Threads

Running out of ideas to write posts, after hours of intermittent ruminations in front of the screen, I will first congratulate myself on the six-month mark: one small milestone for an affinity. It’s been a magnificent cadence of threads during the great depression. Alas, the magnitude of this chain may always remain oblivious.

If MOU works out in some way, the absolute downturn can be alleviated. I will jump to another tangent, as the second-string team prepares for its next assignment. How many more matches with Sri Lanka are they going to play? What is the purpose of such a series? ICC is finding it hard to let go of its fixation of ODIs: perhaps the ulterior motive is to protect the records of their influential players. The scenario is turning into a travesty of the game, riding on the coat-tails of the short-term-memory movement.

The Class of ‘99

It’s not that difficult. Follow these guidelines:

1. Have No Opinions of Your Own: Suspend all your opinions and camouflage them in the colour of your social circle. Mould your beliefs and preferences as per your group, even if it means contradicting the beliefs imbued by your previous group. You are allowed to be yourself when you are alone as long as you don’t admit it in front of anyone.
   
2. Short Attention Span: It’s mandatory to have a short attention span. Condition your mental faculty in a way that you cannot concentrate on anything for more than five minutes. Whenever you watch a movie, never forget to say “it’s too long”. If you are a University student, ask your instructor for a break after every fifteen minutes. If you don’t have a low attention span, then as Alfred Hitchcock, in his intonation, told his actor who was unable to emanate the desired emotion for a particular scene, “Fake it.” Just pretend to have a low attention span. Nobody will catch you, because the chances are that they too feign it.
3. Loud Music in Car: While driving your swish car, turn the volume of your music-player, exuding sonorous clamour from the latest hip hop or country songs, at a very high level so that the bass and treble are audible to the outsiders. Gloat about how your hearing has been affected by constant earshot to loud music.
4. Driving Instructions: Disregard traffic laws. Jump red lights frequently. When joining a main-road, just dash in, bisecting the ongoing traffic, without even pausing and looking at your left or right; expect the traffic to stop and make way for you. Zoom through narrow lanes at a minimum speed of sixty kilometres per hour. Be allergic to seat belts and bear them only to elude traffic police.
   
5. Be Ashamed of Ethnic Languages: Have a strong aversion towards Hindi and local languages and label them “lowbrow”. Go about telling people how comfortable you feel with English. Pretend to be weak in your national language and gloat about how you always flunked it at school. Make fun of people who speak it fluently and call them villagers. You can add a few European languages to your repertoire as long you maintain strong distaste towards the local languages.
6. Mental Slavery: Mental slavery and bigotry are also necessary. Feel inferior to “superior” groups and never spare an opportunity to disparage “inferiors”.
7. What Will People Say: Spend your entire life worrying about “what will people say?” Make your important decisions keeping that in mind even if it means spending an eternity in hell. “Everybody is doing so” is a good enough reason for you to do it even if it is irrelevant and entails no benefit to you.
   
8. Laws Are For Mortals: Have no regard for laws. Share your misdemeanours with the same pride that army officers ascribe to serving their countries. In public places feel free to scatter waste anywhere you want. If someone questions you, retort, with a finger pointed towards them, “Nobody tells me what to do.”
9. Never Stand in a Queue: Take no notice of people standing in queues and amble towards your destination parallel to the queue in your ostensibly high-and-mighty comportment.
10. mk ur own dkshnry: Dumb down your writing skills on purpose. Minimise the usage of punctuation only to full stops and ocassional usage of commas and questionmarks. Disregard sentence case. It’s blasphemous to spell correctly. Spell “you” as ‘u’, “great” as “gr8”, “music” as “muzik”, “for” as ‘4’, “what” as “wot” etc. While addressing women, use “man” repetitively. Limit your vocabulary deliberately and pick on two-three lame words to express almost anything in every sentence you utter. 

The first rule is the most important. Whatever you do, have no opinions of your own. It can degrade you to the lower echelons of society. Just follow the crowd. There you are, now a part of the coolest echelons of society.

Poetry In Motion

Yesterday’s hard work, preceded and propelled by days of ruminations, has paid off. It worked where it mattered the most. The feedback has transcended my expectations. Such an encomium amounts more than any award or review.

