2008 - The End!

If I am asked to recollect my 2008, nothing much is coming into my memory. May be its coz it wasn’t a year packed with incidents. But one thing I am sure of:

2008 wasn’t a great year for me.

First thing that comes to my mind is my serious ligament injury that changed my lifestyle itself. For a moment, I thought

“Was it my decision to live like this? Within the four walls of my apartment?.. See what happened when I became active and started mingling with people, He sent me back saying ‘enough, now my dear son go and rest’” .

But I still have hope.

Mom’s first death anniversary…

The biggest terrorist attack still remains in my head, proving that there is a place for everybody in this world, even for dumb ass religious ones (the other day I read some argument telling God is a Jew! ). I don’t know when such people will start treating humans as humans, with respect.

2008 silently witnessed some titles losing colors. The Punching bag….Tatay (father)…. the Kuya (‘BIG brother’) and the confidante… fading fading fading and then vanishing in the thin air…realities wont lose its worth though we close our eyes to it.

A new friendship burnt out even before blossoming, but leaving some lessons. It was more like a reminder than a new lesson.

The start of a new global economic recession…

Barak Obama became the President of the US.

Played lots of badminton…swam a lot ….(yes, something positive)

Our airport got shifted from heart of the city to a far place! Its over 50 km from my house (well, with better facilities, but still it doesn’t sound good)

2008 was the year that I (sort of) kept away from scriptures of any kind, religious or spiritual practices, stopped my daily rosary, supported some atheists…but today is the end of 2008….it is time for a new beginning…

The Wine Story..

I get many junk posts. When our postal address gets leaked out, it’s quite possible. This is the spam version of the snail mail. The most common junks were from charitable organizations. Then these marketing ones. Such junk posts never gave me any surprise. But today?

It really was a surprise when I got a courier. Yes, it wasn’t a normal post but a courier in my name. It was a special invite to become a founding member….it offered a gift from France too. To become a member of what? A wine society !! And the real surprise is the way they address me:

“ Dear Winelover,” !!!

How did they find out that I am a wine lover? No idea. I am lucky that they did not found that I am yet to taste it. May be next time they will send a bottle of wine itself….Who knows?

Merry Christmas !

What is Merry Christmas?

It looks like it can vary from people to people and their perception. But for me, it was very simple. Today is Christmas and my friends gave me a reason to be merry.

Merry Christmas.

Charcoal's Holiday

Another week starts, which is the only full week of the year 2008. In ten days, 2008 goes as a memory. This week will start the holiday season, the biggest commercial holiday season every year has got. Most of my friends will go for vacations. For a person like me, who mostly depend the virtual world for friendship, it might look like ‘oh, something is missing here’. May be or may be not.

So, how will I spent these holiday season? I don’t know yet. I might answer more questions in Yahoo Answer….or may be I will go ahead with learning my programming. Anyway, I have to spend some decent amount of time preparing some question papers and study materials for my son… yes, 10 days will fly just like that. Emotionally, I wish to spend this holiday with a couple of my friends who can’t afford ‘celebrations’. This reminded me of a fact. The poor remains as poor, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or country. People and communities have got funds to spread and impose their faith on to others who don’t believe in that, even at the cost of disturbing the peace of the society. They are gifted with ‘long sight’. They can’t see people who are near them and they have long term goals.

This year, I was more comfortable facing the popular question of ‘why don’t YOU celebrate OUR festival’. I wonder why people can’t understand such simple things. Why doesn’t USA celebrate India’s Independence Day? The logic is so simple..

I want to leave a very small note to a friend of mine, though we are not friends anymore. There was a special moment this week and that was the only moment that pained me, this whole week:

“Friend, you could have at least shown the courtesy to utter one word ‘ Thanks’, when I greeted you for the biggest festival of yours. I understand that it’s nothing but religion that made you wise enough to push me away. But I want to tell you one thing. When I look at your face, I see a friend and not your religion. May be one day you will realize that this virtual man had a heart which understands love that give friendships a meaning. It is easy to preach love but hard to practice. All the best.”

I might look like a charcoal. But at least that is external. Thank God !

An Old Mail to An Old friend..

