It cant get more depressing!!
Amidst the blaring horns, the movement is completely restricted with vehicles jam packed hoping to budge ahead when one looks around for some respite and finds the moon smeared with pollution looking uglier than ever before.. It cant be more depressing or displeasing..

Moon has always been dull, jejune and uninspiring with a pimple ridden face and terrible shine compared to the dazzling and impeccable sun. It also had this knack of appearing at the most uninvited times like today when I would have felt better looking at the clear dark sky hoping that something around is clear and free had it not been for the moon which was like a big unwanted mole on a beautiful face..
The sun has always been impressive with his scintillating shine bringing forth light, energy and standing as a symbol of optimism and hope, moon on the other hand has always been cold hearted, cynical and cringing into different shapes. My mom must have surely tried in vain to feed me showing the moon. Moon has always depressed me and goaded me to write such insipid articles much to the chagrin of the readers having second thoughts on something which always remained the prime source of creative poetry and romance since ages.
Moon should be banned and not allowed to roam around freely in the dark blue sky. Atleast it should be taxed for doing so..!!

'An Indian firm has launched a paan-flavoured condom designed to evoke the pungent taste of the betel nut and tobacco concoction chewed and then spat out by millions of South Asians' -- heights of innovation.

An out of this world innovation attempted to increase the use of condoms amongst sex workers and others in the pleasure seeking and giving business. The bonding of human sexes in search of an unparalleled divine pleasure an act of intense fulfillment celebrated to elevate from the mundane activities of human life, what can a meek flavour designed to stimulate the taste buds mark its influence? Innovations should be aimed at spreading the awareness, just like the remarkable concept 'puli raaja ki aids vastunda!' which has done its significant bit in educating people...

In this growing and bulging sub-continent of ours, where we are the most competent in various fields.. economy growing at a rapid rate, poverty not left behind in the race, corruption is way ahead, cinemas, cricket, population, global warming.. you name it we have it..!! But unfortunately India is seriously outnumbered in the divorce rates compared to the rest of the world. A nation which has the history of promoting child marriages and brutal post-marital practices can never be lagging in that area. This should be seriously considered by our elected representatives in the forthcoming five year plan or the next bill that is passed.. but just before the politicians fuel their uncanny creativity at the expense of the tax payer's money, the supreme court had its say on this. To increase the possibility of divorces let's plan more marriages, and henceforth decided to bring down the marriageable age for men. 18 years for all. once you legally turn 18 you have the choice to get married, you are encouraged to marry..

Marriage at the tender age of 16 is not legal (its not illegal either!!) but sex certainly is. All the young testosterones left wild and free on a humping spree, humping all around and you have the government sponsored flavoured condoms to play with.. and its all legal.. the moment you turn 18 get married despite all the odds you may face in the form of parents, caste, class whatsoever for love, for true infatuated intense love and they lived happily ever after.. movies end here.. what next?? You dont have a career but you have a woman.. you dont know how to go about your life but you know true love.. 'Mummy Im home.. I dont want all this.. Please forgive me!!'

This valentine's day all the young budding lovers out there, this is no time for flowers and cards... get married you have the supreme court to back you up till divorce..!!

Growing up not sure for sure growing old..
A naked fact you dont want to be told...

Long long back birthdays meant blowing candles, cutting the unpalatable plum cakes (I used to hate them when they were stuffed into my mouth one after the other swelling my face like a balloon making it impossible to chew or swallow or atleast spit it out!!). Dad gets you new clothes (bigger size so that you can wear even after you grow) and this is the day of the year when you feel special, different (colourful dress amongst the white and blue uniforms).. my aversion for birthdays on a weekend found its roots in my school going days.. Saturdays everyone paints the classroom with overbearing colours and your birthday is just another colour. Sunday there isnt any.. So birthday ought always to be on a school going day.. unfortunately my special day in the class was split into two unfair and unequal halves (perhaps proportionate to the physique) as one of my classmates happened to be born on the same day, that fat bugger always displayed a flamboyant and overwhelming appearance on the Dee Day and brought bigger and better chocolates. I hated him on that day and he hated me for the rest of the days. I always prayed he died somehow and on the same day he was born so that he can inscribe the same dates on the tombstone and I can claim what is rightfully mine. As they say 'God gives every bird thy worm but does not throw it in the nest' , He had his way of throwing this worm out of my life and my friend got transferred to some other high school (where there might not entertain birthdays and chocolates!). Everything happens for our own good..

