Lets keep the faith alive!

Bomb blasts in a Coptic church in Alexandria - A suicide bomber killed around 23 people and wounded dozens on the fist day of the new year with this bomb blast.

In the light of the above incident there have been many christian - muslim protests on the streets, creating religious tensions between the followers of these two religions in Egypt. Of course all people with a rational mind are condemning this act of terrorism (Christians , Muslims alike). However whenever something like this happens, the emotional tide runs high. And this time is no different. The whole of social media is full of links to religious philosophies (the good), the videos & news pieces about the atrocities on one religion stemming from some other religion and so on. I have heard from my Muslim friends here that some Christian friends of theirs are taking it too way too personally and are sending smses to the effect of "Dont call me ever again"

With this, the endless phenomena of debates on religious differences have surfaced again, sometimes in the form of a heated discussion and sometimes a calm & civil exchange of ideas - whatever be the case, it stays conclusion-less....... and all this only goes to strengthen my staunch belief in- One world, One religion "Humanity"

Recently a dear friend (Muslim but agnostic) was telling us how a fundamentalist muslim friend of his was asking him if he hates the Christian Cross and how my agnostic friend was a bit agitated by this question, was trying to make his fundamentalist friend see the point (made some very good points!). He wrote an article about the incident and shared the same before publishing the same on Facebook (to check if the volatility quotient of the religious content was too high or passable for a media as open as Facebook), with some of his friends from different religions / countries (I believe). There were some very interesting viewpoints in terms of both the content itself and the expression used to convey authors point of view. I wish I could publish the article and the comments by different people here, however I cant for obvious reasons (no permission from the authors of the comments / article).

So I thought of sharing what I can - My point of view.

Copied & pasted from the comment box on the article.

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Dear Friend,

I totally understand the feeling behind your retort. But you know maybe, just maybe we could just smile at the ignorance of these people who ask such questions.

My two cents....

I think "faith" should be a personal thing and should be treated like that. Dont get me wrong, no harm in opening a healthy intelligent conversation - but I feel it would be much easier if we just have some kind of a social rule about not questioning / scrutinising / opening debates on the topic of faith and just let people be.

Sometimes I wonder how people have no problems accepting & following the social rule of not asking / discussing/ commenting on subjects like income/finances (as an example - among many other such things) when talking to someone as its considered rude... however the very same people dont even bat an eyelid while giving unsolicited opinions on the other person's faith / religion.

What is so difficult to understand in the fact that "my faith" can be "what I want it to be", without having an iota of impact on "your faith" on "what you want it to be" - That, existence of differences is not always bad (Had that been the case, variety wouldnt have any positive connotation, now would it?)

In my opinion, GOD was created because the concept of goodness needed a form, a personification for people to easily relate to.So how does it matter if different people choose to manifest this personification in different ways... as long as it enables you to stick to the path of goodness (You could argue that goodness can be a relative term, but if you think about it, is it, is it really?)

All faiths ultimately boil down to having one guiding principle - some call it love, some call it sacrifice, some justice, some truth / knowledge, some tolerance ... and some call it something else. They are all meant to ultimately do the same thing , deliver the same message - guide you to a better living and to teach you to love yourself and everybody around you.

I guess we should just remind ourselves (whenever we tend to get carried away) that all faiths in some way or the other were created/ to cater to the following human needs
1.Create Hope for the good for people to go on in their weakest moments
2.Create Fear of the bad to ensure a harmonious co-existence between billions of people on this earth.

If you really look closely, the above mentioned (Optimism & Compassion) are the 2 fundamental principles of "Humanity" required fior a peaceful , chaos-less living. So does it really matter who you are - a Muslim, Christian , Hindu , Jew etc .. if you are following the principles of "Humanity" in the end , but just with a fancier / different name?

Sometimes i think that we people have just way too much free time on our hands to indulge in the childish "my-religion/faith- shinier- than-yours" debates.

P.S. - Since the last 3 years (since I moved to Egypt) , the number of times I have been asked this question about which religion i belong to.. is not funny! The funny part is that despite the fact that i am from a country which hosts almost all religions present in the world, this question is still new to me... or maybe its just the frequency of the question.
Not that we dont have religious differences/ propagandas in my country , still somehow i dont remember people asking me about my religion. Then again, maybe our names are perfect give aways of our religions... Any which way, I just wish people would stop asking me / anyone this question!!

What will you do?

As seen in London Tube....

I "Taboo" that!!

For the uninitiated, Taboo is just like Dumb Charades, the only difference being that unlike dumb charades here you can actually speak to describe the word that your team has to guess, but cant use specific obvious taboo words related to that word. For e.g. if the word is fish, while describing the word you can say anything that you want except for the words from this taboo list - water, animal, eat, sushi, seafood. I am sure you get the drift. Also, it works in one minute time slot for each turn. 

