Inquilaab Zindabad

Picture Source: Wikipedia
Homage to three of the greatest martyrs for the country.

- Shaheed Bhagat Singh


- Sukhdev Thapar


- Shivram Rajguru


Inquilaab Zindabad!

Shame on you Sonia Aunty

They dressed up our two most famous Slumdog children in their Oscar clothes to go to Delhi last week to see the Queen. Little Azharuddin Mohammed wore his American tuxedo and Rubina Ali a black gown for their meeting with the Rajmata of India. While they waited in the sun outside 10 Janpath they entertained the media circus that trailed them by singing ‘Jai Ho’ and telling them what they would talk to ‘Sonia Aunty’ and ‘Rahul Uncle’ about. It was a sickening celebration of something that must never be celebrated—India’s grinding, hopeless, shameful poverty.

Its ugliest face has been on display in The New York Times this past week in the form of a slide show of starving Indian babies who look as if they have been through famine, war and pestilence. In fact they are just products of normal peacetime ‘shining’ India. The story that accompanies the pictures reminds us that two-thirds of India’s children are malnourished by the age of two, that 8 million are visibly starving and 60 million more manifest malnourishment in their inability to grow normally. My only objection to Slumdog Millionaire is that it depicts poverty as something that can be joyously overcome. It cannot and living with it is about the most horrible thing in the world. The children who acted in the film have returned to their hovels in Mumbai and admit that they can no longer deal with the horror of being real life slumdogs.

India’s real life billionaires love to boast in the forums of the world about India being a ‘young country’. Half of India’s population is younger than 25, they like to say, so there is no question that the 21st century will be India’s century because in an ageing world we can provide the human capital to keep the wheels turning. Really? With half of India’s children suffering from various degrees of malnourishment is this possible? Malnourishment does not just stunt the body, it stunts the brain. How many mentally stunted children do we know who grow up to become employable adults?

What makes India’s poverty such a disgraceful, dark thing is that it would not exist if the poor had not been the Congress Party’s most reliable vote bank. Indira Gandhi used this vote bank to its fullest in the ‘Gharibi Hatao’ election with that most famous of her campaign slogans. ‘Woh kehtey hain Indira hatao, main kehti hoon gharibi hatao’. The poor remained poor after she won and the vote bank remained intact until copycat Congress leaders like Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav lured the Muslims away and Mayawati took away the Dalits. More than 90 percent of the poor in India are either low of caste or Muslim.

They would not be poor if the crores and crores of rupees spent on poverty alleviation programmes had not been wasted on unwieldy, leaky efforts like Sonia Aunty’s favourite NREGA scheme. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme serves mostly to keep poor people in poverty for the rest of their lives but because it has the blessings of Sonia Gandhi it has now been spread across the country. If the money spent on it had been invested instead in an Akshaya Patra type midday meal scheme there would be no starving children in India today and our slumdogs would go willingly to school to eat that one hot meal a day. In Karnataka where Akshay Patra began studies show that school attendance went up to nearly a hundred percent and school performance improved dramatically. So if it is so easy why does nobody do it? Well, in the opinion of your humble columnist it is because when the Bharatiya Janata Party had its brief moment of ruling India it chose not to redefine governance but only to enjoy the thrills of power. If the Government of Atal Behari Vajpayee had changed only the functioning of the ministries that deal with the social sector India may really have ended up ‘shining’.

India can never shine or become an economic superpower as long as the majority of Indian children remain malnourished, illiterate and living in urban slums or villages that are worse than slums. Hollywood can be forgiven for celebrating our slumdog children and fawning over them as they enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame on the red carpet. It is much harder to forgive our own political leaders for seeking to exploit the desperate, sickening poverty that these children have returned to. Shame on you Sonia Aunty. For this lack of basic compassion if for no other reason you deserve to lose the elections. Our problem is that on our bleak political landscape it is hard to detect one person or political party that deserves to win.

- Tavleen Singh
Source: This article appeared in the Indian Express and can be found here

Us Indians will all cry

The UPA is in disarray
The allies are parting away
The Congress has lost the plot
All set to give the treasury spot

Manmohan Singh, have you no spine
Your command is Madam's whine
Rahul Gandhi, what is the big deal
A nobody, without the Gandhi seal

The NDA has problems of its own
Jaitley and Rajnath fight for the bone
Discipline gives way to whining
A bleak future for India Shining

In the name of secularism
The NDA becomes the untouchable
With no other alternative
The future becomes unwatchable

The future seems in a quandary
As Third Front, the goons get together
Nothing in common between them
Brothers from a different mother

Deve Gowda, could it possibly be?
Or Mayawati as the Queen Bee
I foresee a botched up marriage
The country with a sad miscarriage

It is this scary thought
That makes me want to say
BJP and Congress, do something
Keep Mayawati at bay

She will shoot the bird down
From up high in the clear blue sky
The world will laugh
While us Indians will, all cry

-Max

For the bookworms

The BBC list of books to read

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Upto you

There are no magical fixes. It is ALL upto you. Get up off your ass, get out and start doing your work. And if you are scared of it being hard, realize that nothing in this world that is worth having comes easy.

