Smoke Gets in the Eyes

Alone in the chilly winter night. The lights were bothering him and he shut them off. He turned his attention to the blank screen in front of him. The cursor blinked away, counting down the seconds. Man’s feeble attempt at measuring such an intrinsic property of the Universe. A sudden flare of bright yellow light as he struck a match and lit his third cigarette of the hour. Slow puffs. He watched the smokes curl up and dance, overjoyed at their new freedom. Breaking off from their physical form, to merge and become part of the greater whole. It was the fire that set them free. Did they feel pain? And was the pain worth it? Was rebirth without its torment? And did they have a choice? The flame shines in its brief glory. Smoke rises up, never down. The ash is what gets flicked away and emptied into the dustbin.

Impact Decoupling

What not to do. The absence of action? Suspension of motion? Insert thoughts in freezer. Soldier through the mushroom cloud. Implode amidst explosions. It's easy with eyes closed. Easier to look. Detach and decouple. The physical from the intellectual. The sexual from the philosophical. Ripples rip you apart. Pebbles. Walk out and run in. Listen out and speak in. There are off-switches. The world is binary. Short breathes. Long pauses. An incessant hum. A perennial silence.

Want

The darkness flickers in the rain

Hurling pebbles at passers-by

Shadows of mist

Of motion

Of smoke

The movement of sound

Trembling gasps

Tussling hands

Words and paper-cups

Winds and letter-box

A shard pierces the whole

The blood shrieks into the silence

The sound merges with the wind

The wind with smoke

The smoke with the rain

Bellicose

The incessant hum of the light sabre, the cyclical knocks of the prop. Ghostly voices drunk and high. Revelling in the shortest of breaths. Shallow gasps of air caught in between storms. The bass drops in an unidentifiable song, a swarm of locusts take to the air. Revelling still. The utter hopelessness of hope. Of therapy. Of whores. To dull the senses tonight would be to sharpen it some more. The lead drops down their bellies. The sulphur fills their lungs. To flakes and milds. To monks and pride. Jump on to the other side. Come on to the other side.

Patamda

Where am I?

Where is a function of when. And I?

I am no one. I am here. I have to be.

I don't have. I will be. I am not this.

I am there.

I am journey. I am board rooms.

I love all. I hate it.

I wrong but I don't.

I don't but I mean.

I love it. I hate it.

I creak. I stain.

I reek. I stand.

I am 5 years. I am.

Torrent

This is going to be a fast one. I am stuck in the office with no work and am waiting for my room-mate to get out of the shower before I head home. That can happen anytime and I will go on typing right up till the moment I get the ping, at which I will post whatever I have. It has been a rigorous ride so far, leaving college is more about a change in self than geography. I am thankful, because financial independence is a humbling yet rewarding experience. Working long hours, something I never did before has gone from being a habit to an addiction. Its telling however that despite the 8-12 hours in office I find more time for my hobbies now than I did when I had all the time in the world. Ennui is the enemy. Pinged. Leaving!

My TV-logue

Its a slow day at the office today, so I figure I might as well make an entry here. In fact, there is a certain article that I have been planning in my head for a while. A full and comprehensive review of all the TV shows that I have seen till date, and a person with an average CGPA who stays at NITR for 4 years, does end up seeing a lot of them. But a little thought over the matter made me realize how stupid the idea was, not to mention, pretentious. I definitely cannot claim to have watched every TV show that exists in DC-verse, nor can I claim to have a fully unprejudiced view of each. Watching a TV Show is like a love affair, and a person does form his list of favorites. Again, there is a huge number of shows that I just saw the pilot of, or abandoned midway for one reason or the other. But I do want to write this article. So to effect a compromise, I will drop the whole notion of a "full and comprehensive review" and instead write what can be loosely described as a very egotist referral for all the shows I have ever looked at. Here goes-

• How I Met Your Mother

It makes sense for me to start with this, because it is the first show that I saw, even before I came to NITR, back in the days when it was still considered by a large majority of the population as an out-and-out hilarious show. It is true that it lost out on a lot of steam in the 3 to 4 years after Season 3, but it has its core fan base of die-hard loyalists, present company included, who have kept the show going strong. And now, with Season 8, these HIMYM-fans' faith has been rewarded amply. For the rookie, the overall theme of the SitCom can be summarized as the story of five young friends- the mushy and strongly committed Lily and Marshall, the beautiful and ambitious Robin, the womanizing and 'legendary' Barney, and the hopelessly romantic Ted, revolving around the latter's search for his one true love, and his eventual redemption, as narrated by him to his kids in the year 2030; the story of how he met their mother. What sets HIMYM apart from other SitComs is that it is, as its writers put it, a "comedy with heart". There are plenty of touching and romantic moments amidst the laughs and it is even a tear-jerker at times. And then there is the case of its fast-paced writing with its flash-backs and flash-backs within flash-backs and the slow and meticulous development of every single one of the major characters. With HIMYM all set to come back for its last season this September, it is time for Carter and Craig to take a bow.

