swooning sensations of life

Being atheist

2011-09-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

So. You are an atheist eh? Do you claim this in front of your parents as well or only your peers?

Food for thought? Courtesy: Very Demotivational Posters
Which one of the following lines do you agree with?

1. I don’t believe in religion.

2. I don’t know if God exists.

3. I don’t care if God exists.

4. I don’t believe in God.

You are an atheist only if your answer was 4.

If you don’t believe in religion, you are just not religious. If you don’t know or don’t care if God exists, then you are agnostic. There is a huge difference between saying, ‘I don’t care if God exists, I don’t believe in him’ and saying, ‘I don’t believe in God.’

In recent years , the number of people claiming to be atheists has risen. The reasons remain dubious though. How many of them are truly atheists? Your guess is as good as mine.

When youngsters claim to be atheists, their parents try to discourage them, send them on guilt trips, force them to attend religious events ( I know a friend who was forced to chant verses from the Gita in his missionary school when he told his parents he wasn’t a believer.) and if all this fails, then they dismiss it as a rebellious phase.

Being an atheist is not a walk in the park. For one, people don’t take you seriously if you are young. If God forbid (pun intended), you are taken seriously, then you have to face disapproval from all sides. Parents, people and general society. They treat you with a condescending attitude and say ‘May God bless you’ to you whenever you meet. Not to mention feeling like an outcast during each and every religious festival.

I almost agree with this line I came across on Facebook : ” Being an atheist today, is like being homosexual in the 1980s”.

But this is just the others’ reaction. What about you yourself? Can you accept the fact that there is no superior being watching over you? Can you live with the fact that there will be no Judgement Day? No Big Brother to right all wrongs? No 72 virgins waiting for you? People like the idea of faith. They need something or someone to believe in. To depend on. God is the most common object of dependence for people. Here is an excerpt from a Mitch Albom book which I read recently.

The rabbi is talking about his doctor, who was an atheist.

“I had a doctor once who was an atheist.”

“This doctor, he liked to jab me and my beliefs…(irrelevant stuff).”

“Anyhow, one day, I read in the paper that his brother had died. So I made a condolence call.”

“So I go to his house, and he sees me. I can tell he is upset. I tell him I am sorry for his loss. And he says , with an angry face, ‘I envy you’.

‘Why do you envy me?’, I asked.”

“‘Because when you lose someone you love, you can curse God. You can yell. You can blame him. You can demand to know why. But I don’t believe in God. I’m a doctor! and I couldn’t help my brother!’.”

“He was near tears. ‘ Who do I blame?’ he kept asking me. ‘There is no God. I can only blame myself.’ ”

This is worse than an unanswered prayer. It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no than to think that nobody’s out there.

Because of religious warfare, people have started renouncing God instead of renouncing religion. God might not be a creation of religion. Religion might have been created to define God. There again is the difference.

I think people cannot be trusted to do the right thing. That is why we don’t have anarchy. People don’t understand the concept of live and LET LIVE. That is why we have religion. I think religion was invented with the aim of guiding the people to understand the difference between right and wrong through the medium of God who is portrayed as an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent being. Earlier people feared Him and did what was said in the scriptures. Now the purpose of religion has changed. It’s interpretation has changed. It has become a factor of your identity. It has become a cause of war. To top it all, science came in to put God’s existence in doubt.

But you know what this means? It means the people who introduced the concept of religion were the original atheists. Ironic eh?

P.S.: I just wished they’d had some foresight.

A leap of faith

2011-06-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

I have been travelling for a month now. So this is one of the incidents that happened during one of these trips.

I found myself at this deserted bridge. I don't seem to recollect what brought me there. I had heard tales of people jumping off this bridge. Of people who chose to run away forever from their troubles than facing them. All in all it was a morbid place. Exactly like a place you wouldn't find me in.

But the reasons didn't matter. I found myself walking towards the centre of the bridge as if in a trance. The past didn't matter. The future didn't matter. Nothing mattered except the next few moments which would require me to be my bravest. I slowed down as I neared the edge of the bridge. I slowed down as much as I could. My footsteps started dragging. Even as I shuffled, the edge loomed nearer and nearer. And beyond the edge, the free fall. Each step brought me closer.

6 steps to go...
I felt my heartbeat increasing.

5 steps to go...
I never thought I had acrophobia. So, I had no explanations for the sudden vertigo.

4 steps to go...
I have no idea, why I felt as if I were walking to the gallows. I haven't commited any crime yet that would lead me there.

3 steps to go...
I think I started hearing voices in my head. Conflicting voices. Some questioning my sanity. Others encouraging me to take a leap of faith.

2 steps to go...
I never thought I would hear voices in my head and the fact that I would consider that the least of my worries. Then again, being a couple of steps away from the edge of a bridge changes your priorities.

1 step to go...
My feet falter. I didn't think I could do it. I turned around. Despising myself for being a wuss.

Suddenly, I saw my cousin waiting where I had been just 5 minutes back. All the 6 steps I described earlier took maybe 45 seconds. But life seems to slow down when you are about to make important life-changing decisions.

So coming back to my cousin. To say I was very surprised would be an understatement because he is supposed to be in Germany on his research internship till July. So, I couldn't for the life of me figure out, what he was doing on the bridge. Holding a pair of my nike sneakers. As I saw the logo, I remembered the nike tag line as if from another life. 'Just Do It.' My cousin worded what my shoes were telling me. 'Just Do It.'

I made the choice. With a huge smile on my face I turned around and took the last step decisively. I hurriedly leapt from the bridge. Hurriedly because I wanted to get to the part where I yelled Tom Petty's 'Free Falling', while bungee jumping. Hurriedly because as soon as I saw my cousin there, I realised in my dream that I was dreaming.

My dream of going bungee jumping and screaming 'Free Falling' is still a dream. Sigh.

Of Dreams and Surprises

2011-04-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

I find it very difficult to express my feelings by spoken words or even written words. So, you might have noticed, this blog mostly contains impersonal posts. But something happened yesterday. I just HAVE to blog about it. I turned 21. Big deal? HELL YES!

I never ever make plans for my birthday. I don't even celebrate them most of the time. Just go out with parents or something. Last year, I was working. Well, yesterday started the same way. I was asleep before it was midnight. My morning started with my dad's call waking me up. My birthday present - Nokia E71. Since, everyone feels charitable on their birthdays, I dropped my brother to his class. This was followed by lunch with my parents, aunt and cousin. My parents and aunt were going out in the evening, so I was supposed to have dinner with my brother and my cousin. This birthday was turning out to be bad. First, my girls at A D Bawla had their exams, so I couldn't visit them. Now, my parents were going out. Usually, at least, my family is around. On top of it, I even got sick. I couldn't meet my best friend, because she had her exams.One silver lining was my friend Priyanka's visit. We danced just like the old time. Soon, she also left, saying she had her mid sems and that her mother was expecting her home. My phone wasn't working and when my parents left, my aunt took my phone by mistake. I wanted to go to Dynasty for dinner, but my brother had his homework and by the time it was done, it was too late to go anywhere but McDonalds. I'd got a dress for myself for my college farewell and it got cancelled. So I decided to wear that dress and my slutty 4-inch heels to McDonalds. To hell with the fashion police.

When I got ready, the doorbell rang and I see my three best friends in college standing there. Abhishika, Shweta and Rajeshree and Abhishika's brother Aditya. Abhishika is the aforementioned best friend. They brought cake. They also got me a beautiful keychain for my guitar and 3 more dogs for my canine collection. I now have 9 dogs. They also got me a frame for my glasses, because the ones I currently wear have a broken frame and I have been meaning to get the frame changed. See, why I love them?

So, now suddenly my brother says he will complete his homework later. So, I realised he had been waiting for my friends to arrive. Already in a better mood, my mood improved when my cousin returned home with my cell. All of us and my neighbour Charlie left for McDonalds. When we reached the station, I called up Abhishika to ask where she had reached. She comes up with something lame like " hey, you go on towards McDonalds. Our rickshaw broke down and we can't find any other rickshaw. So we are walking. You go on ahead." On the way, I almost fell down the stairs. Typical clumsy me.

When we reached McDonalds, my brother and my cousin start acting weird. They kept insisting on a table inside. Right before I went inside, I saw this huge grin on my brother's face. At the door, I saw all my friends waiting for me. I was greeted with spiderman spray on my face, hair and dress. Before I could get my bearings, they started singing the birthday song. Yes, I don't know what to do when they sing Happy Birthday either, so I started looking around to see who had come. I saw my friends Rajeshree and Abhishika with other college friends : Akshat, Ankita, Gaurav, Sandy, Aniket, Rohan, Saideep, Dipesh, Abhishek. Madhura and Aditi came in later. I saw my school friends : Priyanka, Shreya, Maitri, Vritika, Geenisha and Ramesh. I saw my cousins: Siddhi and Harsh. Satish came with me and my other two cousins, Sagar and Siddharth came in later. I saw my friend Monil and my MAD friends : Ashish, Karthik, Tanmay, Pari, Ronak and Smriti.

This was beyond my wildest imaginations. Certainly beyond what I deserve. I didn't know what to do or what to say. I hugged each and every one of them and the party started! It had always been my dream to dance on top of the table. I did that yesterday. Twice. Forgot the first song, but the second time, I was accompanied by Priyanka for the Las Ketchup song. I wasn't drunk while doing that, so I remember and will always remember what I did. It had also been my dream to be with all my friends at one place at one time, some day. I hope you get the drift about the title now. What a combination of my favourite people and my favourite food! The best part was, everyone seemed to be enjoying. I didn't have to divide my attention between different sections. It was so cool. I got a shoe-shaped pendant and one more pendant, a huge box of chocolates, more chocolates, a mug to replace my broken Manchester United one, crazy nail paints for me to experiment. My school friends made placards which said something nice about me. These are already on the softboard on my desk. Here's what they said:

Priyanka: Hey amla, Hope you always get what you want in life. Right now it is to
become a great Pilot.
Shreya: I like you because you saw me without make up and you didn't scream.

Maitri: Sorry, couldn't write anything for you because it needs a brain and I'm like you, BRAINLESS. Advice: please park your bike at the right place.

Geenisha: My dear childhood friend, you have been with me since our Mahabaleshwar trip till our Hyderabad trip. It is amazing seeing you succeed so well in life and will soon see you flying in air!!!

Vritika: Dear Lani, never seen a crazier, funnier and sweeter person than you.

Dear Daryl, Simmi and Minesh Jiju : Thank you so much for the cards. I love cards and have carefully preserved every card that I have received till date.
PS: Minesh jiju, Liverpool still sucks donkey balls.

Dear Kunal, thank you so much for that letter. It means a LOT to me.

Dear Abhishika, thank you for everything. You are the best thing that has happened to me.

Dear Madhura, thanks for singing the song.

Dear anonymous sender, you crazy fellow! You sent me an original Scholes jersey and won't even accept my gratitude for it. If that's what you want, I won't pursue the subject though I think I have a very good idea who you are.

Every one, just thank you so much for making this the best day of my life so far. Who the hell needs booze to do crazy stuff, when you already have crazy people like these!

PS : I shall put up the photographs here too.

F******k

2010-08-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you must have seen the new fastrack logo on the hoardings. My cousin recently pointed out to me that people around us swear so much. It is expected while driving or during fights, but these days, you have everyone is college saying 'fuck!' or going 'WTF' everytime they utter an exclamation. We also have the wannabes going ' What the eff' which sounds as if a pansy just uttered it in a shrill voice followed by a flick of his wrist. In fact the word 'fuck' is so common that a while back, I used to get an sms about the versatility of the word. It indicates disgust, surprise, anger, exasperation and so on. What happened to good ol' 'shit' or Stan-like 'Oh my God!'? Now even Oh my God has evolved into 'oh my fucking God'. There was even a controversy back in 2001 when French Connection started labelling their products as fcuk. So much noise just because fcuk looked like fuck. So I wonder what the controversy creating hippies might be thinking right now, or if they are dead, would it be amusing to watch them somersaulting in their graves. Incidentally the word 'somersault' has french connections. Just saying.

A few posts back , I had mentioned that I'm a stickler for grammar and spellings. So while I was trying to blame it all on Wikipedia for teaching people how to swear in WikiHow, I noticed that fastrack was spelt as I spelt it 7 words back. Shouldn't it be fasttrack? Like Thumbs-up and not Thums-Up?

So, yesterday night I was thinking about this because I met my aforementioned cousin yesterday too. I remembered a crap song from a crap movie called 'Bride and Prejudice'. Yeah, these things happen to me. The song goes 'NO life, without wife, oh yeah yeah yeah..'. Somewhere in the middle, Aishwariya mentions why she had to settle for Abhishek Bachchan as a husband. She goes something like 'I want a husband who looks at me and not my rack' and her actions while singing that particular line made me look up the word 'rack'. I looked up the word on Urban Dictionary today too just to confirm that I have an awesome memeory.

Anyway when I typed 'rack', heres what Urban had to say:

1. rack 1426 up, 103 down
set of breasts

She has a nice rack
by Ben Nov 29, 2001 share this

2. rack 727 up, 117 down
a rather large set of boobs that are fun to stare at.

Dude, i can just sit here and stare at her nice rack all day
by superbuddy Apr 10, 2003 share this

3. rack 505 up, 72 down
slang term for a rather larger pair of woman's breasts that men usually stare at

Wow, look at her, she's got a nice rack!
by Cockaloockle Mar 17, 2005 share this

Ummmm...I wonder if the namekeepers at Titan fastrack did that on purpose. French Connection did it. So why not Fastrack, which on its official site is described as : "Fastrack as a brand has always been restless like the swearing youth it caters to". Ok I added the swearing part. But I am appalled at their lack of slang knowledge.

Also, here's something totally unrelated.
I watched that ad where Kareena strips in an office so that her clothes match the laptop in her hand which changes colours like a traffic signal. First people wanted the trendiest clothes, then trendiest shoes, trendiest accessories, trendiest phones, trendiest scooties and now trendiest laptops. Why don't they want trendiest umbrellas? They would make a nice fashion statement, in my opinon as always. Imagine, a yellow umbrella to go with my yellow belt, or an umbrella with nice polka dots to go with my dress, or an umbrella with a whistle for my driver. The possibilities are endless.

Observations - Part 2

2010-07-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I have nothing better to do, I go and watch the most pathetic movies out at the time. So, I have watched Tashan, Pyar Impossible, Drona, Love Story 2050 and all post-Yess Boss SRK movies. Needless to say, I really appeciate good movies now.

Back to the title, on one such I-had-nothing-to-do boring day, I accompanied a couple of my friends to watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi...

10 minutes into the movie had me thinking that I should really find work. I started observing other more interestig things around me like the amount of time it took for the air-conditioner flap to swing in my direction again and whether the person sitting behind me was picking his nose according to the movement of the actors on the screen.

During an emotional dialogue between Shah Rukh and Vinay Pathak, I realised there was another emotional dialogue going on in the row ahead of mine. I could here 2 voices speaking. Here's the gist of the conversation I shamelessly overheard.

