Similarities!

August 15th came and went, and this year, it got me thinking... why is it so important to us, does it mean anything..have things changed at all since 1947?? The Gora Baabus have been replaced by a set of Indian Saahukars, the poor still remain exploited and the law is still not fair. A few wads thrust in the hands of the men in power, and hitherto difficult doors open faster than saying "open sesame". It's easy to see gloom in everything-have we not made progress? have not won wars? have we not built dams? have we not spent millions and billions of rupees, to blast rockets into space? have we not opened the doors to huge corporations and created new jobs? (ahem, ahem!!)?
have we not tripled the number of cars and home owners, is that not a sign of more wealth? have we not provided good roads? have we not gained recognition for Bollywood? haven't we told the world that we are more than a bunch of snake charmers and cowherds? we have produced a nobel laureate, and some of the big blue- chip companies are headed by Indians.
Yes, the answer is a resounding yes!! But, is that all we must measure ourselves by.. the number of cell phones a family has?? or the number of sarees the lady in the family has, or if you believe in the metrosexual man( whatever that may be!! ), the number of branded shirts the man in the family has!!! most of you, naah all of you reading this blog are among the elitest of elite among indians, who have education.. if we measured ourselves on this yardstick, then god save us... if we measured ourselves on a scale of corruption, even god can't save us- when there is talk of corruption in the army- you know something is big time wrong. Here are those people laying down their lives, (albeit for meaningless pursuits by the country), and their superiors take a nice bribe to jeopardize already risky situations. what about public health? and what about the lives of those millions of farmers who commit suicides every year- do we even care? some people in the country have to walk a few tens of miles, to fill water, while the others among us spend Rs 10 to drink 300 ml of the water stolen from them- does not ring a bell?? am talking about the bloody soft-drinks! on the one hand- a company is accused of employing people in inhuman conditions- and on the otherit sponsors our cricket team paying them millions of rupees, and makes a rough profit of nearly 400% on each product it makes-selling it to...yes, the rest of us!!!
i agree..things can't change all of a sudden..but is it so difficult to atleast be aware of what's going on??? to take a stand?? to be more sympathetic to the one's less luckier than us? there was a furore when the government mooted the reservation law- but does anyone even know that the right to information law was passed, and is being changed dramatically to suit the needs of the Govt?
Ho hum, this can go on.... Bottom line.. look around you, be more sensitive and be more understanding of the needs of those less endowed than you......

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On a related note, no no..not anymore serious stuff :)...I was wandering in Downtown Chicago, and kept staring at all Indian faces, or faces that were even remotely Indian. I concentrated on the men!! No no, don't get me wrong. What is common among all of us?? Do we look common? Well, for the trained eye, there are serious facial differences, color differences, behavioural differences. Obviously we speak different languages and eat different food.
The thing that looked most common to most Indian males in the age group 23-30 was .......
.......... the BAG!!! Indian men love wearing school/college bags. No briefcases, no patent leather luggage for them.. :))) And, I felt I fit right in with us Indians :)

Grumppy!!

What a start to my day!!!! For starters, I was soooo pooped last night that I fell asleep at 9:30. waah that has not happened since the days of yore... i don't remember ever falling asleep at 9:30pm in the last 6 years- when i was hale and hearty that is!!!! well, and it all came tumbling down after that!!! I woke up at 1am..... saw the time- and freaked out thinking that I had not woken up in the morning :D ...nearly threw a tantrum- I would have if there was a flatmate :). and then got bumped off- so with nothing to do...i slept again.. and woke up at 5:30 am!!my bulb burnt out... and i singed my hand trying to change it..the goddamned thing was on all night..and just burnt out i think...well...ho hum anyway...
bathed my wound... thght i'd run...and wore my shoes...twisted my ankle..and fell down... grrrumphh.. then ran out of cereal..had forgotten to buy it yesterday... grrummmppppphhhhh, saw the letters that had come in..had some obscene bills for my internet and some bill collecting agency....grumpppppppppppppphhhhhhh...my cell-phone would not connect to my voicemail..
grumpppppppppppppphhhhhhhhhhhhhh... my bath-tub has not been draining properly..so thght i'd fix it.. did it...but slipped and almost banged my head against the tiles....
grumpppppppppppppphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. i am out of soap.... my towel needs to be washed.. grumpppppppppppppphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... and then it took me 20 god-damned minutes to log onto blogger!!!! grumpppppppppppppphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
and it's only 7:00 am!! i dread the day!!!!!! Friday Morning Indigoes!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOD, SAVE ME TODAY!!!!!!!

