Black rain - by jack savoretti

This is a beautiful song, but for the first time I fell for the lyrics. I generally like the music and never listen to the lyrics, but this songs is amazingly relavant. It sad more people are not listening to this guy. 

Lyrics - 


A dirty rain is falling at my feet
And people walk pretending not to see
And I don't know why everybody wants what they don't need

It's everybody's world, one man's grave
And heaven only knows what's hidden up this late
Using diamonds, clubs, and spades, he'll win your heart
And build a house of cards
And build a house of cards

'Til we all fall down
And we all fall down
Watch us all fall down
Like black rain

The building's getting tall; watch it scrape the sky
Can't see the stars at all through the city lights
When the fuel runs low, who cares if we're getting high?
It's not the things you know, but the things that you deny

That make us all fall down
And we all fall down
Watch us all fall down
Like black rain
Like black rain
Like black rain

A dirty rain is falling at my feet
And people walk pretending not to see
And I don't know why everybody wants what they don't need

Well we all fall down
'Til we all fall down
Watch the oil fall down
Like black rain
Like black rain

Life - walking the line

When I was kid (I know, but bear with me) I use to think life will get better as I growup. Every stage I use to pray I get to the next phase of my life. When my parents fought I wished I started working and lived on my own, when I had a bad day in school I wished I was in college. When I was in college I told myself all I needed to get a job. It seemed my life was and is nothing but waiting for the next step. Now when I am working, I cant wait to leave it and go back to studying anything. I had an idea about myself, when i was in school, that one day someone would find me and pronounce I possessed some unique talent, that no IQ test ever could.  I felt that there was something special about me and all I needed to do was be a little braver and that would happen as I get older.

But now, as I walk towards the middle of my life - between the prime and before midlife - I no longer look towards the next phase of my life. I am getting the feeling that this is as good or as easy as it gets. This is the prime of my life, everyone I know, everyone I love is alive and well. This is as good as it gets. I think the reason why kids are so happy, always smiling is because their life, their present is their dream world. Its the grown-ups who run away towards their dream worlds, comparing 'what is' to 'what could be'. But as kids we are happy with anything, everything is special even a cardboard box.

I was never born scared, or worried, I became. As a kid I was a dare devil, the kind that jumped into another baby's pram at 7 months and gave her a kiss. The kind that slapped a boy just because he stopped me from drawing on the board. That was me.

Life is not a straight line, nobody gets it right in the first go, you keep going back and fourth. We shouldn't compare our lives, to an idea of what it should be, because there is still more to come.

Dedicated to my classmate Anshul

Some of my favorite movies

I was trying to make this background of my blog... but the file size was too big... so decided to make it a post. This is not a complete list, these are the movies that come to my mind. I would like to add it is very difficult to make a collage on an imac!

Trying very hard to grow-up

I have realised, despite my serious look (ok tense look), I am still totally kiddish.... I end-up behaving like an absolute child. SO I am trying to improve myself... trying to match my age... unfortunately it is only resulting in me getting more grim..... But I think its important that I succeed at this. Someone very corporate once told me that "Sloth you are one of those ppl who can fall through the cracks". My first boss also told me, " Some ppl are too shy that's why they dont succeed and Sloth you are one of them... in my opinion" (something like that dont remember it was years ago.

Then I saw my own mirror image... actually my 5 years younger self and i thought I cant be this... I dont have enough time left to waste... I cant be lost anymore. I cant be this person anymore.

To quote a famous ass...

Sometimes we should just let people be... not bother to put them in categories, not rush into defining anything, not rush into labeling. Good or bad, trustworthy or not, time will only tell, in the meanwhile.... live and let live.

..... that's me by the way

Crisis and numbers

Today again the crisis reached my shores, this time the beach was different but it had the same impact. I realized why i don't connect with economics, the story gets lost in a barrage of numbers, people get replaced with an inhumane term called labour market. Livelihoods lost becomes unemployment. The inability to afford what you could just days before becomes slowdown in consumer expenditure. The lack of jobs becomes company hiring plans in surveys, the postponement of someone's future plans becomes depressed consumer demand due to de-leveraging. The inability to get a job for long periods of time becomes structural unemployment.  Thousands of people having the worst day of their lives becomes headcount reduction.

A crisis driven by numbers seems to loose its impact if we only see it in number terms. Telling someone that GDP growth will be structurally depressed for the next decade doesn't quite cut it. Tell them that your families' living standard will be impacted for the next ten years.

Just like last time this time it also felt like a storm was brewing and people were scared and strangely united. I never felt more connected to every person in my office, my personal silo was invaded by a common invader. Economics takes a very human experience and dehumanizes it, making it unrelatable. Sometimes its better to know the story behind that one statistic, rather than focus on the big picture. We loose out in the big picture.

Quote

Don't be sad, someone somewhere in the world is having a far worse day
..... Sloth

Two Bits (1995)

A beautiful movie about a little boy and his grandfather set against the background of the great depression. The grandfather is played by Al Pacino, if that is still not good enough to remove all doubts about the movie, then read this summary. During the great depression there is shortage of everything from chicken to vegetables and obviously money. The little boy wants to watch a movie at La paloma for which he needs two bits. His family consists of a single mother and his grandfather. The grandfather promised to leave a quarter for his grandson when he dies, but the boy doesn't believe his grandfather will die anytime soon and decides to take matters into his own hands. He takes up odd jobs  which lands him into trouble. The movie doesn't paint a picture the world full of good people instead shows a variety of bitter and dark people but never fully explores it, focusing always from the kids perspective. The kid manages to navigate the complex and mangled world of adults without loosing his focus of seeing a movie at La paloma. The movie shows that sometime its better to be kid, their simplicity is more powerful in dealing with a world with limitations rather than the limited mind of an adult.

The most beautiful part of the movie is when the grandfather explains the difference between needs and wants -

He says "Your belly needs. Your heart wants. That's the difference"  


Never stop wanting.