The Path of Karma

Said the Supreme Lord:
"O Sinless one(Arjuna), I declared two kinds of worship in the world before. One is the path of knowledge pursued by the Sankhyas and the other, the path of action meant for men of action."[Chapter 3 Verse 3]
"But O Arjuna, he is better who, regulating his senses by his mind, unattached, begins karma yoga with his organs of action."[Chapter 3 Verse 7]
"Therefore do your prescribed work, for doing some work is better than doing no work at all. Without work it is not possible to even maintain the physical body."[Chapter 3 Verse 8]
"Works in this world can cause bondage unless done with a sense of sacrifice. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your actions for the sake of sacrifice only, free from attachment."[Chapter 3 Verse 9]
"In the beginning, at the time of creation, Brahma created people along with sacrifice and declared that by performing sacrifices they would become more prosperous and also that sacrifice would be their wish fulfilling Kamadhenu"[Chapter 3 Verse 10]

One of the greatest minds ever...
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_710.html

Being Single..and loving it!!

In the adjective form single means :

• Not accompanied by another or others; solitary.
• Separate from others; individual and distinct.
• Honest; undisguised: a single adoration.
• Unmarried.
• Lacking a partner.
• Relating to the unmarried state: enjoys the single life.

And In the noun form :

• One that is separate and individual.
• An unmarried person.

In both forms it is utterly very depressing to know what it means.But the way i look at it,it has its advantages.For example :

• More freedom and independence
• More control over your time
• More control over your money
• Not having to tolerate another’s annoying habits
• No emotional roller coaster rides
• Ability to become aware of who you are and what u want to do
  

I bet every single married/un married/committed person will agree with me on the above points.Im not an advocate on being single for life.But its more enjoyable this way,atleast i can say this by looking at the far more unlucky souls who have crossed the barrier of being legitimate singletons.

I have a very close friend of mine who is a single mother.The kids not hers & iv never asked her how she got it.(She said dont ask,jus trust me!!).The kids so adorable and the family goes at lengths to support her.
I know what all she had gone thru to keep her,after all being single middle class south indian will subject you to so much prejudice.
Let me say one thing to her before i start of with the rest,iam proud of u,iv never seen some one as strong as u,im lucky that we got to know each other in odd circumstances and became such good friends.Ur what most women dream of becoming these days.

We constantly discuss about the +ves and -ves of being single and i always remind her to move out of that status.EOD we both get to have some more advantages of being single.Here goes:

• Flirt with every guy/girl that you want without apology.
• The constant feeling that you are being watched & adored by every other PYT's(this could be my misconception though).
• I emphasize on this,spend all the money that u have on urself,max to ur parents or friends.
• The unique feeling of being self content on doing everything without depending on others.

And as my "WISE"(she wanted me to mention this) sis-in-law said "I envy you your single-status travel experience...enjoy it while you can cos all too soon, you will be double, triple, etc","There is a certain charm to being single and carefree...gosh!".

But there is always a dull side to the brighter things,u cant get into discos/nightclubs(unless ur a girl,they get everything!!),suddenly you find urself being alone & have panic attacks(jus kiddn),you start envying the not so good looking guy with the wow so looking girl under his arms,u start observing people giving u 'that' strange look if u go to cinemas alone,killing time gets to be so painful,u spend magnanimously on every odd thing.
Who cares??its good to be single and eligible..cheers!!

Mmmm...

The thing that i love saying the most..."Mmmmm...."

There is an uniqueness in Kolkata that the cities i have seen in India dont have and lack to the extreme.Everything happens in such an articulate and patient manner.I mean do these bongs ever get angry?(exclude sourav ganguly..pls)They would possibly be the epitome of patience and discipline.Where else can u see such bumper to bumper,quick(F1 style) traffic other than here and hardly have an expletive uttered from the drivers mouth?If these had been any of the other metros or the metro-to-be Bangaluru(tht sucks!!) there would have been atleast half a dozen maa ki and behan ki gaalis over the atmoshpere.& yes in my sweet tamizh,the effect is even the more unique.

