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Life Teaches You (LTY #1)

2006-07-15T23:10:00.000+05:30

Expressing your truest self is the ultimate competitive advantage.

WC - woes

2006-07-09T21:27:00.000+05:30

This is the most important news that came out from The World Cup in Germany so far:

The Times of India, Tuesday June 27, 2006

The scarcity of toilets for millions of football fans in Germany is proving costly for plant life in the country. World Cup organisers seem to have miscalculated the number of toilets needed, providing just 280 port-a-loos for more than 700,000 fans who congregate on the 'fan mile' in Berlin to watch matches on giant screens. As a result, thousands of fans are resorting to emergency measures- peeing in the surrounding bushes. Biologists have warned that plant and tree life in the area is in serious danger because of the 100,000 litres of urine being dumped everyday. "The urine sinks into the ground as ammonia. In small quantities this is good fertilizer. But too much acidity leads to over-fertilization and is bad for the soil,'' biologist Tilman Lamparter said.

If you are one of those football fans, please.. please think about the plants before you piss.

personal philosophy.....

2006-04-21T15:21:00.000+05:30

I was chatting with a friend from Canada over IM... We were chattin on various topics from movies to international politics. And I just loved the way he put what his idea about the present situation is......I don't wanna go into things like whether I support it or not. Just like it they way it said and believe that it should get a mention in my blog.

"My personal philosophy is that the world has gone to s*** and the only way to stop it is some sort of alien invasion that annihalates the planet thus letting us start over as single celled organisms floating in space. Either that or we kill the lying thieving politicians (basically all of them) and start over as a meritocracy. Leaders would be judged on intellect and merit not wealth and birthright. Another option would be a pornocracy - a government run by whores and harlots. Yeah, the world would still be crap but at least everybody would be getting laid and stay happy. As long as people are getting laid, there's no time for war. Basically my life can be summed up in 2 of my favorite quotes. THE LIVER IS EVIL AND MUST BE PUNISHED and "We are all living in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars"

Go Goa

2006-02-27T20:41:00.000+05:30

KarrierecUnfall

2006-02-03T10:09:00.000+05:30

Just now came across a blog on how to choose the right career. Some of the write-ups are quite appealing and worth a read. But leaving aside all the analysis and gyan, in one of the posts the blogger has presented some noteworthy facts about success turning into disaster only because the right amount of passion was not brewed with the profession. Quite startling indeed.

Just replicating the facts…………….

In 1923, nine of the world’s richest men met to discuss economy. They were among the richest men in the world. They were:-

Charles Schwab- President of the largest Steel company
Sameul Insull- President of the largest electric utility company
Howard Hopson- President, largest gas company
Arthur Cutten- Greatest wheat speculator
Richard whitney- President, New york stock exchange
Albert Fall- Secretary of Interior in President Harding’s Cabinet.
Jesse Livermore, the greatest “bear” on the Wall street
Ivan Krueger, head of the world’s greatest monopoly.
Leon Fraser, President of the Bank of international settlements.

After 25 years in 1948, the situation was as follows:-

Charles Schwab was bankrupt and lived the last few years on borrowed money.
Samuel Insull died abroad as a penniless fugitive.
Howard Hopson was insane.
Arthur Cutten became insolvent and died abroad
Richard Whitney had been imprisoned
Albert Fall was pardoned from prison and died broke and penniless.
Jesse Livermore had committed suicide.
Ivar Krueger killed himself
Leon Fraser committed suicide.

