I've always loved the story of Noah's ark. I don't know how much of it is true, and I don't know how much of it is plain symbolic, and if it's symbolic, I haven't a clue regarding what it symbolizes. The idea of saving the few essential things so that life may continue is simply very appealing probably because, everything we do is somehow connected to avoiding death.
Even today, the concept of Noah's ark is important. We have sperm banks and egg banks and germplasm preservation centres and loads of green money thrown into finding out who we are and where we came from, so that perhaps tomorrow we'll know exactly who to put in the ship.
I am sure governments think about keeping an aeroplane containing important people that it believes will continue mankind's journey to immortality should the ones at ground abysmally fail by very carefully planning nuclear attacks despite talk about deterrents. I've always wondered though. Who will those people be ?
Scientists ? Doctors ? Children ? Saints and priests ? Happy families ? Politicians ? It's an interesting question. What does it really take to make sure man survives ? It's a hugely debatable topic. But it's something I'd like to think about anyway.
Live each day as if it's your last day they say. But wait, I am saying. What about Noah's Ark. How does one buy a ticket into that one ?
I've never judged beauty competitions before. I don't think I ever shall. But if I ever have to judge one, I'll consider asking them "who do you want to be", and I'll accept the answer "one of the people who get into Noah's Ark", because then it means, s/he really did make a difference, and in many ways, that's the only difference that counts.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
billboards and sachin tendulkar
I was in chennai recently, and one of the things that strike you is the huge amount of hoardings everywhere you go. Every rooftop has a hoarding. The sides of every bridge have at least a dozen hoardings- hoardings of movie stars, and movies, saris and soaps, computers and mobile phones all cramming together, yelling at you for your attention. It's not just the number of them that hits you, but even the size of them. They're huge. Every single one of them is at least four times the size of the ones in Bangalore. Even today, if you go around in Bangalore, you'll find several empty ones that say "contact-########", meaning they're vacant and ready to be hired. I couldn't find a single empty one in Chennai.
An Ogden nash couplet comes to my mind.
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.
I've always wondered though. When do they fix up the billboards. A long time ago, people would paint billboards. I remember those days. You could always find a man atop a wooden framework, skillfully painting a billboard with images that bore strong resemblances to real life people. I know today that it isn't at all easy to be able to draw anything that looks like a human being, let alone draw it well enough to be identifiable as a particular human being and not just any random one. Boost sells because Sachin, in particular Sachin, drinks Boost and not any cricketer in general. And billboards had paintings of someone who was without a doubt, Sachin. Yet, I am sure those billboard painters had no idea of how skillful they actually were. Most of them were just earning their bread and butter by doing acrobatics in mid-air and painting in mid-air without real safety precautions except a plastic helmet and faith in the power of life. I wonder if they had training programs and apprenticeships before being hoisted to such an honourable position (all sarcasm/respect intended).
And then suddenly, someone discovered a way to print large size hoardings and just pin them on to the framework of the hoarding. I don't know when that happened, but it did happen. All they need to do today is print out the water proof, weather resistant colossal advertisements and pin it up with a few nails. And I continue to wonder when they do it. Do they do it in the middle of the night when nobody can see ? Do they do it in bright daylight and we just happen to miss them all the time, or do so few of them get changed that at any given point, the probability of seeing a billboard being changed is very few ? I don't know. It doesn't matter.
But what of all those painters ? What happened to them ? Where do they paint now ? In national galleries and billion dollar exhibitions ? I don't think so. Where do they paint ? Or did companies that were hiring them decide to also give them a crash course on printing, so that now they print out the ads ? What of their kids ? The kids that were at least learning alongside their father, the art of painting Sachin Tendulkar. Did they not learn that then because their dad sent them to school by painting Tendulkar ? Or are they not going to school now because their dad doesn't have a job ? I actually have no clue. And at one point, the government of India was considering waiving the import tax on the ferrari gifted to Sachin Tendulkar. It's just very very strange how things work sometimes. Because Sachin was the last person who needed to keep the money. And the government, clearly, was the last organization that needed the money. But people who played a HUGE LIFE SIZE role in creating the idol that is Sachin, bloody well needed that money.
