Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pretentious Conversations

All these words you and I speak to each other now
Are filled with total emptiness of space somehow.
They never made much sense while we were we.
They don’t mean a thing now that we are just you and me.
Words of love were often spoken by our eyes.
Would it be justified to call them “the unspoken lies”?
As those were the moments when truth prevailed,
Those were the opportunities that we never availed.

The long eternal silence when your hand rested on mine,
When the last thing we ever cared about was flying time,
Used to speak what a thousand words could never say.
It narrated a story of our very own foolish ways.
And now another silence screams out aloud its existence.
It’s the one that hides in our conversations of pretence.
This silence crawls its way into the banalities I say to you,
Like the proven facts of life we never believed to be true.

There were ten thousand promises that stayed unfulfilled,
And those innocent dreams we shared, that we together killed,
The sweet memories hiding somewhere dormant in our minds,
And two hearts we have stripped out and left far behind.
Would they show to us the mercy that we do not deserve,
And return to us the moments we never cared to preserve?
But then time flies back with no apology or penance.
I guess we’ll learn to live in this inevitable silence.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Born Again

A silence is broken, a life is reborn.
Some lines scribbled, few pages torn.
“Could this break last forever”, I would wonder.
It probably could have. I am well-known to surrender
And compromise on all my dreams, my goal.
Have sold to devil even my worthless soul.
But arose from ashes today, an old ambition,
When you showed me the candle, my sweet inspiration.

From a poet one day, to a nobody the next,
Vision had been there, but halted was the quest.
Love, hatred, jealousy, joy, ache,
Being on cloud nine or a sad heart-break,
All feelings within me evaporated into thin air,
Words got monotonous, rhymes became rare.
Until you provided my poetry a new rendition,
Through the words from your heart, my sweet inspiration.

Years of life were wasted searching for fame.
I mocked whichever fool said, “What’s in the name?”
Never knew the more you try grabbing the sands,
The faster they run off from your bare hands.
But now fame would never give me a thrill,
Nor I would be aroused by a green dollar bill.
What I do beseech now is just the recognition
From your beautiful eyes, my sweet inspiration.

And there’s a promise I long to make to you,
That on this endless quest, I’d always continue.
Would my hands stop again? I’ve got reasons to doubt.
No, they won’t if you’re the one I write about.
They would carve on paper your life’s ode,
Or your soliloquy when you are lonely abode.
And if I could please have your kind permission,
I’d write for you ‘til forever, my sweet inspiration.


PS: Many thanks to the "Sweet Inspiration" who inadvertently helped me write this poem, and was kind enough to give her approval to publish it on my blog, and share with one and all. God bless you my sweet inspiration.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

From Fake IPL Player's Blog – The Build Up


SEPTEMBER 23, 1893
Let The Match Begin

Well, as far as getting into the playing eleven in IPL (Indian Players for Lagaan-maaf) team is concerned, I am a no-hoper. And the only thing I expect to do during the course of this match is serve water, chhachh and baajra rotis to the players in the middle. However, this also means that I would have enough time on my hands to write this blog, and update you with the live action straight from the Champaner cricket stadium, as well as all the gossip from the dressing room. And for this purpose, I am going to use my newly bought Macbook Pro, launched by Apple Inc in January 1892.

What I like the most about this tournament is the hot cheer-leaders dancing in their sexy costumes. That’s one thing that I am going to enjoy the most here. Those beauties, dancing to that hep tune, really make my day.


Hot cheer-leaders of IPL

Another good thing about this tournament is that I can be at a very close range of all the superstars of this star-studded cricket team. During the first few hours spent with them, I have noticed the traits in some of them, and I am now going to share these with you. My captain Bhuvan, carries a lot of attitude with him, wherever he goes. He never stoops down either in front of the Goras, or the film fraternity even if they offer him prestigious awards such as The Manikchand Filmfare. The only exception to this, however, is the excitement and enthu seen in him when these Goras offer him an Academy Award. Our coach is a British Lady named Elizabeth, who apparently also happens to be the sister of rival team’s captain (Captain Russell). And then we have our team-owner, a local ruler, Rajah Pooran Singh. Other teammates are pretty interesting characters as well. Unfortunately, our evergreen international player, Mr Dev Anand (if you remember him from the Awwal Number series) has dropped out this time due to some other prior commitments. Had he also been there, our team could have aptly been named as Circus XI.

