First Greetings & Blog Guide

{I am deliberately publising this post in a future date to keep it at the top always (actually wrote it on 6 Nov '05).
This is a static post; for regular posts please scroll down.

* I Reckon Life - my main blog! Personal musings; sometimes I dont want to lose a thought and dont want to complete it either. Just want to save them here for my later persuasions.

* My Flickr - for browsing use these tags.

* Our Rule Book - a personal joke between 'us'! Not for public comsumption ;)

* My Compendiums - My collections of these things.

* An Obiter Dictum - this was my first blog; and this my second. now both are of historical importance only :P

* Joys of Married Life - just another compendium - trivial things collected from here 'n there at random.

In the spirit of positive atheism

"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
-- Bertrand Russell.

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-- Stephen Roberts

"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do..And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! ..But He loves you...."
-- George Carlin

"The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also."
-- Mark Twain

"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy."
-- David Brooks

"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window."
-- Stephen King

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
-- Susan Anthony

and I can go on and on...



I stop asking the question "Who created it?" at Nature. I consider it supreme.

You go ONE step further saying "God created Nature" and stop there, without asking "Who created God?".

The difference is just a step more, its all in the mind. Nay its foolish if just one step creates/defines a world to you!

What really matters are the deeds, not the beliefs!

... and life does not always go on

The worst things that can happen to a relationship are misunderstandings/ego/anger/mistrust. Or may be the worst happens AFTER this--when further ego doesn't let anyone take the initiative to fix the issues. Ironically, all it requires is a small gesture of talking that first step--just a phone call, or a sorry, giving personal space, etc.

No matter how much we've opined about cherishing this relationship throughout the life, but when time comes to bent down for its sake, we rarely do. Its not that the opinions/thoughts/wishes were fake, we would've meant it genuinely, willing to beg-borrow-steal for the sake of the relationship, but when it comes to bending back we develop so much inertia in our minds that we let our treasured people go away, without addressing the mis-happenings.

Either people forsake the relationship or last minute desperate attempts to revive it makes love to forsake the relationship. We become too conceited or take our loved ones so much for granted, as to not be able to realize what's going wrong, when it goes wrong. And later it might come to being just a mended survival not a lovable existence.

Alas! just for those few (un)said words, that missed moment, that common-sense that became so uncommon, that presence of mind which never prevailed, that phone call which never came, that explanation which was never given on time, that sensibility which didn't make sense during the storm.... And it raged on!

Hazar rahein mud ke dekhin
Kahin se koi sada na aayi
Badi wafa se nibhayi tumne
Hamari thodi si bewafai

Jahan se tum mod mud gaye the
Ye mod ab hi wahin pade hain
Hum apne pairon mein jaane kitne
Bhanwar lapete hue khade hain

Badi wafa se nibhayi tumne
Hamari thodi si bewafai

Kahin kisi roz yun bhi hota
Hamari haalat tumhari hoti
Jo raat humein guzari marr ke
Vo raat tumne guzari hoti

Badi wafa se nibhayi tumne
Hamari thodi si bewafai

Tumhe ye zid thi ke hum bulate
Humein ye ummid vo pukarein
Hai naam hoton pe ab bhi lekin
Aawaz mein pad gayi dararein

Hazar rahein mud ke dekhim
Kahin se koi sada na aayi
Badi wafa se nibhayi tumne
Hamari thodi si bewafai.

When do we Children Grow up for Parents?

... never :)

In the context, below is a beautiful dialogue from "Finding Nemo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543). The scene is when Nemo's dad is swimming with the turtles in the East Australian ocean Current (EAC) to reach Sydney to search & rescue Nemo. The big turtle talks to Nemo's dad about their kiddo-turtles hatching out, growing up, being on their own and he 'letting them go' after that. Nemo's dad was very protective and over-caring about Nemo till he gets lost.

{Nemo's dad is respectfully called Jellyman by all turtles since he fights off jelly fishes, deep in the ocean, while searching for Nemo}

(DT = Daddy Turtle, ND =Nemo's Dad)

DT: (speaking to his son) Curl away my son. ( speaking to Nemo's Dad[ND] ) Its awesome, Jellyman.

