Red and Burning

strings

2008-10-01T22:19:00.006-04:00

Ears syncing with each repercussion. The pounding harmonious with the bass. The melody improvisational and the fusion afresh. The audience choir-ish.

And I lose focus, it seems.

Suddenly there is a momentary silence that fails to register. The music disappears before the coda. A new rhythm spills and unheard notes hit. The rhapsody transgresses to the psychedelic before settling in to the tranquil. I listen to this new euphony. The pitch in tune with the mind.

All seats are empty now. But one. A silent soprano adorns the seat. She is also the composer - for this song and the previous. Her first strum marks the beginning of a symphony; its prelude, I repeat at each concert.

She transforms the air through my flute and renders the theme through my strings. Her lyrics put me with the troubadours...

And I lose focus, it seems.

The interlude is over. The tempo is lost and the hymn at its end. The sounds I hear are different and the lost coda follows. The allegro is higher. The melody improvisational and the fusion afresh.

play

2007-11-01T23:34:00.000-04:00

With his friend and his feet,
He kicked the ball and he slipped,
Rubbed the dirt and he blinked,
Lined up again to play some more

In the pouring and in the heat,
Drenched in rain and soaked in sweat,
With his friend and his feet,
Took a guard to play some more

In the day, he missed the lunch,
And skipped the dreams in the night,
Chose his pal and his friend
Instead to play some more

And one day he came alone,
Took his feet to the ground,
Waited for his pal and his friend,
Kept waiting to play some more

And now he eats and he sleeps,
Even catches some wildest dreams,
With heavy heart and his feet,
Goes on away to play some more.

Ordinary men

2007-08-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

Then you stare in to the blank,
And think you see far beyond the air;
While they dig treasures which sank,
And drown selves in its mystic glare;
Then you ride on the horse of condescend,
And plunder with a verbal war you wage;
While they demagogue and preach descent,
And turn the innocent to savage;
Then you wake up from dull slumber,
And find someone else in the mirror;
While they have driven us asunder,
And now you gear up to conquer
What is left of you within,
And what has escaped their reign in.

Unfamiliar

2007-08-07T15:48:00.000-04:00

In the darkness, an unmistakable silhouette,
Walked in to what was, a standing wagon;
The lights came on and you saw,
A familiar face with unknown makeup.

While you stood there, denying recollection,
When the blue gaze returned your reflection;
The nights melted and the day glowed,
A familiar face with unknown makeup.

The hair was darker, and attire greener,
A rebellion from red, you remember as warmer;
The lights came off and drove away,
A familiar face with unknown makeup.

the frozen image

2006-12-14T00:11:00.000-05:00

The weather was an ambush, the chill unusual;
And I miss clear signs, which will set more evenings
In to the oblivion, while we admire the cunning sun

Braving the wind she stood, like a sirocco within,
Which is now hers and soon will be mine;
Our gazes down the cliff, mind on the devious selves

People around and the coming hour, both scaring me away
And to her visage with almost invisible marks, I gravitate;
I approach, a wave to the fortnight moon ready to eclipse

Our shoulders touching, one naked, one high
Knowing that closest we'll now ever be, forever be,
I etch in black and white, this painting of colour

reorganization of hell

2006-10-30T14:48:00.000-05:00

Some 100 years in the future, although all the gods were thankful for conjuring up hell, it was now becoming increasingly difficult to manage the steady stream of people making the transition. Little did the new comers know that heaven and hell were all relative concepts and there were no third-degree torture chambers and oil cauldrons in hell or virgins waiting in the heaven.

It was all hell or at least that's what it seemed like as chaos reigned over the reorganization plans. Here's how hell works. Every dead person, after making the transition to this no man's land (but dead man's land) is inserted in a single file. An individual's own personal hell is defined by the two other dead peolpe who flank him/her and symbolize his/her personal demons. Up until now, the gods' ways of putting people in the queue were, at best, random and at worst, driven by their own personal agendas. But this changed as dissatisfaction grew among the tenants, specially after the arrival of Kim Jong Il who quickly took upon himself to increase it to manifolds.

So gods came upon a brilliant idea to use the power of knowledge that occupied the very base, call it heaven or hell. They recruited Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci as the project implementation lead and design lead respectively to give hell a vision and a sense of fairness to its occupants.

Einstein, regularly trounced Da Vinci's hidden codes and meanings after coming to this world. Da Vinci hated him for his intelligence while Einstein who was too busy on the earth converting mass to energy found only energy and no mass here, secretly despised Da Vinci for his flair for art. They both were in their own hell. The choices couldn't have been better.

While initially, the algorithm looked straight forward as everyone had to be lined up in a single file, the new arrivals tended to break the chain of co-relation. For each individual n surrounded by his/her demons n-1 and n+1, the insertion of a new individual m immediately after n should be such that both n and n+1 prove to be demons of m, where n, m are individuals who do not directly oversee the insertions. Easier said than done!

So Gary Kasparov was hired as an independent consultant to assist with these uni-directional displacements. Kasparov, however found it difficult to begin as he had always either started with a chess move and waited for his opponent before making another move OR started with a counter-move in case his opponent started the game. Vishwanathan Anand was recruited to overcome this hurdle. Again, they both proved to be each other’s demons and things were going alone fine.

Above all, Einstein was plagued by the boundary conditions, i.e. who should be at the two ends of the line. He shall reap rewards of hiring Kasparov sooner than expected. In a deft move, Kasparov placed Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French nationalist, to the farthest right. If he were any further right, he’d fall from the face of the hell. Literally! Anand responded in equally suggestive move. He took a priest and placed him on the far left. Initially the gods were dumbfounded by this move because priests are generally speaking, conservative. But his argument - you can’t be more left than when you become so liberal that you start taking liberty with the innocent kids - laid to rest all the opposition.

Kasparov then placed Bill O’Reilly to Le Pen’s left. Both were alter ego of each other and the move almost violated the necessary conditions but the fact that O’Reilly hated the French and Le Pen was downright infuriated to see that he didn’t know O’Reilly and still could tell that he was imbecile, made for a perfect placement.

Thereafter the moves and counter moves came in a hurry as both the chess players expected the other’s move even as Einstein started researching on how to optimize the placement algorithm. Lou Dobbs was placed between two illegal immigrants while Indian software engineers alternated with Indian managers with whom they shared their mutual loathing.

The so-called-swamis, chanting perennially but not knowing what it was, were put between wise guys – who would go “You talking to me? You talking to me?” every time they heard a chant – and scholars of Vedas and scriptures who knew exactly what the so-called-swamis were chanting.

Israelis and Arabs again found themselves next to each other while Bush found himself next to Osama and Ahmedijan. Oprah was flanked by two deaf guys while Joseph Stalin by capitalists Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch.

Ordinary people had to fill out a questionnaire in order to get a fair placement. This was exactly same as what was optional information when filling out surveys on earth, viz., age, sex, religion, ethnicity and military service. These data proved to be the breeding grounds for all that was wrong with humanity and hence, right with hell.

While the reorganization was taking shape smoothly, Einstein came across a breed of individuals, which he called fillers. He found out that gay people were generally despised by a majority due to their lifestyles and because of this they can be put pretty much anywhere. This made the whole process go a lot smoother and suddenly gay people found themselves in-demand.

The only silver lining (or the occasional heaven) of this hell was when Mother Teressa and other social workers found themselves alternated by a kid from Darfur and Somalia. The workers were happy to find hunger-free and disease-free kids while the kids got the warmth they always longed.

