Sites and Insights

D went to see the Niagara fall last weekend... and it did, several times, she said thats why they call it Niagara Falls. ok, i take responsibilty for that nonsensical humour(?) :

Which made me wonder, there are so many sights around the world that I'll never manage to see? I can choose to see it, but then why would i choose to see it over, lets say, the Stonehenge, or the Great Barrier Reef, or the Sphinx,or the Colosseum, or London Bridge. Even if i had all the money and all the time, could i ever manage to see all the sights that are worth seeing? Can i even imagine the different sights that are spread across the geographical expanse of the planet?

So, do i miss seeing them? Not exactly, because i dont think i will notice the difference between sunsets in Goa and say, the Riviera or the nightview of the Queen's necklace and the Quai des États-Unis. Maybe thats just philosophising or maybe i am in denial.. :)

Or maybe, its just a function of who you're with and what you take out of those sights... Awe, splendour, amazement, bliss, joy...and so on...

And thats why an internet connection is so damn important, coz if you can't do it really, you might as well do it virtually - from panorama to vista and discovery to explorer.. Because the plethora of content does to me exactly what books do to me - gives perspectives.. of people i have never met, and places I have never seen...

until next time, see you on orkut ;)

Pati, Patni aur Woh

Exactly the current president's cup of tea - that what this presidential election has become - rocket science. But unfortunately, that doesnt do him much help, coz he has already backed out. But that's only after doing a rose petal stunt of 'will he, wont he', and then saying he would stand for a second term only if he were assured of a victory. By those standards, i wonder how he was so active sending up rockets, considering that most of them came back faster than they went up. And forget achieving their objective, the only thing they succeeded in doing was to destroy some poor fishes' homes in the arabian sea/ bay of bengal or create a theme park/ picnic spot for the fishes' children. No wonder they always said there was always something fishy in India's space research..sorry, i digress.. All said and done, doesnt look like the man who made the chikunguniya look fashionable, and the one who inspired salmaan for the 'tere naam' look is going to have a second term as Rashtrapati.

Which brings us to the prime contestant - the one who has been accused of shielding a killer, of defaulting onpayments for a factory. I say it is wrong that such a person should contest for the notional post of President, Indian politics has lost a true flag-bearer. She has awesome qualifications to be PM, but the nation is into non-controversial PMs these days, sigh. Chalo, at least this way, we get to see our first Rashtrapatni.

The current VP, was once upon a time, regarded as an almost definite P, but unfortunately for him, all his ex-supporters now only say, oh, woh?

Why am i writing about it? Because it was so damn inconsequential, but true to his name, Dr.Kalam, has converted the entire exrecise into a PJ !!

until next time, shall we tell the president?

Gestation Time

She hated this wait. It had been many months now, and she still had some more to go, before the result showed. She was a bit nervous. It definitely wasn't the first time that she was going through this, but she was still young, and not, lets say, a seasoned player, though how anyone could be a seasoned player inspite of multiple experiences was something beyond her imagination, since every experience in this regard was a unique one, with its own set of ups and downs and idiosyncrasies.

He was not exactly what you could call a big help, though he was definitely much sweeter and understanding than most others of his breed. She had heard enough horror stories to realise and appreciate that, but unfortunately it was more of her cross than his. But wait, it wasn't exactly a cross and besides, in his own right, he would be tense too, but he couldn't or rather wouldn't show it to her. She wasn't sure if it was a 'man' thing- this entire show of bravado, when being tense.

But, to be fair to him, he had been very supportive and understanding when she had mentioned her desire to him. He thought it was pretty natural. In fact he had initiated the process and gone through it without much fuss. In fact, she thought, that was an understatement, because it had been pure pleasure.

But she hated this wait, especially since one couldn't be too sure of everything turning out right, because though both of them had defintely played their parts, the higher powers had a say in it too. But though she hated the wait, she would grin and bear, after who could every say no to appraisals and increments?

until next time, the thought was conceived after reading this :)

Old School

I'm still quite unsure about the name, old n' all, though i have to admit, it does sound a bit 'in'. What am i talking about? It's the new (or at least i discovered it only recently) programming on Zee Cafe. (are you listening guys, thisis kinda endorsement and stuff) Unfortunately, its only about an hour everyday, and the timings aren't exactly what I'd call user friendly. (i thinki blew that endorsement deal)

But what it does give, if you can get around to seeing it, is those old favourites that used to appear on Star Plus (yeah, there was a time when it was sans saans and bahus and ekkta kkapoor stuff). I'm talking about Doogie Howser MD, Ally McBeal, The X Files and my personal favourite - The Wonder Years.

