चंद बूँदें ...

सूखी पलकों पर बारिश की चंद बूँदें,
थिरकती हुई चहरे पर गिर कर,
भिगोती हुई अंतर्मन तक,
समाती मिट्टी मॆं
मिट्टी की सौंधी खुशबू,
उद्वेलित करती,
रस भरती नशीले,
यह बारिश की चंद बूँदें
मैंने देखा है ज़िन्दगी को खिलते,
इन बूंदों मॆं,
कभी पानी मॆं कुलाचे भरते,
नन्हे पैरों मॆं,
तो कभी बरसाती के नीचे,
सिमटी हुई एक मुस्कुराहट मैं
अठखेली करती चूडियों मॆं,
तो कभी भीगे कपड़ों मॆं लजाती,
बालाओं के बालों मॆं
महसूस किया है मैंने,
उत्श्रन्खल मन के भावों को,
इस बारिश के उन बाणों मॆं,
एक तमन्ना फिर जीने के,
मद मदिरा के उन्मादों मॆं,
बहारों की फुहारों मॆं,
तो कभी जल के तांडव मॆं,
इस वेग को,महसूस कराती हैं,
आह्लादित करती,
यह चंद बूँदें,
मनमौजी, बारिश की यह, चंद बूँदें

"News made Exciting"

Another visit to Chennai and another amusing hoarding. This time it reads "News Made Exciting" and to give you more details, the caption on the girl's t-shirt reads "FDI retail : Boom or Bust" .. If this is the way to make news exciting .. well .. I don't know if I wanna read Deccan Chronicle at all.

Incidentally, last time the same newspaper had another hoarding with similar beautiful looking lady giving an equally beautiful expression and the caption read "Courageous". I wish courage was that beautiful lol.

Technological Leap?

I wonder if a day will come when machines may generate humans but here on a lighter side is what my travel desk sends me .. "System Generated"

Now an "executive" dust bin ...

Don't ask me where it is but it is .. For those who may not be able to read the complete text .. It reads like this
EXECUTIVE DUST BIN.
Environment Friendly.
Practical & convenient design
for your home and office use.

I don't know about the convenience or practicality of design, but how I wish it could accomodate some "Executives"

Yummm ... Typical ..

In this new series of my little things wherein I try to capture a few funny moments that come across like a blip .. here is one more.. How about a restaurant name "Typical Vheg Kadhai" in Hindi.. here it is ..

यह मेरा इंडिया

Though the image is a bit hazy (taken from inside a car) its a Sony Wega box on a bicycle. Now I wonder if it actually has a Wega also in it but .. What if it does? Door to door delivery of TVs? Not a bad idea huh... to catch a line of their competitor.. Its not that hard to imagine ?

गोदान पर इनकम टैक्स

Look closely, the company that Premchand is in. "साईं बाबा की लीलाएँ" and "इनकम टैक्स कैसे बचाएँ " Need I say more about our apathy to Hindi Literature। For those who are wondering about the location। Its "Landmark" ॥ one of the most renowned book store chain. Reminds me of the beauty of "Universal Book Depot" in Lucknow ॥ I miss it.
P.S : Those wondering why this post is in English? The answer is .. Interpret

The first rains ..

Finally some respite from the Mumbai heat. And its raining. The sky was painted occasionally with vivid descriptors in form of lightening. Reminds me of my childhood when I used to chuckle at thunderclaps. When i'd stare out of the window and eagerly note the lag between the lightening and the thunder. Trying to predict rain to my mom by looking at the colour of the clouds. Or wonder how close the cloud is by the decibel level of the thunder and how quickly it came. And then dance in the rain to feel the heat wilt and the dust settle and the soul melt. And then one day I wrote ...

मत कोसो बारिश की बूंदों को,
आंसू छुपाने का अच्छा बहाना हैं,
कल की किसको खबर,
आज सावन की रौ में बह जाना है

Burden of being from an IIM

Indian Institute of Management : The buzz wword that can put people on alert, make eyes dreamy and raise a few eye brows. Many a dreams in this country, for a "successful" life begin with this word or climax at it. However what I write today is not what we all know but what, having gone through it, I feel about it. The immediate trigger of this train of thought is a bit personal sad experience but none the less I've dwelled over it for quite some time and experienced it on more than one occasions. I call it, as the title of this post suggests, the burden of being from an IIM.

