I hear everyone...

This came from a very interesting discussion I had sometime ago, and I thought to myself "hmm, it’s worth blogging!!" I am gonna borrow the title from my last blog - 'Imagine' to start this off because currently it’s not possible so we will have to imagine a world where it is. Imagine when you are born, you have all the five senses in normal working order, but life has evolved, there is also an additional sixth sense - you can hear what other people think. How different would the world today be? For us to suddenly discover this "gift" (whether it will be a gift or not will depend on the results), would have shocking results but when it has been a part of our lives from the very beginning...would we ever get used to it? Personally, I think, women would find it harder to deal with hearing what other people think of "their ass in that dress" or the "way their hair is done" etc.. I mean, for men, we have hard enough time understanding what women want, when they are literally telling us...this would be the cherry on the cake. Would there be any more fat people, when the scales start tipping the wrong side of 100 kgs, would the comments from the less shapely people "alarm" them in advance? Badly-dressed people or people who have no idea that sometimes the colours even need to be coordinated will have free advice on offer. Ugly people will suffer - so the downside is the suicide rates will go up, could this be the answer to control the population boom in certain parts of the world? Would thinking of committing a murder be enough for the police to arrive at your doorstep to arrest you? Pedophiles, rapists, murderers, thieves, and in most cases, politicians will be screwed!! Like everything else in life, it has its good and bad points. But people are clever too, there will be a few (there always is) who will master this skill to their advantage - the thoughts they transmit will be a contrast to their actions - now that’s a skill!!

Imagine...

The definition of this word "to conceive in the creative faculty of the mind". Such a powerful word "Imagine", on its own it conjures up an image of endless possibilities, anything your heart desires or anything limited by one's imagination. Its one of my favorite words, because anyone is capable of doing it and they are not bound by man-made boundaries such as religion, creed, or colour. It doesnt cost anything and when this thought is transformed into actions, history to testatment to some tremendous revolutions. When John Lennon wrote the song "Imagine", he used the word alone as the title of his song, because as his lyrics proved, it can be used in infinite ways to define thoughts or feelings.

Whether you are rich or poor, or the newly affluent middle-class, life is pretty similar for everyone at the base level, you are born, curious to touch, taste, smell, talk, understand, you grow, study, work, fall in love, marry, have a family, grow old, and eventually die. Now imagine...that when you die, there is no heaven, there is no light at the end of the tunnel...you are just born again, into another world, or maybe even the same world. Its very similar to when you reinstall a pc, you remove all the old software, format the hard disk, and put in a brand new version of the software and configure it the way you want to, to feel and look slightly different than what you had before. Similarily, when you are born again, you have different features, you could be a different colour, with a slightly more powerful immune system. But of course because your hard disk had been completely erased, for you this is all new all over again, you are once again curious to touch, taste, smell, talk...etc.. The politicians are still corrupt, US still mingling in affairs where its presence is not warranted, the technology is still racing ahead, the population is still growing, and the weather is still becoming more unpredictable. Now imagine...in a theatre close to you, a new movie has just been released. The movie is essentially your life or atleast one interesting aspect of it, real names have been changed, and the higher forces at work are responsible for editing, and creating the emotional moments by adding the right notes of music. Hang on, you say, how can higher forces create something and just release it, wont anyone realize it...well what if it came as a 'bright idea' during a mundane afternoon to a director, someone had to put that idea there!

"You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one..."

Jaysus Ckriiiist!!

If blasphemy was a religion, the Irish would be the right-wing extremists. While in other parts of the world, the three most common words used in everyday language would be "the", "of" and of course "and". I suspect that re-creating this list in Ireland would result in "the", "of" and close-tie between "Jesus" and "and". But you see, the Irish are clever, they know using the word "Jesus" so casually in everyday conversation would get them into trouble, so they came up with a work-around, which sounded the same, but could technically get them off the hook..."Jaysus".

