100 truths, religion and IPL.

Tuesday, April 7th 2009.

0807hrs, NUS Thinklab, Computer Centre.

Yes, its true that I am in univeristy so early in the morning.

April and May are the months of exams, assignments, stress, IPL etc in most parts of the world. Side-effects of these are varied. Depending on who you are (I guess you will identify few of yours here) it maybe facebook addiction (latest trend), excessive sleeping, insomnia, smoking ,drinking, porn, movie or tv-show marathons, getting addicted to some music and anything else to distract you from what you are actually supposed to be doing.

I have been having some of the above mentioned effects and some more peculiar ones. But before I talk about that I would like to start of with FaceBook (FB) addiction. FB being dominated by students worldwide is a very good indicator of stress levels in student communities around the world. If you have a FB account and have 50+ friends you must have noticed the recent high activity rate on the website, a very good indicator of the April-May zone. Let me talk of three most popular trends I have seen over the last month.

It started with people tagging their friends on one picture, which has like many smaller images of variety of characters we encounter (eg. the flirt, the cutie, the jerk etc… I guess you get which one I mean). Then came the quizzes, with so many random-shit questions – when will you get married? when will I get cancer? and equally shitty answers. And then came tagging lists of things you do and passing them on – the ipod quiz, the other randomly self-indulging- chance of making yourself -look-good-which you are actually not- lists etc.

So anyways yesterday night my friends started doing this 100 truths list and tagged me to do it as well. Some of them cited exam-stress as reason for doing the list, others stated joblessness as the reason. Whatever it is I am not here to analyse the reason behind their doing it. The list itself interested me a lot.

Before I touch on the reason of my interest for the 100 truth list I think I need to lay some more foundation.

I was watching the documentary Religulous yesterday night. Last saturday (earth hour night) I was involved in a fierce debate over definition of religion with some friends and I have been reading Bhagavad Gita. So you can see that I have been spending a lot of time on religion and understanding it (side-effect 1?) . If you are a namesake-Hindu like me (one who doesnt go to temple,eats beef etc etc – which I am not saying are true requirements of being a Hindu, but merely stating social norms) , and you probably are looked at in a condescending manner by your staunch Hindu parents,friends etc then what I say will be similar to what you feel !  I hate those so called religious-people who judge others in that fashion. First of all do they really understand their religion? More importantly do they understand the idea behind religion? Or do they blindly follow what other people have told them to be religious or non-religious? Whatever minute knowledge I have gained through my readings clearly indicates that what people perceive today as being religion is not true. What is it then? – Right now I dont know. There are some ideas I have, but they are not cultivated enough.

Is religion a way of life? Is it a guide to reach god? Is it just an idea? – I dont know. Or may be as one of my friends stated – ” Religion is sum of all egos. ” (for more details ask me  personally on the explanation :p). Anyways I can write a book if I keep talking about religion and even put the hardcore-insomniac to sleep with this discussion, but what I wanted to point out is this:

Religion should be our intuition, an experience. It should not be what someone said. If you look into history of Hinduism (accurately, Sanatana dharma) in the vedic period this is what religion was, an experience. You live your life, experience it , learn what is right and wrong. It was the process that was important ,not the destination. So, say if my friend smokes or drinks or whatever, its his intuition to do so, and I should not be judging him to be non-religious or a sinner.

When Avinash wrote in his 100 truths :

” Do you want to get married? – Yes…..maybe i cannot sustain myself properly currently but will make sure to give my family the highest standards to live in.”

 unlike Agastya who found it funny (not judging you buddy ) , I found it very heart-warming.  The fact that we dont associate such a response from a guy like Avi might make it funny, but I look at it as what he desires, what his instinct says . Knowing him personally, I highly doubt that while answering that question he mentally referred to any religious teachings or scripts to reach that conclusion. Through his experience and what he has learnt in life and through “thinking” himself he reached this conclusion! I would say thats religion ,not accurately, but in a crude sense. That is probably just a small example from day to day life.

Now moving to something interesting! – Did you know there is a Cannabis Religion??? Their tagline – “We use cannabis religiously and you can, too.”  I personally dont find it stupid, because  ” Realty is unique, wise men see it (achieve it) in different ways. ” (Rig-Veda)  If Cannabis is your way to the truth, so be it (right Shanty?)

From all the intense religious stuff to some light stuff – CRICKET – IPL.

18th April , saturday is the day of the season opener for Indian Premier League Season 2 . Great match to start off with: MUMBAI INDIANS VS CHENNAI SUPERKINGS. Where are all you guys watching (if you are)? Avinash has indicated to me that he might live at  Ankur’s place throughout the season! So do you want to watch the season openers at Ankur-Agastya’s place??  Also guys I have sent you invites for the NTULC Season 2 IPL fantasy (cricinfo). Lots of players to choose this time over and more transfers than last season as well! So Do join! If you havent got the invite let me know your email address- will send again!

