Just saw some horrific pictures on CNN of scenes of destruction in Beirut. If the target was just one man (the former PM), then why did whoever was responsible feel the need to blow up an entire block and kill all those innocent people in the process? Like so many other things in our world today, it just doesn't make sense.

In Iraq, the Shia's are reported to have got a majority in the recently concluded elections - I imagine Bush & Co. must be most perturbed. So what will he do now - occupy the entire Arab world? I bet he'd love to.

It wouldn't surprise one bit if the Middle East ends up being the cause of Americas eventual downfall (I won't use the word destruction just yet). Giants have been brought down in the past, and there's no saying it won't happen again.

As for the innocents who have to bear the brunt, they can only hope tomorrow will be better than today - that is, if there is indeed a tomorrow for them. It isn't the survival of the fittest any more - its the survival of the luckiest.

You know it's funny - here we fill our heads with worry thinking about the myriad problems we have in our lives, and out there you have so many millions of people who would be happy just to be alive 24 hours from now ..... makes you want to count your blessings, doesn't it?

Peace, love, and a wider field of vision.

The wedding was a complete fiasco. It was a scene straight out of that Guns N' Roses 'November Rain' music video.

They made the mistake of holding the reception on an open lawn. And even though light showers had been forecast nobody really expected it to rain. Boy were they wrong! It started with a drizzle while we were going to have dinner, and progressed into a downpour by the time we were finished. Apart from a couple of small trees, there was not a single place where people could take shelter. Pandemonium - that's what it was!

So everybody from the bride and groom to yours truly was soaked to the bludy skin. I could tell that most of the invitees just wanted to hand over their gifts and run; but they obviously didn't want to offend their hosts, so they stayed and got wet. Mel seemed to be enjoying all the confusion. "...This is fun SwB. We should have brought some booze and ciggies!!" Many of the women ended up looking like Shilpa Shirodhkar in a wet scene from one those B-grade Hindi movies.

I have never witnessed a total washout before ... felt really bad for the newly weds - their big day ruined. Only consolation is that the food was excellent. Lesson learnt: always have your wedding reception indoors ... even in February!

But what's going on with the weather these days? The scientists have been warning us not to mess with Mother Nature, but we haven't been listening. I'd say this is just the beginning.

O.K. Just heard on NDTV News that Martina Hingis has decided to come out of retirement :)

BFN.

You know how when you're in school one little incident can change things forever? Well, I heard the word "Oklahoma" in a TV programme that I was watching today and my mind went into flashback mode.

But this is not about me. This is about Anoop. He was a big duffer, but also one of the toughest Mallu's in our class, so nobody messed with him. During an English lesson in Class VIII, our teacher Mrs. Shankunni (also a Mallu) asked our boy to read part of a short story set in the background of the early twentieth century oil exploration days in a place called Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now though Anoop didn't have as bad an accent as some of the other Mallu's, it so happened that when he said Oklahoma, it came out as "Awwgla-hawma". Well, you can just imagine the laugh riot that broke out after that ... even Mrs. Shankunni couldn't help herself; poor Anoop was most embarrassed. But soon the whole episode was forgotten - that is until the next day when we were on the football ground. One of the guys was looking for someone to pass the ball to, when somebody shouted "...pass it to Awwgla!!!"

His life was never the same again. Because from that day till the time we finished school 4 years later, he was known only as Awwgla; and I'm pretty sure that those people who didn't know the story presumed Awwgla was in fact the name his parents had given him (many Mallu's have funny names). And no amount of effort (or musclepower) on his part could do anything to change that.

And I was thinking: If we had a class reunion today, I bet every single person present would still call him Awwgla!

... I couldn't help laughing out loud :)

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end

I found a website yesterday that contains the complete works of J. Krishnamurthy - every book he's written, every talk he ever gave. Thousands of words of wisdom at the click of a mouse. I read through a few pages; some things I could understand, but others were beyond my comprehension.

You know, I see wise men as people who will tell you that the water you're about to dive into is cold; but you will only know for certain just how cold it is when you're in it. You will find the chill unbearable for some time, but then your body will slowly begin to adjust to the temperature. This adjustment is something only you can do.

But is it the same with the mind?

Yes, I certainly think so. People can tell us what is right and wrong, but in the end the decisions are ours. So rather than having them tell us what/how to think, I'd say what we really need is someone to help us live with our decisions. But like the body that will find ways to keep itself warm in the cold, this is something we have to do for ourselves. Because only we know how.

Peace, love, and the wisdom of ordinary men.