Unlike the other three words, it can be used in quite a few variations and tones. For example, you wake up one morning and look into the mirror, you can see a proud little pimple potruding from your face..."Jaaaaaaysus!!".

You drive home, get out of your car and your nose picks up a nasty whiff of something, you immediately check your clothes and shoes and you find nothing. Your nose leads you to the tyres on your car, upon which clings the result of a slightly more lightened cow.."Jaysus Ckriiiist!!"

The tv is on, and suddenly there is a news flash, a politician has been assassinated, a normal "Jaysus Ckriiiist" just wont do, and God forbid you would add some expletives to that phrase - because that kind of behaviour is just not ON!! The only way to express you true emotions in this situation is to extend you agression on to the family tree.."Jaysus Ckriiiist Mary and Joseph!!"

And somehow this has become acceptable, and a sign of that is the following: Open up your browser, www.google.com, and type in "define:Jaysus", you will only get one link and guess where that takes you too....divine intervention (??)...Jaysus Ckriiiist!!

THE legend...

One lazy afternoon while wasting away on my couch, I decided to open my Opera browser, and my fingers danced in the address bar "www.youtube.com". As the cursor blinked in the search field, various keywords were parsed through my brain, waiting for the right combination to suddenly blink brightly for my fingers to execute the command. "Michael Jackson" - and youtube took a while processing this and threw back at me an almost endless list of videos, I clicked on the first one and two hours later, I was enthralled.

It was not like I had re-discovered the artist in him, I know and the whole world knows that this Jackson was and is a genius. Today Michael is a butt of quite a lot of jokes and lets face it, the media actually abuses his popularity to their own benefit. I am in no way defending any of his actions, and they are not my business either because they concern his personal life which cant be used in any way to judge his music. I remember the time when I saw him on stage, in an overpacked Wembley stadium..the countdown began on the big screen, when it reached zero, a huge bang, and there stood Michael on stage. He didnt move for the next 2 minutes, but the crowd went into a frezy, the euphoria was overwhelming..no other artist I know has that kind of effect. The following 3 hours of precisely choreographed performance with a greatest hits lineup of songs..enough for any true blue Jackson fan to blow up in sheer pleasure.

As I flipped through the videos, I came across one which defined his talent, his on stage persona and what can be achieved through sheer dedication. The year was 1983, the concert: Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever...the who's who of Motown was there to watch him perform. And then he did something, a move, among many other, that took a few seconds to execute but would live in the minds of everyone forever, a move that got all the audience there on their feet, clapping, knowing they had just been part of something very special. That night, that move...made him what he is today...great song, great night, great performer...THE legend of pop!!

In case you werent around in 1983 or missed it, here is your chance to witness it again: THE move.

This is one of my favorite songs, because its brings together Michael and ex-Guns 'n Roses lead guitarist, Slash: Give in to Me


“Oh, God! That boy moves in a very exceptional way. That’s the greatest dancer of the century”. - Fred Astaire

“The only male singer who I’ve seen besides myself and who’s better than me - that is Michael Jackson.” - Frank Sinatra

Momentary lapse of guilt...

You have had it, I have had it, we have all had it. Robert Redford had it and the result was the movie "Lions for Lambs". Can you remember the last time you were watching the news, or a documentary or reading the front page headlines on your preferred newspaper and you came across something that actually triggered an emotional response deep down to question your existence, what life was all about and what was really important in this lifetime and how long did it last? That emotional roller-coaster you felt for maybe a minute or two is what I like to call a "momentary lapse of guilt". What is our immediate response..to change the channel, to switch to the funny section in the newspaper, because we dont like to feel sad, staying ignorant is an acceptable solution, what you dont know cant hurt you and cant make you feel bad. The movie raises an important point, we all remember when we were young, we had so much energy, so many rebellious ideas to change the system, to change the world, but somewhere along the way we get dumbed down or maybe its safer to just accept that we cant change and opt for the easier road...I mean why do something for the world or for your country when you cant even be bothered to know who your neighbour is. As I am coming to the end of this blog, I am already thinking of the cappucino I am going to have, while watching some random videos on youtube before I hit the bed, for my momentary lapse of guilt has passed. Sad but true story!!