All this while, Da Vinci was visualizing a new masterpiece which will be three-dimensional - a remake of Mona Lisa which would be a mosaic created out of queues of individuals, who will be surrounded by their demons from all the sides and not just flanked. Einstein was boggled by the complexities of computations involved in this design and denied it right away. This, however, would change as Einstein would later find during a conversation that Mona Lisa was Da Vinci’s father. Phase-II of the project was on!

right lane?

2006-10-06T13:20:00.000-04:00

"Am I in the right lane?"
"Well!"
"Well what?"
"Can't you see you're in the left lane?"
"I meant am I in correct one!"
"I'd say more often than not you're the incorrect one."
"No! No! Am I in the correct lane?"
"Well! It depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Depends where you want to go!"
"Does this lane go to the clubhouse?"
"All lanes do."
"OK, smart ass! Is this way the shortest path to the club house?"
"Of course it is!"
"So this lane's not the shortest path."
"No! It is the shortest path!"
"But you just said that it's off course."
"No! If it was off course I'd have said that it's off course and not of course it is."
"I thought you're doing the Yoda thing."
"What Yoda thing?"
"Like the way Yoda talks in Star Wars."
"You mean - In Star Wars, like the way Yoda talks!"
"Aren't we going off track?"
"I think we're still in the correct lane."
"I meant isn't our conversation straying!"
"Our conversation wasn't focused and I don't think you can stray if you weren't focused to begin with."
"My cousin did. He was never focused to begin with but he strayed. He's currently in rehab."
"But that means he is focusing on the rehab."
"No! He is currently strayed."
"But you just told me that he is currently in rehab."
"He is but that's because he is currently strayed."
"Well! This is taking us nowhere."
"I thought it was taking us to the clubhouse."
"No! This conversation is taking us nowhere."
"Oh! I see!"
"The club house?"
"No. The end of the road."

the doosra: the Hair finale

2006-10-02T16:55:00.000-04:00

So Inzamam gets away with a 4 one-day ban, the minimum, as expected. And as expected, Hair wouldn't umpire the Champions trophy. And as expected, ICC comes down with another decision under pressure from the Asian countries.

One thing I fail to understand is why everyone's going after Hair for abandoning the test while it was a decision made jointly by both the umpires. And frankly, I'm not sure what umpires can do other than award the match to opposition if a team fails to show up on time.

And if Pakistan felt so slurred about ball tampering then they should have walked out right away instead of waiting for tea-time and listen to the management, which as everyone knows, has practically done nothing but played politics ever since the inception of Pak cricket.

Over the years appeals have been increasing against the umpires' decisions and there's nothing wrong to appeal but it's about time that ICC brought some outside judges, the ones that rule in real courts to rule on cricketing issues rather then placing stooges, controlled more by money and marketing than anything else. You don't need to understand cricket markets and strategies for selling cricket or how much clout each of the cricketing nations wield in giving out a ruling based on a set of rules.

the doosra: pre requisite - Cricket 101

2006-09-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

So I again succumbed to buying another series of series - the tri-series plus the ICC Champions trophy package. And the beginning was solid - both for me and Sachin - as I enjoyed the return of the 'ye olde' Tendulkar. Shaky at first, lucky at 5, well-paced in the middle and brilliant at the end was how I'd describe his return to cricket and form. Unfortunately, Kuala Lumpur-ian pouring and some rules by two chaps called Duckworth and Lewis made sure that India didn't win.

But in the midst of the potpourri of commentators like Manjrekar, L Shivaramkrishnan, Arun lal, Tony Greig, Ian Bishop and Danny Morrison, the rains forced the channel to bring in a new face, one that of (not-so-much) glamour, one that of a woman whose name I do not know. And then in the middle of the conversation she asks Tony Greig that she isn't a cricket buff and all and would like to know about a term he consistently uses during the commentary, the term called 'sweet spot'.

"You are breaking my balls, woman, you're breaking my balls".

the doosra: ICC - Incompetent Cricket Council

2006-08-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

Somebody once asked me if I believed that everything happens for a reason. I said I don't know. But there's definitely a reason behind what ICC has to say, hide or reveal. And time and again, in face of controversy the governing body of cricket has found itself - hmmm... how do I put it delicately- useless. It's similar to UN in the sense that it seems to have power but neither has any sort of control. At least, UN can send some peace troops to the troubled region.

But there are no peace corps under ICC's umbrella. The administration is governed by the assumptions of future repercussions of an unruly event that has come to the fore rather than taking the course of due process.

Let's take the Darell Hair issue and for a moment let's ignore whether Hair was right or wrong. What's interesting is that ICC chief Malcolm Speed suddenly found his calling, i.e. not to lie and disclosed the offer Hair made to the media. Well, I'm happy that it came out and was not covered up but Speed's revelation was hardly a result of soul searching. Obviously after the test match farce, ICC would have been put under the microscope and voila, we'd have found out that it has no power and Hair, after all wouldn't be umpiring in Pak, Lanka, Bangladesh matches. But to show that it's in control it'll keep Hair as an elite umpire.

So the email was a God-send for Speed. By revealing it, he killed Hair's career and in the process saved ICC of the wrath from the sub continent, where, by the way, the money is!

Now it doesn't matter if Inzamam is fined or not. Pak can always take solace in the fact that Hair is gone. There won't be much of a hoopla. Probably it will be a very light or no sentence at all for Inzi.

artsy-fartsy prose-dose

2006-08-24T11:55:00.000-04:00

He paced up and about and ran helter-skelter
Soon he'd be calm and sound, put back together

Then he strolls to, where he used to dilly-dally
Behind the back door and into green valley

Away from the bustle and far from hum-drum
Into the lap of, that's true and conundrum

The mind grew fond but surrondings wish-washy
Creepers took over and wounds went fleshy

Woke up to feel, a trickle from head teeny-weeny
Found perspiration and a bloody sting so leechy

He paced up and about and ran helter-skelter
Soon he'd be calm and sound, put back together

goddamnit! (no pun intended)

2006-08-22T15:59:00.000-04:00

Now and then, when I'm listening to the radio in my car, I hear this 'not-a-sermon' thing which has a crux of something like this---- that when you see things going out of control all around the world, you can take solace in the fact that all those and all the other events are governed by a single force blah blah ...

Well, let's see.. Things are going haywire around the globe... but hey, as long as a single entity is controlling it, I should be at peace with myself, no sweat!! And you know what? This entity has a reason for doing all this but we, ignorant human beings cannot understand it...

Well, good to know that I'm a puppet.

Media Analysis

2006-08-18T10:59:00.000-04:00

It's the age of analysis. Over-analyzing and dissecting has become a norm, be it sports, politics or Paris Hilton. You see people like Bill O'Riley, Lou Dobbs, Wolfblitzer etc. pounding on the same topic every freaking day. Some people are on air for so long every day that 75% of what they say is filler stuff. This is best described in everyday clippings that the Daily Show with Jon Stewart assembles which displays a repitition of statements by different news networks which are nothing but sheer BS.

It's the same thing in sports. TO is now in Dallas and didn't practice due to an injury for some time until a couple days ago. Media who had reveled in TO's antiques in Philly want to see the same here and they are doing their best to develop the rift. But coach Bill Parcels handled it greatly yesterday, I think, when he went after the media and told them that "...use your head ... it's practice... that's what we do".

And now we have stupid commentators who just can't shut up during the game. I heard one of them saying "That's an angry parent look. I've given that look myself". Shut the f up and watch the game. Who the hell cares that you give looks.

