Writing is a habit

Writing is a habit. It is also an art. It has to be cultivated and nourished and put into practice. I also think of it as a way to exercise the mind. I have often wondered why writing is so difficult when speaking comes so very easily. My answer is twofold. Firstly, I attribute some kind of formality to writing. This is probably because of the extensive written examinations we had when we were kids. Our school system trained us to write essays, composition, summaries, etc. Most of what we wrote as kids was reviewed and graded. This has probably caused the notion that writing is formal to be ingrained in our minds. Secondly, as a lazy reader, I expect that every paragraph that I read in a news paper column and a journal or a magazine to be comprehensive and convey some meaning. Books, stories etc need to captivate the audience and encourage them to continue reading. Trying to be true to this expectation, it elevates the pressure on the written word, naturally making us more careful and cautious about what we write, not to mention the "Forward" command and distribution lists on all email apps.

Living in times when a word processor is handy and probably the next biggest writing aid, second only to the brain, it makes me wonder how difficult writing might be without these. Thinking cogently before you put your pen to paper, collating all your thoughts, putting a summary together seem intimidating at best and almost impossible to achieve without the spell checker, grammar checker, “Copy and Paste”, “Insert” & “Undo” commands. I can remember how some of my essays and summaries looked on my answer paper; like a battlefield. Scratches on full or partial sentences and arrow marks for Inserts. Thinking back to our ancestral days, I can only imagine a world where paper was a scare commodity and people used feather pens to write in ink. We have come such a long way from that. Now, we can dress it all up. Even cover up the fact that there is no natural flow to your thoughts. You can go up and down your article and edit it to your heart’s content before you publish it and no one is ever going to find out how these thoughts were en-meshed in your brain and has to be painfully drug out.

One question I have sometimes debated is whether writing requires creativity. I conclude by thinking, “..not any more than speaking.” By that I don’t mean speaking as in a conversation, rather speaking as in a prepared speech addressing an audience. Persistence and a quiet, calm place, I believe are much more important than “inborn” creativity. One thing is for sure, the more you exercise and train a muscle, the better it gets at doing that specific function. It was fun writing this. My first work of art in a long time! And I intend to make this a habit. Do you want to guess on how many times I relied on word processing tricks?

Raagaas to Running - 1/2 marathon 'notes'

Absolutelyzilch, my text blog has been silent for more than a year now, and finally decided to resurrect it.

I managed to finish my 2nd 1/2 marathon last Sunday. You can read the article here

Ubiquitous poverty

There are moments where I get these sudden enlightening thoughts, atleast, that’s how I would like to view it… One such thought came to my mind today. What if majority of the people in the world are poorer? Think about it… Like the way it was as I grew up. We couldn’t afford a car or the likes of a motor bike. Almost, everyone had to commute through public transportation for long distances. For shorter distances, it was mostly a walk. Even bicycle was a luxury. No need for an expensive gym or a treadmill… No threat of fuel consumption exploding….

All papers and plastics (milk covers) were exchanged for money. A great way to recycle plastics, papers and old utensils. Since there was money involved, no one threw their stuff away. Throwing garbage was not a weekly chore as it is now. Even the stuff that came out of cooking, like egg shells, tea and coffee powder, drumstick fibers etc were all thrown in the garden to enrich soil.

If people had less money, eating habits definitely change. You eat what you need, than whatever you can. To cut down costs, everybody will start farming plants and vegetables in their own backyard, which means that eating fresh vegetables becomes a day to day affair. Organic too… Buying new clothes is a calendered event. One doesn’t buy what what one doesn’t need. Since there is always an uncertainty around job losses, the solution will depend on community. People living together, as a family or otherwise and support each other through their tough times…Ring a bell..;)

While the capitalistic world would scornfully ignore my thoughts as being stupid, may be even rightfully so, I like to think that I am just quoting history and not proposing something idealistic. When the whole world revolves around policies that should make people richer, my point is that, the world is probably better off if majority of people are poorer. There is always a question of who would these people work for and what will be the balance of wealth between different people, which, in turn, would again stir the conversation of imbalance. But, just the thought of poverty as a solution of the current conditions of global problems seemed interesting to me. Oh well, feel like going for a drive… May be, eat out and on the way back, have my preferred pearl tea. Oh, did I forget shopping for my supply of bottled water and canned soda… I can then catch up on the interesting discussions of global climate change that came up in the recent summit….:)

Identity crisis....

