Exerpts from an enlightening conversation...

Today was a day of reflection. Reflecting on my actions, my life, my ideals, my studies( not a lot in this context) and life in general. It started when i was writing my exam. The alphabets on the question paper started dancing and i was transported into another world. And to cap it all I had a thought provoking SMS chat with Sumedha( my fellow Assistant Editor- ECHO, junior in school and a good friend).

The day started with me wondering about how I have spent the past two years in college. How I have portrayed myself and how my actions have been. Not a great lot i must confess. I was probably too overawed with the concept of college that i spent too much time in the beginning of 11th keeping my mouth closed( in the sense that i did not participate too much in class discussion or talk to a lot of people. It would be fair to say that nobody knew me during the first few months of college.

Is being known to many people a necessity? In a sense it is because when you fall from a small pond called school to a large lake, the transition is sometimes difficult, especially when you had the alpha male kind of image in school. When you are used to people recognizing you and greeting you at every turn of the corridor in school, the hustle and bustle of a multitude of people draws you into a shell of your past glory. I will willingly admit that I did get into one such shell, a shell of denial of all things that does not make sense to you. A shell of snobbism and narrow mindedness. It took quite a while for me to realize what an ass I was becoming and by that time it was too late, and Im stuck with an image that I dont like... atleast with my college-mates.

This is a perfect example of an identity crisis. This arises when you are unsure of yourself. When you are not sure how you want others to think about you, to form their impression about you. This problem arises only when you either have a less-than-ideal set of friends or you set too much store by what people think about you.

In my case I think it would be the fear or being talked behind my back. It is quite a crippling and irritating thing to deal with. Firstly, thre are people who without ever having spoken a word to you conclude that you are incapable of certain things, then you have to deal with some people who listen to you speak just to find fault with you. In such a scenario, speaking your mind is almost out of question.

I am probably dwelling too much upon petty things. There is a whole world out there and the slander of a few people might well not decide anything, but it is always better not to antagonize anybody. Total Political Neutrality... the art of remaining politically neutral... That is he mantra for life.

Copenhagen..

For the first time in the history of civilization, man's incapability to attend to nature before himself was exhibited in plain view in the Copenhagen summit of 2009. Delegates and ministers sat through grueling hours of talks and debates which left them mentally and physically drained. But a lot more than their strength is going to be drained, this time in a permanent fashion, thanks to their hardheadedness and their refusal to compromise on any of their selfish demands.

Agreed, the world is facing an economic crisis. many millions are unemployed, many thousands have lost all their assets, but isn't money, like energy, indestructible? It can only be transferred from one account to another. The amount of money in the market today is the same, or rather more than the amount of money that was in the market an year ago. By money in the market i mean the number of people who are willing to invest in the market. Money still exists, but possibly in the wrong hands and being used for the wrong purposes.

If president Obama can give 50 billion dollars worth aid to Pakistan albeit a place from where nothing comes back to him, can he not spare a fraction of that amount for the welfare of humankind? Its not as if the USA is a saint. Statistics show that the average consumption of energy per person is the highest in the USA rather than in any country. So it becomes their primary duty to do something about this issue. The other developed countries are happily blaming the developed countries, but wasn't the bulk of the pollution done during the gunpowder age and the industrial revolution when they were the developing countries?

The absolute bullshit attitude of many Indians trying to think on the lines of the developed world disgusts me. The question i ask you guys is... Do you think the developed world ever thinks on our lines, do they think about our problems, our limitations and our efforts in trying to solve heir problems and cleaning their turd?

NO THEY DON"T.

And why don't they? because they don't have anything to gain from them.

If a nation is so bothered about this climate issue then i would love to see them invest in the ecological sector.

P.S. I pity the hundreds of delegates who went to copenhagen and could not even get to do some sight seeing and were all the time sitting in comference halls without participating in the discussions.. God sure gave them strong knees.

Chance gone begging...

Yesterday I was taking a casual stroll (sniff, one of my last till may next year.. :( ) and my eyes fell on a couple of girls, one of whom happened to be staring in my direction. As is my way, I politely ignored the stare and was walking when I heard her remark "CGA 180" to her friend... A harmless enough comment for someone who has never heard it before, but me being a good listener had heard in college just the previous day that CGA stands for Cute Guy Alert and the 180 is actually the angle through which the other girl had to turn in order to see him.

