Sweet Child o' mine

"Blog my baaaaby on your desktop
wheeen the work grows, the writing will stop
Down will come baby, updates and all..."

[music fades out]

Used to have a similar worded poem in nursery, I guess, though don't remember the wordings :). I know this place has been real silent, and nope, it ain't the silence before the storm, its plain silence. That very "pin drop" silence every teacher aims to attain in her class, but that theory may be possible in theory, real life, like every other science, there is nothing ideal in this real world. "Why" I am busy is one of those mundane things which I fear will make Isaac Asimov's dream come true with a corollary- yup, robots will take over the world, but in the corollary- these robots would be human. And frankly, that’s what is happening. Blame it on the Indian education system, blame it on our own laziness to try things differently, if not do different things, but this world is heading to BOREDOM, the biggest evil since Terrorism. That's why I detest from writing what’s up with me in my blog. You know those types, I got up at 12 today, breakfast was the usual cereal bowl as I caught the news before the school bus came and I had to run for it... Blah blah... Routine!! A flowchart, a static algorithm that works day in and day out.

Humans! from Gods' [ the apostrophe is VERY controversial, I know!!! ] own factory, mass produced with equation based on time so no batch is similar, unless of course once in a while , battery runs out and by the time "Almighty" changes, twins are born.

Back in school, had some African laureate write a poem - a father teaching his son the ways of the grown ups. The many faces you have to carry along- happy face, party face, office face etc. How a smile could actually look like a snake baring its fangs, or how good bye meant hope to not see u again. How life was as simple as computers where "what you see is what you get" or "WYSIWYG" for the technically inclined.

I was 18, I thought, “is this how you feel grown up?” having broken past the legal limit of adolescence. Then again, I had just got out of school and looking bewildered. School life was competitive but in the real world, it was nothing. All the so called politics in school was mere Childs play. That was when I entered college, and realized school was no example of the real world. 2 years down the line in college, and as I enter the corporate world, suddenly college seems like such a secure zone. Morale of the story: - The seriousness of your present worries is inversely proportional to the time frame from it. You'll just laugh at them in a few years time while you contemplate new so called worries. Again, mechanical cycle of life. It is a fixed routine.

What actually sparked this all was watching “Fanaa” last night :). Boring love story some may call, but I have stopped watching movies from a spectator's point of view. It gets more interesting when you try to be a part of the scene or sit from a director's point of view. Then you'd realize the true worth of the movie or maybe that’s what is called critic's point of view. There was this particular scene when this kid coerces Aamir to drink the "Haldi" milk and tells him drinking it is the only option, since other escape routes have been tried and tested. Throughout the movie, the director uses this kid to show the stark reality, frankness which none of the senior actors in their roles were allowed to do.

An easier example can be Emperor's new clothes - a small story we had as kids. It was on how two goons fool the king into believing that the cloth they have can be seen only by smart people or something, and no one wanting to act dumb said they could see it. It was a small kid who opened his mouth to tell the truth. What is it that they have that we don't???

Innocence – That is one thing that money can’t buy. Love- yes! Well, love for money itself is a type of love. But innocence in the sense I am talking about, cannot be bought. The day you know the meaning of innocence- you have lost it. That is why, we love kids, and they have this quality none of us have, though we all cherish it. This is the true fountain of youth, not mere physical grace that man is in search of.

We cherish our friendships from when we were kids with guys and girls alike. Again because it was innocent friendship. It is seemingly so tough for that these days, because every time you meet someone, the thought on everyone’s mind is “Is this the one?”, if it sours a bit, then they become friends but the first thing is will she/ he? Or if a friendship progresses well, the same question pops up, is this the one! Expectations increase and stark critical eye comes into focus and the friendship also sours in the process.

I used to laugh at the concepts I used to hear on TV, only to realize these things happen in real life. Fact is truly stranger than fiction. When people talk of the beauty within, not the exterior, they aren’t talking about your physical and mental beauty, they want to see the real you with the red tape of society that has bounded you.

My birthday gift? I ask – “GIVE ME BACK MY INNOCENCE!!!” World was much more colourful in black and white than in grey.