The little dudes are just eggs.

We leave 'em on a beach to hatch...

and then, coo-coo-cachoo...

They find their way back to the big ol' blue (the ocean).

ND (surprised): All by themselves?

DT: Yeah.

ND: But Dude, how do you know when they're ready.

DT: Well, you (parents!) never really know. But when they know, you'll know, you know? Ha!

I totally love the spirit of the last sentence and his 'ha' expression for obvious reasons :)


Music: Ironically Mother by Floyd started playing from a random playlist

Digital Lives

First there were those cameras with photographic rolls (the negatives), which needed dark-room developing -- it was costly -- papa never earned so much those days for us to own one of those.

We used to go to studios once in a blue moon to get a family portrait! We yearned for a way to capture every diwali, rakhi, pooja, shaadi, etc. on a reel. Sometimes the blurred away memories were frustrating. We wished to get clicked more often.


And then we grew up, got rich, digital revolution came and...
Now we have a 'digicam' & a 'handycam' to record every 'potential memory', to document every single day mischiefs of didi's daughter, to click and shoot anywhere and anything we want, that too without second thoughts of wasting a negative! Now no pics are so special which we'll frame and cherish for years to come [1,2]. Photographs have become just another file-formats!


That was then and this is now. We are still yearning...

Tags Galore

Here is the tag of '3's taken over from Pri's.
Mostly it is 'coz this is introspective and slightly 'coz I wanted to make up for not taking Pri's previous tag and I needed something to post, as the blog has been complaining a lot lately ;-)

Anyways, here I go without much digressions ...

3 smells I love:
- any home made food! (yeah I live to eat :D)
- obnoxious smells of chemicals, etc. Not that I dig them much but I do love to sniff a 2nd or 3rd time if they hit my nose once! We had vials of acetone, xylene, glycerine at home in our fridge which I loved to sniff once in a while:D of course other smells were available in papa's lab! oh & not to forget the Kipp's apparatus :P
- her hair! (okok I know it is not exactly a smell per se, but a manifestation of my feelings! but what the heck, I love it :"> )


3 smells I hate:
- perfumes!!! (I don't know why but probably it is this thot in my head that no one needs to make up and fake up. I hate any makeup whatsoever :| )
- BO.
- those ones emanating from open drains, gutters in city :(


3 jobs I had in my life:
hehe! what kind of tag is this Pri? You should have modified the points for jobless people :P If thank you services also count then may be I do have 3 jobs to talk about!
- unofficial and official system administrator in hostel for 2 years (had helluva painful time)
- student rep in computer center of insti (I wish I had kicked a lot more ass than I did. Though I'm darn proud of never ever doing any moral policing:) )
- lately was freelancing online.


3 forever-watchable movies:
- don't argue about JUST THIS one - I do hate typical hindi movies but somehow I have already watched 'Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein' more than a dozen times. All my frnds are sick of the movie now :P
- Some of these high rated (by me) romantic movies, the so called chick flicks!
- hardcore War movies with lotsa action.


3 fond memories:
- preparations for IIT entrance! (it was Gupta Tutorials, 2000-01, nearly killed us, but was worth it - the teachers, frnds, hardwork, IIT itself!)
- 1st year in college (i know, i know this one counts for everyone)
- THAT first kiss :> (no comments ;) )


3 jobs I'd love to have:
(un)fortunately I am not the so-called career oriented guy, as I like to put it 'an unambitious slog':| So the jobs I crave for are average ones only. I sincerely believe money corrupts + I would never do a job that holds me away from my family after 7-8 pm! There are bigger joys in smaller things, than just slogging :|
- be a technical lead in some small startup IT company :)
- be a technical writer, writing in IT field.
- to be a registered doctor (and to quote Pri, "sigh! everyone can dream cant they ??:-/")


3 things I love to do:
how ridiculous to give only 3 options for things that any person would love to do!!! So I think I'll put generic stuff here instead of any particular activities.

