I have these chat sessions when I get bored. I have a friend who gets bored as frequently as I do. The following is an excerpt from one such chat...
***************************************************************
Sasi [12:52 PM]:
now.. i'll also join ur sleeping time
Me [12:52 PM]:
:P
Sasi [12:53 PM]:
:)
Sasi [12:53 PM]:
i'll have a mountain dew
Me [12:53 PM]:
I dunno what to have
Sasi [12:53 PM]:
have something
Me [12:53 PM]:
what?
Sasi [12:57 PM]:
go and eat some grass
Sasi [12:57 PM]:
:P
Me [12:57 PM]:
I will have to dig in snow to find even dry grass
Sasi [12:57 PM]:
haha
Sasi [12:57 PM]:
then heat it in oven and then eat
Me [12:58 PM]:
heat the snow?
Sasi [12:58 PM]:
well.. not a bad idea
Sasi [12:58 PM]:
u can do tat also
Sasi [12:58 PM]:
u can drink it as a purified water then
Me [12:58 PM]:
can't I have fried water?
Sasi [12:59 PM]:
for that.. u have to put in a pan and fry it..
Me [12:59 PM]:
or tandoor snow?
Sasi [12:59 PM]:
overfrying will spoil ur dish
Me [12:59 PM]:
how about smoked snow?
Sasi [12:59 PM]:
good
Sasi [1:00 PM]:
u can try tat aso
Sasi [1:00 PM]:
but again the prblm is
Sasi [1:00 PM]:
keepin it at the right temp
Sasi [1:00 PM]:
and adding right spice
Me [1:00 PM]:
i use t-mobile
Me [1:00 PM]:
I don't think spice has coverage in US
Sasi [1:00 PM]:
i use rectangle mobile
Me [1:01 PM]:
:)
Me [1:01 PM]:
anyway... so.. basically I cannot add the right spice
Sasi [1:02 PM]:
then add the left out spice..
Me [1:02 PM]:
I don't want things that are left out..
Me [1:02 PM]:
Could be old spice.. It can be used only for shaving
Sasi [1:02 PM]:
tats y i say.. add it to them
Sasi [1:03 PM]:
i dont use it as its spicy while shaving..
Me [1:04 PM]:
hmmm... I use small gills (Ref: 1)
Sasi [1:04 PM]:
u killer... u use fish for shaving
Me [1:05 PM]:
no... just gills
Me [1:05 PM]:
I go to a barbershop called Gills
Me [1:06 PM]:
it is run by a couple of Punjabis
Sasi [1:06 PM]:
is it gills or bees??
Sasi [1:06 PM]:
u said punjabees.. and now saying gills
Me [1:07 PM]:
Gills is the scientific name of PunjaBees...
Me [1:07 PM]:
They are mutants like NinjaTurtles
1. Gills - A large bottle of Gillette shaving foam like pig is a grown up piglet.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Monday, 14 July 2008
Belief, a system
It is a funny thing that I feel the urge to write something when there is no way I can jot down my thoughts. Most inopportune moments like while I am in the toilet, while driving, sometimes even in office. Of course, I can always write down my thoughts once I am near my writing tools, a rare occurrence these days. But often, that mighty bane of mine called procrastination comes in the way. Repeated procrastination leads to oblivion and that is what usually happens to what I feel like writing. This time however, I write it down. The thoughts occurred to me to me at different times; and disconnected at first, but later seemed forever entwined. It all seemed to converge to one point; one word; one feeling. Belief.
The trigger, or rather triggers, for the chain of thoughts are a dialogue from a movie, a chat with my friend James and one of those random moments when we all don those thinking hats. The movie in question is the Tamil movie "Anbe Sivam" (Translated to "Love is God"; not the other way round. Kamal is an "atheist"). The movie revolves around two characters played by Madhavan and Kamal. It is a movie I love, for the message it conveys and for the sense of humour with which it conveys the message.
The other day as I was watching this movie, for the nth time, one of the dialogues struck me. The "apple on my head" scene is the diatribe between Madhavan and Kamal at a railway station when Madhavan tells Kamal that "Love is a feeling" and when Kamal replies "Communismum athu thaan, a feeling" (Communism is also like that, a feeling). The scene wasn't a debate about love and communism, of course and anyway that hardly is of any significance. I must admit that till the nth time it was just another dialogue, but somehow it was different this time. The other main trigger was a conversation with my friend James, seen as a communist by many. Dilaogues with him are always thought provoking. We do not necessarily see eye to eye, but our little chats are usually fun.