New Beginnings

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending

Here is to yet another new beginning with hope for a great ending!

Fooled by Randomness

25 random things about me...

1. My name means ‘without boundaries’ in Sanskrit. It means ‘friend’ in Hebrew.

2. My name is often misspelled, something that irritates the hell out of me.

3. My brother gifted me a box of pencils at the hospital when I was born.

4. I wanted to be a pilot, eyesight killed that dream. I wanted to be a doctor, my aunt [a doc] knocked sense into me. I want to be a banker, is that dream killed already?

5. I once sported a haircut like the Brazilian soccer player Dida

6. My friends call me MAX

7. I hate jewelry. Unlikely to wear an ‘engaged’ ring

8. As a kid, I was an avid philatelist and had over 7000 stamps from 60 odd countries

9. I often street raced on my Kawasaki in India. Top speeds, weaving through traffic and straight-lining curves were not uncommon. I have had 5 accidents.

10. I write poems and short stories. I tend to dramatize a mountain out of a molehill when I write

11. My friends and I once watched ‘Friends’ for 18 straight hours.

12. I have never puked due to alcohol consumption. I feel nauseated in the back seat of a car though.

13. To celebrate India’s famous victory over Australia in cricket, I lit firecrackers on the college campus, causing a huge commotion.

14. I am allergic to tea. I have had tea four times in my life.

15. I almost drowned in a white water rafting expedition in the Ganges when our raft overturned in a grade 4 and I was stuck underneath the raft

16. I have gone through three days without any sleep. I sleep 4 hours on average

17. The love of my life is Rex, my German Shepherd in India

18. I have two blogs, but never had the discipline to update them regularly

19. I have never read a Harry Potter or watched any of the movies. Something about it just does not appeal to me.

20. my poison is Jameson’s 12 aged Irish Whiskey when had neat. For a cocktail, I love a vodka with lime cordial, tonic water, pepper, tinge of Tabasco sauce and lots of ice.

21. The head trader at work once asked me if I was British because of my accent.

22. As a dare, I once had 12 raw green chilies.

23. I was to swim across a river in India, but my dad never gave me the permission

24. I broke my leg as a kid jumping off the 2nd floor of my house, attempting to be superman

25. I am attempting to live my dream of writing a book

- max

Flip Over

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title:--Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
Juliet in Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare

What's in a name is something people ask me when I correct them on the pronounciation of my name. Maybe not much. But then again, maybe a lot. The point is, what do you have to lose? Nothing I would reckon. My given name has a very similar sounding and more common twin. More often that not, it leads to people choosing the mundane over the exotic. One then has to correct people in the hope that they would get it right. Sometimes it is right. Sometimes it is not. Only time will ever tell.

The year has changed. What's in a number dare you ask? You may most certainly NOT. The world flipped when the century was about to turn into a new leaf. As did the fortunes of any and probably every Indian in the space of Information Technology. The time you missed your train because someone read out the time to you wrong. And most importantly because I like those numbers when I see them.

The flip is important. The year has changed. A year will soon add in my life. A challenge will soon appear. The one that I currently have, will refuse to go away. That bend in the road will look ever too closer. That shining star in the sky will look just as far away out of reach.

And yet, nothing will have changed. Resolutions will have come. Some would have briefly lasted. Some not at all. Some a lot longer. New people will have come and others will have left. And yet, the world will mostly be the same. What will have changed is merely the version. It would now show 2009. Lets see what it has in store.

To Those who died

Picture Source: NDTV.com
TO THOSE WHO DIED & THOSE WHO SAVED & THOSE WHO ONLY STARED……

If not for you,
I would have never known
How Courage transforms men
In times of greatest fear

If not for you
I would have never known
My country’s real Heroes
Who care not for their own
But save the lives of men unknown

If not for you,
I would have never known
The shamelessness of men
who watch the burning show
as if it were a thing
that happens now and then

If not for you,
I would have never known
A servant’s true loyalty,
To save a two-year old
From horror, none would ever know,
Had she to run alone

If not for you,
I would have never known
How 21 year olds -
The worst of Frankensteins -
Could pulverize a modern world!