So i acted dumb and turned around to look at whomever she was referring to... But there was nobody behind me and then I understood that her comment was for me. Being the charming gentleman that I am, I faced her with a broad smile and said "I'm flattered. Thank you".

Their fair faces went completely beetroot red after I said that and that expression on their faces was something to savour. ( Poor things... I kind of pity them :P )

Anyway I am sure they would have given me their phone numbers if I had asked them but I really did not have enough currency to be able to talk to them. So i just laughed and walked away leaving them to their blushes.

So a chance gone begging..

I'm proud of myself.. :) It's not everyday that someone thinks I am cute. After all its me.

ciao

IPTV

We recently subscribed for the BSNL IPTV( Internet Protocol Television). For all of you who do not know what IPTV is, don't bother trying it out. Why? Because it sucks.... With a capital S.

The receptionist, or the term they give for it... customer coordinator is a lady with a sweet voice and as dumb as she's sweet. She will not know half the things you want to ask her, but the half that she does know will be explained with such enthusiasm that you don't get what she's saying anyway. So if you want to waste time and have got nothing to do then by all means call up this number 18602669929 and enjoy talking until you are unable to take it any longer.

Coming to its features, there is hardly anything to rave about. It has all the usual channels( most of them useless as always) and the few channels which you actually want have to be bought and when you actually buy all the channels you want then you will end up paying more than you would pay for your monthly cable connection. But one advantage is that it will not be prone to the vagaries of the Hathway cable and the clarity is quite good. It does get stuck occasionally due to the fluctuations in the internet connections.

Final Verdict.. NOT worth your money.. try TATA SKY or something else.

Ground nuts and the Middle Finger Salute.

Hahaha

Ground nuts and The middle finger salute..

Why am i going delirious? because I have an exam tomorrow and Im happily blogging..

The ground nut carnival just got over. It did have the feel of a proper carnival and the many quintals of ground nuts bought and sold gave joy to many a dentist, as people like me just realized that they have some tooth cavities that require some urgent attention as the ground nut that gets stuck in them is really hard to remove with your tongue and hardcore ground nut fans will agree with me that the desire to pop just one more of those small nuts in your mouth is very very powerful.

That's all about the groundnuts excluding all the dirt, dust, smoke, cheap buyables, pickpockets, smoke, smell, mini versions of giant wheel and columbus, etc, etc, etc..

The highlight of this year's ground nut festival was the 3 hour stand to see the God in the temple at sajjan rao circle. All the wait and the prayers for the wait to get over quickly went in vain as i could only get one glimpse of the God as we were whisked away by fanatic devotees who took all the waiting in the queue as a mortal insult and took out all their anger when they reached the final stretch of the queue by trying to bulldoze past as many people as possible. Half of them were proably unwilling companions of the devotees so their anger is quite understandable. My 76 year old grandma completely exceeded all my expectations and now has a lot of respect from me as she managed to stand for 3 hours without one grumble or ever feeling the desire to go sit down.. Kudos to you.

Coming to the middle finger salute.. It is for all the members of the MNS and the Shiv Sena who think they are bigger and better than Sachin Tendulkar. Or for the complete molestation of democracy and the blatant misuse of the Fourth Estate by such political parties. Who does not agree with me when I say that newspapers like "Saamna" are complete bullshit? every Indian feels so including many Maharashtrians But we do need one symbol to rally under and what better than the middle finger. The purest most blaring form of protest that anybody can come up with. A middle finger shown to you conveys more meaning and irritates someone more than any amount of words said against him.

Can see echoes of the Sri Ram Sena's much hyped and utterly idiotic activities. Do these people really think they can misuse the name of God to such an extent that they can commit heinous crimes in the name of God? A long thick hairy middle finger salute to all the people who have some soft corner for these crazed half-wits.

Finally a BWAHAHAHA to the Sri Lankan Cricket Team. Mr. Sangakkara, talking is only a part of the job done. Try to play some passable cricket in future.

A BIG MIDDLE FINGER TO BASE... ( completely unnecessary.. but could not resist the temptation :P )

P.S. The concept of Middle Finger salute was borrowed from Brunzo's blog http://fingerofprotest.blogspot.com . Sorry dude.

Reflections

Excelsior just happened.

Now you may ask.. WTF is excelsior. The answer is Excelsior is the annual intra school quiz of Little Flower Public School conducted by the Old Students Association LFPS. And what's so great about that.. you might ask. The answer is nothing. Yeah it was pretty good going back to school and all that, but the answer to "Did it serve any purpose?" is NO.

