As the crow flies

Clandestine creeping in

Of relevant restlessness

Growing apathy

Winged venom

Acidic antidotes

Sure seeping in

Of a crow’s courage

Just a tremulous throw away.

So bark away

I’m not an orphaned stray

I will stamp my say

For all those who stay

On a half moon day.

Happy sunday!

So Sundays are the best  since it gives us the much needed time to be our lazy potato-selves. And on what other day can I throw my random-est thoughts at you guys without shaping them professionally?

What I am going to do is casually throw some ideas at y’all and if it is worthy of discussion we can make a full fledged post.

1)     

    Surveillance is BAD. Then why track our Swiggy* guys?  All of us hate it when our school installed surveillance cameras in the corridors or when they were introduced them in our workplaces. It is not a good feeling to have the Big Brother watching you , even if it is just a fat security guard bhaiya** who is never going to look at you. I’m sure you will have the same reaction if your employer attaches a GPS tracker on you.  While it certainly gives a sense of comfort to know where your food parcel is every minute of the day , isn’t it invading the delivery guy’s workplace privacy to track him every second? If they give a timeframe of 30 minutes and deliver it within that span , does it matter if he stopped for Chai^ in between? In fact , swiggy doesn’t give time based guarantee because we can see when their delivery guys are stuck in traffic. Isn’t it better to not know and demand free food? Food for thought. See what I did there?

*Indian based food app delivery service **brother ^Tea <3

2)    

  Isn’t alarming and annoying that advertisements load quicker than any video? It means they are giving us crappy service when they can do better. Always hate that when that happens. The guy who makes food in our hostel mess used to make awesome Sunday lunches and be crappy rest of the week. The reason he gave was “ You will appreciate my good work when you taste bad food , if I give you good food throughout the week , you will not appreciate my food so much” Underwhelm to Overwhelm is a very important mantra folks. In fact Conversations with God , the much acclaimed book basically keeps repeating this throughout by saying how you know God only when you know Evil. Glad to know that the world runs on such lofty ideals.

3)   

Do online debates ever solve anything? Every one is just trying to look smart , witty and sling mud at each other. Instead of having constructive discussions people correct each other’s grammar and call each other bhakts and presstitutes and feminazis and libtards. No one ever comes around to another’s point of view nor to they even concede a single error when it is blatantly obvious they are wrong. This is why there needs to be rule and orders to discussions. And Arnab Goswami. Just Kidding. But we do need mediators.

4)      Love trumps hate?

5)      Does anyone else google their dreams? Today I had a giant ant bite in my dream , I hope it is something not life altering. If you do interpret your dreams online try non Freudian ones. Else save yourself a search – it is definitely something sexual or traumatic from your childhood.

On that creepy note , I decide to leave you all.

Actually , google your dreams. It’s pretty fun.

Happy Sunday!

Fakebook?

In this world so connected with technology,we have actually lost our real connections.Technology has actually surpassed human-interactions. Real time Conversations became texting and Feelings became status updates.What you feel? Share your views on it. 

So this is my first post for indispire , I hope to participate more often. #indispire149 has the above mentioned topic and I have decided to play Devil's advocate. ( the best type of advocate)

Disclaimer : All views are solely my opinion and all images are taken from google , I claim no rights over them.

So it boils down to this

Cliched intro and some irony 

In every century , every decade man (woman too?) has proven that he hates new change or technology. For , every innovation there is equal and strong opposition ( see how i mimicked newton there xD ) and a general sense of disdain over all things new. And that is precisely what is happening here when slightly older generations ironically go on social media and blogging platforms to state how we don't have 'real' connections anymore. 

Technology is good * blasphemy *

No change is so simplistic or negative , unless it is brought by Hitler maybe. Truth be told technology has helped us connect more than ever before. I am thousands of miles away from my family and connect with them at a moment's notice through skype. Isn't that wonderful? Yes , it is. But to admit that would mean that *gasp* technology is a GOOD thing. 

Beholder 

We all know that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and the use or abuse of technology solely lies on the hands of the operator. Blaming oneself instead of the medium requires a lot of introspection and courage and most of us lack that. 

Exaggerations

Also known as crying over nothing

At any given point of time , a person is genuinely close to give or take 20 people? When it is face to face we avoid these other 100's of people or don't have a chance to connect with them and really doesn't impact us. However , when all of these people are on our virtual screen we get a sense that they are our 'friends' and feel disappointed when they don't respond. 

External validation

The problem is that when we post 'status' updates we want people to react , we need some sort of validation and knowledge that we are not shouting ourselves hoarse to an empty stadium. Social media and technology to a certain extent shows us how tiny we are in this world. And that doesn't feel like progress to many. 

Use to build up and not create 

But it's how we take it. If we are using Facebook solely to make new friends when we don't have any 'real' friends , it is not going to really help. There is no substitute for real human connection and organic personal experience as opposed to artificial , manufactured attempts to foster friendship. If we use sites like Facebook to build on a date or catch up with friends we already know , rest assured that it is 'real'.

Fakeness

Most of the 'fakeness' can be attributed to the forced sups? and nms uttered when one wants to be left alone and the other clearly doesn't get it. If you have your core group of friends and you regularly share updates on your life , you aren't fake you are just sharing it to wider circle who aren't used to the idea of instant sharing and sensory overload. 

Life goes on

An important point to be noted is that it is our real life relationships that impact our virtual ones. If our 'real' life is in order , I don't think we will even be complaining about our virtual ones. So people moaning about social media ruining your lives , take a deep look at the mirror and face the music. 

I also wanted to let you guys know that sometimes ( not always) you tend to lovely relationships with technology and social media too. I know a lot of bloggers and friends this way and Fakebook is not all that fake if you make an effort and you are yourself. In fact relative anonymity helps your true personality come out. The problem is the nature of the personality sometimes. So let's not blame the technology and learn to use it productively?

Thank you

Samyuktha Semi Jayaprakash

Cinema Kaaram Kaapi

I used to be a cinema paithiyiam. Used to know every Cheran movie , every random flick on K T.V and used to fill journals with my stray observations about a new film , gossip or even song lyrics. Then college happened. And I got more hooked to English T.V shows. However , this sem break I got time to catch up on tamil cinema and renew my love affair with Kollywood. And since I have my own blog now , I thought why not note my stray observations on this space.

1) The movie watching experience  :

  So a couple of days back I was poring through Baradwaj Rangan's blog on Wordpress primarily because I was bored. Also , I found the discussions under his review to be greatly informative and entertaining. Many people were attacking the critic for expressing his opinion over the film. But what else are you supposed to do as a film critic?
The movie watching experience is a very subjective one and depends on what you expect from a film. Brangan likes to watch movies which emphasise form over content , the making must be good. Most front row viewers care about their stars and how they are projected. Some people come to cinema to 'escape' reality and expect wholesome entertainment with no messages. Some people care about what a movie conveys even if the execution eg.Kaththi. And so I asked myself what do I look for in a movie?
For me the film should be engaging and there must be some care gone into it. When I sit in the theatre it should enthral me and hold my attention in some way. Organic twists are highly appreciated too :P If the movie is trying to be emotional it should go all out and stay true to its genre and not try to be reluctant attempt.
One person's mokka is another person's pokkisham :P

2) acham enbathu madamaiyada!

 I ended up watching my first Simbu film and first GVM movie in theatre ( I think) Did you know the film was originally titled to be ' sattendru marudhu vanilai'! I think that title would have been more apt for this film. While the first half of the film is a tad slow it is very natural and shows a steady romance brewing between the leads. The road portions of the movie were very picturesque , however back to back songs bore you after a point. Watch out for the picturization of Thalli Pogathey song ( getting polarising views - I liked it) The second half proceeds at a brisker pace with well staged action elements. However , the last 15 - 20 minutes of the film were utterly inorganic with the entire story , contrived and leave you very confused when you leave the movie hall. It actually ruins the decent work made by the rest of the film I feel. The audience I felt were all overloaded with random info when they walked out of the theatres. And that is why I gave such a detailed review of this film. I do not how to gauge it at all! A very decent experience till the climax and S.T.R at his natural best and A.R. Rahman god level as usual. GVM should really get new stories repeating the same plot and characters movie after movie is just sad when you have such good technical ability and execution.

3)  Kamal gautami broke up gaizzz!!

 More importantly Kamal lost his private space completely. I know even Brangelina couldn't escape it but why are people so obsessed with the personal lives of actors? Do we scrutinise the personal lives of our doctors? Maybe we should , they hold scalpels over our bodies after all. But no , we go fulla into why Kamal and Gautami. Is it because of Shruti Haasan or Gautami's daughter or Ramya Krishnan. Romba mukkiyam. And even if you read all this nonsense don't judge the actor or his brilliant work on the basis of such unverified nonsense. It doesn't make him look bad. It makes you look bad.

4)  Too much youth pa

 I don't want to sound like a paati but nowadays they make movies for the 'youth' pasanga only. While there is sudden acceptability for sci fi , thrillers and other experimental movies and the traditional action , romance being rock steady and horror of too many horror comedies , where are the Family dramas and genuine comedies? I'm pretty sure family audiences don't want to watch skimpily clad heroines and stalker boy romances and Tasmac scenes and unnecessary violence in the name of U films :P

5) Scriptu choose panrathu

While someone should start picking scripts for Vikram ( paavam he keeps wasting his talent in duds) and Surya is decidedly unlucky ( most of his movies sound good on paper) why can't the average star pick a better script or atleast ask for some kadai instead of 2 hours and 20 minutes of the same gangster/cop movie he did 2 films back? There are so many good directors in the industry now yet our star vehicles are reluctant to change.
Not everyone can be a Vijay sethupathi or Ulaganayagan and be ballsy but be a bit Vishnu Vishal atleastnu we are asking.

So what do you expect from a nalla padam?
Did you watch Aym? Ungal karuthu?
What do you think about this whole celebrity gossiping culture?
What kind of genre would you like to see in Tamil cinema?
Who did you think picks the best scripts and who need to improve?
Let's discuss xD

The First Dosa

I would like to thank all my readers - new and old - for the constant support and feedback. Steady Meanderings has gained a new lease of life because of you all. You guys are my biggest blessing! :)

Okay that sounded so cheesy and so unlike me :P

Listening to feedback is very crucial  feel and I have been getting requests to revert back to my long articles and short stories. But you see the problem is that, once you cross over to poetry which is so quaint and beautiful , prose feels cumbersome ugly and crass. If  I can make my point in 50 lovely words , why stretch it out to a 500 inconsequential ones?
What I am saying is that I used to be a story teller but now I've now become a writer. I have been giving importance to style over substance and I know that is not the best thing to happen to me. So I will try to balance both and I am committing to that by registering it here.
Since a cross over from poetry to prose is not the easiest thing ever , I'm going to try to capture the stream of conscious thoughts that's flowing through my head right now.
We all have to start somewhere right?

This post's soul feels this way

The heavy poetry hangover is palpable but please bear with me.
My mom says that the first dosa is always bad. But only if you get done with it , you can move on to better crispy ones :) and that is what this post is attempting to do. Scratch the pan before making more delicious things.

 Blessing Midweek Motif - I have become an avid participant of the poets united's midweek prompts. There is nothing more satisfying for a writer than to find a community of like minded souls sharing their work and mutual appreciation :)
The midweek motif for this week is 'blessing' and like I said in the beginning readers are my biggest blessing.

" More often than not we rarely spot the blessings we have been awarded from the almighty nature. Sometimes because we don't recognise the almighty but most times because we don't know that they are a blessing. We are too afraid to open the gift life has awarded us. Especially since life loves handing out Jackfruits. Prickly on the outside but oh so sweet on the inside. "

"Some people may have had cheap jackfruit off the road. A cursing in a blessing disguise. Wolf in sheep's clothing if you may call it. And so when the real fruit of our labour comes along we are too afraid to taste them .What a shame"  ( I had a bad experience with it when i was 8. Now i have a lifelong aversion)

" Moving away from the now overused Jackfruit metaphor , sometimes we are not aware that we possess is a blessing. Only when we lose or afraid we are going to lose it , that goddamn curse turns out to be your bestie bff blessing,"

 " If you never ever do find out your blessings from your curses , may god save you. "

No post is complete without a ruby meme :D

My convoluted message is that 

1) Spot thy blessings asap

2) Cherish them

3) Don't be a complaining mona 

4) This can be in relation to people , incidents , the seemingly shitty  sucky trick life life played on you. 

Iwilltakethisoppurtunity to Thank Srishti Swati  and Raju / Mona Darling aka Rajeshwari for being there always. If i put myself through what i put you both through , I would have unfriend AND block myself. Thank you for ending up in ILS by accident and making my life so much better ^_^

I would love to put a pic up , but fearing gaudiness I am not putting up. 

If this post nothing to you , take my peace offering :- 

 

 

Okay bye. 

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.

~The newsfeed of a fangirl~

Said a genius once

Reblogging quotes which make sense to me today.

A Short peek in to my news feed :P shows the toils and randomness of a fan girl's life I hope xP
Happy new year ppl! :)

1.Remembering painful quotes by fav characters! and waiting for your fav t.v show to start again . 

McDreamy is always right!



2.Dismembering the memories of dead characters till it hurts :'( 

Slexie too sexy to stay alive :'(

3.Reading morbidly inspiring stuff like this xP

start clearing that pile this year everybody! (especially me :P)

 

4.Reading depressingly funny stuff like this which indicates how old you actually are :P

kids nowadays :/

  5. Deceivingly deep ones like this :P      

Deep actually.

6. Sadly true ones 

food over bros :P

7. Controversially hilarious ones 

Don't care if I'm reported lol this is just too hilarious xD

8. One tree hill quotes <3 

I hate Peyton but so true.

Lucas sucks though :/

9. You don't say ones 

Let's end it with mindboggling fact of the day :P

10. Then the ones that describe you perfectly!

Internet Anonymous

Status quo has changed.

I've shifted to Pune , Maharashtra for my college studies :)

and have switched over to the dark side. I have given up my soul completely to social networking and instant messaging. Tweets and statuses have invaded my brain and I crave for likes and not views now.

Yes I am a social addict.


(disclaimer : Purely fictional work. Any resemblance to actual events PURELY coincidental :p)
It all started innocuously enough - when i was in fifth grade - seven years back.My dad bought a computer. Road rash seemed like the coolest game ever. You could ride a bike and hey! you could beat up the guy too :D That motivates a child.







Then we had email id's and yahoo! messenger . Sending random voice clips and animated emoticons seemed like the coolest thing that could happen to you. I still remember my friend p calling me so that I could come 'online' and chat with her. ( and we thought phone calls would be replaced by chat didn't we?)

Then came Hi5 - the more beautiful version of facebook WITH games. Yet , it failed to catch on like orkut ( maybe because it was too fancy). Believe me when i say that orkut was considered very dangerous and none of us kids used to use it.
Then came FACEBOOK. I think i was in eight grade then . I used to have decent attention spans , read an enviable amount of books , never worry about likes ... no I really can't remember life without facebook or my life after facebook :P

It is so dominating ( like an old grandmother) that newer forms of networking like google plus don't feel 'right'. Twitter is cool and quite informative ( and gossipy) but never quite as addicting as the eff bee monster.
No , not for one second i hate what I do but yet the realisation that I am wasting precious time consumes my already broken spirit. I do know that I play less , read less and care less yet I post it as my status.
I know I have no redemption. Even if you remove the dhoni-dada , modi -rahul , vegan and non vegan and other pointless pop corn munching debates from the site , I will continue to use it.
I will poke you , add you and block you but never have an original 'convo' with you. I'm too bored for that. I am generation y
Gtg , ttyl
semi

Haters Haters Everywhere !!

story of my life :P

First of all , a big thank you to all those who kept nudging me to write a post .
 a) It makes me feel special :P
b) Gives me the incentive to move my lazy glutus maximus :) .If exams suck all the energy out , holidays suck all the purpose .

Epitome of hate xD 

So today i am going to blog about HATE. Hate is an emotion of mass destruction , if ever there is one. It gets formed in a twisted way. When we love our own status quo too much , it results in an irrational negative feeling towards the opposing change. Most of the time ( generalizing , yes. )  it is formed before inspecting a scenario factually and the consequent 'evidence' is tinkered  the way our brain wants it to be seen. So we basically fool ourselves into hating things most of the time.

Hatred  also manifests when our favorite goals are jeopardized by the object of our ire . Simply putting csk hates kkr for 'taking away' their final and rcb hates csk because they 'cheated' them of the last ball.

 As we all know and have probably felt ourselves , sports invokes intense passion and emotions which can turn ugly very quickly (if uncontrolled). Cricket has always been known as the 'gentleman's game' and legends like Rahul dravid and Tendulkar prove to be those gentlemen. However , the recent cricketainment of t20 has not gone down well with traditional viewers. There has been lot of criticism from their quarters .
However , the hate I was surprised by in this edition of ipl (6) has been the one from the fans - towards opponent team members , who for the rest of the year they so steadfastly support. Lets analyse.

The Indian premier league has been around for 6 years now , and from the infant everyone pampers it is growing to become a toddler who adults are wary of . Deficits will be naturally noticed , rebuked and innovations struck down.  Also , team solidarity and familiarity has led to a humongous fan base for even unsuccessful teams like Pune warriors. Every team starts seeing themselves as the 'virtuous'  , the champions and the opponents are demonized.

So when a team wins the fans simply use these excuses :-
Chennai Super kings - They have BCCI support , all matches are fixed to help their cause .
Mumbai Indians - Ambani owns them . So duh , fixing.
Rajastan Royals - Luck / spot fixing / they won't come far in the tournament
RCB - Mallya fixed it / Gayle is an one man army.
SRH - Sun tv is close to BCCI (!) / it is a chennai team
Delhi Daredevils - They'll choke in the playoffs
KKR - Sharukh khan is evil / gambhir character assassination / srk fixed it
Punjab - Only Miller saved them , they'll never make it to play offs.
Pune warriors - Nobody cares :P

Why can't fans just accept that their teams lost! And the team won it fair and square . Even if spot fixing allegations prove to be true , a bad ball still has to be hot for a six and a catch for a wicket to happen -_- Grow up guys.
Csk vs Rcb , RR vs DD , Csk vs kkr  ,csk vs mi ( I am obviously a csk fan) , srh vs rcb are contest followed with interest due to the intense rivalry.

Competition is not bad . If it was no trophy would be awarded . But hatred is , support your own teams alright but stop hating the rival ones and for god sake stop spreading it online! There is this page called troll cricket - a popular cricket meme page .  And sadly every alternate post ends with Pakistanis and Indians fighting pettily and both calling each other terrorists. I mean like , where does this stem from really? Pathological prejudice and hatred dude to lack of adequate knowledge about the other side. And cricket is just one of the many outlets through which these ugly emotions erupt.

The angry young men - 
If pak - ind verbal wars are atleast seen as inevitable , the kohli - gambhir ones are not. We have for a long time had legends with impeccable manners in our team . eg. Sachin , dravid , laxman , kumble etc. Even Ganguly wasn't offensive with his aggression . Dhoni , Raina and some others are cool heads who can't be faulted. So when people like yuvraj , kohli and Gambhir express themselves on field it is misinterpreted as arrogance and 'bad behaviour' . People like sreesanth and Harbajan do go overboard but most of the time it is simply the fanatic supporters of the opposing side over reacting to emotion on field.

you call it arrogance , we call it passion :)

That too on Virat kohli . He is one of the most gifted players around and is quite clearly the future of India. When he gets angry and shows aggression against national teams it is seen as passion but when he replicates it for his franchise - well , he is arrogant and has the 'wrong' attitude towards the game. Being aggressive is one of the values Australians and West Indians cherish and one of the prime reasons that they won and dominated for a prolonged period.
It was deeply saddening to see him be booed by the Mumbai crowd for simply running out a player. Here is a man who gives his complete effort and dedication when he plays , why can't you enjoy that? When he hit that classy 99 , we all enjoyed it and can't blame him for feeling disappointed for not reaching his century o.O
If you can feel so emotional sitting at home , imagine this twenty year old playing the very game in front of a million fans/haters. Sympathize at least. Don't expect every player to be calm headed. Everybody cannot be the same.

The great dada vs dhoni  

Under every post congratulating Dhoni , there are a million 'who is the better captain?' debate. It doesn't seem to affect the fans that the players themselves mutually respect each other , leadership is not quantifiable and both the players served the same national team! Dada is one of my favorite players ever , seeing him hit through the off side was one of the first memories of cricket I have and strangely I was his strongest supporter when people wanted him to resign . However more than 'dada fans ' it is the 'dhoni haters' who concern me.
They seem to hold an unreasonable grudge towards this man who captained them to the greatest heights , questioning his motives all the way through . It is disappointing when respect is not given where it is deserved.
 I think I am ending this post quickly because generally I hate bringing up negativity in any of my blogs . However , the nonsensical mob with their saddening opinions left me with no choice. And another issue I want to bring up here is that of Justin Bieber . I don't really like his music but that doesn't give me a reason to personally abuse him or hate him . Also calling him a 'woman' or 'gay' is offending at so many levels. What is wrong with being a woman/gay person in the first place? Truly sick of such posts.

Yours wearily yet hopefully
Semi