Chase Cars or Cats?

When life puts you in a situation that makes you feel like a Dog chasing Cars on the road but you'd rather be a Dog that chases Cats, here are some of the things you could do to bark off the blues (in no particular order). 

Chase Cats when life is not looking *chuckle*

Look for Cars with Cats inside them *wink*

Hang out with a community of Dogs that tells you how nice it is to chase cars *make sure you put on a sober expression all the time*

Study, analyze, dissect and write a report on Cars and the differences between chasing a Honda vs Toyota vs Benz vs Ferrari etc *distribute it as a PDF* 

Discuss the ethical issues related to the chasing of Cats, with philosophical Dogs *make notes* 

(Screech. Stop. Run)

Merlin-Sid-Buck-Dory

This is the utterly butterly Friday of the Nonsense. Warning: If you don't watch animation movies or watch them but cannot relate to any of the characters therein, you may not understand a single word of this post and may also, as a bonus, face the risk of experiencing permanently temporary (or temporarily permanent in certain cases) insanity.

Imagine a character like Merlin the Magician (Shrek) who was fired from his school, who fumbles and blunders but says all sorts of profound things related to soul-searching, truth and introspection.

Now imagine how it would be for him to go on a vacation with the following characters.

The extremely lazy, ignorant but kind and lovable Sloth, Sid (Ice Age)

The flamboyant, brave, clever and crazy Weasel, Buckminister (Madagascar - Ice Age!)

The entertaining, forgetful, helpful and funny Fish, Dory (Finding Nemo)

Any idea how awesome that would be? Rocks you to the soles, uh? Why....even I would love to go on a vacation with these quirky and unique characters. Actually, I have a brilliant idea. An idea that normally strikes you only once in a life time. How would it be to make a movie with all these characters together....on a vacation? If you decide to make it, make sure you mention your source of inspiration. That's all. 

PS: I thought of Bugs Bunny as well, but, hey, he would steal the entire show and people would find it difficult to shift their attention to any of the other characters except perhaps Buck. 

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PS2: I made an unforgivable omission. I forgot to add King Julien to this list.

Lunatic, narcissistic, talkative and talented Lemur (Madagascar)

Saturday Stories

This is the story of a Cat, Cow and Horse that were good friends. One day, the Horse who happened to be slightly late in arriving at their regular hang-out found the Cat and Cow quarreling. The Cat was saying "Let's go to the Meow-ies!" and the Cow was saying "No, let's go to the Moo-vies!". The Horse flicked a speck of dust off his collar, snorted, shook his head and said "Let's go to the Ci-neigh-mas!!"


The dog that was sitting at the next table murmured, "Ensure you sit near the Woof-ers".

Tube Tales

I think life is like an endlessly long toothpaste tube whose cap may suddenly appear on the horizon and then, what's more, come unscrewed without any notice whatsoever. The tube, meanwhile, will always be squeezed. It is there to be squeezed. There's always something or the other that squeezes it, gently or otherwise depending on how much the squeeze is resisted. (Whoa!) The pressure is bound to result in an excess in one place and a shortage in another.

You may temporarily believe you're free if and when the squeezing ceases for some reason. But, psst, the contents have only been moved to another section of the tube (read life). You live under the illusion that you've solved the problem and can move on to a smooth and unobstructed path. But the so-called solution, in reality, did not clear the problem forever but only moved it to some other place or changed its appearance. ;-) Your solution is now the new problem. Your problem was perhaps the solution to a previous problem. Hang on. This is not pessimism. What I am driving at is that this simply means there is perhaps no such thing as a problem or a solution. Everything is the tube.

How to Focus on Something...

Arrange your desktop as follows. 

Note: Today is Friday. Long time no jolly silly posts. Fridays demand a minimum of one. Eh?

Four and a Half Kinds of People

Alert! Nonsense Ahead.

Courtesy: Google Images

I have a theory. There are four and a half kinds of people in this world. (I couldn't help it. Will try harder not to put people into buckets henceforth. There are two kinds of people - those who categorize people and those who try not to categorize people. Let me see if I can make the switch. But, when you look at it from another angle, there are two kinds of people - those who bucket people into various kinds and those who kick the bucket. In this case, I might want to not make the switch too soon)


If you still remember where this started, there are four and a half kinds of people.


