C'mon Joey! If you wanna see the rainbow, you've got to put up with a little rain......


Dennis the Menace

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments,
by narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way,
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee,
into the ever widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.....


Rabindra Nath Tagore

“Don't get too comfortable with who you are at any given time - you may miss the opportunity to become who you want to be.”

John Francis Bongiovi ( Jon Bon Jovi)

"See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out...."

It 's a beautiful day....

Bono,U2

"I ain't got a fever got a permanent disease
It'll take more than a doctor to prescribe a remedy
I got lots of money but it isn't what I need
Gonna take more than a shot to get this poison out of me
I got all the symptoms count em 1,2,3..


Your love is like bad medicine
Bad medicine is what I need...."

JBJ

"My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said,
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive.....

It's my life!!!"

JBJ

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none......

Shakespeare, Macbeth

Love, Actually....

"Love is metaphysical gravity...."

R. Buckminster Fuller

Makes sense? Well dood, even Love doesn't!

I still remember my first one (Everyone does!). And it does make me smile at the sheer stupidity of the whole episode. I've had a couple of 'off' days so u now know what i have been upto. Anyways the blogger guyz are stuck with my blog, I was stuck for topics, and now you are stuck up with me.

For some reason most people are at loss to define it. Amazing isnt it? Considering everybody experiences it at some point of life. It's a vain excercise I say, defining it or rationalising love is akin to getting the real deal about Santa Clause, or Tooth fairies. Sometimes you wonder, are you better off now ? Well not knowing had its own charms and aptly did somebody say "Ignorence is bliss".

I had a friend once. He used to stand near our college parking grounds 4 hours a day just to catch a glimpse of the girl he liked. All this trouble, when she had flatly refused his advances and mercy pleas for friendship. Another one made 400 odd calls just to find out the girl's number. All he knew was her last name was Kulkarni and at that time there were at least 1000 of them in Kothrud, Pune. I can go on and on. I was always the wise one, keeping my distance and lost in my books and sports. All around me people crashed, burned and fell in love at an rate that would beat intern entries in Clinton's black book. Till I could of course!

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it (as Saurabh would exclaim!)? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like glance at you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Those who are lucky on their first time , well thats where you get incredible movie scripts from!

They say time is the best healer. Ultimately everything fades out. The vivid images become blurred photographs. The voices get lost in the din of everyday's hustle bustle. And one fine morning you wonder what the hell was all that fuss about! And you chastise yourself for all the dumb words, drab letters and the long hours you wasted. In short you get wise, or so you think.

Its a bit interesting to know origins of this. Lets now see what the "Know it all's" or philosophers(and those who died penniless!) throughout the history had to say about it.

As early as 4th century BC the Greek philosopher Empedocles argued for the existence of two forces, love (philia) and strife (neikos), which were used to account for the causes of motion in the universe. These two forces were said to intermingle with the classical elements, i.e., earth, water, air, and fire, in such a manner that love served as the binding power linking the various parts of existence harmoniously together (Gulp! Wow). I am sure he wrote this crap after his 10th beer. By the way he was a Pupil of Pythagoras. While Prof. Pythagoras did his math our studius student sat day dreaming about love. Bet my last buck he made 'Z's in his report card.

Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including dopamine (notice the word dope!), norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side-effects such as an increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and leads to a feeling of excitement. Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years. I say, shoot dart guns full of squishy stuff at your 'love interests' for good results.

All said and done, what matters at the end of the day is whether the dood makes away with the gal. I am not sure about what the fairer sex has to say about it, but I am damn sure that they do not have a clue too. So, dream on! wait for your perfect one("Prince Charming" for females, in case of guys, well do they have a choice?). Live your life. Enjoy it to max. My personal view is that there's nothing such as ideal match. Its only a matter of time before you stumble into someone whom you can tolerate and vice versa without losing your mind. Amen!

"I remember bein' a little boy in the backseat - nine years old
Always askin' questions - never did what I was told
And then I get to thinkin' like I always do
We wander 'round in the darkness but every now and then
A little light shines through...."

BA

"And now the times are changin
Look at everything thats come and gone
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
I think about ya, wonder what went wrong..

Those were the best days of my life
Back in the summer of 69...."

Bryan Adams

"Dim and wonderful is the vision I have conjured up in my mind of life spreading slowly from this little seed bed of the solar system throughout the inanimate vastness of sidereal space...."

H.G. Wells, in The War of the Worlds

"Is it not worthy of tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one...."

