2+2=5

Back to square one..

soggybottom — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:25:57 +0000

A merry christmas to ya’ll.. keep rich

My song of the week. U2′s ” With or without you”.

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I’m waiting for you

With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

My hands are tied
My body bruised, she’s got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you

With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you
With or without you

Surely you’re joking Mr. Dostoevsky!

soggybottom — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:06:59 +0000

“Love thy neighbour as thyself, and i did. What was the result of it? The result of it was that i tore my coat in half to share it with my neighbour and now the both of us are naked. As the Russian proverb has it, ” If you run after two hares, you wont catch one”. But science tells us, love yourself before everyone else, for everything in this world is based on self interest. If you love only yourself, you’ll transact your business as it ought to be transacted and your coat will remain whole.” -Mr Luzhin from Feodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

Quite a load of crap! This is how i begin my assessment of anything and this case wasnt any different. Nonsense i said! A guilty indifference towards the altruistic inclinations of every human being. A conniving way of life that disturbs the underlying moral fabric of any long living society. An Ayn Randish way of living towads which i have slowly developed an odious reproach, but nonetheless respect the sober aspects of such a life style. A thought soon struck my head and i let it float around for a while and this is the result of its swanning in my mind.

To place both the parites and their theories in the right perspective, i believe the main ideology lies in implementing these theories at different stages of one’s life. ” Love yourself before everyone else, for everything in this world is based on self interest. If you love only yourself, you’ll transact your business as it ought to be transacted and your coat will remain whole“. This is a form of mild aggression that could be associated with the whims and dreams of young people. And this form of aggression is essential if one has to survive in this malignant dog eat dog world. The more you love yourself and the more you indulge in your interests while throwing caution to everybody, the greater are the chances of your “success” in this world.

Compete with yourself and
compete with the rest of the world
because for what its worth,
you will be the next plastic king.

So i say to myself, love yourself above everything else and declare your interests as top priority. Piece of cake!

And to satiate the other party, i have this to say. To love thy neighbour as thyself would require thou to be somebody. Some form of recognized working body that has, through the years, done something for its own good before serving its environs. Only an established figure that has loved itself more than anything else in its youth can now be ready to spread the love around for the better of society. It enjoys a privilege of staying free from blame at its actions and freedom to do anything.

For what good is a tramp with a selfless heart.
with nothing to give and too afraid to take,
always in thought and always free to aid,
but who would care for a man with no green.

So i say to myself, love thy neighbour as thyself and do whatever in your power to help the people around you. Piece of cake!

And thats all i have to say about that !

PEACE!

Incoherence!

soggybottom — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:10:07 +0000

Hola,

www.elephantparade.wordpress.com. Just a reminder to myself. After a pregnant gap of !%$#& days, to finally sit down and create a new post on this already defunct blog feels like reconciliation of two estranged friends. So what have i got in store this time around? Ramblings on nondescript issues, views on existential balderdash, harping on meaningless songs or savoring a verbose opinion on something damaged. God! there i go again. So shedding the skin of a self indulgent freak, i holler, let it go.

So the menu thus far reads something like this: bon appetite

Starters:

A little hope to start the proceedings. Hope to cleanse the mouth of a bad aftertaste, the result of a miserable performance in CAT. Hope to learn, understand, apply and move on.

Main course:

1) A relationship, roasted.
2) A little bit of fried friendship, not too deep please!
3) A few misgivings for garnish, ummm.
4) And finally, an exquisite bottle of cognac from the past. Aaah, the twirl and the taste, excruciatingly divine!

Desserts:

A scoop of everything sweet, shavings of a rosy future and a cheerless cherry to top it all.

Delectable! An epicurean could envy my taste!

And i lie down on my couch and let the television put me to sleep. Manmohan and Russia to hell, a stupid hope of Annapolis’s success, Mclaren you incompetent fool and Mr Musharraf, you still rule! We all are aadivasis, we all like Madhuri, we screw without protection, we blame it on the government. Stupid sensex, menacing music, suicide bombing and Sauvik Chakraborty, what are you thinking? Manila, guerilla, last chance and december second.

Yawwwwwwn.

And the wars never end and everyone is besieged. Ever heard of a guy who makes a statement and is capable of completely contradicting it in his very next, you must have, they are referred to as “chaitanya’s”. Ill leave you in peace and with this nice little track from the band U2 and its called “Numb”. Take it away Mr Bono !