What is the point of working your ass off to complete a quiz which as sure as hell will be ripped apart, spit on, mauled and molested to death by any decent quizzing team. Im sure that the school team that made it to the finals in F.Y.I. Winter open would have correctly demonstrated what the abbreviation roflmao means looking at the quiz. ( for the sake of my pride i will willingly endorse my quiz but it is always better to walk on the hard ground rather than fly high in the sky and then come crashing down.)

Coming to some of the brighter aspects of the quiz.. THOSE GUYS ACTUALLY MANAGED TO ANSWER MANY QUESTIONS. I was really impressed by some of the answers they gave and it was a definite improvement from last year. The hardest part of setting up a quiz for morons is the amount of thinking you actually have to do. You really dont want all of your questions going uncracked in your quiz. So what do you do? Simple. You pick up the atlas and come to a map of India and ask them capitals of Nepal and Bhutan. And you will not understand the difficulty in deciding between Nepal and Bhutan when you are shit scared trhat they might not know either. Well this year it was really not that bad, it infact exceeded some of our expectations so im looking forward to conducting some even tougher quizzes in school in future.

The best thing about the whole day probably was Gautam's treat at Mc.Donald's. Meeting some people after a long time was pretty refreshing especially when you have two pretty girls sitting next to you.

All in all a pretty hectic phase coming up. The Base people are forever trying advanced and modified versions of Ancient Chinese Torture methods. and are more than happy to employ them and test their effectiveness on us, their willing test subjects, and what more with the whole hearted permission of the whole parent community it seems. Pay and get fucked.

None of the students in Base seem to know anything other than PCM nowadays and its so pissing off not being able to find some intelligent banter. Who wants to keep talking about glycine and double sulphur bridges in insulin and anomers of glucose and other such stuff. But i guess i will have to endure it for another 8 months. A full gestation period!!! A life can grow as many others' lives can perish in these 8 months.

Oh and btw I have a test tomorrow... If anybody manages to read this blog within the next 12 hours please be considerate enough to pray for me. ( leave a comment if you need a return favour.. :P)

tata for now...

P.S. Sorry for all the btw's and the gn's and the sd's creeping into my blogs. Its the result of some excessive overenthusiastic child like curiosity which completely takes over you when you are newly addicted to something. In my case its my mobile. :(

Mobile

I just realized that my mobile is a month and 6 days old and shares its birthday with none other than the great Mahatma Gandhi. That's right, I bought my cell phone, a Nokia 2700 Classic phone on the second of October and I have become kind of addicted to it. Not so much so as to cause any drastic change in my academics as was believed by the majority of people, but still quite a lot.

Its amazing how be becomes slaves to technology. Right from waking up to the polyphonic sound of the alarm in the mobile to frantically checking and rechecking the mobile for non existent messages and missed calls.

Anyways, im falling asleep and have college from tomorrow and I have to watch the Manchester United vs Chelsea match. Caio

GO MAN U

Back again!!

Back after a long time. All thanks to the unforgiving schedule and the faintly incredulous ideas by BASE in making us stay back and study right under their noses. After surviving all that, I actually seem to have improved a bit in my academics. Life is so monotonous and boring that a recluse and a drive around the city looks like an exotic getaway. But no such luck till april next year.

Finished reading the latest Dan Brown- The Lost Symbol and Chetan Bhagat's new book- 2 States. Both were read hurriedly and in hiding so really could not enjoy the experience of reading them thoroughly. Dan Brown as usual was ingenious in his story telling. As most of his works are, Robert Langdon's latest adventure is a one night affair and gets over in a matter of hours. But it is a good read.

Chetan Bhagat's latest is a must read. It has the usual slapstick humour along with all the extra mirch masala that is becoming his trademark. The concept of an interstate marriage in India is a very appealing and quite a funny affair. All in all a very entertaining read.

Attended the Josephs fest Equinox and participated in the quiz which quite frankly sucked to the core. Looking forward to the F.Y.I Quiz tomorrow and i am sure that is going to be a much better quiz than Equinox.

Nothing interesting going on unless you can count falling sick and missing class for a week interesting. Stood second for the whole of BASE in the AIEEE exam which is quite a boost to my morale. The mid term exams also went pretty well.

