Galt's ire

Why is society so fond of mediocrity? Why has excellence become a curse? Not only are the excellent few forced to carry the burden of the world’s mediocrity, but they are judged by that very mediocre majority who possess no qualification save their number. Why must everyone be deemed deserving of the same fruits regardless of merit, all in the name of equality?

How did we get here? Blame the weak who lack confidence in their deeds…who crave to approval of the masses to reassure themselves of their own worth.

By perpetuating this injustice, we are driving ourselves ever closer to extinction. When the end is upon us, then the mediocre shall be weighed upon evolution’s unbiased scales and found wanting. The Galt in me shall only then find peace, at least some measure of it.

Move over Bono!

Nostalgia

Some call it Madras, some Chennai. To me, it's home. Every time I think of it, I'm flooded with memories good and bad. The first things I noticed upon moving to Madras were the heat, the terrible water, the stench of the Kuvam and the impolite (at first look) people and they did not do much to endear the city to me. But as time passed, the place just grew on me. Having spent nearly a year away from home, I am surprised by how vivid the memories still are. So, permit me to get nostalgic for a moment - these are some of the things that come to mind when I think of Madras.

• 'Working' (vernacular for being engaged in a pointless pursuit) on my computer (aka my pride and joy) in my room with its walls adorned with posters of superheroes. Being suddenly albeit pleasantly jolted back to reality by the delicious aromas emanating from the kitchen and by the sound of my mom's voice sneaking in from the outside world past the wall of heavy metal music.
• The sound of the waves at Bessy/Marina beach, the salty air blowing through my hair with the taste of hot grilled corn, sundal or bajji tickling my tongue - be it in the company of friends or in solitude (the kind you experience when you are a silent spectator to the chaotic mass of humanity that surrounds you).
• Speeding on my Honda Activa on Mount Road - weaving through the wall of traffic, trying to run away from the oppressive heat or enjoying the quietness of the wee hours. Trying not to end up having to grease the pockets of our beloved "uncles" in uniform.
• Spending a lazy afternoon at home with a bunch of friends and watching movies, listening to music, doing silly things (the kind you do to reassure yourself that you're still only 5 years old) until we realized that the afternoon had stretched far into the night and into the next dawn.
• Eating out... trying to decide on one from an endless list of options, each as good as the next.

-The countless street food stalls - podi dosai at T.Nagar's Kaiyendhi Bhavan (our saviour when we were hit by those late night hunger pangs) or roti-channa at the little hole in the wall in Saidapet - sitting on the platform hogging till we could walk no more

- Small & cheap restaurants (who could forget the veg biryani at Delux or the rava dosa at Mylai Karpagambal mess). It would be a sin not to mention the all-you-can-eat buffet at Dhaba Express (yes, the one on Cenotaph Road).

- Coffee pubs a la Barista where we'd chat for hours over a cup of friazzo.

- Pizza joints - only to be considered when there's an all-you-can-eat offer going (I wonder if our visits had anything to do with these offers being closed down the very next day...every time ;) )

- Chaat shops ranging from Gangotree and Shree Mithai to the little places in Saukarpet - tastes to die or even kill for.

- And of course the proper restaurants - Wang's Kitchen, Eden... infinite options to satisfy every palate. (I take this chance to pay tribute to my hero, Mr.Mahadevan...praise him for all his amazing restaurants that introduced many of us to diverse cuisines never before heard of in Madras.)

In the interest of brevity (chuckle!), I choose to elaborate no more on the topic of food in Madras. It would suffice to say that Madras is a foodie's paradise.

