A Bend in the Lane

I have been accepted into the Kellogg School of Management (1 year program) as well as the Harvard Business School for my MBA. I dont know which one to go to. It's an agonizing decision. Which one, dear reader? Which one?  Some very mature ways of decision making I have resorted to - - if I see two mynahs , it;s a sign I have to go to Kellogg. If I see three, I have to go to Harvard. - if the bus arrives in the next one minute, i have to go to Harvard. - if the leaf falls off the branch and touches my right shoulder, I go to Kellogg. ad infinitum, ad infinitum,and so on.

There was a store in our colony where we did most of our grocery shopping. I often ran the chore of getting a dozen eggs from the store for Mother.  I liked that chore. I liked to feel eggy cool smoothness. Hunt for cracks. Jiggle 'em a bit. Pick the largest. I took my time. The owner didn't mind. He knew me since my toddler years and he let me select my own dozen eggs.  On one particular trip when I was 9, I laid them carefully in a paper bag and walked over to pay up. While walking, I counted them all over again. I counted 11. So I grabbed one more egg and added it to the paper bag. At the counter, the owner-uncle took my money. Before stapling it, he took a quick peek and counted. He counted 13. He looked up and looked at me. Or rather, he gave me a look. A very quiet look. A very very quiet look. A look that held me guilty. Without saying a word, he took one egg out and stapled the bag.  I, very puzzled, opened my mouth to protest. I grabbed the bag and co...

There are days when you feel utterly empty. You will yourself to feel something. Anything, and yet you dont. Not a tingle. Not a whisper. What is the cure for those days? A change? A walk in the park at eventide? Getting a dog? Or a goldfish? Reading a book? Cuddling up to mom? What is the cure? Tell me right now!

My parent's wedding anniversary was around the corner. In preparation of a surprise, i decided to go to ABC Travel Agents to get them a nice weekend holiday. The ABC happens to be the Walmart of travel agents in Singapore. Except that they are not as cheap as Walmart. (Which actually means that they cant be the Walmart of travel agents, but thats beside the point.).  I had a bit of a nasty experience. One chirpy day was spent being put on hold by their really advanced telephone system for 50 minutes, being directed to the wrong branch (they have all these silly branches which serve you depending on the region of travel, the mode of travel, your race, ethnicity, mother's name, last name, time of birth. No seriously!), spending 1 hour in the queue system (again supah advanced) and talking to the officer and then being directed to the correct branch, only to find it closed.  The second day was a lot less painful. But, the prices quoted were..lets say, not Walmart...

Suddenly i have a guzillion books that I have to read and are staring at me from my bedside table. The Known World, Cloud Atlas, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Prozac Nation ...just to name a few. And, i am so terribly excited that I could jump up and down on my mattress had I been 5 years younger. I want to read 'em all at once. A new year and a new resolution to be more disciplined. That has saddled me with the burden of bearing the agony of many options and only one choice.

In vs vt da xz bi sw! PS: The cipher key is ' A Beginning'

There is a sad statistic out there on the net that 90% of women will have at least one new year resolution that states "get in shape" or "lose weight". Thought this might be a tiny reminder to appreciate and accept your body. 

Bibliophiles must know the agony of the assault of to-read books on book shelves. The books that one buys in an ambitious impulse but somehow never got around to finishing for whatever reasons - the print is too small, the writing sucks, i dont feel for the characters, there is a typo on pg156 - ad infinitum.  Last I checked, here's my wicked list - 1. Andew O'Hagan's Our Fathers 2. Mahabharata 3. Freakanomics 4. Art and physics 5. Plato's The Republic (never got beyond Book IV) 6. Chomsky for Beginners 7. The Hill Station by J G Farrell

Why does it matter what Oprah Winfrey weighs now? Why is it headlines on CNN? Why?