You get 1 point for each word that you get right during that one minute and minus 2 points if you don’t get the word, or you use any of the taboo words. So you see, speed is important…and so is caution of not using the taboo words. And sometimes in the quest to perfect these two (speed & caution), we get to see situations like the one mentioned below.

During one of my team turns, this one guy was trying to describe one word.

Him -  “What I like”.

Me  - “Pizza?”

He shook his head and said - "No"

Me – “Alcohol? Partying?”

Shook his head again

Me – “Women?”

Some more head shaking followed….

… and we couldn’t think of anything more to fit in that description. We gave up and got a minus two on that one.

After the turn finished , when he came and sat next to me I asked him –“Dude, what was the damn word?”

He responded, with a long face – “Potato”

And the following words came out of my mouth as if they were meant to be the most natural response –“Really? Potato?? Duhh… you should have said What you look like rather than what you like” (If you havent guessed it already... the guy is big. Tall and bulky) He gave me a nasty look and then, the sweet pal that he is, he gave me company along with others in laughing it out.

After a few rounds, another one of my team members went up to take on the turn. By this time the other team was winning by a wide margin (Really, it wasn’t very unexpected  given our team had people with the aforementioned articulation skills!! Sigh…Even the great guessing powers of other team members like myself couldn’t save us!). 
Anyway this time we got as much as 4 words right and were on the 5^th one (You see, usually in one minute time on an average, you can get 3-4 words right, 6-7 if you are good and about 9-10 if you & your team are incredibly great at it!) So crossing the average by getting onto the 5th one obviously translated into the excitement running high in the team. All of us had by now left our respective seats and in an attempt to stand close to the guy performing on the center stage, ended up standing very close to each other as well.

So the performer picked up this 5^th card, his eyes lit up and we reckoned it was going to be an easy one. He said, pointing in my direction – “What she looks like”…and I tried to decide (silently of course, in my head!) between konkana sen, madhu (yeah that forgotten actress), a school teacher (people label me that sometimes…though more for my rare but tough reprimanding acts than my looks)…and some more unmentionable resemblances that i am charged guilty of, by various people....

....yeah so while i was busy deciding which ones of these would embarrass me the least, all my team shouted in unison …. (take a guess….) – “POTATO!”

WTF!!!

At this point I would like to mention that all this(my mental calculations & my teams luck with deciphering the correct word) happened in less than a second! I am not exaggerating, I promise!!

Ha! So much for not being embarrased.... (in retrospect..only if i had said out loud any of the things that came to my mind, who knows i might have been able to steer the team away from thinking of a potato!)

At first, I thought the performer had pointed wrongly at me while he was just trying to point at that other guy standing right behind me and very close (who I spoke those words to, in the first place!) ... and just when i was about to give this whole thing, the benefit of doubt (we were standing close, rem?) ...it just hit me - he said “she” and not “he”. 

WTF, really!!

Ok ok, I know I planted the idea of building an instantaneous association between “looks like” and “potato”…but the context was that guy NOT me, for crying out loud. Maybe all my team members have the selective hearing syndrome. But really, all of them yelling? In UNISON? As if it was the most obvious answer? No, scratch that. As if it was the ONLY answer??

DAMN!!!!

Moral of the story – Being a hostess of a fun night which includes alcohol, barbecue, a fantastic view from the balcony and a lot of games like Uno, Taboo, Playing cards and so on.. might add to a great fun quotient ….But in the end, doesn’t guarantee that the next time anyone says potato, you are NOT the first visual that appears in all those peoples head!!

Yeah, the world is a funny place …apparently so is my body shape. :P

Maybe next time when i am explaining the rules for playing taboo to all those present/particpating in the game, i should include "not pointing towards me when the word is potato" as the first rule!

Fucking Awesome!

So this other day i was talking to one of my friends online

Me : Howdy?

Friend : Not bad

Me : Now thats not very enthusiastic!

Friend : Well...I could have said "I am fucking awesome"...but then i dont know any girl named "awesome", you see.

Playing Dumb... (Charades)

So this last friday was a dumb charades night at my house … needless to say we enjoyed indian food, some ingenious mime for not only the difficult but also the simple movie titles….and  many expected and unexpected laughs!!

The star among all those hilarious moments was when one of the guys got a 2 word movie name to enact.…. and to signify that hes enacting the 2^nd word first he decided to not to show two fingers but only the middle finger with the palm facing his face.After a split second of awkward silence at this action of his, all of us burst in uncontrollable laughter... and the laughter continued some more for he remained clueless till the end of it all :P

Kick Ass!!