Alexander the Great

When asked why he wept on hearing there was an infinite number of worlds, from 'On the Tranquillity of the Mind', by Plutarch

When Laplace was asked by Napoleon, how God fitted into this system, he replied, 'Sire, I have not needed that hypothesis.' I don't think that Laplace was claiming that God didn't exist. It is just that He doesn't intervene, to break the laws of Science. That must be the position of every scientist. A scientific law, is not a scientific law, if it only holds when some supernatural being, decides to let things run, and not intervene.

Stephen Hawkings, in "Does God play Dice?"

Dust to dust...
Ashes to ashes...
Its time for the Phoenix to burn again


and be reborn again from it's golden flames....

“I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb.”


Richard P. Feynman

“Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?”


Richard P. Feynman

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted,
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world....

Hans Margolius

"I don't look good in no Armani Suits
No Gucci shoes - or designer boots
I've tried the latest lines from A to Z
But there's just one thing that looks good on me

The only thing I want....
The only thing I need.....
The only thing I choose....


The only thing that looks good on me...

is YOU.."


Bryan Adams

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream...”

Vincent van Gogh

A Soirée of Different Sort....

Isn’t this a beautiful night?

Isn’t the shimmer of stars above, a lovely sight?

Swaying gently, the trees in avenues offer us their bows

There's some hint, the way the northern wind blows

And I see in your eyes that you feel it too

For tonite we fly to the magical land of Timbaktoo!

No bewitched brooms, no loopy saucers, no clumsy magical kite

For we have Aladdin’s carpet, to soar high into the black nite

Put on your best dress honey, stir up some heady brew

There is wind tugging at our sails, we are the only crew

My motors are running, you'd better hold on tight too

Coz tonite we are zooming to the land of Timbaktoo

Climb on, kick off your shoes, and let’s zoom through the streets

Away from the smoky cauldrons of city, away from the daily beats

We fly through the wispy clouds, across the big bad moon.

We pick a few stars on our way, hearing the nightingale croon

Watching the shooting stars pass by, so far away and so few

Yeah honey, we are on our way to the land of Timbaktoo

We pass the sphinxes and the stone henge lying in our way

Feel the wind in our hair, and see the date palms sway

We'll cross oceans where at dusk fall the mermaids play

Float paper boats, skimming the waves we'll feel the spray

Toward the land of thousand northern lights, we continue

As we inch nearer to the magical land of Timbaktoo

A sky full of moons, like a strange distant dream,

Cuddled between smoky mountains, alongside a idyllic stream

Lies the land of Timbaktoo, with a beach of pure gold

A land of two suns and fields full of daffodils, I am told

Alas we leave at dawn, drowsy, content and eyes sore

Only to return another night and a million times more!

Ask a philosopher "What is philosophy?" or a historian "What is history?" and they will have no difficulty in giving an answer. Neither of them, in fact, can pursue his own discipline without knowing what he is searching for. But ask a mathematician "What is mathematics?" and he may justifiably reply that he does not know the answer but this does not stop him from doing mathematics.

François Lasserre, 'Pi in the sky' - John D Barrow

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none....

William Shakespeare, in Macbeth

This ain't a song for the broken-hearted....
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd ,
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud .....

It's my life ......


Jon Bon Jovi

"A bad boss is a disease of the soul....."

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE corp

"Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost..."

Martina Navratilova, American Tennis Player

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

Albert Einstein

" बुरा जो देखन मैं चला ;
बुरा ना मीलेया कोई .
जो मन देखा आपना ;
तो मुझसे बुरा ना कोई ...."

संत कबीर

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

Albert Einstein

Its a hot night, the natives are restless
we were sweating by the light of the moon
Theres a voodoo mojo brewing at the go-go
That could knock a witch off her broom!

One Wild night........

Jon Bon Jovi

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed....."

Albert Einstein

Asia Awakens.....

Money makes the world go round...but what makes money go round? In theory, it has to be limited in supply so that it mirrors the supplies of goods and services that it is used to buy. Historically, gold was used to insure that the supply of ‘money’ did not outstrip the supplies of goods and services. But since 1971, gold has been out of the system. People only have their faith that the people who control paper will control it well. Yet, history also shows that they never do. The temptation to create too much ‘money’ has always been irresistible...which leads to a trend; paper money loses its value. Since the quantity of “money” is now increasing so rapidly, we expect this trend to accelerate. This is not to say there couldn’t be a period of deflation...in which currency actually gains value, for a time. But a deflationary period would probably only increase pressure on the financial authorities to increase the supply of currency. We would be surprised to see this experimental system survive for another 20 years.

