CHAT CAFE

My coming back to Chandigarh has helped ignite in me a new passion- photography. Till now, it was only an interest. But thanks to my editor Prabhat Singh who keeps on telling me- and all of us- about the finer aspects of this art. And he takes delight and satisfaction in it. He, being an accomplished lensman himself, told one very interesting thing sometime back- that photos are   not clicked, they are   made. What he said changes one’s whole perception. Anyone with a camera and a good scene in front of him can click a photograph. No matter who is behind the camera, that scene is going to be captured anyhow. It is very much true, especially for static scenes. And better and expensive the camera better will be the details! But, if you go with a mindset of   making   a photograph, it is then that you create a photograph. Many things are lying before you, and the photo you wish to   make   out of them depends upon your eye and mood. What surroundings...

After long discussions with colleagues and friends, and reading here and there on the topic of live-in relationship, I was about to give final touches to this post when Mahesh called in. It was about the posts on the same topic on his blog. The posts and the comments those posts have evoked really amused me. How can we be so stubborn to stick to our point of view just for the sake of defending it!!! If we say something is wrong in other person’s perspective, then we overwhelmingly want to prove how right we are in thinking so- and get this much mesmerized with our line of thought that we fail to see other lines running parallel to our own. Mahesh writes a story depicting two extreme values of the society, where one female takes it the wrong way. And then starts a discussion, which eventually turns out to be a war of words where almost every one is sticking at either of the two fronts - one pro and one anti; and some onlookers dropping their shells in between. Now, coming...

The day she started becoming aware of the things around her, she started dreaming. Surely, these were not daydreams. Her deep eyes were full of expectations and wishes for a wonderful life ahead. She was a thinker, and her thoughts were sincere. She was far more mature than the bunch of boys of her age. She had always been a step ahead of them in terms of maturity. She laughed, she giggled, she smiled, she sat silent, she was sad, she cried, she wept, she loved, she hated. She did everything a normal human being does. She planned about her life the way every healthy mind thinks. She went to school, then to college. She never failed to blush whenever she received a compliment. She studied well, not just to make a career for her but with an aim to be better mother to her children. And mere thought of being a mother someday used to fill her with a sense of pride and satisfaction. And then, a time came when she became a mother. Till then, she had not known what relaxation ...

They say- 'Things are easier said than done.' Let's go one step ahead - 'Things are easier written than said.' This is especially true for sending an e-mail or writing on a blog. It invariably removes time-constrain between two communicators. The writer has ample time at his hand to pour in whatever is there to say. And the receiver has the freedom to go through it whenever and wherever he or she has free time and seclusion. So, you see, nothing comes in-between two communicators, except for one thing - it has got a one-way tag onto it most of the times. Sadly, it cannot be the way chatting is. Well, there are many other barriers also that can hinder free-flow of a spoken communication. The biggest of them is the social one that reflects the typical Indian mindset. Surely, we are not talking about the metro culture where one does not have time to think for oneself. The problem lies in such social milieu where people can spare ample time to peep into other pe...