So someone told the guys in the office here that being kickass is the way to be these days... "Tabaan* (English translation - "Of course") it is!!" they said and...

This happened!!

Donkeys ordered to wear diapers in Egypt

Egypt News. Net : Tuesday 30th Dec, 2008(IANS) 

Donkeys have been banned from walking around in the streets of Egypt's southwestern al-  Wadi al-Gadeed governorates without wearing diapers, an official said.

Mohammed Haround said the measure was to 'preserve the aesthetic and cultural scene of the governorate which currently witnesses an unprecedented boom in tourism'.

'Diapers are available in the markets at low prices,' Haroun was quoted by the official MENA news agency as saying Tuesday. He added that owners of the donkeys who violate this decision will be fined.

Donkeys are vital for many Egyptians since they can easily carry 20-30 percent of their body weight and are helpful in farming. Donkeys and donkey-drawn carts are a common sight in Egypt's cities and countryside.

 

Source : egypt news 

 

And this.... 

 

Donkey Sent To Jail In Egypt

 

A donkey has been sent to jail in the Nile Delta in Egypt for stealing corn!

The donkey and its owner were both arrested by police after the donkey was found in possession of corn on the cob stolen from a field belonging to the local Agricultural Research Institute.

A special checkpoint had been set up to trap the perpetrators after the Institute’s director complained that someone was stealing his crops.

Later, a local judge sentenced the donkey to 24 hours in prison, whilst the owner escaped a custodial sentence and received only a fine of $9.

Source : This 

Should i go and tell them whoever told them this, didnt mean it literally?

50%... Huh?

So i tried this (following it from another bloggers space, who by the way is quite entertaining) and see what i got!

Genderanalyzer for your blog  : Results

We guess http://www.one-more-why.blogspot.com/ is written by a man (50%), however it's quite gender neutral. 

Is this correct?  Yes  No  Don't know

 View results

So even if the % is 50:50 for man:woman, the gendernalyzer picks "man" to be stated in its verdict! Hmph!

Now my agreeing or not agreeing (with the verdict that is!) is one thing, but how the hell do i vote whether this result is correct , incorrect or even dont know. Damn!! it doesnt take much to confuse me..

And peace prevails.....

Disclaimer - This is just in good humour NOTHING else ....so please read it in the same light 

A recent mail forward (I am not too big on the whole fwd thing..yeah but then who really is? Anyway given the humour quotient of this one, i thought it deserved to be shared with all of you who havent had the chance of reading it yet :P )

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Recent studies commissioned by US department of Defense included one on nuclear war between India and Pakistan : This was the scenario.... ......... ...

The Pakistan army decides to launch a nuke-missile towards India. They don't need any permission from their government, and promptly order the countdowns.

Indian technology being so advanced, detects the Pak countdown in less than 8 seconds. Indian army decides to launch a missile in retribution. But they need permission from the Government of India. They submit their request to the Indian President. The President forwards it to the Cabinet. The Prime Minister calls an emergency Lok Sabha session. The LS meets, but due to several walkouts and severe protests by the opposition, it gets adjourned indefinitely.The President asks for a quick decision.

In the mean time, the Pak missile fails to take off due to technical failure. Their attempts for a re-launch are still on.

Just then the Indian ruling party is reduced to a minority because a party that was giving outside support withdraws it. The President asks the PM to prove his majority within a week. As the ruling party fails to win the confidence vote, a caretaker government is installed. 

The caretaker PM decides to permit the armed forces to launch a nuclear missile. But the Election Commission says that a caretaker government cannot take such a decision because elections are at hand. The Election Commission files Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court alleging misuse of power.

The Supreme Court comes to the rescue of the PM, and says the acting PM is authorized to take this decision in view of the emergency facing the nation.

Just then one of the Pak missiles successfully takes off, but it falls 367 miles away from the target, on its own government building in Islamabad at 11.00AM. Fortunately there are no casualties as no employee reaches the office that early. In any case, the nuclear core of the missile had detached somewhere in flight.

The Pakistan army is now trying to get better technologies from China and USA. 

The Indian Government, taking no chances, decides to launch a nuclear missile of its own, after convening an all-party meeting. This time all the parties agree. Its three months since the army had sought permission. But as preparations begin, "pro-humanity" , "anti-nuclear" activists come out against the Government's decision. Human chains are formed and Rasta rokos organized.

In California and Washington endless e-mails are sent to Indians condemning the government and mentioning "Please forward it to as many Indians as possible".