Those who believe there must be a logical and perfectly rational explanation behind every single thing and are mostly engaged in discovering these explanations. Either considering it - dramatically - as their life's purpose or - casually - taking it up amongst their day-to-day/routine activities. They are perhaps the atheists or the agnostics, the ones who believe that the universe is governed by irrefutable laws rather than a universal spirit (even if they are subject to universal changes at appropriate intervals). They are the researchers and the  investigators of the world. The purely mind people. It's another thing that in the course of such a pursuit, they might convert into the heart or soul people. 


Those who are perfectly comfortable with the weirdness, mysteries and paradoxes of life and are ready to accept that some of these bewildering and fascinating episodes of life cannot and need not be explained. They might even be slightly delusional and might believe in or want to believe in miracles. They are the creators who couldn't care less about the principles or rationale behind creativity and would rather enjoy and cherish life as it is (and for what it appears to be) without bothering to look beneath the surface. The heart or/and soul people. The soul people are different from the heart people in that they however look for the 'hidden meaning' or spiritual purpose behind everything. They could, in some cases, be a cross between the mind and the heart people. 


Those who couldn't care less about life or its sources and mysteries and don't even perhaps notice life's quirks, exceptions, wonders and what not. They are mostly concerned with their mundane lives and are happy with their daily meals, sleep and fun. The 'duh uh eh' people.


Finally, those who are not dominated by any one of the thinking styles mentioned above but tend to swing between different attitudes and approaches and enjoy multiple experiences. The 'everything' people. Imagine the intersection area of a Venn diagram.


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I know. Utter nonsense. But won't you let me have some fun once in a while? I am, after all, not damaging your blog's reputation or something. This is my blog and all and today is, please note, Friday. 

Froggy on my Bloggy. Outsourced.

Droggy, The Groggy Li'l Froggy

View more presentations from Harish  Shankaran.

:-) Heh heh. I like this. Actually, I hope to learn how to create something of this sort some day. Original story, script, cartooning, music and singing (stop clutching at your heart). I think the story and script may perhaps come easy. It's been a long time since I drew any cartoons...so that's going to be a challenge. Music may be bearable and limited to a few guitar chords and some vessel-made clangs. Finally, the singing....ah...well....err.....I may admittedly have to outsource this part of the creation. But don't forget that I shall be a singing child prodigy in my next life to make up for lack of singing talent in this life. Hmph.

In a Nut Shell...

Sigh. Twitter is deadly. Not to mention, dangerous as well. Take my word for it. Unless you're extremely careful and maintain a dreadful silence in which case you'd rather not be using it in the first place, IMO.


Many weeks back, I made the mistake of saying I was inspired by the Groundnut Avataars of a friend on Twitter (He puts up pictures of tiny groundnuts sleeping, thinking, reading etc and you know my weakness for cartoons of any sort) and a huge gang (comprising no less than two people in all) of Mumbaikars got together and threatened me into writing something on groundnuts or getting ready to face the consequences of a mortal life. So, here's my timid and weird essay on groundnuts. Not open to criticism of any sort, mind you. If you want, you can go write a better article on groundnuts or any other nut you  may prefer to write about. I've been dilly dallying on this task for too long. Finally seem to be in a mood to talk some groundnut-nonsense. Nevertheless, I am not inclined to put up with any nonsensical comments.  


Being a KMer, the first thing I am going to do is to point out what Wikipedia has to say about groundnuts. Here you go - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut


First things first. Groundnuts have a lot of alternative names. Let me help you get this straight, lest you let this article go unnoticed because you've always been referring to groundnuts as something else like Goober Peas or for that matter Arachis Hypogaea. Groundnuts are referred to as Peanuts in the western parts of the world. They are also, amusingly enough, known as monkey nuts and pig nuts. Not sure if that's because monkeys and pigs love them. I, personally, know a lot of nice people who are not monkeys or pigs but who love them. If you don't happen to like any of these names, you can exercise your tongue and refer to groundnuts as Arachis Hypogaea.  


