Pallav Sehgal

Over Communicated?

2010-02-21T18:10:00.001+05:30

There is a growing breed of young people who check their emails and twitter replies the first thing in the morning. The cell phone lies by the pillow and with sleep eyes half open, they touch the buttons, bringing alive the screen, waiting, hoping, wanting a reply, a communication, from someone, somewhere.

We are spending more and more of our daily quota of time staring at a screen, of a TV, computer, laptop, or a cellphone. To what end?

Year Of The Tiger

2010-02-19T02:28:00.001+05:30

There are more pictures at this link. But I found this one interesting. This reminds me of monkeys asking for peanuts. This also scares me a little. For reasons I don't know.

An Update Finally...

2010-02-19T01:10:00.001+05:30

Hello,
I am sure no one is waiting with a bated breath for updates to this space and one of the reasons I am doing this is that I don't like un-updated blogs. I write lot of other blogs and there are many where the readers of each blog don't even know the readers of the other blogs. That might be bad from a PR point of view, but I like it that way. I have tried to limit my spread on internet in a way that those blogs and this name stay apart and are different in content and in readership but Google is a tough tool. And anyway, if someone is determined to find something about anyone, they eventually will, and they do. It all depends on the level of madness of a person.

One person's madness is another person's dedication.

We all need some amount of madness in our life. I believe that we are all mad in some little private part of our soul. There is a part in each of us that wants to sing, to dance, to make something to utterly beautiful, amazing and horrondous that everyone who sees, hears or thinks of it, cringes in fear and terror. But we are subdued. We are told not to do things. We are taught to fall in line, go with the flow, and do things that have been done by thousands before us, and might also be done by those who will come after us.

Do you get where this is going?

We are living in strange times. I don't have any answers because if I had i'd not be asking the questions.

Maybe more later.

Why no updates here?

2009-12-24T02:02:00.001+05:30

Well, because you all, i know a lot of you read, know that it's ME who is posting here. Don't want to give away my thoughts this easy, now do i?

With the comfort of anonymity taken away from this space, it's difficult to find topics uncontroversial enough to write about.

Or, should I write about controversial topics?

Maybe I will.

New Year is around the corner and it's very very cold.

Hope you are with family and warm wherever you are.

The Monk and The Red Bull

2009-11-09T23:31:00.001+05:30

World is a funny place.

I was in a mall recently.

Now before I write further, just so you know, I don't go to malls too often. In fact, it's a monthly visit to the mall to check the new books in the book store and maybe look at some people. There are lot of people in malls these days. I guess there always were a lot of people in malls and there will be more in future.

There are lot of shops in the mall and many of these shops have very very expensive things. There are oxygen bars where you can pay money to breathe in oxygen through tubes that are inserted into your nose. And you thought air would always be free? Ha! There are small pools for some kind of foot treatment where little fish nibble the dead skin off your feet. There are chairs where people sit and other people rub their feet, for a payment. I find that thing particularly strange, paying another human being to rub your feet. Of course, anyone can give me an argument that it's a job too, but that won't change me feeling strange about it. I'd never do it for the life of me.

I have digressed.

Again.

I was in a mall recently.

There, I saw a monk drinking a Red Bull, which is an energy drink, in case some of the readers are not in the know of that. And the monk was talking on an N97 cell phone. A can of Red Bull costs 75 Rs and an N97 phone from Nokia costs upwards of Rs 30,000. What a monk was doing in possession of such a cellphone is beyond my guesswork and it's not something that I should be bothered about. But I have a soft spot for monks in my heart. These people give up a lot to live a simple life, meditating and trying to find god, and other cool things that monks do, maybe doing Kung-Fu to bandits in the hills of Himalayas. Just saying. I am not a know-it-all.

It was disconcerting to see the monk drinking Red Bull. Just that.

---
P.S-- If this was any other blog, I'd have written something of general interest, but the fact that you bothered to click the link or type in www.pallavsehgal.com in the address bar of your browser and hit enter, I can safely think that you have some kind of interest in reading what I am writing.

Hello, in that case.