second coming

2006-01-30T16:23:00.000+05:30

A lot of things have happened in the last couple of days….
I have changed my flat, still in the middle of shifting my stuffs. Finding a acco in Mumbai and then shifting stuffs is a real twinge in the arse.
I have changed my job, this was a abrupt decision. And I am yet to adjust to the highly corporate and formal environment of my new company. I have been attending loads of meetings since joining this organization.
I am under a huge pecuniary crunch after paying a huge amount of money for renting the new flat and releasing myself from my previous organization.
I am practically a popper now. Don’t even have the dough to afford a descent haircut. My ultra formal colleagues surely think that I am some kind of a brute.
Finally in my new company I am settling down, the best thing about this place is that I can access net and specially bloggers.com
Now I hope to be more regular in blogging.
Else I am not doing much, just catching up with the movies from my DVD collection. Saw Citizen Kane. Man, no doubt it’s one of the best movie ever made. Reading a lot of books as well. Right now I am reading “The Impressionist “ by Hari Kunzroo, I love his style and choice of words.
Oh, and I am traveling a lot in the local trains of Mumbai which I have carefully avoided for the past one year. Now everyday I travel to office and back by trains and that too during the peak hours and think I am really getting used to it. In fact I am getting used to Mumbai and have finally started liking this city.

Republic day was great, had lunch (Jack Daniel’s steak with shrimps and long island iced tea) at TGIF , watched Rang de basanti (loved it, planning to watch it again), in the evening went for Mumbai festival (sloppy midnight bazaar called ‘Indiyeah” ) but the real high of the day was watching “Indian Ocean” perform live. RDB had already taken me on a trip to my good’ol college days…listening to Susmit Sen, Asheem Chakravarti , Amit Kilam and Rahul Ram perform Kandisa, Jhini , Bandeh made my rbc’s boil. The only thing I was missing at that point was some good joints. It’s truly said “The deepest recess of the ocean reflects the soul……when Indian ocean sings, the soul speaks……….”

What Dilbert say's .................

2005-09-08T17:08:00.002+05:30

I say no to drugs they just don't listen.
A friend in need is a pest indeed.
Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.
Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.
When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.
The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train.
Born free taxed to death.
Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.
Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on your pants.
It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.
I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.
A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.
The hardest part of skating is the ice.
My phone number is 17. We got one of the early ones.
The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he as the genius.
The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.
In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
If you tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe, he'll believe you. But if you tell him a park bench has just been painted, he has to touch it to be sure.
I had a friend once. Then the rope broke and he got away.
If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?
Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!
If you can't convince them, confuse them.
It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.
I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.
Someday is not a day of the week.

Chinese Resturant

2005-08-31T12:50:00.000+05:30

Wanna eat here?

Definitions

2005-08-31T12:17:00.000+05:30

Got these definitions of commonly used words in a forwarded mail from a friend. Think they are humorous and worth a mention in my blog.

ADULT:
A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOR:
A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL:
Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS:
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE:
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST:
Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF:
Cold Storage.

INFLATION:
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

RAISIN:
Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET:
Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON:
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE:
The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW:
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN:
An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES:
Something other people have.
You have character lines

Iqbal

2005-08-30T16:12:00.000+05:30

Movies are made for entertainment, for fun, for making money, for setting trend, for winning award or for all of the above. But very few movies are made with the intention of just making an honest movie. This honesty in the attempt is reflected in every aspect of the movie. Here the director doesn’t have to compromise with the script, producer with the money or the actor with the character portraying.

Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal is such an honest attempt of movie making. After watching the movie one can very well realized what this movie could have been had Nagesh compromised with the script in the attempt of making it a larger than life movie. Or had Subhash Ghai compromised to make it a typical Mukta arts type out-n-out commercial venture. But, neither Nagesh nor Subhash has compromised the sincerity of their objective of making Iqbal. And that is where Iqbal succeeds.

Iqbal is the story of a 18 year old boy who is deaf and dumb by birth. But this does not stop him from dreaming. He wants to be a bowler for the Indian cricket team.
Iqbal is the story of a 15 year old girl who believes in her brother’s dream, who is convinced that her brother is the best bowler in the world.
Iqbal is the story of a mother who is torn between her handicapped child’s aspirations and her poor farmer husband’s reservation against cricket.
Iqbal is a story of a poor farmer, who is loosing his battle to give his family financial security and is scared of his challenged son’s dream.
Finally, Iqbal is the story of a failed cricketer who wins in life through his student’s achievement.

