• If its ok with them…

    it seems the quest for happiness is dogging everyone, (read wonderbug’s post today)…like i wrote a couple of days back, ‘true happiness’ is so dynamic, that we only have just enough time to experience it, so defining it is way way off….Carrying on from yesterday, with most ‘sparks’ from the book i am reading now…..i doubt if our generation can produce a bhagat singh…..who would die for a cause…. just a thought, who knows what his intentions were, maybe he measured his happiness by his martyr status, and made a gamble….but i doubt.. i am still a fan, and believe in the nobility of his intentions…we have produced individuals who would endure for a cause they believe in, the cause is usually money…the college dropout who is the richest guy in the world, the petro giants whose dad started out as a petrol pump attendant in yemen… only stating the rule, not the exceptions…. not taking anything away from their achievements,but the motive..and so it is that most heroes today are industrial giants, and not gandhis and nehrus…again the rule, not the exception….so , society has changed in terms of aspirations and therefore motives…i am not talking of sailors who went in search of treasures, i am talking of commonfolk…where did it all start, hmm, not here, though we had our tatas and birlas, the industrial revolution really happened in europe and america…is that why we always look for endorsements from there…why we compare our quality of life with them, love the coke, mtv lifestyle…dont mistake me, i am not talking swadeshi here, just wondering….prof. amartya sen lauded kerala yesterday for its high life expectancy, low infant mortality rate etc..but with all that, kerala is on a downhill now, the attitude hasnt undergone much change…kerala does have all the indeces of quality of life in a position, where it compares favorably, even with the west…but…..to be continuedmeanwhile, all you guys interested in a kind of lateral thinking, check out this have a great weekend, everyone, not before you check out
    manuscrypts trivia
    “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”~ Albert Einstein

  • Its all about money, honey?

    That was borrowed from the tagline of indiainfoline.com, i dont see it much these days, wonder if they still use it…but that also is what i am going to write on today…i am reading ‘india unbound’ by gurcharan das(see my medialist), almost finished it…and i am able to relate yesterday’s post to some of the stuff in the book…so, will continue on the path….but i believe, i will be backtracking by the time i finish the entire series..today’s generation, as compared to the ones earlier, gets a lot of money related happiness, mostly because of rising consumerism, which has almost enveloped the more developed countries and is rapidly aadvancing in india…we like to have things literally at our fingertips, and the mouse is a powerful tool.. we order books, gifts and many other things under the sun online, it definitely is convenient….the mobile is also a powerful tool, most of the restaurants here, have introduced home delivery, again the fingertips can get the job done….result of all this is a decrease in the kind of social interaction we grew up with…and whether it is online purchases or home delivery, there is definitely an extra price we pay for it……the BPOs (call centers, in regular parlance) that are spreading like a virus, not necessarily with the same dire consequences, hehe, they are either making calls or receiving calls,giving customers from far flung corners of the globe, info about a variety of products and services….so we have convenience, better economies coz these call center employees make good money, so more disposable income….but are we losing ourselves in the turn of the merry go round, why do we have waves of nostalgia? why do we turn to our blogs as outlets? a query, can our generation produce a bhagat singh or an aung san suu kyi, who would endure purely for what they believe in …..we have, but in a different mould, more on that tomorrow…. leaving you with
    manuscrypts trivia
    ‘If somebody gives you a free ticket for a tour, you cannot fight with the person because of the troubles you meet while on the journey.’….leena chandavarkar, on life

  • Is this evolution?