Things are starting to get serious in all fronts. Our noses are pretty much pressed against the grinding wheel and the grinding will start any time soon. Havent had time to write any more poetry and if I do write any, however woeful they might be, it will be posted on the blog.

So tata and see ya until next time.

P.S. this is the only year im starting to hate all festivals as all of them are falling on sundays denying us of well deserved holidays.

This lil world of mine

This lil world of mine,

ever changing, ever surprising.

full of dark shadows..

that continuously change their being..

Is there anything firm here?

Is anything constant?

what seemed secure is now insecure

what was myth is now

So i turn back to you..

my guide and friend, who lives above..

lead me right dont fail me now

too far ive walked, let me lean on u now..

lead me away from the pain

show me where greatness lies

where men are firm and the air is pure

where only hard work has place.

where do i find love that's true?

where do i find my heart that wont

act fickle and scared and betray me..

when the wolf pack tries to hunt.

I turn to u, the one with all the answers..

what should be done when all seems lost?

the sun drowns and the moon fades

and the stars lose their light.

hiding behind a mask of greatness

there are many ppl

how do i know which is milk and which water

when both are present in an encrusted thimble

ill take my chances in this fair wide world

all i had to do was look

inside my own heart for wat i want

rather than at the holy book.

Poetry

I have been sick for the past four days and isolation and being stuck to the bed are some of the best ways to gwet the creative juices flowing. Just to get rid of the boredom I tried my hand at some poetry. Here is one that I was able to complete and came out better than I expected it to.

The

White skin that glows like the full moon,

Great brown eyes as big as a balloon,

Lips as red as a ruby,

Jet black hair, sleek and shiny.

Her gait, as graceful as a swan's

The very flowers come alive when she walks on the lawn,

Her voice as sweet as maple syrup,

Small birds surround her and greet her with cute chirrups.

A smile capable of melting rock,

A gaze from her seems to stop the clock,

A word from her makes the most eloquent speaker lose his words,

Her skin as smooth as a pebble caught in the fords.

But do you here see the irony?

Unearthly beauty she might be,

But no matching heart has she.

So such a woman hold no charm for me.

- Shreyas S

People will phoo on you....

People will phoo on you.. third rate behaviours.... IIT desirous students.... rabied dogs.... loafers.... become humans first... very fine behaviours... bloody hell is this!! Well these are the kind of words you can expect from the mouth of our august (well well august again!) chemistry teacher C.S.Narayana Swamy a.k.a Mario. From wearing body fitting, buttton bursting formal shirts to scolding IIT desirous students there is nobody in the world like him.

His explanation of "Postulations" and expert ommand over his jurisdiction of chemistry i.e. Physical chemistry there is no other teacher in base who attracts more ridicules than him. Such is his prowess in literature that he can express all his loathing for our class in his "Arre, who is that loafer owl" and other extremely entertaining and colourful oaths.

We cannot imagine our lives in jain collage without his odious presence amidst us.

Thank you sir for all the entertainment and

Feelin Good

Feeling good after a long time. No matter what the results of these tests are, i have the satisfaction of having completed a whatever i wanted to do over the past week. Though the results might only be satisfactorily but the feeling of completion is very good. Lets hope that it will pave the way for more such fruitful endeavours.

Really looking forward to start reading P.G. Wodehouse again. The last time i tried i was unable to completely understand the satyr, but this time im sure thaqt im in a better position to understand them.

Everyday I get introduced to many achievers in life. They are the kind of people that are respected for what they have achieved in life with their own efforts. Actually, most of them are just around the corner if one has the patience to look for them.

Have to again mention here that im feeling really good. Much better than i have felt in months. I just hope that i can harness all this feeling good and really do well this year. I seem to have at last found the kind of inspiration i was lacking the previous year and in the beginning of this year.

I just realized that is blog is really losing out on many important things. And i have decided to put things down whether poeple like it or not. Also this blog is becoming only about me and i wish to change that. I will probably introduce more people and other colourul characters around me from next time.

Heart Ball, Blue Ball, High Ball

Hello Again.

Yesterday, I visited a teacher of mine to return a few DVD's of her daughter's that was lying in my house. I had actually been there to attend a function and met my seemingly endless stream of relatives and had a hard time trying to remember how each of them is related to another. I was spared all the overenthusiastic interest as a cousin if mine is leaving to Delft University in the Netherlands to complete his M.S. Possibly the first in the family and i wish him all the best.