This city has possibly faced the worst in terms of communal conflict in 1940-50 period and worser during the bangla independence struggle,but there seems to be this sense of togetherness and bhaichaara here that i have only seen in the mylapore and mandaveli areas of chennai.this was clearly proved when on the amazing shakespeare sarani(theatre road) on a busy evening i could hear the muezzin saying the evening prayers and everything went silent.it was magical!!

The Don!!

How can someone be the worst don?ask farhan akhtar.hes possibly made one of the most intriguing & thrilling movies ever in indian history into a knick nash of masala & style.Well maybe it is wrong to compare the original DON to this one.
I had woved not to ever see this movie,coz I knew it would be a piece of junk!but circumstances were so,I was unfortunate enough to watch it & it didn't dissapoint me.

King khan can never be baadshah bachan,priyanka can never be the svelte zeenat,& kareena?she humiliated dame helen!she was no where near her,not even in the remotest light years.

Luckily There are two saving graces.the background music is fabulous & Boman Irani .like in all the movies hes done before,he simply stole the show.Iv never been the khan liker,I love him when he dances & is at his funniest best.but a macho role is not his.hes feminish in a way.I seriously would have liked to see a much more manly hero,say arjun rampal or sanjay dutt in his place.
Yes,there is a twist worth the trouble.that's one area farhan wanted to show his touch.he's got class,he showed glimpses of it in dil chahta hai & lakshya.you could have made it better farhan,this movie shouldn't have sucked so badly..

The Market!!

I just visited as per me to this date the world's largest market place.the sudder street,new market,park street triathlon.shops shops & more shops,its such a mind boggling placeAnything on this earth,from bangles to baniyans u get everything here.

A whole street for bangles?its a sight!I wonder how they sell,women rarely wear glass bangles these days.briyani shops,clothes,eye glasses,booze & in the midst of all this fiasco the oberoi grand!& a whole square for food items.phew!

This area is predominantly muslim & they speak good urdu here.I always have thought that I can decieve people on my ethnicity.iv passed off for everything other than a tamizh.in my lifetime iv been french,marwadi,punjabi,boston returned,spanish & for the first time a 'MIAH'!I was called a miah by a hindu guy in the market.I had to laugh!a brahmin called a miah.that's university in diversity.

The visit got me wondering.why do people write?not that Im a writer par excellence or whatever.but this is what I deduced

• They live & possibly thrive in a pre defined shell
• They want to explore & express their thought
• They want to keep their vocabulary intact
• They want to say that they do something that others don't.
• They want to keep their sanity intact.

Haven't still decided where I fit in.iv always been a jerk.so its got to be more abnormal things!

& on the record i didnot buy a thing..jus had a long session of paani puri eating.

Day to Day

One thing that kolkata taught me,u shouldn't have a loud mouth.people here jus aren't tired of talking.even the most personal conversations are told to the whole world.at work,on the road,in the theater u can jus hear people talking so damn loudly! It can quite get irritable in the long run,possibly its the bangla way.but there is a limit.

The other thing that it has taught me is to have a big stomach.this is the second thing that people don't stop doing.the eat every bloody where & every bloody thing.iv never seen so many people eat road cooked food as in here.all this dirt & stink dont seem to bother people either in skirts or in blazers

Yes,iv become addicted to the road eating phenomenon.gawd its so good!the gol guppe,the jaal mudi,the mirchi vada.its yumm & cost effective.

The Departed

How would it be when u take manirathnams screen play,add rajiv menons cinematography,gulzars lyrics,ar rahman's best sufi music with kiron kher singing in it?that晀s what martin scorscese has done to 'the departed'.

The king of gangster movies gives you a star studded extravaganza that was hard hitting as well as memorable.forgive the blood,pardon the leud language this is the way gangster movies must me made.

No man could have managed Jack Nickolson,leonardo di caprio,martin sheen,mark whalberg & matt damon to such effect where the odds of each outdoing himself & the rest are 1 to 100 much more than scorscese would have.