An old mail to an old friend at a not so old day

........

Since I did not come online yesterday, I had lots of mails to check (not from friends, I hardly get any mail from friends) ..mostly from our residents association forum , then those news letters I subscribe, then this spam mails…now its all over… yes, I did not come online yesterday coz I wasn’t feeling that well. Both physically and mentally or may be more mentally than physically, I don’t know. Now I feel very much better, though there is this nagging headache. As I said, I wasn’t angry with you..after all, I didn’t even knew that you might talk to me yesterday. Usually, its me who gets avoided and I don’t avoid people around me..that’s not my cup of tea. I think I better train my mind…I better get used to this virtual world and its code of contact. This virtual world is not always the right place for an emotional being like me. I know that, but still, sometimes mind hesitates to accept it. or may be it takes sometime for it..How do I know where I stand in the priority list of those around me? I felt silly, but at least I realized it..I understood what I am…I did not try to pretend or fake..that is better than many around….Don’t think I am talking about you, but am talking in general....

Craig Ewert and A Suicide That Sold Out..

Around the world, reality shows are very popular, these days. The other day there happened one such show in a British TV (Sky TV’s Real Lives digital channel). Nobody ever saw such a reality show in their life. It was a suicide. An assisted suicide, to be precise. It (the documentary) was directed by an Oscar winning director, John Zaritsky.

Craig Ewert, a Computer Scientist from the US underwent an assisted suicide in a Swiss euthanasia clinic. His wife was with him, by his side. He was suffering from a degenerative neuron disease which destroys cells that control essential muscle activity such as speaking, walking, breathing and swallowing. He he wanted to televise his death.

He said:

“If I go through with it, I die as I must at some point, If I don’t go through with it, my choice is essentially to suffer, and to inflict suffering on my family, and then die.”

“Some people might say no, suicide is wrong, God has forbidden it. Fine, but you know what? This ventilator is God.”

“I see the plants, and they’re dying, and I’m dying too..” “They’ll be coming back next spring — I’m unlikely to.”

“I think I can take my bow, and say: Thanks, it’s been fun.”

“I would hope that this is not a cause of major distress to those who love me, this is a journey I must make.”

“My dear sweet wife will have the greatest loss, as we have been together for 37 years in the greatest intimacy.”

Yes, he has reasons and it has a message too.

And says his wife:

“He was keen to have it shown because when death is hidden and private, people don’t face their fears about it..”

As a last thing, before he died, his wife told him, with tears:

“Have a safe journey, see you sometime.”

(This really touched my heart and made me sad…I think she loved him very much)

And the Director of the documentary, John Zaritsky said it would have been “less than honest” to make the film without showing the actual suicide because it would have left viewers wondering if the death was unpleasant, cruel, or carried out against Ewert’s will.

Obviously, there were some protests and some even called the TV as ‘Suicide TV’.

Hope somebody will not hire some television crew tomorrow and do a live suicide by hanging from the ceiling fan! Coz the media is ready do anything that sells…..

(May Craig Ewert's soul rest in peace. God bless! )

Finally 3G !

Finally, yes FINALLY, India goes 3G. Yesterday the Prime Minister inaugurated the first 3G service in India. A proud moment, of course. But…

But our politicians should be ashamed of delaying it for such a long period. India is world’s number one software provider (currently) and when technology coming to India, we are years behind even to (many) smaller Asian and Middle East countries.

Strange

Strange, she came to my dream or may be I dreamt of her…whatever. I never was thinking of her in the recent days. But it made me happy. She was my best friend, some long years ago. She looked the same as if she did not age. I know it’s not for real. She can’t be like that now. Good that, in our dreams and memory, people stays just like how they were when we saw them last. They always stay young.

And our physical body? What is strange about it?

Every second new cells are being created and old ones die. But we don’t look new, but we get old. We are getting older and older with the help of newer and newer cells.

God and His ways, it’s all strange…

Being Busy...

What is being busy?

I thought of it when it took a week for a friend of mine to give a reply to my mail…when it took a day for me to give a reply to another friend…when I did not get any reply (for my mail) from another one…when it took two days to get an SMS reply…when I did not get any response to an SMS of mine….