Ya Billboards. When do they change them these days ? And perhaps, more importantly, who does ?
An Ogden nash couplet comes to my mind.
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.
I've always wondered though. When do they fix up the billboards. A long time ago, people would paint billboards. I remember those days. You could always find a man atop a wooden framework, skillfully painting a billboard with images that bore strong resemblances to real life people. I know today that it isn't at all easy to be able to draw anything that looks like a human being, let alone draw it well enough to be identifiable as a particular human being and not just any random one. Boost sells because Sachin, in particular Sachin, drinks Boost and not any cricketer in general. And billboards had paintings of someone who was without a doubt, Sachin. Yet, I am sure those billboard painters had no idea of how skillful they actually were. Most of them were just earning their bread and butter by doing acrobatics in mid-air and painting in mid-air without real safety precautions except a plastic helmet and faith in the power of life. I wonder if they had training programs and apprenticeships before being hoisted to such an honourable position (all sarcasm/respect intended).
And then suddenly, someone discovered a way to print large size hoardings and just pin them on to the framework of the hoarding. I don't know when that happened, but it did happen. All they need to do today is print out the water proof, weather resistant colossal advertisements and pin it up with a few nails. And I continue to wonder when they do it. Do they do it in the middle of the night when nobody can see ? Do they do it in bright daylight and we just happen to miss them all the time, or do so few of them get changed that at any given point, the probability of seeing a billboard being changed is very few ? I don't know. It doesn't matter.
But what of all those painters ? What happened to them ? Where do they paint now ? In national galleries and billion dollar exhibitions ? I don't think so. Where do they paint ? Or did companies that were hiring them decide to also give them a crash course on printing, so that now they print out the ads ? What of their kids ? The kids that were at least learning alongside their father, the art of painting Sachin Tendulkar. Did they not learn that then because their dad sent them to school by painting Tendulkar ? Or are they not going to school now because their dad doesn't have a job ? I actually have no clue. And at one point, the government of India was considering waiving the import tax on the ferrari gifted to Sachin Tendulkar. It's just very very strange how things work sometimes. Because Sachin was the last person who needed to keep the money. And the government, clearly, was the last organization that needed the money. But people who played a HUGE LIFE SIZE role in creating the idol that is Sachin, bloody well needed that money.
Ya Billboards. When do they change them these days ? And perhaps, more importantly, who does ?
Saturday, June 16, 2007
beaches
time : one week ago.
I think I'll like long walks on the beach. I think I'll like walking aimlessly across the whole length with feet one moment knee deep in the waves, another moment ankle deep, and another moment no water at all.
time : now
I *like* long walks on the beach. I actually did it- out there- in reality. Not in my head; not walking like some angelic vision; but actually, in the dirtiest set of *decent clothes so that no one will think I'm some roadside tramp* clothes, and it was every bit as good as the dream version.
And, it was a lot better. There are details that dreams can never get. Imagination, when not informed by brutal reality, is always a blur. Ever wonder why we always get up when we're just about to fall, or just about to hit a car, or maybe just when you're getting awarded some prize, or just when you've finally managed to gather the courage to tell someone something nice/rude/obscene/frank ? If you've never done it before, then there's no way you're gonna know how it'll feel. Not even in a dream. I think, if you haven't experienced falling down a ten storey building, then you're not going to be able to dream the feeling of the bones cracking or the skull breaking. The brain doesn't know, because you haven't felt it before.
Ok- that's my theory (or perhaps I've read it somewhere and now I'm dreaming it's something I came up. Plagiarism is very easy for dreamy souls :D. No ? It's not someone else's theory ? It's mine ? Oh well, take it. It's my contribution to science. Sell the stuff of dreams and give no pie of it to me. I'll dream up the revenge if I have to. Oh wait... I've never taken revenge. Hmm. Never mind. Do whatever you will.) But I digress.
