C'est La Vie;That's life

Let's talk about a simple, common question that comes up within 2 minutes of any decent conversation - "Where are you from?" Here's what i do. If i'm anywhere in India, it's always a matter of direct curiosity to know if i'm a Northie or Southie (apparently Eastie or Westie doesn't count). And by that point of time, i can almost see their overactive brains already sorting out my physical features, linguistic slang, mannerisms and millions of other trivia to get some idea of my statehood. They have to know this otherwise their cerebrum would burst into pieces. Headless busts don't make great conversation partners, right? So, in order to avoid any bloodshed, i'll have to declare solemnly, "Chennai", because that's the place of my schooling, college-ing, working etc. Simple, you would say. But, see this is when the fun starts. If i'm already in Chennai and someone asks me "Where are you from?", i'll have to rack...

They are just like microbes. Only difference between these people and the uni-celled organisms is that it's easier to spot them with their pensive eyebrows, frowned chins, and a smile-less "sky is going to fall on my head any minute" look on their faces. Try opening up a small talk about a rainbow, they'll be thinking about muddy rains. If you say flowers, they're already sneezing with fear of pollen. While me and you think of beautiful waterfalls, these people would be scared to death of the falling rocks. Ok, we can collectively sigh at these dreary word associations, but it goes on and on.....Chocolates gives headaches, travelling would definitely involve airplane crashes, a walk on the seaside will lead to a topic on tsunamis. By the way, don't even think of cracking silly jokes to cheer up because they'll start gagging over them. Pathetic, huh? So, in a honest appeal to restore sanity to the world, let's ask these paranoids to please stop worrying...

Ok, so even when we were roaming around as Hominids a.k.a hairless monkeys, our skin has been black. This was supposed to be useful to prevent us from harmful UV rays in Africa, the "dark continent" (not bad, huh) from where everyone of us on planet earth originate. That's old news. Then, as we evolved and moved around to colder places like Europe and Asia, we didn't have much use of our melanin pigment and so we started developing lighter skin. Adaptation, of course. Somewhere down the history lane, we also started getting an absurd notion of darker skin being seen as being of lowest social value, and lighter skin of highest. No one knows why, but we all know that this paranoia has been the root cause of the evil "racism". What's most fascinating (maybe only to me) is that apparently how we tend to choose our mates is also connected to our skin color. Natural selection, bingo. Peter Frost's 2005 Fair Women, Dark Men, U. of Washington sociologist Pie...

I'm just back from watching the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire". Armed with too many reviews - the good, bad and the ugly, decided it was worth writing home about. Not about the movie itself, but about the how's and why's of one more of the millionth 'rags to riches' story touching many hearts. Again. Let's see. Superheroes have their own rightful share of our adoration and admiration. But, we're always mindful that they can exist only in comic books or movies or a fantasmic 'cuckoo land'. After all, saving the world is strictly a position for a chosen few, who are most likely acrobats or trapeze artists in disguise. Right? That leaves the remaining 99% of the population like us who have to go through our daily lives devoid of any room for super heroic acts. No, taking the trash out (even a truck load) or doing a humongous load of laundry (including dirty socks) do not count. Very unfortunate, but true. So, do we tend to satiate our daily...

Is it just me or have you noticed that writing these days have become very simple? To the point. Razor-sharp words. No more long-winding, archaic sentences. I think our crispy communication has finally caught up with our short attention-spans. Take the news, for e.g. We start scanning the headlines, read the first few words of a para. If there's too much of a babble or seem like pages of a legal document, we just jump, skip and hop to the next header. Emails are brief too. No one has the time to look beyond two lines. If you can't make your long story short, sorry folks, better keep it to yourself or go seek the wailing wall. And, blogs like these are really the scum. Worse. Really bad. Case dismissed. Period. Cell phones have cramped typing space, so you can't even loudly protest. Still, text messages which quip " C u der!"or "U r gr8" makes you wonder if this so-called alphabet soup, a.k.a new age communication develops at this rate, we might as we...

Who are they? People who have creative minds and think beyond what is deemed as the norm. Those who have an ability to move the world from a status quo - scientists, leaders and philosophers. Or, those who have an unique and special talent or ideas which sets them apart from the rest of the millieu - artists, architects, writers etc. Including people who have made a difference to their community and the world at large, knowingly or unknowingly so. The big Q though is - Can every human brain be trained to reach this potential or is it something more innate? Nurture or Nature? Or could it maybe a balanced mix of both?

Or how about "40 is the new 20's". These are some of the new mantras that we 40'ers proudly chant about. After all, we can't admit that mid-life is dull, boring, uninteresting or full of creepy 'been-there-done-that' kind of feelings all day. Well, we can but we won't. Nah, I'm just kidding. Age 40 is when true liberation begins. Let's see here. You are not as naive as in 'people taking you for a huge ride' 20's anymore or so much focused on 'things that seem so important but turns out not later on' 30's anymore. Finally, voila.....you're in the magical, mystical, 'figuring out whatever you did so far is completely foolish or utterly wasteful' 40's. That's not exactly bad news as it obviously looks. There's a silver lining somewhere hidden that I seem to have missed completely. Oh yes, now I know. Got it. All these sudden awakenings should lead you to realise something more important - you a...