Bombay (Mumbai)

And as the city wakes up today after the huge shock last night, I am PROUD to say that YES BOMBAY IS BOUNCING BACK. From what I hear on the BBC, the city is back to what it is most loved for ... its vibrance ... injured, hurt, but vibrant all the same.

My prayers for the city ... though given my definition of 'prayer', Bombay needs none, she has enough Mumbaikars who are ready to live and love ... and therein lies her strength.

Visit this site.

I find it strange that the Police are being very reluctant about making a pronouncement on responsibility ... though I am glad that that they are being objective. The act is deplorable and I'd rather get an answer from the authorities based on data rather than random conjectures (there was an "informed opinion" on BBC which blamed it squarely on Pakistan).

Outrage!

The bomb attacks on the local commuter train system in Bombay is an outrage against humanity. Having spent a very memorable time in the city and having lived and worked around some of the very stations that were attacked, I am naturally feeling hurt by the incident. I cannot imagine the plight of the families who have lost their near and dear ones in the blast.

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE.

On the one hand we keep furthering and pursuing dialogues on tolerance. We seek to build inclusive open societies, we hope to dismantle barriers and treat all women and men alike and yet ... all such efforts are marred by such violent acts of cowardice and intolerance.

There can be no tolerance for intolerance. And even as I bawl in my anger I know that all I am spewing is intolerance ... yet, can we tolerate such acts of cowardice? It undermines the very fundamental assumptions that society functions on.

I don't know how to condole all the families who lost their own, or for that matter how to console the very people who met their untimely end, and in reality this is an inconsoleable loss. However, I do hope and pray for the following:
-> The Indian government can bring justice in the short run while focusing on long term solutions to growing Islamic fundamentalism
-> That Indians inspite of their hurt can stand up and face tomorrow with courage and hard work (as we have before) and also that other extremist factions don't cease on this to unleash what happened in Guajarat

A prayer for Peace ... or at least, some close approximation of it!

Meme-ed!

Hmmm! So I got tagged and now I have to do a Meme for me! Well before I start there are 2 observations I feel obliged to make.

Even though Cabbages and Kings cautions us against confusing with the Meme tool, interestingly this meme business is connected to all the viruses and DNA replication and so on (my background in biology is limited). It is in fact defined as:

meme: (pron. 'meem') A contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind. Memes function the same way genes and viruses do, propagating through communication networks and face-to-face contact between people. The root of the word "memetics," a field of study which postulates that the meme is the basic unit of cultural evolution. Examples of memes include melodies, icons, fashion statements and phrases.

Read more about it here.

And as we are on the topic of cultural evolution, I feel obliged to compare this current blog rendition of a meme to silly old chain mails ... In fact thats what they primarily are with an extra dollop of pleaurable guilt... comprising of a mixture of narcisistic indulgence and exhibitionism... and I guess, thats what makes it entirely bearable, unlike the chain mails that were burdened with altruistic intentions. In fact, the chain mail was a little more robust in structure. It came with various fortune related incentives and disincentives that would surely befall the faithful if they broke the chain. This "meme" business actually has no reinforcing mechanism ... or maybe its the certainty that everybody will want to talk about themselves that does the trick. It still leaves one the opportunity not to tag anybody else (no incentives!), but then again, its fairly certain that within every exhibitionist hides a vouyer, and that does the trick, as each one of us go from exposing to viewing!!

Anyway, me and myself have decided to indulge.

I am thinking about...
not thinking any more.

I said...
"Haven't I already said enough?"

I want to...
drink a Bombay and tonic.

I wish...
I could get a new laptop

I hear…
... birds chirping

I wonder...
what its like beyond the rainbow

I regret...
not having any warm feelings

I am...
trying to type in reasonable responses about me

I dance...
by myself

I sing...
Sunshine on my shoulders ...

I cry...
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

I am not always...
at the bar downtown ... just sometimes.

I make with my hands...
what my mind imagines

I write...
papers and proposals

I confuse...
names

I need...
a glove

I tag:
Prash
The Drunken Goat Farm

Whew!!! I feel like I have done my duty and can safely stake my membership to the community of "meme" bloggers.

You can't speak about it ...

I managed to avoid family weddings for the last 12 years (work, out of town, busy with school etc) till this summer - I was invited to 2 family weddings within a month of each other. So this post is dedicated to my thoughts on weddings. It may be a bit whiny... so beware.

I love weddings.

. . . excepting for the depression that sets in after the last dance.