Random Thoughts..

-Do you also have plenty of friends with birthdays in August?? Is New Year's such a lascivious day???!!! Or is it the cozy weather that makes for this phenomenon.. one thing i want to do in life.. is to compare birthdays across hemispheres. If people in the S.H. have birthdays in February, then rock on it's the weather...if it's August, then there is some power in the vacation period of X'mas thru to NYD.


-I want a Second Cousin's Day, Aunt's Day, Doctor's Day, and Engineer's Month!!
This whole funda of days does not make sense at all!! and who decides them anyway?? bummers!

-I live by Lake Michigan, one of the 5 Great Lakes. I knew it was biggggg... but then i looked at the numbers... 22,000+odd square miles!!! WTF??!!!!! and Lake Superior, Lake Tanganiyaka/Lake Victoria are bigger... not to mention Lake Baikal- unbelievably stuff about Lake Baikal in Siberia- it runs close to 2k deep, across some places- DUH!!! freshwater lake that deep....give up!! and some of the water does not turn over- meaning that there is some pretty pre-historic water and who knows what species!!!

-On a related note: made a list of some places I want to visit: Europe -Italy, France, Greece and Switzerland, Lake Baikal, Will definitely cover the Great Lakes!! :), Egypt-the Nile and its source..fascinating!! , the sphinx, the pyramids, and many other places there, Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon and the Ganges- Brahmaputra Delta- again a natural delight- the deepest canyon and the largest freshwater delta, Mecca..actually the list is endless- but if I can cover these along with the standard American trips to the Grand Canyon and the Niagara Falls, considering that Florida is done and wrapped up- I'll be good to go!! :)

-i want to be able to pursue the sport "fencing"- i know it's specialized, and pretty tough, but it's the closest i'll ever come to actually living my childhood sword fights-"aa dishum, take this you rascal (remember, i was young and not exposed to bad words!!)- give me the princess katchak katchak katchak - blood sprouting!!!" i even made bows with some thin bamboo sticks and arrows with broom sticks...hahaah.those were the days indeed!! *sigh* who did i play with? well.. i had plenty of mates when i was young, and we had similar dreams..haha, but NO! the princess was always in the head, no one in actuality. and, yes- my ideas about girls were very similar to calvin's!! :)))

-eat strawberries and cream every single day of my life!!! along with coldstone ice cream :)) i do that and i'll weigh 30 stone!! i think that's a huge number..am guessing!!

-i was reading about the coke ban in some states and the huge furore going on in India, over the excessive amounts of pesticides in them, nearly 24 times the number in Europe... and some wise-guy in Coke says "arre..what can we do? there is pesticide in the water,no!" What's that supposed to mean- that you'll sell a product that is unhealthy as it is.... and for a huge profit, and then do not even take the pains to try and get some means to pruify the water or select a better place to get ur water.. what are u doing so close to farmland and killing the farmers anyway? as it is, drought related farmer deaths are innumerable in India.. :(

- And the Grand Finale, I ran a half-marathon today. the first 10 miles were as planned, and then i cramped..and boy did i cramp up bad or wot!! but still did it pretty good, 9:30 per mile for 13.2 miles, i was doing 8 and a half- till mile 10...chuck it now... shan't crib.. got it over and done :) now the big one...the La Salle Marathon, Oct 22.. waise, watch out for a detailed blow-by-blow description of this race, soon!!! :)

Adding this: some funny quips...flicked from cricinfo!

