Random Article

..apart from the concept, presentation and the wealth of knowledge, the random article link on wikipedia really fascinates me into clicking it and sifting through random articles, at times mindlessly and often times mindfully. One of the random articles that i stumbled on to was about "The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy" and in the alumini section the name Sashi Tharoor caught my eyes for its obvious Indian connection and potential Mallu connection. What really made me write this snippet is one of his quotes, which resonated with my opinion about India and i am sure with several of yours opinion, yet at the same time some thing that i had never been able express so succintly and the quote presented me with another humilty clad mastercard moment.

The quote read "India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay".

I believe that is a pretty nifty way to talk about India and her 2500+ years of culture and history. And talking about history here is a picture of something with reference from epic period, palk straits.

Salaam Namaste!

Betty Lou got a new pair of shoes..

..early morning : Sunday, i made a dash to organic aisles of the near by grocery store, Giant Eagle. Half awake, my mind still sleeping and eyes openly closed or closely opened. I still managed to pick up the products i wanted, mostly because they were placed on familiar aisles, on familiar location and i went around picking milk and egg and OJ, bananas and bread and then a short a detour to a non-organic aisle to pick cereals ( I am yet to find an oraganic cereal which i consider eatable or food, and the primary aspects of food for me being the looks, the way it smells and most importantly how it tastes and hence the detour. For what ever it is worth, It had been my food affairs policy to never compromise on these aspects of food), all while sleep walking, mind still sleeping and eyes openly closed or closely opened. Finishing up the dash in 42 seconds, i was at the self service checkin counter scanning the organics and the non-organic, first there was scan and then there was the scanner beep and then the low revving up sound of the short conveyer belt, upon which the organics and the non-organic took the short ride to the bagging area. I am not sure if i really fell asleep scanning. But what woke me up was the scanning machine's scornful chick voice, which commanded " MOVE YOUR BANANAS TO.. THE BELT". Now awake, unpleasantly, my reaction to the song, in nasal tenor voice, streaming out of the Giant Eagle music system was disdainful at best and i was willing to run out of the store to avoid the "Giant Eagle music torture", it made me wonder if the song was specifically composed to make the slow or sleeping scanners, like yours truly, scan quicker and run out as fast as they could, increasing the scanning efficiency. The song went like "Betty Lou got a new pair of shoes..". My scanning efficiency theory met with a premature death when i found my self by the bagging area packing the organics and the non-organic, while frantically jamming to the same song, which a few seconds earlier i thought was a torture.

Back home, i decided to take a drive down information highway in my favourite vehicle of choice, Google! "Betty Lou got a new pair of shoes.." is a song by hall of famer Neil Young. one thing led to other, ..to the song called ohio, written by Young, about Kent State Massacre , ..to one of the lead up events to it, My Lai Massacre. ..to John paul Filo, a photo journalism student at that time in Kent state, and his pulitzer winning picture. Pretty heavy stuff for a lazy sunday morning!

Was Kent State Massacre amoung the defining/strengthening moment for American democracy, triggering debates, refining ideas and moulding thoughts. Ideas abouts freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of press, ideas about rights, ideas about wrongs, ideas about do's and ideas about don'ts and the very value of human life itself? What did "Tiananmen square shooting" do to chinese system? If it did something, Is there a pattern in emerging economic powers? If yes, India, as they say being 40 years behind US and 15-20 years behind China, going to witness something similar? Without sounding too dilusional i would like to mention Rang De Basanti, a movie on similar lines.


..Betty Lou ah-whoo, ah-whoo, ah-whoo..

Can asking questions change the world?

dropping knowledge is an international effort to promote the practice of asking questions. Why questions? Because of their power to challenge fundamentalism and hopelessness and accelerate action-driven solutions. An independent, web-based platform for multiple viewpoints, dropping knowledge produces daily question ads, films, a magazine called Questions and the Table of Free Voices event, all of which invite your participation. So, what’s your question?

Brain Static

Can you spell A Pretty Girl?