Then there's events like these - a 59 year old lady is tackled by two men and shackled in a plane because she was pacing and anxious and claustrophobic while another woman at an airport was not yet arrested after she was found with some liquid that came positive in 2 separate tests as being an explosive.

The solutions to the most complex problems in life are very simple, when you find it i.e. However, the media wants to do the opposite. They want to take a simple situation and twist it and juice it and make lives miserable for people involved and people watching.

Spare me!!

59 years down the road

2006-08-15T13:13:00.000-04:00

Let's see what I can number-crunch about independent India (not necessarily in order) from the top of my head.
Note: Veracity questionable!

2 countries formed.
1 big riot.
1 secular country.
3 colored flag.
562 provinces merged.
1 big dispute (Kashmir).
1 LOC.
0 first blood drawn.
3 bloody wars fought.
3 Gandhi assaninations.
3 times increase in population.
1 Cricket World Cup win.
10 previous years of growth.
1 big outsourcing hub.
27 -75% reservations.
1 denied CTBT.
2 nuclear tests.
15 official languages.
28 official states.
1 (or 2) communist state(s).
7 sister states.
1 Golden temple.
4 metropolitan cities.
4 name changes for metropolitan cities.
13-day government occurence.
5 internal resistances (ULFA, Naxalites, Mao rebels, JKLF, LTTE) -more have sprung up recently.
0 military coups.

su, sudo and sudoku

2006-08-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

The words rhyme. Well, rhyming words end in the same phonetic sound. So these can be called anti-rhyming words. (Or would that be the words that don't rhyme??) Or this could be probably viewed as some kind of progression or series of words. What the hell! Let's slog about it..

su - (Substitute User) : This is an unix command which helps user to logon as a different user without logging out. Usually used to login as the root user for admin changes.

sudo - (Super User DO): This unix utility gives users permissions to run some commands as a root user based on the set of constraints enforced by the admin.

sudoku -(Number place): This is the number placing 9x9 matrix that has grabbed the world by horns and has eaten up so many hours of mine and others. It's real, it's addictive, and it's fantastic! Play it here.

the doosra - a bad decision (or two, or more)

2006-07-31T13:33:00.000-04:00

I thought I had seen the worst umpire in the league when I played a match last season who was bent on enforcing the strict adherence to non-profanity clause from the by-laws of the league. For him, all other decisions were of secondary importance.

Then I saw another one this season. He stood, metaphorically speaking, on the murky grounds of shunning the exact responsibilities that he, as an umpire, is supposed to undertake. Merriam-Webster defines an umpire as "an official in a sport who rules on plays" and in this context I speak when I say that time and again he has transferred the onus of his job to the player and transgressed as an umpire. An error in a lbw decision or a missed short-run are completely understandable in this unpredictable game of cricket but what do you say to an umpire

who, on every ball that (doubtfully) touches the pad, transfers the stalk of decision-making on the batsman by asking him whether the ball made contact with his bat or pad;

who denies an lbw appeal because the ball came off the bat after hitting the pad first;

who employs puzzling tactics like shaking his head up and down in response to an unclear catch in the slips, so as to confuse the batsman who in turn walks thinking that he was given out by the umpire;

who, after performing the above outrageous stunt, blurts out his imbecile approach to the very player he sacrificed;

who warns the replacement keeper when he realizes that the change has occured without notifying him and announces that technically 5 runs could be awarded but I'll let you go this one time (you stupid arse, if it's a rule then you award the runs, period).

We lost the game and it wasn't because of the umpiring but I lost it because of the umpiring.
Ironically, the league requires a payment to file an official complaint. Hasn't cricket paid enough!!

identity unknown

2006-07-20T22:46:00.000-04:00

An interesting find from the stacks of a local B&N, "Identity and Violence" by Amartya Sen, the nobel laureate, makes some arguments on the role of identity on the human behavior. Although, I haven't read the whole book, a perusal through some initial pages is enough to jot down some of my own (mis)understandings.

He defines two terms related to human indentity.
1) "Identity disregard - ignoring or neglecting altogether, the influence of any sense of identity with others, on what we value and how we behave..."
2) "Singular affiliation - takes the form of assuming that any person preeminently belongs, for all practical purposes, to one collectivity only - no more and no less."

Not surprisingly, he argues that the above two characteristics are very responsible for human behavior including today's widespread extremism. But he also counters that the choice of one particular identity (say religion) over another (say citizenship) is restricted by the demands, pressures and existing priorities.

He seems to be right since as I see in strongly traditional communities, the forced "singular affiliation" with it prevents us from affiliating strongly with any other existing identities that we have. This force is strongly manifested in form of social pressure. Evidently, it occurs to me that one particular identity that a human being is looking for is probably non-existent. And even so when one identifies herself with one particular identity, she finds herself (re)discovered. It probably is a matter of finding the one identity with the highest priority or rather finding that highest priority for a particular identity. However as we see today, it could be more than just a source of pride and probably mixed identities would serve us better than a strong orientation towards one.

Interestingly, Sen mentions a quote from E. M. Forster that says "If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country". You can argue that it's probably easier to betray a friend because you don't require guts to do that. Notwithstanding the morality in question for such choices, each one of us can identify with perfidy for either.

But like Sen says "the freedom of choosing our identity in the eyes of others can sometimes be extraordinarily limited".

keeping track of ideas

2006-07-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

So what's the best way to keep track of ideas that occur to you at random times? At times, I get all these weird stuff that I can put to blog or put to practice. But as important as they are, I can't seem to find a way to keep them in my memory. Lately, my short term memory has looked more diffusive than ever. So the only way to bottle these ideas is to note them down.

Now I've heard someone say that she always have all these papers strewn around her room with ideas because she wrote it down as they came to her. I've also seen a friend of mine writing a long list of stuff on his hand but with that there's always a problem of washing away if not rewritten on paper. And there's always the issue of having a pen handy to note them down. I've mulled to keep a small paper and pencil with me just in case but it seems too much to carry since I already have my keys, phone and wallet with me when I'm out. And when I'm in it's the sloppiness that takes over. Carrying a PDA is out of question. Just too bulky. Another option is a voice recorder but I don't want to hear myself talk.

So really is there a way to overcome this enigma? First there was touch screen and now there's gesture recognition where you don't even have to touch the screen but just point at it. May be soon, technology would come up with something which will use telepathy waves to transport thoughts through a secure channel and to your home device.

But until then I think I'll try out paper and pencil. Or not!

bowling blues

2006-07-06T13:20:00.000-04:00

Here's what I had to ramble (I say I had to because I couldn't resist) when the issue of bowling crept up when no one bowled really well in one of the matches. Here goes (from the understandings and limited experience of an errant bowler).....

Although there are somethings we learn from experience, there are some basics that I try to follow while bowling or batting or fielding. Most of the time the bowler knows what he is capable and a good line and length is all that is really required to strangle most of the batsmen. That however, as we all know, is easier said than done.

But to me, what is most important is concentration. For every ball I bowl, I need to remind myself that I have to pitch it here or pitch it there. As easy as it may seem, it's very difficult to do that for each and every ball, at least for me. So I've kinda developed a routine to tell myself while I'm walking to the mark to start my run up that I need to bowl short/full/good length/fast/slow or whatever. And again remind myself while I'm taking the run-up just to make sure that I don't forget why I'm running. But it's important that I know what I'm trying to do here even if I don't succeed. And different bowlers bowl different balls in different ways but I try to make it a point to aim for the spot where I should be bowling.

