Scotty...Don't 'Beam' 'Up'

Over the last couple of years of doing extensive city driving, if you ask me two pet peeves without a second thought i will rattle off 'high beam driving' and 'excessive honking'. While the honks are still bearable (especially if you put your windows up)...there is sadly no escaping the high beams.

High beams in city driving are almost redundant since you've got vehicles all around you illuminating the road up. The only time you'd find them useful is when driving on a lonely dark stretch at night. However this realization doesn't seem to light up the minds of our fellow drivers.

Now I've often chided myself for not doing anything about it, other than driving on low beam myself. So this one day after one high beamer coming from the opposite direction passed me by, I decided to 'do' something...Right after him maybe two score metres away came another high beamer. Now this being a colony road i swerved partly into his lane stayed there for a while and then moved back out while slowing down. He also slowed down and I told him that he was on high beam.

His reactions:
"I just came off highway and hence was on high"
"You should have flashed"
"Who do you think you are, You can't just swerve into my lane and run me off"

Now the first was a really dumb point, There is no highway in the nearby radius which has a lonely stretch, nor any which is not lit up by streetlights. So i ignored it.

For the second I told him, I did flash him (cause that's what I do to all high beamers whenever feasible...its unfeasible when a high beamer is precluded or followed by a low beamer, why make the poor low beamer suffer). but he argued and said I didn't...unlikely but possible and since that was not my main point of reasoning I didn't pursue that line further.

For the third I told him, that if my intention was to run him off we wouldn't be talking, but because of his high beam someday somebody might be blinded for a second and run into him or someone else.

With that exchange he drove off cursing me and I drove off too....unfortunately it still doesn't feel like something was 'done'. After all my purpose was to convert one high beamer to low beamer. That didn't happen (unless from the next day while he didn't admit his mistake the guy did realize and did actually start using low beam...highly unlikely)...I did manage to aggravate a guy..so not only was he a high beamer...he was now a pissed off high beamer...and third I took the law into my own hands...which is a bad trend to set.

So the question...and the purpose of this lonnnnnnnngggggg post is....how do we get the high beamers onto low beams...what's the best method...Should we stand with placards and go on a fast to death to make people realize that corruption is not just about paying bribes but having a lack of civic sense....or should we do what I did...or worse start swinging baseball bats into the headlamps of cars being driven on high beams...

I don't think either is a good solution. If you have one in mind do let me know...

Meanwhile I think I shall cut out some lettering and paste it on the inside of my car's rearscreen in golden letters "WHY ON HIGH BEAM" that's genteel enough a hint don't ya think :)

to

Cute Little Short Stories #CLSS - Plain

She was at her desk. You could see from the lines on her face that she was tired and weary.

'Want to go out and chill a bit'

'Where?'

'Oh some place nice'

'But i'm not even dressed up she said, just this plain dress and shoes'

'On you nothing is plain'

She smiled...'so where are we going again?'

'To the roof' he said with a tone of full seriousness

'But you said some place nice'

'Come with me and you can judge for yourself if it is or isn't'

The sun was at its last stages of saying goodbye for the day. He took out his cell and played a touch of soft music and he pulled her into his arms and they slow danced 'Want me to cook tonight?' he asked.

'What will you cook she asked'

Something plain he said

'With you its never plain' she replied with a smile

What we need...is a bit of Intimacy

While the world harps about privacy, or the lack of it in this era of phone hacks and News of The World etc etc I would like you to draw your attention to a more critical ailment that ails the world. Lack of intimacy.

I am assuming that the readers of this blog have at some point of time or the other found themselves in somebody's arms. Their mothers, lovers or even their pets. What is so warming about being in somebody's arms? Would it work if those arms were substituted with any other person?

My hypothesis is that this warmth has little to do with the physical proximity but more to do with the feeling of being intimate (sexual intimacy is just one aspect of it or just one way it gets expressed) is the feeling of being naked, or open and transparent to the other person. Of feeling secure.

The world as its getting more complex, more networked, some parts of it, large parts of it, maybe under a threat of losing out this intimacy. We have friends, parents, lovers. But do we find ourselves comfortable being naked in front of them?

I have a fear that while the bodies in favor of being hot are getting increasingly scantily dressed, the hearts are getting increasingly clothed. Privacy has taken over intimacy.

Or perhaps am talking all bollocks and you just wasted five minutes reading this and are now cursing me for this pointless stream of words. My bad :D

When things were tough...the world was much better

As I was driven out of the airport in my cab, along side passed a Meru, with a lady inside speaking away on the phone, don't know to who, don't know what topic. And like the rolling of the reel of a film, the scene panned out with many more such cars ahead and behind us, made me wonder...

Of the days when travelling from one city to another was not just a matter of logging onto cleartrip and booking a flight, getting out of office into a cab, another one picking you up at the other end. Where travel required thought, where companies preferred that people travelled in groups so that they could be picked up together. Where cabs were still a luxury and if you were a singleton you'd take an auto, not because you were considerate of the environment but just cause it was more economical.

Where per force you would spend time talking to neighbours or your auto driver because well there was no cell phone or twitter to hide into. Where if you didn't feel like talking, you would sit in silence and enjoy the moments of forced solitude.

Where distance did make the heart fonder, and since you couldn't reach the other person on sms, any letter or phone or even know how of the other person made you smile

Shit those days were bloody hard, can't imagine how we got through living without tv till age 8!!!


...and now...we're going back...this summer heat the family has discovered that no one wants to watch the tv cause its too hot (no ac in the drawing room)..and we all eat dinner together in the bedroom...talking chit chatting...

