I was raised a Catholic. But I was also encouraged to think, so I guess I turned out ok. As a kid, the concept of God was easy to understand. Childhood was peppered with movies and stories that had black and white concepts of good and bad. The hero was the kindhearted, strong-willed, family loving, responsible citizen who only wanders out of his shell of goodness to beat up armed local goons with his bare hands to save a heroine in distress. And the villain was always the ugly hearse-voiced misogynist crook who steals from orphans and shouts at [...] Continue Reading…
Over the past few years, my parents have been urging me to rake up some cash every month, gather it into a pile, and burn it. Rather a weird request, but they were quite gung-ho about it. They even offered to put up the money if I came short. It wasn’t part of some bizzare ritual or religious tradition, but the sentiment has also been echoed by many of my other relatives. More and more dear and near ones have been suggesting this option in the recent past.
Of course, they don’t really say so in so many words. What [...] Continue Reading…
The first week of July, 2009, has had special significance to Indians. While many people possibly in weird body paint danced in joy, hugging on the streets; others yet marked it as black day for Indian society, solemnly grieving the ‘decline’ of India as a country. Personally, I thought those were rather extreme reactions to my birthday. I mean, hell, I was even putting a low profile this time around. And July 5 comes every year, people… Even leap years, so just learn to live with it.
But my birthday wasn’t the only big event this month. Those of you [...] Continue Reading…
Education is neither a measure nor an indication of common sense. Thus spake my dad. And any time you started doubting the statement, wondering “Hey, that just can’t be true”, he’d just point out a real life example; an educated idiot. Human life hasn’t evolved enough for dad to run out of people to point at.It’s a philosophy that seems to last through the ages.
I can see that it’d be an easy error to read the last paragraph and conclude that I’m dissing education. Not at all. I’m just saying idiocy is too large an institution to get eradicated [...] Continue Reading…
Stop me if I’ve told you this before… Actually, I don’t know how in blazes you’re going to stop me. I mean… It’s not like you can set time back to when I started on this article, trace me to where I was sitting, and yank off my keyboard. No. No can do. You can’t stop me. I’m unstoppable. I’m indefeasible, inevasible, inexorable…. Hmm… Apparently, I also babble. Let me start over.
Bear with me if I’ve told you this before. My brother bought a bike. He got hooked on the stylish alien design of Yamaha’s FZ-16, saved up money [...] Continue Reading…
Have you ever been buried in the sand up to your neck, and just when you think things can’t get any worse, a wayward bull comes along and repeatedly kicks you in the neck? No? Ok, I do concede that’s not an everyday event for most people. But can you imagine what that feels like? If you can’t, well, good for you, congrats and all that. But if you CAN, then you have an idea of how I felt last Saturday night.
It was my first hangover.
I know what you’re thinking…
“Your FIRST hangover, Hammy? Come on. Who’re you trying to [...] Continue Reading…
No. Not premature at all. And I didn’t come to this decision lightly. A great many number of days spent with two fingers alternatively tapping the forehead outlined the kind of thinking I put in before I came to the conclusion. It was quite clear in my own mind. It certainly doesn’t require a month to acknowledge a wedding gift. Granted, there is a certain leeway you can allow for an excited bride, but one month should be adequate for a response.
I know it isn’t dignified to feel this way. When you gift something, you don’t go around in the expectation [...] Continue Reading…
If you’re in the habit of popping into random blogs, you may already be familiar with Mathew. He’s one of the most prolific bloggers this side of the hemisphere, and I’ve found him active on almost all the blogs I’ve liked. He’s kinda like a seal of approval for Indian bloggers. However, in a move that deftly proves that nobody is immune to sporadic mistakes, he’s given me an award.
Honest Scrap Award
“This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”“When accepting this auspicious award, you [...] Continue Reading…
This sort of thing shouldn’t happen to me. Not at this age. When you have moved on across the path of maturity, there are some baggages that you essentially leave behind; dump a bag or two on the maturity road and hope nobody comes and pinches you for littering. Some of the leading experts à la mom ’n dad might argue that I shouldn’t complain cos I haven’t really matured… at least not mentally. FIne. I’ll give them that. But if that’s the argument, then I should carry some emotional baggage, not physical. I don’t mind the emotional baggage of immaturity. Hell, I [...] Continue Reading…
