Midnight's Children

Have given a write-up about this novel in my company's random fun activity, supposedly.

Midnight’s Children

One can easily get the plot from internet. I wouldn’t talk about the plot, but things that actually make this book a masterpiece and why the author of this book deserves all the accolades and awards that he received.

To start with, I was thinking about what genre this book can be classified into. I really couldn’t decide on that. So checked on Wikipedia and it classifies this book into a Genre called Magic Realism. This genre category is the closest fit for this book, but it is way beyond it. How? I will make an attempt to explain the beauty hidden in this book of 500 odd pages.

There is no limit on how deep a human mind can think. And in this depth of imagination, the variation and intent is what makes that imagination unimaginable. Putting India on the world map, this is a very boldly written piece of work, way back in 80’s, coming from a man who is not just way ahead of his generation in terms of thinking, but also very controversial, delightfully different, outspoken individual called Salman Rushdie. I would recommend a 2-min Wikipedia read on this novelist-par-excellence.

Through the central character Saleem Sinai, the evolving story of young India is narrated. It takes us through the pre-independence days to the partition of India to the congress rule of 3 decades to the emergency and finally to the socio-political challenges left open for the next generations. This central character happens to be born on the stroke of midnight of 15^th August 1947, when India was gifted with independence. Saleem Sinai is gifted with telepathic dripping nose, using which he can sniff others’ minds. He later discovers that all children born in India close to the midnight of independence are gifted with some or the other special powers. Saleem attempts to discover the meaning of their gifts and acts as the convener, brining all these hundreds of diversely talented children together and fight the issues that the young nation is facing. Other than this, he himself gets involved in some of the major events (either by luck or by ignorance or sometimes due to boredom) that shaped the nation after independence. He goes through many geographical shifts across India due to wars, family business, and personal differences; and gets to sniff more and more minds over the course of time, thereby getting an essence of things to come. He even suffers from loss of memory for some good amount of time during one of the critical missions of Indian Army, and later on, getting it back, with the help of one of his childhood friends. As the Emergency is declared in the young country by a dynamic woman Prime Minister, all that is left for Saleem is to put the pieces of his life together and make some sense out if it, so that he could write a chronicle about the young evolving nation and his personal life, for his son, who also is gifted with similar powers.

This is a rough and a brief plot of the novel. What is important here is that every single aspect that he talks about has a greater significance than just being a mere event, for instance the convention of the Midnight’s Children is a reflection of the religious, political, economic, cultural, linguistic issues that India faced in its early statehood.

Some interesting trivia about this book that I gathered from the internet after I finished reading:

·         In 1984 Indira Gandhi brought an action against the book in the British courts, claiming to have been defamed by a single sentence in chapter 28, penultimate paragraph, in which her son Sanjay Gandhi is said to have had a hold over his mother by him accusing her of contributing to his father's death through her neglect. The case was settled out of court when Salman Rushdie agreed to remove the offending sentence

·         It was awarded the 1981 Booker Prize, the English Speaking Union Literary Award, and it was awarded the James Tait Prize. It also was awarded the “Best of the Booker” prize twice, in 1993 and 2008 (this was an award given out by the Booker committee to celebrate the 25th and 40th anniversary of the award).

·         BBC was planning to film this novel with Rahul Bose in the lead but the project was cancelled due to pressure from the Muslim Community.

·         Deepa Mehta is working on a film called Winds of Change, collaborating with Rushdie on the screenplay, with an excellent star cast, slated to release in 2012.

·         Saleem Sinai’s (This character is roughly based on early life of Salman Rushdie) would-be in this novel is named Padma. And in real life, Salman Rushdie’s fourth wife is Padma Lakshmi, whom he married 2 decades after the novel’s release. Sheer coincidence or some fascination with the name Padma? Only the man knows J

Be grateful to exist

There are times when one should feel greatful to just exist, to be alive, to breathe, to live in a different era, to know that present is different from the past, to realize that these times are more merrier, to have access to information, to understand and accept the reality, to lead a life with basic rights in place, to not witness atrocities, to realize that common sense has taken precedence over insanity in this world.

There are times when words don't really do justice in expressing certain thoughts. Very rarely does a movie leaves an impression deep and powerful in peoples' minds for some meaningful amount of time. A different magnitude of feelings take over the usual self. The feeling of discomfort, righteousness, pity mixed with sorrow, grit, anger, sadness.

