Travor Noah-Born a Crime(Stories from a south African Childhood)

There are some people who we are met by accident and mesmerized by the way they speak or react to the situation. And on one such afternoon while surfing anti-Trump squad comedians, I found Travor.

I was totally engrossed by his subtle humor and laughing dimples and intelligently dropped jokes, that I spent 2 weeks going (Fangirling) over all his shows available on youtube.

Then I came across his interview with Obama and it just left me speechless with the  whole Travor Aura he was sporting around with president Obama and I just wanted to know who the hell is this man.

And then I had to order his book which recently became New York times no. 1 best seller.

Travor Noah-Born a Crime(Stories from a south African Childhood)

It says “Essential reading… fast paced, funny and inspirational… Travor Noah’s life is all about achieving the impossible” with a wall mural face of laughing Travor on a wall and a African woman staring at him with such an admiration.

Today when I finish his book after two weeks or so, and I look back at its cover again, I feel how appropriate it is for the tale he has to tell. His ruined parts in his mural kind of depicts his difficult and lonely childhood along with the abuse he witnessed and went through, yet his brilliant brown eyes are shiny with a good humored laugh he sports, I feel a sense of envy for his mother and himself for the amazing journey they have been through.

Travor shares his birth story and his mother’s reasons of having a colored child from a Swiss man, he shares his fears and the lessons his mother made him learn as well the ones he learnt through his journey.

 I have been following the whole paradigm shift with the racism in recent year, and as it goes on, being a south African comedian as one of the leading comedy shows is of course an achievement. Travor is of course inspirational for most of his success story, but in the book the whole time you cant forget but admire Patricia , his mother who turns out to be his team mate and the beholder of how his life and thoughts are shaped.

Patricia gives sex lessons and manners to 10 year old Travor , teaches him to behave and makes him a man she wishes he should be. Patricia tries hard in her marriage, and prays for the God beyond any of the obstacles in between, giving hope to Travor by her weird eccentric positivity. Patricia even bails him out of jail, while teaching him valuable lessons along the way and it just blows  your mind.

As how can someone be so positive and creative despite being born into horrific conditions and still hope for the best in future. How can one be so calm and considerate despite being shot in head just few hours ago.

I slowly fell for Travor and his story of achieving the impossible but after having this read, I would say Patricia, his mother is the real hero behind his morals and the reality based opinions.

While I go through the hard moments Travor has when he gets the news that his mother been shot, I missed my own mother terribly and my eyes welled up for his grief. She survives like a miracle and yet praises God for blessing a son like Travor I laughed at their lovely bond and closed the book with a new found respect for him and his mother together.

A Refreshing read after many days!

Travor Noah- Born a Crime…

Some memorable quotes from the book:

If God is with me, who can be against me? She was never scared, even when she should have been…

Don’t cry about the past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don’t hold on to it. Don’t be bitter…

She taught me how to think…

Being more of a man doesn’t mean your woman has to be less than you.

Regret is an eternal question you will never have to answer to, “what if…”,”If only…”,”I wonder what would have…”you will never, never known and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.

The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.

He only wants a woman who is free because his dream is to put her in a cage.

I saw the futility of violence, the cycle that just repeats itself, the damage that’s inflicted on people that they in turn inflict on others.

You don’t have to teach me a lesson twice.

You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that’s not how people are.

Mercy!

Born-Crime-Trevor-Noah

Change of roles

So this post is about a day when I felt as if changing from one person into another by a 

quick change of time and situation. 

After so many times of deciding to go for an event of social event arranged by my company I had a good opportunity this weekend. 

After a long night surviving half of the movie “Mohabbatein” -(my roommate insisted on this that I must watch this movie , because duh…who hasn't watched Mohabbatein?) , I woke up in haze in morning so sure of leaving

for the day. 

we left our place and went into office first to get the projector and I bought 4 bars of energy bars, just to be handy in case we get hungry on the way. 

We met a guy who was also coming with us for this event and then we set onto our way to Anchetty which was the village(2 n half hour away from Bangalore) for teaching the kids in high school computer programming. 

I was quite happy and excited about this rather than my usual nervous one. 

We slept while going there since the road was too long and weather was amazing. 

We reached there and I was quite surprised to see a young boy of mere 25-26 being the headmaster 

of the school. 

The students on the other hand were looking at us with curious eyes as if we were some kind 

of new animals in zoo. 

I loved this feeling of role reversals since this is the reason I wanted to do this. (when I was in college,

if any people from company would come around I would feel super cautious as if what they must

be thinking about us). 

