Somehow, i have a problem believing in God, basically because it’s all stupid mythology. Of course, i do visit temples and say a quick prayer fore rising n shining and i want to beleive god is for real. But i just cannot come around to that kind of conclusion in the absence of solid proof. It really doesn’t bother me much anyway.
This entry is based on an article which claims Lord Rama was for real and he roamed the stretch of India. Actually, it’s pretty interesting. The author has used references from Valmiki's work (The sage who wrote Ramayana) and had gathered data about the position of stars and planets. Valmiki apparently happened to be an astronomer par excellence and had recorded the positions of stars and planets during major events/ incidents in Rama's life. Data thus gathered had been fed into a software which returns the date at which such a position of planets and stars could have been rendered possible. They have used the returned/ processed output (the date, basically) and cross-checked it with other references to Rama's life and found them to be accurate. I think that’s a cool research.
Apparently, these findings support what had been discovered sometime ago, by NASA, which published satellite pictures and provided proof for a bridge along the Palk Strait, between India and Lanka, which these guys claim was constructed by none other than Rama and his army of monkeys.
It all sounds alright, but somehow the sceptic in me seems unalterable. Or probably, i have already lost too much faith. Anyway, it’s not a big deal for me. I think i will beleive it when it appears as a published article in a reputed research journal. And the scepticism basically stems from an unshakeable beleif in Murphy's and Sod's laws, and Murphy's Law of Research does state that "Enough research will tend to support whatever theory."
I had earlier attached the entire article, but it is too lengthy. This research work was apparently done to prove Lord Rama was for real so that proof could be offered to the youth of India so that they can scientifically believe in God. My strong suspicion is that this research was done just to motivate the people and show them that it was the British influence that took away the belief, instilled caste systems etc. and why the British ass must be kicked. Basically, that was what the article was for. To offer reason as to why the British ass must be kicked!!
October 27, 2005
October 25, 2005
October 17, 2005
Stupid reactions to mugger attacks...
Ok, I have not been mugged, but i here recollect an incident that happenned a week ago to a friend (by name Gopi) in Logan....
Let me fill you in a little about Logan, Utah. Its a little like 'Pleasantville'. There are not a lot of crimes taking place there. The dumbest of the FBI lot get posted here, that kind of place. We never locked our homes and never was a thing found missing. I was there for 2 years and did not hear one case of a mugging. So, it came quite a shocker when NG was mugged. It had been a game day and Utah State had won (It certainly was a day for surprises) and he had been walking home alone ard midnight.
Its pretty lit up by the university. Its pretty much lit up whole of Logan. I mean, i used to walk home alone in the wee hours, and thats saying something. NG had just crossed the intersection at 5th North and 7th East and walking down when big drunk Afro dood put a knife to his neck and asked him to part with his wallet. Now, NG holds to his money like dear life. So, instead of parting with wallet and getting out of there, he sees a few people at the other side of the road and shouts for help. It is a pleasant surprise to us all why the Afro didnt slice him with the knife right then. Instead, he hit him and boy, was that a blow. It required no less than 13 stiches to cover that. He took NG's wallet, cell phone and took his jacket and shoes for good measure too.
This immediately reminded me about VSP. He had been working with the ASU police and was attending one of the parking units at a late night shift. A dood comes up driving his pickup and VSP stops him and asks for his parking stub. He points a gun at VSP and asks him to part with the day's collection from the parking place ka cash till. He immediately empties the cash registers and hands it. Afterall, its not his money, was it? The mugger then asks for his wallet and once VSP had given it, told him " Now i have ur ID. If any news of this ever leaks out, im going to find you and kill you.".
Now, having been so co-opearative VSP asks him " Tell you what? Do you really need my wallet? I do not have any cash in it. And anyway, i will cancel my credit cards the minute you were gone. All you needed was my ID, so why dont you just take that and give my wallet to me and save me a big bother?".
If you think that was the pits, listen to this. The mugger, apparently confused, looked at his wallet, found it had no cash and fished VSP's Id and said " Yea, that makes sense" and threw the wallet to him.
I mean, you are supposed to be muggers. You are supposed to be mean and frightening and intimidating and not agreeing to reason. And VSP swears he said ' Nothing personal dude. I am sorry it had to be you manning the counters today. Just remember, not a word and it'll be cool'. Which i tell you is a good use of imagination. They way he said, they laughed over a couple of drinks about it later.
Anyway, I still cant understand what they were thinking - Gopi shouting for help with a knife barely a cuppla inches from his face and VSP reasoning when a gun was at point blank range? Seriously, beats me..
When you have a knife pointed at neck by a drunk big guy, is it prudent to shout and ask for help? Is it worth the 10$ you carry in your wallet? He is drunk and he could stick it in. Does it amount to having balls/ courage? I thinks thats plain nonsense and stupidity. And the mugger's scheme beats me. Why should he take the victims shoes and jackets? I mean, he is is 6'2, 250 lbs and Gopi is a 5 point someone and 150 lbs max. He cant use it, nor i am certain is he intrested in selling it. But then, he was drunk and probably could have mugged a couple others if Gopi hadnt drawn attention... so he probably wanted to releive Gopi of everything.
And VSP.. that is a topper. Nobody knows how to react actually - whether to chastise him for reasoning, or to applaud him for his bravery to take it up and have a man-to-man talk with his tormentor. We wanted to hold a debate to decide which would have been the best course of action, but then, no brownie points for guessing right, we didnt.
VSP's has since become the most sought, after drinks story. Like we would be drunk, and people will want to listen to that. Its been told so many times that different people have a different version of it. Apparently, when i narrated the yarn to my American fellas, i named it 'spoof on muggers', not having the heart to teach them Americans a lesson or two about zen and the art of mugger negotiation.
Let me fill you in a little about Logan, Utah. Its a little like 'Pleasantville'. There are not a lot of crimes taking place there. The dumbest of the FBI lot get posted here, that kind of place. We never locked our homes and never was a thing found missing. I was there for 2 years and did not hear one case of a mugging. So, it came quite a shocker when NG was mugged. It had been a game day and Utah State had won (It certainly was a day for surprises) and he had been walking home alone ard midnight.
Its pretty lit up by the university. Its pretty much lit up whole of Logan. I mean, i used to walk home alone in the wee hours, and thats saying something. NG had just crossed the intersection at 5th North and 7th East and walking down when big drunk Afro dood put a knife to his neck and asked him to part with his wallet. Now, NG holds to his money like dear life. So, instead of parting with wallet and getting out of there, he sees a few people at the other side of the road and shouts for help. It is a pleasant surprise to us all why the Afro didnt slice him with the knife right then. Instead, he hit him and boy, was that a blow. It required no less than 13 stiches to cover that. He took NG's wallet, cell phone and took his jacket and shoes for good measure too.
This immediately reminded me about VSP. He had been working with the ASU police and was attending one of the parking units at a late night shift. A dood comes up driving his pickup and VSP stops him and asks for his parking stub. He points a gun at VSP and asks him to part with the day's collection from the parking place ka cash till. He immediately empties the cash registers and hands it. Afterall, its not his money, was it? The mugger then asks for his wallet and once VSP had given it, told him " Now i have ur ID. If any news of this ever leaks out, im going to find you and kill you.".
Now, having been so co-opearative VSP asks him " Tell you what? Do you really need my wallet? I do not have any cash in it. And anyway, i will cancel my credit cards the minute you were gone. All you needed was my ID, so why dont you just take that and give my wallet to me and save me a big bother?".
If you think that was the pits, listen to this. The mugger, apparently confused, looked at his wallet, found it had no cash and fished VSP's Id and said " Yea, that makes sense" and threw the wallet to him.
I mean, you are supposed to be muggers. You are supposed to be mean and frightening and intimidating and not agreeing to reason. And VSP swears he said ' Nothing personal dude. I am sorry it had to be you manning the counters today. Just remember, not a word and it'll be cool'. Which i tell you is a good use of imagination. They way he said, they laughed over a couple of drinks about it later.
Anyway, I still cant understand what they were thinking - Gopi shouting for help with a knife barely a cuppla inches from his face and VSP reasoning when a gun was at point blank range? Seriously, beats me..
When you have a knife pointed at neck by a drunk big guy, is it prudent to shout and ask for help? Is it worth the 10$ you carry in your wallet? He is drunk and he could stick it in. Does it amount to having balls/ courage? I thinks thats plain nonsense and stupidity. And the mugger's scheme beats me. Why should he take the victims shoes and jackets? I mean, he is is 6'2, 250 lbs and Gopi is a 5 point someone and 150 lbs max. He cant use it, nor i am certain is he intrested in selling it. But then, he was drunk and probably could have mugged a couple others if Gopi hadnt drawn attention... so he probably wanted to releive Gopi of everything.
And VSP.. that is a topper. Nobody knows how to react actually - whether to chastise him for reasoning, or to applaud him for his bravery to take it up and have a man-to-man talk with his tormentor. We wanted to hold a debate to decide which would have been the best course of action, but then, no brownie points for guessing right, we didnt.
VSP's has since become the most sought, after drinks story. Like we would be drunk, and people will want to listen to that. Its been told so many times that different people have a different version of it. Apparently, when i narrated the yarn to my American fellas, i named it 'spoof on muggers', not having the heart to teach them Americans a lesson or two about zen and the art of mugger negotiation.
October 12, 2005
Now who's next....
You know how when you are at marriages or engagements, old aunts/ relatives come upto you and hug you to death and say " You are next".
Well, they stopped doing that to me when i started doing the same to them at funerals.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, why didnt i think of it when i was in India. Somethings wrong with me these days. It was the obvious joke and i missed out on it. Dear Lord, please restore me my insane mind. I won't badmouth you anymore...
Well, they stopped doing that to me when i started doing the same to them at funerals.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, why didnt i think of it when i was in India. Somethings wrong with me these days. It was the obvious joke and i missed out on it. Dear Lord, please restore me my insane mind. I won't badmouth you anymore...
August 04, 2005
Mumbai rains.....
This post is dedicated to my uncle, Venkat (the original vetty), who walked the 30 Kms from Kolaba to Borivali, braving the rains. Guy started walking at 5 in the evening and reached at 5 next morning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although the torrential downpour was ordered by nature, it does seem that most of the damage was man-made. The officials, it appears, did not even issue warnings before opening damn valves. Result, 10 feet high water in 10 minutes. Leave the loss to homes and shops, too many people ( final deathtoll of 298 and counting) died.