Things I've lost and things I've remembered

2009-11-06T02:09:00.001+05:30

As a kid, science always interested me. The inherit sense of wonder that is a part of childhood was too much in me. It was not that I was always taking toys apart to see how they worked but there was a genuine attraction towards gadgets of the most simple to the most complex kind.

I remember a magnifying glass. It was made of white plastic, a cheap toy, but I remember it had a thick glass. It was one of my favorite toys. Later in life, i saw magnifying glasses made in iron but that first piece of plasticy magnifying glass had its own charm. I used to get some carbon paper, not the blue one, the black type, and I would stand in the sun, focusing the rays on the black carbon paper making holes with the concentrated rays of the sun. The paper smoldered and sometimes it burned, that was always very exciting.

I've always liked fire too. I almost set the set the small house temple on fire when I was playing with matchsticks once. I don't remember who, but someone once bought me a lighter, it was an amazing thing. Purple in color and a flame that was bright yellow and Tall! In the evenings with power cuts, the lighter was a thing of pride and joy.

I also had two big magnets. I always wanted the magnets that were in the speakers of an old stereo in our house but I never got the chance to break open the machine. I was sleeping in the afternoon once with the magnets at my pillow, when I woke up they were not there anymore.

I lost the magnifying glass, I lost the lighter, and I lost my favorite piece of magnets too. But I remember them.

P.S- Some people are getting "baffled" reading the things I am writing here. Come on people, I have not even started yet ;)

Of Thanks and Welcome...

2009-11-02T04:17:00.000+05:30

Maybe you're here for the first time, maybe you are her after reading some posts, maybe you are traveling through time and found this post. Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, take this moment to breathe and say a thanks to yourself.

(A Mirror I saw on a recent trip to Shimla)

On Remembering School Days :: One

2009-10-31T03:24:00.001+05:30

Dad once asked me why I hated certain things and people so much.

I said because it felt good. Because certain things and people are just not worth loving. Fine, someone else can love them all they want, and that's perfectly ok, but don't take away my right to hate. Right? Yup, very right.

Moving on, I said I'd write something about school days. This is my way of catching up with the nostalgia because frankly, if I don't try to remember now, somewhere down the line, I WILL forget it all. I don't want that to happen. Maybe this place will be a collection of all the tidbits that I can remember.

Yes, school. What all do I remember?

· Going to school on a cycle. Changed 3 cycles through all the years in school.

· Using Ink Pens. I used to take a geometry box full of pens for some reason.

· Bags! Which were of so heavy.

· Tiffin box.

· Small break and recess.

· Ironing my own clothes.

· Polishing my shoes, dad's shoes and sister's shoes too. Glad that mom didn't wear black shoes or I'd have polished her shoes too.

· Home work diary. Man, that blue cover, that's all I remember.

· Chemistry lab. I have fond memories of labs, because they brought a strange kind of freedom from the classrooms.

· The big bell in school which used to be a steel plate but later turned into a Mandir Ka Ghanta.

· Teachers, who were all more awesome than each other, didn't realize it back then, I do feel and respect that now.

· Classmates, who were of no use. I am not in touch with a single one of them (OK, one only). Which is ok by me.

· Morning prayers, where students used to fall down like watermelons from trees.*

· One teacher who beat me up once. (I remember your name man, and we will meet again surely, he he)

Yup, that's some of it. There is a lot more. But that in some other post.

Next, The Caravan I saw On a Road While Coming Back From Office.

Trying to understand Me

2009-10-26T00:48:00.001+05:30

Writing here, on the blog is different from any other place that I write. There is a perfect knowledge that everything here will be read by the parents, teachers and anyone who cares enough to run my name through google.com. So, what do I say that makes sense for everyone, or maybe not. There is never a perfect answer, is there?

My plan for this space in the coming few days is to write about the things that I miss. I said things, and not people because people who are not there in our lives are not there for a reason. There is no reason to feel bad for their absence because this is the way life is, we all move on.

Again, i digress, things. We were talking about things. And of course, with things come memories. There are just too many memories in my head, because it is difficult to forget than to remember.