Schindler's List. A gem of a movie. Salute to the team who made this movie. Should have watched it many years ago. But the unintentional delay was really worth. Probably bcoz I watched it in a place which is more relevant. Probably.

Raging fire of discontent

Anger, frustration, disappointment. Suck it up!

Fame, satisfaction, relief. Cannot elude me any more

Plan. Yes, I have
When. An year
How. By working my ass off
Serious. I can’t be fooling myself, can I?
Why now. To undo 27 years of shame
Holy crap. Go kid yourself
Fire will be doused after a while. Not if you have kerosene with you
Art work, show biz, marketing, innovation or just some luck. How does it matter.
Any influence of alcohol while you talk all this. Absolutely not

Well then, good luck is all that I can say. Don’t need Luck, thanks anyways.

I just figured it out

What if you find out you have leukemia and death is closing in? What if the 2012 hoopla is true? What if you realize you have wasted your life obeying your parents and not listening to yourself?

What if you know you are not enjoying what you are doing, yet forced to enjoy? What if you find out all that you have been doing these years is just submitting yourself against your own will?

What if you find out you have friends, lots of them, yet you are all alone, you are all by yourself?

What if you realize time is a bitch? It is something that keeps changing all the time. Nothing, nothing around you is going to be what it is today, tomorrow. What if you realize things which are keeping you happy now may not keep you happy tomorrow?

Whatever is the shape of tomorrow, what is known for certain is that the present has got a shape and it's beautiful. Appreciate the present and beauty will only get better with time. There is no way tomorrow will turn out to be a damp squib from the state it is in today. I am doing just that - relaxing on the terrace at 2 AM, piercing the cool breeze, listening to some random slow Hindi songs, sharing a cigarette with Ash and blogging my way to sanity. I am just appreciating the present.

Life is a long journey. It tends to get boring sometimes. There are some occasions when you don't really mind this boredom. You discover there's something about being a lazy bum, being a philosopher, being a rebel, being a loser, being just yourself. All we need to do is just figure out what that something is.

Long term plan? – What the heck

Today one of my friends asked me over a chat casually about my long term plans. My response was as one would expect: ‘Haven’t thought about it’.

I wonder if that qualifies to be a question at all. I heard people talking about having a clear long term plan in place in order to go in the right direction in life. Heard people talking about having a vision in life, having a clear mind, being stable in life, taking calculated risks in life, making a niche for yourself, earning respect and status in the society, keeping your parents happy and what not.

I have a question. Do we really need to be that ‘clear-minded’, ‘nice’ and ‘good’?

I have got no long term plans. Forget about long term, not even short term plans. I don’t plan. ‘Plan’ is a meaningless, made-up, self-satisfying word which has got significance only in a virtual world. No wonder it’s often used by the so-called managers. I even heard people talking about pre-plan. What the hell is this anyway? Plan before you plan? Give me a break.

Live in the present. Live real. Do what you want. Give a shit about what is to be done. Do what makes you happy. Don’t think. Thinking leads to complications. Complications are annoying.

Life is simple and it's ought to be lived that way.

Gasping for air

It’s all about money. It’s all about pride. It’s all about show-off. It’s all about everything except ‘following your heart’. Why do people pretend? Why do people fake? Why do people brag? Why? Why? Why?

Society, People, Conventions – Fuck them all.

I am sick of the set up, sick of things around me, sick of the routine, sick of life. I have felt like this many times before but never for so long as this time. All that I want to do is look at the person and give a sarcastic smile and say ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ but since I live in this wonderful meaningless brainless set up called society, I just give a smile (fake one that is).

I am choked. I need some air.

I am Amused

This world is full of people who never seem to miss a chance to amuse me.

While I am writing this post, I am travelling by train to my home town (a much needed break).

Right from the person (who has a headphone and not using it) whose answer when asked politely “Can I use your headphone please?” is surprisingly, a straight “No” (with no hesitation what so ever) to the person (a serious looking aged government employee) who is giving me “Oh – one of those another IT guys” looks to the person who is enquiring my pay package, my marital status and parental income to the person who is making valiant efforts to talk in an accented English (which by the way is irritatingly annoying) to the person who is sharing stories of his past emotional linkages (or should I say romantic illusions) to the person who is sleeping and shouting (It would be unfair to call such high volume synchronization ‘snoring’) like a Godzilla to the person who is talking on phone so loud as if he is on a mission to cause some serious damage to the network signal receiver system to the person (dressed in white) who is singing praises of Sai Baba; everyone,  every single person so far, in this remarkable train journey, seems to be doing their bit to amuse me, entertain me.

