two poems

(1)

If today doesn't end with you by my side...
I wish fate would grant me one more
And culminate it with you I shall...
With it shall end my life, amour

(2)

Hair falls unflattering over your eyes
And mascara smears hide your fair facade
Lips dry and your gaze is unfocused
Still beautiful, does your beauty never fade?

limerick kicks (or the one where I am back!)

[...Yeah, she didnt tell me that either. Iam a mallu for heaven sake! We have no saying which revolves around rugs and lemonade. Ours got tigers and coconuts. She told me that when life gives you a lemon, you make lime pickle; and if you are still depressed, find some toddy to go along with that - Tys-on-Ice (http://tysonice.blogspot.com/2009/01/lend-me-your-year.html) ...]

once there was this dufus
whom destiny's dark hand always chooses
to put him in a state
where it is his fate
that even while winning he always looses!

doesn't take a brilliant mind to see
that indeed, that's me
who was lolling down south
with tongue hanging outta his mouth
and suddenly found himself in delhieee!

replanted in a whole new place
navigating the bloody maze
found that it wasn't easy
and drove me a little crazy
to browse, connect, blog or interface!

but slowly i got the knack
of juggling forth and slack
work, life , play and party
along with my online repartee
and today got my groove back!

[...and yeah, a few words from your sponsor before you log off. this is a true post even though the tone maybe flippant and rhyming a bit strangled. I have moved yet again; this time to the capital. Wish I could say it was in saerch of truth or some other crappy higher calling but its due to the emergence of...ah darn! it's work..dat's all....

...working on a post with vignettes (funny of course) of life here for the last four months and hope to post it soon...bear you me with...I mean if there is any one out there still reading this or feeding on this...are there any? or is this blog just a pale echo reflecting in the chasms of a Web 2.0 graveyard in between broken links and unpinned feedlets? Must...resist...manic...depressive...state. O 'ell, its 4 in the AM and time for me to wind up what I believe is the most personal I have been in this blog for a long time...H]

Red, Blue and Purple

[For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future - John Fitzgerald Kennedy]

Human spirit is a strange thing. Even in the face of the inevitable, when it actually happens, we experience the exhilaration and joy akin to the feeling we have at a surprising turn of events. That was what witnessed across US (and the world!) today.

Indeed, one of the most striking images that will stay with me as a mark of this election is the sight of hundreds of black people celebrating with chairs raised over their heads and screaming with joy. What is it that it is so striking, you may ask, as this image is splattered all across the US of A? The reason is that this was not anywhere in the US but in a remote village in Kenya.

In an unprecedented turn of events, we saw this US election turn into not just an American spectacle but a global event. You had tribes in Kenya supporting him, Democrats Abroad in Chennai having an all night vigil in front of the TV and the largest turnout for Obama, surprisingly turning out to be the 100,000 crowd in Berlin (I can’t emphasize enough on Berlin!)

A lot of euphoria may vanish over the days as the stark realities of recession hits home hard, A lot of grins may turn into scowls as the strict tax reforms are implemented by the man, and Democrats Abroad in Bangalore may start resenting him for the reduction in outsourcing but the fact that one of the most narrow minded (not to mention Paranoid)democracies in the world when it comes to its leaders has elected a African American with a last name that sounds similar to its most dreaded enemy and a middle name same as its erstwhile enemy , is definitely one of the greatest turning points in contemporary history.

As Oprah put it succinctly, "It’s no longer going to be about Red or Blue, It is going to be about Red, Blue or Purple" Away from detractors in the US and at home in India, I feel that finally when a US president says "Us, the United States of America" he means finally the UNITED states of America; Not just the white, but of the Black, Brown, Yellow and Red.

PS: Was it just me or did Bush's congratulatory speech for Obama sound a little condescending?

[This article was published by me first at Desicritics. You can view the original article here]

the day

There are some days, when the weight of history presses on them so heavily that they stretch reality and distort the fabric of space and time. They stand out, among the other 365, because of events that happened, milestones planted on the roads of history, firmly and sometimes, brutally. It is the story of such a day, October 16th. Today.


1781

5:00 PM

"My Lord"

"Yes Sergeant McRowane"

"The Attack failed, The French Battery is still pounding us with their infernal shells. We couldn't over power those ungrateful allies of America"

"Thank You, You are dismissed"

Cornwallis shrugged to himself. It was expected, he thought, with the relief forces from New York held up and with a dwindling supply of Arms, Ammunition and Food, and he would be surprised if he would be able to hold Yorktown longer. There was only one way, he had to get part of his force north across the York River, to Banister Tarleton's position on Gloucester Point. They would be needed there to strengthen the defenses.

"Corporal!" He called out to the sentry outside his quarters.

"Yes, My Lord"

"Tell the Generals of 2nd & 3rd Light Infantry and 32 Cavalry that I want to meet them right now!"

"Yes, My Lord"

Maybe they would be able to hold on at Gloucester Point till Clinton's Forces arrived from New York.

2200 HRS

"Your Lordship, We have news from the forces that were moved to Gloucester Point. They met a torrential downpour and could not proceed. They are awaiting further orders and..."

"I know, Sergeant, You may leave"

Cornwallis felt weary and he knew that it had nothing to do with fatigue of no sleep for 3 days or the tiredness of his body. The weariness was a result of the crushing of his spirit and he knew that it was about to become worse. It always did, after surrender. And he had no
options left.

