New Blog!

I am back again after a long hiatus. Evidently laziness and procrastination aren't desirable traits for a blogger. I have briefly overcome these two evils to start a new blog. Do check it out. Hopefully I can vanquish my afore mentioned foes and post more regularly!

Indian of the year

At the cnn ibn 'Indian of the year' awards ceremony, Pornob Mukherjee, all in one minister, on being questioned about his status now that he was discharging the PM'S duties stated that "Simply I am discharging duties, neither I am officiating nor acting, neither de-jure nor de-facto".(translated into english from bonglish).Of course he is spot on. After all we already have a defacto PM in Sonia Gandhi, so there is no need for another one!In a related development Pornob was recently voted 'Bong of the year' for spreading 'Bonglish' bhithout any hesitaeshun on nashunal telebhishion! Rumor has it that very soon LTTE supremo Prabhakaran will be declared the 'Tamilian of the year'.

Coming back to our topic, Madhavan nair and his team were adjudged the 'Indian(s) of the year' for the success of chandrayaan. In my opinion the award should have gone to the worthy and deserving Ramalinga Raju. However there was some consolation as he was adjudged the best chef in the country for his unique skill of cooking up books!

Aamir was adjudged the best entertainer of the year. Although I feel Arnab(not to be confused with Pornab) Goswami deserved it a tad bit more. With great skill he has made a travesty of serious journalism, and to his credit, made it appear hilarious too.

Abhinav Bindra was adjudged the best sportsman of the year, although I believe that title should go to Pakistan Foriegn Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, for being such a good sport. But wait, he's not even Indian? Right? Perhaps but the fact of the matter is that we have no evidence to the contrary.Even if we do have evidence it is not credible evidence. Even if it may be credible, it certainly isn't actionable evidence. Nor is it tangible evidence. Basically whatever evidence we have is incomplete. It is not admissable in a court of law. Get the point??

That's about it for now, but I shall post updates about other prestigious awards like these. Anyway this is my first post of the new year! Alas, it hasn't been as rewarding, but there is always time to turn things around. Things are turning round rather. Saarang was good, and winning was special. Results were not so great, but then again it's Anna university: God may not play dice with the universe but the university certainly does so with our results!College has been boring as usual. Now that we have a welcome break from the monotony of college, I gues there is light at the end of the tunnel. Then again one realizes life is full of tunnels, one reaches the light at the end of one tunnel only to be sucked in by the darkness at the opening of another!

On sems, dawood and the kindergarten cop

I am FINALLY done with my exams. To think our pracs began in the middle of october! Another visit to hell an back . . .sigh.

Moving on to more important things, I was really bored yesterday and ended up watching the debate on terrorism in our parliament in one of the news channels. It had the desired effect and I took a nap shortly thereafter.

However I was impressed by Somnath Chatterjee's conduct as speaker. In fact I have decided to honor him with the title of "The best kindergarten teacher". Being the speaker of the Lok Sabha is a lot like being in charge of a Pre KG class.(No offense meant kids!!). It's almost impossible to get kids to do what you want them to do, and they keep jumping about or interrupting the class.

Well guess what? The kids fare a lot better than the chaps in our parliament. Most of the morons kept interrupting the proceedings of the house, talking without being given permission to talk, refusing to sit down even after repeated requests by the speaker and generally behaving in a manner unbecoming of a sane person with an average IQ, much less the representatives of a nation's citizens. It reminds me of what Churchill said on the eve of Independence,"Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. " Prophetic words indeed!

The speaker had to resort to various methods, ranging from gentle chides to stern rebukes to ensure the proceedings of the house weren't disrupted. Unfortunately/fortunately all this was captured on live television! Any foreigner who watched the telecast would have come to the conclusion that Indian democracy is a joke.

Talking about democracy being a joke reminds me of Pakistan, that haven for islamic fundamentalists, narco mafia members led by dawood ibrahim, random suicide bombers and other such NON STATE ACTORS. The ISI help these non state actors with/without the government's knowledge. LOL. GOVERNMENT? IN PAKISTAN? Yenna kodumai sir idhu!

It is basically a militant state. I am not instigating the random people who read my blog to unleash a war Pakistan. I have a better solution. Send a contingent of our MP'S to Pakistan and tell the Pakistani authorities sternly that we shall not take them back unless they dismantle the terror setup and hand over the wanted terrorist chaps to India.

If the non state actors kill these MP'S, send in another contingent. And another. If we run out of MP'S send the MLA'S. Soon enough the non state actors will realize killing Indian politicians is just a waste of ammo and their time and energy. Plus they are inadvertently doing a service to India. And when they realize this they will blow themselves up along with the last contingent of Indian politicians. Thus a golden era of peace and prosperity in the subcontinent will be ushered in.

PS: I am an occasional Gandhian and once in awhile I firmly believe in stuff like" violence is not a solution to any problem". Evidently this wasn't one of those times :)

Terror strikes yet again

It's a pity that we were unable to prevent what happened last week in Bombay. It is futile to blame are politicians because we knew all along that they were inept and incompetent. As individual citizens there isn't much that we could have done . . . .but collectively, as a nation could we have made a difference??