Economic power is shifting from West to East. Just look at the Forbes list of billionaires...just read the papers...just look at where your cars and gadgets were made. Most of the economies of Asia are growing two to three times faster than those of the United States.

Coming to India, supposedly the land of snake charmers. One thing that would surprise you more if you dare peek closer is the Indian labor market.
“Yes...there are more than a billion people in India...” said Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach, “but just go and try to find someone. The labor market is very tight. People who have been to business school - if they’ve been to a good one - can get a job anywhere. Not just in India, but almost anywhere in the world. So they’re salaries are up at world levels. If you want someone to sweep your driveway...yes, that will be very cheap. But if you want someone to do the kind of work we do...well, you will pay almost as much as you would in America. Salaries are rising fast.”

This from Associated Press:
“An annual survey by Hewitt Associates revealed that Indian salaries are likely to rise an average 14.5 percent in 2007, with banks and financial services companies offering the biggest hikes.
“The Philippines is expected to come a distant second with salary increases averaging 8.3 percent, and in China, salaries are likely to rise 8.1 percent, the survey showed.

“While pay hikes are expected to moderate in most Asian countries during 2007, India will see an acceleration from last year’s average increase of 14 percent.

“‘The war for talent is becoming increasingly fierce in India,’ said Sharad Vishvanath, a Hewitt executive involved with the survey. ‘As a result, compensation plays an increasingly fundamental role in attracting talent and ensuring ongoing employee engagement.’

“Indian paychecks are expected to eventually reach the same levels as developed Asian economies like JapanSingapore, said the survey which looked at 1,500 Asian companies of which 580 are in India.”

Why should this trend come to an end? Why, in a globalized world, should a man’s labor in Chennai be worth less than a man’s labor in Detroit? Is the man in Detroit smarter? There is no reason to think so. Has he better tools? More information? More capital? Maybe in the past he did. But now no country has a locked-in advantage. That and shipping containers...and trade agreements...and low-cost air travel...and the rise of English as a world trade language.

Not that this trend is unlikely to continue. Asia is probably going to get rich. China already has the biggest single pile of money put together since Midas himself - more than $1 trillion. Naturally, as the Asians get rich, it is going to push the other trends along - they’re going to use vastly more energy. And they’re going to want to eat more meat...and drive more cars on more highways...

...and they’re probably also going to want to throw their weight around militarily. Nations mind their own business until they are big enough to begin minding other peoples’ business. Eventually, the Asians will begin spending their money on weapons...and start to flex their muscles. A prudent advice to U.S. leaders: Be nice to the Asians.

We meditate on the beauty of the God of light...
May it stimulate our thoughts.
Touched by the rays of the quivering moon,
the stars are shining with happiness;
Behold the crimson-hued dusk
leaving the sky by itself.........

Gayatri Mantra

" Bura jo dekhen main chala;
bura na mileya koi.
Jo man dekha aapna;
To mujh se bura na koi...."

Kabir

"....my whole world came tumbling down;
all I did was fool around"

Bryan Adams

"Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”

Stephen Hawkings

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

Stephen Hawkings

Kommunist Kiddos

"Are you sure?” I asked.
"Yup, I am sure. My brother got admitted into an engineering college last year. I am an ST dumbo!” Sango replied.
"And what's does ST stand for?” I asked with the heavy and unprejudiced innocence of a nine year old.

“I dunno, but I am pretty sure it works.” He replied.

The conversion was interrupted all of a sudden appearance of a harsh woman whom I shall address as Mrs. P. We reluctantly left the comforts of the mango tree we were sitting on, and wisely ran for our life as she charged with a howling war cry with a broom in her hand. Also the way she held it suggested that she was quite accomplished in its usage for other ‘lines of work’. We were contemplating our future, our friendship consolidated by the comforting thought that we both were involved in theft of mangoes before Mrs. P decided for a grand stage entry. That only Mrs. P shall be privy to the delights of the mango tree didn’t go too well with our communist line of thinking. The mangoes were particularly juicy (they always seem to be tastier when acquired by communist means) in this part of J’nagar.

We were wondering about our future, as far as we could visualize at least. Kids always wonder a lot, before they actually grow up and lose their minds. We were long time chums, as far as you could count. Sango always had trouble counting past his fingers. And I never had to because I knew where my Dad hid his calculator. Even my math teacher was baffled by the sudden streak of brilliance in my assignments. I tried to draw parallels with Einstein’s life but he refused to buy that.