(The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis’s army (the second major surrender of the war) prompted the British government to eventually negotiate an end to the conflict)

1793

On the morning of 16 October a guard arrived to cut her hair and bind her hands behind her back. She was forced into a common, slow-moving cart and paraded through the streets of Paris for over an hour before reaching the Place de la Révolution where the guillotine stood.

She stepped lightly down from the cart and stared up at the guillotine.

The priest who had accompanied her whispered, "This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage."

She turned to look at him and smiled, "Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me."

She climbed up the stairs to the Guillotine and inadvertently stepped on the executioner's foot, "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose,"

(At 12:15 on Wednesday 16 October 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed. Her head was exhibited to a cheering crowd. Her body was then taken and dumped in an unmarked mass grave in the Rue d'Anjou)

1934

"Comrade Commander, we await your orders"

"I am no commander, comrade. Defeated, retreating armies do not need a Commander or a General", Mao replied.

The young captain thought it wise not to reply. He was perplexed by this show of weakness on Mao Zedong's part. Was he not the Scourge of the Kuomintang? The one man whose name invoked both terror and respect in not only the enemy's mind but it was said, even in the annals of the Red Army.

Mao was oblivious to his reaction. His heart dwelt on the herculean task ahead. He had to take his army a thousand miles away to save them from the eventual massacre from the forces of Chiang Kai-Shek. Staying in Jiangxi was not safe and not was surrender. Retreat was the only option.

But the shame! How could he save himself from that? How could he answer his forefather's on the day of reckoning that he engineered the shameful retreat. Where is the silver lining for this dark cloud!

The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed some 12,500 kilometers over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi. Only one tenth of the forces would eventually make it.

(While costly, the Long March gave the Communist Party of China (CPC) the isolation it needed, allowing its army to recuperate and rebuild in the north of China. It also was vital in helping the CPC to gain a positive reputation among the peasants due to the determination and dedication of the surviving participants of the Long March)

1981

Harish was born

(Though not in the same magnitude as the events before, this birth and the subsequent life till date proved that there is yet hope for the mankind if someone like me can survive purely based on Luck, Humor Sense and Total Goofiness!)

chacha chaudhary - sabu's revenge

Avid readers of this blog would remember the post about Chacha Chaudhary, a frightening old man with a single set of clothes and a scary, warped sense of vigilante justice. He was "The Old Knight" akin Bruce Wayne for Gotham.

Now, I had ended the last post with this:

Yes, this story had everything... except Sabu. This world would be a better place if all stories had more Sabu in them. In fact, even Sholay could have been made better by simply including Sabu in it. Can't you just see it?

I’ll try to get a clip featuring Sabu. In case you don’t know him, hes from Jupiter, is 60 Feet Tall and every time he gets angry a volcano erupts somewhere in the universe. Do I hear you barfing??

Yes, now the time has come to fulfill my promise. No, No...put that paper bag down..I didn't mean the promise about barfing but to introduce you to one of most rocking sidekicks!

He's not gay like Robin, Dissaparate like Supergirl, irritating like Orko or...well you get the point!

Now, without too much ado, let me get straight to the comic:

(PS: The images are a little blurred, if you are not able to read them properly, click on it to open in a new window)

You might have this strange feeling of Deja Vu while reading the first panel of this story. Well, let's face it...That's because all Chacha Chaudhary stories are pretty much the same. They follow one of three patterns:

1) Chacha Chaudhary outsmarts people
2) Sabu whacks the shit out of people
3) Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu outsmart people by whacking the shit out of them

Moving on, we finally see a female presence in the comic. The angry woman on the right is Chacha Chaudhary's wife. She always has this huge rolling pin in her hand, which I think is supposed to hint at the fact that she beats Chacha Chaudhary into submission (or her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to make chappathis all day long!)

Now, the setup to this story is simple - Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu need to earn some money or they won't get to eat anything for dinner. It's really impressive the way Chacha Chaudhary manages to set up the plot right in the first page. Actually that's not so impressive when you figure that the stories are just three pages each.

Another thing you have to realize is that being able and efficient crimefighters (for a very generous description of crime and an even more liberal definition of crimefighters) these two have accumulated a horde of enemies who resemble the who's who of shitty comic book villians. One of them is Dagroo, who has a major grouse with Sabu (If I were him, I would have a major grouse with the artist who drew him like a constipated porcupine!)




Can't you feel the sense of impending doom? I could look at that bottom frame forever.




Hah! He didn't even feel it the first time. The stick just cracked and bounced off his shiny bald head. Weren't expecting that, were you, Mr. Shabroo? Undaunted, he picks up an iron box that happens to be full of money. Who the hell puts money in an iron box and then leaves it lying around town? Now you know why Chacha Chaudhary is supposed to be so smart: everybody else in the town is a complete retard.

There's something else very strange about the third frame on this page. Who is that calling "Yes, go ahead." from the left? We know there are only three characters present, two of whom are in the frame. That leaves just the photographer. And his schizophrenic alter ego.

These comics should come with warnings; I'm sure there are kids who've had seizures while reading this.

Did I tell you? Not satisfied with giving us mental diarrhea with such a character, the creator had actually the guts to introduce us to his twin brother?

OK...Calm down..and p-u-t t-h-e g-u-n d-o-w-n!

He he..we'll leave it for another day, shall we?

(You can read the older post here)