I just made my first tweet. That was five minutes ago..and now I've got three tweets to my name..the second was a reply to a tweet from Orange Fling..and the third was my reply to Shashi Tharoor's tweet. Now that's something, isn't it? To be able to share the same room (errmm) with someone like him. He'd come by our office once here in TVM. I must admit, I was overawed by his presence.
To come back to my first tweet though..and Twitter..Sure, I'd heard about Twitter quite a while back, and even seen it on one of my friend's (Phoenix)blogs..But there's something about me and things that are new and catching on..I take my own sweet time with them..it was that way with Harry Potter, Five Point Someone, Orkut, mobile phones..ok, the last one was a question of money..and that was the way it was with Twitter..I wasn't going to be tweeting like that irritating little yellow bird in Tom & Jerry!! And then the papers started going "Tweet tweet" a few days back..AS though they weren't bird-brained enough to start off with.
Tharoor's tweeting did catch the media's attention quite fast really..I guess from the time of his election campaign..but his 'cattle-class' remark seems to have touched all the wrong nerves. What was probably meant as a humourous remark went and did what it does to all self-respecting politicians of our motherland. It made them suddenly aware of the dignity of the common man - and woman. One gentleman was so disturbed that he thought Tharoor should resign..The Congress, seeming to be in an impregnable position these days, suddenly started sounding imperious. Some spokesperson said that action would be taken against Tharoor, called it a crass remark; Our Prime Singh Manmohan chose to call it a joke, and Big Brother Sonia Gandhi sternly warned Tharoor to stay clear of controversial tweets - at least that's what the papers have me believe.
They say that once you are famous, you no longer have the rights of the common man. Once you are famous, you don't need these rights anyway do you? Why do you crave the right to travel in a train swarming with people? Why would you crave the right to sit on your bike for almost an hour waiting for some God-forsaken VIP(!!!)to take his/her equally God-forsaken behind off your road? Why tolerate power cuts, scary and obese policemen, recession? Why listen to Arun Lal's inanities that are termed 'commentary' when you could fly your way to South Africa and sit in the celebrity box?
Yup...why is it good to still be a commoner? Because, you can call Air India's bug-filled Economy class "Cattle Class" or even "Swine Class"( What with all the H1N1 apparently having flown into India) and nobody would bay for your blood! You still have your freedom of expression and you don't have to be careful of what you say - unless your boss is around of course..
javascript:void(0)
So there - I've made my tweet. It's cool to be common!
After thought - First letters, then mails, then scraps, and now tweets....the last one isn't even asking for a reply...what are we coming to?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Stuck!
Jeez..this is harder than I thought. Forget blogging regularly...just blogging seems like a challenge right now...I just don't know what to write down here..other than the fact that I don't really feel like blogging. Yeah..may be I should leave it at that..for now..
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Twerp Who Bought The Ferrari
Living during these economically tough times has made me ponder over ‘alternatives’. Though those miserably repetitive and inane news channels have not aired a story on “Just How Secure is Your Job” in the last couple of weeks, my mind has been toying with the question of if not this, then what. In what would probably go down as my bleakest, or perhaps most audacious, thought, I even considered going back to my good old hometown, wear the trademark white sleeveless vest and the lungi, and start a bakery-cum-stationery shop-cum ‘cool bar’.
You could do that, or, if you have just a wee bit of imagination, you could write a self-improvement book.
Go to any bookstore, read any supplement that talks about books, and you will bump your eyes into yet another book that tells you what you apparently need to do to get to wherever it is you are apparently going – and of course, how to make yourself some money while going there.
If you haven’t yet mastered the art of writing self help books, here are a few tips to guide you along the highway to success:
1) “The quality of intention on the object of attention will orchestrate an infinity of space-time events to bring about the outcome intended” – if your language can compare to Greek and Latin, then you are on the way to becoming a writer of self-help books. It doesn’t matter if most of your readers are left with a heavy head at the end of it all. After all, you can’t have a clear head unless your brain is muddled to start off with.
2)Choose an animal or an insect or even an invertebrate – anything that moves- and weave a yarn around that. Dedicate your title to that animal. You already have books dedicated to mice, fish, frogs, whales, elephants, etc. But then there are plenty of species out there. Sample titles could be “ Woof: Canine Wisdom Un-canned” or “Moo-A magical fable about asserting yourself”. Which brings me to point 3.