As a movie Iqbal is marked by excellent performance by Shreyas Talpade, Shweta Prasad and Naseeruddin Shah. It is a super blend of sporting ethos, human values and emotions, a simple tale of grit of an 18 year old and his family superbly told by Nagesh Kukunoor.

Iqbal does not have the larger than life appeal of 'BLACK', nor the glorification of the struggle of an underprivileged as in 'Forest Gump'. It does not have the intricacies of the relationship of a coach and a student as in ‘Million dollar baby’

Iqbal is an exciting tale that bursts with optimism; it is the kind of story that tells you that everything is possible as long as you really want it to happen. The inspiration from Paulo Coelho’s 'Alchemist' can be felt subtly. “When a person really desires something the entire universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream." Like Santiago, Iqbal is constantly tested along the way, yet he continues to listen to the murmurings of his heart, keeps his determination unaltered against all odds until he realizes his dream.
‘It's not about the Bike’, Lance Armstrong's first autobiography, is one of the most inspiring books and the biggest sports bestseller, which depicts his journey from a rebellious child to a cancer survivor to Tour De France winner. It was his fight against cancer that found a global recognition with the triumph in of the most grueling sports events.
Similarly Iqbal is a story of all of us. It is beyond the struggle against physical disabilities. It is purely about dreaming and putting you body, mind and soul to the dream. Clearly, “It’s not about cricket”.

Taboo (part one)