If not for you,
I would have never known
That the managers of Hell
Have spread their tentacles
Into our daily world –
“No place is safe no more”

If not for you,
I would have never known
That killing one another
In the garb of religion
Could seem so meaningless
When terror strikes –
which has NO religion

If not for you,
I would have never known
Unity can still prevail
Amidst the people of my land
If only one would have
Leaders like once upon a time

It is to YOU -
O’ soldier in the uniform,
and even ‘sans’ a uniform -
that I pay obeisance, and cry
with humility and also pride
and say :
“MERA BHARAT MAHAAN”!!

--Ms. Monica Aurora [A dear friend's mom]

The City that I call home

Photo Courtesy: National Geographic Archives
“Terrorists attack the Taj Hotel in Mumbai”. As I saw this text message on my phone, I had a lump in my throat. I quickly called my cousins in Mumbai to check on them. While my family was safe and sound, the city that I once called home was not. Some of the most prominent landmarks of the city, such as the Victoria Terminus, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Trident were attacked. Over the next 60 hours, while the security personnel were able to eliminate the danger, the city lost 188 people, Indians and foreigners. Many others were injured. As terrorism raised its ugly head yet again, public anger was imminent and the terror attacks drew world-wide criticism.

Mumbai is, and has always been, the crucible of India. Since the Portuguese took possession of seven tiny islands off the west coast of India and called it Good Bay, it has brimmed with entrepreneurs eternally in search of their dreams. A channel for millions of ambitions, it is the land of possibility. The financial capital of India, home to the country’s thriving media and film industry and the second most populous city after Tokyo. Bangalore gets a lot of attention with its dotcom boom and its software prowess. Nevertheless, one simply cannot compare a Silicon Valley with a New York. Mumbai is what the Indians call Mayanagari, the city of dreams.

It was this dream that terrorists have often tried to wreck. Mumbai has seen more that its share of terrorist attacks. Be it the terrorist attacks at landmarks in 1993 or the 2006 bomb blasts that targeted its lifeline, the suburban metro rail transit also called the local. I remember being circumspect for a while every time I boarded the metro after the train blasts. And yet, the city took this in its stride and marched along unperturbed.

These recent attacks were different. We see a lot more emotions across Mumbai, India and the rest of the world; emotions of anger, anguish, pain and resolve. The public opinion this time around is vastly different and sustained. Not to say that there was no public outcry the previous times. This time, it is different. It may be because people are tired of the mindless killings that the city has seen before. However, I think it is because the terrorists struck at the very heart of the Indian dream. They targeted places that epitomize modern day India. The Taj Mahal hotel overlooking the Arabian Sea symbolizes the vast riches and opulence in the city; eschewed by many as they walk along the waterfront, gazing dreamily.

I am not from Mumbai. Nevertheless, like many, I too made it my home. It embraced me with open arms. I would often travel to the very stations that were attacked. I would enjoy a cold pitcher of beer in the very café that saw a mindless spray of bullets. I would visit the Taj hotel, always wanting to come back. Soon, this attack will become just a tragic date in history. It will be business as usual. However, for most of us, the blood of innocent victims will have left behind indelible stains.

I tell the story of Mumbai. But, this is not just the story of Mumbai alone. The same is the story in New Delhi, Islamabad, Colombo and Tel Aviv. Let us not forget New York, London or Madrid. India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads for over 50 years. Israel and Palestine haven’t seen eye to eye. Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo and other countries in Africa continue to fight bitter civil wars. There is no end in sight for America’s war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is not a problem of a city or a region alone. It is a virus that plagues the whole world; a disease that has spread its tentacles wide and hides under a garb of a ‘cause’.

Every terrorist has a cause, a reason that he uses to camouflage murder. Cold blooded thoughtless murder of innocent victims. The reason put forth could be religion, freedom, money, power or revenge. However, there is no reason that justifies senseless killing. The true spokesperson of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, once said “An eye for an eye will make the world blind”. The world is already blind with greed, hatred and jealousy. Let us all resolve to not let this blindness obliterate humankind.

The response

I read a brilliant article in the New York Times by Suketu Mehta, a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of 'Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.'.

The right attitude to the situation at hand.
So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.

I too hope to grab a beer and fish & chips at Leopold, Chicken Bhuna and rumali roti at Bade Miaan, and watch a Rahul Da'Cunha play at NCPA.

You may read the entire article here.