How and why? Consider this - A fresh graduate from IIM enters a renowned organization with dreams and castles of making an impact. So how many and what kind of reactions does he bear? A few samples:
Person one (Age > 50) : "Oh so you are from IIM. Wonderful my kid is also aspiring for it. But he doesn't study. Why don't you guide him?"
Person two (Age - 35-40) : "OK. So you are from IIM. great. Welcome" The rest of it that remains unsaid and you see it through the eyes could be either "Ok. You snob. I'll show you what it is to be here" or "Ok. Here comes another one hee hee. Let me rub my hands a bit. Welcome to the slaughter" or "Hmm.. Another one. He'll surely rise faster than me and screw my next appraisal" etc etc
Person three (Age - Late 20s) : "Hi. Welcome hope you are able to prove yourself. Challenge."
Person four (He's himself from an IIM) : "Hey fucker. So what's up at the college." The unsaid part is, look at these youngsters, must have come at a salary higher than me. Whatever happened to batch parity."

Beyond this the usual team insecurities, the HR incompetencies, organizational practices have the capability to make it a nightmare. I am not contesting the fact that on this professional front things should be rosy. A person from IIM would usually take this on as a challenge. But why single him/her out? Why that need to ask him to prove an extra mindless point? Or is it his/her fault to earn more than his/her peers not from that background?

Alas, we all live in a rat race so maybe that's the reason.

But apart from this professional amusement what bothers me more as a person is the social aspect of it. Other day a friend of mine put it like this "IIM guys hang around in their own groups. They are supposed to have their own culture with its own values and attributes and behave accordingly. They are expected to be more intelligent and sophisticated blah blah blah". A few questions on this to this society that we live in.
What is this culture that you talk about? What are those attributes? Did we ask you to put us on a pedestal? Why should this culture be obliged to satisfy your expectations? Why should an individual be expected to live up to your expectations? Why the hell does an IIM come first before the person? Any answers? I doubt. People just love to eulogize to either excuse their own fears and incompetencies or they are just looking for a scapegoat to laugh at and prove some point.

I agree, they are respectable institutions. I know coz I've experienced what all they give to an individual. The qualities, the positives and the negatives. But trust me each one of our tribe (as people put it) would still prefer to be that self first than a mere IIM product. Why can't we be considered normal and be respected for what we are than what our tag is? There are n number of people who could be more competent and yet not get the recognition. So don't burden us by giving us recognition first and then either justify the act or pull down the individual so hard so that you can have a hearty laugh. Be just. Be fair. Be normal. Both for your own sake and for our sake.

I see HOPE

In continuation to my previous post I'm happy to note that I found hope. I didn't have to go too far off, I found it right within our country.
Consider this :
1) Shiv Sena asked restaurant chain Bombay Blue to rename themselves Mumbai Blue.
2) Moral police went ahead in their charge and ransacked an art students work in Baroda.
3) Violence in Punjab and Haryana over a sect leader wearing a dress like Guru Nanak
4) CPI(M) wants retailers to be controlled by license.
5) 15 people were killed in police firing in Jaipur while protesting to ask for reservation.
6) The BMW hit and run accused's counsel is caught on tape trying to strike a deal with the witness.

For those self-righteous intellectuals who might be reading this with a frown on their face (including me ha ha) by now or searching for hope in above examples, relax. I can prove it how all of the above can help our nation.

One it can help solve the unemployment problem. All those who have nothing to do can join in acts like that of Shiv Sena and get paid by the smart bums like them. Two, the efforts against the freedom of expression can ease out the tensions by reinstating the faith, in long living rigid traditions, which ascribe to the artists as enigma for society and hence, the children of tomorrow may not dream of being one.

Three, the violence will keep the rusting ammunition of police well oiled, saving the maintenance cost while the health sector can also see blips. License raj off course we all know, how it helps filling so many pockets. The media will save the costs of "creating" news while getting enough sound bites to fill up their prime times. And if that is not enough, asses like me can rant about their musings or masturbate over blogs like this regarding the burning issues. Or to put it mildly, make love to our own ideologies and derive orgasmic pleasure of doing nothing.

For those who have not yet got the hint of sarcasm in my post can go and join the Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or Muslim League or whatever. Vacancies in abundance. Only qualification

required, you should not have a brain and you should be jobless.