2005-08-26T14:59:00.000+05:30

My mornings start with grabbing the news paper headlines as soon as I open my eyes. I, then read on the whole paper along with the numerous supplements that come with the daily ‘Times of India’ Mumbai edition. Thanks to my roommate who gets up much earlier and always remembers to keep the newspaper next to my mattress before leaving for work.
And I don’t leave my bed until I am finished with reading the whole of the paper while having my first smoke of the day and a cup of morning tea, prepared by my other flat mate.
Today was also no different; while I was sipping on my cup of Darjeeling tea suddenly my eyes caught the regular ‘ask me’ section in one of the supplements. It is that regular section where the readers mail about their problems ranging from psychological, sexual, legal, marital, physical and blah blah….. While an expert multitasking as a doctor, gynecologist,sexologist, shrink and lawyer tend to provide customized solution to their problems.
As a teenager it used to be quite a fun reading such QnA from the pages of Cosmopolitan or Femina kind of magazines and feel titillated. But now they seem rather funny or made up and I generally avoid reading them unless I am really jobless.
Maybe today was one of those jobless mornings for me that I chose to read the column. The questions were mostly related to sex and the physical aspect of sex as they generally are. Like some wants to increase the size of his little Johnny, someone wants to conceive at the age of 40 or someone wants to try and enter through the backdoor of his partner but does not know exactly how to do it. There were nothing new about this queries and I didn’t even bother to look at what solution the expert provided.
But then my eyes caught one of the queries. It was from a 28 year old woman. She is married for the last five months with someone who is working as an executive in a multinational organization. Though she hasn’t given any details of his educational qualification or ethnicity, she has mentioned that her husband is quite well off and out going in his attitude and she has no doubt of the fact that he loves her. Now, the woman in question is suffering from a strange problem. Her problem is whenever they have sexual intercourse her husband becomes psychologically depressed after the act. He stops talking to her even to the extent of the next couple of days. His behavior becomes erratic, he cannot stand her presence and tries to avoid any sort of interaction with her for the next couple of hours in some cases days. He has reveled to her that after having sex he suffers from a sense of guilt as if he has committed some heinous crime and considers her to be responsible for the act. He also told her that during this period he prefers to be left alone. This is bothering her and she herself has now started suffering from a great despondency. She has asked the expert to provide her with some solution.
I was a little taken aback if not shocked by this letter and though I didn’t want to read what the shrink has to say like the usual ‘you both need professional counseling and help’
But the first line of the experts reply caught my eye, he started his reply with the “it’s true that sex is considered a taboo in many religion, cast and ethnic groups…………”
He was convinced that this victim’s husband is suffering from the guilt of performing this taboo, this original sin.
This word ‘taboo’ suddenly jolted and I think I skipped couple of my heart beats. I could not digest that a young man at 2005 will consider sex as a taboo and suffer miserably for responding to his natural instincts. Then I felt that this has nothing to do with his education, profession, social status, caste, religion or being Indian. Searching the root in the immediacy of his existence will prove futile as this problem has its cause deeply rooted within time, within the course of human civilization. The fact that the driving force behind the evolution of Homo sapiens as the smartest animal on this planet was their power of rational thinking. And thus powered by the ability to think they emerged as the most adaptive creature, this adaptability and rational thinking as proved by Charles Darwin, made the humans the fittest in the struggle for survival.
Now once they had gained the supremacy over other species, it was time to gain supremacy among them. They realized that this was not possible on an individual effort. So groups were formed, family were built, society was structured, nations were built. And this has been a broad course of human civilization. Till today we are fighting, every moment to prove our supremacy over another human, family, group, race, society, and nation. And this fight the beginning of which was just for food for the sake of survival is never going to end because this will keep the wheel of civilization rolling ahead.
Though the weapons with which this battle has been fought has undergone drastic metamorphosis over the period of time from stones to fire, from fire to wood, from wood to metal, from metal to alloy, from allow to light metal, from light metal to fire arms and from fire arms to nukes and nukes to viruses or biological weapons.
But one weapon that has been constant throughout is the human mind and its power of thinking. Mind has helped them rationalize their existence and make it more convenient. The three ‘F’ factor that was considered to be the biggest enemies of the mind were Force (natural calamity, epidemic etc.); Fear (of wild animals, the dark and most importantly the unknown) and Failure (to deliver, to retain the leadership position). If we look at our state of mind today, even after all our processed rationale, our inventions, our progress the biggest enemies of our mind are these three factors.
And to deliver from these unknown, unseen enemies human mind created GOD and unsurprisingly Demon. Whenever the mind failed to explain something due to the unavailability of knowledge or resources, those incidents have been attributed to something more powerful, something more resourceful, and something more fit, more supreme.
Now after having created GOD and Demon it was time for restricting their territories of expertise. God became the savoir, the messiah. Anything that made life easier was attributed to his authority. Demon became the destructor, the fear factor, anything that was thought to be unexplainable; detrimental to human happiness was under his job description.
After creating GOD and Demon and assigning them their roles and responsibilities it was now time for identifying tasks or events that were Godly and those which were Diabolic.
Mostly the tasks that suited the comfort level of a sect and promised it’s supremacy was made godly and those which challenged their supremacy or aroused fear were acknowledged as demonic. Generally these were the tasks performed by some rival group, or some weaker part like the women of the own group.
To attain, retain or regain their domination these actions were made ‘PROHIBITED’
Thus ‘TABOO’ was born.

Taboo today is defines as a ban or an inhibition resulting from social custom or emotional aversion. Over the period of human civilization the definition of taboo has changed. Across time, across geographic location, across political outlook, across religious advocacy, across socio-economical structure the definition of taboo has changed.
Every society or country however rich, educated, enlighten or progressive it may be has it’s own set of ‘predefined’ taboos…..some society has provision for delivery after performing a task considered to be taboo. The methods for this delivery have been and are in many forms. Some customized to the human comfort level like confession, donation, prayer and some are brutal like corporal mortification, purification with fire, confiscation or amputation, stoning to death.

I need to take a break now as I feel that unless I stop here I will go on. But I am saving it for the future. I will surly write about the different taboos across different part of the globe and try to find out an explanation for them. Until then …..adios. Before ending this blog I am listing down some popular taboos, region wise.