A movie not to be missed

The Names Bond..James Bond

Well there are bond movies & there are bond movies.what can I say about the latest bond movie?it was utterly disgusting?horrible?pathetic?all of them?

The most highly expected & costliest bond movie till date happens to be the worst movie of all times.the charm,the machismo,the chivalry,the wry humor,the chauvinism everything was missing.

Craig Daniels is not the bond,cannot be the bond.there is so much disconnect between Fleming's character & him.last heard that there was some noise in Ian's grave.he晀s more perfect for the super human roles with his physique & metro sexual looks.this film runs only coz of Eva green.she would have been the perfect foil to the bond,not Craig.

And where are the gadgets & where's Q?I always thought bond movies where guns,gadjets,gags & gals.which was there,I couldn't decide.And the screen play overall,everything seems so dis jointed.the film lacks continuity & a good theme song.what role had the villain to play,who was the villain anyway.

But one point I need to agree,in this age of x-men & supermen this is closest to being human.at least he gets a heart attack & is worried about his little finger much more than anything.& bond falling in love?on his first assignment?give me a break!this is probably only the second movie that discusses about bonds personal life as far as I remember.so kudos to the director on that.

Iam no bond expert.but I surely have seen 97% of the movies.with casino royale we see the other side of the 007.but still its a huge dampener for bond aficionados like me.too many rope tricks,too less gadgets,an absolute sick screen play & a very terrible bond.
One last word,bring back pierce,if not for Sean or roger or timothy,at least make Jackie Chan the bond,I could live with him...

The Beginning..

Kolkata was always a city I hated to love after chennai.its been close to 6 & half yrs since I was here & in these years I can very well say that this place is giving the other capitals a run for their money.

Its 3 days since I landed.women here can teach a thing or two to the delhites on fashion.the dress code in all girls school's seem to be strictly above the knee skirts & is followed with such an admirable & sincere discipline.capris to bright skirts to spaghetti tops to the ever wonderful Bengali saree,the latest in fashion is here.the guys seem to be like those in the rest of the country,anyway there isn't much choice left for them.but I wonder why I saw rani mukherjee only on one advertisement though.

i visited a pub called the 'shisha' in camac street last night.an upmarket 'hooka pub' promoted by two gentlemen who have a textile business,supported by sanjeev kapoor.must try the long island ice tea,is a treat,was a lot stronger than usual,thts the way it should be anyway.the dry martini wasn't up to the mark.the manager enlightened me on the club scenario in kolkata.I was told that kolkata stays awake pretty late in the nite(4-6am).kudos to the communists!

be warned but,its impossible to get in wearing casuals & without shoes before 9.30pm & being single post that.I was neither anyway,guess it was just my face value then??

Never knew that traveling alone can be such fun.just looking & watching all these people is such an amazing job.wish I could get paid for it.one thing amazes me,everyone seems to be dressed in their bests always,it quite makes one feel pedestrian.

Today Im sitting in a place called 'burp' in the forum on Elgin's road,kolkata's version of bangalore's forum.the crowd here is predominantly 16-22 ish,school & college going people.a mixture of marwadi,Bengali & ppl from th north east.you must try the lemon tea in 'gotta get energy',was the best iv had in ages.this place has thai,south indian,pitza u name it.even has an open air dining area. The place has an inox,one of the few cities to boast of one.theater 4 had the casino royale,at 60 - 230 bucks a ticket,the price is a bit steep.ambiance is pretty good.more about the movie later.

The second most orthodox city after brahminic chennai has surely shunned its image & is moving fast towards being outwardly cosmopolitian.but in return it seems to be losing on the unique Bengali charachter,I could hardly hear ppl speaking bengali.any person can pass of with basic Hindi.filled with biharis & marwadis the place is fastly losing its old world charm to Tommy hilfigers & malls. i can bet that delhi,mumbai & bangalore have a lot of catching up to do,if they have already not lost the race.but chennai still happens to be the best place to live in,just coz i was born there,if not,shonar bangla wins hands down on all counts.