Shrill voice: Oh Bother! This is such a waste of time and money.
*I nodded vigourously at this*

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: Yes. Such a waste.
*I nodded vigourously again*

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: At least you have a rich dad.*sighs* The money won't be a problem with you.
*I DIDN'T sigh*

Shrill voice: Now where did that come from? Money is money. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to waste it. In fact, I value it more, because it's not mine.

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: huh?

3rd Voice: Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: Don't you use that shrill tone with me! Just because you have a rich father does not mean you are queen Victoria..

4th Voice: Actually it is queen Elizabeth II now....

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: Everytime you do this. You look down on the rest of us mortals. I am sick of it!

Shrill voice: Hey, are you on medication or something? What is wrong with you? Where did that come from?

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: You are always showing off. New bag, new watch, new shoes! So, you come from a rich family. BIG DEAL!

3rd Voice: SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Shrill voice: That's not fair. I never show off. I just reply when I am asked if it is a new watch or a shoe or bag. It is my bloody choice. If I want a new bag, I won't not buy it just because it hurts your delicate ego. And I have had it with your ' your dad is rich' monotone. You say it as if it is something dirty. My dad worked hard all his life. If he has made money, he deserves it. It's not as if he won it in a lottery or stole it from someone. And why shouldn't I use the money? He made the money to use it. Not store it in a vault. It's not as if I am burning it. Control your resentment and jealousy. It's not a sin to have money.

2nd Can't-place-it's-tone voice: Shown your true colours haven't you? I knew it! I knew you were a snob. *Storms out*

Shrilll voice: Now this is ridiculous. *Storms out too*

4th Voice: He must have broken up with his girlfriend recently.

I went back to the boring movie.

By the way, you just assumed they were 2 girls fighting right? Come on now, be honest. And it is ok to overhear conversations which are unavoidable. It's not as if you are going to blackmail the speakers with what you overheard. Also, such conversations make you think. Shrill voice had a point. Many such people are made out to be jerks because of other bitter and jealous people.

When a friend dies.....

2010-05-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Note: Hey, if you are expecting the usual sarcastic nonsense, please skip this one. It is neither sarcastic nor nonsensical , though it may appear nonsensical to you.

This one is personal.

When your friend dies....
Your first reaction is disbelief which stays on in varying degrees of intensity.
Then comes the anger and the frustration. Why was the friend taken from you? Was it somehow your fault? Could you have stopped it from happening? The disbelief is still there of course, which makes you ask these questions in the first place.
You keep calling the friend on their cell. Of course, the friend doesn't answer.
You wonder, if perhaps the friend is angry at you.
You check his social networking profiles.
Nothing has changed much there.
Disbelief is waning. Fear sets in. Maybe the friend is really not coming back. Ever.
You try calling and messaging again with as much success as your previous try.
The fear is overwhelming now.
You replay the memories. Disbelief intensifies.
How can it stop this way?
No explanations.
No chance for a farewell.
You lose the dolphin around your neck. The dolphin, which was the symbol of your friendship. The dolphin you wore around your neck for 3 years.
This confirms it more than the death certificate of the friend.
WIth this finality, you start accepting it.
Now, comes the big task of moving on. Cherising the memories and moving on.
Moving on...............

The first thing you do, in the process of moving on is BLOG about it!!
Moving on..
Right.
Who am I kidding?

PS: Steve Irwin said, it was ok to cry. But when the tears stop, you start moving on. But how to you start moving on, when the tears don't come at all?

Global Shaving v/s Global Warming

2010-03-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

Note: The following post has been written in a phase of extreme boredom and this idea appears brilliant to me right now. I don't know if it will remain so in my sane moments.

Will lead to....

Summer is here. Already. No late winter like late monsoon. Sigh. Also, if it is so hot in March itself, I shudder to think how how it will be in May. I shudder more at the thought of writing exams for three hours in the aforementioned hot May. I shudder even more at the thought of writing my last paper which is totally theory in the aforementioned hot May for the aforementioned three hours. And to make matters worse, my hair is such that it doesn't matter if I tie up or let it lose. Tresses always escape from my ponytail or bun or whatever other shape I have used to tame my hair. And pins give me a terrible headache. So, lets not even go there. So, my hair turns into a huge pain in the ass during summers. This time I am so fed up, I am considering to go bald like someone who did go bald for the same reason.

I asked a couple of my friends if it would be too mental or I would be hailed as a trendsetter of my generation. I don't give a hoot either way. But the common reaction was that men find it alarming when women start going bald. Take Shabana Azmi or Demi Moore, while their dedication to their roles was appreciated, they did look a bit alarming. So, judging by their reacton, I just went on a fantasizing spree.

Imagine, girls and women all over started going bald after being fed up of the heat. It would be an alarming site, ne c'est pas? After all, hair is the second most distinctive feature of females. The first one is irrelevant here, so has been duly ignored. We could use this to start a movement to combat Global Warming.

We can put up slogan's like
"If you like your women with hair, stop global warming NOW."

"*Next to a picture of a bald woman* Your wife/daughter/sister/girlfriend could be next"

"No more fiesty redheads unless you do something about the fiery heat"

"You need to beat the heat to stop globalding"

"No more blonde jokes everyone loves because there will be no more blondes. Save the blondes to inspire your sense of humour. All you have to do is stop global warming"

"We bet you didn't mean this when you said you like women who shave "

Ok. I think I will stop now. All this heat must have gone to my head. But think about it. What would you want? Globalding or Global warming?

Stereotyped..

2010-02-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

This is the story of a girl who hated being stereotyped and who was stereotyped at every attempt she made at being different:

When she was born, she was exposed to all the things a girl might like. Pink, dolls, miniature kitchen sets.. She liked them all. She developed a liking for reading, so was introduced to fairy tales. They said, " She's a typical girl".

She grew up, became an older sibling when she was 4. She started noticing her brother's toys. Was fascinated with cars, bats, balls. She started getting bored with all the pots and pans. Cycling was the thing. Outdoors beckoned. Her likes followed her to school. She hated shopping and preferred to watch sports. They labelled her a 'typical tomboy'.

She reached her teenage. She insisted on wearing comfortable clothes instead of the ones in vogue at that time. She defended equal rights for both genders. Took offense whenever someone dismissed others' driving skills as ' like a typical woman's '. She refused to follow the set conventions for women. They said " Ahh, another feminist " when she remained headstrong and fiercely independent.

She is now at the verge of leaving her teenage years behind. She still loves pink. Still likes fairy tales and still hates shopping, and gossiping. Still enjoys sports more. She still believes in gender equality, still fiercely independent. She doesn't like being pampered. Hates flowers and chocolate. She prefers to pay the bill. Doesn't like to alter her appearance according to what people tell her. Yes, she has now become a typical Alpha-Woman.

Even in the desire to be different from everyone else, she is no different from the rest.

Moral of the story : No matter what you do, you will be stereotyped, because people like to define things. They fear what they don't understand. They try to make it an outcast. They would rather create new categories for defining things that don't come under the predefined categories than accepting them as different.

The Lesser Catastrophe

2010-02-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

Those of you, who know me personally might have discovered that I am quite a spelling and a grammar nazi. So much that I feel like screaming my guts out when someone uses a verb in the past tense after "did" or "didn't". Considering I am not much of a screamer, I think I have OCD.

My brother's English paper read "comprehension, grammEr and writing skills"!! And then since the 1st standard I guess, we have been taught that the plural of hair is hair and not hairs. Wren and Martin say the same. Then they also go on to advise that 'grey hairs should be respected.' Same is the case with fish and deer. While, I don't hear deers often, I hear about fishes everywhere. I even read about different types of fishes in my Biology textbook. Oh, but childrens, that is not why I am writing this post.

Today I would like to single out my wrath on 'lesser'. Quite how the trend started to use the word, I don't know. But my Readers' Digest Dictionary says 'lesser' doesn't exist. Urban Dictionary is of the same opinion. When less itself is a comparative degree of little, ( little > less > least ), where does lesser come from? Choose the lesser of the two evils, Children of a lesser God, your marks are even lesser than the previous test. It gets on my nerves so much! I had to endure it during my HSC classes.

Bah, I am not a snob nor do I want to give the impression that I am one. But this is just the way I feel. I mean some people feel the same, when they see a mess around them. They can't stand it and they go about cleaning it. If I point out the mistakes, the most common reaction is 'Haan, Haan , we know you know better English than us. Please spare us the tutorial' What's a poor nazi to do?

Ok. Rant over. Next time maybe I will go on to direct my wrath to 'anyways'. But not now.

On an unrelated note,
Layman's view :
Roger Federer rules.
Manchester United rules.
Sachin Tendulkar rules.

Expert Opinion :
After comparing the statistics for the past few years, we have to admit that Federer maybe one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In other words, Federer rules.

Rule, rule United; Glory Glory Man Utd; In other words Man Utd rules. (biased but a true opinion)

Sachin is probably the greatest player of all time. On field and off it too. Sachin rules. Duh.

Why be an expert when you know all the important truths of life? Ok another truth is that I have exams from Monday. Got to study. Bye!

Observations - Part I

2009-10-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

People say your blogging activity is inversely proportional to your social life. Not true. My recent hiatus in context of blog updates does not indicate my social life suddenly became more prominent. My social is the same as before , which is, exactly the way I want it to be. It just means I was too bored/lazy to update. Coming back to the post.

I like wandering and going to arbit places. Also, I prefer going to the aforementioned arbit places au pied. So I have observed this particular thing for quite a long time now. Whenever I come across a car whose number plate begins with MH 04, the vehicle in question is always physically damamged. And its not just true for 90% of them, all vehicles having the number plate beginning with MH 04 , that i have come across, are damamged in some way or the other, without exception. Be it a little dent on the bumper, or cracked mirror or missing parking lights.

The other day, I was waiting at the bus stop with my friend. We saw a Tata Nano, probably on its maiden journey considering all the plastic covers on the upholstery. But even then, there was a wide scratch on it in the corner of the bumper! New car already scratched. MH 04 licence plate.

The 04 in the number plate means the owner of the car lives in or near Thane. So what does this mean? That all the drivers living in Thane are rash ? Or is something wrong with their driving schools? If you are an offended Thane resident after reading this post, please, before taking offense, check your vehicle or your neighbours and you will find it damaged in some way.

PS: This can true for other number plates too, but I have observed this fact in MH 04 number plates only, without exception yet. And this is just my observation that I am stating in my post.

The Secret Behind The Secret

2009-08-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's been a long time. Again. So this post has some spoilers about the book ' The Secret'. So , don't scroll down if you are planning to read the book or planning to cuss at me for spoiling the surprise or whatever.

I read the book ' the secret ' sometime back. And of course I thought about it a lot. Eventually I came up with sort of a theory about it. Also, this is just my own conclusion and does not imply that it is true. I'll write as if it is true nonetheless.

According to the book, there is an attractive force in the universe and we attract all the things that are dominant in our head. If we are happy, we attract more happiness, if we are frustrated, we attract more frustration and boredom invites more boredom. Also there is another book called ' the power of your subconscious mind', which says that whatever you convince your subconscious mind about, your subconscious mind makes it happen. It doesn't consider, whether it is right or wrong, true or false. Someone even said, ' Whether you think you are good or bad, you are right'. So I wonder if the secret was written so as to make people think positively, by trying to convince us , that there is a force in the universe which grants all our wishes. Now, according to the theory of the subconscious mind, this will be true, if we believe it without a doubt.

For example, consider any day. Just like the previous day, you wake up and get ready to start your usual day. Now while you go about it, you get an unexpected call from your dear friend who has moved away or something. This makes a normal person quite happy, so assume that you become happy. Then you go about your day in a better mood. Suppose you decide to go out. Outside, you have to cross the road, you almost get hit by a car. Thinking today is lucky, you think you were almost killed and because of your lucky day, you were saved.

You don't pause to consider that you don't get almost killed by vehicles everyday. You look at the incident in a positive way. So, you think all the good things are happening to you because, today is your lucky day or that you are attracting happiness. It's all in the attitude.

Also, I think the same principle was used in religion. Those who believe in it without a doubt, have no issues about the existence of God. But those, who doubt, will find many loopholes, because its all in the mind. I think that is what gave rise to superstitions too. Even today. The film stars, the sportsmen, Ekta Kapoor. All the weird numerology, tarot. It all works because you convince your subconscious it is true.

I think I am done with my rant. My bottom line is that 'it's all in the mind'. You cannot do something only if you convince yourself beyond doubt that you cannot do it. OK. I am done now. Finally.

Great Minds

2009-05-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a month and I still can't bring myself to type out all that I have written in my notebook. What can I say other than yes, I am a lazy ass. Oh yeah, I can say - lucky you.
Anyway I have come across this saying many times and I have still not been able to fully understand it. The saying goes 'Great minds think alike'
In the book of idioms and proverbs that I have, it says it means that people having great minds think of similar things. To quote exactly ,'"Great minds think alike" means that great people think about things in similar ways' And I could not find the origin of this proverb anywhere but it has been used in French by Voltaire in 1760.

"“Comment les Grecs ont-ils mis en fables ce que les Hébreux ont mis en histoire? serait-ce par le don de l’invention? serait-ce par la facilité de l’imitation? serait-ce parce que les beaux esprits se rencontrent? Enfin, Dieu l’a permis; cela doit suffire.”

Voltaire,”Dictionnaire philosophique”, “Bacchus”"

So if this phrase is true, how come only Voltaire came up with it? There were many great minds during his time eg Benjamin Franklin ( I got a rant for him too ). Why didn't they think like him and come up with a similar phrase? Also if this statement holds true, then why do we need innovation. Or why are people who think differently given preference? You should think like other people. You are great. If you go search for diamonds that washed ashore, like a million others, you are great. because you thought like a million others. So is it that the more number of people think like you, greater is your mind?

So why should shakespeare be considered great? No one thought about writing tragedy, romance and comedy in plays. Not at his time at least. Why are movies which have a different storyline from others considered great ( of course this has to be accompanied by great acting and great music ) Oh and what about music. Why are Beethoevn, Mozart et al considered great? because they thought like others?

So next time someone says , hey this isn't different, this is just like others. You can say ' dude, I have a great mind. I think like other great minds '. Or something.

And one more thing. Is it great minds think alike simultaneously? or we don't consider the time factor?

Expectations

2009-04-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Something or the other is always expected of us. By 'us' I refer to the entire human race. I was wondering, just when do people start expecting things from each other? I realised, it was from birth. Then I thought some more and realised, it is before we are even born. Let me elaborate..

When you are in your mother's womb, they expect you to pop out of your mother after 9months, if you dont come early that is. So, that is the first expectation. You have to be born. Then after taking birth, you are supposed to start crying with the first breath. I am neither a doctor nor a mother, nor do I remember what I did immediately after I was born, so I don't know what more is expected. So the second expectation is to cry. And so on. Then you are expected to laugh and cry appropriately, get excited in appropriate situations. Then you are supposed to start speaking. Say mumma, daddy, banana, Czechoslovakia and so on. Then or at the same time, you are supposed to show movement, crawl, sit, walk and so on.

