Category: Flawsophy

  • Fear Factor

    Nope, AXN is not paying me for the publicity (as if)..hehe.., oops, i am not paying them royalty either…oh well, the balance of life… the disclaimer – this post is also on the lines of some previous posts, in terms of general direction, that is – why we do the things we do…..
    in one of my previous posts, i had written about sex being the principal driver of our actions…but though the arguments were compelling, i realise that there are some times where the argument draws a blank…
    for example, as kids, we dont have conscious thoughts of sex, maybe it exists in some form in the sub conscious, but definitely not as overt feelings..
    so i looked for one emotion that at least equals sex in terms of being a driver – fear…
    from birth to death , there are zillions of situations where fear has propelled us to do the things we did…
    cry coz you were afraid you wouldn’t get fed…..
    ate the food coz you were afraid of the big bad wolf that would come to get you, if you didnt eat
    refused to go to school coz you were afraid of the bullies, teachers etc
    didnt go into a dark room coz you wera afraid of ghosts
    did the homework coz you were afraid of being punished
    insisted on the cricket gear coz you were afraid you wouldnt be allowed to play without it
    took a career path coz you were afraid of being called a failure
    thought hundred times about proposing to your girl/boyfriend coz you were afraid of rejection
    smoked/boozed coz you were afraid you wouldnt match up to your peer group’s standards otherwise
    thought hundred times about proposing to your girl/boyfriend coz you were afraid of commitment
    believed in God coz you were afraid of His wrath
    let your dreams meander away coz you were afraid that if you followed them, your life would meander away
    didnt help an accident victim coz you were afraid that it would take too much of you time/energy
    developed multiple masks coz you were afraid to show your real personality
    thought twice about posting this coz i was afraid people would think of my line of thought as an obsession.. 🙂

    all this and much much more… maybe if i could only stop being afraid, i could be what i wanted to be and do all the things i wanted to do.. and then FDR’s words rings across my mind -” there is nothing to fear, but fear itself”
    but what you dont have to fear is
    manuscrypts trivia
    a link thats a must see…only instructions are to take the pointer to the guy’s nose after the site is fully loaded

    a shot in the arm for indian sports (pun intended?)
    and a great forward
    I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003 & 2004. Because of your kindness:
    * I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it’s good for removing toilet stains.
    * I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.
    * I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.
    * I don’t leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.
    * I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and the I get a phone bill from hell with
    calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.
    * I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get sick from the rat feces and urine.
    * When I go to parties, I don’t look at any girl no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.
    * I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Funny
    that girl, she’s been 7 since 1993…)
    * I went bankrupt from bounced checks that I made expecting the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL were supposed to send me when I
    participated in their special e-mail program would arrive soon.
    * My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.
    *Made myself sick trying to call divya singh (Siemens employee) who needs help for her hubby suffering from Lung cellular cancer
    especially when she was not married!!
    IMPORTANT NOTE:
    If you do not make this into an e-mail and send it to at least 1200 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will crap on your head today at 5:30pm 😉

  • Locating Driver..Please Wait

    Someone recently told me that 98% of the things we do, are triggered by our sex drive, however remote the association is. since this was said by a guy who is pretty serious about this kinda research, i dont think its a hokey pokey statement.i also asked him if it was done by some freud fanatic, but he said that research also showed that it is applicable to about 90% of the people.
    now, since i have come across this bit of info, i have been doing a bit of self analysis- of course the details are classified..hehe, but on the whole (no pun), i dont fall into the majority..now, is that good or bad ?? :)…and it also makes me wonder what actually are the drivers behind what we do and therefore, to an extent, what we are and why we are….
    love, hatred, kindness, jealousy, fear, joy sadness… i realise that i have to apply tremendous pressure on my brains (wisecrack-ers will be executed) to get more emotions..which is kind of funny, because i feel something or the other all the time (shit, this is the problem with writing about sex, there’s always a hidden pun…as a general disclaimer, puns are not intentional and any resemblance is purely coincidental)… back from digressing, which of these emotions trigger us the most…what is the principal driver…
    i had a feeling that money could be the principal driver, until i realised that there are two aspects in this – one, a lot of people are learning to detach themselves from money, and i dont think these guys have any such detachment thoughts about sex, and two, i also realise that (as the cliche goes)
    money is not an end in itself, it is only the means to a different end, and if that end is pleasure, then pleasure in what form? a typical example, if one gets rich, buys villas and sleek cars, how much of the pleasure is out of owning it, isn’t it a pleasure of knowing that it
    is bound to attract a whole lot of people…………..
    sex is everywhere-movie themes, corporate life, hell, even the olympics… is it that it has always been there, but we are talking about it now….but more importantly, is it the principal driver for 90% of the people on this planet… i honestly dont know..
    as for me, i am still locating driver, please wait…..
    and in
    manuscrypts trivia
    a good fwd-
    In a ship the Generals of three nations were traveling with their soldiers. They started the topic that whose soldier had more of guts. The American general called for one of his men and told him to jump down the ship and take a round swimming around the moving ship.The soldier did as he was commanded and the general boasted of by saying “See the guts!”.
    Now the German general called out for one of his men and asked him to take two similar rounds.The soldier did as he was told. When he came back from the water the German said “See the guts “.
    Now the Indian General called out for his most courageous man and asked him to take five similar rounds.The soldier promptly replied, “Tere baap ka naukar hooon kya?????.” At this the general proudly said “See the guts”