..and Rest O' the day to you

with green beer and greenday, greenspan and thoughts about rational exuberance, Thinking Green on St. Pattys.

..Rang' Barase'..

The united colours of Holi

One flu over Pillai's den

The stream will cease to flow

The wind will cease to blow

The clouds will cease to fleet

The heart will cease to beat

For all things must die.

That thought ran a chill down my spine on a not so chilly winter pre-dawn, and the first thing i did was to crawl out of my bed and unlock my apartment door making access easy incase if i had to call 9ii. I didn't want to die and especially didn't want to die of flu. Hell no. If i am to die of some diesease then might as well die of some exotic ones. ..Thermometer didn't really show the reading first time around. It helped when i turned it on and the 104F+ reading i saw, ran the second chill down my spine and it felt even colder despite 4 layers of clothes that i had on. 104 had stuck, wrongly, in my mind as the highest body temparature human could survive. i couldn't sleep, just couldn't sleep,i tried lying east facing and then west facing and then every direction there in between and beyond. Tried sleeping with my head on the floor and legs up the head rest. Cingular posture didn't help and neither did foetal position. The micromoments of only comforts were brought by google and long warm showershockless shower somewhere between 2:30 and 3:45 in the morning. It was comforting when i googled out 107 as the highest temparature human body could wither. That was extremely comforting, almost like extended warranty kicking in. 104F was no more the point were one shakes hands with death, Still true that all things must die, but not at 104F. some flu facts . See y'all at, head of the line for flu shots, come fall.

Cricket or What!

WHAT A MATCH!!

Try and read this and see if you can believe it!!

Team batting first - 434/4 in 50 overs
Team chasing - 438/9 in 49.5 ovrs

especially if the first team is the world champions.

If you are a cricket fan you would not want to miss it!

This is the match between Australia and SA today.

I did not watch Aus batting but South Africa batting was so extraordinary!

Everyone who watched it are calling Greatest game of cricket ever!

How come Australia is playing is all time great matches(and is always on the loosing side) first Ashes and now this!!

2006 : A Croissant Story

I was chilling in!?, literally i was freezing my ass off, in the back seat, when the voice said, Vinod, empty the brown paper bag and give it to me after transferring the chipotle fajita wraps into the polythene bag. I am going to give you a few croissants. You could have it for breakfast. "..emmh, croissants, i could wip couple eggs up and make a croissant sandwich and some OJ" that sounds like an exciting proposition.. (unlike masculine JlO in green). Sure! but just give me one, just one, i said in my indoor, post oscar voice. I heard the croissant case crack open, not exactly a hard crackling sound but kind of soft one, the kind that you hear when thin sheet of plastic is sheered off. Car picked up speed and so did the noise level, sinking with it, operation croissant transfer's noise. The brown bag from chipotle started moving towards me, at a speed, which i realized later, slower than that of sound. This could conclusively be proven from the fact that after the bag started its journey and before it could reach me, a Voice over took it and hit me first (The same voice which wanted me to empty the brown paper bag). "Voice" said, "here ya go, there is ONE croissant in the bag for you". I took the bag with one croissant in it and held it in my right hand and later got out of the car and waved "Voice" and Voice's husband goodbye,while holding 'the bag with one croissant' in my right hand. 'The bag with one croissant' started moving again, this time with me, at a speed slower than that of sound, proof of which i am choosing not to write to save the bored minds from further boredom. But the curious minds could obtain a copy of the proof by sending an email to me with subject "Subsonic Croissant".