Country or peoples Taboo
Australia --> mentioning the names of the dead

United States of America --> Passing Flatulence

Nearly universal --> Incest, cannibalism

Jews and Muslims --> Eating pork

Arabs --> Displaying the soles of the foot,
touching shoes, eating with the left hand

American men --> Public display of affection, crying

India -->Public display of affection, kissing in public, addressing elders by first names, smoking/drinking in front of one's elders

Chinese -->men and women Kissing in public, addressing elder by first names
Chinese women--> Appearing in public in late pregnancy

Mountaineers --> Stepping on climbing ropes, even when not in use

Jews -->pronouncing the personal name of God

Evangelical Christians,Devout Muslims and Jews --->Homosexuality, Having anal sex

United States White Americans, Asian-Americans --> Saying the word "nigger"

Mind your language ......

2005-08-25T13:00:00.000+05:30

Move over world’s back office or business process outsourcing hub, India is fast emerging as a major center for cutting-edge research and development (R&D) projects for global multinationals such as Intel, Microsoft and Motorola as well as Indian firms. More and more companies in industries ranging from IT and telecommunications through pharmaceuticals and biotech are setting up ambitious R&D projects, in part to serve the Indian market, but also with an eye to delivering new generations of products faster to the global market.

Microsoft, which opened its research laboratory in Bangalore in January -- the third outside the U.S., after Cambridge, England, and Beijing -- is another company that views India as a microcosm of the developing world. Considering India's diversity in terms of religion, culture, geography, climate and language, Microsoft believes the country offers opportunities to develop technology that can rapidly be deployed elsewhere. "Solutions that work in India are more likely to transfer to other locations because they will have been tested across these barriers," says a company spokesperson.
Microsoft plans to focus on at least four key areas at its India laboratory. These include multilingual systems, in which researchers will work on areas such as speech recognition and user interfaces in several languages; India, with its 22 languages, is considered a good location for such research. Other areas include the development of technologies for emerging markets; geographical information systems; and sensors and sensor network applications.
Now, here is a twist as this blog is not supposed to be another report on India’s economic trend or fact sheet of the Research and Development work that are at present happening in India. McKinsey and Forrester are doing that task very well. This blog is meant to be Funny. As Microsoft is spending a fortune in order to come out with much localized version of it’s most popular software namely Windows operating system and MS Office for larger user acceptance and penetration in this hugely Hindi speaking emerging market (read: ubharta bazaar).

And as I, like many contemporary thinkers, leaving all mundane office duties was getting into deep thought about how these softwares will look with Hindi commands, one of my colleague from UP came to my rescue. When I told him what I was thinking….he smiled and said “ ee kaunsi badi baat hai…..humko bataiye kaunsa command ka hindi janna hai aapko?”
To try, I asked him a couple of typical MS commands and to my utter astonishment he came up with instant answers. He told me that there has been many “e-mail phorwarding” with this same issue, therefore it is nothing new. I am sure one of the driving factor for many R&D work in India is that we are such thinkers, hell no, not just thinkers but such self motivating advanced thinkers.

Here are the list of commands and their (apt) hindi version….[listing down for Microsoft to notice, and save a lot of their valuable time and resource in Hindi linguistic research]

• Phaail = File
• Bachao = Save
• Aise Bachao = Save as
• Subko Bachao = Save All
• Mujhe Bachao = Help
• Dhoondo = Find
• Firse Dhoondo = Find Again
• Hilao = Move (My favorite :D)
• Dak =Mail
• Dakiya = Mailer
• Paas se dhekho = Zoom
• Door se dhekho = Zoom Out
• Kholo = Open
• Bandh Karo = Close
• Naya = New
• Purana/Khatara = Old
• Badli Karo = Replace
• Bhaago = Run ;

Now was the time for the ultimate shocker. I asked my colleague deceitfully, what he thinks the name of Microsoft softwares will be in Hindi. He told me that issue has already been solved. He showed me a forwarded mail from one of his friend which had the hindi translation of major MS Software names.

