And you say marriages are made in Heaven...!

pic courtesy Gunjan Choudhary

TAGGED

This would rate as the first tag that I have been coaxed into accepting ..( sorry to the others who have unsuccessfully attempted to do so in the past).It helps I have my personal reasons too, If i may add as an afternote..

Among the MULTIPLE thoughts that are zooming through my mind hoping to access the control cluster that would command me to put them into words and then instruct the dendrons in my nerve endings to relay the information to my fingers who would subsequently type them out to onto the laptop and appear finally on the blog. First let me describe to you the tag.

"write 10 things u hate about the opposite sex"

In other words.. "10 things I hate about Girls"

I would probably be crucified.. With special note to the circumstances surrounding me lately, I think this could be the worst topic I could have been tagged to write about.But still I will try to do as much justice as I can, to this topic.

So ... Here goes nothing..
Ok first I'll try listing them in points format then maybe try explaining them.

1. Make-up
2. Driving
3. Passion for cleanliness and order
4. Constant demand for attention
5. Commitment to "Committment"
6. Not understanding that guys need their own space
7. "Girlishness" and all "girly things"
8. Blah blah .. shut up will ya ..!!
9. Their ability to get away with everything .. alright alright I lose; just please don't start weeping again
10. Free entry at the best disc in town


I'll first start with a brief Introduction of the target group and what I feel about them.

Girls born in the Femina era.. ones who like to go out and do something for themselves. Ones who preach about feminism and the wrong that the patriarchal society of the world has done against them and how they wish to rebel against the seemingly idiotical ideology that has been propagated since time eternity about an attempt by the male species to suppress women to the point of their becoming cowed housewives.
Hmm... Interesting theory ...I have just one word for you ...Bullshit .. !!!!
The very women fighting for equality are busy petitioning for reservations. They call it woman "empowerment", I call it a feeble attempt at salvaging lost pride. They know that despite their trying their level best to compete on fair grounds they have been unable to match the pace of their male counterparts (The some who have risen to great hieghts.. my unwavering respect to them, they spoke more with their actions than some others amongst them and I applaud them for that).

And as you may all know by now that the above was pfaff ...!!

Now for the detailed description of the 10 points listed above.

1. Every human is special and should learn to respect himself and others for what they are.. or so I was taught in my morals science classes in school. But everytime I see a girl walking down the road.. seldom without makeup I do feel my learnings in school have been naught. Why can't girls accept that they are who they are. Why do they have to go about prancing in the confines of the makeup cocoons hoping a prince charming mistakes her fer someone else and comes galloping on a porsche to save her. Why can't she just be natural and wait for whoever her real prince charming is going to be. Maybe he might not come exactly galloping .. more trudging along on a maruti esteem but what the heck, he will definately make it up with his love.

2. If I get elected to be the next prime minister, the first thing I'll do is cancel all the driving licences of the girls of today. There was a time when motorbikes use to whiz past you on the road and the first words were "you rowdy boys"... times have changed, seemingly the next time you have a near accident experience while driving or walking on the road, chances are that you'll spell out the slang connotation of a female dog. Frankly speaking I have nothing against them personally, on second thoughts I do. With half a dozen near accident experiences and 2 dents later I thought I was being singled out , seemingly most guys I talked with thought so too. Seems its a pretty common phenomenon.

3.Have you ever heard the phrase "boys will be boys" .. chances are you have, and if you are a guy chances are you will have been reprimanded for being a boy by a girl you know. I can understand a degree of cleanliness. But you seriously overdo it. Label the jars, the dirty clothes in one corner the not so dirty in another. The shelf has a section for books, a section are magazines and another for newsletters. The front half of the drawer can have the toiletries while the back half can have the used cloth and toothpicks and the likes. Excuse me, get a life..! We are guys.. we love diorder and chaos in our life and is best reflected in how we keep our rooms. we have a better chance of locaitng things in our mess than your ordered and disciplined beautification. It would be highly appreciated if the next time you meet or visit our rooms, you do not comment of the state of disarray and how feng shui's book says that a messy drawer leads to disruption of energy flow and hence a stagnation in our thought process.

4.How do I look tonight? Am I getting a little fat? Does this outfit do my hips justice? Is this shoe colour matching with my hairpin . For God's sakes, you know our answers are only going to cause heartbreaks and even if they by a miraculous act of God don't, then also our words are not going to shake your beliefs on the same. So why waste your time and our energy on something thats futile. But aah.. it is not futile is it. You did succeed in drawing our attention to yourself be it even for the most brifest of moments. And if the outfit succeeds in keeping our eyes on you for a moment longer, then you know you've won the first round. But We ask you, why the drive for attention. Heck you already have our "undivided" attention. We can't dare to look at another girl without you giving us a sharp look or a nasty bit of sarcasm which noone would have thought you capable of. Please please understand...you do not really have to try so hard to catch our attention. Just holler..!!

5.The sentence every guy in a "relationship" dreads is "where is this relationship going?" and the obvious answer which the girl expects is every guys worst nightmare "commitment". Commitment is the single most dreaded word for a guy in the entire english language, you know why? It take away his freedom to be "one of the guys" and that is the single most important setback which he dreads. You move on from being one of the guys to being a "honey" , a "coochiecoo" or maybe perhaps even "cheekoo or papita" . Darling to a certain extent has romantic connotations to it and so may be accepted, but obviously only in privacy. But we are deviating. If you are so intelligent, we do you not understand that there is no way a guy can smoothly venture onto the rough seas of commitment. The news has to be broken slowly and gently and perhaps given time to sink in and adminstered with a high dose of whatever pleases him.

6.I don't think I need to quite elaborate on it at all... EOM

7.There is a boyishness, there is a girlishness and there is manliness. All guys want to be manly, some girls like a bit of boyishness in guys. But take the words I am saying as gospel .. "Guys are not interested in anything thats remotely girly..!!" Girl talk is significantly different from how guys talk and have discussions. Girls have "different needs" to discuss than guys and it is not even the least interesting to hear why champa broke up with raja or why you think parineeta is a b***h because she happened to buy the same outfit as you and wore it before you did. I say it for the last time, If you do not understand politics or the basics of soccer, fine its not such a big deal, but please don't try to make up for lost conversations by talking about stuff like that. We appreciate your "emotions" and "feelings" and hey..." its not as if we don't have any" Its just that we chose a different style and channel to communicate and the baseline is girly talk can make even the most rugged of men squirm in his seat.

8. Why do girls have to chatter so much. I mean gossiping is ok, but how much. I mean how can you make up so much about such few people and still talk for such a long time ? Yapp yapp yapp...! If only there was a remote .. It would be lapped up by guys all over the planet. The most successful invention ever!! We are not discounting the time when you do have something worthwhile to say. Yeah you do .. but thats so rare that we think it best not to even count it in our calculations. We do appreciate your venting out feelings (and we do know you have huge repositories of them) but thats only sometimes. the rest of the time, it is quite easy to call your bluff, but we generally play along because we do not wish to hurt your feelings. Now that its in the open.. will you please keep our feelings in mind too ..??