Interestingly, it is the very same things that I love about weddings that leave me most depressed. The taking of the vows, the support and love showered on the couple, the togetherness of a life ahead, the toast, the first dance (especially when the couple dances well), the madness on the dance floor afterwards . . . till the last dance. And then as I drive away, contemplating on how beautiful it all was, I feel like a child in a candy store with no money.

At both the weddings some kind of a camera was handed to me by a parent of the bride/groom to capture the important moments for them. It was good to feel that they trusted me to know when the important moments would be, though it was laced with the bitterness that the trust probably resulted from me being the only single person available to do the job instead of being obliged to sit hand in hand with a spouse through the ceremony. Of course, I always made sure that there was a professional photographer on the job to reduce the burden of responsibility (I have been known on one occasion to have clicked a whole roll with the lid on the lens!!).

Hence, I viewed both the weddings from behind a camera. I was not obliged to sit in one position with a single view. Instead, I was free to run around the ceremony and capture the most intimate moments of the wedding with a telephoto zoom lens. I felt like I was there in the wedding even though I was always safely hidden behind the camera. The slight smile spreading on the bride's lips, the fumble with the ring, the first kiss . . . I tried to capture it all. Even if they have not been recorded digitally or on tape, they definitely have been captured in my mind's eye.

Talking about photography . . . the photographer at the second wedding was indeed very very sweet and attractive. And when I say attractive I mean more than his good looks. Yes he was hot too! But there was more to it than that. During the ceremony both of us were trying to get the same moments . . . of course him being a professional hire for the evening, he probably had a greater right to the moments than I did. But I was touched by how well he coordinated his shots so that I didn't miss out the important moments. We were almost working together as a team. I knew when to back out and take a different angle of the same shot and he'd return the favor next time.

Of course after dinner when I was going crazy on the dance floor making every aunt and grand-aunt swing with me, he made it a point to do close ups of me and even pulled me to a corner to give me pre-views of the shots. He was my brightest spot the whole evening. :)

Oh well! After the dust settles I usually find myself on the road in the silence of my car. Back from the candy store, empty handed. I love the candy store, I enjoy looking at the colorful candy wraps in the glass shelves. I hate to leave disappointed.

And whats worse, theres no way I can ask for money or even speak about my disappointment. So, till I have to visit the candy store again, I'll dream about the photographer.

Patterns

Theres been a lot going on in my life, on multiple fronts, these last few months. As a result things have left me a little unnerved and plenty absent-minded (I could start up a separate comic blog to talk about my absent-mindedness and its crazy impacts). Enough has been happening to draw the attention of my friends. With the result that I received a concerned call from our minister yesterday, wondering if I needed a spiritual tune-up. An offer that, of course, I gladly accepted. We had breakfast this morning before service. Our minister, is indeed a gem of a person and it was a great comfort talking to her. Most importantly, she pointed out in abstract terms the different ways my life had been influenced though not radically changed in the past few months. In a way it corroborated my recent reflections about emerging patterns in my life, leading me to wonder:

Is the Universe sending me certain signals that I need to heed?

I am usually given to living my life in a some-what organized fashion, an organization that is usually bounded by the daily jumble, toss and tumble. Lately, I have been standing back and in re-evaluating the bigger picture I am beginning to find certain emerging patterns.

For example, how specific topics of conversation arise on different occasions in completely different companies, without my own initiative, and how each such conversation seems to be a continuation of the previous one. When I think of such discussions, the people involved in the discussion become a blur. The only thing that remains with me is the harmony and easy flow in the discussion sequence. Its as if, I am having a conversation with the Universal Consciousness, and the Universe is engaging me over and over again through friends and strangers, challenging me to look beyond the obvious.

Of course, the cynic in me wrinkles the nose (we have only one!) and says ... "Nonsense! You will find patterns when you are looking for one." Which is true ... but then why would we want to look for a specific pattern? An untimely death of a friend, a personal experience that took me close to being severly injured if not dead, the unexplained deaths of at least 2 friendships, spiritual deaths at work and other such episodes that have brought abrupt endings without closure seem to be coinciding with conversations that pertain to 'the passage' often... and with people who have no idea about these happenings in my life. Well... thats when I start identifying a pattern, and duely find one.

Whether its the Universe engaging me in a conversation or me consciously connecting dots on the slate of my experiences, there certainly is an emergent pattern that cannot be ignored.

Pride week

Celebrate diversity with pride ...