Saturday, July 29, 2006

& then there are some...

the night before last, i just lay in my bed unable to sleep...maybe it was the 'Khichu' i had for dinner...in any case it was one of those nights when sleep is the most elusive of things & all you can do is lay in bed with eyes wide open, listening to the clock in the living room tick away in the silence of the night. i always find the silence most conducive to my thoughts. yes, the regular ticking of the clock soon fades away into the background as your mind takes over and plunges you into the deep recesses that only it can possess. and as you are falling you see glimpses of your own life...
sunny days spent lazing around in the grass at the University...nights of incessant fun and dialogues with friends on the porch...the day out at McDonald's with the gang after the HSC exam...the night time visits to the 'chai wala' during those exams...the games that i played with the cousins during the summer holidays...my mother's smile every time i ran into the kitchen saying i was hungry only cause i wanted a piece of the cake she had just baked
...they all flash by in your fall.
yes, that night i just lay there in my bed falling.
but then there were these three images that for a moment stopped my free-fall and held me there suspended in mid air while i relived them. images of 3 very distinct people. images from 3 very distinct phases of my life. a life that i had left behind...but one that i lived each day in the memories from those moments.

the first of these images were that of Brother Thomas. Brother Thomas came into my life when i moved to Jamnagar with dad when he got transferred there. mom was still making her career in fashion and hence she did not move with us. she lived in Ahmedabad and visited regularly from time to time, but for most parts it was just me, my sister and dad.

the Jamnagar days are reminiscent of my time as a Xavierite and the echo of those days still dwell in the halls and grounds of St. Xavier's...or maybe just in our classroom of 5-B, Brother Thomas's class. for a boy at the age of 10 everything is a source of immense destructive joy and chaos. so just try and imagine 60 such individuals put together in a room...ahh, sweet memories. i still remember, 5th grade was the grade in which we stopped using pencils and picked up our first pens. now, it is very essential that a child's first pen-handling experience be that of an ink/fountain pen. it does wonders to the child's handwriting and comes highly recommended by the missionaries at St. Xavier's Jamnagar...but handwriting-shandwriting sheemish...
ink pens are also the source of raging ink throwing battles, stained walls and desks, books that resemble blotting paper, white shirts that will never be white again and ink stained hands that go in the mouth and you end up with blue teeth grinning back at the teacher
...and amongst all that, stood the towering Brother Thomas. Brother Thomas (brother since he vehemently refused to be called a father like we called the other teachers), must have easily topped 6 feet tall. most likely he was 6'4" or something. somewhere in his late twenties...but for us 10 year old boys he was the tallest man ever. our heads almost fell off every time we tried to look up at him while standing in front of him. he was the English teacher in addition to being the class teacher. i still remember him as the tall and dark Brother Thomas, dressed in white, the gentle smile on his lips as he spoke of grammar and diction in his smooth voice. he demanded strict discipline from all his students with the same smile and voice. one that we all were only too eager to provide in fear of the frown that never was there, but always a threatened to surface. still he always taught in the same mellow tone. in fact i can never remember him as being flustered or angry about us not understanding, i guessed that even he realised that all we cared about was when the recess bell would sound and who would climb the tree and who would fall and what was in out lunch boxes. English grammar was the last thing in our minds. still he persisted with his teaching. always patient and persistent. that was Brother Thomas.

but the one memory of him that i remember most vividly is that of Christmas. or more specifically, of Christmas Eve. i still remember, we boys had stayed back in school that day. we had all taken special permission from our parent's to do that. we all wanted to help decorate the school hall for Christmas. we ran around following orders from the older boys, carrying stuff and holding chairs and ladders as the older boys worked at the real decorating. we carried the straw for the crib of Baby Jesus and we dragged the props for the Christmas play. oh, we all put in our own 10 year old's worth of effort. and then, someone asked for Brother Thomas. and so Akhil (or was it Priyank) & I, were promptly dispatched to the residential quarters of the teachers at the very end of the campus to go tell Brother Thomas that he was needed. i still remember the long walk across the grounds. it was forbidden territory that we were about to step into. we were about to trespass on Brother Thomas's privacy. no student was allowed to do that. he couldn't have been more clear in that matter when he strictly forbade us to disturb him or any other teacher after school hours on the very first day.