It was pathetic to see and hear why buffaloes died in hundreds. The dairywallahs could hardly save themselves. They did not have the warning and time to untie these poor animals and let them swim to safety. They died an unnecessary death. If not like Lord emsworth loves his pig, i like the buffaloes. They have super attitude towards life. To stop digressing...
There have been numerous stories of people going out of their way to help people in distress. All the people who walked the distance from Mahalaksmi Station to Bandra (about 12-14kms) were offered water/tea/biscuits by the residents of Bandra at the point of entry into Bandra. Tales abound of people cutting across community, caste and creed extending helping hands to whoever needed them.
Gestures like offering a ride to a stranded stranger, permitting use of mobile phones, offering medical aid to the injured, all this in torrential downpour and swirling flood waters, actually reinforced one's faith in humanity and made one think why it has to take such tragedies to bring forth the milk of human kindness.
When questioned about the reality of such statements, Venkat said " Boo to that!" And added " No freewater, chai, or bread for the 12 hours i walked. In fact, it was pathetic to see women feed small children from the umbrellas (rain water caught in them) while the fellas in cars i am sure had a bisleri bottle or two, but they were saving it for a rainy day. One or two local shop wallas were selling bisleri at more Rs.100 and 150 a bottle.
All through the 30-odd km stretch, there were no volunteers leave alone police etc. There were people falling in holes, but no locals to guide the crowd towards the shallow side. Worse still was all the eve-teasing.
Noone gave a free ride to any stranger. After the airport at parle, the andheri bridge and beyond looked fine with no traffic and there were cars and SUVs screaming past. Leave alone offering rides to any of us, these buggers would not offer a lift a to even old blokes with small kids. Human kindness, my left foot. It was apathy at its worst."
It once again all adds up to the impotence of the Indian media. Amid all the damages, the papers were singing songs of praise about the spirit of the Mumbaikar, and about how Mmbai is the city to be in if a torrential outpour/ anything out of ordinary in the name of crisis occurs. The media definitely has to be more responsible prior to approving the newscats and reports from its journos and the stick to the need of the hour, which should be to report on the general norm of things, but not on feel-good outliers and exceptions happening supposedly at some corner."
All said and done, my heart goes out to all the victims of the torrential outpour. But then, one has to move on and learn to leran lessons from incidents like this. The responsible people should take pains to practice and plan strategies to defend against such further complications.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although the torrential downpour was ordered by nature, it does seem that most of the damage was man-made. The officials, it appears, did not even issue warnings before opening damn valves. Result, 10 feet high water in 10 minutes. Leave the loss to homes and shops, too many people ( final deathtoll of 298 and counting) died.
It was pathetic to see and hear why buffaloes died in hundreds. The dairywallahs could hardly save themselves. They did not have the warning and time to untie these poor animals and let them swim to safety. They died an unnecessary death. If not like Lord emsworth loves his pig, i like the buffaloes. They have super attitude towards life. To stop digressing...
There have been numerous stories of people going out of their way to help people in distress. All the people who walked the distance from Mahalaksmi Station to Bandra (about 12-14kms) were offered water/tea/biscuits by the residents of Bandra at the point of entry into Bandra. Tales abound of people cutting across community, caste and creed extending helping hands to whoever needed them.
Gestures like offering a ride to a stranded stranger, permitting use of mobile phones, offering medical aid to the injured, all this in torrential downpour and swirling flood waters, actually reinforced one's faith in humanity and made one think why it has to take such tragedies to bring forth the milk of human kindness.
When questioned about the reality of such statements, Venkat said " Boo to that!" And added " No freewater, chai, or bread for the 12 hours i walked. In fact, it was pathetic to see women feed small children from the umbrellas (rain water caught in them) while the fellas in cars i am sure had a bisleri bottle or two, but they were saving it for a rainy day. One or two local shop wallas were selling bisleri at more Rs.100 and 150 a bottle.
All through the 30-odd km stretch, there were no volunteers leave alone police etc. There were people falling in holes, but no locals to guide the crowd towards the shallow side. Worse still was all the eve-teasing.
Noone gave a free ride to any stranger. After the airport at parle, the andheri bridge and beyond looked fine with no traffic and there were cars and SUVs screaming past. Leave alone offering rides to any of us, these buggers would not offer a lift a to even old blokes with small kids. Human kindness, my left foot. It was apathy at its worst."
It once again all adds up to the impotence of the Indian media. Amid all the damages, the papers were singing songs of praise about the spirit of the Mumbaikar, and about how Mmbai is the city to be in if a torrential outpour/ anything out of ordinary in the name of crisis occurs. The media definitely has to be more responsible prior to approving the newscats and reports from its journos and the stick to the need of the hour, which should be to report on the general norm of things, but not on feel-good outliers and exceptions happening supposedly at some corner."
All said and done, my heart goes out to all the victims of the torrential outpour. But then, one has to move on and learn to leran lessons from incidents like this. The responsible people should take pains to practice and plan strategies to defend against such further complications.
August 01, 2005
Yaay!
And i aced my Master's defense presentation.( Thanks)
Well, to cut a long story short, they ( the graduate committee) decide to award me with the Master of Science degree. And they were happy with my work! And Dr. Sims asked why its not a Plan A! THAT impressed.
Barely got done with it an hour ago!
One of dreams have come true.. Not really! I never dreamed of doing a MS and all, but once ventured, somewhere in between, finishing it certainly became a (should i add 'distant' day)dream alright
I do not know exactly what, but somehow, once done with it, im not feeling that ecstatic or superior as i imagined i would be, once done. Im pretty happy about it, no kidding! But honestly, i absolutely feel no sense of accomplishment. Probably i set my standards way too high.
And thats one of the reasons im doing this post. Just to see if would perk me up a little (and also so i can pretend to be busy till the binge begins), but naah.. i don't feel a thing.
One of these days, i'ma get a job ( and i promised myself i wudnt worry about it tonight) and then i'll really laugh out at the world.. for having branded me an official Master.
The take -home msg is, " Any crap -shooter can get an MS, if they have decide to award such degrees to slobs like me".
HP is defending sometime soon, and if he sails past it, all doubts shall be dispelled.
Go get yourself one.
Well, to cut a long story short, they ( the graduate committee) decide to award me with the Master of Science degree. And they were happy with my work! And Dr. Sims asked why its not a Plan A! THAT impressed.
Barely got done with it an hour ago!
One of dreams have come true.. Not really! I never dreamed of doing a MS and all, but once ventured, somewhere in between, finishing it certainly became a (should i add 'distant' day)dream alright
I do not know exactly what, but somehow, once done with it, im not feeling that ecstatic or superior as i imagined i would be, once done. Im pretty happy about it, no kidding! But honestly, i absolutely feel no sense of accomplishment. Probably i set my standards way too high.
And thats one of the reasons im doing this post. Just to see if would perk me up a little (and also so i can pretend to be busy till the binge begins), but naah.. i don't feel a thing.
One of these days, i'ma get a job ( and i promised myself i wudnt worry about it tonight) and then i'll really laugh out at the world.. for having branded me an official Master.
The take -home msg is, " Any crap -shooter can get an MS, if they have decide to award such degrees to slobs like me".
HP is defending sometime soon, and if he sails past it, all doubts shall be dispelled.
Go get yourself one.
July 23, 2005
Bad luck with beers..
The last two weekends have not been so good.
I mean, of cousre there has been plenty of work - not physical work as in, but writing, data analysis, powerpoints - that shit. I hate powerpoints anyways.
So, i was looking forward to chill and hang out while guzzling the bubbly watching some shit movie or boring my friends long distance.
And then, there was this beer i tried last weekend. Its from the Budweiser family, a flashy new one and is called " Budweiser Sport" or something. It claims to be 'a beer with something extra', it actually includes a number of extracts from caffeine to cinnamon. And you get 4 of them for 3 bucks.
So, i take a sip. And its very very bad. It kinda has a sour taste to it. I curse myself and the Budweiser co. but still manage to drink them in under an hour.
And yesterday, and obviously i havent learnt my lesson. I goto the store, and there was a sale going on for Corona -at a buck each, it is a steal. It is a darn good beer , and if you spread a lemon piece over the mouth of the bottle prior to taking that first sip, it is bliss. It has this lemon twinge to it, and its as close as it gets to perfect in a real world.
Instead, what i do, i walk around a little, and see this " Josef Hoffbauer" - 12 cans at 6 bucks. Sweet. And it says " Lager" on the cover. So. i am like " Let me try this". I am open to trying beers. I am not open to trying food, but i am open to taking the taste of a new brew.
It was worse than than the last weekend Buds. Though the Buds didnt taste like beer, they atleast tasted like a sour energy drink. But this one, it was the water. It was liquid and watery. I mean, when you make beers like this, and say " Lager" on the outside, you dont have to worry about your repeat business - there will be none.
So i am like offering cans to guys next door, and they immediately grow suspicious" You never give me beers" said PD."There's something fishy, and i will have none of it".
And Prithvi was acting the fool. I was sittin outside, and asked if he could fetch me a new can from the fridge. And he gets me one, but on the way, he shakes it like it was his dick or something. Unassumingly, i open it, and the froth is bursting out and all, making a mess of my hands/ fingers/ floor etc.. and he was like " Fooled you, haha" , and clapping hands and laughing. Hard to imagine these things actually give people a bang. Im like " Well done".
Anyways, the take home message is " Never try these two brews. They aren't worth it". They may be cheap and be a steal, but it actually is your money that is getting stolen.
And also, dun think twice about settling down with your already fave bubbly. Its tried, tested and proven. There is no such a thing as a better beer than the one you bubble down ur bottom every other weekend, with relish.
I mean, of cousre there has been plenty of work - not physical work as in, but writing, data analysis, powerpoints - that shit. I hate powerpoints anyways.
So, i was looking forward to chill and hang out while guzzling the bubbly watching some shit movie or boring my friends long distance.
And then, there was this beer i tried last weekend. Its from the Budweiser family, a flashy new one and is called " Budweiser Sport" or something. It claims to be 'a beer with something extra', it actually includes a number of extracts from caffeine to cinnamon. And you get 4 of them for 3 bucks.
So, i take a sip. And its very very bad. It kinda has a sour taste to it. I curse myself and the Budweiser co. but still manage to drink them in under an hour.
And yesterday, and obviously i havent learnt my lesson. I goto the store, and there was a sale going on for Corona -at a buck each, it is a steal. It is a darn good beer , and if you spread a lemon piece over the mouth of the bottle prior to taking that first sip, it is bliss. It has this lemon twinge to it, and its as close as it gets to perfect in a real world.
