Another Japanese Invention?! Duh...

In the hunt for food like a savaged beast (as often,) one day, the path to the fiery destination was just off the road... waiting. The victim, I still do not know whether it was me or the wonderful fish rolled into a Sashimi. Yep, the Japanese Restaurant, hidden in the non-luxurious part of Nungambakkam, Chennai, is a must visit for Sushi, Sashimi and Sake tasters. Try it; its quite an experience. Besides the chops sticks that can make the eating experience interesting, the absolute inexperience and lack of knowledge of the ingredients presented right in front of you can be a revelation to the taste buds immediately and stays in the memory for later lighter moments. The Japanese Chef's balance of food is like the movement of the Geisha-intriguing and at the same time inspiring.

The first time I tried the Sashmi, as my friends and I were waiting for our order to be served, I watched a Man in a chair in the next table shoot backward from his chair (literally) like as if he just had a rocket in his mouth. His eyes started to tear and he scuffled for water, water and more water. I did not understand. "Why make a scene?!" I wondered. "Amateurs!" Duh. Moments soon, our plates or rather tiny bowls were in place and everything placed where it should be. And like a typical South Indian who has plenty of everything without knowing any and that too with the epitome of confidence, I too proceeded to layer my sushi with that little white piece which later I came to be introduced to as ginger and then plunged the sashimi, ginger into a bowl of black thingy which later was confirmed as soya and proceeded to plunge that sashimi, ginger, soya into a green thingy which by the by, I wished I had known before hand... liberally I dabbed my sashimi, ginger, soya and green-coloured thingy and stuffed this splendid bundle into my mouth and... VIOLA! my chair shot back and as I fumbled for my glass of water, the newbies around me gave me that 'look' (yeah right... the same "look" I had given the guy near my table just moments ago) and sniffled. The fiery streak of my nerves have never been exposed to something so freakishly devilish that this green-thingy which shot fire through my nostrils and blasted every opening in my body with every fluid that could possibly explode from them. Duh! that "WASABI" I wish I had known earlier.

Since then I take a lot of friends to introduce them to Japanese Cuisine and I never miss the chance to check out the 'Wasabi-effect' on them... just one of the many devilish pleasures of the world to sit back and smile when you get to see someone else's tongue on fire. hahaha!

A Muted Cry...

“Hence when did thy breasts hate to feed me?
Hence then haven’t they heaved to need me?
Oh Mother! Why art thou so silent?

Those bombs and those ammos from the machine guns, they bother me no more.
They sound like a lullaby to me.
Wasn’t it you who reassured me that ‘this is life’ even before I was born?
Now why do you still lie?

I heard Papa’s plea to let you go before they shot that merciless bullet into his head.
I saw it Ma, I saw it all...
ripped, stripped and writhing in pain,
I heard your final beg to let me go.
I cried then Ma, I cried aloud, I cried my best with all I could;
thought that hearing me cry they would let you go.
They never stopped and choked I lay.

My eyes still won’t open full and I only see darkness around.
Tears mixed with trickling blood have dried
and my voice too fragile to rise above the noise outside me.
Oh Mom! Why don’t you shout for me now?
Was it wrong that I was born to thee?!

Why have they taken it all even before I can understand
in a life time or more what war and hatred is all for?
Tell me Mom, tell me now from up above
Why won’t a bullet silence me too?”

Moi Sleeping Child...

Where on Earth does one find happiness?

A while ago I began asking people I came across, "When was the last time you actually laughed? Laughed just for yourself, laughed not to please anyone and not because it was expected; the last time you actually were happy and laughed like a fool, unbothered..." Everyone brooded for a while and almost everyone had a default reply, "10 years ago." Wow! that was just a number; the actual could be longer.

Troubled with life and the suburban drudgery and chronic dissatisfaction that comes along with it, people have forgotten to be happy. This started my mission to 'Rediscover Happiness'.

Sometimes, I watch my lil' son smiling to himself and making those funny noises, babbling that strange language which must mean a lot to him and he is happy. He feeds, sleeps and sometimes appears to be lost in thought and he transends that feeling of happiness to everyone around him. Everyone, even those serious ones become child like in his precense as they try to mimic his movements and speak his language. He seems to be living Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs upside down. He has all his basic and other elementary needs (those which we, the adults crib for) met/given/provided with happiness. And He, needless to say, is self actualized and transcends the same to everyone around. No wonder people like to be around children.

