Why do we forget birthdays?

I forgot my best friends birthday again! and of course, she is mad at me. She sent me a long e mail which said I dont care for her. But hey, thats not true! not true at all. You can never say that the person doesn't love you or care for you just because he/she forgets your birthday

I was just wondering.. Why is it that we rarely remember birthdays?
After deep thinking and rare insights, I have put together some possible explanations:

We forget birthdays because
reason 1) they come only once in a year - now, its only natural to forget things that happen only once a year. My mom has to do blood tests every year, and every year, she forgets! she thinks abt it only weeks later (dont ask me if she remembered my birthday, we will get to that after more thinking and more insights)

reason 2) its not a public holiday! - there are days that come only once in a year, but are still remembered - Independance day, Republic day, Gandhi Jayanthi. I never forget them, not because of the eternal love I have for my country, but because these days are public holidays! they are especially fondly remembered and looked forward to if they prefix or suffix a weekend ;)

but my sister is always mad at me for forgetting, she says that if you really care for a person, you have to take some effort to remember atleast their birthdays. So I did take effort and did remember quite a few birthdays including mine this year. My phone does my remembering. I fed them all in my phone reminder list, with 2 alarm reminders - a day ahead to buy a gift/card and then again on the day so that I dont forget why i bought the gift ;) aint i smart? :)

Things that we take for granted

I finished reading a book titled "Inside the kingdom" by a lady, Carmen Bin Ladin, who had been married to a Saudi Arabian (Osama Bin Laden's brother, none less!) and had lived a good part of life in Saudi.

The book was not exactly an eye opener. These are facts that we already know: oppresion of women and their low status in their country. how in the name of religion, they are not even allowed to think! every other thing is either a sin or a shame.. and women who dare are punished (killing seems to be the regular punishment for such 'offenders')
I wouldn't say this is the best book written on women's plight in the Middle east. Yet, after reading it, I felt a deep sense of relief of having born in a democratic country like India!

Things that we have always taken for granted, the women there have rarely experienced. For example the freedom of thought, speech, choice etc.,

Well, I am wordless..but I know that I have the freedom to write if I choose to and I am happy about it

Lets have the missing checkered flag here

Have you been in formula one? or tried scuba diving? or bungee jumping? or chennai driving? gives you such a high! It excites you, pumps up the adrenaline, full throttle. you should try one of these, if you haven't, you are missing life!

No kidding..My boss (who was visiting Chennai, first time) took the team out for lunch and by chance happened to sit at the front of the car, near the driver. He is of the opinion that driving in Chennai takes you to the primitive laws of nature..survival of the fittest and the fastest and the most alert and the most alive! - all at a speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour, I must add.

Well, something to be proud of.
i know what its like without having to pay for a bunjee jump!

;)

Parrot green and pink :) and courteous Indians

It was a very important ceremony and I had to buy a new outfit. I went around the city and found what I wanted, the colours were maroon with zari.

I was discussing with a friend about the ceremony. He was also supposed to take part in it and we were discussing our outfits over the phone. He asked me what I was planning to wear. I told him that I got a real neat dress with a beautiful combination of parrot green and pink ;) For a few moments, no sound from the other end (well, obviously)

At length he said "mm, well..im sure you will look great in it". When I went on about how pretty the combination of the colour is, his comments were still on the lines of "oh yes, its good" or "it will be nice"

When finally I said "the combo is a bit bright, but it is very colorful..in any case, parrot green and pink is a horrible combination, why cant you just say that?". He blurted out- "but you have bought it, right?". Then I told him that I was just playing a prank on him. I sometimes wonder we Indians are a bit too courteous!, to the point of being misleading! next time my friend says something stupid, i think i will tell her/him slowly that it is what it really is.

Hey, but this is not to offend ppl who do like parrot green and pink combination.
After all, its not all that bad...
I mean, bollywood uses it a lot...
and yes, it sometimes suits some people ..
and..well :D
you know, i am Indian too..

Life's little worries

This is a cute photo and caption that I thought would be fun sharing with you.

Appeared in 'The Hindu' Chennai edition on the last page of the main sheet this sunday.

The little fellow is really upset that his hair is all gone. As the caption says, life has its own worries.. We call this little, but it matters the world to this chap!

Trust Hindu to come up with such interesting images!

Its movie time

I am sure you guys would have watched the hollywood movie "Speed" (Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. have i spelt them right??). For those who have not, it is an action drama where there is this bomb planted in a bus carrying some clueless passengers. The bomb is programmed in such a way as to blow up the whole bus if the speedometer falls below certain count (50 miles i guess), once it crosses it. So Sandra Bullock keeps driving the bus on and on without stopping or slowing against all odds on the road.

Now, I am talking about one particular shot, where the bus reaches the end of a half-constructed road. the road re-starts after an interval, and in between there is a deep space gap. In the movie, Sandra just accelarates, the bus is shown to be flying across the space and lands on the other side of the road wherefrom the road is operational.

Question: Do you think such a stunt is really possible? Since I cant hear you now, let me jus say what I think. NO way! There was a time when I thought things in motion if accelarated enough can go in a straight line even if they are not in contact with the ground. Eg: Bullet fired from a pistol. That was only till i watched this program which showed how they made this movie (Speed). The director was explaining how they could never have pulled it off no matter how they tried, because once the bus takes off from the road, it is pulled by the gravitational force from the earth deep below. So by all the glory of explanation, what the bus will do once it loses contact with the ground is- nosedive to where it is pulled from! So how did they make it fly up in the air? Simple, they elevated it.

Now that it is the end of the post, i have to give you something really interesting. Did you know that even a bullet that is fired does not travel in exact straight line in space? before it reaches the target, its altitude drops a bit because gravity pulls it down. Serious, i am not bluffing!