The utility of futility

Chuang-tzu said, "All men know the utility of useful things; but they do not know the utility of futility". It seems that for the past three years, I've been making an earnest attempt to understand the utility of futility. And I have had modest results, I'm pretty clear on what I want to do in my life or rather what I don't want to do. I guess my priorities in life are clearer than ever before and I pray to god to give me strength and conviction to realize and attain my goals. Its silly how God keeps making these special appearances in my consciousness. Whenever there has been a watershed, I've turned to God and I hope I've been good enough when things have been more routine, that He'll take care. That apart, I guess one has to make a conscious effort not to let the monotonous burden of life to cloud one's vision or judgement, sometimes it really is a good idea to leave yourself alone and cut yourself off from the more mundane and worldly things, This really aids self-reflection. A couple of friends have aided me immensely in carrying out this exercise of futility, they'll know when they read this. I hope that in the time to come, I'll be calm enough not to repeat the oversights of my past life...

Amen

Pyaas (and Aap ka Abhijit)

The one mistake that I committed when I bought 'Ohi Chann Ohi Rataan' was that I was expecting another 'Saun di jhadi', and quite obviously I was disappointed with the result. This time around, I had no such mega expectaions and I'm a lot more pleased with the new album. It's a potpourri of 8 tracks. Heres my take on each of them. The album begins with 'Mitran Di Chhatri', the song being flashed all over TV these days and it indeed is one of the better songs of the album, basically its about the 'craze' amongst the desi girls to go to 'vilayat' leaving the local doods in a lurch. Second song is 'Mere dil vich', its soft and senti, good to hear but nothing exceptional. 'Kandh Tapke' the third song is in the mould of 'pind pehra lagda' and 'raat chandni' from previous albums, little new on offer but still decent enough to hear. It is followed by 'Laarian de Naal' which is the better of the two 'sad' songs in the album. The next song is 'Pakki kanak', Babbu Mann is in his element, for me undoubtedly, this is the best song of the album. This is followed by a tribute to Surjit Bindrakhiya in 'Pind deyan Juhan', tribute alright but the song is not in keeping with the general mood and the beat of the album. This is followed by 'Hiqq utte Gut' which even talks about tattoo's on hiqq!!! It is a good foot tapping number but nothin exceptional again. The last song of tha album is 'Teri Baanh fadni', which is how this jatt feels after gulping four pegs of whiskey(?). he talks about Open Pajeros and compares 'chadhdi-jawani' with a tsunami wave, WoW!!! All I can say is that despite of the corny lyrics, this might turn out to be the chart-topping song.

All in all, Saun Di Jhadi had a distinctive rustic tone to it, both music and lyrics but now Babbu Mann sseems to be drifting towards techno ever since, the effect is there to see in 'Mitran Di chhatri'. As for me, I prefer the Babbu Mann of yore, the guy with brooding eyes who sang 'lokan ne piti tunpka tunpka' but as long as he churns out some good music, I'm OK with it. I won't say Pyaas is a great album but it is good enough and will manage to please fans like me.

Also, I bought the CD of 'Aapka Abhijit' (Indian idol) and whosoever reads this blog, plz spread the word, it is really really bad and at 175 bucks, you'll feel robbed....

Thespian Tendulkar and others...

I never cease to marvel at sachin Tendulkar. And I never cease to marvel at the naïveté of the general public.

Has anyone ever noticed how Tendulkar keeps getting cramps the moment he completes his hundred andwhen people are expecting a blitzkrieg from him? There has been an odd innings in Sharjah and an odd inning in WC where he actually kicked pace after century but every time else and too frequently of late to seem genuine, he cramps up or has an injury. You do not expect the worlds top paid cricketer to be this unfit.

Well, I perceive this as one of the many mindgames that he plays all the time. It has a dual effect,

a) it probably softens the opposition, and

b) and more importantly it softens the crowd.

Tendulkar in his heart knows that he no longer is the player that can take the attack to the opposition, by doing this,i.e, by showing himself to be in great discomfort all the time after reaching a personal landmark, he gets away with all the accolades and standing ovations for playing under duress, everyone forgets that the job remains half-done. This has happened so often that I predicted this while he was on 94 today, it happened again and a couple of friends can vouch for that.

My point is that I'd consider him a far greater player if he gets out trying to do some good old fashioned hitting, but what irritates me immensely is his faking illness. I know and appreciate he has a reputation to keep but this is really really too much to fathom time and again...

Cover Up Sachin, the world knows it!!!

Babbu Mann...

For quite some time, I've been noticing that Googling for Babbu Mann does not throw up good enough results. Now, I happen to be a big fan of Babbu Mann. Babbu Mann might not be popular with the hip crowd but I like him immensely, right from the days of "tupka tupka" and "rumaal de gaya" to "saun di jhadi" and "Ohi chann Ohi rataan". Somehow it has always happened at those points of my life, whenever there has been a new album, I could associate with the lyrics, Be it "rumaal de gaya", "mehfil mitraan di" or "chitthi chitthi". I'm eagerly awaiting the new album "pyaas" which hits the stores on 9th April, I'll make sure that I'm the first guy to buy it from my nearby music store. That apart, I'm keeping my fingers crossed (as many other Babbu Mann fans, notably my dear friend Tarun) as the song being aired on promos doesn't sound very promising!

(My Blog might be the first link to be shown if someone does a search for babbu maan's pyaas as there is no other site at present which even mentions pyaas!)

The strange and deviant ways of my mind...

I am really fed up with my mind, It seems that it isn't particularly interested in storing anything that would seem important. So it memorizes the most trivial, trite and useless things in full detail and for unimaginabily long durations of time, and that too without an effort. But when it comes to something serious and important, it isn't on my side...

For example, I can recollect the Vicco Turmeric Ad with all its visuals and song or for that matter the entire climax of the film 'Ajooba' which I only saw once but I can not recollect, although I'm making a huge effort, the purpose of one of the registers on ARM. This is really really weird. The mind itself decides what is important but can't put that on its non-volatile storage, in contrast it always puts crap on its non-volatile store.

Don't know why it can't memorize anything which it first perceives as crucial. Can it be the sadist nature of my mind? that it draws pleasure out of my pain. I think it is the same old conspiracy theory at work (Me The Mortal Vs. God, Luck, Nature, and others)?

main fir bhi ek din bada aadmi ban kar dikhaoonga!!!