Anyways I better get started (my instinct speaking!) on the 3 assignments I need to submit by today evening. I hope Agastya gets his remote working by tonight, I tried helping him over the phone yesterday night, but chances look bleak! As for others keep the facebook traffic alive, its stupid, but entertaining.

0915hrs, 7th April 2009.

 PS: Sorry for the horribly unstructured writing! Havent blogged in a while…hopefully more blogs during the exam period.

 

Microsoft XP : Bihar Edition

Another Hindi Post. Sorry for those of you who are poor at hindi (Shanty) or who dont know hindi. For those who know Bihar and Hindi this is not one to be missed. :p

Kya Chootiyap Hai?

December 30th 2008, Tuesday

1952hrs , Home

Suchit : Kya Chootiyap Hai??

Vanga : Gaana Hai Yaar….

Shanty : Kya Gaana Hai Yaar!!

Avinash: Yeh Kahaan Hai? South America? Chile?

Ranajay : Middle East Hai Shayad…..

Deepak : I think its North Africa….kyun?

Avinash : Hmmm…shaayad…

Woke up at 7 am today and watched Aussies lose to Saffers. After that made some effort(workout) to achieve the golden-ratio. Re-Posted the psycho-analytical review of Ghajini on my blog. The first thing that came to my mind when I posted the review was the above conversation which we had while watching the movie. The talking point was this:

The stunning locations of this song are out of the world and featured in my dreams that night after the movie. Today I finally got time to research (nothing better to do) and find out more about that place, the place I would really want to go some day. Anyhow I thought maybe you would also be interested to find out more about the place..so here you go…….

Dead Vlei. This is what the place is called. As evident from the white surface of the place it is a clay pan located near the Sossusvlei Salt Pan, Namibia. It is part of the famous Namib Desert.

If you remember the song (or see picture on the left) you must remember the huge sand dunes ,where Aamir walks showing off his eight-pack. What were more stunning is a personal opinion (Vanga was drooling over the eight pack as far as I remember). Anyways those sand dunes are the highest sand dunes in the world. Some are as high as 300 metres.

Long long ago, believe it or not this place used to be flooded with water. Actually that is the reason for its current state. The clay pan was formed after rainfall, when the Tsauchab river flooded, creating temporary shallow pools where the abundance of water allowed camel thorn trees to grow. When the climate changed, drought hit the area, and sand dunes encroached on the pan, which blocked the river from the area. Soon there was no more water and the trees died. When you look at the  video or see pictures of those trees they appear like sets of tortured souls in the middle of nowhere. It must surely be an eerie feeling visitng the place.

You must be thinking that if the trees died so long ago, how come they are still there and didnt decompose like all organic matter usually does. The wood there does not decompose because it is too dry. What we see now are the skeletons of the trees, the trees which died about 900 years ago. They are now black because the intense sun has scorched them over hundreds of years.

If you might have noticed there are some species of plants remaining. These plants adapted to surviving off of the morning mist and very rare rainfall. It is rumoured that Aamir had insisted the director to find a unique beautiful place which was never used as location for filming. He said,” You find me such a place, you will get your eight pack.” Well the rest as they say is history.

Whoever named this place though had some liking for irony. He named it Dead Vlei.

Anagram : Dead Live.

Hmmm…

2055hrs

30th December 2008.

New Year Resolutions && Secret of A Great (Male) Body is 1.618

28th December 2008, Sunday

0600hrs, Home.

Few days back I was discussing with Shankari about our New Year Resolutions.Yes, its that time of the year when people realize that they have wasted the year gone by and plan to change their habits in the New year! ( I guess at this same point last year too they had made resolutions, what happened to those, God only knows).

But anyways the optimistic mammals we are, we list a lot of New year resolutions every year around this time. So yeah,  Shankari’s New Year Resolution was, sms quote – ” Resolution is to keep myself ultra fit and exercise regularly…Never bunk my violin and music classes..thats about it for now…. “. Not bad Shanki!! ..Anyways she asked me what my resolutions were, but for sake of replying I replied something to her…don’t remember what though.

So after that discussion I realized that I have never had any resolutions (maybe because I never actually wasted my past year…lol). But still I did’nt have any resolutions and I felt as if I was missing out on some New year ritual. So I thought and thought as to what I could do in the New Year to work towards a better me. A simple look at the mirror gave me the answer, I needed a better looking body! So I had decided on my resolution, to get a perfect body! (pssst…i told Shanki that I had decided to get a great body like John Abraham, her reply came. ” Oh!  you mean like Agastya‘s Body!” ..I had to reply, ” No the real one”.)

