Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Page 2 of 3

As the universe conspires…

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

From The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This is the story of a friend an acquaintance who had a dream. She/he (lets just call ‘him’ he for the time being… the sex is not important… it could be either a he or a she, him or a her, or anything in between)  had a very powerful passionate dream. He wanted to do something, to accomplish something. Something which a person of his socio-economic status could otherwise not hope for. But he still had that dream.

He dreamt about it, day and night. He told every single person, from every Thomachayan to Karthiyaniamma, Hari to Katey, Dasappan to Saynaparu… He dreamt and dreamt, and hoped and hoped, and worked and worked, to make that dream come true. He followed a certain path, and he knew that the path would take him where he wanted.

No one but Shakespeare understood the decider of future best, when he phrased ‘malignant fate’.

Malignant fate sat by and smiled. The path broke. The path denied him that dream. A few thorns had sprung up. And a few trees had fallen. And the path had broken. The path let him down. Inspite of the dreams, the commitment, the hope, the work…. Malignant fate.

For any other, the dream would have remained shattered. And it would have mocked you, like your dismayed image mocking yourself a hundred times from the hundred different pieces of a shattered mirror.

But no, for him, he had a dream. He didn’t give up. He knew there was no more merit in the path. He jumped on to another.

Now he isn’t a person you would want as your closest buddy. Not after you have seen and heard the worst of him. There are moments when I have felt intense shame, and sorrow, and moments when I felt I was shattered, all because of certain things that this particular person did/said to other people (it had nothing to do with me…). There are things which he had said and done, for which I had cursed him at several times. And despised him. My acquaintance friendship with him had then felt like some intense impurity on my body. Which I wanted to cut away. Like a leg sprain during a nurtured event. Or a throat pain while seeing ice cold lemonade on a hot sunny day.

Keeping all this in mind, you would think that poetic justice had played out at last. He was paying with his dream for all the stuff he had did.

But no sir! In a reversal of fates, in a turn story with events that Nostradamus would have failed to believe, his dream came true.

Perhaps not through the path he wished. His dream, which should ideally be a means to an end, has gone into his head and become an end in itself (can’t say for sure, for what is ideal for whom?). But still, he had that dream.

It is at moments like this that I look up to the sky, and smile, knowing that there’s somebody looking back. When I look at the bark of a tree, and know, feel, that when I want something in life, even that bark would help me with its heart and soul. When I recognise the energy, here, there, everywhere.

When you really want something in life, the entire universe conspires in helping you have it. Paths seem to appear. Things start to happen. Obstacles seem to melt away. Some obstacles stay – for you shouldn’t go that way; that road is under construction. The entire universe heaves and tries, with all its heart and soul, along with you, and probably, you will have your dream. If its universally possible. No matter what a person you are. You make mistakes. What matters is, can you correct them? Then the universe stands for you, with you.

WT mobile!

Hello there dear readie!

How many times have you wondered if you could access Witness Times through your mobile web, and read it while you were on that drastically boring bus journey? Probably not even once… But that’s because you didn’t have a mobile then….

But anyway, coming back to the topic, taking into consideration the recent admirable moves by Airtel, which would probably be aped by other Indian cellular network operators, which makes internet easily, and affordably, accessible on a GPRS enabled mobile phone, we have decided make Witness Times a little more accessible through your mobile web! Simply point to www.witnesstimes.com from your mobile web browser, and you will see a tweaked, low resolution version of Witness Times (weighing barely 7 kilobytes)!

So the next time you’re on that dreadfuly boring bus drive, or you itch for a WT read when the electricity board decides to play peek-a-boo, you know what to do :)

(looking at my recent stats, something tells me this is one of the most useless posts which is ever going to be put up on this blog… To be honest, the main reason I installed the mobile functionality is so that I will be able to blog using my mobile ;) )

WT Maintenance…

*Hammer hammer* *drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* *Dtn Dtn Dtn* *whack wha-* OW! oops…

Hey readies :)

I’ve been up to a little maintenance work at Witness Times (long time due!). So you might find a few changes around (for the better, I hope :) ).

  • The visual theme is slightly different. We have 5 alternating header images. And of course, the RSS and Subscribe buttons are brand new :)
  • A few plugins have been updated. You can see a brand new Share This plugin on every post! So share your fav posts with your friends, and foes too :)
  • And oh, edited the About page, which was getting a bit too old…

Hope you like the changes! Do drop in your comments! Cheerio!