Instead, what i do, i walk around a little, and see this " Josef Hoffbauer" - 12 cans at 6 bucks. Sweet. And it says " Lager" on the cover. So. i am like " Let me try this". I am open to trying beers. I am not open to trying food, but i am open to taking the taste of a new brew.
It was worse than than the last weekend Buds. Though the Buds didnt taste like beer, they atleast tasted like a sour energy drink. But this one, it was the water. It was liquid and watery. I mean, when you make beers like this, and say " Lager" on the outside, you dont have to worry about your repeat business - there will be none.
So i am like offering cans to guys next door, and they immediately grow suspicious" You never give me beers" said PD."There's something fishy, and i will have none of it".
And Prithvi was acting the fool. I was sittin outside, and asked if he could fetch me a new can from the fridge. And he gets me one, but on the way, he shakes it like it was his dick or something. Unassumingly, i open it, and the froth is bursting out and all, making a mess of my hands/ fingers/ floor etc.. and he was like " Fooled you, haha" , and clapping hands and laughing. Hard to imagine these things actually give people a bang. Im like " Well done".
Anyways, the take home message is " Never try these two brews. They aren't worth it". They may be cheap and be a steal, but it actually is your money that is getting stolen.
And also, dun think twice about settling down with your already fave bubbly. Its tried, tested and proven. There is no such a thing as a better beer than the one you bubble down ur bottom every other weekend, with relish.
July 21, 2005
At the coffee house
Happenned to me today. Not a very big thing and all, but it bugged me tho.
So i goto the coffee shop, think was my 3rd of the day.
For a lil background on that, i frequent the place during days, esp when at work, more so-ly bcos im tryin to not smoke when at work, and coffee kinda acts as a rather good substitute. Im having second thoughts about it now tho, cos a single cig. actually works out cheaper than a cuppa. Anyways, thats not relevant now.
I walk into the store, and survey it. There wasnt a soul in sight inside the place. Usually, i have a quick " How's it going?" or " watch the Pistons- spurs game Sunday" or some gossip along those lines going with other dudes/ acquaintances who haunt/ frequent the place. There wasnt nobody there, and so i walk up to the fixins and make myself a refill.
And then i turn and intend to pay for it, when i see this damn big queue lining up before the counter. Its not as big as the tent-poppers prior to Wimbledon finals night and all and dint strectch from Piccadilly to Hyde Park and all, but pretty significant alright. I mean, anyone wud be bummed if 10 people had taken their position in a queue, when off to the restroom/ quick smoke. I hadnt been to either, and there were these 10 guys, so imagine how bugged i would be.
I hate the British and Americans for this, their tendency to form queues. And they take pride in it, and think of as a national pastime. Hear this out, and dun get bummed. The truth hurts. The s/m works better in India. You have to exert minimum exercise while boarding buses/ trains in India. All you have to do is make your way towards a big group of people that are never on a line, and they shove you into or outside the bus. And that saves so much more time. Imagine a 100 people getting out/ boarding a train that stops for 10 seconds. If we started forming queues, the train shall never move outta the platform.
Anyways, i walk myself toward the rear of the line, to pay for the stupid refill. And these new entrants ahead of me act as if there isnt nothing in the world that would hury them up. Not a quick bagel/ muffin and exit spirit, no sir, they dont know what they want, and small talk the gal workin on the counter into tellin them what is the special for the day/ if its any good/ how much it costs / whether he can have hot coffee with ice on it etc.. And they are like this big group right. They are taking time over it, clearly enjoyin the exercise of ordering brews for the whole lot. And BREWS, i tell you. It takes a couple minutes to brew every item.
No, they cant fix themself this quick drink, or at least shoot a quick glance toward the kid in the back of the line, with a refill ready at one hand, and cash ready at other, and make him move up the queue, wait for him to pay and exit. It wudnt take 10 seconds, i tell you. I mean, when a kid is in a hurry, and he hears " So, a Chai latte for you, is it Jason, and a Double shot espresso for Ben and so on" and Jason and Ben are like " No, i dint want that, i wanted this, Jenny asked for espresso, i said Mocha' ...", you feel like steppin up and poking them in their snoot.
Unable to find myself to do anything else, i found a paper, surveyed it for anything intresting, found nothing that caught my eye, chucked it, sipped on my refill, and bored again, fetched the paper and started reading it in random. I had chucked and retreived the paper like 15 times before the line actually cleared. And i had finished the refill by the time i arrived first up on the counter. And i was about to say " That would be 2 refills. One for the one i just finished while waiting for this storm to pass, and the other for the one i am gonna make rightaway". I cudnt imagine taking another 30 hours off work for a damn refill within the next 1 hour. My boss would fire me if i did. She would fire me anyway, but why supply more reasons ?? I am a quick thinker, and even in the face of adversity/ height of irritation cud coax my old grey matter to do some rapid thinking.
Which was when i saw it was Vanessa doing the counter, and she's like " Its Ok Ram. Its on the house." It struck me rather hard. I mean, i was touched and thanked her and all, but said would take the offer another time when in dire straits. Basically insisted on paying due to the ordeal i had just been through, and she wudnt have any of it. I even said said i wanted another and she right-ho'ed it too.
And to think i said " In and out",to myself when i entered the shop and it so could have been that way had i just waved and byed Vanessa, instead of reading that stupid paper. The thing is, i dont know how to conclude this stupid write up suitably and also now I dont know whether to be glad or sad about the entire exercise.
So i goto the coffee shop, think was my 3rd of the day.
For a lil background on that, i frequent the place during days, esp when at work, more so-ly bcos im tryin to not smoke when at work, and coffee kinda acts as a rather good substitute. Im having second thoughts about it now tho, cos a single cig. actually works out cheaper than a cuppa. Anyways, thats not relevant now.
I walk into the store, and survey it. There wasnt a soul in sight inside the place. Usually, i have a quick " How's it going?" or " watch the Pistons- spurs game Sunday" or some gossip along those lines going with other dudes/ acquaintances who haunt/ frequent the place. There wasnt nobody there, and so i walk up to the fixins and make myself a refill.
And then i turn and intend to pay for it, when i see this damn big queue lining up before the counter. Its not as big as the tent-poppers prior to Wimbledon finals night and all and dint strectch from Piccadilly to Hyde Park and all, but pretty significant alright. I mean, anyone wud be bummed if 10 people had taken their position in a queue, when off to the restroom/ quick smoke. I hadnt been to either, and there were these 10 guys, so imagine how bugged i would be.
I hate the British and Americans for this, their tendency to form queues. And they take pride in it, and think of as a national pastime. Hear this out, and dun get bummed. The truth hurts. The s/m works better in India. You have to exert minimum exercise while boarding buses/ trains in India. All you have to do is make your way towards a big group of people that are never on a line, and they shove you into or outside the bus. And that saves so much more time. Imagine a 100 people getting out/ boarding a train that stops for 10 seconds. If we started forming queues, the train shall never move outta the platform.
Anyways, i walk myself toward the rear of the line, to pay for the stupid refill. And these new entrants ahead of me act as if there isnt nothing in the world that would hury them up. Not a quick bagel/ muffin and exit spirit, no sir, they dont know what they want, and small talk the gal workin on the counter into tellin them what is the special for the day/ if its any good/ how much it costs / whether he can have hot coffee with ice on it etc.. And they are like this big group right. They are taking time over it, clearly enjoyin the exercise of ordering brews for the whole lot. And BREWS, i tell you. It takes a couple minutes to brew every item.
No, they cant fix themself this quick drink, or at least shoot a quick glance toward the kid in the back of the line, with a refill ready at one hand, and cash ready at other, and make him move up the queue, wait for him to pay and exit. It wudnt take 10 seconds, i tell you. I mean, when a kid is in a hurry, and he hears " So, a Chai latte for you, is it Jason, and a Double shot espresso for Ben and so on" and Jason and Ben are like " No, i dint want that, i wanted this, Jenny asked for espresso, i said Mocha' ...", you feel like steppin up and poking them in their snoot.
Unable to find myself to do anything else, i found a paper, surveyed it for anything intresting, found nothing that caught my eye, chucked it, sipped on my refill, and bored again, fetched the paper and started reading it in random. I had chucked and retreived the paper like 15 times before the line actually cleared. And i had finished the refill by the time i arrived first up on the counter. And i was about to say " That would be 2 refills. One for the one i just finished while waiting for this storm to pass, and the other for the one i am gonna make rightaway". I cudnt imagine taking another 30 hours off work for a damn refill within the next 1 hour. My boss would fire me if i did. She would fire me anyway, but why supply more reasons ?? I am a quick thinker, and even in the face of adversity/ height of irritation cud coax my old grey matter to do some rapid thinking.
Which was when i saw it was Vanessa doing the counter, and she's like " Its Ok Ram. Its on the house." It struck me rather hard. I mean, i was touched and thanked her and all, but said would take the offer another time when in dire straits. Basically insisted on paying due to the ordeal i had just been through, and she wudnt have any of it. I even said said i wanted another and she right-ho'ed it too.
And to think i said " In and out",to myself when i entered the shop and it so could have been that way had i just waved and byed Vanessa, instead of reading that stupid paper. The thing is, i dont know how to conclude this stupid write up suitably and also now I dont know whether to be glad or sad about the entire exercise.
March 31, 2005
A good book...
Suddenly remembered this hilarious book i read during my UG days.
Penned by Fred Truman, that great English quick bowler and Frank Hardy, a trademark brand Aussie, both of who love to spin 'em yarns, its called " You nearly had him that time, and other cricket stories".
"You nearly had him that time" was the best yarn, and Truman talks about this umpire he once encountered in one of them matches for a club in Australia. The club brought its own umpire, and he always won the game for them. Truman was playing under a different name (Smith - a new fast bolwer for the club) under special request from the captian of the club that was playing against the club that brought its own umpire - a special effort by the club to nullify the advantage of the dubious umpire.
Truman was told about his umpiring, and having not seen him first hand thought of stories about him as an exaggeration, but nevertheless agreed to play and see for self what he's made of.
He marks his run-up first ball, and had the batsman genuinely edge to slips. " Not out". Truman plays it down as a true error by the umpire. Heck, it was the first ball.
Ball two, he bowls one short on the off, and the bat hits it to third man, who pulls of a good catch, in full view of the whole ground." Not out". Now Truman realises what he was up against.