As a batsman, I try to do the same thing, i.e. concentrate on the ball and try not to pre-meditate the shot but here I'm controlling the pace of the game. I can take my own time before facing the next ball. When I'm bowling I've to keep up with the pace of the game. I can't take a lot of time between balls. So it's a little difficult as a bowler.

Another constant reminder is not to try too hard for the pace. Extra pace can be used to beat the tail-enders but with good batsmen it can backfire (if I haven't already lost the control and bowled a wide). Every bowler has his own optimal speed. If I try to bowl faster or slower than that optimal speed, I tend to lose control. So I guess these variations need practicing in order to be successful.

But then again, every pitch is a different pitch and especially in our league it could be hard since some pitches are skewed or some run-ups have slopes but that's what we've to work with. (Actually, on these pitches, more often than not, slow bowling can work wonders). Sometimes I've to make minor adjustments like bowling from close to the stumps, or taking a longer time to jump or whatever but unless I've control of the ball, it's all useless. Everybody gets hit sometimes but it's important to not make the same mistake on the very next ball.

So basically, what I try to achieve is

a) concentration and

b) control

The rest of things like pace, variation, etc. can take a back seat initially.

nothing's really free

2006-07-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

We have bagels at work every Friday. Since last Friday was the one before 4th of July, a lot of people were taking the day off. So they decided we'll have bagels on Thursday. Now, there's a team who had decided to go out for lunch on that Friday. Someone was celebrating something and treating the whole team.

So when they found out that we have bagels on Thursday, here's what I overheard. One of the guys said that it works well for him that the bagels are on Thursday because if they were on Friday, he'd stuff himself up and wouldn't be able to enjoy that free lunch after the free bagels. I mean COMEON!! You know what you could do? Just don't stuff yourself up with the freaking bagels just because they are free. You know what else? You don't have to eat more of the lunch, again, just because it's free. Goddamn it people!

I mean really, COMEON!!

"learning to find" from Vee floyd ;)

2006-06-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

Into the torn chair, I pretend to relax
Twisted my neck to see who's snooping from back
A quiet gathers on a chaotic build
Preventing the view, my shadow is the shield
Too early to leave, I think of the last, how
Can I move on from this irreversible past?
Can't keep my mind from the severing ties
Disguised and svelted, just another self-culprit, I

Cloak is slipping from the grasp of my arms
Unseen revealed, I panic and I can't think of anything
No more protection, my invisibility is gone
Unhidden and out, lights on me shone
A heart in submission that's learning to find
Surroundings clouded but pounding to bind
Can't keep my mind from the severing ties
Disguised and svelted, just another self-culprit, I

Step out of the door discarding the layer nigh
My garb is down, telling another white lie
Unclad from cover, I see green meadows by
And steal a glance of where before was I
A sun edging around by the dampening skies
Could take me away on a unimaginable rise
The hope of excitement is making me wish
"Suspended animation. A state of bliss"
Can't keep my mind from the severing ties
Disguised and svelted, just another self-culprit, I

Stressed?

2006-06-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

So you think you are stressed? Someone sent me these images to check out if you're stressed. Just stare at an image and if you see the it slowly circling/revolving/moving, you're not stressed after all. But if it appears still then may be you are. Hey, no guarantees of how true it is but sometimes it's fun watching the images move (when actually they don't).

Another way of relieving stress is to go read dialogues from the members of the Griffin family of the "Family Guy", especially Stewie Griffin. As he puts it "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but you're a total bitch."

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away"

2006-06-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

I don't remember having to mentally fight with myself to get out of bed when I was a kid and I had to wake up everyday at 7 in the morning to go to school. Now it's a war. It takes half hour to tell myself that waking up at 9 AM is my destiny.

This seems to be the biggest problem I have. Well, this and the fear of drowning in to the sky or getting hit by a hanging star that seems to be loyally suspende at the same place with me everyday.

But it's funny how people want to grow up only to realize that they were probably better off being a kid. Not that being a grown up necessarily stinks, but with time comes gradual erosion of innocence to which the growing child is oblivious. It seems that the saying - "Igonrace is bliss" - dictates our childhoods. You don't know much and you can't argue much and can't do much ado about nothing.

A little know-how and I want to butt my opinion in to any and all issues. For once I'd just like to listen to arguments and not feel like saying anything. Stay silent. If I want to say something I want to raise my eyebrows or frown my face or smoke my ears or mumble and whisper and twinkle or strickle tears down my eyes and touch or get away from being close.

But it seems that it'd be easier to do if I were a kid, now wouldn't it? :) Although, I find writing is the only way I can stay silent and shout.

drug test, amsterdam and privacy

2006-06-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

So I joined this new company. Well, technically it's the same company I've been working for the last year but as a contractor. But anyways, pre-offer requirement is a drug test, which, I believe, a lot of American companies are doing now a days.

They also have a policy of random drug testing for the employees which some of them believe is not so random. Some people might think that if you've long stinking hair and if you make use of the words "rock on" more often than required or if you start your sentence with a long and stretched "dude" (like the big Lebowski) then you are more likely to be 'randomly' picked for screening. That falls in total agreement with the fact that a lot of random number generating algorithms output the same random number if your input seed is the same.

But I digress. Soon after the drug test, I went to Amsterdam. Coincidence? There's not even a co-relation. And people who think that one can fail a drug test just by smelling Amsterdam are not so far away from the truth. So that kind of "freedom of expression" leads some to question how far are we stretching the invasion of privacy of an individual when you employ a mandatory drug test.

But the spectrum of freedom is so wide and varied in this world that while one individual sees drug testing as intrusion to his freedom, the other is still working on freedom to show her face in public, literally.

So there's another open ended slog. It always seems that I end up like this a lot of times. Did I just say 'end'? Because that's what I'm not doing.

Vegetarisch?

2006-06-04T20:59:00.000-04:00

"Frisches Rahmkohlrabigemüse mit gebackenen Champignons dazu Salzkartofelln"
Well that's just a fancy German name for fries and steamed, salty potatoes with fried mushrooms. And it's readily available in the famous Hofbräuhaus beer hall in München to wash it down with a litre (and no less) of its original brew. And mind you, the potatoes are not that salty. You gotta put some more salt on top, especially if you are Indian. But what do I know about Deutsch food or for that matter European food! They also eat a lot of bread. And of course every bakery features tons of different kinds of breads. And then there are pretzels! But I've to admit that breads and beers complement each other well.

Talking about tastes, I got a taste of how it is to be driving on the 'Autobahn'. Fast, of course! But why does no speed limit on road makes sense is evident by their way of driving.
The idea is very simple. The drivers anticipate other drivers' next move rather than putting that responsibility on them. They take it upon the themselves to estimate that the car in front of them is going to change lanes because they have nowhere else to go and they are probably not going to slow down. That, infact is the norm. So you give way to the fast ones. And if the right most lane is empty you move your car there. Period. That's another rule. So I guess that sort of discipline helps to keep it safer with no speed limits.

With me reaching speeds of 180-190 kmph (but at these speeds you can see your fuel gauge going down in real time) in a lousy car like Fiat Punto, it is only imaginable what could be achieved when you are driving a German engineered motor vehicle. No wonder they make good cars. They probably had the Autobahn before they had world-class automobiles. So it was only natural that they come up with cars to kiss those roads.