On the Pakistan side, the missiles kept malfunctioning. Some missiles deviate from target due to technical failures or high-speed wind blowing over Rajasthan.Many of them land in the Indian Ocean killing some fishes.

A missile (smuggled from USA) is pressed into service. Since the Pakistan army is unable to understand its software, it hits it original destination: Russia.

Russians successfully intercepts the missile and in retaliation launch a nuclear missile towards Islamabad. The missile hits the target and creates havoc.

Pakistan cries for help. India expresses deep regrets for what has happened and sends in a million dollars worth of Parle-G biscuits.

Thus India never gets to launch the Missile....

Laughter : The best medicine

After fighting this rare insomnia for a while but all in vain, i gave up and started reading random blogs... 

Clicked on the sidebar link "problems in lauve?" cos it sounded phunny on a fellow bloggers blog (What drives you?)....It took me to rediff love guru chat sessions...  couldnt resist sharing one gem that i found there in the comments section. It gets me rolling with laughter ...everytime! (esp the reply to this deadly predicament!)

Please help me... by Mat on Nov 07, 2008 07:46 PM  Permalink  | Hide replies Dear Luv guru... I like one girl... But she likes a man 30 years elder to her. That man but loves his neighbour. That neighbour is married. That neighbour's sister-in-law crosses our house everyday. Now that sister-in-law's daughter in her first marriage is studying with me. Now I feel I am attracted to her also... What should I do?     Forward  |  Report abuse Re: Please help me... by jat kr on Nov 07, 2008 07:58 PM  Permalink suicide !!!!

New Years Eve

First things first - A very happy new year to all of you!

New year's eve for me was good...actually more than I could ask for.

Some random observations from the eve

1. I actually relished (and waited for the second serving!) the joke which they call samosas here (I mean really, their size could make a ram-laddoo feel proud for being so gigantic!) & spring roll look-alikes which seemed to have reluctantly left their dancing fields viz. the oil pan, still holding on to excessive oil.

2. I didnt mind the fact that even after charging us quite a decent amount of money, the organisers provided only the mixers for our tonics. Yes we had to bring our own alcohol.

3. I didnt lose my temper on the DJ who was so hyped to be an indian DJ (hence my expectations of all bollyqwood masala tracks!) insisted on playing english tracks more than the hindi ones. And he didnt even have any number that i requested. Ok, to be fair to him, i requested only one particular number Namak Ishq ka from Omkara ...and then i gave up hope (now if he didnt have that...THAT track... then could i really expect anything else?) Ok, to be honest...i went up to him more than once to strangle him and take charge but everytime my colleagues somehow managed to pull me back. And given his size i could have easily achieved that feat. Damn!~

4. I was somewhat surpised by the fact that i can still be on the dance floor for 5 hours straight!! yeay!! (and inspite of the above mentioned!) .....who knows, it could have been more, had they not politely hinted towards closing.. by serving food! (Really, who cares for food when you get to drink and dance??)

5. I realised that my dormant wish to learn salsa suddenly found wings on that dance floor.... (its still not fallen weak though its been more than 72 hrs since that dance floor... so i am hoping i will do something about it this time!)

6. I still dont take initiative in terms of social networking. No i am not anti social... i just dont have the drive to initiate it...thats all! So while i sat there enjoying my drink (for the first half an hour i.e. before the dance floor opened) some people came to my table, chatted ...and i reciprocated. While my newly married friend from office surfed through the entire gathering chatting up all of them one by one (i really think he covered everyone!) leaving his wife in my safe company. So I had to finally sit him down and wave this eye opener in front him. What, you ask? Well..think about it, he gets both the luxury of not sitting glued to the chair next to his wife and HAVE a wife...and i dont get either?? Now that cant be fair by any standard, right? I mean I didnt mind sitting next to her, shes a lovely person .... but the point is I dont get to take a wife home at the end of the party (Ok i am straight... but to be honest, sometimes i think i want a wife more than a husband! And i am sure it isnt so difficult to figure out why... he he!)

7. All in all, it turned out to be a good evening ..more than i had expected (Actually i had said yes to this idea only to see more than 10 indians in the same room... trust me, its a rare sight here!)

8.  ...and last but not the least... i was happy to discover that i still dont believe in making any new year resolutions!!

So, your turn now...what did you guys do?

I am angry... and want to hold on that feeling for a while!

You think you have made your peace with something and then boom , it comes back later to bite you in the ass when you are not looking. Ok maybe not all of a sudden , maybe its triggered by some external stimulus rather than your internal think-machine. But the point is it comes back.

I am angry… and disappointed.  

And more pissed off for the fact that I cant remain angry for long.  So when I found myself angry, what did I do? I called the person I was angry with to hear the voice, to try and feel his sense of obliviousness in this context and be able to give him the benefit of doubt.