but it was Christmas Eve, and so when we told the watchman that we were there to tell Brother Thomas that he was needed, he just waved us in and in passing said, "don't bother going up to his room and knocking. in the evenings you'll find him down in the garden with his rabbits." RABBITS!! we couldn't believe our ears and our feet hurried across the grass to the other end of the garden, & sure enough, there was the figure of Brother Thomas crouched over a cage. he had a little bucket next to him. i still remember how we just stood back, neither of us having the courage to walk up to him. we just stood there and called out to him. he turned. saw us and smiled. and then asked what was the matter. we told him that he was needed and that so-and-so had sent us to fetch him all in one breath. he just nodded, still smiling. and then he spoke, "Ok, we shall go. but first, don't you want to see the rabbits? there is this baby rabbit you know."
that minute he stopped being a young missionary who refused to be called a father and whose duty was to teach his students grammar. the discipline demanding, distant, mysterious and awe-inspiring figure of Brother Thomas no longer existed. he was Brother Thomas. just Brother Thomas.
...a simple man of God who loved teaching children & who loved his rabbits. that's the image of Brother Thomas that i cherish the most...

and that's where i start to fall again...i really can't remember much about Brother Thomas since he never really spoke very openly about his own life to the students. i remember he once mentioned that he had grown up in Kerala. but that was all. and then i moved. i stayed in Jamnagar only for a year, or maybe a little less before i moved back to Ahmedabad. i lost touch with everything that i had left behind...but one thing remained. the image of Brother Thomas, always patient and persistent whether it be in his duty of imparting knowledge to his students or caring for his rabbits...
oh, there are many that we encounter in this journey of life. some are forgotten with the next step. some linger on for a while and some become milestones in our journey. the one's we remember for being that 'extra' bit special. the one's who mark a definitive point in our journey and the one's on whom we look back with fond memories.
...and then there are some...and they are the one's like Brother Thomas...

(my free falling continues and then once again i am stopped in mid-air...but that story's for another time)

Monday, July 24, 2006

Chicken Soup for the Sick!

one of the quirks of life that i have managed to unfold so far has been the seemingly irrational, but very true, relationship between my sister and my ill health. ever since she got introduced into my life at the age of 5, she has been the forerunner in the horde of millions of parasitic organisms that harbour the sickness inducing viruses who later on go on to destroy my immune system.

it's a warning from the Viruses!! your sister got sick. now you are next.
no matter what amount of precautions i take, my sister somehow manages to pass on her virus to me. i can survive being imprisoned in a cell teeming with sick people and i wouldn’t catch anything. but i rest assured that if my sick sister is within the distance of sight/hearing, i shall be the next victim of whatever sickness it is that she is down with. i think that all this has a bit of scientific twist to it. i guess that with our matching DNA and Gene Pool, my sister's body is the perfect host for any virus to mutate to the level that they are able to bypass all the defences that my immune system has built up. she certainly plays the role of the virus host admirably.

some of you may find it amusing, but it truly is one of the lesser wanted quirks/jokes that life has in store for me.

anyways, so after having spent most of the night tossing and turning, with my body temperature levels going haywire. i waged an endless battle against runny nose. my sister did come in once into my room only to give me some pill that i had forced her to take at knife point just 2 days back when she was sick, and tell me to hang in since the worst was yet to come!! and then she gave one of her trademark sweet & innocent smiles and reminded me how she had threatened to pass on the flu to me if i kept on pestering her...

oooo, how i hated her at that moment in time with all the intensity that my flu ridden soul could muster up.
...well, to carry further in less hateful terms, i have been consuming chicken soup all day long. now that is one thing about the flu that i don't mind. chicken soup, mmmm, any day!! so it was imperative that my jobless/aimless/sick with flu mind wander off in the direction of researching chicken soup on the web. well actually i just wanted to put up a yummy picture of a steaming bowl of chicken soup for the benefit of all my readers without having to get my camera and take a snap of the bowl in front of me.

well for all my troubles i just managed to come up with a million chicken soup for the soul/ husband/ horse lover/ crazy teenager/ chiropractic/ gardner/ whatever it is books that the publishing houses come up with nowadays (it would be interesting to compile a list of the entire chicken soup book series. maybe i could do that once i feel a bit better) ... and then my tired flu ridden body gave up!!

now i need to go sleep some more. but first, i need some more chicken soup.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

tag along...