The Menu Master!

1300 hours.

Saturday, 16th May, 2009.

Two people are comfortably settled in a couple of chairs, on the first floor of Barista Lavazza, in an unnamed location. On closer examination, it appears to be Agent M and a civilian, Mr H. But then of course, optics can be deceptive. For in a split second reaction, as the waiter left the room, thus hissed Mr H, “Get it! Get it now! Quick!”

He doesn’t wait for Agent M’s compliance (or understanding, for that matter). In a nano-moment, he had flicked the rather attractive menu, and lodged it deceptively deep inside Agent M’s backpack, all the while seemingly having an animated discussion about the new government, and the 2009 General Election results (which were breaking live then).

In the light of the above said events, its rather mundane of us to keep calling him Mr H. Lets hereby refer to him as, the Menu Master.

Ladies, gentlemen, other in-betweens, and others, please let us introduce to you, the Menu Master, the thief of thieves, the villain of villians, the unbeaten, and the most intelligent!

Menu Master here, the ultimate genius hidden inside an otherwise indistinct body, has a small ‘fetish’ for well designed and attractive restaurant and cafe menus. And he steals them. And he has a collection of them. And the latest add to his collection was this Barista Lavazza menu.

 

The Barista menu, along with the bag it was sneaked in to

The Barista menu, along with the bag it was sneaked in to

 

 

“I have Mocha’s menu also. Its the best I have so far.” Says the Menu Master, the passion towards his ‘hobby’ reflected in his glowing cheeks and excited eyes. “Even I have Barbecue Nation’s also.”

Wow. Which other menus lay hidden beneath the shielded archives?

Menu Master gave us his top secret modus operandi. He narrated it with the example of Mocha… ”You see, Mocha is very protective of their menus. So what I did was, I found a table with a menu beside it. I sat at that table and hid the menu beside my leg, and asked for another menu. When they [the waiters] turned their back to me, I flicked the menu swiftly into my bag.”

Now that is indeed an ingenious way to operate dear MM! Positively brilliant! But what attracts the Menu Master to his victims, uh that is to say, his menus? “Its the way they are designed. I like those which are quite attractive. Especially those with quite large descriptions of the items. Who would want a menu with just the name and price?” Aha!

But then the Witness Times Vast Conspiracy Dept. believes that there is more into it than just attractive descriptions and design. They opine that this could be an ingeniously concoted and well co-ordinated plan to achieve one or more of the following :-

  • Spread chaos in the highly ordered hospitality industry
  • Make the restaurant manager forget the prices – and perhaps put up the wrong price on the new menu, which could perhaps be less than the previous price
  • Make the waiters more conscious of the menus, thus less conscious of everything else – pretty convenient for dealing otherwise un-encouraged activities
  • Create a unique wallpaper for his home
  • Try insane recipes, and attempt innovative suicide

All we would like to say is, one heck of a hobby Menu Master old pal! Keep up the good work!

(Meanwhile, Agent M runs helter skelter trying to find a hiding place for the stolen item, till the Menu Master extracts it from him, before Barista Lavazza hired private detectives land up at his place…)

Another wing flaps.

The padawan struggled to reach its friend. A dark shadow fell across it. Striking at the opportunate second, pathetically nescient of the cosmoballistic butterfly wings of fate that would be rippled by his uncontrolled ignorant lust, he struck. He struck again.

Another chanced to be in the midst of yon neighbouring street. He glanced. He saw. He stared. He pounced into the eyes, and eyes and eyes, they met.

He was hit. Hit with a stare. A bullet. He was hit.

He looked away, and then, he looked again. Head straight, eyes wide, lethally narrow. Cold hatred flowing. Hate, post forgivance, darting. The white and dark brown, raging with cold agonate force.

He was hit again. With a bullet. His hand had started to raise a third, but it never reached its most potential state. It crumbled. Whilst his mind, it caught fire. He was in agony. He was dying. No. He was realising. The nescience, the ignorance, burnt off by the bullets. The looks.

He looked forward, and walked on. His immediate vices in his selfish thoughts.

He stood there, frozen in time. And to him, he shall always stand there. As a memory. A memory of what can be done, to undo what could be done that had been done.

The padawan frolicked away, unknowing of the butterfly wings. Oh dear child, oh love, it’ll hit you. Some day, some place. And I hope you have the courage, the love, and the faith.

He climbed the stairs. Used the key. Sat down. And started typing.



Lingual Support by India Fascinates