It hurts me to have to accept the fact that he will slowly be moving downward in that hierarchy of needs, in the course of survival and must climb the hierarchy all over again to reach the point he is already in now as time goes by... as people would expect him to speak their language(s), compartmentalize him into customs, values, mores, traditions, etiquette, culture, religion(s), codes and ethics... someone accepted and admired so much now, will soon be a victim to this compulsory norms and conditions for survival, to gather that acceptance among the people around him who so unconditionally love him now; and I will be watching this transformation (helplessly).

Soon, very soon I shall be asking him "When was the last time you actually laughed? Laughed just for yourself, laughed not to please anyone and not because it was expected; the last time you actually were happy and laughed like a fool, unbothered..." and probably he will help me rediscover happiness as time goes by.

Bottom line: "Man, unlike the animal, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it." Samuel Butler

windows messenger, pandora, limewire

To err is human and to forgive I need wine...

"Its a vice to advice the wise... advice otherwise." A few days back my younger brother had the nerve to tell me something I did not want to hear. That being an uncalled for shot, a cheap one, one that I wasn't expecting, I tolerated. 'He is my brother, right?! (never too heavy to carry).

The confining space of the vehicle we were traveling in kept me from walking away... there was a sudden stillness inside the jeep as the road seemed to move beneath. Was irritated and not angered. For sure I know that 'a Man who angers you conquers you.' So, as often as I do, I just wanted to know the root cause for this sudden rise of offense that seemed to have shattered the norms of brotherhood. It is always the best option to put an end to something that we don't like immediately, then and there, the very first time or bear with it and give an open permit for people to repeat the same thing at their will once again.

So sans saying a word I held a position of silence and pondered "why would he even think of taking me for granted?!". The truth, I know, often lies in the unspoken words than the ones spoken and I began reading between the lines. Could it be his insecurities? Could it be his doubts? Is he projecting his confusion? Or should it be a mean streak that he had began cultivating of late that needed some Big Brother intervention? Or is it something he was doing behind my back that makes him feel smarter just because he thinks that I don't know yet?! Well, it just required a little bit of left headed exercise to connect those logical matrices and the puzzle was solved. And me relieved.

Right now, I am just waiting for the right time, place and situation (those three vital elements) to break the revelation and as often as ever, the truth to be spoken as raw as it gets and calling the spade a spade and nothing else to put a brooding misery to rest for good. Rather than not give away my own insecurities and defend my ego I felt good that I was beginning to respond better than react with age. One more lesson for the road on the road. C'est la vie...

Bottomline: "The greatest bounties given to man are, judgment and will; happy is he who misapplieth them not." Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375) Egyptian King and Monotheist

Heal The World

Its so strange when I wonder about the generation I live with (The next one after mine).

There was a phase when the one's who occupied this world had questions. Questions... questions after question, questions sans answers yet questions built upon questions and at times even questions questioning the questions. A generation of quests I must say. The drive, the fuel were those questions.

Then came the answers. The generation of solution seekers determined to leave every question left behind answered sans rot. The generation of seekers I must say. The fire, the guts to answer, the faith on truth some discovered and some invented.

Then followed the one's we are with today. After almost every question having been asked and almost all the answers given, the ones today are stuck with nothing to ask that hasn't been and nothing to seek that hasn't already been sought. Now they hang inbetween with everything given and with neither drive nor fire and neither fuel nor guts. Just hanging in there wasting their time in a fake, unclear, virtual fantasy almost blowing up in mists of thin air right against them.

When myth is high, science is low and vice versa... now, our great generation having nothing to prove living in a comfortable world of information pollution enjoying the smog of it in every inhalation. How wonderful?! And now they rest in their own misery of superstition, ritualistic traditions and eclectic philosophies and values that suits them... moment to moment. Changing everything they shit with something to fill in once again to stink once more.

Bottomline: “Before you go and criticize the younger generation, just remember who raised them.” Author Anonymous