The countdown has begun... to the 27th of June, when my elder brother, sis-in-law and my two darling nephews are coming down from USA... after almost 6 long years. I haven't yet seen one of my nephew and they haven't yet seen Nitika (my better half). Omigawd, what a union this will be... i am gonna forget everything in this bloody world for 2 whole weeks and take off for dear ol' Cal., doesnt really matter what i am in the middle of... but i will just leave evrything and go! And yes, we plan to paint the town red & considering that bro's elder son (all of 6yr old) is a big time foodie, we r gonna go on a gourmet ride thru park street, esplanade, and the works... peter cat, moulin rouge, nizaam's, crystal chopstix, arsalaan, shiraaz, nothing and nobody will be spared by our lashing tongues during those 2 weeks. But the most important point is: for once, the bigger intricacies of life will be overshadowed by the little joys of it, and that makes me "oh! so happy"
Will come back to post all details of what our salivating tongues lapped up in our gourmet ride of Cal... and the little joys that we discovered by the roadside in our 2 week journey :) till then, khuda haafiz!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Settling for less...
My search for a permamnent roof over my head in the 'Manhattan of the East' is getting hotter by the day (of course Mumbai's summer is complementing it in every possible way too) We have seen numerous places and liked quite a few too... but the eternal problem of the human race is cropping up time & again. The need for BBD, the bigger better deal. The house that i see is good, serves my purpose, fits into my budget... BUT... BUT... BUT... its not what i IDEALLY want, and if i do pick it up from the basket full of mangoes, then i know i will be settling for less!
Point is: how to beat this over-wanting / uncompromising / unsatisfied mind with that little bit less of joy??? I wish i had the answer, coz nobody i have come across has it yet. Its so very difficult to control one's desire... the desire to reach out to the next level, the desire to grow out of one's boots and touch the stars if one can. It doesn't matter if that comes at a crippling price, but the want is so great that its sometimes impossible to control the urge. Even if we dont need it in reality maybe. But then, who decides what u need and what u dont... its again ur innermost desires and there is no way u can squeeze it out like the pulp of an orange and live a peaceful life, can you? Naaah...
Point is: how to beat this over-wanting / uncompromising / unsatisfied mind with that little bit less of joy??? I wish i had the answer, coz nobody i have come across has it yet. Its so very difficult to control one's desire... the desire to reach out to the next level, the desire to grow out of one's boots and touch the stars if one can. It doesn't matter if that comes at a crippling price, but the want is so great that its sometimes impossible to control the urge. Even if we dont need it in reality maybe. But then, who decides what u need and what u dont... its again ur innermost desires and there is no way u can squeeze it out like the pulp of an orange and live a peaceful life, can you? Naaah...
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Goa monsoon
I have never been quite fond of the infamous 'Fenny'... till i tasted the more uncommon Cashew fenny margarita! ohhhh... served with a bucket full of crushed ice, mint leaves and a dash of some sweet syrup... and its as close to heaven as you can possibly go in the land of GOA, the land of hippies, wierd no-logic techno-trance music, yummy cheap coastal seafood, the most curvacious females of the world, and a plethora of beaches right from those nestled in private/desolate coves to those thronging with tourists...!!!
But the point is (which most miss out on sadly) Goa is a lot more than all these frivolous things... it is about PEACE in a rain swept, storm ravaged land of unending beaches during the glorious INDIAN MONSOON (not to mention, u get hotel accomodation at the click of ur fingers and room charges that leave u more than enuff to feast on King's beer and golden fried kalamari for the rest of ur life!) My one visit during Aug.2006 made me sit back, watching those lashing rains on Baga beach and wonder - what is it that keeps people away from Goa in monsoon? The answer (sadly) was - the absence of shacks and in turn dancing till the wee hours of the night, which is to say, a typical commercial mumbai-driven night-life.
But is Goa all about drinking, dancing and smokin' up..? Or is it about a higher state of being, where one can run away from the maddening urban menace and nestle in a state that lives on its own and isn't affected by what's happening to the entire world around it? Is it about the cheap half-priced alcohol, the wild rave parties and daily shack parties, the cheap tattoo parlours, t-shirts with psychedelic designs, and the illegal substances that r readily available if u r willing to shell out a few grands of hard cash..??? If u ask me, NO. Goa is about the people, the food. Goa is about lying on the beach at night with a King's in hand, looking up at the clear sky and counting stars. Goa is about being leonardo di caprio on the tip of Titanic, spreading ur arms wide open on the empty Baga beach with lashing rains, and taking on the sensation of a thousand needles piercing ur being every fraction of a second. Goa is about sitting on top of Fort Aguada, well after all the tourists have left and u r all alone with the remnants of a history that is scarred yet so beautiful. Goa is about port wine picked up from a roadside wine shop and drowning ur sorrow in it, aptly helped by golden fried prawns/kalamari served straight out of the frying pan. And Goa is about bliss, unending bliss where u dont have to worry about paying off ur loans, or meeting deadlines in ur office, or managing ur finance so that u can retire with enuff money to make a 30-day trip to Europe and sleep under the Eiffel Tower with the choicest of white wine in ur right hand and a lovely wife, who's aged gracefully, on ur left!
