For Bun.

Come little girl,
that I shelter you from the world,
that I shield you from hurt,
that I melt into my embrace your sorrow
before it even comes.

Come, that I hold you near,
that I give you a love and caring I have never known,
that I longed for but never saw.

Come, that your life speak of the beauty and joy
which I want you to live for the two of us.

- Denis Guiet

life is nothing
but a mutual benefit
association

... and those who use us
often bring welcome relief
from the weight
that bears us down.

Greetings of the New year! Many thanks for all the good wishes. I hope 2006 turns out to be a fruitful year for each and every one of us.

I attended a wedding reception last evening where I met many old friends. Now the thing with old friends is you never can tell how they will greet you. Some will be thrilled to see you and quickly start to reminisce of the good old days, while others will pass you off with the casual hi-hello-it's been such a long time routine and then slip away to the bar, never to be seen again all evening, save the occasional patronizing glance in your direction.

And to some people knowing what you are doing career-wise is all important. If you are working at a BPO here in India, or happen to be a customer service guy with Dubai Airport Services, you won't get more than a cold hi-hello. But if you've been kissing some white ass in Silicon Valley for the last 5 years, you will get 10 minutes more of talktime.

But why do we do that? Why do we judge people by what they do? .... And these are not just causal acquaintances - these are the very same guys you spent the best years of your life with, in school and college. So what if they didn't reach the heights you reached in your career? They probably didn't make the right choices, or get the right breaks, or simply screwed up somewhere or the other. That in no way should diminish their worth.

Because if it weren't for them you wouldn't have any of those fond memories you cherish so much. Those friends may be worth nothing to you today, but the memories they've left you with are priceless.

As is often the case, when we don't know the value of something, we tend to forget its worth anything at all.

***

I sometimes ask myself this question: What is it that people like about me? I remember playing a little game once with the other guys and girls in our church youth group. We were told to sit in a circle and were each given a sheet of paper on which we had to write our names in bold on the top. Then we had to pass it to the person next to us who had to write on it the one thing he/she liked most about you. And that went on till the sheet with your name at the top came back to you. So what you were left with is a sheet of paper telling you what everyone in the group liked most about you. And reading that was quite a revelation.

I know I still have that sheet of paper somewhere, and I remember how great I felt the last time I looked at it. Someone liked my singing, another liked my sense of humour (yes, yes I know), and there was somebody who wrote that they liked my smile (something I never got before). But I wonder: if that exercise were to be repeated today, would they write those same things about me?

Peace, love and old wine in old bottles.

Goodbye 2005!

I hope I never
see you
again.

all I want
for Christmas...

is to be
a kid again

Operation Duryodhan (don't miss the name!), the latest sting operation conducted by Aaj Tak actually had me bludy laughing. Our politicians have become such a bunch of jokers - imagine taking money for raising questions in Parliament!

And on the Volcker report that landed Natwar Singh in so much trouble, we now learn that former PM Vajpayee and his son-in-law were also involved in those very same Iraqi oil deals! Poor L.K. Advani must be waiting with eager anticipation for that day to come when he will retire from active politics. After all the hungama the BJP created in Parliament over Natwar Singh, for it to be now revealed that their senior-most leader at the time was also involved in the same scam, must be highly embarrassing.

But what to do? We are led by a bunch of bungling idiots ... who waste more time changing the names of our cities than improving the living conditions that prevail in them. Bengaalooruuu it seems! .... Someone please call the Limeys back!

***

I started reading Robin Sharma's Discover Your Destiny with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and found it impossible to get past the first chapter because it was so immensely boring - a watery concoction of Richard Bach and what is probably Buddhist/Zen teachings. The title itself had me somewhat confused, and so I looked up the word destiny.

1. The inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person or thing is destined;
2. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control.

Going strictly by the dictionary meaning of the word, it would appear that discovering one's destiny would be a waste of time because there is nothing you can do to change it. Or is he telling us that we can indeed change our destiny? In which case the title of the book is somewhat misleading .... Or perhaps he doesn't believe in destiny at all, I'm not quite sure.

