ran from the scene,
I wasn’t very brave,
I just ran and screamed,
It was something I will deem.

The fear on everyone’s faces,
Made me feel so very underrated.
I knew not what to do.
I just wanted to come home,
I felt so crude.

We ran helter skelter,
We passed another scene,
We were at the Taj,
There was fire and there were more screams.

I needed to get away,
Needed to try to be away,
I ran a little more,
I wish I knew how to run faster,
Furthermore,
Moving seemed so tough,
With people being so rough,
Pushed and pulled and pushed and pulled,
Until I fell on the floor,
Feeling useless some more.

We got up to see,
Our world and life stop to breathe,
There was only chaos and you know, you see,
I could barely feel.

We ran a little more,
I couldn’t move anymore.
There were only scared faces,
The night had become tasteless.

I turned around to see,
Someone get shot right in front of me.
I froze right in between,
Wondering if that was what I had really seen..

I waited by a door,
I couldn’t move anymore,
There were only faces,
I couldn’t recognize the places.

I waited to be found,
This time I didn’t fight, I stood on the ground,
I couldn’t move or breathe,
I wondered what was happening to me.
Someone gave me water,
I threw it on the floor,
I leaned against the door,
Watching the cops run around more.

I stood and waited,
Till someone found me.
I could do nothing.
As my own city
Burned in front of me.

----

This is a true account of what happened in Mumbai during the 26/11/2008 attack.

I will never forget.

I had inputs from other people too.

May the deceased rest in peace

----

Flowers and Chocolates vs a Diamond Ring

"...being surprised with a bouquet or even self made chocolates signifies more warmth, more feeling."
--- this article was published in the 16. September.2008 issue of AKS-India Enriched---

On some busy day in the middle of a busy week I took to asking a few people what was the first thought that come to their mind when they thought of chocolates…. Most of their reactions consisted of the drab-old: “I've seriously no idea”!In a sphere where most of us struggle to cope with the simplicity of life, others spend their time dieting or getting more materialistic by the day. Not that it's a bad thing either way. It's every individual's wish to be or not to be.What's one without the other?Well, it's probably the way the world's influence is moving… if I were to think about it, I would maybe and most probably rather be gifted a new phone, or car rather than a box of chocolates. This is what is called wishful thinking. Not that I am materialistic or anything… or maybe I'm getting there…
But rambl ings apart , what's really the sweetest is what comes straight from the heart. Right? If they say that diamonds are a girl's best friend, then THEY seriously have no idea what they are talking about!! (I'm not sure who “they” are though). In our own deeper reality, anyone of us would actually feel a lot warmer if we received a freshly parceled, just out of the oven, wrapped-in-red ribbon box of chocolates. (if wishes came true, we'd wish for the diamond on the side but jokes apart)…

picture this:Boy takes girl for dinner. Boy says girl looks nice. Girl smiles. Coyly. Boy smiles. Coyly. Boy suddenly surprises her with a heart shaped box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers. Girl is speechless…. They lived happily ever after.

Picture that: Boy takes girl for dinner. Boy says girl looks pretty. Girl smiles. Coyly. Boy smiles. Coyly. Boy suddenly surprises her with a heart shaped box in which lies a “diamond” ring, Girl is speechless….

I asked a few people how they thought this one ended. Some of them hit me back by asking me the size of the ring. “It's fictional”, I responded. The rest of them asked if scene 1 was the 1st date or not (they felt that in the 1st few dates chocolates and flowers worked well) but not after.But, the majority said: if their better half, partner, boy / girl friend were to (even occasionally) surprise them with a colorful bouquet of sweet smelling flowers and a box of chocs… that would keep them floored for longer. And had they been surprised with diamond rings in place of bouquets and chocolates… then would they be floored? Their average answer: being surprised with a bouquet or even self made chocolates signifies more warmth, more feeling. The story here though, will not and doesn't rest any case. It's not a fight and it's definitely not a competition. It's just a casual story. On the lines of: to each their own. In the end, what matters is the true concept of the thought. Isn't it?

The Inner Layers vs the Outers and the deeper reality of it all.

