Religious rant - II

This guy just doesn't let go.

The only reason I dont allow anonymous comments or comments without registration is because of all the advertising spam that I receive on my blog. So, if you really do want to opine, 2 mins of your time with a fake email address is enough to register with blogspot. Justifying the obvious lack of thought as is evident from your current post, with some trivial excuse, is totally lame.

I wasn't justifying the act of distributing trishuls as the right thing to do. But all your rants were singularly anti-Hindu(even though they were not against me personally as you claim) with not a single word against the atrocities of any other religion. That is something I found to be quite hypocritical. If there indeed are other writings about those, would you be kind enough to point them out to me so that I can have a better insight into your *ideology* ?

If you still dont understand the meaning of hypocrisy, then you dont know the meaning of the word liberal as well. To be a liberal you kind of have to refrain from any *extreme* opinions about anything, which you obviously dont do. So, when you say you are a liberal and you have extreme views on matters, you are actually being a hypocrite. I hope I am making myself clear enough because if this doesnt get through then I dont think anything else will. And pray what exactly did you find hypocritical in my post?? Just calling me a hypocrite doesnt make me one. You actually have to prove it like I did.

Contrary to what you might believe, I am not a fundamentalist. Hell, I wouldnt do my morning prayers everyday even when my father beat the crap out of me. But I am indeed proud of my heritage and culture and I obviously dont appreciate it when its maligned without any purpose, thought or justification by people like you.

Fate it seems, is not without a sense of irony

Another snowy day in Colorado, a different kinda driving experience. I still am not quite used to driving in the snow one day and in bright sunshine the next. Both need different driving styles, as I have realised now. And I haven't quite managed to switch modes on the fly.

So, after it snowed overnight to leave a thick coat on the morning roads, I was perfunctorily driving down the road to Boulder when I saw the light turn yellow at a distance. I just hit the brakes without so much as a modicum of thought. (Caffeine deficiency in the morning does cloud my judgement at times.) As expected, the rear end of the car gave away and I ended up taking a right turn that I don't usually take. Thankfully, there were no cars around. No harm done.

But this was just the 'cause'...the 'effect' was yet to come.

While driving back home, I was still on the busy streets of Boulder when it was deja vu all over again. The lights turned yellow just when I was at that uncertain stretch, not knowing whether to go or stop. The morning's event flashed through my mind and I realised that if I hit the brakes, I was sure to skid and hit the cars in the neighboring lane before coming to a halt (All this thinking in a matter of a second...caffeine helps, you see! ) But if I speeded up instead, I would break the red surely and yet pass the intersection before the other cars had begun to even move.

So, being the good samaritan that I am (thinking of damage to *other* cars before mine), I hit the gas and just as I crossed the light..... FLASH, FLASH, FLASH. The paparazzi were on to me.

As luck would have it, the intersection had a Photo-Light.

Born on the 2nd of August

Some people I share my birthday with:

Kevin Smith (YAY!!)

Lamar Hunt (without him we wouldn't have had the NFL)

Peter O'Toole (need I say more?)

Wes Craven

and last but not the least...

Sara Foster (of "The Big Bounce" fame, she's one cute hottie)

Match Point

I believe in the law of averages - you have to -. Life is full of nice little surprises that almost make you feel guilty. But then, life can also be so incredibly unfair that the only thing you have left is a belief that something's eventually gonna go your way. *Hope* is the ultimate equalizer.

I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing both the feelings - all in a day's work.

On my longish 35 mile drive to work everyday, I have seen countless number of people being pulled over for speeding on one particular section of the freeway. One day it would be my time too, I always thought. The empty road on a routine bright'n'sunny day (Yes, we have more than 300 of those every year) literally begs, screams for SPEED. 50 - doesn't do justice to either the road or the automobile. But this is not where the incident occured, infact, far from it.

Now, normally I am a very safe driver (other than speeding on empty roads of course) with a clean record. So, what happened was ... something of an anomaly. I was getting late for an appointment at 7 in the evening. Naturally , I was stepping on the gas, without realizing that I was going through a school-zone.

I got pulled over promptly.

It was almost like three strikes in one shot...driver with a middle-eastern look (due to my goatee), driving at 40mph in a 20mph zone & the most glaring of all...not having the current insurance papers in my car (I had very conveniently forgotten to put in an updated copy after I renewed my policy in November). "I'm in for big, this time", I thought to myself.