I found out that they just feel like helping us. I just wanted to tell them to keep going and one

day they can reach at the same place I was standing. I took control after some time, tried to teach 

them what I knew. and made sure they understood whatever I taught. Later I received a feedback from one of the manager who was with us that I was pretty good at whatever I tried to teach them. 

That was the best part of whole day, when you know you have done something worthwhile by putting yourself in a different kind of situation. 

The whole experience reminded me of my school and my college days, also gave me a realisation that I have begun to understand how to be social when I meet new people. 

And also that none of what we do in our life goes to waste. 

Of course as per Ayn Rand, “there is no selfless altruism”, and that people do things for others

because it makes them feel good about themselves . 

So as long as both are benefited from the act of a good deed. I don't mind doing it. 

selflessly or selfishly… 

We returned from this place after 3 hour session

and a 3 and half hour long drive from Bangalorean traffic, and then we had plans to go out for a party 

which was in a club. 

I changed from my so called descent attire to a party wear with heeled boots and red lips, arrived at a dark place where people drink and smoke and a weird stench welcomes us. 

It was as if walking into a garbage chute. It took a while for me to adjust to the dark 

and lights and the smell. 

But then as per time i was quite used to it. I don't drink so I couldn't do much except stare

at the people around me drinking beers and wines and LIT’s and blowing smoke from 

hookah in the air. When the Dj started everyone was pretty high and 

we were on the dance floor. The thing I love about this is that nobody gives a crap about what you are wearing or how you dance or what your name is. 

You become a part of unknown feeling of letting go and it takes you in regardless of your identity. 

The disco lights were twinkling above and the beats filled the room. 

The Dj was amazing , so we didn't stop till it was the last song of the evening. 

As always I danced like crazy, laughed like a mad woman getting high on the feeling of being with high 

people. Checked out some people, some checked me out. 

But that was sort of like the ambiance of the place. We saw a mild fight which fortunately didn't

turn into any argument. 

watched a women get way too high and loose control. And then left for the night, wearing glow sticks and 

stamps on our hands , as the proof that yes we spent an evening in a crazed place. It was raining outside and I switched on to  Coldplay song. 

As always a weird feeling surrounded me of being two person in one day. As if both people from those two situations maybe won't even recognize me in crossovers. 

Why be happy for selfishness then, or

why be happy for the freedom and the regret that comes with it. 

I felt as if I am balancing the sum and it all ends up into a big zero anyway. 

So this one is to being two people at once. 

To the point where you can't get the difference. 

Once you see the results , it becomes an addiction !

Ha! The one thing I always wanted to add into my life and that was a healthy workout routine. Me and my roommate decided to join Gym and so we went to find one. We entered into one and since then lot many things changed.
First was that she has to move to Bangalore, which left me alone here with a challenge to go to gym alone. We would have the most fun in whole day in Gym, well the main reason of this is that it's a unisex gym. and actually it's a men's gym where women are also allowed. #Genderequality ;) So including the owner , our whole gym is filled with quirky and tattooed, gym freak people. Which is pretty much a good reason to keep going every day for any single girl  ;)

 Apart from that it's on my way to home, so I don't have to twist my road and go there rather I just need to get off from office commute and go straight into gym. As I said there are very less girls in my gym so that gives me benefit of being the smartest cow in the herd of sheep.
I go straight from office so I get to be two people at once, winged eyeliner and 4 inch high heeled chick to sports shoed working out determined chick.
I have this useless quality of turning into an extremely different person when I change something slightly.
 I love the ambiance there where everyone seems to be working on one single thing and that's to look better and fit. Some do come there for actual health problems, and some to reduce weight but I go there to gain weight and a confidence that I wish to look even better than I look now.
 I wake up early to follow my abs workout and look forward to the pain in muscles in the evening where I don't have to think about any of the bullshit in my life.
The high pitch music thumps in my ears as I move forward each day with one bit by bit. Getting high on adrenaline and excitement. So that's how it goes. One of the notable experience I am having. #workoutdays !

Game of Fake and Real

Alright folks, so three things.

Artificial Intelligence Revolution

Improved Vocal Manipulation Techniques

Improved Video Manipulation Techniques

 Few days ago the news came in as scientists shut down their Artificial Intelligence program after the Bots started to speak with one another by creating the code language which was incomprehensible by humans. Well yeah, sounds like the movie I-Robot right, where Will Smith is afraid of Robots because he thinks they are dangerous if given too much power?

Yeah, the movie goes on and on while ending with a robot taking control over human lives and telling them how they should live because they do not have the ability to take smart decisions for their life and they tend to commit mistakes.

Well how close are we to this fiction now? What if the AI Bots starts making complex languages and do their own incomprehensible work which no human can understand.