I want to fly

Picture Source: vancouverisland.travel

Every day I want to fly
Stay by my side
Every day I want to dream
Stay by my side

Every morning I wish
I could just play
Wish the mornings
would just stay

Every day I want to cry
Stay by my side
Every day I want to try
Stay by my side

Every morning I wish
I could just sing
Wish the bells
would just never ring

Every day I want to smile
Stay by my side
Every day I want to laugh
Stay by my side

Every morning I wish
I could just write
Wish the end
would be in sight

Every day I want to fly
Stay by my side
Every day I want to dream
Stay by my side

- Adapted by Max from a jingle by Vodafone

Video Source: Vodafone through youtube.com
- One of the most beautiful and pleasing commercials that I have seen.

Lucky huh?

This has got to be the funniest fortune that I have read/heard ever. I hope that they were merely kidding and this was not for true. No big loss for me if it happened though. The fortune that was thrown up everytime I logged in [yes, I do not go looking for it like you would guess] was hardly correct. Funny yes, accurate no.
This is what it was today...

"The guy who reads your fortune lost his psychic powers (and his job). We hope you are feeling lucky."

Some people do have a good sense of humor. Always appreciated.

On a similar note, I saw this commercial that was very sweet, sensible and one hell of an idea to have come up with. I kept wondering what it was until the very end... A wonderfully thought out one.
Video Courtesy: Vodafone and Youtube.com

Breakups

Someone I know posted this on Facebook. It was so hilarious that I had to post it here.
This seems like the quintessential 'formula' that people always seem to talk about when discussing relationships. I do not subscribe to this particular view or the school of thought that it comes from. Then again, I don't really know which school I belong to. Maybe there are a few stories in the past. Treat it as it is meant to be: Mindless Humour. Video Courtesy: www.youtube.com

The Grass is Green

Picture Courtesy: Random find on Xanga.com

- Grass is greener on the other side.

- If you like what you do, time just flies.

- There is nothing like school life.

Was in the corporate world. Now, back to school. Well, been here for a year and a half. Almost done and I do not want to leave. The corporate life beckons. Hopefully. Jobs are not to be seen. I have one for now. Or do I not?

Sometimes I think I am tired of thinking about how expensive life is in NYC. As always, I could do with the money. Just this time, the value of that marginal dollar is a lot higher. Yet, as frugal as they are, school times are simply brilliant. As little sleep as I may manage [it is five in the morning], school times could not be more perfect.

I know that things cannot be the way they are forever. How I wish. But, take the debt away, place some more money in the wallet and life could not be better and hope could then be forever.

Three Cheers to school.
Three Cheers to NYU.

Halloween Humor

Interesting take on the policies of the Democrats, espoused by the President-Elect Barack Obama.
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknown

An unfortunate soothsayer's world today presented by this cartoon where the person who predicts ill in the market , Prof. Nouriel Roubini is called Dr. Doom for his prophecies.
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknown

The child in you

Today is Children's day in India, a legacy of Chacha Nehru. And on this day, I ponder about the lost child in all of us. The one that gets lost in the rat race of life. We grow from being a child to an adult only to be a child again. That is the circle of life.
Why do we let the child in us go away for a bit? Why do we not let him stay? Why do we race to achieve this transition? Let him stay, be a part of who we truly are. Why are we not phuduking [translation: jumping] around as kids with happiness, joy and gay abandon?
Yes, we need to be serious when we need to be. But, that is not the whole day. There is always time for him.
All work and no play will make Max [and everyone else] a dull boy.

Fresh off the boat

Elections are done, dreams have come true. The unlikeliest candidate is now the President of the United States. A rather nobody, a wonderful orator and a leader who inspires. Nevertheless, little to no experience under the belt.

As I watched the below video, only one thing came to mind. What if this is Barack Obama? What would happen to the world?

Video Courtesy: Yes Prime-minister and BBC through www.youtube.com

This reminds me of the word that defines newbies to the US: Fresh off the boat. Not really sure what has to be done and not entirely comfortable and fitting into the situation at hand.

For the love of god and the future of the United States and that of the world, I hope that this is what it is: British humor.

Marriage and Melodrama

Photo Copyright - Gotta be Max - www.nfyniti.com

And yet another douche bag bites the dust.
This is exactly how I felt when I heard of a friend getting ready to tie the proverbial knot. Don't get me wrong. I don't think of marriage as the end of the road. It is merely a road that I do not understand. And if you were to hear a few people I know [cannot call them out for their own sake] speak their mind, they tell me about what a great mistake marriage was.

