Movies vs Books?!

This is the most absurd way of dividing people till date and is an example of infinite human stupidity. A lot of people 'judge' others based on their preference regarding entertainment. The ones who read, inarguably assume the intellectual title where as the ones who prefer movies/TV are tagged as couch potatoes. I am personally a movie freak. I have seen plenty of movies, as far as books, except for 2-3 Chetan Bhagat books, which I read due to circumstantial pressure, I haven't read any. Sure I enjoy comics and picture stories.

Now here comes the funny part, a lot of these 'pseudo intellectual' novel readers are dumb as shit. I am not saying all or most, but a lot of them. You know why? 'Cos hobbies don't decide how smart you are. If I were to even logically argue that fact, I'd simply quote "A picture is worth a thousand words". A lot of street smartness and general awareness comes out of watching something rather than going gaga over a boy riding a broom stick. Freedom of choice is most important and tagging people on the basis of your closed mentality gives us a peek at your door knob IQ.

So grow up and act like an intelligent life form for once. 

The 85mm of life

Contrary to popular beliefs, I like to call it the 85 mm of life. After a long, tough, annoying day, your brain contains a slurry of feelings, be it anger, frustration, anxiety, aggression. Nothing can make them go away. But you can sort it. The first puff, a little annoying, starts to stream your feelings. You are relaxed. The people around suddenly seem pleasant. For the slower ones, I am talking about Cigar'ettes', the more graceful and enchanting female counterpart of the cigar (as always).

If a genie was to give you a chance to convert the years of your old age to your present years (safely assuming oldies aren't reading this piece), would you do it? Hell yeah. Then why not do it? To save your life for later and stretch it more than required is a crime and a curse, both for you and your kids. 

Have you ever had a smoke in isolation? Just you and a Marlboro Red and maybe a window? Especially at night, when the lull allows you to hear the crackling, as fire travels further down towards the stick's butt? And with each drag your eyes close as if to help navigate the smoke through every inch of your lungs. It's a getaway, from the life you 'claim' to be living. 

If you have done justice to your cigarette, you will not feel the need to light up another one immediately after. Smoking is similar to seeing a stripper on a pole, the dripping cheese from a pizza, the sight of a commode after having a couple of beers- its indescribable, its phenomenally emotional.

Indeed, since time immemorial, life has been wrongly measured in years instead of millimeters. 

Silly Patriotism

I used to boast the fact that I had not cried since class 4 or 5. A feature of a 'man'. It is not allowed for a man to cry now, is it?

But I cried the other day, shattering my 'manly' record. But then again, records are made to be broken. But how did this horrible thing happen? How did I cry? Damn this youtube. Publishing all this patriotic stuff and martyrs' families crying for their son/husband/brother before finally setting his body on fire. Compels me to ask, why the patriotism? Why is someone ready to give that ultimate sacrifice for something he did not even earn. It is as stupid as religion. Nationality is inherited, it is passed on from your parents. What's the big deal about it? It's not like you are allotted countries according to your skill/potential. Then why the pride? If religion is stupid, this is equally dumb.

Not to mention, I do respect the sacrifices made by our martyrs. But I don't respect them for their 'patriotism', I respect them for their big heart. They can actually give up their life for something, most of us can't do that. I respect them for their skill, for their courage.

But you know, some things are not so easy. Not so logical. I am that fool, who is proud of his country, who does not believe in religion but, India, yes. I do not know why. I can't refute the above mentioned logic at all. But then I guess that's what belief is all about.

Nationality is inherited from your parents, but so is the life they give you. Does that mean you undermine it? No. You can choose to or you may not.

The failure chronicles

Since I was a kid I used to anticipate a lot. As a kid I waited for evening for that one line of Milkybar which i was given everyday. Every day, one line. No deviation. I used to calculate the no. of days to my birthday. Festivals were another, esp holi and diwali. There were big days, days of importance. And then there were the 'less important' days, the connecting days. They connected one major event to another. As a kid, this was my classification. And I used to feel the rush as the major days approached. Be it my exam day or holi.

But, it's not the same any more. There are no major days. Consequently no connecting days either. Just one type remains. I don't even know what to call it. It's like I am observing each day as it passes, unable to contribute. The day passes, I go to sleep. Where the day vanished and what I did during those hours remain a mystery just like that missing Malaysian plane.

Does it happen to you anymore? Wait for an exam all week maybe month. As the D-day arrives you suddenly become numb? Oblivious? You are writing the exam. You might be failing the exam, which will in turn compel you to stay back in your college even in the vacation month when all your friends go back home to fatten up, it will mean continuous countless nights with you sitting in your hostel room by the window alone with rum in one hand and a cigarette in another. You can feel the horror as you skip from question to question unable to dodge the inevitable- failure. But it doesn't matter to you somehow. The moment you submit your paper, you know you are doomed. But for that period of time, you become an ascetic, a shameless one. You don't feel sad. You are just ready. Ready to stay back in the dreadful excuse of a college. Turns out the 'major day' you had anticipated it to be was wrong. This was just another day. No emotional high or low. 

One more day passes. One more day is observed.