Urge to Fly - random_thought

Not been writing

noreply@blogspirit.com (Khwaahish-e-Parwaaz) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:40:00 +0530

It's more than a month since I posted anything here. The only excuse I have for that is that I've been too busy at work. But that's just what it is - an excuse. There were lot of things I could've written about in the last month: the films I watched and loved - Casino Royale and The Departed; the book I've been reading - William Dalrymple's delightful The Last Mughal; the new music releases - Guru and Salaam-e-ishq; the house that I've bought; the severe bout of uveitis that is affecting me yet again; or even my recent trip to Bangalore.... but the fact remains that I haven't written anything.

I was 100% sure that I would write a review of Dhoom-2 once I watched it, but thanks to the stand-off between YRF and the multiplexes in Delhi I still haven't watched it. And here the excuse of being busy comes in handy. Since the only places where Dhoom-2 is running are very far from my house, lack of time is a convenient excuse. The other film I'm keen on watching is Kabul Express, and being a Yash Raj film it also isn't releasing in multiplexes near my house. Damn!

My genes are playing up on me yet again. Last week uveitis came visiting my eye again (was it the sixth time?). But this time instead of the regular right eye, it chose to try out my left eye - my perfectly normal eye. Result - my left eye is…

Shattered Mind

noreply@blogspirit.com (Khwaahish-e-Parwaaz) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:15:00 +0530

It's been 10 days since I saw Woh Lamhe, but the film continues to haunt me still. More than the film, it's Kanagana Ranaut's schizophrenic character the refuses to leave me. While this is surely a tribute to her acting talent, the real reason is that her honest and real portrayal of the character brought alive long forgotten memories. I've met a few people who felt that her character in the film was weird and quite unbelievable, but having come in close contact with a person affected by schizophrenia I know very well how 'weird' a schizophrenic can appear to others.

When I was in college, there was a guy in my immediate circle of friends who was schizophrenic. We all used to have great fun at his expense and lost no opportunity to pull his legs and tease him. On his part, he was quite sporting and never took offence. He seemed perfectly normal, but somewhere in the second year we could feel that his behaviour and reactions were gradually inching beyond the limits of normality. Soon he started behaving 'weirdly' with his insinuations that we - all his closest friends - were conspiring against him. We thought it was just his over-reaction to our leg-pulling and didn't give much heed. But after a while, we observed that he started pulling himself away from our group. He started believing that his room in the hostel was haunted and he was shit scared to sleep there at night, so much so…

Coincidently Superstitious

noreply@blogspirit.com (Khwaahish-e-Parwaaz) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:35:00 +0530

When people ask me if I'm superstitious I would never admit it. But the truth is, I am. Rather, I have become superstitious over the past few years. There have been certain events that have made me so. To a rational person's mind they might just be coincidences (even I used to think that way), but somehow I can't rationalize them in my mind as mere coincidences.

First, I'm extremely wary of people with a particular sun-sign (I wouldn't specify which one, lest others get wary of me). I've had issues and problems (some extremely major) with the majority of people with this sun-sign. Let’s put it the other way – almost every person I've had problems with belonged to this sun-sign. I would not put the blame entirely on them, but somehow I'm just not compatible with this sun-sign. How do I rationalize that? Isn't that one helluva coincidence!

Then, there's this iron ring that I wear on my middle finger of my right hand at all times. It was given to me by my father-in-law with the intention of countering the ill-effects of Saturn. I wore it because I didn't want to hurt his feelings, and I didn't lose anything by wearing it. Then I lost the ring (Gollum?). The months that followed were quite bad for me personally. Nothing during that period seemed to be going right. And when I found the ring (by a weird coincidence), everything seemed to get back on track by itself. Now, after…

My Ignorance

noreply@blogspirit.com (Khwaahish-e-Parwaaz) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:55:00 +0530

क ख ग घ ङ
च छ ज झ ञ
ट ठ ड ढ ण
त थ द ध न
प फ ब भ म
...

Ever wondered why the Hindi alphabet follows a particular sequence?

Hindi is my mother tongue. Yet, I never even thought about why the Hindi alphabet followed a particular sequence. The only thing I possibly gave a thought to was that every un-aspirated letter is followed by the aspirated version. But I never realized that there was a pattern behind the sequence. To me the sequence was given, there was no need to find a reason, which in my mind did not even exist.

Till I read Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake'. In her delightful first novel, she describes the Bengali alphabet, which is similar to the Hindi alphabet, in one of the passages:

"…which begins at the back of (his) throat with an unaspirated K and marches steadily across the roof of (his) mouth…."

…and then moves on to the teeth and then to the lips.

Now try to recall the alphabet again. Isn't the reason behind the sequence fairly obvious now?

Fascinating, isn't it?

I am surprised that having studied Hindi in school and spent most of my adult life reading Hindi literature and even trying my hand at writing in the language, I didn't even know something as basic is this.

How ignorant have I been!

For more information about the Hindi (phonetic) alphabet, read this Wikipedia article on Indian languages.

Staying in Touch

noreply@blogspirit.com (Khwaahish-e-Parwaaz) — Mon, 15 May 2006 15:15:00 +0530

I've recently finished reading Vikram Seth’s Two Lives. It's a fascinating book. Part memoir, but largely biography, this book is about the tumultuous lives of the author's granduncle and grandaunt. What I like most about the book, apart from the uncomplicated and direct narrative style (which is expected out of Vikram Seth anyway), is the fact that we learn about the two remarkable individuals largely through the letters they exchange with each other and their other friends. While the author was lucky to 'interview' his granduncle and get his side of the story first hand, he had nothing to refer when it came to writing about his grandaunt (not even his granduncle had complete visibility to his wife's pre-marital life). As the author himself observes, this book would never have got written, but for the chance discovery of a set of letters that were very carefully preserved by his grandaunt. And the depth of information we get from that is infinitely more and much richer than what even a first-hand interview could give.

Last week I received an email from a friend. It was quite a general email, but there was one line that is largely responsible for this post. It simply said, 'Hey why don’t you mail me once in a while?'

Vikram Seth's book and my friend's email set me thinking. When was the last time I wrote a letter? If my memory serves me right, that was almost 6 years back. Or an email? Well, I do write…