"At one point in life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you dont"

T shirt quote in Chennai Times today :)

A date tonight... with Paws

I need to catch a train tonight, but then, that can wait. I have a date with Paws, its going to be a very important evening. I am really excited about it :) I am going to pop the question!

Well, someone has to do it. For obvious reasons, he is not going to. So.. I might as well do it. So here goes..

"Who is taking home the FIFA world cup?"

For that matter why stop with Paws? I am going to have serious conversations with all the dogs, cats, parakeets and possibly any octopuses that I can find on the way to Nandanam. By the way, Paws is the pet cat of the aunty who i am staying with. (What are the chances of having a boy friend named Paws anyway)

Well, if I wanted to know who would win the FIFA world cup, you would think I have to actually watch the match for that. How technologically backward are you!? Dont you know how these matches are decided? O dear ignorant soul, read this-

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/now-a-parakeet-tips-holland-to-win-wc-2010/126284-5-21.html?from=tn

and this-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/09/psychic-octopus-paul-picks-spain

Here is the best bit: After FIFA, Nepal wants Paul the octopus to predict its political future. If you were one of those who went to cast the vote on polling day in Nepal, you must be feeling absolutely wasted, now that Paul the octopus is around
;)

Should I forget this?

I have not been able to get this image out of my head. I have been trying to forget this... but tell me, should I really forget it?

8 maoists had been killed in a police encounter on 16 June in West Bengal, Midnapore. Seen in the image - security personnel carrying the dead body of one rebel. a maoist. a woman. a human being. Did I give you enough key words? were you able to understand what the image is about?

Yes. you have to read the words to believe that its a human dead body that is being taken away by two other human beings.

I thought we are Indians. we treat animals better than that, dont we?

Though only 8 bodies were recovered, the officials suspect more were killed. The maoists are said to have carried away atleast 4 more bodies while fleeing. Yes, they are believed to have carried 4 dead human beings while they were fighting for their own lives.

Maoist rebels hardly ever leave behind their dead comrades, reports a website.

To me, they do not sound like the people who are capable of killing hundreds of civilians. A person carrying away a dead person risking his own life - in my dictionary, is 'sensitive'. What makes these people who have so much respect even for their dead to kill and slaughter other people?

Killing is bad. I have been taught. I am not capable of killing. But then, I have never been pushed off the brink of my existence. How can I even talk about understanding this sect of people. Would I ever turn to be capable of killing if I get oppressed the way this class of people are oppressed? Would you? Do I know the answer to this question? Do you?

One for today, one for tomorrow

Hot sun !
Month of may !!
Chennai !!!
Humidity that could melt u into a pool of boiling sweat !!!!

the only allowance - bright orange and yellow, plump, sweet, juicy..

MANGOS (5!) - the sole reason why summers were ever made!

So off I went to the spencers daily to buy some for the weekend. I didnt wait to look at the snack bar, didnt wait to gawk at the cosmetics shelf. for once, hopped happily to the fruits counter.

The place was not crowded, had just one other customer, about fiftyish person looking thoughtfully at the pomegranates. He also moved to the mango section as I neared it. I bent down examined some fruits and picked one up that looked neither shiny nor matt thinking 'this would do'. Fiftyish hunk straightened his back, looked at my fruit, took it out of my hand and put it back on the counter. did i see him shake his head as well??

'WHAT?!?'

I dont want violence. I am all for world peace. But then hey, do not grab the fruit that i picked out!

Anyway, with me being an ahimsak (!) i did not resort to any violence, I just moved a little away from the fruit grabber and threw my best nasty look at him (which went unnoticed). I continued to choose and picked out another one. 'hmm, perfect!'

but then, he grabbed that too from my hand shaking his head! The mere audacity!!

For reasons beyond reasoning, i felt like laughing! Not able to comprehend the actions of a seemingly normal person, i just stopped and stared, not knowing what to do next.

He put back my glossy mango, still looking at the counter in deep thought, picked out 2 ugly but healthy looking fruits and handed them to me, one by one, saying
'idhu innikku'
'idhu naalaiku'

this one for today
this one for tomorrow

I was speechless for a moment.
'wow! how do you know which ones to pick?'
'fruit grower' he said by way of explanation. Man of few words.

I thanked him and smiled at him, but then mr.fruit grower ignored me in totality after he knew that I did not want any more fruits picked out.