However, one thing that is hard to get used to is the traffic signals, which, unlike US, are only at your side of the road and not across the cross roads. So you have to make sure that you're not too far ahead when you stop because if you are, you won't know when the red turns green until someone honks from the back of the queue. And it's even worse if there's no one to honk and tell you that it's green.

A wander in to the skyless woods

2006-05-25T13:42:00.000-04:00

A wander in to the skyless woods
And over the soft,crumbling foliage
Leaves so dry, withered and weathered
Some new as the disappearing morning dew
Others older than man's first blues

The path untrodden, the trail unfound
I strum on the road unsound
Some steps deep, giving way beneath
Others shallow like a metal sheath

An eye falls on the glazened side walk
A true desert oasis or a mirage?

philosophy of 'The Simpsons'

2006-05-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

An interesting article on The Simpsons' philosophy. And mind you, it's not only 'The Simpsons' where philosophy is present. It's just hard to see it when it's in front of you, like many other things. It's easy to clear your eyes and miss and even easier to cloud your mind and see, but it's only what you want to see.

Schlaleluja!!

2006-05-15T10:35:00.000-04:00

As I boarded the plane back to the U.S., "Schlaleluja!!", read one of the German tabloids on the finals win of FC Bayern Munchen, the football club of the city where I spent my first and the last day of this very short Eurotrip.

There are a few adjectives I can use for this excursion through beer drinking Bavaria and upto the rejunevated, renovated Berlin and the non-chalantly free Nederlands with going through the backyards and openwaters of country Deutschland. But I'll summarize it into one word - reminiscent.

And as it often happens, when you've got fleeting glimpses or shortened stays, you tend to come back with missing out on some, thinking how it would have been if you had done this or gone there. And while you've gone where you wanted, came back where you started and gained in the process, but what you think you might have missed was something you never really knew anyways.

quotas and classes

2006-04-28T11:33:00.000-04:00

So it's back. Indian politicians are back with the age old agenda. Quota system. A system which adds marks to your educational merit because you belong to a certain class which is broadly defined as "backward" or "scheduled". A system which reserves places and posts for you because you're born in a family with a certain last name. A system which was probably introduced with good faith (but myopic sight) at the time when India became newly independent but now which only serves as vote banks for politicians who cajole the vast majority of rural population through such shenanigans.

Is this the right way of bringing prosperity to the a family classified in one of these castes? What if it was already prosperous to begin with? What about the unfairness caused to the one who missed the opportunity because he/she wasn't born in a scheduled family? If you really want to uplift the downtrodden, shouldn't the system be rather based on providing monetary support for education to the financially backward, when they are kids rather than gifting them an automatic seat or a position regardless of their abilities when they have all grown up in to nothingness?

How does the politicians plan to spread equality when they are hell bent on dividing the country based on such technicalities. But we all know this already, don't we? The Mulayam Yadavs know it and the Arjun Singhs and V.P. Singhs are aware of it. While the constitution must be respected it could also be amended to remove the clauses that allow such things to unveil. But it is definitely not happening today.

views on views

2006-04-07T14:17:00.000-04:00

A lot of people don't believe in 3-dollar coffees. Neither do I. But that has not stopped me from throwing money on countless mochas at the neighborhood Starbucks. I mean after all it is called "Starbucks". Should have seen it coming. (But that's another topic altogether.) Unlike some, I do not share the fascination with coffee. Nor am I taken by the really disconnected and mostly shoddy music that plays at high pitches than required at those joints. I guess I can blame the capitalism that has sucked me into their mochas (or was it the other way round).

We can blame the capitalists, the lobbyists, the leftists, the rightists, the propaganda-ist. It's not that hard really. And if we say that we are better off or not with them around, it is a personal opinion and nothing to do with the current state of the world.

Like Superman said, that he doesn't drink before he flies and as I say I don't fly before I drink. Your view really depends on who you are. And what makes you is nothing but an aggregation of your viewpoints. That's the recursive definition of a person. But again, that's my view.

What are so relevant but often ignored are the reasons behind holding those views close to the heart. Developing an opinion is a gradual process - one that is a summation of your environments. Switching it is almost instantaneous as all it takes is a jibe at your belief brought upon by a one-off experience. While a gradually developed view has a lot of room for change, one that is created overnight becomes carved in stone.

And erosion of those stone carvings can come only by chipping away at the stone. So it's upto you to mould a sculpture or quarry the stone.

patel rap

2006-03-23T10:44:00.000-05:00

So a few weeks ago I accidentally bumped into a place with live rap. I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly and it inspired me to pen my own rap lyrics. So here it goes...

What you do, what you say
What you never thought would stay
It's here, so read it or ignore it
But what you expect - go floor it! Yeah!

It ain't possible to see where y'all associate
Some of you'll heed and some insouciate
You think it's honest but their disrespect you facilitate
Even when you don't talk you still negotiate
Bobby shot the sheriff and he didn't retaliate
But sometimes the bullet not fired might ricochet

So don't show what you got, hold close
Ain't nothing to fall back to if
You ain't got no ace to settle
And if I see blood with no battle
I stand up and don't myself rattle
I swallow the blood and I ain't got no beef with you
But don't overestimate my peace with you

the doosra: Why India didn't lose the first test at Nagpur!

2006-03-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

So it's the beginning of the 'England in India' series and as always, it starts with English players getting ruled out of the opener. Fortunately, it wasn't the stomach virus this time around. But unfortunately England has never seen a full strength team entering the series and getting severely depleted just before the first test.

But that aside, with Collingwood not only saving the first innings but also giving them an advantage after an Indian top order collapse, an event occured on the third day of the match, which indicated that come what, India will not lose this match.

That was the debut wicket by left-armer Monty Panesar. His victim - Sachin Tendulkar. Here's what transpired. He wanted too much too fast. Sachin was playing well and didn't seem perturbed and it would be a prize wicket, as always, for any bowler. So Monty started praying "Wahe Guru, gar tussi yeh wicket mennu dedi to aage jaake kuch nahi mangoonga". His prayers were heard and he went into history as the spinner, who came back to the land of his forefathers and plumbed Sachin Tendulkar on debut (gave India a taste of their own medicine, sort of). A better accolade was showered only when Azhar hit three centuries in a row in his first three tests.

But what Monty missed and Guru Nanak Saheb knew was that another prayer was forthcoming, this time from the opposition. As Harbhajan failed to get any wicket in the second innings, continuing his dismal form on the sub-continent, he prayed, "Wahe Guru, bas yeh match draw karvado, mennu aur kuch nahi chahiye". If it hadn't been for Harbhajan's greed for saving his spot on the team and Monty's greed for going into the annals, England might just have won the test.

So the moral the story is it must be hard out there for Guru Nanak Saheb, particularly in Punjab where he has to daily resolve conflicting prayers from so many Sikhs ;) And for that matter, it must be hard for all the other Gods who have a lot of following. So give them a break, people.

late night news

2006-02-22T11:24:00.000-05:00

In news today....

US Veep Dick Cheney invaded a site in Iraq after reviewing its satellite images and mistaking it for the site of WMD.
In an unrelated story, Dick Cheney blew up a man's face with a shot-gun mistaking him for a bird.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield invited the UN mission to experience first hand, the environment at Guantanamo Bay after he came under fire for some newly published photographs of prisoner abuse.
In an unrelated story, Dick Cheney reiterated that the shooting of his friend was an accident, and invited the journalists making merry on this story, to his ranch for the next hunting expedition and see for themselves that it really was an accident (or not).