And the only way to do all this is to visit Goa atleast once during the INDIAN MONSOON... trust me, there is nothing more heavenly than getting wet in the rain in Baga and coming back to sit in Brito's and feast on their enormous seafood platter. U really dont need anything or anyone by ur side (and my wife is gonna take offence to this i know, but thats the hard truth of life, might as well face it now) OR MAYBE U DO, on second thoughts... after all what is life without the people who make it so beautiful? And Goa without beautiful people is like Paris without aged wine, INCOMPLETE!!!
But the point is (which most miss out on sadly) Goa is a lot more than all these frivolous things... it is about PEACE in a rain swept, storm ravaged land of unending beaches during the glorious INDIAN MONSOON (not to mention, u get hotel accomodation at the click of ur fingers and room charges that leave u more than enuff to feast on King's beer and golden fried kalamari for the rest of ur life!) My one visit during Aug.2006 made me sit back, watching those lashing rains on Baga beach and wonder - what is it that keeps people away from Goa in monsoon? The answer (sadly) was - the absence of shacks and in turn dancing till the wee hours of the night, which is to say, a typical commercial mumbai-driven night-life.
But is Goa all about drinking, dancing and smokin' up..? Or is it about a higher state of being, where one can run away from the maddening urban menace and nestle in a state that lives on its own and isn't affected by what's happening to the entire world around it? Is it about the cheap half-priced alcohol, the wild rave parties and daily shack parties, the cheap tattoo parlours, t-shirts with psychedelic designs, and the illegal substances that r readily available if u r willing to shell out a few grands of hard cash..??? If u ask me, NO. Goa is about the people, the food. Goa is about lying on the beach at night with a King's in hand, looking up at the clear sky and counting stars. Goa is about being leonardo di caprio on the tip of Titanic, spreading ur arms wide open on the empty Baga beach with lashing rains, and taking on the sensation of a thousand needles piercing ur being every fraction of a second. Goa is about sitting on top of Fort Aguada, well after all the tourists have left and u r all alone with the remnants of a history that is scarred yet so beautiful. Goa is about port wine picked up from a roadside wine shop and drowning ur sorrow in it, aptly helped by golden fried prawns/kalamari served straight out of the frying pan. And Goa is about bliss, unending bliss where u dont have to worry about paying off ur loans, or meeting deadlines in ur office, or managing ur finance so that u can retire with enuff money to make a 30-day trip to Europe and sleep under the Eiffel Tower with the choicest of white wine in ur right hand and a lovely wife, who's aged gracefully, on ur left!
And the only way to do all this is to visit Goa atleast once during the INDIAN MONSOON... trust me, there is nothing more heavenly than getting wet in the rain in Baga and coming back to sit in Brito's and feast on their enormous seafood platter. U really dont need anything or anyone by ur side (and my wife is gonna take offence to this i know, but thats the hard truth of life, might as well face it now) OR MAYBE U DO, on second thoughts... after all what is life without the people who make it so beautiful? And Goa without beautiful people is like Paris without aged wine, INCOMPLETE!!!
Women
Women, my dear friend... are the most beautiful yet the most complex of all human race. Did someone say - you cannot live with them, but you cannot live without them either, if not, then i quote melord, i have tried... yes, i have... not once, twice, but a hundred times... but it is not possible, not becoz of any physical need or want, but you just cant live without them, as strange and as crude it might sound, but i cannot give any reason or any logic to this intrinsic behaviour in us ordinary male mortals... and it applies to not only us heterogenous males but even otherwise! But has someone, ever tried to find out why? Maybe sitting quietly in a dark room... in a meditative posture, looking at a lone candle flickering against the slight breeze coming thru a slit in the bay-window of a 24th floor apartment by the seaside wud help to clear the mind of all wants, prejudices, biases against the fiercely beautiful, calculative, curvy, talented, ambitious, gorgious species that has lasted from when our dear ancestor Adam saw IT in the Garden of Eden (and thus began the tumbling fall of mankind?) Or maybe it wont. However much i have tried, i have not been able to come to any conclusion, but then i have never been a Don Juan De Marco (note: Juan is pronounced as Hu-an) that i wud understand women like i understand my red/port wines. But still, i have sufficient experince of a few decades in this one lifetime to see, know and interract with quite a few intelligent/competent/beautiful (aren't they all?)/fiery/shy ones of the species... and everytime they seemed to have a electro-magnet in them, which according to their own convenience can be switched on/off to get the desired "pull" in the weaker species!
So much beauty...
There is so much beauty all around... that its hard to assimilate all in one lifetime! But then what should one do... give it all up and live a life devoid of aesthetics... devoid of visual orgasm... devoid of women, rock & roll, sparkling wine and Davidoff...? Its a choice my friend... to be or not to be, that is the question!!! A thought process that one famed writer penned down light-years ago (it seems like that, doesn't it... oh! lord, are we moving fast!) is still an enigma in the mind of most of us ordinary mortals. But where is the stumbling block... where is the need to hoard... where is the necessity to accumulate... is it a desire that's born within ourselves, uncontrolled, unhampered, unhindered by logic, reason? Or is it a desire to push ourselves to the edge of satisfaction, where there is no further need for anything/anyone/anymore? Am i rambling my friend... No, coz if u look carefully then the beauty in this world is hampered by this very desire to live life king-size. What happened to the silent walks on the beach during a glorious orange sunset? What happened to the cheap road-side breakfast during the chilly winter mornings of yesterday? What happened to the hours/days/weeks spent lazily watching the myriad crowd go in/out of VT Station in search of the holy grail?
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