Among other things we were wondering how long we would be able to sustain our communist struggle. Sango reckoned it would a maximum up to 12^th standard after which everybody went to some sort of college. Or if he managed to get a girlfriend it would be much shorter, as then he would be reformed. Sango’s mom always told him that she had reformed his father, which would explain his line of thinking. Knowing Sango I knew the latter event was pretty unlikely. What kind of a girl in her right mind would like to go out with a guy with couple of front teeth missing and shorts a size too large for him. As far as I can remember he has been pulling his shorts around. Imagine him doing something romantic like dancing with his girlfriend (at that age girls are disgusting!) a la Shammi Kapoor style and finding his shorts slip off to the general amusement of all. You cannot dance with one hand securely on your shorts, or at least Shammi never did.

Anyway at that juncture it stuck us that mango trees are not such a rarity, and we may continue our revolution against dimwit and selfish women like Mrs. P elsewhere. However how could we ensure that we end up in the same college? Also I was better academically than Sango (who was not as naïve to believe in everything that was dished out to us in the pretext of education). Sango noted with primness that he would be able to make it to any college that I could just because he was ST.

I was disturbed. How could Sango enjoy privileges like that? I decided to ask my father about that. He was pretty philosophical about the whole stuff. He said we wronged people like Sango long ago. So now we are getting it back. Then he explained something about social strata, which honestly I didn’t understand despite my intellectual powers. I fancied that Einstein was like me, pretty dumb in studies, till he discovered his Dad’s calculator. Only it took him 20 odd years to discover it.

But then adults always lie. I was a bit wary since Dad had a tendency to lie when confronted with controversial topics like death, babies etc. It was some time before I found my own results based on independent research, studies and some sleuthing work.

Where do babies come from? Don't bother asking adults. They lie like pigs. However, diligent independent research and hours of playground consultation, times spent in scout camp with seniors have yielded fruitful, if tentative, results. There are several theories. Near as we could figure out, it has something to do with acting ridiculously in the dark. This is called "making love". Careful study of popular song lyrics, advertising catch-lines, TV sitcoms, movies, and T-Shirt inscriptions offers us significant clues as to its nature. Apparently it makes grown-ups insipid and insane. Some graffiti was once observed that said "sex is good". All available evidence, however, points to the contrary.

As the years flew by, as I grew dumber I began to understand terms like “Quotas” and “ST”. These were the barriers, which prevented you from getting admission in a college or branch of your choice. Same thing applied for jobs. That’s when I realized that they are different, or to precisely put in words they are “lower castes”. I wonder sometimes how many people would really care or carry hatred and discrimination against ‘Lower Castes’ in today’s Cosmopolitan world if they were not taught the meaning of these terms the hard way.

Social barriers have and would exist in future. Its origin lies in the basic human urge to prove that I am different than others. These barriers only change their forms across different cultures, some take form as social status, power or as in our case birth based. The only way is to accept and recognize this basic human folly and fight against it. You cannot change everybody’s heart after all. As we make our global presence felt and move toward a new era of prosperity, we are still bogged down with this baggage from our dark past. It is not to say that we are the only ones with skeletons in our cupboard, history is replete with incidents of barbaric acts for every civilization. Dark ages, racial discrimination, slavery and wiping out entire civilizations in the name of discovering new lands are some examples. But they have moved forward but sadly we pay our penances and retributions. Instead of looking forward we look in our pasts and repent.

As for Sango, he never did engineering. I mentioned before he did not believe in all the stuff that was dished out in pretext of education. He joined a MNC and is making good money. I don’t believe his ST status helped him achieve that. Most importantly he remains a very good friend. Somebody I can call up and chat about our adventures in J’nagar.

As for mangoes, nowadays I buy them. They don’t even seem half as palatable compared to when you get them by communist means!

"if two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it"

Ernest Hemingway

All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.

Arthur C. Clarke

Life is only a outer layer, for reality is only realized by the insane....

Valleix Herard

How vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderably small is this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit consideration, and matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters of some pitiful corner of this small Spot...

- Christiaan Huygens, (1629 –1695), In Humanity

How much do I love that noble man
More than I could tell with words
I fear though he'll remain alone
With a holy halo of his own....

Albert Einstein

“Only 2 things are INFINITE, the Universe and Human Stupidity, and I am not sure about the former”.

Albert Einstein