Groundnuts have quite hard shells if you've not seen one so far, like that of a fragile Tortoise, I presume. But the pods are relatively softer. Groundnuts can be consumed as is, fried, boiled, sprayed with spices and salts, mixed with nuts from other families, mixed with some Indian rice-based dishes etc. And there's also the popular peanut butter that people in the US seem to be very fond of. This includes a US-based niece of mine. (This niece once even attempted to teach me how to make peanut butter and had her narrative going pretty well when she started off by saying "you need to take one peanut and put it in the grinder - which you can in turn buy from a shop". But then she abruptly stopped on seeing me and a few others giggle. To this day, I regret it and wonder whether I unwittingly crushed a champion chef in her growing years)


Peanut oil and flour are also used in cooking. The top three producers of groundnuts are China, India and USA. Peanuts are known for their nutritious (protein) quality and are even prescribed for children suffering from malnutrition. If you ever happen to think that your body needs niacin, folate, fiber, magnesium, vitamin E, manganese and phosphorus, please pop in a few peanuts. Peanuts are considered high in fat, but according to the Wikipedia, these are good or unsaturated fats. The US is the biggest exporter of peanuts. India and China produce lots of them but eat most of it themselves. Sounds somewhat selfish, what?


Here are some other tidbits that are, I guarantee, of absolutely no value to you. 


1. Peanuts remind some people of the number eight. If you don't know how to write the number eight, derive inspiration from peanuts. This also means that peanuts can easily take on a human form. Peanut art is also common in some rural areas. You can do lots with the shells like use it in paintings etc. 


2. If you're paid a very meager amount of money for something you sold or services you provided, it may be said that you were paid peanuts. My intelligent guess is that this alludes to the fact that peanuts come real cheap. 


3. If you act a little goofy or silly or unintelligent, people may accuse you of being nuts or exhibiting nutty behaviour. These phrases, however, are not attributable only to groundnuts. There are a lot of other nuts that could be held responsible for such behaviour.


4. Groundnuts are sold everywhere - in India. Trains, bus stations, beaches, roads etc. Surprisingly enough, you can buy groundnuts even if all you happen to have in your wallet is Rs.2. Isn't that amazing? 


Righto! We're done folks. In a nut shell, groundnuts are a funny, nutritious and time-pass snack (time-pass: Indian term that refers to "killing time"). Hold a few groundnuts in your palm, sit in an undisturbed or busy spot (beach, park etc) and pop in one nut after another on auto-pilot, let your mind wander and be enlightened! 

Pic Courtesy: Wikipedia

PS: This is the first ever time I've spent so much time and energy thinking and collecting information about groundnuts since the time I suddenly developed groundnut allergy 3 years back - when I consumed some suspicious-looking fat and sweetened groundnuts in the UK and had itchy skin for a while. Thanks to Wikipedia. Wait, not for the allergy but for the knowledge on groundnuts. For me, this has been a curious journey - from unexpected allergies to hidden Twitter allegories!

Two Thousand Ten Things

Pic sourced from here

Happy Holidays, Folks! Merry X'mas and Happy New Year in advance! :-)

PS: I spotted this charming cartoon today, for the first time ever I think, while searching for a good C&H Yahoo Group to join. It's quite surprising that I don't recall seeing it before. Obviously, Watterson himself drew this. Two things that intrigue me about the pic - One, I'd have thought Hobbes would appear to be as alive - be a real Tiger - to Watterson as he is to Calvin. Two, Watterson's ability to see Calvin as something that transcends his (Watterson's) identity as a cartoonist and not as a 'proud' creation but as an idea that jumps at him from 'outside' is admirable.

BTW, here's some unsolicited, borrowed (some...not all...ok?), random, unorganized, impulsive, holiday-mood-inspired advice....the more of these ideas you pursue, the better.

