For your eyes only

This is the story of a strange friendship: between a little girl and a terrace. She was three when she moved into the house. It was an old house, with no paint and dilapidating construction. The terrace was on the second floor, paintless, leaves growing out of the cracked cement and broken ledges. Now this may not be a warming sight to us adults, but a three year old sees things, which we do not see. Theirs was a small family, her parents and herself.Her mother went away to teach in a school and taught students even after that. Her father was an executive in some office and took immense pride in his lack of leisure. This left her with unbounded time to make her own friends.So she made friends with the terrace. Together they played a novel game. Standing on the parapet she would try and spot some thing new everyday. It could be a house, a tree, a window, or even a bit of sky, as long it was a new sight.Together she and her friend went exploring the horizon everyday and she was never disappointed.One day she heard her mother complaining about the banal self same sights the terrace offered. She was both amused and indignant and hoped that adulthood never stole her of her imagination.Their game advanced, the terrace showed her new ledges to climb and new railings to ride. And the wonder of this was, that a new height meant a new view. After the tour de force, the same tree appeared bigger, greener and even showed a bit of its bark! She held her tea party with her imaginary friends and together they rendered novelty to the horizon everyday. Then one day she was told that life has improved and they will be moving to a better house. Their new house would not have chipping paints, broken banisters, aimless branches meandering the parapet.
So when she was eleven she moved to this brand new house, with a shining coat of paint, a flawless terrace without leaves peeking out of the cracks in the cement and a bright new banister.
Friends, when they part, exchange gifts to commemorate their togetherness.She too wanted to give something to her best friend of eight years. She left her imagination, her vision with the terrace. That way it would never fade with age but thrive and enrich with time.Today almost two decades later, all her imagination remains trapped in the same place. Maybe fairy tales are not mere tales.

Knock Knock Knocking on Heaven's Door

Calvin and Hobbes

Even Bill Waterson could not fathom the connection!

God Eat God World

Aimless meanderings of the mind are quite frequent. But we seldom take the trouble to pen it down. Last night after my third high stimulating catalyst (read:joint) I came up with an idea.

Lets assume a monopolistic economy where we have a product called God.In a monopolistic set up there exists product differentiation, hence we have different brands of the same product. i.e. Allah, God, Bhagwan, Farohar.Lets also assume that like Car insurance, membership to any one such organisation is mandatoy for every individual. This would ensure demand for the product. Given, there exists a product and a demand for the same, there will surely mushroom profit making companies/religion, who will vie for market share. Soon these companies would try to out do each other in shoving their product down the hapless consumers throat. Just like the Cokes and the Pepsis of the world, we will see the Hindu ltd. and the Islam ltd. trying to gain maximum customers allegiance.

In this business model consumers will buy memberships to these companies in exchange of goodies. Much the same way a person buys scrips in hope of the dividend.This brings me to the crucial pooint. To make their product sought after, they would have to load their products with attractive features. So Islam Pub Ltd. allows 4 marriages, Hindu Ltd. offers the maximum number of products (Gods) under one brand umbrella and the Christian ltd. would market serenity of the mind.An average consumer is smart and hence will not be lured by this alone. So the profit making companies work hard to better their pdts. Lets say they also have emergency help feature, family support feature, councelling feature.etc. There might also exist an option of premium membership will further benefits, something like a free upgrade to the business class 3 times a year. Also, this could promise wedding and similar social event planners The only catch for the customer is that each membership is mutually exclusive. So he will have to choose hard before he makes a final purchase. This rules out impulse purchase problems.

Companies would spend fortunes to create brand awareness and recall. So we will witness pamphlets, posters, huge sign boards proclaiming the virtues of the different brands/gods. The memberships would attract a joining fee and each year there would be a renewal fee on renewal of membership. Attrition fear would compel the companies to keep loading their brands with better feature and making the customer experience enriching.Market segmentation is inevitable, hence there would be demographic and age speciific brands. So while kids would flock to Hindu Pub Ltd. with the popularity of the Hanuman cartoon, teenagers would welcome christianity to enjoy the benevolence of St Cupid.

The scope is endless, and as the market matures the consumers will pay for tangible benefits and the abstruse aspect of God would fade into obivion. I have a feeling this would be better than present. What about you?

Born In The Brothels

OK here goes, I had gone thru the papers when there was a lot of coverage from none other than ToI on it, but due to some other burning issues, could not delve into it.
http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/home/
While going thru the link which captured the photographs taken by the children of Sonagachi , the first thing that struck me, was how normal and mundane everything looked! Don’t get me wrong and before you all pick up your cudgels let me explain. I mean, ever since we were old enough to understand the concept of prostitution, there was always an aura of mystery that surrounded it. After I saw the pictures, I realized that I had never actually outgrown the mystery. Zana and her team of kids, managed to do the impossible, that is de-mystify the whole Concept of prostitution. The thought that the link leaves with you is that, these are normal people who also earns a daily living to meet subsistence requirementsThe photos are very stark, they do their job very well, they set you thinking and make you ponder beyond self, id and I for a few seconds, and that is surely no mean feat.

One particular picture by Manik, "Self Portrait" deserves special mention. In a profession where sex brings the bread and to some fortunate few, even the butter, the abject poverty and total mirthless surrounding is quite a blow.Kudoes to Priya! So far Priya and Chari enters the Hall of Fame of noteworthy Presidentians batch of 1999. Maybe some of us will do more than think on this topic and then we can salute some more.Will end with a small ditty.

My only experience with slum was when I was doing something esoteric called LTS in class 10. It required me to go the slums opposite Majestic Cinema and make a band of 9 kids literate.With all the ideals and rosy outlooks of a 16 year old, I approached the deed with absolute sincerity. However, even after 3 months of regular weekly visits, when none of them could count beyond 25 and only one could remember the alphabets, I completely lost it.I did not scold, chide or reprimand, I positively bellowed at them. Amazingly they were unfazed, (later realized, they had probably seen enough violent displays of emotions to remain unmoved by mine).Once I was through,a 10 year old said to me "Didi tumi ar eshona, amader roj raat-e jege thekte hoye, roj rate ma babar maramari hoye, tai ghumote parina, ar sharain pet bhore khaina, porbo kokhon?...tumi ar eshona.."I have nothing more to say.

The First One

Delhi Monsoon is finally giving signs of arrival. Sunday and today looksa dream, just the kind of days when Presi days makes me so nostalgicthat I feel sick. I remember one day, it was pelting and we all went andsat in the grounds, got totally drenched, and then the guys went toHindu hostel to get change for us. They respected our hygiene and got ustheir best and laundered clothes. Thats how we went home that evening,looking ridiculous but with a heart so happy, that it was bursting atthe seams.Also, there was this day in May 2000, when we went for a walk barefootin the park. We did not need music, food or any creature comforts forpleasure, we were together and, we were opening our hearts to eachother. The most momentous yet soothing feelings known to man.Today, when I look back on these days, I miss that man, the love he gaveme and i gave him and how we viewed the world together. Its a complexfeeling, when a part of me wants to break down and cry for has been andanother part of me is happy for at least having those "has beens" in mylife.Rains and clouds, are nature's poetry for us!