Worth mentioning are:

POWERPOINT - "AtiSukshma Mulayam ShaktiBindu"
WORD 6 - "AtiSukshma Mulayam Shabda Cheh"
ACCESS - "AtiSukshma Mulayam PRAVESH KI SAMMATI"
VISUAL C++ - "AtiSukshma Mulayam Nazaaraa C adhik hi adhik"
OFFICE 2000 - "Karyalaya 2000 mein"

Now dumbstruck!!! I asked him what “AtiSukshma Mulayam” means. He replied with a blissful smile: “when you are translating the products in Hindi, why leave the company?”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat?” Microsoft = AtiSukshma Mulayam

Bill save your butt.

Last words, Last right

2005-08-24T14:14:00.000+05:30

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
-------------------------------------------- Alan Seeger

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, 1787

What can be your last word when you know that you are going to die the next moment? U know because you are going to kill yourself. Here listing down some illustrious suicide notes....This is not to glorify death, neither to eulogize suicide (which is considered as a sin or felony by many religions) but just to hear what they have to say....before they choose their final destination

And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead.
Suicide note.
~~ Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort, French writer, d. 1794

Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your altar. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances for her life will be so much happier without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU.
Suicide note.
~~ Kurt Cobain, musician, d. April 8, 1994

Goodbye, everybody!
Last words as he jumped off the cruise ship "Orizaba." (His body was never found.)
~~ Hart Crane, poet, d. April 27, 1932

To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?
Suicide note.
~~ George Eastman, inventor, d. March 14, 1932

Goodbye, my friend, goodbye
My love, you are in my heart.
It was preordained we should part
And be reunited by and by.
Goodbye: no handshake to endure.
Let's have no sadness -- furrowed brow.
There's nothing new in dying now
Though living is no newer.
Written in his own blood, and given to a friend the day before he hanged himself.
~~ Sergei Esenin, Russian poet, d. Dec. 28, 1925

When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.
Suicide note.
~~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer, d. August 17, 1935
( As an advocate for the right-to-die, Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935 by taking an overdose of chloroform. She "chose chloroform over cancer.")

Lets see if this will do it.
Accidental suicide as he shot himself with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of TV spy show "Cover Up." The concussion forced a chunk of his skull into his brain; he died six days later.
~~ Jon Erik Hexum, actor, d. October 18, 1984

All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire.
Suicide note.
~~ Robert E. Howard, writer, d. June 11, 1936

And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you're about to see another first - an attempted suicide.
Shot herself during broadcast.
~~ Chris Chubbuck, newscaster, d. July 15, 1974

Don't worry, it's not loaded.
Suicide playing Russian roulette.
~~ Terry Kath, rock musician, d. January 23, 1978

They tried to get me - I got them first!
Suicide by drinking Lysol.
~~ Vachel Lindsay, poet, d. December 4, 1931

I must end it. There's no hope left. I'll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally.
Suicide note.
~~ Freddie Prinze, comedian, d. January 29, 1977

Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck.
Suicide note.
~~ George Sanders, British actor, d. April 25, 1972

When I am dead, and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain drenched hair,
Tho you should lean above me broken hearted,
I shall not care.
For I shall have peace.
As leafey trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough.
And I shall be more silent and cold hearted
Than you are now.
Suicide note to her lover who left her.
~~ Sara Teasdale, poet, d. 1933

To Harald, may God forgive you and forgive me too but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's before I bring him with shame or killing him, Lupe.
Suicide note.
~~ Lupe Velez, actress, d. December 13, 1944

The future is just old age and illness and pain.... I must have peace and this is the only way.
Suicide note.
~~ James Whale, film director, d. May 29, 1957

I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time.
Suicide note.
~~ Wendy O. Williams, punk rock performer, d. April 6, 1998

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go thru another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices
Suicide note
~~ Virginia Woolf, author, d. March 28, 1941

The curious incident of the dog in the night time

2005-08-24T12:45:00.000+05:30

“The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”…….the title was apt enough to make me curious enough about the book. I was also a little apprehensive because my friend who suggested the book just couldn’t stop raving about it. I don’t tend to give in easily when people get too excited about something especially when it happens to be a movie or a book. This is because of few past experiences. And I generally tend to read a lot of reviews before I decide to read a new book. The reviews not necessarily have to be positive for me to purchase and read the book but I like it when I read reviews which are conflicting and thought provoking. I don’t trust and for that matter have vowed never to read book reviews by Indian media. After I found out that their reviews are mostly the bastardized version of the originals from the likes of NYtimes, Barns and Noble etc. using meaningless and mindless cutting edge technology (cut+copy+paste) just to save space and stick to word limit. I am sure that in Indian media more than half of the book reviews are written by reviewers who have never even read that book.

