One of my favorite pieces of Web Zen: “The decent man is no longer one who lives within his own means. Nowadays he is one who lives, thankfully, within others’ means.”

They call it ‘a high standard of living’. I call it excessiveness. Garish, unnecessary, stinking of obnoxious opulence. One man’s luxury is another man’s necessity, but now, when the pockets strings draw tighter, luxuries are suddenly being revisited, and necessities are being redefined. I wonder if there is any limit to which this recursive loop can run before we reach a simplistic, minimalistic, bare-to-the-bone existence. Will be mighty boring, but is an interesting thought experiment.

When it is time to cut the fat, the real shit comes to the fore. I am reminded of the story of the rocks, boulders and bumps under the mighty river. The fishermen wading the waters never knew what lay beneath; when the water was aplenty, the inefficiencies were well hidden. It took the drought to expose what the river-bed was actually made of.

Recession is a good thing; it is an economic war, albeit caused by prolific dumbness of a greedy generation; but a war nevertheless. And like all wars, it will, in a very tiny way, level the playing field. Wars consume economies, destroy savings, and over-write past history. It is a reset button. So is a major recession.

So what does it bring us to? it puts some sense into people with heavy pockets and ultra-light craniums. Earlier, we had luxury goods that come with no functionality but serve as brag-currency (we, of course, still do). Bags with gold zippers, undies for dogs, mineral water from the French Alps, weird tasting fish eggs. And holy moly pops of lolly, golf clubs. In fact, golf itself. Weirder and more counter-intuitive, the better.

Then, arrogance is replaced by prudence. Means, people not buying shit they don’t frigging need. Dumb-as-fuck adults realising credit cards are not magic wands (I mean, how difficult is it to calculate how much one would owe the bank if one bought the house that one absolutely doesn’t need and can’t afford). Oil prices dropping. Car-pooling. Smaller, more fuel effecient cars. Many more examples all over the world.

Don’t get me wrong. A higher standard of living has its advantages. With higher life expectancy. More money spent in technology, education, medical care. More awareness, more entertainment. With all this ‘more’ comes the topped-up, king-sized, jumbo-combo excessiveness that makes me want to slap many with a thick wad of Zimbabwean cash notes.

I think Indians in general and especially people in rural areas should take up consulting assignments on ‘How to cope with the recessionary environments’; with special modules on low cost housing (using mud, hay and cow-dung), eating with almost no cutlery, minimal furniture interior design, vegetarianism, beedi smoking, recycling clothes (there is an entire supply chain that runs from ‘Rani Readymade for baba and baby’ -> little Bunty -> his younger brother Babloo -> the bai’s son Raju -> Raju’s younger brother Kishore -> kitchen table wipe -> garbage bin -> waste scrap for making readymade clothing). Newspaper and dabba-batliwala. Dhaaro-tej karne wala for old knives. Idli upma from yesterday’s leftover breakfast. We have mastered the fine art of living within our means since a long while.

Anyhew. I think it is time to start worrying when George Carlin and Dilbert start sounding too real. And I think that time is now. But both are as funny as fuck, so, what the hell. I will try to laugh along and get off when my stop comes. Until then, we wait for a time when the developed world erodes its wealth slowly and become level with ours, and then get together over a cutting chai at the nukkad and discuss how the heck did we let it go so awry.

Don’t wait for the pain, to scream,
Don’t persevere, until twilight falls, to dream;
Don’t await your old song, to dance,
Don’t ask for that epiphany, to be yours perchance;

Don’t pray, for the wind to flow your way,
Don’t beg luck, to carry you in her sway;
Don’t talk to your waking dream, seeking memories to borrow,
Don’t live, just for the hope of the morrow;

Push, prod, shout, scream, fight; Do whatever it takes.

Just make it happen.

“You’re the average of the five people you hang out the most with.”

One bit of internet wisdom that makes a lot of sense :)

Think about it; Who are the five people you spend most of your time with? And if you were an average of the five of them in intelligence, experience, maturity, coolness, enthusiasm, motivation and most of all, happiness, will it make you proud of yourself?

It has been particularly true at many stages of my life. Sometimes I have been ahead of the average, sometimes behind; but I guess the curve smooths out over time.

Choose your friends wisely. Choose your enemies with even more discretion. And save the best for those few people you love.

Hat-tip, Anshul.

Best Diwali and the best birthday I have had in a long, long time. Did not have the time nor the inclination to write about them. Some things are left unsaid because they are too special.