So the cop came around, took a long, hard look at me and asked for my drivers license. After my record checked out to be okay, he came back and spoke in a very sinister tone, "Sir, I caught you at 40 in a school zone. You should thank your stars that the school's done for the day. Else you would have been in serious trouble now. In this case, I'm going to let you off with just a warning."

I couldn't believe what I had heard. Putting on the most apologetic of faces, I regurgitated the same old cliche, the one I had practised tons of times for this very moment, "I'm extremely sorry officer. I assure you, it won't happen again." Me getting caught...I meant :P

A wise man once said 'Sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good'. While, I've been on the bad side of that statement more than a few times, this was the first time I was on the 'good'. Atleast, I couldn't put it down to anything other than luck.

Golden, CO

Downtown Golden, CO
Originally uploaded by akhil1980.

Downtown.

Cozily nestled between two mountains.

Things to do before I'm 30

Being the introspection phase that I'm in these days, I thought it was high time I set a few goals in life with regards to where I want to be, what I want out of life itself. But that seemed a far fetched idea to me...you know... a little too far in the distant future kinda thing. So, the giant step turned into a baby one. Four and a half years is a quite modest target to be planning for the future. Heck, even the Indian govt. doesn't think beyond a five year period, who am I to do so then?

5. Become the uber fitness freak.

4. Become a savant, a connoisseur of the French, Italian & Thai cuisines and not just the gourmand. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I guess it shouldn't be too different for a woman either. After all, they have a palate & they get hungry too.

3. Make that two week long trip to Alaska. All my life, the one place I had always wanted to go was Europe, to see all the magnificient architectural beauty. But living in Colorado has made me appreciate 'au naturale' more. So, while Europe is definately on the cards, priority #1 is Alaska.

2. Scale all of the 53 14ers in Colorado. That's 5 summers. Average of 11 peaks a summer. Pretty doable if #5 is accomplished.

1. Umm..what do I put in here?? This seems too important to put something in randomly & set it in stone pretty much. Need to put a lil' more thought into this one...more on this later...so far so good though.

Driving Miss Crazy

I had the first (of many, I'm sure) scary driving experiences in the winter snow of Colorado. Snow does funny things to cars. A dry snow feels like you're driving on the beach, a wet snow gives you the creeps & dont even get me started about ICE. Let's just say that if you don't use your brakes just the right way, they kinda lose their purpose.

First thing in the morning today, I drove Miss Crazy out of my complex & following my usual habit of braking hard right near the intersection, I stared in disbelief as she didnt even slow down an inch and kept skidding along, right onto the road. Scary moment. Thankfully none of her girlfriends were out on that road yet.

About an hour and a half later, two blocks away from my office, I see a RED, I see the car in front of me slow down. I tell Miss Crazy to do that too. Twenty meters from the light, I see that car starting to wobble, so we brace ourselves. Braking slowly and steadily I feel that we'll stop before hitting that guy. But suddenly, she kinda speeds up & I realise, we have hit the same icy patch on the road that guy did. And then begins the twist and turn of the steering wheel (Sorry sweetheart, I promise...Never again!) to avoid colliding with everyone. And just as her front wheels clear the ice, her ass just gives away and we make the shortest U everrrrr. Now, I'm facing the cars follwing me, holding my breath for god knows how long. But those people are smart. After seeing my antics, my follower stops his car just short of the icy patch, waits for the traffic in the neighboring lane to clear up and smoothly sails by. I'm left speechless.

Moral of the story: Whenever it snows this bad, leave Miss Crazy home!

Patriot Reign : OVER

What were they thinking?? Did they think, they could just march into Denver and kick our asses?? Expect us to just allow them to walk all over us, just because they were the "oh!! we're so good" champs?? All week long we heard every single media analyst ( Shannon Sharpe doesn't count) undermine the Broncos, pick the Pats to win this one...without so much as a modicum of intelligence, pragmatism. No NFL game is ever won purely on reputation and this one was no different. You are what you are. That is why the Pats even made it to the playoffs by winning a mediocre(only better than the hapless NFC North) AFC East at 10-6 while at the same time the Chiefs at 10-6 didnt even make the playoffs. And then they beat the worst 12-4 team to EVER make the playoffs. And collected bragging rights nonetheless!!! WTF...Jacksonville's no Denver...Jeez..they dont even know the concept of "Stopping the run" and for that matter..neither do the Pats. Please dont quote stats on this one before looking at the teams that they played when they supposedly "stopped" the run. And please...to those who choose to crib about the missed calls in this one...I have only two words for you...TUCK RULE...the biggest hypocrisy in the history of the "patriot reign". So, all you New Englanders...settle down in your chairs with your clam chowder and get set for a long winter while we turn up the heat here in Denver.

