Myopic Vision

India lost one of it's most talented, unassuming and versatile actors yesterday - Irfan Khan who at just 53 succumbed to cancer. I was going to write a tribute to Irfan, but then I came across this touching note that Irfan penned from London a couple of years' ago after he was first diagnosed with cancer.  So I thought I'd share this instead. It is a raw yet beautiful display of courage, dignity, humility and acceptance of the cards that life dealt him. A very moving post providing some real food for thought. Rest in Peace Irfan Khan and thank you for the wonderful cinematic memories you have left us with.   'It’s been quite some time now since I have been diagnosed with a high-grade neuroendocrine cancer. This new name in my vocabulary, I got to know, was rare, and due to fewer study cases, and less information comparatively, the unpredictability of the treatment was more. I was part of a trial-and-error game. I had been in a different game, I was travelling ...

Today owing to the gentle persuasion of my friend Charmaine Vessoaker D'lima, I've decided to re-visit my long lost diary of sorts. I started MYOPIC VISION in 2006, at the tail end of my 20's, when I was  full of enthusiasm and so cock-sure of myself. I  managed to successfully keep the momentum going on MYOPIC VISION for the whole year and then some. Somehow by 2011 or so I appear to have hit the pause button and it's stayed that way until today. I wish I had a plausible excuse for not keeping regular posts. The unholy union of procrastination and a sheer lack of enthusiasm are to blame. But thanks to recent FB posts, I'm being encouraged to write more. I'm too lazy to create a new evolved and professional looking blog, so I'm just going to stick with the one I have. I shudder to think of my what my views were back in the formative years of this blog - but I won't be taking them down. They are what they are - the true maundering of a very self...

(A re-print of my Facebook post on the eve of ANZAC DAY 2020 - with a few additions) We can't gather en mass tomorrow to mark ANZAC day. But many of us will gather at our letterboxes, at the front door, in our lounge rooms, balconies and driveways to observe a minutes silence at dawn and watch the virtual service after. As a Kiwi of Indian origin, ANZAC day is not just about remembering the sacrifices of the ANZAC troops. To me personally it is also about remembering the Indian troops who fought alongside the ANZACS. Over a million Indian troops served in  World War I. It is estimated that over 15,000 of them were sent to Gallipoli. Approximately 3,500 of them were injured and roughly 1,400 of them died there along side their ANZAC mates. For many years, ANZAC day was about standing shoulder to shoulder with my Kiwi friends and neighbors. Many of them had a personal connection to soldiers in the two wars - grandfathers, granduncles and countless relatives lost in the bat...