All the random thoughts

I have been seeing a lot of jokes and comments on married life over a period of time. An elaborate comment is the dire need of the hour, I thought ! So this !! It is not easy to explain marriage - neither it's cause nor it's effect. Attempts will be made while parallely hoping for divine co-operation (Lagnam etc). However, one needs to understand the significance of contracts and their fallouts to understand maritorial (if there is such a word) behavior. I will give an example. Not very long ago I had to buy some furniture. I shopped around and finally nailed down on a shop called "Usha Lexus". The shop guy was very courteous, really was very patient and even ordered tea and other cool drinks while I was looking around the store. Then I made the decision to buy and paid him an advance of 90% of the bill value. And then things changed. Next time around when I was at the shop to check on the delivery, the old courteousness gave way to "Arrey zara intezar karo saab....

Written on 23rd March 2003 The two events that marched towards a final showdown during the past few weeks are there now. In the final stage of consummation. And like most of the people, I gave up thinking about one of them, the now familiar war, just because it was too ruthless and inhuman. A humongous mismatch, with the US-English forces way too powerful and sophisticated and Iraq's sanction ridden decade making them that much more weaker than they already were. It was like a boxing match between Mike Tyson and myself. Will you pay to watch it? Then there was this cricket world cup. A regrouped indian team was performing brilliantly and became a shelter to all, with a state of mind similar to mine, to seek solace. Every time the Indian team won, it gave an excuse to forget the unjust war and its casualities. So we all know that Iraqi lives aren't as valuable anyway. This war started when the first one ended with all those senseless sanctions punishing the already troubled peop...

I have nothing against marriage or match making. I wrote this out of a true story twisting it here and there. The original was actually more positive. So, all of you, do not take it to heart whether you are married or single. Just laugh it off, if you can. *I am one of those who believe that technology is not necessarily something that helps a better life. In fact, I see it as an impediment to better life, shutting people from people and essentially sabotaging the age old principle, that of man being a social animal. So in the age when cable TV and internet chat rooms define character of a person, there is not much scope left for a variety among people, not only across countries but across the planet. Greatness of character, as we know it, is sure to become a rarity and might even be extinct before we even realize what hit us. I say this just to make sure that even if I end up sounding like a techno-lover towards the end of this mail, you will know that it is not actually true. So we h...

It starts at the airport. The jazziness, the lights and a promise of heaven are all at display once you get off your flight in Las Vegas. No one expects any less and people seem extremely happy to have escaped the constrained monotony of their daily lives to have a taste of freedom. I had come to Vegas for some expo and that means work. The true taste of Vegas was not on offer unless of course, if I could make short work of my work. That was not to be but the good thing was, staying at a Casino hotel and being a victim of jet-lag provided me with an opportunity to have a cup of coffee at the Casino restaurant every morning at 300 AM, a rather Godly hour for Vegas. And thus, I assumed, it was nothing but a twist of fate that allowed me to have another ring side view of life as it unfolded at a Casino. Now what all this has got to do with Foxes and Crows might not be an invalid question to ask at this point in time. And it also might not be too bad an idea to bring into context the educa...

My journey from Omaha was quite peaceful as I reached Chennai in near perfect health, physically and mentally. If anyone asks me about this journey they'll probably get an earful about waiting in airports. In all I have waited at various airports across the world for 21 hours, in addition to some 4 hours wait inside the airplane. I waited for 2 hours at the Eppley airfield in Omaha before I actually rushed to catch my flight. In fact, we had to knock on the door of the gate as we were under the impression that plane was going away leaving its most loyal passenger to wait some more. Except for the good looking flight attendant of the American Eagle flight, nothing interesting happened as we landed at the O'Hare Int'l airport in Chicago. This was at about noon local time and my flight to India was a good 8 hours later. Phase 2 of waiting at airports included reflecting on my two months stay in Omaha, reading a novel by Billie Letts,'where the heart lies', smiling beni...

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 ...