Man who wrapped Logic in Idiocy

Anyone who grew  up in India in the eighties will have so many memories about “DoorDarshan” including the “Chitrahaar”, “Ek chiriya..”, “Malgudi days” and so on. And in those sweet memories I am sure there will be hidden somewhere a message most annoying and almost devastating at times, “Rukawat ke liye Khed hai (Sorry for interruption)”. How can anyone bear a break in a running program? So much so that anything that disrupts good program was not only annoying, but also received all sorts of expletives.

But one man not only wanted to disrupt the running programs, but do it in a way that everyone would be waiting for these disruptions. Even to think of something like this one’s sense of logic should be placed upside down. And upside –down was the only logic that this man knew and started teaching to all of us  through his upside-down interruptions in running programs; rightly calling it, “Ulta-Pulta.”

Someone on cloud nine with a huge success of an unusual (almost crazy) concept would want to cash on a success like this and built deeper roots in the show-biz. And may be our friend wanted the same, so he must have been happy to receive green light to air a full 30 minute show to be aired weekly (only frequency that was in vogue during those days). And he may have wanted it be a big hit. But how would that even try to explain why he named it the “Flop-Show?”

I will never understand why, I will never understand the logic behind such things; but I thoroughly enjoyed everything he offered. Everyone knows that he had superb comic timing and an excellent mind that would think after seeing any social issues and other problems. But the only thing that this man was in-capable of was showing anything in a sorry state. Be it the inflation or the corruption or the red-tape or anything else that people will sit on hunger strikes for. This man addressed those issues with his wit and satire mixed to perfection. Make you laugh at the day today incidents in life that most others would want you to cry about.

The genius, be it in any field can never be repeated; and the same goes for him. The sad accident that took him recently from the man kind, might have taken the future gifts that he would have been conceiving for all of us. But how ever sudden and cruel the death may be; it cannot take away what he gave to all of us over last two decades.

Jaspal Bhatti ji, I know you are not the kind who would want to rest in peace; the laughter that your wit and humor creates will be making God and all Heaven-goers laugh and disrupting the peace of heavens.

PS: Some that I watched many a times in addition to Flop Show and  Ulta Pulta; The police officer of Mahaul Theek hai, Jija ji, Ram Saran Dubey of Kuch meetha ho jaye and the list goes on….

थके हुए पथिक (Thake hue pathik)

थके हुए पथिक तेरे 

चरणों को प्रणाम |

वोह जिन्होंने हिम्मत कर के,

ड्योड़ी से बहार कदम उठाया,

वोह जिन्होंने मीलो नापी 

रास्तो को भी दोस्त बनाया,

वोह जिन्होंने अपने चिन्ह 

जाने कितनी जगह पे छोड़े,

वोह जिन्होंने परवाह न की 

राह में थे गड्ढे या रोड़े|

रिसते छालों को ढकने को 

अधरों पर रही मुस्कान,

थके हुए पथिक तेरे 

चरणों को प्रणाम।।

In the name of religion…again!!!!

And again there is bloodshed in the name of religion. How wrong, how sad, how insane? I have seen this, read about this and felt sorry for this, almost all my life. Which Country am I from and what religion I follow that is irrelevant. What matters is that I was created as the highest of all the creation; I was created a human being.

I was reading news about the recent incidents and also the comments, individual responses to the incidents as cited in the news. Sadly a huge majority of the people posting those comments are angry. Irrespective of the faith they follow or nationality they belong to. Anger seems to be the most predominant emotion these days along with intolerance. What happened to the love and the peace and harmony? What happened to the principles that were taught as a basic learning by any religion of the world?

Honest opinion, the only religion prevalent these days seems to be hatred. Any country one is from, any popular religion one follows, any holy book one may read any place of worship one may visit, but most seem to be following one religion, the religion of HATE. It is like a virus, it spreads itself. Born out of ignorance and intolerance. It is truly mediaborne, very infectious and very dangerous.

I have seen movies about dooms day and also seen shows on discovery and National geographic talking about the end of the world. They talk about the ultimate storms and tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, super bug epidemics and so many other possibilities of this world coming to an end. And seeing the news these days I feel the dooms day prophecies are not wrong and thinking that we are close to that day is not incorrect. But the source of that destruction is not going to be any of the natural calamities or storms. We, the people will destroy the whole World very soon with always spreading; media and social media fed super ignorant hate.