NBZ was reading the Times of India this morning, when he turned to me and says: hey SwB, you wanna go catch Osama? ... they've raised the bounty to 50 Million!

"Ok listen to this: There are lots of bekaar buggers (indirectly referring to me of course) in our country right? So wouldn't it be a super idea if the Indian government announced a scheme whereby all the millions of rotters are given the chance to do something constructive (err... make that destructive) and make some money while they're at it? The army will train and arm them to the teeth, and then air-drop them near the Afgan-Pak border. Of all the millons, somebody should be able to shoot Osama ... even if by mistake! Actually their orders should just be: aim for anybody with a beard and turban! The person who succeeds will get the 50 million (of which 40% would be taxed at source); the Indian government would end up being the recipient of all kinds of American financial aid and other assistance running into billions of dollars ... Congress might even be pressurized into passing a bill whereby all US outsourcing contracts should compulsorily go to Indian companies henceforth; and Bush would successfully be able to force a constitutional amendment whereby he becomes the first President ever to contest a third term. And in that way everybody's happy"

"Wow NBZ, you're a genius! You better dash off a letter with your plan to all the bigwigs at North, South, East and West Blocks pronto."

"But wait SwB, you haven't heard the best part: Of the millions that the army sends to Afghanistan, only the chap who gets Osama should be brought back to India. The other unlucky rotters can remain where they are" :)

Just read Tan's post on platonic marriages. I am sure that if divorce were as easy and socially acceptable in our country as it is in the West, we'd have millions of couples separating from each other.

I can think of nothing worse than having to spend your life with someone you cannot tolerate; and that's what so many couples do, isn't it? ... they tolerate each other.

But what about those people who can't do it? I, for one, would never be able to just put up with someone; I'd want out.

Time changes everything. I guess a marriage is no exception. So why can't people just accept that and go along with it. By wanting things to remain as they were initially, and by taking steps to somehow accomplish that end, we are only interfering with the natural process through which everything must pass. It's like a person of sixty trying to look twenty again - just not possible.

Tan talks about the lack of physical intimacy that often finds its way into a marriage. But I wonder: is it wrong to expect those things that started it all, to always stay alive? Does the fire always need to be kept burning the same way? Maybe there is something else that should take over; something else that not too many people bother to wait and discover.

Peace, love, and confused answers to confused problems.

I feel feverish. Damn it SwB! ...you've been eating and drinking all kinds of shit these past few weeks. I think I'm gonna go on a diet of that Aloe Vera juice which my psycho uncle from Goa sold us. Bludy stuff costs a bomb and is bitter as goddamn hell ...comes all the way from the deserts of Arizona. The company that makes it is called Forever Living Products.

Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today

This morning saw me making a mad dash to my stock broker's. Remember I had mentioned the possibility of getting swept away in a stock-market Tsunami? ...well, everybody knew it was imminent but a majority of us chose to wait until the waves started to look dangerous. Greed - definitely the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. Civilizations are built on greed; and it is that very same greed which can bring about their destruction. We are a bunch of avaricious little roaches and that will never change; if it did, the world just wouldn't make any sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure we'd all go bludy mad.

But you know, the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me as it is. Truth is: I don't even want to make sense of it any more. TS pretty much speaks my mind when she says "I'm not sure what it is--age or laziness--that increasingly makes me want to surrender my life to the universe and leave it all up to that Grand Plan"

I want to let go too. Let them - whoever or whatever - do what they like with me. And you never know - I just might have the last laugh. Wouldn't that be fun?

***

O.K. My buddy OrangeCloud has just brought to my attention a piece of news that I find quite embarrassing. I'm all for record breaking feats, but this can't be good for my reputation. I'm just glad our local news channels haven't reported this ...yet!

I'm listening to Jewel Kilcher, Sarah McLachlan and the Indigo Girls singing Silent Night ...they sound totally divine.

You know, I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve and the only thing I can call it is a farce. Guys standing just outside church smoking cigarettes, women in outfits that left nothing to imagination - no reverence, and quite obviously, no faith.

I wonder what will happen to the Catholic Church in the next hundred years. Will it even be around? We hear so many stories of young priests falling in love and leaving the priesthood to get married; or leaving for other reasons - dissatisfaction with the system being the primary one. When there is no one to lead, who will follow?

And what about other religions? I've been following the news on the arrest of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi for his alleged role in a murder of a temple employee. My Hindu friends tell me he is an important figure; you have some sections (mostly politically motivated) who believe he is above the law. But I'd like to know how ordinary followers of the faith feel? Do they feel cheated, betrayed ...or just very angry?