9. In the filmfare awards, I think the most worthless of all awards in the best actress award. Did I say worthless, sorry I should say useless. This is because there is no such thing as a "best" actress. Given a stage and a role to enact any girl can give each other a run for their money. Its as if they are endowed with the instinctive sense of acting right from birth and with us guys it seems that their skills exponentially increase. In case of any sign of a trouble brewing, the instinctive reaction is to let out a few emotionally tintillating phrases which we call "sentis", if they don't seem to work (if the guy is a veteran) then they let loose a barrage of tears. Its as if a dam was opened, after a long time and a good monsoon. buckets after buckets keep emptying until we say the magic lines, "I am sorry" .. exactly .. " you know rahul, you had really hurt me, how could you even think of accusing me of this, you know naa how much I love you and want the best for you, and still you make me cry..." flashback.. she had thrown away the marlyn monroe poster I had got for my 16th birthday, and had instead put a jigsaw puzzle type collage of us together on the wall .. theres more ... that was for sorry .. if the response would have been "what can I do to make it up to you.." bingo..!! tears dry up, face lights up and boom comes the answer.. " you know Its not the gift but your heartfelt apology that has convinced me .. (yeah right.. out with it fast ..) but ..(theres always the but) I really want the ___ , ravinder got it for parminder and she keeps showing it to everyone, don't you love me enought to get me one.. blah blah blah .. ok ok ..happy now ..??

10.Last but not the least. In this era of the widening gap between the haves and the have nots.. those who "have" the entry (with a lady partner by his side and plenty of cash in his pockets) to the best disc in town .. and people like me, almost all the time cash strapped and just managing to save up for a special date and then seeing it all disappear in the hands of the big burly guy at the disc entry, the "have nots". It is very irritating to see unescorted single girls passing a smile to the burly ugly gatekeeper who checks with the guest list and miraculously always finds their names on the list and lets them pass, while we are left on the outside contemplating how to magically double up our allownaces to make it enough for us to make that one visit from time to time ..

And btw .. to a certain someone in answer to a certain something written in their post... All guys do not "check out girls from top to bottom" in the coffee shop they happen to be in . They arn't that vella, they do have other things to do .. !!


Btw .. to all the girls who were disappointed .. maybe they expected worse .. sorry had to tone down a bit .. !!

To all the girls who felt I was biased and mean and rude .. well as I said above .. I could have been worse..!!!

Neways .. Lifes not a one way highway .. there's always a stream of cars coming from the other side. If you didn't get the metaphor it means that there is a good side to girls too..!! (shocking but true ..)

Girls can be very endearing and caring WHEN they wish to be .. (when being a very important word in this sentence)
They do provide a different and unique viewpoint to many discussions, a ladies point of view is highly regarded in some domains.
They do have an extraordinary intutive power to them, its as if they can sense danger.. again .. frightening .. but true..!
They are highly creative.
Last but not the least, I do believe that they do complete us guys in a way. They can not be more different than us in their ways yet somehow our existence without them would have no relevance .. (I know I know .. can't help it ..!! The poet in me rises once in a while and shows his ugly hood in the form of the ruiningly intense positivity and romanticism )

Just a reminder.. I had been tagged by Veens .. !! so you know who made me write such a post .. just in case you plan on giving a supari or something ..!!

I managed to stumble upon this cool article.. thought it would be worthwhile to share it..

Color Pencils Reviewed

Today I acquired a set of color pencil devices. You can get them in certain specialized shops. Note the device color range greatly varies by manufacturer; mine wasn’t even in the 6 bit range, producing only up to 24 colors when displayed. Invitations are not required for usage of color pencils though the service is paid only, with unfortunately no trial period.

Usage

Preparing the color pencil device for usage is relatively straightforward. As shown in the photo, you will have to open the lid of the metal box using your right or left hand. This installation however was completely undocumented, which may leave non power users confused. What’s more, reading the sparse documentation on the backside of the metal box after you set up the pencils for usage requires you to turn around the box – which will make the color pencils fall out of their box onto the floor or table.

How do you use the device? To select a color, you need to compare the color preview printed outside the edges of the specific pencil. The color is also printed on the tip of each pencil, a nice addition. You will then press the pencil onto the display paper, which you will be able to locate inside your printer.

Tip: During testing, directly selecting a pencil was buggy; as a workaround, apply pressure to the pencil tip first.

If you don’t have a printer, you may need to acquire paper. Look for the word “paper” outside the packaging. There is no manufacturer lock-in, so you can buy paper from different companies.
Caution: if you apply too much pressure onto the paper, your device may break.

What can these pencil devices be used for? The manual does not mention most use cases, but as usual, you will find more information online. The following use cases are supported:

• Drawing of vector graphics (arrows, boxes, circles)
• Using various fonts in different sizes
• Reproduction of your environment in certain limited contexts

You will notice several obvious features missing from the list. For instance, color pencil devices do not come with a clip arts library of any sorts. On the upside, the color pens do have a full support for advanced international character sets; this allowed me to enter Chinese characters as well. It is rare for devices today – including your average keyboard – to handle these characters with such ease.

The different fonts however, like Arial or Times New Roman, came out rather quirky, as the photo illustrates. Vector graphic quality was leaving a lot to be desired as well; lines were often not straight, aligned, or perfectly round as known from other utilities.

Which brings us to the third core feature of this tool: reproduction of the environment. When I asked the merchant in the shop about the missing clip arts library, he replied “What?” in disbelief. Only after a long discussion it became clear that the kind of clip arts or photographs you can include fully depend on your mastering of the device. This could take “years,” as the clerk told me. If I had to point out a single most crucial usability issue with color pencils, it would be this.

Comparing the output from different devices. To the left is the original Garfield. In the middle, the disappointingly crude output of the color pencils. To the right side is something a Google search brought up in seconds; while in lower resolution, the colors and expression are a much closer fit.

Issue: shrinking device size

The base size of color pens is slightly larger than a cordless mouse. However, after some usage of the device, it automatically shrinks in size; color pens are now much shorter than the mouse, as the following comparison shows:

While the color pens do not require an internal battery or USB connection as the cordless mouse does, this shrinking in size greatly shortens the life-time of the device. It also introduces a dependency to a “pencil sharpener” device, sold separately, which needs to be applied to the color pencil device tip around once a day.

Advanced features

However, there are admittedly some neat features coming with color pencil devices which are not found in many of today’s tools:

• Mix and mash: as shown in above photo, you can combine several colors by holding multiple pens.
• Sharing: You can give any of the several color pencils to your friends, with no further licensing requirements. When I asked the seller to confirm this, he said “Huh, yeah?!” – I take that as yes.
• Paper display transport: You can fold any paper into little paper balls and throw them across the room to send someone else your custom message. While receiving the message is instantly for the other party, your friends need to be in close vicinity (think wifi).

Disappointingly, the football theme of the so-called pencil sharpener cannot be customized.

The Pencil Grip is a third-party add-on. Interesting: it can be used both with the left as well as the right hand, as the backside of the package explains. Note while the Pencil Grip is blue, it works with pencils of any color (e.g. a blue grip with a green pencil results in green; this is true for both left and right hand usage).

An undocumented use: if you cut up the device you can create a colored rectangle shape.

All in all, usability shortcomings aside, color pencils are quite flexible in their handling. The output process is fun once you got the hang of it. I would not recommend you give up your mouse, keyboard or iPod just yet, but you might want to give this tool a test ride one of these days.

Color Pencils Reviewed by Philipp Lenssen (http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-11-n78.html)

Games Games Games...

Behind every successful(or ruined) Engineer and MBA is a highly addictive online flash game ..

I've listed below 5 of the most addictive flash games I've encountered.

I'm sure some, if not most of you might have atleast played one of them. If not what are you waiting for ..!!! click.. play and enjoy ..!!!

Listing in no particular order

n - simply n
 
Desktop tower defense
 
Yetisports
 
Bejeweled
 
Chingam

The world listeneth when I speaketh ..

The never ending rows of bobbing heads popping a look towards their leader, in the hope of the briefest of recognition, of the tiniest twinkle of the eye or the the most subtle of looks in their direction, which may give their existence some meaning. Something that would propell them above their ranks, something that would make their grovelling in the dirt as lowly creatures, a more task oriented job towards a certain goal, rather than a meaningful rut of nonsensical monotony. To lend a bit of colour to the dull banks of the colourless regime. To be aware of existence, where "to be" was in fact the most obvious notion and an accepted fact, of life as a concept.

