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The Truant Tales

Expect nothing. And I'll live upto it.

Radio Indigo

Made an ass of myself on radio (live phone-in). The RJ asked a couple of question, but due to echo and heavy feedback, I heard only a couple of words in each question. So my answers were not at all in sync with the questions asked.

Very Paula Abdulesque.

Its a blooming Miracle.

Yesterday, someone reported that a Sai Baba marble Idol had opened one of its eyes (The idol was initially posed in penance with both its eyes closed). A few hours later, hundreds of people thronged the place, to catch a glimpse of this 'miracle'.

The family that owned the idol - a phenol merchant, his wife and their son, were cleaning the idol when they saw the marble idol wink and its left eye open up. I strongly suspect that phenol vapours had something to do with this hallucination.

What irks me is that moments later, a crowd arrived to catch this act of God. None of them bothered to cross check if the eye was painted on. And apparently the phenol merchant was selling souvenirs there.

Its sad to say that such cases of blind belief are common in India. The most famous one was in the late nineties, when a Ganesha Idol 'drank' milk. If you tilted a bottle towards this idol, the idol drinks the milk. Millions of imbeciles gathered and presumably a lot of milk was wasted. On further investigation (i.e by a guy who studied science till the 10th standard), it was clear that the clay idol was porous and absorbent. Which meant that it 'drank' any liquid - Milk, water, coke and maybe even been (nobody tried). It even absorbed the liquids through its hair, stomach, arms and other parts which they didn't try.

But the 'miracle' that is most vivid, is one that happened last year in Mahim, Mumbai. During the festivities marking the birth anniversary of some medieval saint, when people noticed that the sea water tasted sweet (Why someone would taste it, is a question for another post). A 'Miracle', the ignorant screamed. Hundreds more rushed there and they all drank the 'sweet' briny water. 'I can see again', 'My back problem is rectified', 'I can walk again', all things the ignorant said.

It turns out that the sewage treatment plant of a nearby industry broke out and the effluents were being released untreated. Also, Mahim creek is the most polluted creek in Mumbai. It came as no shock when the number of Gastroenteritis cases in that area increased.

There are innumerable such 'miracles'. From Idols changing colours (Painting or coating with a dye), a Bleeding Jesus (good ol' ketchup thrown on the statue) and other such 'miracles'.

Now, I assumed the mantel of God (a la 'Bruce Almighty'), why would I justify my presence to the mortals by performing such asinine displays, which even the local magician PC Sorkar can emulate with ease (and with better conviction). Instead, I'd rather do it on a grander scale like, a million volts of lightening towards a limestone formation and carving out 'GOD RULZ' or 'ATHEISM SUX' or a bust of me or something of that effect. That'd blow everyone's socks off.

PLEASE don't leave me any vicious comments, called me a 'Blasphemer', a 'sinner' or anything you twits can come up with. Its my blog, so my opinion supersedes all. If you have an argument, shove it up your gluteus maximus. As far as you're concerned, I'm the plenipotentiary of this blog, ruling with an iron fist, deleting all comments I consider unfit.

Holidays.

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Yeaaaaaaaaaah. Hooooolidays!!!! Oh, wait. That post has already been written.

Writer's Block. I'd like to blame that, but actually I'm averse to ANY thinking during the holidays. Instead, I shall regale you all with my holiday escapades.

Movies Seen:

One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest (Pretty good. Great ending)
Dog Day Afternoon (A Classic. Al Pacino is brilliant. "Attica, Attica"!!!!)
Monster House (An average Animated film)
Next (Hopeless. Bad. Rubbish. Crap. Its a typical Nic Cage fare)
The Inside Man (Loved it. Spike Lee, Clive Owen, Denzel Washington)
Blades Of Glory (outrageously funny)
Anchorman (Silly. Rarely funny)

Music :

Thin Lizzy - The best of
Aerosmith - Pandora's Box
Bon Jovi - Crossroads
Steppenwolf - The collection
Doobie Brothers - Best of the Doobies 1 and 2

I'd recommend all of the above.

Books :

Children Of Men - P.D James (Good Premise like 1984, but loses track towards the end, unlike 1984)
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (An absolute Classic. A must read)
The Awakening - Kate Chopin (Archaic. Boring. Got it because it was there in the Everman's Library)
Misery - Stephen King (Good book. Glad there are no aliens, demonic possession, rabid dogs in this book, unlike the other King books)
Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth (A classic. Very entertaining)

Currently reading 'Nostromo' - Joseph Conrad. A great Read.

And, I've been spending a lot of time at cracked.com . Hilarious.

The Bat Battle
Retarted Gas Saving Schemes

Exams over!!!

Yippie Kay yeaa!!!

Stress dissipating.....
The sparkle in my eye returning.....
drowsiness remains the same (When you're trying to cram 6 months of education in a week of half assed studying, you tend to lose out on a lot of sleep)

Words like Psychrometric processes, Backlash in Involumetry gear profiles, Hagen-Poisuelles derivations, Capstan and Turret Lathes, Adam Bashforth predictor and corrector method for fourth order differentials, etc, are slowly fading away into a dark abyss deep within the bowels of my mind. (Yes. I've been reading Stephen King lately. Misery)

Exams again

Sigh.

Exams starting.....
Stress accumulating.....
Apathy building.....
drowsiness increasing.....

Here we go again....:frown:

Look out for the Mafia

Two days ago, while playing cricket, I tripped over and hit my jaw against the hard tar. From then on my teeth have been paining.

The two nights after that, I've been dreaming about getting abducted by the 'dentists mafia'. Is that normal? or am I just an anti-dentite?


Politics

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In 2004, Karnataka State elections, None of the three parties got a simple majority, i.e neither BJP,Congress or JD(s) got 50% of the votes.

So BJP and JD(S) formed a coalition, with the agreement that for the first 20 months, the JD(S) chooses the chief minister and then for the next 20 months, the BJP chooses the chief minister.

After the first 20 months, when it was their turn to hand over power to the BJP, JD(S) told the BJP to suck a duck and broke off the agreement. The BJP cried 'traitor!!'

A week later, JD(S) said 'ok. We want power.', and offered to re-form the coalition with BJP. Already betrayed once, one would think that BJP would be thinking in the lines of 'once bitten twice shy'. But NO. The lure of power is a bit too much for this party of seldom thinking mammals. The coalition was re-formed and this time the BJP got to choose the chief minister.

Two days later, JD(S) said 'Naah. This is not working for us. See you later, alligator' and called off the coalition. again. The BJP cried 'traitor!!'. again.

The entire episode was termed as 'Nataka in Karnataka', meaning Drama in Karnataka.

The sad state of Indian politics.

By the way, I couldn't vote in the 2008 State elections that were held recently. They had entered my name wrong in the voters list (sounded like a transvestite rapper name). And when I submitted the form to correct the name, they promptly deleted the name from the list. :cry:. Shocking that even though I was an Indian citizen above 18 years I couldn't vote, but the watchman who is a Nepali citizen got to vote with no problem absolutely.

The sad state of Indian electoral rolls.
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