Then comes the toddler stage. You are supposed to remember the names of the things pointed out to you by your parents\ relatives \ siblings. You are supposed to clear the admission interview in the school you are expected to get into. Most of the times you are expected to clear the interviews of ALL the schools in which your parents have applied. Then in school ,you are supposed to make friends, pass exams, be disciplined. This is of course expected of you for each and every exam, each and every course you undertake. You are expected to take part in some sport or any other extra curricular activity which generally is given less importance than academics even if you excel in that activity. You are expected to get a degree. Get a job. A certain age is quoted to you and you are told that that is your marriagable age. So by that age you are supposed to get married. You are supposed to provide your folks with grandchildren after a period of time.

You are supposed to support your parents in their old-age, you are supposed to retire eventually, raise you children properly, and in this cycle you start expecting things too. And this goes on.

Of course there are other random expectations like, you are expected to recover from any ailments or injuries you might have had. If you know how to cook, you are expected to cook etcetera. Not to mention expectations from sportspersons, actors, politicians, and all those who perform well in their fields.Where is the free will? Gone with the Goddamn wind? Oh and the worst(?) part, the things that you expect from yourself.

I wrote all this because I was overwhelmed with all the expections, I wondered what happens if you defy all the expectations. I wondered when and if they would end. I concluded that they never end. I also concluded that you may be expected to do many things but you are also not expected to fulfill all those expectations. I am not saying expectations are a bad thing, no. I am just acknowledging the fact that they are everywhere and the fact that you can chose to ignore or fulfill those expectations. I suppose therein lies our free will. To fulfill or to ignore the expectations. That is what free will is all about. To ignore or no to ignore.

The story continues

2009-03-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

In the previous post, I had started a story. But I hadn't completed it. I wanted you to speculate what would happen for a while ( yeah I do assume that I have at least one reader ). But now I couldn't wait any longer to put and end to those speculations. Here is what happens :

'Hello there. I was wondering if you could teach me this dance...'
She couldn't believe she had actually said that to the stranger who was holding her in his arms and steering her around the dance floor. And man! was he a good teacher! They sure were getting plenty of curious stares. The shy girl who never danced was dancing with a total stranger and dancing as if she had been born to dance.
The stranger no longer seemed like a stranger to her. He put her at ease with his witty comments about wannabe mother-in-laws who come to the balls to find grooms for their daughters. Sort of like Almacs in the older times. Also, he listened to what she had to say. She could see it in his eyes. Everytime she made some amusing remark, his eyes would light up and his lips would quirk up. Was this a dream or what!

The stranger looked at the girl in his arms. She fit in his embrace so perfectly. She was not only charming but also aware about the current events not only in the country but around the world. He always did have a thing for spunky girls. This one was oozing spunk from her personality. Today sure was his lucky day.
The song got over. Immediately it was followed by a slow song. Then a bit faster cha-cha number. She lost count of the number of songs after a while. This evening, it was just him and his enchanting voice. She was a goner. So it was perfectly natural that she agreed when he suggested they go somewhere private. In fact she had been expecting it.
The stranger led her by the elbow to a garden outside the dance hall. The fresh air was like a messenger of the good times to follow. OR maybe he just felt that because it had been stifling inside the dance hall. Not that he noticed. Though the park was filled with some people , it wasn't as crowded as inside. Most of them were couples who wanted to get away from prying eyes. He needed to get to a place away from these people. After searching for about a quarter of an hour, he found a secluded bench beneath a banyan tree slightly hidden from view. She had been following him like a zombie. Now looking at her seated across him, he knew what she wanted. It was evident from her eyes. And her ragged breathing. And her heated skin when he touched her. Turned her around so that her back was touching his chest. He moved her hair to the side, and his hand made patterns in her neck. His other hand removed something from his coat pocket.
The stranger wrapped the guitar strings around her neck. He had already tightened it sufficiently enough before she realised what was happening and thought to put up a fight. He pulled the strings harder and harder until her fast breathing which had culminated into painful gasps slowed and finally stopped. He didn't use a rod to tighten the death trap like his Spanish ancestors but it was Ok. He would get plenty of chances later. Besides, he had liked this one. She had almost made him change his mind. But mind compelled him. His obssession had won. He wondered if Jack the Ripper or Jeffrey Dahmer had felt the same elation he was feeling right now.
She saw her life flashing before her eyes. And her mother's innumerable unheeded warnings about being wary of strangers with charming tongues. It was too late to tell her mother that she had been right. Too late for her mother. Too late for her. She felt the pain in her chest increasing as the noose tightened. And as she finally gave up, her last thought was , 'today was good.'

MORAL : Do not talk to charming, tall strangers in a crowded ballroom even though you dont have a dance partner. Dont talk to strangers. period. They maybe friends you have not met yet or killers you have avoided so far.

END

PS : This was sure as hell NOT Mills and Boonish. After two people telling me the previous one was, I had a reputation to protect.

Three Word Wednesday in Wordpress

2009-03-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

I just came across this thing called ' Three Word Wednesday ' on wordpress.com . Each week ( A wednesday obviously , in case the name wasn't obvious), the author posts three words and we have to write something using those three words. This week's three words are

Recluse
Temper
Cajole

I read what my friend had written on her blog and when she explained to me how the thing worked, I tried something on my own. Take a look:

She looked around for a dance partner seeing she was the only woman in the huge ballroom who didn't have a partner. Then as she was about to give up and sit out the Viennese waltz , her eyes fell on a tall, dark stranger.
What was strange about this stranger was that, instead of looking at the dancers waltzing on the dance floor, he was staring at her! For how long , she couldn't guess.
She had an uncanny ability to judge a person's character by looking at their body postures and hand gestures. Now, all of a sudden , she was the one doing the staring. The stranger looked right back at her without appearing abashed that he had been caught staring.

'Hmmmmm'. She thought as she contemplated the man who didn't seem to belong to the town she lived in. ' A businessman surely. Immeasurably rich, considering the rich material of his elegantly cut suit which he wore with some kind of disdain as if he was used to such luxuries and was merely bored by it. Surely he didn't socialise much seeing as he didn't have an escort either. So a recluse. Fully devoted to his work types. Good manners forced him to be polite with others but otherwise has a terrible temper...'
She went on assuming his traits, not knowing how she knew them, but knew from past experiences that she was right. She didn't know how, but she just knew.
'Right. Now all that remained was to cajole him to dance with her without apperaing to do so. It was risky, she admitted to herself , to talk to a stranger, but it was either this or stand like a fool while others danced to her favourite song.
Having come to a decision, she walked towards the stranger. All this while, he had been staring right back at her. As she approached him, he merely raised his eyebrows in question.
She said ' Hello..
END

PS : This thing just suddenly came to my mind. IMO, it appears too Mills and Boonish.

April Fool

2009-02-17T00:43:00.000-08:00

Yeah. I know it's still mid February and all. Contrary to popular belief, I would like to make it clear that I am NOT suffering from post-Valentine's Day dementia. Nope. It's just that while I was bloghopping some days back, 60% of the blogs had a post on Valentine's Day!( just like me ). I am like " what the hell! 20 days later everyone will write about holi, then examinations, then april fool's day and so on! Why should I wait for April to arrive to let you know what I did last summer?" So well, another post on why you should be celebrating Thanksgiving everyday instead of on every 4th Thursday of November.. since you are not my brother\sister...

Day : 1st April ( well duh, April fool's day ! )

Time : Sometime during the day, when the sky was bright and clear. ( seriously, this was almost a year ago. Did you really expect me to remember the exact time? I mean I know it was 25 minutes and 32 seconds past 5pm, but the exact time? nah! )

Venue : Home

My brother had just returned from school after giving the first paper ( English ) of his annual exam. For the eternal laziness within me protesting against typing out brother everytime I have to mention him let's refer to him as Bap ( Brother After Paper in short )

Me : Hey! How was your paper? Hope it went well.

Bap : Yeah, it went well. What were you doing?

Me : What do you think? Watching aeroplanes. What else?

Bap : *sighs* As always.... Don't you get bored?

Me : Ha ! April Fool. I wasn't watching aeroplaes! I was watching the first officer in the plane make out with an airhostess. hehe. I fooled you!

Bap : MOMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, * enter my name here * is bugging me. Giving me dirty details.....

Me : You know, you just made use of an alliteration! Perfect example!

* Bap glares at me which brings back my broken nose memories *

Me : What? It was your English paper afterall! I thought you were just trying to show of your skills in figures of speech. Oh my God! * covers mouth with hands *, I just complimented you! Thank me now!

* Bap runs away screaming MOMMAAAA again *

sigh... shit happens

=====================================

Day : NO

Night : April Fool's Nnght. ( Still first of April )

Time : exactly 325 minutes after the aforementioned scene after which my brother sulked for like 30 minutes, then studied for the next day's paper, then ate and was listening to songs on the disc-man, when this happened)

Venue : My bedroom which i share with my Brother Listening to Songs On the Disc-man.( BLSOD for the sake of abbreviations and more importantly convenience )

Me : Dude, I am sorry for today. But I had to fool you at least once. To keep up my reputation you know as the one who fools around even on April Fool's Day.

BLSOD : It's OK * enter nickname you will NEVER hear me utter *. No issues. I overreacted. After sulking for about 1800 seconds, I realised it was pretty cool actually and that I can use the same to fool my friends. Oh and yeah, thank you for complimenting my skills in figures of speech earlier.

* At this time, I am trying to control my laughter at remembering my skills in Hyperbole *

Me : Oh! Good then. All's well that ends well. Or something like that as someone said in the Harry Potter series. I think it was ALbus Percivial Wulfric Brian Dumbledore the First.

* After a few hundred seconds of deep pondering *

Me : Hey!, I am sleepy man. Stop listening to songs on your disc-man.

BLSOD : What the hell! Are you nuts or something? I am using headphones! How can that disturb you! You said you are sleepy right? Just switch off the lights and sleep in peace then. I won't.....What? NO. NOT AGAIN!!

* His outburst consisting of the last four words came after he saw the delightful smirk in my eye and an evil twinkle in my mouth. or vice versa. Whatever. *

Me : I have to say it. I can't resist. APRIL FOOL! HA HA HA. I fooled you again. I am not sleepy at all!

BLSOD : You suck! I am not talking to you till tomorrow morning.

* saying this he switches off the light and goes back to listening to songs. *

I thanked God fervently to have protected me from another broken nose and wondered how come my brother could hear me say anything at all while he was listening to songs on his disc man!

Phew! End.

Enough Red Already!

2009-02-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

I hate red colour! Red cars, Red clothes, Red shoes, Red watches, Red roses , Red balloons( especially of the heart shaped variety). I mean come on!! Why would you want to express your love to someone with red balloons ( of heart-shaped variety ) , red roses, T-shirts with big red hearts on them with 'I *heart* U ' written in bold letters just because everyone else is doing the same? Who in turn are doing this just because Archies and Hallmark are telling them to do that? jeez. Talk about blind followers! Better join the group ' A Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women.' on facebook and send a pink chaddi to Mr. Muthalik of the prestigious Ram Sene. Best thing you can do this Love-Day. Oh and yeah, I came across this interesting e-mail about Valentine's Day, which I am copy pasting below. So, make sure you read the above line carefully before you decide to sue me for plagiarism. The e-mail goes this way ...

Valentine's Day- The Real Story

In spite of what you have been told by everyone, the truth is that
Valentine's Day originated hundreds of years ago, in India , and to top it
all, in the state of Gujarat !!!

It is a well known fact that Gujarati men, specially the Patels,
continually mistreat and disrespect their wives (Patelianis). One fine day,
it happened to be the 14th day of February, one brave Patelani, having had
enough "torture" by her husband, finally chose to rebel by beating him up
with a Velan (rolling pin to make chapattis).
Yes....the same Velan which she used daily, to make chapattis for him....
only this time, instead of the dough, it was the husband who was flattened.

This was a momentous occasion for all Gujarati women and a revolt soon
spread, like wild fire, with thousands of housewives beating up their
husbands with the Velan. There was an outburst of moaning "chapatti-ed"
husbands all over Anand and Amdavad.

The Patel men-folk quickly learnt their lesson and started to behave more
respectfully with their Patelanis.
Thereafter, on 14th February every year, the womenfolk of Gujarat would
beat up their husbands, to commemorate that eventful day - the wives having
the satisfaction of beating up their husbands with the Velan and the men
having
the supreme joy of submitting to the will of the women they loved.

Soon The Gujju men realised that in order to avoid this ordeal they need to
present gifts to their wives....they brought flowers and sweets. This is
how the tradition - Velan time - began.

As Gujarat fell under the influence of Western culture, the ritual soon
spread to Britain and many other Western countries, specifically,the catch
words 'Velan time' !!! In course of time, their foreign tongues, this got
anglisized to 'Velantime' and then to 'Valentine'. And thereafter, 14th of
February, came to be known as Valentine's Day and now you know the true
story of Valentine's day.

* E MAIL ENDS HERE *

PS : I found this original version better than the original version about St Valentine or whatever-his-name. And they should have stuck to the beating part. It sure would have been fun to wake up on V-day and see ladies beating the shit out of their husbands instead of the red turd we see these days. Today's generation * shakes head ruefully * And in a way I'm glad it's V-day on saturday. Gave me inspiration to write hate mail for Love-Day. Ha! Yeah and every fuckin' radio station is celebrating valentine's week. So everytime you surf through stations expecting Coldplay, Eminem and the likes all you get is either Enrique or Atif Aslam.
Phbbbt! At least leave the songs alone!

Oh no! I am back. (terminator voice)

2009-02-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

Hey there reader. I hope you are alive and well and had a great time in the 2-3 months I was away from my blog. No net. No inspiration. No inclination. No time. Except the first one, all my remaining excuses were lame and not admissible. But the first one was enough. :-|. In the 2 months that I wasn't netically ( umm you know, physically, mentally, netically... you get the drift. ) present, many exciting things happened to me. Opeth concert at iitm, college festival, cleaning of my room (:O yes it's true), Ghajini, Dev D songs and boredom ( but obviously ). Also I am going to write a separate blog post for each and every thing that I mentioned above. Yeah, poor you. Then again I may not. But any attempts on killing my net connection, hacking my blog won't be entertained or welcomed. So well to start on a light note, as I mentioned before, I was cleaning my room. And from some random corner in my room, I found English Balbharti, STD VI. So naturally, I flipped through it and rediscovered this awesome poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. But before that, let me type it to you, that I am not much of a poem person. I like a very few poems and so I haven't tried my hand at poetry writing either. So, here's the poem before you kill me for stalling so much .. But hey, it's my blog!

HOME THEY BROUGHT

Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
'She must weep or she will die.'

Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee--
Like summer tempest came her tears--
'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

- Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Its War Time!!!!!

2008-11-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

ok. So I am updating my blog after more than a month. There were varous factors responsible for this > Exams, lack of inspiration, laziness. Now all of a sudden, none if the factors exist and I am free to blog. And I hate it. Last night provided the inspiration. Though never had I wished for such an eventuality to prompt me to start blogging again. Mumbai attacks!!!

Last night, I was watching the match at home, like almost everyone else who watches cricket. And the result was as predicted. India won. We won. We're leading the series 5-0 now by the way, for those who may not be aware. So then 15 - 20 minutes after the presentation ceremony and all, I heard this huge boom. And then I heard my mom complaining about firecrackers and what a nuisance they are. 5 minutes later, my neighbour comes to our place and asks " did you hear the bang?"
I said " yeah obviously. But why would they burst crackers half an hour after the match is won?? "

And my neighbour said " It wasn't a firecracker. It was a bomb. A taxi just exploded near that new bridge. It's all over the news. Terrorists are hiding in south Mumbai. Firing is on as we speak."

Now, if you must know, I stay very close to the Santacruz airport. And when we went on the terrace, we could actually see the smoke at the explosion site. One minute we are rejoicing yet another Indian victory and te next minute, BOOM, everything changes. A war starts in Mumbai.

While we were at the terrace, phones kept ringing, rumours a-plenty too, and every few minutes a vehicle with a siren would pass. Police vehicle, ambulance, fire-brigade or minister's vehicle, I know not. The patch of highway near our place was blocked and vehicles kept taking a U-turn and cutting back from where they had come. And the news kept coming in. Along with the blast near the airport, there was firing at Hotels Taj and Oberoi, CST terminus and as if that wasn't bad enough there was firing at the Cama Hospital too. ( and I didn't even know about it's existence till yesterday ! ). When I went to sleep, watching the news, they said firing was still on and commando operation had been started at Taj. 2 people had been killed in the blast near the airport and several injured and that all the flight take-offs had been cancelled.

Today morning when I read the newspaper, it said 78 people were killed and over 900 were injured. All this happened after mindnight!! The attack started from Gateway of India ( which sparked rumours that the explosives had come from the sea) and then moved towards CST. All the important places were hit. Nariman point, Metro Adlabs, Colaba, Crawford market, Wadi Bunder and GT hospital too. And on BBC it was reported that 40 people were taken hostages. And 3 officers died on duty : Hemant Karkare of the ATS, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar ( and i had actually heard of these two for a change!) and addl commissioner Ashok Kamte. RIP, you three. You died cleaning the scum.

So that was the factual part. After each terrorist attack in other cities of India, focus would shift to Mumbai, and after 2-3 days of tight security and high alert, things would go back to the previous lax ways . This is what happened yesterday. One minute you are having dinner, watching TV, or roaming outdoors.. and next ... terror strikes. And what was the purpose of those checks at the railway stations?? When it was required , could they stop the terrorists from entering with AK-47s and hand grenades and start firing? NO. Same at the malls. Metro Adlabs. The security people look as if they are endowing us a great favour by checking our belongings. And at one mall, I dont remember which, I don't even think the metal detectors work because I had a swiss-knife in my pocket and they didn't even realise that. Could they really have not considered the possibility that the terrorists may open fire? Do they really dismiss the terrorists as cowards? That is just plain - bullshit. Just a lame excuse to hide your inefficiency. Where are Shiv Sena and MNS workers right now? what are they doing? Don't they want the marathi manoos to be safe now? Where are the parties standing for elections next year? Next year, If you are going to vote, or if any candidate asks you for vote during those speeches ( if you care to go to one), ask them what they were doing during the terror-attacks in Mumbai and other cities. And what their party had done to help that the other party hadn't to make you vote for that particular candidate. According to me, this tete-a-tete combat is a good opportunity to check our ability against theirs. And we shouldn't be proud. Three senior officers dead and we could manage to kill only two of them yet. And all of them are youngsters! Though I think , we should stop judging their abilities according to their ages. And I don't care if the firing goes on for 3 more days as long as these scum are killed or captured. Total elimination is the word. it is about time these buggers are made to realise that one can only punch a tin box so many times. Then it hardens and hurts anyone who tries to punch it. And don't complain about the bandh if there is one, enjoy the time with your family and friends.

Also this made me wonder, what we as the commoners do for the city? Income tax? Nah. That goes to the national government. Loving the city is not really enough. You need to fight for it too. Donate blood at a hospital nearby to help the injured. Help in any way you can. Otherwise you don't have a right to point a finger at anyone. This is your city. It is your responsibilty to take see to it that it is free from mother-fucking terrotists whose only aim is to gain attention of the masses. They'll hit you as long as you endure it. ABOUT TIME WE STOPPED!!! To pee is human, then it shouldn't be the divine to flush; you pee, you flush it off.

PS : I just realised it was "a wednesday" yesterday and i hope we kill the cunts just like in the movie. I may have used a profanity or two in the post, but I don't care. Am really pissed off right now.

Random Talks

2008-10-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have got a lot of tolerence in my nucleotides. But sometimes there are people whom you meet who make you regret not wearing a wig. Yeah well, wig because when you pull your real hair in frustration, it hurts. A lot. And then the world comes to know of the well-hidden dandruff and lice in your scalp too. So moral of the story invest in a wig. Be safe and fake-haired rather than letting the world know you share your hair with blood-sucking ticks because you can't avoid meeting these particular category of people. They just exist like cats do. I had the misfortune to encounter such a specimen in my college last year,(*drops to knees thanking the Authority for sending him to another college now*) who was a total narcissist. So after getting your brain banged within your skull listening about the innards of an earthworm and waiting for your mate by the gate in the burning sun, Bam enter the narcissist. ( for the sake of laziness to type narcissist again and again lets us refer to him as CNFTS in short for College Narcissist From Twelfth Standard ). So while you are waiting for your friend this CNFTS starts ranting about the uber cool date he had the previous night which involved roses,candlelight,soft music in the background ( * passes out thinking about the amount of corn involved* ), and the cycle goes on. You attend Physics and learn all about Electromagnetic Induction and again wait for your friend by the gate and this time CNFTS starts off about his celebrity relatives. Now this went on for like 12-15 days in a row ( yeah I told you I was tolerant, and you see i don't like ditching my friends either so i kept waiting by the gate too ) and then suddenly on the 16th day, the sun shone brighter, the trees looked greener, the birds chirped louder...Ok I'll stop. Everything was same except my mood. It was really pissed off. And here's the scene:
I am waitiing by the gate for my nutty mate to come down ( did I mention she was in a different division and her lecture timings were different, so the wait state? anyway, so now you know ) and CNFTS comes and starts. But this time he sees the expression on my face and goes:
CNFTS :Oh so you think I am making all of this up?

Me : No, I can't think at all. Thinking is injurious to health. I read the footnotes in the advertisements on TV.

CNFTS : Huh? So I will prove it to you that I am good. See that girl coming around the corner? I'll chat her up and she will compliment me in front of everyone. So you want to make it a challenge haan? Today you have questioned my intergrity? I cannot stay silent. I will have to give you a suitable reply

( All this was spoken in a shrill voice and by now a few people had gathered around the place too )

Me : WTF? What are you on about?

CNFTS : No you wait and see. I am going to chat up that chick and show it to you that I am good. ( leaves to talk to the random chick by the block. lets call her RCBTBL )

( After a while, when I have forgotten all about the sudden outburst from CNFTS, I hear the RCBTBL burst out laughing )

CNFTS crosses the road like a person who has just found the upper limit of infinity, amid imaginary applause.

CNFTS : See? I told you I was good. Do you know what she thinks of me?

Me : Ummmm. She thinks you are Pillankhrosh Mehta?

CNFTS : What? Who is he? no. She thinks I am cute. That I remind her of a puppy she had in her previous life...

Me : was that puppy called Pillankhrosh? ( * others are controlling their laughter right now* )

CNFTS : NO. So she said I reminded her of her puppy. And that she would like to call me a puppy. Can you imagine? She even said "bye for now, puppy. It was nice talking to you"

( * ok so the viewers can't control their laughter much longer * )

Me : Yeah? So why the hell are you smiling? Dude she just insulted you. what is a puppy? A puppy is nothing but a son of a bitch. She called you a son of a bitch and you thought she was complimenting you? HAHAHAHAHA . Awwww poor baby.

* And I left amid loud applause which wasn't imaginary in my case.*
Then of course I remembered that my friend still hadn't come and so I went back amid the cheers of encore and told my other gate-friends I had made in my wait state to tell my friend that my waiting days were over and again left amid imaginary applause back home.

Note : The incident I narrated didn't actually happen, but I wanted to make up a good story to post that conversation. bah if someone like that bugs me, I don't wait for the imaginary other division friend at all. Just show em the finger and move on. Cheers. I am going to post more such conversations which I had with my brothers and more imaginary ones too. :P

Interview

2008-09-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

I came across this in *humbl devil's* blog ~:<{dêvïl’z Åbõdê}>:~ . found it pretty kool , lets see how many I answer before I get bored and do tell me how many you could read :P

( ) smoked a cigarette
( ) done some form of dope
(v) crashed a friend's car : uncle's car yeah. friends don't trust me enough for that
( ) stolen a car
(v) been in love : who isn't?
( ) been dumped
( ) shoplifted
( ) been fired
(v) been in a fist fight : yeah with brother
( ) sneaked out of your parent's house
(v) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back: yeah
( ) gone on a blind date
(v) lied to a friend : yeah but had a reason
(v) skipped school: 10th grade. No one attends school :D
(v) seen someone die: die, no. dead,yeah, my grandad
(v) had a crush on one of your internet friends : *sigh* yeah
( ) been to Canada
( ) been to Mexico
(v) been on a plane : yeah
( ) eaten sushi
(v) been skiing-snow or water : yeah Manali
(v) met someone from the internet : yeah
(v) been at a concert : Bombay Vikings, Enrique Iglesias
(v) taken painkillers : yeah
(v) love someone or miss someone right now : yeah
(v) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by : Still do it on my terrace
(v) made a snow angel : Yeah this year, when i was in Gulmarg ** goes starry eyed and drools all over the keyboard remembering all those good times **
(?) had a tea party : Don't remember . perhaps in childhood
(v) flown a kite : yeah. Every year. now i can launch the kite on my own too :P
(v) built a sand castle : yeah. used to do that earlier now just running about
(v) gone puddle jumping : I was a naughty kid
(v) played dress up : *sigh* yeah , we used to have fashion shows till I was 9
(v) jumped into a pile of leaves : dry leaves.
(v) gone sledding : sledding??
(v) cheated while playing a game: Picnic
(v) been lonely : Yeah but a call to friends cures that.
(v) fallen asleep at work/school : yeah last year
(v) used a fake ID : yeah to get into some other college campus
(v) watched the sun set : yeah. Again from my building terrace
(v) watched someone sleep : I put my nephew to sleep once in a while
(:) felt an earthquake : not really but it feels like that on a roller coaster
(v) slept beneath the stars : Shit. I just realised I absolutely love my terrace
(v) been tickled : Yeah , so many times that I think I have become immune to it
( ) been robbed
(v) been misunderstood :
(v) pet a reindeer/goat/kangaroo : goat's young one
(v) won a contest : yeah
( ) run a red light/stop sign
( ) been suspended from school
(v) been in a car crash : yeah and it still gives me goosebumps
( ) had braces
( ) felt like an outcast/third person
(v) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night ...lotsa tyms...hehe
(v) had deja vu : yeah Freaky stuff
(v) danced in the moonlight : danced at night when there must have been a moon in the sky
(v) liked the way you looked : some rare narcissist moments :p
( ) witnessed a crime
(v) questioned your heart : yeah, questioned it, found faults with it, listened to it anyway
( ) been obsessed with post-it notes
(v) squished mud through your bare feet : yeah awesome feeling
(v) been lost : yeah someone told me "get lost", and I did at a park
(v) been on the opposite side of the country : Does West Bengal count as East or North East??
(v) swam in the ocean : Goa !!
(v) felt like dying...hehehehe
(v) cried yourself to sleep : 2 years back
(v) played cops and robbers : School recesses were not for lunch!
(v) recently colored with crayons : yeah brohter's project
(v) sang karaoke : Essel World, Infiniti and do YouTube karaoke's count?
(v) paid for a meal with only coins : College canteen :P
( ) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(v) made prank phone calls : All the time. Now now, before you get any ideas, i wasn't the one who has been calling at 3am to ask calculus formulae
(v) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose : ugh. Yeah. Sprite. burnt my nose
( ) caught a snowflake on your tongue : I wish but I caught raindrops on my tongue
(v) danced in the rain : yeah. Awesome stuff
( ) a letter to Santa Claus
( ) been kissed under the mistletoe
(v) watched the sun rise with someone you care about : Parents. Darjeeling ** starts drooling again **
(v) blown bubbles : Still do. paas aao paas aao paas aao naa =))
( ) made a bonfire on the beach
( ) crashed a party
( ) gone roller skating
(v) had a wish come true : just today, morning
(:) jumped off a bridge : Not yet. But damn i know I'm going to bungee jump at least once
( ) ate dog/cat food
(:) told a complete stranger you loved them : nah told others I loved him ( Steve :p)
( ) kissed a mirror : Now i wouldn't say I was making out eith a mirror will I ?
(v) sang in the shower : It irriates my brother, so yeah :p
( ) had a dream that you married someone
(v) glued your hand to something : to my other hand. This fevikvik ( not sure about the spelling) is effective. Don't try it at home. YOu have it fromt he horse's mouth
(v) kissed a photo : Not really, but the coverpage of a book
( ) climbed a water tower
(v) screamed at the top of your lungs : Building terrace again!!!
( ) done a one-handed cartwheel
(v) talked on the phone for more than 5 hours : Obviously. Hey it didn't mention if it's at a stretch!! At a stretch no. I like to talk but not that much :P
( ) picked and ate an apple right off the tree
(v) climbed a tree : Yeah. Then was bitten by a bee
( ) had a tree house
( ) been too scared to watch a scary movie alone
( ) believe in ghosts
( ) have more than 30 pairs of shoes
( ) worn a really ugly outfit to school : Yeah fancy dress, had become a crow
( ) gone streaking
(v) gone doorbell ditching : come now , you must admit, it's fun; if your'e on the right side that is:p
( ) been pushed into a pool/hot tub with all your clothes on
(v) told you're hot by a complete stranger : eavesteasing perverts
( ) broken a bone
(v) been easily amused : I'm always amused no matter what. call it looking at the amusing side of things
( ) caught a fish then ate it
(v) caught a butterfly : I regretted it though. its wing got all crumpled
(v) laughed so hard you cried : It was weird but yeah
( ) cried so hard you laughed
(v) cheated on a test ...once or twice,feel very uncomfortable. I don't like being dishonest to myself
(v) forgotten some one's name : always happens when I vaguely remember looking at their faces in some random movie :p
(v) French braided some one's hair : yeah, made hell of a mess of it too!
( ) gone skinny dipping in a pool/hot tub/river
( ) been threatened to be kicked out of your house or been kicked out of your house
(>) loved someone so much you would gladly die for : NEVER, I'll elaborate my point in some other post perhaps
( ) cheated on someone : never
(v) talk to yourself when no one's around : even when someone is around , I do that sometimes
( ) hate someone you once loved
( ) love someone you once hated
( ) kissed the phone for the person on the other side : Just reading about it brought a WTF expression on my face. Then again maybe I *might* get struck my lightening and do it in future
( ) kissed the person on the other side of the phone : what's the difference between this question and the one above???

