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Beautiful Temple. A Longtime Back. Sad No One is here and it seems to be abandoned. I could not see the insides. But I loved being there. The Breeze was great and there were these set of kids who were so happy that we were photographing them. I felt joy. Joy like never before. Looking back now, I don’t even know the name of the temple.
Life is so Lonely
’cause you were the only
one to share mine
all the time in days filed with misery
Please listen to me someone
someone please
Listen
I am here with my woes
Why am I so not in tune
why does the earth have a lune
But I actually have none to call my own
Please listen to me someone
someone please
Listen
I am here with my woes
All my friends have children
I am my own children
I am what I did not want,
I am in Want
Please listen to me someone
someone please
Listen
I am here with my woes
I was at the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra Culturals Ablaze 2008 the whole of Yesterday. So morning Narain and me(or is it I?) walk into the Chinmaya Heritage Center after a late night at the office the previous day and we started off by putting up Banners and setting up the www.findnearyou.com stall (failed miserably though)
it took Seshadri ( a friend at work ) to actually setup the stall. Where do I put up banners? This was running through my head for a while by then.
So while 2 Banners went to the stage flanks one went right inside the elevator. So when the elevator door opened up there we had a sign saying
“Stop Searching Start Finding” I was waiting for the elevator and two oldies joined my wait. So they were reading the back of my T-Shirt. which says www.findnearyou.com and then the elevator door opens and there they see the banner. They got a funny look on their face. and their eyes started to go between the banner and my Tshirt. So smart guy I am said “Yeah, it is Find Near You and I was the one who put it up there” , they said “Clever thinking” So I murmured my thanks and stepped out of the elevator.
We had all these contests and I found that boys and girls go crazy about
Freebies, A game where you have to rip the paper, crush it and then basket it with your left hand and of course brain teasers. I met some really sweet kids. I was shooting off like crazy about findnearyou and one kid I was talking to was like “I came here for Creative Writing and But I am being forced to perform Ship wreck and worse I have to play Salman Khan. Now why do kids have to play some dumb celebrity? I met some kids from St. Bedes and when I told them I was from Don Bosco, Egmore they got pretty excited and we shared some cultural stories. Previously I had watched them dance and trust me they were so different from all other schools. They were appreciated but did not win any prize. It is just like in Harry Potter when Dolores Umbridge says this is what school children should do more than this they should not. It kills the spirit inside the kid . They had made a lot of effort to do what they did. The judges should not say things like “You were very good, but this is a school culturals and we don’t entertain commercially good performances. ” Hey Teacher leave those kids alone… All in all you’re just another Brick in the wall” It is sad that talent is controlled and driven by people who are controlled and driven by some others.
Last night after covering two music concerts for Rockand Raga , (one at the Unwind Center in Adyar and a Jazz concert at the Gandhi Nagar Club) on my way back Sathya and me decided to take the bus back home. So waited for a while to catch 29C in Adyar.(This is one of the oldest and probably the longest route in Chennai. Starts from Beasant Nagar and ends at Aynavaram.)
So in the meanwhile we entertained ourselves by stopping autorickshaws and asking them how much they’ll charge for a trip to Kilpauk. They quoted anywhere in the range of 180-200Rupees. And when I refused to go for the ride they wanted to take me for. They would ask me to quote my price. and I’d quote in the range of 50-70 Rupees. Yeah it is a game I often play with auto fellows and I love seeing that pissed off look on their face.
So finally the bus got there and I had to stop playing games with the Autorickshaw guys and got in with Sathyanarain( Yeah the same guy who has decided to moderate the comments on his blogpost) and while there were hardly any women and the entire bus was filled with men. Narain and I were totally tired and there was this lady occupying a seat. The seat next to her was empty and there were so many men standing. I asked Narain to occupy that seat and he was like “Don’t know how she will react?”
Yeah and I have seen women give all kinds of reaction. Most of them get aggressive and ask the men folk to move away from what is rightfully theirs. I have seen some of them shove school children out of the ladies seat. But let me tell you my story.
I was sitting in a bus in the last row because other places were filled with people. (Last row is for ladies in most buses in Chennai) I was the only one in the last row no one else. At one of the stops a lady climbs in and comes to where I am sitting.
Lady: Please get up I want to sit here.
Me : Well, the entire row is empty and you can sit anyplace.
Lady : No I wanna sit here.
Me Ok if you want to. ( So I move to another place in the same row)
Lady : No this is a Ladies only seat so please get up. Men should not sit here.
Me : Oh alright. Fair enough. Thanks for telling me. I am really dumb you know
(I was really angry by now. I still got up not wanting to fight with the lady and was moving away)
Lady (In a loud Voice) : Men are such Bastards.
Me turns around walks upto her gets really up and close and demanded an apology. While she refused to apologize, I gave her what she did not expect, a toffee. She was completely embarrassed and got down at the next bus stop. Infact everyone was shocked. They expected something serious to happen. But I just wanted the world to know that women can behave like that too. She took the heat, not me. I hope and wish and pray that such abusive women are shown the right path.
I don’t believe anyone. I don’t even believe my own shadow. Maybe I am a ghost.
But sometimes I meet people who are so innocent that the world seems to be a beautiful place. I have recently met two such people. “Life is indeed beautiful”.