I am digressing from the main point. While I was returning the book, I was invariably drawn into some pleasant chatter and it turned out to be quite enjoyable. My teacher was telling me about a game that her class was made to play in one of the classes by their counsellor. The game was a fairly interesting one and was very simple.

It involved three balls,

The red or the Heart ball

The blue ball

and another big ball called the High Ball.

The students form a circle and the heart ball and the blue ball are passed from one person to another and the participants have to make sure that both the heart ball and the blue ball don't land on one person at the same time. The participants have to work together to make sure that the game continues. The counsellor keeps throwing in the High ball from time to time.

This may seem like an extremely idiotic game but the reason and the inferences that can be drawn from the game are amazing and really require a lot of thought.

The heart ball signifies the desire in each of us and what we want to do with our life. This is the most important ball and one that has to be in play all the time. It is this ball that decides the positions of other balls and it is this, that is sacrificed most times for the other balls.

The blue ball signifies the second most important things in life. This is not what long to do but rather what we have to do. This sometimes takes precedence over the heart ball but cannot give a lasting happiness.

And finally the High ball which signifies the hobbies and other things that people do on their free time.

The heart ball is passed first which tells us that it is our hearts that we must follow... and then it may be interrupted by the blue ball.. that is our responsibilities... which makes us forget about the heart ball and concentrate only on the blue ball.. finally the heart ball that keeps popping in and distracts us from what we are supposed to be doing.

It is the inevitability of life that we meet all the three balls in our lives but invariably let our lives be ruled by the blue ball and gradually lose sight of the heart ball and forever remain bickering for what has not been got. It is wiser to play the blue ball keeping the heart ball in sight and having the ability to regain the heart ball. The high ball is just passe and can afford to be neglected.

The important thing is to recognize the heart ball, the blue ball and the high ball in life.

Something i found which is very difficult yet very important in life.

This is something everyone should try!!

Wodonga and The Wimbledon

Hello once again

Wodonga and Winbledon... Two places world's apart. One is a small village on the banks of river Murray in Australia while the other, more well known is a village on the outskirts of London city. One is the home of a newly found pen pal while the other is the the high seat of the most successful tennis player of all time

Roger Federer does it again and this time it is going to stay for a very long time i.e. the record for the most number of Grand Slams. It was an amazing match between him and Andy Roddick but the class of Federer eventually came through.

Life is getting a lot better and old contacts are getting renewed. If only it manifests itself in the form of better marks in my test then I can the spend of the rest of the year this way. I am really getting rather irritated by the constant nagging of people telling me that this year is very important. But i forgive them because they have nothing but my well being in their minds.

Really looking forward to getting more admissions andadmonishments from different people, well, from one person in particular. Circumstances force me not to reveal the identity of that person but I would love to do it if there are people around me who can take it in the right sense.

I have recently been observing a lot of things, things obvious and things not quite so, things said and things unsaid, things standing at the tip of the tongue but sucked in at the last moment. Things which could have redefined family ties and spawned hatred and jealousy.

People trying to act important and the intelligent smirk of the people who really call the shots.

Enough about things!! What really ought to interest me are the hoards of textbooks lying unopened at home. A sea of hopes and a mountain of opportunities await!!

Because some men look at things as they are and say "Why?" and I dream and say "Why not?"

xx

Monotony and bus pass

Well, the title sums up everything that has happened over the last month. There were a few sad things and a few good things. One good thing in particular outweighs all other sad events so life is quite bearable. But the yearning for what cannot be got and the fear of losing what has been got is quite unsettling.

Speaking of unsettling, the thing that unsettled me the most last month was the monthly bane- The IIT test. I can hardly be expected to do well with only a few hours of so called preparation before the exams. Classes continue as usual.

There seems to be nothing else in our cocooned worlds except for books and more books, anxiety before the tests and horror after the results, and as usual, the dull throbbing pain of defeat in the tests, new excitement and energy the day after the tests, vows of studying... all of which never fail to dwindle down to nothingness in a few days and the usual monotony rushes in to take its place.

Its really quite funny to picturise your inner feelings and debates as different people, and looking at them from an outsider's perspective.

Coming to the bus pass.. I finally got the bus pass. There's nothing more to it.

As usual, I hope to be in better academic form in the coming days or I'm in for some harsh treatment. Lets just hope that the August prophecy comes true.