“With great power comes great responsibility” so I heard being said in the Spiderman movie. Social media and easy, open, unstoppable, recent (to the last second) access to information from all over the globe is a great power. We can use it to help and heal and build and grow and develop and strengthen the globe. Not only for us humans but for all what Mother Nature has given us. Thankfully a few of us, who understand the great responsibility that this great power has put on our shoulders, are doing exactly that. But a vast majority just got this power and got it for so cheap, almost free that they would not learn the responsibility that it brings. Sadly most news channels, newspapers other media providers are no exception to ignoring the responsibility that the power of global reach has put on their shoulders.

Hope it is not too late before people realize that responsibility.

Hope none of us has to see the times that Pulitzer Prize winner writer Cormac McCarthy has mentioned in his book “The Road.”

Epilogue: Looking for a savior for all and sincerely I will not even ask which popular religion figure he or she would resemble. But until  that savior comes (or may never come), the responsibility is on us. With Great Power comes great responsibility and history can tell that the power current generation has is way too great than any generation in the past had held.

जीवन सरिता (Jeevan Sarita)

जीवन सरिता 
जिन्दगी अथक नदी के जैसे 

जाने कितनी सदियों से 

बिना रुके, बिना थके बस

चलती जा रही है!

हिमनद से सागर का रास्ता 

तो दिखता छोटा ही है

पर सागर से फिर हिमनद पर,

बदल की झोली में छुप कर

शीत श्वेत कपास की कोंपल

या फिर बर्फीला झंझावत बन 

एक कभी न रुकते हुए चक्र में

जिन्दगी अथक नदी के जैसे 

जाने कितनी सदियों से 

बिना रुके, बिना थके बस

चलती जा रही है. 

हम हर मौसम में आते हैं 

नया चहरा नया एक नाम लिए

जीवन को 'अपना' कहते हैं ता जो 

यह रहे हमारी पहचान लिए 

(किसी एक नाम का नहीं है जीवन

हम भूल के सच को जीते हैं कि)

युगों से गतिमय जीवन सरिता

की है बस पहचान गति, और 

जिन्दगी अथक नदी के जैसे 

जाने कितनी सदियों से 

बिना रुके, बिना थके बस

चलती जा रही है!

Old friends

This is something that I started writing in 2002 after a trip to Daytona Beach, FL. I could not close this when I initially wrote and at that time I didn't know why.... Now I know what was holding me from finishing this piece.

2002

I walked a few steps and the waves touched my feet, welcoming me on the beach. I smiled, looked towards the sea and said, “Thank you!” And the Sea not only smiled back but also roared. I was happy to be on the beach and I had a feeling that the beach is happy because I am there. I have a strange relation with sea. Ever since I was a kid, Sea fascinates me and invites me. And when ever I am near it, it talks, in its own special language and it understands what all I have to tell.

From the little fisherman’s village near Mumbai, India to the roaring beaches of southern California, it speaks the same language. It connects miles. That day I was at Daytona Beach, Florida. A small book tugged in my pocket that I wanted to read sitting near the sea. I was miles away from my apartment in Orlando. I was all alone, just me and the Sea. There were hundreds of people all around us, but two of us were so engrossed into each other that we didn’t notice. I think sea was giving same ‘feel of importance’ to every one present. I smiled again and winked, and I am almost sure that the sea winked back, and again roared with laughter. There was this bond that usually good friends have and the warmth was so obvious……………

2012

Many years since the above was written (it has been almost 10 years), and the ocean of responsibilities had seemingly submerged the old friendships. A bond once so strong (between Sea and me) was almost forgotten. Not remembering any of that, I drove to Virginia Beach last week, with my wife and our two sons, driving to the hotel parking late at night. A late night walk at the board walk and I think I heard someone call my name but I couldn't tell who. Next morning was magical, as I felt almost no tiredness of the long drive and in spite of having slept very late I woke up early and saw the sun rising from behind the waves while sitting in the balcony. And that moment I knew I had to run on sand again. A few minutes later I was on the sea side with my family. Very different from 10 years back in Daytona, no book tugged under the arm. Just a few folded chairs and a box with water and some food on my shoulders and instead of being alone I had my wife walking by my side and a somewhat nervous little boy in her lap and an over enthusiastic big brother giggling while running towards the sea. I looked at the waves and saw something, more like a faint smile. I looked again as if trying to recognize an old friend after meeting him or her unexpectedly in a mall. And yes there it was; the bond that was established many years back existed as strong as ever. I dropped everything on the sand grabbed my older son’s arm and ran to the waves. I am sure what I heard was the familiar laughter from my old friend, the Sea. Right then a big wave rose to me and my son and embraced us. I showed my son to my old friend and then they played  with each other for hours. Actually all three of us played together for hours.

