Sunday, December 14, 2008

Walking on a street

Honk honk, rumble tumble

Red bangle green bangle red bangle green bangle

Pigeons swooshing upwards, feather gliding down

Manly swagger, red splatter

Children 1, 2, 3

Phosphorescent lamps of kerosene

Snap crackle crackle

Bottles of Snapple apple

Bright plastic tightly wrapped

Vendors selling movies and rap

Water and ice in a big earthern pot

Sequined sari in the door caught

Man in saffron riding away

Green, blue, orange fountain on a road so gray

A street play happening live

People spilling out of the five knot five

Home is where the heart is,

Walking on a street sure beats this.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Do we really Care?

Written on Dec. 3, 2008

There’s a vigil at the Gateway of India today. It’s a protest gathering as well as a showing of solidarity for those who passed away in the terror attacks on our beloved city recently. There’s a horde of people going – I see people chatting about it at the water-cooler and online as if it’s the Bombay Times anniversary bash that they just got invited to. Pardon the sarcasm, but I have been questioning over the last couple of days – do we really care?

Do we care about those who died or what happened? Do all those people crying foul and asking for resignations concerned about what happened or about their ratings? Many who are attending seem much like a 3-year old attending a relative’s funeral. He doesn’t know who died or why and thinks more about the crows circling the premises than the person on the pyre. Yet, he bows his head out of obligation, and well, cos everyone is doing it. What if, we are attending just to keep appearances? To not be labeled as selfish bastards who have enough troubles of our own to deal with and could care less about who died.

These terror attacks are not new. There have been similar happenings in Delhi, Malegoan, Ahemdabad, all over the country. There wasn’t a vigil then, why now? Have we finally found the time out of our busy lives to mourn the dead? Or has the fact that we could have been at CST or at Leo’s that fatal night chilled our bones and made this personal? The tragedy has struck too close for comfort and suddenly we are aware, that our surroundings are not safe anymore.

Is that why we are conducting a vigil? A little for those who died, and a lot for those who survived, to reassure ourselves that our collective voices are the harbingers of change. That tomorrow, it will not be you or me who dies the hands of a terrorist as we ride in a train going home or unwind with a drink after work. To overcome the guilt of being secretly glad that it wasn’t us.

I sure as heck hope not. But it will be just one of the questions on my mind as I stand at the Gateway, sharing that moment with a sea of Mumbaikars, who have shown up because they really care and not because they could get off work early on this pretext. Hopefully.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Where are the Good Men?

Forget the Futures & Options. With the stock market plummeting, my parents now have my Marriage Options on their mind. And the rest of the khandaan, finance oozing out of every pore in their bodies, has cast the newspapers aside, flicked off CNBC and actually discovered the web and its offerings such as Bharat Matrimony. and proceeded to educate my parents about it as well. I harbor the secret suspicion that my doting parents have created a profile of me on these sites – the thought is enough to make me break into a sweat.

But the question is not whether I want to marry (No is still the answer, aai). Rather the question that I find myself screaming is where are the good men gone? When I was in the US, I figured that I didn’t find a suitable boy because I lived in an oasis of Indians among a desert of Salt and Pepper. But now, even back home, its water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Sure, there are lots of men, but I am yet to meet someone who has piqued my interest.

For starters, Indian men have loads of testosterone in them, man. This works in 2 ways – one, it makes them hairy enough to be mistaken for a grizzly, and two, the hormone manifests itself in a male chauvinist ego. An, anyone who knows me will vouch that I am not one to take the women should be at home, cook and take care of the kids crap. Hey, as far as I am concerned, he had a 50% share in creating those kids too, so its only fair he takes 50% responsibility for them. Heck, I even play pool better under the influence of anti-feminist comments (I just channel my anger to whack the shit outta them balls... figuratively speaking). As for hair trichosis, its best as the trademark of chubby cheeked politicians. I really don’t fancy hair sprouting like thin blades of grass all over my beau.

Also, I have bigger problems to worry about than Gold Diggers. I have discovered the Nasty Nose Diggers. These are men who spend their time exploring the recesses of their nasal passages, in plain and full view of members of the opposite sex. What a turn-off! I swear, I have seen a man’s finger disappear so far into his nostril, that I thought he was spooling his brain out from there – old school Egyptian style! Two words for these men – tissue and restroom. Take the first with you into the second, and conduct your explorations with the first wrapped on the finger, in there. It’s really not that hard!

Once in a while, I do meet a guy who’s well-groomed and pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, he opens his mouth and I realize that he is all Brawn, No Brain. That one’s quite a no-brainer from that point on. In my quest to seek out a smart man, I even rather foolishly listened to my friend who introduced me to her friend via the web. We chatted online and after a refreshingly intelligent conversation, decided to meet. Sadly, he turned out to be a Virtual Reality – his e-persona being poles apart from his true self.

Oh, and let me not forget the Addicts – men obsessed with the next "conquest", or the latest gaming console, or the other vices like sex, drugs and violence. I love playing the Wii, but do I enthusiastically plan a night of Wii debauchery with beer and chips? Hmmmm, No. Also, worht mentioning are the Suck-Ups who think that it’s so cool that I am from the US (translation: I must be easy) and come tumbling over to kiss me on the cheek. Honey, I learnt how to politely brush cheeks at social dos in the US, not slobber over people. Besides, I’d do it only with a girl friend, not random men! Back off and pipe down in your seat.

I am just waiting for that knight who can yield a sword as well as he can spill poetry from his lips, who is chivalrous and not a chauvinist, whose words are kind and actions kinder. Till that time, I am going to remain single, thank you very much.

Thankfully, my parents haven't seen “Dostana” yet and fretting about whether I don’t like guys. Hopefully after reading this post, they will not start fretting about whether I don’t like guys.