SEPTEMBER 24, 1893
The Issues

Before we could even push the start button, our team realized that it was in a much bigger shit-hole now, than the time when our captain, Mr Attitude had challenged Captain Russel for a match. The whole team is at the lowest of the abysses. Everyone around is dropping catches as if it is not a cricket ball, but rather a snitch used in the English Quiddich League headed by Sir Harry Potter himself. Two of our leading bowlers, Goli and Guran, have bowling actions that would put the likes of Lasith Malinga to think very highly of themselves. There are great chances that the two would be called for chucking by the umpires. Our coach, Elizabeth, whom I would refer to as Phoren Babe from now on, is too much bent towards our captain, and never makes even a single eye contact with any of the other players in the team. I can also spot a lot of racism within the team, with some of our super-stars looking down upon our only genuine spinner Kachra, who happens to be from a lower caste, and is considered untouchable by others. And as a result he has always been afraid to open his mouth in front of others. Last, but not the least, our team-owner Mr Rajah Pooran Signh, has neither uttered a single encouraging word to us, the way Mr Shahrukh Khan did to his ladies hockey team in Chak De, nor has he sent us any best wishes before the start of the match. He has kept himself totally aloof from us. Perhaps he doesn’t want the world to know that he owns our IPL team, and might be looking forward to sell us no-hopers, and purchase the British Raj Colonists XI team next season.


SEPTEMBER 25, 1893
The Rumours

My roomie tells me that our captain Bhuvan has hots for Gauri, our wicket-keeper Ishwar Kaka’s daughter, and also the leading cheer-lady for IPL. Apparently Gauri also loves Bhuvan, and both of them have been found numerous times singing songs and dancing around the trees.


Captain Bhuvan and Gauri spotted fooling around (as reported by Bhuvan's bullocks)

Also, there are rumours doing the rounds that Lakha is also very much in love with Gauri, and often says sweet nothings to her. However, Bhuvan, being a bigger star than Lakha, gets all the attention from Gauri, and Lakha’s innocent love gets totally ignored. Well! Girls can be so mean.

So this is the love triangle that all of us know of. But wait! There is another angle to this tale that none other than yours truly, Fake IPL Player could notice. Our coach, the Phoren Babe also has a secret crush on Bhuvan, and she is trying her level best to get closer to Bhuvan’s mom Yashoda Mai and rest of Bhuvan’s friends, so as to catch his eye.

Whoa! So it has now become a love quadrangle. It seems as if we are not part of a cricket team, but rather some typical Bollywood masala movie.


SEPTEMBER 26, 1893
Team Meeting An Hour Ago

I never had an idea that my blog would become so famous. Until yesterday, I had not even a single follower. And look at my blog today; I already have 7842 followers. I thank you all for taking interest in all the gossip and bull-shit I write here.

However, fame also has a heavy price-tag attached with it. IPL team management has found out about the blog, and is on the lookout for the guy who is leaking all the inside news. The first to be interrogated was our captain Bhuvan, as he has got excellent communication skills, and has his very own blog which is considered to be the most popular in entire country. His blog has about 170,000 visitors, and chances are that my blog is going to test him soon. Anyway, the team management is also spying very closely on rest of the players in the team, to catch the thief red-handed. So I am going to delete all the Cookies and Temporary Internet files from my laptop now. Also, this would mean that I would not be able to stay in touch with you readers as frequently as I earler used to.

In the evening today, just after our usual training sessions, where everybody did a fantastic job once again dropping catches and bowling wide deliveries, a team meeting was called to decide on the final eleven, and the team strategy for tomorrow. Well, after long discussions, we decided on using a brand new strategy, which incidentally never crossed our minds ever, that is until now – “Gola phenk, Phalli ghooma”.


SEPTEMBER 27, 1893
The All Important Day

So the day has finally arrived when our team has to take on the mighty British Raj Colonists XI for pride, for Tiguna Lagaan maaf, and for an Oscar win. The morning is bright and sunny, but not for me. As I had always expected, I was the 12th man, whose job was to clap whenever our player took a wicket or scored a boundary or a six. The spectators in this era do not know much about the game of cricket, and they clap only if they see a fellow Indian clap. And hence, I am the chosen one to ensure that the crowd cheers our players.

