A divine orgasm

There have been a spate of events which have generally kept me buoyant and finally led to the state of mind that i find myself in, on this friday evening.

(a) The evening that brought the chills out & kicked the heat out of the city. Last Saturday, to be more specific. The day started off (lazily, since it was a Saturday) with a typically Dilbertesque meeting with my boss and super-boss in which we spent a lot of time going over what we all knew and finally deciding that we will meet yet again after a period to review and take things forward (i.e.,typically call for yet another meeting to review, bitch about the other departments, prepare yet another fancy presentation, take some poor chap's case and talk global gyan). The good thing was, right in the middle of the meeting, my mind wandered and i could picture myself as yet another caricature in the world of Dilbert. The thought was so funny that i could not help but laugh. Thankfully, my boss had just then cracked a joke and hence my laughter fell in sync with the general reaction of the team.

Good food, post meeting. Good food always lifts my spirits and i found myself looking forward to the Sunday.

(b)In this frame of mind, i found myself walking towards my bike, when the gods decided to pitch in with their bit. The erstwhile hot climate suddenly changed. Cool winds from the Arabic Ocean started sweeping through the city. Simultaneously, the sun was setting. The visual metamorphosis in the horizon was striking. The sky turned bright orange with the sun moving towards his evening dwelling. The cool breeze from the ocean was soothing. And then i knew why poets get inspired by nature. It was a delight to the senses. My eyes were feasting on the changing colors of the sky. The skin was embraced by the breeze. The birds were returning to their nests and the attendant chirping was music to the ears. The aroma of the oxygen exuded by the trees was exhilirating...

The whole scenario reminded me of a song from a Tamil movie, "Nizhalgal". I generally avoid translations, as the original beauty is often lost in transit. But i shall venture to do so, in this case. The lyricist draws a comparison. He says that the sky is a beautiful maiden during the day, but she reserves the best of her beauty for the night.. and he says that dusk, being the intervening period between day and night, is when the maiden changes her attire and wears her best clothes. True..Very true..It was truly a voyeuristic experience to watch the heavenly maiden change her clothes!..A divine orgasm, if i may risk claiming.

(c)"Sophie's choice": The book that i'm reading now..Set in England during the 2nd world war..I'm barely 25 pages into it and i know it is going to make my weekend worth remembering..I can barely wait to get my hands back on it.. Ah! the sheer joy of knowing that a virginal book is waiting to be explored..Ready to be interpreted in a thousand different ways..Waiting to paint a million pictures in the mind's eye..A fantastic weekend waiting to be savoured.

To paraphrase Richard Bach, "Life is not to be measured in terms of the number of years one exists, but in terms of moments lived"..Yessireeee.

The Audience Factor

This has been simmering inside for quite a while now.. Time to let it out.. Have been pondering over critical issues like: Why are the damn traffic lights always red when i reach them? Why are the pretty babes always in the next department and not in mine? and Why am i maintaining this blog?..The first two questions are deeper ones and need a lot more introspection.. I was attempting to unravel the mystery of the last question, when i remembered my room-mate's favourite theory, The "Audience factor theory". This theory can be best digested with a basic understanding of the "Matrix" trilogy.

The Audience factor theory(AFT), to put it in a nutshell, says we do a lot of things for the potential claps that we might get from the potential audience who might hear the story. Pop psychologists could equate this with the "need for acceptance/approval"(NFA) syndrome. But the AFT goes on the contrary direction of the NFA. Examples of NFA could be, sporting the clothes in fashion, wanting to be seen in the so-called trendy places, sporting the latest hair-style etc...Basically, "going with the crowd"...

AFT is the other piece in the puzzle...The character "Neo" in the movie, Matrix, is also a part of the program. He is designed specially to cater to the rebel elements in the human race who wish to play out their rebellious streak.. while 99.9% of the human race is content with the illusion of the matrix, there is still a .1% which does not fit into it.. therefore, the character "Neo" is introduced to lure these rebels into an illusion that they are actually outside the matrix.. But the joke is on the rebels, as they too are a part of the matrix..

Anyways, so much for my matrix saga. The point being, even so called non-conformists, who wear their heart on their sleeves about their non-conformism give it all away by falling prey to the "audience factor"...The need to relate to an audience..To tell a fellow human that "i'm rebelling" is also a sign of a need for approval at a different level...

The bottom line is that i am having this feeling that I might be actually choosing to experience this "Audience Factor".. Why else would i mail my friends the URL of this site and actually ask them to visit my site!?...Why else would i have a site-meter installed to check the page hits per day!?.. The attempted funny questions at the start of the post are also designed to draw some claps from the gallery!... Hypocrisy!!! Sheer hypocrisy!!... But i'm not disgusted with myself... I am happy to have discovered this quite early... And in a way, this post is a confession... No, a purgatory..

A Piece Of Advice

This comes from Baz Luhrmann, the maker of the classic, “Moulin Rouge”, starring Nicole Kidman…An amazing song…Outstanding lyrics….Some sensible gyaan..

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97...

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….

You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…