Brainwaves

Tea was disappearing quickly from the glass in my hands. It was not the usual sweet milky liquid but the sweet, dark and lemony one. A leaf of mint lay dead at the bottom of the glass. I sipped the tea as I listened to the conversation being tossed around in the group. As is usual among people who consider themselves intelligent, the group was theorizing and philosophizing on one topic after other. From time to time, I threw in an intelligent thought and then went back to watching the vehicles zipping past. 

Vehicles don't fascinate me. When I consider buying a car, I look at the dashboard and the music system rather than the other parts. At best I will check the colour of the car and its tyres. The engine with its HP And Dell don't interest me! So I was not studying the make of the vehicles per se. I was evaluating the compatibility of a vehicle with its owner. I hear you ask "how the hell do you do that?" and I respond "I do it the way I do it. What is it to you?" At times, I tried guessing the mood of the persons traveling in the vehicle. This guessing game is more interesting than it sounds; you should try it sometime.

The thought struck me when I saw a lady driving a Jeep Compass. It came in as a "What will you call a Jeep being driven by a lady?" Almost instantly, I heard the response from the other side of my brain "Sheep". I was astounded by the thought and shared it instantly with my group. They gave me a look that made me feel sheepish. The crow sitting on the tree was not that forgiving. It dropped a load of its dropping on my head. 

All in a day's work...

A horoscope entry throws up the line "You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm". I feel the warmth of these words.

For another write-up I searched the Internet for quotes on truth. Found some interesting ones and decided none of them reached the depths of my stagnant thoughts. But some of them are interesting enough to be placed in a safe for the future.

"If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth" - Logan Pearsall Smith

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple"- Oscar Wilde

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything" - Mark Twain

"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." - Harry S Truman

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." - Vladimir Lenin,  Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist.

Once I saw the following one, I scrolled down no more.

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Friedrich Nietzsche

A feeling of jealousy creeps into me as I watch the entertaining events unfolding in the state of Karnataka. Though Tamilnadu has its own share of entertainers, the current scenario in Karnataka promises much entertainment in the coming years. The fun part is that the three people in the fray all have shady pasts and to choose one shady out of these is a challenge. Ultimately, the real shady has come to the forefront. As Eminem prophesied 18 years ago,

May I have your attention please?

May I have your attention please?

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

I repeat will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

We're going to have a problem here

...

'Cause I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady

All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating

So won't the real Slim Shady, please stand up,

Please stand up,

Please stand up

'Cause I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady

All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating

So won't the real Slim Shady, please stand up,

Please stand up,

Please stand up

Imagine the CM designate of the state singing these lines. That's entertainment, buddy!

Sometimes life goes along well, in a straight line. Of course, if you look close enough, you will realize it is not straight at all. There are ups and downs and lefts and rights. But it is best not to inspect the line that close. Let us move up till we see it as a straight line. Out of the blue, the line goes haywire. It goes everywhere and regardless of the height you rise to, it does not look straight. Many of your thoughts and beliefs are shaken. You have no choice but to reevaluate the line. One part of you wants to forget and go back to the apparent straightness but you remind yourself of the line-shattering event and ensure you don't go back to the apparent straightness. The line will get back to its desired state of apparent straightness again but the randomness brought by the event can never be erased. Life goes one but it is not the same life as earlier.

It's a boon that we work. Work makes us forget, the people and event we should not remember. Though not true always, work has little emotion involved. If it has to be done, it has to be done. It does not matter whether you hate it or like it. You can crib your head about it later but when it has to be, it has to be done. At the end of a focused effort, the satisfaction you get looking back at the results is incomparable. It is the only aspect of our life, that gives back what we expect, that is assuming you expectations don't touch the moon. 

Fingers of life

It went on and on and on
I was tired as it went on and on and on
I looked around
And saw her raise a finger at me
Not Thumb
Not little
Not index
Not ring
Up for split of a second
My face drowned in shock
Searched surrounding faces
No shock; none at all
I looked back
Hands lay on her lap
Same finger moving back and forth
I looked at her face
A stifled smile
I turned my sight away

A noisy place
She said something
I said something
No idea what
But she thought she knew
All hell broke lose
How could you?
Unacceptable behaviour!
I tried assuaging
But of no avail
In my head, that finger went up
Not Thumb
Not little
Not index
Not ring

Lets end it here.

Dirty old man

I am reminded of the song Mean Mr.Mustard today, especially the end that goes Such a dirty old man.

The song and the day reminds me of The Ode to dirty old men by Crawson Croody.