well i suppose that i have always been diligent in my homework and assignments. or maybe i have too much time on my hands and too little to keep me busy all day long. take your pick folks...anyways, Scribblez tagged me and pleaded her case exceptionally well. so here i am, doing my very first picture tag. i really didn't have to do a very in depth search on the web to make up my mind (i guess that sarees and kathakali are not my forte). i just picked certain things right out of my daily life. so we got something beautiful, something cultural, something i did today and something i so bad wish i had right now!!

something beautiful...
i have always loved flowers. i love having flowers around the house and daisies are my favourites. so daisies it is.

something cultural... well being an incorrigible Bengali that i am (i am just humouring myself here...i'm 50% corrupt Gujju), festivities = Durga Pooja. they simply make the most amazingly beautiful sculptures of the Goddess, plus i always loved that festival. will tell ya why later!! :)

something i did today... ok. so i watched Rose Red today. the 'Stephen King' printed in big letters on the DVD cover was enough to entice me to rent it from the video club. but seriously folks, 4 hours & 12 minutes later i was ecstatic over having somehow surviving that one without having to gnaw off one of my limbs. the ultimate drag-a-thon as far as i am concerned (my sister reserves that title for LOC).

something i desire so very bad... can anyone blame me for this one??

ok..ok...i shall be a bit more reasonable. maybe i'll settle for this instead. Vodka always works for me!!
so this is my picture tag post!! now its my turn to tag somebody....let's see, whom would i love to see do a picture tag???...hmm...Beks, Wishnew, Gordon, Dhwani (my Surti gf) and Me.
be good you all and do your homework well!!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Outrageous!!

so much for my happy day...my daily routine is definitely going to be messed up with high doses of anger and outrage. the same happened with the Mumbai train blasts earlier this month. and now again today reading this report has revoked my ire.

Indian Government censorship on blogs
what is this???...
I DEMAND AN EXPLAINATION!!
freedom of speech is one of my Constitutional Rights and it cannot be taken away so easily for any reason whatsoever...i don't want to go into a lengthy discussion right now cause it shall only make me more outraged at the entire issue. just remember draconian government and Caesarean plutocrats, i also have the right to ensure that my Constitutional Rights are protected at all costs. this right allows Indian citizens (i.e. me) to stand up for their rights against anybody, even the Government of India.

maybe i am better off on this island. at least no one here is censoring my rights...now i gotta go make myself some breakfast. all this ranting so early in the morning makes me hungry!!

ps: thank you wishnew for the link to the article.


Monday, July 17, 2006

Blogger Warning!!!

hey folks, have any of you come across this problem wherein one is unable to open any blogspot blogs??? if you have, then my asking such questions on my blog is just me being plain old stupid. anyways, apparently this is happening quite a lot. also, heard from somewhere that people with Yahoo! messenger are having such problems...
it sure scares the willies out of me (arrrrgh...the world is about to end!!!)
...knowing that i can get cut off from the blogger world. *shudder* maybe Beks' shifting to WordPress wasn't such a bad idea after all...

got more stories to share...had a great weekend...but i'm not so sure i wanna say it all. i don't know if my dad reads this blog or not!! ;)


Thursday, July 13, 2006

the Rhythm to this Nach...

its a known fact that i have spent most of my life surrounded by women. being the only male sibling until the age of 17 in the brawling bunch of 10 cousins on my maternal side, i have had a lot to bear. things were slightly better on my paternal side thanks to a few male cousins whom i could regard as my allies. but even there the sisters outnumber us brothers. in my family, the scales have always been very heavily tipped in the favour of the women folk. no wonder that male chauvinism is something that i grew up to regard with disdain and contempt.

MCP...definitely not me!!

anyways, what i am really hinting towards is that this post is for one of my very special cousin sisters. this one's for you Rhythm. well what can i say about her?? she's the 4th eldest (she beats me to that spot by 2 years) & the bookworm of this crazy bunch (actually i lay claim that position thanks to my insatiable appetite of consuming readable material). but she was the first to be diagnosed with that malady. we both read a lot. but she's the one who hid under the blanket to read her story books, shunned most outdoor activities and eventually ended up with em' specks. plus she ended up studying to be a dentist. so i guess that she fulfils the bookworm criteria far more than i do.

dear didi, i know that life is a bitch. but that's how things are here on this planet. so i just wanna say that you need to chill a bit. stop trying to please everyone. you do not have to live up to anyone's expectations...

