Affection!

So I am driving down to office and a teenage girl is driving along-side on a two-wheeler with her granddad riding on the pillion. All of a sudden her hair gets loose and starts going helter-skelter in the wind. Like any respectable teenager she seems concerned because of the disarray in her appearance. Granddad to the rescue! With one hand he balances himself lest he falls down and the other hand lovingly forms a temporary hair band to keep it in place! Ah, so much affection.Pretty sweet, aint it :)

The Kid - Part II

Story continued...
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His perennially moist eyes would shine with the yearning that he felt to be a part of them. I would try to grab his attention with confectionary, but he wouldn't blink an eye. Every now and then, he would look up to his mother, who accompanied him without fail, and longingly point out a finger towards the kids. His mother would hold him close to her heart and soothe him.

I, on my own had tried to reason to the other kids about him. But they would not have anything to do with him. He scared them.

I didn't blame them. After all, who wouldn't be afraid of a mentally retarded 40 year old? Still, he was my favourite kid....

The Kid - Part 1

So I submitted this short story of mine to our company's internal newsletter last week. Had written it some 4-5 years ago when I still had some creative juices flowing within me. Am putting it up here for hopefully a bigger audience ;) Personally I think it is a pretty juvenile piece, but here goes..

The Kid - Part 1
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Another Sunday morning. But yet, unlike any other which had passed. This was a routine, which well was not a routine. How I loved to get up early morning and dress up for the occasion. Get into my morning gear and get ready to tread that path which I had beaten down no ends. How I loved to gaze at the Sun's rays dancing silkenly on the flowers adorning my path. How I loved to take in the only amount of fresh air that could be offered to me in these times. As you would have guessed by now, this was not just a walk in the park for an old guy like me. The walk would precipitate with a stop at the Children's Park. It was a joy to behold the sight of children playing to their hearts content. My old ears would strain to get a piece of their joyful banter. How I enjoyed their talk about their favourite heroes and idols. The way this messy world meant so little to them.

My eyes would then search around for my favourite kid. He would be there every time. Huddled up in a corner, he would longingly eye the other kids playing. He did not talk much. My attempts to become friendly with him were always greeted with a scared stare. All he wanted to do was to play with the other kids. He wanted to be one of them. He wanted to jostle and mingle with them. But the other kids wanted nothing whatsoever to do with him...

The Man From Earth!

What if you are older than history itself? What if you helped create and shape history? What if you needed someone to name a species something to identify yourself as belonging to that species? What if you are so old that you have outlived multiple generations and centuries? What if you had the opportunity to shape religion itself?

Scientifically, if someone's body is able to regenerate all the critical organs periodically, it should be possible to live long.

Would you want to be such a person? Will it be FUN to be such a person? Check out "The Man From Earth" to see for yourself.

Trainspottin!

I know people have hobbies. Some usual, some unusual. I watched the movie Trainspotting yesterday (directed by Danny Boyle of Slumdog fame) and out of habit (or hobby! :P) made my way to the wikipedia. So it seems that standing all through the day and looking at trains plying between stations is actually a hobby! Some have the hobby of travelling and visiting as many metro or rail systems as they can! And some including the famous Alfred Hitchcock have/had a hobby of collecting and memorizing railway timetables! Pretty interesting these railfans!

So what's your trainspottin? :)

I hope you dance!

What is with us human beings? Sometimes, the simplest of things done in a certain way touches our hearts, makes us emotional or hopeful or alive all of a sudden!

Take the case of this person Matt. What he did was travel to 42 or so countries over a period of 14 months, asking people to dance with him wherever he went. That people joined up to dance and that a close to 12 million or so people enjoyed watching this mass comic dancing ritual and felt glad out of it, is something that is difficult to explain. No? Check it out yourself :)

Slumdog Millionaire!!

Hmmm, I think, we Indians have made a lot of attempts via our movies to sell India to the West. But it's been with limited success. Films like Water, Earth and others tried to find a mainstream audience in the West, but what they must have found as takers must be Indians settled there or would be [pseudo] intellectuals watching with critical eyes.

From what I have heard about Slumdog Millionaire so far, it seems like the one movie which can actually appeal to mainstream global audiences. It has a 90% plus fresh rating on rotten tomatoes and comments on youtube and everywhere indicate the enormous impact this movie has had on global viewers.

It is directed by Danny Boyle of Trainspotting fame and stars Anil Kapoor, Irrfan amongst others. Its a story about an 18 years old slum-orphan who is about to win 20 million rupees on a "Kaun Banega Karodpati" style show and seems to interweave his love story alongside.

I can't wait to watch it myself. For starters, I like the name itself!!!