Misty Morning in Delhi

It looked like a typical chilly Delhi morning as I prepared myself for the last working day of 2011. Time flies that's alright. But it seems now time is cruising at a supersonic speed. I felt a tremendous rush of adrenalin in my body when I had a deja vu moment this morning. As I walked out of the Metro Rail coach, there was a gush of mist that soaked me in. This was incredible. I was never this romantic while going to work. It felt like I am in some remote place of my homeland, the North East India, and I felt a backpack and my Nikon D3100 around my neck. But, alas! That was not the case. It was a moment that I have lived many times but yet I want to live a thousand more times.

The mist is so dense today that it is almost impossible to even guess what it is beyond a certain point. As I walked out of the metro station and out in the open, I walked. I walked through a chilly air and some lovely London music in my ears. They said, "We are the Sultans" and I sang back yes, "I'm the sultan." Suddenly, I glanced around and I saw myself walking in the cloud. All the tall buildings in this business district of Gurgaon suddenly vanished. The mist consumed their visibility and gave me the feel that its an open field.

A gust of chilly breeze swept across the street and the small droplets of mist danced along. I watched them in awe. Am I really going to my boring workplace? Is it the same place that I walk everyday? I pinched myself and I realised that it is indeed. I wish I could keep on walking. I wish I could ignore the watch. I wish it was not a Friday. I wish I had a camera.

I wish it last forever!

Private Investigation

The year so far has been quiet exciting. By exposing myself to a whole new persona, I realized that its not easy to get out of your usual self. When I tried my hands on some of the newer patches of activism, I found out that its comical. You want to change the whole world and suddenly you see support thriving. You drew strength from them and you start the process, you jump on to the sea. You believe that together, all of us, can achieve what we are so enthusiastically pursuing. This is even more pertinent when you realised that all our innate passion about this cause will take us nowhere but to a glorious future. Of course, I forgot to factor in a very important aspect of life. Commitment! 

The commitment was not that strong as we thought it would be when it actually came down to doing things. All the usual ogres popped out their ugly heads with their shinning teeth to munch away as much as possible. Even it they realised that this will finally kill the future that we wanted. The death is imminent at the very end but it was never expected to be so swift. I am surprised, awed and amused to see how people can speak their smart speech in public and their visionary thoughts were well appreciated. Now, we wanted to graduate to the next level which is to get action as against only speaking. Basically, we wanted to walk the talking together. 

And, then came the bitter realisation that all that shines is not gold. I realised it exactly as it supposed to be meant. We all saw it glittering from far away and when all of us wanted to sit back and enjoy shinning gold without getting into the mud and shine it through. We lacked commitment and resolve to bring the golden glory to our objective. I now think it was never meant to be and what we looked and, those few who actually toiled, that it was still a time that was worth spent. We lost a vision but we never lost our dream. And, we will not stop. At least, I will not stop. 

I find this as a welcome change in my otherwise humdrum mechanical life. The experience and thrill of walking through the unknown waters and your belief that life is alright just after this stretch is simply bewildering. Let the times roll and we will find the goodness in it. 

Will there be Justice for all?

Music and food are two most intensely loved items in this world. There are very few things in our lives where we can say that we can actually say that we love it or we dont. To me, music and food are those elusive factors in our lives where we can be honest. But, like many other things in our 'constantly' changing lives, these fantastic elements have also changed their intrinsic character. People are confused as they are exposed to a glut of information, comfort and knowledge. A normal human brain like mine can only retain a few things which is almost universal in all of us, I presume. Music is love for live. Food is the passion in life. Music enthralls the mind and kicks in that high. It can be classical music, western music, folk music or just a tune that you were humming since that day when you first kissed her. It can be anything that you love to sing, even in a soar throat.