Facebook has shut down two artificial intelligences that appeared to be chatting to each other in a strange language only they understood.

Another two things which I came across where an Adobe technology can create your voice’s imitation while taking in only 20 minutes of your speech and make transcript of anything anyone wish to make a person say. Wow. Well that sounds horrifying ha.

Oh hold on. You thought its only limited to that.

Well we got Video manipulation too. Where you can take any prerecorded video and make the person in the video behave his facial expression according to another real time person imitating the words he wish to say.

So basically, you can take this video thing and combine it with the vocal thing and you’ve got yourself a reality you wish to see.

Wanna see president Trump saying “I am the worse president of the history!”? yep you have got that.

Wanna see president saying “I am sorry, We shall work on the Climate change together and make the world a better place”, got it.

Oh and also the main reason over which the creator of this technology debated was?

She wants to see her dead mother talking with her through a hologram, So?

Someone you loved passed away? Why wait, just pull out any video you have of them, feed them the things you want to hear, and press play. As easy as it can be.

No mourning required. Just get the hell out of reality and get your shit together within no time since they didn’t die right? How something doesn’t exist if it’s right there, in front of you?

I was travelling to my office in the morning when I was listening to this astonishing podcast about how the virtual reality can affect us in upcoming years featuring the interviews of the creators of this technology, and when asked about whether they understand the consequences of this, she was so freaking clue less. She couldn’t even blurt out a one full sentence defending her stand about this.

Somehow a random thought came into my mind about what Elon musk’s speculation about us living in a simulation and we do not have any idea about how to find it out.

I open my eyes, take a look around, and see other vehicles on road, and look at the rainy day’s sky and suddenly feel a shiver as what if what I see around is even a part of an experiment? What if we live in a virtual world where we comprehend everything based on our 5 senses and all of them could be manipulated?

I mean we already figured out how to imitate vision, audition and smell (up to some extent), how hard would it be to go all the way and manipulate all our 5 senses and make a new customized reality for us?

How crazy is this?

I mean, if one can think way further in future, do I have to verify each thing I see? Do I need to fix the filters to what I read and see and hear as to check whether this is real or not? And as it was mentioned at the end of podcast, of course in the end creating fake will be always easy than detecting the fake.

As per one of the characters in GOT said yesterday. Well, yesterday it was just a stupid thing Lord Baelish blurts out as part of his being a jerk process, but then today it seems so significant.

“Fight every battle, everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you’ve seen before.”

Interesting/Irrelevant American politics

     How come we start to enjoy things that are extremely irrelevant or not important in our life? 

i am a kind of person who was never interested in politics, it felt as if an extra branch of which i never needed to know anything about. 

i hated the campaigns they made, trying to get ahead of one another while throwing dirt on each other and then making mess of everything while being people who runs the country. 

and then I came across American politics few months ago and it suddenly changed my whole perspective of how one sees politics. Is that all it takes? a person who shocks you with the amount of idiotic things he does? 

and why should I be the one to bother even? 

when it's not even my country? 

but then as i dive into the question of why and how can a person like him lead a whole country with millions of people including different race and women and of different genders, i feel sicken to my stomach each passing day. 

I watch the random and each and every episode featuring comedians who's career been made since this election was over. scrutinising every sentence president says or does or doesn't say or doesn't do. 

It grows like an obsession with something different that you can't keep away from. 

I laugh so hard at their jokes and feel it's impact at the same time. 

feel sorry for those suffering who's health insurances are going to be snatched away in the name of reform, feel sorry for those who were banned from having a hope for their future, and also for those who served their country and now not be able to do so because of something they were born with snatches their right to do so. 

how can we begin to comprehend this all and still keep hope for upcoming days? 

i sit in my office and explain why am i interested in american politics and not aware neither interested of what goes around in my own country. Maybe i don't even give a shit about what they might be going through each day with new shocking news everyday, perhaps to me it's just a matter of shock element and to me it's just something to laugh and then leave it behind. But then it seems even more horrific. 

It's not even that difficult rather it's easy if you consider to find the golden means while making sure there is little damage done to anyone specific or group of people. but people put forth their personal views and wishes to satisfy their own agenda and then it all just goes to a shitty sewer made of hurt and suffering. and that's how we live through, taking on the extreme conditions which we can not understand neither change , while trying to make best of the situations. 

Clockwork Orange

Huh!
Finally after twisting my face to the violence and gore explained in this book, I finally finished it.

This book been tempting me since so many years to finish it, showing its weird cover in my recommendation list on goodreads. So I finally started to read and found out the weird language it was using.

The words like rot and rooker and platties and horrorshow making me cringe every time I came across them made it so difficult to continue it for a long time. Yet I persisted and finished it.

