Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Everything the Light Touches

I stood on the top floor of the Civil Courts Complex today and looked at Bangalore spread out in three directions around me. "Everything the light touches..." from The Lion King just flashed through my mind.

Let me be brutally honest - I've always been a power-hungry freak. From the quiet, reassuring power of Vito Corleone, to the violent, aggressive power of Hitler, and from the economically driven power of a corporate magnate to the ever-so-fragile power of the leader of an Indian coalition, power has always intrigued and fascinated me.

People have always had a tendency to advertise against power - "With great power comes great responsibility", all those news reports about powerful people being killed, (People even had the balls to take at shot at the Godfather!) and how power can get to you...

I've still loved the thought of being in power. The thought of being able to control. The entire Big Brother effect. The thought of having people respect you, fear you, despise you. It fascinates me.

I've spent hours planning out my strategies to dominate the world - how I will rise in the Indian political scenario. My coalition partners in the different states, and how I'll get more powerful than all of them and bring non-coalition politics back into India. There is no great moral motive behind this - frankly, I think coalition politics keeps a check on the dictatoral tendencies that a particular Government might have (Especially considering the Opposition only stages walkouts and does no other 'watchdog' role).

I also love digressing... Getting back to where I started - it was when I looked at Bangalore from that height that those pictures from movies where people are always shown at a height when someone wants to depict power and control over an area struck me.

I could almost see the day when I would take my son to the top of the Utility Building in Bangalore and say, "Everything the Light Touches", just like Muffasa said to Simba atop Pride Rock. (pardon me if I got the names wrong - haven't seen the movie in ages)

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Untitled

The computer made a low, whirring noise. Every now and then, the plump, moustached man would furiously type a sentence or two. His wife was sitting at the next table on her laptop. Soft music played from it in her ear through the earphones. She was evidently busy with something. Her long eyebrows met as she frowned and read through millions of pages of some UN document.

"Do fish sleep?" the boy asked.

Silence.

"DO FISH SLEEP?"

Silence again.

"DOOOO FIIISHHH SLEEEEPPPPP???!!!!?????" he screamed.

The man tapped his wife on the shoulder and pointed carelessly towards the boy. She took out her earphones and asked irritatedly, "What is it?"

"Do fish sleep?"

"How is that making a difference to your life at 8.30 at night when you're supposed to be doing homework?"

"Ummm... I was just wondering..." He stopped the sentence midway when he saw the expression on his father's face as he turned around.
****