People are complicated. Relationships, of any kind, even more so. But then, considering all relationships involve more than one person, that is only to be expected. After all, the complications get multiplied...
Still, some times, all you can say is, "WTF!!!?" and log out of Google Talk...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
42 vs 24
42, Douglas Adams said, is the ulitmate answer to life, the universe and everything. How come then, at 24, I have more questions than 42 can answer? Ofcourse, it took Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, and of course, I may not have come across the Ultimate Question... Still, some answers would be nice, rt?
And btw, i just realised this is post no 102. WOW! which means I should've mentioned something about it in the previous post... or the one before that... I just hadn't noticed. Maybe that's my problem.
What is my biggest problem? 42... na.. still doesn't cut it for me
42, Douglas Adams said, is the ulitmate answer to life, the universe and everything. How come then, at 24, I have more questions than 42 can answer? Ofcourse, it took Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, and of course, I may not have come across the Ultimate Question... Still, some answers would be nice, rt?
And btw, i just realised this is post no 102. WOW! which means I should've mentioned something about it in the previous post... or the one before that... I just hadn't noticed. Maybe that's my problem.
What is my biggest problem? 42... na.. still doesn't cut it for me
FROM an NYT article:
"Looking either grim or overmedicated, Bush spoke for several minutes — 1,260 words worth of reassurance. That was a far more ambitious effort than the day before, when, as Politico’s Roger Simon noted, our president devoted 100 fewer words to his public utterances on the collapsing economy than he did to toasting the president of Ghana at dinner.
Behind the-first-president-with-an-M.B.A.-and-a-lot-of-good-it-did-us stood the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, who appears to be actually running the government. On Thursday night, Bernanke had called Congressional leaders together and terrified them into supporting a quadrillion-dollar rescue plan. Legend has it that there was a time when these sorts of gatherings took place at the White House, but it would probably have really cast a pall on the president of Ghana’s big night."
I had to share this... Love the adjective for Bush, not to mention i liked the bit about bernanke runnin the country... So, should we be blaming HIM for the current mess in the world economy?
"Looking either grim or overmedicated, Bush spoke for several minutes — 1,260 words worth of reassurance. That was a far more ambitious effort than the day before, when, as Politico’s Roger Simon noted, our president devoted 100 fewer words to his public utterances on the collapsing economy than he did to toasting the president of Ghana at dinner.
Behind the-first-president-with-an-M.B.A.-and-a-lot-of-good-it-did-us stood the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, who appears to be actually running the government. On Thursday night, Bernanke had called Congressional leaders together and terrified them into supporting a quadrillion-dollar rescue plan. Legend has it that there was a time when these sorts of gatherings took place at the White House, but it would probably have really cast a pall on the president of Ghana’s big night."
I had to share this... Love the adjective for Bush, not to mention i liked the bit about bernanke runnin the country... So, should we be blaming HIM for the current mess in the world economy?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Of Terror and Clichés
It’s so easy to fall back on clichés. Every time some moron sets off a string of bombs, headlines scream “Terror re/visits XYZ”. Seriously? That’s the best you can come up with? There are people dying out here… Human beings being mauled and mutilated by the remote hand of another... Does that not warrant a slightly greater effort?
The friendly elves inside Microsoft Word tell me ‘terror’ has a number of synonyms. Fear, horror, fright, dread, shock, panic, alarm… reads the list. Yet, we consistently choose to go with ‘terror’. Of course, you could argue that “XYZ in panic” just doesn’t cut it.
Then again, when serial bombs hit a city, how many people (not affected first-hand) hear about it, unless via TV? From personal experience, I’d say people are largely so self-obsessed, that it’s a vague concern. The people who are truly afraid, are those who watch too many news channels cover the same thing, watch too many gory pictures of blood splattered across the road (or wherever else) and wonder if any of their friends and family were part of those injured/killed.
When the blasts hit Delhi (using that since it’s the latest) I can imagine people continuing to buy groceries, taking a walk, meeting friends, partying hard, or whatever else it is people in Delhi do on a Saturday evening.
It’s only later that the panic button goes off. I can bet that the city will come to a crawl over the next few days. I know it happened here, almost a month ago. Now, that, is funny.
Why would you step gingerly over a mine that’s already exploded? If the city’s been attacked, it’s been attacked. Staying home for the following week is not going to change that. In fact, terrorists, or glorified cowards, tend to be like lightening. They prefer striking where you don’t expect it much, and rarely strike the same place in quick succession. Think about it. Delhi was last bombed three years ago. And by a different outfit.
Besides, staying home after what the papers call a ‘terror attack’ (Something to think about it: if terror and panic are synonymous, does that mean Delhi underwent a panic attack yesterday?) people tend to watch a lot more news. “Where else? Who else? How many? And thanks be to the great spaghetti monster I decided against getting that video game CD just yesterday!” becomes “OMG! That could’ve been me. Where next? Are they planting bombs in my balcony? Can I cross the road? What if I’m their next target?” and so on and so forth.