Excerpt -  "Nothing is left of the dead but earth. Can you refute this wisdom? --Perhaps I can. -And how will you do it, hero boy? --By the legend of my life, with which I refute all sophistries. By a myth of homecoming and a myth of resurrection. Come back to Raintree County, wandering child. Remember the great deaths and the great homecomings. Come back, and bring a sprig of lilac. For you will always be on trains and coming home, and the legend that recalled you from the City will always be tingling along the wires of the Republic. Come back to Raintree County and find your home again. And you will find again the sphinxlike silence of the earth. Knock hard, young hero, on the gates of death. Listen to the wail of the train at the crossing. This is the myth of America and of those who cross America on trains. This is the myth of those who come back home.

I have a leaking ship to captain right now. It needs all my atttention. Can I like bore you with my thoughts, say after October 18th? I suppose, you shall all be able to survive the deprevation just fine, as my two cents worth are not really worth two cents. Anyhoos, let's not say Good Bye, but rather Till We Meet Again on October 18.

Actually they are not. I've always been terribly dissapointed with Indy Jones - he finds treasure and he never claims it for his own. Ditto with Nancy Drew (who by the way is so annoying with her model citizen act, calling the authorities after discovering ancient treasure). Well one guy on some Gold Prospectors forum was mightily peeved over ownership rights of found gold and vented his frustration thus - A)They would come under the antiquity laws. B)They would come under national treasure laws C)They would come under normal treasure laws. D)They also would be under normal mining laws. E)They could come under native repartition laws also. F)Some how, the Jesuits could have a claim too. I say, what is the point of breaking your back while trying to find The Dutchman mines or Oak Island's money pit, when you actually cant keep the gold? I mean isn't that being dumb? I know the journey is all exciting and yadayadayada but isnt that like saying something dumb like "I wor...

To live in times when names like Lehman Brothers; Merril Lynch will no longer exist. In times when an omniscient insurance company teetered on the edge of collapse and finally gets taken over by state! Egad! I am finance-challenged. Despite that, I cant help but feel a growing sense of dread in the pit of my tummy, and a perverted tingle of excitement - one that 49ers may have had when setting out to 'go west' to find gold in caravans, in boxcar trains. Except that we ain't going west. And there aint gonna be any gold awaiting at the last stop. And the only people who shall come good out of these times are the kind who sold water then.

My blog format is screwed. Blogger sucks :-( Or i suck :-(

Folks! Today is Big Bang Day. The very day when the LHC ("Big Bang Machine") will be switched on (two years behind schedule) at CERN. And, possibly, as we speak, the condition in that 27km tunnel will be similar to the condition of the universe about a billionth of a second after Big Bang! The greatest scientific endeavor since we landed on moon.

You may have heard of the highly publicised involvement of Emile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair in France. Interestingly, not many people know about the infamous Great Wyrley Outrages and the subsequent crusade of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to free George Edalji ( a Parsee + Scottish 'Indian' man). Even Wikipedia does little justice to this fascinating case. The Edalji case has almost been forgotten, while the Zola was eulogised as "a moment of conscience in humanity" for his involvement in the Dreyfus scandal. It's puzzling cuz, both cases were similar - A popular literary figure (Zola, Doyle) crusading for justice, working against establishment and government to free the accused (Dreyfus, Edalji) who was being discriminated due to his religion/race (Jewish, mixed blood-Catholic). If you get a chance, pick up the Booker nominated "Arthur & George" It does the case justice.

...when your collegemate's wee-little brother adds you as a friend on Facebook.

I dont know too much about Sen. Joe Biden. (We shall soon though now that he is the Democrat Vice Presidential nominee.) But, I thought he was a witty when I heard his famous one-liner about Republican Rudy Giuliani's Presidential campaign in 2007 - "There's only three things he [Giuliani] mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." Also, heard he is a powerful orator. That should be helpful cuz personally, I think oratory is not exactly Obama's forte. He has too many pauses, "err", "umms" in his speeches. Interesting days ahead,

I am watching the 2008 Olympics ceremony as I type and it struck me that the world has heard the Chinese national anthem so many frigging times (51 times + 1 time during the opening ceremony) that i betcha a lot of us have it practically memorised!