This blog is inspired by shoba's two earlier related but unrelated blogs. The scene here is shoba/suresh and sriks are chatting with Mano.. but its some other Mano. I had posted this earlier with different characters in my college's forum, In our college, Horlicks was the code word for Saarayam.

Mano is just out of college. He has been sacked from work and is a little low on cash. His Maama Ayush is elderly and has loads of cash and jewels. So Mano is taking care of his Maama to put some ice.

Sriks: Machaan Mano, eppadi keera?

Mano: who are you people? where did you people come from?

Sriks/Shoba/Suresh think that maybe Mano is in mabbu and so is in Sachin Tendulkar mode. Mein kaun hoon.. Mein Kahaan hoon

Shoba: Ayush eppadi irrukaan?

Mano: How do you know about ayush? plus avan sollare? Avaru thoongaraaru.

Suresh: As usual Benadryl kuduthu thoonga pannitiya?

Mano: Ungallukku eppadi theriyum? Avarau coughing too much today, he has aged no? So gave him some cough syrup and horlicks to let him sleep in the afternoon.

Sris: Paavi.. don't give him horlicks at this age itself. He might get addicted to it.

Mano: ... scratches his head... unnum puriyala

Shoba: How is Meera doing?

In her hurry, Shoba types Heera instead of Meera. Mano wonders how these people know that his uncle Ayush has Heera (diamonds). He is not sure if these are jewel thieves.

Mano: How do you know about Heera?

Sriks: Heera was very nice and glittery in Sathi Leelavathi.

Now Mano is sure they stole Heera from Sathi Leelavathi's house.

Shoba: Naan Heera sonnadhu was meant for Meera.

Mano's ex-girlfriend was Meera, but now he has his eyes only for another girl called Neena Pillai.

Mano: No no, the heera was meant for Pillai.

Suresh: Enna pa sollara, isn't ayush too young to see Heera? Is this the age to introduce him to item girls?

Mano: scratches his head violently... . But continues. "No no, Ayush has seen many girls in his young days. So no problems."

Suresh/Shoba/Sriks think that mano is in full mabbu.

Shoba: So you are playing with pillai all the time eh? (she means thamizh pillai-- son)

Mano: No no its not like that. blushes.

Suresh: Paathiyaa, pillai vandhadhuku apparam, you are ignoring Meera.

Mano: How can I be with both of them at the same time. After you get one you have to let go of the other, illa kudumbathala rombha kozhapam varum

Ellaarum rombha confused now...

Suresh: So how is Fremont?

Mano: FullMonty padam was nice, what is this Fremonty? Part two va?

At this stage Sriks/Shoba/Suresh decide that Mano tholla thaanga mudiyala and let his mabbu clear and they Escape...... .........

My first`1/2 marathon

I finished my first marathon - I've gloated all about it in

http://nourish-n-cherish.blogspot.com/2009/07/running-does-that-to-you-my-first-12.html

My RNR-Seattle Marathon Experience

When I signed up for Seattle rock-n-roll couple of months back, my only goal was to make sure that I do a mid year marathon to keep myself in shape for the sacramento marathon that I intend to run this year end... However, after my relay, when I really started doing my training runs, I thought that I could do a 3:25 type marathon if I pushed myself. However, I ended up doing a 3:53 marathon... Obviously, there are reasons... Most reasons were psychological than physical...I did 3:53:37... Much slower than I wanted it to be..:)... The highlight of the marathon was that I met Shoba and her relatives Ramesh/Mala and Aakaash at mile 16 and 22... It was very vital to keep my momentum going at the critical portions of the race...

