Look funny in this self-portrait!

Experimenting with Self

In Paris..

Dinner in Paris with Friends

A woman at par

Perpetua's dream

Man in solitude

(Solitude)

Some more..

(Breaking free)

Some paintings...

(Trapped)

Been really long since posted anything. Thought would blog my paintings.

Monsoon attack on Mumbai

I know, much has already been written and spoken about Mumbai's crumbling infrastructure but still, can't keep at bay the temptation to fill in something about it. See, just can't help it, there isn't a better topic to whine about! As far as our authorities are concerned, they have, rather deftly, been able to set up a great precedent in their apathy towards the public for years to come? You have gotta give it to them. And now, even other big cities in India such as Bangalore and Pune are taking cue from Mumbai, the leading (emphasis added) Indian city.

Amazing isn't it? One doesn't need to read "The War of the Worlds" or to watch or listen to one of its adaptation. Well, I know it's just rains but all the excitement, a la "War of the Worlds", is there. Just a single day of rain and the fun begins. People running berserk, offices barren without employees, city coming to a halt, communication and power services down...I know, I don't need to go on. However, there is one good thing about the monsoons though. I don't know but somehow most of the females in the city begin to look more attractive. But, it could be just me!

Anyway, we all know about our government's dream of turning "Mumbai into Shanghai". Good thing that it never mentions Shanghai of today or of the 18th century. I guess, that way it can still claim that it is well on track on the project. Preposterous, you might think, but given the way Indian authorities act, they might just as well do so. Sometimes, I think the yea-sayers (emphasis added) may be right in giving India the sobriquet of "the rising land of possibilities". I mean, these are possibilities that are probably out of scope in most other nations.

Civic sense of world's oldest civilization

Well, we live in a metrics-driven world these days where every attempt is made to measure everything objectively. How good or bad is that measurement, I don't know. However, we do assign a number to almost every aspect of our life from happiness, affluence, disparity, purchasing power and everything else. And we do this, in fact, to entire nations and rank them against each other. But fortunately, I have never come across any ranking of countries according to their people's civic sense and public manners. Feel glad or relieved? Ah, me too! Just imagine where we are going to figure in such a list. Anyway, not that we, as a nation, are performing too well in the other lists that are there but this would be absolutely toweringly shameful, at least to some Indians. Are we truly what people say, "the world's oldest civilization" (we are at least one of the oldest)? I don't know may be all those historians and writers have been lying to or fooling us or something. I mean, how can we be the oldest civilization and yet not have learned anything at all about decency and dignity in behavior in public?

And I am not talking of developed-world antics such as "thanking people" or "holding the door for people following you" or anything like that (Reader's Digest survey looked for these aspects). Those finer things are probably not even possibilities in this country yet. What bothers me is the unmindfulness with which people carry themselves out. "Jumping queues" or "talking rudely to strangers" or "causing inconvenience to others on roads, cafes, offices" are like instinctive here. And well, what can one say, some people, who are mindful enough to understand what they are doing, think that they are plain smarter than others. One should just see the sense of satisfaction on their face when they achieve something like that. And to add to that, one hears the argument that we are people who live by our hearts. We don't pretend or something like Western nations by showing manners or acting nicely in public. Sure, they are acts but I guess, still worth emulating. Let's give it a shot and see.

PS: Of course, I was almost done with this post before I came across the fact that Mumbai was ranked the rudest city by Reader's Digest in a survey of 25 world cities.

Give idleness a chance

Yet another book on "doing nothing". "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers and Bums in America" this time, by Tom Lutz. It does impart to me, a hopeful feeling, to learn that a sizeable number of people, even in today's world, believe (and of course, take pride) in treading this path of higher calling. Our very own "Bhagavadgita", the ultimate Hindu look-up for all kinds of spiritual and worldly crises, too concedes non-action as a higher form of action and the door to enlightenment. I admit that I have to consider myself fortunate because even without knowing anything about that, I probably imbibed, quite early in my childhood, a bias for non-action (I mean this in a consummate sense including no bias for speech too, in case you have read my last post).

But speaking with candor, hasn't the human civilization seen thousands of years of action, honest or otherwise, from our fellow beings wanting to do "something"? And, where has it led us? Actually, it always beats my rather underdeveloped comprehension as to why human beings, otherwise such a courageous specie, give in to that inherent but stupid tendency. I mean, look at this. We all were born perfect, happy and lazy. But, parents decided to do something for us, educated us and gave us values (ah, that painful thing!) against our very nature. The teachers didn't want to be left behind and jumped into the fray. Friends, colleagues and others added to our confusion, in their own ways, to perform, to do something with our life. Now, this is where everything begins. Everyone wants to do something but probably there aren't as many things to do. Ah, but instead of facing up to the reality, we succumbed to the circumstances. We started doing all the baloney (this blog a perfect example of that) in the world just to give ourselves a false sense of accomplishment. Now, it has become a mass folie a duex or something.

Well, pristine idleness has been the story of my life so far and, it will be my best endeavor, despite whatever life thrusts onto me, to continue in this path. Actually, I appeal to all of you, who harbor real hopes of a beautiful world in the future to curb that hardwired enthusiasm in you for "doing something". Let's give idleness a chance! As they say, it's never too late or something. Lazy bums will anyway enjoy the process while people, given to working hard will have to work hard at it. Guess that's what they call a "win-win" situation.