I am amused at how people can compromise their so called love for music for the sake of tag/ social status and to earn that air of being 'cool'. The idea is that I am cool because I attended the biggest metal band performance in the country. What if I don't know about their most critically acclaimed record, their most influential number and why, there is still an urge for people to earn this coveted tag of 'being cool'. Yes, it is but obvious that people don't want to listen to metal music when they are not in a queue to earn that badge. they would pass sarcastic remarks that why this is better than the other one and how. But will you stilll love to watch some old hands bang their voices and their strings in the most hoarse sound as possible? Yes, you will remember, I used to dislike them and I still do. But I have to bang my head and play the air guitar to show that I love them too.

I don't understand why anything should have a brand value attached to it. If you love it, then you love it for the reason it is. You don't love it for the brand value that it has created over the years. But you love it for it allows you to unwind in that music. You can release your anger, love, compassion or what ever mood that you are in. This can be done only through your inner rhythm rhymes with your taste of music, whatever that may be. But over the years, we have lost our own identity among ourselves. We used to love Bryan Adams but now we dont say it. Why? Oh! This is for kids who want to rock. I am not a kid as I have matured in listening to rock music. I no longer listen to Bryan Adams or Micheal Learns to Rock or even The Beatles or Elvis. I am more of a Metallica/ Pink Floyd fan now. This is superficial. Inside, you still like them but don't muster the courage to admit it. I reason why not. If you love something, you should keep on loving it. And, yes, you can be a fan of Bryan Adams, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Metallica, MLTR, Keb Mo, Miles Davies or The Moody Blues all at the same time.

Does it forbid us to not listen to Bollywood numbers? Yes, if you believe in trends and no, if you believe in test of time. Why do we disown any local band or artist just because he sings more closer to earth he was born? Why is it that it may not be fashionable to listen to a Baul song, or watch a Bharatnatyam or a Mohammed Aziz's number from a Bollywood movie from 1980s? Its alright. You can love it and you dont need to hide it because people may laugh at it. They may think what a bizzare and out of fashion music taste that you have. However, in the course of time, what you will earn, while others keep on running after keeping apace with new trends, that you will become a trend in yourself. And, you will be proud of it.

The idea should be to appreciate what you love. Then, there will be justice for all and you will be master of your loved puppets.

Enjoy the music! Live it!

Why is it alright to lobby for corporate clients by PR professionals?

Lobbying is an advocacy towards certain point of view. Being in a democratic and capitalist economy, there should not be two ways of interpreting of “freedom of speech.” Lobbying is a natural expression of opinions and desires of organized groups such as businesses, advocacy groups, unions etc. Whether it’s an ethical practice or not will depend entirely on the cause. It will be hypocrisy if we say that it is alright to take out processions for the tribal rights of forest dwellers and lobby to pave way for Forest Rights Act and at the same time oppose to lobbying interests of the mining companies whose business interest in some area of the forest may be at stake. The latter should have an equal right to be heard about its reasons just like the former. The reason may be ethical or unethical but lobbying is not unethical. It is alright for PR companies to lobby for corporate clients to influence government policy as long as the cause is ethical or at least it believes in.

Everyone has a say, even if no body listens to anyone. It’s the right of the people which every one will enjoy irrespective of his social stature or his assets market capitalization. But to make yourself heard, you have to make loudest noise. Whether we like it or not, there is clamour of voices out there. You have to make a loud noise to make yourself heard. To employ lobbying to make them heard you are no wrong. With the same logic, we should not have any biased opinion if someone uses North Indian political lobby to become Prime Minister of India or a corporate lobbying with sound reasoning to amend policies that will help its business interest. When we allow caste lobbies to amend policies or women parliamentarians lobbying for women reservation bill or certain bodies lobbying against Narmada dams, I don’t see any reason why we should castigate the corporate lobbying who are trying to defend their business interest. If we have problems with lobbying, why don’t we ask our government to stop lobbying for expansion of UN Security Council and for permanent membership in it? It may or may not be ethical but India has every right as a free nation to lobby for this. And so does every man, institution and corporation to lobby for its interest. For PR firms to lobby for a particular company to influence government policy is fine as long as it believes that the cause for which it is lobbying is ethical. Had it not been lobbied by corporate to relax “license raj”, the Indian economy would have been plagued by red tapism. Not every lobbyist is a Jack Abramoff just like not every politician is a Mahatma Gandhi and not every soldier is a Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw. There are black sheep every where and it does not make sense to categorize all lobbyist as corrupt.

