The O.B.E Encounters

                    "We are the best suited to fight the Demons we create"

In this section, I would like to share my nights of what we call an OBE - an Out-of-Body Experience. Also known as Sleep Paralysis(SP) by some, this is outright scary. Experts say OBE paralyses you in sleep but not all episodes of SP are OBE. The key difference between the two is the 'something' that happens outside of you when you are sleeping.

Night 2: Living in a house of strangers is an experience in itself for certain. And if one of the strangers is a concoction of alcoholism, craziness and character disorder, it makes living adventurously interesting. Make no mistake, I am not attributing my 'episode' to bad circumstances this man created. All I want to say is that almost every sleep after his entry into the house was disturbed one way or the other. He would talk gibberish loud enough for you to mistake it to be foreign language; bang on his own door for reasons best known to him; and wail once in a while after hitting against the wall. Sometimes this itself was scary, leave the OBE aside.

One night I hear these all over again but I realised later that I was fast asleep. I laughed with a malignant baritone, so loud that it would drive him away or scare him at least. Instead I lay there on my bed staring straight at the ceiling fan, laughing my head off until I fell 'asleep' again. 

Night 1: This was probably the first time I got an OBE but with no knowledge of what it was. Something held me so tight that I wanted to escape it and cry out loud. Cry because I had an accompanying dream which showed scenes of my grandmother's passing and people who came together to mourn the same. You won't believe me. The very next day, I receive a phone call of the news that she breathed her last. And when I went for the funeral, it was like deja vu. A tingling sensation through my body told that I had been there before. In the dream. 

Night 3: This was a characteristic OBE. I am deeper than ever in sleep and suddenly I see a terrifying demon-like figure walking towards me from the open door of the bedroom. Try as I may, I could not get out of the goddamn quilt. I was aiming to hit the demon and get out of the window (5th floor of the building !). But the figure came closer and closer I could see it. I could see everything clearly in the room. It sat on my chest and held my head with my cheek pressed hard against the pillow. I could not turn! After much effort, pain and determination I wake up "physically". 

I woke up in the morning to research about this and came across the term OBE for the first time. What I found would be helpful for others experiencing those horrifying nights as well.

Do not panic! Acknowledge that you cannot move because you are physically asleep. Once you master this awareness, it would be easy. But this is not easy as it sounds. More than half the trouble is because we are so desperate to prove that we can move because our conscious self is scared that we are paralysed! If this is taken care of, then the experience allegedly becomes an enjoyable outing. 

A little effort in analysing shows that all the narrated instances have a cause. I have always wanted to shout at this madman for disturbing everyone asleep. I have always loved my grand mum and was scared of losing her almost everyday after she fell ill. And I was working real hard and sleep deprived during an Internship.

I have tried deliberately to get into an OBE after these incidents but hardly do they happen out of will. And when they happen, I still struggle but at least I don't try to move anymore. Instead,  I allow the unreal 'me' to fight the demon. 

Disclaimer: If you had same/similar experiences, don't blame me for spying on your dreams :) Instead,  please feel free to share your OBEs too.

Mutant Monkeys, are we?

      “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist”

A Russian billionaire is planning to create Cyborgs out of human brains by 2045. While he works on his Magnum opus, let’s show time what quality means, Yeah!! Is Brain the same thing as Mind and whether it is actually different from what we call ‘Heart’ (not Mr. Heart, CEO, Circulatory system)

Freud introduces 3 gentlemen who create further chaos-Id, Ego and Super-ego. Are these separate from who you are? Can your Ego exist in someone else? Even if my brain is to go into the head of the Cyborg, will that creature behave like me? Will the combination of the three aforementioned entities create an altogether different personality in that cyborg? If the answer is yes, then I am different from this entity.

Our Super-ego, what religion probably calls an Angel, is making you act in morally best ways. Id is pleasure seeking and can be destructive. Our Ego manages both. So is Ego-our Heart, our Conscience, our Mind which is conscious of the good and bad in us? Try as we may, we can never see ourselves different from our Ego. The scary truth may be that I am not my mind, contrary to the popular philosophy that your thought is your existence. 

Sample this now- My brain rationalises (whoops, dangerous assumption boy!) and hence Brain is the Ego we are talking about when making logical decisions. We often say we listen to our Heart when making decisions based on emotion. This is because we perceive the heart to be the life giver, pumping blood day in, day out to all organs. Without it, even the brain can go dry and die. Once that happens, what happens to us?  C’mon we are not dead yet, we are just brain-dead, okay! But do we exist, Yes, we do. So who’s dead? Mr. Mind?

