Toilet paper

As a friend, I like to think I'm everything one could ever ask for. But that's just my opinion - and one that isn't shared by anyone else. Here are some sample situations when people turn to me.

• When they've had a bad break-up and need help getting over it, they run to me - and after listening to my tales of woe, feel that theirs is not so bad after all.
• When no one else's around and they want someone to kill time with, they think I'm always there. What's more, they're right. I've no better work to do, and I don't value time.
• When they're feeling down and out and totally abandoned by friends and family alike, they know exactly who to turn to.
• When they've got some work that needs to be done which will involve payment if it is outsourced, they come to me and get it done for free.
• When they are short of ideas but are in desperate need to please their superiors, they borrow some of mine and claim it as their own.
  

At all other times, be it when they have plans with friends or happen to get into a relationship or get involved in some significant project, I don't exist for the very same people. Jiska koi nahi hota, uska bhagwan hota hai. And for those missing out on the love of God by choice or otherwise, there's always .

Now excuse me while I drowse myself in self-pity. And please hope that I drown.

Despair

A social order that has prevailed for many centuries cannot be fixed overnight. But what troubles me is the fact that even my lifetime cannot possibly be enough. I would like to correct it, but I can only work towards the goal and hope for the best. In the meantime, I would like to earn a nice sum of money but retain only what is the bare minimum amount and give the rest away to those who really need it. But I know that it won't be so easy for me to part with what I've earned, especially knowing what all that very money can get me.

Luxury. I might choose not to travel by air and instead make use of the much more commonplace sleeper class of trains, refuse to step into and buy anything from malls and showrooms, eat out at overpriced junk food chains and coffee shops and trendy fine dines, quit smoking and drinking by convincing myself of them being extravagances and not splurge on branded clothing and gadgets that I can do without. But these are only choices that I make, knowing very well that I can always revert my stance and choose to indulge.

It's thoughts like these that drive me to . And thence to sitting all alone in a fancy restaurant hogging a plate of gosht biryani, combined with a large whisky on the rocks, followed by the putrid smell of my smouldering alveoli.

Difappointed

The lisp (I love the word, seeing how most people affected by the condition cannot even pronounce it) was catchy, but (unless you're a critic on the payroll of the production house who's hell-bent on associating the speech defect with something deeper) utterly pointless. And that is just the beginning of my list of complaints against what is but one of this particular school of films which are, all of a sudden, flooding the screens and winning over crowds and critics alike.

If you promise to read, I'll write an in-depth (yes, long and potentially boring) feature on why this year (at least so far) has me (that's your cue - head to the comments section and say 'Aye!').

Awesomeness?

First, a recap.

• Started writing a novel
• Explored the city I call home
• Discovered my love for photography
  
• Went on an incident-packed trip to the mountains
• Got back into the habit of reading
• Listened mostly to filmi music for a change
• Watched only a few films
• Came back to the land of the manoos
• Finally got to travel to e-school and back by bus
  

So, awesomeness.

• The feeling when you hit the first of many roadblocks while attempting to write your debut novel.
• The goosebumps you experience while walking through the portals of history, currently in a woeful state of disrepair.
• The satisfaction on seeing a smile upon the faces of the less privileged when you show them their snap on your cam.
• The ecstasy that follows the agony when your friend whom you thought you had lost forever to the forces of nature shows up with mere bruises and nothing more.
• The pride of owning low-priced editions of books whose importance you can't help but keep reiterating to every Tom and those other two fellas.
• The pure magic that is in the voice of those golden oldies of the timeless era that can never really be bygone, and also in the imagery invoked by a select few tunes of our time.
• The craving that can only be satisfied by watching a movie whose every cut is known to you all over again.
• The sense of insecurity and the need to own a licensed firearm to be on the safe side, just in case the conductor of a BEST bus threatens to whack you for not apologizing to him in a language that you don't understand after you accidentally knocked off his glasses whilst trying to save yourself from a brutal fall courtesy some rash driving by the man at the wheel.

Ok, this last thing happened only a couple of hours back. Thank BEST in case you're glad that I'm back.