Pirates of the Mediterranean

They swooped aboard like vengeful vultures upon ships sailing in international waters – killed a few, kidnapped the rest and appropriated the cargo. Somailian Pirates, you would’ve thought, or maybe Francis Drake, Blackbeard et al? Actually, much worse – Israeli Defense forces.

Now, now… I’m no expert on Middle-east politics or diplomacy. Neither am I a Hamas supporter, or someone who is convinced that the democratically elected governing body on the Gaza strip are a bunch of angels. But there is something so vile, disgusting and inhuman about the economic blockade of human beings trapped in the strip, that the incident with the Turkish flotilla has simply outraged me enough to break blog silence.

Big deal, you might say! True, tis no big deal indeed… a million inconsequential bloggers ranting out their views would perhaps make no difference. On the other hand a few power-wielding hands rested comfortably on mahogany tables across the world, who wield the writ force of apparently humane governments and leagues of righteous nations could make a difference, and could certainly do more than say- “Regret the unfortunate loss of lives”.

P.S. The nine individuals slayed atop the flotilla may be proven to be terrorists yet, through might of evidence, or simply evidence of might. I am sure the humane governments and leagues of righteous nations equally “Regret the unfortunate loss of lives” – the lives lost daily of children and other hapless ‘collateral’, being gradually bled to death in the friendly neighbourhood open-air prison.

On the comeback trail…

Much water has flown under the bridge since the last post I made here, and much of my writing skills have flown along too, which is why I decided to start with plagiarising from Karram’s post.

I think I mite have changed things too… the life in Bangalore, family and friends, the fun times seem an almost distant memory now.  D would say “What life in Bangalore! you had no life in Bangalore, except your work life!”. D would be right, and so I guess change does bring in some niceties too.

Before any of the thousands of readers of this space (a one too many in that figure) start wondering where this rambling is going,  well I just moved to Newbury, Berkshire. For those of you who flunked regular on geography, tis a small hamlet about 50 miles from London, polishing itself up a bit these days and trying to pass for a town. Life here so far, is well, boring… the way D puts it, now that i’ve left my hectic schedules in Bangalore behind, I probably do no know what I should do with all the spare time.

Well, D isn’t here yet, and thats a shame, cos this place seems inviting for a nice walk or two, and we do love to walk. So I guess, for now, i’ll try and make a quick dive down that bridge, and check if there’s some splinters that can be retrieved…

Off to Ladakh

K and I are off to Ladakh this weekend… we’ve been planning this trip for ages now, and it finally seems to be happening

Now, for various reasons, including lethargy, I’ve not been writing in this space for a while now… but there’s hopefully a lengthy travelogue of happy adventures coming quite soon.

er, if that doesn’t happen in a cpl of week’s time, could someone pls send a plea to the President informing the esteemed dignitary that two innocent civilians might inadvertantly be languishing in a POW camp somewhere in Pakistan or China. Come to think of it, pls wait till the next President is elected… we don’t want that plea to be lost in the packing boxes when the incumbent at Rashtrapati Bhavan moves out.

Tu-u Khwab’ Saja

Saw “Life in a Metro” yesterday - a nice, though not exceptional movie. I loved it because of the beautiful songs, the locations, some of which reminded me deeply of life back in Mumbai, and because of the Irrfan-Konkona plot, which was fascinating and hilarious (though a bit melodramatic towards the climax).

The other characters/plots did provide food for thought, but then the darkness was a little overstretched, and one had trouble identifying with them as real people. Cos honestly, no one, espc no one living in a crowded, time-killing metro has the patience or stamina to be dishonest all the time.

Some of the locations and moments  in the movie were fabulous – the BEST buses, the tricky issues if your date accompanies you in a general compartment, walking in cats-n-dogs rain – those were nostalgia kick-starters for sure.  

The songs have a haunting effect, and not going to stop running in my head for a week or two at least… In Dino, Dil Mera… hm hm hm hm…