Reckless living

The above is R K Laxman's You Said It which came in Times of India a few days back. Funny though the cartoon might appear but it actually raises some very serious issues. One it talks about the poverty that is still rampant in India and two about the reckless way of living of those who are above the poverty line. It is the latter that I am going to discuss here.

When kids drunk in part by liquor and in part by their youth run their car over unsuspecting workers sleeping on the footpath they also in a way run over the families of these workers. On most occasions the news papers and news channels are able to create a stir among the public but justice is hardly ever delivered. I sometimes wonder how those guilty of taking a life can sleep peacefully at night and in the day be able to look everyone in the eye.

A friend of mine once proudly told me that he had could cross a road while just inches away from a bus! It left me completely aghast. Have people even stopped valuing their own lives?

What wouldn't some of us do to bring back a loved one that we've lost... to get some extra minutes or even seconds with them? Its a shame therefore to find someone putting his/her lives at stake just for experiencing an adrenaline rush that lasts only for a few moments.

I believe its time we realized the true worth of the life that we've been given. Its time we started caring again.

Men on marriages :)

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.

- David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.

- Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

- Socrates

A happy marriage is a matter of giving and taking; the husband gives and the wife takes

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.

- Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?"

- Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.

- Henny Youngman

I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.

- Sam Kinison

There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage.

- James Holt McGavran

I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn't.

- Patrick Murray

Is there God?

An atheist was walking through the woods.

"What majestic trees"!

"What powerful rivers"!

"What beautiful animals"!

He said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer. He tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out, "Oh my God!"

Time Stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came outof the sky! .

"You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident." "Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer"?

The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps You could make the BEAR a Christian"?
"Very Well," said the voice.

The light went out.

The sounds of the forest resumed.

And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head and spoke:

"Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from Thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen."

Mom or Dad?

"Who do you like best? Mom or dad?"

I came across this question a day or two ago in the form of a posting written by a 10 year old girl on her blog http://www.bandmanagerlife.blogspot.com/.

The answer to the above query is this phrase which my sister and I had concocted some years ago - "both are better".

Whenever I would return from school and later on from college I would give my day's report to Mummy. If I went out with my friends to watch a film then she would have to listen to my complete scene by scene narration. I once made her hear out my whole project report on the work that I'd done during the one month holiday (after my second year of graduation) that I'd spent in NCL. Only when I came to the end that I realized Mummy hadn't followed a word of it but she never stopped me from going on and on.

I am very close to Daddy now. Its just him and me at home what with my sister settled in Bangalore and Mummy watching us from the clouds up above.

Daddy is my friend, philosopher and guide all rolled into one. I enjoy going out to see movies with him and even shopping. If I am in nabad (the IITB slang for a nervous breakdown/great tension) then I just have to pour my heart out to Daddy. He always manages to give me the correct advice which solves my problem right at that moment.

Putting all the above in a line: I have had and am still relishing the best of both the worlds. :)

To wait or not?

Here is another "weight" problem :p

My take on IITs

Today on MTV's show Kya Baat the topic of discussion was "Are the IITs Overrated?". After watching the show I went into a flashback mode. I remembered that when I was in class 10th only two streams were considered as worthy to be taken up, namely, engineering and medicine. And for those who wanted to become engineers getting into IIT was their ultimate goal. Students literally burnt the midnight oil so that they could clear the JEE.

My route to IIT Bombay was different. I first did my graduation in Chemistry from St Stephens College and then joined IITB for pursuing MSc. Until then I had thought that students at IITs must be having their noses buried in books all the time. To my utter surprise I found among the IITians great sportspersons, managers, leaders, actors, voice over artistes, music composers, singers, costume designers and even some amazing set designers. I was left completely speechless when I saw this huge waterfall which the students had built at the OAT all by themselves for a play!!

Today many institutions offer degrees in engineering but IITs are one of the few places where one can do good research in pure sciences. All my MSc batchmates and even some of my friends from engineering departments are currently doing PhD as a result of their first brush with research here.

One of the points raised in the MTV show was that all IIT labs get good funding. This would be true if the comparison was with other Indian universities. But the picture would be very different if one were to size up the situation against the American and German univerisities.

So there is still a long road ahead that needs to be traversed. There are still many conquests to be made and many laurels to be won. In time the IITians will do all that and much more... this I am sure of.

Secrets for a Happy Marriage

With a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary at a churches marriage marathon, the minister asked Brother Ralph to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he managed to live with the same woman all these years.

The husband replied to the audience, "Well, I treated her with respect, spent money on her, but mostly I took her traveling onspecial occasions." The minister inquired trips to where?

"For our 25th anniversary, I took her to Beijing,China."

The minister then said, "What a terrific example you are to all husbands Ralph, please tell the audience what you're going to do for your wife on your 50th anniversary?"

Brother Ralph: "I'm going to go and bring her back."

Think Big!

Saddam Hussein was sitting in his office wondering whom to invade next when his telephone rang.

"Hallo, Mr. Hussein!" a heavily accented voice said, "This is Gurmukh from Phagwara, District Kapurthala, Punjab. I am ringing to inform you that we are officially declaring the war on you!" "Well, Gurmukh," Saddam replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your army?"

"Right now," said Gurmukh, after a moment's calculation, "there is myself, my cousin Sukhdev, my next door neighbour Bhagat, and the entire kabaddi team from the gurudwara. That makes eight".

Saddam paused. "I must tell you, Gurmukh that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command." "Arrey O! Main kya.. " said Gurmukh. "I'll have to ring you back!" Sure enough, the next day, Gurmukh called again.

"Mr. Hussein, it is Gurmukh, I'm calling from Phagwara STD, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!" "And what equipment would that be, Gurmukh?" Saddam asked. "Well, we have two combines, a donkey and Amrik's tractor."

Saddam sighed. "I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armoured personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my army to 1-1/2 million since we last spoke.""Oh teri ...." said Gurmukh. "I'll have to get back to you." Sure enough, Gurmukh rang again the next day.

"Mr. Hussein, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne.... .. We've modified Amrik's tractor by adding a couple of shotguns, sticking on some wings and the pind's generator. Four school pass boys from Malpur have joined us as well!"

Saddam was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. "I must tell you, Gurmukh, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighterplanes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!" "Tera pala hove...." said Gurmuk, "I'll have to ring you back. "Sure enough, Gurmukh called again the next day.

"Mr. Hussein! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to call off the war." "I'm sorry to hear that," said Saddam. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Well," said Gurmukh, "we've all had a long chat over a couple of lassi's, and decided there's no way we can feed two million prisoners of wars!"