Happy New Year 2006...

"30%", said I. "0% chance", claimed 3 out of 8 people. "20%", claimed a couple. "15%", said one and "50%", said another.

The 8 of us were returning by BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from San Francisco downtown after watching the fireworks there at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. PK started this idle discussion by asking, "What % chance do u guys give yourself for love marriage?".

It can be safely assumed that all 8 of us are single as of now and in all probabilities have never had a gf. Our ages span between 24 and 26 years.

My reasoning for saying 30% is the strong belief i have in love marriage. I said that marriage comes first, love marriage next and arranged marriage third :P. Two of the three people who said 0% were convinced and convincing that if nothing happened for 25 odd years, nothing was going to happen in the future! The third, PK, was against getting love married for whatever reasons. J, who gave himself a 20% chance did so because he was planning to get back to school for MBA in the future, and SSB gave the same reasoning for his 15%. SMS, who gave himself a 20% chance did so considering all possible outside chances he might be having in the future.

The 0%-ers were convincing in saying that it was near impossible for me to meet a "single" girl, who'd be to my liking, with whom i'd be able to spend considerable time to fall in love, once i start working. Thus, they concluded that if i were to get love married, then i'll have to meet the girl through orkut or blogspot- in essence, it'd be a long distance relationship.

Tonnes of pessimistic thoughts were floating in the air and i was beginning to feel let down when BG said that he had a 50% chance. We were surprised to hear that from him. He said, "When i am not sure whether it'd be a love or arranged marriage, the % chance has to be 50"...and the 7 of us couldnt stop laughing for quite some time...

Baasha...

Honesty "will be" rewarded. Check this out. Unfortunately, people react only when someone suffers for being honest, failing to see, or sometimes shunning the responsibility of playing a part in implementing the bigger picture behind such a suffering...let's think positive...all the time...

The Story of My Experiments with Truth- An Autobiography

I finished reading this book a month ago. The book left me in awe.

This is the first autobiography or for that matter, any biography that i have read. I am not sure if the others will be anywhere near being as candid as this one. Experiments with Truth- nothing less, nothing more.

All of us might have different opinions about the political correctness of this man. That is beyond the scope of this blog and the book. What's impressive is the way he lived his life. So simple, so selfless and so so tolerant! He was passionate about a lot of things, but that never affected his decision making. In his view, all men were equals- there was simply no villain worth hating.

I'd recommend this book for anyone aspiring to be a tolerant person and just for them. The book tries to emphasize that we should look at only the positive side of a person. Needless to say, it preaches a lot about being truthful to our self. A great book, overall.

PS: People who dont like the man, please dont read the book, for there are quite a few points which will make you hate him even more. The penalty he pays for being candid...

Feel proud!

"You are back again. Is there a problem?", the lady behind the counter was concerned.
"No. I took my driving test and I am back now to get my license", I said.
Her face showed genuine surprise. Only an hour had passed since I got my temporary license permit from the lady sitting next to this lady and now I was back having passed the maneuverability and road tests, to get my Driver's License. That must've been a record shared by very few.
"Wow. That's great. Congrats", she said surprised by my efficiency and talent.
"Thanks", I said smiling with a feeling of achievement, shamelessly.
Little did she know that I had let my previous license expire beyond renewal date and so had to go through all the procedures again like a rookie.
When there's some easy pride up for grabs, why let go off it? :P

A short story-6

Compassion
---------------

Tears were flowing down Sudha's cheeks. It was nothing new. She was a very emotional 21 year old, caring a lot for people around the world. Death news of a few tens of people due to some mishap or another, wherever it might have happened, invariably sent a stream of tears out of her eyes.

It was an earthquake in Pakistan. 84 people killed and more than 300 injured. The sight of a one-year old, newly orphaned girl child was vividly captured by BBC. There was mud all over the child's body and that was enough to trigger the tears this time around.

All kinds of thoughts were racing in her mind. What is God doing? Is there a God at all? If there is, will He(or She) let all this happen? God's supposed to do good to the people He created, isn't He? No...wait...what am i thinking? There is God..."am sorry God", she said looking towards the roof of her bedroom. Ofcourse He does all this to prove that there's a supreme power governing the human race.

So, what am I supposed to do? I should help the mankind, feel pity for the ones suffering all around the world and contribute part of my time for their welfare. I should help the needy. I should be thankful to God for making me so fortunate...not as one of the many suffering all around the world.

Compassion is the need of the hour, she realised. She decided to join the Social Organization she had heard about last week. That way she'd be able to contribute as much as she could for the society.

Her mind was now clear. She decided not to waste any more time and was all set to leave when her 80 year old grandmom, who was pretty much confined to her bed 24/7 called out for her. "Sudha. Can u get me a cup of water, please?", she cried, unaware of the kind of urgency Sudha was in. "Mom will be home in 5 minutes. Ask her to give you water. Am in a hurry". She started her Scooty and accelerated it and felt the fresh air hitting her face.

"It's a new beginning to my life", she said to herself.

26 and running...

...actually, just ambling for the time being!

Anbae Sivam...

...

Ah Aah

Saw the movie a couple of days back. There's a dialogue in the movie that got me thinking. The translation goes something like this...
"Do we ever break our relationship with our mother? No. We never go in search of a different mother, come what may. Then, why are there so many break-ups in bf-gf relationships? It's because we don't treasure it as much as that of a relationship with a mother. We are not totally sincere in love."
- what else could possibly be the reason?...i wonder...

A short story-5

Was tagged by K7 and here it goes, a short story in 55 words...

A Must-Do
---------------
What a misfortune! There were hundreds of things that Raj had stopped doing while in USA, things that MUST be done while in India.
"How come THEY dont have this facility?", his grandpa blamed the States' infrastructure. Raj couldn't believe he let his slippers in the open outside the temple and not to a person-in-charge.

Tagging Bugs and Shy- write at your leisure girls...

Andre Agassi and The Ashes...

I used to hate the name even until 3 years back. I smiled whenever he lost, the way i do for Federer now. It was because i loved Sampras. Once Sampras retired, i kind of started liking Agassi, for i always knew he was a good player...a very good player. This is Agassi's 20th straight year at the US open, starting from 1986. Am not sure if anyone else has this kind of record...simply unbelievable. At 35, he's still the king of service returns, which was amply on display in his Quarterfinal game against compatriot James Blake last night. This was one of the best games of tennis i have ever got to see and i am thankful for it. Down 3-6, 3-6, 1-3, only Agassi could have possibly taken it to the fifth set, let alone...win it! I kept believing that he'd somehow pull this one off and he did! Agassi won 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(8-6). He did not give Blake a single matchpoint, which was not great only because it was Agassi. I started feeling sorry for Blake right after Agassi evened things out in the third set at 3-3 and almost lost my confidence when Agassi was down a break in the fifth. For all his worth, he broke back and took it to tie-break. There he was down 1-4 again! Agassi was on the comeback throughout the match, where he showed a lot of character. If he gets to meet Federer in the Finals, it'd be an awesome game where Federer would be made to give his everything to win, which is itself becoming a rarity these days. Ofcourse, there's Ginepri waiting to pounce on the old tiger to enter into a Grand Slam Finals for the first time in his career...but after seeing the way Agassi played in the QF, Ginepri would be hoping for something more than just his talent to beat the legend...

Another bad day for the Aussies in the Ashes. England are 319/7 at the end of the first day's play in the fifth and final test. Atleast, it wasnt too bad relatively based on what has happened in the last 3 games. I thought that losing the toss was a blessing in disguise, for this will give them enough time to take 20 English wickets. Hope rain doesnt take too many overs away from this game and spoil a well fought series...