For 4 consecutive days by 4 different bloggers, my website got awarded an “Award” each, which is really cool! The last time I remember getting awards was back in 2001-02 when I had a static website and there was no trace of blogs or other interactive web elements we see today (oh I almost sound like a grandfather.)

So a big jar of honey to my following blogmates: Gopinath (Butterfly award), Mavin (Proximity award), Odzer (Butterfly award) and Kiran (Friendship bracelet.)

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I am so lazy these days! In other funny story, last night I had a fantastic dream in which I was working as a double agent in one of those terrorist groups. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and the leader of that group suspected that there was something strange going on in his group. I swore to sacrifice my life and destroy India and pledged my allegiance to the group’s cause. Then he sent me to fight a ‘big’ enemy and I was alone in that skirmish. I couldn’t understand who my opponent was but as the enemy came closer, I discovered that it was a giant mosquito. I pointed my weapon towards the monster sized mosquito and felt a very sharp pain on my leg.

Then I woke up and swatted (swot?) the mosquito who had just bitten my leg.

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Didyouknow didyouknow didyouknow? This is post # 250 on this blog!

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Finally, an unrelated image:

Toronto downtown from Gardiner Expressway on a cloudy day. In the center is the CN Tower.

A brief pause. A straight face. A meek reply:
“No, I don’t.” he said.

He walked away grudgingly to some mall, almost as if that question ruined his mood. It was the international week, or something like that. He was pleasantly surprised to see the entire alley decorated with flags of various countries.

As he saw all these flags, his heart started beating faster…

He hurriedly scanned each and every flag. He was walking with his eyes focused on the flags above, desperately trying to find something. It was almost like a navigator looking for the North star among a hundred other stars in the sky.

And then he found it.

His eyes sparkled as if he found a treasure. His face glowed with a smile as if he was meeting his loved one.

“There it is!” some million anonymous voices screamed.

He stood there stupefied and stared at the flag for like a minute, or maybe more, that’s not important. He gulped down the saliva that accumulated in his mouth. He closed his eyes before they got too wet. He took a deep breath, and walked away.

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Congratulations to everyone who celebrates freedom, culture and peace. Happy Indian Independence day, August fifteenth.

Plot: A buffalo calf was captured by lions, the crocodiles tried to steal the catch, and finally, the buffaloes manage to save their kid. This reminded me of the videos ‘ek chidiya, anek chidiya’ with theme ‘unity is strength’ that Doordarshan (Indian national TV) used to broadcast when I was a kid. Awesome

glumbert.com – [tag]Battle of the Species[/tag]

Scene 1: A herd of wild buffaloes is passing. The leader is walking ahead of the herd, with his nose up in the air
Scene 2: A bunch of lions are crouching a little distance ahead, preparing to attach the herd
Scene 3: The head of the buffaloes’ herd senses that something is wrong, but continues to move ahead anyway. He is accompanied by a calf
Scene 4: ATTACK! The lions attach. Buffaloes turn back and run. The little calf cannot catch up with the speed and is promptly captured by the lions
Scene 5: This capture happens on the bank of a river and the calf slips into the river.
Scene 6: As the lions try to drag the calf out of the water, a number of crocodiles attack and try to pull the calf into the water
Scene 7: The lions somehow manage to save the calf from the crocodiles.
Scene 8: A huge herd of buffaloes is seen approaching the lions
Scene 9: The buffaloes surround the lions. The lions are trapped between the water with crocodiles one one side and a huge herd of buffaloes with sharp horns on the other
Scene 10: The buffaloes attack the lions. One of them tosses a lion up in the air with his horns. (ouch)
Scene 11: The buffaloes attack the lions one by one and chase them away
Scene 12: The calf happily returns to the herd.

“Rick it out.”