Enjoy your work, enjoy your life, be good, dance and laugh like a kid, sing as long as it is not cacophonous or..wait.... just go ahead and take the risk, laze around if you have to, be genuine, be straight forward and honest, write some profoundly silly poems, play with colours, run with the dog, tweet and chirp with the birds, scream out loud for no reason, make faces at yourself in the mirror, pretend to be the world's CEO, talk utter nonsense, find something great to do, ignore or learn to handle the trouble-makers, forgive more easily, see things from another person's perspective, smile a lot, pay attention to your physical health, mind and soul, read something hilarious, help someone on an impulse, learn something new, inspire yourself, inspire a sad soul (obviously a captive audience), listen to the hitherto inconspicuous rhythm in your favourite song, travel somewhere new even if it's just a few blocks away from your house, pray for someone who needs divine intervention, listen to your conscience, stop asking "what's in it for me" when you help others, stop calculating the cost (financial) of everything you do, cook a new dish and brush off a speck of dust from your apron when people say it looks life-threatening, break a bad habit, forget your worries, believe that you deserve some cool miracles in 2010, rescue someone from yourself (very very important), watch a squirrel eat, take deep and long breaths, trust yourself, do something different, be original, do something courageous, focus on something with intensity and concentration, look for the funny side of everything, stay optimistic, take your own decisions, claim your freedom, stand up for your values, respect everyone, appreciate existence, watch a tree breathe and exist, be still and travel within...... (Does this add up to two thousand ten things? I am too lazy to count but something tells me it does! He he)

Guidelines: Report progress to me in a month's time. Reports should be in Times New Roman, Font Size.12, With Subject Line as "Two Thousand Ten Things to Do in Two Thousand Ten". Attach a photograph or two for evidence but make sure it doesn't scare me out of my wits while at the same time noting that I am a person whom it is easy to scare out of her wits. Testimonials from people around you will fetch an extra mark or two. However, if the testimonials sound too good to be true, a lot of marks will be ruthlessly deducted. Total marks obtained cannot exceed two thousand eleven. (One extra mark for attempting to contest in this bizarre, er, contest). The winning entry will be added to this blog under the "Inspiration! Influence!" section and will find a place alongside other ordinary people like Gandhi, Shakespeare, Einstein et al. Run now! Or should I say 'slow down!'?

Now You Know Why....

Article that suggests that nonsense sharpens the intellect. I told you so.

ABCD and Alliteration

Absurd assurances abound

Beastly behavior lurks

Creative curses fly

Dangerous devils wait (Random scenes from Dilbert’s world)

Excitement emerges from nowhere

Failure feigns some lessons

Great gifts are hoped for

Hope however is silent

Inner voices insist (Random scenes from Life)

Jokes just vanish

Kites kill even as they soar

Laughter lights up the day

Meditation makes it possible

Nonsense never ends (Random scenes from Life – Part 2)

Opportunity opposes them

Peculiar patterns are ignored

Questions quell the mind

Random ramblings distract

Simplicity sure has no face

Trust trusts no one

Ubiquitous umbrellas are tugged at by the wind

Victory is alone (Random scenes from Life – Part 3)

PS: No. Not completely nonsensical. Random thoughts with some strange connections, trying to appear as a single thread of thought. An atrocious attempt at an alliterative poem. Aa..ha!

Bow-led by Nonsense

Haww. I wrote a pretty sober and 'important' post on my office blog earlier today. Wondering if it'll be nice to make up for all the strain by babbling about something lighter on this obviously much-abused blog. If Aa..ha! had a mouth, it would cry aloud (and cry its heart out, if it had a heart) and ask to be adopted by some nice soul, if there are any left in this nasty world. Funny....just realized that the description of this blog reads "This blog's soul...". So, Aa..ha! does have a soul if not a mouth and a heart! Ha ha ha! Somewhat wickedly poetic, eh? Talking of wickedness, here's what I did this evening....it suddenly occurred to me that it would be a good idea to have a quick chat with the doggy at home about this blog and its soul (topics). So I went over and fired my questions in quick succession.

Me: What do you think about Life?

J (Doggy): Supplies me with a silent and empty stare.

Me: What do you think about Spirituality?