3)Use the word ‘magic’ or ‘magical’ in your title. Else,use ‘fable’, ‘tale’, ‘secret’, ‘gift’, ‘mystery’ or even ‘fairy tale’. Some of these readers can be really childlike. Using such words will easily win them over. Nothing like a bit of magical fantasy to boost your sales.
4)Use the number 7. This number has been used by many to great effect. “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, “ The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”… the last two, I admit, are movies. But you get the point. Seven is a magic number. Period. Sample these, “The Seven Circles of Success”, “Seven Steps to a Positive You.”
5) Quote some Eastern Philosophy – Indian, Chinese, Mongolian, Babylonian etc. The more exotic the better. However, since these countries would already have been tapped, you might have to really scour your atlas to find untapped countries.
Follow these points if you like. But regardless of what you don’t do, you absolutely must talk about how to achieve your dreams, how to believe in yourself, how to get in touch with the ‘real you’, how to become successful, how to stay positive, and, never forget to talk about how all this will help you make more money. Throw in a chapter on meditation and you are on the way to selling Ferraris, cheese and fish to all the twerps out there.
If you think all this is too complicated, all you have to do is believe in the power of your hidden self! You are Magnificence!
Happy Duping!!
You could do that, or, if you have just a wee bit of imagination, you could write a self-improvement book.
Go to any bookstore, read any supplement that talks about books, and you will bump your eyes into yet another book that tells you what you apparently need to do to get to wherever it is you are apparently going – and of course, how to make yourself some money while going there.
If you haven’t yet mastered the art of writing self help books, here are a few tips to guide you along the highway to success:
1) “The quality of intention on the object of attention will orchestrate an infinity of space-time events to bring about the outcome intended” – if your language can compare to Greek and Latin, then you are on the way to becoming a writer of self-help books. It doesn’t matter if most of your readers are left with a heavy head at the end of it all. After all, you can’t have a clear head unless your brain is muddled to start off with.
2)Choose an animal or an insect or even an invertebrate – anything that moves- and weave a yarn around that. Dedicate your title to that animal. You already have books dedicated to mice, fish, frogs, whales, elephants, etc. But then there are plenty of species out there. Sample titles could be “ Woof: Canine Wisdom Un-canned” or “Moo-A magical fable about asserting yourself”. Which brings me to point 3.
3)Use the word ‘magic’ or ‘magical’ in your title. Else,use ‘fable’, ‘tale’, ‘secret’, ‘gift’, ‘mystery’ or even ‘fairy tale’. Some of these readers can be really childlike. Using such words will easily win them over. Nothing like a bit of magical fantasy to boost your sales.
4)Use the number 7. This number has been used by many to great effect. “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, “ The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”… the last two, I admit, are movies. But you get the point. Seven is a magic number. Period. Sample these, “The Seven Circles of Success”, “Seven Steps to a Positive You.”
5) Quote some Eastern Philosophy – Indian, Chinese, Mongolian, Babylonian etc. The more exotic the better. However, since these countries would already have been tapped, you might have to really scour your atlas to find untapped countries.
Follow these points if you like. But regardless of what you don’t do, you absolutely must talk about how to achieve your dreams, how to believe in yourself, how to get in touch with the ‘real you’, how to become successful, how to stay positive, and, never forget to talk about how all this will help you make more money. Throw in a chapter on meditation and you are on the way to selling Ferraris, cheese and fish to all the twerps out there.
If you think all this is too complicated, all you have to do is believe in the power of your hidden self! You are Magnificence!
Happy Duping!!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Why I Blog(ged)
My last post was in February. I don't think I've spent such a long time away from my blog. Ever. It's not that I really don't have the time. Blogging doesn't take too much time. And it's not as if I don't come online. I do that almost every day - night rather. So what kept me away?
