I know

Yeah, I know. I have been away from here for a long while. But instant noodly stuff like twitter and facebook make it hard to come back to blogging. Also being busy at work does not help at all! :)

But have some stuff on my mind and I want to regurgitate it out here some day soon! Till then...

Have you seen my childhood...

The other day, I was singing (trying to sing is the best way to put it) "Childhood" by Michael Jackson to Neil and today while driving down to office I get to hear of MJ's death :(

He was a big impression while growing up and in some ways I was pained with his downfall, all the bad publicity, rumors about his humongous debts and the constant criticism that he was surrounded by for close to 10-15 years.

I remember when he was going to perform in Mumbai years back, I so wanted to somehow end up to watch the show and had harboured desires of actually seeing him perform some day. Hmm, not meant to be.

Hmmm, kinda sad to post back-to-back RIP blogs. But R.I.P the one and only, the absolute "King of Pop"...

CHILDHOOD
---------------

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for the world that I
Come from
'Cause I've been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart...
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities...
'Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me...
People say I'm not okay
'Cause I love such elementary things...
It's been my fate to compensate, for the
Childhood
I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates and adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
Look within your heart then ask,
Have you seen my Childhood?

People say I'm strange that way
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like fantastical stories to share
The dreams I would dare, watch me fly...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me.
The painful youth I've had

Have you seen my Childhood.
-------
Written and composed by Michael Jackson

Neda - "The Voice"

In memory of Neda Soltani....

----------------------------------

I touched your forehead - it was cold,
You were dead but there're things to be told..

I watched your face beautiful like the moon,
But what was the use - you were gone so soon..

I held your hands tenderly in mine,
Feeling disoriented in these sands of time..

When I kissed your lips, I felt so sane,
Your mere sight vanished all the pain..

Now that you couldn't listen - I wanted to say,
I love you - but I couldn't even whisper and pray..

You were rested flowers grew on your grave,
Silence, memories and tears are all that I can save..


R.I.P.

You Can't Touch This!

I hope many remember the good old DD pre-MTV days (those who have been fortunate enough to have seen that one-channel era :p) when they used to show the Grammy Awards winner segment as a 30-minute summary. Many of the songs, artists that I ended up listening later were picked up from those segments. One song that made a big impression then was "You Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer!

Those baggy pants, those funky gyrating dancing steps and yes the cool tune left a lasting impression. And today I see this flashmob video on youtube, where a group of people got into a shopping mall and performed an impromtu version of it leaving the buyers speechless. So much fun! I hope I do get to be a part of such a "You Can't Touch This" flashmob someday :D Don't you? Its high-time we started some flashmobs here in India too! Enjoy the video for now :)

Sunshine makes me Happy!

Thanks Pi! Sunshine will now really make me happy :D

My mother tongue is umm...

Answer this honestly..

How many sentences can you converse in chaste Hindi without adding a dash of some English? Most of you (including yours truly) will answer 1 or 2 at maximum. Yes sirree, the entire nation has been afflicted with this Hinglish flu!

Its everywhere, on TV, news, media, the newspaper, the college katta or the office smoke rooms! I myself bemoan this linguistic impurity and sometimes wish I could use one language at one time and not end up using this mish-mash of words.

But seems this is not just an Indian phenomenon. I recently met up with a Finnish guy and while generally conversing, he too was moaning the liberal mix of English words back home. Guess what do they call this mish-mash - FINGLISH! :) Am glad we are not the only ones who have been linguistically corrupted :P

Poking a big one?

So, its election time and for many its somehow fashionable to vote this time around! I voted too (not for the fashion part though :)). Frankly, I was kinda impressed with the organization of the whole thing.

The first part about finding which place to go to, my family's voting numbers (yeah they did not send out voting cards to us) was a bit frustrating - but thankfully there was a guy sitting with a laptop doing the job for you. That his laptop was about to conk off with his battery running out made it a tad more exciting is another matter..

So I find out the location which turns out to be a nice school with an iscrutable name (Kroot school!!) pretty close to my home. I go in and there are nice rooms with organized numberings put up in front. There are no serpentine lines (is that a good or a bad thing?) in the sweltering sun and in a matter of 5 minutes am done with the voting!! I go in to get my finger inked to proudly show to everyone in office that I voted.

I put forward my left hand's thumb to indicate a big thumbs up for the entire process. The lady poker-facedly says - "Put your left hand's MIDDLE FINGER forward please!!".

Did I hear her right! But middle finger it is. I am smilimg ironically at this tradition by now - they could have picked up any other finger and am fervently hoping that they did not pick this to poke a big one into the face of democracy!

Did you vote then?