The Nixon movie

"The assassination of Richard Nixon" - remarkable, remarkable movie. Sean Penn is mindblowing in portraying the character of Sam Bicke. You feel so much pity for him being a victim of the circumstances. I have never been a big fan of his but this performance changed my opinion of him. Somehow, I felt like I could relate to what he was going through, things getting out of hand through no fault of his, his staunch belief in a few principles that he had. Simple-minded fellow who, at times, is easily manipulated by other people. Much like myself. Poor soul !

Music

Such an integral part of human life (well, mine atleast). From the moment that I developed a modicum of musical sense, there has always been this association of a particular genre or an artist with a particular time in my life. And, listening to those oldies brings back such lovely and fond memories that I almost feel disgusted that things had to change to such an extreme degree. You never realise the true worth of anything until you have lost it & in this case, it's my past. Only memories remain. Even the most cheesiest of movies seemed awesome during those early school days, coz it was a new concept to me entirely. Tridev, Chandni, Tezaab come to mind immediately. And, the vivid imagery of the Queen Bee (a.k.a. Miss M.D.) dancing to the tune of "ek do teen.." will remain etched in my memory forever. I was so smitten by her that I made it a point to watch every single one of her movies. (That, she now lives only about 40 miles from my place is a whole another story for some other day.)

Anyhow, so time passed and so did my grandma. And in her last days at the hospital where I used to give her company, I listened to a lot of Iron Maiden & Metallica, a subconscious effort to wash away the pain of the inevitable loss.

A year later, I was not quite done with academics & landed up in Boulder, CO. And one of the first things I bought was an cd/mp3 player.

To be continued...

It's that time of the year again.....marriage mania!!!

Three of my bestest friends are getting married tomorrow...not too each other obviously...well..two of them are actually!!!

Such a joyous, wonderful occasion & I'm stuck here, half way around the world, in this godforsaken country.

Such is the irony of fate.

And these aren't the only weddings I have or I'm slated to miss in the future. These kind of moments, sometimes, make me question my decision to *move*...you know..those "What was I thinking??" kind. I haven't quite found the answer to logically convince myself that it was the right thing to do. And, I don't know if I ever will. I just hope I muster up enough *testicular fortitude* to do something about it one day.

My new baby... Nikon D50 digital SLR camera

Today's fortune on orkut

The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others.


Funny, people actually *covet* bad luck??

I'm a sucker for Cameron's movies

Elizabethown is simply an awesome, awesome movie. I have never felt so emotionally attached to one movie. Maybe it was the tragedy, maybe it was the music, maybe it was Kirsten Dunst saying things like "You're already breaking up with me & we're not even together." in her own cute little way. The whole movie has a warm rustic feel to it. A small town ambience that I have personally experienced in Boulder. People living laid back lives so much different from the constant hustling & jostling that comes prepackaged with a big city life. Not that I haven't lived that life but time makes the human mind a little resistant to change. For the 22 years, I had lived in Bombay(now Mumbai) where people literally *lived* on-the-go. I had become used to that. After that, 3 years in Boulder has slowed things down for me which frankly I did not like initially. But now I absolutely LOVE it. It has allowed me to appreciate life a lot more than before. I think I have matured as a person more so in the last couple of years than all those spent in Bombay.

This is not a religious rant but...

...this moron absolutely blew my lid off.
http://krishworld.com/politics/?page_id=4
He is so ragingly "anti-right-wing" as he calls himself that he proclaims to kick any conservative's ass who might stumble upon his poor excuse for a website, thereby proudly upholding his "Gandhian" principles that he wants to so passionately adhere to. Missed is the fact that, he is so conservative in his own views that he totally neglects any positive points that might be in the views of the other side.

