The more I learn the English language, the less I know of it. It is, apart from German, the most worthless of wanton languages that I've seen. And I've seen many, I just don't know any of them. While it waxes eloquent about its rules and structure, about how and 'i' always comes after an 'e', it drops an exception in - ("except after 'c'" you've heard in class, I'm sure, from the nerdy looking guy sitting on the first bench - that would be me, yes) and, promptly, makes it the rule.
Let's take a for example, the word usage. I have no idea what its usage is. That is exactly the point, the previous sentence is grammatically wrong. It is supposed to be, and I quote (as someone I know used to say, I never could figure out why he quoted so much, did he not have anything original on his mind, eh?) "I have no idea what its use is". My English teacher told me that. So where exactly is usage used? No clue. It is, I'm sure, a much abused word. Ah yes, there's another for you, how exactly does one abuse another word, or a substance for that matter? One may misuse it, of course, but abuse? I can just about hear an Atkinsonian voice hollering, "What a *#$%@$ %&@$%& of a word! Why if I had the chance, I'd %&^*&@# you."
My teacher would also rap me on my knuckles, or mark in red ink on my answer scripts every time I wrote "due to" instead of owing to. Go figure.
On a final note, this clockwise-anti-clockwise thing is very strange. I stared and stared at the girl (I know what you're thinking, oh you of vulgar mind) and found that I could not, for the life of me, change the direction from clock-wise to anti. And once, all of a sudden (what a phrase), I look at it in the evening and suddenly find that it is anti clockwise and find myself unable to turn it the other way around this time. What worsht! So what? I think your natural side gets tired as you work and the other lobe begins to take over, which explains why you don't feel like yourself when you're tired. Aha!
New suggestion: we should ask each other very difficult questions, the answer of which, the other should provide in the next post. So H, what is the purpose of meaning?
Falsely,
T
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wise - clock or anti-clock
It's been a long time since we wrote something fun. Lets see now - what constitutes fun. This could be a good start - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html
Now, what do you see? Clockwise or anti-clockwise? I, for one, can see nothing but clockwise. It's a bummer especially since the article says that you would normally see anti-clockwise. No matter, some elitist ego boosting. Moving on, it says one can concentrate and change directions. I concentrated. I can't change it. There were two of us who couldn't change and so we decided to use a mirror to explain to our brains the difference between clockwise and anti-clockwise. He found it useful. My brain can see only clockwise. Even in the mirror image!
The article says that those who see clockwise use their left brain more than their right. As L said, I, who cannot see any anti-clockwise action, must have a dysfunctional right brain. No math and science abilities! Makes sense. The corporate world has killed the scientist inside me.
Anyways that was a good laugh. Atleast for all of us. Some distraction from the otherwise real world. Or as T would put it, an escape from the realities of the mundane world. And what we need is such distractions - the simple distractions.
Do tell me if there are other ways - crosswords? I don't know what else.
But till then, please concentrate and prove that your brain works much better than mine - stupid big picture, fantasy-focussed, present-future emphasising brain of mine (ahhh, rationalization - that sounds good).
Smiles,
H
Now, what do you see? Clockwise or anti-clockwise? I, for one, can see nothing but clockwise. It's a bummer especially since the article says that you would normally see anti-clockwise. No matter, some elitist ego boosting. Moving on, it says one can concentrate and change directions. I concentrated. I can't change it. There were two of us who couldn't change and so we decided to use a mirror to explain to our brains the difference between clockwise and anti-clockwise. He found it useful. My brain can see only clockwise. Even in the mirror image!
The article says that those who see clockwise use their left brain more than their right. As L said, I, who cannot see any anti-clockwise action, must have a dysfunctional right brain. No math and science abilities! Makes sense. The corporate world has killed the scientist inside me.
Anyways that was a good laugh. Atleast for all of us. Some distraction from the otherwise real world. Or as T would put it, an escape from the realities of the mundane world. And what we need is such distractions - the simple distractions.
Do tell me if there are other ways - crosswords? I don't know what else.
