One might call it a horrible evening. I got off work late and shivered all the way back home in the rickshaw ‘coz I’d left my sweatshirt at home. Worse, a bunch of hooters decided to piss me off for a good five minutes. And I just looked away. I wanted to yell at them at least but I remembered the Keenan-Reuben murders and resisted the urge. If two men in Bombay could be killed by eve-teasers, why should a lone woman in Noida attempt to be brave? My rickshaw-puller didn’t seem concerned. Nor did anyone else around me. So I just looked away. Again.
Apparently Valerian Santos issued a statement that he didn’t regret that his son died because it was better to ‘die than live like a coward.’
Good for him.
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Sorry, N. My blogpost had MPD. I still love you. 
As Socrates said when he wrote Spiderman, with this great power comes great responsibility. Blogging has an effect on society, very much like walking through a crowded shopping mall whilst wind-milling full nappies at arms length and shouting “LISTEN TO ME!” at the top of your shrill, shrill voice. — The Jules on http://gravelfarm.blogspot.com/
Lately, I’ve been reading so many funny blogs on the internet, I didn’t find this funny. On the contrary, it made me feel disappointed in myself. I can’t blog funny. I mostly rant on my blog. Rant to the world. Smother it with hideous, hideous blog-poop until the aroma nearly kills its inhabitants. Because I want to. Because I think people deserve it. Sure, N deserves it. She wanted me to blog because she wanted to read. It didn’t make sense to me but here you go, N. Eat shit.
But when I see people like Allie Brosh http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ and Becky Whatever http://steammeupkid.blogspot.com/ (Ooh, I’m friends with Steamme on facebook), I want to be funny like them. Turns out I can’t. Even my original HandSlut idea was simultaneously born in another brain and published on a blog http://www.midgetmanofsteel.com/ (Yes. It’s most disturbing.)
So here I am. Throwing shit at you. Here, have some more.
P.S.: Your blog reeks.
Hey Daarrrrrrrrling, khatim ko dil par toh ikhtiyar karne do. (Unconnected. Or maybe not.)
The one thing that scared me most about being in Delhi for a month was being scared of the city. But when I got there, I realized I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by it. Quite the contrary, in fact.
In spite of the cold, the ridiculously repulsive people from the Pind who are positive that they own the city, the autowalas and the general emphasis on the need to carry a pepper spray wherever one goes, I fell in love with the damn city.
It was probably the metro. Or the shopping. I really don’t know. But somehow, I just really liked the city.
And I kinda miss it.
(Yuck.)
Lately did you ever feel the pain
In the morning rain
As it soaks it to the bone…
I found a contact lens (which was meant to be disposed of two days ago) on my table. Without its pair and drained of all the solution, it was brittle and nearly disgusting to look at. And to think it almost controlled my vision just a few days ago… Ah, well… it’s disposable… as is everything… or for that matter everyone in this place. I’m guessing that’s exactly what the concept of Nishkama Karma is about. You do your part and then you perish. If you’re lucky, your work would turn out to be somewhat significant in the larger scheme of things and it would appear to you as though you have been suitably rewarded.
What makes one happy then? Not success in your work, clearly. Detached involvement would make you so detached from the outcome that it would almost always seem to you like an accident and it wouldn’t even appeal to you. And what do you work towards? There can’t be any prescribed guidelines for everything. So how would you gauge the correctness of your actions if you are not allowed to put them in perspective which necessarily involves examining the possible outcomes. I wish to read the Gita before making any more comments, actually.
I’ve been told the following are responsible for pure, complete, untainted happiness (The list is inclusive):
1. Good food
2. Seeing your parents after really long
3. Beautiful sunset views and the like
4. Louwe. :P
5. Bad Movies
6. Alan Shore/Denny Crane 
(Youknowitisyou)
7. Fun time with fun friends.
I can’t remember the last time I have been truly happy. I’m not sure it’s a good thing.
Nothing can compare to when you roll the dice and swear your love is for me.
The aforementioned has nothing to do with the post. It’s just this song that is stuck in my head, courtesy, PD
Kundi is the closest we can get to a national language. Except, it doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. Effective communication, rather than words, affects your social interactions with other people.
Exasperation can sometimes drive you into throwing away your well-preserved ego for a bit and doing some things, which, in hindsight, you realize you should have done earlier. Exasperation is good. Now that’s a revelation. I’m not too sure Surf Excel would be too happy with me, though.
Complacent certainty is never too good. It’s true. Giving someone the benefit of doubt, while very tedious prima facie, resolves a lot of shit in your life. And when you’re way too pissed to hold any grudges it all becomes crystal clear. That’s nirvana.
In the words of the great Bhediya Manav: There are no Black Sheep…. It’s just me in a better disguise….
Yes. Bhediya Manav ki rochak kathayen is addictive. If you haven’t seen the page yet, it’s on facebook. And it’s inviting you….