So the clockwork orange, at first you would think it is some kind of code language for something important as an order of the world or a person who runs the things in this world. But no. As it is an ultimately useless and meaning less object in our world, its context is the same in this world. As a clockwork orange is useless, criminals in this world are treated, as if being useless once they commit something that is against the previously defined norms.

The narrator calls himself as "humble" person but each time he says this, you want to slap right across his face to remind him that he is far away from calling himself humble. He does the stuff like hitting people with sticks, raping young girls in his own home(?), robbing people, doing drugs and the whole other violent activities and seem to explain them as if they are normal activities like drinking water and walking on road.

He is young and  lives with his parents after being into reform school for his previous mischievous behavior but reform school seem to be turning him into a hard core criminal.
Once he gets caught while robbing a elder lady alone in her home, his friends (whom he calls droogies, yuck! ) somehow escape but then Alex finds himself in prison after being proved of his crime.
You'd think the story would take a good end as Alex being humble in real in prison at least, but noooo. He does his shit even in prison, trying to kill and fight with other prison mates.

Then the government has come up with a brilliant plan of reforming criminals into civilized people by a psychological methods of making them sick while showing crimes on screen. It seems to be effective on Alex and soon he starts to feel sick with the thought of crime plus his favorite hobby listening to classical music like Mozart. The method effectively ruins his thinking ability making himself cringe with the violent things he would do to other people.
Alex is released and allowed to roam in the world outside as a free man but he struggles with the life as he leads on since nothing in the world makes him happy anymore.

In the meantime he starts to get thoughts like killing himself and he tries to commit suicide after not being able to stand a symphony by Beethoven which would have made him so happy before his treatment in prison.

He wakes up in hospital with his bones broken and again given a psychological treatment to reverse the previous one, he seems to be cured since  he has the thoughts of crime again, and he ends his not so "humble" story with note that he still exists and that we heard his story once.

to be honest, I did not even find any meaning in the book except some small insights.

I think the main thing explained in this plot was that we are  to be grateful for the world we live in because we have the opportunities to choose among the choices. When a higher authority limits your choices and then it leads to a absolute monotonous life.
 When reforming the criminals the method of changing their natural responses to the crime and hate cant help them. Since after certain period they can get those back as Alex does. They only seem to be interested in changing the outer shell of a man while the criminal instinct can not be fully erased from the core unless the man himself changes.

The only thing I loved about this book was that as they had so many different words for things. they had a word for Cigarettes. Can you guess what it is???





"Cancer"


Isnt its pretty amazing idea? To call something with its effect down the road. would't you think twice before having a "Cancer" if it might result into having the actual one.

So Clockwork Orange, Either has a real deep meaning or is overrated like "Catcher in the Rye", Either Alex is just a piece of shit in a shitty world or he is just a genius who seem to show his existence though being a Clockwork Orange.


   

Nostalgia of Flamboyant trees and summer days

Ever had a deja vu?
I get a lot of these when I am being nostalgic.. and it's a long summer Sunday in the month of may and as I look across my French class windows and the   Flamboyant tree is glowing as if on fire with its red and yellow flowers. And it takes me back to the time when I was 18 and preparing to give my 12th class exam. When I was kind of wondering what was going to happen with me once the results come out while watching the hundreds of Flamboyant trees flapping their red flowers in the hot air.
And seeing back at that period of my life it just doesn't make any sense so far. As if none of what we think of ourselves in moment of doubt matters. And no matter how deep you are in your deep despair it just always ends up being an unimportant issue.
I recite the vowels and repeat the French words and find myself getting happy with each moment passing that I have reached this far. And it gives me hope as if I can come up to here then I should root for my France dream more often.
Because then it will indeed be my most important wish to fulfill..
I see so many people around me, in office or on roads. Waiting patiently in the road full of traffic and waiting for parking place to get open so they can park and go into the shimmering malls to get things for which they toiled their days after days. And come back to their two digit lakhs or one digit millions homes with tv taking half the space in hall and fridge overflowing with unending supply of goods. Passing days after days in the   cycle of Monday blues and weekend hangovers and it just makes me sad. Sad to see myself doing the same thing. I hopelessly wait for the lazy weekend and then again go to spotless clean offices with feel of fake refreshing air.
Apart from that I love my work. I feel like I am doing something right to fix something by playing small part in a huge cycle. .  But it still doesn't seem enough. I guess I am just trying to get over this feeling of wasting away each moment with these 4 hours a week to recharge myself. Hopefully it will turn into something better.
Merci!
P.S :  It had been hell of a summer.. Eagerly waiting for the rain this year
:)