It is an interesting fact that world’s only super power, USA, who has a successful model of democracy and capitalism, has made legal provision of lobbying in its First Amendment of the Constitution. Today, it has more than 35000 registered lobbyists who lobby anything between caskets to defence deal. Professional lobbyists know their territory. They make very efficient use of their client's time. They can find out where the problem lies, who to talk to, and what questions to ask. They can tell what information one need to have, and what questions one will have to answer. You will find out who you have to convince and why. Essentially, they guide you through the jungle of government and public opinion. Even a PR professional are lobbying on behalf of a corporate to influence media in its perception or lobby in a manner that will build a positive image of the company even if it is not right or ethical. Corporate lobbying is fine, so is the practice of PR firm lobbying in government, an institution of democracy as it is anyway lobbying the another institution of democracy; i.e. the media. It is a subjective interpretation whether the reason for which one is lobbying is ethical or not.

A Walk through the Old Corridor

It turned out to be a fantasy. A dream would run down to the last drop of life and sweat out of me. Never I had this thought that at a ripe age for banging my head against the raging machine of oldness, then I realized that my neck was aching like an ageing trooper who have seen enough of blood and sweat yet yeans for the next. No, it was not me who was biting the dust and decided to lay down his friend to this inglorious cruel world. The beginning of this was, however, not a work of wizards. We have to sit tight and watched the tired sun go down at the hand of an unjustified guerilla ambush. Soon the mighty day, tired of being at disarray with the options of daylight saving and heat of global warming or just being lost in the smog, retired and let the blues to take control of the things. Now, that the stage is all set and the pristine whiff of blues sweeping across, there was a sudden death. People from that part of the world, who were happy when they never exist, knocked at the door and banged with some TNT Dynamite. The result was cataclysmic. The madness became an epidemic and everybody was jumping on to the wagon that read Highway to Hell. Within lesser than sixty ticks away from clock of the origin of the disease, all of us went back to black. Was it a rescue mission by the devils of Oz Land or Land of Thunderbolt from the ferocious clutches a God Bless You band that was out to do no good? It seemed I was actually acting hysterical to the fact that we still had an edge. Thank god for sending the devils! But, there is one question that is still haunting me. Who was their Daddy?

It just can’t get any better than this. They call themselves Skinny Alley and I was called myself as moonstruck hoodlum. Out there to catch and earn the prize of watching the God making love to his beauty, I regrouped and briefed my senses to remain at bay as they have resigned long ago. The beauty was a real princess with her mellifluous beautiful neck yearning for the magical caressing by God himself. As he walked in, God looked at her and touched with romance while allowing the wind to blew heavy and carry the blue to paint the sky. Mama came along too with her Vanity Closet where she would have heaps of magical wonders lethal enough to make you good for nothing. She would drag those moments out from the cold storage of my mind to the fore so that it can breathe some blue. Mama! You said it right. Sweet Jesus does not seem to see the blind man. Who are you? It was a question that Mama asked God who was still in romance with her. Junkie! Said the God. And he never turned around to look who is what. Because he knew this creatures use to be mine. Still he knew that these mortals still love to die at a single stroke of God’s hand. Off he goes along with Mama to break a wall that was built long and thick. All the bricks, from where pigs might have flown some day and night ago, are still building the old question thick and strong. Can we do it someday? To break it apart and move on to the other side? Some people thought we have the valour to catch a sleep, while I was walking on a dream, in the presence of the God and Mama.

But Hey Mama! Don’t put your guns on the ground as yet and pull the trigger to that intelligentsia of rationality. Hey Mama! You Rock!!!