Now while I have socialist leanings, I am not a fan of communists either in India or elsewhere thanks to either the idea of "state control" or/and their rigid and what I consider as "out of sync with time" stance on a variety of issues. But this dialogue in the movie set me thinking and then a little conversation with James inspired me to write. I thought about communism and religion. I thought, with a sense of irony, that both are essentially built on belief. Any ideology for that matter is built on belief. The founding fathers of communism probably were convinced that their beliefs would lead to betterment. In the case of religions, those revered saints preached their belief in a god who governs all. I guess that anything and everything is propelled by belief.
I then thought about the origin of beliefs. I guess all beliefs can be traced down to a single person or a small group of people with similar ideologies. Even casual conversation can influence thoughts. So, if a person is firm in his or her belief, the person can influence others deeply. There you see the rise of a system, a system based on belief. With good communication, the belief system could make a whole society of "believers".
The issue of a belief being out of tune with reality arises when a belief becomes a dogma. The surroundings keep changing, but often the system does not. Thus some time down the line, maybe a generation or two, we have a belief system that is incompatible with the surroundings, the ground realities. Here we have an unbalanced equation; an unstable system. The system has two options; it can either evolve to stablise itself or die, just like any other system in the universe. I guess there is only one thing that remains constant. Change.
Perhaps that is the reason why communism is shrinking. Perhaps that is the reason why religions rise, thrive, go on a decline and die. And like all things of conviction, they die with a flash and never with a whimper.
The trigger, or rather triggers, for the chain of thoughts are a dialogue from a movie, a chat with my friend James and one of those random moments when we all don those thinking hats. The movie in question is the Tamil movie "Anbe Sivam" (Translated to "Love is God"; not the other way round. Kamal is an "atheist"). The movie revolves around two characters played by Madhavan and Kamal. It is a movie I love, for the message it conveys and for the sense of humour with which it conveys the message.
The other day as I was watching this movie, for the nth time, one of the dialogues struck me. The "apple on my head" scene is the diatribe between Madhavan and Kamal at a railway station when Madhavan tells Kamal that "Love is a feeling" and when Kamal replies "Communismum athu thaan, a feeling" (Communism is also like that, a feeling). The scene wasn't a debate about love and communism, of course and anyway that hardly is of any significance. I must admit that till the nth time it was just another dialogue, but somehow it was different this time. The other main trigger was a conversation with my friend James, seen as a communist by many. Dilaogues with him are always thought provoking. We do not necessarily see eye to eye, but our little chats are usually fun.
Now while I have socialist leanings, I am not a fan of communists either in India or elsewhere thanks to either the idea of "state control" or/and their rigid and what I consider as "out of sync with time" stance on a variety of issues. But this dialogue in the movie set me thinking and then a little conversation with James inspired me to write. I thought about communism and religion. I thought, with a sense of irony, that both are essentially built on belief. Any ideology for that matter is built on belief. The founding fathers of communism probably were convinced that their beliefs would lead to betterment. In the case of religions, those revered saints preached their belief in a god who governs all. I guess that anything and everything is propelled by belief.
I then thought about the origin of beliefs. I guess all beliefs can be traced down to a single person or a small group of people with similar ideologies. Even casual conversation can influence thoughts. So, if a person is firm in his or her belief, the person can influence others deeply. There you see the rise of a system, a system based on belief. With good communication, the belief system could make a whole society of "believers".
The issue of a belief being out of tune with reality arises when a belief becomes a dogma. The surroundings keep changing, but often the system does not. Thus some time down the line, maybe a generation or two, we have a belief system that is incompatible with the surroundings, the ground realities. Here we have an unbalanced equation; an unstable system. The system has two options; it can either evolve to stablise itself or die, just like any other system in the universe. I guess there is only one thing that remains constant. Change.
Perhaps that is the reason why communism is shrinking. Perhaps that is the reason why religions rise, thrive, go on a decline and die. And like all things of conviction, they die with a flash and never with a whimper.
Friday, 28 March 2008
Truck's own country
Before coming over to the US, I read that here "Bigger is better"... I don't know what all they meant; but at least one look at the surroundings will tell you that the travel kit was spot on...
Almost everyone has an automobile here (I refuse to say cars); necessitated by the fact that public transport is a word that is quite unheard of in these parts... they come in all sizes... ranging from XL to XXXXL... You see; bigger is better. There are a host of SUVs around and then there are the trucks; monster utility kind of pick-ups. And yeah! People even drive these to office. That pic there. You see what I mean? It sounds even wierder on this day, a day google has gone black as a message to conserve energy.
Anyway... another thing out here is everyone's preference for automatic gears. It is difficult to find manual transmissions out here. I personally feel that automatics take half the fun out of driving. I mean, you should be able to shift down & rev a bit if you want. But then, it is a matter of perception.