The Dee Day starts as you stand on the dais facing rows of pupils standing at their respective places in all the possible shades of white, singing out loud in chorus with a flavour of inadvertent disharmony tossed in by certain anti social elements... The famous happy birthday song, a cliche we grow up singing.. But you are oblivious to the singing as your mind is busy constructing a speech ( a sentence actually!!). What would you say 'Thanks one and all!!' 'Thank you my dear friends' 'Thanks my fellow classmates for making my birthday even more special'.. The thought process goes on and suddenly there's a silence, the song is over and you end up saying 'Thank you' swallowing the 'you'. I have always been a disaster with public speaking...

As and when you grow and grow more till all the growth halts, birthdays grow out to form a new definition.. The candles are gone (too many candles), the plum cake is replaced with yummy butterscotch cake you only get to smack from the remnants of the cake smacked on the face followed by a purgation with coke and the terribly unwanted birthday bumps and pocket burning treats.

Finally when everything comes to a standstill forbearing any possible growth (physical or mental) birthdays are reduced to mere phone calls, smses, emails from friends far away, online groups and forums everywhere..
There is lot more forms and shapes to be seen...
Many Happy Returns..!!

Its only words.. plain words.. a combinations of sounds intended to define and communicate a meaning.. a vast list and adding, words form the basis of one of the prominent forms of communication.. verbal or oral communication. Enormous they are but not exhaustive.. words are limited.. they dont replicate our thoughts, imaginations and feelings.. the wild, infinite, enigmatic imaginations and feelings cannot be expressed with near infinite but finite chunk of words.. its as good as channeling the vastness of ocean through a drain pipe.

Its not words alone thats responsible for the injustice, we have certain rules and regulations that govern these words and some of them that govern us too.. when you like a person or hate for that matter, you know pretty well why you like her/him (her only.. him im not bothered!!), you feel that. Feelings dont have any conventions or restrictions, they dont follow any rules and regulations.. they are wild and free like a beautiful giant tree in the jungle.. but once they are put in words, the past, background, society, ethics, grammar, fear, prejudice interfere like axes and saws with various degrees of precision and chop down the beautiful feelings tree carving out a thin slice of wood. Yes you have said it all, but you know its not all.. not even close..

A select few literary genius have got the closest possible to bridge the gap between words and thoughts yet the gap is wide.. sometimes non-verbal form of communication serve better than words.. a genuine smile, blushing cheeks, tears welled in the eyes, pursing lips, silence they all hit the bullseye.

Its only words..

'So you are a lefty??'
'Ya!'
'Hmmm.. You know something, lefty's are very creative!!'
The odd expression and statement I always get when I do something with my left hand..
This world is split in a way where a significant number of beings brush their teeth using the right hand, a fair number of odd ones use the left, then there are some who can use either of the hands to clean and of course the great ones who just dont bother doing it..

The ambidextrous are proficient at getting things done with either of the hands. They can eat, write, play, punch, paint equally with both the hands. Then there are some poor souls who manage to get most of the things done with both the hands combined. One of them being yours lovingly. He eats with right hand but uses spoon with the left (sometimes both the hands are at work when it comes to breaking the canteen served rotis), bats right hand (speaking only about the position. we dont see much activity when yours lovingly is at the crease slapping the wind with the wood. He is always regarded as a hot favorite and most preferred batsman of the opposition!!) and bowls express fast with the left. He writes (scribble you see.. I was a nightmare for my kindergarten teacher!!) with his right hand and definitely paints with this left hand. The lefty's hyper creativity is at work when he starts brushing the strokes with his sinister arm, the end result always being an amusing work of art that belongs to the future (aquarian style.!) whatever that means... he can punch with both the hands (the sum of two forces can only be noted.. ) after watching rocky he even considered kick boxing as a career move and threw some punches onto a punch bag (a cement bag filled with sand thanks to my dad!!), it was then and certainly one of the rare moments when he had a crystal clear thought and made a rationale decision that he is not born to be a kick boxing champ.

Added to the woes, he also had trouble with the directions. The many times he screamed pillion riding on his friend's bike 'turn left' 'turn left' and he is turning right, only to realize that his left was the right right and whatever little he is left with is not even right.. To overcome this he devised a simple scheme where he imitates his bowling action in his mind and decides the directions, left is his bowling arm and what is not left has to be right. (There is a delay though as he's a fast bowler with a long run up!!) This has served him well till date but on occasions when he cant imitate (I somehow cant picture myself running and bowling when im sitting.!) he gestures it often saving the occasional blunder of blurting it out..