Statistic: There is enough empirical evidence to prove that men are likely to say how marriage was a mistake and that they had a lot more fun in a life prior to that. Women on the other hand are likely to say that marriage was the best thing that happened to them and they would not trade it for the world.

Truth be told, I cannot think of myself married. I am 'old enough' to get married. I have friends who are married. I have colleagues who are married. I have colleagues who have kids. That is not a problem. Am I a kid? Maybe. A disputed factor, depending on whom you choose to speak to. Am I mature enough? Again, opinions vary on this topic. If you ask my dad, I think it is safe to assume that he will say that I am good for nothing. I try to think of someone who will counter that view, but I think that is a self-fulfilling prophecy more than anything else. Let us not go down that road.

Under the assumption that I can indeed get married [old enough, dumb enough and mature enough], the next question is to obviously the right girl. Let us face it. This blog is black in color, no flowers or smileys. Dont tell me you thought I was a girl. Or gay for that matter. Sorry to those amongst two and a third of my followers who had intentions of setting me up with their guy cousin who is a 'Systems Architect' working for Infosys and currently working at client-side in Columbus, OH. That is just not happening.

Do I have commitment fears? I would think not. Some people I know would think so. But, it is not the case. Why, commitment is the second strength that I always quote in all interviews. Commitment to my goals, commitment to my dreams and commitment to my success. It is not difficult to extend this commitment, enthusiasm and interest beyond the realms of an interview. I ask myself this question and I know that I do not have the fear.

So, what is it? Is it the pressure of the decision, the importance of the decision? I would think not. I think I will have thought things out before I take the plunge. So that is not a fear. Yes, you can never predict the equity market and the mind of a woman. But, it is a fair risk-adjusted project I would believe.

Can I not compromise or adjust with the newer or maybe different ways of life? Not really. Have been there before and that is not an issue. People who know me know that I can generally get along with most people, can adjust in almost all settings and am very accomodating in most respects. Think otherwise? Feel free to leave a comment. Not smart-ass ones though.

Is it the closing of doors on 'opportunities'? Well, no comments. The less on this topic, the better. Else, I know that this is come back to bite me. Not that I plan to run for the President of the United States. But, enough people can link this back to me for me to keep quiet. Let me just say that I am a single-girl-at-a-time-guy.

Is it the horse-with-eyes-covered-limited-vision syndrome? Maybe. I really hate to see when guys go 'sorry Mate, plans with wife'. Or 'Wife is alone at home'. Come on dude, she is not going to run away. She is not going to have an affair with the milk-man [are there any of those existing? Maybe in Columbus, OH.]. You want to spend time with her, that I understand. You do not want to antagonize her, that too I understand. It is her birthday, I would personally kill you if you were not with her. Unless you are an Investment Banker at WhatEverRemains Capital that is. It is the 200th day since your paths crossed each others in a dim-lit party in the meat-packing? Give me a break. I am sure that you can spare a couple of hours for friends of the yore. Or carry on your tradition of poker on a Wednesday night with cigars and beer.

Can I not speak on the phone for hours? Hell Yea! Enough experience on that front, not a problem. Though I have to say that I do not think too highly of losers on the train/bus/public transport who can go on and on. Get a room!

Have I not met the right person? Well, everytime I me[e]t her, she seemed like the right person. But, then again, maybe not. Tough to say. A matter of perspective. I will think that this was never the cause.

What is it? After Porter's five forces, three C's, four P's, BCG Matrix, and various other methodologies of solving the case, I really do not have an answer to this. Well, let me rephrase that. I do have an answer. I just do not know the reasons and the thought process behind the answer.

Maybe, someday she [whoever ever that turns out to be] will show me the light at the end of this tunnel of darkness. And hopefully it will not be the train.

Until then, I hold my ground. Thankfully, my parents are not yet on my case. They seem a while away on that front.

Make hay while the sun shines
Light the town, when it is down

I believe that I speak for most people my age. There is really no reason for shirking away from marriage. For most, the right girl is there. And the opportunity to as well. And yet, there is a weird non-Newtonian centripetal force that pushes you away from the depths of marriage. I do not have to deal with it just right now. But, I know I will have to deal with it someday. I need to find an answer to this.

Good News

Apparently, I have been going to the fortune teller way too frequently. Well, not really. In this day and age, the internet brings it to your home, for free and often unsolicited.

Today's fortune was interesting: Good news will be brought to you by mail

Let me assure you that the news that I await and that I would classify as 'Good News' will arrive by mail.

Fingers crossed, prayers said, agarbattis lit and blessings sought. Let that Good News arrive... first by e-mail, then via telephone and finally via Fed-Ex.