Murder

[The effects of reading too many comics and a lot of code]

[late at night]

*woooot woooot wooooooot*

*pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter*

[lone car on the road]

*screeeech*

[get out of car]

*tip tap tip tap tip tap*

[take out keys]

*click*

[look look]

[push open door]

*creeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaak*

*tip toe tip toe*

[push open door]

*tick tock tick tock*

*tip toe tip toe*

[wonder wonder fetter fetter]

.

.

[raise knife]

.

.

.

[lights on]

*Surprise! Happy Birthday!!.... *

.

.

*silence*

[....]

THE END

Soldiers Of Tomorrow

[A post after a long time! And its more the economist in me which is doing the talking. Also this post is more generic than country specific]

When I was little I was enamoured by the armed forces. They had the fastest jets, sleekest ships and the most rugged looking tanks and jeeps. Soldiers I thought were the backbone of a country, ready to lay down their lives for all of us and seemed to me to be the coolest people in the world. For a large part of my school days I wanted to be a scientist for the armed forces and work with all that awesome technology.

And then I grew older.. and hopefully smarter...

Now I think that the armed forces are useless. With there being nucler weapons, no country would dare launch a full a scale occupation of any other country (unless you're Saddam Hussein and dumb enough to not suck up to any of the nuclear powers before you had a weapon yourself) for threat of nuclear obliteration. So why have the armed forces?

I can think of the following reasons:

1) Disaster Relief

2) Border Patrol

3) Counter Terrorism

4) A signalling mechanism to satisfy investors about the stability of a country

5) Reduce Unemployment (A current dismantling of the military machine would lead to an influx of so much labour that a country's economy would collapse)

Now I don't see why points 1 & 2 cannot be left to the hands of smaller and more specially trained teams or even completed automated!

But I still see soldiers, brave soldiers protecting our country from the greatest villains of the coming century, such as

1) Disease

2) Economic Inequalities

3) Ignorance

Yes, I'm talking about social workers. The unsung heroes of the modern day world who fight against those enemies whose one agent (HIV?) kills more humans than all the wars in the world combined. They are battling not in far off lands using big machines, but most likely in your neighbouring street and with their bare hands. It is indeed a great shame that billions of dollars worth of weaponary is being procured by countries all over the world just to build machines most of which are never really used due to fear of all out nuclear war. I can only wonder how much good these resources would bring if channeled to the proper agents. Why we might even be able to bring down the prices of green technology making them far more affordable and accessible! I truly feel that the possibilities are endless if the resources wasted on the armed forces are put to good use

The Silver Screen

It was one tiring night at about 9PM when I was returning home from work. I got on the good ol' 342F and as the bus rattled along I slid into an empty seat and searched for my music player to listen to a good 3-4 songs of Cream before I reached my destination. Then to my horror, onto the bus came a gang of bratty boys full of jokes, laughter and random 'kalais'. They were making a huge ruckus, but were having fun nonetheless. It felt just like being back in college.

I wanted to punch them all square across the jaw and throw them off the bus..

A couple of days later, it was again a tiring night at about 9PM when I was returning home from work. I got on one of those private buses and as the bus rattled along I slid into an empty seat and searched for my music player to listen to a good 3-4 songs of Cream before I reached my destination. Then to my horror, the TV on the bus turned on with the speakers at full volume. It showed a random scene from a movie about a gang of bratty boys full of jokes, laughter and random 'kalais'. They were making a huge ruckus, but were having fun nonetheless. It felt just like being back in college watching that scene from the movie.

I didn't mind it, in fact I quite enjoyed it..

It was only after getting off the bus that I realized my hypocrisy. Why was so intolerant of those boys who got on the bus but didn't mind the exact same thing happening on the TV. From my point view, both ways, it should have simply been 'entertainment'!

Are we biased to let our guard down and accept easily what we see on TV? I wonder....

