All the random thoughts

I do indeed search for instances of commercial sense taking over common sense. It is fun, it is sad and given the world we live in, it is not all that bad. So then, there I was. With one suitcase in hand and a laptop laden backpack, I stepped out of the delightful lightrail that brought me from Beaverton Transit Center (BTC) to Portland International Airport in little more than an hour. A fascinating journey that took me through the city center and gave a glimpse of the early morning traffic, while reassuringly avoiding all of it. Equally fascinating would be my flight from Portland to Sanjose, I told myself. I had never been on an aircraft run by the exotic sounding "Alaskan airlines" for one and then the prospect of meeting so many of my dear friends in the bay area was exciting. So it was with lot of anticipation that I brought myself to face the "help yourself" checkin machine of the Alaskan airlines. With little effort and lot of skepticism about my technical c...

I come from a big small school in Hyderabad, Andhra pradesh. The school went by the name "Swami Vivekananda Centenary High School" and was a fascinating place. It was small because the cost of education was minimal and affordable to all the middle class families aspiring to good education for their kids. It was big because it had (at least during the time I studied there) very good human beings as teachers, large play grounds and an elaborate ritual to begin the day with. The ritual included a unique prayer praising Sri Ramakrishna, followed by Jana Gana Mana and finally, for reasons unknown, some drill with one kid yelling "Stand at Ease" and "Attention" for all the other kids to play around with their feet in amusement. This ritual in the play ground was followed by a walk back to the class and a loud reading of the ' pledge' in each class room and then, the day commenced. If the head master had an announcement to make, he'd walk into the ...

We will attempt to make sense. Of every thing. Of the statements that people make when they are probed - "I did what made sense". So, here is an independent attempt to make sense. To make sense of things that already seem to make sense and question that sense in making. Like the recent mumbai blasts and the supposed resilience of the mumbaikars. It makes sense to rush back to work the day after bomb blasts because, they say, we are resilient. What's this resilience that leads to apathy? Is this a kind of oppium to desensitize one to the grief and tragedy? Resilience in wake of a natural disaster I can understand. You cannot fight nature and if you really want to, you could do so at your own peril. But resilience in wake of a man made monstrosity? Why? What is the point we are trying to prove? That it is OK to live with bomb blasts because we cannot fight them? Is common sense giving way to commercial sense? What is this sense all about that is being made around ...