But this is a note, for posterity. To look back and smile at how these days were made unforgettable by two special people in my life :)

Dilbert creator Scott Adams on some reasons why the economic slowdown is good in certain ways; I especially liked the one below:

I remember driving home in 1989 and thinking I had a flat tire because the car went all wobbly. I pulled over and discovered that my tires were fine; the earth was moving. It was the Loma Prieta Earthquake, and I soon discovered my apartment in shambles. But a funny thing happened.

All of my neighbors were outside, stunned. We talked. We shared stories. We bonded. It was a strangely good time. And I felt connected to people at a deeper level than ever before. Shared disaster does that.

A shared disaster brings people out in the open, out of their comfort zones, gets them talking, and makes them know a bit more about each other that they did not discover before.

Happened with us on campus too. Mashed by force and by situation, we were business school students who had lots of time with each other; but still most of us were huddled in our own rooms with Gtalk / MSN / Yahoo / whatever chat program we used and we continued to hang on to whatever few friends we had for dear life.

It took the ‘Russian salad’ incident (food poisoning), the summer placements and INDEX preparations to get us out in the open, and these shared experiences are some of the best memories of L that I carry. br /br /Also one of the reasons why I love the selling line of Smirnoff: “Life is calling, where are you?”. Our generations needs some more face to face interaction. We sometimes forget how much fun that can be.

Don’t know what to gift a dear friend for his / her birthday? Thinking of buying an expensive shirt / perfume / watch which might never be used?

How about spending exactly the same amount of money, and gifting a donation? How about using the money you would’ve spent for a momentary pleasure to sponsor a year’s education of an underprivileged child, lets say?

I am not going to exalt the merits of charity or advantages of doing good to the society. Some like to do it, some don’t care. People should be fine either way. But for those who like to contribute, and especially for those who have friends who would appreciate such a gesture, there is www.Giveindia.org.

Very simple in design, takes a minute to create an account, and you can choose different causes to donate; old people, children, education, upliftment, food, water, rehabilitation etc. Choose your cause, enter your amount, and gift the donation to someone dear. My favorite choice is Children’s Education; you can choose your favorite from the many options available.

How is this different from the thousand other charity websites out there? First of all, Giveindia is just a portal, a funnel or a filter that makes sure money reaches the right hands. It is also an NGO (or so I think) but it validates and verifies all NGOs associated and registered with it. And the abundance of choice and ease of transaction add to the experience.

Give it a try. Giveindia.

Pass on the word. Mail or share with the icons below.

It’s been a year in Singapore. One very eventful, enriching, happening year where I learnt a lot, made many friends and most importantly, opened my mind in ways more than one.

More of all that later. Just recalled the musical events that I was fortunate enough to catch in the past year:

Kailash Kher: Live in Concert. What a voice, and what an attitude. “People ask me why I do not have extras and dancers in my concerts. I’m here for my music, I just want my music to do the talking. And that will get me my fans and admirers.” Touche!

Dream Theatre: The doyens of Progressive Metal. With the best drummer in the world (No one handles double bass better than Portnoy) and one of the best guitarist (Petrucci) and bassist (Myung), this band that has its genesis in Berklee College of Music is an experience, live. (I hate the lead singer though. Sounds like the bastard child of a tom-cat and a banshee. Anyhew.)

Mandolin U Srinivas: Boy oh boy! The god of Carnatic Mandolin was here. And he was divine. Period. The ragams are a part of him now, they run in his veins. And his fingers do more than his bidding, to say the least. Never heard Carnatic ragams jump out and tease my ears as I did that evening.

Shubha Mudgal: Whatay voice! And this wasn’t even her belting out raags. Just plain old Surdas and Meera Bhajans. But splendidly delectable, every one of her songs.

Harini: A regular concert, nothing too impressive. But good, nevertheless.

Hyderabad Brothers: Enna tavam (Kapi) still gives me goosebumps.

We Will Rock You: Have already written about this mother of all concerts here. ‘Nuf said :)

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

 Loading …

I usually don’t blog about food or my foodie outings, but this Saturday was an exception. A fricking mindblowing stomach gratifying monster of an exception.

Let me put things in perspective. A week of ok-ish food, and a very early and miniscule dinner on Friday evening left me with a craving for a good meal, desi-style on Saturday morning. (North-Indian, South-Indian, whatever-Indian. Doesn’t matter). And when two of my friends made a plan to go restaurant-hopping in Little India in search for a good meal, I was already smacking my lips and heading right to nearest taxi stand.