-Like the best sledges, the best commentary one-liners tend to be claimed by and attributed to anyone who happened to be walking past the media centre on the day they were uttered. And so, it is hard to work out exactly who came up with the following gem on Brian Lara's epic 277 at Sydney in 1992-93, an innings so good that he named his daughter after the venue. "It's a good thing the game was not in Lahore," quipped either Michael Holding in his treacle-thick Jamaican tones, Tony Greig in his Aussie-Anglo-Afrikaaner hybrid, or Greg Ritchie in ... well, whatever twang Greg Ritchies talk in.

-The most giggled-about quip in the history of the game, but was it ever really uttered? It is widely believed that, sometime during either the 1976 or 1980 Test series against West Indies, either Don Mosey or Brian Johnston announced live on air: "We welcome World Service listeners to the Oval, where the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey." No recording, however, is believed to exist, so no-one will ever know for sure. Either way, the likely suspect was Johnston, who a decade later was on the receiving end of Jonathan Agnew's leg-over pronunciation at the same venue. For the record, Willey was one of the few batsmen to avoid being dismissed by Holding during his 14-wicket rampage in 1976, while four years later Willey himself was named Man of the Match for his unbeaten second-innings century. So they certainly both played their parts in Oval Test matches. Whether they ... ahem ... played each other's parts is another matter entirely.

PS: i loved those two-way radio conversations that the army seemed to have on television

A-Do u read me? over!
B- Yes sir, over!
A-blah blah, over!
B- blah blah,

OVER and OUT!

All Alone :D

Life was good...terrific weekend... ol' friends....! back to the grind now.. and they have me used to having ppl ard now..i hate the loneliness!! :)

balderdash!

At the age of 3...he was innocent, cute..and wanted to be a bus driver;using metal plates for steering wheels, he would go "brrrrrrrrr drrrrrrr kichak kichak brrrrrr" and sit in the window and drive his "bus".
At 6...he was still innocent, a little less cute, and wanted to be an auto driver. with an old alarm clock for a meter, and imaginary handlebars and bhompu- he would still sit in the same window, and have the same three stops as the bus above-killing the advantage that an auto would have- the convenience of delivery at doorstep. but then, he was innocent!
At age 9, still pretty innocent, but showing signs of the ugliness-the patented bigggg nose becoming more and more prominent, he wanted to become a monk. deeply attached to his surrounding, the boy enjoyed the company of sadhus, learnt his cycling, his badminton, and his tabla.. and believed that this was what was ordained by the Lord.
At age 12, he was first exposed to the crude reality of school bus-life, he took to it with a breezy start, first speaking blasphemic four-lettered words..for fun, then reaching puberty-and with it realizing unexpected attractions to(since it's my blog.let's write from too!!) and from young girls. he wanted to be a guy with a shirt that caught the wind when he rode the bike and wanted to be a sportsman. terribly competitive, he was already turning into one of the beasts that society produces...ugly,foul-mouthed,two-faced,and very physical.
At age 15, for the want of career creativity, he decided, to be an engineer. A few years later, and loads of hiccups along the way- including 2 years of living in pure dread...he got into what he thought was the do-all and end-all. For the next 4 years, he had the ride of his life. career took a back-stand. he played,made friends,romanced,went out,and double-digitized the number of movies he had seen in a thatre. Along the way, he displayed delalyed teenage symptoms- unruliness, ill-temper and frigging pimples!! Right at the very end, torn between his career path and his personal life, he chose the latter..and ended up...away..from most of his family and friends bar one in each category. he lives on..not to regret it, however.
At age 22... he got serious abt all the things around him in life...he started thinking, made fewer friends, finally was thrust into his career path owing to the choices he made and generally turned calmer and quieter..though people who crossed his path will say during this period will say.."He was quite a wild person."
And now..at 25.. he looks back...and thinks... what an interesting life, i have led. i am sure everyone around me will want to read abt it and will want a piece of it.. and in a few gloated moments of adrenaline built by that bloated,pathetic ego of his.. he writes a piece abt his life..and leaves u all to suffer it.
But, it's worth it he says.. another year has gone by.. and he has turned freaking 25!!!! if he does not pen this down, in a few more years, he would have forgotten abt his childhood-shoddy memory, career pressures, added pressures of a family maybe...
this is it..the silver anniversary of his romance with mother earth; he looks at what he has turned into.... and thinks he has no regrets...amen!