To Pee or not to Pee

Sulabh Shouchalays in Bangalore have work timings!! It closes at 10 in the evening. On Mysore Road Sulabh Shouchalay, KAVIKA wall takes on the downpour of all the full bladders after 10. Even if I want to keep the city clean, there are times when I am absolutely helpless, I have to take a call between being alive or keeping the city clean. What would you do?!?

Songs at the tea stall.

Karunada Thayi Sada Chinmayi – Naanu Nanna hendati
SPB sings for RaviChandran

Everyday when I enter the tea stall outside office at around 2:30 in the afternoon, I get to listen to some of the most melodious songs. That is probably the only time I actually listen to radio from monday to friday. Over the last month there has not been a single day when the songs have not been good. All kannada, and SPB is in full swing. I have decided that I am going to buy a small radio to listen to the songs at my desk. But ever felt that the songs sound really melodious when played on a broken old radio kept in a tea stand and can be heard as we pass by the stall, or stand there listening to the song over a plastic cup of tea. Probably the fun of it is lost when you have your own hi-fi radio. That is the reason, I never got hooked on to my walkman and CD Man. But I think I have to buy a new radio now.

Love India for small things as this

Poets and Sadism..

Gazals and Shers have always got me thinking about the mood of the poets. Have poets gone through the things they write or are they written to tease people? For example, a 60 year old poet would write about his babe ditching him for a absolutely fit for nothing, shit faced SOB. How would a 60 year old know how it feels? And at 60 your brain cells are too weak to remember what your babe did to you 40 years back. It only means that he wants to have fun at seeing you cry over your girl actually run away with another idiot. That, my friend, is called sadism!

The surprising part is that, most of the gazals start and end on a sad note and make sure they carry the mood along the whole song. But invariably, who ever understand the language, tends to identify with the song. It only means that everyone thinks alike and goes through the same shit. Or you forcefully identify your story with the song, probably, completely missing the point. Whatever be it, I still like gazals and shers. Here are a couple of them that strike the cords of your heart..

laher aati hai kinaare se palat jaati hai,
yaad aati hai aur dil mein simat jaati hai,
laher aur yaad mein farq sirf itna hai ki,
laher bewaqt aur yaad har waqt aati hai
(Waves come by the shore but turn around
Commemoration happens but it congregates in my heart
Waves and Commemoration have just one difference
Waves come by anytime but your fond memories come by always)

Manzile bhi uski thi, Rasta bhi uska tha.
Ek main akela tha, Kafila bhi uska tha..
Sath-Sath chalne ki soch bi uski thi,
Fir raasta badalne ka faisla bhi uska tha...
Aaj kyon akela hoon, Dil sawal karta hai,
Log to uske the, Kya KHUDA bhi uska tha....?
(The Destination was hers, she decided the route,
I was alone and the whole group was hers.
It was her idea of moving together,
It was her decision to part ways.
My heart questions – Why am I alone?
People were hers, but was even GOD on her side?)

It has been very difficult to translate this. Had to take help from people around to translate the first one.