J: Retains the silent and empty stare and cocks his head to one side.

Me: What do you think about Knowledge Management?

J: Shakes his stare off and turns his head away from me.

Me: What do you think about Nonsense?

J: Supplies me with a distinct "Bow wow"!

So, that was that. Interesting and intriguing interview, what? Every dog has its day. Going by this interview, it seems like every blog, too, has its day!

PS: Hey, most of the stuff above is made up except perhaps the bit about being supplied with a silent and empty stare. But I am sure this is exactly what would happen if I were to attempt to conduct this interview when J is in a more receptive mood.

Gangad Jokloz Yomosh?

I am not really sure exactly when it started or for that matter, how it all started off (Something tells me I'd make a very poor historian). It must have perhaps been an accidental innovation that was derived out of some normal slip of the tongue talk. Anyways, all I remember is that it all started while I was in School. My sibling and I let our tongues roll and move in every imaginable direction and uttered some meaningless 'words' at the rate of 120 per minute and gradually thought it was a cool thing to do. (For example - Tumbliko jhodu makaram kloti umbrasta hikas dinga dunga takka pikir rokol gushti ambala eli wotta qot dishu polim and so forth) A common friend and often mute spectator was not sure what to do and how to react but did give us the feeling that she, however, found it quite hilarious. So, it became some sort of a habit to kill time. When we ran out of topics to discuss on the way back home from School, Gibberish would come to the rescue. It was the only language we knew which let us express emptiness but with random emotions. The only language before speaking which we did not have to think. The only language that let us concentrate on emoting rather than making sense or being understood.

Everything in life has to evolve. So, we also invented a variation wherein we would sprinkle Gibberish with strategically placed English words and phrases that could be strung together (connected) to give the listener the feeling that we definitely had a message to convey. Thus, we went on to occasionally practice Gibberish for a few years in School. But I am not sure we were famous for it.

And then, our priorities in life changed. We had to learn to handle the real world gibberish...

The 'tumbliko's and the 'gopol's and all the other absolutely innovative words we concocted out of nowhere were not to be heard for a long time. (But , as some of my friends would interrupt to say, I guess I did continue to entertain people with slips of the tongue.) I resorted to Gibberish only when with kids, who, I discovered, for some reason enjoyed it immensely.

On my first job, two friends who were equally excited about Gibbersih joined forces and we had some serious Gibberish conversations at tea time. Another friend who was ignorant about the context and our 'wicked' ways, heard us having one such conversation and was convinced that it was a valid foreign language. She immediately wanted to know what language it was and we played along and challenged her to find out. After a few days, she gave up and asked us to name the language. So, I told her the truth. And guess what? She was not convinced at all. She refused to believe us and told us she was not happy we were not telling her which language it was. Moreover, she wanted us to teach her the language as well. We continued trying to prove that we were telling the truth and, trust me, it took us a long time and one desperate dialogue to finally convince her. But she never managed to learn Gibberish. Her tongue was too disciplined to slip into meaningless talk.

That's that. Anytime in life, as long as you are not too conscious about appearing like a mature adult, indulging in Gibberish can be real fun. But it can get you in difficult situations as well. Consider what happened to me. A neice calls up when I am busy in a meeting at office and says "Nimmy Aunty, can you please talk rubbish talk?" You must be well equipped to handle such public embarassments as well. Don't tell me I did not warn you.

And, if you have a pet (especially Dogs) at home, rest assured that they will completly understand every single word of the Gibbersih language as long as you back it up with appropriate expressions and actions.

If you're looking at other important ways in which you can use Gibberish, here is another idea - it could be one way of saying "This discussion is over!" when you're with people who are unwilling to wrap up a one-sided conversation. Use just 4 Gibberish words of your choice, say it loud, emphasise every word and sound as stern as possible. You get the idea? If they don't, just get up and walk after you've delivered your statement.

Finally, you could even aim to be a better human being by replacing all the four letter words in your lexicon with brand new inimitable Gibberish words that could be equally relieving while not embarrassing others. :-) This idea is, btw, not my original...it is borrowed and is based on best practice from Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin's Dad, of all the people.

