Friday, 28 September 2007
Will the vulgarity never end?
Thursday, 27 September 2007
"Love me or hate me, but please don't ignore me!"
The fact that other sports in India are not given the star status that cricket is, is not a new discovery.
It is a pathetic disgrace that victory in a sport that is played in a lot more countries across the globe doesn't please us as much as winning a grossly shortened version of a game that only a handful of nations play. What was also disgraceful was that news channels followed the parade right from the airport to the stadium and there were traffic jams etc. which caused great inconvenience to the general public. It was just too much!
Just for the record- I too am a cricket fan. And I am happy we won the match against Pakistan. That match was also a fantastic one. But I don't know if it is because of my general attitude to this T-20 humbug that I just don't feel all that ecstatic about it. Honestly, I felt happier when Italy won the football world cup. My mind refuses to accept the T-20 as a cricket world cup. There is only one cricket world cup. And we know what happened in that one (I got over that tragedy pretty easily as well)!
Its true that cricket is a craze in India. Players are idolised and worshipped when they win, and their houses torn down when they lose. This, of course, is behaviour that is bordering on pathology. So one might say that Hockey and other sports are actually in a better position- less pressure etc. The players aren't put on a pedestal, so there is no fear of coming crashing down.
But here, I am reminded of a couplet of by (sigh) Ghalib. It goes something like this :-
"laag ho to usko hum samjhe lagaav
jab ho na kuch bhi to dhoka khaen kya?"
Translation:
Monday, 24 September 2007
Favourite shots
Now I really liked two responses to the "favourite shot" part.
Mohd. Asif (Pak)- "My favourite shot is anywhere in the field...for a six"
Mashrafe Mortaza (Ban)- "My favourite shot is...playing defense"
While one is rather ambitious and has a grandiose quality to it, the other is honest and modest in a very "hum to aise hi hain" ("we are like this only") way.
The more loving one
let the more loving one be me"
From "The more loving one"
By W.H. Auden
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Dear Diary, why don't you slow down for a while?
12:41 PM
At this moment, Holy Cow is what one might label as "happy".
At 11:41 - She wasn't.
And at 13:41 - She might not be.
So let's pause here for a moment, or two...
...before moving on to other branches of the mood tree on which she keeps swinging.
Monday, 17 September 2007
Maligning Malinga
very non graceful, the release seems sudden and premature
as if he has impulse control issues
Vino: you sound like you are talking about sex :-)
Catharsis
21:08 PM
"^#*&#%#*!#*%##!!**#!&*&%!!!"
Ahem.
The defense rests your honour.
Saturday, 15 September 2007
!Viva el juego!
Friday, 14 September 2007
Of should haves and shoulds
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Wise words from a six-year-old
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
What's up?
This was the guy both TQ and I fell in love with at the same time. Of course, like most devastatingly attractive fellows, he was totally oblivious to the sighs he would evoke in us. And trotted along, leaving smiles on our faces, and hearts that were in danger of exploding with joy.
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Angrez(i) ki Atmaprashansa*
** Did the statement "Aha! But what about children? We create them! And we love them!" come to your mind? Well, I liked Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet in which he clearly states - "Children come through you, not from you". In any case, I believe having children is quite narcissistic anyway. I mean, you create something because you want something to love, and then you love it because you have created it.
The narcissism of man
Holy Cow: ? my religiously, and divinely handicapped mind cannot understand what you just said ! :-?
TQ: there are no idols in vaishno devi.. just 3 stalactites in the cave called 'pindis'
so i was just talking about how there is so much faith and religiosity etc attached to calcium formations
Holy Cow: ah okay
TQ: well.. if it can be clay idols, it can be anything
anyway..
Holy Cow: of course
in fact
the tites and mites are actually better!
TQ: how?
Holy Cow: at least they are not made by man.
I am reminded of some surah of the Quran
ye pray to that which ye hath created*
TQ: oh nice :)
Circularity
Holy Cow: what dya mean!
TQ: ah.. what the hell! i love it!
Holy Cow: it's people who have sorry lives who need big entertainment!
it's the good people who are content with small things!
(because they can't get the big ones ;-) )
TQ: how circularly beautiful
Monday, 10 September 2007
Social Networking
Personally, I keep away from these. I was a member of one of them a long time ago, but left because I got in touch with one useful person who I could subsequently remain, and did remain in contact with via email.
Apart from the admission that there is a popularity contest at these places, and the person with most number of "friends" wins- a good time to take another look at this word perhaps*- there is a definite voyeuristic pleasure that people derive out of these places.
"Addictive" is one word people have used for one of them....Facebook. Now I, of the non- social networking- and- having- few- friends category, did not understand how this was possible. What did one do at these places for hours? I was told that you could spend hours going from one profile to another, reading about other people's lives and love. And obviously, if you keep following link after link, there will come a time when you are just looking around at people you don't know.
Such is the craze, that the fact that one can still survive and be a part of the human race if one isn't a member of any of these, strikes people as shocking. People automatically assume that you must be on it.
"Send me photographs", I said to a friend recently.
"Oh, they're on my facebook thing"
"Umm...I am not on facebook!"
"You and your vagueness. Everyone is on it"
"Ummm...clearly not everyone!"
And even better than that was getting scolded for having deleted my profile from facebook! This was a shocker. "Where have you been? Why have you gone underground? Haven't called. Haven't messaged. Facebook profile deleted!"
Holy Cow: "Been here" "Haven't" "Neither have you" X 2 "Hmm...Wait a second!! What??! I was never on the damn thing to begin with!"
Where I like to wander around
http://www.lifesucks.info/index.htm
- read what he has to say. there is an immense amount of sense, and sensitivity in his words.
- thumbs up to this one.
- a round of applause.
- because I live where I live and don't get to watch as much football as I would have wanted to.
- for reason, see above.
- because I love everything about this planet that isn't related to human beings.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
- for reason, see above.
- a website dedicated to the work of a great poet.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~navin/india/songs/isongs/indexes/lyrics/sahir_ludhianvi.html
- here's another.
http://amar-akbar-anthony.blogspot.com/
- a blog that is definitely worth reading. I am a huge fan.
That's it for now. There is always room for additions.
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Cold Comfort
* From 'Crazy in love' by Eminem.
Am I here?
Holy Cow: Hello? Am I here?!
(Silence)
Holy Cow: I need you so I can find myself!
TQ: Yes. I am right here :)
Such sweet words! Music to my ears! Oh! And the joy on hearing that I was in fact present at the scene of the chat and I did in fact exist.
This really takes Winnicott's theory of being able to be only when you find yourself reflected back through the other, to another level now doesn't it!
Friday, 7 September 2007
She
She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song the summer sings
May be the chill the autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day
She may be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
The smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem inside her shell
She who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so crowded and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
But I'll remember till the day I die
She may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive
The one I'll care for through the rough in many years
Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is she
She...