Okay!! Where am I? I think I've lost it. Time to stop this blog then. I have no clue where this one is going. :)
Bangaloreil ninnu Wichita vare - Oru Yaatra kurippu
Bangalore - Wichita - A travel diary...
I started from Bangalore at around 6:15pm IST on 15th March... my gud ol' roomie for 3 yrs Jp came along... it looked like Bangalore was sad that I was going to be away for some time, for it wept... malayalathil paranjaal potti potti karanju.... errr... wat I meant was that it rained like mad with lightning & thunder (one of which flashed right in front of our cab)... The roads were flooded... & traffic was slow moving.... cars, buses and scooters are adapted to moving around in land after all... anyway, I reached the airport at around 8:00pm... I, dressed in full formals (save a tie), stepped out on to the torrential rain... a small look around; and my brilliant eyes spotted a shortcut to the terminal building... I moved that way and carefully stepped into a huge puddle of water... (so much for the "formal" dressing)... & then discovered that the "shorcut" was barricaded... i stepped out from that puddle of water and stepped into another.. (there was a small bund like embankment to separate the 2 puddles, u see) ... anyway, I waded my way into the shelter of the building... Jp had taken my huge baggages... he looked very much like a porter dressed in his khaki colour shorts.. :D
I bade Jp god bye & checked in & was informed that my Jet Airways flight would be 30 mts late... However, they managed to beat their target... The flight took off about an hour late!!! Good thing; for that reduced my idling time in Mumbai...
The plane was a 737...
I remember someone telling me not to think that I was a stress engineer... I did exactly that... I encourage all my fellow engineers around not to think of stress & stuff when in a plane.. it's scary...
The first thing that I noticed in the plane was a repair plate near the empennage... Heck!!! & then I go in... I see the frames in the walls (well.. not exactly frames, but u can make out where the frame stations are)... it's rather scary to think about stress distribuion and failure modes sitting in a flying plane... Thankfully, the airhostesses came to rescue... No!! They didn't really say that the Margins of Safety are fine... They just appeared in the cabin... Good enough!!! ;)
Mumbai... Chathrapathi Shivaji International Airport... Chathrapajiyude airpot... Shivajiyude airport... gathakaalasmrithikaLil shivajude virayaarnna sangeetham keLkkaam ("Athiridee" paattu Shivaji virachu kondu paadukayaayirunnu)... "V" :D ..(Refer Note) ... I go my baggage... & collected my coupon for the bus that carries us to International terminal (Terminal 1 of Chathrapathi Shivaji International Airport is a Domestic Terminal)... That coupon is the most useless piece of paper I have ever come across... I would even say that it's more useless than Malayala Manorama & Deshabhimani put together... The guy at the counter said that the coupon number would be called.. and an airport bus will ply me to the international terminal... Heck!!! I doubt he has called the coupon number even now!!! & then there was a superb Plasma TV that showed information on when the next bus was supposed to show up... it said 0:00 hrs... I waited ... & waited & waited... a guy was heard remarking that last time he came there, it still showed 0:00 hrs... So, I along with I am sure many others are waiting for 0:00... The bus arrived at 2:00am... The Plasma TV still showed Next bus at 0:00am... So much for all the fancy stuff....
Mumbai - Dubai.... I boarded my Emirates flight to Dubai... 4.5 hrs, I think... Emirates was good!!! A Boeing 777-200... Much bigger than the 737... 777-200 economy was 3+3+3; while 737 was 3+3... A TV for every seat... I passed my time listening to Malayalam & Tamil songs on the plane audio system... I am also pleased to inform you that airhostesses onboard Emirates do not wear black Purdahs that cover them from head to toe... J
Arrived at Dubai at 6:00am Dubai time in heavy fog... The first thing that I saw as I disembarked from the flight was that the 777-200 has a Rolls Royce Engine... the 2nd thing I noticed was a Merc S class... & the third thing I noticed was or rather were the swanky looking buses... One of those swanky buses took me to the terminal... I condescened to allow the other passengers too to join me in the swanky bus... so, we all went to the terminal building...
Man!!! What a terminal!!!!!!! The terminal building was huge.. I'm sure it is atleast 1 km long... it took me a good fifteen minutes to walk all the way... well.. I am not too sure about how much time it took me to walk the length of the terminal from where I arrived to where I had to depart... which was at the other end, btw...
& then ofcourse were the famous duty free shops... who cares about the damn shops... There was a Porsche 911 Carrera & a Bentley Continental out there!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippeeeeee!!!
anyway, did my check in for the next flight... & waited... on a side note... I also saw an S-class limo while I was gazing out of the window there...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)