Making love out of nothing at all

Make love, not war, I read.

So I decided to make love

I thought over carefully, evaluated options, examined each one with the delicacy of a lover, imagined the feel of each against my caressing fingers and finally, decided upon one for the sheer silky touch.

It turned out to be an old one, already used by many others, but then, that is how I like them best.

But wait, the setting has to be just perfect each time. So I proceeded to my bedroom, threw back the sheets, placed a glass of chocolate and some nuts within easy reach, dimmed the lights to just perfect levels and switched on some Tchaikovsky.

There, who could resist this now?

Time to go and fetch my companion for the night.

Finally I got a chance to see who had impressed me most with their feel if not anything else. It turned out to be an old copy of "Oliver's Story". So, I settled back to a lovely night filled with intense emotion and pleasure. Aaaah! Now this is true heaven.

This is not a title

Last post on November 1st, and then, another after 29 days! Sigh! I must be growing old.
This post has no particular aim in sight, but since I am here, I might as well post.
So I am gonna do this experiment thing. I am gonna see how long I can go without food. Water is allowed but no "food" - not in a solid form, not in a liquid form. Lemme see how it goes.
I am set upon learning how to do the French Twist and after some 40 tries, made a rather untidy and ugly looking one. Still, some French Twist is better than no French Twist. So I am gonna keep at it and see how it turns out.

A year in Europe

On account of being one gadget crazy woman (nice term to use! Woman. Wow), I had decided that I just had to have the video Nano iPod and hence bought one at the cost of almost becoming bankrupt. And one thing led to another and even before I realized it, I had become a podcast addict. It was while getting my daily fix of podcasts that I first cam across "A Year in Europe"

ayearineurope is a website and it is this audio travelouge kind of thing. It is about this couple who decided to give up their jobs and sell their house and give up everything and go around Europe for a year. Not as your average run of the mill kind of tourists but as good travellers.

By the time I discovered it, they had already finished their tour and were back home and from what I gather, have now set up their own travel shop but listening to them was so much fun.

All this had set me thinking and then it struck me. Here they are, these two people, who because of their itch to see the world, gave up everything they had and just set out. How many of us can do that right now?

I am twenty-four now and fresh out of B-School, all confused and trying to figure out what I want to do after this and where to go after this and I have already given up on so many of my dreams. There are so many uncertainities in life like who do I work for finally and which place do I make my home in and all that and in the process had forgotten all about my dreams. The big ones and the small ones. It is all just so easy to forget them and fall into the daily rhythm of life and then look back and think how foolish you were to even dare to dream such dreams

But no, I am not let it going to happen to me. I am going to get all my dreams back and start living them.

PS: I know this doesnt technically come under October 31, but still since I aint asleep yet, it is still the post for October 31, 2007. Being an insomniac is no fun at all sadly.

Carbon Offsets

Carbon Offsets seem to be the latest Western disease doing the rounds. Simply put, carbon offsetting is paying for your sins through supposedly doing good elsewhere instead of stop sinning in the first place.The argument put forward here seems to be that since it is almost impossible to stop adding Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere, you might mitigate the effect by enhancing carbon sequestration elsewhere. This way you could also add value down the chain to the locals too. Sadly, this thread of thought has many one too many knots in it.

The question whether these so called offset measures are actually unto any good at all is the biggest party popper.

Suppose you are a fossil fuel guzzling steel making unit. Now since either your conscience torments you about your personal contribution to tons of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere or more likely, the environmental watchdogs might tear you to bits, you decide to offset your carbon production by planting thousands of trees in say Rwanda. So Rwanda finds itself covered with a lot more trees and everybody should be patting each other on their backs. However, not everything is right in the state of Rwanda. It might so happen that a few thousand tribes who went to sleep one night dreaming about tomorrow's money from the firewood and other forest produce might wake up to find themselves surrounded by funny looking saplings (they might actually be Eucalyptus, but remember, the average Rwanda guy wouldn't know one if it went for a picnic with him) and their livelihood gone.

So then after all, Carbon offsets might not be all milk and honey as they seem. A number of offsetting methods exist but nevertheless, none of them have been found to be faultless as the entire Carbon cycle is yet to be unravelled completely. Climate change is a complex and dynamic process because of which each case needs to be studied in specific.

(to be followed by a few case in points about Carbon Offsetting methods)

Cabbages and Kings

The other day, while following the soap opera of the Argentinian Presidential elections on the Beeb, a particular question struck me as a wee bit off key. One article stated that Argentinians had, in the recent past decided to boycott the Tomato. It went on to explain further that since the Government was unable to control inflation of Tomato prices, the people were very angry and wanted it to do something about the problem at hand.

This incident reminded me of a not so different situation some time ago in India where apparently the spiraling costs of the ubiquitous Onion brought about the downfall of the incumbent in Power.

