The Sound of Words

Words.

They are the perfect examples for the adage, Big things come in small packages!

Almost elfin in existence but colossal in significance. Surprising then, that we take words so much for granted…so often…and so easily.

We take them for granted to such an extent, that we fail to acknowledge the inimitable role they play in our life. A role so noteworthy, that were it not for words, our thought would have been nothing more than the sound of silence. Abandoned…mute. Words lend it the voice it speaks in and the language it communicates in.

How? You may ask. Well…Can you ‘think’ without words? What shape or form do your thoughts take if not as words? Think…but without the aid of words. Dauntingly…incapacitating ain’t it??

Humans and Communication, go back a long way. And it’s in this fabric of our strong history together, that words are essentially inter-woven.

They are empowering, ever-lasting connectors that bring us together & link us… bit by bit…word-by-word.

Words build conversations and conversations build bonds. We are what we are because of the words we share…with ourselves or with others… in silence or in clamor.

Without words we’d feel isolated and it threatens our fair-chance to hear, what life around us communicates.

Drawing upon one of may favorite lines from the movie, Crash, which goes something like this –

…We miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we may feel something...

I’d conclude this post by saying -

(Sometimes) We miss that sound of words so much that we squabble with each other just so we may hear something.

Eye-struck!

Opening up to brightness,
Embracing the ensuing alluring view,
From fuzziness to clarity,
The eye captures the worldly brew!

As it stares into the blueness a-kin,
Time transforms into a statical moment,
Yet moves an eon beyond measure,
As it’s beholder recollects… memories spent!

Intense and powerful… eyes say it all,
With warm, serene or raging glare,
Conversations made without a sound,
Moments lived without a care!

The engulfing orbicular depth,
Arrests my gaze, causing me to slowly sink,
As I lose focus of all else around me,
Moment by moment, blink by blink!

…And in a moment such as that,
Your soulful eyes… reflect on me,
Mirroring our ocular silhouettes onto each other,
As I become you and you become me!

Blog-xpression!

Alright. That’s it!

It’s time I take control of this blogspace for a while. Well, someone’s gotta lend respect to the spirit of creative expression, you know! Especially when the blog’thor is… well… absconding the blogspace; conveniently abandoning any possible inkling of my… umm... the blog’s existence! So much for owning up responsibility, eh?!

Ahem! Anyways…so here goes. Let me start by introducing myself.

Hello dear readers! I’m called, ‘Yeh Dil Maange More’.

Umm…Pardon the long name. You see my blog’thor lacks the deftness of words. In the acronym-ous times, she’s committed a creative-faux pas truly! I mean, it’s really criminal to indulge in lengthy name-creations when the world is, in fact, adopting a short-is-sweet pattern. But then, who EVER asks you before naming you??! Haan??!

It makes me wonder though… is she a follower of Shakespeare’s famous line, What’s in a name??

... Ya right!, I’d say…ask ME for a change sweetie, would you?!

Oh! And before you misunderstand ‘greed’ to be the attribute behind me getting this name, let me correct you, it isn’t so at all. My dear blog’thor again has a rather un-skilled verbosity, if I may call it that. Well, actually I just did.

Apparently she has her own inexplicable creative reason for naming me so.

Unh!Unh! Don’t worry people…she gets these ‘creative’ bouts sometimes...part of life!

Anyways, moving on… I must admit it feels rather lonely and restless sometimes since I’m kept inactive quite a lot lately. It’s my blog’thor at it again. She attributes her negligence towards me on her being very busy with other stuff. Psst!...I’m letting you all in a secret, people. It’s all hogwash! She ain’t busy at all. She’s just being plain lazy I tell you!

I mean, don’t they say…Where there’s a will, there’s a way?? (Psst!...and you know, where there’s none…you need to find a shovel to make that way, Damn it!!! ….Sorry…I know…that was a lousy one!) But, she’s just not trying hard enough. Somebody didn’t tell her that when you’re drowning (in laziness, like she is), you should either be swimming like ….like… Michael Phelps, or else, be crying-out-loud for help like that’s your only hope for rescue!!

But she, being who she is, chooses neither!!!

She’s been promising to reclaim me soon. Baah! I’d say! How can anyone really believe her? She’s a writer for Christ’s Sake! And writers are awesomely eccentric! And believe you me!... Eccentricity is not really my cup-of-tea!

What??!...It’s just a good use of figurative language there!

So now you know where her lingual inspiration comes from??! Hmmm??!