Ball three, a scorcher pitched on middle, and straightening and hitting the batsman on his back foot, as plumb an LBW, if there ever was one." Not out". Truman, thoroughly bugged now whispers" Where's your guide dog, and forgot ur dark glasses back home" as he passes the umpire.
Ball four was a beauty yorker that squares the batter on his back leg right in fronta off, and has the batter whimpering due to the direct contact of ball with the unpadded foot. A more plumb LBW than the previous one. " Not out". Truman asks" Why, was it going under the stumps?". And the umpire says " No more cheek from you boy, else i will penalise your team with 50 runs".
Batsman gets bowled the fifth ball. " Not out".
Last ball of the over. A stunner, if there ever was one. The leg stump cartwheeled and landed next to the sightscreen. The uprooted off stump was held by a alert slip catcher, and they couldnt find the middle stump, anywhere in the ground, and as Truman was about to turn back and appeal, the umpire goes " My god, that was close Smith. You almost had him that time".
Yes, umpires are a strange breed, and especially in a batters game like cricket, a bowler bears the full brunt of the umpire's agony.
I suddenly remebered this because, we were playing a game yesterday, and had a species standing as the umpire, who cant say out from six, as in, he doesnt know whether the six has to be signalled with both hands raised, and he wudnt do that anyway, as that was too much of an exercise for that fatso.
So, i mark my run up, and bowl the first ball. A good ball. A single played down to cover." No ball". I was sure i landed like miles before the crease, and i am like" why?", and he says " You did not say your guard sonny". Next ball, once again called a no-ball, and im like " Why?". "Because you still did not say your guard".
So i say " right arm, over the wicket" and do my run up again, and " no ball" even before i had delivered. I am like " Wtf". And he goes " Just checking if you are alert enough. Carry on". Holy buckets.
Two balls passed without much ado, and a single later, a beauty pitched on off and moving away from the batter. Totally beaten. " Wide". "Hey, that just missed his bat. Thats not a wide".
"Its went down the leg side"
" Of course it did. But cant u see he is a left-hander? Its his off side".
" Now dont get into gory tech details dude. It was down the leg, and hence wide".
This happens three more times, and all wides. I then allow a single, and the right hander takes strike. Pitched on off, and moving away and beaten. " Wide" .
" Why, but it is on the off side this time. Wasnt it? Why wide".
" Because he couldnt hit it. Hence wide".
" It was just that did not hit it. Not could not".
" Its all the same. It is a wide".
My captain got bugged, and we got into a fight and after about 10 minutes of frenzied shouting, i resumed. And he says " Fresh over. Runs will count. The deliveries will not".
The match did not last another ball.
Not very wrong that i recollected the story, and hence the book.
Anyway, the book is a collection of cricket short stories, some 50 of them, each of which are extremely hilarious, in their own right. And a fair dinkum, and must read, if you know your cricket, and enjoy a yarn.
I checked for that book on Amazon to secure a personal copy, and this is what the search resulted in. No references in the top 10, at least.
Anyways, if anybody happens to be reading this, and know of a place where i could get the book from, please feel free to let me know about it. And while you are at it, enjoy the rippin yarn.
Penned by Fred Truman, that great English quick bowler and Frank Hardy, a trademark brand Aussie, both of who love to spin 'em yarns, its called " You nearly had him that time, and other cricket stories".
"You nearly had him that time" was the best yarn, and Truman talks about this umpire he once encountered in one of them matches for a club in Australia. The club brought its own umpire, and he always won the game for them. Truman was playing under a different name (Smith - a new fast bolwer for the club) under special request from the captian of the club that was playing against the club that brought its own umpire - a special effort by the club to nullify the advantage of the dubious umpire.
Truman was told about his umpiring, and having not seen him first hand thought of stories about him as an exaggeration, but nevertheless agreed to play and see for self what he's made of.
He marks his run-up first ball, and had the batsman genuinely edge to slips. " Not out". Truman plays it down as a true error by the umpire. Heck, it was the first ball.
Ball two, he bowls one short on the off, and the bat hits it to third man, who pulls of a good catch, in full view of the whole ground." Not out". Now Truman realises what he was up against.
Ball three, a scorcher pitched on middle, and straightening and hitting the batsman on his back foot, as plumb an LBW, if there ever was one." Not out". Truman, thoroughly bugged now whispers" Where's your guide dog, and forgot ur dark glasses back home" as he passes the umpire.
Ball four was a beauty yorker that squares the batter on his back leg right in fronta off, and has the batter whimpering due to the direct contact of ball with the unpadded foot. A more plumb LBW than the previous one. " Not out". Truman asks" Why, was it going under the stumps?". And the umpire says " No more cheek from you boy, else i will penalise your team with 50 runs".
Batsman gets bowled the fifth ball. " Not out".
Last ball of the over. A stunner, if there ever was one. The leg stump cartwheeled and landed next to the sightscreen. The uprooted off stump was held by a alert slip catcher, and they couldnt find the middle stump, anywhere in the ground, and as Truman was about to turn back and appeal, the umpire goes " My god, that was close Smith. You almost had him that time".
Yes, umpires are a strange breed, and especially in a batters game like cricket, a bowler bears the full brunt of the umpire's agony.
I suddenly remebered this because, we were playing a game yesterday, and had a species standing as the umpire, who cant say out from six, as in, he doesnt know whether the six has to be signalled with both hands raised, and he wudnt do that anyway, as that was too much of an exercise for that fatso.
So, i mark my run up, and bowl the first ball. A good ball. A single played down to cover." No ball". I was sure i landed like miles before the crease, and i am like" why?", and he says " You did not say your guard sonny". Next ball, once again called a no-ball, and im like " Why?". "Because you still did not say your guard".
So i say " right arm, over the wicket" and do my run up again, and " no ball" even before i had delivered. I am like " Wtf". And he goes " Just checking if you are alert enough. Carry on". Holy buckets.
Two balls passed without much ado, and a single later, a beauty pitched on off and moving away from the batter. Totally beaten. " Wide". "Hey, that just missed his bat. Thats not a wide".
"Its went down the leg side"
" Of course it did. But cant u see he is a left-hander? Its his off side".
" Now dont get into gory tech details dude. It was down the leg, and hence wide".
This happens three more times, and all wides. I then allow a single, and the right hander takes strike. Pitched on off, and moving away and beaten. " Wide" .
" Why, but it is on the off side this time. Wasnt it? Why wide".
" Because he couldnt hit it. Hence wide".
" It was just that did not hit it. Not could not".
" Its all the same. It is a wide".
My captain got bugged, and we got into a fight and after about 10 minutes of frenzied shouting, i resumed. And he says " Fresh over. Runs will count. The deliveries will not".
The match did not last another ball.
Not very wrong that i recollected the story, and hence the book.
Anyway, the book is a collection of cricket short stories, some 50 of them, each of which are extremely hilarious, in their own right. And a fair dinkum, and must read, if you know your cricket, and enjoy a yarn.
I checked for that book on Amazon to secure a personal copy, and this is what the search resulted in. No references in the top 10, at least.
Anyways, if anybody happens to be reading this, and know of a place where i could get the book from, please feel free to let me know about it. And while you are at it, enjoy the rippin yarn.
March 24, 2005
My idea of a poem -
I wrote this a long time ago, sometime last Nov when i was attending a class instructed by a Chinese prof. Yeah, the same guy that wrote Prithiviraj's name as ' Pathway' in a bizarre attempt to spell his name.
I have my reservations against this guy, and not without reasons. But, am not in a mood to get into all that series of events.
Anyway, this poem also coincided with that phase of my life when all that me and Ved were doing were getting rightly sozzled and were confused most of the time. We were inspired after watching 8 mile and were into hip-hop bigtime, trying to speak and move and act the way Eminem did in that movie. Now, that phase has gone away (and rightly so, even Eminem has mellowed), but all that stands in testimony of the fact we were cranked up at that time is this poem.
It might be a little abusive and offensive, but i will still settle and vouch for every word here. They still hold good. And im sure students that have taken classes instructed in English from a chinese prof will relate/endorse to this. And if you have happenned to hear ' 40 oz' from D-12 and remember its BG tune, try to read it along that. I did and liked it more that way.
Here goes
...................................................................................
He calls Himself Dr. Thaksang Zu
Interpol is searching him for escapin from a china zoo
From where he landed in US, Kalamazoo
How he managed to reach here, i have no clue
He has a jacket that is of color blue
Which he flicked after using the women's loo
He is totally pathetic, and i say it with a phew
Of his demented caliber, there are others very few
When he enters a class, everyone goes 'boo'
Which he sucks up to thinkin its a 'ooh'
He starts talkin, of which he/you hav no clue
And you are thinkin ' Hey, i could better understand a cow's mellow 'moo'
When you carry a doubt to Dr.Zu
He is sure to gonna raise a huge cry and hue
He will go ' Dare to ask me? Do you know i am who?'
That how good his English, never would a gal go to him and woo
One of you will be makin sense, and its probably you
Just talkin abt him makes me reach for powder floo
So i can fly home, and drink my homemade coffee brew
I dint exxagerate, every word i jus said was true.........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I rest my case.
And yea, of course, the name has been changed.So, if you are from immediate vicinity and trace to the guy, i can still save my skin...
And oh yea, by the way, i still cant seem to decide on a suitable title, so feel free to suggest one, if you are in the mood for it.
I have my reservations against this guy, and not without reasons. But, am not in a mood to get into all that series of events.
Anyway, this poem also coincided with that phase of my life when all that me and Ved were doing were getting rightly sozzled and were confused most of the time. We were inspired after watching 8 mile and were into hip-hop bigtime, trying to speak and move and act the way Eminem did in that movie. Now, that phase has gone away (and rightly so, even Eminem has mellowed), but all that stands in testimony of the fact we were cranked up at that time is this poem.
It might be a little abusive and offensive, but i will still settle and vouch for every word here. They still hold good. And im sure students that have taken classes instructed in English from a chinese prof will relate/endorse to this. And if you have happenned to hear ' 40 oz' from D-12 and remember its BG tune, try to read it along that. I did and liked it more that way.
Here goes
...................................................................................
He calls Himself Dr. Thaksang Zu
Interpol is searching him for escapin from a china zoo
From where he landed in US, Kalamazoo
How he managed to reach here, i have no clue
He has a jacket that is of color blue
Which he flicked after using the women's loo
He is totally pathetic, and i say it with a phew
Of his demented caliber, there are others very few
When he enters a class, everyone goes 'boo'
Which he sucks up to thinkin its a 'ooh'
He starts talkin, of which he/you hav no clue
And you are thinkin ' Hey, i could better understand a cow's mellow 'moo'
When you carry a doubt to Dr.Zu
He is sure to gonna raise a huge cry and hue
He will go ' Dare to ask me? Do you know i am who?'