US President Bush today defended the bid by an UAE company to take over the operations of major US sea ports and threatened a veto to push the deal amid biparitsan backlash at the deal.
In an unrelated story, Dick Cheney defended gun use and to prove his point, threatened to use his Uzi the next time he goes hunting.

--Well, couldn't help splashing my hands in the ongoing Cheney laundering

dodging a Quicky*

2006-02-20T13:51:00.000-05:00

It's not what you think!

So I went to this bookstore to brush up my skills -the ones that went dormant- for an upcoming interview. (Let's not talk about the skills I never had.) I picked up a book that seemed with content helpful to me from an isle labelled 'Database' and made my way to the place lined with single sofas. More often than not people opt for comfy seats, which became obvious as I saw that all of them were filled.

So I moved my eyes towards a few rugged wooden chairs and tables, each of which seats 2. All of the tables were fully occupied except two which had only a single person each. I started towards the one with a pretty brunette donned in green top and engrossed, probably, in writing a term paper. As it was crucial that I get some work done, I immediately began battling my male instincts. Two revolutions around the 'Travel' aisle and a minute later I moved towards the other table, the one occupied by an African American male in his 30s.

As I was halfway to the table, he left, leaving the whole table to me, momentarily. I threw my black coat over the arm of the chair and absorbed the chill off the glass window next to it as the giggling of the teenagers sitting on the floor a few paces away continued. As I pulled the chair and sat myself, I was greeted with a grin by another desi, who did the same.

A courteous hey-what's-up-and-if-you-answer-me-see-if-I-care nod from me led him to begin the small talk. I would realize later that I had nothing to do with the initiation of the chat. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't mind a little banter. Today was different. Time was of essence.

A typical first time desi questions followed. "Where are you from in India?", "What's your name?", "What do you do?", not necessarily in that order. I complied and shot the same questions back. Not surprisingly, he turned out to be a 'Gulti' (Andhra Pradesh-ian). Since I have so many of Gulti friends, I know that in this particular area, other than being Gultis, they come with some common denominations - intelligent and many. (Someone is going- "Look a Gujju is talking about 'many' :))

It took me a few tenths of a second (that's how much reaction time you have when you are fielding in slips/gully/point) to realize where this was going after he mentioned that he and his wife ran a 'business'. And it doesn't take much to figure out that he wanted to entice me into his business. The business with the design of a pyramid (such as Quick*), where, the higher your level in the pyramid, the more you feed off the lower level members who have become directly or indirectly a member because of you.

In all fairness to the people involved in this business, it takes a lot of endeavor to scale that pyramid. More importantly it takes uncanny ability to absorb rejections which make a major part of the number of approaches. In fact, I have a couple of friends, who have climbed the ladder in such a business and now are making a lot of bucks but the first few years, according to them teaches you a lot.But there are people out there, who are not cut out to market or in my case, take rejection in stride or plan ahead of buying stuff.

But coming back to the events, he then asked me for my phone number, you know, to get in touch etc. I made a swift move and gave him office phone, from where I would be unreachable in a week. Because he was such an intelligent fellow he asked me whether it was my cell number and I reluctantly said "Yes". Lying is something that puts unnecessary burden on self. But at the end I think I dodged the Quicky*.

So all I want to say, after so much of rambling is that if you see (allow me to embellish) a smart and handsome, desi guy like me, holding a book and about to start reading, in a bookstore, please don't bother. It is neither the place and in most probability, nor the time. It will result, at the most, in a slog.

the unending quest

2006-02-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

So let's figure this out, shall we!

"Figure what out?", you say. Let's figure out what are we doing here. A few would say that they know why they are here or have an inkling at least, others would say that they have no idea and the rest just don't care.

But who are we kidding? Everyone's here for self contentment. Dreams, ambitions and desires are just different ways to motivate and achieve it.
Ambitions to conquer the world, dreams to float in money, desires for spiritual acutalization or ownership are just a few examples. (Note that these are the paths to contentment but not necessarily those that will lead to it).
But pretty much everything falls into these categories.

Those who live for others find satisfaction in doing so. Same for those who die for others and same for who live for themselves. Everyone's loooking to get paid. With what? - that differs from person to person. Those who are forced to follow a different route are also looking for a payment. Those who have received it start looking for another one. And the cycle goes on.

In the course of history, which has been nothing but a quest, it is safe to assume that there are no pains or pleasures that have been felt by some which have not already been felt by others. There has been and will be a steady stream of friends and backstabbers, wars and ceasefires, loves and betrayals, retaliations and quiet fadings, ecstasies and rapid descents, regrets and nonchalances and so on.

So why does each person has to start from scratch to understand it and spend the whole life with varying degrees of success? Now to ask this very same question, the kid who was born yesterday will take another quarter of a century. But she will probably conclude where I would today. And she'll have no head start either.

So what is exactly that each one of us is doing here? (other than trying to make it or make it big or just taking it as it comes)
Sure we have found new places, laws of physics, better understanding of human culture and behavior and a lot more. But isn't it only logical in a quest to stumble upon the unknown?

On a broader scale, we are just re-living the lives which have already been lived by others, albeit in parts. Everything is only a new permutaion or a combination of what has been already out there. Only this time we have a name for it. It's called a happy life or a rotten life or a life of giving or a life full of achievements or whatever. No matter how someone's life was spent, it has been lived before, much of which, most of us can't understand.

What people don't understand and cannot foretell, they call it destiny and attribute it to 'God'.
What they do understand, they call it science and they are ready to show a proof for it.
While science questions 'God', it cannot eliminate this existence due to lack of proof. Although there is no proof to support the existence to begin with, the cause and effect relationship tells science that if this world exist, there has to be something that created it. Whether this creator (if exists) still controls its creation and its flora and fauna is debatable and out of scope of this writing (and my understanding).

This universe might have been a nerd's wildest creation that got out of hand, (seeing the state of this world) or it was just another of several programs that was abandoned because the funds ran out because the marketing gave it a thumbs down or it could be the only and the most wonderful creation that the community of the creator still cherishes. The universe could have been created by big bang or a small bang and the creatures evolved or suddenly appeared one fine day.

But it all comes back to the chicken and egg problem. One cannot have existed without the other, i.e. the world has to have something that created it and that creator has to have its own creator.

And those who couldn't figure out the chicken and egg problem, gave up on it and went to solve who/what created the world problem, the answer to which by the way, some of us already think they know. In either case, it still doesn't answer the question of our existence other than individual self-satisfaction.

So I'm back to square one. Exactly where all of us have been after centuries. It's a cycle. Those who think that they have found the beginning or end of the cycle are wrong because a cycle doesn't have any. Some would say it isn't even a cycle but this probably has been argued before during our existence. And we are doing it again. So it's a cycle.

So you see where I'm going with this? Probably not. But that's okay because neither do I. And logically speaking I wasn't supposed to know where I'm going because that's how this whole thing started in the first place.

valentine's day quote

2006-02-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

Khalil Gibran said:

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

I say:

"Touché Khalil! Touché!"

the doosra: a 'schatz' and an ersatz

2006-02-13T13:02:00.000-05:00

I've decided that henceforth all slogs related to cricket will be under the title - 'the doosra'.

India seem to have struck/acquired schatz (treasure/darling) with the new wicket-keeper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ironically, it is the batting prowess that makes him stand out and somewhat unfortunately not so much his wicket-keeping. With improvement in his keeping, the find will be total. A little more than a year's cricket under his stats has only indicated why he has become so indispensable and such an invincible weapon in India's repertoire. A disguised forceful punch in the covers has now become a trademark shot in his quiver, along with some unorthodox plays. But what separates him is his abilities to assess the situation and making shot selections. Notwithstanding his inelegant stroke play, India has reasons to believe that if he continues to show his effectiveness, Parthiv Patel can very well gray his hair on the sidelines.

