Whose God Will Win

They want to take the "World for Allah"

Those people want a Hindu Rashtra

With them its all about embracing Christainity.                \\

In the war of Gods let's see whose GOD will win!!

'O' MY GOD!

‘O’ My God!

One thing that I did unfailingly after reading Orhan Pamuk’s “The Museum of Innocence” or “Masumiyet Müzesi” was recommend it to everyone I knew, loved, hated or even ignored. Last night Penguin presented an evening with him and launched his new book “Orhan Pamuk the Naïve and the Sentimental”, and there I was delighted to discover more reasons to admire him. In fact everyone admires him… People vied to talk to him. There were all sorts of people… people who genuinely follow his literature, people who came to brush shoulders with the who’s who, people who wanted to know “what’s the fuss about Pamuk, suddenly!” People who were there by means of being well connected people who wanted to tell their neighbours, “Hey last night I was at Orhan’s book reading… and you? Ok, watched Roadies!” etc etc. It was a pleasure interacting with the wide variety.

His books are for “ideal readers” who apart from being entertained read to shape their souls and build their characters. He has been an ideal reader in his growing up years, took to books to make and shape his character and to enrich his soul. When Orhan’s dad found books migrating from his library shelf to that of his son’s he said, “Aha, the books have migrated to the higher echelons!” Guess this is the only story of migration that wasn’t met with a frown! Reading hones ones imagination, he said, “When you read, the words written bring a picture to your mind and you start imagining, you become the part of the story and tend to live that character!”

The not-so-young-Turk (age 58) of Turkish Literature talks about love and makes one look for love around him. (That’s what MOI did to me!) His hero Kemal Mustafa, in “Museum of Innocence” falls in love and fails to fall out of it… unlike a lot of us! “People fall in love and find some way or the other to come out of it, but my hero can’t find any way that makes him fall out of love with Fusun!” Through this book, set in a Muslim culture, he went into the detailing of having sex before marriage that Islam prohibits.

He doesn’t mind falling in trouble for discussing the family ties that start reeking. His book “Istanbul – The Memories of a City” is an autobiographical attempt, and he brought out the lost tradition of joint family. When we can write about the family that eats together, sleeps together, cheers together we can even enjoy the liberty to write about the family that falls apart together. Orhan doesn’t believe in wasting space by not telling what needs to be told! He said, “If there is family resentment one should be able to bring that out in the book.”

What’s inspiring is that he wrote “Istanbul” when he was on the verge of depression. In an interview he recalled: “My life, because of so many things, was in a crisis; I don’t want to go into those details: divorce, father dying, professional problems, and problems with this, problems with that, everything was bad. I thought if I were to be weak I would have a depression. But every day I would wake up and have a cold shower and sit down and remember and write, always paying attention to the beauty of the book.”

I have always read, “Patience pays” and saw it last night how magnanimously it pays!

All of his books have been translated in different, around 50, languages. How amazed I was at his faith in a non-western way of expressing- Turkish. He started with Turkish language; popular success came late, but it came with a bang. For Orhan, neglecting a non western writing is equal to, “neglecting a lot of human experience!” I would like to end with one his quotes, “What literature needs most to tell and investigate today are humanity's basic fears: the fear of being left outside, and the fear of counting for nothing, and the feelings of worthlessness that come with such fears; the collective humiliations, vulnerabilities, slights, grievances, sensitivities, and imagined insults, and the nationalist boasts and inflations that are their next of kin ... Whenever I am confronted by such sentiments, and by the irrational, overstated language in which they are usually expressed, I know they touch on a darkness inside me. We have often witnessed peoples, societies and nations outside the Western world–and I can identify with them easily–succumbing to fears that sometimes lead them to commit stupidities, all because of their fears of humiliation and their sensitivities. I also know that in the West–a world with which I can identify with the same ease–nations and peoples taking an excessive pride in their wealth, and in their having brought us the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Modernism, have, from time to time, succumbed to a self-satisfaction that is almost as stupid.

—Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Lecture

Black Current

Our day starts with the current affairs, as a matter of routine or as a result of peer pressure push, many of us make sure we are our newsy best everyday, to feel in place and to sound sound. For quite sometime my life has become a 'current of affairs'. And to share it with my blog log I have put down some of them, you never know, the points might teach you without being preachy!

Current observation: Personal bonding works, yes even in the professional world

Current motto: Try, try till you succeed

Current style: Mix and match

Current hunt: A life partner, yes Eram has grown from being a reluctant bride to an eager one, why? I dont know

Current place: JNU

Current delicacy: Dhaba parantha and Mani's food

Current friends: Purva, Nikhila, Divya, Medha, Arunima

Current Office: Delhi Times

Current boss: Anshul Chaturvedi

Current guardians: Ambreen and Aqsa

Current fever: Facebook and photgraphy

Current feeling: Sab bakwaas hai

Current high-points: People are raving over my profile pic on facebook... so far the look!

Current bad habit: Eating out whenever possible

Current Vision: Hazy and obscure... Hum Kis Gali Jaa Rahe Hain, apna koi thikaana nahi

Current state: The bubble has burst

Current mission: Battle the bulge

Current obsession: Become a polyglot

Current book: Wren and Martin

Current fiction, yaar! Mrs Dalloway (still finding a way to get over that 200 page novel)

Current lesson: Never be a Yesman

Current life: Meeting deadlines

Current development: Giggles have been uninhibited

Current idol: Orhan Pamuk (he started writing post 40, and is a nobel prize winner. Just give your best, whenever you decide to give, 40 or 60, but die only after giving your best)

Current ice-cream flavour: Almond chocolate

Current night activity: bitching

Current star: Farhan Akhtar

Current fave phrase: Call spade a spade

Current fear: An unknown death, a life of an unfulfilled dream

Current support: Patience, prayers and some work in the right direction

... Ab bas!