That how good his English, never would a gal go to him and woo
One of you will be makin sense, and its probably you
Just talkin abt him makes me reach for powder floo
So i can fly home, and drink my homemade coffee brew
I dint exxagerate, every word i jus said was true.........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I rest my case.
And yea, of course, the name has been changed.So, if you are from immediate vicinity and trace to the guy, i can still save my skin...
And oh yea, by the way, i still cant seem to decide on a suitable title, so feel free to suggest one, if you are in the mood for it.
March 16, 2005
Waking up...
Waking up in the morning is a hassle.
Especially if you are used to the never wake up before noon schedule.
I've had this schedule for like 6 months now, since last Septamber, because all my classes are in the PM, and i work late at nights anyway on my research.
So, i like this trot back home 5ish in the morning, sleep soundly till noon.
But this sem, we have this class that starts at 8.30 in the morning Monday thro Wed. So, i alter my schedule a little, and sleep by 2 Sun-Tue nights. But it takes the old body plentya time to adapt to the early wake-up. I have been doing this since Jan and im still not used to it. And its kinda cold in the mornings, ard 8, and that old lazy bugger, the sun, does not quite shine as merrily as he would at 12. Probably another nutter like me, a little slow in the morning, his brain and shine, not at thier brightest, literally, those early hours.
I've already missed like 4 classes over the last 3 weeks, and the prof is starting to take notice. And he's like " We have the visiting student today. Now all we need is the visiting professor" when i walked into class yesterday. And last week, he said" You know, we had a lucky draw, and you won a prize. unfortunately, it could only be given if you are present, which you were not, and so, we had to give it to someone else. If only you had attended....."
And its kinda bugging, you know. You are already kickin urself for missing the classes, and to add fuel to the fire, the prof had to be so nice with it. I mean, if he just yells at me, or threatens to reduce my grades, or act son-of-a-bitchy, i wudnt care about it.
Now, i hafta make a real consious effort to attend the classes. And that means waking up early. But how do you know its already time to wake up, when you are sound asleep? Beats me.
And ok, if you are gonna suggest alarm clocks, boo to you. Do you think i havent tried them? I mean, how long does it take to switch it off, and go straight back to sleep, w/o even realising the clock alarmed, and you shut it off. Before you could say G in the 'Get up'.
Have to think a way around this. Probably, alter my entire timetable, and wakin up early all morning, 7 days a week might help. But i dont wanna do that. Aaaah, its a toughie.
Like the computer says in Hitchhikers guide to galaxy "He asked if i could make some tea, and by George, its a toughie".
Especially if you are used to the never wake up before noon schedule.
I've had this schedule for like 6 months now, since last Septamber, because all my classes are in the PM, and i work late at nights anyway on my research.
So, i like this trot back home 5ish in the morning, sleep soundly till noon.
But this sem, we have this class that starts at 8.30 in the morning Monday thro Wed. So, i alter my schedule a little, and sleep by 2 Sun-Tue nights. But it takes the old body plentya time to adapt to the early wake-up. I have been doing this since Jan and im still not used to it. And its kinda cold in the mornings, ard 8, and that old lazy bugger, the sun, does not quite shine as merrily as he would at 12. Probably another nutter like me, a little slow in the morning, his brain and shine, not at thier brightest, literally, those early hours.
I've already missed like 4 classes over the last 3 weeks, and the prof is starting to take notice. And he's like " We have the visiting student today. Now all we need is the visiting professor" when i walked into class yesterday. And last week, he said" You know, we had a lucky draw, and you won a prize. unfortunately, it could only be given if you are present, which you were not, and so, we had to give it to someone else. If only you had attended....."
And its kinda bugging, you know. You are already kickin urself for missing the classes, and to add fuel to the fire, the prof had to be so nice with it. I mean, if he just yells at me, or threatens to reduce my grades, or act son-of-a-bitchy, i wudnt care about it.
Now, i hafta make a real consious effort to attend the classes. And that means waking up early. But how do you know its already time to wake up, when you are sound asleep? Beats me.
And ok, if you are gonna suggest alarm clocks, boo to you. Do you think i havent tried them? I mean, how long does it take to switch it off, and go straight back to sleep, w/o even realising the clock alarmed, and you shut it off. Before you could say G in the 'Get up'.
Have to think a way around this. Probably, alter my entire timetable, and wakin up early all morning, 7 days a week might help. But i dont wanna do that. Aaaah, its a toughie.
Like the computer says in Hitchhikers guide to galaxy "He asked if i could make some tea, and by George, its a toughie".
February 05, 2005
Typos...
Just a couple of days ago, i got this mail from a dood called Hari, who was in my class in VIT ( i cant say i 'studied' there, so i was in that collge would suffice)
When i say " I got this mail", i actually mean " I also got this mail". Apparently, our class is doing the Yahoo groups thing. Its big and all that.
Anyways, cut to the chase, a bunch of fellas from my class had been to some alumni meeting at VIT (My MFC ;-), and were just writing lotsa stuff to the grps...like abt the college's infra and how much it has improved and stuff like that. And everybody that had been there mailed in pretty much the same thing, as if it was a goddamn assignment or something. I even noticed a couple of copy, paste jobs there. Real neat.
Ok anyways, thats enuff for the background. This dood Hari had also been there and done that. So, promptly he sends a mail across to the groups abt how he was moved to tears when he saw the old classroom and stuff like that.
This is what he wrote " saw our class peeing over the window.. Was moved to tears by that sight". Me and roommmate PC, who is also from same class, sit down and analyze it.
I reckoned that was a typo and he intended " saw our class peeping over the window" (Bad English maybe, but then you get the point, so its cool) which brought old memories to the lad and he was moved to tears. Right !
PC wudnt have any of it. His version goes like " He ( Hari) actually saw somebody ( read - mischevious students) peeing out of the window and that appalled him and brought tears ". I mean, something there in what he says, unless you start to think " who is gonna pee outta the window" which took us to this guessing game of who would have done that in our class.
After an hour of discusing the pros and cons, ( see, whoever told ya we are busy lads doin MS just sold you some horsehit. Never buy that. This is what we do most of the time.) we decide to ...... stalk it up for laters ( Topics this good for dicussion come up rarely).
Me, PC, Sami, Komi and VIJ do a Small email circulation amongst ourselves then, adding comments and having giggles ( Sounds so much like what girls do, now that i think abt it). That actually gave us a bang.
That enuff of what we did. Lets take the typos.
This incident reminded me of my slam book, where some body had posted that entry " I like your casualty". meaning " I like your casual attitude/ outlook" .
After reading that, i was like - Dood/ Baby..you just murdered me. and well, thats the way you like it. Makes sense.
How typos change the perspective and message you intend to convey so much kinda belies my understanding. Could you call it a coincidence - or a play on the words? Or the beauty of the English language ( Ok, thats bollocks, but what abt the others?)
This is akin the mail i received a number of years ago, an email fwd that ribs the Indian Telegraph system, which does its own job of editing important messages which the public send.
The one that readily comes to mind is this - A husband on a tour telegraphs his wife " I wish you were here". The message reaches his wife as " I wish you were her".
And other such prototypes.. I actually stored that someplace. Will hafta come back and add them up to the list. It might be worth it.
Yea, typsos ;-) are ok , but make sure you get the msg across.
Funnier types are the spoonerisms and slip of the tongues, which i refer to are the 'slep of the tingues'. Come to think of it - That really would be a slip of the tongue.
When i say " I got this mail", i actually mean " I also got this mail". Apparently, our class is doing the Yahoo groups thing. Its big and all that.
Anyways, cut to the chase, a bunch of fellas from my class had been to some alumni meeting at VIT (My MFC ;-), and were just writing lotsa stuff to the grps...like abt the college's infra and how much it has improved and stuff like that. And everybody that had been there mailed in pretty much the same thing, as if it was a goddamn assignment or something. I even noticed a couple of copy, paste jobs there. Real neat.
Ok anyways, thats enuff for the background. This dood Hari had also been there and done that. So, promptly he sends a mail across to the groups abt how he was moved to tears when he saw the old classroom and stuff like that.
This is what he wrote " saw our class peeing over the window.. Was moved to tears by that sight". Me and roommmate PC, who is also from same class, sit down and analyze it.
I reckoned that was a typo and he intended " saw our class peeping over the window" (Bad English maybe, but then you get the point, so its cool) which brought old memories to the lad and he was moved to tears. Right !
PC wudnt have any of it. His version goes like " He ( Hari) actually saw somebody ( read - mischevious students) peeing out of the window and that appalled him and brought tears ". I mean, something there in what he says, unless you start to think " who is gonna pee outta the window" which took us to this guessing game of who would have done that in our class.
After an hour of discusing the pros and cons, ( see, whoever told ya we are busy lads doin MS just sold you some horsehit. Never buy that. This is what we do most of the time.) we decide to ...... stalk it up for laters ( Topics this good for dicussion come up rarely).
Me, PC, Sami, Komi and VIJ do a Small email circulation amongst ourselves then, adding comments and having giggles ( Sounds so much like what girls do, now that i think abt it). That actually gave us a bang.
That enuff of what we did. Lets take the typos.
This incident reminded me of my slam book, where some body had posted that entry " I like your casualty". meaning " I like your casual attitude/ outlook" .
After reading that, i was like - Dood/ Baby..you just murdered me. and well, thats the way you like it. Makes sense.
How typos change the perspective and message you intend to convey so much kinda belies my understanding. Could you call it a coincidence - or a play on the words? Or the beauty of the English language ( Ok, thats bollocks, but what abt the others?)
This is akin the mail i received a number of years ago, an email fwd that ribs the Indian Telegraph system, which does its own job of editing important messages which the public send.
The one that readily comes to mind is this - A husband on a tour telegraphs his wife " I wish you were here". The message reaches his wife as " I wish you were her".
And other such prototypes.. I actually stored that someplace. Will hafta come back and add them up to the list. It might be worth it.
Yea, typsos ;-) are ok , but make sure you get the msg across.
Funnier types are the spoonerisms and slip of the tongues, which i refer to are the 'slep of the tingues'. Come to think of it - That really would be a slip of the tongue.
February 02, 2005
Of tennis geographies..