I heeded his advice and had one yesterday and one today and must say, they were really perfect. the best ones I have had this summer.

I dont know if the fruit grower was simply a friendly person, or was someone who could not leave his job behind. I would like to think of him as a nice friendly person, whose ways are different, but sincere :)

He made my day. twice actually. once yesterday, once today :)

The guilty generation

• Punishing yourself for no apparent reason.
• Living a loser's life by letting go what could be yours if you had focussed and worked towards it,
• Wanting to have no interest in people, work and the things around you...

In other words,

• Penance,
• Sacrifice,
• Denial of worldly pleasures..

Sometimes we are a confused lot. What should ideally be considered as a psychiatric condition that should be cured is considered as righteousness and spirituality. If a person loses interest in everything around him, inflicts pain on himself, runs away from happiness like its a plague, shouldnt we take him to a doctor and get his head examined? Much worse, what if he starts preaching these things to other people and calls it religion?

Should we acknowledge and agree that we should feel guilty for happiness or should we just tell him to shut up and get lost?

A gay day

Inching to number one in various area, in population growth, in software production, in tea exports..would like to be first in so many other areas, but 118th position in accepting change. I read in a daily that 117 countries had legalised and acknowledged the freedom of a homosexual individual's sexual preference as a natural right before an Indian high court could take a change of stand about it, 2 days ago.

Still not without opposition, religious 'leaders', self proclaimed moral polices and all and sundry rising the cry of violating the order of nature, India finally, but not totally willingly opens an eye to what its majority considers a stigma. On a landmark day, a landmark judgement was made and now love is legal for a special minority. Indian judiciary does not consider homosexuality a criminal offense anymore. The judgement was passed in the high court, yes, media people are debating the fact that there still could be cranky straight people who cannot accept this judgement and might appeal in the supreme court. That possibility is not entirely closed.

Though things look nice and pink on paper, few more decades may have to pass before Indians stop looking at homosexuality as a stigma. What is very worrying is the level of ignorance among people about this. Many still think that homosexuality is a choice of the individual. We have spent so much of time designing and refining our 'orders of nature' that it is not going to be easy for us to realise that our design is not actually perfect.

The voting face

An image by Times of India, no mention of the photographer. The photo is reported to be taken in a village near Hyderabad called Pargi.


This is a photograph that shows the faces of the majority of the voting population of the nation. The 'aam' aadhmi.

Though educated, though drilled down with all the civics that the education system could afford to provide, its people like me who dont go to their home towns, leaving the jobs/family/etc., to cast their vote. I am not proud of not doing it..

Anyway..with TATA tea doing the public service advertisements and the movie stars endorsing and recommending voting to all the citizens, if the netizens do decide to take some pain and vote, I think the BJP will almost win these elections - considering just the fact that the prime ministerial candidate has been spending money like water on internet advertisements. People spending time on websites are sure to start thinking that L K Advani is 'a leader with a difference'. Thats not to say I like the party coming to power, thats like one of the country's nightmare coming true. Was just wondering how the BJP/Mr.Advani have so much of funds for spending for all this net presence..
Besides those ads are great stress busters. gives me a good laugh.

Well, my point is..that was some great photography.

Not so great scanning though..sorry folks

Move over pink chaddi, its Shoe time!

The new icon of human emotions, the one piece of human belonging that effectively exhibits human wrath - shoes. The pink chaddi's days of glory are over, shoes are now enjoying the mantel of the ultimate insult. Starting with George Bush Junior, world over, politicians are getting the brunt in the form of the new ambassador for brunts, the shoe.

The home minister Mr.P Chidambaram looked more amused than shocked when an emotionally challanged journalist hurled (but missed) a shoe at him during a press conference. this sikh aint great at aiming i understand. The minister had refused to argue with the journalist on whether the CBI is right about the 1984 anti-sikh riot report submitted to the court, this caused the journalist to 'protest' and hence the hurling.

and since the journalist was let off without any charge, I have been thinking.. We all must probably visit the shoe stores around the time of discount sales. What with the elections round the corner, you never know when you run into politicians. Well, for that matter, why stop with politicians? Anger is anger, where is that stupid neighbour of mine who parked his bike in my parking slot? and that friend of mine who...well actually i forgot what he did, but he is also getting a shoe for sure!

You see, this is meant to happen. We are a civilization, we need to progress, and where is the use if the progress is only in the area of technology? There should be emotional progress, bring on the shoes!