What was next in the array of excellence? Well, I excused myself for a brief while some Yankee Indiana Jones yelled and banged without any real fun in it, apart from her. People went mad with the new found Desi Avataar of Shakira. And then the blue eyed boys of Indian Rock came on board. However, there is something that lacked from it for what it is known as. Probably since they were trotting the globe without a snitch for some time now, the energy in their performance was not optimal or that is what I felt. I have seen enough of them and I know they can o much better than what they have done. Yet, it was not a bad day at the office at all for then. They still got their fair share of credit for being sport and performing even when they are not exactly at a better position. The Whisky Blue just let me off the hook and I unleashed myself once we were vaporized. And, there was still room for another shot at the ecstatic feeling. We were already high with the excellence of music at a venue which is equally wondrous. All of like true troopers of rock and rolling on the highway to hell kept cried our heart out to pierce the sky apart. Hey now! All you sinners, Put your lights on now. Make the Parikrama.

Musings II

Imagine how it would be to be alone in a land that is far away from earth, the sun and devil. There is no one other than you and your God who is no one but you. It would be a fantastic experience to be lost and never even bother to find your way out as you would know that it is where you have always wanted to be. Walking along the roadside with your shadow as your company! How about a guitar and marijuana on your mind and you keep on humming your favourite tunes, and words that are just straight from heart. Perhaps sometimes Mr Marley and Mr Dylan can join in the road party along with you and your shadow!! Listen to the mystery that is waft around a phenomenon that is known as the life. Something so fantastic about life is that it is absolutely unpredictable. You never know that whether we will leave enough air to see the morning sun. But still we dream, dream about a day that is shiny and beautiful. I guess this is what keeps us going. The essence of a man to keep on dreaming about life that is absolute. But life is a good teacher. Next morning when you see the young sun, you feel good enough to take on the earth. But as the sun ripe and so the energy, you heat the hard stone on the road and it starts to pain. Then you realise that it is not like the same dream that you dreamt last night. It is life which is different completely from a dream. So I don’t want to get into the complicacy and just get lost into the oblivion and the unknown. A place where there is no room for either reality or the dream. It is just pure vacuum and you keep on float mode never being bothered by anything. Happy Floating!!! And you just don’t have anything to complain about anything to cheer about anything to be stoic about. You just let yourself be who you really are. No strings attached. Nothing about to change and nothing is everything. So, how does it feel? Its all about sex, drugs and rock n roll. Phew!!! Do I ever want to come out of this? No, if I had an option. Only if I had an option. Alas!! There is something about being no one. Oh!! The feeling is absolutely wonderful. Oh Lord!! If I can live like a no one. Bless me!!

Musings 1

There is something so stupid that goes around in this world. While we let ourselves to free fall without letting anything to bother ourselves, then this sweet whiff of air that travels along with you swept your mind to such a place from where you will refuse to return. Sometime, it is impossible to learn that why at all you allowed yourself to unwind and swam with the flow. Impossible is a word that gets counted and well when you are lost in that jungle without knowing any clue about it how to get out of it. Should I keep my candle of hope burning or should I let the storm take care of it? The dark clouds that came from nowhere the other day flounced everything in my dream land. A land that I have so meticulously weaved around someone, where we would indulge ourselves in the some of the most wonderful dreams. People say it is good to dream and I wonder if I could ever live it anymore. The harsh realty that has ruthlessly crushed my mind and bruised my soul for no fault of mine will keep on haunting me until a time when nothing will matter. Today, I believe what Bob Dylan has sung “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose”. True, if I had nothing to lose some days ago, I would not have been a loser. The lost has been realized. It is cruel and hard but it is the truth. I have to believe in it even if I don’t want to. The reality rules, the truth rules and I have to honour. In today’s hard life, it is not only about how much love and emotions you can invest, but how much you can spend and how profitable can be the venture. It is all about money and it is only about money. Make no mistake about this, it is only and only about money. What if you love so much, what if you care for so much, what if you want to live forever for, what if you stand tall and nothing to bother, and you are still a loser just because I do not have any more left to spend. So, "don’t think twice it’s alright".