I started blogging in August 2004, when I was slogging it out alone in Coimbatore. I had just about joined my present company, and I was shipped out to Coimbatore, a place I had last been to when I still wore shorts to school. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nobody to be with. That's when I came across the world of blogs. Here was something new. Write just about anything you want to, and keep it open for just about the whole world to read. Imagine, suddenly your world is populated with people who aren't even in your part of the universe. I had a personal diary back then- that I still have the same personal diary with more than half of it empty is testament to how regular I was/am - but this was the other side of the earth! Write about your deeply personal life, and leave it out there! In the open! The comfort of being anonymous in virtual world. And the chance of making new friends, without the barrier of geographic space coming in between. So I started my blog in rediff. And here are the last few lines from my very first post:
"I am going to try to find adventure and life - no matter how commonplace or routine things probably are. I walk down the same street every morning to office. I get up on the same side of bed with the same odd dry feeling in my throat. I eat at the same place atleast once a day. The same boy serves me my breakfast. I get my tea at the same teashop at the corner. And darn me if i don't see the same faces as i do daily. Whatever, i am going to see if i can find something worth writing and posting. And if i can prompt you, my reader, to look into your own life and see if you couldn't do the same without thinking that life is just 'ok, nothing new, all the same as yesterday', then i should think that my fingers aren't going crazy by typing for nothing."
Five years from then, nothing's the same anymore. New place, new people, one of them new-born. Is it that I find nothing interesting anymore? Is it that I get no time to stand and stare? Is it that I don't feel lonely anymore? Did I start blogging to stop feeling lonely? The answers aren't all a 'yes'. My blogging was a way out of loneliness, and I don't feel that anymore. My world is full now. And I find it hard to keep a watch on Time flying by on his winged chariot. But my world is still interesting. What I see out there, whenever I get to go out, is still interesting. I guess I just needed some time to see what this new life was like.
My friend recently asked me if marriage and fatherhood had left me with no time for myself. My answer was an overwhelming yes. I wonder if that is true though. I think I can still make time. I think I still want to blog.
I started blogging in August 2004, when I was slogging it out alone in Coimbatore. I had just about joined my present company, and I was shipped out to Coimbatore, a place I had last been to when I still wore shorts to school. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nobody to be with. That's when I came across the world of blogs. Here was something new. Write just about anything you want to, and keep it open for just about the whole world to read. Imagine, suddenly your world is populated with people who aren't even in your part of the universe. I had a personal diary back then- that I still have the same personal diary with more than half of it empty is testament to how regular I was/am - but this was the other side of the earth! Write about your deeply personal life, and leave it out there! In the open! The comfort of being anonymous in virtual world. And the chance of making new friends, without the barrier of geographic space coming in between. So I started my blog in rediff. And here are the last few lines from my very first post:
"I am going to try to find adventure and life - no matter how commonplace or routine things probably are. I walk down the same street every morning to office. I get up on the same side of bed with the same odd dry feeling in my throat. I eat at the same place atleast once a day. The same boy serves me my breakfast. I get my tea at the same teashop at the corner. And darn me if i don't see the same faces as i do daily. Whatever, i am going to see if i can find something worth writing and posting. And if i can prompt you, my reader, to look into your own life and see if you couldn't do the same without thinking that life is just 'ok, nothing new, all the same as yesterday', then i should think that my fingers aren't going crazy by typing for nothing."
Five years from then, nothing's the same anymore. New place, new people, one of them new-born. Is it that I find nothing interesting anymore? Is it that I get no time to stand and stare? Is it that I don't feel lonely anymore? Did I start blogging to stop feeling lonely? The answers aren't all a 'yes'. My blogging was a way out of loneliness, and I don't feel that anymore. My world is full now. And I find it hard to keep a watch on Time flying by on his winged chariot. But my world is still interesting. What I see out there, whenever I get to go out, is still interesting. I guess I just needed some time to see what this new life was like.
My friend recently asked me if marriage and fatherhood had left me with no time for myself. My answer was an overwhelming yes. I wonder if that is true though. I think I can still make time. I think I still want to blog.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Hot Wheels
My jaws dropped when I saw this one at the railway station in my hometown..and I couldn't resist recording it for posterity. Turns out that this sight is apparently not a too uncommon one, and that you will find many like this in our wonder of a country. But just in case you haven't laid your eyes on this hot pair of wheels, then here you go - FEAST!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
So Where Have You Been?
You know that you've been dead and forgotten in the blogworld when even the friendly spammers stop disturbing your shoutbox. I took one look at my neglected shoutbox and decided that it was high time that I made my appearance again..