Aus.Open was almost awesom.
Juz what the doc ordered.
What makes it almost awesome and not totally awesome was that Agassi didn't win. Lets get the sad part out first( he is good for a couple more, provided Federer abstains. He has one more shot at the red clay of France- else goodbye to my hopes of another Andre Slam - (I'll) dunk it.)
Federer cant have this much success - needed to be grounded;
My boy Roddick deserved to lose on 2 counts - one becoz he played very badly that day and 2nd the permanent reason of he being an American.
And Hewit too didnt win and very happy abt it.
One becos he beat Roddick n the second becoz he is an Aussie. You can even digest an American winner, not an Aussie winner. There have been way too many of them in all sports. Anyway, he cant win the Aus open. That cannot be digested. Aussies in other sports seldom never loose anyplace, but never at home. Glad to know of this.
That leaves us with Safin, a guy very mercurial in temperment & a helluva game.
His semi duel with Roger was almost epic. Reminded me of the tussle between andre and Goran in the w'don finals before the era of Sampras domination.
That he is a Russian (my erstwhile MFN) helps.
That he is neither an American, Aussie or for that matter a condescending Western
European is a great relief.
On balance, it looks more to do with geography than Tennis.
But, overall, at the moment, there is Federer and then there are others.
And honestly, tennis is one of the few sports you watch for an individual's ability. Unless you watch, relish and do posts on TT, Badminton...
Juz what the doc ordered.
What makes it almost awesome and not totally awesome was that Agassi didn't win. Lets get the sad part out first( he is good for a couple more, provided Federer abstains. He has one more shot at the red clay of France- else goodbye to my hopes of another Andre Slam - (I'll) dunk it.)
Federer cant have this much success - needed to be grounded;
My boy Roddick deserved to lose on 2 counts - one becoz he played very badly that day and 2nd the permanent reason of he being an American.
And Hewit too didnt win and very happy abt it.
One becos he beat Roddick n the second becoz he is an Aussie. You can even digest an American winner, not an Aussie winner. There have been way too many of them in all sports. Anyway, he cant win the Aus open. That cannot be digested. Aussies in other sports seldom never loose anyplace, but never at home. Glad to know of this.
That leaves us with Safin, a guy very mercurial in temperment & a helluva game.
His semi duel with Roger was almost epic. Reminded me of the tussle between andre and Goran in the w'don finals before the era of Sampras domination.
That he is a Russian (my erstwhile MFN) helps.
That he is neither an American, Aussie or for that matter a condescending Western
European is a great relief.
On balance, it looks more to do with geography than Tennis.
But, overall, at the moment, there is Federer and then there are others.
And honestly, tennis is one of the few sports you watch for an individual's ability. Unless you watch, relish and do posts on TT, Badminton...
January 28, 2005
Last names..
By a spate of comments, how many of you insist on calling people by their last names? Who are you people? I can emphatize with your cause if its your luck to have drawn and met people with such first names as Bartholomew or Sambasivam, but on your average day and when meeting with the average Colin Fitzwilliam, you dont have to go "Oh, i dont know, Mr. Fitzwilliam, but that was how i was addressed when i was brought up and that is how i will you."
To explain things easier, i pick the thing that comes to mind readily.
Cricket commentators already suffer when referring to Waugh... if it is slip catching and lazy grace and elegance, we know they are on the "Mark" and if it is about steely grit, it sure is "Steve". Otherwise, it is difficult. Why cant they just say Steve and Mark?
Calling Anil and Mukesh, "Ambani" would do disservice to Dhirubhai. And why should a certain Patrick cash in on the surname "McEnroe"???
However, regards "Bush", both father and son have the same traits, ie, the world hates them, and it makes little difference anyway, so it is ok. And both wives must be livid, when called "Ms Bush" (joke intended)
First names are cool and easy, and moreover, its urs, so that way you know they are addressing you.
Most of the world except perhaps some places in south india emphasise on surnames. For instance, Ramesh Nihalani would definitely respond if someone calls him Nihalani, but I would look elswehere if someone calls me "Ramanan"!!
If south indians were addressed by surnames, it would be comical. Maharajapuram and Seerkazahi are accepted because the 2 men probably were the only known guys from these 2 villages in Tamilnadu. But think of Conjeevaram (Ramaswamy?) and Pondicherry (Sivasankaran?)..
There are also plentya personal experiences that tag along where i experienced this particlar problem, some pretty comical.
I kinda received a letter some 2 years ago from a US University confirming my admission. It read "Mr. Kripa Ramanan. Congrats" and so forth. And my dad is like " Wow.. You write the exams, apply and stuff, and i get an admit. Thats cool".
And we should all have 1 last name man.. Not 2 last names..like mine, Kripa Ramanan... I know!!!! Blame my grandfather.
I remember applying for a credit card when i told my first and last names to a dood that was typin stuff to enter my details. And i got a letter in the mail addressing me as "R Kripa Space Ramanan".
Of course, if you are a Telugu guy, all laws and restrictions, basically anything that makes sense do not apply to you and dont join my tirade. You better respond to whichever part of your name manages to escape out of others mouths. What the fuck are you people thinking, huh " Thirumala Venkateshwara SivaSubramanya Aditya Devarakonda", is without exaggeration, the name of a good friend of mine. We didnt remain friends for long becuase he didnt find my takes on his namessss funny. "Srinivas NagaVenkata Gundapathula" or " Vangipurappu VenkataSai Laxman" maybe easier comparitively but drive the person thats listening/ calling your name crazy. By a certain oddity, have you observed 'Venkat' figures prominently in every Telugu name. Its no coincidence. Thats their beleif. Every good name should have one. "Srini or Venkat". Hearsay has it they wanted to rename " Andhra Pradesh" into "Venkatesh". Thats it, just that, like Bangladesh, and people outside of AP shouldnt be allowed to use it.
And the auto process of having ur dad's name as ur last name sucks. I really say that. I had a neighbour who got married to one " Madhu Thyagarajan" and ppl call her " Mrs. Thyagarajan" -Thyagarajan who is her dead pop-in-law she's never met in life. That screws relationships all over man. People should ban that.
My friend writes his name as Rohan Arjun Karthik, and sometimes as Karthik Rohan Arjun. He bet me 50 bucks i cant guess his first name, ( not that he was gonna admit if i did). Rohan is his name and Karthik is his dad's name and Arjun it seems is his family name. Can it BE more confusing?
This acquaintance of mine Vijay Immanuel, who originally sent me a hilarious piece on a conversation between an Indian and American data collector, had this to say when i asked him about it. He seconds my opinion and recollects the problem he had in getting his details - the spelling and stuff - through. And i thought it was pretty funny.
Vijay says " It is not only u..Even I (Who does not have my father's name nor my house name) have to go thru it very often.
IMMANUEL.....spelt as Imman vel (As in Vel Murugan)
Apparently, this dint work, and i try another angle "Manual...Immanuel with an E, i.e
Emmanuel...etc .and so on."
People do not seem to be giving respect to ones names!...no matter what it is."
Right on mark, Manny.
To explain things easier, i pick the thing that comes to mind readily.
Cricket commentators already suffer when referring to Waugh... if it is slip catching and lazy grace and elegance, we know they are on the "Mark" and if it is about steely grit, it sure is "Steve". Otherwise, it is difficult. Why cant they just say Steve and Mark?
Calling Anil and Mukesh, "Ambani" would do disservice to Dhirubhai. And why should a certain Patrick cash in on the surname "McEnroe"???
However, regards "Bush", both father and son have the same traits, ie, the world hates them, and it makes little difference anyway, so it is ok. And both wives must be livid, when called "Ms Bush" (joke intended)
First names are cool and easy, and moreover, its urs, so that way you know they are addressing you.
Most of the world except perhaps some places in south india emphasise on surnames. For instance, Ramesh Nihalani would definitely respond if someone calls him Nihalani, but I would look elswehere if someone calls me "Ramanan"!!
If south indians were addressed by surnames, it would be comical. Maharajapuram and Seerkazahi are accepted because the 2 men probably were the only known guys from these 2 villages in Tamilnadu. But think of Conjeevaram (Ramaswamy?) and Pondicherry (Sivasankaran?)..
There are also plentya personal experiences that tag along where i experienced this particlar problem, some pretty comical.
I kinda received a letter some 2 years ago from a US University confirming my admission. It read "Mr. Kripa Ramanan. Congrats" and so forth. And my dad is like " Wow.. You write the exams, apply and stuff, and i get an admit. Thats cool".
And we should all have 1 last name man.. Not 2 last names..like mine, Kripa Ramanan... I know!!!! Blame my grandfather.
I remember applying for a credit card when i told my first and last names to a dood that was typin stuff to enter my details. And i got a letter in the mail addressing me as "R Kripa Space Ramanan".
Of course, if you are a Telugu guy, all laws and restrictions, basically anything that makes sense do not apply to you and dont join my tirade. You better respond to whichever part of your name manages to escape out of others mouths. What the fuck are you people thinking, huh " Thirumala Venkateshwara SivaSubramanya Aditya Devarakonda", is without exaggeration, the name of a good friend of mine. We didnt remain friends for long becuase he didnt find my takes on his namessss funny. "Srinivas NagaVenkata Gundapathula" or " Vangipurappu VenkataSai Laxman" maybe easier comparitively but drive the person thats listening/ calling your name crazy. By a certain oddity, have you observed 'Venkat' figures prominently in every Telugu name. Its no coincidence. Thats their beleif. Every good name should have one. "Srini or Venkat". Hearsay has it they wanted to rename " Andhra Pradesh" into "Venkatesh". Thats it, just that, like Bangladesh, and people outside of AP shouldnt be allowed to use it.
And the auto process of having ur dad's name as ur last name sucks. I really say that. I had a neighbour who got married to one " Madhu Thyagarajan" and ppl call her " Mrs. Thyagarajan" -Thyagarajan who is her dead pop-in-law she's never met in life. That screws relationships all over man. People should ban that.
My friend writes his name as Rohan Arjun Karthik, and sometimes as Karthik Rohan Arjun. He bet me 50 bucks i cant guess his first name, ( not that he was gonna admit if i did). Rohan is his name and Karthik is his dad's name and Arjun it seems is his family name. Can it BE more confusing?
This acquaintance of mine Vijay Immanuel, who originally sent me a hilarious piece on a conversation between an Indian and American data collector, had this to say when i asked him about it. He seconds my opinion and recollects the problem he had in getting his details - the spelling and stuff - through. And i thought it was pretty funny.
