Ordinary together

(photo taken from google)

From the bottom drawer of misery

I sprang

From the top one of tyranny

You did.

And  the middle drawer of mediocrity

We accepted as ours.

For there is nothing more comforting

Than a thin veil of ordinary

In this inordinately trifle yet infinitely intricate turf we call our earth.

Kabali da!

Nothing screams CHENNAI more than Rajinikanth. The fervour with which he is ‘worshipped’ is looked at by outsiders with cynical and smug eyes. No one has ever managed to capture the public’s collective consciousness like him. When he falls sick , people pray for his welfare. He is seen as an extension of one’s own family. This may seem as pretty naive to many. But I feel it just embodies the welcoming and loving spirit of Chennai.

The almost individualistic human spirit which rose to the occasion during the recent floods.Celebrities and common people alike helped many silently and not so silently.

I heard many saying that the hype around Rajinikanth is being Media manufactured. While it does require strong muscle to put up so many posters and achieve visibility via tie ups with 5 star , Air Asia and Amazon they count for squat when people don’t accept it.

The fortunate or unfortunate truth ( however you see it) is that people have accepted Rajini as one of their own. They love him. I love him. There is something about him you just cannot ignore.

Ram Gopal Varma recently posted an ugly tweet questioning the Rajini phenomenon , basically making a joke about his looks. That is another reason why I love us. We don’t really care how our heroes look. ( we do care how our heroines look , but that is reserved for another day) Rajini may not act like Kamal Haasan but he has a villainous streak from his early days in his career which shines through in motta boss scenes of Sivaji or the vasi meh scenes in Enthiran / Robot.

The first movie I watched was Padayappa and to this date I watch it every time it comes on the television. To understand the rajini love you need to understand the emotions a fan goes through when you watch his movies. But how can I explain the gaped mouthed goosebumpy feels every fan feels when they watch a movie of his? The clichéd but mandatory Intro scene where you scream your lungs out , not really caring about the dialogues or anything else for that matter? The necessary SPB intro song where he reluctantly shakes his hips in his trademark style? The way he so coolly throws the cigarette/chewing gum in his mouth and his punch dialogues!!!

Punch dialogues are one line counters delivered in Rajini style. All else is shite.

The man has got style. You don't. That's it.

Rajini's legacy seems to have passed to Ajith and Vijay , who are both trying to capture the whole market which Rajini singlehandedly controls.

Some may say the golden era of Rajini films was the 90s and that those days are over. They are right. Devout passion is a thing of bygone era. And less important things like innovation in story and secondary characters are also required nowadays. That is why lazy clichéd stories like Lingaa don't work anymore. A good rajini movie always had good screenplay and pace though ( BAASHA , ARUNACHALAM , ANNAMALAI , need I say more? )

What makes Kabali more exciting though is that Rajini , the safe one has decided to experiment! He has finally hit the reboot button , move on with the times , and finally decided to show the grey in his non existent hair. He is being directed by a young talent who cares about filmmaking and not just moneymaking and produced by a veteran who cares enough about the moneymaking. He doesn’t seem to have a juvenile looking actress acting as his love interest ( seems to be a trend of 2000s , rajini of the 90s was married mostly or in mature relationships atleast) and there are a talented bunch of secondary actors around him.

And he still has swag.

Some things never change!

And yes , I am proud to be a Rajini fan . I am not going to be forced to be ‘ashamed’ of it because some wrongly westernised idiots think it is not ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ anymore.

What I am trying to say is

MAGIZCHI

KABALII DAA!!

P.S – Someone help me get tickets for the movie . For I am stranded in Pune  and really wanna try FDFS*

FDFS – First day first show for the uninitiated

Yes , I can!

Guys guys! So I was trolling for guest posts and the great Arvind Passey agreed. He is a great writer I admire . Please check out his website here -->  click

Even a burglar says this. So do politicians. Scamsters. Smugglers. Thieves. Rapists. And yet these three words are linked not with them but with an indomitable will. They represent the power of positive assertiveness. ‘Yes, I can’ is not a mantra to be chanted and yet they need a person’s mind to believe in the magical message of affirmation that they carry in their alphabets.

But wait, this isn’t the text for a motivation workshop because I intend to explore the relationship of these three words with everything that society always wants to despise, shun, and rebuke. So here we take a U-turn and go back to where the corrupt, the scum, and the dregs of society wait.

Spare a moment to enter the mind of a plagiarist on the social media and listen to him exult as he looks at a picture or a text and thinks: ‘Yes, I can. I can pick this up and pretend it is mine and then the world will think I am a winner!’ He is convinced that his act is not one of wrong-doing but of a gain that his mind perceives. Even a Natwarlal is completely enshrouded in the belief that what he is about to do is for a perceived gain and not necessarily aimed at harming or hurting someone. And so he mutters ‘Yes, I can’ and goes ahead and commits his crime. Or what we think is a crime.

I am no psychologist but something tells me that these three words aren’t really bothered about who they are hobnobbing with. It is in their company that all the good and all the bad always happen though they themselves never do a thing. A babu favours a company that offers bribe because he thinks he can. A politician threatens, bribes, or convinces to make teachers give up their jeans because he thinks he can. A TV anchor shouts down every voice of sanity because he thinks he can. A manager in an office fudges sales figures assuming that the loss could be compensated in the coming month and murmurs ‘Yes, I can’. So these three words and the mind are the two main characters that come together to enact all sorts of dramas – some get hailed as positive and constructive and others get labelled as malicious and damaging. Mortals are simply a face that these two protagonists successfully project every time. The face gets to be either the hero or the villain and must be wondering at the sheer unreasonableness of everything. But no one listens.