My point is, sometimes things are just as wonderful in the doing as it is in the dreaming. I dunno how many things are. I dunno if becoming a movie star is the same as dreaming of being one. Somehow, I don't think it is. But something like being a mom, is probably going to be better than dreaming it. Or something like walking along a beach is going to be absolutely delicious.
It was ten thirty at night. There weren't too many people. The two people I had come along with didn't want to wet their feet. It was just right. I walked one way and then the other and then this way and then the other again. Each time felt different. Each time felt wonderful. Each time was addictive. I would've loved to scream at the top of my voice; not in a God! help me kind of way, but in a happy, ridiculously elated, God!Thank you kind of way. Thank him for nothing in particular. If every atom/gluon/mesons etc were truly in his control, then thank God in a making them atoms move about such that somehow I came to stand at that beach that night sorta way.
Oh and if God, you were pleased with my presence at the beach that night, could you maybe also at some point during *the rest of my life* make things happen so that I am standing in a large stretch of real snow and fir trees ? (suitably warmly clothed, with suitably warm persons around, with suitably pleasant things to say) Just a thought :)
I think I'll like long walks on the beach. I think I'll like walking aimlessly across the whole length with feet one moment knee deep in the waves, another moment ankle deep, and another moment no water at all.
time : now
I *like* long walks on the beach. I actually did it- out there- in reality. Not in my head; not walking like some angelic vision; but actually, in the dirtiest set of *decent clothes so that no one will think I'm some roadside tramp* clothes, and it was every bit as good as the dream version.
And, it was a lot better. There are details that dreams can never get. Imagination, when not informed by brutal reality, is always a blur. Ever wonder why we always get up when we're just about to fall, or just about to hit a car, or maybe just when you're getting awarded some prize, or just when you've finally managed to gather the courage to tell someone something nice/rude/obscene/frank ? If you've never done it before, then there's no way you're gonna know how it'll feel. Not even in a dream. I think, if you haven't experienced falling down a ten storey building, then you're not going to be able to dream the feeling of the bones cracking or the skull breaking. The brain doesn't know, because you haven't felt it before.
Ok- that's my theory (or perhaps I've read it somewhere and now I'm dreaming it's something I came up. Plagiarism is very easy for dreamy souls :D. No ? It's not someone else's theory ? It's mine ? Oh well, take it. It's my contribution to science. Sell the stuff of dreams and give no pie of it to me. I'll dream up the revenge if I have to. Oh wait... I've never taken revenge. Hmm. Never mind. Do whatever you will.) But I digress.
My point is, sometimes things are just as wonderful in the doing as it is in the dreaming. I dunno how many things are. I dunno if becoming a movie star is the same as dreaming of being one. Somehow, I don't think it is. But something like being a mom, is probably going to be better than dreaming it. Or something like walking along a beach is going to be absolutely delicious.
It was ten thirty at night. There weren't too many people. The two people I had come along with didn't want to wet their feet. It was just right. I walked one way and then the other and then this way and then the other again. Each time felt different. Each time felt wonderful. Each time was addictive. I would've loved to scream at the top of my voice; not in a God! help me kind of way, but in a happy, ridiculously elated, God!Thank you kind of way. Thank him for nothing in particular. If every atom/gluon/mesons etc were truly in his control, then thank God in a making them atoms move about such that somehow I came to stand at that beach that night sorta way.
Oh and if God, you were pleased with my presence at the beach that night, could you maybe also at some point during *the rest of my life* make things happen so that I am standing in a large stretch of real snow and fir trees ? (suitably warmly clothed, with suitably warm persons around, with suitably pleasant things to say) Just a thought :)
Sunday, June 10, 2007
unfinished business
i like making lists these days. nice long lists. so here's a list of stuff (odds and ends) that need doing. i'd like thing that i'll actually do these things (they absolutely have to be done) but no- i'll prolly look at this list and feel something in the zipcode as "ah! how pretty" and go right back to not having done 'em.