Anyway there is no use crying over spilt milk. What irritates me the most are the armchair critics who question why the operation took so long or whether the crisis was handled as well as it would have been by, say, the American security agencies. The fact of the matter is that if it weren't for the hostages, the situation could have been resolved in a few hours.(For eg a viable option would have been playing himesh reshamiyya's music non stop over the intercom. Unfortunately that would have killed not only the terrorists but the hostages as well!!). On a more serious note, in the given circumstances, the security forces did the best they could have done and let's leave it at that.

I will not demean my blog's status by commenting on politicians, their resignations or their opinions on places dogs would like to visit. Nor will I demean the brave men who made the supreme sacrifice for their country, for anything that I write about their valor and courage will only be an understatement. For those of you wondering why our terrorists buddies didn't target any politicians, the reason is simple: They are here to destroy our country, not aid in it's development!

ps: This is my 50th post! It's taken awhile but I guess better late than never. When I started out I made a promise to dole out unadulterated gibberish, with a dash of humor and the odd witty remark added in for good measure. If my posts bear any semblance of intellectualism, it is purely unintentional!I have exceeded all my expectations as far as the gibberish is concerned, but regarding the humor and wit I reserve my judgment. Anyway, all of you who have had the misfortune of coming across my blog have my sympathies.
Do visit again though :)
Adios!

The benevolent rain gods

Heavy rains coupled with the possibility of a cyclone crossing the tamil nadu coast forced Anna University to postpone the semester exams that were to be conducted today. Which means I shall be writing my DE paper only on the 17th of december! So it's holiday time now!!!
Unfortunately this also means that I will not be "done with my exams" until the 17th. These exams have been stretching on far too long, and the past one and a half months have been grueling and torturous. By a special corollary of the theory of relativity(gerimox variation),"Let t be an arbitrarily defined quantity of time. As the period of semester examination approaches,t becomes larger and larger until for all practical purposes it can be approximated as tending to infinity. In other words time comes to a standstill."
Sigh. Such is university education.
Anyway now that holidays are here exams are but a distant memory. For now. . . .

TROUBLED TIMES

"A boy of class 3 used to always bring chicken rolls in his tiffin. He was very plump and always bragged about how his mom made the best chicken rolls. Yesterday morning, his mom was shopping in Pan Bazaar. It was a spot death. This afternoon, his maternal uncle and other relatives came to get the boy, saying they had come to pay his school fees so he might as well just come home with them. The boy had been playing games outside and happily went with them. He didn't know until he got home."-excerpt from an article on the recent Assam blasts.
As I read through the article, with a lump in my throat, an old saying flashed through my mind:"One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic". Unfortunately it is not too far from the truth. When we read about bomb blasts or other such unfortunate events in the papers, or watch it on the news, we seldom grasp the significance of what has actually transpired. We often fail to realize the true impact these events have on the lives of the victims. I am not suggesting that we are heartless and lack empathy, I am merely saying that we are often misled by statistics, and fail to grasp the enormity of the tragedy. In fact when I first read about the Assam blasts, although I felt sad, I wasn't really taken aback or surprised. Unfortunately bomb blast have become common in India in the recent past and in this year alone there have been 10 fatal blasts. One can never tell where the next blasts will occur, for no city seems to be safe. In these troubled times it is not a question of where but when the next bomb blasts will occur. But in the midst of all this uncertainty and insecurity, human suffering often goes unnoticed. How often, if ever, do we think about the real consequences such events can have on the victims? How many of us spare a thought for all those children who have been orphaned, the parents who have lost their children,and all those people who have lost their spouses, siblings, friends or close relatives? Most of us(I include myself) just accept the hard reality and move on, without spending too much time thinking about it. We may be accused of a callous ineptitude, for at the end of the day we merely dismiss the matter as just another statistic. These are troubled times we live in. The fact of the matter is that our nation is burning. Thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, many more have been scarred for life, physically, mentally and emotionally. The least we can do is to spare a thought for them, empathize with them and express our solidarity by helping them overcome their tribulations.JAI HIND!

Vedanta and it's relevance in modern times

Vedanta can be broadly described as an ancient system of philosophy based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. It is composed of two words, 'Veda' (Sanskrit for knowledge) and 'Anta'(Sanskrit for end). Thus, Vedanta can be literally translated as "the end of knowledge" or the "goal of knowledge". The knowledge referred to is not merely the intellectual or material knowledge that we are accustomed to. On the contrary it refers to the highest knowledge, the knowledge about god and our self(or soul). The great German indologist Max Muller once said,"The Upanishads are the ... sources of ... the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems to me to have reached its very acme."Before we undertake a detailed study of the Vedanta, it is imperative that we realize why the study of Vedanta is still relevant in modern times.

The main priority in life, for most if not all people, is the pursuit of happiness. All of us want to be happy, satisfied and content. All our thoughts and actions are,directly or indirectly, centered on achieving this goal. And therein lies Vedanta's greatest strength. A sincere study of the Vedanta enables a seeker to attain an elevated state of happiness and contentment. A study of Vedanta is not limited to people who aim to attain enlightenment, nirvana and other such lofty goals. Vedanta is also relevant to ordinary people who have more modest goals, namely an increased level of happiness and a greater sense of contentment and satisfaction. Essentially, it will make you a better person. As a great Indian philosopher once said," A study of Vedanta will make a doctor a better doctor, an engineer a better engineer and YOU a better YOU". Thus on this auspicious day of Diwali, the festival of lights which symbolizes the victory of good over evil, let us undertake a sincere study of Vedanta, and may the light of knowledge dispel the darkness of ignorance and enable us to become better human beings!