I don’t want to go more into book review and Indian media, at least for now. If I fell sane enough I will surly write about it in one of my future blogs.

Now coming back to ….”curious dog” as I have a propensity to call the book just to avoid the length of it’s title. But it entirely spoils the essence of such a fittingly chosen title. ‘Curious dog’ is widely different from “The curious incident of the dog in the night time”. I don’t have to bother about saving space neither word so in this blog I will use the title in its entire span whenever I am required to use it.

“The curious incident of the dog in the night time” is about 15 year old Christopher. Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands mathematics and is really good at it, he understands science and dreams to be an astronaut and travel to outer space someday. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals. He knows all the prime numbers up to 7507. But what he does not understand is human being. He cannot solve the complexity of human mind with the ease he can solve a complex mathematical problem.
Therefore he is different, for others he is a boy who is mentally challenged or to be more ‘politically correct’ he is a boy with special needs. The pattern, equation, theorem or rational reasoning that he uses to crack an extremely intricate mathematical problem does not come handy to solve the behavior of the people around him. He cannot trust others, he does not like to be touched, not even by his own parents. But he loves animals, like his pet rat or his neighbor’s dog Wellington. And one evening when he finds Wellington, lying dead on his neighbor’s lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery novel about it. In doing so, however, he unearths other mysteries that bring his whole world crashing down around him. Throughout all his adventures, Christopher writes a book about the happenings and his experiences, and the book he writes is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”.
Extremely well crafted by author Mark Haddon “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” is book for all ages, for all kinds of reader. Mr. Haddon weaves into the book several concepts from contemporary research and theory on autism (neurodevelopmental disorder); for instance, one incident described in the book is in fact a recreation of a famous experiment regarding theory of mind. The book also contains a few logic puzzles, such as a description of the famous Monty Hall problem. Haddon also includes the extremely unlikely incident of seeing four yellow cars in a row (probability) and remarkably numbering the chapters as prime numbers. Lastly the book contains the complex intricacies of human relationship and it’s different faces through the words from the diary of it’s protagonist a 15 year old with special needs, Christopher.

I don’t want to go ushering praise for the book by picking up all the fitting adjectives from the dictionary because I have only one word for describing this book and that is ‘unputdownable’. Thank you Ritu for making me read this book.

Rooposhi Bangla (Beckoning Bengal)

2005-08-04T14:22:00.000+05:30

Legs dangling from the train, book in hand, watching the Indian plains slowly trundle by. The scenery is beautifully flat and patch-worked with irregularly shaped harvested fields dotted with palms and ancient trees stretching as far and wide as the eye can see. Women in colorful saris carry bails of hay on their heads to serenely primitive villages seemingly built from the stuff. Wispy smoke from cooking fires hangs horizontally and motionless in the air above, whilst water buffalos blissfully unaware of their contribution to the scene bathe in lily filled ponds with birds atop their backs… Every time I look up from my book I’m spellbound - the people and landscape seem entwined in one magnificent timeless collage of life. Centuries past when man ended his wandering ways this was civilization. But civilization is a process; a becoming. I have an overwhelming urge to leave the train and walk off on the confusion of paths into the vermilion horizon, relishing the greeneries of the paddy fields, the whiteness of the 'Kash' phool, the whistling of ‘Doel’ bird and would no doubt be welcomed in every home, for here is my roots, here is where I belong … that to me is romance, that to me is my Bengal.

Presenting the true soul of Bengal from a ballad by Jibananada Das.