What Do You Think?

2008-09-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about my Kashmir trip this time , but I decided to narrate\type\tell this story because I just made it and it is fresh in my mind. :p
It's a story about two men and their families ( not families mostly, but they play a passive role). At the end of the story, I want to know from you, what you think of the characters and their actions and whether they were justified. For the sake of not insulting anyone by using names, let us refer to them as Mr. A and Mr. B.
Land prices today are as high the buildings they are making these days, aren't they? This story happened before that.
There was a patch of land located in the forest, which wasn't really habitable because of the surrounding wilderness. Mr. A was hard working and strong, but he wasn't much smart in business. He lived on a hand to mouth existence. Didn't save much but one thing good was his father had some influence. He got his son the permission to live on that patch of land. Now this Mr. A respected nature and instead of razing the trees, he made his home without harming the trees or other flora and fauna. In other words, he accepted the nature around him as a part of his life. He married and had kids and all that comes with married life (yawn!). He lived a pretty isolated life. He didn't talk to other people that much, but he loved his family and was fiercely protective of them. His IQ may have been as low as the railing of that new bridge they built on the Western Express Highway near the domestic airport, but he was pretty strong and could hold his own in a brawl at the pub and stuff like that. Provocate him, he'll tolerate you for a while and then give it back to you, all of it and more.
Enter Mr. B in the picture. ( or in this case, story-on-the-blog ). Now Mr. B was not so strong but was smart. And he had influence too, so he acquired permission to live on the aforementioned-unhabitable-but-inhabited-by Mr. A land too. Whoa, so our Mr. A had a neighbour in his isolation now. Mr. B was a social animal. He went to parties, had parties at his home and stuff. He even made friends with A and his family. Now, A accepted B and his family as his neighbours but sometimes he would get wary of the fact that B was much smarter than him. B here expanded his business ventures and made huge profits. He brought his business home. Set up a manufacturing plant right next to his home. All that disturbed his peace life but , he made compromises. But he started taking advantage of A's lack of intellect. He would use A's sons for labour at a rate much cheaper than was dictated by the government. He even got rid of the trees surrounding their land and of which A was very fond of. So you see, B was this shrewd fellow, who in the name of ' for the greater good of all', did everything he could for his own benefit. He would set his own rules and didn't care much about other people's rules but he broke them in such a way that the other person feels, B is actually helping them out.

Some people did raise a voice against B's antics but he managed to convince most of them that what he was doing was just another way of doing what was good for all. And those who saw through the honeyed-talk were silenced thorugh his influence.

One day he went too far. He expanded his house by demolishing A's house. Now A was homeless. He hadn't realised he and his family were being abused. He hadn't paid much attention to the people fighting for him against B , because to him they were just 'smart people' like B; not trustworthy. Since he was homeless, A had no choice but to roam about what had been his property, his home till the day before. But B showed his nasty side to him and threw A out of the house and accused him of trespassing. A became really frustrated now. He was homeless, Not smart enough to find work at his old age, and his influential father was dead. His family depended on him for support. One time one of his sons wandered into B's property and stole some food. B was a bit drink or he wouldn't have reacted the way he did. He killed A's son.

A had enough of it now. He was done tolerating B's nonsense and he was done being pushed about in the name of good. Screw all and screw all their well - wishes. When things came to his family, he forgot the rest. He went to B's place in a towering rage and beat him to a pulp. Vandalised the place in general and went away.

Unfortunately or fortunately, B survived and lodged a complaint against A. He declared that A was deranged and so was not safe to have around. As a result A was arrested. A didn't try to defend himself. He didn't care! People were of mixed opinions. Some people agreed that B had it coming to him after what he did to A's son. Some said, A was a brute and should be hanged, while some thought, B should be made to pay but A's method had not been right.

Politicians started including A and B in their speeaches. Several Save A's life organistaions and petitions came up. The debate is still going on as to whether A should live or not. It's been more or less decided that he should live, but the decision has not yet been implemented. People depending on others to implement that. People moved on. While A's life has been stuck in a rut since that. Once or twice a month, he has to go to court to see lawyers battling out his fate. But he seems aloof from all of it now. Like he is just outside looking in through the wall . or perhaps he's just numb and indifferent to it.

Now think about what A did . And what B did. In my opinion all of us are B in some small way at least. And the animal kingdom is A. This analogy just came to it. Think about it.

Ps : in teh previous post, i forgot to mention, there was this one news channel who had claimed that Steve was good with crocodiles because he used to sodomise them. :(( faggots

Life Of a Legend

2008-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, today, ie, 4th of September, an innocent stingray used its barb in supposed self-defense and was responsible for giving a huge jolt to the world of animal conservation. It killed beloved crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin.
Some people hated him, most of the people loved him. But no one can deny the fact that once anyone saw him in action as ' the crocodile hunter', they could not remain wholly indifferent to him. Frankly how can that be possible? How can anyone ignore that innocence and complete honesty oozing out of his personality? One look at his eyes and you are toast. Eyes wink, eyes allure, eyes twinkle, eyes glitter, but very rarely do eyes beam. Steve's eyes beamed. When you look into his eyes, you get this feeling that he is saying " Come here. You are welcome to my world. It is such a beautiful place. crickey! Become a part of it and experience it for yourself". ( Oh well i guess there was way too much corn in it but thats how it is. Talking about Steve aayerwin makes me that way:P)
As if he wasnt enough we have an equally enthusiastic soulmate of his who in his own words used to get scared to tears for him but never once did she ask him to stop what he was doing. And then theres Bindi who is an animal nut like him and ickle Bob. What a kick-ass family!

So what makes him different from other animal conservationalists? Why not Jeff Corwin ( thought I daresay he's very popular too ). I guess if anyone asks me why I love\worship him so much, I wont't be able to answer it properly if at all ( that'd be a first one won't it? me not answering back?), but I'll wonder about it for days and nights and come up with the same answer I have right now : I don't know. But it goes deep like you know love for one's country. There's no particular reason as such. Animal magnetism counts?:P Steve didn't need to make an effort to show his passion for conservation. Others ( forgive me if you are offended) seem to try to show enthusiasm about it. ( a la david blaine and chris angel. Angel seems more on the defensive side although he may be a better magician). He lived his life full throttle, taking unthinkable risks to save animals, in spite of knowing, deep down, that one day his luck could run out. This sort of unconditional devotion to his beliefs is very appealing too, no? Besides I haven't encountered many men who could compare a woman to an orangutan and actually get away with it by making the woman ( Kathy Buchanan in this case) feel complimented. He was as enthusiastic about his family as his work. How many people can claim that they are their child's hero? His ebullient antics, broad australian accent, and knack of making you feel as if you are the only one he is talking to and what you think or do matters to him made him a household name across the world.

He had his share of controversies too. Dangling Bob-too-near-the croc incident. People said he was idiotically fearless. Now thats not really fair. :-| He always said that being brought up in the zoo with his conservationalist parents, what seemd bizarre and dangerous to others like dodging a four metre croc, tossing beer snakes, rescuing baby bats, was just a walk in the park for him. He was born and raised with wild animals so these 'antics' were completely natural to him. Modern day Mowgli I say. Though here is something which shows he was a mortal just like us: he lived in constant fear of fast cars after losing his mom to a car crash!
5th September,2006. I was having my morning cup of coffee and browsing through papers as usual and thinking about Teachers' Day. Mumbai Mirror, Page 29, left side, bottom of the page were the lines " Eccentric conservationalist : Steve 'crocodile hunter' Irwin dies in a freak accident with a stingray." Shit. I kept on staring at that headline for an eternity it seemed, without really processing it. After that i don't really remember what happened. I guess I was numb. Mainly because Steve was one of those vital creatures of whom when they do die, we say it seems impossible that they can be dead. Isn't it amazing what one barb can do? I can't even imagine what his family must have gone through at that time. One day, he is all hale and hearty and merry as usual. Next day, he is gone, never to return. One small consolation is that he always said, he wanted to die doing what he loved the most. If he'd have had the chance to say something, I guess he would have said " crocs rule and crickey it wasn't the stingray's fault. it was me who was invading its privacy"
People tell me , move on he's gone. get over it. Why should I? if moving on means not thinking of him when I see a snake or a particularly amazing stunt by a bird, I don't want to forget him. I don't swim around with crocs like he did, but thanks to him, I do love all animals now. I'm not even disgusted by insects. That's his legacy. That's how Steve lives on.
Beloved,eccentric,charming,generous,passionate,gorgeous,innocent,lovable, gentleman of the wild. A wildlife warrior. That's Steve for you. Love you Steve.

( Note : I meant to post this yesterday but the draft wasn't complete yet and I didn't want to spoil it by haste, so posting it today. Btw Happy Teachers' Day to all:P )

A Secret Tag

2008-06-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Nirmal to reveal 10 of my secrets. So here they are after much ado:p

# I am shit scared of crossing roads. Especially crossroads and highways. I mean I don't faint in the middle of the road , but I always join a group of people about to cross the road, or if I'm with someone I know, I grab their hand. Very, painfully ( at least I think, it must be painful), hard.

# I love all animals, wild and tame alike. But I'm scared of cows and bulls. And I have had too many bad experiences to ever be convinced otherwise. Yeah, if they are tied up, then I don't mind feeding and petting them.

# People think that since I talk a lot, I'm very outgoing. Actually I'm an intovert. What others know about me is only what I want them to know. So you may think, ooh I know you do this, you like that, but all that you know because I told you about it.

# And my face is NOT an open book. You can't guess what I'm feeling from my facial expressions unless I am really pissed off. Then you'll know very well what I'm feeling. :p

# Whenever I'm out with someone alone, I don't like it when that person keeps talking on the phone for ages. I mean five minutes maximum unless the call's urgent. Afterwards I get the feeling of being ignored and lose interest in the outing and that person too with whom I have gone, be it my cousin, relative, mom, dad, friend whoever. ( at least for the duration of that outing ).

# I rarely lose my temper or feel hurt by what someone says or does to me. But when I do take it to heart, I never ever forget that incident and so i guess I never really do forgive them. Yeah, I'll tell them I have forgiven them to make them feel better, but there always will be a little less respect for them than what I had for them earlier. Maybe this isn't good but that's the way I am.

# I didn't cry watching titanic. I didn't cry in Black. I didn't cry in Rang De Basanti, but I was like a human hosepipe when I watched The Green Mile, Passion of the Christ and Taare Zameen Par. And I cried a lot when J K rowling killed off Sirius Black and Dumbledore in the 5th and the 6th Harry Potter parts respectively. And when Steve Irwin died? I couldn't even eat for two days.

# Back when I was in 5th standard, I had swallowed a 5 rupees coin ( unintentionally of course. :-| How it actually happened is another long story about which I'll talk some other time.) So to remove that coin without surgery I had to eat a dozen bananas for two weeks. And I hate bananas, so it was particularly difficult. But after that incident , I haven't eaten a single entire banana till today. :D And I wish to continue to claim this as long as I can. :D

# I love to see my brother laugh. Sometimes I act dumb and and do other crazy stuff at home to make him laugh. Same with friends too. I act nutty because it makes them laugh and I feel very happy to know that I made them laugh. ( aahh, so there's a bit of selfishness involved there I guess.:P)

# Ahh. The last one finally. I hate to dress up. I'm usually most comfortable in lose tops with capries or tracks. But on every occasion, I dress up according to the dress code expected because I feel that otherwise I'll be insulting the person who has invited me to the occasion, or even at public places, if I'm not appropriately dressed I feel I'm letting my folks down or something.

I have done enough gut spilling today to last me a few years at least. :D. And I don't know if I'll let this post remain on the blog for a long time.

Judgement

2008-06-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

Yoo hoo. Rains are here. Maybe rains read my blog and decided if they didn't arrive soon, I might get the urge to write another poem like 'monsoon o monsoon'. :D Whatever. Monsoon brings many things with it. The leaves of the gulmohur tree get laden with water droplets which fall on you when you shake them. ( try it , it's a really cool feeling. Yeah , maybe I'm a bit partial to gulmohur trees after the flower incident). Then the oh-so-good-and-widely-talked-about smell of the earth. Then come the water logged pot-holes, overflowing gutters and amazing winds with biting rainfall (like duh, monsoon will of course bring rains with it). Hey, have you ever tried looking up at the sky at night when it is raining? sans your umbrellas and wind cheaters I mean? if no, then do it tonight, if it rains that is. If yes then don't the raindrops look like diamonds falling from the sky just before they hit your face? Also try catching the raindrops on your tongue ( NOT because that sms which says, next time it rains, try to catch the drops on your tongue. The drops you catch is how much you miss me and the ones you miss is how much I miss you, but beacuse it's real fun and nourishing too if you must know. Raindrops have vitamin B 12 in them ).

But I haven't titled this post judgement to talk about pros and cons of monsoon. I tend to digress. A lot. I just discovered a new test to check how caring people are of others' feelings. All you have to do is watch them drive in the rain. Especially, when they encounter aforementioned water-filled pot holes. If they slow down near the pot holes, then they are cautious about their actions and considerate of what their actions will do to others. These are the rare good ones. The rest are, well, inconsiderate. But then, I would be generalising and I hate generalising or being branded a hypocrite. :P

The rest fall under three categories :
# 1 Those who deliberately do that. These are the real scums. And leave without a shred of regret. I guess these are the people who are majorly involved in hit-and-run cases.
# 2 Those who are not aware of their actions. They didn't know that they splashed the pedestrians with mud. These are the careless ones or maybe they hadn't been able to slow down in time to stop the damage. Like those who just started to drive or are still learning to drive. These usually don't stop to apologise.
# 3 The really good ones who genuinely regret their actions and sometimes even stop their vehicle to apologise to the pedestrian.

Probably this was a silly post but I just felt like writing something. Couldn't think of anything better.

An Inspiring Article

2008-06-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

I came across this article when I was reading someone's blog. This someone in turn had read this article in "The Statesman". So, this post is not my own in totality unless you count what I'm babbling right now. Usually I don't just copy paste articles from somewhere but I loved this article so much that I'm posting it here as I read it. You can copy the article from here and post it on your blog too. Yeah yeah I know, enough build up eh? I'll post the article now before you shut this page in disgust without actually reading the article but here's something about it without which you wouldn't know who spoke this. The article is an excerpt of Mahasweta Devi’s inaugural address at the Frankfurt book fair in the year 2006, in Germany. Don't ask me who is Mahasweta Devi because I have no idea whatsoever. Go wiki her or something.