After a mistaken try at a shabby restaurant named Gokul (not worth going into details, let me jump to the more important parts here), we sauntered into this quiet south Indian place named Madras Woodlands. Not too much of a groundbreaking name, I’d say, but the food was oh-my-gawd awesome! All of us hungry souls straightaway went for the unlimited meals, and we were in session.

A tangy start with a vettha-kozhambu (spicy and hot sambar variety), with veggies, appalams (popadams) and steaming rice to boot, followed by the mullangi (radish) sambar cooked to the right tenderness; then came the fragrant rasam and more mounds of rice. The grand finale was when after a nice bowl of payasam I was just digging into my curd rice, and the waiter came and dropped mor-moloagais (chilli peppers soaked in buttermilk, dried and then fried). By god, that was a stroke of genius! and I’m totally sold on the restaurant.

After the humongous lunch, we all had to go back and rest for the afternoon. The food had gotten the better of us, and we all woke up and decided to meet for, wait for it, here it comes, a dinner meal :D

This time it was Gult food at Sankranti. The restaurant had opened only two weeks before, and since the four of us were in mood for experimentation, we repeated the sauntering and ordering of four unlimited meals. And this time, it was full steam, hot and spicy Andhra fare, no holds barred. Each one of us topped about seven courses: Masala rice, followed by Gongura, Allam, Podi (Gunpowder plus ghee), Pappu (dal), Charu (Andhra rasam), Perugannam (curd rice). After stacking empty plates and cups, we polished the meal off with a mango and left the poor waiter and manager in wide eyed bewilderment. (I’m lovin it!)

Even though none of us had the energy nor the inclination to even move after that meal, the experience was worth every morsel of rice that we demolished. To those who planned to have pizza / noodles / chinese indian / naan sabji on that day, can please go sit on their respective thumbs and watch us dig into another mound of rice. Or join in.

Next weekend, destination Mumbai Makaan and its steaming vadapavs. Yum!

p.s: Also caught a gult movie after the double meal ordeal (just for the heck of it), which was called Vivaha Bhojanam (Marriage Food) and hence the title of this post. Quite a befitting end to the day, I say!

[image source: www.sailusfood.com]

(7 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5)

 Loading …

What an evening, and whatay performance. I caught the last Singapore show of We Will Rock You (also known as WWRY), a musical by Queen and Ben Elton, based on Queen songs. Just one word to describe the experience: mind-blowing (no, it’s not two words. It one hyphenated word).

The storyline, the cast, the history are all wiki-able. But the experience was beyond any live performance I’ve seen in perfection, fidelity, energy and the heavenly music. I am a huge fan of Queen, and this was a dynamite package that left me begging for more.

Brilliant performances by the live band, with almost all of Queen’s hits, and I couldn’t care less about the slightly below par story-line. The grand finale with ‘We will rock you’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ performed as an encore played a fitting end to a tribute to one of the best rock bands ever.

Thank God I walked into the ticket counter at Orchard and bought the ticket on a last minute impulse. It’s been 2 days and my pod is still looping Queen songs :D

(And in case you are wondering, Galileo Figaro and Scaramoush are words from Bohemian Rhapsody and the names of lead characters in WWRY).

Some SMs I’ve had on Gtalk over the past months. A good reflection of what I was thinking then.

==========

heart of child, scorn of a woman
effervescent as a wave, dense as the night
light as love, intense as pain
what is it that she seeks, an answer to her own might?

==========

schadenfreude secrets /
Camouflaged closets /
Silhouetted Souls, and /
A billion black-holes…/

The question is, why?
Why?

==========

what do we fight for, who’s to be slain
who’s to the silence betroth, who shouts in vain
a rebel without a curse, a fugitive without a claim
an unknown horizon, an emptiness of disdain.

What am I here for?

=========

Home to only wandering souls,
of a million and more dreams; //

Majestic in its silent power
and more so, in its screams; //

Maya nagari, the chimera of hope,
The deadly sweet poison, in wide Cinemascope; //

..*Bombay*..

==========

beetee lamhon ki daldal mein, yaadein batorne chale,
dar dar bhatakte, apne hi pad-chinhon se unki kahani poochte,

zindagi ke kitaab mein, bulandi ke panne jodne chale,
jab hum hi nahi rahe, to yeh daastan kise sunate?

=======

The best Government is Fear.

==========

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

==========

As we are reduced to nothing but shadows of our earlier boisterous potent selves, we should remember this. Nothing is different. It was all in the belief, that anything is possible. And achievable.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading …