Fire, the kasturi and the earth

This is a story of earth and fire. Earth, as the name suggests, was heavy but full of energy. Earth was satisfied with the fact that there are many unknown mates in his surroundings who were bigger and bulkier. There were little people like mercury and Pluto on the one hand and heavy weights like Jupiter on the other.
Initially earth thought he can live in the company of the Sky, the Air and the Water. They were his best friends and all four were each other’s strength. He also had a great friend; the moon. They were all so close that they never thought they would ever need any one else. Years passed by and they all evolved unknowing that there are other people with whom they will have to interact.
Earth, Moon and their friends worked together, read together and enjoyed together. They had food as well as the beer. However, they soon realized that they cannot coexist without the influence of others. They may not know them but they need to find them in order to evolve. Simultaneously earth realized that there is someone missing apart from his core strengths of sky, water and air. Therefore they all started their journey of the world.
Earth found some great friends in his journey. Jupiter, mars, venus, Saturn and many more. Some of them did matter in his life while others just came and went away.
Then he met Fire. Initially he thought “ oh! Another of the friends”
But he soon realized that the fire was his life. Fire helped him feel the warmth of life. Fire helped him grow and evolve. Earth very early on realized that his friends were important but the fire was the most important of all. Moon and earth were still close friends talking always what happened around them. Moon talked about his friends and earth about his. Their experiences were very different but the common part was the new friends they made in their life.
Earth also came to know that fire was as dangerous as was useful. Earth saw himself burning many a times because of the anger of fire. However every time fire went by burning a part of earth a new life sprouted there. Others also realized how great the fire was. Simultaneously, everybody also knew that they should not fool around with fire or they will feel the burnt.
Earth and fire nurtured each other and they grew together to be more mature friends. Earth helped fire calm down and the fire helped earth to rejuvenate. Fire would never realize the inherent strength. Fire was like Kasturi always wandering around happy, jovial and full of energy. Fire would appreciate the power of earth and earth would try to show how important the fire was.
They both learnt to live together. If one was left behind the other would walk slow. If one went fast, other would try to catch up.
However there were certain differences between them too. Earth repeated itself almost every 24 hours and for sure in a year. He did not want to repeat himself but unconsciously he felt reassuring to know of his position after some time. He did not want to wander around fearing to loose his old strengths of sky, water , air and the newest and the best strength of fire. But fire was ever flowing and never stoppable. Fire was eager to fly, determined to run, never to look back. It was boring for fire to look back, stop and assess.
Many a times earth rejuvenated, many a times he felt the burnt. Many a times earth would catch hold of fire and would ask fire to wait. But if fire waited, that place would burn to ashes and every time earth would repent as to why he tried to control the fire rather than going along. If fire tried to wait for earth against the wish, both of them felt the heat, the unbearable flame.
The time was passing by very quickly and earth reached very close to the sun, the ever powerful almighty and conceiver of the whole world. The intensity of fire increased and earth was at its full rage. Earth and fire could not bear the intense heat of the sun and also of each other. The only feasible alternative for them was to take the help of the strengths of water and sky to dissipate the heat. They also tried to go as far as possible but with the hope to be together when the scorching sun soothes itself.
The sun was very happy thinking that he is there for the world energizing one and all. He was totally unaware of the fact that the energy that was supposed to be stored for the future was more than enough for the present. The energy which was meant to keep the future beautiful and lively in the time of need was burning the present with its intense heat. However, sun soon realized the mistake and asked his ever calm companion, the clouds to give shade to all from his heat.
Earth was again close to fire, sky and water. Moon and friends rejoiced.

Another restaurant another wall

The plot is of a restaurant and protagonist is me only me. I have been here in Assen now for exactly 20 days and it had not been the great days. But will write about that some other time. So, every night I have to go to a restaurant for the dinner. And I must say it is horrible to eat alone, hmm!! Not really . It is horrible to seat alone, before my dinner, waiting for ever so non enthusiastic waiters to bring the order.

The experience in this particular restaurant was no different. This time it was a Greek restaurant ‘Delfi’ in the heart of Assen. Actually, Assen(Netherlands) is too small to have a full blown body and if the markt is the heart, the town will end between neck and abdomen. (stop being English critic; spelling is right, market in dutch is markt). I walked across my hotel to this greek restaurant that had many cycles near to its gate. I wondered how can so many people be in the restaurant. However I soon realized this is the result of the nearby Casino. So I entered this restaurant and kept my jacket on the shelf hanger. There were a handful of people sitting there. Actually more than handful as even one Dutch person who is more than 6 feet tall can not be counted as a handful, whatever be the size of my hand.
As I sat down on the chair, I thought oh! not again, sitting alone staring at the walls. The wall in front of me had a decently large painting of semi clad men and women. Do not let your imaginations run loose. The painting tried to depict Greeks of ancient era getting ready to eat. There were 4 men and a woman to be precise and apples and grapes along with some unidentifiable food items on the table. One person with a typical Greek beard was bringing the big jar supposedly of wine. I turned back and true to this Greek way, this restaurant also had a good bar with vast variety of liquors.

However, I can bet some of my friends can draw far better canvas than, what this restaurant had. Actually, if I look back to the various restaurants I have been eating in lately, all the paintings were worth not more than shit. Between do not undermine the value of shit in the time of biofuels and energy demand.
Then I thought, now what ? That was all there in front of me that could be described. Hmm!! Probably now I realized why I could see many people especially firangs having a pen and diary when they were in restaurants eating alone. Firangs especially because we Indians tend to flock together and move in a group. Any ways, I had again not brought anything to write. This is when my Motorola mobile came to my rescue. In fact, I scribbled many lines sitting there on my mobile. This is especially for those of my friends, who want me to throw my motorola phone and get a nokia branded ‘self defence weapon’. By that time the non English speaking waiter brought the food and then aeshmaglech(I still do not know the dutch spelling; this means enjoy the food).

दो कदम

जीवन की पगडंडियों पे शायद ,
उस दो कदम का इंतज़ार था

पैर थक गए
मन अशांत था ,
साथ में कोई नहीं
साथी दूर कहीं,
पर अभी भी
शायद,
उस दो कदम का इंतज़ार था

पक्षी के उड़ने की इच्छा
जादुई पिंजरे में कैद थी,
नन्हे बच्चे की तरह
तारों को तोड़ लाने की इच्छा,
अब कहीं किसी कोने में दफन सी थी
किसी स्पर्श का ..
गहरी नींद से उठाने का इंतज़ार था

उसे देख खुद ही
हम बढ चलते
वो न सही
उसकी आहट ही सही,
प्रत्यक्ष न सही
रेत पे निशाँ ही सही…..
उसे ही देख हम जीवन की ओर बढ चलते …






शाम होने को आई ..
उस लालिमा के बीच एक परछाई सी
शायद , वही दो कदम.....

इलेक्शन.. इलेक्शन-- India

netaji ke pre and post election ruup
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/double-speak-party-words-pre-and-postpoll/92831-37.html?from=search
Some Interesting figures
· Total Number of seats 545
· Total number of candidates: 5398
· Highest Number of votes 855543 in favour of SAJJAN Kumar, Chandni Chowk
o Lowets Number of Votes 45 for Ashok Kumar, Chandni Chowk

· A total of 369 parties, including 7 national parties, were in the election foray.
· Total number of EVM(Electronic voting machines used) 10.25 lacs. This saved 8000 Metric tones of paper

· 8 parties who had won last time scored a duck this time.
o Prominent among them are the PMK, remember ex health minister with all hues and cry over AIMS and sutta in bollywood.

o LJP(Lok Janshakti party) remember our ex & ex & ex Railway minister Ram Vilas paswan who somehow managed to be a cabinet minister in all the governments whether it be NDA or UPA
o
· Some high Profile loosers: Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Vinod Khanna, Mani shankar aiyaar

Lalu lost from patliputra. If he had pre poll alliance with Congress, he would have won this seat by ~5000votes
Anyways, Lalu had also lost from Sharad Yadav of JD(U) once. So do not repent Lalu jee, rather try to work for the people of saran other wise next time also you will have to run for elections from 2-3 places.


· Bal Thakrey asks Marathi Manoos “The saffron march continued in rest of the state but Mumbai and Thane have given me pain at this age”
o “The Marathi voter, who strayed away from the Sena, should explain to us why he did so and what harm had Shiv Sena done to him”
o Bal thakrey is 82 Yrs old
I feel Thakrey should introspect as to what he has done for the state apart from creating marathi Manoos and Bihari bhaiya divide

· Astrological predictions: Reeta Shankar Seth had predicted that Congress will make government in 2009 elections. She had predicted Congress victory in 2004 elections aswell. However, the interesting point is Mr. Manmohan Sinhg will be a temporary PM to be succeded by rahul gandhi

The proposed bullet train

satto Baber Oops!! Only Satto, barber muted

From last half a year, the news of recession is taking ground. The recession is feared to get deeper and deeper to a depression. Whenever anything different occurs in the world, may it be swing of the sensex or this current recession, the guru of the concerned business take a back seat to think back. They may then come back with analogies to support the current situation. However the junta becomes the master. Everyone has a view as to what will happen the next day or the next moment. And just experience the confidence with which the comments flow.

I was just sitting in a chowk wala nayi shop(kesh kartanalay ). His name is satyanarayan, associate of Badrinath. We all call him satto and his boss as Badri. Hope Satto will not be infuriated on being called barber.

As always, I had to wait for my turn and listening to the chats of Satto and the customer. The clinging sound of the scissors was giving perfect background music to the conversation. Satto was fluently chatting with the customer and was giving the news of the whole area. Last day pappu yadav ke bagal waale ghar pe chori ho gayaa. Ab bataaiye jab uske ghar ke bagal me chori ho saktaa hai to kya safety hai town me. Customer nodded. Very mechanically satto turned the customer’s head to the right position, which had been changed due to the nod. FYI, it’s the same pappu yadav the one time goon and now sitting MP.(sitting in jail)

Then Mishra ji who was sitting beside me floated a topic related to the economic crisis and mehngayi. He continued, jab kisi samaan ka daam ghat hi nahi rahaa hai to fir ye inflation ghat kaise rahaa hai . kewal tel ka daam gahta hai. Satto replied, haan sir jab rate badaa tha to sabji, bhaji ka samaan bad gayaa par ab ghat to raha hi nahi hai.

Then came aadwani ji and Sonia ji followed by Obama, the first balck president. Is he an American, nahi wo to kala hai.american to gore hote hain….!@@@#@$. Then satto asked me aapto videsh me hain na.. wahana pe bhi aisa hota hai kya.kaisa bhai?? Wahaan se mere liye baal ko kaatne ka machine le aayiega. I nodded haan jaroor le aaunga, par wo sabhi machine ab India me bhi mil jaati hai. Achcha!!! Came the reply. Par humko to kahin dikhtaa hi nahi hai .

The point to be noted is he trims hair in the same way as other barber does. However it is only the magic of the conversation that keeps his customers intact. Everyone has a particular way of thinking and they want to make others aware of that and who is the best person apart from the kesh kartanalay. I bet if a poll is conducted about being the most aware of the basic situation of the locality, barbers will be among the toppers, may be just after or even before the district collector.