Well, we’ve entered a new 12-month cycle recently. But to tell you frankly, I really wonder if she even realizes that the ‘8’ has turned into a ‘9’…following the 2-0-0!

8 Outgoing… 9 incoming! Ummm… that sounds really weird, doesn’t it?? Excuse any leeway of a pun there. Truthfully…unintended!

What I’m trying to say is, I know that’s a subtle change but it’s a ‘significant’ subtle change because it modifies the calendar by a full 365 days!

But you know what??! .. I’ve decided to help my blog’thor in honoring her promise of reclaiming me. ‘Coz, after all, I’m the blogspace…and she’s my blog’thor. We’re really for each other. She expresses through me and I mirror her expressions to the world.

So, in line with the universal tradition of making-to-break-resolutions (albeit, I hope this resolution doesn’t get fractured that easily), I’m resolving to keep reminding my blog’thor of my existence, even if it’s through posts like these…sprinkled perhaps, with a few criticisms like these. But am sure she won’t mind that.

After all, that’s what friends do right?!...Nudge a little when you need to be set in motion and lend a whack when rectification is required. A friend in need, is a friend indeed, eh??!

And well, I’m not ready to let her forget me as her friend that easily… just yet!!

So from one friend to another,

Wish you a BLOGGING New Year 2009!

Of Feeling and Thought…

What is Feeling?
And what may Thought be?
Can you thoughtfully ever feel?
And with feeling develop a thought?

"Think not when you want to Feel,
Feel not when Thought beckons,
For Feelings and Thoughts are
Independent, opposite brethren".

This they tell me,
And relentlessly bellow,
But what I Think or Feel…
How can they ever know?

In the Heart, lives the Feeling
The Mind, where Thought resides.
Neither can ignore the other,
When the need, is to pulsate lives!

So let yourself Feel today,
As Thought draws you near…
Let the two co-exist,
And their bond, grow more dear!

Continuance

Tiny balls of radiance,
Shimmering in yellow glow,
Trailing each other, playfully.

Silent surrounding darkness,
Accentuating the glimmer-balls,
Embracing them altogether, in its arms.

Bobbing balls of light,
Reach out to me…
Revising their pace,
...every now and then.

Standing amongst these light balls,
I see them rushing at me,
As everything suddenly turns white
...And the whiteness grows.

An involuntary blanket of darkness spreads
As eye-lids seek to avoid the glare,
And the sound of brightness passes me by.

On a black, rain-soaked night,
The traffic vehicles nudge each other
As they move ahead,
Eager to reach their destination.

Journeys end.
Lights fade.

As more bobbing balls continue…
…to slowly emerge…
In search yet again…
Of new journeys…
And new destinations.

Deadlines... and more

Deadlines are funnily scary elements of a working professional’s life. It is almost amusing to see the two co-exist.

In fact, it won’t be erroneous on my part to say that the two share a love-hate relationship like a haggard old couple, who’ve been married for the last 50 years. They can neither look each other in the eye nor can they do without each other.

So what if, there was to be a conversation between the two? A candid conversation between the two inseperables, would probably go something like this:

Deadline (in a Joey-esque): How you doin??

Professional (sarcastically smirking): Any guesses??!

Deadline: Well, just the right one, if you ask me! ;P
Don’t get me wrong if I ask you this but, how are ya placed this time, eh??

Professional: Haah! Is there ever a difference… ‘buddy’?! Like always…I’m running a day late! No surprises, right??

Deadline: Ugh! Ugh! None whatsoever!

A satanic pause and an exchange-of-smirks later….

Professional: You know… It’s always amazed me to see how you have this incredible flair to consistently, unfailingly outrun me in the race against time?! You’re always a day ahead of me! How the hell do you manage that??

Deadline (Stepping away in caution) :Whoa! Did I just sense some hostility exuding from you?

Professional: Oh yes you did! If you hadn’t yet realized, my ‘dear friend’, we have a perennial aversion to each other!

Deadline: Ya! Like I could never make that out myself, duh??!

Professional: Cut the drama out and throw me an answer if you have one!

Deadline: Patience dear Watson! Patience!

Professional (in mock laughter): Deadlines aren’t good with anything! (…or anyone!)...Not even fiction, I see! It’s ‘Elementary, my dear Watson! Elementary!’

Deadline: How enlightening! Thank-you! Am sure Sherlock Holmes would be ever-so grateful for your kind rectification of erroneous me!

Professional: Am sure he would be… If deadlines were the ones he COULD rectify for good!

