Being Rahul Dahiya

Dec 08 2009 So here I am, perched between cosy environs of home AND of the office, sitting in my 2000 Corolla (how I bought it could be one of my other blog entries). Hmm, when times are good and weather is balmy, the 6.5 mile stretch is a real stress-buster: cruising at 55 mph and quickly unwinding. (I am talking about Office to home, not the other way around! (Let me be clear and thereby, safe). Listening to local news on AM or good ol’ Bollywood songs, the stretch always seems to end before it started… Not today. Today, there is a snow storm raging since morning, all-eager to cover the city with snow. And to make my driving a life-saving exercise! Did I mention this is Minnesota where weather can be as brutal as any extremist outfit… unrelenting, ever-morphing and demanding! For starters, the Corolla, is a Front wheel Drive, which is anyways not much helpful driving on snowy roads. But when I saw even the “All wheel drive” SUVs “skiing” over a sloped road, I knew this won’t even be ...

"Poverty and Pride are devoted blood brothers until one, always and inevitably, kills the others." "A king is a bad enemy, a worse friend and a fatal family relation." "Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more you wish they had never happened." "It isn't a secret until keeping it hurts." "We concentrate our laws, investigations, prosecutions and punishments on how much crime is in the sin, rather than how much sin is in the crime." "I love you with all my heart. You do what God should do. You give me a reason to live. You give me a reason to love the world."

There is a big hoopla going on for the “incident” involving frisking of APJ Abdul Kalam. That incited me to tap vigorously on my keyboard to blog my thoughts away.. I feel amazed at our (Indians) audacity to talk of such issues when there are far more critical problems lying unattended to (What about the places where people have taken arms against the government? Does that not weigh heavily in politicians’ minds? The politicians waste time in parliament over the issue which is nothing but a mundane but pretty strict security check for the US airlines. I think, we Indians should take a definite lesson from this episode. If the security forces have to provide top-quality security standards to people anywhere, the rules will have to be followed. After having suffered in the past due to terror strikes, Indians should just treat such procedures as sacrosanct. Dr. Kalam, on the other hand, should not dwell more time on this than it deserves. This is one more aspect of our daily lives, h...

My take on dance. Dancing is when someone is relaxed, mind and body are together; eyes, if not closed are looking into nothingness filled with bliss...The spirit induces the body to flow and float.That's the reason why people can't resist from dancing on joyous occasions like marriages or victories etc........Dancing to me, cease to exist if it happens for the outer world. Dance, I feel can only be pure when someone is dancing for oneself...there is no need for rehearsed steps, no performance anxiety and no worries about how one is looking to rest of the world.The way Sufis dance is one of the supreme forms of dance. Dance is at its purest as it becomes the way to connect to God. Compare that to today's so called "dance", where competition kills the dance as dance exists no more for inner self but entirely concentrates on outer world The whole body becomes conscious of its movements. Mind is tense and the smile does not reach the eyes.To enjoy dancing, one does no...

Bill Maher's documentary film on religion or rather against any form of religion raises very pertinent questions. Although the questions are not new but they do try to shake the base of every religion - "faith". Bill attacks all religions, does not believe in God and asks everyone he meets "Is faith good?" My take on the doc and the subject it deals with... The premise of the movie is something I am completely in sync with. That goes "Religion has done more harm than good to people till now" Even before the Holy Wars, religion has spurred on people to kill. The irony being, no religion preaches killing other human beings.But then, do people really care? No Christian behaves like Christ, no Jain like Mahavira and so on.... It is all around us. Again, we must realize that man has been out of jungle for only 25000 years. That's very little part of the human history which involved killing everyday to survive. When man became "civili...

To begin with, the word "friend" is frequently used rather..abused by each one of us..Who, then is a friend and what is a friend's purpose? My take on friendship on these lines..... Let's look at the potter a bit differently. What is his goal everytime he starts creating a pot? Simple, to achieve the perfect round shape and smooth finish. In every pot he makes he strives to achieve that perfection which gives him a creative satisfaction besides means of livelihood. It is so deeply engrained in the potter's mind that he does not stop till he has achieved "that" Shape which gives him everlasting sense of accomplishment. Ever wondered about this special bond between the potter and the "shape" of his articles...? This is exactly what a friend would do for you..I don't say "true" friend coz there is no need for that.Either one is a friend or one is not. There is no other adjective required.  This is like love, either you love someone o...

Few things I want to say after having watched this movie on big screen last night. The movie experience is truly world class. I am the biggest movie fan I have ever known and I bow before Anurag K for this brave attempt. India needs more directors like him. Dev D's soul reverberates in every youth of today. Unlike the novel and like the youth of today, our "Dev D" is perched between 'Desi' mind and 'Ultra-Mod' lifestyles and struggles on a daily and nightly basis. Danny Boyle's suggestions have been optimally used. The journey of the Coke-infested DevD's mind is a visual treat. Danny Boyle's cult movie Trainspotting was a similar experience. As a movie fan, I feel the camera work and positioning sets the tone and gives a 3-D like experience to the viewer. The twist given to the Trinity of characters leaves the viewers stimulated. Dev D's protagonist has a moment of truth at the fag end of the movie where he stops, realizes and collects what...