(this article was published in the 1.September.2008 issue of AKS - India Enriched)
-----
A sunny sunday morning in one of the major commercial cities of a developing country would be, as any of you imagine it, a lazy day in the city life of most of the citi's-zen's. Waking later than usual, sipping the morning cuppa coffee as slowly as possible with the leisurely pace of nothing else to do but this, reaching for the newspapers and lying back in the couch thinking: maybe later on today....
But this isn't the only point of note on a sunny sunday morning of a fast paced commercial city in this developing country (or maybe even other developing countries) ,
Necessities of life have long since been redefined. Today, having a good / fast internet connection is a thousand times more important then having a full fledged grocery store nestled close to a new prospective house. The young here are out to get some more of everything, they look for fun, for frolic, for love and they race after life like a rat would a block of cheese.
But, when we say young, we write of and talk of the outer layer of the people in these cities. By outer layer, meaning, the ones who work hard (or pretend to!) without the baggage of problems weighing on their shoulders. This outer layer has within it, the rich, the rich -to be, the "were rich at one time", the young of the categories just mentioned and the old of the categories just mentioned. But, this doesn't comprise the actual reality of a city's life. Or youth.
In a country / or let's talk of the city: in a city of a 13 million plus, the mix is evident in every wake of every day. A 22 year old girl from one of the above categories, would ideally land herself a white collar job after a basic graduation degree, would still be living with her parents, but would "highten" her scope of life by feeling good that she now can and will buy herself better clothes, more often than when she was in college (just a year ago), go out randomly with friends, randomly, and be able to just do things without thinking twice. She would at times wish she could have got that bag rather than this one but would think it too expensive anyway because she wouldnt want to really blow her entire salary out on one bag (who would pay for the drinks tomorrow night)...would be her basic thoughts.
This is her story from the outer layer.

There's is another 22 year old girl, working in a clinic for Obesity Disorders, who gets paid some little keep sake amount only to operate the machines at the "office" * by operating, i mean, switching on and off.
There is no pity felt for this girl, because, she got a chance to go to college, but wasn't serious enough about gainfully gaining from an education. Yet, with her job, she is able to at least "go to work" and earn some feed to add to the family's income.
She is from what i'd call, the "inner layer".

Inner Layers in a commercial city of a developing country can have a country load of people who are the real strugglers of life, for whom, sunny sundays are a time to try to figure out how to earn some more money or maybe, save some more money, for whom, a sunday doesn't mean that there has to be a special lunch or brunch or dinner or a time to meet with friends to go to the movies....
The inner layers and their numbers are what really make up the country.
A 22 year old from the outers does not pay rent or need to buy food / clothers / grains for the family. That's all free for her. An inner needs to try harder, wants to dream, but can't. Wishes she could be an outer, but can't.
Society and luxury do go together to some extent, but when daily news reports talk of the burgeoning middle class or middle to upper classes and the ever blossoming luxury market, i sometime stay and wonder "How"? Or "where"?
Where are these people so talked about? And do they really make up a "market"? Considering that there aren't as many outers truthfully.
The country moves forward rapidly, but the reality and stakes puzzle me endlessly. Who guides everything? Who decides? Who draws the lines?
The deeper i travel into the subject, the deeper i go into the interiors, i find more of what i don't really see. I see things that aren't ever talked about. I see the reality of this city's fake life.
Where one can afford and will (not necessarily, but will) buy a Gucci bag to adorn an outfit, another would not know what Gucci is and wouldn't probably have ever seen the amount of money that totalled the bag in a lifetime. Or maybe, half a lifetime.
Money doesn't always make the world go round, but it can.
Development where the rich get richer, where the middle stay averagely OK and the poor get poorer doesn't count in reality. The stakes aren't balanced out.
The deeper reality of it all lies in the meaning of the real majority of the people who ideally should be the people's people.
The reality lies in what we don't know and can't see, because what we do see is what we read and what we read is what is easy to write about and what we write about is what we see, and we don't really see the reality of it all.
Because, reality is easy to mask when you get a diamond (the 3rd one in the year) as a gift from another uncle - something.