Anyway, many take aways from the marathon itself:

1) As my friend Soochoo had predicted, the first time marathons (rnr seattle is the biggest marathon in northwest US by far) are typically not planned very well. It showed up in the critical aspects of this marathon. The freeway leading to the starting point got really clogged. After 45 minutes of slow down in the freeway, I finally decided to run about 2 miles to get to the starting point. I started 15 minutes after the race start. I heard from the paper that some people started as late as 1 hr after start time.... With 25000 runners (15,000 half-marathoners and ~6000 full marathoners, the race committee didnt think it through)....

2) That said about the starting point, the course as such was very well organized and had enough drinks/banana/ aid-stations etc., With the rock-bands playing all along and with a lot of crowd along the way, it was a pretty good race atmosphere

3) Never count on weather... I chose Seattle in hopes of a good weather. But, as luck would have it, I started at temp of 59F and it went to 75 F at finish line... The sun was shining all along without any cloud covers. A big no-no for me. In retrospective, San Diego could've been an ideal race for me... But then, last year, it was apparently very hot in San Diego....

4) I started out with a lot of frustration for having run 2 miles and in missing the pacer groups whom I had hoped to follow. With the weather being warm, I just lost my interest in running... As I started out, I decided to throw my timing goal and do a conservative effort. As time went by, I did slow down, to a point where I thought I was willing to either quit half way or do a 4:30 type marathon... Since I had slowed down in the middle, I had enough energy left during the last 6 miles... So, I finished strong...;). .. There were more hills than I had expected. No major ones, the maximum being 2 hills of about 250-300 feet at mile 16/17... But, in general, it was rolling hills all the way along, with a hill of about 100 feet at the 25th mile...

5) I thought the run-less, run-faster program was kind of aggressive. I used to train 40-50 miles for the sacramento marathon. I cut it down to 3 days of running (1 interval, 1 tempo and 1 long run with 2 days of intense cross-training (biking), averaging not more than 33 miles in any given week). I saw big benefits in my speed. I could hold 7:55 type pace for a 21 miler ( my longest run before the marathon). Obviously, that didn't translate in my marathon performance. But, on the positive side, I did not get any cramps throughout. I recovered very quickly. The day of the marathon, I was already playing with my friend's kid in the evening, running around... I felt strong... I think, the 3 days of running puts a lot of focus on running performance every time I went out to run, which could be good/bad..:) ... It also gave enough time to recover after each run. I will definitely try it for my next marathon too... May be, I will add in a slow recovery run apart from the 3 aggressive days...

That, in nutshell is what happened. Checkout my finish line video in the following link. My bib-number is 5048.

http://www.rnrseattle.com

Riches to Rags

I was browsing through a newsletter from Schwab and found certain things about retirement and investing that I found rather interesting. I just wanted to capture it in some place. Where else would it be ? Though any of these may not have a significant impact to most of us, it is a good thing to know.

Firstly, about tax implications due to President Obama's budget. The tax is going to increase from 33% to 36% and from 35% to 39.6% for the top 2 brackets of income from Jan 1, 2011. For all other tax-brackets, it will be the same as before ( single earning less than $171,550 or married filing jointly with an earning of less than $208,850). If you think your income may exceed just a tad bit more than the 3rd bracket, it might put you in a higher tax-bracket. In that case, it is a good idea to invest extra money towards 401K if you are not making full contribution to 401K already. You not only save on your taxes, but have that money grow tax deferred in your 401K. Remember that the 401K contribution will be excluded from your income for tax calculations.

The capital gains will be taxed at 20% from the 15% that exists today (if the family joint income is greater than $250,000), again from Jan 1, 2011. If you have long term investments that you plan to sell, it is a good idea to sell it off before Jan 1, 2011 so that you don't have to pay the extra 5%. This applies only if you intend to sell of your investments anyway.