I had decided that I wanted a perfect body, but what is a perfect body?? Everyone has their definition of a perfect body or looking good. Like for example, Shanki said,  being beautiful for her was to lose weight (look thin) and get rid of pimples on her face! Vanga says looking good is crossing the 55 kg mark. For Suchit perfect body is anything above 165 cm height. So yeah, everyone has their own thoughts about it. But still confused I went about searching for the ” Perfect- Body Formula“ . I guess even God wants me to get a great body for the welfare of all gals in this world, so after 3 minutes of searching on the net I found some interesting info about what the perfect body can be or should be!

Building a perfect body is all about getting the right dimensions for your entire structure (some men might argue that only the dimensions of one organ down-under is important). Thankfully, the magic formula for those dimensions has been known for centuries. It’s called the golden ratio- a dividend of two measurements that’s roughly equal to 1.618. Its influence can be seen in the shape of a seashell, the spirals of a pinecone and the Partehnon in Athens. And in blueprints for the archetypal human form: Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man and Michaelangelo’s David.

So it’s no surprise to learn that chicks dig a physique that measures up to the golden ratio. Another search revealed that women are most attracted to muscular men whose shoulders measure 1.6 times the size of their waists. Well I guess its always not practical to measure the width of your shoulders yourselves- you need someone to do it for you. But it seems instead we can use the chest circumference value. It seems a ratio of 1.4 for chest: waist is equivalent to the 1.6 for shoulder: waist. For example, practically speaking, having a 45inch chest and 32inch waist is good! The bottom-line : When women look at men’s torsos, the ” V ” shape is victorious!

So I guess I now have my basic guidelines for a perfect body and will be hitting the gym in the New Year! I guess many of you would also like to have a perfect body! But before you launch into the workout ,know that you don’t have to achieve picture-perfect results to get the girl. There’s some research to suggest that women aren’t too keen on the most attractive men- they consider them too far out of their league. But I have even thought about that- by logic, the most attractive women would then go for the most-attractive men and that conclusion isnt bad at all!

As for me, I feel, the Golden ratio is nice to shoot for, but I won’t be disappointed with a silver or bronze either.

Note:  Hey Guys, what are your new year resolutions??? Would be great to hear from you!! Do post your comments!

0702hrs

28th December 2008.

VODKA ‘n’ PANI PURI

25th December 2008,  Merry Christmas

Note: I deleted the something interesting page and put it here…I guess this is easier :p

Strange Pairing :   VODKA ‘n’ PANI PURI

Yesterday, I was sitting with a bunch of friends at McDonalds somewhere in Bugis, Singapore. We bought a couple of magazines (year-end specials) to just recap what all  happened in 2008. Going through the magazine I came across an article – Vodka ‘n’ Pani Puri . Pretty interesting article, and I thought I would share it with all you guys (in a condensed way)….Here it is…

This is the culinary equivalent of the desi babu – gori mem hit jodi. He is street born and proud of a pedestrian bearing that makes him sharp, spicy and a survivor. She traces her heritage to snowy Russian Steppes, which make her cool, fluid and spirited. He is aspirational, and she is assimilative. You could’nt have found a more unlikely combination than pani puri and vodka.

The marriage, solemnised some years ago in five-star climes, was the creation of an F&B team seeking to tickle taste buds. I guess even they didnt imagine at that point of time that it would become a super-hit!

There are different versions of vodka pani puri.

A continental approach is to use cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese as filling, then dipped into the pani, and munched along with a shot vodka.

But the bestseller is the one in which the tangy pani is spiked with a liberal dash of vodka and spicy chaat fillings are used.  Sharpness of alcohol blends easily with tamarind water, causing a surprising impplosiion of tastes and flavors.

You might ask, what does vodka have that other spirits don’t? Why Vodka of all the spirits????

Perhaps because Vodka is a smooth operator. Its light and doesn’t have a strong odour. Rum is too robust. Whiskey is too male. Beer is all froth. Wine has too much attitude about its own taste, and doesnt lend itself to cocktail style mix and matches.

Whereas Vodka doesnt take away the essence of pani puri, but rather augments it. Vodka is an invader and a conquerer. Vodka always expands its horizon. No wonder if James Bond endorsed it.

Only when two flavours combine to create a kick that’s better than what you get from the individual foods does the pairing reach epicurien heights. Vodka Pani-Puri is one such combo.

I dont know if they serve it in any restaurant here in Singapore, but if they do please let me know for sure! I might buy you a few complimentary Vodka Pani- Puri mouthfuls!!