The very first memory I have is of being defiant. I don't remember what I did but I was punished for that be me being made to sit home and my sister was taken for a movie. Which movie was that? I don't really remember. But what I remember is saying sorry for the first time. It's a strange muddled memory in my head, but that's one of the earliest things that i can remember. School came much later. And there were some interesting incidents in school too.

That, tomorrow.

The Problem

2009-10-25T02:15:00.001+05:30

I do not care about Writer's Block, that's for lazy people who can't put their fingers to the keyboard and make magic. Writing not a skill you can learn, it's not the money that you can earn, it's not something that can be achieved by any mortal means. Writing is a gift, either you are born with it or you are not. If you don't have that gift, don't try. It will be failure and painful.

Come to think of it, it's never really about the writing. Or to expand this thought, it's never really about what we are doing. The job is not a job, the friendship is not really a friendship, the food we eat everyday is not really for sustenance (You can very well survive for at least a month if you don't eat). There is always a bigger picture. Always. There is always something bigger going on behind the screen of what you see. There IS a bigger purpose. Everything we do, everything we see, everything we say, feel, touch, hate, love is just another link in the chain of events.

What is all this leading to?

I don't know.

We all have to reach our own destinations. And whether you like it or not, life is going to drag you down to your final home, it depends on you whether you reach there kicking and screaming with mud on your knees, or with a winning grin on your face.

It's late at night as I write this and my mind is full of thought. The mind never stops thinking. There are just too many thoughts. And they are good thoughts at that. The only thing needed is to put those thoughts "out there" and infect, inspire, or inform as many people as I can. Why? Because thinking alone is no fun. If I am troubled why don't you join me and share this feeling.

Now, quick, the order of traffic lights, red on top or green on top?

Goodnight.

Dad read this blog today, oh boy!

2009-10-07T03:38:00.001+05:30

Every man who has ever been a boy has looked up to his father for guidance, money, inspiration, support, money, love, care, money and much more. And little boys can be unforgiving little devils with memories that would shame a herd of elephants. I remember a lot of things when I was a boy and I looked up to Dad for all the things including money and inspiration and jazz. Now, Dad read the blog a few days back, (Hi Papa, I know you are reading this too), and he asked me what would I write if I had to write about him. I told him I can do a 300 word essay on you, but I charge 1 Re per word. He said 50 paise. I said 80p. We both settled at 75p.

Jokes apart, one of the most fond memories is of sitting behind him on his scooter. Dad is a slow driver and when he took me to play video games at the local gaming shop, on the way I used to think that I can stand on the back seat and he wouldn't even know it because he drives such smoothly. We used to go to play badminton in the college where I'd do my +2 in future years but in the school years the college seemed like a haunting and mystical place. Which was sadly disproved when I spent two years in that place. But I remember watching him play in the open court and thinking- Damn, I'll never be as fast as him in the court. I never was. I'm sure he can still make me run like a rabbit in the badminton court, and I don't say this because I am unfit, this is because he has the experience and the stamina. He still tells me that he makes kids my age run in the court during games. If I am asked to play against him, I'm going to politely decline, a wise man should know his limits.

Today, Dad is like a pillar of support where most fathers kick the ladders from under the feet of their kids, he has stood by me in the strangest of circumstances when I thought things to be beyond hope, he has, in his own way, somehow opened a path. Always.

So, consider this a Thank You note, which I wish to write a thousand times and still it will still not come up to the gratitude I feel for my father.

He is an awesome person, a Rockstar in the true sense of the word. He rocks even more than me. Now that's saying something!

Hats off to you Dad!

*Please deposit the money for this writeup in my bank account. ;) (Kidding!!)

Movie Review: Wanted.

2009-09-21T13:43:00.001+05:30

Don't Watch.