About me

Today I am celebrating myself, because no one else is doing that. Just joking man! I am trying to write something which I can't in black and white. And can write a thing like this only on networking sites, where i have not signed. But then for this reason why should i be deprived of the pleasure of singing paeans about myself. Last when I signed in on a massively popular social networking site, i was thrilled to write the section which said: About me and I went ahead using the space for my description. I still remember what I wrote: About me mmm... The vial is open and can you capture the fragrance? No na then how can you put Eram in words. What blasphemy! Then I signed out 'coz i was bored.

A year later, I signed in on blogspot. Again, I was excited about writing in the same section saying: About me. I went ahead but was disappointed to see what all i wrote was not updated. Then I thought of hitting back with a vengeance and decided to write a blog on myself. Now the this post is About me and I am again elated to begin... all those interested in seeing the live example of vanity, which they once read in Thomas Hardy's Far Away From The Madding Crowd fiction can stay tuned in:

About me...?? Unpredictable me, sometimes lemon, sometimes honey.

Silly me, sometimes accidentally, sometimes consciously.

Intelligent me, sometimes willingly, sometimes unknowingly,

Creative me, hah! perennially.

Beautifull me, only when don't take calorie.

Ambitious me, sometimes like herself , sometimes like a celebrity.

Latent me, sometimes explored, sometimes not seen.

Active me, sometimes hyper, sometimes productively.

Confused me, sometimes by choice, sometimes driven by plenty.

Original me, sometimes blunt, sometimes simply.

All of this sums up for the column About me till eternity. :)

Konfidence is the KEY

Time's running out, can't you hear your dreams shout,
fall and stand, get up and bang!
speak, talk and make your presence felt, but make sure not a wannabe u r spelt
Think now, act today every second of effort takes u away from decay ,
What stops you from exploring and facing a new experience?
Well that's what we call diffidence!

Diffidence, diffidence...
Finally you recognised your enemy, so redefine yourself with alchemy.
Don't get intimidated by smirks and sniggers, they come first from the non-achievers
Had snickering not been the rule of the trade, not many would have got the up grade,
Find the confidence and move ahead, you have the opportunity, minus courage.
Succumbing to lack of confidence can kill you at this age,
This enemy within is tieing you in a bondage.
Like a true soldier barge into the innermost corner of your body... bring the enemy out and ban it's further entry.
With this battle your victory will come first... don't think much, as this will douse your aspirational thirst.

JAI HO!

Jaane tu has passed a good period of 7 seven months successfully. No, I am not writing the dates of film releases for the History of Cinema, for the posterity to know...But I'm expressing my views on the effect of this fresh- as mint- film.

My sister who usually boards a train to leave for Delhi, for a change boarded a flight and as soon as we entered the sentry doors and points of the airport both of us said in chorus, "Airport reminds me of Meow and Ratz and the wild chase of Jai to get Aditi as his newly discovered love." She excitedly pointed out the quintessential parts of airport that she saw on screen. And they brought a different meaning to our minds post watching Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Right from the slide that passes on the luggage to the place where passengers sit till they enter the aeroplane, right from the point where visitors stop to bid good bye to the guards giving instructions we were living that reel all over again. It was in our dad's company that we went there... he truly had no clue of what we are talking about.

Later I said, "I wish that the next visit to the airport is not without our Jai (Ratz...or our real life hero) Amen! I am not saying this because there's an acute shortage of affection for our father but because it's time to live the freshness of love.

Amen! Once again

As a matter of habit of narrating and relaying the stories of friends and family, this time too I told my friend about the Jaane tu and airport episode and she reacted, "Arrey... it's just like each time I visit the station I think of Jab We Met. I wish to find my Aditya there."

Thats' life ka fiimi funda

REPLAY OF RDB...

This one is for those who find Muntazer-Al-Zaidi suitable for paying a heavy penalty for hurling his shoes at Mr Bush. And this happened when while blogging I read a comment by an individual who was quite disturbed at the unsafe prospects of our leaders, "I don't approve of what Muntazer did...today it has happened with Bush tomorrow it can happen with our own leaders." Somewhere he forgot to add erring leaders. This just brings the duality of people, on one hand they approve of RDB spirit where a couple of angry youngsters shoot the leader who was responsible for the loss of the life of their friend. It angered AMIR Khan led jing-bang to become a murdering gang because their friend was blamed of being an untrained and careless pilot. But the reality spoke about the system that was soiled by liars, who to save their skin did not admit on not providing safe machinery for the pilots. We gave the blood letting deed a thumbs up...the revolutionary streak was so infectious that it wrapped the entire nation with the disgust for our corrupt state. It led to mass involvement in Jessica Lall murder case. But all the goodness of boldness is accepted till it is on screen, once the bullet turns into a hurling shoe it becomes the point of integrity, lack of respect for leaders. (We forget that our leaders are politicians and not statesman who inspire to aspire statesmanship)
Iraq was under American operation (second gulf war) on the pretext that the country is suspected to have WMD and is giving help to Al-Qaida. Later after inquiries none of the claims were vindicated. On the other hand the country lost it's sovereignity, freedom and was razed to the ground. Later Iraq was affected by the dehumanization of people, a veteran iraqi said, 'people are subjected to humiliating and violent checkpoints, searches and home raids on a daily basis," since then the frustration of Iraqis over losing harmony with life made Muntazer keep his shoe safe to walk miles ahead of those who sit and grieve as he was the one who stood and hurled. Why we cheer for on screen revolutions and jeer for off screen ones. Or we are really used to being goody-two-shoes in real life and like only our heroes to do all the stunts.