      "The greatest con the Ego ever did was making you believe he was You!” (anon)

Okay, damn Freud, damn the heart, damn the brain, damn the mind. Ok, don’t damn Freud completely, because I need him to hypothesize – What if there was just the Ego and the Super-ego? Oh, wait. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour now to announce the merger of Id and Ego. Now, we now have two different people – Ego and You (Super-Ego). We've always had just two, yes? – Good/Bad, Positive/Negative, Day/Night, Mom/Dad (oh, this is crazy!). Now don’t be surprised that you are indeed morally good within J.In life, we only agree or disagree with the Ego but never let it rule us. A gentleman of the 6^th century said that the greatest battle was always with your own mind. And it will be.

So, what differentiates us from animals? - Definitely, not the social behaviour. They have fun too-they emote, play around with community friends, go mad over enemies, fall in love and do everything else we do. But..but..but..They don’t dress up! :D Silly as it may sound, they do not really invent things and develop lifestyle as quick as we have done. So are we just Mutant Monkeys who think a little better with each passing generation?

Disclaimer: As always, just a random bunch of words. Don’t dig deep ‘cause it will only get shallower as you do J

We Were Young !

Hi there Ladies and Gentlemen who were Boys and Girls years back, No one travels faster than light, so let's slow down a bit and talk. Please :)

We need to stop feeling as if we got to see the best things and subsequent generations shall be missing them. The things that you enjoyed once, changed because they had to. The producers got bored of making the same things over and again and so did the consumers. Cartoon network was good when you were a kid, not just because you had Swat Kats, Captain Planet, Jonny Quest and Tintin running on it! It was because you were A KID. Period

The same logic applies to why you love(d) gully cricket, video games, WWF (and to some extent WWE). Thanks to our never-quenching thirst to watch the same things we used to, even The Undertaker is tired of making comebacks!

Now that you have grown up, you see something’s changed on CN and you want to badly relive those times. And you hate CN for that? Mind you, the target audience has changed its preference. The current school goer still loves it – from Ben10 to Power Rangers, Bheem to Doraemon. Naseeruddin Shah or Akshay Kumar, NSYNC or Metallica, there is a market for everything. People like Moony Deol (of course, first name changed) make action movies till date not because they are bored or they feel the need to register their purses for a weight loss program. They simply sense the existence of an audience for their movies. Why should they miss the profit bus just because their reach is not as wide?

The bottomline is that we do not miss those ‘things’. C’mon, will we watch the aforementioned cartoon series if telecast now? Maybe sporadically but the truth is that we want to watch those things when we are back home from school with mom-made fruit juice in hand. So what do we miss? We know the answer J

Disclaimer: Offensive or Not, I do not mean anything written in any of the posts in this blog. They are just a bunch of words to be read for fun J

No Light, No Tunnel !

There is something interesting about the world and we are very much part of the thing that makes it interesting. No one travels faster than light, so let’s slow down a bit and talk if that is okay J

What is the real purpose of life? The answer is like sets of earphones lying on the table. You try to pick them up in haste and you end up spending the longest time in understanding the intertwined mess. We have to spot the loose ends and take it from there so patiently that it is worth the effort and time.

Well, in my opinion, there is no real purpose in life. So what do we do when there is nothing to live for? We invent a purpose and work towards fulfilling it. That is the root cause of the rise of different faiths and philosophies. This is why we debate all life to decide the best philosophy.

God ('G' since He, oops, G is neither male nor female ) like everything else on earth is equally confusing. Had G come down to earth once or showed Himself up in the giant Imax screen that the sky is and showed clear signs that G exists, at least once since the beginning of time, the scenario would have been much different. Instead, He left it to the imagination of the human species to figure out What created them! How cruel! Adding to this confusion is the list of people who lived amongst us giving unclear messages. That is exactly why we require something like a miracle from these fellas to confirm their superior rank. Each faith has defined its own purpose of life. We fear the Unknown and become Believers. If we did not believe in G, it would be a lawless world. It is lawless anyway. At least, we are better off than Beliebers (Justin Bieber fans!)

Life's purpose is to create a purpose and add meaning to it by living it fully. We have a lifetime to think about it :)

Punter, I Bet

As he walked onto the field in what could possibly be his last test match in the subcontinent, Ricky Ponting was welcomed with a reverberating boo in Bangalore. India has always been the final frontier for most captains from Down Under. Two of Australia’s greatest captains, Ponting and Waugh never managed to beat the Indians at home even with the ‘Invincibles’ they had under them. It took a stand-by skipper in Adam Gilchrist to conquer India in Ricky’s absence. So difficult are the conditions here in the subcontinent where the placid wickets start turning on the last two days of the Test; the crowd starts appealing with the team and there is a drama every now and then; all these happen all of a sudden!