Well.. that's all folks.

World cup cricket..

Nowadays, cricket has become synonimous with T20. Though the glamour and popularity it brings to the game and the additional moolah with all the sponsors opting to support the shortest form of the game, test and 50 over cricket is fast fading.

The real threat is actually for the 50 over game. People tend to get bored after watching 20 overs in a 50 over game. In a short time, we will have very low scores as the players.. who are so used to playing 20 overs might find it difficult to shift from the T20 mindset to the 50 over mindset, not to mention the horrible consequences on the playing technique of all the players. Gone of the days of exquisite cover drives and hittting down the V. Now its mostly about hitting and hitting more.. trying to skin the leather off the ball. Gone are the days of fine touches and long innings. Its more of bang bang and you ate out.

The test format is actually safer than the 50 over format owing to the fact that many people will oppose replacing test matches with T20 to preserve the oldest format of the game.

So gear up for big hitting and quick matches in the days to come.. Its bye bye ODI's

Word of the day that was... 19 june 2009

Welcome back to word of the day that was....

Today's Word : Postulations and Potentialful

These words were actually in contention for the prestigious 50th spot in our dear chemistry teacher CSN's vocabulary. Let us review each word..

Postulation: Postulation is the process of postulating the postulates of your theory.

Usage: " These are the postulations given by Arrhenius in his Arrhenious theory of Electrolytic Dissociation"

Why it lost out on the 50th spot : Due to its very low impact in getting the class out of the soporific effect of his droning. :P

Potentialful: Adj: potentialful is a way of saying that the person or object to whom this is used as an adjective has a very good potential.

Usage: " the demerits of Arrhenius Theory does not mean that Arrhenius was not intelligent. He was a very potentialful person"

Impact on class: This word had a better impact than postulation. Simply because the class was ending and everybody was in the process of getting out of a very uncomfortable, voice induced stupor. The large number of people were given a bad jolt as the few ( who apparently, can resist any voice for any lenght of time, which is frankly incredible) awake people giggled.

Why it missed out on the 50th spot : The reason for this missing out on the 50th spot is not clear yet, but it was replaced by a very worthy candidate.

The 50th word: The 50th word award in CSN's vocabulary is unanimously decided as " Arre Teri ". For more on this word please look at this very same column.

Word of the day that was..

This is a new type of post im trying out. This is a regular feature in the Times Of India Sunday edition which tries to explain some of the words that have been apperaring frequently in the news for the past week. I shall try the same and try to highlight some of the words i have heard and will try to extrapolate them.

Today's Word: Thirupathi ladu

This word was used extremely well by my maths teacher H.S.Mahadevaiah to explain the concept of small increment in x (dx) while teaching differential calculus.

He said that many of his relatives and friends are frequenters of the Thirupathi temple in Thirupathi. Almost everyone who goes there invariably buys the prasadam i.e. the very delicious and one of its kind, thirupathi ladu. Many people who go to thirupathi dreading to stand in long queues to get only a glimpse of the Lord Venkateshwara often come back satiated at the sweet taste of these ladus. Many athiests also lust for these ladus.

Coming back to my maths class, my teacher explained that due to the restriction imposed on the number of ladus one devotee can buy, and owing to the large number of people amongst whom it has to be distributed, one ends up getting only a very small piece of the prasadam. "x" is the ladu and "dx" is the piece u ultimately get to eat.

Now that is an amazing comparison. No wonder he has been such a good teacher and also very successful in his teaching career.

Alas! if only i had a Thirupathi ladu......

Enchantresss of Florence

The enchantress of florence is the most recent work by salman rushdie and quite an impressive one story-wise. To have the guts to actually make Babar have a kid sister who is an enchantress is a feat in itself.. and to marry her to a florentine is what some may consider a blasphemy of sorts. It might not be impossible for a man who has the ire of the whole muslim population of the world.

The book prmises a good ending and i hope it lives up to its promising start.

the most recent post

my last post.. the one concerning a certain rabid dog eating a syphilis infected lamb turd was written at a time when I was not thinking clearly. What was actually intended to be a critical analysis of stray dog attacks took on a ridiculously lousy look ( I don't hate dogs.. i quite like them but certainly not the ones who are mad). Sarcasm is as sarcasm does, i suppose. An evening walk in a relatively stray dog free zone is a blessed relief if you don't have lorries or tractors honking in your ear.