District 9 :: This is NOT a Review

2009-09-14T00:10:00.001+05:30

I saw District 9 today. Thank you very much. I liked the movie. But that does not mean that the movie is for everyone. The movie is certainly different. A documentary sort of treatment for most of the parts lends it a strangely realistic touch and the funny thing is that it's almost believable. If I write a synopsis of the movie here, it will take away the juice of the movie, so let's try to talk the gist of the movie in as less words as possible. A lot goes on behind the scenes. The last 20 mins of the movie are worth the Gandhis you spend. There are lot of loopholes and some really unbelievable sequences but hey, what the hell, it's a movie. Reality has more loopholes if we look at it with a criticizing eye.

The thing with movies, I believe, is that never believe what someone else tells you. To hell with the movie reviews, because those are the opinions of the reviewer. What ever a movie critic/reviewer writes is going to be influenced by his views, his thought, his experiences in life, the movies he has seen that stand in comparison to the movie being reviewed. So, never trust a review, go and see for yourself. Even a flop movie might have something that you might connect with and even the most popular movie might be all boring to YOU because you are not able to connect to it. And connecting (or not connecting) with the audience is the sole purpose of a movie, or isn't it?

Bottomline:: Go, and seek your own entertainment. Don't let someone else tell you that something is bad, or good.

If I keep writing like this, I will never take a stand on anything, or maybe I will.

Balle Balle In Chinese :)

2009-09-12T04:10:00.001+05:30

A colleague brought this to my attention today. Chinese students in Canada are learning Punjabi. Punjabi is a beautiful language as all languages are beautiful, unlike German which Mark Twain tried to learn, albeit unsuccessfully.

The gist of the link is that the Chinese students in Canada are doing better at Punjabi than the Punjabi students studying in the same university. Here, I quote, from the news report...

Walia said two Chinese students had won the first and second positions in examination in Punjabi language conducted by the university for Indo-Canadian students recently

Which is pretty awesome if you ask me. China is ahead of us in population and we are doing our best to catch up. But how will we catch up in terms of obsession, dedication and madness that these people have? Moving a little farther to South Korea, their ex-President jumped to his death because of allegations on his character that he had taken bribe.

Geez, if Indian politicians follow even 1% of that guy's mentality, we won't have any politicians left!

So, in this short post we have learned that we need to be better at what we are doing and we need be responsible for what we do.

Sadly, we are Indians (very proudly so) and we have the answer for everything, "Koi na, chalta hai."

Jis din nahi chalega, uss din aayega asli maza.

Oh and by the way, if you thought the Chinese were going to leave cricket alone, here is the Chinese National Cricket Team.

Have We Reached A Saturation Point?

2009-09-11T13:46:00.001+05:30

Let's think about it.

In all facets of human living, survival and our pursuit of things, there comes a time when the best has been and done. So, there is a comparison point for everything that comes after that. We have seen the best of the movies, the music, the books, the people, and these things belong to the past.

There will never be another band like The Beatles.

There will never be a book like The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.

There will never be another song like "Another Brick in the Wall" or "Comfortably Numb"

There will never be great people like (Insert your favorite person here)

Let's look at music, what was the last great earth shattering and generation changing song that we've heard after "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Let's look at technology, Apple iPods have set a benchmark, not matter how weird the positioning of the benchmark is but every mp3 player in the next 5 years stands comparison to the iPods. Frankly, an iPod is not the greatest mp3 player but, it's got a name, a brand and that what makes the comparison worthwhile.

Looking back home, at India, let's look at us, where is the charisma in our leaders? Where is the beauty in our Bollywood? Where is the skill in our singers?

What am I on about here?

What I am on about here is that this is the saturation point of our generation. Either we are too overloaded with information that we are blind to the things we should be seeing, or the benchmark has been set really high by those in the times past and it just cannot be scaled.

The world needs a hero and in our times, there is none.

Views on Apple and iPods

2009-09-10T02:09:00.002+05:30

Nine September 2009

Technically it is 10 September as I write this, but give me some artistic leeway, right? Right. Nine September it is. Nine September is also the day when everyone had been awaiting the Apple Keynote for 2009. Steve Jobs is back on stage after a liver transplant and there are new Nanos on offer with new features.

The geek division of the internet is going to be joyous and highly cynical about the things that Apple has done to their whole product line. The much awaited Apple Tablet wasn't unveiled at the Keynote. The iPod Nano with a camera was indeed unveiled. The disappointment is also that the camera is ONLY with iPod Nano, not with iPod Touch.

