13B and after

13B - nice movie. Probably one of the few good horror movies (not only Indian-made) and decently scary. Tears come to my eyes atleast once for every movie I watch, however I cried many times while watching 13B - maybe I couldn't stand the emotion. Infact, I glanced over my shoulder quite a few times too in the theatre, to make sure nobody was behind me. But that was just being ME than anything to do with the movie. I had gone for the second-show (10.30pm to 1.15am) yesterday and this was partially the reason why I found the movie so scary. Another reason is that during the interval I told the story of "Shutter" to my friends. I (and so do many others) regard Shutter as one of the best horror movies ever made and the movie gives me goosebumps every time I even think of it - but this makes for an entirely new story which I shall publish sometime later.

For now, after the movie I went to the parking lot to get my car. I was still a little scared but not too much. And soon I was out on the road - the long, straight road that I loved, especially in the nights. It was one of the straights that helped me heavily set my fastest times.

But this time, I was alone in the car and I was scared. I kept glancing into the rear-view mirror to see if there was "someone" in the rear seat. I was scared to even play the radio as it was (0130 am, you should understand if you have watched the movie). But I decided to play music at high volume hoping that would distract me a bit. But it didn't work and I cursed myself for having trained myself not to get distracted by music. Infact, I used to study with loud music playing in my room and I could sleep like a log in the class even with all the noise. But yesterday night, I regretted it all. My concentration hadn't shifted 'one inch' from the "someone" sitting in the rear seat. I tried even harder - I tried singing along but this turned out to be a bigger failure. Having never concentrated on music, I didn't know even one word.

There was a little traffic on the road and never before had I felt so happy to see traffic. Infact, I was even happy to see a traffic constable. :)

Then I thought I would use SPEED to my help. Once I cross a certain speed limit, my concentration on the road increases heavily. So, I tried speeding upto 90 but this turned out to be worse as, with all the glancings into the rear-view mirror I was losing control of the car. I needed to act quick.

I so wished someone was with me. Then struck the brainwave - I could call someone. This was sure to distract me. Although I was firmly against talking on the phone while driving, I decided to make an exception for once. And anyway I could keep the phone on loudspeaker - so not much harm done. So I called one of my closest friends, who I was sure wouldn't be asleep then. I was so happy when she said "Hi" but her voice was very low. So, I told her I was driving and that the call was on loudspeaker. But she cut the call. I tried twice more and same response, she murmered something and cut the call. Then I got a message from her asking me to message her what the matter was. Then it dawned on me. I had tried to call a GIRL. No one else would be dumb enough to ask someone who said he was driving to message her.

But I had succeeded, finally. My thoughts shifted to girls and then the next obvious stop was - my Blog. I decided to write a post on the blog (which is the one, you are currently reading) and all my thoughts shifted over to the blog instead of the "someone" sitting in the rear seat. And I wasn't scared as much anymore. Soon I reached home.

Once I got to the lift, I didn't dare to open it. (If you have seen 13B, you would understand why.) But the staircase was even darker. Besides, I am terribly lazy to climb 3 storeys. So I took the lift instead. I pressed 3 and was so happy to find it move. The lift climbed to first floor and continued on towards second floor. Midway, I suddenly found dried blood on the part of the floor facing the lift. NO. It was just pan which some idiot had spit. The lift continued on to third floor and I kept ringing the bell till my dad opened the door. Never was I so glad to see my family.

I quickly changed and went into my parent's bedroom and told my mom, even I would sleep in their room for the night. She asked me which movie I had gone for and I replied, "13B, it's a horror movie." She simply said, "I can see that."

SHIT, what a coward I'm. I still don't know why exactly I was so scared yesterday night. Even now, I'm writing this post at 9pm and am not scared to go back home alone. It was just between 1-3am of 09-Mar-09.

Why do people blog?

This is one question I have asked myself quite a few times. The reason why I used to ask this question was not to gain an insight into the common man's thinking, but to peep inside my own Beautiful Mind.

I have come across many blogs, in the first post of which the author confesses to being "a lazy ass and a big procrastinator" but promises to write atleast one post per month. And then he starts thinking of topics to write on. After about 6 months, he finally finds the topic - An apology for not having written for 6 months. Knowing myself only too well, I was sure I would never be able to stick to the 1 post per month promise.

But looking back, I am amazed to see that I have averaged over 6 posts per month. And how did I manage that. This is precisely the question I have always asked myself and which I try to answer here.

1. I talk a lot. And when I'm not talking to someone, I'm talking to myself. But I'm always talking. So everytime a thought strikes me, a conversation continues in my mind which I later publish to my blog. My blog itself is only like a conversation I'm having with my Inspiron.

2. Everyone needs a patient ear and so do I. But while patient listeners are hard to come across in real life, all computers by default are so (except, ofcourse, if you are using Vista which would keep throwing pop-ups at your face). With a blog, I can talk all I want until I feel I have made my point and no one would interfere. After that, its upto the reader to either read all that I want to say or put it aside and go to sleep - and I care not either way.