Vijay says " It is not only u..Even I (Who does not have my father's name nor my house name) have to go thru it very often.
IMMANUEL.....spelt as Imman vel (As in Vel Murugan)
Apparently, this dint work, and i try another angle "Manual...Immanuel with an E, i.e
Emmanuel...etc .and so on."
People do not seem to be giving respect to ones names!...no matter what it is."
Right on mark, Manny.
January 15, 2005
Swell fable...
Apparently, the fable(of all fables!) goes thus:
God created man, but was soon disillusioned with his creation and
swore... rather, exclaimed "Ah, Damn".
The poor man asked "What" and God quickly composed himself and said "Yeah, Ah-Damn..er.. Adam is your name."
God was still giving finishing touches to man and had a rib left, not
knowing what to do with it.
By now, Adam was fidgeting and wanted to get away from God.
So Adam cried out "I wanna leave."
God heard it as "eve" instead of "leave" (This is b'cos God, like any boss, has no record being a good listener.)
Quickly latching onto the idea, God created Eve out of the rib, and
cautioned Adam, "But, I want you together always" (meaning he wanted
both Adam and Eve to be "together" at all times).
Adam replied "No, problem".
And since then, Adam's biggest mission has been "to-get-her" !!!!!
God created man, but was soon disillusioned with his creation and
swore... rather, exclaimed "Ah, Damn".
The poor man asked "What" and God quickly composed himself and said "Yeah, Ah-Damn..er.. Adam is your name."
God was still giving finishing touches to man and had a rib left, not
knowing what to do with it.
By now, Adam was fidgeting and wanted to get away from God.
So Adam cried out "I wanna leave."
God heard it as "eve" instead of "leave" (This is b'cos God, like any boss, has no record being a good listener.)
Quickly latching onto the idea, God created Eve out of the rib, and
cautioned Adam, "But, I want you together always" (meaning he wanted
both Adam and Eve to be "together" at all times).
Adam replied "No, problem".
And since then, Adam's biggest mission has been "to-get-her" !!!!!
January 06, 2005
Tsunami aftermath...
Dont know if this a joke out of place but apparently appeared in the Colombo Times - which is quoted below :
Quote
On 26th Dec '04 early morning several hrs before the catastrophy happened, Honolulu Tsunami Monitoring center have been trying to call our Meteorological Dept. monitoring center in Palekelle and Colombo but failed. They also got in touch with presidents' office however it was informed that she's out of the island on a private vacation.
Finally they called the Prime minister's secretariat, but the Prime minister was out on his morning walk. Thinking at least it's best to keep him vigilant on this, the Honolulu officials left the message with the person who picked up the phone to inform the Prime minister that there's a Tsunami coming from Indonesia .
On the prime minister's return, the operator told the prime minister about the call, and said T. Sunami from Indonesia is arriving in 2 hrs. The Prime minister promptly took action to send a delegation to Katunayake Airport in Colombo with name boards ' Welcome Mr. T. Sunami - Indonesia'.
The trouble is we never know if these reports can be true. Yes, we can trace back and ask the operator if he did leave the message, but then " Yes buddy" is gonna be the obvious answer.
Then, you trace the dood that got the message and fry him why he didnt report to the right authorities.
Okay, but then do you expect a peon in the PM's office to know what a tsunami is, when the PM sneds a convoy to the airport ??
And no, i wudnt blame the PM either. How can he know what a tsunami is? Very few did before it happened. Frankly, I knew very little of Tsunami (before this thing happened), except for it had something to do with Japanese earthquakes..
We all paid a pretty big price to find the actual meaning of that word which most werent even aware existed.
Thanks to the current era, people of today are aware of things which are not vital parts of our vocabulary eg. SAARS, AIDS, Bofors, Tsunami, Rogue-state, Regime-change etc.. And what a price has been paid to know the meanings of those words too..
There are more stories to go along with this, one of them being this....
" Apparently, an ex-IIT Chennai student who had worked on a communications project
(during his course) in a village near Cuddalore, had called the village people from Singapore where he is working now and warned them of the disaster a few hours before it struck. All the villagers moved to safety with their children and vital belongings... and there was not a single casualty in that village!!"
I cannot fathom, why this piece of 'providing information' could not be escalated at the highest levels (if PM/Presedent of SL is not available, inform the BBC/CNN and other news channels all over globe, which will have the fastest reach).
Particularly, the IIT case, to be frank, is difficult to digest. When he can warn and save successfuly a village, he could have done it to the whole state if he had informed the State Govt machinery and the media.
To be frank, i do not know if i would have informed anybody had i had this piece of information. So, whoever did their bit to pass it along is to be applauded. But when you have that amount of foresight to inform a village, you are expected to have the intelligence to pass it to more effective/ more reach sources too.
May be I have the benefit of hindsight. What the hell... I do have the benefit of hindsight and i have admitted i totally lack foresight, who am i to complain and point fingers at?
Quote
On 26th Dec '04 early morning several hrs before the catastrophy happened, Honolulu Tsunami Monitoring center have been trying to call our Meteorological Dept. monitoring center in Palekelle and Colombo but failed. They also got in touch with presidents' office however it was informed that she's out of the island on a private vacation.
Finally they called the Prime minister's secretariat, but the Prime minister was out on his morning walk. Thinking at least it's best to keep him vigilant on this, the Honolulu officials left the message with the person who picked up the phone to inform the Prime minister that there's a Tsunami coming from Indonesia .
On the prime minister's return, the operator told the prime minister about the call, and said T. Sunami from Indonesia is arriving in 2 hrs. The Prime minister promptly took action to send a delegation to Katunayake Airport in Colombo with name boards ' Welcome Mr. T. Sunami - Indonesia'.
The trouble is we never know if these reports can be true. Yes, we can trace back and ask the operator if he did leave the message, but then " Yes buddy" is gonna be the obvious answer.
Then, you trace the dood that got the message and fry him why he didnt report to the right authorities.
Okay, but then do you expect a peon in the PM's office to know what a tsunami is, when the PM sneds a convoy to the airport ??
And no, i wudnt blame the PM either. How can he know what a tsunami is? Very few did before it happened. Frankly, I knew very little of Tsunami (before this thing happened), except for it had something to do with Japanese earthquakes..
We all paid a pretty big price to find the actual meaning of that word which most werent even aware existed.
Thanks to the current era, people of today are aware of things which are not vital parts of our vocabulary eg. SAARS, AIDS, Bofors, Tsunami, Rogue-state, Regime-change etc.. And what a price has been paid to know the meanings of those words too..
There are more stories to go along with this, one of them being this....
" Apparently, an ex-IIT Chennai student who had worked on a communications project
(during his course) in a village near Cuddalore, had called the village people from Singapore where he is working now and warned them of the disaster a few hours before it struck. All the villagers moved to safety with their children and vital belongings... and there was not a single casualty in that village!!"
I cannot fathom, why this piece of 'providing information' could not be escalated at the highest levels (if PM/Presedent of SL is not available, inform the BBC/CNN and other news channels all over globe, which will have the fastest reach).
Particularly, the IIT case, to be frank, is difficult to digest. When he can warn and save successfuly a village, he could have done it to the whole state if he had informed the State Govt machinery and the media.
To be frank, i do not know if i would have informed anybody had i had this piece of information. So, whoever did their bit to pass it along is to be applauded. But when you have that amount of foresight to inform a village, you are expected to have the intelligence to pass it to more effective/ more reach sources too.
May be I have the benefit of hindsight. What the hell... I do have the benefit of hindsight and i have admitted i totally lack foresight, who am i to complain and point fingers at?
December 29, 2004
Random Reflections....
I am distressed to say the least, reading and watching the calamity caused by the monster Tsunami. Before i go any further, my heart goes out to people affected by Tsunami. No words can offer soalce, and the poor ones affected are not going to hook up the net and read my condolence, but for what they are worth, here they are. The ones reading this, say a prayer, observe a minute's silence or do what you can to help them out.
I wonder.. Recently earth has been witnessing more unexpected and strange natural destruction than ever before. Last year, we had high summers killing people in Europe. With all the "tsunami", earthquake, et al (and I am not even talking about Bush and Osama as yet- those are artificial destructors anyway), one begins to wonder if there's going to be normal life again?
On Sunday 26th Dec, at about 6.30 am in the morning, whole batches of small children playing cricket on our very own Marina beach and old people jogging harmlessly.... were washed away by tides measuring upto 10 feet. The waves reached the famous beach road and well into Santhome and Triplicane. And this news is nothing when compared to the destruction in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Colombo and Thailand.
Is earth ageing? Is it too old for any more "normal" life? Is it time we looked for life on another planet and scrambled for spaces there? Who knows? Is this the beginning of the end of "this phase" of earth? I continue to wonder, some thousands of years later from now, newly evolved cave men will dig earth and discover Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Petronax towers etc. (like we did on Mohenjadaro and Harappa) and based on where they will strike first and unearth, new religions will be born!
The wise men then who will be able to decipher what they unearth will be the new messiahs or sons of God!
Today's kids are learning general knowledge and vocabulary more practically than we did when we were young. They have literally seen and read about Bofors, AK47, Kalashnikov, rogue-state, prisoner abuse, AIDS, SAARS and now, the latest: TSUNAMI !!
Did we know these words say, some 20 years ago??
Anyways, Here's wishing all of you a tsunami-free, Bush-free, Osama-free.. 2005!
Sod all that, lets raise our glasses to a swell 2005.
I wonder.. Recently earth has been witnessing more unexpected and strange natural destruction than ever before. Last year, we had high summers killing people in Europe. With all the "tsunami", earthquake, et al (and I am not even talking about Bush and Osama as yet- those are artificial destructors anyway), one begins to wonder if there's going to be normal life again?
On Sunday 26th Dec, at about 6.30 am in the morning, whole batches of small children playing cricket on our very own Marina beach and old people jogging harmlessly.... were washed away by tides measuring upto 10 feet. The waves reached the famous beach road and well into Santhome and Triplicane. And this news is nothing when compared to the destruction in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Colombo and Thailand.
Is earth ageing? Is it too old for any more "normal" life? Is it time we looked for life on another planet and scrambled for spaces there? Who knows? Is this the beginning of the end of "this phase" of earth? I continue to wonder, some thousands of years later from now, newly evolved cave men will dig earth and discover Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Petronax towers etc. (like we did on Mohenjadaro and Harappa) and based on where they will strike first and unearth, new religions will be born!