And, in case you failed to catch it, the camera is VIDEO ONLY. So, no you can’t go clickety clickety with your shiney new iPod. Yea, you can shoot a video at 30FPS. The price drop comes as a welcome surprise. But then again, Apple is the NAME which sells. Because, come on, let’s face the bitter truth, in terms of sound quality the devices from SONY fair much better than Apple. Most people do not use the included Apple earphones anyway.

And above all anything that Apple brings in the iPods, MOST of the features have been in the phones that were available say, 2-3 years back too. A camera and a radio, are pretty basic function in a cellphone and who’d need an MP3 player for that? Plus, a phone can be used to make calls too.

Yes, there is lot of fancy-shamcny stuff included in the iPods, but frankly, at the end of the day, all you want to do is listen to some music. The Apple iPhone/iPods/iTouch all have the backing of a brand and the Apple Apps store. But come on people, wake up a little. These devices are not something that is breaking new ground and showing some innovative features. It is the brand which is selling and the brand is what the people are buying. For being a fanboy or a fashion geek, but I do not see myself buying an Apple product anytime in near future. Because I can do 80% of things on my old W550i that an Apple iPhone can do. I’d stick with Sony any day.

I just don’t get the hype. Apple is just releasing a wide range of products (I love this phrase) with almost similar functions (that are outdated), different memory capacities and price that is low. Something is fishy here. I do not know what, but I DO know that time will tell.

While Coming Back From Delhi

2009-09-08T03:45:00.001+05:30

I was coming back from Delhi on Sunday evening. I had a bag full of books purchased from Delhi Book Fair. Sitting in the Volvo, conditioned air sending giggles of pleasure down my neck, I stretched my legs in the ample leg space and plugged in the earphones to listen to some rock n roll music.

Then I made the mistake of looking out of the window.

I saw a row of faces staring at me. A truck was moving parallel to our bus. There were people standing on a plank in that truck and there were six or seven faces staring at me intently. A strange hunger, longing, desire or maybe something insatiable poured forth from their eyes.

I stared back at them as I ripped open a chocolaty Five Star and gulped down more Red Bull down my throat.

Those people kept staring and I pulled down the curtain.

Comfortable Journey I must say.

Volvo. Good bus.

Turn Off the Music

2009-09-04T02:55:00.001+05:30

Right now, I am feeling more spiritual than I have ever felt in the past few years. This is 2.48 AM on Friday. I just turned off the music and somewhere far away I can hear trucks rolling down the roads, to destinations unnamed from destinations unheard of. It is a curious sound that a truck makes as it moves on the road, whether it is the sound of the truck's tires on the road, or the sound of a big vehicle rushing through the air, it is somehow magical.

Someone has pet peacocks nearby, at least I think they are peacocks. I mean, if it sound like a peacock and it screams like a peacock, it must be a peacock. Maybe not. I like to imagine the weird sounds as some kind of alien night time plant that grows under the earth and makes these weird sounds when the wind blows the clouds over the moon. There is a dog barking, but it's far far away. I can hear crickets. If I close my eyes, I will still be here. In this moment.

This is night. Without music made by man, I am with the music made by nature, and ofcourse the sound of my fingers dancing on the keyboard. Yes, after lot of typing everyday, I have finally learned how to type without looking at the keyboard.

So, turn off the music, listen.

2.54 AM

The Problem With Social Networking

2009-09-01T13:22:00.000+05:30

Increasingly, I have found myself distracted and dismayed by the extent of social networking on the internet. We were all on orkut, most of us still are but we rarely use it. Then along came facebook and after that the latest toyboy of the internet. The blue bird, twitter. The social networks play on one of the most basic human fear, that of being alone, and in effect that translates into surrounding oneself with others. Or not.

The Internet has been the most successful inventions of our time. Better than toilet paper or light bulbs. Why so? I mused and thought that it is because Internet gives in to the an expression of the most narcissistic desires of a human being. It is about being given an identity. Which one of us was not excited as hell on getting the first email id? Where was it? Hotmail? Or Usa.net? The point being, the "I" in the Internet is what makes it tick.