Cartoon strip from www.gocomics.com - Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

OK. Gangad Jokloz Yomosh? Jikalo Tikalo Ringa Binga Amuso Blah!

NonZenZzzz

I think....my blogging frequency has, perhaps, taken a beating primarily because of my increased activity on twitter. If twitter lets me get everything off my head and share links with fellow tweeple in a jiffy, I am not going to spend a lot of time thinking about writing multiple pages on the same topic, on my blog. Will I? Unless I am not very occupied at work and/or the topic demands a lot more energy from me.

On the positive side, this means that my meaningless statements remain just that - short statements - on twitter. Statements not more than 140 characters in length. They don't get transformed into meaningless and endless posts. So, while my twitter friends have to go through the agony of reading the statements, the blog-friends (who don't follow me on twitter. clever folks, these. the others happen to be clever but suicidal) live in the bliss of ignorance. This, I realize, may improve the overall reputation of my blog (Ha! I find that so funny), for most of my impulsive remarks are going to go to twitter alone. Provided I am not so bored that I have another impulsive urge to elaborate on them in the blog. (which is what I am doing now) Provided I show my brighter side on the blog. (which is what I am not doing now.) I know. I am elaborating on nothing in particular. And there's nothing bright about this post except that it will soon be over.

Actually, you know what? I think I know what is happening. I may be using blogspot's shoulder to shoot at twitter. Bullets though are made of feather. Meant to just tickle the damn tool. My way of telling twitter that it can't prevent me from expressing my character in more than 140 characters or even 140 words as long as I am on my blog.

I am almost done. It'll be over soon. It's just that I want to follow all my thoughtful posts with thoughtless ones and vice versa. I find it amusing to oscillate between thoughtfulness and thoughtlessness. It's like playing the swing and covering the entire path rather than staying only on top and risking a fall or continuously dragging one's feet across the ground. Take both the heady highs and the down-to-earth lows, if you ask me. The highs let me see the whole and dream of conquering life while the lows let me see life as it happens....and come face to face with it. Wipe off your tears now. I am quite done. I did contemplate keeping this post in the drafts folder forever and protecting myself from your wrath but I guess I am too sleepy to think so much. I promise to write the next post when I am fully awake. As I get ready to click the 'Publish Post' button, I have a vague feeling that I am doing something akin to jumping off a tall building. Please spread the net....

PS: A blog-friend had earlier commented on one of my posts tagged as Nonsense and encouraged me as he saw a flavour of Zen in Nonsense. I thank him for the inspiration. I just realized it would be excellent to combine my sleepy mood, zen and nonsense into one word for the title.

Final Sanity Check. Failed.

The wait isn't still over. You must excuse me. Millions of mad monkeys! It's, after all, Friday!! :-) However...if you insist (hmph) on some concrete evidence in favour of being (or continuing to be) my friend, read the following carefully:

1. From The Life of Samuel Johnson - "A man who talks nonsense so well must know that he is talking nonsense" (No, I haven't read the book. God knows what the context of the statement is. But if you noticed, I am discreetly laying a claim to be good at nonsensical talk!)

2.“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - Gene Wilder (Maybe Gene's surname prevented his friends from getting violent in response to his wonderful statement. But I am going to bravely tag along and nod in agreement. Of course, what "now and then" means is an entirely subjective thing! And once again, if you noticed, I am discreetly laying a claim to be wise.)

PS: I have a secret (not anymore, I guess) wish to replace "men" with "women" (and therefore "he" with "she") in every single quote that seems to completely ignore the existence of women. Grr. Makes it so inconvenient for us women to quote people!

Update: If you are a child in the garb of an adult...or at least have a teeny weeny bit of child-like sentiments left in you, I am sure you either have a smile or a grin on your face now. No.....you don't have to examine the grin on our little doggy-friend's face (above). Your grin doesn't necessarily have to be that good. Even a mediocre grin will do. But if you don't happen to have any sort of grin on your face...freeze immediately. Don't move a single muscle on your face. No twitching! Get up and go over to the nearest and clearest mirror and check for a raised eyebrow or a slight scowl or perhaps a somewhat dazed/puzzled look. If yes, I must give you the bad news. You may be suffering from Adulter. That's a variation of cancer that grows unabated and destroys the child in you gradually. But you may find various cures, nevertheless. Recommended doctors - children/pets. Do let me know when there's an improvement. :-)

Once upon a time....