Jokes apart, the truth of the matter is that, some people just dont take their feet seriously, how will they walk after flinging one of their shoes at someone? I am quite positive that the home minister did not return the journalist's shoe. Thats quite rude of him actually.

By the way, if you are planning a shoe attack, carry an extra pair. For better emotional satisfaction, plan a twin shoe attack, why throw just one shoe and be left with its pair? Actually, if you have enough attacks planned, you can get a good quote from a shoe seller, maybe you can think of buying them wholesale. Cutting costs will help, now being recession time and all..So, as I said, we can think of more options, we are a thinking lot, arent we? civilised lot to be more precise.

DDD. Dreams that go Down the Drain

“1500 rupees for just the application form! Can you believe this?” He said, more to himself. All kinds of expense calculations going on in the back of his mind. “Anna university’s BE applications cost less you know” He rested his chin and stared at nothing particular. “I cant imagine what the fee must be.”

More calculations, more thinking, then he got up and inhaled deeply. “He really likes it you know. I think I will be able to put him in the music school if they believe in EMI” He was smiling now, not a worried smile, but a happy one.

That was my friend, making a decision to enrol his son in KM Music academy – a music school by A R Rehman. (No comments on the holdings, I have no clue).

Now it was my turn to ponder.

I counted the number of things that I let slip by because I lacked the money, the courage, the initiative and lot of other abstract adjectives I prefer not to write here.

I looked around and saw some mirror images of myself – people who do not realise what is important to them (most times) and live only half of their allotted lives. I also see some people running after things, which after they get, are left to gather dust.

Who is doing the right thing? What is the right thing? Do we recognize the things that are important to us from the lot of million others that are not? If we do, what are we doing about it?

My brain also dusted off and popped into my thinking stream a line that one of my friends had said a long long time ago – “If you really like something, you better put in some effort and money into it. Or else, you bet your *** you are gonna regret it someday”

I wonder... how did i respond to her? It was a long time ago and I dont remember, did i make it clear to her that im not into betting? Well, I hope i did...

The Cautious Indians and the Armenian air

Whenever someone tries to sell something to me, I am automatically on my guard. This response is not a result of thinking, its just a reaction which is almost a reflex. I do not start thinking about the product or realise it may be useful to me, but its like an automatic switch that flicks on and says “no” the moment I sense that something is being marketed to me.

I realise its not just me who acts like this. I observed that lot of people around have the same tendency. I even spoke to few of them about it. The answers that I got from them were mostly similar. Many feel that our population is the kind that finds a way to capitalise on anything and everything accessible to them. As a result there are people who are selling goods that absolutely useless. Also, our parents keep cautioning us against such people who are ‘out there to grab your money for nothing’. As a result most Indians are overtly cautious about things.

A well read and well travelled friend of mine still thinks that its an Indian attribute to try to make money out of anything at all. Wait till I tell her that, in the country of Armenia, the locals sell cans of ‘Air of Armenia’ to tourists! Technically speaking, thats nothing but empty cans! Ever heard of making money out of thin air? :)

Of course, you can never catch an Indian tourist buying the air. 'Buying air'!!! dont you think its a ridiculous idea? Well, maybe we Indians are too cautious, but that suits us, and our wallets!

Its a matter of Space

And I am not talking about the vastness in the universe or the earth's atmosphere!

'Give me space' – This is almost a normal statement in most relationships nowadays. Though I doubt if I can ever make my grand mom or even my mom understand what ‘giving space’ means. “In our times, ‘space’ was an unknown issue”, says my boss. “We knew our responsibilities and worked hard at making the relationships work”.

But now, we cannot imagine having any relationship that does not give the space that we need, because it is 'suffocating', and just few years ago, suffocation had only a physical/biological meaning!

Does this mean that we do not realise our responsibilities? Not really. Still, I have to agree that the effort that we put in to make a relationship work has definitely gone down. Blame the changing times, or anything else that you think is appropriate to be blamed, but we have changed. Our priorities have changed vastly.

Today, we seem to realise that we have a choice in life, most of us seem to concentrate on our own lives rather than living a life that is always dictated by other important people in our lives. I think it’s a good trend, I am sure my mom would disagree ;)

I am happy that I live in this period, when I am given my space, to think, to choose, to act, to live! Believe me, we are a lucky lot! It’s a nice time to be alive, so relish it :)

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..