tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82188922024-03-13T08:41:52.932-07:00ReflectionsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-65416572317152348202018-07-28T12:28:00.002-07:002018-07-28T12:28:20.160-07:00Whose help do you need?
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I had an elocution coach once. In one of her lessons, she had us complete the following Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-67253368135142964332016-01-17T15:56:00.000-08:002016-01-17T15:56:12.992-08:00"They"
"They" has been declared the 2015 word of the year.
That means if you find yourself typing sentences with s/he or him/her, you are now allowed to use "they" or "them".
If you've always used "they" as a singular pronoun, well - I applaud you. But know this. You used to be wrong but you are now suddenly right by the magic and power vested in those committees that decide who is right and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-76555069616517281672016-01-15T00:00:00.004-08:002016-01-15T00:00:47.469-08:004 years
Why do you not write anymore, someone asked.
It started to feel pretentious, I said. Suddenly? I suppose the answer is not - it started to feel pretentious; that it always was (as is my insistence on using a lot of semi-colons. What to do. I like them!). The answer is that I didn't want to do pretentious things anymore.
There are many more answers.
This is an attempt to document them all. AndUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-74254708781406830292012-03-03T21:51:00.000-08:002012-03-03T21:51:59.116-08:00The AgentListen carefully, sweet girl. Because I am going to let you in on a secret.
When its time to replace your agent, its time to replace you!
You say you’ve been in this industry 3 years now? 3 years? And you’ve starred…… starred in 3 full-length movies. And you were the most prominent of a gaggle of waitresses in an unreleased…. unreleased 4th full-length movie?
And you call this prolific work?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-74131317265419751542012-02-25T09:34:00.001-08:002012-02-25T09:35:55.065-08:00The Flight*quick short story*
By this time tomorrow, Kalika would be far, far away from Leoni and Kaajal. Wait. This time + 2.5 hours later? Or this time, but 2.5 hours earlier? Oh! She was going mad. A moment ago she had calculated. Now, she couldn't remember. "Ask passengers sitting next to you", mom had told her. "Be careful who you speak to", warned dad, concerned. Kalika wasn't sure who to listen.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-24460301299843485632011-12-28T21:26:00.000-08:002011-12-28T21:28:25.952-08:00Ode to 2011In just a few days, Anno Domini 2011 will give rise to Anno Domini 2012.
And I would have gone a whole year without saying anything in this space.
I have always imagined that this space was an essential part of my Alzheimer's collection, a carefully curated collection of stuff with the somewhat lofty goal of jolting me to lucidity, should I ever suffer from Alzheimer's (of course, I expect that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-72132380260722861762010-12-18T15:32:00.000-08:002010-12-18T15:32:58.200-08:00Embracing PluralityNOTE : This post was written during the height of the ground zero mosque controversy.
Proponents of Park51 are at pains to explain that the people planning the mosque are very different from those who attacked the world trade center. Once the difference is acknowledged, it should no longer irk the sensitivities of those who suffered from the attack, they hope.
In a previous Op-Ed in the New Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-91808938233546456322010-11-15T12:03:00.000-08:002010-11-15T12:03:28.490-08:00EinzelkindI am an only child. I have zero brothers and zero sisters . There comes a time when you’ve been acquainted with someone for a significant amount of time when they will ask you how many siblings you have. And I have always wondered what anyone hopes to learn about me by the number and variety of siblings I have. Why are they so curious about precisely one half of my genetic make-up (nothing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-54500312244763896022010-08-28T18:49:00.000-07:002010-08-28T19:36:35.120-07:00Mostly water !!!On Aug 1st this year, I took up a resolution to eat only home-cooked food. I came to the disconcerting realization that having decided that all of vegetarianism in the US was either leaves, or cheese, I was constantly picking cheese. In turn, my body, totally supportive of that decision, had decided to store it. If my sins got carried over to my next several births, I’d be staring at several Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-26258066112795959762010-08-26T17:26:00.000-07:002010-08-26T18:06:44.047-07:00Peepli LiveThere is a scene in Peepli Live. The entire media has descended upon Natha’s house. Politicians and government officials make frequent visits, each offering things other than what Natha’s family needs most. At one particular time, the entire family comes out and regards the scene in front of them. There’s a quizzical look on each character as they look over their courtyard. In that single frame,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-79722955357196002012010-08-16T07:35:00.000-07:002010-08-16T07:35:09.159-07:00MakeoverDon't go away.
I'm still writing the same ol stuff.
Am trying to give my blog a makeover it truly needs.
I have great dreams for my new template ( a whole day of surfing the net didn't really get me anywhere I might add).
So... my dream has now changed.
