best jokes- I

A Buddhist Zen master went up to a hot dog vendor at a baseball game and said, "Make me one with everything." When the Zen master paid with a twenty-dollar bill, the hot-dog vendor put the bill in the cash drawer.

"Where's my change?" the Zen master asked.

The hot-dog vendor replied, "Change must come from within."

rebirth

Am posting after a considerable gap of time. Have been from heaven to hell, realised it was the other way round, and now am contemplating the next course of action.
Was in Gurgaon for a month doing my summer internship for a company here until the project was scheduled to be scrapped and so had to hurry and finish up the work.
Meanwhile i have had a few life changing experiences.. first i realized that the world as i wanted to make it is not yet ready for it. so have changed my track and am willing to play the waiting game till such time as the time is ripe. more on this as it comes out gradually..
Have been reading a lot to combat the boredom here, and have nearly finished "The Fountainhead", and have discovered a mirror to my thoughts, not necessarily in the mould of the hero-worship of characters in a movie or novel, but in the way of looking at the world 'objectively'. I can state that at a certain age, every person should read this novel, it will present to him a glass through which the world's problems appear simplified, things which you were not able to figure out become cystal-clear.
I wont reveal anything about the book though, that enjoyment should be allowed to the reader when he holds the book in his own hands and sits or lies down with it.

Have made up some changes i would like to accomplish in myself, have set some principles and realised that the time to take responsibily has come. no longer can I afford to ignore the world as it is, dreaming wistfully of a new order which would be just perfect.

a motto i have to take up for the time being, till such time as there is no longer a need for it --
"Money is Everything"

There's a sudden change in the weather. The sunny days of winter and spring are making way for the next bout of summer rains. Reminds me of home, of endless rains, of rounds of carrom as we passed time trapped inside our homes.
The rains are viewed so differently across the country that by itself it could qualify as being a measure of the various different ethnic clans and cultures here, not to speak of the geographical spread.
Back home it was always seen with a feeling of helplessness, resignment to indoor sports, (we had indoor varieties of all the games played!), and smelly clothes arranged on the line with fans running furiously to try to dry them. The huddled people in front of the TV, sharing in joy, and laughing in mirth. Yes, TV was a great source of bonding and as a past-time in the rainy season, nothwithstanding the constant fights among us for the control of the remote.
Here the rains bring a totally different emotion along with it. It gives respite from the scorching sun with the dancing peacocks thrown in as a good bonus (not to forget the dancing humans).
But there is also a binding thread with it.
It is seen everywhere equally as a harbinger of a good harvest, a new beginning, creation, and change. It is seen with fondness by the elders reminding them of times gone by. Rains bring out the emotions in two lovers, and makes the longingness grow deeper.
For some rains may be disasters, for the cotton crop, for the low-lying habitats, and for the goats!!
But,
Rains bring with it water.
And with that.
Life itself.

Crazy Tree

Crazy Tree
Originally uploaded by JuanJ.

fine discovery.

Manali eye-opener

a gem from the visit to the Rohtang Pass..

enjoy! 

chess

selection trials for the institute team to play against the rest of the IIMs is going on. And since i am not a bad player myself, i thought why not.

3 games later... i realise one thing. Get the crap out of your heads that these guys here are studs with studies and projects keeping them busy all of 2 years. Nope. Doesn't work that way. In fact i have come across 'studs' who are experts in their domain but in a field far removed from the curricula. One of the guys here, let's call him EPL, he is undoubtedly the authority on the English Premier League. At any given 'moment', (yes, 'moment') he can rattle off the statistics as to the number of goals scored by which team against what team by whom with the foot or the head, leave alone the simple matter of the number of red or yellow cards. Come exams and nothing, no change in schedules for him. I guess considering the odd times of the games (he also keps track of UEFA Champions League matches) what he has managed to do merits him receiving a PGDTM (Post-Graduate Diploma in Time Management). ok, i think you get the picture.

another of the guys is the musically inclined guy you'll find in all institutes. But this guy is no ordinary freak, his routine consists of making the upstairs gym-room as sound-proof as possible and then belt out as loud as he can on his electric guitar using the 10000 watt speakers. (What an example of a dichotomy of aims.)


well, to get back to my chess game.. wonder what the name of the guy in-charge of organizing the chess competition? None other than Viswanathan Anand!!! And since i have drawn with him this evening, one sentence that will never probably leave my mind is "i drew with viswanathan anand!!"

Love?

ok, with thoughts of issues come the perennial thoughts about the feeling 'love'. Now don't worry, it is not that yours truly is 'falling'( or failing) these days. It is just that recently a discussion started on the bulletin board here and i thought how we men are perennially perplexed about the mysterious charms and guiles of women.
As i mentioned. even at this level, i.e., a post-grad level of the highest order, people are still searching for the keys to the locked doors of enlightenment on the subject of women. I would have thought that by now either they would have given up unsuccesfully, or else they would be tired of the thing.
For the benefit of all men, let me assure you while pretending to be the 'Master' that there is nothing as love in the real world. Instead what is mistaken as love is one of the following:

1. Infatuation (no need to detail it cos it is always covered in the advice columns of magazines or else in sunday editions of newspapers.)
2. Girl Power: This is the classic case of the first-timer (or rather the never-timer) who mistakes the power the girl is exercising over him to be attraction from her. This has to be carefully explained by an example. In case of Bollywood movies, it would be the 'good' guy and he would be running all the errands for the girl, however in the end the girl would choose the 'bad' guy who turns around and cares about her after ignoring her for the first part of the movie (a.k.a. Ishq Vishk Pyaar Vyaar)
3. Guy Power(?): Well in this case the guy believes that his 'machoism' would be appealing enough and that the girl is well smitten. Sadly, the girl ditches him in the end when a 'good' guy, the man of her dreams(sic), comes along.
4. Love: Love mistaken as love? No i have not gone bonkers here, the point is that there are varying thoughts about love as an emotion and psychologists agree that people differ in the degree to what people feel about it. This is one of the most major causes of opportunities missed, friendships lost, and relationships turning abusive.

Hmm.. so what is the inference? Nothing. The subject is the topic of enless discussion over drinks in the boys dorms in schools, colleges, universities -and now i have learnt- even in workplaces. So, is there no end to it?

NO. Go figure.

PS: Men are like a fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it’s up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.