The wise men then who will be able to decipher what they unearth will be the new messiahs or sons of God!
Today's kids are learning general knowledge and vocabulary more practically than we did when we were young. They have literally seen and read about Bofors, AK47, Kalashnikov, rogue-state, prisoner abuse, AIDS, SAARS and now, the latest: TSUNAMI !!
Did we know these words say, some 20 years ago??
Anyways, Here's wishing all of you a tsunami-free, Bush-free, Osama-free.. 2005!
Sod all that, lets raise our glasses to a swell 2005.
December 25, 2004
The Larry Darrell in me
Within one paragraph it explains life......
Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon champion was dying of CANCER.
From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?
To this Arthur Ashe replied" The world over -- 5 crore children start playing tennis, 50 lakh learn to play tennis, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?".
And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?" Happiness keeps u Sweet, Trials keep u Strong, Sorrow keeps u Human, Failure Keeps u Humble, Success keeps u glowing, but only God Keeps u going."
Indeed, twas a heart rendering quote from Arthur Ashe(about him being selected
by God for the AIDS infection as well as the Grand Slam trophies he
won).
But thinking a little more along these lines, you start wondering...
Who selected the 3,000+ to die at Pearl Harbour?
Who selected the 3,500+ to perish at the WTC on 9/11?
Who selected the 10,000+(still counting) to suffocate and die at Bhopal when the gas leaked?
Who selected the thousands (couldn't count) who were burnt alive at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when US dropped the Bomb?
Who selects the Iraqi civilians, US Soldiers, Palestinian babies to die every day?
Who selects the Millions of jews to be traumatized ever since and prior to WW2?
Did God intend to punish all these victims? Were all their prayers insufficient to save them?
Most importantly, there may have been some/many survivors in each of those incidents and it is easy to attribute their stories to the good God.
Is there really a god? Its a perfectly safe question to explore, talk pro and con about, but which can never really be answered.
Thats the stupidest thing really you know. Let us, just for arguement sake, say there is no god. Which means, no religion. That eliminates all the fights/war going on in the name of religion from Gujarat to Gaza strip. There wudnt have been a bombing of the towers. America wudnt have got a reason to goto war, so no war in Irag either. That, i say saves half the problems the world is facing with.
Like they say, explore both sides of the coin. Would the starters/instigators of war made peace and drank from each others cups had they not been supplied with a reason not to war? Wouldnt they find some other reason to goto war? Do you think and beleive Hitler wudnta attacked people of Poland had there been just one/no religion, i,e if he dint have the readymade excuse as the flagbearer to eradicate all jews. And then you biol down to people from the same land/religion. What is their basis? If there aint no basis, would the men of the land wager against the women? Thats how stupid it all is.
Science has shown that evolution is a much more credible basis for mankind than creation. So much for the credibility of religion.
Just one of these days, you kinda feel some science freak gets fed up with all this shit and impersonates god by simulating a ray of light to appear divine in fronta religous seers and say " I AM NOT TRUE. AND, SO ARENT THE OTHERS. SO GO THE FARM AND DO A HONEST DAY'S JOB".The seer wud claim " I have seen the light, and its a lie." How funny would that be? And think abt it, some of them seers would be seeing the action in some prison cell and people wud stone his retarded self to death thinking he's gone crazy when he utters sumthing like that, when actually he is making sense for the first time in his life. The fault lies with the masses too. They just cant beleieve and buy the truth, bcos lies are less complicated and change is not easy to accept.
Why shud such thoughts occur on christmas day?
It really is time to say my prayer to god on the gospel...
" This new year, and every new year on, may all wars be closed and bars kept open".
Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon champion was dying of CANCER.
From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?
To this Arthur Ashe replied" The world over -- 5 crore children start playing tennis, 50 lakh learn to play tennis, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?".
And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?" Happiness keeps u Sweet, Trials keep u Strong, Sorrow keeps u Human, Failure Keeps u Humble, Success keeps u glowing, but only God Keeps u going."
Indeed, twas a heart rendering quote from Arthur Ashe(about him being selected
by God for the AIDS infection as well as the Grand Slam trophies he
won).
But thinking a little more along these lines, you start wondering...
Who selected the 3,000+ to die at Pearl Harbour?
Who selected the 3,500+ to perish at the WTC on 9/11?
Who selected the 10,000+(still counting) to suffocate and die at Bhopal when the gas leaked?
Who selected the thousands (couldn't count) who were burnt alive at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when US dropped the Bomb?
Who selects the Iraqi civilians, US Soldiers, Palestinian babies to die every day?
Who selects the Millions of jews to be traumatized ever since and prior to WW2?
Did God intend to punish all these victims? Were all their prayers insufficient to save them?
Most importantly, there may have been some/many survivors in each of those incidents and it is easy to attribute their stories to the good God.
Is there really a god? Its a perfectly safe question to explore, talk pro and con about, but which can never really be answered.
Thats the stupidest thing really you know. Let us, just for arguement sake, say there is no god. Which means, no religion. That eliminates all the fights/war going on in the name of religion from Gujarat to Gaza strip. There wudnt have been a bombing of the towers. America wudnt have got a reason to goto war, so no war in Irag either. That, i say saves half the problems the world is facing with.
Like they say, explore both sides of the coin. Would the starters/instigators of war made peace and drank from each others cups had they not been supplied with a reason not to war? Wouldnt they find some other reason to goto war? Do you think and beleive Hitler wudnta attacked people of Poland had there been just one/no religion, i,e if he dint have the readymade excuse as the flagbearer to eradicate all jews. And then you biol down to people from the same land/religion. What is their basis? If there aint no basis, would the men of the land wager against the women? Thats how stupid it all is.
Science has shown that evolution is a much more credible basis for mankind than creation. So much for the credibility of religion.
Just one of these days, you kinda feel some science freak gets fed up with all this shit and impersonates god by simulating a ray of light to appear divine in fronta religous seers and say " I AM NOT TRUE. AND, SO ARENT THE OTHERS. SO GO THE FARM AND DO A HONEST DAY'S JOB".The seer wud claim " I have seen the light, and its a lie." How funny would that be? And think abt it, some of them seers would be seeing the action in some prison cell and people wud stone his retarded self to death thinking he's gone crazy when he utters sumthing like that, when actually he is making sense for the first time in his life. The fault lies with the masses too. They just cant beleieve and buy the truth, bcos lies are less complicated and change is not easy to accept.
Why shud such thoughts occur on christmas day?
It really is time to say my prayer to god on the gospel...
" This new year, and every new year on, may all wars be closed and bars kept open".
December 15, 2004
Just for the heck of it...
I am reading a collected works of Wodehouse focussed with short stuff on the various female characters that appear in his novels.
Like you say Wodehouse, i say Jeeves, but u say female characters in Wodehouse , and i start scratching my head and whats 'the girl in blue's name..she is supposed to patch up with Jerry, the cartoonist, right?
So, i pick this book hoping it wud refresh me on most of Wodehouse stuff.
As i open the book, the foreword catches my eye and it goes like " Just to show that dangers are relative, and vice versa".
Quite right. Now how could i ever forget Aunt Agatha?
Like you say Wodehouse, i say Jeeves, but u say female characters in Wodehouse , and i start scratching my head and whats 'the girl in blue's name..she is supposed to patch up with Jerry, the cartoonist, right?
So, i pick this book hoping it wud refresh me on most of Wodehouse stuff.
As i open the book, the foreword catches my eye and it goes like " Just to show that dangers are relative, and vice versa".
Quite right. Now how could i ever forget Aunt Agatha?
December 09, 2004
Jay Jay Shiv Shankar #2..
I was talking to my dad yestday and i bring the Shankaracharya arrest episode up, although painfully aware in the back of my mind, its gonna kill my daytime minutes.
My dad goes like " We have to pray that he comes out unscathed with his reputation untarnished". I retort saying " He made a mistake. He has to pay for that".
He goes " Now dont you start acting all American all over. He's a spiritual guru. He prays for the welfare of all the people day in and day out. The govt. is generally oppresive of brahmins, and what better way to haunt/bug them than to reach out for the leader/guru."
I am thinking " This is no India- Aussie cricket series. And the Govt. is no Steve Waugh trying to intimidate the Indian team by trying to get onto Sourav's nerves. The dood is surely connected."
More of dad's " He prays everyday for everybody. No way would he stoop to the levels of an ordinary guy."
I cant take it anymore and say " I am an ordinary guy. And am not gonna plan/conspire to kill another guy some day. He stooped to the level of a criminal to save his skin. Only it backfired, because having been unaccustomed to stuff like this, he dint do a good job of covering his ass."
I ended up alopogizing to dad, for the sake of it and all, but i dint really mean it. I feel he's involved and guilty and deserves his due.
Remember the old saying - No smoke without fire. Exactly.
The Dream on lyrics by Aerosmith readily come to mind...
Every time that I look in the mirror
all these lines on my face getting clearer
the past is gone
it went by like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
everybody's got their dues in life to pay
yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
you got to lose to know how to win
Half my life's in books' written pages
ive and learn from fools and from sages
you know it's true
all the things come back to you
Only the sage took a double role as a fool too.
My dad goes like " We have to pray that he comes out unscathed with his reputation untarnished". I retort saying " He made a mistake. He has to pay for that".
He goes " Now dont you start acting all American all over. He's a spiritual guru. He prays for the welfare of all the people day in and day out. The govt. is generally oppresive of brahmins, and what better way to haunt/bug them than to reach out for the leader/guru."
I am thinking " This is no India- Aussie cricket series. And the Govt. is no Steve Waugh trying to intimidate the Indian team by trying to get onto Sourav's nerves. The dood is surely connected."
More of dad's " He prays everyday for everybody. No way would he stoop to the levels of an ordinary guy."
I cant take it anymore and say " I am an ordinary guy. And am not gonna plan/conspire to kill another guy some day. He stooped to the level of a criminal to save his skin. Only it backfired, because having been unaccustomed to stuff like this, he dint do a good job of covering his ass."
I ended up alopogizing to dad, for the sake of it and all, but i dint really mean it. I feel he's involved and guilty and deserves his due.
Remember the old saying - No smoke without fire. Exactly.
The Dream on lyrics by Aerosmith readily come to mind...
Every time that I look in the mirror
all these lines on my face getting clearer
the past is gone
it went by like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
everybody's got their dues in life to pay
yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
you got to lose to know how to win
Half my life's in books' written pages
ive and learn from fools and from sages
you know it's true
all the things come back to you
Only the sage took a double role as a fool too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