A DREAM FOR INDIA
Extracts from Mahasweta Devi’s inaugural address at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany

“At 80 plus I move forward, often stepping back into the shadows. Sometimes I am bold enough to step back into the sunlight. As a young person, a mother, I would often move forward to when I was old. Amuse my son. Pretend not to see, or hear him. Flail my hands like in a blind man’s game, or make a mockery of memory. Forget important things. Things that had taken place but a moment ago! These games were for fun. Now they are no longer funny. My life has moved forward & is repeating itself. I am repeating myself. Recollecting for you what has been. What is. What could have been. May have been…”

“Nothing happens unless you know how to dream. The establishment is out to destroy, by remote control, all brain cells that induce dreams. But some dreams manage to escape, and I’m after those dreams. The right to dream should be our first fundamental right. And what I say next is an extension of those dreams”

“What do we mean when we speak of Indian culture in the 21st century? What culture? Which India? 60 yrs after our hard won independence, the Khadi sari is India just as the mini-skirt and the backless choli is. A bullock cart is India just as much as the latest Toyota or Merc. Illiteracy haunts us & still the same India produces men & women at the foremost of medicine, science and technology. Eight year old children toil mercilessly, facing unimaginable working conditions and abuse as child labor. And yet there are another lot of 8 year olds who spend their time in Air-conditioned classrooms & call their mothers at lunch break using their personal mobile phones. That too is India. Satyam shivam sundaram is India. Choli ke peechey is also India. The Multiplex and Mega mall is India. The snake charmer & the maharishi, that too is India.”

“Indian culture is a tapestry of many weaves, many threads. The weaving is endless as are the shades of the pattern. Somewhere dark, somewhere light, somewhere saffron, somewhere as green as the fields of new paddy, somewhere flecked with blood, somewhere washed cool by the waters of a Himalayan spring. Somewhere, the red of a watermelon slice. Somewhere, the blue of an autumn sky in Bengal. Somewhere, the purple of a musk deer’s eye. Somewhere, the red of a new bride’s sindoor. Somewhere, the threads form words in Urdu, somewhere in Bengali, elsewhere in Kannada, somewhere in Assamese, yet elsewhere in Marathi. Somewhere, the cloth frays. Somewhere, the threads tear. But still it holds. It holds”

“The pattern shifts, flows, stutters, forms again & changes shape from one season to another. I see one India in the pattern. You see another. Light & shadow play. History & modernity collide. Superstition & myth, Rabindra sangeet & rap, Sufi & Shia & Sunni, caste system & computers, laughter & tears, Governments & oppositions, reservations & quotas, Sanskrit & SMS, hamburgers & hari om hari. A seamless stitch. Many hands have stitched, are stitching, and will continue to stitch India. My country – torn, tattered, proud, beautiful, hot, humid, cold, sandy, bright, dull, educated, barbaric, savage, shining. So chaotic, yet so calm. So flexible, yet so rigid. So rich, yet so poor. So understanding, yet so easily misunderstood. After all, there are many Indias, as I keep repeating. Simultaneous, even parallel. India. My country. And its myriad cultures. There is room in India for all faiths. Despite the communal threats, the fundamentalism, the backwardness of rural life, the memories of underdevelopment (which are no memories but harsh realities for us), the threat of AIDS, natural & man-made disasters, farmer suicides, police violence, environmental disasters wreaked by industries and farmlands being purchased by MNCs, despite the battering of history & circumstances, India still is. Its culture still is. India has learnt to survive, to adapt, and to keep the old with the new.”

“I dream of an India where ‘backward’ does not & cannot ever apply. I wish to be Third world no more but the First! I wish for children to be educated. I wish for women to step into the light. I wish for justice for the common man. Survival for farmers. Homes for the poor. And hope for all. I wish for debts to cease. For poverty to vanish. For hunger to become a bad word that no one utters. I wish for the environment to be protected, to be loved & restored. I wish for the lands to be healed, the waters to be pure again, for the tiger to survive. I wish for self-reliance, for self respect, for independence from the shackles of superstition. I wish for equal medical aid for all. For light & water & a roof above every head. I wish for more & more books to be written, published in every language of the country. Let the words pour out. Let stories be told. Let the people read. Let the people learn how to read. To trace their fingers over each alphabet until they can spell their names, till they can write for themselves – I know. I can. I will. Let us battle ignorance with knowledge, and hatred with logic.”

“I wish for no more satis. No more dowry deaths, no more honor killings, no more flesh being bought & sold. Let no more parents have to sell their children to survive. Let no more mothers drown their daughters in the dead of the night. Let the downtrodden awake. Let the ignored & marginalized, the forgotten faces & the muffled voices arise to claim their own. Let the pattern make room. Let these new threads find place. Let new colors set the tapestry afire. Into that heaven of freedom, let my India awaken again & again. It is a big dream, I know. But not an impossible one. For any culture as old as ours to have survived over time through adversities, there can be only one basic & common acceptable core thought : humanness. To accept each other’s right to be Human with dignity.”

“This then, is my fight, my dream. In my life and in my literature.”

* THE ARTICLE ENDS HERE *

Though I 'think' she may be an author. Pretty inspiring, no? If you read the entire article you may get this urge to post it on your blog or share it with your friends. DON'T quell this urge. Follow your instinct and do whatever you thought first after reading this( but don't expect me to be very co-operative if you feel an urge to kill me), because I think that if you start thinking about it, you may not do what you wanted to. Moral of the story : Thinking kills impulses and impulses are what differentiate people from one another, uhh according to me at least.

From an insomaniac

2008-06-06T02:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Sleep,
Hey there. I know we met just a few hours back but, you seemed distant and aloof. It seems you haven't forgiven me for past month's negligence. * sighs heavily*. Since you are one of my closest friends, and I have spent almost one third of my entire life with you, I'm writing this letter to explain my actions in the past month.
Mind you, if it hadn't been for the above reasons or the fact that I really need you, i wouldn't have bothered to write this letter. So when you do read this letter, keep in mind the honour I'm giving you by betraying my other good friend, Laziness. Now really, you know about my fair-weather friend Exam ( really, isn't the weather fair in summer???). I had neglected the preparations for his arrival in the day time, due to the bad influence of my aforementioned good friend Laziness. So I thought, you, my nocturnal friend, would understand that I had avoid you for a few days to get rid of Exam, but for that I needed to prepare properly or I knew you would refuse to come to me, if I hadn't been good to Exam. You were good to me in Kashmir, but that I think was because, you didn't want to alarm my cousins. But later when I returned home , you refused to even come near me!!
Just think about it, is this fair? After all the wonderful nights we shared together? After all the stuff I had to put up with to please you? You would always start sulking whenever I thought of someone at night. I tried to keep your jealousy at bay, but I always gave in, in the end. You bring sweet dreams with you most of the times, even though you know I find sweet dreams very boring, but I smiled at them and was good to them because they came along with you.
It wasn't easy for me too, when you were away from me. I had to endure terrible headaches, during the day ( and night too), in your absence. ( for which I'll be eternally grateful to coffee for saving my life). I am very sorry and I really need you and will always will need you. Please , please , please come back to me.

Your good friend ( still hoping to be),
insomaniac

Bills n Moon

2008-05-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah I know it's called Mills n Boon. SO WHAT?. Whatever, I don't know if I mentioned in my earlier posts that books are my one weakness. Mysteries, fantasies, sci-fi, thrillers, history, war stories, mytholgical tales, and so on. Did you notice anything common in the fields\genres I specified aside from the fact that they are a criteria for books? If yes, then well done. If no, then I'll tell you, all of them have a definite story and a strong plot. I'll come to this significant, useless point later.

So, when a lay my hands upon an interesting mystery, usually I complete it in at one go. I mean Perry Mason cases and Nancy Drew et al. I know reading is a good habit and all that, but for me, it sort of became an obsession that I had to complete a book at one go, which disturbed my other chores of the day. So my mom here had a very bright , not so unique idea of hiding them away for a while. So I had nothing to read for a few very painful days. But then, along came my cousin, who also reads books. Only difference was, she mainly reads silhouette and mills n boon stuff, and she had brought two of 'em with her. I thought this was a divine temptation. I had no books. She had two. Not fair. Is there no justice? Since I had nothing else to read, and I was feeling very deprived, so I read one of her mills n boon at one go. I don't know what it was, the fact that I was so so hungry (?) for books or the fact that they hypnotise you to read it completely or something, but while I was reading it, I didn't get bored. But after I finished the book? Yeah I felt like banging myself on head with a pestle. Here is where we return to the aforementioned significant useless point. The whole frigging book didn't have a story. No logic, wild emotions, utterly predictable ending. I mean what was the point of the whole book? It just raises expectations from the kind of partners the readers want.

No. I won't criticise the book. What would be the point? My criticism won't bother the publisher or the author's ass. Or the devoted readers. So I wonder what was the point of this post anyway. I mean you didn't learn anything as such. Also the fact that I love books is mentioned in the about me section. So this post was utterly pointless like the book which I read but didn't want to read, but had to, as there was nothing else and I had to feed my reading glands ( The Lire gland located just below the ear. aye, kaan ne niche). But unlike mills n boon romance, at least my post didn't have a predictable end. You thought , it must have been a fire post like a previous one? ha ha. You ought to appreciate anti-climaxes more.

I wonder why everything has to have a point. Just imagine a pointless life. A pointless world. If there was not a single point in the world, then there would be no points ( plural )in the world to. Which means............... NO segments, NO rays, NO lines, NO circles,NO conics, NO complex geometrical shapes. Life would be this whole pointless journey. :D

Generation and Generalisation

2008-04-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

Don't you come across many middle-aged people who keep nagging young people about how today's world is spoiling them? Perhaps that obese lady in your building, who has to push her butt in each and every person's life? Or that uncle who keeps warning you to take care because " aaj ka zamaanaa bahut kharaab hai"? Yeah, them. I am referring to them. These people are usually the ones who can't accept change in their life. They are cynical, yes but won't actually do anything about the problem. Usually, they target us, youngsters, who have actually done no harm and are just under the line of fire beacuse they can't figure out what we think. They never actually mention why they disapprove, just make it very clear that they disapprove. So what's wrong with listening on the headphones while walking on the road? We are actually avoiding noise pollution. Listening to songs on the head phones makes us happy without harming others. Why don't you frigging understand that? Aye, about not being able to listen to the horns behind you, I'd say we value our lives more than you do. Of course, there always will be some nutters, but why should you generalise? And about today's world being a bad influence on us? Whether you like it or not, we are going to live in this world unless someone invents a time machine which works and we'll live in your oh so holier than thou world. But wait. HOLIER THAN TODAY'S WORLD????? You gotta be kidding me. Seriously. Who was responsible for the World War(s) ? Who was responsible for destroying so many Japanese lives? Who was responsible for the death of so many Jews? Who was responsible for all those broken families? YOUR so-called pure generation. What? You weren't there then? Here's something recent. Who is responsible for all those communal riots? To which generation does osama bin laden belong? Who is responsible for fucking up the environment so badly and dumping the reparation work on our laps? Who put a big hole in the ozone layer? Who didn't pay attention to birth control and is responsible for the mind-blowing population of today? and ironically, who is nagging US about birth control? Oh and who is responsible for racism, sexism and casteism? Aye. So now tell me what is so wrong with today's world? Are tattoos and piercings so bad? Or perhaps low waist jeans? Or maybe the fact that we are ditching mainstream and opting for other lines which benefit the environment too? Here these lines may seem quite unrelated superficially but the underlying implication is the same.......

When I born, I Black, When I grow up, I Black, When I go in Sun, I Black, When I scared, I Black, When I sick, I Black, And when I die, I still black.. And you White fella, When you born, you Pink, When you grow up, you White, When you go in Sun, you Red, When you cold, you Blue, When you scared, you Yellow, When you sick, you Green, And when you die, you Gray.. And you calling ME Colored ??

: ok I gotta go now. The big bad world outside is waiting for me. tally ho

Fixation?

2008-04-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

I was just recollecting the names of Western bands and I found something rather weird.Check out these bands and the obvious emphasis that I have lain on some of it's words:

# RED hot chilli peppers
# GREENday
# BLACK eyed peas
# Plain WHITE T's
(hey, the third and the fourth rhymed too.Uh,sort of.Try saying them together in one breath )
# MAROON 5
# BLUE
# PINK Floyd

Coldplay's single " YELLOW", Donovan's album " Mellow YELLOW", Amelia Brightman goes by the name of "VIOLET", a Japanese J- pop and J- rock band is called " ORANGE Range ". OK. The ones I have mentioned without the "#" are the ones I checked on Wikipedia. SO SUE ME!!!!!

In My Closet

2008-04-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I have nothing better to do these days. I was actually going through my closet in hopes of finding the jeans i wanted to wear the next day. I didn't find it. Nor did I find any spare long forgotten, hundred rupees note or anything. * sighs * All such things always happen in movies. All the bad things like accidents, stalkers, .... which WE think happen only in movies happen to us. So anyway, I did find my wallet which I had bought some seven years back. It had no money in it but an original, cellotaped sheet ( I got stuck at this word sheet. first I wrote original cellotaped copy, but WTF is an original copy?????) of my first poem ever, which I had written as a part of elocution class assignment, and we were supposed to write this in candle light as there was no electric power in class at that time; (ugh. This reminds me of Monday when we had to complete our physics prelim paper in darkness, as power was out at the college). Here is the poem by the way,

MONSOON
Monsoon o monsoon,
I hope you come soon.

In your water we play,
We, children, happy and gay.

From June to September,
There will be a merry weather.

Tiny, clear drops of thee,
Shall delight each and every tree.

The sudden flash of lightening,
Won't that be frightening?

School will give us a holiday,
What fun! If you came everyday!

Monsoon o monsoon
I hope you really come soon.

Note : I wrote this poem when I was 9 or 10 i guess. I haven't changed a single word from it's original version and have just copied it as it is from the original sheet. Yeah I was very fond of couplets. :D

Vegetarianism

2008-04-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Ok. The title should have been non - vegetarianism (say, is that even a noun?). Are you a non - vegetarian? I bet you meet a lot of people who look down their nose upon you because of that. They are just plain ignorant hypocrites. They may give you all that moral crap about harming a living thing and stuff. Here is what you can say to them :

# Sea food-eaters are mainly responsible for the employment of fishermen. Meat-eaters are responsible for employment of butchers. What if everyone goes vegetarian? Will you take the responsibility of providing employment to them?

# Most fishermen live along the coast. So they can't cultivate other crops on the saline land. Naturally, they will have to move. This is going to increase the strain on the land resources of the nation. Will you take the responsibility of providing them with proper, hygienic homes?

# It is because people who eat non - vegetarian, that it is possible to supply grains to the remaining people of India. If they all go vegetarian, who is going to provide all the extra grains? Will you take the responsibility of providing good food to over a billion people?