Stumped? Let me explain. ‘Rick’ is a common urban condensed form of the word ‘Auto Rickshaw’, which by the way is the preferred and most popular mode of transport (‘taxi’) in India. In Mumbai, the super fast city especially, you may miss an appointment if you patiently speak the whole word ‘Rickshaw’. So you just say ‘Rick’ and zap to your destination. Of course the English speaking uptown crowd (whom we call ‘angrez’) might consider saying ‘Rickshaw’ a bit too Indian, hence may prefer saying ‘Rick’. Whatever is the reason!

When you call for a rick and hire it, you are ricking it out, i.e. taking an auto rickshaw on hire.

The other day:
Me: I have to go to XYZ, do you know which bus I can take?
Other person: Better rick it out rather than taking a bus

That’s all. I love the new phrase, but doubt if I’ll ever use it.

Joining the party from nowhere are other insects – snails, earthworms, frogs and so on. Frogs are quicker than the cocks (the ones that go cock-a-doodle-doo) and their screeching croaks start very early, most of the times disturbing my lovely dreams. I happened to go to the Bhagshala maidan for a pre-dawn stroll one day and from a long distance I could hear hundreds of frogs croaking distinctly, in unision. It was sortof scary! I hate frogs.

Ever since I was a little boy, I was always attracted to earthworms. I may not find puppies and cats ‘cute’ but I do think earthworms are (You should stop gauging me by conventional benchmarks). I remember grabbing them from everywhere – under big rocks, on old brick walls or simply while wriggling across – and collecting them. I saw the first earthworm of this season in mom’s garden and I was thrilled (so was he, i think!)

Speaking of mom’s plants, they will soon be vulnerable to attacks from the mighty snails determined to gulp down every bit of greenery. I don’t love or hate snails, but I find them rather funny, with huge shells on their backs and crawling at – should we say – ‘snail’s pace’. However, they eat a lot and shit a lot, which is messy.

Welcome little friends

To make up for changes in Earth’s rotation, scientists are adding a ‘leap second’ to atomic clocks worldwide, thus delaying the start of year 2006 by a second. The atomic clocks showing coordinated universal time, which coincides with winter time in London will read 23:59:60 before moving to 00:00:00.

Leap seconds are added to compensate for slowing down of earth’s rotational speed. First leap second was added in the year 1972.

For us in India, this correction would mean longer New Years’ day. I enjoy Sundays anyway.

It all started when I first read the works of Ayn Rand, a Russian girl who escaped from the strong fisted arrival of the communists and found solace in capitalist USA. Her works in objectivism and individualism are scathing attacks on communist thinking. The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) are masterpieces. What I liked more was her lighter work – We the Living (1936) which was a fiction close to her own story. It described the destruction of Russian society just before and post Red revolution.

Next I saw this video tape made by my friend on his (official) visit to Russia. Apparently India and Russia are (still) cooperating on a number of new technology research and development. Of course, since the Soviets collapsed, they can no longer afford to maintain their arsenals of weapons, so I guess they are sugar coating them and selling them off to (poor) countries like India (who are more than willing to buy. Yuck! What a sloppy defense policy we have, more about it later.).

Third, I came across this friend who ate Red, spoke Red and shit Red. He tried to brainwash me and convert me into a Communist. Unfortunately he was ill prepared. I was already a Socialist, and so it was me who ended up in brainwashing him later. Hah!

Fourth, I went to a book sale, and they were selling the (I should say this in bold) whole set of works of Leo Tolstoy (end bold) for dirt cheap price of Rs. 100. My eyes sparkled, and I also picked up Maxim Gorky. (No it wasn’t a combined offer). The books were too heavy, but I am still burning the midnight oil to finish them.

Fifth and this is the biggest reason to blame for – Russians themselves! I know my interest in girls is seasonal and viola! its Russia time now. I don’t remember what I watched – it could be American porn or maybe something on movie or TV. Russians are so rosy rosy, and their names sound so sexy.