I was surprised by a couple of facts that I read about retirement. If you file for bankruptcy, apparently, the creditors cannot come after your retirement accounts. So, point being, if you are already in heavy debt, looks like filing bankruptcy and protecting the retirement account is a good choice than liquidating your retirement account to pay off the debtors. Sounds a bit unethical... But hey, that's the law..:)... Also, if you have loan from your 401K account (remember the 401K sayings that the interest on a loan towards 401K goes to your account and hence you don't lose money) and if you lose your job, there is a 60 day grace period after which the loan will be considered a distribution with the penalty deducted. In other words, your loan should be repaid if you quit your job (within 60 days). One of the best alternatives to getting a 401K loan is to get a Home Equity line of credit (HELOC). Not only you can move some of your higher interest credit card debts to this low interest alternative, it also gives tax exemption on the interest paid. Remember that, if you are in the verge of losing a job, it is a good idea to get a HELOC while you still have a job (otherwise, you wouldn't qualify for a HELOC). If worst comes to it and if you file bankruptcy, your 401K will still be intact... That's all folks!

Height of religulous

http://suroba.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/height-of-religulous/

Vazhga Tamil

The week-end was spent in California Tamil Academy. Sat was graduation day - completion of a school year. California Tamil Academy is an amazing organization - run entirely by volunteers, they teach Tamil to over 3000 children in Bay Area. I really like the setup and the dedication. It gives a sense of belonging in more ways than one. People felt at home - at times, they behaved just as badly as they would in a political rally in India without the lathi-armed police.
For example, the secretary was pleading, shouting, cajoling anything to get people to settle down so the ceremony could start to no avail. It was so disheartening to see people (most of them with professional careers no doubt!) standing around without the least bit of consideration for the Secretary's increasingly hoarse voice. I wonder why we embarrass ourselves thus when we congregate.

Finally, the program started, and the children trooped on stage to receive their certificates. As usual, they first sent the pre-schoolers onto the stage. They got them to stand on stage, and there was a slight delay before the certificates were given. The children were left standing on stage looking around at the crowd! One of them sat down on the stage (Guilty as charged: that clown was my child!) I was visible in the audience wringing my hands with an upward swing movement ("You can't sit like that on stage K!" I said to her multiple times after the ceremony quite horrified)

http://www.hashwinphotography.com/cta/index.php?album=cta-fremont-graudation-day-2009

The day after, was the annual day program. It was a grand mela - a LARGE congregation of people belonging to a similar demographic (all Tamilians with one or more children studying Tamil). The day long program started with the preschoolers. We had to drop them off after taking them to the restroom!

The cuteness index to quality of the program was inversely proportional.

In the preschool lot, there was one who decided to admire the chain she was wearing in the middle of HER program (this time, thankfully, it wasn't my daughter!), one of them wanted to talk to his friends on the stage and another decided to just run to his mother halfway through the performance!

As the day wore on, the children definitely performed better! All in all, I laud the academy's efforts.
Vazhga Tamizh!

If Vanaja had abstained from sex

http://suroba.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/if-vanaja-had-abstained-from-sex/

Big Sur 2009... Soul Searching Results

I had a goal of finishing this race in 4:30. I didn't come anywhere close. I finished in 4:59. For about a week I went through many 'what if' scenarios, and I think I have got it.

I am reading Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture'. One of the things he does at the beginning of his lecture is acknowledge the elephant in the room. It got me thinking....

I know by nature that I'm very competitive. Like any other trait, there are situations where it works for me and there are times when it works against me. So to start with, I think I need to acknowledge the elephant in the room. As far as I'm concerned, both Suresh and Sriks are awesome runner's in my mind. So my competitive self is always competing against them. My goals are based on their improvements-- not really my own improvement. I wanted a quantum of improvement that Suresh had when he ran Big Sur. I pushed hard during my training to achieve that. When I didn't... I was devastated. With the elephant in the room out of the way. This is what I really achieved...