# This one's the best. They usually give the shit about harming animals. Here is what you can reply, " When animals are being caught, at least they can move to defend themselves. They can run away and escape. They at least have a chance. YOU all are cowards. Plants or crops can't even move from their places when you cut\harvest them. You don't even give them a chance to defend themselves. You just hack them, you cowards."

* That is why people say before you criticize others, look at what you are doing. The same thing applies to plastic also. But I'll talk about plastics some other time.

The Broken Nose Chronicles

2008-03-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Holi came and went. Leaving behind lasting colourful impressions. In my case, the impression was blue in colour. On my nose. And now it is broken Here is how that came about...

Two days back, my folks were out and there was nothing for dinner. I had my classes till late, so I could not save the day (ahhhh). So my brother, tired (he goes for cricket for 3-4 hours 4 days a week!!!!) and irritated went out and got sev puri for both of us.Two plates each. I came home by 9.30 by which my brother was already preparing his will in case he died of hunger. At the table,

Me : So what have you got for dinner?
Tired and Irriated brother ( Taib) : What do you think is in front of you, button eyes?
Me : alright, alright. So there are two plates for each of us right?
* Taib glares which leads to the breaking of The glass*
Me : Just checking.
( after a while)
Me ( my stomach full with sev puri ) : How can you finish two full plates so fast? I can't even complete my first plate. ahhhh
Taib : I haven't got buttoneyes. This is your second plate. I can see your empty first plate right beside you-
Me ( interrupting ) : No, no. You don't understand. This is my first plate. Why can't you believe such a simple thing like this?
Taib (getting more irritated) : achha? Then what is that beside you?
Me ( innocently ) : Oh that. That is my second plate. I decided to have my second plate of sev puri first. And NOW I am eating my first plate. So you see, I can't complete my first plate of sev puri. And that isn't my first empty plate. HA! I was right. Now say sorry for not believing me.
* I am waiting for the apology to come *
* Still there is nothing but silence *
After a while, I take a deep breath and prepare to say something-
Me : Owww. My nose, my nose. aaahhhh.

Moral of the story : Always eat the first plate of sev puri first.

Note :
How to ask minimum three questions from a single simple sentence.( ha ha an alliteration).

The sentence : " Spicymist was called a 'polypoplomaniac' by a girl named Culleez"
The questions : #1 WTF do you mean by spicymist?
#2 What is a polypoplomaniac?
#3 What sort of a name is Culleez?

* always remember the art lies in asking the correct kind of questions . hee hee

Quote Hanger

2008-03-13T05:37:00.000-07:00

I had put upon myself a restriction on using the net since december so that i can study for my boards in those hours. Needless to say most of it was wasted. Anyway, I came across many awesome quotes at this time. I,m not saying i believe in all of them but some are really amusing while others are thought inducing.

# Never be afraid of death, beacuse it is something which does not exist when you do.( though in ' the amber spyglass' they suggest otherwise.)

# When you truly love someone with all your heart, you must be willing to let them die before you, so that they don't have to go through the same pain of losing a dear one. *** ( *** conditions apply. this is valid only if the love is mutual between the two parties)

# All the martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Rani Laxmibai, Lal Bahadur shashtri never sacrificed their life for their motherland. They loved India more than anything else. So why would giving up their life for her freedom be a "sacrifice" ???

# Maybe sometimes we don't do the right thing because the wrong thing looks more dangerous, and we don't want to look scared, so we go and do the wrong thing BECAUSE its dangerous. We're more concerned with not looking scared than with judging right.
( quite something coming from a twelve-year old Will Parry.)

# You will be different. Sometimes you will feel like an outcast. But you'll never be alone. You will make my strength your own. You will see my life through your eyes as your's will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father, the son." ( i love this line in d movie. remember it????)

# Football is a strange game. Every player tries to get the ball. But when he actually gets it, all he does is kick it away. (muhahahahahahahaha)

# George W Bush will protect your unborn foetus and then let your grown child die in war.

# PJs are not meant for the listeners' entertainment; but for the teller's amusement on looking at thefrustration on the listener's face. ( whoever said this is a genius!!!)

# In passing also,I would like to say that, the first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on the woman. ( this was by Nancy Astor, the first woman to acquire a seat in England's parliament. )

# EASY is an adjective used to describe a woman who has the sexual morals of a man.

# There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. So technically, all the other jobs must be open all.

# It is God's job to punish the terrorists but is our job to set up the meeting between them. ( long live the Indian Military.)

The best one of all

# Mutual fund investments are subject to market risk. Please read the offer document scheme carefully before investing. ( try reading that as fast as you can. you might just end up with a job!!)

["some" of the quotes have been plagiarised directly from HT, movies and novels. But frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. hee hee )

FIRST LOVE

2007-11-20T04:49:00.000-08:00

yeah this is the poem i wrote yesterday and i haven't editted it. i was feeling too damn lazy. so please spare my poor tired lazy soul.here goes...

FIRST LOVE
Just another early morning,
I’m getting ready to go walking.
Oh, the monotony of life…
I hope today will be different

I hit the road leading to the farm,
Scenery no longer enchanting me with its charm.
But, I do notice the sun, instead of the usual fog.
Maybe today will be different.

My hopes go higher and higher
As I turn round the corner.
Then I saw “her” at the window.
Today is indeed different!

I stare at her, not caring that I stumble,
She looks at me and I see her mumble
A fuzzy warmth fills my heart
Seeing the smile of that work of art.

Was it the sparkle in her eye?
Or was it her dazzling smile?
She made me feel cherished.
I knew today would be different.

Next day onwards,
I actually looked forward to go walking
Embracing this monotony without grumbling.
I looked forward to see her radiate joy
When she looked at me like a child unwrapping a new toy.

Happy and innocent, this morning play,
Made bearable the rest of my day.
I even started dreaming of her,
Maybe I was falling in love with her.

As new mornings came ,
The surer I became.
What if she loves me too?
Tomorrow I’ll tell her ,” I love you.”

I woke up feeling different, the next day
Different in a bad sort of way.
Something felt wrong.
I thought, maybe today is different.

I left my home and went to her place,
she was waiting down, agitation apparent in her pace.
Coming closer I saw her tears, her watery smile when she saw me.
I knew. She was leaving me.
Suddenly, through my own tears, I saw that it was again foggy.
She bent and whispered in my ear, “ I’ll always miss you, little doggy.”

Letter

2007-11-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

Dear parent,

This letter is strictly for parents who have teen aged children. so you think you have a big rebellious problem on your hands? You think whatever you do, it is not enough for your child? Your child has come under the influence of today's bad world and that he\she has forgotten all that you taught him\her? Here i have listed the reasons for the relationship strain from the point of view of a teenager.( yours truly being one, has made these observations from personal experience and those of her peers)
First of all you have to know that when you were in college it was probably the mid-seventies and this is " tees saal baad" . so while you never went out for movies with your friends, you never bunked lectures, you never had cell phones...et al,so what?, just because you did things in a certain way does not make it imperative for your child to do the same.You have your own views about a certain matter, fine, but please don't snap at your child if he\she chooses to look at it in a differrent way and does it differently.
Your child is not like you. however strong the resemblance, you cannot take away their identity. If you forbid them to do something,( like having a permanent tattoo is taboo, smoking is injurious to health and so on) give enough reasons to convince them beyond doubt because they listen to their friends an awful lot more than they do to you. You have to be reasonable and hear their side out too. you tell them they are supposed to do something something because you tell them to, they'll argue, become rebellious and do it behind your back anyway. Oh, and emotional blackmail is one sure thing to make them lose respect for you.Please don't generalise statements like today's youth is self-centered and inconsiderate, because that is unfair and untrue. Most of the volunteers in various social organisations are youngsters.

Lastly, treat your child with respect. They may not have become what you dreamt for them, but that does not mean they will not make you proud. An army man is just as honourable as a doctor or an engineer or a chartered accountant. Over-expectations put unnecessary pressure on them and comparison with peers will only make your child jealous , distant and bitter and lower their self esteem. If you want to find faults with them, you also have to appreciate them "sincerely" when they do something good. Most importantly, trust your child and tell them so. You can gain their trust by telling them a little about yourself when you were their age, (but not in a preachy way), the problems you faced, the mischief you made.. as you would to your friend and they in turn will tell you what they are feeling and how they are coping ( but you need to accept it that they won't share everything with you). I'll take your leave now. Just think about what i have written before dismissing it as crap. and of course you are welcome to debate your views with me. But always remember, if you want your child to grow up and become independent, you must allow them to do so.

Yours youthfully,(hee hee)
a teenager

Funny

2007-10-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

No wonder people are going veggie these days...(ewwwww)

sigh.. even the ghosts get to watch good movies...

Now we know we are developing...

What was she thinking???

I wonder what the old coot's doing??

Get your own shopping basket...

Take me back...

morning breath...

Wedding blues???

Why women should not read silly romances...

What women see in the mirror...

What men see in the mirror...

Jobs

2007-10-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

study hard so that you'll get a good job blah blah blah .......................

Some really amazing facts

2007-10-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

these are some of the coolest and not so known amazing facts ( unlike ancient stuff like dolphins sleep with their one eye open. duh. even dolphins have become concious of that fact) I just unearthed from somewhere. have a look at them :

# oil actually damages your hair in the long run because oil molecules settle on the scalp and block the essential nutrients. (hehe wait till my mom reads this).

# the closest relative of garden sparrow is a fresh water tigerfish. ( yeah and I'm related to nostradamus).

# earwax contains vitamin B6 ( ewwww don't ask me to confirm it. you go and give your dietician a plateful of waxy vitamins).

# the real name of Sushmita Sen is " Ujjwala Raisen" ( i wonder why she dropped the
Rai part from her surname???. And hell if she wanted to change her name, why not choose an exotic name like Tantlata ??).

# Geometry was not initially considered a part of mathematics. It was a part of philosophy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Oh damn why did they change their mind! there's no subject called philosophy in my college).

# By 2055 the entire Arctic ocean will freeze forever. ( huh? you mean it aint already frozen?? and besides who was that chipmunk shouting about global warming?? )

# Brenda Calton was the 21st president of the U.S. but on her first day in office, she was murdered by her husband and old Chester A Arthur got the job. ( I wonder if this Brenda Ca(r)lton was as snooty as that wannabe in Nancy Drew series).

# Bastritch does NOT mean bastard + son of a bitch, but it actually means a pregnant ostritch.

# Queen of hearts is still the most popular queen but it is a little known fact that, one company had accidently given moustaches to her and hadn't been aware of the fact till they had already distributed 3,500 decks. ( dumb, dumb. so next time your girl's not cleared her facial hair properly, call her queen of hearts. She won't murder you then).

# those who cannot put their fist entirely in their mouths are suffering ( or will suffer) from an ailment called Degros Doigts syndrome. ( Ha i bet u tried to put your fist in your mouth).

# aeroplanes are coated with a layer of plum juice before the final mica\ aluminium cover is welded. ( plum juice? PLUM JUICE???? what so they can say have a delicious journey!!)

# apparently scooter contribute more to pollution than four- wheelers. ( yeah must be. I guess that farty sound must add to the noise pollution. not to mention, irritation in people).

Hey all thanks a lot for reading these entertaining if somewhat pathetic amazing facts. I'll find out more such "facts" and keep updating. PS : none of the above facts are true. i made them all up. if you want more I'll just prod my weird overactive imagination a bit further and give you whackier ones. :p
PPS : de gros doigts means "some fat fingers" in french

Train Track and Children

2007-10-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use, while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. It was not possible to stop the train, but you could make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way??? Think of the kind of decision you could make... yes? or no?

Analyze......

Think......

and reflect......

decided your answer?

Yes? you would change the track?

Most of the people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. To save most of the children at the expense of only one child was a rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally.

But, did you ever consider the fact that the child choosing to play on the disused track had, in fact, made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, HE has to be sacrificed beacuse of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. Sounds familiar????

This kind of dilema happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are.

The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined.And in case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

To make the proper decision is not to try to change the course of the train beacuse the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that, that track was still in use, and that they should have run away when they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train would come over to that track!!!
Moreover, that track was not in use probably beacause it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake!! And our attept to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, we might just end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids who were wrong in the first place.

While we are aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realise that a hasty decision may not always be the right one.
" Remember that what's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right."

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils. ( hehehe ok that was a dumb one).

"Vision" India

2007-10-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Some people make some assumptions of their own and fix their views accordingly without budging even an inch to even consider the possibility of finding a grain of truth in what the others are saying to convince them otherwise. ( hey note im talking of only some elders and not our supercool Gen X or Y or Z or whichever alphabet we are in). Superstitions!! i guess when the said prediction comes true twice in a hundred times promotes suspicion to conviction , plus being drilled the same thing for many years and being taught to think the same way gave rise to the current superstitions. I don't have anything against superstitions which are harmless but the day anyone forces me to do something just because " it is done like this" I'm more likely to spit on your face. ( only you'll feel like you have been spat at on the face.I really have faith on my tongue). I need you to tell me the reason why i should do what you are asking me to do or why i shouldn't do what I'm doing.
i think I'm going off the point. the reason i started this blabber was this..

It is said we always want what we can't have.( I don't agree with that bull shit. We will only want what we don't have. if we have it already , why would we want that?? and in today's world there is nothing you can't have). I don't watch any serials now. but recently i was watching one episode of dil mill gaye ( star one 8. 30 pm :p), and both the lead actors were wearing tacky blue and green lenses respectively. preity zinta usually looks good but the other day i saw her wearing green lenses in a pic. gross! oh and most of our dear dear favourite ekta didi's vamps and bitches have either cat eyes, grey eyes or heinous cheap blue eyes. one can literally see the black outline behind the lenses. What the hell's wrong with brown? even black looks exotic. also, all outfits don't look good on you when you got blue or grey eyes, but black compliments each and every outfit you wear. We should be proud of our eyes and eye colour.(if you are so desperate for grey eyes, live healthy, stop smoking and stop drinking, reach your old age and see your eyes turning blue or grey). always remember Sushmita Sen ( brown-eyed witch) beat Aishwariya Rai ( blue- eyed witch) in Miss India. so only being blue eyed doesn,t make you a winner. you need to be intelligent ( read being able to speak two grammatically correct sentences and adding 2 and 20) too. cheers.

SMS dictionary

2007-10-04T03:51:00.000-07:00

you get an sms or maybe say an offline which is filled with shortforms and God knows what other weird symbols.embarrassed to ask your friends what a certain shortform means? afraid they'll laugh at you for asking a question whose answer everyone knew? here's the key. almost all the shortforms and emoticons accepted and used worldwide.........