Anyway, here is the final list of playing eleven that had been selected for this all important match:

Bhuvan (c)

Deva

Guran

Bagha

Lakha

Arjan

Ishmail

Goli

Ishwar Kaka (wk)

Bhura

Kachra


The playing eleven for IPL

The team looks excellent on paper, with all the major stars in it, and the name of our icon player right at the top. Let us see how it fares against the British Raj Colonists XI.

(to be continued…)


Monday, May 18, 2009

How Global Recession saved the world


Economic recession is a good thing after all. The current financial crisis has done something that our government could never do in 61 years since Indian independence. It has brought down the disparities in distribution of wealth among rich and poor. For instance, let us consider the case of a small farmer named Deen Dayal (name changed here to maintain anonymity), who is living in a remote village of India named Charanpur, where not even a single politician would ever dare to go, and the only civilized person from a city or a town to visit the doomed place is Shahrukh Khan, who thinks that leaving NASA and living in Charanpur is a cool thing to do, and would bring a definite Oscar win this time for his director. Anyway, Deen Dayal, who once could not earn money enough to support his family of one wife, seven daughters, four sons and two bullocks, is a very satisfied person today. Reason – Well, he recently came to know that the current global financial situation has suddenly left him as rich as the global financial giant Lehman Brothers.

Terrorism is at an all time low today. There have been some miniscule incidents here and there, such as 26/11 Mumbai attack, or the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan, but nothing major. And thanks to global recession for that, which has ensured that the lending power of banks reduce to such levels that they are not able to finance terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Yashraj Films, either knowingly or unknowingly. Result – These terrorist groups are now not in a position to purchase weapons and artillery to attack a city, or produce movies to attack the whole nation and oversees as well.



One of the many terrorists from the terrorist outfit Yash Raj films, Picture taken directly from the scene of latest attack by the group.

Pollution levels in major cities have reduced drastically in past few months as majority of industries, that used to emit harmful gases in the environment, resulting in global warming and creating a black cloud of smoke in the atmosphere as if sending an SOS signal to inhabitants of another planet to come and save the world from the path of self-destruction that it has set itself onto, without realizing that those aliens are not the friendly ones like those shown in the movie ET but are rather more of the destructive kind whose sole purpose of existence is to see the end of mankind, just like the ones from the movie War of the Worlds, both movies considered to be masterpieces to have come out from the shelf of Mr. Steven Spielberg whom I rate as the greatest Hollywood director ever, next only to Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, have now gone bankrupt due to the current global financial situation and have pulled their shutters down. However, the important point to be noted is that the previous sentence is fourteen lines and one hundred and sixty six words long, and does not have even a single spelling or grammatical mistake when copy-pasted in Microsoft Word.

Pollution levels have reduced because the industries have closed down. But that is just one of the many reasons. The other notable reason is that those who lost all that they had to the global recession, are now walking on foot, rather than riding a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. And then there are those who are counted among the elite few, as they have enough money left to purchase a bicycle, and thus are willingly or unwillingly contributing towards the noble cause of keeping pollution levels under check on the planet.




Also, as a result of shutdown of majority of industries, the consumption of our natural resources such as petroleum, wood and coal has significantly reduced. It is being assumed that these natural resources, instead of lasting for mere 10 years as predicted earlier, would now survive the wrath of humans, and would last till the end of the world, which as per Mayans’ prophecy is 2012.

These are only some of the global problems that recession has been able to solve. If you know about any more which have been solved by the current economic situation, do leave a comment.


Saturday, May 16, 2009

ABSOLUTEly unbelievable is Pune


Property prices are falling all over the world owing to the current global financial situation. The only exception, however seems to be Pune, the city I hail from, where property prices and rents are rising at a brisk rate comparable only to that of increase in my waist size. And also to the rate of decrease in my spending power.

