issue #5

Welcome to a reVIBEd version of our webzine. The hosting has been switched to blogger.com to make previous issues/archives more readily accessible and to allow posting of comments for all articles. We have also resolved to add a new feature every week. This week we have added FICTION, where you can read a selected book online, a chapter every alternate day. We will be adding original fiction, poems and more articles to our magazine.

A magazine is made as much by the readers as by the authors. We are presently looking to expanding the magazine with original content. We would like you all to submit your writings to vibeindia@yahoo.com to be featured in this magazine.

And last but absolutely not the least, thanks to all our readers and subscribers. Let us together make VIBE a rocking success!


-sumandatta

issue #4

These days one cannot surf channels on the television without stumbling upon one talent hunt or the other. The way things are shaping up everyone will have a "super singer" or a "item bomb" or what-not, among their next-door neighbours!

In the name of scouting for hidden talent, the media is blurring the lines between the good, the bad and the downright ugly! Such celebration of mediocrity would be the dream of Elsworth Toohey (from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead") and severely damages the worth of those who really deserve to stand apart with their achievements.

Surely answering a motley group of general knowledge questions doesn't make one a child "genius". Getting through auditions by a television channel and shooting to fame as "the next cine star" is a downright insult to the scores of drama schools graduates who painstakingly queue up in front of their favourite movie director's house, often for months on end, just to get noticed!

There will be a hundred voices which sing as well but none as famous as Lata Mangeshkar. It takes more to being an icon than mere talent which is aplenty. In fact the very allure of celebritydom lies in its scarcity. We should not be destroying that by churning out celebrities by the dozen!

And finally, though its everyone's dream to be "the actor" or "the writer", if everyone becomes an author who will be the discerning reader? A captive audience is more essential to a performance than the performer. For every poet who dreams there has to be people who translate that into reality.

sumandatta

issue #3

Time and again you have one of those days when you just want to laze around doing absolutely nothing. Waking up late in the morning you decide to bask in the warmth of the winter sun trickling through the window onto your bed...day-dream some...call up office to say you are down with fever and then rejoice at having snatched the entire day for yourself!

Lie still and watch the world pass by you, pick up that book you had left off midway a month ago...and leave it off unfinished again, to rummage among your music collection and play that long forgotten track from your college-days.

Then try your hand at cooking up some exotic dish from recipes off the net and eat with utmost relish...and its time for a siesta (Oh and don't forget to call up your colleagues sweating it out at work and tell them of the wonderful time you are having...just to make them jealous you know...).

It's evening and time for a stroll at the market downtown and drown yourself in the uproarious crowd, and then have a wonderful meal at some little-known roadside "dhaba". A day well spent!

For all those days when your mind is weary with tough decisions- like what to wear to work ( and the even tougher decision of whether to go at all! ), like choosing the least repulsive dish from the canteen menu, like how much to tip the waiter after dinner and a lot of other minor decisions; for all that hard work you surely deserve a day to yourself!

So go on...take a break!

sumandatta

issue #2

George Bernard Shaw once said , "The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them"; and he couldn't have been more right.

Not only do we foolishly cling to defunct static precepts regarding religion and social traditions, we obstinately stick to our notions regarding the people we associate with, irrespective of changing circumstances and character. I still tend to treat my brother as the kid he was ten years back disregarding the fact that he maybe better suited to take his own decisions now. You feel your best friend is not as warm and welcoming as before and you go on blaming him/her, without giving a passing thought of how things might have changed over the years, that they might have different priorities in their life now.

We all believe that change is the only permanent thing in this world and yet ew fail to acknowledge it. This is the 'only' reason for the incomprehensible bitterness that sometimes creep into our relationships. So the next time (and everytime ) you meet someone ( and everyone ), remember to 'measure' them anew in the light of passing time; all your grudges will disappear and new horizons will open up - who knows, you may even find your best friend in your bitterest foe of yesteryears!

sumandatta

issue #1

Hi and welcome to the very first issue of VIBE - the online lifestyle magazine. Besides being a recursive acronym for Vibe Is the Best E-zine!, VIBE stands for the pulse throbs of our generation.

So without further ado, let me take you straight on a tour of this webzine. Basically this particular place on the net is all about food.

You will find new recipes to mess with in your kitchen and the dope on eateries in hyderabad in the Victuals section; Critique reviews movies and books you can fix your eyes on while gorging on popcorn and cola; The Somnambulist and Relativity provide you with food for thought on life,love and so forth while Rags2Riches gives you all the tips you need to fill your wallet so that you do not need to think twice before throwing a party at the Taj!

Now all this talk of food is definitely making me hungry so while i go and grab a bite you get ahead with the stuff here. Bon Apetit!

yours
sumandatta