Deadline: Ahem. Coming to my answer, well, I don’t need to do anything much myself. Lets just say, that I have ‘friends’ (read: senior management) helping me out to stay ahead in the race. They’re the ones who understand my true worth!.. They’re not like you…who don’t know how to respect deadlines!

Professional: But of course! Partners in crime, indeed!

Deadline: You know it really amazes me to see people like you exhibiting so much aversion to ‘Deadlines’ , yet ‘Deadlines’ are precisely what you’re attempting to desperately meet …all the time! You hate me!...But can’t do without me!

Professional: Aah! Working life does have a quirky sense of humour … that’s really hard to escape!

Deadline: Or…professionals don’t have the ability to appreciate humour, since they don’t have a funny bone at all!

Professional: Oh! No, no, no, no, no! With deadlines like you round the corner, our funny bones are all long broken and crushed, believe me!

Deadline (roaring with laughter): Oops! That reminds me…. As much as I enjoyed this repartee with you, dear professional, I think you’ve conveniently forgotten that you had other deadlines to meet! …And the suave me…doesn’t believe in keeping a deadline waiting! (winks at the professional)

So scoot away, while you still have a chance to meet the due deadline! And…good riddance… ‘buddy’!

Professional: Oh No! Not again!

***

Prelude: Chetan Bhagat’s Book 3

Ok.

It took a nose-crinkling cold and ceaseless, power-packed coughing to get me to compose a new blog post finally! Like there is scope for anything else with these monstrous symptoms doing a good job of constantly reminding you of your ill-health. Eh??!

No. Seriously. With reasons like these, you don’t need much cajoling to indulge in activities, that otherwise find a rather sporadic existence in your daily routine.

I mean, I would rather have a regular 5-min alarm to remind me to blog than fight the exploding cough in my throat at every puff of air inhaled!! Cough! Gasp!

So as I lay nursing an ill-me, I let myself indulge in the other activity that I could possibly derive a wee-bit entertainment from, to distract my mind from the illness-reminder pangs.

And so, I opened the first page of the book that my reading-clutches were so desperate yet unsuccessful to grab, since the day of its launch in Pune on 25th May 2008.

Yes. 25th May 2008. This was the day Chetan Bhagat was in town to launch his 3rd book, Three Mistakes of My Life.

Now, anyone who’s been strolling in my blogspace, would know that Chetan Bhagat, the author, has been a personal favourite. Be it Five Point Someone or ON@CC, Chetan’s writing has mesmerized one and all. So much so, that these books are now being turned into renditions of a 70mm experience.

It was of little surprise then, that Chetan Bhagat, now a sought-after author, would launch his 3rd book with quite a writer’s panache. Well, almost!

Why I say this is because, this book launch had all it takes for a successful launch. The author arrived late, ensuring adding-on to the ensuing hype, behind the launch. Strike One.

The launch had celebrity guests to add the glam quotient, viz, Atul Agnihotri, Sharman Joshi and Alvira Khan. Their presence, doubling also as a means to promote their forthcoming movie, Hello based on Chetan’s ON@CC. Strike Two.

A round of Q & As for the author by his Pune readers. The icing on the cake. Strike Three.

Now, for the inquisitive readers, I know this, because I was amongst the crowd at the launch, seeking a glimpse of this author-wonder whose innocent boyish face belied the witty brain at work. Yes, I witnessed my first book-reading and launch session with an author I admire. Not so much for the way this 5-Point Someone has risen to unimaginable heights of admirations so soon, but because the guy genuinely is witty and expressive with words. So I wasn’t surprised to see him dodge fan-queries with a little hesitant yet smart ease!

There was a rather interesting and healthy barrage of words exchanged. An excited fan, unable to get the mike working, asked Chetan, “This is a rather personal question, but do you have a foot fetish?” (In reference to his book, ON@CC) A sheepish Chetan replied, “Thank God, your mike’s not working!” And the crowd cracked in laughter. Or when he narrated an incident when before the release of his first book, 5-Point Someone, Chetan didn’t know what to make of the Publisher’s statement – “Ab aap apni book hi dekhlo na. Hai to kuch bhi nahi, par chalegi bahut!” , leaving him to decide whether that was a compliment or a disdainful comment!

With this book-launch experience goading me to pick up the book and finish reading it, and my illness only facilitating the good cause ;), I embarked on my reading journey, with the same glint of expectation at it being as interesting a read, as were the earlier two.

So, as I continue on this journey, I let this post act as a prelude to a probable book review on this blog. Hopefully, that post, will not need a call by ceaseless coughs and running noses, to get published! ;)