Saturday, July 28, 2007

I can write the saddest lines tonight...

Found this poem from Pablo Neruda...I remember the first time I had read him, I was almost stunned. The words flowed like a turbulent river through a jungle...I had to spend some time with the lines to grasp all that was being said... there was so much being thrown at me at once ...I was overwhelmed.

This one below is apt for the times...

-------------------------------------------


I can write the saddest lines tonight.

Write for example: ‘The night is fractured
and they shiver, blue, those stars, in the distance’

The night wind turns in the sky and sings.
I can write the saddest lines tonight.
I loved her, sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like these I held her in my arms.
I kissed her greatly under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could I not have loved her huge, still eyes.

I can write the saddest lines tonight.
To think I don’t have her, to feel I have lost her.

Hear the vast night, vaster without her.
Lines fall on the soul like dew on the grass.

What does it matter that I couldn’t keep her.
The night is fractured and she is not with me.

That is all. Someone sings far off. Far off,
my soul is not content to have lost her.

As though to reach her, my sight looks for her.
My heart looks for her: she is not with me


The same night whitens, in the same branches.
We, from that time, we are not the same.

I don’t love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the breeze to reach her.

Another’s kisses on her, like my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body, infinite eyes.

I don’t love her, that’s certain, but perhaps I love her.
Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.

Since, on these nights, I held her in my arms,
my soul is not content to have lost her.

Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer,
and these are the last lines I will write for her.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, June 22, 2007

A potent name is a join-the-dots game...

I saw the cover of a book on a post somewhere:

Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

I like the title of the book. It will make me buy it.
I think potent names are ones that manage to capture numerous latent(and often disjointed) associations in one place. They are like join-the-dot games...incomplete and full of dots that you fill with your own associations. You join the dots and suddenly it's no more a title lying on a shelf...it is a story that has your memories and moments in it...it is personal.

I remember Puneet buying a book called 'Emergency kit of poems for strange times' without even checking it out... it turned out to be a regular compilation of poems. But I'm sure there must be many more Puneets around who would have bought the book by just looking at the title. And that is what a good name is capable of doing.

Going back to '
Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time' , I read the review and it seems to be just as interesting as the title is.
So if anyone is planning to gift me a book, you know which one to gift.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Monday, December 04, 2006

Seen the pug lately?

I have recently switched to Hutch and since then I have been struggling with it's bad network. Pretty amusing, since this brand was built on a memorable (and hugely popular) 'pug' campaign which was all about how the pug (network) follows you wherever you go.

Yesterday, while we were going back home, I got a couple of phone calls..but couldn't talk as the network kept coming and disappearing. I was pissed off.Standing there, a campaign idea came to my mind...
Imagine 20 second clips which just show how the pug is ill and has no more the energy to follow people around.

So you will have the first clip showing him just struggling to run, stopping every some time to catch a breath. The clip will end with just a line, nothing more:
The pug is not keeping well.






Another clip will show him lying on a couch, trying to stand but again struggling...message at the end:

The pug is not well.




It is said that a good idea is one that naturally gives birth to multiple ideas..the Hutch idea qualifies, it seems ;-)



Friday, September 08, 2006

Puneet, my friend..

I show my blog to Puneet. He reads, pours out some characteristic obscenities and declares that this 'creating-forgetting' does happen unless you are 'Puneet Pandey'!

Aha, so puneet has a blog! Interesting, I never knew. I ask Puneet to show it to me..he says defensively ' there's nothing there..' but I want to see it anyhow. I ask him for the URL. He says it's on e-blogger.net.. I open e-blogger.It is not a blogging site. For the next 5 minutes, Puneet frantically searches for his blog..He remembers naming it 'Chaiwala'. Tries google. There are numerous chaiwala blogs. Opens up a few links, reads a little and closes the chapter with 'people write a lot of interesting shit..'

Ladies and gentleman,that's mrpuneetpandey for you!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Mental Blog?

This is not the first blog that I have created..If this one doesn't work out, I will never try creating one ever again, I suspect.

The problem starts with the name. First, I try to think of something smart. But with millions of people already having blogs, the chances of coming up with a previously unthought of 'smart name' are remote. After several tries, I get irritated. Blogger, realising my limited abilities, tries to help me out with some suggestions, but it obviously does not know anything about 'sounding intelligent'. I try wierd combinations and settle for anything that is available. Step 1 taken.

Step 2 is posting the first log. Realising that this one is going to define the rest of my blogging career, I become conscious. This time I want to sound insightful. Or Wise. Or at least funny.
But no help this time either. So again I just type in something. just for the heck of it!

All right, now I have a blog of my own..
Cut to some days later. I feel like writing something and now I have a blog to write it on. I am smiling..but wait! What was the name of the blog that i created..and where did i create it?
I try hard to recall but it's gone..like a memory leak.


I'm back to step 1 of a new blog.