Ignore list

"I never drink water, it is the stuff that rusts pipes" - W.C. Fields
And how many other things are you going to give up like that? Reading books make you have prejudices, food makes you fat, too much work makes you sick and staying away from family makes you love them "less", or be loved by them "less". How many more? Does anyone else want to say something?

Scene on the Sidewalk

A proper lady - dressed in her best. She wore a magenta and purple shawl around her neck that glimmered when light shown upon it. And she wore an adorable set of jewelery in white to go with. The dress - perfect fit on her- was a dull but shimmering grey velvet that turned green at certain angles. In a very ladylike fashion she moved away and sat on the wall, popping her head, absorbing and taking in everything around her. She was judging the situation, calculating her next move - very unladylike you may say. All the same she was lovely. What was the situation like you may ask. It was like this - the sun was just rising, the air was cool and soft. People were not busily about yet, though they soon would be. They would drive their noisy cars, yell noisy and meaningless words and switch on their noisy and polluting air-conditioners. But that was still a few hours away. Till then she had her time and the world was hers.
She found what she had been looking for, a lone old man - one of the few left that looked out for others. He was dressed in white pyjamas and had a brown shawl thrown over his shriveled shoulders. He was stooping under the weight of his whole life. She might have wondered, what it was that had been so heavy that made him bend so. Or she might not have wondered, we will never know.
He was throwing out grains on the sidewalk and making soft cooing noises. No one would know what it was that went on in his mind as he went about - one wobbly step after another. Slow and purposeful steps that led to where? For what?
These questions may have held her for sometime, then she forced herself out of her reverie. She had no more time to waste. She spread her wings out and swooped gracefully down and pecked at the delicious grains that the old man threw out, strutting along as she ate, at peace with the world.

Alcohol all around

I saw something very funny today, funny enough to grin a long way after I had seen it.Shop name - "Janatha Bazaar Liquor Suppliers" with a big neon sign of "Budweiser" above it. It was huge, some sort of supermarket. You went in with a trolley and got the "supplies" you needed I guess. So I glanced at it and inside and at the shiny bottles in racks. Looked really cool. A place you would want to be seen in, with all the right accessories - aviator glasses and all. Right next to that was.. guess what? No? Khadi Gramodyog with our dear old Mahatma's face smiling benevolently. His face in profile was turning towards our Budweiser store as though looking there and giving a smile!
Before you come to conclusions - I am not going to preach. Just found it ironic.

I thought a little more about Gandhi. There has been a lot said about him, in praise of him, against him. I have tried to take sides many times before, but the man simply refuses to fall into a category for me. People say India could have got freedom much before, if it had not been for him. I do not know what the truth is, but I know that whatever it may be, is bound to be convoluted and twisted. I only wonder about the courage of the man. What else could explain how he got so many people to believe in such an idealistic and simple campaign? He just stuck on so persistently to being a pesky creature! He made sure the message of his echoed everywhere. That was all!!

As for our liquor suppliers - they are following his strategy. They are just being persistent and up everywhere. You can be miles away from an ATM, a bus stand or a stationery story in this city I live in. But you can find a liquor store within 20 metres of anywhere. Simple, yet effective campaigning for the cause of the fluids and their druids.

Got an idea?

Is an idea good if and only if it comes to you, when you are trying to find the solution to a problem? What about an idea that comes to you out of the blue, leading you to a problem which could be solved by the implementation of this idea? Furthermore, what about an idea that crops up on you to hold you and shake you and force you into finding some situation in which it can be used.

We have heard so many tales of inventors having "found" their ideas while searching for something different from what they found - like the alchemists. But how many stories have we heard of people trying to find an area of use for some random idea that they may have got? Probably every random idea that people got, led them to find a use for it.

Maybe the question that I am asking is useless. Maybe the most brilliant of ideas are only of value if a problem exists for them to solve.

A quote

The best thing I have read today:
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
-- Oscar Wilde

Have you seen the sky today

Have you seen the sky today?
It tells me lot so much more
Wonder if there is much left to say
Wondered of it before
But there is something new everyday
It tells me so many things
It tells me tomorrow is a new day
That will finally lead to spring
Have you seen the sky today?

Fear Factor

I have been making an attempt to identify my fears and find out what they are founded on and what brought in those fearful feelings.
Most of my fears are based not on cockroaches, but on less delightful creatures.
Fears can be mostly turned around or gotten rid of by analysing a previous scary encounter and chalking out what the action taken must have been like. To give you an example, if an encounter with a cockroach (of which you have great fear- assuming) caught you in the blue, you are overwhelmed with fear and are unable to respond. Once the ordeal has passed and assuming you come out alive from the encounter, you would try to go over the episode and tried to train your mind to respond to such a situation (assuming you want to, that is). A creature like a cockroach has only a limited number of ways in which it can attack or react to your attack. But if the creature you find fear-inducing is a creature of greater intelligence than a cockroach (albeit just a little more), you are caught in a loop that is best analysed by theories written by great economics geniuses of our race. The other creature thinks that, I think that, it thinks that, I think and so on.. (Or maybe my it should be -The other creature thinks, that I think, that it thinks, that I think that and so on... Either way it would make sense but in a different way. Let me think that you can think about it.)
There are certain fears that you can overcome through logical thinking (such as that of ghosts) or by over exposure ( such as of disgusting creatures), but there are some fears that cannot be overcome cause of shear inability of the human mind to take a wild guess at what is to be expected. I have no problem with unexpected twists. But it is the unpleasantness of having to deal with these creatures that has me in its grip.

Genius and General Statements

"Genius is eternal patience"
I will not mention who said these wise words because I do not want you to be influenced by the context in which this great man must have spoken these words. I was influenced and had to take a little effort to take a broader look at this and view it as a general statement. Whatever the context may have been, how true is this statement.

Of the various definitions for this word in Webster's online edition, the ones that struck me the most were these -
Genius : : a peculiar, distinctive, or identifying character or spirit
: : extraordinary intellectual power especially as manifested in creative activity

Let's pay attention to the word 'spirit'. To me, this word signifies a kind of energy that ultimately leads to some creative process. Or destructive process, depending on the kind of energy.
Now back to our great man's words - 'eternal patience'? Towards what? Towards the task into which this energy is being put? Towards yourself and your eccentricities? Towards the eccentricities of the world? Towards the limitations that the world puts upon this energy? What eternal patience does he talk about?
To me, the idea of genius has always been an entity that is so full of energy, ability and will to create something, that it can hardly wait. It is extremely urgent and impatient, as though in order to channel all that energy into the creative process, without giving it a chance to dissipate or fade away.
Where does patience come in here? Isn't it impatience and an uncontrollable urge to channel energy towards a strict sense of purpose that makes genius?

Now I have to tell you, in the great man's context these words would be absolutely true. Google the quote, you will get the person. Judge for yourself. It will tell you that a general statement has very little place in this world.

You and I

You question
I search for answers
You criticize
I sympathize
You ridicule
I cringe
You dismiss
I reason
You give up
I hold on
You judge
I forgive
You and I
Couldn't be more apart
But each of us makes a part
of the whole.
You and I
are in every thinking mind,
what we churn out, what we grind
balances the scale.

Who

Who is it that holds you
in the palm of their hands
Who is it that can shape you
Any way that they want to

Who is it that gives you
a reason to live
Who is it that can make you
Happy, wise and glowing

Who is it that twists you
Who is it that destroys
Who is it that breaks you
Who is it that defines

It is you, who gives you
In the hands of another
It is you, who holds you
breaks you or makes you

It is you that knows you
It is you. You have the power
The power of your happiness
The power to be You.
Go Rule The World.