Is it a doctor getting more patients in the case of a doc? Is it a data entry operator having more data to enter? Is it a swimmer has to swim more laps? Is it a programmer getting more stuff to code? A teacher has to give extra lessons? A baker getting more orders?....Does it always mean more work?

Those situations will make them busy, but…

But in reality, being busy is we just getting occupied in some way. We not responding to something has a lot do with our personal priorities. Sometimes it even can be watching a movie for second or third time or reading a book…

Strange, but sometimes being busy is just being busy…

Beauty, Handsome and a Beholder

I am one such person who believes that there exist different types of people in this world. Not just people (and their shape) but culture, eating habit, the way they dress ….. every aspect of human life. And I study people too. This is my blog and I can write whatever I want. But this is not a place to criticize any particular person, especially my friends. But still, there are some limits, right?

Among the people types around me, mostly it is ‘I don’t care’ types. So whenever I end-up in situations where they show the ‘I don’t care’ attitude, I won’t get surprised. But this time, it was a surprise, a real surprise.

It is said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. But dose it men that there is no ‘international standard’ for it? Yesterday I thought about it bit seriously.

Yes, there are different types of people in this world and their view on beauty can be different. I have seen girls cutting short their beautiful hair and trying to make it ‘more beautiful’. I personally don’t like women sporting men’s hair style. In some cases, when they cut it too short, some people even look like as if they are mentally ill. God did not make any mistake by giving women more hair than men (and He keeps that hair from getting bald too- in general).

Coming back to the ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ thing and the surprise element. I happened to talk about a Pilipino movie, its actor and its actress to a Pilipino lady. The lead actor or hero was John Lloyd Cruz opposite to Sarah Geronimo. I introduced John as one of the most handsome Pilipino and Sarah as a beautiful and cute lady. Then came the real surprise.

“I don’t think he is that handsome” she was referring to John
“I don’t think Sarah is cute”. She wasn’t even convinced of Sarah’s beauty.

I know some people who don’t like Filipinos. If the comment was from one such person, it wasn’t a surprise, but this is from a Filipino itself.

I am not a gay and hence I don’t get attracted to men in that angle. If John is not handsome, who is handsome? If john is not a handsome Pilipino, no man in this world is handsome. For me, it’s as simple as that.

John

If I am remembering correctly, the person who made this surprising comment considers herself as beautiful. I wanted to convince myself before I write this. So I did a small exercise.

In my social network portal, I have about 124 acquaintances. Out of that, over 100 of them are Filipinos. I checked each and every profile and then, many of their friends (my secondary acquaintances). I did not find a guy as handsome as John. There were beautiful girls but I wasn’t looking for the Gemma Atkinson (or Pamela) aspect of Sarah. That aspect is not that which makes a girl cute.

Sarah

I got convinced myself that Sarah Geronimo IS a beautiful Filipina without any doubt. And we need to accept another fact that she was voted as the third most beautiful woman in her country (in 2006).

And I got convinced that beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder…

But still, there is a limit, no?

Hapi Hapi December

Hapi hapi December, she is hapi in December
She is so excited coz Xmas is on her way
She is singing, she is dancing
She is jumping, she is hoping..
Hapi Hapi December, she is hapi in December

Good Night !

Thank you Lord for the food I ate
Thank you God for the lovely treat
Thank you Lord for the ache you gave
Thank you God for the friend you gave

Bleeding Hearts

Things around him were normal
It had all the normal abnormalities
He could still feel those rules
He could still see those laws
Sometimes, or may be many times
He used to think of it – ‘why’?
Their Do’s were his Don’ts .
He woke up with a hope
He hoped that the world will change one day
And today can be that day, he hoped.
But he did not see any change, today.
Their Do’s were still his Don’ts.
He gathered courage and asked:
'Why did you come close to me and
Why did you come close to my heart?'
Answer wasn’t sufferable for him, but
He remembered the preacher of love and
The bleeding heart given by his pal
It was one among the twelve, yes
It was from one among the twelve.
“I came close to you, because,
I can push you down, and
I came close to your heart,
So that I can break your heart”