SMS Dictionary
Numeric
:-0 hbtu 0-:happy birthday to you
@WRK At work
2bctnd to be continued.
2d4to die for
2g4uto good for you
2Ht2HndlToo hot to handle.
2l8too late
2WIMCTo whom it may concern
4eforever
4yeo for your eyes only
A
AAM As a matter of fact.
AB Ah Bless!
ADctd2uv Addicted to Love
AFAIK As far as I know
AKA Also known as
ALlWanIsU All I want is You
AML All my love
ASAP As soon as possible
ATB All the best
ATW At the weekend
AWHFY Are we having fun yet
B
B4 Before
BBFN Bye Bye for now.
BBS Be back soon
BBSD Be back soon darling
BCNU Be seein' you
BF Boy Friend
BGWM Be gentle with me (please)
BRB Be right back
C
Cld9? Cloud 9?
Cm Call me
Cu See you
CUIMD See you in my dreams
Cul See you later
CUL8R See you later
D
Dk Don't know
Dur? Do you remember
E
E2eg Ear to ear grin
EOD End of discussion
EOL End of lecture
F
F? Friends
F2F face to face
F2T Free to talk
FITB Fill in the Blank
FYEO For your eyes only.
FYA For your amusement
FYI For your information
G
GF Girlfirend.
GG Good Game
GMeSumLuvin Give me some lovin’!
Gr8 Great
GSOH Good Salary, Own Home
GTSY Glad to see you
H
h2cus Hope to see you soon
H8 Hate
HAGN Have a good night
HAND Have a nice day
HldMeCls Hold me close
Ht4U Hot for You
H&K Hugs and Kisses
I
IDK I dont know
IGotUBabe Ive got you Babe
IIRC If I recall correctly
IMHO In my humble opinion
IMI I mean it
ILU I love You
IMBLuv It must be Love
IOW In other words...
IOU I owe you
IUSS If you say so
J
J4F just for fun
JFK Just for kicks
JstCllMe Just call Me

K
KC keep cool
KHUF know how you feel
KIT Keep in touch
KOTC Kiss on the cheek
KOTL Kiss on the lips
L
L8 Late
L8r Later
Lol laughing out loud
LTNC Long time no see
LtsGt2gthr Lets get together
M
M$ULkeCrZ Miss you like Crazy!
M8 mate
MC merry Christmas
MGB May God Bless
Mob Mobile
MYOB Mind your own Business
N
NA No access
NC No comment
NE Any
NE1 Anyone
No1 No-One
NWO No way out
O
O4U only for you
OIC Oh, I see.
OTOH On the other hand
P
PCM Please call me
PPL People
Q
QT Cutie
R
R Are
RMB Ring my Bell
ROTFL Roll on the floor laughing
RU? Are you?
RUOK? Are you Ok?
S
SC Stay cool
SETE Smiling Ear to Ear
SO Significant Other
SOL sooner or later
SME1 Some One
SRY Sorry
SWALK Sent with a loving Kiss
SWG Scientific Wild Guess
T
T+ Think positive
T2ul Talk to you later
TDTU Totally devoted to you
Thx Thanks
T2Go Time to Go
TIC Tounge in Cheek
TMIY Take me Im yours
TTFN Ta ta for now.
U
U You
UR Y ou are
URT1 Your are the one
V
VRI Very
W
W4u Waiting for you
WAN2 Want to
WLUMRyMe Will you marry Me?
WRT With respect to
WUWH Wish you were here
X
X! Typical Woman
X Kiss
XclusvlyUrs Exclusively Yours
Y
Y! Typical Man
YBS You’ll be Sorry
Z
ntn i cud think of

SMS Meanining

:-O Wow
:-| Determined
:-* Bitter
O :-) An angel
:-9 Salivating
:-|/:-I No face/poker face
:-<> Surprised
%-6 Not very clever
:-( ) Shocked
:-~) Having a cold
:-o zz Bored
:-\ Sceptical
: @ Shouting
:-o Appalled
:-X Not saying a word
|-I Sleeping
|-O Snoring
%-} Intoxicated
:-v Talking
:-w Talking with two tongues
B-) Sunglasses
B:-) Sunglasses on head
8:-) Glasses on head
{:-) Toupee
}:-( Toupee blowing in the wind
=|:-)= Uncle Sam
<:-| Monk / Nun
:^) Broken nose
-:-) Punk
@:-) Using a turban
:=) Two noses
:-# Razes
<|-) Chinese
:-{) With a moustache
:-{} Lip stick
:-? Smoking a pipe
:-) Smiley
(-: Also smiling
:) Smiling without a nose
:' ) Happy and crying
:-( ) Smiling with mouth open
8-) Smiling with glasses
[:-) Smiling with walkman
:-)8 Smiling with bow tie
{:-) Smiling with hair
d:-) Smiling with cap
C|:-) Smiling with top hat
(:-) Smiling with helmet
:-)= Smiling with a beard
&:-) Smiling with curls
#:-) Smiling with a fur hat
:-D Laugher
;-) Twinkle
;) Twinkle, without nose
:-* Kiss
@}--\-,--- A rose
:-( Sad
:( Sad, without nose
:'-( Crying
:-c Unhappy
:-|| Angry
:-(0) Shouting
:-< Cheated
>:-( Very angry

emoticons

smiley meaning
@@@@@:-) Marge Simpson
@:-) John Travolta in 'Grease' quiff
:[ I am a vampire!
((:-/ I am bald
£$£:-) I am rich!
#:-/ My hair's matted, arghhhh!
:-))))))) A person with multiple chins
D:-) Look I am wearing a sailor hat
}:-(= Dracula
:-& Tongue-tied
( '}{' ) Boy and girl kissing
:") Blush
;) Cheeky wink
;-) Flirty
:* Kiss or :-x or :o*
:x Secret's safe with me
;o) Wink
*^_^* A huge dazzling grin
c|B-) Ali G
o:-) Angel
:*) ? Are you drunk?
£:-) Bad hair day
:-o zz zz ZZ Bored or tired
:-E Bucktoothed vampire
})i({ Butterfly
>^,,^< Cat
####@### Centipede in a sombrero
C=:-) Chef
C8<] Darth Vader
>:-) Devil
};-)> Devil
A: ) Dick head
5:-) Elvis Presley
@:-) Elvis Presley
9) Frog
~B-) Geek
:-% Get Lost
:-]= Goofy
:-) Happy
:-) , I have an outie belly button
:-) . have an innie belly button
#;-) I have tangled hair
:-s I'm not making sense
(-.-)Zzz I'm sleepy
:'-) I'm so happy I'm crying
:***-) I'm wearing body glitter
B-) I'm wearing glasses ( therefore 'cool!')
:-{} I'm wearing lipstick
(-: It's the left hand smiley!
(_x_) Kiss my butt
@(*o*)@ Koala
%-) Like my new glasses
8(:-) Mickey Mouse
<:3 )~ Mouse
}:-( My toupee is at risk from a high wind
:-p Naughty
(:-( Noel Gallagher
:-O Oh no
:-* Oops
=^) Open-minded
:@) Pig
(:::[]:::) Plaster
:-$ Put your money where your mouth is
:-( Sad
:-O Shouting
(8-) Smiley (alternative!)
/\(oo)/\ Spider
:o) Sticking your tongue out
:-p Sticking your tongue out
:-D Sticking your tongue out
:-@! Swearing
@:-) Wearing a turban
:-" Whistling
¿8-| WWF superstar the Rock (people's eyebrow)
:-(*) You make me sick!
:------------) You're a big liar!
X-( You're mad!
SIMPSON SYMBOLS
(_8^(l) Homer
@@@@:-) Marge
3 :-) Bart
{ :-) Lisa
{ :-* Maggie
8(/) "Doh!"

POPSTAR SYMBOLS
{;^d) Robbie Williams
&:-) Justin N*SYNC
{{:-) Ben A1
[:-c)) Craig David
;:-c>~ Shane Boyzone
-:----- Kylie
di:[ Eminem

( PS i dunno where the emoticons are applicable, i mean they don't work on yahoo msgr and i haven't tried msn. if anyone does find out about it, please send a shout over here).

Something beautiful

2007-09-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

Two days a week,I have my classes from 7 a.m. to 6. 30 in the evening. So after nearly 12 hrs of mental slogging, one hardly has the energy to even sneeze (I know about the weird reference to a sneeze, but today is one such day and I couldn't think of anything else). so anyway, I was returning from my classes one day listenin to Bryan Adams' "everything i do...",(and it ain't exactly raining but there's a lot of wind at where i stay), when i walked under a gulmohur tree (without noticing it),
and there was a sudden gust of wind which made the branches of the tree sway and loads of beautiful gulmohur flowers fell over me. Perhaps it was the song that enhanced the beautiful feeling, but it was an amazing feeling. It felt , as if someone was grateful to me and was expressing their thanks. The soft flowers caressing my hands and face, the wind blowing and making my hair dance, it was as if suddenly I just realised what a beautiful place our earth is. Watching Steve Irwin
already made me understand animals and the need to protect them, but I'm ashamed to say that till that magical day, i hadn't really cared much for plants, i mean yes watering the plants and not plucking flowers is just living and letting live part, but now everytime I go out of my place I subconciously touch the leaves and the branches of the trees and try to feel the life in it.

Joke at wankhede stadium

2007-09-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

After 24 years of desperate waiting, praying, fasting, shedding tears and whatnot, we did it. We won the T20 World Cup. After being ousted from the ODI World Cup in the first round itself, this team of fiery youngsters had little to lose. Minimum pressure, low expectations fuelled their determination to prove the people wrong. And this time all those who have been proved wrong are actually rejoicing that. And some cynics who thought that people are losing interest in cricket after the loss at world cup have just had a very rude awakening. Those living in Mumbai will know what I'm talking about. I think the victors' bus ride to the Wankhede stadium was more enjoyable, memorable and overwhelming than the joke of the actual "felicitation" ceremony they attended at the stadium. A certain RR Patil gave the credit of our world cup victory to Sharad Pawar (my love for the English language forces me to be civilised while i write this bit, because right now, I'm feeling anything but calm and civilised). So, next time people if we lose the match, we know whose houses we have to burn. The bloody NCP and BCCI took centre stage while the actual heroes were shunted at the back. All I have to say to these suckers for public attention is this : Dudes get a life!!! It was very shameful of them to steal the limelight away from the players to take undeserved credit for the world cup.They might want to start hoping the public didn't take much notice of this or they might have a tough time getting votes, but I think Indian's deserve much more credit than what they are given. We are not stupid or blind after all. Is this called honouring of players? they were ratting away in Marathi ( no disrespect to the language) when they knew half of the team didn't even understand it. Kudos Dhoni for your one sentence which has increased my respect and admiration for you. I don't remember the exact wordings but he said something like this to Harsha Bhogle, " We have covered English and Marathi toh mein koshish karoonga hindi mein baar karne ki" muaahhh. ( btw anyone heard Shrewd Pawar's speech? omg. just for that speech i think he should apply for laughter challenge 4. he could have shown a bit more sincerity in his "congratulatory" speech. don't you think?). Now yours truly has just remembered in her whoozy brain (which is biting mad right now mind you) that she has got classes right now,so she better sign off. PS those who called me up when India were 36\4 in the 1st T20 match v\s Pakistan, and asked me to stop watching the match, or told me that India were sure to lose against Australia in the semi-finals, or India was going to disappoint again in the finals: yo people, GO TO HELL, and when you learn to have a bit more faith in the team you claim to be crazy about, come back and join in, in the celebrations. Indian team can do without fair-weather fans like you. (oh yeah I'm sure I'll hear the nonsense about how if they don't expect anything they'll be happy to see us win. seriously you need to read that book called " Power of the subconscious mind" and obtain some positive attitude towards life. Gotta go or this may be the last time I'll be writing here cause one can hardly blog after being murdered by their overambitious professors.

Inspirational

2007-09-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

i came across this awesome story when i was checking my mails and i have printed it and added it to my personal folder where i keep all the articles i particularly like or those which have been written by me. so the story goes like this ......
The Seed

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to chose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO.

"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.___

2007-08-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

THE ORIGINAL QUOTE
If you love someone,
Set her free...
If she comes back, she's yours,
If she doesn't, she never was....

THE NEW VERSIONS .....

Pessimist:
If you love someone,
Set her free ...
If she ever comes back, she's yours,
If she doesn't, as expected, she never was

Optimist:
If you love someone,
Set her free ...
Don't worry, she will come back .

Suspicious:
If you love someone,
Set her free ...
If she ever comes back, ask her why .

Impatient:
If you love someone,
Set her free ...
If she doesn't come back within some time forget her.

Patient:
If you love someone, Set her free ..
If she doesn't come back,
continue to wait until she comes back ...

Playful
If you love someone,
Set her free ...
If she comes back, and if you love her still,
set her free again, repeat ...

Animal-Rights Activist :
If you love someone,
Set her free,
In fact, all living creatures deserve to be free!!

Lawyers:
If you love someone,
Set her free,
Clause 1a of Paragraph 13a-1 in the Second
Amendment of the Matrimonial Freedom

Statisticians :
If you love someone,
Set her free,
If she loves you, the probability of her coming
back is high
If she doesn't, your relation was improbable
anyway.

Schwarzenegger's fans:
If you love someone,
Set her free,
SHE'LL BE BACK !

Over possessive person :
If you love someone
don't set her free.

MBA :
If you love someone set her free instantaneously
and look for others simultaneously
Psychologist :
If you love someone
set her free
If she comes back her super ego is dominant
If she doesn't come back her id is supreme
If she doesn't go, she must be crazy .

Somnabulist :
If you love someone
set her free
If she comes back it's a nightmare
If she doesn't, you must be dreaming.

Finance expert :
If you love someone
set her free
If she comes back, its time to look for fresh loans
If she doesn't, write her off as an asset gone bad.

American President:
If you love someone
Set her free
If she comes back she must be carrying weapons of mass destruction, so attack Iraq
If she doesn't, itï¿½s the work of Osama so attack Afghanistan

the beginning

2007-08-31T08:43:00.000-07:00

ok. so this is my first ever post. so i'd like to start with sharing something which is very dear to my heart, after my family and friends of course.

A BOY NAMED POTTER

Once upon a time there was a boy,
In a broken cupboard he used to lie.
He was all alone in despair,
No one for him was there to care.

With him he had no joys but struggles.
Well, that’s because he lived with the muggles.
They gave him for dinner roasted bread,
And belied the truth of the scar on his forehead.

How lonely and wretched his life was.
His every act would end up to a chaos.
But in a peculiar place was he known,
For the charm with which he had grown

Then one day,
A man named Hagrid visited from far,
And explained why he was bearing that scar.
He said,” dear boy, you belong to Hogwarts city,
Where you are a renowned entity.”

So they flew away from unloving dears,
Who were then left with countless fears.
On reaching, everyone greeted him happily,
And he made friends with Ron and Hermione.

“From now you’ll be engaged in sorcery,”
Said the head of the management of wizardry.
Soon he was busy in learning spells,
Flying with brooms, resting in dwells.

But trouble did not abandon him so easily,
As he was the one, you see,
To whom evils would want to tatter,
As his name was Harry Potter.