What you've just read is in simple terms what we like to refer to in extremely technical bullshit as "pfaff" . Yes you've heard me right, pfaff. Now now don't confuse it with the biological equivalent of a chaff, or something to do with crap. Pfaff in its own entirety is highly capable of transcending barriers of words, languages and cultures. Infact it is so overtly wholly encompassing that it could be said to be a superset of language as a whole. Because regardless of what language you speak right or understand, pfaff is ubiquitous in its presence.
What is pfaff is perhaps the best question to be asked at this point of time and is a question which I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities given my respect for the chosen profession.

Pfaff is an instinctive reaction to a series of longitudinal words across various verticals and which has the capacity to bend words as well as mindspace to its will resulting in a nearly incomprehensible but surprisingly seemingly sensible crap... This is the most technical definition I could muster given my newness to this esteemed profession of pfaffing and my obvious lack of experience in the field. In layman's term pfaff is .. well pfaff. There is no dictionary meaning that could be used to satisfy each one of you readers minds as to what pfaff really is.

In India specifically, go to any MBA college in the country and the first word you will encounter is pfaff. The beauty of the concept is that once you come to know what pfaff is, you can relate virtually any thing and everything to pfaff and to top it all, justify it with more pfaff. Pfaff becomes your bane, your weapon of mass destruction and your saviour in all walks of life. Regardless of what we've learnt so far in our two year MBA course, I would rate pfaff as one of the most significant learnings that I will take away and which I am sure will help me in my search for eternal glory.

You know there were times when I could not think of words to fill up my sentences, there were times when I was dumbstruck by a sudden turn of events or the appearance of a divine being, or sometimes simply caught unawares. In all of the above situations where the name of the game is to think on your feet, to invent something out of necessity and resources as usual are sparse, the only thing which can save you is pfaff. You can, with practise ofcourse, pfaff your way out of any situation however difficult or mind numbing it is. Pfaff as I mentioned, though inborn (only a minority of you are capable of being world class pfaffers), can be imbibed and learnt to a certain extent, but has to be continuously practised to achieve a certain degree of mastery and more so for the "not-so-gifted" ones.

I think it is a long enough post to get you up and thinking of ways in which pfaff has helped you in some way or the other in different walks of your life. Do send in your experiences with pfaff in the comments section. And if you are new, confused and distressed, kindly drop by, I will trymy best to prescribe you a pfaff routine which best suits your mental infrastructure, which would perhaps lend you a certain solace in your life.

Pfaff rocks ... and so do I ..

Keep pfaffing for a healthy and a better quality of Life.


p.s. All the above was infact a demonstration of how a seemingly inconsequential 5 letter word can be pfaffed about to cover an entire post. Three cheers for pfaff and pfaffers...!!

I was born Intelligent .. "shcool" education ruined me ..!!

ANY QUESTIONS ??

What if Life could be lived again .. differently..!

How different can you imagine it to be ? some changes here and there, a decision gone bad .. change.. married the wrong girl .. change .. took the wrong career decision... change.. and so on ..
But what if the changes you make .. on reflection seem to be worse than the original decisions. Because Life is a zero sum problem, if you win someone else has to lose and to be stable it will try its best to nullify the change you sought to make. Now .. supposing theres an element of truth to the above, don't you think that any change you make.. you will never be sure of its outcome, because the moment a change is made, there are changes made elsewhere and the scenario we thought about would never come.
But that's all me..

So Mr. critic, you ask me , what do you have in mind ...? Do you at all have a way life could be lived again if not the way we want to ?

Well, I have thought about it .. and thought about it again .. and decided ... I would like to live my life backwards..

Backwards ..? well by backwards I mean really backwards .. Say we were to start our life from Death. By starting out with death, we would get it out of the way, no more fear of dying with every passing day. Todays scene shows a trend towards shoving our beloved oldies out of the home to an old age home. But I'll take the case of a typical Indian family where the aged is the one most respected. But a thing to note here is that beyond a age a person is mostly ignored, left to himself and has probably no company except his grandchildren. from death we would leap directly to this phase.. imagine starting off your life with your grandkids as admirers and with every passing day feeling healthier and healthier. With every passing year getting more and more respect in the house and begining to have a say in everything. The best part is that you either have a lot of money already in your bank, or you have your pension. Then you reach your prime, where you are the most respected person in the house, everything is done according to your wishes and bored at home you are ready to join a company. On the first day of your job, everyone in the job gives you a standing ovation, has a party in your name and are given a gold watch (say). You work for say 40 years and with every passing year the responsibilities on your shoulders decreasing steadily. At the end of your 40 years of hard work, its finally time to enjoy your retirement. You cna drink alcohol, party all night and at your age even flirt with the young hotties at the bar or the college canteen. Now its finally time to join school. you go through school, reach primary school you become a kid, you play whole days , you have no responsibilities. You become a baby, and then.......... you spend the last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in spa-like conditions; central heating, room service on tap, larger quarters every day, and then,finally, you finish off as an orgasm.
Beat that...!!

Can you think of a better life to relive .. than this .. I sure cannot ..!!

GENOCIDE

With the V day nearing, I thought this post would be very apt for some people, specially girls, as you will find later.

All men are pigs...

Before you start pointing fingers and accusing me of betraying my kind.. this is a standard comment made by girls all over the world, NOT me ..! But now its been so overused a comment that guys take it for granted that they would be referred to as one. But that is not the point we will be discussing. Not so long back, they were two kinds of guys. The guys who were pigs and the "nice guys". Well not much has been written about the nice guys except that everyone knows that they finish last and that would be the end of it. But off late their disappearance rate which has eclipsed that of even the most endangered of animals, has raised concerns over a world without them. As much as we would like to argue, they form an integral component of the deciding balance in the world. They help bring stability to the extreme and chaotic world. Why, you ask, well read on ...

See, for most of you reading this, you might have just witnessed or perhaps completely missed the era of the nice guys. They were everywhere and in huge numbers. But as time went on, and they kept on losing out to the "cool" guys. they thought it was high time they change. Suppose you were a girl in the nice guys era. Remember how a shy, platonic guy would tag along everywhere you went. Opened doors, give gifts, remember anniversaries, be there as a shoulder to cry upon after a fight with your boyfriend, ready to listen how men were all pigs, inspite his being one.
Remember how you would talk with your girlfriends what a moron he was. Sweet but dumb. How, maybe he was doing this because he had a crush on you. how he tagged along everywhere like a puppy dog, trying to do things to attract attention. You would all joke around and have a laugh at his expense. Maybe your girlfriends would tease you with him and you being you would have vehemently protested against any kind of feelings for him. Saying he was not your type. Heck even convincing yourself that it was so.
As time passed, you would engage in a serious relationship, leaving no time and space for him.He would then understand and phase himself out of your life.

Years later after many a broken relationship you might ask the question, "what happened to the nice guys?"
I say, "you did"

You ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy. You laughed at his consideration and resented his devotion. You valued the aloof boyfriend more than the attentive “just-a-” friend. Eventually, he took the hint and moved on with his life. He probably came to realize, one day, that women aren’t really attracted to guys who hold doors open; or make dinners just because; or buy you a gift that you mentioned, in passing, that you really wanted five months ago; or listen when you’re upset; or hold you when you cry. He came to realize that, if he wanted a woman like you, he’d have to act more like the boyfriend that you had. He probably cleaned up his look, started making some money, and generally acted like more of an asshole than he ever wanted to be.