The Real Thing

[Sorry for being Abstract]

The most important thing ever is aptly described here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYyK-ZvpR_M&feature=related

Thank You

My Life Right Now

+

||

Thought Of Inflexion

[While listening to "Better Man" by Oasis, exam answers at school, "Better Man" by Oasis again, a long bus ride, missing my blog, knowing that life gets you no where unless you do something, trying to make a mark in the world by writing something new, knowing you might suck at it but old enough to know that you'd suck more if you didn't try.. yea, you get the picture...]

Imagine your life to be a function.

Yes, a function, those f(x) thingys. What you do is mostly f(x). What you say or feel is mostly f'(x) (or even f'(-x) considering the fact that we sometimes so the exact opposite of what we say or feel). And its our thought which is f''(x).

Now the point of inflexion is the point where f''(x) changes signs.

-x-x-

Now imagine that you're gonna do something real bad. You know it as being bad of course, yet you get some (which you know is sick/bad) pleasure out of it .... and you do it anyway.

(You're know angel, c'mon think of SOMETHING! Got it? Good lets proceed)

Now just forget everything and think of something where you did something you had never done before... and loved it!

(C'mon, you must have plenty of memories!)

What really happened here? How did YOU do it? Sure there may have been cheering, memories jeering or even a gun or two pointed at your back, but really, what happened?

I want to take an example of someone trying to reduce weight(Thats a 'politically correct' example :) )

Lets assume that he/she has fixed a new exercise regime which starts at 6 AM and they are all gung ho about it the night before, while lying in their bed about to sleep.

Its 6 AM the next day and the alarm rings when ....

Scenario 1

----------

f(x)=what you do = hit the snooze button

f'(x) = what you say or feel = i know i suck.. i'll stop sucking from tomorrow though. i'll pass for today. The sky isn't going to fall on my head is it?

f''(x)= what you think= zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Scenario 2

----------

f(x)=what you do=jump out of bed and do ten push ups!

f'(x) = what you say or feel =today I'm gonna make a change and be awesome!!

f''(x)= what you think=Get up at any cost, now!!!

(Yay! so many exclamation marks!!!! f'''(x) = n00b)

f''(x) here is the Thought Of Inflexion

To me here, the most interesting thing is f''(x). Our whole lives are governed by thoughts which drive our everyday lives[f''(x) affects f(x) and f'(x). Its the inner drive for f(x) and f'(x)]

Every little choice that we make throws our life this way or that. But if only we could control a thought, the thoughts that follow from it can all be useful and awesome.

Hope that wasn't preachy, f'''(x) = zzzzzz

The Silence Thereafter

[n00b poem :D]

We could hear a crack, followed by a scream.

A triumphal joy, a winner's dream

One was fat, while the other was lean

The thing they had in common, they both were in jeans

Me? I was playing pool

With meager skills, we sure looked like fools,

And then there were some trying to act cool

Smacking balls in, the cue as a tool

And then suddenly the noise there stopped,

The bubble of joy had but popped

With every ball down, all egos cropped

The silence thereafter, like a teardrop

"Yo!"

My Broker Dilemma

It so happened that me and a couple of buddies were out on the streets hunting for a house, stubbornly determined to make it on our own and NOT take the help of a broker when a question arose in my mind. It was as simple as this:

"Must the broker pay you or you the broker for getting you a house"

The larger question here is whether the broker is selling you the house, or is he selling you to the house owner.

Lets consider the former where the broker is selling you the house in which case you obviously owe him his fees for finding you a house.

But how about when you look it from the point of view of him selling the house to you on behalf of the owner. You're literally doing him a favour by taking up the agreement of living in the house! If nothing, he should be paying you for generating business for him!!

I'm sure some economist has figured out a solution for this question. Do let me know if you know about it.

Note: Ah well, in the non-hypothetical world the broker would probably take a cut from both you AND the house owner as he is really only selling "information" to both the parties and hence deserves his dues. Smart chaps they always are!!

