Macavity

For the profundity they carry, certain images get imprinted within us. I had to take a particular bus at 8:50 in the morning to make it in time for the 10 'o' clock class. If I missed that, I'd have to change a bus or take an auto for one-third the distance, take that much longer to reach, and pay thrice as much as the direct bus ticket. I'd reach before the lecturer alright, but all along I'd be trying to calm and tell myself that think as much as I may that the bus needs to move faster, and the traffic needs to clear sooner, the journey will last as long as the distance is not traveled.  Once, 200 meters away from the bus stand, five minutes past the scheduled time, I saw the bus pulling away. It was yet picking up speed and the thought crossed my mind to chase after it. While I thought, the bus accelerated. As it did, I almost decided to run, but before I could, I discounted my chances to catch up with it. And while that happened, the bus, easing out of the

A semblance of peace alone can embalm calmness. For no particular reason, one feels at ease and pleasant. It is like driving at 60 on a good highway. The scenery is not particularly picturesque, but it ain't pallid either. It is just fine. Cattle might cross your way, but you break at a good distance, stop and watch the cow slowly tread past without losing your cool. FM is  playing on the stereo, hitherto mindless to the gibberish, you cue into the odd good song that plays in. The feet juggle the peddles fine, the hand steers away. You are neither cautious not careless. You just play to the rythm that has set into existence and let that be.

I can't stop raving about Dhoni in the new Pepsi ad. With the handle bar moustache and buzz cut, as he gyrates to 'gatak gatak' (and looks Oh, so deadly handsome!), Raina, Harbhajan, and whoever else is there, become non entities. It is the ultimate 'yennada, rascala?' Chennai's Super King look and the eyes are only for D! What were the others doing in the ad? It probably has to do with Pepsi's Men in Blue campaign. But this ain't the only one in which Dhoni has more than just him in the ad and where without him the frame is incomplete. It is not without reason. It is the Dhoni persona. He is part of the crowd, just as much as he is a legion by himself. "If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, If you can walk with Kings and not lose the common touch..."-Kipling I pause to think. When did he become so statuesquely? When did he emerge to outshine  greats like Sachin without ever trampling upon their space? Since when did he begin to

MKG just popped into my head. I was trying to help India attain Independence all over again when I stumbled upon something that he said. "I travel because I fancy that the masses want to meet me. I certainly want to meet them. I deliver my simple message to them in few words and they and I are satisfied. It penetrates the mass mind slowly but surely."  Somewhere MKG and I struck a chord. I have always been averse to people and situations being portrayed as ideal and flawless. It is pretty depressing, to say the least. To say the worst, it is inhuman! We are not God because we are flawed and that's just how we must stay. Well, you see, God really doesn't have the luxury of going wrong, while we, humans, are entitled to sin!  My learning today was that MKG was yet another bloke, vain and with vice. And if identification at the level of vanity were grounds to forge bonds, I'd  shake hands with him. There are people with calibre to change things around, and they