Suppose you were a guy, say a "cool" guy. You used to see that shy, dumb guy presumably harmless, hanging around your girl. You would talk to your girl and ask her why she let the guy hang around her, and she would reply that he was too sweet to let go and did stuff you wouldn't. To vent out your frustration you would chide him, bully him and try to disgrace him every time you saw him, make fun of the clothes he wore, the way he walked and so on. But he would just smile back and you would feel even more angry and frustrated because there was nothing you could do. Ultimately you convinced your girlfriend to choose between the two of you, and he had to go. Some time later your girl left you for a "cooler" guy and you felt let down and cheated.

You asked yourself whatever happened to the nice guys?
I say "you did"

You tormented him, you disgraced him yet he always greeted you with a smile. He sought to tell you that the word cool was in effect relative. It was because of normal, "nice" guys like him that you were "cool" and different.

So now if you cry now and ask your self how to redeem the situation, well theres quite no way except making a time machine and going back in time. Its high time to understand that its a couple of years too late. You didn't want him back then and he sure as hell doesn't want you back now!!

Authored by an undercover "nice guy"

The heat down under has reached a point where its effects have started to be felt on the upper surface too.
What has happened in Australia is not just about any cricket game, or the talks of the "right spirit" that a team should bring with it. It transcends all the small talk and the finer details which the media is bordering about. It is straight forward racism and the obvious bias towards the "whites". It is not shocking .. no. It has always been present in every walk of life for centuries and it should be no issue of surprise if it crops up again in a game of cricket. If 12 wrong decisions are a sign of incompetency.. which everyone around us is trying to label it as. Lets check facts. It is a shame on the ICC panel of elite umpires because steve bucknor is an integral part of them. Imagine an elite panel umpire giving wrong decisions. Lets look at the third umpire who after being consulted gave a wrong decision. why just the umpires.. Its another issue that steve bucknor has been more than generous in his gifts of wrong decisions to India and with the holiday season just ending, he just put in a bit extra. I know I know every channel that media provides is crammed to the brim with call for action against the umpires.But it will all soon pass...
Lets now move towards the decision given against harbhajan singh. Apparently he called symonds a "monkey" .. Interesting considering scientists choose to refer to us humans as evolved primates;primates whom we lovingly call monkeys. If "monkey" is a racial slur.. I think oxford dictionary should consider including a note in its dictionary mentioning it and adults reprimanding children and calling them "monkeys" should be fined. But then thats another issue. Australia have been the pioneers in sledging .. i suppose that's what they call it. They have been using it .. and quite effectively it seems cause they have gone unnoticed by the powers that be till now. Anyhow the irony is that .. that very team choses to accuse India of racial discrimination. strange ... very strange .. and surprising too..!! In the match yuvraj singh was called up for waiting on the crease.. mind you just taking some extra time to show his displeasure on the decision given .. and he is complained about by the umpire.. and ricky pointing .. our dear ricky pointing shows his bat to the umpire .. takes about the same time .. while leaving says something to the umpire .. and bangs his bat on the hoarding .. and still goes scott free..!! Now dats style .. I just wonder if it was the style that helped him, his reputation or his colour ?? just wondering.
But all this you know.. and I won't waste much time on it .. to more pressing matters :

Heres a little trivia .. how much does the Indian sub continent contribute to the total ICC revenues? chalo Indian subcontinent chhoro .. how much does India contribute in percentage terms to the total ICC revenues?
well..??
The answer is a mind boggling 73% Now if we consider the Indian subcontinet with the cricket crazy bangladesh, sri lanka and pakistan the number could as well reach more than 80-85%. So if suppose we were to consider a possibility of Indian subcontinent leaving the ICC and forming a rival body. Guess what .. ICC is doomed. Despite this, we are treated like this.. inspite of our contribution we are subjected to biases and are mostly at the receiving end of decisions. Why because we chose to forgive and forget?? because we hail from a culture that is more tolerant? because we do not respond .. or more specifically do not "chose" to respond in kind to the lowly gestures the more"cultured" whites chose to exhibit. But I say enough is enough. we have taken a lot of beating, its time we hit back. Its time we respond in kind. Its finally payback time..!
apologies and reversed decisions shouldnt be the point of contention. If they do, then the whole fight is lost then and there, because it shows our willingness to compromise and hence our weakness.
Why can't we as a nation for once stand for what it feels is unjustice done to her and her people. Why should we be the good guys and in order to "maintain good relations" go out of the way to appease others. Why can't we just say " look, enough is enough, we have has enough of your sledging, enough of your racism .. why don't you take it all and shove it up your ass, cause this once, we are not going to take it sitting down. " why does our BCCI head have to be such a loser and look to "maintain relations" rather than preserve self esteem and respect?

I would like to make an ending note here.I am not against "whites" or "blacks" or any such colour that exists. because its not the skin tone that decides the personality, its the mindset, the mentality that dictates it. I am not a racist and I despise every human who choses to be one. If the amount of pigment secreted dictates how a person is going to be treated and be accepted by the society. I have nothing to say except ..."GOD save the world".

CUP AND COOKIES

Cool cup in which you can put 2-3 of your favourite cookies, so you don’t need extra plates for them. It’s made for both right-handed and left-handed people.

BANANA GUARD - Protect Your Banana!

Are you fed up with bringing bananas to work or school only to find them bruised and squashed? Banana Guard allows you to safely transport and storage individual bananas letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime, anywhere.

LOCK-CUP

Lock Cup - Anti-Theft Coffee Cup. Are you tired of others stealing your coffee cup? Well now there’s a solution. The Lock - Cup has a hole which prevents most people from using it. Only the owner of the cup can use his/hers shaped key to close the hole.

PENGUIN TEA TIMER

Making tea, though easy to do, is also time consuming. Once you pour the hot water into the cup, you must patiently hover over it and wait. Well, the Penguin Tea Timer happily does the waiting for you. Place your tea cup under the beak and set it to the desired time. As you turn the timer dial, the beak lowers the tea into the hot water. When the time is up, a bell sounds and the penguin automatically lifts his beak, removing the tea bag from the water.

TRANSPARENT TOASTER

You love toast, but always burn it? Then, this invention is for you. This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you just have to take it out when the colour is right. This idea is based on a transparent heating glass technology.

BUTTER CUTTER

One Click Butter Cutter controls your portion as an important part of staying healthy. This ingenious butter cutter delivers one standard portion with each click of the handle.

GIANT REMOTE

Never lose your remote again! With giant buttons, this extra-large remote is easy to use and impossible to lose. It’s a 6-in-1 remote so you can use it to control your TV, VCR, DVD player, satellite, cable and auxiliary A/V device. It even features glow-in-the-dark buttons, so you can easily find the remote in the dark. Think it’s a great idea? I do! And Amazon does too - get the Jumbo Remote Control now!

DAYCLOCK

What day is today? You don’t know? Then you need a DayClock. It’s uniquely designed to keep track of weekly events like your golf day, card night, movie night, and so much more. It’s ideal for vacations and cruises when it’s easy to lose track of the day.

Best of all, it’s available on Amazon! Check out the DayClock.

CRIME SCENE TOWEL

Chalk outline crime scene beach towel - be the coolest person on the beach! Also available on Amazon, check out the Crime Scene Towel.

LASER SCISSORS

With Laser Scissors, cutting a straight line has never been easier. Just aim the pin-point laser and follow the line. The scissor blades are stainless steel and cut very clean with a micro serrated edge. Get a pair of Laser Scissors from Amazon!

