Part Of Being Sane Is Being A Little Crazy

Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything, anything, be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in. -Sam Harris Tradition as a subject has always had equal parts fascination and horror for me. Fascination because it is interesting to trace their origins, the changes they’ve undergone and most importantly, how ludicrous they appear when taken in today’s context. Horror because it is now incumbent upon me to follow and uphold the ‘Great Indian Traditions!’ *cue sarcastic drumroll*   I once read this little gem of a story I don’t know where, but which will shed light on the origin of traditions - Once upon a time, in a small ashram, there lived a guru & his students. Their days...

Americans have a tradition: Grow up, go to college (if you can afford it!), figure out what you want to do with your life while you’re there and then well, you can do it or you can change course. After all that’s what life’s about. Einstein was a clerk in a patent office while Bell taught deaf people. But it’s not their day job that they’re known for. Meanwhile Indians also have a tradition: Grow up, go to college (study that which will pay well) and go get that well paying job. If, horror of horrors (!), you discover that you want to do something other than what you are studying and/or working on, well tough luck. You already took the road well traveled and you are not allowed to change it willy nilly!   As if an entire society’s anti-risk tendency & fear of failure wasn’t enough obstacles, if you are a woman, then you have a whole new set of problems. Don’t believe me? Come, take a trip down the rabbit hole (bring something to eat, this will take a while) If you...

Geeks really love their lists. At every tech blog I read, not a single day goes by without a list of some sort – ‘Top 10 iphone apps,’ ‘Top 10 Android apps,’ ‘5 things you can do to speed up your shitty netbook’ and so on. While my list has nothing whatsoever to do with one of the loves in my life (which is if you didn’t already know  - Tech), it has everything to do with the blight/scourge/bane of my life! Yeah, my list is called *drum roll please*   Top 10 Signs You are an LICian You don’t have a life. No, going home at 6 and doing nothing till bedtime does not qualify as a life. You feel, think and act like you’re 45 years old. And do not realize it till you meet your friends IRL. When asked for something by your boss/colleague, your first instinct is to search the paper, not the system! Whatever query a customer might have, you start shaking your head NO even before he finishes, coz you already know it can’t be done. If your assistants don’t work...

Way back in 2009 (Feb to be precise) I wrote this post on the Great Indian Tamasha aka The Arranged Marriage. At that time, it was merely a rant brought on by reading some random blog I had come across. I was just getting acquainted with the theory of marriage – as concerning me – while my parents were about to embark on the Search. Almost exactly two years later, my parents are still looking while I’m getting a crash course on Marriage 101. These then are the first 5 Laws of Getting Married – applicable to most Indian Girls - I have to tone myself down – far as I can tell, it means I talk too much. Once upon a time, my mom used to bemoan the fact that I don’t talk, now she wants me to shut up. Go figure! Of course what she really means is that I’m way too outspoken and frank which do not bode well for my future as a wife. I am expected to demonstrate my ability to talk in Telugu while conversing with prospective grooms; never mind that the groom is an NRI and talking ...

Something unusual happened recently. My mom and I visited a friend of her brother, who just happened to be a Palmist. (See Palmist ). He has some rather sensible T & C before he agrees to read your palm; sensible for a palmist anyway! Although my mom was pretty disappointed with his ‘predictions’, I was fascinated by his description of my personality solely by looking at my palm. Here’s a short version of what he said, translated from Telugu: Revolutionary..not a general hand..High level of self respect..no need of external validation..as long as I’m convinced I’m right, I don’t care for the majority.. feminist.. dislike explaining myself in respect of allegations.. love driving, like solving puzzles.. good cook but do not like to cook.. strong sense of justice.. retribution rather than mercy.. loyal, hate traitors.. frank and straight forward.. do not like hypocrites.. good managerial ability.. talker.. high levels of persuasiveness.. aptitude for marketing,judiciary,military...

I was getting ready to go to the office today when I saw an article on Wikipedia in the paper. Not the latest news or anything considering it wasn’t even today’s paper but it caught my eye. I tend to notice tech related articles in our papers, since they’re usually hilarious. Not in a ha ha funny sorta way but more along the lines of ‘OMG! are we still in the 20th century?’ In fact this particular article was so poorly written and obviously a fluff piece, but I’d have thought even those have some standards. Apparently not.  The article was titled ‘The Downside of Wikipedia’; fair enough, every website out there has one – at least. But the first sentence was enough to give me an idea of what followed. The writer said users frequently complain of errors and/or incomplete information.  And who else but Raveena Tandon would qualify as a typical user of the site? She complains about some films said to be on her currently working list, which were in fact her husbands’. ...

Once upon a time, a tourist was wandering around a temple and came across an elephant. It was a huge beast, munching on his food, flapping his ears and generally being an elephant. Then the tourist noticed that he was tied to a post with a rather flimsy metal chain. He was aghast and asked the mahout if it was safe. The mahout said it was perfectly safe & that he would not try to break free. The tourist was surprised & asked why not. This is the reply he got: “When this elephant was a baby, this chain was strong enough to stop him. However hard he tried, he couldn’t break free. So after some time he stopped trying. With time, he grew stronger than the chain but he will never try to break free cuz he’s used to it! ” Thousands of years ago, while men hunted & gathered, women protected & raised the young. Naturally the former was far more exciting than the latter. In order to give their women something to do (& probably to transfer their fears/headaches to someone e...