I was completely taken aback when my landlord called me the other day, and taught me the mathematics they use in Pune (for details click here). The formula that governs property rent in the city is as follows:

Incr in rent (%) = |Incr in IT employee strength in city| / |Incr in property prices everywhere| x 100%

where |x| =x, if x is greater than or equal to 0

and |x| = -x, if x is less than 0

The reason I was taken aback was not because of the complexity of this formula, but because of the fact that it was for the first time I saw someone apply absolute value function for some useful purpose.

I first came across the absolute value function in my mathematics textbook in standard 9th. And I always wondered what the use of this function is. Is it just to make the algebra problems more complex, so that math teachers such as Mrs Scott can easily group students into “My favorites” and “Spam” categories? Or does it serve any practical purpose in life? One practical purpose that I could think of was to apply it in my grades vs prize graph. Consider that the x-axis in the graph below represents the difference in marks I scored in mathematics when compared to the last test I appeared in, while y axis represents the price or the number of prizes I get from my dad for improvement I make in my grades. I suggested this idea to my dad, and got a week's detention.


I was always hopeful that engineers do use this function in the designs they make for nuclear reactors, fighter jets or T-800 robots that can travel back in time to save the world. However, to my disappointment, I never encountered either a formula or a theorem in my 4 years of engineering, that made use of the absolute value function anywhere. Or a T-800 design lab for that matter. The closest I came to experience a || symbol was while I was studying about capacitors in an electrical engineering book. So I started believing that this world is living a fool’s life to have invented this great mathematical function and never use it in day to day lives.

Years went by, and I totally forgot about it until the day I heard from my landlord. It seems like Puneites know how to use things to their advantage. They are the most educated and rationale people I have come across, as they have made the most out of absolute value function, and devised this magic formula. They have even generalized it to other spheres of our day to day lives such as calculating auto-rickshaw fares or the price of a movie ticket in multiplex. Hats off.

And after my landlord explained me about the formula, the conversation took a new direction altogether:


VM: Great calculation sir! Kudos to Pune property dealers for showing the world what it had been ignoring for long.

LL: So you also appreciate the fact. It is time now to apply it for betterment of society in general. How about making a start and raising the rent for your flat by Rs 500 per month?

VM: But my salary hasn't increased this year by even a single penny. And the property prices have fallen everywhere!!!

LL: That's the power of this calculation. It drives the city. Soon, the whole world will look at Pune as the city that set the example.

VM: Umm!! Sir on second thoughts, ignorance is bliss.


Darn the absolute value function. I can only hope that this world doesn’t open its closet and start looking for similar old unused stuff the way Pune did.


Friday, May 15, 2009

Worst is yet to come!!!

Could it get any worse than this? It took me almost a month to digest the fact that the current global financial crisis has sent such a strong kick in my ass that I literally flew all the way from UK, back to India. And subsequently, the company for which I work, after carrying out thorough analysis and wide range of surveys among all strata of its employees, came to the conclusion that in these bad times, the best way out is to employ the law – Employ the laws on employees, wherever possible. Or in other words - To maintain profitability, reduce workability. And hence, the company cut down on the following key parameters:
1. Employees Promotion
2. Employees Salary
3. Employees Lunch break and leisure time
4. Employees Toilet Paper usage quota
5. Employees
So, the promotion I was expecting got delayed till time indefinite, and I got a negative salary hike this year. Also, due to the upper limit imposed on usage of toilet paper, my productivity and creativity reduced drastically, as I now get to spend lesser time in the “innovation room”.
I thought this is the worst that could ever have happened to me. But how wrong I was? I got a call on my mobile the other morning that resulted in a conversation compared to which, all of my professional hassles stand zilch. It was the landlord of the flat I stay in Pune. Here is a brief of that conversation:
LL: Hi Vaibhav! This is the landlord of the flat that you have currently rented in Pune.
VM: Oh hello sir! How are you?
LL: Listen! You have to pay 500 bucks extra for rent starting this month.
VM: But sir, property prices are going down everywhere these days. What forces drive you to increase the rent?
LL: Look Vaibhav! You are new in Pune, and you perhaps do not know about the property market here. In gist, rent of a property always rises in Pune at a rate calculated by the following formula:
Incr in rent (%) = |Incr in IT employee strength in city| / |Incr in property prices everywhere| x 100%
where |a| = a, if a is greater than or equal to 0
and |a| = -a, if a is less than 0
This great insight into the dynamics of property prices and rents helped me understand why rent always keeps rising in the city of Pune, and how property dealers maintain profitability even in recession times. My company should organize a training session for its Board of Directors, and invite these landlords as trainers.
So this sharp hike of Rs 500 in my flat rent has left me speechless now and pennyless in foresight. And I thought those were the Worst Days Ever???

