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Friday, August 29, 2008

linbaba

no silly, its not another orange-clad guy on the idiot box ... neither is he an exclusive India TV "khoj" , which are becoming eerily commonplace and have more than often fought it out for the prestigious ( not! ) "breaking news" half hour slot...but that's for another time...
linbaba is a euphemism for the protagonist of a piece of literature that's kept me hooked on for quite a few days now... yup, u probably guessed it.. SHANTARAM ..
To say the least, an amaazing book... one that made me sit on the edge of my seat at times and took me through the joys n sorrows of the author almost as if they were my own.

Na, i'm not really about to write a book review...i don't think i'll do justice to the book if i do...
wat i am going to write though, is this one passage that really got to me.. and i felt it answers a lot of questions..
So this one's for you mohit..

" You can't kill love. You can't even kill it with hate. You can kill in-love, and loving, and even loveliness. You can kill them all, or numb them into dense, leaden regret, but you can't kill love itself. Love is the passionate search for a truth other than your own; and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever. Every act of love, every moment of the heart reaching out, is a part of the universal good; it's a part of God, or what we call God, and it can never die. "

Touche.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

woes of the written word

Chatting on the net and texting on the cellphone has really screwed up our spellings. Its worse with kids who've been born in this word-compression age, compared to those who've grown through its development ( me, for example) . There's an ongoing debate in the british educational system over allowing students to use "sms english" in examinations, and encouraging teachers to ignore spelling mistakes.
what the hell, a few days ago a report came out confirming that indian kids are better than british ones at english, grammatically, and we're all so happy!! but we should be just a little bit wary of the seeming ease of cutting up a word, and being smug with maximal usage of the available number of characters in an sms... it could cause de-development of our written language!

There's times when i admonish myself...times when i see something amusing, and the voice in my head says "LOL" ....
To illustrate, i'll tell you what my typing habits include:
bout: about
rembr: remember
wen: when
agn: again
srly: seriously
tak: talk
awsm: awesome
wtf: umm, not really..
and so on.... even though it seems to me as hap in the virtual world, i pray that this new-age version of shorthand doesn't become a legitimate language, which by the way a few people at high places have discussed...
imagine what it would be like, if that happened...

- Da Tyms of Indya
Brkng nws: Da trst vte sessn commncd dis morn in the parlmnt.....
You know what the scary part would be? I'm sure i'd be able to read the above styled newspaper...and so would you.

possibly true?

i came across this article that i thought was hilarious (although it has a masculine intone)... and i wanted to share it. Here goes..

----> 10 reasons why studying is better than sex:
1. You can usually find someone to do it with.
2. If you get tired, you can stop, save your place and pick up from where you left off.
3. You can finish early without feelings of guilt or shame.
4. When you open a book, you don't have to worry about who else has opened it.
5. A little coffee and you can do it all night.
6. If you don't finish a chapter, you won't gain a reputation as a 'book teaser' .
7. You can do it,eat and watch TV all at the same time.
8. You don't get embarrassed if your parents walk in.
9. You don't have to worry about satisfying the book.
10. If you aren't sure of what you're doing, you can always ask your roommate for help.

Moral of the story: Study hard!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The blog pimp

I can't say if you've heard of this.... but there's an urban myth about a creature so strange and arcane that nothing in the modern world even comes close to being shielded from it. It walks on the streets, in light and dark both, looking for fresh prey... another innocent being, befouled by the horrendous creature, lured into its demonic web, wrapped in the fibres of sin.
Just like the tales from dracula, the once angelic, unaware life immediately starts getting satiated with the darker side of life, pleasured by the black deeds, hunting down more to form its own kind.
That night, arnold was sitting at the cafe, minding his own buisness, like he does generally, playing a game of chess on his notebook and sipping his favourite cuppa . What he wasn't aware of was that an out-of-towner was sitting in the same cafe that night, corner table,black overcoat hanging from the chair,his scarred face hidden under the guise of dim light, the eyes that never twinkled affixed on arnold, scanning and registering every move he made, from the way he held the coffee mug, to the brows that lifted when he lost to the computer...everything taken in by the steely eyes. A smile was forming on the parched lips as a serpentine tongue licked them. After a long wait, he got up from his chair, not making any sound as he glided over the wooden cafe floor till he was right behind arnold.... a slender arm emerged and with a bony hand on his shoulders, arnold, like many ill-fated denizens before him, heard the raspy voice.... "hey, did you read my blog yet?"