Yes call me crazy because I have weird mechanisms of dealing with things. But really… at the end of the day doesnt it come down to deciding for your own self what’s more important for you –

• - Not letting the other person see the huge impact that the situation had on you and appear all strong/not vulnerable.. either shutting that person out or behaving in a nothing-has-changed manner with that person OR
• - Not caring about the above. Instead facing the situation head on  - but at the same time trying to remind yourself of the good things about the association with that person, in the hope that it would help you see things clearly... in the perspective of balance!

So I go with the latter most of the times and it usually works. But this time, even after doing so, I don’t want to let this anger go. I am scared of the fact that this anger would evaporate all too soon and I would find myself getting bothered by a similar situation. So I want to feel this anger for so long that I don’t feel anything else.

Doesn’t make sense? Well remember the mouse and rabbit story?

The update  - The mouse is out and trying to figure where to go next, exhausted at the mere thought of finding another room to be comfortable, tempted by the thought of never entering a room again. While the rabbit is jumping on the same road again, just like before, but this time making sure to touch more creatures on its way, and touch them closely.  So why should the mouse be bothered? Yes it shouldn’t be …but for the fact… that it still doesn’t believe that the rabbit’s original intention was to cohabit the room for only some time and to get out on the road eventually, still cant digest the fact that the rabbit would still be treading the same path… all over again! In the exact same way with other creatures on its way!

You see this takes away the benefit of doubt that the mouse gave rabbit to salvage itself. The benefit of doubt being that the rabbit didn’t know that it couldn’t stand the heat of that room till it stayed in the room for a while. 

But now?? Now the rabbit knows! 

So why is it still looking, and pro actively so for partners to start a journey on the road which leads only to one place – that damned room?? Or maybe the foolish mouse doesn’t understand that problem was not the heat in the room in the first place but difference in their colour. 

If that was it, then why did the rabbit wait for so long to say this? And doesnt it know that the possibility of finding his own species is next to nothing in this path full of all kinds of species? So is it ok with walking along with a non rabbit? So when it blew the mouse off, was that a specific aversion to mice in general? 

What about the other unsuspecting creatures which the rabbit is going to disillusion? Why should be the mouse be worried about those creatures in the first place? Why does the mouse still wonder if the rabbit knows that all creatures would ask for adjusting the thermostat after a while and the rabbit being rabbit would run away..again? 

It is difficult to believe that the rabbit is so naive not to know... and if it does, then this doesnt make it a good being! (Unless of course, the rabbit feels that some creature would make it want to take that fur off to be ok with the extra heat in the room!). But no, this time the mouse doesnt want to use the benefit-of-doubt theory. So it has decided to house this anger for a while. And also stop looking at the direction where the rabbit jumps... forever!

The upside?? (Well why an upside??...cos i create such a hype about the sense-of- balance everytime!! So its only fair to expect an upside to this as well)  - Maybe all these whys will end up making me wise...somehow!

My T-shirt reads...

Dont chase me....

....... if you are not ready to catch me!!

Men are from Mars : Women from Venus

A boy .
A girl .
Beginning the act of intimacy for the first time after knowing each for quite some time.


Girl (thinking to herself) - "So glad that i feel attracted to him physically as well!"

Boy (thinking at the same time) - "Its a bonus that shes not a bimbo!"

No fire without a smoke?

Its been more than one month now that I quit smoking. I always thought that I could quit anytime I wanted, that I am not addicted to nicotine ....and I was right. Maybe not! Only time will tell.

When people came to know about it, a lot of undeserved credit for being health conscious came my way. Although I knew this was not the primary reason for this decision (it was just a bonus), I didn't correct them right away as I didn’t wish to talk too much about the actual reason. But then my threshold to hear how new-age I am, how I am doing all the right things blah blah (I had recently joined a gym too) was crossed and I couldn’t hear it anymore. I had to clear the air. The real reason for quitting smoking came from the fact that my mom was visiting me. Its not that she doesn’t know about my smoking (although I am not sure if she has any clue about the details like since how long, how many a day, intermittent or continuous etc etc).

So you say why quit then? Well the thing is, even when I know she knows, I obviously cant smoke in front of her. Now given the fact that we were going to a spend a lot of time together during this trip of hers, it automatically meant that I would have had to refrain from smoking for long periods of time in a stretch. I was sure I would crave for smoking during those times (Ok I know I said before that I think I am not addicted …. but did I say not addicted psychologically??). I was sure not being able to smoke during those hours would make me irritable and probably I would end up being cross with her at some subconscious level. I didn’t want to take that chance. I didn’t want to run that risk of saying/doing something which would have made her feel bad especially in a faraway land where she has no one but me. I wanted the non smoking situation not to become a function of her presence but a restraint imposed by my own self. At that time,I didn’t know if I would be successful in actually quitting, but I wanted to try nevertheless. So I did (try), starting two weeks before she arrived.