Akbar The Great, Dara Shikoh and The Meeting Of The Two Oceans

On watching the BBC Documentary "The Story Of India" by Michael Wood, I was reminded of a little line I remember reading in my history text book about something known as Din-i-illahi - a "religion" that Akbar was said to have started. On pondering a bit about it, the freedom movement and the problems that India is facing now it seemed extremely important to me to look into this a bit more.

It turned out that Akbar never did start a "religion"per say, but rather built a great hall called the Ibadat Khana where he invited the leading thinkers of all major religions to sort out their differences and reach a common ground. As it turns out in most such cases, these debates turned ugly and bitter and lead to so much animosity amongst the parties that Akbar was forced to cancel these discussions. But Akbar did manage to gauge that there did exist a common thread amongst these various religions and bring out a "syncrectic" doctrine which eventually became known as Din-I-Illahi. But all this is probably something you already knew as it was one of the reasons that Akbar was titled "The Great".

But a lesser known attempt at something of the same nature was by Akbar's grandson Dara Shikoh (Shiekh?). An intellectual at heart, among other things he was instrumental in bringing out the Majma-Ul-Bahrain (The meeting of the two oceans) which according to wikipedia was "devoted to the revelation of the mystical and pluralistic affinities between Sufic and Vedantic speculation".

This to seems like a very bold step to foster the growth of a unified India by him and is probably one of the rather first attempts at truly searching for a global faith. A far greater feat of significance and grandeur than what is father had accomplished if you ask me.

However, as many times in history, human fears and ego got the better of the Mughal family. The war of succession that ensued after Shah Janah fell ill lead to the defeat of Dara Shikoh and his younger brother Aurangzeb became the emperor who was not as forward thinking as his older brother or his grandfather. And with ended the great open-mindedness of the Muslim rulers in India.

What I wonder at this point is what might have happened if Aurangzeb had not become the ruler of India. What might have happened if Akbar's and Dara Shikoh's ideas were further promulgated into the Indian psyche?

Would the British have ever succeeded in their policy of "Divide & Rule"? Would there be a state called Pakistan? Would terrorism be a problem in India today?

But all I can do is wonder....

2 Degrees Of Knowledge

[Note 1: Hello]

[Note 2: A picture less post :( ]

So, I am with a bunch of friends having a random discussion outside a mall when suddenly the talk turned towards the movie "Paa" for some reason. Now, all of us being good Chennai boys had just barely heard about the movie somewhere and had not ventured to ascertain any more information about it. But then one of us had somehow been dragged along for the movie (yes, there were individuals of the fairer sex in his group) which was why the topic came up in the first place. Then here's how the conversation went....

Guy who went for Paa (GWWFP): Macha, the movie's not so bad da (in a defending manner)

Everyone Else (EE): Oh

GWWFP: Dai, really da...

EE: Oh, Ok

(silence)

EE (Laughter): yedo solla varan paiyan (poor chap is trying to tell something)

GWWFP: It had Paresh Rawal in the movie!

Me(completely out of the blue and for no apparent reason): Oh! Paresh Rawal nice da.. he's an amazing actor!!!!

(This is when EE started to stare at me, obviously with no clue. However for me being from a college that had students from all across the country I was forced to watch a couple of movies such as Golmaal and Garam Masala and to the best of my recollection so were most of the other chaps from Chennai. But unfortunately for me not one of these movies came to my mind at that time or into anyone else's for that matter)

EE(after a slightly longer than required pause) : Yenna UC, xxxxxx ku support ah? Avane kuti ku aga daane poyirkuran hahaha.... (What da UC, why are you supporting xxxxxx? He went just cuz some chicks called him hahaha)

and the conversation continued onto other things

So, what I learnt from this little incident is to always have 2 degrees of knowledge about ANYTHING. One for conversations sake and one for justification. You see, somehow the human mind seems to be programmed to think that having 2 pieces of information about anything in a conversation is enough to make something true! Do test it out!!