I ran Big Sur 16 minutes faster than my previous marathon. I really enjoy running. I hardly ever regret running a marathon, irrespective of the pain I go through in the end. Sure I wish I don't have to go through pain-- but if I must trade pain against finishing, I will any day pick pain. I made that choice for Big Sur and I finished it.

As long as I'm competing with myself, I really enjoy my runs. I have learnt the hard way that competing against myself is the only real way to enjoy what I do and continue enjoying what I do. I have thought long and hard and have vowed to myself to not fall into the pitfall of comparing my performance or my gains against somebody else's. Its foolish-- I will always meet runner's who have improved better and ran/run better than me.

So with renewed vigor, I will now run the San Francisco half marathon and the Sacramento International marathon- with a simple goal. I will run against myself and only myself. I will continue to enjoy the journey and learn along the way. I will of course enjoy and appreciate the run's of my friends and revel in their improvements without mirroring myself into that. I will learn from their wisdom too.

Here is to a year of good and safe running!!

Trivia -7

Here comes Trivia - 7.

1. What planet is named after the Greek god who personified the sky?
2. What planet is the brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon?
3. Which planet is the hottest?
4. Which planet has the most moons?
5. What is a parsec?

Answers for Trivia-6
1.None. The nectarine is a smooth skinned variety of the peach.
2.The water buffalo
3.Little tongues.
4.Honey
5.Red Bell Peppers. Broccoli is second followed by Orange.

Big Sur 2009.. Finally around the corner

With today's run, I will have completed my training for Big Sur 2009 (April 26th), my first spring marathon and my first marathon in about 2 years. My last one was at San Francisco in 2007 about 30 days after Ayush was born, with a finish time of 5:15 -- So anything faster than that will make me happy.

Things that went well:

1. All my runs were in the morning. Though I'm not a morning person, I think morning runs are way better than noon or evening ones. For one, there are fewer reasons (fewer! But not zero) to ditch the run.

2. All my runs were on the road. Though I'm not sure if this really is an advantage.

3. Three runs a week program is really working for me. The key is to make all 3 runs hard ones. My first 19 mile run on this program was a resounding success. Rowing as cross training is also fabulous.

4. Spring = Pollen. Asthma abound, kept an inhaler ready. Nipped the asthma in the bud.

5. Having Suresh as my pacer for my 20 mile runs. For a 3:30 marathoner, running 20 miles at 9:30 min/mile pace is a breeze and that enthusiasm rubs off on you.

6. Got my weekly mileage high pretty early on. This really helped. Although my initial goal was to touch 40 miles a week, I came close at 36 miles a week.

Things that are causing me concern:

1. I haven't run that many hills. Plus my longest hill run was only 12 miles. Big Sur has rolling hills near mile 20.

2. My left knee is behaving like a jerk (knee jerk.. get it?).

On race day, my plan is simple. I will hang out with the 4:30 pace group as long as is possible and if anything unexpected pops up, I will just wing it from there. Bottom line, I really enjoyed this training schedule and I'm really really looking forward to running along the jagged edge of the western world.

Trivia-6

Here comes Food Trivia

1.What fruits were crossed to produce the nectarine?
2.What animals milk is used to make authentic Italian mozzarella cheese?
3.What is the literal meaning of the Italian word linguine?
4.What sticky sweetener was traditionally used as an antiseptic ointment for cuts and burns?
5.Among Broccoli, Orange and Red Bell Pepper.Which has the most Vitamin C content?

Here are the answers to Trivia-5

1.Switzerland
2.Mexico
3.Jamaica
4.Iran
5.Brazil

Unused mind got all of them right. Mindframes got 3/5, Brainwaves 2/5,Madmax 3/5.
Kudos to Unused mind !! . Actually,I realised that if you just move the cursor on those images, it gives out the names...