Yours lovingly has always been a troubled soul...!!

'Dude.. I think its high time you start thinking about your marriage... '
'Oh.. why so?? '
'C'mon Yaar!!! You bought a new flat and now a new car.. what else do you need to get married?'
'you mean to say these are the prerequisites to get married??'
'Of course.. These can be used to impress the girl's parents..'
'Hmmm.. Is that enough?'
'Yeah. If the parents like you, its all set.. what else do you need man??'
'I always thought being liked by the girl I am to marry was primary!!'
'Not necessarily.. You trap the parents, the girl will fall in place..!!'
'Thats very insightful'
'By the way. what marriage are you planning to do? Arranged marriage or love marriage??'
'I never really have thought about that'
'Let me tell you this.. Arranged marriages have 90% success rate and love marriages only 10%'
'Really.. why so??'
'Arranged marriages start as a compromise. For all the ups and downs in such an arrangement there's always room for compromise. But Love marriages start more on a winning note than sheer love and any tussle in such a lovely life would only get worsened between the egoistic souls and ultimately all that love shatters and breaks up. Arranged marriages have more adjustment than love. The only striking similarity between arranged and love marriages is the dearth of love...'
'Wow.. I dont know if its you or the drink you are having but it certainly was an amusing allegory!! How do you know all this??'
'Experience dude.. Its just plain experience!!'
'Experience?? How can you gather so much experience considering your age!! How many times did you get married??'
'Huh.!! Just like you dont need to get into the ocean to know the profundity of its depth, you dont need to get married for that matter to know what marriage really means..'
'Then what is the source of your so called experience'
'I have a girlfriend.. No.. I had a girlfriend!!'
'Had!! What happened this time?'
'Nothing... Im seriously thinking of breaking up!!'
'Hmmmm. If I remember correctly you seem to have mentioned the same thing last time...'
'No.. This time its seriously serious!!'
'And what is so seriously serious this time??'
'She doesnt love me. she only pretends to do so. She is using me.. The day she is done with me, she will ditch me and go with somebody else.'
'what makes you think so??'
'She has so many friends and most of them are guys.. She keeps going out with them often. she doesnt have time for me!! I know all woman are like that...'
'I dont think you can generalize on that aspect. But you should be aware that she has her own life, her circle of friends, ambitions and everything. You just happen to a part of her life, a very special part it must be.. but you are not the only part of her life... Such sathi savithri things only happen in movies and to be precise only the old movies. Now they have stopped happening in movies also.. This is life dude..'
'Ya.. Thats fine but why only guys???'
'Haha.. You are insecure and that makes you possessive about her. You are afraid that you might lose her to some other guy'
'I am not possessive.. May be i am a little... But I love her and I dont want to lose her!!'
'Dont worry.. Its only natural to be possessive about someone you love!!'
'But why doesnt she understand me?? Why do we have to quarrel all the time? Why is it so difficult to understand woman??'
'Quarreling and then pacifying, hurting and then loving these are all the defining blocks of a relationship. They bring love in you, fill you with hatred, enrage you, make you cry, make you laugh.. They can arouse every possible emotion in you and you do the same with them. You dont understand them and they dont understand you and sometimes there's none better to understand each other. You cant live with them, you cant live without them. Thats how it is..'
'Ya.. May be you are right.. I think I will talk to her!!'
'I know you would do that anyway!!'
'Oh yeah.. Thanks dude..!!'
'Anytime..!! Finish your drink...'
'ok.. Merry XMAS and a happy and a prosperous new year!! I hope you will find your quarreling partner soon!!'
'Hopefully. Thank you.. wish you the same!!'

'Whatever happens, happens for your own good son!!' one of the apologetic ways to appease ourselves. Life hits you hard, crushing you beneath like an apathetic garden roller running over and over a vine ripened tomato trampling it till every bit of the pulp is ironically ironed out (pun intended!) and left to rot, it turns out to be for your own good. very well!!

'Problems in life make you a tougher person!!' the bundle of blunders botched bringing oneself to bear the brunt of bother and finally beating it out only to be borne again with the bloopers but with befitting experience. Brilliant!!

Good or bad, experiences are something which fill your life with memories sweet or bitter it may be.. It cant get worse than living a lackadaisical life where everything has come to a standstill except the callous clock ticking its way forward.

When things are not right nor are they wrong and all you do is drudging along a listless path, again and again expecting a different outcome everytime and not getting any all the time, life gets insane.

An year has passed by. 2007 will soon be 2008... And nothing else seems to have changed..!!