Rain, Love, Wait and Verse

A sultry evening in the month of August. It’s dark and it’s Raining. A Love is waiting to meet her Lover. It’s taking long but Love is patient.

As Love waits, Love’s stomach Rumbles. It’s hungry and would like to eat, some croissants maybe. Love looks around, scans the area for stomach’s request. There are chips and snacks available. But stomach doesn’t want them so Love keeps looking. Love is not self-seeking. (in a way)

As the wait lengthens, Love notices something creeping-crawling on the ground. It’s a Roach! It’s limping its way, dazed in the rain, to another corner. Love is freaked at the sight of the Roach but lets it be. Love is Kind.

And as Love continues to wait under the shelter of a shop’s canopy, Love spots a Rat. A mighty big one. And Love lets this one go as well. Love always protects. (itself, in this case)

Lover is busy with work and though is trying to get out as early as possible, Lover can’t. But Love patiently waits, not complaining. Love always trusts and is not easily angered.

Love then has company in the form of some Roamers who take shelter under the canopy. There isn’t much space to accommodate all and Love feels a little uncomfortable. But Love perseveres in the wait for Lover. Love does not ask them to go away to ease the discomfort. Love is not rude.

And finally, Love rejoices as Lover arrives and the all waiting was now worthwhile. This was not the first time Love has waited for Lover but Love keeps no record of wrongs.

P.S. – This is based on a true story, made interesting (I hope) by me. Cherry, this one’s for you and boy.

LOTR - IMHO

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the best epic movies of our time. It’s so grand and it just takes you in with the aura of the story, the characters, the cinematography, the special effects, the war scenes etc. It’s a visual treat. The book was a great read too. I read the book back when I had freshly joined college and I would carry it around with me everywhere to my aunt’s place and my granny’s place. (What I carried was huge. It was the complete trilogy with maps and additional fictional historical data about Hobbits and Men etc. My cousin very aptly called it “Lord of the Books”.)

Peter Jackson has the book come alive on the big screen like J.R.R Tolkien may have never imagined (and even I for that matter). I can also see quite a few similarities between Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series – the orphan raised by a relative, is ‘chosen’ in a way, is courageous to the point of being foolhardy, has loyal friends who are there for him, has a caring and guiding ,old and powerful wizard. It sure is inspiring. I don’t remember if I watched the Fellowship at the theatre but I do remember that we had an LOTR marathon running at one of the multiplexes; twice in 2 years. They would show all the 3 movies in one day or on 3 different days. And I so wanted to attend that! To see the magnificence and glory of all the LOTR movies on the big screen as I already missed them when they were individually released. But I was unfortunate enough to not be able to attend for some reason or another on both occasions. I still regret that. It’s not the same watching it on your laptop’s widescreen. (no offence, lappy)

But, there are things about the book/movie, that I find not so great too. I’ll list down a couple:

1. Frodo – Yes Frodo, our diminutive, cute protagonist; keeps insisting throughout that “This is my Task”, “I have to do this alone”, “ I can do this on my own. I have to “ etc etc. And right after that, Gollum tells him Not to go in X direction and that’s exactly where he goes. He gets saved just in the nick of time. Another instance that I can remember – Faramir takes Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath and then they are attacked by Orcs. Faramir tells Frodo to stay in hiding and not come out. What does Frodo do? Walk right out and straight towards the Ringwraith and also almost puts on the ring in a trance. Who saves him? Sam Gamgee(at the cost of almost getting killed by Frodo!). The real Hero of the story is actually Sam Gamgee, sticking with idiotic Frodo right till the end. If it weren’t for him, the goddamn ring would never have been destroyed and the book/movie wouldn’t get over. (One of my close friends just fast forwards All of Frodo’s dialogues. I think I will try that too next time.)

2. Sauron and Saruman – I always get confused between the two. When Tolkien wrote the book, he could have chosen two distinct names for the two distinct characters. But no. He chose these specific similar sounding names which does not help lay-people like me. Half the time, I’m trying to figure out who Gandalf is talking about – Sauron or Saruman – and the movie progresses and then I’m lost and have to rewind. So the extended 4 and a half hour version becomes at least 5 and a half hour long. (Saruman sounds like a Pokemon character)

3. Gandalf and Saruman (Saruman? yes, I’m right!) – Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the White. And now Saruman and Gandalf look exactly alike with the long flowing white robe and long white hair and beard and the white staff, that I again don’t know who is who.