Having spent a couple of days listening to the roars of laughter from my old friend and spending time playing and chatting; it was time to part and I said, “You have not changed even a bit.” “Neither did you," he replied  "just now you started playing more than reading your books, and ......” He paused  and teasingly smiled while looking at my overweight frame and a thinned hair line. “We will meet soon.” I said realizing how much I have missed this. “I will wait, for you, right here, like always.” He said and winked. I winked back. And then he laughed ; his usual big roar of a laugh!!!

Happiness and Law of Inertia

Happiness seems to be one thing where Newton’s 1^st law fails. I know the laws are meant to be applied to the physical entities. However I have this habit of drawing come emotional and some logical (non-physics) conclusions based on the Sir Isaac Newton’s master piece (the laws that has made understanding nature of things so easy).

Newton’s First law: Every object continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless compelled to change that state by external forces acted upon it.

Applied to a state of mind, (assume a state of mind being a physical entity, and I am not saying it, I am just following what my interpretation is of something that was said in the Gospel  "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."), It would mean that if you are happy you should continue being happy unless and external force (something against happiness) is applied on your mental state. But that rarely happens.

Happened to me once after watching an episode of “Whose line is it anyway” many years ago, I could not stop laughing for almost an hour (considered to be very long time for something like continuous laugh) and my wife (of just a few months at that time) thought that either I am crazy or (demon) possessed. I am sure that she even tried to look for some doctor (maybe even a Witch Doctor) contact in the directory to stop my seemingly uncontrollable laughter.

I just ended talking with one of my direct reports. He was unhappy with the fact that he did not receive a great pay raise recently. I tried to convince him that as per the company conditions and his level/status he is very well compensated (actually he is the highest paid employee in his level of experience and expertise). But in the end he was still not happy. I remember he was very happy about his compensation just a few months back and now that he has received a raise (though small but still a raise) still he was unhappy. So the state of happiness even though got a push but changed direction and turned to unhappiness.

That is to some extent what Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory is about, I guess. So Maslow’s theory in my opinion is the psychological opposite of the 1^st law of motion.

Developing a little bit on that, so being happy needs a push and continue to be happy is not our natural state of mind. We by default might be unhappy creatures and continues in its state of unhappiness, or of lethargy, unless compelled to change that state by external forces (happy things) acted upon it. Sadly the friction is inborn to the continuous state of being happy.

That is why it Buddha said enlightenment is bliss. So Bliss is when you reverse your mind polarity and make happiness as the natural (continuous) state of things with unhappiness being an exception at times forced by external factors.

Example: Me and my wife once were having a fun evening lots of laughing and all of a sudden one of us said something, the other one got upset, sad, unhappy. That made the person who had said that unhappy and that person insisted, can you please be happy again? The answer, “Mood  is not like a light bulb that can be lightened just by the flip of a switch.” Now if it can be closed by the flip of a switch like a light bulb why can’t it be lighted in the same way? Big Question; isn’t it? Simple answer; reverse polarity so the mood can be switched on like a light bulb and cannot be switched off like one.

Confused? So am I, if reversing polarity was that easy then it would be a blissful life.

My quest to enlightenment is hidden in finding that switch, reversing polarity and let Sir Isaac Newton’s law take care of the rest.

अगर ........ (If only.....)

At times I am stuck in small stuff so much that I become oblivious of the big picture. And then some times I miss the target and think that it was the small stuff adherence causing it? Tried to sum that feeling below!!!!

मैं तो काबिल था की गुम्बद का सितारा बनता 

पर अगर नीव के मेख़ में ना उलझा होता

तूने जो चाँद दिखाने की कोशिश की 

देखता  चाँद का हुस्न भी अगर

तेरी ऊँगली के ख़म को ना टोका होता

जिंदगी आ के दर पे दस्तक देती थी

किवाड़ खोल के उसको गले लगाता  जो

नंगे पाव को गीले फर्श ने ना रोका होता