Everyone is given the illusion of thinking that they are someone, and someone whose opinion is valued and understood and appreciated.

When, in reality. No one gives a damn. They just pretend to.

I feel like shutting my Facebook and Twitter account every once in a while, but then I think, "hey, these are the only two avenues keeping me connected to the friends I have."

No one really believes in calling these days. They all say, "I'll call you in evening."

Did I just say Damn up there?

People Amaze Me

2009-08-30T16:25:00.000+05:30

I am 25. By this age, most things become clear if one knows what one is looking for. Whether it is people, things, situations or anything else. There are always patterns. There is nothing new happening in the world today. The people today are so doped up on constant streams of information from television, internet, and their mobile phones that actual human contact has become somewhat of a luxury.

How many people do we interact with outside the office life? The friends from college and university will only hang around for so long. After a while, everyone drifts. Then, there are only sporadic phone calls, a forwarded sms or a sudden meeting in a public place. Even then too, how many things can one talk about, the conversation somehow veers towards the online life of Facebook, Twitter and what not.

It's all funny in a way. You meet a friend after a long time and all you talk about is this and that or whatever happened on Facebook, or the Social Networking Channel of your choice. Then everyone is curious to know, "So, when are you getting married?"

"So, when are you getting married?"

This soon poses to be an irksome question. One can be rude and say, "Relax, I won't tell you whenever I get married." or even tell the aforementioned friend that its none of his or her goddamed business.

People on the whole never cease to amaze me. Just when you think that you've the depraved acts that can be committed by a human being, there comes another one.

I am still gathering my thoughts about this space. So, till I focus in on something concrete, bear with the rants.

This is awkward...

2009-08-17T13:43:00.001+05:30

I post to a lot of blogs. Sometimes I myself lose track of how many blog i have made, each for it's own subject matter. But now that I have a blog with my own name I have been somewhat skeptical/lazy/confused as to what to post here! Why this!

Because simple as simple does, anyone who knows my name and anyone on the web can access this space and this space is going to be a personal expression, view, thought space. So, keeping those things in mind, the range of topics, the treatment i might want to give to them, and keeping them in the interest of everyone who might read, it becomes a very muddy, sludgy affair to write here.

Maybe I am making it too complex, but what I want to write here is something that my mom would find funny and would appeal to regular blog readers too.

This narrows it down even more. This is pretty challenging too.

Oh well, let's see what this week spews up from its guzzards.

Today's Weather

2009-08-15T12:56:00.001+05:30

is Dew-tiful

This, when I have not even started

2009-08-15T04:20:00.001+05:30

:) yeah, I'm putting things in gear, you might be waiting for a post, but i also have a deadline. Till the 12 August of 2010, when i'll have to vomit up some online $ to renew the URL.

Shall we talk about relationships and jealousy next?

COMING SOON!

2009-08-12T21:39:00.000+05:30

Hello visitor,
Last post too old and too boring for your taste?
Well, it's more than one year old, what did you expect?
Nevermind that, let's get down to business.

This website is new, just one day old and i'm still tweaking it in more ways than one.
So, check back here sometime in the week, and i promise that things will be different and very very interesting. :)
Pallav

Meaning of the name Pallav

2008-04-12T00:33:00.000+05:30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallav

Pallav

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Pallav(male) (in Sanskrit Language) means a new born leaf(of any tree(with execptions)). It is used (not very common) as names in Indian subcontinent. Pallavi, which is used more commonly as a name, is derived from sanskrit word Pallav.

People with this name are reputedly extremely creative, have a wonderful and rip-roaring sense of humour, are very frank and straightforward and tend to help others. They love life and live it to the fullest, sometimes writing stories or painting. They also tend towards laziness, relying instead on their intellectual abilities. They usually have a higher level of intelligence than the average person. People with this name are also often regarded as creatures of incredible beauty, talent and have a knack for bumping into trees and generally being clumsy.