just make sure that you live up to your own.
...you are an amazing and beautiful person and if people can't see that, then i have to say that they need to see an Ophthalmologist (do we have one in our family?? maybe Mithila should study that branch of medicine).

i'm so glad that you are doing so well in life. and always be assured that i got your back covered. after all i gotta start paying my dues for all those Rakhis that you have tied to my wrist all these years. i absolutely love chatting with ya & i know that its been a long time since we've met. but that just means that we have so much more to talk about. so be assured. once i am back in India, we gonna party hard.

you rock!! totally!! :)

now proove to me that 4 years of dental school were not a waste...go break some teeth for me...

ps: Palak and Rujuta are done with...now we have Anuradha next in line before we marry you off!!

...so make hay while the sun is still shining (*evil grin on face*).

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Cow Story!!

well i know that this has been doing the rounds of the internet for quite some time, but come on, who doesn't love the bovine mooo?? and as it is i don't have anything better to do today. so here we go...

SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows and you give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The Government takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The Government takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM: You have 2 cows. The Government takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM: You have 2 cows. The Government takes both, shoots one, milks the other and throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow dropped dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. But you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows.You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the numbers.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows.You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN IRISH FARMER: You have two cows. You claim government subsidies for eight cows.

GORDON: You have 2 cows. You eat them both. :)

I know that i'm outta my mind, but feel free to comment!!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

some things are just worth everything...

what can i say??? just saw Armageddon for like the hundredth time...
and every time...damn it, every time Liv Tyler takes my breath away!!
and no doubts to my masculinity, but i love it when Ben Affleck sings "leaving on a jet plane" to Liv before the take off.

sheesh...i need to stop!! maybe i'll make up for this movie mush by making tonight a beer and the World Cup finals night. i got me a bet as well. dad's cheering on for France & i got the back of the Italian Juggernaut.
may the Football Gods awaken and do justice to the slayers of Brazil & strike them down with the fury unleashed by Totti, Toni and Gattuso.
allez Italia...

UPDATE: it's Monday morning & got nothing to say...just doing my victory dance!! :)

Friday, July 07, 2006

pretty eventful day

so yesterday was pretty eventful as well. my normal holiday routine seems to have been hit out of the park lately & i really have been surviving on 3-4 hours of sleep at night. yesterday was Amresh's turn to show up at my door at 9 am and drag my sorry arse of out bed. apparently his mother woke him up early and so he decided that he'd return the favour.
for all those people who have no clue of who Amresh is, all i have to say is that he is like that long lost twin brother of mine (albeit born of a different womb). people usually mistake us to be real brothers while we are out on the streets in our many adventures together.
anyways, so he knocks on my door and gets me out of bed...steals my cup of coffee and also changes the playlist!! sonofabitch!!

anyways, we pretty soon decide that its no fun staying indoors and decide to go grab a couple of movies from the video club and also stop by at Super U to go replenish our stock of goodies & fill our tummies while we are at it. well plans made...we guys were almost ready to leave when Noella shows up. so she also hops into the car as we head out. to cut a very boring and long story short...we wasted almost half an hour at the video club while Noella, Amresh & i fought over the movies.

stopping by at Super U - Grand Baie, i manage to recollect the following extracts of conversation.

.........................................................................................................................................

scene 1: at the bread and baked stuff aisle. entry of girl in hot skirt while Noella and i fight over the choice in bread.

Me: sliced and whole wheat.
Noella: naa...i like plain bread.
Me: well, i don't care what you like. take that whole wheat bread. (shoving WWB into the basket)
Amresh: whoa! check her out...Noella you look in the other direction.
Me: hmm, what's up with that skirt??
Amresh: i know. but she's hot. must be a tourist. let's find out.

(standing and pretending to select bread while in reality just trying to eavesdrop on her conversation)

Me: that sounded like Creole to me.
Amresh: yeah, she's Mauritian.
Noella: go ask her number.
Amresh: you are supposed to be a good girl from a decent family. you should not be asking me to go up to her and ask her number. how dare you act like that in front of your brothers.
Noella: well i don't think that Shubu (i.e. me) minds & anyways i don't think she's that hot. bah!
Me: she looks too young. maybe 16...Amresh, you sure you are not a Paedophile??
Amresh: no i am not. hey! where did Noella go??
Me: eh!! who cares...let's take a look at the alcohol section. see if they got some booze on promotion.

