pop goes my heart

me buying some ACT II popcorn. and this aunty asks me how it's cooked. and i explain to her how easy it is to "cook" this thing. and she buys a pack too.

but the important thing here is: someone asked me how to cook something!! :))

[the title is a song in the movie 'music and lyrics'. i'm listening to the soundtrack again. well, mostly 'don't write me off just yet' and 'way back into love']

alternate reality

खामोश आँखें कहें तुम्हे ढेरों बातें
and they plead you to listen
सहमा मन कहने से डरे पर
wishing you understand nevertheless
सिमटा सा किसी कोने पे खड़ा
i hope you recognise me
सोचूँ तुम आंखों की बातें पढ़ लो सारी
and say something of your own
पर जानूं मैं ऐसा होगा न कभी
all these words will remain unsaid
आंसू बन कर बह जायेंगे कभी
and i'll be standing here at this corner
जाने क्यों ये सब जान कर भी
i believe you'll understand
वो सब जो मैं कहना चाहूँ
without me saying anything at all

[didn't come out quite right. the idea was to write it in a way that the hindi and english make sense both ways - taken alone and taken together.]

फ़िर मिलेंगे :)

तारों की छलनी से
छन कर आती चांदनी की
उजली किरणों की आड़ में
तेरे चेहरे की चांदनी को तकते
एक वो रात गुजारी थी
हाथों में तेरा हाथ
मुट्ठी में तारों का एहसास
कुछ कहती पलकों की थिरकन
शैतान सी कौंधती माथे की शिकन

-----

हर रात तारों को तकते
उस रात को सोचते हैं हम
मुस्कराते हुए फ़िर मिलने की सोच
हाथों की लकीरों में
उस रात के तारों के निशाँ
खोजते रहते हैं हम

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वो देखो चाँद कह रहा है
तुम भी उधर अपनी हथेली
ऐसे ही देख रही हो
मेरी उँगलियों की लिखी कहानी में
कुछ अपने शब्द जोड़
मेरी तरह मुस्करा रही हो

-----

उस रात के तारे सारे
जाने फ़िर मिलें ना मिलें
पर जाने क्यों मुझे भरोसा है
अगली बार जब हम मिलेंगे
तुम्हारी आंखों में फ़िर वही
रौशनी की परछाईयाँ दिखेंगी

-----

जल्दी कोई मिलने का बहाना निकालो
कि अब दूरी का दर्द खलने लगा है
आज की रात फ़िर वही रात हो
ये सोच सूरज भी जल्दी ढलने लगा है

------

my computer oddities

-i have to have my taskbar on the right side of the screen. helps me see more icons in quick launch. and also more applications buttons.

-i can't use the trackpad of my laptop. (a)because my finger gets numb (b) because i keep touching it inadvertently while typing and (c) because it doesn't have a middle click. so i keep it switched off.

-i can't live without the middle click. browsing is a chore otherwise.

-i've had a mild RSI once. had to change to a left-handed mouse and stop touch-typing. what's even weirder, i got the same symptoms when my laptop crashed and was down for 2 weeks. withdrawal symptoms, i think.

-i've stopped trying out software. (a)because i no longer have access to kgp LAN (b) because i no longer feel like doing so. there was a time when i was installing/uninstalling something or the other every single day.

-making your searches open in a new window is a very handy thing to do. that ways when you want to search for something that you are reading on a page, you just select and drop it in the search box. and you don't lose the page you are reading. i keep doing that so often that i don't know what i'd do if firefox turned that feature off.

-i sort of hate traversing folders. so i use the run command quite frequently.

-i've stuck to jet audio for something like 4-5 years now. has good library management and good keyboard shortcuts. i don't need much more. ditto for avg. though i'm thinking of trying the microsoft one.

-freecell is my favorite game offline. kenken and loop-the-loop are the online ones. i suck at hand-eye coordination. hence no hi-fi action games.

-i haven't been able to learn to touch-type the numbers yet.

surprise!!

मेरे सारे बादल जाने क्यों
सूरज से जा मिले हैं
मैं कहता हूँ मुझसे बातें करो
वो कहते हैं कि लब सिले हैं

नारंगी शामों में जाने वो
क्या खिचडी पकाते रहते हैं
मैं कुछ बोलूँ तो
चुप रहने को कहते हैं

पर मुझे पता है
क्या साजिश हो रही है
कल बारिश के आने की
घड़ी हो रही है

वो सब मिल कर कल
मुझे बारिश से मिलवायेंगे
फ़िर हम सब मिल कर
भीग भीग गायेंगे

[photo by basu. taken somewhere near dharmasala]

gift of the magi

अब अन्दर के अँधेरे की खैर नहीं
मेरे पास अपना एक दीया है
कल रोती आँखों से आंसू पोंछ
मेरे तारे ने रौशनी का टुकडा दिया है

blogging trivia

=> 15-20 minutes is my time limit for each post. if a post takes longer than that, it's transferred to the vault. items in the vault are taken up much later, if at all.

=> i find it easier to write on pictures/photos.

=> there's a set of people (about 4) who get to read my posts before they appear on the blog.

=> this is my first blog and my fifth blog. [i started blogging here in 2004, then stopped. went on to two secret blogs and one public blog and finally returned here]

=> there's a marked difference between the earlier aquitaine and this one. someone who didn't know would think them to be entirely different people altogether.

=> sometimes i know what i have to write. but i can't find words to do justice to that idea. this leads to long hiatuses. almost all of them end up with stupid posts like this one.

=> i had toyed with the idea of a hindi blog once. but in those days, blogger didn't have transliteration and was a whole lot more buggy. that blog got stuck in some technical snag.

=> altogether, i have published more than a thousand posts.

=> there are many recurrent themes that run through my posts. people and places and things.

=> the 'aquitaine' of the title comes from a ludlum novel - the aquitaine progression - one of the worst he's ever written. but the 'aquitaine' there stood for chaos leading to a new order and i liked the idea.

=> in its earlier avatar, this blog didn't have my name featuring anywhere. and still, one year into blogging, a search for naween gave this blog as the first result. i don't know how.

=> some of the posts i write are intended for real people. yet the most obvious ones aren't.

=> the only reason i don't blog about people is because i have a complicated relationship with almost all the persons i'd have liked to blog about. that's a department where i haven't been blessed.

=> most of my posts are sort of lifted/inspired from various sources, mostly songs. i take care to record the inspiration too.

double entendre

seen on a Levi's showroom window:

CELEBRATE PUJA UNBUTTONED

!!