Ponting may not be gifted with the charisma of Waugh and has always been a brat in the cricket world. With his characteristic back-lift, he keeps you guessing about the stroke every time which is a huge gamble in itself. He took over the mantle from Waugh amidst much criticism since Shane Warne was always seen as the rightful heir to the throne. Warne, as former greats put it, may be the greatest captain Australia never had, but after Waugh, the choice became blurry since Warne was clouded with controversies at the time. Enter Punter!

Captaincy is an art in team games, more so in cricket not only because of the complexity of the decisions involved but also their retrospection. And to gauge Ponting, his career should be seen as Before and After Captaincy. Ponting the batsman, started aggressively similar to other predominant front-foot players of the era. He was the quintessential boyish brat needed in a team of mid-aged bullies. Due to the late blooming of his career in the fading 90s and the last decade, comparisons with other greats like Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar were inevitable. But just as the debate started, Ponting’s role in the team changed.

To Ricky, captaincy came by chance and his leadership till date is debatable. Yet, for the record, he is the most successful test captain of all time with more number of test wins than Stephen Waugh’s Invincibles. Though Ponting enjoyed the luxury of the services of his star-rated colleagues for the first few years of captaincy, eventually he had to be prepared for large-scale retirement. Everyone who retired hence, left as an all-time great, be it Hayden-Langer (One of the best opening pairs ever) or Shane Warne or Glenn McGrath. Even the solid Damien Martyn retired saying he was unhappy with CA. Ponting and the selectors were left with the task of finding the right players (don’t say replacements) for those open positions. Till date, those places have changed hands except for that of Ponting’s No.3. The fact that Shane Watson is still opening in Tests says it all. In fact the two Phils (Hughes and Jacques) are waiting for a long time since their injury recovery to retain their opening spots now being held by Katich and Watson. Perhaps, Watto is the John O’Shea of Australian Cricket who can bat at all positions, provided he is fit.

The great responsibility in Ponting’s hands is to do a Border and groom this bunch of youngsters. He has to do a repeat of what Border did to a budding Aussie side of spirited cricketers like Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Craig McDermott and what Taylor himself did to the Waughs, McGrath, Bevan and the like. And to still bat the way he does in the midst of this Herculean task, is truly commendable. He is never comparable with a Brian Lara or a Sachin Tendulkar who have been on and off in their leadership citing personal failures with the bat. Moreover, he is one among very few old-schoolers who do not sport any guard more than a helmet and mandatory pads and still plays the hook shot in a Test Match.

Standards of Australian cricket are predefined since it all started in the 19^th century and job security is a primary concern with most Australian players, leave alone captains. Steve Waugh who is considered as the best captain by even fans of opponent sides, was axed by the selectors from the one-day team. It is very obvious that each spot in the team cannot be taken for granted and Ponting’s is no different. His proposed successor Michael Clarke, who has been waiting, much like Prince Charles waiting for the Queen to .., you know what, does not have the aggressive approach to his batting that Ricky has.

Amidst all these, he still bats better than most of the others in the team though his hey-days are much beyond over. Age still has to take over this spilt-over cricketer of the previous generation. How many 35-year olds do you still see at point and extra-cover? He is still agile enough and can still pull off those Jonty-only superman run-outs and catches. He was second only to Jonty when he was there. He may still be hated by many fans across for regular indulgences in heated exchanges but that is what he is made of. Of late, the younger generation of players around the world is getting involved in quite a few ungentlemanly altercations, all too unnecessary. Aggression is a different art. As Matthew Hayden once said, “ Sledging is a tribute to a batter’s greatness and conveys that the fielding team fears him staying in the pitch for long. Only if he’s respected, he’s sledged.”

Don’t we miss the McGrath glare every delivery? Don’t we want Curtley Ambrose to call Waugh again for a fist fight? Don’t we still watch repeats of Venkatesh Prasad castling Sohail out soon after a mockery? Test cricket needs such drama and Ponting is very much part of it.

As he walks back one last time into the Aussie dressing room, he will join his mates as a pensioner. Also will be gone, the aggression and the art of delivering verbal volleys that he inherited from the mates of his generation. He may well be last of the breed. Bravo Punter!

Asli Superstar!!!

Let me put it straight. The man is Salman Khan and I dedicate this article to him and all his crazy fans who go gaga every time a movie releases. Besides, I would review the recent phenomenon called Dabangg though it is almost a month since the movie released.