Now all these things set me thinking, and then it occurred to me, what would happen if the price of cabbage was to head north? Of course, one might pull in complex parameters like demand supply economics and also not so complex parameters like the horrid taste of the vegetable and say that such a situation just cannot happen in a million years but assuming it did,then apart from the obvious conclusion about the daft taste in food of the people involved it also leads to the interesting proposition that it might be an indication that monarchy is on the rise there.

Though at first glance the whole thing might seem a bit silly, on closer inspection, a whole complicated set of linkages could be identified pointing to the aforementioned conclusion.The logic of the argument is thus as follows.

(to be continued as according the general whims and fancies of the author)

Yet another vow taking a bow wow

Had promised to one number body that I shall make one number blog post per day. So this is the blog post of the day. This might not strictly qualify as a blog post but thought I could sneak up a little cheat on Blah when he isn't looking. Genius me!

Ting Tong and Ta Ta

Ms. Van Winkle decides to wake up

I can claim that I was away contemplating the new look I should be giving my blog. Since you can see that it does look completely different, you will just have to agree that I was being absolutely truthful. Alright, this does put the speed of my thinking process slightly before the speed of evolution, but heck, at least I was not lying and also got a new look for my blog in the bargain.

As I am too lazy right now to write (shut up and stop simpering Blah), I am gonna mention what I thought I could write about so that the next time I am not too lazy to write, I can write about this.

1. Alan Greenspan
2. Sub Prime Mortgage crisis
3. World War II
4. H2G2

Ta ta!

Pearls floweth

The audacity of human life is surprising.

Of all things depressing, the most disturbing is the cheapness of a human life.

How does it feel to have a full and happy life with family and friends and happiness and money one moment and death and crassness the next? How does it feel to die like a dog on the road, to be run over with nobody wanting to stop and help you die better?

How does it feel to be born in a land where the most important thing is making sure you live to see another day? How does it feel to wake up the next day to the clack-clack of guns clucking like chickens in the yard, to see your people being ripped to shreds like waste tissue?

How does it feel when the person you love says no to an ever lasting relationship because you are colored and that is a sin? How does it feel when you pour your love into a bottle and give it, only to see it thrown away?

How does it feel to live a life in a world where death comes so cheap?

How does it feel to watch your brethren be slaughtered, all in the name of a benevolent God? How does it feel to bring a child into a land where two people from two brothers cannot live together?

The cup of champagne overfloweth with pearls it cannot contain no more

Who am I?

There was once a little girl. She grew up happy and nice. Then she met somebody. Well she did not exactly fall in love as this is not yet another story but something happened. And she changed. Not that she liked the change. But it did happen. Then her happiness died. She was so lonely she wished she was dead (but she was not). She then decided that she will never let anybody change her. She will be who she is. But she did not know how to find happiness again. It was dead. So now, when will she die?

Happy Birthday, Mr.Blogger

Happy Birthday Mr.Blogger. You turned eight today. And my blog has a new template :-)

Frailty, thy name is definitely not woman!

First things first, Shakespeare needs a whack on the head. The dude could not decide whether to love his women or hate 'em.(What else can you expect from the guy who came up with "to be or not to be" anyway?)

Without getting into all the sermons and the fights about the superiority of a particular gender or the lack of brains of another, my point is NOT that women are superior to men, but it is that women, definitely, are not inferior to men.

Women-bashing has always been a favorite bone to lick with men (and sometimes, other women too, I admit that).

Think what a Venusian would think if the only literature from Earth they could get their hands on would be Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary or Hamlet! Or even Gone with the Wind, or why, even a Wuthering Heights!

I am more than sure that their dictionary would read something like this-

Woman:A weepy creature prone to dependence for existence on a superior and an always-right species called Men. Comes in various flavors such as extra-wimpy(reference:Hamlet), extra-slutty(reference:Gone with the Wind) or even extra-tragic(reference:Anna Karenina).

On the other hand, I say bully for Scarlet O'Hara and her willingness to do anything to ensure her survival, bully for Madame Bovary and her love of fun!

And for all those men sneering at women and shoes, hah! U dont just have the brains to meet the right kind! After all, who would want to obsess about just shoes when you have tons of others to obsess after too?Hasn't "Do not put all eggs in one basket" been a kind of been-long-around thing by now?

A guide to making your very own sinner

First, you make a new report like this , then you very conveniently say something like this and then while people howl, look at it all and wisely, shake your head and say nothing, all in the name of "Right to Free Speech"

The above recipe will make you a very delicious and instant sinner, and with just the right amount of effort too !

If you were to ask me, I would say the whole thing is like a rubber band in some very bored hands. Thankfully, mine are occupied helping my nose blow gracefully

Hah! I am back!

I am back with a bang (literally).

I now have internet access at home and so the stream of my very opinianated opinions (it is my blog, remember?) shall start pouring again like fine bitter with some nice topping of good froth. (Shit, I am thirsty now)

All I have is a 128 kbps connection with no download/upload limit. I know it is nothing great, but still better than nothing.