TOILET SEAT LIFTER

‘Who left the Toilet Seat up?’ The PeaceMaker will end the battle of the toilet seat. Merely step on the pedal to activate the lifting mechanism. When finished, remove your foot from the pedal and the seat gently comes to a rest where it started. Available on Amazon: Toilet Seat Lifter.

ILLUMINATING CAR SLIPPERS

Do you get up at night to drink water, go to the toilet…and bump into everything and anything possible? Do you wish you could see in the dark? Or at least protect your feet from the inevitable bumps? These plush car slippers have remarkably bright LED lights that are triggered by your footsteps and light up the floor 30 feet in front of you; the ultra-soft plush style is extra comfortable and cozy warm.

‘THE THING’ - INFANT PILLOW

The Zaky is an ergonomic infant pillow designed by a mom to mimic the size, weight, touch, and feel of her hand and forearm to help her baby with comfort, support, protection, and development. The Zaky can help calm your baby and help your baby sleep better through the night.

TRAVELER’S PHRASE BOOK T-SHIRT

If you are traveling a lot and don’t always know the language of the country you are visiting, then this T-shirt is for you. It has a phrase book printed on it so just point a finger at the pictogram you need and then point it twice at the question mark, which means, ‘Where is it?’ and in no time you have found what you were looking for… or not.

MODERN LADDER

Really cool modern ladder.

LATEST DESIGN WAITER/WAITRESS TRAYS

Anatomic tray, for waiters. No more dropping trays. I just don’t know if it is comfortable.

WHEEL-MOVING BENCH

Whether you want to sit on the sun or in the shade, near the river or under the tree… now you have your movable bench, to sit wherever you like.

WHY?

This one question has been haunting me all my life. And it is no surprise its come back to haunt me again. Curiosity killed the cat, but this question keeps on tearing me apart piece by piece. Why would you say that, why would you do that, why would I do that ..? these are all traditional questions .. what matters now is a step forward. Why can't I do that, Why he/she not me, why x not y ..? In the future the questions could get even worse. why would you question the very existence of the intravascular spirit that the human race is built upon, why would you characterize the essence of the entire sequence into one stereotypical consequence ...? you get the picture...!

The thing why I am writing this post in the first place is that I am practically frustrated of life. Why ..? I don't know you tell me ..! every thing I do, whenever I do, whatever I do.. I'm confronted by this question why .. a logical rationale would say that it acts like a security check that limits any foolish endeavours on my part .. but I say its bullshit. There is no need for a checkdam for your thoughts .. there should be a normal unrestricted flow of ideas and that is it. The human spirit detests being tied down in any way or form, be it physically or mentally. The soul.. is the prime epitome of freedom.

Why am I frustrated is due to various reasons .. Everything I do is to be "substantiated" by a valid reason.. am I supposed to reason out my existence ? An impulsive action has no reason .. end of story .. its the context thats important not the reason or driver? Is it not better we keep the rationales for the assignments and boardroom meetings, need we apply it everywhere in our life? I can't say Ive seen everything .. I can't say Ive lived enough.. but what I can say that Ive seen enough of my peers plagued by the same problem that I face to believe that I'm not alone. Mind you that is the only solace I get. You thought its over.. wait .. theres more..

A simple action like an expression of love has to go through so many various stages of self reassurement that by the time the person is ready .. the other person has got committed. A sorry can end wars .. but the checks that we've put in delimits our ability to say sorry even though we feel so. there this whole issue of "self esteem and image preservation". crap I say .. ! Its all bullshit ..!!

There is nothing worse that losing out on a moment.. and all these checks do just the same. The reason behind the checks .. One word .. why ? Why should you marry this girl .. why should you watch this movie.. why should you work in this company .. why should you take this girl out .. the heck I should know .. I wanna do it so I am doing it ..!! The moment I start thinking about the reasons .. The hugely critical mind we have been gifted by "GOD" would pull out several flaws making it virtually impossible to enjoy it .. even if we somehow convince ourselves to do it .

Every tele series has one dialogue tahts immensely popular with the scriptwriters.. why would you even think of doing .....
Arre ... Tell me one thing .. I am a free human .. I want to do something ... my conscience is not stopping me .. who are you to ask me ...!!!

I know I know .. I have been raving back and forth about absolute rubbish ... but then thats what blogs are for ... right ..?

The next time you ask the question why .. or even get asked the question why .. remember this article and just do it .. !! ( you can always say f**k off .. If you like .. just for added pleasure..)

Heylo my dear beloved readers... welcome back ..!!


I know .. I know .. I had promised several things .. several different things to several different people as the topic for my next post. But politics of life are such that some decisions have to be taken by you.. some hard decisions which may change how you live your life...

I will be dedicating this post to all my friends who are and have been in Love...!

Why the change of stance you ask ..? well to start with there never was a stance.. what I had was merely an opinion and a word of caution which I deemed fit to put on my blog as a statutory warning to all concerned. Love as I've always maintained is the best state to be in at any point of your life.

So lets start with what oxford dictionary defines love to be "deep affection or fondness" which is very vague. So I tried msn encarta. The definition it gave me goes something like this ,"transitive and intransitive verb feel tender affection for somebody" and very interestingly,"transitive verb have sex with somebody". I really don't know what transitive and intransitive verbs mean (The last time I had a wren and martin in my hand was in 5th standard) and it sure doesn't feel right to discuss it here. The definition's meanwhile are interesting ... the second definition .. [;)] .

Still, dictionaries have never been able to bring out the real meaning of any word in a particular context, so we will keep it aside for the moment. I'll recount a beautiful verse I read somewhere.

I have been astonished
that men could die martyrs for their religion -
I have shudder'd at it.
I shudder no more.
I could be martyr'd for my religion
Love is my religion
And I could die for that.
I could die for you.

-John Keats

Its said poets know Love the best and lovers do in a sense become poets and you know it is true in a weird nonsensical way. The love verses, the love letters, the proposal carefully worded... all are examples of lovers becoming poets. On a lighter note .. on re-reading those verses though.. the very verses appear silly .. nonsensical and often you would end up asking the question .. how the hell did I write/fall for such a dumb line..!

Love in different contexts assume different levels , which means that it would assume different meanings which incidentally have been put into place by us to differentiate them.

"I like you but I don't love you" ,
"My love for you was merely a high school crush",
"I love you as a friend etc etc .."

The point I'm trying to make here is, its futile to be talking about Love in general .. its too wide a topic .. I'll be talking more about the love that you tend to "fall" into ..

I had often seen in my "younger days" that people around me used to have crushes on their teachers.. ( I had one on my 6th grade teacher miss allencherry.. those were the days ..), their classmates in school and colleges and maybe perhaps their seniors. Neighborhood playmates and family friends are also some of the potential lovers, its interesting to see how each relationship takes off differently in different context's. For a junior approaching a senior is somewhat awkward, meanwhile it would be relatively easier for family friends and neighborhood playmates. But in their case they would be faced with the problem of "I've never thought of you that way" syndrome or being the butt of the neighborhood gossip. For friends there always the problem of losing a long friendship over the awkwardness that would follow the rejection. So in every case there are advantages, disadvantages and pros and cons and the strategy chosen by the guy/gal to get their feelings to the other person are different.

I really don't know where this discussion is leading so I'll shut it. I have a reputation for writing long posts so I guess it won't be much of a problem.

