Scribbles from Seattle VI

Memories, they inhabit the best of minds and the worst. They keep you going, or distract you from another math homework assignment.

" 'Remember when', is the lowest form of conversation"

Tony Soprano

Now, Tony had his issues.But this was one of the most random yet interesting things he ever said. Why? You decide. Why? I am too lazy and I just had to make a Soprano reference in one of the entries ( has it been already 3 years since the damn show ended, ridiculous!).

But honestly growing up sucks, as the innocence of youth is a thing of the past and the scary realisation about the fact that you are more like your dad than you ever thought was possible. All these sort of accumulate and you feel as if you are the boyfriend of one the broads that Tiger Woods slept with (proud, as TIGER WOODS slept with your woman. But at the same time devastated, as Tiger Woods SLEPT with your woman!)

The reason I write about these things is because as I look back to my sophomore year, I feel a tingling sensation. Its the kind of sensation that you feel when you look back to maybe your 18th birthday or your high school graduation (which, funnily enough was on the same day for me). And the only thing in my mind at that point is the cold fact that "I am Fuckin old". Sweet god! I haven't even graduated from college and its already quarter life crisis time. Its like(bear with me and my poor attempts to add weak-ass humour to this piece) the people who buy iphones. You buy the 3GS version in 2009 and then with a year the iphone 4 comes out. Balderdash! One moment you are the shit and such a technocrat, but then June 2010 comes along and you are just shit.

At this point I am going to take a step back and reminisce about that crazy, convoluted, ridiculous, contradictory,superstitious,cow-loving,sex scandals starved and not to mention happy, nation of mine that I call home. Now, India is a weird country and you might wonder what does that have to do with anything that I have written before this. Well that just means that you are not reading closely enough!

Much like my native land my writing is chaotic. Its full of innuendos, its also somewhat narcissist, its always down for celebrities involved in sex scandals, its all about loving lactating animals( i have a strange affinity towards goats)and more than anything it has a long way to go before it can achieve any sort legitimacy in the big scheme of things.

But jokes aside (i know) one of my biggest realisations in recent years is how lucky I have been in being part of a generation that grew up(well some of us atleast) in a modern 21st century India. An India post 1991 reforms, an India in which traveling to another part on the world is no longer a once in a lifetime opportunity, an India in which our possibilities are so much more than our parents, an India with TATA back in its prime, an India with folks like Dr. Manmohan Singh, Montek Alhuwalia, APJ Abdul Kalam, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie calling the shots, an India which saw Rahul Dravid's prime, an India that handled the recession like Manny Pacquiao after a bout- unaffected and singing, India which gave the confidence to idiots like me to go 8000 miles away and think that they know the world, yet gave them the values to realise that they don't even know their own country, an India that taught me to dream and an India that is so much more and more to be.Yes, all of that in one sentence!

And now I feel like completely slating India, but I wouldn't.Why? Thats just the Indian in me, always positive. 400 million people under the poverty line, but still smiling. Villages full of untouchables and metropolis full of Brahmins, but still looking forward to going back home more than ever. Ridiculous amount of corruption,a bureaucracy less useful than English centre backs against Germany, lesser civil obedience than both my drunk roommates combined( those who know can smile) and more than anything a general lack of ability to self analyse constructively. 2 steps back and one step forward, thats our way. But god damned! I am more proud and optimistic to be Indian than ever.

I am not a patriotic kind of person, but I am definitely nostalgic. I would join the Indian armed forces( and I might if shit doesn't pick up at college, god damn this math homework) just because I get teary eyed and fiery about watching JP Dutta's Border when I was a kid.

Well enough of these inane ramblings.The big question that everyone in world (who matters atleast) right now is pondering over is whether the Dutch will win the world cup or not. Man! What a stupid question.Of Course they will, the real question is how many beers will I be down when that happens. And just for that growing up is good, because I can actually figure that one out legally. Five pints in, quarter-life crisis my ass!