Actually it isn't just about watching old favourite content, its about bringing back those days when i used to watch it every evening. As everyone who reads this blog would know by now, all it takes is a bit of hint for me to go onto nostalgia mode. I guess, thats why they called it 'Old School'.

And as Kevin would say, “I remember a place... a town... a house like a lot of houses... a yard like a lot of other yards... on a street likea lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I sill look back... with wonder.”

until next time, back to school :)

The right turn

On my way to office, there is a junction, and like many junctions there are rights and lefts varying from 1 degree to 179 degrees, and many times, i end up giving directions thus, "not that right, the other right'...

A few days back, i ended up playing whistle blower on an online plagiarism case.. no second guess required whether it was the right thing to do, but the implications did make me wonder whether i could have maybe not have done it at all.. But i also got a forward around the same time.. it went thus - there are two sets of railway tracks. One used, the other unused.There is a warning board on the used one that warns kids not to play on it. The scenario is that a train is approaching on the used track, there are five kids playing on it. A single kid is playing on the unused track. You are in charge of the tracks. With a single button, you can divert the train onto the unused track,saving five kids and sacrificing one. You obviously can't do the movie hero stunt of running faster than the train and rescuing all kids concerned, and you have only moments to decide. Before you make the decision, remember that the single kid was following instructions and doing the right thing.

There is no 'correct' answer, it is a choice, but it helped me stick to the decision i made. Maybe, it is a step towards a 'no compromise' policy towards doing the right thing... Meanwhile, the turn to my office is the exact right, all of 90 degrees :)

until next time, i write, you read :)

Social Networking

I once had a scrap on Orkut.

I won.

until next time, feeling anti-social.

Read Only Memories

Tagged by Prero

Total number of books owned:*Loading* (while i go check my shelf) 93

Last book(s) I bought:Cryptonomicon (gifted to me), Shalimar the Clown, The Peacock throne

Five books that I have really enjoyed or have influenced me:

Influenced: Tomorrow's God, Fountainhead, The Lost Hero, The Drifters, God's little Soldier (currently reading), a lot of magazines i can't mention ;)

Enjoyed: Ramayana series (ashok Banker), Foundation series, Jeffrey archer (all), Night of the Dark Trees, The Great Indian Novel, and those magazines

Book(s) I'm currently reading:God's Little Solidier

Books I plan to buy next: Strong believer in love at first sight, there's no planning :)

Books that caught my attention but have never read: sigh, a lot of Maxim these days, but seriously, i usually end up buying the books that catch my attention

Books I own but have never got around to reading: Quite some, but here are a few - Lila, Desirable Daughters (that title is very misleading!!hehe), Goa ( i will, one day)...

until next time, pick up the tag, it might make a good read ;)

An eternal twist

Read something that i thought was definitely worth sharing.

If you had to choose between a woman you had met the day before and God, who would you choose? And the weaver said, The woman. Is there any doubt about that?

And the mullah asked him, If you had to choose between a song and God, what would you pick? And the weaver said,The song, of course.

And the priest from the temple asked him, Weaver, if perforce you had to choose one or the other, a beautiful sunset or God, what would your choice be? And he said, Isn't it obvious? The sunset.

And they asked him how he could blaspheme so. And the weaver said, Why sirs, God has eternity on his side, he can always wait. Will the woman, the song or the sunset wait for me?

God's Little Soldier, Kiran Nagarkar

until next time, maybe there is no right answer...

Life is like That?

Heroes - the only show i watch regularly.. like i've said before, i've always been a sucker for the superhuman variety... but okay, thats enough for context...

last week, i heard a very interesting argument on the show. and since the premise was the choices we make in life, i was intrigued even more, and enought o make it a debate..it went this way..

every person has a choice - he can have a life full of meaning or a life full of happiness... if he wants a life of happiness, he has to live in the present and if he wants a life of meaning, he has to wallow in his past, and obsess about the future.. both cannot happen simultaneously...whaddya think?

until next time, the choices we make...

Heresy

Not that i spray the entire area with snowflakes, or carry the flakes around on my black t-shirts, but yes, they say prevention is better than cure and i agree...

and that is what took me to the clinically clear shampoo.... and i've to admit they have got the formula perfectly right.. if i continue using it, i'm sure i'll have no dandruff problem..after all, if i have no hair left, where will the dandruff stay?

Please note that this has nothing to do with the latest playa on the endorsement scene.. well, there's the Big B, then there's SRK, and then there's tralalala....SwB !! Don't believe me, read this... :)

until next time, hair today.....

The new magicians

Sometime last week, saw a photo of P C Sorkar passing his magic wand to his daughter, apparently a passing on of the baton to the next generation...

A long long time ago, i think a couple of decades back, i had gone for one of his shows, in my hometown... that was still a generation that was eager about magic.. i even had tapes of david copperfield, doing much more complicated stuff... and yes, magic did leave me wonderstruck then...