No. Apologies. Not as yet. Your wait is not really over. (If you happen to be a regular and persistent - don't tell me! - reader of this blog and have somehow - miraculously - been here long enough to realize that I do manage to write one or two good posts a year....or make that two years) This isn't, I am afraid, going to be one of those rare great posts. As usual, it is another aimless post with no goal(s) in life whatsoever. Flash in the pan brilliance is definitely a bad thing in blogging. You have to keep hoping that your readers are patient enough to wait till it finally comes and hits them out of the blue. Not that I really want to put your life in peril by suggesting that you come back to this blog again and again in the hope that you will see a flash some time or the other. Just a thought, you know. Sigh. Hopefully I may succeed in cheating you by mentioning that it looks like the next 'good' post is being gradually brewed in a remote and minuscule corner (fictional, did you say?) of my otherwise inactive brain. I hope you'll be kind enough to recognize it when it is served. (Of course, I will need help in recognizing such a thing) I dread to think of the day when even that r and m corner (ok, have it your way...fictional) stops working and goes to sleep. Anyway, let me not worry about that right now.


I'd drawn this stuff (above) using an online drawing-board software. My message to you, the reader, is very clear. Remove all doubts and stop speculating (just because you stopped doing that in the stock market, it doesn't mean you must try it in on my blog, of all the places) for here it is. Just wanted to say it is quite funny how I seem to choose to draw more or less the same pic every time I sit down to draw and don't have any cartoons for inspiration. Almost as if I have been secretly programmed. Makes me think this must be a real place that I probably grew up in, in one of my previous lives. Or maybe it's the larger part of my - non-functional - brain at work. I never seem to get bored of drawing the same old nameless tree with some nondescript grass around it, a stream flowing from south to north (yes, that's the way I imagine it), the beautiful and bright sun shining down on the tree and the stream, a clueless bird (bird-like creature?) hovering around (however, the bird sometimes finds company and is a part of a flock of clueless birds), some pebbles of varied sizes and shapes in the stream, and finally yours truly sitting under the tree with books, music and a cup of yummy cold coffee with ice cream. Does this happen to you? I mean, do you end up drawing the same thing again and again? I am beginning to think that this may even be the consequence of a painful drawing imposition during my childhood days. Maybe the teacher made me draw it so many times (in the hope of getting me to draw something that looked like a place on earth) that I can't think of anything else to draw. Or maybe this is the consequence of a deeply embedded thought that is trying to tell me that I need to go off to such a place and save mankind (from me). Or, well, mmmaybe the thought actually conveys that such places can only be seen on paper in future?

Thanks for sitting through this ordeal. You deserve to enjoy a break in a similar looking place if you have access to it. Toodle-oo for now!

PS: Doesn't the bird-like creature look more like it is crawling than flying? I knew it all along but the bird refused to listen to me. And you don't have to tell me...I know you've now given up in case you happened to be looking to find at least some traces of sanity in me. I can't, unfortunately, blame it on alcohol because I am a teetotaler. Hmn.

Making it Simpler is Simply Stupid

Next time someone says "Keep it simple, stupid" when you think you've tried your best to simplify and don't deserve to be at the receiving end of the much abused KISS principle....try this - "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." And, hey, do tell them it was Albert Einstein who said it. Har Har. ;-P

PS: Finally, if you feel like, you can also tell them that I told you to tell them. Stop. Something tells me I must learn to make everything complex but not complexer!

Docs and Ducks....Promises Fireworks! ;-)

Time for a "nonsensical" post. They charge me up...these so-called nonsensical posts!! :-) So, here goes. Just wondering.....would Vets who are brought sick ducks to be cured, lose their temper very soon? That is, the minute the duck decides that its voice ought to be heard by the doc? ;-)

When the doc meets the ducks....
(Beware...!)
(Because)...there may be a lot of fireworks....!
Even if the duck spends many a buck...
It may soon run out of luck....!
For a duck has to say something to the doc...
And what else can a poor duck say other than "Quack"?

