Mere Na-muraad Junoon ka....
Mere Na-muraad Junoon ka,
Hai Ilaaj koi to maut hai,
Jo dawa ke naam pe zeher de..
Jo dawa ke naam pe zeher de,
Us Chaaragar ki talaash hai...

Na to caravaan ki talaash hai,
Na to hamsafar ki talaash hai..

You are better off skipping this post.

I hate fans in lifts. They make too much noise. They whip up too much dust. And they make me cold. And there is no way I can get them switched off.

I mean, if one gets into a non-empty lift with the fan on, one doesn't just switch off the fan, does one? Then what right does a person have to get into a lift in which I am and without asking switch on the fan. The problem is redefined as follows: A person who wants the fan on can easily switch it on. A person who does not want the fan has no choice. Its a disgrace!

There aught to be an electronic system which takes a quick vote whenever one gets on to a lift. Just push one more button along with the button for your floor. And then may the majority win!

Sometimes I wonder about the various facets of my personality, my varied interests, my multiple talents, my several successes. That is when I feel that I need someone who I can open out to, someone I can boast with, someone I can lose my modesty to ;-)

I was taking a walk with Biman today on the Windtunnel Road, along the airport walls, towards DRDO's CABS (Centre for AirBorne Systems). Now Biman likes to power walk while I like to stroll. Midway through the walk, as always, I got tired of keeping up with Biman's brisk pace. So I told him to go on till CABS at his fast pace and we would meet on his way back from there.

As he continued to power walk and I continued to stroll, I found that the distance between us was'nt increasing as fast as I thought it would. Then I realized it was the law of diminishing returns again. Every increase in speed beyond a point takes exponentially more effort. And because of the effort we put in we 'think' we are walking really fast, but in reality we are only walking slightly faster. Basic Facts of Life? I know.

I guess marathon runners would be well advised to cajole themselves into running slightly slower than their comfort level. Just in case their comfort zone is slightly slower than they think it is. Hmm.

When I met Biman he had walked about only about 200 metres more than I had. We'll walk back slowly now, I said.

"If we walk fast the mosquitoes don't bite" he said. (At night there's a thick mosquitoesphere, just below the atmosphere, on that damned road. The jets make effective use of it during takeoff. The lungs have to filter it out)

"If we walk slow, we can walk slow" I replied. One of those witty remarks which I later can't decide if they really are my own.

*****

Today during a conference call I got to hear a real-life Brit speak. They speak exactly like Emily (Ross's wife) does. It was fun to hear, tough to listen.

Ok. Here are, without rhyme or reason (explained), the invocations/prologues from two of Kalidasa's plays. I have been wanting to post this post for sometime now.

From Abhijnanashakuntalam

That First Creation of the Creator *;
That Bearer of Oblations offered with Holy Rites;
That One who utters the Holy Chants;
Those two that order Time;
That which extends, World-Pervading in which sound flows impinging on the ear;
That which is proclaimed the Universal Womb of Seeds;
That which fills all forms that breathe with the Breath of Life.

May the Supreme Lord of the Universe who stands revealed in these eight forms perceptible preserve you.

(*respectively Water, Fire, Priest, Sun and Moon, Space, Earth and Air)

From Malavikagnimitram

May the Lord who, though enjoying obsolute soereignty from which result many blessings to his votaries, yet himself wears an elephant hide; who although united in body with his beloved, yet excels the ascetics whose minds are free from (pleasures of) sense; in whom there is no pride, although with his eight-fold forms he sustains the universe - may he remove your state of ignorance that you may behold the right way.

Gar Firdaus bar ru-e-zaminast, haminasto haminasto haminast
If there is a heaven on the face of the earth, it is here, it is here, it is here

I have been eating the namak , so to speak, of the Mallu Mess on 18th Main, HAL 2nd Stage, every weekend, for so long now that the least I could do for them, apart from, ofcourse, paying for my food, is to write about them in my blog.

The Mess is called 'Kerala Spice' and the owner is a Mallu Christian. There is a garlanded picture of Jesus on the side-wall. On the front-wall there is a garlanded picture of a youth in his twenties who was probably the owner's brother. Hmmm...

The chairs are plastic ones which you see in marriages and public gatherings. The tables are covered by a thick synthetic table-cloth. There are no tissue papers. Instead a steel tumbler of newspaper pieces is kept at the cash-table. No fancy stuff. Both you and the establishment can concentrate on the food.

You sit at the chair. Take a steel tumbler amongst a few neatly arranged on a plate and pour yourself either warm jeera-water or tadka-buttermilk from their respective jugs. And then you order.

I usually order a 'meal' and a fish fry. The meal consists of steaming, aromatic par-boiled (red) rice, two curries (beetroot, moong, bittergourd, beans, cabbage, anything...can't predict) a fried-chilli and a pickle. Then there is a bowl of some sort of a dal-sambar cross. And the veggies in that! My God. They put anything in that dal-sambar. And several at once too. Potatoes, pumpkin, drumsticks, beans, bhindi, brinjal, tomato, Tendul (that small, round thing after which Tendulkar is named (sic), which has green and white stripes and which is called Tendle in Konkani and Dondekaayi in Kannada), raw banana, jackfruit seeds ( commonly eaten in the coast), bamboo stem. Anything. Once I found a large chunk of beet-root in it. I love those veggies. Especially the ones which get all squishy-squashy: tomato, brinjal, bhindi, pumpkin. After I have eaten enough rice with this dal-sambar-stew, I eat more rice with the tadka-buttermilk, the pickle and the fried chilli. Let it be known that my mouth is watering as I write this.

The fish fry, I usually order bangda (saradine) which is, er, the bread and butter back at home. Sometimes I order Sear Fish.

The place has other things to offer as well. Fish/mutton/chicken/beef/prawn biryani, curries, roasts and fries. I haven't tried any of those out, though. Since I go there only on weekends I don't experiment much.

Lage hain Shamma par pehre, Zamane ki nigaahon ke,
Jinhe jalane ki hasrat ho, vo parvane kahan jaaein...

Teri duniya mein akhir dil ko samajhaane kahan jaaein..