With this being the state of affairs, you begin to wonder if organised religion, as we know it, will continue to serve the purpose it has for thousands of years. Or has it already gone and hit the self-destruct button? ...and when it is finally destroyed, will that be the end to all the world's problems?

Peace, love, and a guiding star.

Well, the stock markets have given me plenty to cheer about in recent weeks, and so I thought I'd spend some of my gains on the things I really love - books and music. I went first to the bookshop. No, I'm not talking about Crossword; I'm referring to my beloved law book depot. Yeah, there's nothing like the smell of a newly printed copy of 'Direct Taxes-Law and Pratice for 2005-06'.

Then I went to Planet-M. I saw the ad's in the papers for some festive offers they're having - they're calling it "ChrisMasti" But why Masti? Masti means mischief in English, right? ...so what's the connection between 'mischief' and a discount sale at a music store at Christmas time? Perhaps if I'd done my MBA, I'd know. If you ask me the first thing they need to do is sack all their marketing/advertising people.

Anyway, so I started looking around. In some places there were little placards saying: Buy 2, Get 1 free, but only applicable on those CD's that carried the sticker. So first you have to look for the titles you want, and then see if that CD had the sticker. Wouldn't it be easier for everybody concerned if they had just put all the CD's on which the offer was applicable in one place? And it was really no surpise to find that all the ones I liked were not on offer, and the few good one's that were, happened to be stuff I already have. It doesn't make sense: why would anybody buy 2 crappy CD's just to get the third crappy CD? Again, I guess that MBA would have helped.

Now they do have a lot of titles, but most of it is stuff that you'd only buy if you won a lottery - you know: those CD's with a couple of good tracks, where buying the CD only for those doesn't quite make sense - that is if you haven't won a lottery. The most annoying thing about Planet M though is that they don't have what you really want. When I asked for Dido's 'Life for Rent' the malnourished salesgirl just says, "Dido is out of stock" and goes about her business. But look in 'D' and you will find every album ever released by Del Amitri! ...For those who don't know, Del Amitri is a half-hit wonder from the 80's.

You know, I've come to the conclusion that people in this country simply do not like giving you your money's worth. Our Indian music companies/distributors are no exception. Take for example the Norah Jones CD 'Feels like Home' - I bought that for Dee on her birthday in March and it cost me 360 bucks. Now you're getting the same CD, along with a VCD of one of her live performances for 400 odd bucks! How fair is that? So I guess what I paid 360 bucks for was actually worth just about... 200?

Anyway, I came away with nothing. But for those of you who like the blues, Planet-M has Gary Moore's 'Still Got The Blues' album with 5 additional tracks for just 295 bucks. It's an excellent, excellent album - Moore's best, I think. I bought it a couple of years ago for 600 bucks (without the additional tracks). Another good buy is 'Best of Smokie' - 18 tracks, all their most popular hits - also 295 bucks. If you're a jazz lover, and can afford it, they've got some good stuff by Wynton Marsalis and George Benson.

I think it's about bludy time Richard Branson opened some of his Virgin Superstores in our cities - because the Indian music lover deserves better.

Peace, love, and free music downloads.

"At this very moment, he went on, "the most frightful horrors are taking place in every corner of the world. People are being crushed, slashed, disembowelled, mangled; their dead bodies rot and their eyes decay with the rest. Screams of pain and fear go pulsing through the air at the rate of eleven hundred feet per second. After travelling for three seconds they are perfectly inaudible. These are distressing facts; but do we enjoy life any the less because of them? Most certainly we do not. We feel sympathy, no doubt; we represent to ourselves imaginatively the sufferings of nations and individuals and we deplore them. But, after all, what are sympathy and imagination? Precious little, unless the person for whom we feel sympathy happens to be closely involved in our affections; and even then they don't go very far. And a good thing too; for if one had an imagination vivid enough and a sympathy sufficiently sensitive really to comprehend and to feel the sufferings of other people, one would never have a moment's peace of mind. A really sympathetic race would not so much as know the meaning of happiness. But luckily, as I've already said, we aren't a sympathetic race.

At the beginning of the war I used to think I really suffered, through imagination and sympathy, with those who physically suffered. But after a month or two I had to admit that, honestly, I didn't. And yet I think I have a more vivid imagination than most. One is always alone in suffering; the fact is depressing when one happens to be the sufferer, but it makes pleasure possible for the rest of the world."

From: 'Crome Yellow' by Aldous Huxley (1921)