I recently discovered. or observed the truth of the age old statement that one's fall is another's gain. Though is suppose that to be successful, you have to be ruthless, its looks like my trying to ease my way into success is certainly not working. I hope to be in better academic form the next time i feel like blogging.

Tests are coming up and the almighty hustle before the exams ( in which, frankly.. ive been surviving by the skin of my teeth) has not yet begun. The strange lethargy which seems to have made its home very cosily in some corner of me has to be unenfranchised ( as unethically and ruthlessly as possible) so that it does not again dare to venture anywhere near me. Unfortunately, the unenfranchiser has not yet been found and i expect a dramatic change in my study habits around mid august ( Dont ask why.. its just intuition). Anyway.. hasta la vista for now

Twist in the tail

Bangalore: the curious case of the case of the mad dog and the tasty sheep..

In a curious case of stray dog attacks this weekend, a pack of mad and obviosly wild dogs have torn apart a sheep house and have fed themselves upto the canines with tasty lamb and minced flesh. Curiously.. their leader who himself had 2 lambs is said to be feeling quite "baaah"wdy and has entered his trademark siesta for the afternoon and hence was not available for further enquiry. Scientists have said that this maybe the new form of the newly rampant sheep flu which is really quite similar to the acute cases of cat flu, mosquito flu, cattle flu and the recently detected 10 types of influenza which commonly attacks hmans. But famous cattle physician and world leader in animal flu's Mr. Baahtel Beerappa has commented that this new virus is actually the result of eating lamb turd with syphilis.

After two months of speculation,thought, afterthought, round table conferences and world summits.. the UPANDA (United Progressive Alliance for Non Democratic Activities) is calling for a nationwide strike to mourn for our lost brother cats and sister pigs.

Meanwhile, the rabid dogs are all suffering from the mysterious illness which researchers predict will affect the whole of the country pretty soon.

For more on this new threat (terrorists.... dont eat meat!), please look at this vary column every day.

Reuters

long time no see

Back again after quite some time. Its been fairly quiet and the French Open is going on. Its bye bye Nadal for this year, Robin Soderling playing some amazing tennis. I think this we are witnessing the last ever non coalition government. Our country's leaders are not a witless lot with many of them having done their post graduations from universities like Harvard and Stanford, and its really disheartening to see people with metriculation rule us.

I have started reading Salman Rushdie's works and Midnight's Children does deserve its Booker of Bookers. Hope his Enchantress Of Florence can maintain the same standard. T20 World Cup starts in a couple of days, so something to look forward to.

Unfortunately, all the inspirational speeches from our dear teachers regarding studies mysteriously vaporized and things not worth remembering occupy a lot of thinking space. Better buckle up before i become a jack of all trades and master of none. Coming back to the things-not-worth-remembering, well, they are better left unsaid or unthought of.

Well, thats all for now, hasta la vista

P.S. Gautam's about me column in orkut is extremely well written, reminded me to exercise and increase my vocabulary.

Elections

The classes in college are very interesting and the newspapers are having a gala time mocking and relentlessly pursuing the most idiotic of declarations and statements from our great politicians. The biggest farce being rice at Rs 2 a kg. Somehow this time there have not been atrocious demands like colour tv's and motorcycles. We the voters are finding lots of reasons to not vote for the candidate from our consttituency. As politicians sling mud at each other, they dont realize that they also get their hands dirty( its not like its the first time...but then if there is a time you don't want to disgrace yourself its the elections.) Kudos to the Lead India campaign by TOI. But it's not going to make a lot of difference as we get to vote or not vote for the same set of people years on end. If we are to make a difference,we need more peoplestanding for elections. Lets not have to choose the best from the worst. I had read that some IIT alumni came together and formed a political party. wonder what happened to that. 

Wonder La

I had been to a short excursion to wonder la last tuesday. The place is quite good and the rides are even better. Altogether a very nice place if you want to enjoy an ecxiting recluse from the monotony of city life. Food is very good and economical. A whole day goes very quickly and you will only be left with sweet memories and a very sore body afterwards. 

Power cuts

Power cuts have become fairly common in Bangalore nowadays. Near my house the scheduled power cuts are at 7 am and 7 pm for an hour each time. Unscheduled power cuts are, well, unscheduled. You cant know when you can start reading something or working on the computer as there is this annoying paradox that whenever you start doing something, something enivetably goes wrong. Anyway, this had better not continue for long as my academic year begins very shortly.