Contrastingly juxtaposed is the young gun Gautam Gambhir, an ersatz opener, who has failed to show ongoing promise despite some few and far between initial flairs. What he lacks in experience is only magnified in his inconfidence and tentative approach to the moving delivery, which only points to a short lived career. As the opening slot is the only undecided position, it becomes tantamount to the team's success that the opener can negotiate the initial and early movement offered by the ball. In light of India's plan for the World Cup in 2007, and only a year left to experiment, it calls for giving an opportunity to Wasim Jaffer and whoever else might be there to grab the opener's slot in the team, i.e. moving on and away from Gambhir.

Doesn't matter!

2006-02-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

Non-cricketers please disperse to the next blog.

So what does it take to become a cricketer? Not much, I guess. When you come into this world just make sure that the country you're born in is India. Indian and male and not liking cricket?! That's an endangered spieces but certainly not worth saving!

It doesn't matter if you've played-
in your own verandah where getting a hat-trick is no less difficult, or
in front of your neighbors' broken-as-a-result-of-lofted-cover-drive-and-you-had-to-pay-for-it glass window, or
in open 'maidans' where you share your run up area, at the same time, with another bowler from a different on going match, or
on the road, dodging the to-and-fro traffic as you try to concentrate on your cricket, or
in your school games, feilding at fine-leg, because the only similarity between you and Jonty Rhodes is that you both suffer from epilepsy, or
exploding on the Ranji trophy scene but never to make it on the Indian side or
at Lords getting initiated in the big league while sweating at the short-leg as Flintoff thrashes his bat.

Doesn't matter.

And it doesn't matter if it's -
a plastic ball which skids in the parking lot where you play because it's raining outside, or
a rubber ball which bounces more than required (can't figure out how Ganguly got through 'gali' cricket with such a ball), or
a hard tennis ball which becomes a lot quicker when wet, or
the real red cherry, which is more visible than any other ball and still the hardest to connect, thrash, catch, grab, grip, swing, skid, bounce and aim depending on your confidence, pitch and weather conditions.

Doesn't matter.

And it doesn't matter if you've felt -
burdened because you couldn't hold your strike and lost for a run with 3 overs to go, or
ecstatic after getting the batsman to make the mistake you wanted him to make, or
proud when you got under the opposition's skin forcing him to blunder, or
perfect when you found the gap that made the sweeper cover and long off converge, a moment before the ball touched the rope, or
stupid not to have warmed up only to stretch your hamstring and miss 3 games in a row.

Doesn't matter.

If you've have experienced any of the above, need I say more!!

potlucks and guinea pigs

2006-02-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

She was high on confidence after her recent success in the realms of culinary skills. An art, rather. Or so she thought! Now that she had got a chance to put her art at work at the next valentine potluck, she was going to make them lick their fingers.

Today was the big day, she thought as she stirred the batter and rubbed her hands on the month old filthy dark apron. She herself had chosen the apron - a checkered, dark colored one, designed with curves instead of corners. Its beauty was that it never looked dirty. "Amazing choice!" she complimented herself.

A pinch of cinnamon, followed by a handful of cilantro went flying into the white batter from her small and creasy hand. She already had the oil come to a crackling boil with some finely chopped scallions and thick paste of garlic browning inside the pan. It was pretty warm inside, she mused, a stark contrast to the climate outside which was a calling for skiers. And as she finished her thought, a drop or two came dribbling down her inquiring forehead and disappeared into the foray of spinach resting on the cutting board -another dark beauty- albeit, unbeknownst to the rising chef.

Cold was so annoying she gathered while she tended a zillionth time to her ailing nose with a tissue and her wands involuntarily wandered for a quiet rub on the apron . She was missing something. She wondered what. "Ah! ", she went when she saw the missing piece of the puzzle - salt - even as she missed to wash her hands.

She stood admiring the final outcome - a two-hour of exacting work mixed with some well-weighted ingredients and more. "Everyone's gonna love it!", she exclaimed as she put down the spoon back into the beautifully decorated dish after tasting.

And she was right! She would win the 'Healthiest Dish' award to prove it.

" ... 'Do I feel lucky?' - punk!"

2006-02-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

So here I'm in Virginia with Pennsylvania license plates. Seems like while emissions and safety inspections are still valid, my registration has expired. That puts me in ticket-able status, if caught. Now to register in Va, I need the title of the vehicle, which obviously would go missing at the helm of all the excitement. Without it I can't register my vehicle in Va. But before that I need to have valid Va emissions and safety. Now since my car is not in registered status I can't take it out to get emissions done.

Workaround - renew my registration in Pa. But what do you know! The Pa DMV website is down. Wait, it keeps getting better. All my friends who are not in Va are able to access it. For some sinister reason, I can't. But of course they have phone numbers. It seems they have one toll free number, which by the way can not be used to call from outside Pa. And it took some time to figure that one out. So I toil to find the other number - the one which can be used from outside Pa. After several engange tones I finally connect and crawl through the automated menu and finally reach an option to talk to someone. Interestingly, it hungs up on me.

So now I need a duplicate title. Need to fill out a form, which I asked Sid to mail it to me after I made him surf through the Pa DMV website since it is out of bounds for me. I find that apart from all the info it requires, it needs to be notarized and has to be mailed. Can't fax it. Once it reaches them in a few days, they will take 5-7 days to process and another week to sent it back. BUT!!! They can't sent it to my Va address. It has to go to the Pa address. Over and above that, my car insurance is expiring next week.

Not to mention, I'm going to India in 3 weeks and need to sub-lease my apartment or suffer overhead, go the health club and argue with them not to charge me for my absence or get refund. Well, it's just a beginning.

It feels like Dirty Harry is standing on top of my lungs and whispering "The question you've to ask yourself is -'Do I feel lucky?'- punk!"

I is always capital!

2006-02-05T17:39:00.000-05:00

For the record, people are fickle. They don't know what they are talking about. (Sometimes that would apply to me too, but not this time.)

The cricketing world is not void of prodigies. Most of them have to exhume their talent and match their disciplined endeavors to make their mark on the international arena. A few however, are natural born domineers who have decimated the oppositions by sheer talent. Tendulkar is one of those few. What makes them so lethal is that a slump sends them finding their rhythm, rather than a glitch in their talent. So writing them off ,even after, say 15 years of cricket can only be considered a hasty conclusion.

Hanif Mohammad seems to accede with me on Tendulkar's abilities. But this column of his, has made me believe that he isn't ready to write himself off just yet. Probably the column should have been named- "Don't write off Hanif Mohammad: Hanif Mohammad". But I think it's about time!! What say?

in-amnesiac

2006-02-02T23:49:00.000-05:00

It was like any other day, only lively.

As he treaded along with an air of contentment, the fire disappeared far on the horizon and orange took over. Dusk descended. So did a blow that blind-sided him. What sent him reeling did lesser harm, he gathered, as his gaze wandered and came to rest on the source - all too familiar and all too close.

He looks out the window, as he recoils from the blow. At every orange and every dusk he waits for another, only hoping that it's not familiar. It'll be alright, they say, even as they throw away the club. A scarred faith tells him otherwise.