- Talk with & listen to frnds, at a personal level.
- Live. well everyone loves to be alive :P but what I mean is more or less summed up in these lines from the movie Demolition Man - "I like to think; I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder - "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green jello all over my body reading playboy magazine."
(mind you, I don't run naked anywhere, haven't ever read playboy (there is better p0rn literature to read!), and don't eat non-veg but I hope you get the gist, from these lines, of what is meant by 'living'!)


3 of my fav foods:
again what a limited choice of options for a person who lives to eat ;-)
- ALL vegetables, when cooked by mum! (i know its weird, but somehow all vegetables are my fav. even be it the kadwa karela)
- self-plucked fruits! (sigh! such fantasies rarely materialize!)
- Continental and Chinese food at typical restaurants in the city, though always experimenting:D (I don't drink colddrinks, tea; don't like pizzas, always cut down on bread, hate fried stuff and mostly desist fast food!. . . phew i know to some ppl I am boring :-" )


3 places I would like to be right now:
- Delhi, for obvious reasons ;)
- New York! there are other personal reasons too!
- any green mountain ranges - partly lost and mostly trekking!


3 things which make me cry:
shit! why was this question here?
- senti dad-son scenes in movies :|
- the way tunnel-visioned parents still smother their children :|
- some songs which are of significance in my personal life (I'm compiling them into an album!)



Phew so many thoughts ..... I think I am gonna fall out and get some fresh morning breeze! Its 7am and I am getting all senti about being myself, since last 2 hours!
And the tag goes out to anyone who wants to take it up :-) I'd love to read everything anyone might have to say.

Current Music: Switchfoot! I'm Learning To Breathe, I'm learning to crawl ...

A Farcical

- "IITian nahi to kam se kam engineer to honi hi chahiye."

- "dekhne mein sundar to ho; figure to thoda accha ho. koi dekhe to tareef to kare ki kitni acchi dikhti hai ladki."

- "Business families mein koi padhai-likhai par dhayaan to deta nahi hai.. unke bacche bhi sab aise hi bewakoof hote hai."

- "dilli, bumbai ki ladkiya sab aisi hi hoti hai.. kal kisi aur ke saath, aaj tere saath, parso kisi aur ke saath hogi. hum rooz dekhte hai ladkiyon ko yaha par, kaise aage peeche ghoomti rehti hai ladko ko phasane ke liye; aur ladke bewakoof hote hai, kuch smajhte nahi hai."

- "B.Com bhi koi degree hoti hai kya?.. aur ghar baithe to koi gadha bhi MBA kar leta hai. in sab degrees ki koi value nahi hoti."

- "obesity ke karan old age mein kitni bimariya hoti hai tumhe pata nahi hai.. high cholesterol, heart problems, high blood pressure, etc... puri life bus bimariyon ka illaj hi karwate rehna, tab pata chalega."

- "obesity aur yeh sab health problems future generations ko bhi pass over ho sakti hai!"

- "ho sakta hai apne baare mein sab jhoot bol rahi ho... tujhe kya pata woh wahi hai jo bol rahi hai... accha khasa bewakoof IITian ladka mil gaya to koi ladki chodti hai kya?"

- "ho bhi sakta hai woh aur uske parents, sab mil kar yeh plot kar rahe ho... making you believe all that so that you develop sympathy for her.. unhe to accha bhadiya IITian ladka mil raha hai."

- "looks, money, degree yeh sab bhi matter karta hai. pyar-vyar kuch nahi hota. saath rehne lag jao to kuch time mein kutte se bhi pyar ho jaata hai."

- "hum bhi is age se gujar chuke hai. tujhse zyada humne duniya dekhi hai. thode time baad sab bhool jaate hai. yeh sab timepass hota hai. koi kisi ko yaad nahi rakhta."

- "we always trusted in you soo much. this is such a breach of our faith in you."

- "log kya kahenge!"


Current Mood & Music: Read here.