chaotic order

"You are not you" - A poignant portrayal of ALS One of the most difficult things to acknowledge and accept with stoic equanimity is to watch a young, talented and vibrant individual reduced to a vegetative state by a disease. Death in any form seems cruel to us, but when is afflicts somebody young - paralyzing, debilitating and decaying the human body from within - then the pain of it for the victim and for those who care for them becomes unbearable. Life suddenly transforms itself into something cruel and heartless; and all vestiges of faith and hope tend to diminish - and what remains is an intense state of skepticism and a deep mistrust of life. ALS is one such disease. With its cause virtually unknown, and cure almost impossible - its victims suffer from a condition that can only be termed as tragic. Muscles atrophy, breathing becomes progressively difficult, vocal chords give way to incoherent speech; the fine balance between the brain and bodily organs slowly dege

John is a fantastic network engineer. Stocky, well built, sharp penetrating eyes, a drawling southern accent - he was probably the most attentive in our group. He asked questions in a manner that is unlikely to offend anybody, interjected his studied comments with a gentleness that enhanced the quality of subject being taught without deviating from the topic- John presented himself as befitting a professional with over twenty years of networking experience behind him. His knowledge of network transport protocols was almost eerie to say the least. He would talk of bytes, zeros and ones, routers, TCP layers - in such intimate tones that an outsider happening to overhear would definitely assume something is wrong with him. Probably – a mental imbalance. His standard line over the last five days “Network packets don’t lie”. He was sitting next to me, and so both of us developed a bond that comes when two individuals are in a similar quest to understand technical nuances. We arrived early

A night in Downtown San Francisco There can no better learning experience than staying in a Hotel room, right above a teeming night club, in the middle of downtown San Francisco. Such hotels call themselves “boutique" styled establishments. When I did a casual research on the word "Boutique”, this is what I found : "Boutique hotel is a term used in North America and the United Kingdom to describe small hotels in unique settings with upscale accommodations.". Interesting! The hotel is definitely uniquely located, but whether upscale or not, I may not be the best judge. I am perfectly happy with this place though. I am a firm believer in the tradition of Alexander pope that the poper study of mankind lies in observing man and his behavior in the different circumstances. It is easy to put on ones best behavior in a place where everything is decent and orderly, but to remain so under most tempting circumstances is difficult. Ones gets pulled in different directions.

The myth of Spelling bees.. Yet another set of Indian Kids have won the National Spelling bee contest this year. In the last fifteen years, this prestigious prize has gone to a kid of Indian origin a whopping 12 times. By any stretch of imagination or ratiocination - this is a significant statistic that can leave no doubt about the fact that Indian kids have found a way to crack this game of etymology. No jokes!!. But here is the thing that I am worried about: I was talking to a couple of Indian parents in my community as I headed out for my evening walk, when one of the high-energy fathers enthusiastically said “Sir, I have started training my son on Spellings. He has a habit of reading, and I am sure he will be good with words". The other parent (Mother in this case) nodded her head excitingly and said “Ramesh (her son) also is like that. When he was four, he would not go to bed without flipping though few pages of a book...” She had a proud, beaming smile on her face -&qu

Karna - symbol of a paradox. Among all epics the world over, none displays the wide variety of characters, situations, human frailties and intense drama as the Mahabharata does. I recently read an admirable translation by Robert Fitzgerald of Iliad and odyssey; I loved it for its sheer energy and action, but I must confess that it does not equal the scope and breadth of Mahabharata. Even in condensed form such as in the work of Sir Rajagopalachari, at least a hundred characters are packed, a thousand stories and sub stories are woven, and million morals, ethics, wise idioms injected. What to speak then of its original length and breadth. In its rudimentary Sanskrit form, it runs into fifteen printed volumes. Legend has it that in its pages, one would find every character reflected, every psychological nuance explored and almost every human paradox mentioned or solved. This may be a true claim. I am not the best judge of it. But it is certain that it does contain some of the most in

Anthony Burgess’s “Earthly Powers” - A masterly work of literary fiction. There are authors whose books cannot be read at one go; even though the temptation is compelling to do so. It is not so much the story that grips, but the peerless prose and structure of the work itself. The author is in supreme command of his craft carving out sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph of incandescent description, precise dialogues, succinct emotional undertones and a sublime understanding of the art of writing itself. My tryst with literature is an old one; and in the course of my reading I have had the privilege of relishing works by several established and acclaimed masters; and many times discovered few unknown gems as well. The purpose of this essay though is to talk briefly about a book that I just put down: "Earthly powers" by Anthony burgess. Before I get to that; I must say a few words on how I was introduced to Anthony Burgess. A year and a half ago, I watched S

The Blonde story.. What is it about Blondes? I remember reading Annete Kuhn, a respected feminist critique of films define three types of Blonde stereotypes that have profoundly affected western culture’s perception of women with light or yellow colored hair: a. Ice-cold Blonde: a blonde who hides a fire beneath an exterior of coldness. b. Blonde bombshell: a blonde with explosive sexuality and is available to men at a price. c. Dumb blonde: a blonde with an overt and natural sexuality and a profound manifestation of ignorance. The common denominator running through all three categories is that Blondes are physically stunning, and no man can pretend to turn away his face from her without casting a surreptiously glance at her magnetic attraction, or experiencing a soul cuddling desire to possess her. A blonde girl with a buxom body coupled with deep blue eyes attracts Male attention like no other category of the feminine sex. Something to do with genetics, I guess…Male testoster