So I have been holding my ground for sometime now (5 weeks now) and I am doing fine, although I would be lying if I said I never had those weak moments when I felt like giving in. But to my credit, these moments were rare and comfortably spaced. So I carried on with my self imposed non smoking condition. You know how they say that after quitting for some time, if you happen to have as much as one smoke, there is no chance of your continuing your resolve after that. Guess what, "they" are wrong. I happened to go for some drinks twice during these days (once with friends & once my MDs idea of managers meeting over drinks) … craved for a smoke each time and had a couple of them each time. (I don’t remember if I have ever had a drink without a smoke… yes I know I am a bad girl :P... or maybe i started smoking the same time when i accepted the idea of social drinking). So even after those couple of smokes, I havent gone back to it .. "it" being regular smoking, of course! And I am fine with those two aberrations.

Ok so all good, right? Actually no. In the wake of this non smoking existence, I have been faced with some problems. Now, if i don't suffer from the physical withdrawal symptoms, what on earth could be my problem, you ask?? Well....

The problem is that now I don’t know how to take my breaks during working hours . You see, for the last 7 years, since i have been working, taking a break was synonymous with going for a smoke. Now I just don’t know what to do. And surfing internet etc wouldn’t work because I need to get up from my seat at least once in 2-3 hours. Arghhh!

The problem is that I don’t know what to tell myself during long boring meetings to keep me going. The idea of lighting a cigarette as soon as the meeting is over used to work wonders for my motivation to make it through the meetings. I don’t have that anymore. Arghhhh!

The problem is that all my ideas of unwinding (e.g. after a long day at work, sitting in the balcony with a cup of tea or sitting on the floor watching TV or lying in the couch listening to music), all my ideas/fantasies of soothing moments of pleasure (like feeling the wind in my hair driving through the hills, feeling the warmth of tea after experiencing chilling cold in my bones during a windy winter day, sitting on a rock in a moonlit night on some secluded beach) invariably involved a smoking moment. Now these (even at the idea stage) feel incomplete. Arghhhhhhhhh!

I know, I know, the benefits far outweigh these silly sounding problems of mine. For starters if a guy (esp a prospective groom suggested by some family connection) now asks me about smoking, I can comfortably say NO … and unlike what i experienced in the past, avoid going through a tortuous predicament of choosing between telling him the truth and preventing this news from travelling back to my mother (You see at one point of time, my mother didn’t know. And I didn’t want her to know from someone else but me, if at all. And imagine that someone being connected to my family network in some way. It would have been scandalous to say the least).

I remember one such incident when I was really torn between these choices – going with the truth OR protecting my mother from a shocking discovery & the unnecessary gossip/ controversy in the family (You see, it was a family network alliance). 

So the guy asked me the dreaded question. I had to think really hard inspite of all the hard work put in my room mates (I used to stay in a PG then, full of such kind helping souls) in teaching me how to either clearly lie or tactfully evade the question. Anyway in that meeting, when the question was popped, I decided I couldn’t do either of the two (no lying – cos I thought what if this is really important to him? And no evading the question – simply because I suck at that big time). 

So I came up with this – “I used to but I have quit now” After a split second when my conscience told me that what I had just uttered amounted to lying, I added – “but I am very prone to start again anytime”…. Ha! Make sense out of that!! Yes, I was crazy back then too. 

How did the guy respond, you ask?? Well he kept quiet…. of course! But in his defense, who could make anything out of that confused statement. Plus i know for sure, he didn’t have a slow wit - How did i know? Heres how - I thought of having a little fun with him before ending the meeting (once I figured at some point during our meeting that this alliance is not going to work out cos smoking was a big deal to him. Again, can you blame him?). 

So I asked him – “What if all goes well, we decide to marry and on the big day I come to you and tell you that I have started again” He just smiled so I had to force the realization upon him that the question wasn't meant to be rhetorical and I was expecting an answer. He smiled again. I asked again. After 3-4 times of repeating this, he finally said – “I will give you the light”. Now wasnt that sweet and funny both? Why, you ask? Well.. let me remind you that he was not ok with smoking in the first place(even a past association with it) and now imagine / visualize him on the eventful day, holding the light for me after I pull out my cigarette from that little shiny black bag which came as a part of my classy wedding ensemble :P

And I digress.