So, along with eternally stuck up traffic and buses with people packed like sardines, I now have a slow internet connection :-)

Of real imaginary dragons and other things

Started (and finished reading Book 1) with the Discworld thing yesterday and reading it left me with a feeling of Deja Vu (still have not figured out how to get the accents through the keyboard).

Half way through the book, I realized that I had read all the things in the book somewhere else earlier!Not from one book in particular but many other books.For example there was this thing about the dragons talking to the riders through their minds. This got me thinking about the movie Eragon where exactly the same thing happens. Even the terms were the same! Like the dragon rider thingie.

There were plenty of other such incidents which I am unable to recollect right now (this post shall be updated as soon as I manage to make a list of all such details). So finally, my pondering boils down to this. Has fantasy its own language and syntax where dragons always talk to their masters through their minds and once a dragon and rider are paired, they are done so for a lifetime and also that if the rider is hurt, the dragon avenges it? I dont think plagiarism is the issue here.

The issue here methinks is that fantasy is evolving into a a new world by itself, with its own set of accepted standards and syntax. Hmmmmm...food for thought now!

J'aime le Francais ! :-)

J'ai decide que je vais devenir francais.Mais mon Francais est tres mauvais en ce moment :-(

Boy! Was that tough!Just realized how bad my French is! Gotta start working in it though. It is going to be Viva Alliance Francaise for moi!

Made up my mind now. Am going to stay put in Calcutta for a year at least, at the same job now. Have some evil plans cooking up.

Mix and Match

Here I am, sitting at my desk and reading about hedge funds, while the rain pours itself outside my window.

It has been raining for all its worth in Calcutta since the past many days now and day after day, fewer people are turning up for work, blaming it happily on roads that have suddenly turned into spiteful,growling gushes ! Thankfully, I am yet to share their fate. After all, who would want to be holed up at not even your own place with nothing to do, when at least you can come to work and have a gala time in general?

Wonder why people complain about going to work at all!I mean, it is so much fun. It all is a matter of keeping yourself entertainingly engaged I suppose.

Alan Johnston has been finally freed (notice that the banner has gone off from here?)and by no less than by the Hamas! Anybody else finding this funny the way I am? What next? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles end up in some Chinese restaurant in soup? Hee hee!

And I have discovered my life's purpose- to cook. I just love food. And my Michelin starred restaurant has just come one more step closer to it's resolution in my determinedness. For it to come out in brick and mortar, all of you mortals will have to wait a few more years though!

Sheer beauty or sheer poetry?

If it wasn't for TipsyIpshy, I wouldn't have discovered Neruda until much later. This is not only my fav but her's too.

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Author: Pablo Neruda
Online Poetry at PoetryFeast.com

Feminist who?

I am not a feminist.

Sure pink is for girls and women are superior to men. But aren't those facts, not perspectives?What is it with people anyway that they cannot separate these two?

If I say I don't want to wear dresses, like to ride motorcycles, love the work of a certain Woolf, prefer Marlboros over Virgina Slims and consider Mechanical Engineers as God's Gift to Humankind (and yes, I strongly prefer gender neutral words)or adore Brad Pitt, fall for men who have the old world charm left in them,think after-shave to be the most seductive scent on Earth, I get called a feminist, pseudo-feminist or just a silly fluff.

Why should a body be called something for stating facts?

If I believe that the Sun is the center of the Milky Way or that Morrison was a Rock God, do I get called a Sunist or a Doorist?But aren't those facts, not perspectives?What is it with people anyway that they cannot separate these two?

So much for these Male Chauvinist Pigs(MCP thing, you know)and their obsession with taxonomy.

As for me, I am happy to sit back,flip through Top Gear while the curlers do their job and separate my facts from my perspectives. Champagne anyone?

PS:The picture is from a page by jini something. This is as far as the acknowledgment goes

Just another say in paradise

The day dawned Brown today and the bush-Poodle might evolve into a bush-Doberman now. Not that I love one dog a little more and another a little less. Just that dogs should remain where they like to be- at the feet.

And since this one is not on dogs, Brown or otherwise, I will let it be.

An American manages to wolf down 5 Hamburgers per second and makes a world record. The skinny kid from Sudan could have done it too, with his big belly and all, only that Capitol Hill might raise a hue and cry about giving visas to skinny kids from Sudan when there are plenty of domestic hamburger-wolfers around. You know, the whole thing about protecting domestic jobs and all.

And since this one is not on Hills or hams, Capitol or otherwise, I will let it be.

The iPhone is out and Alan Johnston is going to be slaughtered. People are not morbid. Thank the Lord. Google with all its analytic truthfulness points out to that. Check out the number of times these two have been "Googled" for.

And since this one is not on people, morbid or materialistic, I will let it be otherwise.

After all, for me, it is just another say in paradise.