The City of Delightful, delightful shortcuts !

Ha ! Trivandrum is so awesome man..(many people will disagree with me Right here,but anyway..)

Oh, the more shortcuts i find here, the more i love this place.
.. and i mean, actually productive shortcuts too. (And WHY cant actions movies be shot here-there is so MUCH scope for bike chases, car chases, autorickshaw chases.. plain running-for-life shots.. somebody EXPLORE this city !!)

Ok,time for jotting down notes.
There are various kinds of shortcuts in Trivandrum :

- Pedestrian shortcuts. (these are a majority and the most delightful to chance upon.) A good friend showed me one this Tuesday,near his place. Perfect for a kung-fu action sequence man..

Enter a lane from the main road; take the first right, then look for a baked-model house(one which looks like brick-finish you know)on your right. Once you find it, walk up to the gate,enter the garage, exit it,look for a small gate on the left,climb over it(or open it if that's not boring for you),negotiate a steel staircase from there,on a 15-feet drop to the next house garden,use the open front gate to exit,turn right,run to the end of the road- and Presto! Main road!

awww..hehe ! Ok,enough. on to the next type -

- 2-wheelers-can-make-it shortcuts.

- Even-blessed-4-wheelers-can-try shortcuts.
(this one i found out myself on my way to a village office- A Maruti can fit in this type,but am not sure about whether a Ford Endeavour can.)

- Too-muddy-and-slushy-to-take shortcuts. (These are the ones that come at a price; pedestrians get knee-deep in brown slush and cars get stuck up to the wheels,as my family found out in our Maruti one day.)
Of course, i have seen KSRTC buses take these kind of shortcuts,but thats another story.

For now, Trivandrum keeps popping delightful shortcuts.

And there are SO many left!! Its like a minefield,i tell you!

wooo!

Dirty me .

" walk outside you're standing in the rain
eyes collide we both know i'm to blame
see me cry feel like judas for awhile
absolution i'm feeling so tired

bygones by you took away the blame
this humanity haunts me
everyday i feel ashamed

how long till everything is new
how long till our bodies are renewed
how long till we see you face to face
how long till we reach that perfect place

i would give everything..

to give nothing more "

- Love Liberty Disco

Want to know who i am ? Really ?

~ Gutsy Coward * Loyal Traitor ~

Breach in Security- Red Alert !

A Man's security is best breached when he has failed in defending his beloved ones.

Now who do we turn to?
I can see,from above, one man trapped willingly and
11 others fleeing.
Spreading like the rays of the setting son.

I can smell their fear
Why, i know i have it in here.

I spray myself with that same smell
Every single time i fail to stand up
to free dignity.

Every single time i fail to protect,
out of fear of a violent face.
Out of fear of what all different ways will
they misunderstand me this time?

But it's fine.
You chose personal comfort over
confrontation.

Did i do that?
It's so different (is it TDK ?) than me.

I dont think so.
I knew when it would come to this
You would fail.

But when you return, stregthen
your brethren.

Next time
see the fighter You always wanted me to be.


Catch it live,
Stern, gentle,
firm, calm
somebody hand me some eucalyptus balm
it's ok.. fight it man, fight man, you dont need the balm.

Stand up Stand up hey HEY !
When the hand reaches out in despair..
When you are weary,you know you are
weak, and (thanks S&G)
feeling small,
your tears, I will dry them all.

my cheeks are ready Lord
PLEASE ! my cheeks are ready.

The doctor who took the Knife into his own hands.

i got blood on my hands
It was the best surgical knife i ever heard of
Forgot to hand it over to the Doctor
Thought it was my sister,so i should operate on her.

My sister is in my arms and she is bleeding,help me my brother,she is bleeding now.

i can hear no blood ,i can feel no tear, but she is bleeding,my brother ,she is bleeding now.

Cause everything inside me looks like Everything I hate.

Give me one more time around
Give me one more chance to see
Give me everything You are
Give me one more chance to be... (near You)

Cause everything inside me looks like
Everything I hate
You are the hope I have for change
You are the only chance I'll take

When I'm on fire
When You're near me
I'm on fire
When You speak
And I'm on fire
Burning at these mysteries
These mysteries...


- from the song "On Fire"
By Switchfoot.

Real Geriatrics

"Oh, you are still a small child,son- you must eat all of this, but we are old now so we should eat less food."
This is what grandma says in her usual persuasive manner,whenever I get irked with her for trying to serve me some of her lunch too.Though I would maintain vigourously that old age definitely does not mean denial of good things in life, I seldom stop for some re-thinking. After all, if thats what I really believe , I should be living it too.

Instead I find myself foremost in a world participating in the heart-rending game of ignoring it's old 'uns.

There is a ritual observed in Hinduism which is prevalent in South India, called keeping "Pindam", which involves (as i remember) placing balls of cooked rice for crows to come and eat. This is done on some particular day after a near one has passed away in the family. It is believed that if the crows dont come eat the rice, the soul of the departed would never find peace.
The old lady who has the local bus stop for a home,was abandoned there by her children after they had it with her incessant quarreling. Her children made sure they kept "Pindam" right in front of her before they left for good. That was someway to say "You are dead to us,mom". I have no clue which was worse- the horrors of seeing her children keep her "Pindam" while she was alive, or the fact that they didnt wait for the crows to come and eat the offering.

While most senior citizens dont face such distressing situations,it would be worth it to step into their shoes once in a while.
Your friends seldom call, your own family treats you like an expensive liability, you are rattled by more than one illness simultaneously, your mobile phone receives rare calls and even rarer messages, the world exists to make you feel all the more worse- once a vitality, now an infirmity.. once looking forward, now hoping to be in reverse gear.

Questions keep haunting me now and then- when I become old,am I to expect lesser love from my family? Should I expect others to misunderstand me over every little thing? Should I expect less hugs and lesser kisses then? Will my family assume that the tv will keep me spell-bound? Will my joys and my wounds seem to them of lesser worth and not much of a bother? Just because I am headed for the grave,will I get a kick in my rear and a card saying "Get There Soon !" ? I could go on and on.The Black Eyed Peas puts it so precisely - " As I get older, you people get colder.. "

What happened to the old lady at the bus stop?
I longed to see her warm in the thundering rains. I wished so much that she would stop smoking(so much for geriatrics). Of course the utmost I would do would be to smile at her while walking past. No point blaming me- who would want to talk to such an obnoxious and rude person?

After a few months, her daughter came riding by in a car.
And they took her home. Whatever caused that decision, hope she is receiving real geriatrics.