Why and how do I convey to this world that I don’t need any entertainment, I don’t need any amusement. It makes my belief even stronger that I don’t belong to this world.  I don’t get angry at anything anymore.  I have reached a stage of such discontent where anger has alienated itself from my emotions. I demand peace. When will the time come when common sense takes precedence over stupidity in this world?

I hate...

Can you hate somebody without even talking to that person? forget about talking, whom you have not even seen in person, just heard them talking.


Of course you can. When I can hate so many people, Why can't you? 
I hate many, but the three persons whom I hate the most in life are:


Fardeen Khan - Pathetically disastrous actor. The worst actor ever. I hate him.


Rakhi Sawant - Uniquely cheap and uncivilized. Can't forget those 'I love Jejus', 'It's hurts' liners of hers. I hate her.


Ghanta Singh (94.3 FM) - Very very annoying, irritating and silly. Ghanta Singh is not funny. I hate him.

My top 10 Resolutions

New Year is the time when everyone takes resolutions. 
Why should one care to resolve something? 


It might sound dramatic when I say "All that a Resolution needs to become a Revolution is changing S to V". Just a thought. For the revolutionists, this is the perfect time to resolve to bring in a revolution. 
For the not-so-enthued-I-Aint-Any-Extraordinary guys like me, resolution is just an excuse to be better - to earn well, to keep healthy, to value relationships, to lead a more disciplined life, to become more social, to create an impact on people who matter, to enjoy the pleasures of life and so on.


I (commit to) resolve:


to stay in touch with my dear ones
to eat well
to sleep well
to develop empathy
not to be so self-centered
to take things head on, instead of taking the easy way out
to look happy
to put on some weight
to go places
to surprise people (I like this the most)


Resolutions can be unlimited, but i would limit mine to just these 10 for this year and see how strong my commitment is.

Happy New Year

31 Dec - 1st Jan is the time when you get emails, SMS's, calls from your friends, relatives, not-so-known contacts, wishing all the happiness and success for the new year. You say Thanks and wish the same. How typical. It happens every year. 


Nobody knows what the new year has in store for him or her, yet we celebrate every 31st night as if some great things are waiting for us. If great things are really bound to happen, they will happen in any case, so what's this fuss all about? I'm not against celebrations, don't take me wrong; but all that I'm not for are these wishes or rather fake pre-defined wishes that people exchange. Is it for real? Do you really think the drunk bikers speeding at 60 kmph shouting "Happy New Year" at the top of their voice on some random roads of Bangalore care how your new year would be? People just say for the sake of saying. They don't mean it.


31st Dec is a day in the month of December and the next day, 1st Jan is a day in the month of January. They just happen to be in 2 different calendar years. That's it. Please don't glorify it.


Happy New Year - What ever makes you happy !!

Against all odds

Chilling ruthless winter of Pilani. 2 degree centigrade. 

I want something. I want something very badly.

I'm with my friends. Good friends - A,B at Connaught place inside the campus.

I: Friends, I want to go ahead. Please don't stop me.

A: No you can't. Are you insane?
B: C'mon man, just stop it. Don't be mad. (And then the same question - ) Are you insane?

I: No, I'm not, but I just can't stop myself.

A: What's wrong with you? Why can't you behave like you know.... normal?
B: Yea... this guy is gone nuts. Dude, don't be stupid for heavens sake.

I: I'm not being stupid. It's as simple as I want something very badly and I want to get it. If not, I don't know what will happen to me. I can't resist myself.

A: But dude, look around. There are people. What will they think of you? This is just not done.

I: I can't resist the temptation. I'm too tempted.

B: Oh boy, I never thought you had such intentions tonight. If I had known this before, I would have never come with you. What a shame for me !! I want to save my face. I just want to get back to my room. 

A: Chi chi... you have no control over yourself at all. God save you. I'm out of here as well. Let's go, leave this cracko here. Let him do what he wants to do.

I: But guys, why don't you too join. We can have fun together.

A: Just shut up, will you? At least do it with presence of mind. You know what i mean. 
B: Do you have enough money?

I: Don't you worry. I will see you later.

A and B: We dont want to see you any more. Bye.

I walked towards the end of the road, a 100 m walk. It sent shivers down my spine. At the same time, there was this feeling of excitement of being the first one to actually DO it.