Trivia-5

This week's trivia is all about flags. Very simple. Just identify the country to which these flags belong to.


















Answers for last week Trivia

1.
Japan and China were already engaged in a war before the outbreak of World War II. China was also involved in a civil war and spent most of World War II dealing with internal conflicts and repelling the advances of the Japanese.

2.The Battle of Okinawa, which lasted from April 1, 1945 through June 21, 1945, was the last major battle of World War II. Fought on the island of Okinawa, it was part of an offensive leading up to the invasion of the main islands of Japan which was aborted when the Japanese surrendered in August, 1945. Counting civilians, more than 200,000 Japanese died during the Battle of Okinawa. About 15,900 U.S. soldiers were killed.

3. The Yalta Conference, a wartime meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin from February 4 to 11, 1945, is considered by many experts to mark the beginning of the Cold War. Among the issues discussed at the Yalta Conference were German war reparations, the division of Germany into zones of occupation, and the repatriation of all Soviet soldiers who had joined American and
British troops whether they were willing to return or not. It is believed that many of these soldiers were put to death upon their return to Soviet control.

4. Hitler was a vegetarian, teetotaler and non-smoker.

5. There were two Siegfried lines, both situated on border between France and Germany.They were lines of defensive forts and tank defences built by the Germans.
The first was built in 1916-1917, during the First World War. The second was built during the 1930s, opposite the French Maginot Line, which served the same purpose.

MADMAX GOT ALL OF THEM RIGHT 5/5 ...PRETTY GOOD !! You must be a real history buff...

Trivia-4

Do you know your history? This week's trivia is for the history buffs, especially about the WWII.

1.What two countries were already at war before the beginning of World War II?
2.What was the last major battle of World War II?
3.What meeting of world powers near the end of World War II is often said to mark the beginning of the Cold War?
4.Hitler was a vegetarian, teetotaler and non-smoker
Which of the above is true?
5.What was the siegfried line?

Answers to Trivia-3

1. The 9 avatars so far are Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (half-man, half-lion), Vamana (dwarf man), Parshurama (man with an axe), Rama (moral man), Krishna (philosophical man) and Buddha (spiritual man) respectively. The tenth avatar, Kalki is yet to manifest. From the sequence of the avatars itself, it is obvious that it represents the sequence of the origin of life.
Saumya & Madmax got all of them right.Kudos!


2. Traditionally, the authorship of the Maha-bha-rata is attributed to Vyasa. And there are versions , which say that Ganesha is supposed to have literally written it as dictated by Vyasa.
I guess both Vyasa & Ganesha can be right. Saumya, Madmax ,Brainwaves,Sdpal & Mano can be given credit for this. Mindframes , you almost got it right .


3.There are 7 Kandas

* Bala Kanda – Book of the Childhood (birth and training of the princes and marriage of the princes)
* Ayodhya Kanda – Book of Ayodhya (life in Ayodhya as a prince after marriage to Sita)
* Aranya Kanda – Book of the Forest (life in exile in the forest)
* Kishkindha Kanda – Book of Kishkindha (life in the kingdom of monkeys - on their search for the captured Seetha)[9]
* Sundara Kanda – Book of Auspiciousness (Hanumaan's journey to Lanka and his meeting with Seetha)
* Yuddha Kanda – Book of the War (battle between Raama's armies and Raavana's armies)
* Uttara Kanda – Book of the Afterword (Epilogue: Raama's life after returning to Ayodhya and Sita's second exile)
Mindframes scores this one.

4. Four Vedas

1. Rig-Veda (RV)
2. Yajur-Veda (YV, with the main division TS vs. VS)
3. Sama-Veda (SV)
4. Atharva-Veda (AV)
Everyone got it right.


5. Advaita is about realising the self, i.e. the Atman, as the Brahman itself which is apparently manifested eternally and simultaneously into animate or inanimate.