Like Richard said:

“We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent the life we've created for ourselves? Who's to blame, who's to credit, but us? Who can change it, any time we wish, but us?”

I have a feeling that this is exactly what Sharmaji is trying to tell us. Only he felt like saying it in 200 pages!

And who's to say that Richard himself didn't borrow from ancient Buddhist/Zen teachings? Quite likely if you ask me.

***

Reading Manu's post on Tendulkar's record-breaking 35 test centuries got me thinking about what it is that really makes a person great? Is it what they've accumulated for themselves in terms of money, fame and records, or is it how they've utilized that money and fame for the betterment of those less fortunate than themselves.

Take Bill Gates for instance - world's richest man and all that. They say 9 out of 10 of the world's computers are running on his software; and that he's been a bad boy for not giving anybody else more than a very tiny piece of that very big pie. But when I see how much the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing, I feel its probably good that Billy's got all the cash and not anybody else. I was reading in the current edition of Outlook magazine that the B&MG Foundation has pumped in so much money into health services in rural India, you'd think our Ministry of Health is being outsourced!

Frankly, I have more respect for Steve Waugh than Sachin or any of our Indian cricketers. When I first heard that he had come down to India to oversee the Udayan project in Calcutta, I simply couldn't believe it. Why would someone want to come here all the way from Sydney to help the children of sex-workers and lepers? He's worked hard for his money - shouldn't he be starting a chain of fancy restaurants, or buying himself a brand new Ferrari and zipping through the streets of Sydney? ... And I'm sure driving one of those mean machines is a lot more fun over there than here in Mumbai.

To me that is what makes a person great. When he uses the fruits of his success for the betterment of somebody other than himself. The rest of them so-called celebrities and superstars, are in my view, just ordinary folk like you and me - doing a job we're paid to do. And if they are just like us, why do we waste our time adulating them?

Peace, love and real heroes.

"The season for spending is here"
Said Gasper in Balthazar's ear:"
Gold, frankincense, myrrh
for the young connoisseur -

The shepherds are bringing the beer."

Nice one, no? :) Got that from the BBC's Lunchtime Limerick page that Aparna, our very own limerick queen had linked to. And I don't call her the limerick queen for nothing - hers is fourth best! (assuming they are in order of best to worst).

***

Ran into good ol' Foxtrot Ally this morning. Poor fellow was looking quite worried again.

What's the matter bro, I asked him

Dude, can you believe, Sandra's (his girlfriend) parents are taking her to a match-fixer tomorrow!

To a what?

Match-fixer dude - those bleddy old aunties who fix marriages ... people also have no kaam-dhandha, I tell you!

Match-maker, you mean.

Whatever yaar! Here I'm bleddy getting tension and you're teaching me English! .... I don't understand why her pop - bleddy old fool - won't accept me. And the worst thing is she is also not putting up any resistance! See these dames how they are - always looking for bleddy greener pastures! I'm telling you dude: some gorilla bugger from Dubai will come with a thick gold chain and nakli Rado and she'll say he's Tom Cruise and go with him. Kya bolneka yaar ... sab paisa paisa paisa!

Hey, you're very good at drawing right? So why don't you take classes and become a professional artist or something. I read in the Times today that one of Francis Newton Souza's paintings got sold for 6.5 Crores!

But Newton Souza is dead now, so what's the use of all that money? The apple should fall from the bleddy tree when you're alive, dude! No-no, I'll have to ask them to make me the team-leader in place of Moushami, otherwise I'm quitting! .... Hey Blues, you want me to fix you up with Moushami, kya? She's totally fida over us Goan buggers ... you know na - thoda guitar-buitar bajaya, how their knees become weak :)

No, don't want bro. Bengali girls are usually too much of a handful.

Haan yaar, woh toh hai ... this Moushami also has big ones!

I said:
all we are
is blips on a radar screen
waiting to touch down

some will make it home safe
others will crash and burn

She said:
what we are
is stars
in the evening sky!

For Dee

I know
that sometimes we must love
those whom we do not love;

and give up what we want
for what we need.

You can live a lie
... but can you fight the truth?

You are the potter
I am the clay

... how many of me will you make
before you master your art?