It was that advice — given, while in Filbert’s Theme, two years ago — that did the trick. It decluttered my mind and allowed me to set down the nascent ideas before they could perish in the warrens of day-to-day psychological hindrances and tumults.

Some moments make one’s day and some can turn those days into life. This is an unforgettable moment. I have read the encomium umpteen times today; I will let myself bask in its glory.

Sketchy Ruminations

As I thump my keyboard, in an endeavour to inscribe my incoherent ruminations of the day, I convey my gratitude to you for being there for me. You have been one of my saviours in this unremitting depression. Thanks for imbuing me with your words of wisdom. It has become a therapeutic practice. You have given me a glimmer of purpose in a once abject and aimless life.

The story is still in abeyance. I haven’t found my ambience congenial enough to ruminate over its structure, notwithstanding the fact that I’d had my opportunity, to ensconce myself to a propitious milieu, which I frittered away. Furthermore, the frequent disruptions of power and the inexorable bouts of melancholy have encumbered my free flow of thoughts.

I search for a name every morning: the missives enliven my day.

I hope that normalcy will return to our lives, and I can wend myself to a world where dreams are not only born but are also fulfilled.

Music To My Ears

It's a marvellous song: sublime and earthly. I am still listening to it. The movie itself wasn't great but worth viewing for sure.

It is pious and full of platonic amorousness that it took me to the past and then to the future that I would have had if I hadn't put myself in the paradox. Life could have been different. At least, it would have been life.

R.F. has gone stale and has lost its aura. It doesn't seem the same anymore but it's still enjoyable nevertheless. Perhaps it's because of my prolonged turmoil that has eclipsed everything else. Summer used to be my favourite part of the year, but now I dread it. It's the eclipse after all.

His life fell apart when he took that decision. All he wanted was a simple life.

P.S. Power cuts are causing more and more nuisance. Even the nights aren't peaceful anymore. I deserve that.

Mind Crime

My beliefs have always formed my conduct. Mind has been the scene of crime or triumph — it chose whatever I shot. The Obstacle reappeared because I had never believed that I could get rid of it. I had myself vanquished by 7210 because I never believed that I could surmount it. For the same reasons I struggled throughout Moment.

The reel isn’t all about despondency. The mind has also been the scene of triumph. After 7209 and 7202, I had lost hope about everything — but for two or three days only.

Friday, 18-1: After concluding the latter, in a state of hopelessness, I first updated my address in the office and embarked on a marathon walk on an unfamiliar road. I had taken an alternative route to home and lost my way by mistake. After walking on a long, straight road, I found myself outside the city. Thereafter I turned and walked back towards my original starting point. The entire journey took more than an hour (I don’t remember the exact time).

During the walk, I had thought of several possible strategies to counter the disarray that I had put myself in. One of them was to take advantage of the clause that allowed me to pick my options, and sign up again for one component even it would be 7205. Its sanctioning, however, seemed highly improbable; moreover I lacked pecuniary resources required for that. I returned to the Site, however, with the intention of discussing the matter with my advisor, Thomo. As my luck would have it, Thomo wasn’t in his office at that time, so I left for home. Incidentally that day was also a child’s birthday. Outside his building, I received a phone call about it and felt vindicated.

I deleted my account on a social-networking portal, which was, in a way, symbolic of isolating myself from world. And I went to sleep. I slept for several hours, woke up and slept again. I don’t remember eating anything that day, nor do I have much recollection of other details due the extreme amount of stress and despair I was in.

Saturday, 19-1: The next day was pretty much the same. I wrote an email to a friend. At night I went to Ode and decided to let go of my worries for a few hours.

From the next day onwards I decided to continue that momentum and deal with that issue on the date of Judgement and ‘live’ until then. I actually lived to the fullest — perhaps it was the last time when I had done so. I dealt with Aon on 21 and acquired layers of WM. I savoured them for next few days. After a few days, the momentum, propelled by a sanguine and propitious ambience, channelled positive energy. I believed that 7209 could be surmounted and that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I rejoiced for the next 17–18 days.

In that process I ignored 7201 completely. I had no other option. Otherwise it would have revivified the negativity and recidivated my pessimism. Furthermore, 7201 expedition appeared to be tentative because of the apparent debacles of 7202 and ‘09.