ok ok, i admit it, i went a wee bit over the edge back there, but thats what ive been doing now and then, no not the cafe scene ( for all you freaks out there, its wasnt a true story!)... one of the most important parts of starting a new venture is the advertising...u know what they say, out of sight, out of mind... and with so much to do online for everyone, there's a really slim chance that they'll be checking out my oh-so-worked-on blog!! so i decided to take matters in my own hands.. i advertise for my own self ..ha!
from downright pressurizing my buddies into reading it, ive even sent scraps, meandered around a casual chat on gtalk to the point where i mention " oh btw, check out my blog will you? "...its all a well planned marketing strategy. And no, if ure thinking of mentioning it to me, i'm NOT ashamed of myself ... pretty much snubbed out my conscience when it comes to the blog ;)
to top it all, i once had "check out my blog" as a nic on orkut and my status on fcbook.. the cat's really far out of the bag now huh?
You know, i read somewhere "the only people who read blogs are those who write them too" and i'm pretty sure its true... but ive taken it upon myself to broaden everyone's view about literature... so next time you come in touch with me, don't go "oh man, not again" , cuz you deserve the good things in life, and my love, i'm giving it to ya!

Friday, August 8, 2008

One world, one dream

Right, slogan of the mother of all shows , or in funnier terms, "khelon ka mahakumbh" (seriously now, i didnt make it up)....The (Beijing) olympic games ! I'm sure the event is goin to be awsome, complete with all the glory, fame, celebration and grandeur the name "olympic"carries ...and like all my fellow countrymen (i'm sure) am reeally hoping that india gets some medals!!!!
I was watching discovery the other day and they were showing their series on the Beijing olympics .. omg! the Bird's Nest stadium is like sooo amazing ... China's invested something close to 40 million for its preperations for hosting this mega event... this one scientist, developed a chip and has been going around all of beijing , planting special transmitters so the ppl can watch the games on the move. seriously, the show left me thinking how long it could be before India hosts something like this... or more so, will it ever be able to?? I sure hope we can... the chinese have stopped all types of manufacturing around Biejing to reduce the smog...they also hired swiss firm omega to make the lasrgest display screen in the world! its housed in the bird's nest stadium ... the dragons really wanna leave their mark... whatever they may be ( not discussing that abhi), the chinese surely know how to throw a party !!! .......( which includes my fascination with the female athletes posing nude for a "good cause", which for the record i totally support , this swimmer posed only with her swimming gogs...hot!)
n oh guys, another interesting fact... in the last olympic games, each athlete was given 51 condoms on arrival...and another lot had to be flown in soon, when the stocks dwindled ... the olympic village sure gets cozy eh? good in a way , cuz we're all for world peace ! Make love, not war \m/ \m/ !!

n u know a rly good part about it? the starting date! three fat ladies, as they say, .. 08/08/08 !! looks sweet? Heh, well apart from the obvious oomph and rarity, the date holds a lot of significance , numerologically, in many cultures... standing as the number of jesus, in christianity, for example... although, indian divine sciences give it no real significance of any kind. I read that couples are fighting for spots to get married today and expecting parents to get a spot in the maternity ward...
for me, the day holds a personal significance too.... i started going to the gym ... again! ( i saw that grin ..shut it) ... hehe, hope this time its more regular... atleast i have "numerological -warmth", if there's such a thing, with me! Hey, if it can work wonders in bollywood, i'm sure my fitness is right around the corner... see, already the voice in my head's telling me " relaax dude, its a great day to start with.. now all u have to do is work less and let the gods deal with it" .. bad idea??