    PS i wanted to title it “sex, anybody?” but i thought my discerning audience would find it distasteful, realise my ambitious plans of self discovery through sex 😉 and i dont want to get into trouble like a certain mr.bhandarkar!!..hehe……xxxxxxxxxsexxxxxxxxxx

  • Any Me

    Aunt May (not mine, Peter Parker’s) says that there is a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest,gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride… my take is that there is also an enemy within all of us….and both of them are me… and at any point in time i could be any me. the one that i call the ‘enemy’ is the one
    that gets jealous when something good happens to someone else
    sighes in relief when something bad happens to someone else
    is willing to stab (front, back, anywhere) to get ahead
    will hog for a grand but think twice about giving Rs.5 to the old woman at the corner.
    tries to get away with anything, so long as that is possible
    copied in school, college etc (hehe)
    passes comments with the sole intention of hurting people
    amongst a host of other things which have been conveniently forgotten……

    we build a sense of right and wrong based on our inherent nature and our experiences, but these are extremely subjective..whch brings me to queries on the enemy –
    is it my enemy? have i played a part in creating it? does it make not having it? if i dont have it, will i still be me? without it, will i be able to survive in this world ? or is it the enemy that makes me what i am – human!!

    Aunt May has also said that being a hero means that sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams….. my take on it, is that worth it …..for any me??
    and hey, this is interesting news, was chatting with a couple of rediff guys about their proposal for marketing our brand on their site
    and we chatted about blogs too..and they said that though not immediately, at some point of time there would be a payment factor in blogging, which although i knew was bound to happen, i do hope is a long way off
    and in
    manuscrypts trivia
    while on aunt may and parker, you might like to check this out
    and a good fwd
    India and Pakistan recently realized that, if they continued political tension, they would someday end up destroying each other. So they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with a dog fight.
    The negotiators agreed that each country would take five years to develop the best fighting dog they could. The dog that won the fight would earn its country the right to rule Kashmir. The losing side would have to lay down its arms.
    The Pakistanis found the biggest, meanest Dobermans and Rottweilers in the world. They bred them together and then crossed their offspring with the meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest, strongest puppy from each litter, killed all the other puppies and fed the lone ! dog all of the milk. They used steroids and trainers in their quest for the perfect killing machine, until, after the five years were up, they had a dog that needed iron prison bars on his cage. Only the trainers could handle this beast.
    When the day of the big fight arrived, the Indians showed up with a strange animal: It was a nine-foot-long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Indians. No one else thought this weird animal stood a chance against the growling beast in the Pakistani camp. The bookies predicted that Pakistan would win in less than a minute. The cages were opened. The dachshund waddled toward the centre of the ring. The Pakistani dog leapt from his cage and charged the giant wiener-dog. As he got to within an inch of the Indian dog, the dachshund opened its jaws and swallowed the Pakistani beast in one bite. There was nothing left but a small bit of fur from the killer dog’s tail.
    The Pakistanis approached the Indians, shaking their heads in disbelief.We do not understand. Our top scientists and breeders worked for five years with the meanest, biggest Dobermans and Rottweilers. They developed a killing machine.
    Really? the Indians replied. We had our top plastic surgeons working for five years to make an alligator look like a dachshund…