Anyway I cant say how long I am going to last in this. Afterall this is my first ... before this i never even thought of quitting...yes , not even once.

Give up on not giving up on my ability to sustain?? I don’t think so.

I am sure I was a fire.....even before i embraced the smoke.

How to spot an Indian in my office!!

Its human nature to generalize things, patterns & trends. Building on this premise , this is how we Indians (about 4-5 of us in the office) get defined here …(as observed by the localites)

We do not waste time in exchanging pleasantries. We get straight to the point. E.g. A mail from an Indian would read simply “When can I have this report?” as against a mail from a local asking the same question “Hi ABC, Hope this mail finds you well. How was your weekend / Hope you are having a good day today (whatever fits). It would be really great if you could let me know by when can I get to have a look at the report. Your co-operation is highly appreciated. Have a good day. Thanks in advance, Regards XYZ”. And yes, this applies to the phone conversations too. Maybe we Indians are a rude race (my opinion, not my fellow Non Indians) or maybe we are simply more task-oriented than people-oriented.

We are not big on food. We either don’t eat at all or eat very little. Now this perception is based solely on the fact that fellow Indians in my office are all either calorie conscious or are not a big fan of junk food (the only choice available if you wish to have lunch in office… no pantry/canteen facility, so we essentially have to order in)

We speak very fast. Now I don’t know about this one. “Fast” is a relative term afterall.

We use big words in our communication (English). I don’t know if I agree with them or not, nevertheless this is one of the perceptions about Indians (If my blogger friend Anand was actually hired here and this perception was based on him, I would have certainly agreed with them on this :D... BTW this is a compliment Anand, just in case you start thinking otherwise) Actually most of them say they take after us to enhance their vocabulary (yeayyy!!!) but there is always a risk that you would give out an impression of being a show-off, or making people uncomfortable with their own vocabulary.

We are technically very sound. So there, just like that, we gain their respect & acceptance because we are Indians. Of course there is a flip side to it. If you are an honest soul and want to correct their perception informing them of your average / lower than average technical skills, they would never believe you and the pressure of great expectations would continue looming over your head. Well , only if you have learnt the art of portraying yourself as knowledgeable, there’s not much to worry.

More as and when I observe/ learn…

AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa

Sometimes i wish to scream for no apparent reason whatsoever.

I am feeling like that at this very moment.
Am I crazy or do we all have such urges?

Why do Russians make kickass chess players?

Somebody forwarded this piece to me recently...

After months of negotiation with the authorities, a Talmudist from Odessa (in Russia) was granted permission to visit Moscow. He boarded the train and found an empty seat. At the next stop a young man got on and sat next to him. The scholar looked at the young man and thought:

This fellow doesn't look like a peasant, and if he isn't a peasant he probably comes from this district. If he comes from this district, then he must be Jewish because this is, after all, a Jewish district.

On the other hand, if he is a Jew, where could he be going? I'm the only Jew in our district who has permission to travel to Moscow.

Ahh? But just outside Moscow there is a little village called Samvet, and Jews don't need special permission to go there. But why would he be going to Samvet?

He's probably going to visit one of the Jewish families there, but how many Jewish families are there in Samvet? Only two - the Bernsteins and the Steinbergs. The Bernsteins are a terrible family, and a nice looking fellow like him must be visiting the Steinbergs. But why is he going?

The Steinbergs have only daughters, so maybe he's their son-in-law. But if he is, then which daughter did he marry? They say that Sarah married a nice lawyer from Budapest, and Esther married a businessman from Zhitomer, so it must be Sarah's husband. Which means that his name is Alexander Cohen, if I'm not mistaken. But if he comes from Budapest, with all the anti-Semitism they have there, he must have changed his name.

What's the Hungarian equivalent of Cohen? Kovacs. But if they allowed him to change his name, he must have some special status. What could it be? A doctorate from the University.

At this point the scholar turns to the young man and says, "How do you do, Dr. Kovacs?"

"Very well, thank you, sir." answered the startled passenger. But how is it that you know my name?"

"Oh," replied the Talmudist, "it was obvious."

Nostalgia one more time!!

Recently I came across this -
http://www.worldschoolphotographs.com

It’s truly something... More than 90% schools in India are covered and not only the city schools at that. Yes many villages are covered too...... I dont know how those guys did it!!! Of course, Africa is not covered in such detail but apart from that the site claims to have covered all other continents. Isnt it something?

You can try and see if yours is there.

To be or not to be?

While waiting for one of colleagues to finish his work, so that i could get a lift till home.

His boss to him - "Ok, you can try this analysis by using different variables. But pleeeeeeez dont choose the variables like girls"[Whatever that meant...by the tone i was pretty sure it didn't mean to flatter girls]

Me - "I am standing right here, guys!"

