Jagah Dil Mein Honi Chahiye

Another Diwali is here, another festival away from home, another 'occassion' spent doing nothing in Bombay. Would've loved to be back home in Delhi this time, cos I have the time and there's no mad work pressure, but...

So, why am I in Bombay this Diwali? Well, things are not always as simple as they seem. Going home right now will mean my getting slightly more than ghar ka khana and maa-baap ka pyaar! It is the nightmare of all chronic bachelors, it is called shaadi ka pressure.

Have been successfully avoiding getting into the marriage trap for a couple of years now. There is no method- Saam Daam Dand or Bhed, that my parents have not tried. But now, we have reached a stage where if I go to Delhi, I will be forced to 'see' at least a couple of girls. My Gawd!!! The very thought sends shivers up my spine! It's such a retrogade, imperfect, inane practice. How on earth am I supposed to evaluate a woman(and vice verse) in a single(or even a couple of) meetings? Will I ever be able to work up the courage to ever say yes, or worse, no to a girl? Extremely scary proposition!

So, I guess Bombay's the place to be this Diwali. Will hurt a bit, but the pros far outweigh the cons! And keep searching for that elusive 'perfect woman'! There she is... No it isn't...

Made a serendipitous discovery last evening. Mann thodha vichalit ho raha tha, so i started surfing the net for online issues of Phantom comics, when i stumbled upon this blog called thecomicproject. On this site, the guy has put up scanned copies of Indrajal Comics, published 20-22 years ago. Just imagine, a 30 page comic, scanned page by page, and uploaded on the net. And he's put up more than a 100 comics on it till now, the project continues. Think how painstakingly he would have had to work, every week, to upload one issue of 'just a comic' on the site!

Was wondering as to what could possibly be the motivation of such people. He is not getting any money out of this(the download is free), he is not standing for any public office, he has not even mentioned his name. While I am fundamentally against piracy of any kind (I don't download music/movies from the net, nor do i watch pirated DVDs), this case is an exception for the simple reason that these comics are not available in the market any more. So, even if you have oodles of moolah, you just can't buy an Indrajal Comic today. I personally would categorize this whole project as a social service in the true sense of the word- much better than what publicity hungry page 3 celebs do for the benefit of the camera!

Got extremely senti while going through the site. I have some of these comics at home, they are a part of my childhood, my growing up experience, and the site helped me reclaim a part of it! There is still hope for the world till people like tcp are there, working for it's betterment. Cheers to his ilk, may they grow and prosper! Ciao!

Feel like writing something, have no idea about what I am going to write, hence the title! Have been on a 'What is the purpose of my existence?' trip since the last few days. Don't know what triggered this, but honi ko kaun taal sakta hai. So coming to the critical Mudda-The Issue, what IS the purpose of my existence?

I thought and I thought, and I arrived upon an amazing conclusion- I have no idea. And more importantly, I don't think it is necessary to have a larger purpose in life always. Was talking to a colleague yesterday on this. He very apologetically told me that unlike everyone around us, he really does not have a larger dream or passion driving him. He just wants to enjoy his life while it lasts, and while he can. So he could be cutting promos for a channel(like he is currently doing) or simply leading the life of a wastrel, high on dope, living on his dad's money. Guess he has a point. Too often, we take life a bit too seriously, and get too tensed up about a 'higher purpose', 'THE GOAL' or other esoteric philosophies. But in all this, we totally neglect our present life. Our basic duty being making ourselves happy, every moment, every day, seems like a good enough philosophy to a 'humble farmer' like me!

I don't know about my 'purpose', but there's surely a lot of stuff that I want to do before the celestial tax man cometh to collect me! Make a movie, write a book, enter politics, teach, act in a play... but is any of this my 'true calling'- I have no clue! We'll cross the bridge when we reach it!

Indulged in a beautiful sin over the weekend. Bought myself the complete Calvin & Hobbes collection. Cost me a bomb- 6.5 K, but it's worth every penny of it. A lot of people in office came up to me yesterday(I'd ordered the books on the net and recd them in office) and politely enquired if I had gone off my rocker. Really didn't know how to respond. What, and how, do I explain to people what books mean to me? Will they understand the importance of Calvin in my life? Will they appreciate that when the chips are down and the burden is heavy, it's Calvin & Hobbes who embrace me and welcome me to their magical world. A world where imagination runs wild, where dreams come true, where a six year old lives life the way he wants to(well almost, at least in his own world)!!!

Nope, I don't think they would've understood. So I just smiled and didn't say anything.

Another blog? who needs it? why? Here are some answers... but only as many as I choose to provide! Was motivated to create a blog of my own by my friend Devyani, who's my consultant on all matters technical, specifically related to the net. I still haven't made up my mind as to how and how often am I going to use this blog, but as the great lord Budhha said, "Ki fark painda hai?"

The name of my blog is derived from my philosophy in life- 'Jagah Dil mein Honi Chahiye'. Quite often, we allow our lives to be constrained by minor limitations- my philosophy is the answer to all of them.

Till I feel like writing again, njoy!