3. Theme: I don't have a theme to my blog. People write about their bikes, books, music or what-not. But I chose the most generic of all themes - Beautiful Mind, as in, thoughts. And since, one will never cease to think I'm never out of topics to blog on. (Just like the current scenario. If I'm out of topics to blog on, I can write on why people blog and next time, I can write on why people can't find topics to blog on.)

4. I always get carried away whenever I come across something new and so it happened with the blog. I just wanted to write, but not for one instant did I wait to ask "who would want to hear my opinions and what would they want to hear?" This was one reason why I never did stop myself from writing something and I'm still undecided on whether this is the right approach or not. Afterall, I have a blog now but only 7 regular readers after 7 months.

5. Maintaining a blog is highly time-consuming. Lucky me, I was alien to this "fact" while I started out blogging and now I know it's one of the biggest misconceptions about blogs.

6. Another important reason could be my new-found passion for blogging. I wasn't always interested in writing but from the time I created this blog, I have wanted to publish something new every day.

While these reasons possibly explain the consistency with which I have been writing, they still do not answer the more fundamental question - Why do people blog? Why does Aamir Khan reveal everything first on his blog and not through the media - who can do it faster and wider. Why, if I can find an answer to the question "Why?", would I want to come back and blog about it?

Extremists

"Anything to the extreme is bad." This is one rule that is valid at all times in all circumstances.

And India is a country that is blessed with samples from all the extremes possible. Not just any random samples, we have the most extreme variety of all samples. Although, this has always been cleverly portrayed as "Unity in Diversity", my personal belief is that there is unity only within each of the diverse groups (sometimes even this is doubtful), not amongst the various groups. Given a chance this country would split up into a billion-odd pieces. Think of it, corruption could be brought down to zero. (Afterall, what is the point of stealing from your own home.) And even I could dream of becoming President one day. But let me not get into that debate now.

We have extremist thinkers who don't want adulteration based on region. Best example would be Shiv Sainiks, who want all non-Maharashtrians to leave Mumbai. Then we have the extremists who go attack girls because they went to a pub and this is against our culture. (Did anyone check if the girls were really Hindus or Muslims?? They could just as well have been Christians and drinking might be allowed in their culture.)

(As revenge) another set of extremists (I think it was Renuka Choudhury) wanted all girls to go and enjoy Valentine's Day in pubs/parties. The Bangalore act of Shri Ram Sena inspired more extremists who declared they would roam around with garlands and rakhis on 14th Feb. According to them, "Friendship" doesn't exist between a boy and girl (atleast for that one day). So if you were caught roaming around with a girl, you had to be either her lover or her brother. This is something like Sigmund Freud's theory, only he went one step further still.

And, I guess, with the "Dostana" effect catching on, we won't even see two guys together from next Valentine's Day.

Amidst all this extremism are the biggest extremists of all - US (not America, but you and me). We have our hands folded and minds closed. We are so sure that we will be able to do nothing against these extremists that our attitude borders around being called "indifference".

But why doesn't anyone realise that there is a lot that we can do. We can rape Renuka's daughter next time we find her in a pub, drown Ram Sainiks in boiling oil if we find any of them drinking or smoking or kick the shit out of Shiv Sainiks if we find any of them out of Maharashtra or watching any Bollywood movie of some Delhi-born actor. NO! How can we do this? We would rather carry our "indifference" attitude to the extreme than turn towards violence.

I believe this is the ONLY reason we have stayed united - our "indifference" towards everything. And as if to mock at us, the extremists have always given us shit and we have gladly accepted it. Obviously we couldn't revolt against them.

And guess what next after taking all this shit? Its Pee. Now, this may sound like a really bad PJ to you but, its true. This time, they are conspiring to make us take Pee... literally. Read this article on Reuters.

April 1st, 1987

It was very dark and raining heavily in the densest part of some jungle. But we were on a tight schedule. So we carried on. We reached another place where it was still around noon and very sunny. We didn't stop here either. Too many "deliveries" to make - we had to move on. Then suddenly the air-bus we were travelling in made an abrupt halt and God walked over to me and pointed in the direction of some lights.

It was dark outside, but as my vision adjusted to the darkness, I realised he was pointing at a building. Looking closely, I noticed a lot of people - A LOT of people - all of them busy and running around in all directions. It was utter chaos, especially when compared to the serenity in God's presence. That's when God said, "Here is where you drop off". I was scared stiff. And which Just-about-to-be-born kid wouldn't. I told him, "But God, I would be lost in that crowd." He said, "Don't worry, I shall always be with you."

But me being ME (see, I have been like this since before-my-birth) I said, "That's fine. But still promise me I shall always stand out in any group." To which he replied, "OK, so be it."

I was pleased. But looking back, I now feel - "Maybe he shouldn't have taken me so seriously". Just look at this pic.

My Fastest

17.5km -- 20 min

Cyberspace to Gandhinagar

Date: 5th Feb, 2009

Started at office at mid-night and reached home by 12.20am (of 6th Feb). Beat that!!!

185km -- 3 hrs

Kodada (on Vijayawada Highway) to Gandhinagar (in the heart of the city)

Date: 14th January, 2009

Left at 4pm, reached home by 7pm.