Super-stardom is not about being a great actor and a thespian of the Dilip Kumar mould and winning recognition from the government for service to cinema. That’s pure professional honor; more of a pat in the back saying ‘Good job mate. You’ve done great’. Sachcha superstar is the one who may not be a role model for fellow actors but definitely an idol among the masses! When I say masses, it’s means the aam junta of our country, more so of our subcontinent. It doesn’t include the pretenders who question logic in every frame of a typical Indian movie. And what’s wrong in being truly Indian or a South Asian for that matter? These pretenders, watch the movie with the very intention of not enjoying it! The brains of these people are pirated as much as the movies they watch. They go by what the critics say. They read half the story before spending on a movie and lose half the fun. They never identify the critics as a bunch of jokers paid to review every frame of the movie. One who is very tough enough and gives 2/5 for an extremely enjoyable movie is viewed upon as a great critic. It’s all a self-conspired, self-inflicted ignorance of the way this country grew up.

We always have had a superhero and larger-than life character throughout history saving us from the bad guys starting from the mythological days of the Hindu deities, the Asokas, the Akbars right down to Mahatma Gandhi. Though we know it’s a collective effort, does anyone ever dare to question the logic behind history or the mythological special effects? We simply believe in heroism for the reason it existed.

And today we stand, discriminating people as masses and classes based on a movie. It’s derogatory to use such terms which signal as if the masses are no-brainers. The only difference I find is that masses are happy cheering a movie and the self-proclaimed classes wipes its tears after the movie saying ‘What a movie! A masterpiece’. I agree with them to some extent because the masses never fail to appreciate a good art movie when it comes by. They are not one-sided unlike the urban public who don’t even talk about mass-hero movies as if it’s way below their quality of life. They either watch it in pirated disks without the ambience of a cinema (single-screens, synonymous with the rural!) or they are ready to add to the multiplex collections of a bollywood movie shot entirely in New York and can make you cry for the money you paid!

I move to Dabangg now, the hidden agenda behind this post. Such movies have truly become rare in Bollywood. When did you last see people in plexes dancing and whistling? When did you last see public going wild over the intro-scene of the hero and each and every dialogue he mouths? In fact it all ended long back with Amitabh Bachchan. And it returns now and then in the form of Salman Khan in Tere Naam, Garv, Wanted and Dabangg to remind the locals that all is not lost when it comes to the desi flavor. What’s so special in the dialogue from Sholay- Kitne aadmi the? Just three words remembered even now. Where were the baaps of today’s plex audience then? They watched it and enjoyed it too.

Salman Khan is no great actor yet commands one of the biggest domestic fan bases. He is just himself in his movies. People see his persona and not the character. Who else can deliver one of the biggest blockbusters in Dabangg with a debutante co-star, producer and a director? He had failed his fans with multi-starrers in recent times but has proved time and again that people want him to be at his maddest best in his movies. As he says ‘ Bharosa, himmat aur taaqat bhi hai…aur paagalpan-hadh se zyaada!’

Today’s youngistaan is trying to act smart in sync with technology and standard of living. Being ourselves is no harm. Do we have our own style of movie making? This is it! Welcome to the genre of entertainment!

A Dream a night, an Idea for life

I have been following Christopher Nolan’s Inception for almost an year and my expectations were building up into a huge mountain. Not many movies have that honor because I follow only my hero Salman Khan! I was at home when Inception released and my family was busy preparing to move to another city. I was caught in the web too that I had to refuse two tickets for the movie and get a shopping voucher instead when I won a quiz on radio. My brother too was interested in the movie and he was the first to tell me of it. But we missed!

My next chance was when I came to Bangalore on July 19 and I grabbed it with both hands. I watched it all alone in the cinema and boy! I was mighty impressed! Chris Nolan had not only lived upto the mountainous expectation I had, but also scaled the peak! The reason I was fascinated by the movie even when it was in the making was because of the Idea of the movie. I have always been amazed by the things that I have dreamt in sleep. My brother is no different. We have had many a chat during our schooling days about the reality itself being a dream. I also have the habit of building on dreams by continuing the broken dream of the previous night. I have done that with good ease with great success. That is why I don’t see a difference between the so-called real world and the dream. The philosophy is simple: there is no such thing as a dream. Everything is real in its own world. It’s just that the rules are different. That might sound a bit insane but we believed and still believe in that.

But Nolan went a step ahead and built the idea of sharing another person’s dream space and planting an idea in the subconscious. Now, who would have thought about that and more so, a gripping plot! Nolan is a master of both. It didn’t seem fiction to me. As the movie was unfolding itself before me, I was shocked to find the proximity of my philosophy to that of Nolan’s. In the end, it was not only a great movie but one of the best experiences I had. For those who have not watched it yet, watch it alone. It doesn’t need the debate or clarification (with friends) it demands in the climax. It just wants to plant the idea in your subconscious that Nolan has given you another giant Jigsaw puzzle to work out till the next movie. Inception is how you read it!