Tag: dhruv

Posted on

Dhruvtravels

I havnt blogged in a bit, been a little busy, was on holiday for a while last month and had planned to have a blog entry for most of those days, however just got to one – so here it is : )

We are at Chennai airport. The land of people with three stripes at a bare minimum across the forehead if not more! I have a feeling that the stripes have a lot to do with the seniority of your position in terms of age. Some older dudes here even have four lines and I’m convinced as the head lines recede they’ll add on more. Adidas would really cash in on this place, their marketing strategy is made for this zebra city : )

South India is an amusing place, we asked the manager if we could head to a diner after getting a few drinks at The Leather Bar. Now mind you I was at a bit of a distance I knew the question being asked and I could see the manager move his head sideways, in what I thought indicated a no-no gesture so far, but turns out he was saying yes. Long and short of it, when people want to say yes they like to make it look like a no. I was tempted to ask a question that would get me a no answer and see if he would nod his head while saying it, but you can’t really ask if he would be ok with me paying the bill with Iraqi coins just to get that noddy gesture going.

The driving around the city was amusing, I’ve always felt it’s really nice to get local in terms of the food, music, clothes and language in any place you visit, wherever you go some of the sand always sticks to your feet you know. However I think Chennai’s music isn’t quite the symphony sore ears look for! Ten minutes into the drive with the local radio station buzzing in the background, Sheel and I started experiencing a mild buzzing in the head that was soon turning into headache! That music has to change : ) I figure it’s a cultural thing, the handwriting looks like squiggles and it just translates into the music too! Just kidding A R Rahman’s from here man and AR got soul! The local food is really nice, chili stuff but that appam and the rest of the deal is just awesome. We went to this place called kumarakom, great place, apparently they have a live band too and the manager told us we should have gotten in earlier to “yenjoy it” ~ and I was thinking to myself narrow escape!

Anyhow it was an amusing night out, didn’t really see much of chennai but more on the way back, the heat was already getting to me. One last thing I noticed was the locals really like to roam and the local dress is a “lungi” which basically looks like a giant bed sheet, that you wrap around your waist. I figure it’s a good idea you like moving around the city, it’s hot and you want a place to crash ~ hey you’ve got your bed sheet already! Now if only we had a turban going we’d have a pillow too!

Either way bye bye chennai for now and time to say hello to Sri Lanka, land of Ravana, Sita, Gita and Papita!

Posted on

Dhruvacters

We meet different sorts of personalities and character types everyday. I wanted to write about a few :

The Opponent –

If you want to get further in life, you need an adversary – an opponent, a better opponent, because the only way to grow is to play a better opponent, a bigger opponent, a smarter opponent. Because your opponent helps you grow, helps you get a measure – a measure of your courage, of your strength – a measure of what you can be. Your opponent helps describes who you are, and what  more you can be. Even though your goal may be to defeat them, i pray it is not to vanquish them, but instead to honour them, for without them we are smaller indeed.

The Warrior –

He did not question if he was to win or loose, neither did he care if he would kill or be killed
His questions, his only thoughts, his very dharma was this;
Will I fulfill my duty as a warrior, with honour or without ?
and as a warrior, am i fighting, fighting for justice ?
whether i am faced with victory or failure, my duty, my dharma is to fight
Till my last breath, till the last drop of blood in my veins
For truth, for justice and for humanity, to overcome and overpower till the fight is at end

The Lover –

When the distinction between yours and mine is at end – I am you.
So do i love you, or do you love me or are we one?
I feel you – full of love, and then i feel you flow away, I lost myself, and yet there remained you.
Every day you came, yet i could’nt see your face, i lit a lamp, but it was in vain.
Were you really by my side? You come and go for what? You awakened me and why?
For now i lie awake day and night – hankering for your sight.

Posted on

Dhruvationships

I was thinking about Relationships, what they are, how they evolve, and what really makes them right. I realise there is no hard and fast set of rules – you could have a relationship between two thieves and its built on a factor of fear and distrust, and it may work very well, but likely for a short term. You may have one between a teacher and a student, one built on admiration and respect, or in many cases the fear of a couple of whacks ( yes it’s perfectly fine in India to slap a student around ) – but then again that just goes so far. You might have a relationship with a friend based on pure sexual chemistry and admiration of the others looks or perhaps prowess : ) But that too is short lived..

Here’s a couple of things that do matter – respect, love, admiration, empathy, trust, honesty, humour, passion and a host of other little thing. However the one that comes out right on top is Respect  – R E S P E C T – and i’ll tell you what it means to me ! It’s just one of those things that comes about, when you happen to see a piece of perfection, something that you aspire to be, something about a truth hidden somewhere that you can see. I say respect is based on truth, the more truthful we are, the less lies we have, simpler life is, and better skin and youth you’ll retain : )

If you want a relationship to stand the test of time, to weather any storm, to be your Rock of Gibraltar, base it on truth, its tough at times, and you will get hurt, and you will want to knock your “significant others” head off, poison them or feed them to the lions, but trust me – the truth is all that will let either of you live. And not just live, but live happily ever after!

Posted on

Dhruvinahundred

For a change this post isn’t about me, me, and more me : ) I recently read an article that i found amusing and disturbing, it’s about the state of the american prison system. It just so happens that this article comes out at a time when i happen to be addicted to the awesome tv drama Prison Break ( not to be confused with a spring break atmosphere at all! ).

Either way, the article reads that one out of every hundred americans is behind bars and if you look closer at the stats, the highest number of people behind bars are african american males aged between 18-34 ( 1 in 15! ), so if you’re a black who isn’t in jail, you graduated in the top 93% of the lot – guess Chris Rock wants to rethink his “What do you want a cookie” routine! Now with the ladies, the highest number in jail is black women aged 35 to 39. What that translates to is that while “the man” was in prison the ladies were doing fine on the outside and as soon as they got back together, they decided one of us gotta go and since the guy was just back it wasnt going to be him again!

Further on the stats reveal that the highest increase in incarcerations ( i really wanted to use that word! ) is in Florida, Florida – that’s the state where old people go to retire and grand kids go to see Shamu isn’t it?! So whats the crime there, old men stealing books from Brentano’s and going “I’m an old man. I’m confused! I thought I paid for it. What’s my name? Will you take me home?” – 50 points to you if you can identify that reference without googling it : )

In Florida, the stats show that the number of people in jail went up because of the states policies to ensure that inmates do at least 85% of their sentence without getting time off for good behaviour. The policy did result in the percentage of crimes going down, however New York and California managed the same without increasing the people behind bars.

If we have more people behind bars it doesn’t really make a difference in the crime rate, to send people to a “correctional facility” or a prison is not an answer for an evolving society. Children learn from their environments, we change and adapt according to the environment around us. If we want to improve the society around us, we have to “be the change that we want to see in the world”. Crime, especially violence is an innate part of our human nature, its our animal instinct, we have been removing it from our nature over the past few centuries, and its slowly changing the way our species reacts – but that’s a topic for another post.