Don’t move
Don’t talk out of time
Don’t think
Don’t worry
Everything’s just fine
Just fine

Don’t grab
Don’t clutch
Don’t hope for too much
Don’t breathe
Don’t achieve
Or grieve without leave

Don’t check
Just balance on the fence
Don’t answer
Don’t ask
Don’t try and make sense

Don’t whisper
Don’t talk
Don’t run if you can walk
Don’t cheat, compete
Don’t miss the one beat

Don’t travel by train
Don’t eat
Don’t spill
Don’t piss in the drain
Don’t make a will

Don’t fill out any forms
Don’t compensate
Don’t cower
Don’t crawl
Don’t come around late
Don’t hover at the gate

Don’t take it on board
Don’t fall on your sword
Just play another chord
If you feel you’re getting bored
I feel numb
I feel numb
Too much is not enough
I feel numb
Don’t change your brand Gimme what you got
Don’t listen to the band
Don’t gape Gimme what I don’t get
Don’t ape
Don’t change your shape Gimme some more
Have another grape
Too much is not enough
I feel numb
I feel numb
Gimme some more
A piece of me, baby
I feel numb
Don’t plead
Don’t bridle
Don’t shackle
Don’t grind Gimme some more
Don’t curve
Don’t swerve I feel numb
Lie, die, serve Gimme some more
Don’t theorize, realise, polarise I feel numb
Chance, dance,dismiss, apologise Gimme what you got
Gimme what I don’t get
Gimme what you got
Too much is not enough
Don’t spy I feel numb
Don’t lie
Don’t try
Imply
Detain
Explain
Start again I feel numb
I feel numb
Don’t triumph
Don’t coax
Don’t cling
Don’t hoax
Don’t freak
Peak
Don’t leak
Don’t speak I feel numb
I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
Don’t expect
Suggest
I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
Don’t expect
Suggest
I feel numb
Don’t struggle
Don’t jerk
Don’t collar
Don’t work
Don’t wish
Don’t fish
Don’t teach
Don’t reach
I feel numb
Don’t borrow Too much is not enough
Don’t break I feel numb
Don’t fence
Don’t steal
Don’t pass
Don’t press
Don’t try
Don’t feel
Gimme some more
Don’t touch I feel numb
Don’t dive
Don’t suffer
Don’t rhyme
Don’t fantasize
Don’t rise
Don’t lie
I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect I feel numb
Don’t expect
Suggest

Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect I feel numb
Don’t expect
Suggest

I feel numb

PS: For ****sake, **** for procreation or **** with protection.

PEACE!

Subterranean Homesick Alien

soggybottom — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:38:55 +0000

Another week of changing diemensions. Fighting, grimacing, loving and understanding! The feeling of getting down a rollercoaster but still wrenching with anxiety. Like an alien abduction, like a new birth and a chasing past. And Radiohead comes to the rescue with their song, a beautifully written and crushingly relevant song.

The breath of the morning
I keep forgetting
The smell of the warm summer air

I live in a town
Where you can’t smell a thing
You watch your feet
For cracks in the pavement

Up above
Aliens hover
Making home movies
For the folks back home

Of all these weird creatures
Who lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves
And live for their secrets

They’re all uptight
Uptight.

I wish that they’d swoop down in a country lane
Late at night when I’m driving
Take me on board their beautiful ship
Show me the world as I’d love to see it

I’d tell all my friends
But they’d never believe
They’d think that I’d finally lost it completely

I’d show them the stars
And the meaning of life
They’d shut me away
But I’d be all right
All right..

I’m just uptight
Uptight.

Dr. Deadlove or: How I learned to stop worrying and closed my eyes.

soggybottom — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:03:48 +0000

Change is a necessary evil and my ever changing predilections have taken me to various places with disturbing environments. A mortifying contrast, discernable, was slowly developing in my mind with constant visits to such places. As the sights become more visible, doubt and disbelief start mounting and the questions keep growing unanswered. This is simply how I found Dr Deadlove or stopped worrying and closed my eyes.

