Seeking solace and salvation within...

Last two days were spent finding inner peace...when the outer world changes the inner tries hard to strike a balance...and sometimes it is only in the unknown that one finds true peace... and I have tried hard to get busy living. People often become your greatest source of knowledge but the challenge is uncover the information from opinions that all of us carry inseparably in our souls.

Chowpatty on Saturday evening, after a long (2.5 km) walk on Marine Drive was quite an experience only because the beach was colourful with people coming in hordes for the immersion of the Ganesha idols into the ocean. People played in colors, chanted the beauty of their beloved elephant god and finally went thirty feet in to the water to give him away to eternity. Simply sitting on the beach and watching this ritual made me unquestionably emotional. Bringing home your lord for a few days and then celebrating his departure with equal jest and celebration. I also visited a gujrati colleagues’ home for the ganesh pujan... the entire atmosphere of the house seemed so pious and pure, the beauty of the idol and lots of family and friends visiting to pay their greetings and visit the homecoming of the god was an enchanting experience. The family had called over a small troupe of shehnai and table players who lit up the environment with classical play of melodies like Ragupati raghav and Vaishnav Janto... I will not forget to mention here that these were a few of Gandhi’s favourite recitals and I had then clutched in my hands a copy of “The Men who Killed Gandhi”... I had intended to stop only for an hour but the mesmerising shehnai (and two cups of nice homely tea) ensured that I was fixed to the chair...ah! How I wish I had attended the Spic Macay concert of Ustad Bismillah Khan sahib back in college... Sometime we unknowingly miss simple pleasures of life...

I also spent some time in the lanes of Zaveri Bazaar on Saturday evening, which I must say are very much like the lanes of chaandani chowk in Delhi. Passion fruit (called papnas) was something new I got to see here amidst scores of jewellery and electricity shops. I felt closer to Mumbai for sometime which was for a change a nice feeling... I finally ended up near Masjid Bandar where I purchased a pair of brown leather shoes (something I have done first time in my life). The market sense has gone so weird that the shop keepers don’t seem to have respect for the old fashioned... for the first 15 minutes I had to convince the shop agent that I do not want “noke waale joote” or ones with ugly designs or sequins...I just wanted a plain pair of shoes which after much haggling I managed to get off his inventory, however no nonsense or bargaining was nice despite me being a bania. Anyways, I do not know if the weekend was a happy one, but it was definitely one which gave a lots of peace to me.

Quoting Rumi “I went to the river to quench my thirst, and there I drank the moonlight”, I am in search of such a river that expands before me the true reflection of whatever I experience. I would just say “What I do not know is what that fails me today, but what I intend to know is something that makes me tommorrow..” To find inner solace is a challenge, because complacency becomes tangentially related. And then when it gets too difficult Salvation lies within...

Carpe Diem...Peace to one and all..

Today..more intriguing than any reality show?

Finally 4 months after landing in Bombay I do get time to start over blogging once again. Mumbai (or Bombay) is a very similar city as compared to Delhi, only slightly faster and the fact that it sleeps lesser than its political sibling. If Delhi is the City of Dil-wallahs then Mumbai is the city that never sleeps. If delhi is home to the politicians then Mumbai is no less housing the stars of bollywood. Never-the-less Delhi will always be home for me, and home is where heart is.

Bollywood city always reminds me of TV, and the numerous reality shows that have started crowing on the various channels. Sarkar ki Duniya coming on a channel named Real. Nice way there, maybe they should pitch in to make the channel for reality shows only. I don’t know why but Ashutosh Rana looks really devilish, if I’d ever watch it would be to add on some new hindi vocab from Rana impress my Hindi teaching mum. Sach ka Saamna picked from a similar concept from the west is another show that made the headlines in the past few weeks or so. Looking so similar to KBC, only difference is that questions are so beautiful that if you do not want your life to ever be peaceful, then go ahead be a part of it. Every Tom who looks like your next door neighbor Harry turns out to be Dick on the other side of the show. Damn it, the host gets so ridiculous when somebody actually walks out with cash and without ruining his/her life. I guess Rakhi Sawant should be brought on the hot-chair and asked a few quick ones, and the prize should be a nice 200 volt if you get it wrong and money if u can manage the truth. Rakhi made a sure shot donkey of the poor fellow from Canedda (it’s a part of our beloved Punjab much like Southall). I am sure he’d be raising kids on TV next. Anyways enough fun has been made on her, on MTV already and Ilesh is already bald!

Then there are some catty shows like Splitzvilla, which is possibly based on a concept synonymous to inflation. Too many boys chasing too few good looking skinny girls. Psycologists need to figure out a solution for Anorexia amongst North Indian women, my fellow madrasi flat mate always can find chubbier and better looking actresses in his vernacular movies. Another show is about selecting a couple of pit-stoppers for dear mr. vijay mallaya’s Force India F1 team, I am sure if they are going to conduct such national level screening for selecting these girls the entire race track would stop. If some manage to hit the gas pedal, they’d be up in flames before they know. By the way, Mr. Mallaya when is the next Kingfisher Calendar coming out?

And finally there are some dudes and dudettes battling it out for a chrome Pulsar bike doing all sorts of stunt mania to impress kiddos. I say come to West Delhi, or to DND flyover at mid-night and you can see GODS racing..Arre nahi bhai! its not Indraji racing on his elephant but Group of Delhi Super-bikers. Every possible stunt fails when they claim to reach Jaipur from Delhi, have breakfast and come back all in six hours on their vrooming Honda’s and Yamaha’s. What a waste of time, trying to win a bike by trying all death defying stunts, ask your mum and dad to get you a tri-cycle instead.

Jungle Raaj hai!... finally Is Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao scores over the rest. Once again copied from the west. I am really not sure and possibly support every person who thinks that the show is shot in either Sunderbans in Bengal or in the Veerappan jungles of Karnataka. No ways they’d go to film 10 donkeys yelling at each other, eating crabs and snakes and insects in Malaysia. They can’t even go hunting, had they been in a true jungle, they could have atleast butchered a baboon or atleast a teetar-bater. All the failures on the Tier-2 shows on TV come to participate for money, which they eventually don’t win. The truth is “Jinko Koi nahi puucchta unko reality show wale bula lete hain”.

Anyways, don’t you think I am loser following these shows on the Idiot box. It just that you cant escape from brief moments while switching channels at night, while the other truth is that every other channel has one such show running incessantly. If not then you can see repeat telecast with detailed analytics on any News Show. Thanks specifically to Rajat Sharma’s India TV, which is more entertaining than the antics of Mr. Bean.

Seize the day… make more reality of your life than watching some one else’s reality because while you can never figure out if the other person is actually faking it or not, you definitely can draw some sense into your actions.