Even as he now treads along with an air of disillusionment, "life goes on, yea, la la la life goes on! Ob-li-di! Ob-li-da".

Dubya and the likes

2006-02-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when the band took to the stage after the break, the vocalist said that it was second year in a row that the State of the Union coincided with Groundhog day; one involves prognostication of future by a not-so-intelligent creature and the other a rodent.

So there's another American who joins in humiliating the current leadership while Bush rules in the second term. Leadership is about the individual, one would think, and wonder how lack of charisma could get you the most coveted post in the world. I think charisma alone is enough to get you to the top but it's scarcity is not enough to keep you. Obviously, support from the senior was a factor for Bush's win but un-lively opposition was more of the reason for his win the first time and the second.

But he hasn't done anything that any other republican leader wouldn't do. So Americans should find solace in the fact that had they chosen a more eligible leader, who was republican, he would still ignore green house gas emissions, be pro-life and go to wars.

The good thing about American politics is that it carries a certain predictibility corresponding to the democrat/republican leadership, regardless of the leader himself. The bad part is it's ingrained too much to be not stubborn at times.

"How are you doing today?"

2006-01-31T16:38:00.000-05:00

How do you think I'm doing? Of course I'm not doing all that well or I wouldn't be here. I'd be rather having Lo-mein with a crispy spring roll at my favourite Chinese restaurant instead of spending my lunch time at a doctor's.

Not necessarily voiced aloud, this is what some people would feel like saying when they are posed with the ubiquitous question, one of the many which are only spoken and not meant. The answers are equally unreal and hardly do justice to the condition that the questionee is in when greetings are exchanged and questions asked between fellows who are doing it for the sake of it. (For sake of simplicity, I'll ignore the responses by prattlers and babblers who'll, without fail, throw up their life stories in front of you when asked how they were doing.)

Is there an escape from such triviality? Probably not. Infact it is not even trivial. The banality of such exchanges does not undermine their importance. It is required to respond whether you feel like it or not, with a shake of the head if not by words. A lack of response would surely put you in the path to being called crazy.

I read something, somewhere to the effect that "sanity is nothing but conformity to norms". People who make their own rules are technically crazy, unless of course they find a public appeal and following.

Thus insanity is not a person's state of mind, it is categorized by what others perceive about that individual.

So the moral of the story is that to avoid being insane follow the norms of the society and to avoid perceiving someone insane, step into her shoes.

However,a lot of us want to be different from the rest of the world and will continue to do so. Thus, insanity is eternal.

'rang de basanti' and a major digression

2006-01-30T10:33:00.000-05:00

I watched this new Hindi movie over the weekend. And without giving away the whole story, it's a tale trying to interweave excerpts from the Indian freedom struggle led by a few youngsters with the current day collegiates trying to play their roles in a movie who ultimately resort to a radical approach to curb one specific political malfeasance.

The youngsters, viz. Azad, Bhagat Singh etc. belonged to the faction of those freedom fighters who wanted justice right away, through violence or otherwise unlike the Gandhian fighters, who fought through civil disobedience and non-violence. It is debatable whether the British rule's end was driven faster due to the Azad-like fighters or the Gandhians. Both factions are equally respected in India, though latter would set a precedent that is hardly followed today.

The Azad-ians used violence agains those who were responsible. Then came the world-war, where Kamakazes killed themselves to attack on the enemy troops.

Today, suicide bombings have gone a little further where most of the times the victims are innocent. People are charged guilty by association to a particular culture, country, relgion etc. In one such instance it is argued that this is a result of indifferent foreign policies by west towards the middle-east over a period of time.

Well, if foreign policies can result into suicide bombings it remains to be seen what repurcussions would violence against the innocent take us!!

name that drug

2006-01-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

I missed some of what Ali G said but here's some of the street names of banned substances that he seems to know a lot about.
-the bionic; the bomb; the chronic; the sweet mary jane; the buddha; the method; the black; the sheep; the ganja; the maui-maui; the rocky; the pot; the shake; the rasta ...

Here's the link to the video:
Ali G on Drugs
Can you figure out the other names?

'another one bites the dust'

2006-01-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

So here we are again, with India-Pak evenly poised to settle for another draw. Now-a-days it's just so frustrating that a test match would end up in a lame draw, unlike the years of yore where a lot more of them met the same fate. But then they neither had an ardent media to report every delivery (and chucks) and every wield of the willow, nor did they have a reactionist following of the game.

But since all that is in the annals, let's pick (a) fall guy(s) for the current fiasco.

Blame it on -

1) PCB: It seems that the Lahore curator, who prepared the pitch that was flatter than a carrom board and smoother than Angelina Jolie's legs, was rushed to Faislabad to undo what he had done at Lahore. I mean C'mon!! It's like telling Saddam that you screwed up Iraq so here's Kuwait - go and rule. Well, I thought a team like Pakistan would have several curators and wouldn't place all eggs in one basket. But PCB's reputation precedes itself. It is second only to the country's govt.'s/regime's reputation. At the end Shaharyar Khan would defend it and blame its actions on weather.

2)Curator: Let's say the weather was a factor, which infact might have been the case for a little change in the behaviour of the pitch. But people please!! Don't you know that you've this weather every freaking year and if you didn't have an experience making a decent pitch during this time then frankly you should be working in a salon - shaving Angelina's legs. Bangladesh would have been ideal invitee for such pitches. They can get their confidence up and still Pakistan would have a chance of taking 20 wickets.

3) Players: This is far reaching but may be Inzi & Co wanted to keep their record on the positive side, i.e. at least not losing the series after the England triumph and avoiding another home series advantage like last time when India visited them. With a little green on the pitch and available moisture, Indian seamers would presumably succeed over comparatively swing-less Shoaib and Sami while making a pitch that dances would again tilt in Kumble-Bhajji's favour. So only option remainining is make it where Butt's butt stands on the ground all day long when he bats.

4)Weather: Who am I gonna blame for weather? No really? But anyways, I think the weather is a red-herring. Blame # 3 holds strong within my thoughts.

That ends the conspiracy theories.

weekend sports & monday morning blues!

2006-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

So here's a toast to monday! Come again another day!

Looking through my watery eyes, with veins turned red within, after staring at all that day and night sports mania going on - the India-Pak series, the VB series, the NFL playoffs and the Australian Open. Damn! I'm busy!

Why do I see the blues through my crimson eyes defies me! Is it because I'm too drained out after watching all the excitement provided by the spectator and contact sports? Is it because I can't get enough of it? I suspect the latter to be true with blurry visions of -
Rothliesbergers and Hasselbacks getting mauled by line backing trains; Sharapova-Hantuchova glam-slams; a spectalur 5 set angle-shot Hrbaty-Davidenko extravaganza; an highly inelegant and quintessential Dhoni-innings, characterized by some clean and raw pulls and lofts frenzy.

Too much sporting excitement? I think not !!

to be or not to be...

2006-01-04T19:01:00.000-05:00

Well! Here I am!

I was thinking about "slogging" (that's my personal term for blogging) for a long time but procastrination has made it possible only today!

Not that I've much to say right now but I was wondering about the merits or demerits of slogging. Now that I'm here it just seems that slogging wouldn't be fun if no one read it and more so if someone I knew didn't read it. But then again, if someone I knew did read it, he/she might find out something they don't want to know (or shouldn't be told)... and of course slogging wouldn't be interesting without juicy stuff, now would it?

"To be or not to be?"- that's the question. May be I'll just use aliases, la la lands, inuendos, indirect references, misnomers etc.. but whatever...