The colleague - "Oh come on. You are not a girl."

I wasnt sure who was more deserving of my killing stare!!

What colour is your Brain?

I attended a Management Training recently where I was told what colour is my brain. It was a very interesting exercise and gave some real good insights. Basically you have to fill in a 30-45 min questionnaire to get the results. You can look it up on the net and take the test, but its not free. However, this is what i was able to extract from different sources available on the internet. If you know the concept, you can broadly understand how your brain works and benefit from that understanding.

Hermann's Whole Brain Model

People learn in many different ways. The brain is the source of who we are and how we learn. According to the Whole Brain Model from Ned Herrmann, each person basically has four brains when it comes to the process of thinking and learning. Depending on which quadrants we engage, our learning processes can be very different.

Brain dominance leads to thinking style preferences, which impact what we pay attention to and how and what we learn best. Each of these four "brains" or quadrants is listed below with words that typically characterize a person who uses that thinking style.

The Whole Brain Model is a mental model that describes thinking preferences. These are the ways of thinking that satisfy us the most and seem natural for us at this point in our lives. These ways of thinking can change, often as a result of significant emotional experiences, life transitions and other important insights. Thinking preferences describe the patterns of what we prefer to pay attention to and what we don't prefer to pay attention to.

Thinking preferences can be different than our skills or the content of our work or our behavior, depending upon the situation. When we think or function differently than our preferences, even if we have excellent skills, it's more likely that we'll find it somewhat uncomfortable and consuming more of our energy.

The four thinking styles in the Whole Brain Model are:

1. BLUE - Logician/ Theorist (The Rational Self) - Analytical, mathematical, technical and problem solving. These are people who like lecture, facts, and details, critical thinking, textbooks and readings, etc. The brain dominance for theorists is the upper left (cerebral).
2. GREEN - Organizer (The Safekeeping Self) - Controlled, conservative, planned, organized and administrative in nature. These are people who prefer to learn by outlining, checklists, exercises and problem solving with steps, policies and procedures. People with these preferences have lower left (limbic) brain dominance.
3. RED - Communicator / Humanitarian (The Feeling Self) - Interpersonal, emotional, musical, spiritual and the "talker" modes.: Prefer cooperative learning and group discussion, role-playing, and dramatization. Their brain preference is lower right (limbic)
4. YELLOW -Visionary / Innovators (The Experimental Self) - : Imaginative, synthesizing, artistic, holistic and conceptual modes. Innovators prefer brainstorming, metaphors, illustrations and pictures, mind mapping and synthesis, and holistic approaches. The brain dominance for innovators is upper right (cerebral).

A Rational Self knows how things work, knows about money, likes numbers, is realistic, is critical, is logical, quantifies, analyzes	D Experimental Self infers, imagines, is curious/plays, likes surprises, breaks rules, speculates, is impetuous takes risks
B Safekeeping Self plans, timely, is neat, organizes, is reliable, gets things done, establishes procedures, takes preventative action	C Feeling Self feels, talks a lot, is emotional, is expressive, is supportive, touches a lot, likes to teach, is sensitive to others

You may see yourself in more than one quadrant. The research indicates that people may use more than one style primarily. In fact, a majority of people has at least two primary quadrants. Each person can have primary preferences (areas of the brain he/she goes too easily and enjoys), secondary preferences (areas of the brain that can be and are accessed when necessary) and tertiary preferences (areas a person may have difficulty accessing or may even avoid). You also don't need to identify with everything in the quadrant to have some strength there. People have varying degrees of dominance in the quadrants.

So readers, what do you think is the dominant colour of your brain?

At the core of the most recent book of Ned Herrmann, lies his belief that the functioning of the human brain is driven by a four-quadrant interconnected set of mental processing modes. These four thinking styles, says Herrmann, originate in the brain's left and right cerebral hemispheres, and in the left and right half limbic systems, each resulting in significantly different and distinct behavioral characteristics in human beings. How this complex brain interaction determines thinking mode dominance and thinking style preferences, and how individuals and organizations can benefit from such understanding, are the main themes of Herrmann's book. Hermann's work is widely used by training and development specialists. The Whole Brain Model supersedes "left brain/right brain" thinking in earlier models. Also it has advanced new concepts of thinking research and their applications in business settings. Dominant thinking in one of the four thinking styles, causes the development of thinking preferences. Then these thinking preferences establish our interests, foster the development of competencies, and influence our career choices and ultimately our work. Argues Herrmann.

Disclaimer – This Information has been collected from all (internet) sources in the public domain.