The most complex part in this relationship between ‘Yes, I can’ and the human mind is the sheer randomness of outcome. Look at the number of criminals who convert into model citizen and admit that the miracle happened because they were convinced that they could. Valmiki did it, didn’t he? On the other side are perfectly fine people who decide to kill, elope, have extra-marital affairs, or become paedophiles all because they think they can. So these three words are no guarantee of what to really expect. The other day I heard a PR executive tell a blogger, ‘I’ll send you the press release. Please copy the entire text and upload as a post. I need to send in details by evening. Hope you can do it.’ And the blogger replied, ‘Yes, I can!’

‘Yes, I can’ is the real stealth bomber, if you allow me this analogy… and when it gangs up with the mind, you can expect anything to happen. They could come together and create the most sublime smooch, hug, and kiss or the deadliest explosion that you can think of.

Stay

So a regular reader and friend asked me to write a piece on romantic relationships. A more specific one actually but my mind meandered to this. Purely fictional for intents and purposes. An artistic piece if you can call it that

To think that

the only real relationship I ever had

was

the one I never had.

Beat my chest in pride,

every time I did the courageous karate

in the name of romance 

with almost every other person 

except you. 

I could feel your patient gaze

silently sear through my back 

as I strutted around town. 

For you know for who I was  am.

A genuine hypocrite

Afraid of All. 

Of your gentle embrace wrapping me up

in the near future, 

actually play that reel in my head quite often.

Till I get giddy in fact. 

You are my handsome secret.

Of me having to confront you 

about these stupid feelings which engulf me

and make me powerless , 

you will never.

You rock at this waiting game

Not a level playing field actually.

Of you saying 'no', 

For Fate and Circumstances

spare no one. 

Of you saying 'yes' . 

For Fate and Circumstance

spare no one. 

I didn't want my epic romance 

to be tarnished by the all too real life,

Twas very pretty and pristine

So I never took the chance. 

Cautious for a change. 

There was no element of doubt

about our commitment , 

only time when unspoken words made

so much more meaning 

than the spoken ones. 

Our eyes duelled in anger 

each time we tried to dull our love

by truly moving on from each other, 

So we pretended to fall in love

with likeable people we never liked. 

I am thinking of you 

and you are thinking of me. 

Toxic flames and fumes 

made of our mutual feelings

paralyse me forever. 

I know it may sound sad

but it is real

And that is all that matters.

Give love a chance! 

What about true happiness? 

The lucky ones mutter under their breath. 

Passion would eat us alive , 

Would 

Could 

Should 

I don't want to live in the aftermath

So in this mental cove 

I am going to stay.

Beginner's Guide to Virtual Stalking

 Unfortunately, a lot of people know this already. However , they confuse it with 'love' and 'romance'. In the light of  recent murders and suicides involving the social media, I feel compelled to volunteer my opinion, Reading is completely at your discretion. 

" Reading is completely at your discretion. " Stalkers don't understand the meaning of this line. 'Discretion' has no place in their dictionary. Or does 'consent'. 

So steps to become a stalker. 

1) Create an anonymous profile with a celebrity's / baby's picture on it to show off your innocence/ attractiveness. Mostly , it doesn't produce the desired effect though. It looks very shady , like the person is trying to not reveal their original identity and that never leads to meaningful relationships.

Vijay anna is famous

Ok , this works.

2) Add as many profiles of opposite gender as possible. When you send a 100 requests at least 10 get accepted and voila! suddenly you have 10 mutual friends with the next 'friend' you are adding , misleading them to think they somehow know you or that you are somehow not a danger.

No gain

3) Start chatting with the 'friends'. This is the most fun part. Some guys start with the 'thank you for the accept' and ' your dp looks very nice' routine which quickly evolves into 'give me your number'.

 Opposite genders ( who am i kidding? GIRLS) , Please NEVER give your number. Once you give your number , you can't avoid round the clock nuisance , your location , privacy everything gets forsaken. Other guys for reasons unknown to mankind , keep sending 'hi' , sometimes 5 times a day and never go past 'sup?'  ' what did you do?' and never volunteer information about themselves and still think they are not creepy.

Took it from google

4) Then we come to the tipping point. As a stalker ( yes , going back to original mode) , it gets plenty frustrating when a girl doesn't reply to your heartfelt ( yet having no substance) messages or doesn't give you her number, That bitch! So you either call her names , abuse her for adding you in the first place , if she had given you personal info threaten to use it against her and the best of all , threaten to throw acid on her.

Hell hath no Fury

5) If you're an actual jerk  hurt lover, you carry out your threats.

Being a Facebook member for more than 7 years , all of what I typed has been endured by me except the 5th point. One guy actually threatened to throw acid on my face cz I dared to not give him my number. Can't reveal the chat because I blocked and reported and him and I have fantasy that he miraculously vanished from existence.

'Never add people you don't know' - is an often given advice and can be understood only the hard way. I am not saying all guys are stalkers. In fact , I have a lot of friends who I got to know through social media who are nice people. But there is a high risk of a lot of these types of people also when you add every person who sends you a request, 

• Add a person who you sure atleast 50 mutual friends with 
• Ask a close mutual friend about them just before adding them, No harm done, 
• Add people who share a common interest with you like blogging , cinema etc. 

As for the 'stalkers' reading this. I know most of you aren't even intending to be stalkers and come off as ones because you don't know how to express yourselves. How about having an original profile , having genuine conversation and respecting the girl's wishes for once? You will have a better success rate . Trust me. 

P.S - If a girl is clearly not interested in getting to know you , leave her alone. You deserve better. Respect yourself.

Disclaimer - All pics taken from the net. I didn't take or create anything. Merely for aesthetic value.