A few months back, i saw a show on axn which revealed the tricks of the trade, they also mentioned that there were a lot of stores that sold magic kits... but i wonder how many kids would be interested in them... aren't the days of pc sorkar and co. over?

the new kind of magis is perhaps being created by a different kind of pc.. and thats just the bottom of the chain.. for there are much more advanced and specialist comps that are making break throughs indifferent kinds of technologies at a much faster rate than ever before...and like many other things, an innocent old art that has been entralling generations is in the process of getting relegated by the wonders of technology....

and we become part of a world which has no time for magic... or maybe its just that even magic aint what it used to be...

until next time, abracadabra.....

There goes our culture....

Heres one for the moral police...

I read this a few days back on the 'age no bar, sex baar baar' scenario- More youngsters are experimenting with casual sex than they did five years ago, according to a survey commissioned by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).The Behavioural Surveillance Survey (BSS) 2006, conducted on 40,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24, found that 8.4 per cent, or 1.5 crore youngsters in the country, are snuggling up for pre- and post-marital sex.

A few days back, i heard a contest on our only 24-hr english music station- it was something to do with a new store that has opened here. The question was what the store - 'apple of my eye' into - apples, 'mom and child' shopping or apple pies. Sarika, who called in, answered correctly - a 'mom and child' shop and she got a gift voucher from the store...

only, sarika is a 2nd PUC student.. now, purely out of humanitarian concern, i'm worried about sarika, will she gift it to someone else, or will the voucher encourage her to get herself a kid to redeem the voucher herself?

until next time, not just kidding ;)

..and while on context

I suddenly realised that long before google came on the scene, we were used to the concept of context... a few days back, i had sent our recent goa photos to an old schoolmate, and instead of sending me a reply, the damn fellow decided to leave a scrap in my orkut account.. and so, i was forced to go to my not-so-favourite site and check it out... and while i was there, i also visited his page and couldnt resist checking out old schoolmates (or as SwB claims, peeking at old crushes, which i vehemently deny..hehe)...

we are all out of touch, except for the stray e-mail blasts that get launched every once in a while that someone feels particularly nostalgic...and its not just school friends- college friends, colleagues from previous jobs and so on... of course, maybe its just me, but i feel its quite a common thing to lose touch with people who were once an inseparable part of our lives...(perhaps that explains the success of orkut, because it gets one back in touch)..

and thats when i realised that perhaps, wittingly or unwittingly, we make contextual relationships- school, college, jobs.. and its not just people but sometimes even places and cities... and since these relationships are in context, they end when the context ends... and leaves in its wake, memories, which in times to come, give us those bouts of nostalgia....

they say, as we grow older, we tend to go back to our roots, perhaps, a few years down the line, we'll see a generation going back to a prehistoric site called orkut to relive their glorious past :)

until next time, take a trip down memory lane...

Metrified

adj. composed in a poetic meter

..and thats exactly what the film was... no, i don't enjoy poetry, but i liked the word connection... and the film 'Life in a Metro' .... just wish there was more of irfan khan ..as always, this isn't a review, but there was another connection in the beginning minutes of the movie, that i thought was very funny..

Sharman Joshi (why can't we see more of that guy) gives out his uncle's apartment to his different bosses for their quickie trysts with secretaries... sharman's neighbours dont get to see the different faces though, their only point of contact is the common wall... and every day, they wait till the night's peformance ends, so they can go to sleep...

one day, when there are multiple users, they begin to sleep when the second performance starts.. and the wife remarks that her husband should find out what sharman eats...

and definitely in context (though unwittingly) the producer's name appears on the marquee - ronnie screwvala

until next time, poetry in motion ....

The New Microsoft

Its like the typical bollywood underworld story which is told from the anti hero's perspective... The hero makes his entrance to save society from the evil villain's menace, then takes the villain's place, and pretty soon the line between good and evil becomes a big blur...

In the internet story, MS played the big villain, thanks to its monopolistic leanings and bundling tactics, almost forcing users to choose it.. and that set the scene for the entry of the perfect hero - google... and as the story goes, slowly but surely google trumped the villain at every possible juncture in a matter of few years... and users stuck to it, inspite of blips like Gmail being a snoopy service that peeps into their mailbox...

And Google went on with its contextual relatonship with its customers... after all how can google serve its users best until it knows all that is to know about the user... so that it can serve up ads well in context and give the user the correct info exactly when he needs it... and the behemoth continues into radio ads, moves into the television ad space and local billboard space.. all in the guise of the hero serving the society, slowly converting homo sapiens into homo searchians...

after all even if the slogan is "don't be evil", all it takes is changing the definition of evil...

until next time, should the users feel lucky ?