Thursday, 7-2: The deadline for registration was 8-2, though 7209 would later be terminated after the day of Reckoning. I had to look into the proposals and start the formal procedure even though the entire exercise seemed futile. I would have looked into it much earlier and met the modulators in advance, if the scripts had not been altered. On Thursday night I started frantically looking into the proposals and emailed Rico at night (or past midnight, Friday).

Friday, 8-2: On the R-Day, I woke up early to check my email, but I found nothing. An hour later, I saw Rico’s email, who informed me that someone else had taken up that vacancy. I felt dejected and irresolute, fearing that I would have to charter unfamiliar territories. However, post-script slightly lifted my morale: he casually stated that I was free to contact other superintendents involved with it. I would not have done that, as I had believed that they were jointly in charge of it.

I subsequently emailed Emilio and Steven and waited for their response, in a state of my customary nervous inebriation followed by sporadic naps till evening. Thereafter I decided to savour the weekend and shelve the matter till Monday.

Monday, 11-2: I received Emilio’s email in the morning, with an apology for the delayed reply, asking me to meet him at his office in the afternoon. I had to wait outside his office for a few minutes. And as the miracle would have it, Emilio became the bearer of a propitious piece of news: he unofficially relayed the triumphant outcome, a few days in advance and gave me the nod to embark on 7201. He expressed his inability to superintend it himself, and hence, relayed me to Arthur. Despite the jitters that I had felt on the Thursday night (which was natural for the condition that I was in), the outcome didn’t come as a surprise to me, only due to the transformation I had undergone before.

Preliminary tender was on Friday, 15-2 and Seminar on Wednesday, 20-2. Emilio, however, exercised flexibility in my case and extended my deadline for the former to 20-2, on the date of the Seminar. I stayed a bit apprehensive and deferred looking into Artur’s 7201’s scenario until I formally received the news from Thomo on 18-1.

I had done it. My mind was the scene of triumph. My only discontentment was that I couldn’t really celebrate that moment, due to the dual-deadline of 20-2. But all was well that ended well: I had surmounted that hurdle with my self-belief and sanguinity.

The Butterfly Effect

"The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn."

"Choices are hinges of decision."

"Life is the sum of all your choices."

It all comes down to decisions. It's the butterfly effect. Today I am not referring to my despondent existence but a decision made in a momentary fit of rage that unruffled my 'healing'. By not managing my lunacy I have not only stooped several steps lower, but also deprived myself of the event that I looked forward to regularly since November. Had I not lost my temper, I wouldn't have stayed awake. If I hadn't stayed awake, we wouldn't have met. If we hadn't met, I would have got it.

Those sporadic correspondences have been quite helpful in this unremitting depression. Whenever I am dejected, they come and unwittingly cheer me up. They took care of February. And when the phone call came in March, they again reappeared. On this 13th they would have had a similar effect, but I blew up that opportunity. It was like bowling a no-ball in the final over and losing a match that was mathematically impossible to lose before that. Moreover that burst has left me with deep guilt. A moment of aberration has caused a major upheaval. I keep wondering what have I become.

I am feeling better for the last few hours and I have decided to dedicate myself to an important writing task due later this year. But it's essential that I lie low for a few weeks or a month and continue the chain again.

Quotes:
[1]Edwin Markham and Pythagoras.
[2]David Russell.
[3]Albert Camus.

Most Wanted: The First Line-Up

It's book on cinema, I thought to myself after being drawn to the first book on the top shelf, the moment I saw Alfred Hitchcock's famous silhouette on it. A closer inspection revealed it to be a book of fictional short-stories. I took it nevertheless, expecting something in the lines of his TV shows and movies.

It turned out to be a cheap work of literature. The stories are from Alfred Hitchcock's "Mystery Magazine", conceived and published posthumously by the producers of his show "Alfred Hitchcock Hour". They possessed the rights of his name and merely used it to sell that cheap work of fiction.

It's full of deliberate grammatical fallacies in every story to give it a "realistic" touch:

"I don't not need none of this."
"She don't know me."
"I don't learn nothing."

One only feels like strangling the writers who wrote that twaddle.

Don't Think Out of the Box

It all begins at schools that curb any creativity one possesses. Spoon feeding intensifies this process that is propped up by a strong inculcation to adopt herd mentality. No wonder why divergent thinking is considered felonious in India.