I asked "HOW MUCH" ? (without any fear)

10 Rs, came the answer. Which flavour do you want sir? Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate....
Chocolate I said and gave him 10 Rs.

Yes, I had Chocolate ice-cream in the month of December in Pilani. 
Mission Accomplished !! 

Confusion

Slept at 1 in the night yesterday. Now the time is 6.30 in the morning. 5 and 1/2 hrs of sleep.


Was it sleep? Not sure. I have a confusion. Did I not sleep OR did I sleep and was dreaming that I was not sleeping. What is happening to me? Never thought this could happen to me. 


Am I being cornered by my own life?

What keeps us going?

How Important you really are? 
I keep asking this question once in a while, just to keep a check on myself. Or may be to keep myself grounded. In this fast paced world, where success is almost a neccesity, where does one stand if he is not successful? Well, what is success anyway? To me, Success is something that makes you feel important, even if you really aren't. So the more apt question should be how do you make yourself feel important, feel special, feel good about yourself? While it is too spiritual and boring to answer such questions, it is really important to understand it. What makes me happy, what makes me feel important, what gives me the push to go ahead, are in fact very simple things.


The other day when I was coming back from work late night on my bike, I passed through a narrow road stretch of about half a km, fully decked by lightings all through. The lighting ended at some temple. Some auspicious occasion nexy day i suppose. Since it was late night, the road was empty. With the gentle, cool breeze striking my face and with those wonderful lightings giving a royal reception, I felt like a king, being welcomed in his kingdom after having won a war. That 5 min experience was so good that I actually took a reverse turn at the end of the road and came along the same road again, only to be felt like a king once more. It was a great experience indeed !! 


While this might sound very simple and stupid, things like these are the real turn ons in life. We tend to ignore these minor short-lived moments which actually make our lives interesting. Once we start appreciating these moments, we will realize how interesting life can be.


With this little philanthropic note, I take off for now.

Delightfully High

Time: 2:45 AM

Day: Friday night (Saturday early hours)

State: Drunk (4 pegs of 60 ml each - Blender's Pride)

Conscious? - Yes, very much.

Why blog now? - Not getting sleep

Not getting sleep after getting drunk, weird. Why is that so? - Check my blog's tag line

How does it feel after getting drunk - Delightfully high

What kind of songs do you prefer listening to, when you are drunk? - Any song that doesn't get the crap out of me.

Oh, by the way, I'm being treated to some wonderful songs being played by my wonderful roomie (who plays good songs only upon request, otherwise he plays Gagan'ish songs)

List some songs plz - Ok, here's the list of songs played so far:

Papa Kehte Hain (QSQT)

Panchi Pavan Nadiyan Aur Jhonke (Refugee)

Mein Kabhi Batlata Nahi (TZP)

Bulla Ki Jana mein Kaun (Rabbi Shergill's private album)

Kuch Is Terah Teri Palke (Doori - Atif Aslam)

Ok, enough. These are boring songs man !! Aren't you into Rock n all? - NO. I don't like Rock. I don't understand Rock. I can even go to the extent of saying I hate people who love Rock.

That's a provocative statement. How can you say that? - I don't know. I don't care. I like being this way.

Here goes the next song...

Batein Kuch Ankehee Si Kuch Ansuni si (Life in a Metro)

Beautiful song. There is no limit to awesomeness. Nice one-liner, but I can't take the credit for it. Credit goes to "Secrets of the Furious Five" - Semi sequel to Kung Fu Panda.

My friend pings me in GTalk, asking the expected question.... "Hey dude, not sleeping?"

My answer:

No, I don't sleep after getting drunk

coz this is the time when I'm at my creative best, I don't want to waste my interesting time by sleeping and let go my creative side unutilized

Ok, guys/gals/others, while i listen to the next song which is "Kabhi Dhoor Jab Din Dal Jaye", I'm taking off. Will come back soon.

What a movie !!

There are some movies which take your breath away with their sheer brilliance. Brilliance in script, brilliance in acting, brilliance in being brilliant.

Last week, I happened to see a movie which did exactly that.

Well, what is so special about this movie?

Not even a single name being used through out the movie;

Entire movie shot in one room, barring two short scenes, one at the beginning and one at the end;

Wonderfully well articulated deliberation among 12 intellectual people;

Digging into the not-so-obvious things hidden under the so-called "facts";

Powerful and "provocative" performances by all 12 Men; enough to keep you spellbound

This is a timeless classic. Released way back in 1957. This is called "12 Angry Men".

