Category: Choices

  • 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!

  • Three’s Company?

    As part of the ‘made in india’ series on star movies, ‘split wide open’ was aired yesterday… a good movie, though constantly teetering on the fine line between raw portrayal and vulgarism, primarily because a lot of the movie’s content was sex, and not the kind thats publicly common in india – gay/lesbianism to start off, bigamy, couple sharing the male servant in bed, father in law stepping in coz the son is impotent, pedophily, to name a few……
    raised some questions in my mind – the lil girl involved in the pedophily episode, aged around 10, had been picked up by a guy from the street, and was treated quite well, to the extent that she didnt want to leave when her ‘brother’ tries to rescue her…. now, does she have the freedom to choose her way of life, does the brother have the right to choose right and wrong for her?…. not that the issues are similar, but is it kinda like a kid saying it doesnt want to go to school??
    the other food for thought is if three people feel they are perfectly happy together (would amount to bigamy), is the law justified in proclaiming it illegal?? so if someone finds three to be company, should he/she be given the freedom to live life that way?? all this would boil down to a simple question “should convenience of the majority be the only parameter while setting laws??”
    since we are on the topic, harvard is cool on the sexual explicitness front, so says this article. this article is about 2 guys getting caught for sending porn to a girl in mumbai.
    Two more totally unrelated links, this one describes your character based on alphabet……
    This article throws some light on my favourite actor of all time, mohanlal…guys north of the vindhyas wouldnt know him, except for a cameo in “company”, but for sheer talent, he remains the best i have seen….
    another best i have seen is my oldest and only chat friend, ‘doc’ amrutha, who, on valentine’s day elicited a whole gamut of emotions from me, ranging from absolute surprise to absolute happiness, by sending me flowers. totally totally unexpected, the only thing that could beat that was her dropping in, doc u hear that??
    which brings me to
    manuscrypts trivia
    have still not exhausted my quotes quota, so here goes
    “Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
    And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.” ~ Robert Frost
    “I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” ~ Isaac Newton
    “Life is not lost by dying. Life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.” ~ Stephen Vincent Benet

  • One step at a time, still

    have been wondering about the roller coaster ride called life, much like wonderbug, in her post…….yesterday was another ‘gaze at the stars’ night, so there was lucky ali playing in the background, a pepsi in hand and star gazing, although, being a cloudy night, there were hardly any stars, but the sky served the purpose….
    i am generally cautious by nature, but what i was wondering was that there were so many defining moments in my life so far, where one moment’s thought or decision has effectively set my life on a particular track…..now when i think of it, there are a 101 ( in management lingo) opportunity costs…..
    for example what if i had decided that i would focus on only bio and no maths during my +2, i might have lost a year, i might have been still studying medicine or i might have become a good doctor by now……what if i decided i didnt want to go for a pg, i might have been a programmer…and so, with each action/inaction i have changed all things associated with it, and thereby created or destroyed so many manu’s, and i guess, so also altered the people in my life……according to one space/time theory, they are all existing in parallel universes, leading parallel lives….. my guess, they must all be blogging…. 🙂
    all ye budding storywriters, ram gopal varma is on the lookout, so if you wanna get famous post, read this article
    have got a humour board , thanks to wonderbug…..all u bloggers, its free and quite good…..thanks for tuning in, will leave you with
    manuscrypts trivia
    fwdd by a guy working in tcs
    One day, three consultants, one from Wipro, one from Infosys and one from TCS, went out for a walk. They were old buddies from engg college, and they were together for a college reunion..For no apparent reason, they went into this zoo and passed a monkey. Being in the same business and from the same college, there was a little bit of a peer competition going on between themselves – they couldn’t resist testing themselves against each other – especially the Infosys guy. Said he to the others:”Why don’t we prove who is the best among ourselves?”. Why not, said the other two.The Infoscion said “Let’s have a test. Whoever makes this monkey laugh, works for the best firm”.By mutual agreement, the Infoscion took the first turn. Being a pure logical strategist, the Infoscion tried to make the monkey laugh by telling jokes. The monkey stayed still. As a more practical consultant, the Wipro guy tried to make funny gestures… no good, the monkey stayed put… Now, comes the TCSer… being the practical guy he was always trained to be, he whispered something into the monkey’s ear, and it burst out laughing at him.The other two were astonished. How did this TCS guy manage to beat them?No way they were going to accept defeat so easily.So the Wipro guy said “OK, let’s take another test. Let’s make this monkey cry !!”So there they went again, applying the same methods as before. The Infosys guy narrated sad stories, the Wipro guy made sad gestures, and they failed again…Then, the TCSer again whispered something into the monkey’s ear and lo! It started crying, patting the TCSer’s shoulder!The other two just could not believe their eyes!So the Infoscion said “OK, you’ve won twice. If you can win just this one, we will bow to you. Let’s make this monkey run”. And he barked at the monkey and ordered him to run. Of course, it stayed where it was. The Wipro guy, true to his type, pushed and prodded the monkey – still No go. So…here comes our TCS guy, again, and whispers into the monkey’s ear. The monkey just takes off! It runs and runs as fast as it can, as if it was scared to death!The other two surrendered. Said they: “OK, we give up. You’re the best among us, and you work for the Best firm of the three.But please, please tell us your secret,” they begged him. “Well”, said the TCSer,”The first time I made it laugh, I told it I work for TCS. The next time, I told the monkey how much I get paid…so it started crying. And then I told him that I was here for recruitment!!!”