2398 : Khamma ghani

Someone at work has taken to wishing people by a pronouncedly exaggerated gesticulation and then loudly proclaiming "Ghani khamma".

Quora helped me understand this.

Marwaris wish others as "Khamma Ghani sa" (means colloquially lots of good wishes and blessings). Response is supposed to "Ghani Ghani Khamma Sa".

Of course there is also Ghani Kumbha sa - which refers to Rana Kumbha and bestows tons of "sons" on the person you wish to...and each son as brave as "Rana Kumbha".

Me is massively amused and tickled. Funny hain. I am going to make this my default wishing on my lighter days :-)

On a related note - Take a bow lady for the lightness you bring to work :-)

2397 : Durga Chew Bose on Sharon Stone's shoulders

From Durga Chew's book "Too much and not the mood"....she is easily one of the best writers I have ever read. Ever.

I’d heard talk of Sharon Stone uncrossing her legs in that infamous interrogation scene, but when I finally saw Basic Instinct, it was her shoulders pushed back on the chair that totally stunned me. I’d never experienced shoulders accelerating my pulse. I’d never seen a pair of shoulders communicate point of view. Liquidate a room of all its men and their presumption. Sharon Stone’s shoulders pushed back were like Whoa.

2396 : 1Q84 (Shadows and light)

“Where there is light, there must be shadow, where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow.... We do not know if the so-called Little People are good or evil. This is, in a sense, something that surpasses our understanding and our definitions. We have lived with them since long, long ago-- from a time before good and evil even existed, when people's minds were still benighted.”
Haruki Murakami

2395 : Narcos

I am now a avowed Netflix fan.

Add that to my dichotomy list. I am atheist who believes in Buddha. I am a peace loving person who eats eggs. I am Buddhist who kills. And now.....for someone who detests visual stimulation, I adore Netflix :-). Now counter that :-).

Production values, taut script, immaculate actors, brilliant screenplay......beats Hollywood and Bollywood by a long mile.

I loved the dialogue "The purpose of war is peace".....its immensely philosophical.

I also loved the existential question - "Plato o Plomo ?" (Silver or Lead)

Or at somepoint someone says "Give him lead" (shoot him).

Take a bow Netflix :-). You have in me someone who is not even a cord cutter. I never had a TV, but now I am a Netflix fan. Of course it helps that I now hit the gym everyday, because thats where I catch this new crack :-).

2394 : (Art and the) Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

"Art belongs to everybody and nobody. Art belongs to all time and no time. Art belongs to those who create it and those who savour it. Art no more belongs to the People and the Party than it once belonged to the aristocracy and the patron. Art is the whisper of history, heard above the noise of time."

2393 : Faith will always point you to your true north

At a recent visit to a religious shrine, a certain vision struck me.

Picture this.
So I am meditating near the shrine's sanctum....and thats when I see this man who is blind (clearly so)....walking with the aid of a walking stick.

He is old, slightly decrepit (signs of poverty), slightly portly and his trousers are distraught. He slowly is walking towards the sanctum where the main body of consecration lies. He is walking across the ocean of people near him. Both oblivious and yet aware. One of the other devotees, notices him and holds his hands and guides him for the next 50 steps till the altar.

Here the blind man, silently prays for a few minutes, then he removes some money and drops it into the offering box. And then he slowly (laboriously) bends down. Very slowly infact.....he is trying to prostrate to the divine.

Thats when you realise that he cant seem to bend his right set of limbs. He seems to either have a stiff set of bones or a broken set of bones.

But over a good 30-90 seconds, bend he does. He touches his head onto the feet of the altar. He shudders as if he is weeping or as if this is a very profound moment for him.

A good minute or two later, he extricates himself off the floor. Again a slow process of getting up. And then once he has stood up, adjusted himself, regained his composure, he walks slowly backwards with his face to the shrine.

In this tiny sliver of my life, I have felt more divine than a million Vedic chants and a zillion tyrannical evangelists.......

This, to me, is what the human greatness is about. This is about what human beings are truly capable of. Being heroes and devotees at the same time. Being respectful and humble-nothings at the same time. Being blind and still seeing visions at the same time. Being able bodied (like me) and yet malformed at the same time.

Blind man who taught me how to see :-). Take a bow.

2392 : Reading list of 2018 : Book 3 : 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

By now I have become a completely avowed Murakami fan. I just finished 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and its immersive, magical, surreal and yet very deep. Its like the Wind up bird chronicle, leaves you with very deep images - you almost get immersed into the story as if you were living it.

You form mental images of the characters - you see, hear and learn to understand them.

This book is in three parts spanning 1328 pages.

Completely worth a read. On a scale of 10, I would rate this 9 for its magic and its depth.

Total reads for 2018 now total around 1950 pages :-).

Good start to a year what say ? :-)

(Images courtesy google images)