What my friends have taught me (when I say taught I mean through their experiences) is that love happens. you don't do it, neither can it be forced upon. Sometimes its mutual but most of the time its one of the partners who gather courage and convey the feelings at the right moment in the right way and get the right result.
A thing to note which I have found common everywhere is infighting... he he .. By infighting I mean the small fights that are true for every couple, over petty issues like "why didn't you call me yesterday" to big ones like "I think there's something going on between you and __ ". But interestingly enough this infighting is the most treasured part of their relationship. Its said that a couple that doesn't fight will not last. The "ruthna" and the "manana" is one of the best experiences and the memories that a couple carry with them. Its as if they enjoy them. Theres always the "make-up" dinner afterwards or the "good" part .. ::mg:: neways the point I am trying to make is, its almost as if that they look for fights .. small fights to get away from the idealism that their love bring for them. To break away from the monotony of bliss (I do realise I'll be questioned on the credibility of marking the state as one of bliss.. for many it may not be so... I accept dat [;)] ) It gives them a reason to celebrate afterwards. An opportunity to add some colour to their otherwise black and white life of phone calls and holding hands (I won't add more keeping in mind the sensitivities of some of my readers.)

I can say lines like "love is like the rainbow that colours up my life.. or perhaps .. love is the fuel that keeps me going etc etc . But the fact is that love is something like the air we breathe .. its special .. every bit of it is special but you don't get to savour every bit of it. The bits you savour are the ones which you crave for. Similarly with love, you don't realise its importance until you crave for it.. until you are bereft of it. Love is traditionally an integral part of life which we take for granted .. like all integral parts of life.

Its only when you fall into it that you realize its depth .. [ ;)]

"Love will keep us alive ..."

Keep Loving...

p.s. I also don't know where this article has gone .. so incase you seem a little bit confused .. don't be .. you are among friends here .. [;)]

"Love me for a reason .. Let the reason be Love..!"

"I'm in love!
Hey!
It sure feels like love.
It's got to, got to be love.
It must be love.
'Cause it sure feels like love.
It must be love.
It sure feels like love.
Yeah! Must be love.
I know it's love.
It's modern love."

Sammy Hagar in his Hit single "Feels like Love" ... Ever thought why a song with such confusing lyrics could ever be a hit .. because it displays the very confusion one feels when falling in love.

I have been told about a certain phenomenon called "Love at first sight" .. ( I do hear it has been modified to "Love at first sight/chat") . I'm also told that it has been there since time eternity.. The witches have long been stopped being burnt, voodoo is almost on a revival journey and even pagan gods are in fashion again .. but sad to say, this idiom hasn't quite lost its effect on people..!

When I look around myself today, I find unprecedented levels of confusion and chaos. I find people at a loss for words when confronted by someone they know. Greetings are mere formalities and wishing somebody makes no sense unless you are in their "inner circle". washroom gossip has given way to coffee lounge chats and love letters to sms proposals. Divorces and break-ups are as common as football matches in a season.

In this time of confusion and chaos, if the concept of "Love at first sight" holds .... I'll still give you the benefit of doubt , but would you folks be good enough to clear some of mine?

Firstly, Love itself is such a complex emotion how is it possible to decipher it, understand it and give it a meaning in such a short span of time as one glance?

Secondly, the word "LOVE" that we use with such disregard, does it hold true for most context's that we use it i? To take it further, over the years we have identified infatuation, lust,crush and many such words to define what would be a lower form of "LOVE", a psuedo-love so to speak.But while we invent new words to define our mental states, the emotions remain the same.So do you still think that the "LOVE" you feel at the first sight/glance is Love actually ..?

Thirdly, Taking from Sammy Hagar's song, sometimes it does feel like love, but we are confused. Sometime the society we live in, our friends all contribute towards emotions that are really not there. Sometimes you "have to" feel sad, or "should be" feeling happy or more importantly "are in" Love ..!
So the sleepless nights due to acidity, the stomach upset because of which you were not feeling hungry and the daydreams because of the sleepless nights would lead you to Love rather than a medicine shop.
So essentially speaking .. are you really sure that you are really in Love ..??

I could .. and would go on and on were it not for the drooping eyes and clouding thoughts ... What I would like to end on, though, is a positive note. There is Love out there .. there are lovers still, but not all who claim are worth their due in Love..

Think about it ..

I have often been asked about the girl of my dreams and I'm very sure that it is true for most of you reading it and I always find myself short of words. It's not that I don't have that picture of a lady of my dreams in there, but somehow I always feel that theres always that detail which I have left out.
So finally I have decided to come out into the open and tell the world what sort of a girl is my "type", what follows is strictly un-confidential you are required to maintain no discretion in whom you tell about this article. who knows the next girl you might be mentioning this seemingly "insane / crazy" article to , might be the "one".

So where do I start from ..
Firstly she occupies a significant area of my mindspace , so by PAT's (PAT for you ignorant people out there, is our cllg director Proff. Atul Tandon, affectionately called PAT by the students and faculty alike) definition, is equivalent to a brand. So all the properties associated with a brand are applicable.

Her worth ,though, unlike all other brands is infinite

Let's start with her personality .. what is she really like ?

She's young (naturally.. but after Dil Chahta hain, its important I include it) , vivacious , smart ( intelligent and smart are both different ..) , knows how to carry herself , sweet , caring , I somehow feel kind and generous go hand in hand so I will mention them in the same breath, has a sense of a work-home balance and last but not the least has an inner driving force and a calm confidence which I see lacking in most girls today( I see a lot of raised eyebrows, but its true.. look at yourselves)

That was her personality .. what does she look like ?

I would put a photograph, a sketch .. anything if it were possible to capture that one essence of beauty but it is not. The woman of my dreams, quite like yours, cannot be captured anywhere other than my mind. Even words will not do justice but I will try my best and keep it open for editing if I feel later that I might have missed something.Even a trivial thing to you might be the one thing she is incomplete without.

Have you seen water cascading down a natural staircase in some waterfalls. ever notice the gracefulness, flair and charm ? well the cascading water may well define her hair. the colour of her hair is black, indeed blacker than the night itself.

The face is a whole vertical of art in itself. Every feature chiseled in with such delicacy that it would put Michelangelo and his best works to shame.

The eyes, what do I say of them, they are a world in themselves. A pool of endless depth beckoning the looker to just dive in. They might have containing an ocean of grief or an entire rainbow with all its vibrancy, the rare captured twinkling could be mistaken for a twinkling star on a cloudy night. The colour you ask.. I would say .. a heavenly blue unlike any shade of blue ever seen, the perfect blend of cool and vibrant.

The lips.. One look and you would want to kiss them. It is not a question of how luscious they are, or if they are the perfect size, its hows they complement the face, how they pull you towards them, how hard it is to resist them ....

The neck .. for the people who don't know and might be smirking on how dumb it is to put the neck with the biggies of the beauty features like lips and eyes.. is one of the premier erogenous zones of the female body. It is also one of the most beautiful part of the body should you look at it from an artist or in my case an admirer's point of view. When I talk of the neck I talk especially about the nape of the neck. You can talk as much you like about the beautiful sunsets and sunrises, of the beauty of the endless ocean or the grandiose mountains, but nothing can be more entrancing for me than the view of her nape with her hair pushed to one side of her neck.

I won't mention her body for obvious reasons.. But it would be slim and svelte to be certain. Do I hear that slim is out of fashion these days ??? my answer .. I don't give a damn ..!!

You know for a body to be perfect there has to be a particular ratio of hip size to the upper body and yeah as you might have guessed , its just perfect..!!

Her legs would probably put zeenataman to shame (yes she was known for her beautiful legs) . those beautifully moulded pair of legs seemingly for which the famous dialogue
“ Aap ke paon dekhe, bahut haseen hai. Inhe zameen par mat utariyega. Maile ho jayenge" from pakeejah , was written .

That's her folks, the girl of my dreams, my soul mate who somewhere someplace is waiting for fate to bring us together.

So Incase you are a believer .. someone who believes in the bigger scheme of things , in fate and most importantly in Love ... please pass the message around and help bring two soulmates together ..