So where was I all these days... a new year has come in, so has a new US President, a movie with something Indian about it has received a lot of attention in the west, and yes, we now have our very own 9/11 - atleast that's what all our enlightened media say, and Pranab Mukherjee seems to think it's of the same magnitude. So where was I these past couple of months...
I was very much here....December was very slow..There wasn't any real Christmas spirit here in the Trivandrum air..but then you never find anything apart from smoke in the air..even after the Health Minister so publicly banned smoking..I took a long break from work...the whole week before and during Christmas...realized a bit too late that it was perhaps too long a break..was quite bored at home. The only person who was excited all the time was Daya..she was quite dumbstruck by all the stars that she saw at home and ofcourse, wherever we went...
Back in Trivandrum after Christmas, my health started going downhill...there was this fever that would hit me every evening..My wife pushed me to the hospital that last weekend of 2008. A flurry of expensive blood tests later, the doctor stated that I had Dengue fever...sounded damn serious..very serious..so much so that when I called up the office and said that the doctor had advised a week's bedrest, I was given the option of a couple of weeks. Sounded too good to be true. But I recovered in a week's time..but yes, New Year's eve was lousy...had to do with rice gruel (kanji!!!) instead of a peg of Remy Martin or Absolut.
So that's what was keepin me away all these days. I know it doesn't sound like much but then, we don't need too much of an excuse for not doing something. Will be more regular...Atleast once a week here on...that's a new New Year Resolution. There was one other resolution that I had decided on last year - that was to hit the gym first thing this year..but then the first thing I hit was the bed. So much for a healthy start to the year. Hope the year gets better off as the days go by :-)
So where was I all these days... a new year has come in, so has a new US President, a movie with something Indian about it has received a lot of attention in the west, and yes, we now have our very own 9/11 - atleast that's what all our enlightened media say, and Pranab Mukherjee seems to think it's of the same magnitude. So where was I these past couple of months...
I was very much here....December was very slow..There wasn't any real Christmas spirit here in the Trivandrum air..but then you never find anything apart from smoke in the air..even after the Health Minister so publicly banned smoking..I took a long break from work...the whole week before and during Christmas...realized a bit too late that it was perhaps too long a break..was quite bored at home. The only person who was excited all the time was Daya..she was quite dumbstruck by all the stars that she saw at home and ofcourse, wherever we went...
Back in Trivandrum after Christmas, my health started going downhill...there was this fever that would hit me every evening..My wife pushed me to the hospital that last weekend of 2008. A flurry of expensive blood tests later, the doctor stated that I had Dengue fever...sounded damn serious..very serious..so much so that when I called up the office and said that the doctor had advised a week's bedrest, I was given the option of a couple of weeks. Sounded too good to be true. But I recovered in a week's time..but yes, New Year's eve was lousy...had to do with rice gruel (kanji!!!) instead of a peg of Remy Martin or Absolut.
So that's what was keepin me away all these days. I know it doesn't sound like much but then, we don't need too much of an excuse for not doing something. Will be more regular...Atleast once a week here on...that's a new New Year Resolution. There was one other resolution that I had decided on last year - that was to hit the gym first thing this year..but then the first thing I hit was the bed. So much for a healthy start to the year. Hope the year gets better off as the days go by :-)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tag 20
It's tag time again..this one's from 3inone..some of the questions would have been more appropriate for a singleton and so, just for the sake of objectivity, I've assumed the perspective of someone who's single..just for a few questions though...
1) If your lover betrayed you, what would your reaction be?
Ohh I’d be mad..for a while..then I’d come around..and walk right out..
2) If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
Can’t remember any of the ones I see at night..as for the ones that occupy my days now and then, it would be to be able to earn quite a decent living on my own terms, be able to hit the road when I want to, to take a break when I want to, to switch off when I want to…
(If dreams include fantasies, and if I could turn back time to more than a year ago, then, there is one that involves me and two pretty young nurses I knew when I was an impressionable adolescent :-D )
3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Any guy on four wheels who cant see us poor guys on two wheelers..I’d like to have him squat on Saidapet bridge, and kick his butt and send him tumbling into Cooum.