Film critics here are quite narrow-minded. They discourage out-of-box thinking and artistry. Their reviews lack introspection. At most they will admire "A Wednesday", "Dasvidaniya", or "Mumbai Meri Jaan", and regard them as Oscar-worthy masterpieces. On the other hand, they are too lousy to comprehend even the simplest of metaphors, let alone interpreting a complex work of art. They thrive on spoon-feeding even though they wouldn't admit it. For this reason they revile anything they fail to comprehend. If you can't understand calculus, it doesn't become worthless or dumb, you morons! They equate a movie's quality to its box office performance. However, box office ceases to matter when it comes to reviewing the movies of certain actors from a rival clan.

The notion of art itself is quite restrictive in this country. For them only a low-budget movie with a "serious" theme can be a part of art-house cinema. Abstract and surreal cinema are beyond their comprehension. If directors like Stanley Kubrick, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Christopher Nolan, David Lynch, or Luis Buñuel were Indian directors, poor guys would have been stoned with insults by Indian critics. For the few good movies they admire, they even fail to comprehend them properly. For e.g. "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" and "Morning Raaga".

With the exception of Khalid Mohammed, none of the Indian reviewers are aware of the nuances of film-making. At least, he isn't intimidated by a movie's box office potential. However, the trouble with the Indian critics — as with him — is their narrow vision of quality. They would laud movies like "Salaam Bombay" or "1947 Earth" — they are great movies, no doubt — but whenever anyone charters an unconventional path, or creates something outside the realm of traditional cinema as in "Memento" or "2001: A Space Odyssey", they throw a fit. If a movie like Memento were made in India, none of them would would be able to understand it at the first place. In turn, they would make fun of its non-linear structure and call it the "worst movie ever." *Cough*, even in the presence of Himesh Reshammiya's "Karzzzzzz". Sorry if I got the number of Zs wrong.

In an industry where spoon-feeding and having a low attention span are considered necessities, it is indeed blasphemous to think out of the box.

India Wants a Handsome Prime Minister

A few months ago, there was an article in Yahoo News about the qualities Indians wanted in their future Prime Minister. Although, the elections are over, but the list is still applicable to the future:

Apart from having all the good leadership and administrative qualities that a PM must have, the youngistaan also wants the PM to be cool.

Vikram, a 22-year-old call center employee, says, "I want the PM of our country to be young and energetic."

"Our PM should not wear achkan, for God's sake."

Good looks are also on the wish list of youngsters. Vinay Madan, a 27-year-old banker, says, "I think Rahul Gandhi is really good looking and it's been ages since India saw its last handsome leader."

"He should, at least, know airport pe samaan kaise kaise nikala jaata hai," adds Vinay.

"Apart from looks, PM should be the one who has a little exposure to the ways of the modern world. "

Pragati Gupta, a student says, "I really want a techie kind of guy to be our next PM. He should be 'net' savvy. He should know about the latest gadgets. Basically he should be a leader with immense style."

Rachana Sethi, a 25-year-old student shares the same opinion, adding, "I want that our PM should be on Orkut and Facebook."

Not only this, our youngsters feel that the PM should also know his drink. Raj Dhingra, a 23-year-old student, says, "I would appreciate if our PM boozes once in a while."

He whispers, "How about a little ‘grass’ sometimes. I am sure that the ‘poor man’ will need something to beat the coalition stress."

Ruchita Pant, 29, says, "I want him to be adventurous. He should be a sports lover. Like US presidents, our PM should also be interested in trekking, water sports, etc.

Source: Yahoo News.
The above link doesn't work anymore. This article, however, can still be found in some other blogs.

Conclusion

In all the seriousness, are they selecting a Prime Minister or an MTV Roadies contestant? These pathetic losers want a dashing, drinking, and a pot-smoking PM. The fact that they equate “drinking” to superiority, only shows their low self-worth. I was under the impression that idiocy was universal.

Sad News

Bob Woolmer (1948-2007)

It's a devastating news. I am in no mood to write anything.

Are You Ready?

You want two words?

Where Is Bluffmaster?

Where is Bluffmaster? This is probably the longest hiatus from the blogsphere. Just not in the right frame of mind for blogging. Things have been a bit perturbing and droning since last one and a half month. I am slowly becoming an insomniac.