Yeah this should go separately – for a long time I thought that Russian language contains only V, K, N, R, Y, Z. I like Indian names with those sounds, so do I like Russian names too – people, places, whatever. Their accent turns me on. There was this guy, who was in college for exchange, I didn’t know if he was a male or a female, because he was very girlish. He spoke funny but really I felt like kissing him. (Nah I’m just exaggerating, come on, don’t judge me. I am very comfortable with my sexuality)

Honestly, but I still wonder – what makes people live in freezing and inhospitable places like Siberia. Phew!

Caught between a sequence of events that seem hell bent upon culminating into the biggest ethical dilemma faced in my 24 year young life, I pray to my buddy, (known to others as ‘God’), “Oh Lord!, please pull me out of this, and I swear I’ll never ever wander close to it” (In fact I pledge to stay astronomical distances away). “Ah, double standards”, yells my mind back as I sway into the conventional mindset – remembering the Almighty when required and then being content keeping him away in his physical medium on grandma’s prayer desk when the work is done. How mean! Yea I know!.

Few lines I read from a website come to the rescue:

… the eternal and unchangeable soul which is inherently free from delusion, ignorance, impotence and sorrow. So explains the preceptor: “Control yourself – your thoughts, speech and body – and you shall effectively control the world. Drop the mental baggage you have been carrying around; drop the external self-identifications, attachments and desires; stop adding to your perception of the adversity in this world! Nothing can harm you, the eternal soul. Nothing outside of you, the soul, gives you happiness or takes it away. All joy and sorrow comes from you, from your deluded perceptions and worldly expectations, and not from that which is not you.”

…und so weiter (why do I even bother to read this crap stuff?).

Yah, if only that was a little easier to do, I’d be sporting a warm yellow halo behind my head like the Gods and wise men depicted in the mythological shows on TV.

For the past two weeks I’m either sitting with Aakruti (name of my computer) typing away those goddamn b-school essays in double spaced twelve point times font face while listening to my play list priy.sha.vad.one (arranged as: Priyank > Hindustani Shastriya > Vaadya Sangeet > Play list 1) or talking on the phone with B or R. Mom is frustrated worrying about two things (well three actually), one – my headphones blasting away my eardrums and two – excessive electromagnetic (or whatever) waves entering my feeble brain from my cell phone. (I suspect she is also suspicious about something )

I know, I need to go out into the open for more than just plucking flowers for Grandma’s morning puja.

Aargh…! Screw it. I feel like going to the moon with my laptop. Going away (don’t you dare say ‘escaping’) from this physical world to seek solace (?) in the unfathomable depths of the unexplored universe. Armed with a ‘Do not disturb’ sign.

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina… 18
inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th)…. 37.1

population of new orleans… 484,674
population of mumbai…. 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina…100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans… entire city
number of people evacuated in mumbai…10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans…Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans… 48 hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai…12 hours

status 48 hours later…new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
status 48 hours later…mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA…world’s most developed nation
India…third world country..

oopss…did i get the last fact wrong???

The basis of comparison is flawed. Hurricanes and Cloud Bursts do not compare.

Spirit of Mumbai is amazing though. No wonder.

Its the arrival of the rainy season, and “I’m loving it!”

What else does it mean? hmm…
- I have to go to station by AutoRik otherwise my clothes will be sprayed with muddy water splashed by passing vehicles
- I will have to wear gumboots and keep the formal shoes confined to office area
- I’ll have to carry a raincoat, then hang it properly making sure it gets dried, otherwise it stinks
- Go to the station everyday, and pray that the trains arrive on time
- Get into the crowded trains (which are usually overcrowded during rains, no idea why) and pray that they reach destination on time
… and many more things !

And at the same time,..
- Trek to Sahyadri, in the heart of nature almost every weekend
- Photography, I’m already excited.
- Sun covered by clouds and a pleasant climate overall
So in short, I love the rainy season.

bolo Varun dev ki.. jai!