  • Whack – not white, not black and definitely not grey

    This post stems from a lot of questions that i find asking myself… these questions, among many other things have made me realise that right and wrong are most usually a matter of perspective….not just ours, but a whole lot of others’…and sometimes it just cant be as simple as me deciding whats right and whats wrong….about my decisions as well as others’… too often i catch myself getting judgemental… which , in retrospect, doesnt seem fair..this is perhaps a way of reminding myself… so, here are some whacks!!
    – the guy crossing the road in a hurry to get to office/home and the guy speeding down the road in a hurry to get to office/home (this is india, so zebra crossings..well, u decide)
    – the organisation cutting the internet to unclog bandwidth and the individual who checks his personal mail in office
    – the young parents who are conscious of their careers and the child who doesnt get enough attention because the parents focus on their careers
    – the bribes we pay so that our work gets done faster and the voices against corruption
    – the parents who want to have a say in who their child marries and the child who wants a say about his / her life
    – downloading music from ‘pirate’ sites and voices against music piracy
    – shouting at a waiter coz he spilt something on you and the waiter who’s only human and can make mistakes
    – children who cant make enough time for their parents and parents who crave attention from their kids in their last days
    – hanging the guy who rapes and kills women and the guy, who genuinely repents
    – you, who come here to read a good post, and me, who cant think of anything good to write…;)
    we all have our takes in all this, but are we right or are we wrong??
    meanwhile in
    manuscrypts trivia
    Seen during a conference: FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN’T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR
    Message on a leaflet: IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS
    aur ek rashtr bhasha main,
    Ek kavi shaadi ke baad biwi se bola: Aaj se tum hi meri kavita ho, prerna ho, bhawana ho, Kalpna ho!
    Patni: Mere liye bhi aaj se aap hi dinesh ho, rohit ho, rakesh ho!

  • Word’s Worth

    i will not be getting poetic….yes, thank god…:)…. this is more to do with a movie i saw last weekend.. “The word is Lakshya”, so is the movie… Farhan Akhtar, i think, is using emotions he felt during different phases of his life, in his movies, and that increases the ‘reality effect’… i am not good at reviews, so i’ll just say its definitely worth a watch…
    Hrihik Roshan’s internal conflicts made me think of the concept of an individual’s ‘lakshya’…. that which manifests  itself in different forms, from answers to uncles’/aunts’ questions of “what do you want to be when you grow up”, to the “career objective” in the resume…and that which propels us to do a whole lot of things , some for good/ some for worse?..and is it, finally, worth all that we do for it… so whats the word’s worth?
    the needs that mom and dad gave up so that the child got the best education, the agony of learning the multiplication tables, playing time spent in studying (or made to spend studying..hehe) to retain the first rank in class, the heartache when one realises that music/dumb charades/quizzing/scrabbles/monopoly/cricket are not viewed upon as conventional viable careers or rather , the heartache when one decides to be conventional, having to change ‘lakshya’ at some point of time, disappointing loved ones when one decides to do an unconventional thing for once, playing mindgames and having mindgames played on you in the corporate world, pressure tactics from above and to below so that dadlines are met, losing friends and family because of time constraints, losing friends and family and not being able to be there even to say goodbye…..
    and then, after all the gains and losses, judging yourself and wondering what is true joy- having a happy family, being able to see smiling people, sharing the smile with them, dying when their thoughts about you die; or appearing on the cover of “Time’, being the role model for millions, and perhaps a legend, and therefore almost immortal……or something in between, and whether an in-between state is possible … wondering whether you had it in you and you let it go…wondering whether you had a ‘lakshya’ or not, ever…..and wondering whether it mattered…ever..
    and thinking that floyd had rightly sung, albeit in a different context “And did you exchange , A walk on part in the war, For a lead role in a cage? “…also thinking that you thought the same kinda lines, but floyd is famous and you are not…hehe… and wondering how much the word is worth and how much is worth the word……..
    and wondering if this should do for

    manuscrypts trivia
    a quote
    “Galaxies…numerous, like the grains of sand on a seashore…yet our vanity reigns supreme ! ” ~ Unknown
    and seen
    In a Laundromat:AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT.
    Notice in a farmer’s field:THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.