Rats, Rabbits, Hats, Habits....

Anonymous - "A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats."

Hahahaahaa!! What an astonishing discovery! Must have been a serendipitous one that probably started off with some spoonerism. Tickles me. And, hey, did you notice that biting off a bit of the habit leaves us with the hat (and the rat in case it was the rat that did the biting)?

I know....you might now want to join the gang of 'pullers' and want to pull my life out of me. Relax. Pip-pip till the next post...! ;-)

I thought I thaw a cockroath!!

Yesterday morning, I woke up to see a dying cockroach (on second thoughts, was it just intoxication or perhaps a new form of insect dance?) . (S)he was on her/his back - rotating, partially revolving and generally vibrating in multiple directions at the rate of ~32 shakes per minute. Doesn't sound particularly pleasing, I know....but well, honestly, I have to admit that the sight did make me sigh in relief. Hold on, please, before you report me to the Blue Cross. I have some good reasons why, apart from the fact that I do perhaps tend to talk about such things in a light manner due to my being a cartoon & animation freak.

The aforementioned cockroach had been troubling me quite a bit for some days now. No idea from where (s)he came and no idea how (s)he grew into such Goliath proportions. That reminds me, I need to check my food supplies and maybe my wardrobe supplies as well!! I first spotted him (sorry, don't feel like making life difficult for myself and say him/her every time....let's assume it's a him from now on) on the curtains just behind my iPod dock....and was terrified he may decide to dock himself there forever. Then, I spotted him scampering across the room many a time, running under the bed, dancing around the chair, hiding near the washing bag and so on and forth. The story was, you could say, akin to Looney Tunes' Tweety (the bird) spotting Sylvester (the evil cat) every now and then (the latter intending to gobble up the former on every occasion) and saying "I thought I thaw a Puthy Cath!!". Any more such cockroach spotting and I would have certainly started waking up in the middle of the night to say "I thought I thaw a cockroath!"

Anyway, I am not sure if he (the cockroach, I mean....I have introduced so many characters in here that you may have forgotten the original story and its hero) was trying to explore every bit of my room in order to decide how many of his relatives and friends he could possibly invite into the room. So, after having seen too much of him and feared the growth of his community, I was beginning to hope that I would see the last of him and his long and frantically inquisitive antennae. Which brings me back to the episode yesterday morning. As the cockroach shook from antennae to tail (insect-tail), I looked on, unable to believe what I was seeing (sturdy creatures like cockroaches are not so easily vanquished, you know). It finally dawned upon me that this was a golden opportunity to send him packing. So, I advertised and beckoned to brave family members to help transport the cockroach to the outside world. As one family member who volunteered to do the job, however, took her own sweet time to finish the task at hand and begin the proceedings, I politely informed her that I did not believe that the situation was one wherein she was a doctor and the cockroach a patient that had an appointment with her and would therefore willingly wait till her arrival. She dismissed my wonderful analogy with a wave of the hand and then armed the same hand with a mean-looking broom from somewhere and entered my room, ready for the battle. To her credit, she won the battle but in the process, applied the broom over quite a few things in the room, much to my controlled dismay. As I saw the last portion of the giant cockroach disappear into the world outside, I returned from where I was hiding and went about my routine with a smile and a song on the lips. Though, I did not continue singing through the day as the victory was soon forgotten. But, if destiny had been kinder to me, I believe I would have woken up today and started singing the same or maybe a more melodious song if I'd recalled the fact that there would be no more intrusions from the cockroach. Destiny, however, had other plans. It imitated the recently ousted cockroach's behaviour. Things turned upside down. This is how. When I opened the bathroom door this morning, a cockroach, very similar to the one described above, was menacingly poised near the sink. Needless to say, it will take a while before the situation sinks in. And hey, just a minute, I thought I thaw a cockroath!!.