4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Go to South America, then off to Australia, uhhmm..Mongolia, Scotland.., invest enough to last me reasonably well enough for my lifetime..and do my teenie weenie bit for charity :-D
5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Once did..with great short term results..so yes..very much possible..
6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Since I have to choose, I’d choose the second..we all could use a little loving..just enough of it though..
7. How long would you wait for someone you loved?
Going by how easily distracted I am, she better not keep me waiting too long….I am not a very focused person by nature..
8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Curse my luck, curse the other guy even more, and wish him all the rotten luck that life can throw his way..no two ways about that..
9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
The treatment of the fairer sex towards the lovestruck, infatuated male..I wish they made confessing an easier ordeal to go through..
10. What takes you down the fastest?
Gravity
11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
If I am lucky, alive…luckier, married and still happy..at my most optimistic, married, still happy, and stinking rich..
12. What’s your fear?
Fire..water..getting electrocuted, a toothache,..anything that involves intense physical pain :-D
13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Cheerful..and orange
14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Can’t I go for a combo here? Married and rich?? Oh well..married and poor..it’s worth it..as long as you don’t live on just love and fresh air that is..
15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
First try and locate that blaring phone of mine .Then, when I am really awake, look at my sleeping wife and child..and feel blessed….and then it’s me and the paper in the loo..
16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
She who loves me back of course! If both of them do, then I would be one helluva lucky person now..
17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Errmm..what’s all…???? I’d say not ALL..you have to keep a bit of yourself for yourself…
18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Forgive if I have to....but I won’t forget…to forget is not human..and I don’t care if it’s divine..
19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Tough one..very tough one..Everything has it’s time and place…there’s a time to be single, and a time to mingle..
20. List of 6 people to tag:
Appu, Sumo, Riaan, Jimbo...anyone who's interested in a little bit of confessing..
1) If your lover betrayed you, what would your reaction be?
Ohh I’d be mad..for a while..then I’d come around..and walk right out..
2) If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
Can’t remember any of the ones I see at night..as for the ones that occupy my days now and then, it would be to be able to earn quite a decent living on my own terms, be able to hit the road when I want to, to take a break when I want to, to switch off when I want to…
(If dreams include fantasies, and if I could turn back time to more than a year ago, then, there is one that involves me and two pretty young nurses I knew when I was an impressionable adolescent :-D )
3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Any guy on four wheels who cant see us poor guys on two wheelers..I’d like to have him squat on Saidapet bridge, and kick his butt and send him tumbling into Cooum.
4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Go to South America, then off to Australia, uhhmm..Mongolia, Scotland.., invest enough to last me reasonably well enough for my lifetime..and do my teenie weenie bit for charity :-D
5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Once did..with great short term results..so yes..very much possible..
6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Since I have to choose, I’d choose the second..we all could use a little loving..just enough of it though..
7. How long would you wait for someone you loved?
Going by how easily distracted I am, she better not keep me waiting too long….I am not a very focused person by nature..
8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Curse my luck, curse the other guy even more, and wish him all the rotten luck that life can throw his way..no two ways about that..
9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
The treatment of the fairer sex towards the lovestruck, infatuated male..I wish they made confessing an easier ordeal to go through..
10. What takes you down the fastest?
Gravity
11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
If I am lucky, alive…luckier, married and still happy..at my most optimistic, married, still happy, and stinking rich..
12. What’s your fear?
Fire..water..getting electrocuted, a toothache,..anything that involves intense physical pain :-D
13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Cheerful..and orange
14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Can’t I go for a combo here? Married and rich?? Oh well..married and poor..it’s worth it..as long as you don’t live on just love and fresh air that is..
15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
First try and locate that blaring phone of mine .Then, when I am really awake, look at my sleeping wife and child..and feel blessed….and then it’s me and the paper in the loo..
16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
She who loves me back of course! If both of them do, then I would be one helluva lucky person now..
17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Errmm..what’s all…???? I’d say not ALL..you have to keep a bit of yourself for yourself…
18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Forgive if I have to....but I won’t forget…to forget is not human..and I don’t care if it’s divine..
19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Tough one..very tough one..Everything has it’s time and place…there’s a time to be single, and a time to mingle..
20. List of 6 people to tag:
Appu, Sumo, Riaan, Jimbo...anyone who's interested in a little bit of confessing..
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