Chatter and sanity

I never thought I am much of a very outgoing person. Reserved, is what someone who does not know me very well can say. I have never before been(willingly or unwillingly) an active part of unwanted banter. My opinions have changed this summer. It is very important for a person to talk to someone else very frequently. A nice little conversation when one is bored does a world of good and helps preserve one's sanity. All it does is that it does not coax you to think and reach conclusions of even small and insignificant actions of the people around you.

Reflections

Its been quite some time since i last posted a blog. Truth is, I dont know what to blog about. Life has never been so monotonous or depressing. The long awaited holidays seem to be grinning satirically and the clock seems to be making extra efforts to go slowly. Everything that can be done has an annoying air of monotony. I started to read Arthur C Clarke's Rama Series( books on science fiction... they are great.. really). Probably, lack of intelligent or sometimes unintelligent banter is taking its toll. Man was certainly meant to be a social animal. Introverts like me have a toughtime coping with it. 

Of Snobbism

I live in a very peaceful neighbourhood with very decent and friendly neighbours. Around an year ago, a couple and their daughter came to live in a recently vacated house. They were nothing like I had seen before. Nothing like, in the sense that i had never seen such snobs in my life. They are completely devoid of any social activities, interaction with the neighbours is almost nil. I dunno how many smiles have been wasted on them by all the neighbours. Is such an attitude common? I dont know. What i do know is that their PR skills are at an all time low. What does concern me is that they now have a dog. Apart from their 20ft by 20ft house it is never brought down the stairs, let alone taken for a walk. Poor beast. It will also probably turn out like them.

American Congress and Sprained knees

President Barack Obama delivered his first presedential adddress to the joint sitting of the American Congress on the 26th of February 2009. It was an interesting, daring and passionate speech from Obama. Being an Indian and watching it from an Indian perspective was an interesting experience. Interesting, not because of the many reforms which he announced but the actions and mannerisms of the congree as a whole. Throughout the speech, irrespective of whether a senator was a REpublican or a Democrat, nobody raised his or her voice and their was an approving and appreciative silence in the Capitol Hill. It was faintly amusing to watch a quiet and positive congress at work as we are used to seeing the Indian Parliament in the news for things like broken furniture, unparliamentary languages and constant adjournments. One thing which completely justifies the very formal attitude of Americans was the constant and sometimes overdone and irritating standing ovations for almost each and every policy or reform announced by the president. No wonder the Americans spend so much on health insurance. A few years of being a Senator and you are sure to have a sprained knee. But the professionalism with which the sessions was held (without the very familiar sloganeering and furniture breaking) was very appreciable. 

Bazaars of Port Blair

Port Blair is the capital of the union territory of Andaman &Nicobar islands. It is a small charming coastal city with great and helpful people. I was on holiday there three summers back and thoroughly enjoyed. it has a great combination of flora, fauna, a rich tribal culture, british ruins, the majestic central jail, the emerald sea, world class beaches etc, etc, etc. When you have all this to see, a visit to the local bazaar sounds and is very boring. Its the same bazaar with almost the same shops you find in every city. While strolling dejectedly alond the narrow lanes as my parents haggled with a bedraggled man about a few worthless trinkets, what struck me as very odd is the lack of dirt and plastic covers. Its amazing how clean Port Blair seems when you are used to the the usual muck and grime type markets. Thereafter, i kept a lookout for stray bits of plastic on the roads and found very very few. Compared with the tons of garbage found in other cities the same size, the bits of paper and plastic is a rounding error. Kudos to the people of Port Blair. We can learn a lot from them.

Comedy for Comedy's sake

There has been a great rise in the number of comedy shows on television. the jokes the participants make there are quite good, though what are not good are the jokes made in films. Half a century ago, directors and script writers had the necessity for a comic character in the film, a few decades later, the same people thought," well, why not have the hero himself cracking some jokes". This idea is now part of a formula for a film which also includes two item numbers, a hero-villain fight sequence in the close vicinity of liquor bottles, the supposedly all important very predictable climax and so on. Here the heroes crack jokes which are written by God knows whom and the film is termed a comedy. what these people dont understand is that is that comedy for comedy's sake often turns vulgar. Vulgarity and comedy are very different. comedy can be satirical but definitely not vulgar. Lets hope that we dont have films which are formula based. its time we had people giving more thought about our regional films.