I do not promise astonishing results or better user friendliness or anything like that. Think of it as one of those haircuts you simply mustUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-71526909468555921752010-08-14T09:41:00.000-07:002010-08-15T12:37:05.545-07:00Besan ftw!For the past few days, I’ve been consumed by the need to write something about besan (or gram flour) – that yellow powder tucked away in the corner of the kitchen shelf (or pantry). < As an aside. I like the word pantry. Depending on my mood, the word “pantry” can evoke tendencies that hark back to the my childhood days of Enid Blyton. I imagine myself to be one of those boarding school kids Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-80891677697324948612010-08-04T15:42:00.000-07:002010-08-15T12:39:20.862-07:00Love AllAmerica is a secular country. Secularism is absolute. It cannot vary in degrees. It cannot vary depending on the circumstance. There is nothing the government can do about the decision of some people to profess their faith, to gather peacefully and to practice their religion. And if those that gather there also attempt to reach out, to explain to others that they come there on good faith, that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-58977606245861329342010-07-27T17:30:00.000-07:002010-08-15T12:39:30.811-07:00Much Ado About “Nothing we didn’t already know”Confidential reports about the state of the war in Afghanistan was recently released by an organization called Wikileaks :- an organization devoted to whistle blowing (collecting and releasing documents that wikileaks feels the public ought to know). It headlined in 3 leading newspapers :- NyTimes, Guardian, Der Spiegel, while every other piece of news including Iran’s sudden “ Oh. Now that you Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-61628270657717684382010-07-25T08:04:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:27:59.773-07:00Not another friggin choice!Disclaimer : As usual, I'm 2 years behind on "what's-up-in-gizmo-land". But what the heck... my emotion is very current.
So I read about these uber smart chaps who want to save the planet (whether they believe in climate change is beside the point), and they've come up with a way to help.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9937567-54.html
So from now on, instead of having a million receipts in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-41550391468166687862010-07-23T06:13:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:27:59.773-07:00Putting it simply!For US : The education system
For India : Absolutely everything else!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-9809201420666025622010-07-08T12:59:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:13:22.238-07:00the AmnesiacWhat did the great sages and scribes have in mind when they sat down and painstakingly chronicled the nature of human folly; when they etched it on papyrus and couched it in so grand a setting that the stories would be told to children for ages to come. Might they have been in awe of the possibility of imagination ? To experience an entire story as if it were he in that story, he in that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-45075495119972927362010-06-30T14:39:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:13:33.152-07:00All's fair in bargaining and warIt was going to be a full house in Ratham Veedhi , Madurai. Such days were few and far between and Gomathy Patti looked forward to them more than anyone else. She planned on waking up at 4 am in time to prepare an elaborate meal for everybody. She would spend most of the night awake for fear of getting up late. Cooking for several hungry kids, enthusiastic parents and uninvited guests thatUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-78285446861661228972010-04-30T12:57:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:13:52.921-07:00Long Live USPShttp://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15911952
What does US post office mean to me ?
It means either junk mail (which you should absolutely ignore) and VERY IMPORTANT mail(which you must absolutely not ignore). It's odd that USPS sits so comfortably in this bimodality. To me, it means I have to go through all that junk mail, credit card offers, coupons, random Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-51287429035861404162010-04-25T19:32:00.001-07:002010-08-15T20:27:59.774-07:00world wide wasteA neuroscience professor once told me that the brain is a wonderful thing in that it cleverly managed to ignore much riff raff. And it was important that it did that. Paying attention to too much, storing all the information all the time is a ridiculously inefficient strategy since most information is worthless to the immediate goals of finding food and avoiding predator and the slightly more Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-85785601740680491452010-03-26T21:27:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:15:48.987-07:00Good night and good luckHave you ever seen a cat as it prepares to go to sleep? Most cats deem the "self" as the only thing worth any respect, and with jolly good reason.
After stretching forwards and backwards fully, she will drop herself onto the napping area with a "plonk" of exquisite precision. If you have any experience with plonking, and I have plenty- with varying degrees of failure, you will know that the act Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-30278565819832648532010-02-22T18:34:00.000-08:002010-08-15T20:17:33.046-07:00Google CareI slipped and twisted my ankle recently. In 24 years, I’ve never twisted my ankle. I’ve wantonly inserted my ankle into the spokes of my mom’s kinetic Honda once (I was just curious to know what would happen!!!), but never have I ever twisted my ankle. I should have realized the day I started training for the marathon, that an ankle twist was not too far away. As it turns out, I was trying to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-31062284263742287322009-11-25T21:18:00.000-08:002010-08-15T20:17:57.401-07:00Date-blindnessIn a perfectly funny world, this post would be about my messy love life describing a life where I might go on a series of dates with a series of odd men, discovering what I do not like and never really discovering love. In a perfectly funny world, this would be the stuff of sitcoms that would run season after season, making millionaires out of some very talented (and pretty) actors ( and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-67888511451228231012009-11-12T19:45:00.000-08:002010-08-15T20:18:57.695-07:00Name your priceHow much for the rain to not tease
The sky's message, he whispers to the leaves
Those words so dear
That I barely hear
Those frivolous plans of the starry seas
How much for a month's calm breeze
For the waves to flutter above my knees
The dolphins must come and dance
The shark be dismissed with glance
And unto eternity, all the dark forces must freeze
How much for a year's lease on peace
****Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8218892.post-20466548549786696632009-09-10T16:58:00.000-07:002010-08-15T20:19:19.704-07:00Manners and mannerismsI am not sure why Jane Austen never wrote a book titled manners and mannerisms. After all, she wrote pride & prejudice and sense & sensibility. In any case, I'm glad she didn't, because in this copyright observing, plagiarism fearing world, I can happily write a blogpost titled "manners and mannerisms."It will forever be beyond me why a certain republican congressman felt so compelled to call Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0