The Best few things about Mozilla Firefox

Extensions:

Scrapbook : bookmarking (it lets you save the entire page) and notetaking
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/427

Foxytunes : Links an external player with the controls in firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/219

Videodownloader : video downloads in google videos youtube and the likes
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2390

Scribefire : easy posting on the blog with a full blog editor
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730

stumbleupon : visit random sites approved by users on topics chosen by you
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138

pdf download : option to view a PDF file inside the browser or download it
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/636

Flashgot : link an external download manager/app with the firefox download
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/220

Addblock plus : blocks popup ads
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

IEtab : view sites made for ie, correctly
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer : synchronise bookmarks between two different computer having firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410

firefox companion for kodak easy share gallery : upload and share photos easily
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4441

Dictionary : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3

search engines : you have the option of adding more search engines to enhance your search experience. (wikipedia is recommended)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:4

A little bit of technology

The big browser fight IE7 , FIREFOX and OPERA

IE7
Strengths :
It still has the highest number of sites that are IE compatible and may not be compatible with firefox and opera, thus giving a bad experience with the site .
It comes bundled with windows and is free.
It now has tabbed browsing, bridging the wide gap between tabbed and untabbed browsing.
Some Microsoft technologies like Silverlight are IE and firefox compatible.
Clean look.

Drawbacks:
It has a lot of ground to cover even in tabbed browsing features offered in comparison to firefox and opera.
Has no plugin features nor a scope of an active user base who can create new customised addons for it as with firefox (extensions) and opera (widgets) .
Its not a "new" software someone would download to test , its the "default" browser that microsoft so the value associated with is generally thought to be low.

Opera
Strengths:
Is the granddaddy of Tabbed browsing. Was one of the first to implement tabbed browsing way back in 2000.
Has a group of very active and dedicated loyalists who swear by the browser.
Has a neat and clean interface
Is now free as compared to around 2 years back till when it was a paid or ad supported browser.
Has inbuilt fraud protection.
Has the option of loading a webpage without images.
Has a notes feature to save text documents in an integrated notepad in the browser.
Integrated torrent download facility.
Now allows user to build extensions (not previously supported), but has a variety of "widgets" to choose from.
Has a Trash can option for retrieving closed tabs.
Session saver and ad-block feature.
Speed Dial feature to choose from an user defined choice of homepages to open a new page in (very helpful).
Hot keys and mouse gestures are very helpful for people who like working fast.

Drawbacks:
Firefox has been supporting extensions for quite a while and has a larger collection.
Has compatibility issues with some sites.
Does not support some of the latest microsoft technologies available like silverlight.
Generally Firefox user miss their favorite extensions while using opera.

Firefox
Strengths:
The king of tabbed browsing.
A wide array of extensions, plugins and the likes for a better personalised browsing experience.
Is compatible with most IE only compatible sites and most microsoft technologies in view of its significant share of the browser pie.
Spell checker with the integrated dictionary.
Live bookmarking feature.
Has the common features of opera like session saver ( introduced recently), password manager and the option of retrieving recently closed tabs.
Allows its increasingly growing user base to customise and make its own addons, and for the free riders, a huge collection of regularly updated addons to choose from.

Drawbacks:
Is a memory consuming application. For the non geeky people, There is a thing called a RAM, which is the total amount of memory available for the different applications to use. Firefox takes a lot of it for itself and leaves little for the other applications to use, thus it may result in slower computers.
None other ( That I know of )

For the Non-geeky people out there, I would recommend going for either opera or IE because it comes with a lot of inbuilt options and features which would have to be installed as extensions in firefox.

For the geeks , well I would suggest going for either firefox or opera because both now support extensions. For computers with larger RAM, i would personally recommend firefox because it somehow (I feel) offers more freedom in designing extensions than opera. But Opera on a whole provides a better and faster browsing experience than its counterparts if you leave alone the extensions in firefox or widgets in opera.

So cheerios .. Have a great browsing experience

----------------
Now playing: Colin Hay - Overkill

Why Internet doesn’t necessarily make me dumb?

When we talk of Internet, we have to talk of the various issues which are viewed negatively with relation to it. For example, Internet is said to be phasing out books, they are said to be curbing the analytical and creative ability of a person etc .Another important point that has comes up repeatedly is that people are simply “awash” with facts and they simply don’t know what to do with it. It is leading to what is being called a problem solving deficit disorder. How these don’t necessarily make us dumb and how in fact Internet does help us be smarter is what will be discussed.

Most people are unequivocal in their support of books, but view the Internet with suspicion. They are blinded by over five centuries of domination by the paper/print paradigm. But books, like the Internet, are not all good or all bad. For example:

• Books made oral memory less important. The basic skills have changed from listening and speaking to reading and writing.
• Books increased the pace of change and this in turn made contemplation less important. This meant that anti-contemplation skills such as skimming, speed reading, etc. became essential.
• Books caused illiteracy. Prior to the printing press, it was not important for most people to be able to read or write.

Every new technology changes what it means to be human and to be educated. These changes inevitably disadvantage certain kinds of people who previously were advantaged and advantage other kinds of people who were previously disadvantaged. Printed books became so ubiquitous because they were cheaper and better than the previous technologies

Similarly, the Internet is fast becoming the most powerful educational environment that has ever existed but it also has the following drawbacks :

• The Internet makes reading and writing less important. Just as speeches were replaced by books, in turn books will be replaced by websites.
• The Internet increases the pace of change and this in turn makes ownership of ideas less important. Internet disseminates information almost instantaneously.
• The Internet causes illiteracy. Prior to the Internet, it was not important for most people to be able to use computers and navigate through information space.

The strength of the Internet is that, as an institution, it exhibits characteristics of policy formation that appeal to one's sense of liberty. What makes the Internet a "good thing" is its anarchical characteristics of policy formation, such as decentralization, consensus, and openness that real world social structures have striven for.

The fact remains that the characteristics making us intelligent – the ability to reason and to learn remains the same and will probably fundamentally never change with technology. Intelligence, practically, is our capacity to adapt and thrive in our own environment. In our environment of a faster more efficient world, to be intelligent is to adapt ourselves to the latest technology, in our case the Internet.

Undeniably, the best feature of Internet is it’s democratization of information. It's providing instant access to information and, in a sense, improving the practical application of intelligence for everyone has resulted in a change in the way people operate.

Like all technological changes, Internet is being met with opposition, what is important to note here is that the points of opposition have remained same since the introduction of the printing press or perhaps even at the onset of the concept of writing as opposed to oral learning. Thus we see that Internet is not as bad as it sounds, in fact it does help in faster transfer of information, dilution of boundaries, decentralization of information and lets us be more efficient as a person.

----------------
Now playing: Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

The awakening

She dreamt the dream again that night

She was standing all alone against a tree, shielding herself from the chilling wind. She was staring intently at a hillock, some distance away. The tree was at the edge of the battlefield and bodies lay strewn all over the ground. She found herself walking over to the base of the hill, where her lover lay. He was a true man of honour and had died one. The battlefield would carry stories of the valiant battles fought, thus making him immortal. But it mattered no more. She knew she should be crying, but she felt no grief or remorse for the loss .All she felt was a dull throbbing deep within. She saw the flawless skin of her lover’s face lying bruised and stained with blood, some his, some of the people he killed. He lay alongside a multitude of corpses as if to give a final proof of his bravery. On top of it all, he had a smile on his face, which seemed almost cruel to her. It seemed as if he knew that she would come , and had kept on that smile as a farewell gift for her .She caressed his cheeks , and stroked his blood stained hair and suddenly broke down .A wave of grief engulfed her , a tide of remorse swept over her and she wept . She wept as if there was no tomorrow, as if the darkness would never give way to light. Somewhere far away, a wolf howled as if to empathise with her. She couldn’t bear it anymore and she let out a scream that reverberated in the heavens and fell. It seemed for that one moment, heaven, earth and hell had become one. That one moment seemed to go on forever and then it rained...