    i read a post in someone’s blog yesterday, i think it was wonderbug (new entrant in bloggers park), old post but good food for thought, the subject was “Has our self-created society and its by-products ruined our personal peace and happiness?”…this is my version of the same argument…. to start with, the concept of society, as we see it, is extremely dynamic….every time we say ‘times have changed’, society is implicitly present….at the same time personal peace and happiness is a subjective issue and itself changes with time….an example materialistically, i was happy with cassettes 5 years back, now i hunt for cds….it makes me happier…in terms of other happiness, 5 years back, i could stare at stars and feel peace, now the scene would also include my wife..hehe…change again….
    i will again choose social interaction as an arbitrary parameter to judge the changes in society, judge is not the appropriate word, coz the judgement is too subjective to be of any use….mobiles, the internet etc has reduced interaction as we used to know it, but it has also brought in chat and blog communities, which transcend geographical barriers, good, you say?, but it also has brought down long chats with siblings, neighbourhood friends etc… isnt that bad?..a balance, but how many of us are able to achieve it, so, is it all that good, or all that bad??joint families are almost extinct, nuclear families are in…extended families are also a minor statistic…i can go to all the entertainment spots with just my wife for company , happy ? yes….but the sense of security and the good feeling arising out of the dependancies and mutual harmony and sometimes lil disharmonies in a joint family is thrown out of the window? a balance again, sorry boss, in this case it is almost impossible….
    yes, it is not possible to get everything in life, but it is also not possible to not think about opportunity costs and ‘what might have beens’…a kid born today will not miss the joy of being cuddled and pampered by grandparents, because he might not experience it at all, the grandparents will not miss pizza coz they have not experienced it at all….i will miss both 🙂 …..but thats not something exclusive to me or my generation…lucky kids?? because they can buy most of the stuff that gives them happiness..or lucky grandparents ?? coz they are happy with the simple pleasures in life…..whos to decide??thats life, the most undefinable, unpredictable, unfathomable thing i have come across……almost done, but not before
    manuscrypts trivia
    got it from one of my egroups…F-aiku: A Japanese PoemI tried my hand at poetry the other day. It’s called “Happiness”. And it goes like this…Free beer,Naked women,Paid vacation,Free beer,Happiness.Some of my poet friends suggested I turn it into haiku. A haiku, basically, is a Japanese poem that contains 17 syllables. Mine had 16. And no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t make it a haiku. So now it reads like this…Free beer,Naked women,Paid vacation,Free beer,Happiness.Fuck haiku.:o)- vikramwww.vikramchauhan.com

  • A whole lot of crap

    i am not flattered by the attention i seem to be getting from miscellaneous poeple on the net, who send me mails everyday, telling me to-take pills, so i can reduce 40 kilos in 5 days-again take pills, so i can increase the size of my u-know-what-gamble in online casinos-date girls(thankfully no pills for that, guess they thought my natural charm would work)-eat viagra in wholesale measuresamong a whole lot of other things.. i was generally getting irritated because they keep coming even when i have it blocked under spam, so i was generally reading about this menace, when i came across this article, wish someone did it here….i have a feeling da vinci is rolling around in his grave, you can know why if you click here.
    now, a general question as food for thought, are you comfortable with the pace at which your general existence goes, would you like it slower or faster…i just want to know whether i am a majority or minority statistic….generally i fit into the former, coz whether i am checking out mutual funds or online railway reservations, i usually find a rediff article on it, in 3-4 days….kinda deflating sometimes, coz i get into it , thinking i am part of a select few…hehe.. reminds me of a phrase, “you are unique, just like everyone else”will leave you with
    manuscrypts trivia
    “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”~ Anonymous

  • Bollywood and the big picture

    thats the basic premise i am going to post on today, coz i caught up with a lil of my backlog in that area, saw khwaish and qayamat…so will bore you with mini reviews….khwaish is a very down to earth movie, totally unpretentious, and if it had the right hero and good promos, instead of harping on the smooches (which werent all that good), it might just have clicked… the hero dude is way too wooden to do any good, he should audition for a terminator role (he’s more deadpan that arnie), it took till the last scene to squeeze out the actor in him…the movie touched me coz of the simplicity…and i have always been a sucker for pathos…qayamat, all u have to do to make this movie work is replace arbaaz, sanjay kapoor and that chunkey pandey..(u would expect some kind of improvement when the guy has been out for years, and become a star in bangladesh, but some things never change).. oh, what the hell, qayamat is basically ‘the rock’ , the cage and connery hollywood flick….it seems ram gopal varma is doing a sequel of darna mana hai, to be titled darna zaroori hai…i think i can see the version 1 by next week.the national awards were announced, and ajay devgan is best actor for ‘the legend of bhagat singh’…u have to see it to believe it, what a performance, he really made you feel for bhagat singh and his ideologies..’mr and mrs iyer’ got 4 awards, again well deserved, another simple movie, which could have been made complicated, but thankfully was not…..hey, any budding writers out there, do check this out.
    and yes michelle, the big picture, before that, i want to sidetrack, otherwise i’ll forget about it, some hindus believe that you acquire the karma of the animal you eat, so its best to be vegetarian…as regards the iranian twins, for now i can only quote malcolm muggeridge(journalist/tv host/writer)’ ” in all the larger shaping of life, there is a plan already, into which one has no choice but to fit”…..isnt death itself a part of the big picture? arent there a whole lot of people who die before 28? and maybe, just maybe, if thay had waited for some more time, we might have had a different ending??and a t-shirt for our kinda people, bloggers, here..hmm, i just might get a few “is that the first time you are seeing it” responses for that, wont i??……relax, the ranting stops with
    manuscrypts trivia
    What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls “a butterfly” – Richard Bach