4. Treebeard – Or as my aforementioned friend very eloquently put it, Tree Bored. I would have fallen asleep sooner if I were in Pippin and Merry’s situation. First he took forever to get from one side of the forest to the other for the Ent meet. Then they take more than half the day to say Good-morning. But. All the Ents reached Saruman’s place pretty goddamn quickly to give tit for tat!

“What’s on your mind?”

In this day and age of Facebook, keeping in touch and speaking your mind has taken a whole new look. Now acquaintances are on your ‘friends’ list and people declare to everyone everything from getting a promotion and attending a fun party to pain in the ass bosses and vomit and constipation.

I am hooked on to Facebook too but I’m not a serial status updater unlike some others that I have noticed. Which is cool. That’s just a reflection of their vibrant and outgoing personality. I have also observed different ‘types’ of status messages. And I have wondered about such statuses. What those mean and what the user is trying to convey coz I don’t seem to get it.

Here are the few types of status updates I have observed and wonder about upon observation:

1. The ALL CAPS status message – Don’t people know that typing in all caps conveys that you’re shouting or screaming? It’s the basic etiquette taught in computer classes and email writing. And it is not restricted to email. It applies EVERYWHERE. That was to make a point. Unless, the people who use all caps are really passionate about what they’re saying and are trying to make a point themselves – “I JUST WOKE UP AT 12:00 PM AFTER A NIGHT OF PARTYING! WOO HOO!” or “ON MY WAY TO WORK ON BORRRRRING MONDAY :( :( :(” ( I will get to the multiple emoticons)

2. Multiple emoticons :) :)  :( :(  – We know you’re happy or you’re sad or angry or whatever but are the multiple emoticons really necessary? It they are, what do they mean? Do 2 smileys mean that you’re twice as happy as you would normally be? I can only guess.

3. UnEvEn cAsEd StAtUsEs – I find these damaging to my retina. What purpose does this serve? If you’re going to make your status difficult to read, people will not read it. They won’t bother. They need their vision to read other people’s statuses too. God, I can’t look at what I’ve written for more than 2 seconds!

4. Song lyrics as status messages – What does the song mean? Is it a reflection of their state of mind? Is it a reminiscence? Or is it just their favourite song?  And why do people ‘like’ such a status message? I have even seen comments -- “wow, dats my fav sng!! \m/” -- Do they even know why that was put up?

5. Putting (famous) quotes but not crediting the quoter – If they know the quote, they mostly also know who said/wrote it. It will only be decent if they write the name of the person whose quote it is. Are they trying to impress their ignorant friends that they can come up with such witty one-liners?  Or do they Genuinely not know who the quoter is?

6. Uploading random pics and tagging all your friends – This is a slight digression from the topic but since it gets posted in our news feed, I thought I’d mention it. The tagged person is not in the picture. It’s either some animal in a supposedly funny situation with funny captions or just some picture with cartoon characters. Why is the person tagged? Does their friend think they’re an animal, specifically the one in the pic? Or do they find the person funny? Or they consider them inanimate? I don’t know.

7. Status messages that inform about the user’s ill-health – I would really like to know why someone who is unwell in varying degrees of fever, cold, cough, constipation etc would get the time and energy to update it on facebook? Shouldn’t they be resting and recovering? I’d prefer they do that than also ruin their eyesight (and other people’s appetites) by declaring such things on facebook.

8. Status messages that don’t address any one person but are meant for only one person – I’ve seen people put up cryptic (to me) messages that are meant for someone in particular but the person is not addressed. These messages can be nice and can be rude too. Why would someone do that? If you have something to tell someone, Only tell Them . Why subject ignorant 3rd party readers to weird, out-bursty statuses? Such status updates seem equivalent to a person with questionable sanity saying things at random to a person visible only to them. Or so says my imaginary friend. (I mentioned you, see. You happy now?)

9. Updating one’s status and ‘liking’ it too – This one just baffles me. One would put up a status because they want to share it with others. Which would make it obvious that it is something of their preference, something they like, something that makes them happy, something they want everyone to know etc (with regards to good, happy status updates). So why would you go and ‘like’ it? You like it which is why you’ve put it up. You don’t have to ‘like’ it again. We know! But do they know that the ‘Like’ button is only meant for Others to show if they like what is being shared?

10. Yeah, that’s it.

This post is not meant to be offensive to anyone. I realised after reading it that it may appear that way but it is not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings. I’m genuinely curious and I have to live up to my blog’s title and theme too. PeAcE \/ :) ;)