As long as I might live I yearn to see the sky,
gone elsewhere

Into skies as
blue as aparajita vines-bluer still.

I want to watch
the dawn's own herons, kingfishers swooping
high

Wringing with
their wings the sky, going somewhere
during

The month of
September. I wish to sit upon the grass of Bengal,

For I've roamed the
world and borne in heart the age's
sorrows.

I'll drift with
the Dhansiri's flow toward Bengal's burning
ground

Where
Ramprasad's wild-haired Syama still comes
today,

Where some
lovely lady's body, embroidery-bordered sari
clad,

Rides a funeral
pyre of sandalwood-a parrot on a mango
branch

Forgets to
speak; where resides the greatest
beauty-melancholy;

Where the lotus
withers. where for long Bisalaksi has not
spoken;

Where one day
Sankhamala's, Chandramala's,
Manikmala's

Bangles used to
jingle-ah, will they ever jingle once again!

I did it again......

2005-06-02T19:42:00.000+05:30

Sorry for using this stupid title...but just can't find a better one to write my second blog after a gap of 3 months....yes I feel like 'shit' saying this......but, '3 friggin months' .The rush of a virgin has been burried under the wrecks of something unasuming called as 'work pressure'....and believe me that is no excuse. A lot have happend in the last three months.....and some of the incidents deserves to have blogs written on them. But the best thing to happen in the past couple of months is that I finally passed out of SCIT ( you will get to hear/read this four letter word a lot in my blogs. I am a MBA in IT now. "Shut up dip u liar....it is not MBA but MPIT (Masters programme in Information Technology) thats what is written on your degree (phew! diploma) certifricate." Its situaltional call it whatever u want, we can be efficient in either description. This is called flexibility again a trait aquired at SCIT one of India's first rung Techno Business School......and an "autonomus institute". As long as my certifricate carries my college tag and I can prove the worth of my overpriced underpaid education..... it will work....At least it has got me a job at one of India's leading software compnay. Here, after growing up in Kolkata, doing my Bachelors in Bangalore and Masters from Pune I have landed with a job in the "Finacial Capital" of India and Shanghai's poor sister city ....'Mumbai', though I am yet to see any glimpse of finance in my personal life:D
My organization is very particular about processes being followed...and according to their process ploicies it is unethical for an employee to write blogs while at work. Where as more and more multinationals are adopting the blog culture as a means of open and participatory corporate communication...In Indian management scenario its is still a myth....or does not fall under the process circle. (what does?) I cannot access any of the required useful site like mails, blogs from my office.
And it is still a luxury ...for me to go to a cyber cafe daily and pay to write my blog. So do not blame if I am a little irregular in updating my blogs. But I am planning to take a broadband connection soon at home.
My time in the cafe is over....so wait till my next blog....for more.

Hey Britney.......go to hell.......u suck

There I go....

2005-03-11T01:20:00.000+05:30

Finally!!! Finally it feels that determination can conquer over indolence. After many months of fruitless dreaming, thinking and planning, when I got up today morning I felt a strange inertia. May be it’s because of the fact that lately I have started to sulk into the fact that writing blogs will remain like many of my over planned unfinished tasks. It is so easy to judge things that you don’t do yourself. So over the past few months after I started reading blogs, I had developed a strange sense of amusement in commenting on every other blogs even if the subject or the context was remote from my circle of interest.
But today when I finally and surprisingly manage to increase my creative libido and started to write my first blog, I realized how difficult it is to tame our thoughts and put them in order, to synchronize them into a pattern and put them into words. But it is also true that once the gate is opened the creative juice starts flowing. So, here I go…. on the road again….there I am…. turn the page. Sorry, but this song has a special meaning in my life. And I am very sure that there will be reflection of my life’s journey into all my writings. I will try to keep my writings as transparent as I can and my ideas as unbiased.
It will not be constrained by any rules, issues or target audience but a journey of life, the reflection of a wandering mind. Here begins a new chapter of my life…turn the pages…and keep reading.