But till then, please concentrate and prove that your brain works much better than mine - stupid big picture, fantasy-focussed, present-future emphasising brain of mine (ahhh, rationalization - that sounds good).
Smiles,
H
Monday, October 15, 2007
Most boring post of the year
H's and my posts have increasingly become about ways and means to find happiness. Starting from my age old adage that happiness is a hammock to Her assertions that happiness is a goal that is too difficult to reach, our thoughts have turned more and more to the future and to the darkness shrouding it.
And with the future, comes the difficult question surrounding what one "really" wants from life. Does one follow the path of profit and become a private equity professional, continue in consulting because it is nice and comfortable or even find a new interest in the social sector?
How is this connected to happiness and meaning in life? Well, the two are deeply entangled with no hope in sight to cut through the knots; because deciding the path to take finally boils down to choosing between happiness and purpose, and if one fails to find happiness even after choosing it, because it chooses another, then settle for contentment.
H has often said that he wishes to screw all of this and become his own man, to be father to his own initiative that he can nurture, can see grow from the smallest seed to a full grown oak. However, the problem is one of choice – not between issues that one wishes to solve, or more succinctly, between careers, but between lifestyles – an entrepreneur forever strives to see his business grow, his every though surrounds the fact that his business is encumbered by this or that issue, that his workers have gone on strike, that a client has refused to pay and his cash is being strapped – there is no holiday – and one doesn’t remain one’s master even then. While on the other hand, when one is an employee, one has holidays, atleast officially declared and one can go back to the confines of one’s castle and feel secure in the fact that it might be business as usual in the morning – but one is still not one’s own master eh?
I don’t do this well, I think. I should stop writing about our choices and futures and stick to fiction – so much nicer, to use writing to escape the mundane world, rather than use it as a tool to force your thinking. However, my point is this – whatever one chooses, one first chooses the way one wishes to live – the rules are defined there before going into subtleties of choice of career and the like. All that becomes clear (I hope) once one decides what one wants out of life. That is where one decides between happiness and purpose, or atleast, contentment and purpose. But for all of the choice one can make for peace, for harmony in our own world and for congruency (like in triangles), (now that I’ve got bored writing the post), the dark side shrouds everything.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion,
Through passion, I gain strength,
Through strength, I gain power,
Through power, I gain victory,
Through victory, my chains will be broken,
The force will set me free
Friday, October 5, 2007
Remember, remember, the 2nd of october?
T writes good epilogues, doesn't he? Now that's a specialization. Kudos. Reminds me of the movie Closer and hence, the Blower's daughter. Also reminds me of an epitaph - 4th wing, 2003-2007. Later replaced by 4th wing, forever. The senti bastard D.
R,T and I were having lunch - a rather extended session at that. Multiple desserts and new-fangled pastas. At the end of it, at the rather uncomfortable moment of tipping, that too apart from being taxed 12% for some value addition which resembles the value allusion of consultants, we were left with a 50, 20 and 10 as change to the cash tendered. I reach for the 50 and the 10 as T looks at me, squinting one eye, with a capitalist look on his face (no no, don't ask), and says, "H, that 50 looks old. Don't take it. Just take the 20, that looks reasonably new. " And I accede. (Later on, the 20 is lost as another dessert's tips - the life of an unwanted currency note must be fascinating...)
Magic for beginners and Endless night. Put fundaes. Rather difficult to crack. Perhaps a clue. Where T would be like a young child with a sweet-tooth in a candy shop. Nothing sensational. J hasn't changed much from college. Still looks unkempt. He talked of almost being stabbed as he left office on his bike the previous week. Stabbed. Certain events in another's life can help bring perspective to yours. Unconnected as you were to those events. A young man and a life lost early. Human beings are not meant to survive, merely to exist.
"Its not about happiness silly... its about contentment. Atleast that's what I think. If you try to solve for such an optimistic target, you will neither be happy nor content." Makes sense. I suppose. Later, green peppermint. Fancy-shmancy. "You can't change yourself and it's not worth it." Fair enough. There is magic in the world. She's proof enough.