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Blast from the Future


It was Monday evening, an evening that I hate the most. I was sitting in my cubicle, with my eyes staring at the screen of my PC. The black background filled with green text, and a blinking cursor captured all my attention. Well, almost all, as there still was that Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen, which is just enough to deviate the concentration from your usual work. A friend pinged me on the Office Communicator. And next to communicator icon was the PC clock, which incidentally grabbed my full attention at that very moment. And the next moment, a few questions crossed my mind:

Quest 1 - Will I, or any other mortal for that matter, ever have the capability to control this clock, and the role it plays in our lives?

Quest 2 - Will I ever be able to change all my weekdays into Saturdays or Sundays, so that I do not have to come to office ever again?

Quest 3 – Would anybody ever be able to create a time machine, which would enable us to travel from one era to another, just like the way they show in some of the super hit Hollywood movies and some of the super flop Bollywood movies?



A super hit Hollywood movie based on the concept of time travel


And a super flop Bollywood movie based on the concept of time travel. There are many more.
And a super flop Bollywood movie based on the concept of time travel. There are many more.

Quest 4 - And the most important question of them all – Would I miss my last bus home today ‘coz it is already 9:12PM, and the bus leaves at 9:15?

Out of all these questions, I had the answer only to the last one, which had a greater weightage over the others at that point of time. However, I am a long time MBA aspirant, and just like other members of my fraternity, I have that zeal within me to solve each of the un-attempted questions from the question paper, when I return home after the test. So I started pondering over questions 1 thru 3, and try to think if I have the answer to any of these. And here are my answers to these questions:

Answer 1 – No idea. None of the options selected from ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Zero marks.

Answer 2 – Again, no clue at all. But that would be a nice situation to have. None of the two options selected again. Zero marks.

Answer 3 – Cannot say with certainty. My answer would be ‘No’, because of plain logic – If somebody creates time machine in future, let us say 50 years from now, wouldn’t that person ever test it or further use it to travel into past? And by past in future, what I mean is present in present. Have we ever encountered or heard of any time travelers from future, who used their time machines to reach our present? Or have we ever read of time travelers in our history text books? Is there any real life Marty McFly who rode a DeLorean DMC-12 to reach his past, or our present? If there was one, a sudden appearance of him in public would definitely have made the headlines of all the newspapers. Mr McFly and his machine would have been on the cover of all the magazines, be it Discover or Autocar. Or the most common picture engraved on some of the caves discovered from stone-age would have been Mr McFly riding his car, instead of the primitive man using stone-made tools to hunt down a deer. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This only strengthens my belief that invention of time machine is impossible.

On second thoughts, could those UFOs encountered in recent past by several Americans, in actual, be the time machines? Do time machines look more like rotating flying disks, rather than sports car? And could those strange looking aliens actually be the humans from future whose bodies got deformed during time travel because of the combined action of gravity, centripetal acceleration, some yet to be discovered forces of nature and travel sickness. If the answer is yes, this would be big thumbs down to the theory that there is life outside the planet. And Americans would again go back to their old popular belief that life exists only on Earth in general and USA in particular.

A human deformed due to enormous forces experienced during time travel
A human deformed partly due to enormous forces and majorly due to nausea experienced during time travel

So, again I get zero marks, this time for marking both the options.

Answer 4 – Yes, I did miss the bus that day. So I had to wait until 11 o’ clock, when an evening shift colleague of mine dropped me home in his car.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

A lonely Road




Heaven it is that all seek,
Through the hells, pass I must.
The road I walk is thorns and dust.
Though the destination seems bleak,
In pain I must neither creak,
Nor waver in carnal lust.
In tempest, those who rust,
Are the ones whose lives end meek.

