Death ends a life, not a relationship, says Professor Morrie to his student in "tuesdays with Morrie".

It does make u less ebullient.......

So what should be the end game in life?

Should there be an end game after all?

Patiently listening to the doc as he lets out steam on a particularly frustrating matter when he cribs, "Just tell me, what's the way into a closed room????"

So this being the world after 2nd May, I quip " Well, the answer today is a stealth Black Hawk helicopter!!!" :))

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”

Michel Foucault

And this is the ugliness of the indian male!

the sheer injustice of human nature

Shout

Scream

Yell

Hit

Whip

Kill

All in the name and garb of anger.

Anger for which I am not accountable, but some one else because he/she provoked me!

Why, pray why on earth, would Ms. Carla Bruni desire to meet up with me and send me an invite to Paris?

Is she out of her senses ? Or am I, to actually accept it, fly to Paris and wait for her by the Champs-Elysees ?

Truly, this is the wierd stuff dreams are made of. Literally, I mean. :)

Roland Garros 2009 augurs well for Rafa

Saucy Sardonix makes a guest appearance here apres longtemps....here we go :

Its cruel but it’s the truth. Federer’s win at Rolland Garros 2009 speaks volumes about Rafael Nadal.

Federer is no doubt a genius, god’s gift to tennis. His forehands are like laser guided missiles, his backhand is poetry, his groundstrokes are simultaneously the examples of brutal strength and soft touches. Federer was a natural serve and volley player who chose to massacre opponents from the baseline, used his ace hitting ability to pull out of the woods and changed the paradigms of placement angles. The form of Federer post Wimbledon 2003 made the Sampras summit of 14 slams look more like a mere road hump rather than the monumental achievement it is in reality.

Fate, however it seems, is not without a touch, an equilibrium. The 2005 French open announced a teenage sensation, 2006 confirmed it, 2007 labelled him a clay court wonder and 2008 revealed the truth- Rafael Nadal was the one man who stopped Federer from dominating world tennis. The following year he discovered his confidence on grass, toppled the champion’s unbeaten 5 year run at Wimbledon and then reduced him to tears in Australia. Suddenly, the transit from 13 to 14 slams looked impossible, French open seemed out of reach forever and a career grand slam was fast looking to be a chapter in Roger Federer’s dream.

What was most surprising was that the champion who had decimated rivals on all surfaces, made tennis seem the easiest sport in the world, added a new dimension to the word grace was made to look fragile and vulnerable. Rafa’s wins combined with health and injury problems for Federer gave new life to other players. Murray, Djokovic and many others derived inspiration from the Spaniard’s conquests. Federer was having a run of being beaten rather being unbeaten.
At Roland Garros 2009, Federer was reportedly practicing return of heavy topspin (Nadal’s most potent weapon) and strategies to counteract other known Nadal arsenal when news of Soderling’s conquest broke through. The champ promptly packed his bags and retired to his hotel. Such was the mental impact of Nadal’s exit on the swiss ace. It became obvious that Federer was confident against everyone except Rafael Nadal. The win at Roland Garros 2009 may be a backhanded compliment to Roger Federer as the phrase ‘in the absence of Rafa in the finals’ would eternally linger as a punctuation mark.

Perhaps in 2010 Federer may exorcise his demons once and for all by beating Rafa in Roland Garros, an encore to his triumph over the Majorcan in a clay court final this year. Then the world will undoubtedly be united in their ode to this genius from Oberwii as the greatest ever. Till then Rafael Nadal can be thanked for restoring interest and parity to the sport that was fast becoming Federer’s professional pastime.

Let go.....

Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Childline on what she had learned from her work with Childline in India: "Learning to let go."
"Everything will not be exactly the way you want it. You have to let people take charge. The best thing is not to have a picture of what you want, but to have basic principles."

How to change the world, Social entrepreneurs and the Power of new ideas : David Bornstein

Origin of humanity...

"It is in the power of everybody, with a litte courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, and to attempt to increase, even by a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world. But it is careless to do so without remembering how previous efforts have failed, and how it has never been possible to predict for certain how a human being will behave. History, with its endless procession of passers-by, most of whose encounters have been missed opportunities, has so far been largely a chronicle of ability gone to waste. But next time two people meet, the result could be different. That is the origin of anxiety, but also of hope, and hope is the origin of humanity."

- What becomes possible when soul-mates meet.

An intimate history of humanity, Theodore Zeldin

"Them"

Kick them.
Beat them.
Whip them.
Burn them.
Kill them.
Maim them.
Rape them.
Simply exterminate them.
And then there will be calm and peace and quiet in this earth after the scum of the earth (read: dirty people) will be eradicated!.
When the end is extermination and vanquishing a race per se, would the means matter?
To you or me or them?

So then with this eventual goal egging one on, everything and anything is justifiable, laced with aggressive intolerance, virulent chauvinism of untold proportions, a warped sense/knowledge of history, irrational pride. (?)

Leading to rabid hatred, blind intolerance and illogical conservatism.

The venom is spreading slowly but surely.
The future is unsettlingly scary.
The future is now.
:(

PS : Soon to be heard : "And then they came for me" :(
But who is going to be left ? [or right] !

The moon is our constant companion,

as we trudge along a lonely, straight road;

Eyes enveloped in the silhouette shadows of the teaks and the palashs,

tall and barren as they stand,

I am captivated by the unrealised beauty in their barrenness;

As if whispering in my ears "shorn of all splendour, I still stand in full glory and splendour"

and making me feel at that particular moment,

a complete sense of contentment and peace.

the pursuit of happiness

is indeed the goal of life :)

Maria Kalman - I simply love this!

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/may-it-please-the-court/

When actions speak louder than words, why the blind reverence for symbols ?

Like charity, moral policing also begins at home.

"Of course, sweetheart, your views, preferences, likes and interests always count.... subject to my approval of it all"

And we set off on the liberating journey that is called life :(

Give me Tagore any day, to pull me out of my disillusionment and keep me grounded in life.

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore.

the summer sky, in dreams of living light and loveliness.....

and then the storm....

and the calm after the storm :)