In the morning i opened 'the bag with one croissant' only to find three in it. Three Croissants? Croissants have tripled overnight? Darn! Was it the bag that tripled the croissants or did the croissant triple itself? i know, i know this may not be as prodigious as the vessel that panchaali had, which could churn out any amount of food, variety of food, that too Indian! ..but i thought this was still quite something and started making quick mental calculations. .. If there was one croissant last night and if there are 3 this morning, How many will be there tomorrow? Will the number of croissant's increase in arithmetic progression or will it increase in geometric progression. If indeed it increases in geometric progression, which i hope it would, how much time before i could open a whole sale croissant shop and make Costco my retail seller? In time as the number of croissants increase and as demand picks up at what point should i consider getting listed in NasDaq? ..and at what point further in time should i flex muscles with DOW, dough might sound more appropriate in conjunction with croissants, but i really meant DOW. And as time passes and the numbers increase, to keep the demand up, should inter-galactic markets be pursued and if so, should a spin off be planned investing heavily in cleaner and efficient nuclear and alternative fuel making such missions cost effective?

One Croissant from a friend's place : 0.00
One Croissant from Panera : $
One dozen Croissant from Costco : $$
The joy of trash talking, Priceless!!!

Joy, trash talking and mastercard apart, Should the tripling of croissant be dismissed as a freakish coincidence? Or should i be saying

"Many Many Happy Returns of the Day"

V. I. C. T. O. R. Y

Victory, Victory, That's our cry!

367 runs, 90 overs, 10 wickets in hand. That looks to me like very attainable one day game score. Play with a one day mindset. Show hospitality. literally. Whack the hell out.

Athithi Devo Bhava!

Alright, this is nothing to do with Bush but with us Indians in general and Cricket in particular.

I was up all night watching Cricket (4th day of the ongoing India Vs England 1st test match). Dravid, Laxman, Sreesanth were all not out in 1st Inns. Collingwood was out the first ball he faced in 2nd Inns.

And the best of all came from our (Indian) Third Umpire giving Kevin Peterson not out of a straight forward catch off Kumble after watching 50 replays.

Talk about Indian hospitality.

But Dillibillies... when talking about hospitality, our very own Himanshu should be first in the line. Our welcome "Guests" from NC must have landed even while I am writing this.

"Athithi Devo Bhava" Indeed!!!

Still Looking for 'the Whole Nine Yards'

Archives from the morning edition segments of late John Ciardi, now being rebroadcast weekly on npr as "On Words with John Ciardi". John Ciardi was a poet, teacher and translator. Segments are available also for download as podcast. The current segment explores the origin of the idiom "The Whole Nine Yards" and its possible links to the concrete mixer trucks shown in the picture ( courtesy npr).

Exploration of "Kangaroo Court" and "Jimmies" in earlier episodes of "On words" were treats for ones literary/etymological appetite.

Few interesting quotes from John Ciardi..
1. Every game ever invented by mankind, is a way of making things hard for the fun of it!
2. A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in the students.
3. Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the
middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.

As John Ciardi says, Good words to you!

Well, Well, Mr. Black Will

Meet Robert D Blackwill, the will and wits behind the Indo-US Nuke deal ..towards a cleaner and efficient energy source.


Fossils of cold war could be seen by looking at the data from 60s and 70s
Little Boy and Fat Man from wiki. 

"Athithi Devo Bhava" !?

Quite heartening to read about Bush's visit to India, the Nuke Deal signed, his remarks about Indian hospitality and most importantly the strategic advantage, India has gained in the past decade to reach the point were we are at now. One of washington post's article titled "India : We have Arrived" is quite reflective of this, for a nation taking strong baby steps into progess and development at roughly 9% annual GDP growth, this visit and the nuclear pact was an ackowledgement from world's largest economy. I could only hope that the left parties, instead of moaning and groaning about unrealistic and unfounded issues, obsess about things that matters for the nation and the people, in long run.

Apart from my pro Democratic inclinations and jadedly negative views of Bush, i have to admit that he showed great leadership in unilateraly initiating the efforts for the Nuke deal sometime last year when Dr.Manmohan Singh visited US.

How can mention of Bush be complete without mention of Bushisms? :}. But a word of caution, Laughing out loud uncontrollably could be injurious to your job and hence health because of lack of insurance caused by job loss, especially if done at work place with a boss who would make Soup Nazi look like a liberal democrat. Advocating cautious laughing, here are the top 25 Bushisms.