You should know, if you don't

World's filled with many dirty old men

I met one, in a bar one day

Shouting across the counter

Words obscene enough to shrivel flowers

Many fainted on hearing him swear

He should be crowned a dirty old man

Did you hear the story

About Vinny from Kentucky

Took his friends for coffee

To a shop posher than the Ritz

He slunk into his plush seat

Sipping black coffee

In a manner very cocky

His speech smelt awfully

Too bad for the young ones

Their sensitive inside shriveling

On hearing his sly innuendos

More dirty than clean

They vowed to keep away

From such a dirty old man

From Theekadal kadanja thirumaduram

I am reading the book named above, തീക്കടൽ കടഞ്ഞ തിരുമധുരം by C.Radhakrishnan. I found the following interesting line in it.

പുക പുറത്തു കാണാതിരിക്കാൻ നന്നായി മൂടിവെച്ചാൽ മതിയാവും പക്ഷെ, തീയിന്റെ ചൂട് നാലാപ്പാടും പറക്കുന്നത് തടയാൻ എങ്ങനെ പറ്റും?

The line reminds me of the phrase "there is no smoke without fire" though it is quite different from it. The meaning of this phrase is "You can control the smoke from a fire by enveloping it completely, but how can one attempt to stop the spread of the heat from the fire?"

The book is a biography of Thunjath Ezhuthachan.

A valiant loser's tale

It started out innocently. A chat over a cup of tea. Talking about this and that. A bit of teasing each other. As ever, the topic moved to bitching about work. The usual topics. Nothing unusual; "Can you believe what she said?" and "That fellow had the nerve to assume it". Nothing unusual. At that point, he mentioned something that seemed to him the core of the issue. The women had objection to the statement. They debated or argued or threw statement back and forth or whatever it is the right thing to be said for argument these days. He fought hard, throwing everything he had at them. But the opposition was too strong. The two pronged attack was not easy to handle. He continued the valiant fight as the scene of battle moved to the car. The fourth person in the group remained silent for long.

He continued arguing with the two ladies who smothered him with statements on passion and dedication. The oft-abused words got on his nerves and he doubled the strength of his attack. That's when the attack from the side came. The fourth fellow, who was silent so far, came up with some more words on passion. He turned and gave the fourth fellow an incredulous look. Julius Caeser would regretted not having that expression when Brutus stuck the knife into him. The ladies were overjoyed and vaah-vaahed the knife that was surreptitiously stuck in from the side. He did not give up but tried to fight on. It was a valiant fight but he like Duryodhana was not on the side of right. He painted a negative picture and the one who paints such pictures can never win or even be allowed to exist. He got out his mobile phone, called someone and talked for a minutes into the phone. By then, the car had reached its destination. He muttered a "Goodbye", opened the door and jumped out of the car in a single fluid motion.

Not worth giving up one's life 

Over words like passion and dedication

Free from words should be our life

Focusing on living should be the only condition

Damn the world where words create strife

Damn the living which considers propagation of words as its mission

Unnecessary words

He had the ability to argue with anyone on anything at anytime. If everyone agrees on something being white, he interjects with a "Its not white enough". If everyone agrees on something being black, he interjects with a "Oh! Its more gray than black". I am sure if someone says vehemently to him that the earth is spherical, he would argue till the other person agrees that the earth is cylindrical. Mind you, I am not telling you that he is argumentative ass (I refer to the good old A for ass type of ass and not the current American version). He is not a flame thrower charging at you from the top of a mountain but is more a person trying to playing with other's tolerance levels. The time I have spent with him made me realize that people do have low tolerance limit. Everything is fine as long as he does not touch upon their sensitive topics. But once that happens, there is no turning back and everything he says seems to annoy the receiver.

It is good to be in his company but one has to be watchful to never let his words enter your ego. Once that happens, you better stay a mile or two away from him.

He expresses his disdain at the many activities that the world has turned into a fad, especially in the realm of physical activities. The words he uses to describe people who monitor their calorie loss, distance covered and many other parameters as they run with their mobile phones stuck in the arm band can make one run out of the room in mirth or shock. He also has an array of stinging words for the fad Yoga is turning into. The other day, he was mock coaxing someone to do Pranayama for betterment of his health. I tapped him on his shoulders and said "Hey, that's easy. All he has to do is to talk to you for 10 minutes and his breathe will quicken to such an extent that it will be even more effective than Pranayama". 

He laughed and was quiet for 15 seconds, which might not get into the Guiness book of records but can certainly be considered for the Limca book of records.

********************

The sound of the gong only came on once a day. But one day, the gong disappeared. People searched high and low, right and left, here and there but of no avail. They plopped on the ground with a frustrated "Where's the gong?" Prompt was the response "It's Gong with the Wind"

********************

The sun stared at us from the sky. It seemed to be singing Heart's song

If looks could kill

you'd be lying on the floor

you'd be begging me please please

baby don't hurt me no more

If looks could kill

It was so hot that people's habits were changing. Usually they looked downwards to find an appropriate location to sit down. But these days they upwards at the ceiling in search of a fan. They had to sit within a radius of 1.5 metres around the fan. These were considered fan-tastic positions that provided one with a little sat-isfaction.