True, I may have been exaggerating a little. But, isn’t that how it works? People tend to get more freaked out when they realise the extent of the damage. Their safe cocoons are broken into, and no one is safe. Therefore, it’s obvious. Television is too disturbing. So the next option, the newspapers. And with such standard headlines, I doubt how much of an impact they make. I doubt how much of the people’s fury, or even sympathy, these headlines evoke.
I hear you say, but that’s not a newspaper’s job — to evoke fury or sympathy. True. But, if you want to get technical, doesn’t newspaper reportage tend to be only from one perspective, irrespective of what that perspective is? If absolute objectivity reigned, we’d probably have headlines like “Delhi bombed again”… but that wouldn’t sell any copy, would it?
It’s so easy to fall back on clichés. Every time some moron sets off a string of bombs, headlines scream “Terror re/visits XYZ”. Seriously? That’s the best you can come up with? There are people dying out here… Human beings being mauled and mutilated by the remote hand of another... Does that not warrant a slightly greater effort?
The friendly elves inside Microsoft Word tell me ‘terror’ has a number of synonyms. Fear, horror, fright, dread, shock, panic, alarm… reads the list. Yet, we consistently choose to go with ‘terror’. Of course, you could argue that “XYZ in panic” just doesn’t cut it.
Then again, when serial bombs hit a city, how many people (not affected first-hand) hear about it, unless via TV? From personal experience, I’d say people are largely so self-obsessed, that it’s a vague concern. The people who are truly afraid, are those who watch too many news channels cover the same thing, watch too many gory pictures of blood splattered across the road (or wherever else) and wonder if any of their friends and family were part of those injured/killed.
When the blasts hit Delhi (using that since it’s the latest) I can imagine people continuing to buy groceries, taking a walk, meeting friends, partying hard, or whatever else it is people in Delhi do on a Saturday evening.
It’s only later that the panic button goes off. I can bet that the city will come to a crawl over the next few days. I know it happened here, almost a month ago. Now, that, is funny.
Why would you step gingerly over a mine that’s already exploded? If the city’s been attacked, it’s been attacked. Staying home for the following week is not going to change that. In fact, terrorists, or glorified cowards, tend to be like lightening. They prefer striking where you don’t expect it much, and rarely strike the same place in quick succession. Think about it. Delhi was last bombed three years ago. And by a different outfit.
Besides, staying home after what the papers call a ‘terror attack’ (Something to think about it: if terror and panic are synonymous, does that mean Delhi underwent a panic attack yesterday?) people tend to watch a lot more news. “Where else? Who else? How many? And thanks be to the great spaghetti monster I decided against getting that video game CD just yesterday!” becomes “OMG! That could’ve been me. Where next? Are they planting bombs in my balcony? Can I cross the road? What if I’m their next target?” and so on and so forth.
True, I may have been exaggerating a little. But, isn’t that how it works? People tend to get more freaked out when they realise the extent of the damage. Their safe cocoons are broken into, and no one is safe. Therefore, it’s obvious. Television is too disturbing. So the next option, the newspapers. And with such standard headlines, I doubt how much of an impact they make. I doubt how much of the people’s fury, or even sympathy, these headlines evoke.
I hear you say, but that’s not a newspaper’s job — to evoke fury or sympathy. True. But, if you want to get technical, doesn’t newspaper reportage tend to be only from one perspective, irrespective of what that perspective is? If absolute objectivity reigned, we’d probably have headlines like “Delhi bombed again”… but that wouldn’t sell any copy, would it?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Saturday, September 06, 2008
While I sleep, they're cows and elephants
Unnamed moving shapes, while I'm awake
Fear streaks yellow against the gray in my head
I wonder, is being awake the prelude to being dead?
Shadows surge, they merge and they grow,
Unnamed fears — possibilities of dreams —
Jostle for the space that keeps me awake
How many more mistakes will i make?
Sleep, once an unwelcome friend, now avoids me
The disdain of the healthy for the ill
I crave sleep. Yearn. Seek it desperately
Some help, some sleep must come calling, eventually?
Random thoughts I noted down while severely sleep deprived.. think i may be going out my mind. would possibly be a decent vacation... i dunno... the voices in my head are driving me insane already...
Unnamed moving shapes, while I'm awake
Fear streaks yellow against the gray in my head
I wonder, is being awake the prelude to being dead?
Shadows surge, they merge and they grow,
Unnamed fears — possibilities of dreams —
Jostle for the space that keeps me awake
How many more mistakes will i make?
Sleep, once an unwelcome friend, now avoids me
The disdain of the healthy for the ill
I crave sleep. Yearn. Seek it desperately
Some help, some sleep must come calling, eventually?
Random thoughts I noted down while severely sleep deprived.. think i may be going out my mind. would possibly be a decent vacation... i dunno... the voices in my head are driving me insane already...
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
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