One way street
All signs point to a one-way street,
Just a hint of your fleeting glance,
and the storm-clouds regroup;
Reminders that at the end of the trance,
pearls will dissolve into tears of rain.
{Please don't read any "meaning" into this - an attempt from the archives on something I can't do well - write poetry}
Food for thought
{Pardon pun above; danger signal goes up ahead on another silly theory of life}Does the speed at which you eat tell us something about you? This was something that struck me today. A friend's placid pace was commented upon, at which I remembered that once I was a top-ranked player on the slow-consumption charts but these days things have gone horribly wrong.
In among a pack of exceptionally slow-eating cousins, I was the slowest. The crown kept returning home after the showpiece marriage lunches with the next pa.ngat (cycle of serving) on my row being held up on account of my cole-slow impressions. Did it (like some art filmmaker might opine) mirror an internal state of mind? These days, I am wolfing down my food like a hare-on-paranoid-steroids. In the last couple of years at the office lunch table, I was no competition to the usual bottlenecks, unless if it was some discussion or storytelling that needed a lot of contribution from me. What kind of a disrespectful gastronomical speed-fiend have I turned into?
I am stilling waiting for the magic food pill - the one that gives you all the vitamins and other stuff that MSc Nutrition courses are often telling the deaf world about, in addition to deluding your stomach into contented fullness with an optional Capital of Senegal to boot. This has been a childhood dream which provided much mental chewing gum while going about the mundane business of eating. The dream still lurks in the subconscious these days, but the attendant mental tranquillity seems to have ducked under too.
All the people I know who are lazy eaters also seem to be more relaxed in life. I used to have it and I want it back. To my friend I can only say: stay that way and wait for me - we'll munch our way while the sun sets in the yonder desserts.
The JaDe Project - 6
{a.k.a the return of the JaDe Project}This would have languished in the netherlands of latenight television among the many "scary" tales of crime in our cities, if it hadn't been for Gaurav having some spare time of late (further giving us cause, like Shaw, to praise idleness). Chai.n se sonaa hai to (pause, take in breath in preparation for dramatic effect, let loose while twirling wrist) JAAG JAAO! is quite simply the most amazing dialogue delivered in the history of news television. It was first "exposed" to us by Gaurav in this befitting piece of sensationalism.
Inspite of making an effort, I could not remember the presenter's name, the throat behind the words. (Contrary to Gaurav's recollection, I thought it was "Siddharth" or something - I was too lost in appreciation to remember the name.) It was worth staying up till 11:00 p.m. (I'm no night-owl) to catch this. I really wish I had a tape-recorder or more correctly, a movie cam to capture the moment. When Gaurav first told us about this, he acted it out, and I must say that sometimes Gaurav was better than the original - so GS, why not record it and upload it? Like many of its fellow JaDe Hall of Famers, no amount of hype can stultify the essence of the moment, so don't worry about expecting too much.
The post ends here abruptly as I have run out of words.