In contrast with advaita (non-dualist), the most influential and widely followed philosophy expounded by Shankara, Madhva (who is also known as Madhvacharya) maintains that there is an eternal distinction between the individual self and the absolute.

I had written a blog about Advaita long back for your reference.
http://am-kicking.blogspot.com/2006/01/advaita.html

Credits go to Mano, Saumya,Mindframes though Sdpal was almost right ;-)

How to eat a sandwich?

When is the last time you ate a sandwich or a burrito or a wrap gracefully? By sandwich, I don't mean the bread/butter variety, but the variety where the first layer contains sprouts, followed by a layer of large leaves and twigs, and then a tree of something. A thin layer of cheese and the forest again on the other side! I am not one to comment on the taste, since I seem to reach out to this variety quite readily. But I do want to write about is the eating.


One bite into the infernal thing sends the taste buds reeling, and then when I pull away, a large leaf the size of 3 plates will want to get pulled out from between, and the flora above shifts sending the incumbents of the sandwich to scramble for safety. Something like a tectonic plate movement-earthquake-sort of thing. On my end, I can't let the stuff loose and in a moment of reining in the chaos will try to rearrange the thing.

Just when I get it to resembling a sandwich again, I find that another bite makes the soggy stuff to start levitating towards the opposite end. You get the pictiure. The mouth on the southern end, the contents shifting and spilling out through the northern end. Almost like it wants to get away from being eaten. You see, when one is holding a largish object, gravitation exerts its influence as always, and the thing slopes downwards (around 12 degree incline is usual)

So, I rearrange the elements again and try a third time holding it at a perfect 180 degree angle, only to have the thing leaking on the sides and messing my arms.

The next item on my list is the height. I shall talk in term of units because I haven't yet reached the stage of measuring the thickness of bread. Let us assume we are making a sandwich - the bread on either side is 2 units each, making a height of 4 units. Then the stuffing adds another 8 units, making it a grand 12 units high.

Sometimes, I feel like a crocodile. I open my mouth so wide, I can feel the bones make a cracking noise. I then have to adjust the cheek bones, give them a loving pat, assure them that what I am putting them through is actually good for them in the long run and start afresh with renewed vigour and fraying enthusiasm.

By this time, I don't care about graceful eating anymore - in fact most times, I care neither about grace nor eating! I just let nature take its course. I pull and let the contents shift freely. I allow the sprouts to mingle and socialize with the tomato, while the pickles boss the mushrooms around as they spill onto the plate below. I eat whatever cares to remain within the sandwich - this is called wolfing down the sandwich. This activity is followed by cleaning up the spilled adventures with a spoon!

I feel full, and tell myself to go for soup the next time around.

BarberShop

As a sequel to Banian-Vs-Bunion and Sudoku-Vs-Soduku , here comes the BarberShop.

On hearing Barber Shop,most of us would imagine a shop where barbers work and one that you would be visiting every now and then. Did you know a Capella music style is called Barber Shop music. According to Wiki, here is the definition for that.

"Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era (1940s-present), is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead."
You might have seen it in the sitcom "SCRUBS" where the legal adviser sings it with three more guys.

One of our neighbors,Mark, does that. Here is my version of his visit to our house and his discussion with Mindframes, with Mano in a cameo role.

Mark: Hi, How are you doing?
Mindframes: Fine. Thank you.
Mark: Just coming back after a barber shop reunion.
Mindframes: (Wondering if he needs the insight into Mark’s hairy trends) Must have been fun. What do you guys do there?
Mark: oh! We sing. It is amazing.
Mindframes: ( With a nervous laugh) Hmmm..I go to Mimi’s. We don’t sing there.
Mark: Really.. Never heard of them. If you don’t sing, what do you do there??
Mindframes: We just sit in a chair and maybe, read a magazine.
Mark: Wow!! I have never heard of people doing that in a reunion. Which society do you belong to?
Mindframes:No, I don’t belong to any society. But, I suspect they have some strong societies in India. In fact, their association even rebelled against a movie recently.