God i hate technology....god i love technology...damn our middle classness that we haven't yet thought of putting in the ac in the drawing room...god bless our middle classness...that we haven't :)

Three Signs of Success

I've seen people on the streets, and I've seen people who are multi-millionaires at a very young age. I've seen beautiful people, well built people, people who are masters of their craft.

Yet neither one seems to be a good measure of success. People who are successful at their career may not be that big a hit on the personal front. A poor laborer may have had no opportunity to build a great career, does that mean a laborer can't be successful?

Over the years a kind of feeling struck me that measures of success need not be these direct aspects and I related back to my experiences when I felt successful and realized it really may be true. So if you are feeling successful tell me do you also feel that you can:

1. Breathe easy
2. Sleep easy
3. Crap well

Yes really these are the three. If you are not breathing in air like you own the world, if you can't sleep well at the end of the day and your crap looks like puke then there's something really wrong in your world even if the world can't see it. And the days all these are working well, no matter whether the world notices or not, you are probably feeling its your best day ever...

A prayer

Lord, protect our doubts, because Doubt is a way of praying. It is Doubt that makes us grow because it forces us to look fearlessly at the many answers that exist to one question. And in order for this to be possible…

Lord, protect our decisions, because making Decisions is a way of praying. Give us the courage, after our doubts, to be able to choose between one road and another. May our YES always be a YES, and NO always be a NO. Once we have chosen our road, may we never look back nor allow our soul to be eaten away by remorse. And in order for this to be possible…

Lord, protect our actions, because Action is way of praying. May our daily bread be the result of the very best that we carry within us. May we, through work and Action, share a little of the love we receive. And in order for this to be possible…

Lord, protect our dreams, because to Dream is a way of praying. Make sure that, regardless of our age or our circumstances, we are capable of keeping alight in our heart the sacred flame of hope and perseverance. And in order for this to be possible…

Lord, give us enthusiasm, because Enthusiasm is way of praying. It is what binds us to the Heavens and to Earth, to grown-ups, and to children; it is what tells us that our desires are important and deserve our best efforts. It is Enthusiasm that reaffirms to us that everything is possible, as long as we are totally committed to what we are doing. And in order for this to be possible…

Lord, protect us, because Life is the only way we have of making manifest Your miracle. May the earth continue to transform seeds into wheat, may we continue to transmute wheat into bread. And this is only possible if we have Love; therefore, do not leave us in solitude. Always give us Your company, and the company of men and women who have doubts, who act and dream and feel enthusiasm, and who live each day as if it were totally dedicated to Your glory.

Amen.

This one is by Coehlo, can also be found on his blog http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/05/a-prayer/

It is one of those, that asks for the right things...gave me a sense of peace reading this one

Like Dogs chasing Cars

Was seeing SourceCode yesterday night, and the movie is slow enough to give your mind time to have wandering thoughts. And I came back to a thought that I had when I had first started this blog. About patterns, about the mind believing something, because to it, that seems rational. But what if we didn't believe what we felt was rational, believable.

Then the world is open to so many more thoughts. Two + two need not be four, cars may run from dogs, being alone may not be bad, there could be a past present and future and they may not be in serial order. There could be afterlife, what I thought was love, may have been love, and then what I didn't think was love could also be love. Success could mean, having a cup of tea relaxed, people don't cry at funerals for its not a reason to be sad.

I don't know, I think I gotta stop being in patterns. It opens up so many more possibilities

mele-mein-choli

no no this is not going to be a dirty naughty post...though am very tempted to write one ;)

In recent times two of my friends have talked about a deep sadness that refuses to get shaken off. While one is here in India, another is based in US; both are doing pretty ok (read good) on the professional front and both seem to have a very sticky personal front.

We all go through ups and downs in our lives don't we. But this sounded different, this was neither an up nor a down, but like a bottle of beer that had been kept open so long that it had gone flat, the fizz had gone.

The fizz that makes you wake up in the morning and face the world which isn't always good to you, isn't always bad to you; to take the twists and turns that life throws up before you. The fizz is that tingling taste that you feel, that sense of excitement, the sense of wanting to know what's coming.

But sometimes you know you eat boiled vegetables the doctor has told you so and you think i'll have the fizz some another day. And you get enticed, you keep pushing the fizz away, thinking you still have time, but you forget the bottle is open...

Life is about balance, somedays we really do need to skip that bottle of fizz, but it can't be that we just keep ignoring our dreams everyday, because it just might be that when you've made enough money to live your dreams, you find you don't have any dreams any longer.

The trouble is not about people focusing on work more than their own life, you might find the same happening in people with a very good personal life but hardly any success at work. Life needs a meaning, a search, and a desire...

So what does one do when the bottle of beer goes flat, is it the end then, no hope for people to get out of this state of sadness.

I'm not sure but I would bet against it, the whole thing about life, about every new breath you take is that you don't know what can happen next. Sometimes its you who brings in the change, sometimes life thrusts a change on you that pulls you out of it.

I will not be presumptuous and tell you what one should do when one is going through such a phase, ok what the hell I can atleast throw some wild shots who knows you might benefit from it. The first is change...you can't expect different results if you keep doing same thing. Second its a long drawn out battle...having somebody you can trust especially in your down times may just help. And lastly if you're going to live (and for those considering taking an overdose of sleeping pills...imagine if you die and there is actually a god and rebirth is not just make believe and you are reborn in worse of conditions...now that wouldn't be good would it... :P )...so as i was saying...if you're going to live...fight!!! fight your way out of this melancholy...