The Second Act

The World's a theatre, the Earth a stage.
Which God and Nature do with Actors fill.
- John Heywood

Mirza-Saab - Dil Se...

A simple one this time - however just as beautiful as the rest. This one was popularized in the movie Dil Se...(an absolutely brilliant SRK movie) in the song Satrangi Re (one of my all-time favourite A.R Rahman songs).

Ishq par zor nahiin, hai yeh woh aatish Ghalib;
Jo lagaaye na lage, aur bujhaaye na bane.

Silver Bowls Full of Thoughts OR How I Wish I Were Dumbledore

I have an interesting, yet odd, life. Well, let's phrase that again. I think I have an interesting and odd life, one in which things occur that probably don't occur in the lives of others. Being the person that I am, I tend not to share these occurrences with many people - it's not because of a fear of being judged, but rather, a desire to keep those things that are special and important to me special and important. I've always found that things become less exciting once you tell another person. Secrets that only you know about are so much more cool than the morning's gossip.

But it's hard sometimes to keep things inside you for so long, especially when you're the type of person that remembers exactly when something happened, right down to the time and what you were wearing and what the weather was. Can you tell that I'm a person that does that? And when you wake up one day and realize that its the anniversary of something momentous in your life, and have no-one to share it with - because you don't want to share it, or can't share it - it gets even harder.

As silly as this may sound, I wish there was a way I could take a part of my memory and store it somewhere. Erase all knowledge of it from my brain, and yet keep it somewhere for those days that I need it to function - sort of like the pensieve that Dumbledore has (or had, now that he's dead *sobs*). It would make days like these so much easier.

*to be born again, first you must die*

Why I Feel Sorry for Stephen Harper

I find Canadian politics problematic - especially now with the impending election. We Canadians pride ourselves in our objectivity, our inherent nice-ness, and our ability to have a political system devoid of the glamour of the American one. And yet at the same time, this particular election has been plagued with the very things that we despise - especially vilification.

Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party, has been demonized throughout this entire campaign. Why? For being cold, unemotional, and Canada's own George W (courtesy of Layton and his leftist-NDP). Now, I find this troubling for many reasons. Firstly, because the Canadian election seems to have become a quasi-popularity contest. Since Stephen Harper isn't the warmest of guys on the political scene (I beg to differ - he seems much nicer than the 'over-cooked lettuce-esque' Stephane Dion and the 'extremely bitter karela' Jack Layton), he doesn't have the capability to be Prime Minister. As well, because he's just a bit more rightist than the Liberal Party, and believes in a foreign policy that requires military action on Canada's part (finally!), he's our own George W.

Come on Canada. This is unfair. To completely demonize a leader for these reasons is irrational and idiotic.

Another reason why I feel sorry for him - the economy. Now, let's get this straight - I'm a rightist when it comes to the economy, and even though the world economy is facing hardship, I still think that the only way to achieve economic growth is through the market and its forces. Now, I agree with Keynes that some regulation is needed and that dangers exist when regulation is completely cut back (like we saw in the US of A), but I don't believe that the only way out of our current 'troubles' (and we know that Canada's economic woes are nowhere near those of other countries') is to increase government spending and regulation.

Stephen Harper has been lambasted for not announcing a major change in his economic policies, following the American meltdown. Now, he's an economist and a free-market-ist (don't you love making up words?), and believes in much of what I believe in. And he also thinks that changing platforms in the middle of the election, just for the sake of appearing to be doing something, is wrong (a person with a brain -thank-you!). But, the Conservative Party has been dropping steadily in the polls because of this. And the opposition has been constantly harping (lol) on him for not changing his platform. I wonder what they would have done if he had done so earlier. Perhaps blamed him for changing policies? Oh, and in an interview on CBC, Harper said that now was a good time to buy stock market shares (because they're obviously down) - he's been laughed at for that as well. But anyone who knows anything about the stock market knows the following: 'buy low and sell high'.

At the end of the day - I think it comes down to this - a relatively uneducated Canadian populace - one that doesn't follow politics in the nation regularly, and only does so during elections. And further, one that is easily swayed by such banter. Perhaps, I don't feel sorry for Mr. Harper - he has his principles and from the way I see things, it seems as if he follows them. Who do I feel sorry for? Canadians in general. Wake-up people....

ps - I don't belong to any political party. I'm one of those voters who looks at the state of Canadian affairs and votes for the political party that a) best suits my views (either the Liberals or the Conservatives usually) and b) I feel will best lead my country domestically and internationally.

No More Dreaming...

You know, Life is weird sometimes. Ever had a dream or a goal that you've wanted to achieve so very badly? Well I had one for a couple of years, and I finally achieved it this week. But I'm nowhere as excited or happy as I thought I'd be. It feels a bit surreal to have actually done it, but at the same time, the process of dreaming about the goal was much more exciting than what I feel now, having achieved it. Dreaming is so much more fun, so much more exciting. Obviously, my responsibilities and the work that I'll now be putting in will be exciting, but probably not as much as it was before.

It's weird - definitely weird....

Brilliant Book Alert

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

It's absolutely fantastic - so different from all the other Indian-authored books on the market right now. It's about a man from the Darkness - the rural part of India - and how he gets to Delhi and makes it big in Bangalore. Completely irreverant, witty, dark, crazy - this book is probably one of the best I've read in the past while. Check it out if you can. It's also been nominated for a Booker -so that's an added incentive...

True Ramblings 3 (?)

I forgot about Selfistan for a while - quite sad eh? But that's the truth. Perhaps it was because I hadn't written much for the past few months (lack of inspiration), or perhaps because I was so busy that I felt sleep was much more important (given my many late-night posts, I doubt it though). Whatever the case, I'm not going to make any excuses - because I hate them. I honestly do...Especially those that - ahh forget it.

What's this post about? Well, I don't know - but I hope we'll find out by the time I'm done. Although, if this post is long enough, I doubt I'll mind if it has no coherent thesis or statement or topic for that matter. Unlike the GRE essay question markers, I really don't care. That's a topic I've been examing for a while now - caring. Not in the 'aww I love you sense', but in that other one, related to caring about what people think about you. I think, actually no, I know that I've gotten to a stage where I don't give a bloody damn about what people think about me. Not completely sure whether that's a good thing or not - perhaps it's a mark of overconfidence, perhaps of a realization that what people say about me is not going to change who I am, or perhaps it's a mark of complete folly and naivete (darn - no accent marks). Whatever the case (can you tell I like that form of sentence structure?), I don't care anymore. Think what you may oh fellow human, I'm not changing who I am, how I speak, and what I do for you (caveat alert - unless you're someone I highly respect).

Anyway - I'm in the midst of watching some fantastic SaReGaMaPa videos on YouTube (one of my favourite things in the world). I'm listening to some classical Indian stuff (under-respected like Western classical if you ask me) and these kids - seriously 10-15 year olds - are absolutely fantastic. Listen to this kid - Rohit Shyam - here. Sigh - I wish I could sing like him. And like Aamir Haafiz - who sang this absolutely amazingly wonderful Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan-saab song.

Okies - well I'm going to stop this rambling and concentrate on my listening. Enjoy and remember the phrase...

and i just realized I don't have a label for music. Oh wait - there, I found it....