In walks Mano, who automatically assumes that these two are talking about the movie BarberShop

Mano: Which movie are u guys talking about? The 2002 one or the sequel?
Mindframes: I was talking about Billu Barber.
Mark: So, is that movie a musical. I have heard all Indian movies are musical.
Mindframes: No, it was originally a Malayalam movie, now remade in Hindi. I can understand Malayalam very well, you know,since I was born in Trivandrum.
Mano: No, it is a comedy movie. Though I would have preferred someone other than IceCube in the lead role. The sequel was even worse.
Mindframes:Yes, even I think Rajini was better than Shahurkh Khan.
Mano being the designated OPD, exits the scene , getting worried on seeing a slight change in Ayush’s expression.

Mark: ( Puzzled) Coming back to my original question, why don’t you guys sing ?
Mindframes: Well..atleast in Mimi’s , we have a strict rule of not singing as it results in head movement which might injure you.
Mark: How can anybody sing without moving their head? I think you should stop going to Mimi’s .You can join our group.
Mindframes: No, I am very personal about this. I like to do it alone.
Mark leaves the room in frustration…and Mindframes proceeds to Mimi’s to have a haircut leaving Survivor ROFL.

Trivia-3

Here comes this week's trivia. Testing your knowledge in Hindu epics & philosophy?


1. What are the ten Avatars of Vishnu,aka Dashavatar?
2. Who wrote Mahabharatha?
3. How many "Kandas" is Ramayana split into?
4. What are the four different hindu scriptures or Vedas?
5. What does Advaita and Dvaita mean?

Trivia-2 answers

1. Hydrogen, Helium and Oxygen. Madmax scores on this one.

Here are the top ten. Nitrogen , which most of us would assume is actually the seventh most common element.
1 Hydrogen
2 Helium
3 Oxygen
4 Carbon
5 Neon
6 Iron
7 Nitrogen
8 Silicon
9 Magnesium
10 Sulfur


2.The Van Allen Radiation Belt is a torus of energetic charged particles (plasma) around Earth,trapped by Earth's magnetic field. Mano hit it right. Sdpal, that was a good one..:-)

3.The name `India’ is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.

Update: The name Indus Valley Civilization also referred to the Indus river, as Brainwaves,Saumya & Madmax rightfully assumed ..with special reference to Brainwaves:-)

4.When "Gandhi" won the Oscar. Madmax & Sdpal got it right.

5.That image is actually a volcano eruption under the sea. This happened very recently , couple of weeks back ,off the coast of Tonga in the south pacific ocean.
If you observe the image closely, you can see the water in the sea. Kudos to Sdpal & Mindframes.

Trivia-2

Kudos to Mano, Brainwaves and Mindframes for getting atleast one answer right. Collectively, the team got 3 answers right..Cool...Now , for trivia-2.

Questions for Trivia-2

1. What are the three most common elements in the Universe?
2. What is the Van Allen belt?
3. Where was the name India derived from?
4. What 1982 movie had critic Janet Maslin carp: "The Oscar seemed to have been mistaken for the Nobel Peace Prize"?
5. What do you think this image represents?



Answers for Trivia-1

1. Mindframes scores one on this. Yes, comets were referred to as "hairy stars", derived from the Greek.

2.Shoelace was invented in the eighteenth century. Fairly, a new one..Tying the shoelaces right might have been found in the last century..:-)

3. Mano hits it right. Haemophilia is called the royal disease as it was featured prominently among the European royals in history...

4. 1941,December 7 : The navy was playing the "Star Spangled Banner" when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Mindframes, Wish they had been playing "Nakka mukka"..The Japs would have run away instead of attacking..:-)

5. Washington!! Both Sri and Mindframes got it right.