I’m not sure happiness comes with satisfaction. I don’t even think it’s possible to be so happy that nothing else matters.
Homeostasis is this cruel joke that nature plays on you. Your life is always balanced, in that, if you have one, you WILL not have the other. The concept of Balance is so twisted, tends to tilt away from you.
And no, you’ll never be satisfied. Not in this world. Hence, you’ll never be happy. So don’t fool yourself into thinking you are.
Epilogue: Great advice comes from a most unlikely source. A racehorse doesn’t really want to reach the Finish Line. It does so because it is wearing blinders that block everything else that would have otherwise been in its line of vision. Nobody knows what the horse wants.
Run horsey, run.
They say sharing your grief makes you feel less sad.
Sharing your insecurities, however, leaves you more insecure :S
I guess…words, being more solid than random, abstruse thoughts, are better ingrained.
When you fall face-first on Concrete, it hurts like crap.
Moral of the story: Shut up. :I
Life, you and I don’t get along too well… I think you are aware…
P.S.: The Dell Servicing guys are very efficient.
“The countries of the world must act now, act together and act differently on climate change. Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change – a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. For that reason, an equitable deal in Copenhagen is vitally important”, said the World Bank President, Robert Zoellick earlier this month.
The COP 15 is scheduled in a little over a week to discuss the shape of the Climate Change policy post the expiration of the first commitment period under Kyoto Protocol, even as leaked documents from the server of Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia support the suspicions of skeptics of man-made climate change. Expectations of an ambitious agenda for climate change were crushed recently, when the world leaders agreed to postpone a fully binding legal agreement for emissions reductions to a second summit in Mexico city later on. But what does this mean for India?
With a huge population living in physically exposed conditions, susceptible to drought, floods and rising sea levels, India, along with other developing countries, is most likely to be affected by climate change unless it is able to develop climate resilient infrastructure. Already, an increasing amount of development budget is being diverted to climate related emergencies. But at the same time, the same population of India is in need of electricity and other infrastructural facilities in order to be able to catch up with the developed world; this will require an increased dependency on high-carbon technologies. The recent economic downturn is an oft-quoted excuse for putting greener technologies on the back-burner. Moreover, India’s per capita emissions are only a fraction of those of high income countries like the US and China (1.2 as opposed to 19.1 and 4.6 respectively). But getting there, in terms of development, might mean getting there in terms of emissions too, realizing the fears of many climate-activists.
While international organizations like the World Bank insist that it is possible to cut energy consumption in industry and the power sector by 20–30 percent, helping reduce carbon footprints without sacrificing growth, developing countries such as ours, carrying much larger populations than most high-income, high CO2 emitting countries, need active assistance from Climate Investment Funds supported by the developed countries in order to ensure sustainable development by use of “cleaner” technologies. Until then, while India promises to strive for a cleaner environment for future generations, it steadfastly resists binding emission targets on poorer countries even as many in Washington believe that America, just as it did at Kyoto, will not accept a deal that requires nothing concrete on emissions from the developing world.
Maintaining the above view, India is going to be at the meeting “hoping for a comprehensive, balanced and equitable outcome… (that) should satisfy the world and be relevant to the people (of India)”. Mr. Shyam Saran, the Prime Minister’s Special envoy on Climate Change, insists that the Kyoto Protocol will remain in force post 2012(Yes, he is confident that the world “as we know it, will NOT come to an end in 2012″) and only new emission reduction targets for the developed countries will be discussed at the COP 15 for a second commitment period. He also reiterates that there cannot be an imposition of industry-wide norms on a global basis with regards to sectoral approaches to reduce emissions.
A likely result of varying emission levels across countries which is a probable outcome of the climate talks, is varying levels of carbon prices. In this case, manufacturers in countries with more stringent emissions targets will move to the developing nations, where the cost of polluting is lower. If enough production migrates, global emissions might even increase. However, studies by the World Bank and Peterson Institute for International Economics (“Reconciling Climate Change and Trade Policy”, by Aaditya Mattoo, Arvind Subramanian, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe and Jianwu He, World Bank Working Paper No. 5123, November 2009) show that while some production might migrate, emissions in developing countries would be small.
Rosy as it might sound, “sustainable development” is a difficult target to achieve in practice. But faced with the imminent threat that climate change poses to the world population, we can only expect the developed and the developing worlds to ‘act together’ for a better future… and hope that the latter gets a fair chance to develop its economy.
Ah, the choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea….
“If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country” —Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking to the villagers who were to be displaced by the Hirakud Dam in 1948.
This made me smirk. Then I read what Morarji Desai had to say to Pong Dam oustees in 1961:
“We will request you to move from your houses after the dam comes up. If you move, it will be good. Otherwise we shall release the waters and drown you all.”
Bharat Ratna laureates, both. Champions of The Greater Common Good.