Let's just consider the first one (I could actually provide counter claims to every single event in his so called hall of shame)

1. Distribution of 75,000 Trishuls by Hindutva forces:

Very funny, considering that I don't see a single word being said about the millions of Bibles and stories of Jesus Christ that are distributed FREE by the missionaries not only in India but all over the world and to children under the age of 10 nonetheless. I myself have been a recipient of quite a few of them actually. The organised campaign to exploit the economically backward by giving them assistance and converting them to Christianity (under the blatantly false pretense of altruism) has been going on for decades if not centuries. http://www.christianaggression.org/tactics_deception.php I guess Mr. Krish was soundly asleep then, snoring his ass off. His whole persona reeks of hypocrisy which is so typical of any conservative. So, going by his super-algorithm or flowchart or whatever it is,

"Conservatism –> Fundamentalism –> Terrorism",

it's ASS-KICKIN' time folks, coz we finally found a terrorist.

The sad part of the whole situation these days is, such wannabe-liberal-yuppies don't know the meaning of the word "liberal" in the first place. To be a liberal, you have to be able to entertain a thought without needing to accept or reject it. Why is it always that anyone who claims to be a liberal absolutely has to be anti-hindu (with the sole exception of me AFAIK)??? Why this collective outburst against the one religion that has survived the test of time?? Here's a pop quiz, name one unprovoked act of aggression in the history of humanity that could be blamed on Hinduism. By and large, hindus are generally passive in nature. Of course there are always bad apples but then should you really blame the tree for that?

Don't get me wrong, I am not a zealot ...... but I'm no atheist either. Yes, I do believe in GOD but then I also believe that GOD was a monkey.

Blissful Ignorance

I woke up rather early this morning. It was a bit chilly outside with a light drizzle. Seemed like perfect weather go out for a drive & grab a bagel and some coffee from Einstein's (they're the only ones who'd be open at 530am). Nothing beats sipping hot coffee on the patio on a chilly morning. There were hardly any vehicles on the road at the time. Everything was so quiet except for the occasional chirping of the birds. I just sat there, enjoying the moment, blissfully unaware of everything else. I know all this sounds too trivial but moments like these are so far and few that you need to savor each one. Just relax and let go of everything. You have enough time in your day to worry about everything else. For those 30 minutes, let your mind be free.

Too bad I can't 'make' this happen everyday.

Perennial Infatuation

OK, now I get why girls have the "hots" for doctors !!! Apparently, I have a thing for doc-chicks too. And it's not limited to those on-screen. Casually thinking about all the crushes that I have had in the past few years, I realised that more than half of them either were doctors in real life or wanted to be one or played that character on screen. Maybe it's the power to sustain life that they have, maybe it's those non-descript scrubs that they so subtly flaunt. This area definately needs some research. Should contact the psychology department at CU & ask them to write up a proposal for this ;).

Currently fixated on Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy) & Cobie Smulders (How I met your mother)

ElizabethTown

I'm a sucker for (sentimental but not quite teenie-pop) romantic movies. Sleepless in Seattle, A Walk in the Clouds, Serendipity, Kate & Leopold......and now ElizabethTown !!!

Oct 14th seems simply too far away. I dunno if I can wait that long.

Apples and Oranges

Most Forwarded Email to me in the last week

===================================================

I couldn't stop making this comparison..

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18

inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

population of new orleans... 484,674

population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100

deaths in mumbai within 48 hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..whoa !!!

number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless

Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours

Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty

status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation

India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..

oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN?
===============================================================

No offense anyone else who forwarded this email to me ( i got this from a dozen odd people) but this was one of the most blatantly jingoistic emails I've seen in some time....you're comparing apples and oranges and concluding that oranges are sour....well apples simply CAN'T be sour, can they??

And taking glory in the fact that only 10,000 odd people were evacuated in a city of about 13 million is absolutely shameful. Much more people SHOULD actually have been evacuated. I dont know if its because of our perennially surging population but we've not quite learnt to place a premium on loss of life yet.

Finally some closure!!!

Thanks to this wonderful, wonderful old song by GreenDay. Had to dig this out from my HUGE music archive. Here's how it goes:

Another turning point
A fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist
Directs you where to go
So make the best of this test
And don’t ask why
It’s not a question
But a lesson learned in time
It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life


You bet I did :)