Anyway, the carnage is still on and expected to go on for a few months. Not sure when the next post will come. Could be a few days or even months. The idea of upcoming posts has been suspended till then.

Wanted: Morons For Sify

i. If you loathe your existence.
ii. If you are a sick moron.
iii. If you are an A-grade idiot.
iv. If you specialise in making trivial tasks difficult,

If you satisfy the above criterion, then you are an ideal candidate for a managerial post at Sify Online. The stronger the aptitude, the greater are your chances of climbing up Sify's corporate ladder.

Chronicles of their pathetic service:

1) My Internet account back home expired on 18th February. They haven't renewed it despite getting several reminders well before the expiry date. Apparently they have no intention of making money. Such delays have been persistent for last one year, every time the account expires. Earlier the hold-ups used to last for a week or two; however, this time they have surpassed their own incompetence. Is it really that hard to renew it?

The renewal procedure itself is quite stupid and gratuitously encumbered. What's the point of getting a "pack" renewed every month or a fixed period of time if they are unable to renew it on time? It should be uninterrupted and straightforward, with users liable to pay every month or any fixed period to avoid unnecessary disconnection. Here one has to depend on the local service provider for that. I always make it a point to remind them well in advance to get an uninterrupted Internet service; still those lethargic minds can't react on time. The renewal procedure should be as simple as a mobile phone top-up: just pay-and-go. Here I am ready to pay, but there's no one to accept it.

2) Last month I had asked — in fact reminded them several times — for a six-month renewal pack to avoid monthly disconnections. The bastards still gave me the same one-month pack.

Apart from making several phone calls, I had sent an E-mail to them clearly mentioning the required six-month pack in the subject and the body of the e-mail. Their supervisor replied me by saying they had renewed with the "1-month pack".

3) If that's not enough, there has been a technical glitch at my local service provider's terminal since 9th March. The rascal hasn't done anything about it. His name is Parminder Singh. He is a capable moron — ideally suited for Sify Online. He refuses to answer my calls on his mobile phone and goes underground whenever I have to renew my pack or pay the bill.

Sify Online is too miserable to do the simplest task of renewing an account. I have only one thing to say, "GET A LIFE, BASTARDS!"

Other news:

The last couple of weeks have been very challenging. The carnage is as persistent as it is implicit. The term will conclude on 31st of March. I am taking a hiatus from the blog world until then.

Answers

Following are the excerpts of my question & answer segment at Yahoo:

Bluffmaster: Should India support USA in its movement against Iran?

Zendog13: No. In fact, the USA should make no move against Iran. If necessary, we should go in with a multinational force and the blessing of the UN. The brutal truth is that our armed forces cannot mount another unilateral campaign. And the fact that ALL of the players are nuclear powers means that we need to really exhaust the efforts of diplomacy — not make believe, like we did leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Joseph: India is no little child that needs to suckle on America's tit! We are quite capable of taking down Pakistan on our own, we did it without the US three times. Let Iran join the fight for Kashmir, I doubt they have any reason to. Kashmir is an issue that goes back to the time of independence for both the nations (India & Pakistan). India is neither liable to the US nor is its lap dog.

The Indian government has stated that the US need not interfere with intimate Iranian matters of state. The US swiftly acted on that decision as irrational and threatened to stop US investments in India. India has always been a follower of NAM (Non aligned Movement). Which is a safety stand for a developing nation. We get oil form Iran and we have never had bad ties with any Muslim nation other than Pakistan, we want to keep that track record straight. It's easier to do business that way. India should in no way be a subject to bullying and we won't.

Sandislandtim: India should choose its own path, and does not need to align itself with the US on all issues. But India should also understand that its and the US' interests are the same in so many ways. The US government deals with India as a partner and equal; we do not wish to see any sovereign democracy become our "lap dog."A nuclear-armed Iran would be much more dangerous to India than to the US, because Iranian ballistic missiles have the range to hit India but not the US. There is long-simmering resentment in the Muslim world because of perceived repression of Muslims all over India. Then, of course, there is the dispute over Kashmir.The free nations of the world, including both India and the US, should unite in their push to stop the tyrannical theocracy of Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.There are many areas of diplomacy, trade, military matters, etc. in which cooperation between India and the US would be fruitful for both countries.