Thursday, August 7, 2008

The moth-to-fire syndrome.

A few months ago, i was talking to my friend april ( name changed for security purposes :P ) and our conversation took a really deep turn... and thus we came up with the theory that describes what i like to call " the moth-to-fire syndrome".
Unlike general abnormalities, this syndrome is inherent in man.. woven into the fabric of life. Even though some might say that it doesn't apply to them, it does, they just have to look deep inside, honestly.

The thoery goes like this ... man is subconsciously attracted towards danger , simply put.
Lemme elaborate ...
consider sports... F1, X-games, nascar are just a few examples where the sport might turn out to be deadly for the player. Apart from golf, the sports with the greatest amount of dough involve possible threats to the player's well-being.
Not convinced? ok, i'll take an example closer to our hearts... heartbreak. Did any of you ever notice, that a random person that we might get attracted to or get into a relationship with almost always has a personality quite the opposite to ours ( that's the usual case, atleast)? think about it. Eventually what we say about the situation is " opposites attract, remember? "
For example, in every relationship, there'll be 1 person who's the dominant one, the other who's submissive ( and i don't mean it in a conscious or perverse way) cuz the relationship will never work out if both the ppl are dominant by demeanour.

I hope you see where i'm pointing at ... its almost as if nature's written off a piece of itself in our being ( read magnetic poles ) . Hasn't man always looved doing what was taboo ? the apple of wisdom , remember that?
I know i haven't put it down incredibly well, but i hope april will do a better job at it... will post the link here ...
n hey, I won't ask you to stay away from trouble , cuz that's where the fun's at babe !!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

arbit... just wanted to write..

very often, you find yourself looking at something that you can't do anything about. it can be a lot of things for a lot of people... a small kid begging, a road accident, a failing relationship, whatever.... and you say to yourself " i wish things could have been different" or " if only i could help " ... its true, atleast I often find myself thinking about it.... but then again, there's nothing one can do, atleast not immediately .
one of the things that saddens me the most is the plight of old people who're often forced to spread their hands in front of complete strangers, even if theyre 3 times younger....
why? why is it that there's so much sadness around? was it always meant to be, the balance between good and evil, joy and sorrow?
all said, the world isn't a happy place.... nor is it a sad one at that.... in fact i believe there's no absolute here... everything's relative. some places are more beautiful than others... some people appear happier than others ... all relative. it's almost as if relativity is in continuity between the physical and the meta-physical.

there once lived a man who dared to question belief... who dared to think beyond what was thought ... i use the word dare because not everyone has the courage to be different, and show it ...... perhaps you need to be drunk for it.... anyway, this man never had it easy, it was never a cinch to profess difference .. but he continued to do so... along his path, he met many friends, even more enemies... but to the people who were with him, he was their light, hope.... their guru.

everyone needs a guru... it doesnt matter what they do, what path they desire to follow... everyone needs their source of light... its a fact that incomplete information is deadly. It applies to everything from kiddie science experiments in skool ( where a guru is required to oversee that the salts aren't eaten and the acids aren't drunk ) to business ( where trade and the related tricks are essential to avoid a light pocket) to yoga ( where every asana has an anti-asana and if both of them arent balanced, ure screwed quite literally). I must warn you though...there are a lot of people who'll appear to be gurus and very few who actually are... choose well or they'll take you down with themselves.

i know, ure probly thinking about what happened to the guy in the previous paragraph... nuthing really... all he tells us is that it takes guts to follow your dream....
and that heavy drinking in the afternoon leads to completely unrelated paragraphs in your blog .

i don't really know what to make of this write up, but thats about it for now... maybe the next one will be more concrete..

mwaaaaah