"What's up" - It's not Cool

Too many cliches in our daily conversation. While I don't have any problem with "How are you" and "How is life", which are supposed to be conversation starters and people having acknowledged these with no disregard, I have a problem with "What's up". This is so commonly used now a days and with no real intent that I can't refrain myself from calling it - The lazy man's resort. If you disagree, search for "whats up" in your GTalk chat history and the results are there for you to see. It has become so so so common that you feel like you are missing something if you haven't asked what's up to somebody when you meet him/her.

I have 2 problems with this question.

One, when you know the person whom you have asked this wonderful (supposedly 'Cool') question, is going to say 'Nothing', why do you have to ask such a question in the first place? In fact, with a great degree of certainty, I can say that 'Nothing' is the most common response. 99% of people say that.

Two, when you have simple words like "Hello" and "Hi", which are less irritating and more polite (less 'Cool' though), why on Earth would you want to use "What's up"? If you are greeting somebody just for the sake of it, wouldn't one of these two simple words do?

For full effect, "What's up" is best delivered while walking past someone at about 90 m.p.h. so the person you're talking to has no time to respond, and in a tone that suggests you really don't give a shit about "what's up" with them.
Dude 1: "Hey man, What's up?"
Dude 2: "Ah..." (what he managed to get out before Dude 1 was already too far away to hear the rest of what he was going to say)

Some smart people answer it by responding to "What's up" by saying "The sky" or "da roof" (which was actually intended to make fun of the question). In spite of this, these bunch of "What's up" guys never seem to give up their habit of asking the most famous useless question. I wonder why people always ask each other the same question over and over again. Are we really that dull?

I'm just so irritated with this extremely overused question that the next time someone asks me "What's up?", I'll say "Nothing. If you ask me again I'll roast you"

Documenting Dreams

Dreams – The most wonderful thing (if I may say so) I have come across. I dream a lot and I enjoy doing it. While Microsoft gives synonyms to dream as delusion, reverie, hallucination, trance, vision; all these words fall short in defining what a dream is. Wikipedia says “Dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history”. No wonder then, this has been a field of study for years for people anxious to know what-why-how of dreams. It’s called oneirology. There are many studies done on this already and the results are available on the net. One such interesting study which I came across is “Expectation fulfillment study of dreaming”. It says dreams are need based. They have a relationship with individual’s aspirations, fantasies and daily experiences – good or bad. They regulate mood. Many a time, it so happens that you find it difficult (or impossible) to recollect your dreams. It stays on with you for short period of time when there is an abrupt ending to a dream. After that, it fades away and in spite of making valiant efforts, you never succeed in recollecting the exact sequence of events that you encountered in the dream.

How about documenting your dreams? Sounds silly huh?

Well, not really if you actually do. It’s been nearly a year that I have been documenting my dreams. I’m finding this experience absolutely terrific. When you revisit your documented dreams, you will be amazed at your creative subconscious mind. You will realize that human mind can be so powerful and limitless in its thoughts. Keep a book and a pen by your side while you go to sleep. When you experience an abrupt ending of your dream, just jot down what ever you remember of the dream. Don’t start penning down the sequence of events. List the characters/things that you recollect. This listing should be done quickly, else these will get erased from your mind faster than one would imagine. Once you do this, you can revisit these characters/things/events and connect these. This will turn out to be an unbelievable script.

Dreaming while sleeping is a normal phenomenon. Everyone does that, unknowingly. There is another kind of dreaming that can be experienced with some effort. Before you decide to take a nap, fill your mind with certain thoughts on which you want to dream. Make a conscious effort of thinking about certain thing for some time that your mind refuses to accept any offer except the one that you are feeding. I call this style of dreaming as Intentional dreaming. It might sound stupid, but this really works. You can fine tune your mind in your conscious self that you can succeed in forcing your mind to dream about only certain things. This happens in the subconscious mode of course. We can consciously make an effort in controlling our sub conscious mind. This is not a straight task. It needs consistent effort. Once this starts working, there is nothing like it. Instead of dreams regulating your mood, you yourself regulate your mood and you will have a better control over yourself.

The other day, my friend was complaining that he was dreaming a lot of weird dreams now-a-days and they were bothering his sleep. He is the same person who was once taken away by his own creative dreams and started a community called “Dreamers Club” in Orkut and the response that he got in that community was astounding indeed. My advice to him was simple.

Document your dreams!!