(Noella ends up being the smartest amongst us as she quietly walked away with her plain bread while i stood distracted by Amresh. i never remembered about the whole bread thing until we got home).


scene 2: Steers. hogging on a King Steer Burger.

Noella: look at that girl behind you Shubu.
Me: hmm, she's pretty. (evil grin..thinking bad...very bad)
Amresh: which one??
Noella: the one in the white skirt with all that make up on.
Amresh: i think i know her. yeah, she looks familiar.
Me: really!!
Noella: what? taane nathi lagtu ke kaik vaadhrej make up laggau chee aane? (don't you think that she has a bit too much make up on?)
Amresh: no, i don't remember her exactly. but i think that she is a friend of my brother's. seen her somewhere definitely.
Me: it's a small country. i'm sure you have seen her before. haan, thodu vaadhare chee. khas karine kohl. paan chale. saari dekhaye che (yeah, she's slightly overboard. especially with the Kohl. but its ok, she looks good)

(by this point in time it is quite obvious that we are staring at her and talking about her and she also notices us).

Me: i think she knows we are talking about her. maybe we should go and talk to her. just so that we don't look like a bunch of creeps who just stare at women.
Amresh: Noella. you should not be listening to what your brother is saying. he is spoiling you.
Noella: i don't like my KFC fries.
Me: eh...i told you that the Steers fries are the best.
Amresh: yeah, but they make it a bit too oily.
Me: shut up and eat. or else i'll eat your fries. mmm, this King Steer is the best.
Noella: its beef.
Amresh: you should try it Noella. it's so good.
Noella: i don't think so. i eat only chicken.


(now the girl gets up and is about to leave. she walks towards the washrooms. comes out and walks right past our table, leaves her hand trailing and catches mine and Amresh's chair, pauses and smiles and then walks straight by)

Noella: Shubu, tein joyu? (did you see that?)
Amresh: cough..cough..sputter..choke...
Me: yeah!!
Noella: her hand touched your chairs and she smiled.
Amresh: (still choking on food)...cough..cough...(more sputter).
Me: haha..Amresh is choking on his burger...hahaha
Noella: she's gone.
Me: dude stop choking on the burger...hahahaha (laughing uncontrollably by now)
Amresh: Fcuk!!
...........................................................................................................................................

and that my dear readers was the story of going out to lunch with my sister and Amresh.

well the rest of the day was pretty usual. got home and Amresh & i watched a movie while Noella decided to go and sleep for a while before getting back to her books (her mock exams are on). half way through i lost all interest in 'Tom, Dick and Harry' and i decided to go online. Dhwani was there and i ended up chatting with her for the next 2 hours. had to go to Mr. Patel's for dinner & while there watched 'Bend it like Beckham'. once back home i tried to sleep a bit early for a change. but i guess that my body clock is still fucked up from the World Cup and i just lay there in bed tossing and turning. finally gave up on trying sleeping. watched 'American Pie' instead till 3 am. finally fell asleep after that.

and then a little chipmunk called me in the morning at 5 and made me the happiest man in the world!!

:)

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

damn right we economists love to Tax...

all right, from yesterday onwards all plastic bags cost an extra Rs 1.15 all over Mauritius. even if you go to a huge super mall and buy a ton of stuff...you gotta pay Rs 1.15 for every plastic bag that you use to carry your stuff in addition to your mammoth bill.

yeah, the Mauritian government has finally concluded that plastic is degrading their environment and that they need to curb its use. so they figured out that the best way to do so would be to impose what we economist nerds call a Pigouvian tax on all plastic bags. but what really catches me at odds is the fact that it is really nothing as in a Pigouvian Tax if you look at the economic definition of such a tax. i really doubt if each plastic bag used inflicts a marginal damage of Rs 1.15 to the Mauritian society. as a Pigouvian tax standard, this tax on plastic bags is just a bag full of bullshit!! but, the environmentally friendly part of me does feel glad that finally steps are being taken to recognise and mitigate the threat that plastics pose to our environment. though i am concerned that this might just turn out to be one more in the plethora of initiatives that the Ramgoolam Govt undertakes from time to time with strong economic underpinnings and then back-tracks on. sometimes i do feel that politics as a whole makes sure that the purpose of economics is beaten to its grave, and that
we economists are in fact looking for a black cat in a dark room in which the politicians just let in a Puma. we find the cat, it rips us apart. we don't find one, well then we are just a bunch of morons with Phd's.
bottomline: don't hate the tax. hate the economist!!