• Watching the sky lit up in bright hues on the night of Deepavali. And agonizing over all the pollution the day after.
• Feeling a tide of emotions - joy, sorrow, hope, despair, dreams and aspirations, love & hate - all come rushing back at once when I step into the PSBB KK Nagar campus.
• Rebellion welling up deep within at the very thought of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, in particular the department of Chemical Engineering - the fascist head of the department Dr.P.V.R.Iyer a man with limitations in every respect save his arrogance. Bun aka R.Parthiban, a man/thing with a vindictive streak as big as his shapeless physical being - a monument to mediocrity.
• Drinking tea from a tiny cup shared among 3 or more people at the pathetic excuse for a canteen at SVCE. Bunking college, jumping the fence and getting home via diverse modes of transport often under dubious conditions of safety (the milk van, the tractor and the brick lorry) when unable to secure passage on one of those moffusil buses stuffed to twice its capacity.
• Sipping sherbet soda or sugarcane juice at that little corner shop on a hot summer afternoon.
• Visiting a friend's house and watching their parents instructing them to follow my example (yes, parents can be THAT myopic!).
• Headbanging till we dropped at gigs at the Unwind center or the IIT-OAT.
• Listening to friends jam.
• Getting together with friends to prepare for an exam and ending up having a lot of fun while still managing to accomplish the goal (a much watered down version of the initially stated one).
• Playing snooker/pool with friends and trying to explain to parents the smell of tobacco smoke permeating one's clothes.
• Watching a movie (often a night show) at one of many cinema halls (including the one and only Sathyam Cinemas), recalling movies that we'd watched sitting in various seats (yes, we watched a lot of movies...yes we were that jobless).
• Celebrating birthdays - mine or a friend's - just another reason to party, really.

Looking back at all those fun years, one thing stands out. Madras is a great place. But alas, he was right who said "The wine doth taste sweeter and the moon doth shine brighter in the company of friends." So I am too close to the truth for my own comfort when I call those the good old days.

Puppet on a string?

Boredom

Why do we get bored? Because we have nothing to do? Come to think of it, that is rarely the case. Truth is, the absence of choice is a circumstance that is very very rare (the nerds among you will recognize this one from the pool of issue topics for the GRE). Anyway, it all boils down to the fact that we get bored not because we have nothing to do with our time, but lack the will and energy to do the things we can. One thing you can do when extremely bored and tired as I am now is blog... blog about boredom (pure genius...I know!).

Zappa on Censorship

On the issue of freedom of expression and censorship... censorship to me is the first step in a cascade of control that finally leads to fascism. This is what Frank Zappa had to say about the issue.

Part 1: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2658805

Part 2: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2664570

Too bad he had to die... the world today needs people like him more than ever. It's important that a small "educated" minority (read anal-retentives in positions of power) stops dictating to the vast majority... it's time that these "elite" folk stop thinking of the average Joe as an idiot. Let the PEOPLE choose for themselves... funny, I thought we live in a democracy!

FREEDOM TO ALL!

Just what are we doing to our world?

Crap for the day

Reality is all about contradictions coexisting in harmony. What the heck does that mean? If we knew the answer to that we wouldn't be fighting wars, would we?

Of course, I have no illusions about a day in the future when truth will dawn on all humanity... our story has no happily ever after. The only end is extinction. That is an immutable truth for a multitude of reasons which shall be elucidated in future posts. So, why bother then, you may ask? There is still hope that we may delay the inevitable and may be even make a graceful exit. Alas, once again I may be getting carried away by hope... humanity's greatest fault or redeeming virtue?? That being unknown, I shall cling to my hopes and plod on.

PS. To those of you who call me a pessimist, I say this. I'm but an optimist with experience.

PPS. As for those who ask, just who I am to make such statements, I say this. I am a nobody and I know that. Thus, I'm perfectly placed to comment on everybody and everything. ;)

Poppin my bloggin' cherry!

This post marks the dawn of a new era! Well, not quite... what it does mark though is an increase in the amount of useless crap that sullies the so called information superhighway. It was just another typical weekday afternoon. I was in my office/lab...brain cooked from the heat and bouncing around crazy conclusions drawn from ambiguous data. A friend showed me a blog - after several minutes of excruciating pain caused by reading some of the posts, it suddenly dawned on me. What a brilliant source of sadistic pleasure a blog is! I too shall blog and share my own brand of pain (which I like to call my sense of humour) with the rest of humanity (at least the fraction of it that is wired to the internet). This is it...no one is safe any more. Abandon all hope, ye who stumble onto my blog...for unfathomable PJ's, bad poetry and wacky thoughts await thee! As for the ones who walked in knowingly, you deserve all that shall befall you! Happy reading, fellow jobless organic bipeds (supposedly equipped with a sixth sense!??).