Luxury was supposed to be a rich man’s bullpen, but modern times seemed to have transformed this definition. It’s either the price of luxury has fallen that an ordinary man can parley with it or the cash inflows seemed to have grown bigger and better over the last few years. Whatever might be the case, i remain to stand on the thin red line. Of late, my expenses have shot up quite dramatically. As my parents willingly replenish my wallet with green every day, I am burdened with the deed of spending it judiciously. But as all good things come to an end, this drill was showing signs of inconsistency as my parents’ hesitance grew and so did my expenditures along with it. So where was all the money going? Who must lay hands on thy wallet but thyself!

For a middle class man, if commuting by car daily is a luxury, then i am luxurious. If on a few unfortunate circumstances, he finds himself at the mercy of an unruly mob in a local bus and instead prefers a long and a lonely ride back home on an auto rickshaw, would extravagance be his ticking meter? I have identified myself with this middle class man, who once tried to rid himself of the redundant expenses only to be dragged quickly down into the mire. With silly promises of making returns to my parents, to foolish arguments on certain conservations; I have done it all but in vain. The expenditures don’t slow down and the reasons for it are found in exponential math.

Of the many places aforementioned with vagueness, a couple of places that I find myself spending useless hours these days are the local pubs and the infamous coffee shops. Both proving to be heavy on the wallet but essentially, fascinating places to observe and understand the changing world around us, the attitudes and the phenomenon of a grand facade. I seemed to have already raised a few eyebrows of certain near and dear ones, so i shall confine my talk to the coffee shops and the dreary decoction.

Coffee shops or now popularly recalled as the CCD’s and the mocha’s are a charming place. With thousands of young people jumping on its bandwagon, it has seen quick and tremendous growth in a few years. Beautiful people adding decoration to its insides; a little (more) money plus a few wasted friends and acquaintances is a potent combination for a evening gone completely wrong even before one realizes it. “Great conversations over a cup of coffee”, a winning slogan with dire consequences! I cannot possibly comment on what a great conversation is made of, after all, the closest I could get to such a thing was a (soon realized) stupid conversation on relationships and life. I could have chosen a better conversation to make our money worth or simply had the same conversation at a better place. So after a dedicated criticism, i would like to shift my wavering attention to the people and the life style.

The coffee shops have proven to be a haven for lovely young couples, yapping away to glory in all its ignorance. The young man says to his lover; with a rough tenderness and in a disappointingly amorous tone, shall we go to cafe coffee day and resign our evening to a stirring cuppa of hot coffee? Aaah, a perfect way to woo your lover! After a couple of hours, a satisfying cup of coffee, a game or two of footsie and a evening of inconsequential parley, the day ends and the date ends. This could well be coined as “poor luxury”, an insipid way of celebrating something special that every human shares with somebody else. A disgraceful inability at seeing what the occasion demanded and what was eventually offered.

I don’t claim to be an orthodox or a puritan of some inexistent beliefs but a mere conformist of what is strictly defined as the nature of something in all its exactness. If modern ways and lifestyle demand a complete reversal of what has been established as its nature, then its foolish contrivance to follow suit and accept it without a reason. If coffee shops can make a big business by providing young people and couples alike with an ambience to waste a few hours, it is quite a distressing fact. I am assured of the many possibilities that the world and the things around me could provide for a good, relaxing and refreshing time with any body, but to grab onto something “non”gratis would be allowing artificiality into our lives.

I might soon be on my way to the gallows pole if I call this Deadlove, but I choose to close my eyes. But how long could I keep it closed? How long could I stay without batting an eyelid? They were soon opened on the momentous occasion of our independence day when I was called upon by a few friends to join them in making the day special for a few orphans. Quite a repelling contrast from an ordinary day that would have gone spent sipping coffee. Visiting these little kids from an unknown background, a bunch of younglings with smart talents and fascinating aspirations, it was an experience unlike any other. Amongst them, one could feel a sense of freedom that truly defined that day. One could only have hoped for a better life for them with all the amenities that we abuse, but no body’s complaining! In their own little world they envelop a warm sense of love and tenderness.

After this disoriented rambling, I am only left with a question in my mind. Is romance dead in this modern world? I shall not pray for another Taj Mahal for it would be bleated thinking, but I could safely hope for a destructive virus in cyberspace.

PS: If the CCD’s are open to me, henceforth I shall stay away from them. J J

PPS: These words are plainly to drive a simple idea home; I do not wish to rage a battle against anybody. I stick to my own side.