• 24

24 started off strong for me, with its fresh concept of one hour in the show being one hour in the characters' lives; a season consisting of 24 episodes making one season the story of one single day in the plot. But as soon as the novelty wears off, you start seeing the ridiculousness and impracticality this entails: don't they eat, sleep, shit, atleast piss? It has super-cop Jack Bauer killing bad guys who have deep conspiracies and plans to kill the President. My interest had waned by the time of the 5th episode of the 1st season and when Jack kills the would-be assassin and immediately another assassin is sent in, I stopped watching it altogether.

• Prison Break

I guess this list is turning out to be arranged in the chronology in which I saw the shows. Might as well be the case, as it helps me organize my thoughts better. So the third TV show I saw, and I remember it was the summer after first year that I came across this gem, was Prison Break. A thriller with tight scripts, marvelous acting, and a wonderful plot that never strays too far from its basic premise, this show skirts the line between a crime show and a political drama. The story revolves around Micheal Scofield, the prodigal civil engineer who concocts an elaborate plan to break his brother out of a maximum security prison where he is on death row. The first step of his plan is of course robbing a bank, armed, and getting arrested himself. Prison Break has plenty of fantastic moments and keeps the audience's attention for all the four seasons with its speed and Scofield's brilliance. It is one of the shows where its hard to find too many flaws, and although the impression it leaves is not indelible, it is definitely a worthy investment of one's time.

• Lost

This is probably the show that started the string of high-budget TV dramas that have so dominated the last decade. Originally conceived by none other than J.J. Abrahms himself, its the story of a group of people marooned on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific following a plane crash. As the plot progresses, it is revealed that not only is the island full of mysteries and powers, the seemingly random collection of survivors are, in fact, not random at all. Full credits to the show for keeping its audience entirely intrigued about almost every aspect of the plot, and for developing rich backstories for every character there is. I saw it the only way it can be seen, in a full 2 week-marathon, and cannot imagine how people could possibly wait full weeks and seasons for the next episode. The cliffhangers are beautiful and a person watching it will spend the larger part of the time at the edge of his seat. Originally conceived to be a 3-season show, its huge revenue generation had the network push the producers to extend it for another 3 seasons. And that is where the show 'lost' it. Introducing needless complexities and pushing the storyline into utterly irrelevant and fantastic elements, it ended on a low, not being able to resolve most of the major plotlines and intrigues that it itself had raised. The series finale episode was such a colossal clusterfuck that it was an insult to intelligence everywhere.

• Two and a Half Men 

This was the first SitCom I saw after HIMYM, and as such my standards were pretty low going in. Not to imply that this was not an entertaining show. To the contrary, TAAHM is one of the better comedies of the last decade with its cleverly titled name, and its basic premise that could only spell trouble. Two brothers, one a stinking-rich man named Charlie who has made his fortune composing jingles and lives a life of booze and babes, more like a practical version of Barney Stinson, and the other, Alan, who is a middle-class Chiropractor with a son and an idyllic suburban life. The plot starts when Alan's wife divorces him and takes away everything to leave him and his son Jake going on to live in Charlie's Malibu beach house. The interactions and adjustment pains for all the three concerned is a riot, and is the backbone of the story. But what really drove the story for me was Charlie Sheen, and his impeccable acting as Charlie Harper, a character so resembling his own self. So needless to say, I stopped watching the show when he left and was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

• Friends

In the pantheon of SitCom greats, FRIENDS probably sits on top of the pyramid. With its massive 10-seasons run, it pretty much ended up dominating and defining the later half of the 90's and the first half of the new decade. Its success was unprecedented and made the actors playing the six major characters household names across the globe. The very essence of the story was its lack of a definite plot. The show just depicts ten years in the lives of six friends, their daily trials and triumphs, love affairs and heartbreaks, all packed with probably the best jokes ever written for primetime TV. Its laugh-a-minute scripts coupled with superb performances by its legendary cast surely makes FRIENDS a show that will resonate through the ages. 

• The Big Bang Theory

Its true you always end up very unimpressed with whatever SitCom you see after watching FRIENDS, quite simply because, nothing can be as funny as FRIENDS. And it is the one you see immediately after FRIENDS that you end up particularly disliking. For me that was TBBT. I know people rave about it, and I agree it can induce proper geekgasms, but fresh after watching FRIENDS, all the jokes seemes 'Meh!' to me, and the truth is I could watch it only because the winter vacations were on and I did not have anything else on my lappy. The story revolves around 4 super-intelligent nerds who suddenly have a beautiful bimbo move in next door, and the awkwardness that ensues. The show has its funny moments, but the gags do get repetitive after a while, and the level of jargon gets too damn high at times. I didn't watch it after the 2nd season.

To Be Continued