The Life is Living You!

You can’t retire and you can’t start anew
You can’t look back and you can’t slow down
You have nothing to hold on to,
nor someone to fall back on
You are not living your life, the life is living you!

You can’t find your way and the way isn’t just there
You can’t question and the answers don’t seek you
You have everything to grunt about,
but you can’t complain
You are not living your life, the life is living you!

You can’t tell right from wrong and you can’t judge the standards
You can’t reason and the complexities just don’t simplify
You have every means to achieve,
but means don’t have means to you
You are not living your life, the life is living you!

You can’t love someone and you can’t hold someone back
You can’t be content and the happiness seems to evade you
You have everyone as your friend,
but they don’t oblige
You are not living your life, the life is living you!

You don’t want to obey, but you can’t defy
You can’t revolt and you can’t die
You are not living your life, the life is living you!

Au revoir

Things That I Am Afraid Of!

I am afraid of insecurity!
of not making my ends meet
of not being able to feed my dependents
of bringing tears in my parents' eyes
I am getting paranoid about life!

I am afraid of being left behind in the race!
of getting trampled and crushed beyond repair
of transfiguring into a mute spectator
of being dictated by others
I am getting paranoid about life!

I am afraid of not meeting my expectations!
of not acheiving what I want to
of seeing my dreams disintegrate
of not having any more expectations
I am getting paranoid about life!

I am afraid of falling into a rut!
of taking the beaten path
of living a meaningless life
of degenerating into a shadow
I am getting paranoid about life!

I am afraid of being alone!
of being ridculed by others
of becoming a withered old man
of losing the desire to live
I am not getting paranoid about life
I am afraid of life itself!

Au revoir

The Department of Denials

The Department of Denials - SMBR: 5

Author: Anurag Mathur

Category: Fiction

If I could sum up this book in one line, it would be that after a long time I found a book so damn interesting that I read the entire book in one sitting. The book revolves around the lives of two primary characters - Bahadur Prasad Thakur, Joint Secretary with the department of Income Tax of the Indian government, and his son Babar Thakur. Everything seems to be fine with the Thakur family until Mr Thakur gets into the bad books of one honorable minister Balak Kumar. Balak Kumar has a propensity to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and to get himself involved in a mess for all the wrong reasons. He manages this amazing feat so often and with such a consistency that his ministry then has to issue denials of his involvement in all those funny yet tragic incidents. So, Balak Kumar decides to create an altogether different department, whose only job would be to issue denials that will save Balak Kumar's ass everytime he gets into a mess. He promotes Mr Gupta to the post of Secretary and transfers him to the Department of Denials. The book describes many instances when Balak Kumar gets himself into a funny trouble and then Mr Gupta would come to his rescue. All the while, the book also describes Babar Thakur's journey through his job search and finally, to his marriage with his girlfriend B.G.

Anurag Mathur has made the book all the more interesting not only by giving such names to his characters as Tempest (the female secretary of Mr Sethji), B.G. (Behemoolya Gunvati - a female with higest virtues), Palangthod Pahalwan (someone whose adventures in bed could break the bed - referring to honorable minister Balak Kumar) and Kathor Dand (bitter punishment), but also making all those characters living upto their names. Not only this, the book is also splatterd with witty comments by two kids: Baby Loon, a neighbour's three-year old kid, whose father, mother, grandfather and grandmother, are all government servants and Baby Hack, another neighbour's three-year old kid, whose parents and grandparents are all journalists.

Overall, I would say that Anurag Mathur has succeeded in his efforts to amuse me more than he did with his book The Inscrutable Americans.

Au revoir

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