1) fix camera. its ***** broken.
2) get camera batteries and charger from the person who has it *name undisclosed for privacy purposes*
3) get all my horcruxes *stuff of mine, that other ppl have, that have actually come to define me*
4) drink water *i have an obsession with wanting to drink water, but never actually doing it*
5) return horcruxes that other ppl have *stuff I have of other ppl*
6) find out if horcruxes is a word in the oxford english dictionary. its about time they added it.
the world can be defined as before christ and after death (yes yes i know its anno domini and not after death) or more appropriately (before harry potter and after harry potter)
7) book the seventh book
8) consider allowing mom to read seventh book before i do. it seems like a nice touching thing to do.
9) actually do it ? naaaaaaaaa
10) actually no. maybe. depends. dunno/ can't say.
11) get new comp/fix old comp/throw old comp
12) find out if the US universities let students bring along their dogs. i umm... dunno who to ask.
13) if yes - get a dog. if no- wait till mom retires. that ain't ever happening from the looks of it.
14) one of those huge dogs. like a collie
15) buy sari. only bottle green sari. do not succumb to anything else - like bad customer service and aching heels and sweating, or the smell of the sweat of the huge guy standing next to you soaking in this super "non absorbent" cotton shirt, waiting for his wife to select a sari, who of course is oblivious to her husband's sweat (either that woman likes shopping too much or her husband too much). yuck. it's madras. the huge sweating guy is only to be expected. these madrasis are jatravartids
"Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of what they refer to as "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief." This is their cosmology's version of the end of the Universe, and can be explained by the fact that they believe that the Universe was sneezed out by a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure.
The Jatravartids are also unique because they were the first people in Universe who invented the spray deodorant before the wheel"
16) catch up on movies like h2g2. haven't seen it yet. (shit... loads more to watch actually)
yep... and ravens have intelligence apparently. ya- i haven't read abt it yet, but i'm gonna. i'm convinced that the only non intelligent race is us human beans. very convinced.
1) fix camera. its ***** broken.
2) get camera batteries and charger from the person who has it *name undisclosed for privacy purposes*
3) get all my horcruxes *stuff of mine, that other ppl have, that have actually come to define me*
4) drink water *i have an obsession with wanting to drink water, but never actually doing it*
5) return horcruxes that other ppl have *stuff I have of other ppl*
6) find out if horcruxes is a word in the oxford english dictionary. its about time they added it.
the world can be defined as before christ and after death (yes yes i know its anno domini and not after death) or more appropriately (before harry potter and after harry potter)
7) book the seventh book
8) consider allowing mom to read seventh book before i do. it seems like a nice touching thing to do.
9) actually do it ? naaaaaaaaa
10) actually no. maybe. depends. dunno/ can't say.
11) get new comp/fix old comp/throw old comp
12) find out if the US universities let students bring along their dogs. i umm... dunno who to ask.
13) if yes - get a dog. if no- wait till mom retires. that ain't ever happening from the looks of it.
14) one of those huge dogs. like a collie
15) buy sari. only bottle green sari. do not succumb to anything else - like bad customer service and aching heels and sweating, or the smell of the sweat of the huge guy standing next to you soaking in this super "non absorbent" cotton shirt, waiting for his wife to select a sari, who of course is oblivious to her husband's sweat (either that woman likes shopping too much or her husband too much). yuck. it's madras. the huge sweating guy is only to be expected. these madrasis are jatravartids
"Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of what they refer to as "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief." This is their cosmology's version of the end of the Universe, and can be explained by the fact that they believe that the Universe was sneezed out by a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure.
The Jatravartids are also unique because they were the first people in Universe who invented the spray deodorant before the wheel"
16) catch up on movies like h2g2. haven't seen it yet. (shit... loads more to watch actually)
yep... and ravens have intelligence apparently. ya- i haven't read abt it yet, but i'm gonna. i'm convinced that the only non intelligent race is us human beans. very convinced.
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