She came to her senses , in a new world , a fresher brighter world .The rain had ,so to speak , removed the miseries from the face of the earth . The ominous clouds above had disappeared and the darkness had finally given way to light. The sun was peeping up from behind the hill; the sunlight awakening the tiny buds .The battlefield from the night had given way to a garden of fresh blossoms. She felt happy. She felt ready to take on the world again, she felt ready to move on .But just as she tried to walk away, she heard something ringing far away .with every second it grew louder and louder and suddenly she connected. She woke up disconnected and disoriented and shut the alarm. She pulled up the curtains .A pinkish glow could be seen spreading over the sky, form her window. Beyond the garden and over and beyond the hill, the sun could be seen on its journey upwards. She gazed at the sight for what seemed like an eternity. She felt alive..

"Death comes at Night,

At Dawn cometh Life."

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

Life is a roller coaster ride, It is God’s gift to humankind blah blah blah . Everyone has heard a lot of it and I am not going to repeat it for you. What I seek to put forward here is not a concept of life, but a brief intro to what it is all about. Some get a high on life, some seek different other mediums to get high. Some like to be in control, some revel in losing it .Some enjoy living, some live to enjoy. So it’s virtually impossible to generalise anything.

Think of life as a box of crayons. They all pointy are lined up in order, bright and perfect. But ultimately they will all gradually give way to being ground down, rounded, indistinguishable stumps missing their wrappers and smudged with other colours. Think of the crayons as the human race and then interpret it. Sometimes life just seems unbearably tragic. The pressure to conform along with the pressure to stand out is to forces from opposite directions pushing us deeper within ourselves. You are not a part of anything until you conform to the society in general, and you are a virtual nobody if you don’t stand out, you will just remain another face in the crowd. The catch 22 situation in which we find ourselves daily just creates another web of complexities for us to get out of. Think of it this way, is there any law to say that we have to match our socks with our clothes or for that matter wear matching socks. There isn’t, but still we do it, for there is an unsaid rule saying, the society does it, so must you. Why should there be so much pressure on us to give in to what the society demands, why can’t we live life as we want to!!

I think it is fair to say that half the human population is disappointed to be there, but is resigned to existence. It’s a tall claim, but if you look at the world around you, you will realise that it’s not that hard to believe after all .We don’t value art, we don’t value beauty; all we value is a world of ruthless efficiency. There’s no pleasure in creating things, and no pleasure in having them. Half the world’s treasures are stored in vaults of private collectors. I say we are denying our own humanity, our lives getting drearier than richer. Today the importance of attaching numbers to everything we do has made our life too mundane , the take of the experts on this phenomenon , “ if your numbers go up , it means you’re having more fun “. Is that what you want your life to be? Don’t you feel like shouting out aloud “what on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day? This is the only life I’ve got!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”, but if you do that society will tell you to chill.. Take a few deep breaths and cool off with a glass of water. Coming to think of it, why shouldn’t they, you are not the only special guy around, there are millions going through the same grind and coming out of it unperturbed. But then again what they don’t realise is that you are a special guy after all , not because you screamed , but because you chose to give words to what you felt , which none of the others had done .

Feel proud of you actions , and learn to speak your mind , because I’m sure at the end of it all , you would like to look upon your life as one lived according to your terms , not others. One of enjoyment not compromises. A life well spent, not one which had a feeling of emptiness associated with it. I’m sure one would want to die in bliss , one in which he/she would have at least the achievement of living the life exactly the way he/she wanted to live it , doing the things he/she wanted to do , at the time when they wanted to do . I’m not saying you should give in to your every impulse , but then If you are intelligent enough to understand what I’ve written , I would say you are intelligent enough to decide what’s worth the time and what’s not .

WHY LOVE IS A FARCE ...

This one post is bound to be more read than any of my previous posts ... maybe coz its more controversial than the others , maybe it'll turn out to be more thought provoking than you thought , or what i intended it to be .. for more simply read on

An immediate counter to it would be ... love includes everything .. is love is a farce , then what of mother's love ? does that also count as a farce ? No , here I would just say that every theory has exceptions , this is just one of the many that would crop up in your minds eventually . Going with my theory , that no theory is complete , i go on with my explanation .

Why is love , the purest , most untainted emotion , one which even God's had to take human form to practice , a farce ? I do challenge here the emotion , but the variation of the emotion that is being practiced today . Its never the magic that is questioned , but the magician. What if everything is just an illusion , just like the magic we talk about ? What if every feeling is an illusion created by the mind. Think about it , for how long do you actually experience the feeling of anger , annoyance or sadness ... and how long do you stretch it just to put on a show ...? It is not our fault that we do this . The societal pressure on all of us is immense , a great book of rights and wrongs has been installed in our brains which tell us , that we cannot do such and such thing , for example not getting over being angry in a moment , thus we have to "pretend" to stay in the state . To be happy after a disaster has happened is wrong , so the person has to be seen grieving or mourning . The real reason behind it might be something that we want , everyone likes to be taken acre of , sympathized with , afterall . You laugh at jokes you don't find remotely funny , or don't understand , because thats what the rest of them are doing . "Acceptance" has become the buzz word of the general public today . Anything out of the ordinary may make a celebrity or an outcast of you , the risk of being an outcast being too high to accept .

The motive behind my including the above examples is not to change track , or beat around the bush .The real reason is to show how the emotions which we think to be our private possessions are being dictated by various factors beyond our control . They are all directly or indirectly controlled by the very society that we constitute , and that love is not an exception .

What has resulted due to the over indulgence of society in the matter of love , is that it has mutated into a sort of a compromise between two people , rather than the selfless , untainted version that we associate the word "Love " with . How many times have you come across people compromising so much that they eventually lose their own identity and assumes an identity that the loved one wants him to adopt . But a point to ponder over here is that if that person indeed loves him , then why ask him for a changeover which results in a completely different person from the one that she/he loved. The idea itself is preposterous . But sad to say , this is what we see around us , something we try to shove to the very furthest corner of our mind , labeling it as insignificant . It is not insignificant and it does affect us in some way or the other .

But the question still remains , in spite of all this , why is Love a farce ..?
Lets take a situation . Suppose someone , for that matter I .. say that "I Love you" , You can react in 3 different kind of ways .
1. say yes
2. say no
3. say that you need time to think

For the first 2 answers there is no beating around the bush , and they should be really easy to say , but numbers say a different story , we find most of the people resorting to the 3rd option for an escape route , to what they perceive as a very complex question .The Love that should be , doesnt need deliberation or "thick slicing" . We go over various permutations and combinations , make long term plans , count short term benefits and a whole lot of stuff taht should be thought about , before making that decision . All this would have been fine "If" it was such a hard decision to make , maybe even compelx . But Love is supposed to be the simplest thing that exists . It happens .. thats it , end of story . It goes beyond any boundary created by man , any differences that a human brain can think of . So effectively thick slicing shouldnt even be on the menu . You just know that the person is the one . You fall into love , you don't walk into it , or run or for that matter skid into it . So why does that question take so long to answer , and why is it so filled with compromises that we see today ?

I am "NOT" against Love .. There is Love present in the world , and will remain there for all eternity . Romeos and Juliets will be reborn to take further their love epic . Its just that omnipresent Love has been overshadowed by the farce that Love has become .

I rest my case .