aditya kumar's weblog

In the last 6 years, a critically acclaimed actor (who is a khan too), an actor who is a Punjabi and a Hindu, the other two “bankable” khans of the Indian film industry, a model-turned-actor (a Christian) and a former, and arguably the most respected, President of India, were all frisked at US Airports by Homeland security.

Still, one so called King Khan chose to make a huge hue and cry about it. On top of it, the man says SRK does not need publicity. Also note that he introduced himself as a movie “star”.

Shahrukh Khan is one arrogant man.

For the fool’s day, that is what I hope at least, Orkut has turned itself into “Yogurt”.

Take a look:



And to say that those pink letters, they have always reminded me of Strawberry Yogurt…

Sitting in the hospital waiting for the doctor to show up, I see a 2 year old kid walking over across the room to the water cooler. Its with one of those “push-button” taps, which require quite a push to serve water or else give out a few drops if you don’t push hard enough.

While the kid is amused discovering those few drops that came out of nowhere, an old man, one in his late 60s, comes and takes the kid away from the tap, much to the protest of the kid.

A few minutes later, the kid is at the tap again. The old man comes back too. The cries and the protests of the kid notwithstanding, the man does what he thinks he should do.

And a few minutes later, again.

A 60 something man. A 2 year old Kid. And the stubborn resistance of the human mind.

An hour later, a girl who seems 2 years old or so, walks to the water cooler and tries to push the tap again. And while she’s at it, her mother does something that takes the girl by surprise. She holds the girl by the shoulders and amidst wild protests by the kid, walks her back to the seat.

In a fast food chain restaurant, standing in a queue, overheard a couple of 30-something software engineers (or the likes) deciding on the menu. A sentence should suffice —

“yeh le le — this combo has 4 items compared to that one, which has only 3 items, for the same price”.

This sums up, how an Indian mind works once confronted with the menu.

I’d like to know the answer to this seemingly direct question:

What was the role, if any, of the Indian Communist Lobby during the 1962 Sino-India war?

Any responses/answers?

Comments/Email welcome.

I sometimes think, and these ‘sometimes’ are quite often, I am probably in the wrong profession. Or perhaps, I take my profession only seriously to an extent where it just qualifies to be “serious” enough. Kind of, on the edge of it all. Honestly, I am not okay with the idea that I spend 16 hours everyday, 5 days a week thinking about whats going on at work and checking my office emails all to often. I know people who do that. These people, at the same time, always complain of how the work gets to them and how much they want to get away from it.

Truth is that, on the contrary, they themselves do not attempt to get away from the madness.

I once heard these lines somewhere and I believe in it so much that it motivates me to take my mind off the trivial things that sink me down everyday — When I am 75, lying on a bed (probably because thats all I’d be able to do), I would not think that, okay — I should have chosen .NET over Java. I would not think about a project that I once messed up. I would probably not think about the laurels I was applauded for. But yes, I’d probably think and wish that I had spent more time with my parents and my sister. I’d probably be wishing that I had traveled more than I had, when I could. I believe in this so much that once I start thinking on these lines, I start hating everything that stops me from treading the path that I so much want to. Not that I have been unsuccessful all the time, in fact I am one of the most traveled persons you will ever come to know of.

So the coming two months could be one of travel. Konkan, Goa, Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta are the places I’ll have to choose from. The only time I was in Calcutta was last year and since then I have carried a part of it with me. There is a world to be explored in the streets and corners of Calcutta and I intend to do it as and when I’d be able to.

Besides, this city is testing my endurance. I have been away from home for close to 9 years now and yet, at times I feel like my first day alone, on my own. The few friends I had could not stand the loneliness this city offered them — I mean, here is a city where you can’t even talk to another guy on the street because of the language barrier. So they left. I don’t blame them. The few that remained, got married. I don’t blame them too — they had to get married, however harsh the idea may seem (No, I am not opposed to the idea at all). They, however, had to get married because loneliness got the better of them. But seriously speaking, even a guy like me who needs his solitude more than the average guy does, finds time hard to go by on a sunday evening. I too, at times, contemplate on leaving Bangalore and going back to Pune — a city of my so many ‘firsts’, a city that once got my wrath for being so insensitive by making me walk on roads that reminded me of a better time, a city once I promised to never return for all the time to come. But then again, it would be foolish to think that Pune is the same and that it would offer me all that it once did. If I go to Pune, I would go with a clean slate, a clear conscience and a heart free of prejudice but also, at the same time, free of expectations.

I am surprised that I am thinking about going back to Pune, in the first place. Its strange, and perhaps funny, how time makes even the sternest of minds to bend.

Meanwhile, expect some travelogues.

The ever beautiful Milla Jovovich. Portrait (though incomplete), 0.5 mm 2B pencil on paper.