Mahatma Gandhi lived a long and fruitful life. Filled with myriad colourful incidents. All of which are now talked of in a legendary sense. And positive light. To rise above mediocrity. I pity the soul. Souls. Mediocrity is bathed in such negative hues. Much like ignorance and indolence. Yes, misconceptions. All of them. Mediocrity, by choice, is snug comfort, ignorance, when premeditated, is bliss and indolence, without denying one's responsibilities, is nonpareil delight. And yes, I know.
Most national holidays are dry days, the concept of which baffles me no end. There exists our wonderful democracy which believes that alcohol corrupts the gullible individual and hence celebrates days of patriotic importance in ostensible sobreity but is otherwise lax and even prodigal (no no no, nothing to do with prodigies - sheesh) in disbursing spirited consumables on all other days. Why?
Sometimes I wonder very meaningless things. Like why are there 7 days in a week? No no, I'm not asking you for the random trivia like Augustus Caesar's favourite number was 7. I mean, what if there were more days in the week - would that be better or worse? What if the weekday:weekend ratio was different? What if the weekday:weekend distribution was 2,1,3,1 instead of 5,2. Just meaningless what ifs which might one day fuel my big idea. My big idea with which I would earn lots of money and not need to work any more. Atleast the latter. Like early retirement. Pearls of young childish wisdom.
October 2 was interesting.
Connect,
H
R,T and I were having lunch - a rather extended session at that. Multiple desserts and new-fangled pastas. At the end of it, at the rather uncomfortable moment of tipping, that too apart from being taxed 12% for some value addition which resembles the value allusion of consultants, we were left with a 50, 20 and 10 as change to the cash tendered. I reach for the 50 and the 10 as T looks at me, squinting one eye, with a capitalist look on his face (no no, don't ask), and says, "H, that 50 looks old. Don't take it. Just take the 20, that looks reasonably new. " And I accede. (Later on, the 20 is lost as another dessert's tips - the life of an unwanted currency note must be fascinating...)
Magic for beginners and Endless night. Put fundaes. Rather difficult to crack. Perhaps a clue. Where T would be like a young child with a sweet-tooth in a candy shop. Nothing sensational. J hasn't changed much from college. Still looks unkempt. He talked of almost being stabbed as he left office on his bike the previous week. Stabbed. Certain events in another's life can help bring perspective to yours. Unconnected as you were to those events. A young man and a life lost early. Human beings are not meant to survive, merely to exist.
"Its not about happiness silly... its about contentment. Atleast that's what I think. If you try to solve for such an optimistic target, you will neither be happy nor content." Makes sense. I suppose. Later, green peppermint. Fancy-shmancy. "You can't change yourself and it's not worth it." Fair enough. There is magic in the world. She's proof enough.
Mahatma Gandhi lived a long and fruitful life. Filled with myriad colourful incidents. All of which are now talked of in a legendary sense. And positive light. To rise above mediocrity. I pity the soul. Souls. Mediocrity is bathed in such negative hues. Much like ignorance and indolence. Yes, misconceptions. All of them. Mediocrity, by choice, is snug comfort, ignorance, when premeditated, is bliss and indolence, without denying one's responsibilities, is nonpareil delight. And yes, I know.
Most national holidays are dry days, the concept of which baffles me no end. There exists our wonderful democracy which believes that alcohol corrupts the gullible individual and hence celebrates days of patriotic importance in ostensible sobreity but is otherwise lax and even prodigal (no no no, nothing to do with prodigies - sheesh) in disbursing spirited consumables on all other days. Why?
Sometimes I wonder very meaningless things. Like why are there 7 days in a week? No no, I'm not asking you for the random trivia like Augustus Caesar's favourite number was 7. I mean, what if there were more days in the week - would that be better or worse? What if the weekday:weekend ratio was different? What if the weekday:weekend distribution was 2,1,3,1 instead of 5,2. Just meaningless what ifs which might one day fuel my big idea. My big idea with which I would earn lots of money and not need to work any more. Atleast the latter. Like early retirement. Pearls of young childish wisdom.
October 2 was interesting.
Connect,
H
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