Puns & Poses

A Vomit of thoughts 6:21 PM, 2nd April 2023 It’s a Sunday evening and I’m bored.          The digital technology around us has made our lives so easy. Easy to forget that urgent task that you need to be doing. Easy to get a dopamine high from something as silly as scrolling through other people’s pictures and whatnot. I am writing this blog after (re)watching 2 episodes of ‘The Office’, then reading IPL commentary on cricbuzz, then listening to an AP Dhillon number, and  then watching Alia Bhatt in a song from ‘2 states’ (Oh! that yellow saree!). Dopamine hits, one after another. But this is not a how-to-avoid-getting-distracted or how-to-be-more-productive blog or a listicle or anything of that sort.           Not that people care but I am writing after a very long time, almost 3 months. What took me so long? Procrastination and laziness,for the most of it. I told you, this is not a productivity-hack article.  Another rea...

 SECOND MARRIAGES “Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.”   - Oscar Wilde Allow me to draw a parallel. Between a second marriage and a new year.  Marrying again is no ordinary matter. It is an act of giving oneself another chance, despite all the disappointment and hurt in the past. In a very popular Netflix series “Money Heist” , Berlin (an important character) had three or four failed marriages. When mocked of his failed marriages, he comes with a very interesting reply. He says that his marriages show how he dared to believe in power of love again and again, no matter his past experiences.           Every time a new year is around we get excited. One of the reasons is the fact that we get to have a fresh start. “New year, new me”. Although from a very objective point 1st of January is just another day. But we have associated a great deal of symbolism with this day. We forgive ourselves for all the mistakes we committed pa...

MOVE 78 ‘Go’ is an ancient Chinese board game. It is similar to game of Chess in that it is played by two players at a time and it too requires intelligence, and intelligence alone. However, Go is much more complicated than chess. It is not so because of some weird set of rules or conditions. Rather the rules and objective of this game are very simple. Google it. The number of possible board configurations in Go is more than number of atoms present in the universe. No game of Go has been played twice, ever!          In March 2016, the then World Go Champion Lee Sedol (holder of 18 world titles) was about to play against an opponent like never before: a computer, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) named AlphaGo. Lee was confident of defeating AlphaGo in all five games that were to be played. Reason behind his confidence was the fact that the game of Go at its highest level requires  creativity and intuition. How can a computer be creative and how can it...

RESERVATION CONUNDRUM The Supreme Court of India has upheld the validity of 103rd Constitutional Amendment 2019. The amendment provided for 10% reservation in educational institutions and government jobs for ‘Economically Weaker Sections’(EWS). Before this, the provision of reservation was only for those communities who were regarded as ‘backward classes’. This backwardness is measured by level of education in the community and their ascribed status in the caste-divided society. So the reservation was provided for the communities which came under Scheduled Castes(SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes. And these communities, since they already are eligible for reservation, are not eligible for the EWS reservation. Essentially, a new quota of reserved seats has been created which are accessible only to poor from ‘forward castes’ and not to poor of backward classes. Some deem this step as reservation for forward classes.  This new legislation has led to many questions. ...

INDULGENCES  I watch movies, tv-shows, sitcoms, web series etc. A lot. This blog is about some of them. I do not claim to have great taste. That is yours to judge.  When I watched this movie for the first time I was very young. My father had rented the CD. I didn’t understand a thing thanks to elitist Urdu spoken by the characters. Two years ago, I watched it again. And boy did I like it! I loved it. By that time I had developed some interest in shayari and stuff. So I could better understand the Urdu-laden dialogues. In fact for me the dialogues are the best thing about the movie. The lines are so poetic. At one point Salim says, “ aql tamasha dekhti rahi aur ishq kadamon ka sahara lekar had se aage badh gya”. I wouldn’t even dare to translate.  Actually the plot of the movie hinges on story about a rebellious prince and his father who is a stickler. The prince is in love with a court- dancer/entertainer. The royal tradition forbids to marry out of the nobility class. Th...

MATTERS OF THE HEART It’s funny how our emotions are associated with heart when in strict biological sense they are doings of the brain. Hormones released at the commands of brain cause emotions, as many as they come. Okay, that’s how much of ‘life-science’ taught in school, is left with me. Who is to blame for such a confusion? Romantics (not the best at human anatomy), I guess. A lie told a hundred times is as good as a truth. Also, to rebel is not my biggest strength. So, I too will pretend that the heart is responsible for butterflies in the stomach and tears in the eyes.               The brain  heart sometimes can be such a pain in the a**. It makes us do weird things, speak/write weirder things (the damn poems!) and feel the weirdest things. You think you are in control of things and then one day you fall in love (or whatever connotations come with it). I’ve never had the good fortune of falling in love. Unrequited (one-sided)  lo...