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Showing posts from November, 2009

Hiatus

Dictionary:   hec·tic adj. Characterized by intense activity, confusion, or haste. That's exactly how the past week has been. Not that I would exchange it for anything in the world. I've got 2 weeks to leave Delhi and report at Agra and I can hardly wait. Far enough away to escape and close enough for essentials like access to good food and a washing machine. But before I run away there's a looooot of things to be done like bank accounts, phone numbers, shopping and what not. Unlike what they would have you believe in Bollywood or in any of the other woods for that matter, running away takes a lot of prep work and/or careful planning. Especially if like me, you are doing it in broad daylight and with the full co operation of your mother! In between all the madness I need to somehow make time to go to Gurgaon to meet, greet and treat my friends. They are, after all, one of the few things I would miss about this heap of stones called Delhi. Them and my unlimit

Jobless No More

After months of incessant ‘Job O Job, wherefore art thou?’ ing, I got one, even if it did take quite a while. And at LIC no less. Phew, now that that’s over, I can look forward to the training and getting paid for doing something rather than the other way round. Aristotle might have said ‘All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind’ but I say, if I’m going to be absorbing and degrading my mind anyway, might as well get paid for it! Besides the more I like doing something, the less I call it work (don’t remember who said this one). And to think , I was on the verge of applying for the Indian Bank and Bank of India POs. In one month I’ll have to move to where ever the training is scheduled and of course the biggest headache is getting a new cell phone number. Let me rephrase that. Getting a new number is not the problem but switching to it certainly is. Gah! Where is number portability when you want it?  So how do I feel after getting a job? Excited, ecstatic, nervous (jus a lil’

The God Delusion

That’s the name of the book I just finished, by Richard Dawkins. After a long time of reading religious apologist literature in everything from newspapers to magazines, Richard Dawkins came as a breath of fresh air. And it’s not just me who’s impressed. The New York Times Book Review has hailed him as a writer who "'understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too"' & he was recently awarded the distinction of "'public intellectual"' in Britain. This is a summary of the book, from his website : He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and conte