Peace!

Glosoli

soggybottom — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:01:01 +0000

Another amazing song from the band Sigur Ros ( deep rooted in my life). This is the video of the song i came across on you tube. Listening to this song and reviewing the video in my mind as i connect to those divine beats, Glosoli is one of the finest rock/post rock songs ever composed. i had the sudden urge to share the video and the song with my readers, so here it is. Ladies and Gentlemen, Sigur Ros.

Peace.

Sadho Re

soggybottom — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:35:23 +0000

Song of the week: Sadho Re from the new Indian rock band Agnee. With their music heavily borrowing from sanskrit and hindi literature, Agnee is among the new breed of musicians in India ready to make it big. These are the lyrics of their new song Sadho re which is receiving heavy air play on music channels and the video is quite amazing too.

Inbox 0

soggybottom — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:32:57 +0000

Emotional attachments to material things are but a natural phenomenon of our modern existence. Possessions slowly grow onto you and living without them strangely seems shallow. Be it an old jalopy or a pair of jeans to part ways with, a sense of belonging is lost. They have served you well, been a part of you for long but now the time has come for them to play the departed. The truth of the matter remains that the loss is only temporary; a moment to bring a wry smile on your face that ends in the eventuality of it being relegated to oblivion. Ephemeral emotions or lasting memories, the material world sure does toy with our lives.

So what I have lost to ignite such emotions? Nothing precious and definitely nothing that ill regret losing, but still an inane bond to the messages in my inbox. I am laughing at myself for this quirky attachment towards those 40 KB files that grew and grew till they reached a monumental figure of 2100 on my inbox count. Though a matter of amazement at my own foolishness to let a deluge of messages gush my system, I cannot drive to conclusions on this deed. The messages were promptly deleted today after watching an incoming message take a whopping 40 seconds to open, panting and exhausting itself for a grand appearance on my display screen. I had to take immediate action and opened the flood gates for a safe subsidence of millions of words and symbols.

So why was I hanging on to those messages? Letting my patience take severe tests every time a message comes beeping in? If I could question the gravity of the content that those messages carried as being the sole perpetrators of this grave attachment, I only hit a dead end. Of greetings, of well being, of gossip, of silly conversations! Of pretensions, of consolations, of climate changes, of career hurdles! Where, when, with whom and what? A late night parley, sweet talk, flirtatious callings, groovy music! Sleazy forwards, double entendres, can I call? Can I talk? Unending assumptions, unruly behavior, unnecessary tears, undue gratitude! Care, anger, jealousy, frustration, fear and peace!

Did I get my answer? Was I justified in my deeds? Like a repository of floating memories or a plethora of feelings and emotions, it seemed to carry it all. Aah, the answer at last. So another question arises, why did I delete them? Like a crazy vicious circle, I take respite in the fact there is no dearth of balance in my cell, no less on friends either who take some time out to acknowledge my existence and certainly no slack in incoming messages.

Beep beep, you have a message! Jesus Christ, who is it now?

PEACE

Black star

soggybottom — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:09:44 +0000

Song of the week: Black star by radiohead, from their album “The bends”. More or less summed up my week.

I get home from work and you’re still standing in your dressing gown
Well what am I to do?
I know all the things around your head and what they do to you
What are we coming to?
What are we gonna do?

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home

The troubled words of a troubled mind I try to understand what is eating you
I try to stay awake but its 58 hours since that I last slept with you
What are we coming to?
I just don’t know anymore

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home

I get on the train and I just stand about now that I don’t think of you
I keep falling over I keep passing out when I see a face like you
What am I coming to?
I’m gonna melt down

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home
This is killing me
This is killing me

Have you passed through this night?

soggybottom — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:57:45 +0000

This great evil – where’s it come from?
How’d it steal into the world?
What seed, what root did it grow from?
Who’s doing this?
Who’s killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we mighta known?
Does our ruin benefit the earth, aid the grass to grow and the sun to shine?
Is this darkness in you, too?
Have you passed through this night?

“Have you passed through the night” is an amazing song by a Texan post rock band called “Explosions in the sky”. This is the prelude to the song that unravels into a grandeur of eclectic drum beats and great guitar work.

The great evil, where does it from? Why do we suffer under it? Is this the end of the world? Who’s doing this? The darkness is in us, lighten up!

PEACE !