Mind your english..

English is a constantly evolving language, words and phrases are invented on a regular basis and you know its kosher to use it when Oxford officially publishes it in their dictionary, and you hear about it on the BBC evening news. According to Oxford, there are 171,476 words currently in use, and 47,156 obsolete words or unfashionable words, for want of a better phrase. I have a feeling that most of these obsolete words are still used very much today in India and some of them really make wonder..the eternal question..why??? Here are some words & phrases, please, I still doubt anybody reads these blogs, but if you think of any, leave a comment or two even:

ditto
"what say"
"meet my mrs"
duplicate
photostat
thug
Britisher
canvas shoes
comb (hahaha - its brush to you mate!!)
ladies fingers (no, this is a vegetable)

and good ol' wikipedia provided the following:

batchmate or batch-mate -- Not classmate, but a schoolmate of the same grade
cousin-brother -- (male first cousin) & cousin-sister (female first cousin)
Dicky/dickey -- the boot of a car
Double-confirm -- re-confirm or just confirm.
eve teasing -- catcalling - harassment of women
foot overbridge -- bridge meant for pedestrians
godown -- warehouse
Himalayan blunder -- grave mistake
mugging -- studying hard or swetting, and having nothing to do with street crime
opticals -- eyeglasses
pass-out -- graduate from college
to prepone -- to advance, literally the opposite of 'postpone'
ragging -- fagging(UK)/hazing(US).
In tension -- being concerned or nervous
time pass -- something that is good enough for killing time.
would-be -- fiancé/fiancée

and a last, but good one: "Where are you put up?"

Material life..

"I'm gonna be just like you -- the job, the family, the fucking big television. The washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener. Good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisure-wear, luggage, three-piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine-to-five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, index pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead till the day you die." - this was the monologue at the end of the movie: Trainspotting.

Makes you think..how revolved our lives are around materialistic things, and its a vicious cycle. You are old enough to move out of your parents home - IKEA has furniture to suit students, you meet a girl, fall in love - movies and restaurants have deals for two, you get married and then of course you need to buy a house, you need stuff to fill up your house, you need to buy a car, you are back at IKEA, you have kids, they grow up - you buy them branded clothes and shoes, we work all our lives, and the more we earn, the more we wanna buy, our buying potential increases, and then of course, as a natural reaction we want things which are slightly out of our reach, so we want a new job, where we can earn more...and somehow, somewhere we forget to appreciate the little things in life, the smaller, simpler things - the innocence of just doing things because you want to is lost..whatever you want to do - there is someone to benefit on the other side, otherwise that is a gap in the market which will be taken care of soon.

Whenever these kinds of discussions take place around a table of "uber-suburbanites", the common reaction would be to throw in a statement like "oh i would love to just leave the city, leave my car, move to an island, and just teach english" amongst nodding heads while everyone is secretly thinking "yeah right, not without my ipod, my flat screen tv, my now super-improved spacious yet made-for-the-city-version hummer etc.." - but no one can really do it, its just an ideal situation which you can admire for exactly 5 seconds, before you pull out your mobile to check for sms messages, the person sitting next to you pulls out a blackberry, you peek over and secretly hope to be able to get one too.

Another common statement is "Yeah I admire those monks, I dont know how they do it!!" Sure monks are far removed from materialistic things, their lives are not constantly invaded by in-your-face media, dictating how they should be or what they should look like, they have a different ideals, are not struggling in a society for an upper-hand in life...but when they get off their meditation mats (which I am sure has a brand embedded in one corner) and make their way for their tea, I am sure that the kettle they are using has a nice blue Philips logo on it!

Do I have a solution for it - no, but can I rant about it - yes, because I still have the freedom to do that, even though Blogger is helping me out by providing me the platform to do so...you cant escape it!!