so folks, just remember that the next time you go shopping...
DO NOT FORGET THAT WICKER BASKET!! crap...now i need to go buy me one as well.
well i kindda had a lot of other stuff in my mind for this post...in fact this was supposed to be a carry on post from my previous one...the one about when i'm in a contemplative mood and all....but i kindda have reached that point in the day where i no longer feel like racking my brains to come up with stuff to write about. i could go on and garble on about this movie that i saw during dinner. it's called Hoodwinked! and it is about Red Riding Hood, Granny Puckett, Bad Wolf, a Woodsman who is in reality an actor, a crazy hyperactive squirrel, a yodelling mountain goat and a suave detective Frog. but i'm sure that none of you want part of it.

well folks, so much for now...gonna go turn in early tonight. i didn't sleep last night thanks to the litre of cold coffee that i went through. was up and kicking till 7 in the morning...it's been all the way down hill ever since & now i am simply too exhausted. i still got the Germany vs Italy game to catch later tonight. but that's in an hour's time...till then it's plain ol' couch snoozing for me.

so that's it. Alles Klar!!

...maybe i'll come up with something a bit more interesting tomorrow.

Monday, July 03, 2006

the process of contemplation...

the past 2 days has seen me fall in and out of a contemplative mood. i have quietly resigned myself to the fact that whatever choices i have made in the past have been at most times worthwhile. and as it is, i really cannot see a way of undoing the past. and every time i felt like blaming the family or anyone else for that matter, i have turned to the internet. yeah, try reading all the blogs out there and then maybe you start to see things in a lighter vein. makes one realise that you definitely aren't the most fucked up person in the whole wide world (www). there's always someone to top you to that position, which in my case is the entire www. hence i definitely recommend the internet to all the sad and "my life sucks" motto peeps...once you go out there and see; you find that you actually got it all pretty good in life.

so i stayed in bed till 3 today reading Emma. i kindda always enjoy that book. i like the interfering nature of Emma Woodhouse. plus the fact that it is so very inevitable for her to meddle in other people's affairs always reminds me of the many relatives that i have been blessed with who, in true Indian style, are more than a match for Emma's inquisitive and meddlesome nature.

quite interestingly today my thoughts were more drawn away from the actual plot of the book and bordered more in the realm of reflections on past readings. my thoughts were more reflecting of the Napoleonic era and the finding of the Rosetta Stone. wonder why that happened, but something in the reading of Emma triggered off a chain reaction of thoughts that went back to this one article that i had read quite a few years back in the Reader's Digest regarding the Rosetta Stone. it is amazing how the finding of one tableau led to the ability to decipher the lost language of hieroglyphics and shed such insight into the lives of the ancient Egyptians and unravelled the mysteries of the Pharaohs.

what can i say? i have always been fascinated by history.

anyways, one thing led to another and my thoughts kept on flipping through the pages of memory. it is an exceedingly refreshing experience i must say. the Rosetta Stone to the Egyptians to the Incas & the civilization lost in the Cambodian forests then to this one book i had read, titled 'Through the Jungles of Brazil' or something like that...the human capacity of storing information is astounding. and i am always amazed by all the little tit bits that i manage to remember.

...needless to say, pretty soon my thoughts turned to economics and i lay there in my bed contemplating on the sense that competition makes in markets. all this was triggered by the current situation of a competitive surge in the Indian markets and the rampant rise of consumerism. how much more competition can the market take before it bursts at its seams and we begin to feel the after-effects of too much competition in the market. and on a passing note, it's interesting as to how economics as a science has turned more towards the usage of math to define it rather than the process of intellectual thoughts and in many instances of common sense. i like to base my thoughts on a more liberal level where contemplation is possible and the seemingly mathematical process of trying to rationalise everything with the help of figures is not for me. no wonder my supervisor was aghast at my refusal to make use of mathematical proofs in my thesis. anyways, i don't want to bother you all with all this shit.

...so in general, i have been contemplating.

and yes, i have a new friend...she's my age & she's married and has a kid and is amazingly beautiful and is my friend's cousin and is a fellow beer lover & i just had a delightful chat with her.

life and thoughts sure are funny. from Emma to the Rosetta Stone to the Incas to the jungles of Cambodia to the significance of math in economics to a new friend.

i say today was good. :)