As random as a concentrating mind

I've graduated from being at home with family in Ahmedabad to living with roomies at Rajkot and Pune, to living alone in a hostel room in Guwahati, and finally to living alone in a flat in Bangalore. Parallely, my inclination to talk and share with others have gone from 100% to, say 10%, decreasing exponentially with each transition. As a honest confession, I started this blog because I wanted others to read what I think and write (and not just because I wanted to speak out. Whenever I wrote, I waited restlessly for any of my friends to refer something about my latest post). Now in real sense, I just want to speak out, blurt out anything and everything. I believe this will help me bring up the 10% figure.

Bangalore
Bangalore, the Mecca for any Indian software engineer, the silicon valley of India, the garden city... yeah yeah World, create more hype! I didn't find any magic in this city... no youthful fervor, no sense of belongingness! Probably, this is a city where software people come to settle down after having their fun in Pune, Gurgaon or on-site locations.

The companies pay a handsome amount, which the entire city - from your landlord to the sabjiwala, from your investment advisor to the rickshaw driver - conspires to take away from you. So your real occupation is to save yourself the precious little that you can salvage in this trade between two third-parties. The customer care people (cell phone, banks, internet connection, gas connection or even driving classes) are trained to not protest when an irritated customer calls up and says 'do this, else I don't need your services. Refund my deposit'. There wouldn't be a split second for you to save your pride before they reply 'ok sir, you can withdraw your subscription by tomorrow evening'. Logic says it's basic economics, demand exceeds supply so much that you've got to expect this, but India mein senti blackmail chalna chahiye yaar!! any place!!

Job
Being an extremely small part of an extremely big company doesn't exactly feel like the seventh heaven, but it does present an opportunity. Unlike my sadistic previous section, I'm more optimistic about this one. Although I wanted to be part of a start-up, be a reasonably sizeable part of a 'smallish' company, I am now happy at my place. One of my friends is in such a company, but thanks to some unknown rascal in the US defaulting on his home loan, my friend might face the axe.

Cricket
India-Australia test series kicks off tomorrow in Bangalore, and as any other short-memoried Indian cricket fan, I am optimistic about this too. I have my tickets to the stadium for the fourth day. Ganguly is all over the news today, I really hope Dravid scores though. He is yet to score a century here. Yeah, I am a 'Dravidian' in more than one sense! Recently a Wall was erected in the stadium in Dravid's honor, and he had this to say about it "when they (karnataka cricket association) first came up with this idea, I thought it would be embarrassing, but then they said it would inspire youngsters. I finally agreed’.

Rahul bhai, you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. You were over-shadowed by Sachin and Ganguly even in your prime, its high time you raved in whatever comes your way. Because the next time this bullshit media will write good things about you would be only when, like Ganguly, you announce your exit.

Movies
After cynicism, optimism, and more optimism, here is absolute delight. The last three Hindi movies I watched were an absolute treat to any not-dumb movie lover. I saw A Wednesday, Mumbai meri jaan and Welcome to sajjanpur. Spoiler alert – ha.. who am I kidding?

Although I correctly guessed Naseeruddin Shah’s intentions at he very beginning, his monologue at the end was mind blowing. Second outstanding monologue this year for him, first being in Khuda ke liye. My favorite line of the film is when Jimmy Shergil tells the terrorist ‘ek aam insaan ki hat kya gayi, tumhe rok hi nahi, thok bhi raha hai’. Bravo!

One has to have lived in Mumbai to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan. One has to have a strong “i’ll live in india” ideology like Madhavan to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan (God forbid, some incident changes that in me. But now I know it can be changed.. changed by events beyond my control. I wont brag my ideology anymore). And one need not be an avid fan of Paresh Rawal to really appreciate Mumbai meri jaan, you’ll love him anyways.

Sajjanpur was a class-apart. I’ve not seen any of the Shyam Benegal movies, but now I have to. In my opinion, the character Mahadev tries give the most positive end to every sub-plot in his book though the reality was different. The compounder and the widow were told to have lived happily ever after, though in reality they were hanged by fundamentalists of their own caste on their wedding day. (obvious)
The eunuch Munnibai was killed, though in reality she goes on become the sarpanch and much more in politics. (brilliant)
Dying for a cause one is fighting for is the noblest end one can give to any hero (hero as in.. ab samajh jao). Remember the ‘Dark Knight’ line – “you either die a hero or live long enough to get corrupted”. This movie is a sheer stroke of a genius!

Miscellaneous
Anything and everything qualifies as miscellaneous, a forwarded email educated me.
I sent my girlfriend an anonymous bouquet of roses to her workplace. A risky affair given the fact that she’s has kept this under the wraps so far. More risky because I’ll have to face her wrath even if nothing alarming happens at her work place J
A note about the heading - whenever I consciously try to concentrate (as in yoga or meditation kind of concentration), the mind wavers so much that it feels as if I was at my concentrated best a moment before I decided to concentrate. Thus, I felt that a mind attempting to concentrate can be an excellent example for randomness.
Just received an sms:
TC to sardar – ticket dikhao
Sardar – ye lo
TC – yeh ticket to purani hai
Sardar – to yeh train kya abhi showroom se nikali hai