His name to my lips seems glued
'til the end of road I reach,
Where awaiting me stands my reward.
My eyes see what they pursued,
Since eterne, what they did beseech
The beautiful sunset boulevard.

PS: This is my first attempt at writing an Italian sonnet.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Could it be Love?


He would wonder all along if love exists.
Does it make a man out of the wildest of beasts?
Can a stolen glance make someone's heart race?
Could one soul dance to music from another's silence?
If seven seas separate the so called lovers,
Would they die each moment? Or would they even bother?
And he thinks "World's full of wishful thinking,
But this ain't love, 'coz love ain't nothing."

So he saw her that day in his neighborhood.
A grace so pure, a beauty so crude.
"Oh! What an angel face?”, his eyes sighed.
Life tried to keep its pace, but his heart defied.
And two feet couldn't move, they stood their ground.
Was it beeper in his shirt or his heart's pound?
He thought, "It's the charm most mesmerizing,
But this ain't love, 'coz love ain't nothing."

Is there anything else that his eyes could do,
Than see her each night in a dream or two?
Could they ever return to sanity again?
In the book of poetry, they searched her name.
Oh yes! In every single word he would ever read.
Infatuation it was, or so he believed,
That turned his fall into most beautiful spring,
But this ain't love, 'coz love ain't nothing.

It took a li'l while before her eyes met his,
In him, she did find her eternal peace.
She longed all the time to hold his hands,
And dance a salsa until the world ends.
A fire scorched her heart, and he could feel the same.
He kissed her and let them burn in that raging flame,
Thinking it would die out like just another fling.
As this ain't love, 'coz love ain't nothing.

Today, he walks all alone on the lane he chose,
With shadows from his past, how she spoke her vows
To a man who ain't the one she loved.
It was love, while he thought his senses bluffed.
Why didn't he say to her all the right words?
And listened to what his heart always whispered -
"Mate! It may not be to the best of your liking,
But if this ain't love, then love ain't nothing."

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Can you tie down a flame?



You may tie me down in an iron chain,
And pull its ends with all your strength.
You may use your brutal force again,
And hope that I would die in pain.
You may grind your knife's edge, if you'd like
To behead me, take away my life.
Or even put my neck in a noose.
Try killing me sir, the way you choose.

But haven't you heard of what they say.
This burning flame ain't a giveaway.
You tear me apart, I spread out.
You pierce my heart and I burn aloud.
More you poison me, nearer I reach my glory.
Your hands will burn trying to end my story.
And more and more you'll cry in anguish.
But you see, this old flame won't extinguish.

All fire and blaze, that’s not me.
Sir, you don’t know me in entirety.
Have you seen the lamp in that watchman’s shed?
How it guides him, while he earns his bread.
Or those candles, that stand before God in church?
If the virtues in me is what you search,
In the darkest of darks, you’ll see through my light.
I’ll burn myself to turn your dusks bright.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Worst Days Ever

Reasons and explanations, all seem to have ceased.
Each day brought a new life once, all it brings now is disease.
Is it just me who suffers, or is it the whole world?
Have I gone mad, or is universe really in a whirl?
Are these problems that spawned still in their teens?
Or Could these be the worst days I have ever seen?

Each night I sleep, I pray for better tomorrow.
But morning only brings fresh stink of sorrow.
Workplace seems to be nothing more than a joke.
They call me names, and then blame me for being provoked.
Am I an employee to them, or am I a living machine?
Could these be the worst days I have ever seen?

Broken are those strings that we yesterday loomed.
Consumed by these times of havoc and doom.
We walk two different paths that would never meet,
One leads to peace and salvation, the other to greed.
The rare times we talk over phone, we end up in screams.
Could these be the worst days I have ever seen?

A bunch of best friends, thats what we were.
How it all fell apart, now none can gather.
Our hearts were filled with love for each other so true
Then how could we end up as Group one and Group two?
She blames him for his rudeness, he blames her for being mean.
Could these be the worst days I have ever seen?

Is there an end to these days, or are they here to stay?
Would I die in my cube believing I would be rewarded one day?
Can we tie the broken threads we have into another knot?
Would we friends write one story again from our randomly connected plots?
All I am left with now is hope that these days would end soon.
Or a wish to sleep and never wake up to see the burning gloom.