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Site's got more cute de-stressing pics;)
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 11:09 PM 
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I went off the deep end for the weekend over my head
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 10:47 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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"You will never scratch that groin again. YOU HEAR ME!! Never!! I will make salami from it. I will feed it to the pigs. You mutherfuckah!! I am a crazy bitch and I will make you my fucking slave. Say it loud- say I am your fuck puppy ...say it you carpet muncher!""
Her father blushed and gently laid the book on the table "Beta, you can't write stuff like this. Its shocking. Beta, think of your mother."
"Bapu" She smiled at her father and patted his some 70 year old knee. "She read it before you did."
His mouth fell open and he stared at his not so young daughter.
"She was okay with it? What about Sushil? How come he let you publish this...this..." he gestured feebly at the book lying on the coffee table. The image of a bonded half naked man with a ball in his mouth on the cover of the book offended his gentle sensibilities.
"Mom and Sushil were both okay with it." She shrugged.
"But Beta its all about corrupt sex and people tying each other up. What will people think?" He tried to keep the anger out of his voice.
She leaned back against the faded cushions. They needed changing. She wished she could do the place up but her parents wouldn't let her. What was the use of being a best seller writer if she couldn't take care of her parents?
"Bapu! Why do you fret? People alway talk. My entire persona is built as being a desi Jackie Collins. Its a marketing strategy and sells the books. People read them, what more can I ask for?"
"Can't you write something more sedate?" He pleaded.
"Like what Bapu? Gardening? Value driven stories? Nobody reads such stuff except on Readers Digest."
He sighed and looked out of the window. His son in law was playing in the driveway with the little ones.
"What will your children think? What if their classmates show it to them?"
She burst out laughing.
"Bapu, remember we saw that movie - Hourtan Hears A Who? Where the Kangroo gets every one agitated with - For the children! Isn't this the same argument?"
His lips thinned "You know what I mean!"
"By the time my kids can read such stuff I would have explained it to them. If their friends say something to them I will explain it to them."
"What will you explain? How can you explain such filth?"
"I will tell them that it exists. It cannot be put under the carpet and we cannot act as if it doesn't happen. Its the ugly side of human nature and we should know it for what it is. Censorship represses Papa. I will tell them that these are dark stories about people who are strange in their make. They are different from regular people and they lead destructive lives."
She laid a hand on her father's balled fist.
"I understand you are too old to change your view of thinking and I am too stubborn to curb my writing. I wish there was some way we could see this through but I have a feeling we won't be able to."
Standing up, she collected her purse and before she left she kissed her father's head and said "I am too old to wait for your approval Bapu nor do I care what society has to say. Society doesn't pay my bills nor does it fill my belly. I feel sad you don't like what I write but thats how it is. I am sorry if it caused you hurt but there is nothing I can do."
He didn't reply but stared at the kinky cover of her bestseller in revulsion; once she left he sighed and began read the book again.
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:08 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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I've been thinking about this for a while. Lindsay Lohan believes her best friend Samantha is her soul mate and is engaged to her. Thats the grapevine. Is it shocking? Should sexuality feature into the equation? Does it even matter?
The way I see it sometimes love can be so profound that it translates preferences. Can there not be situations when people despite different preferences may find in each other love and companionship? We humans are after all very complex and I feel its more than just gay subtext.
The series Will And Grace dealt with these issues -where the love was complete but fell apart due to different sexual preferences. But then there was the love that Lestate had for David; the kind that loved the person within.
For Lindsay it may be the same. After all her friend has seen her through all her highs and lows which most of us can't even imagine. She has probably been the one who has never disappointed Lindsay- her ultimate soulmate, the one person who never betrayed her. If that isn't love what is? And why wouldn't she want to spend her life with her soulmate?
Call me a silly romantic, call me naive but where ever there is love there is reason to hold on to it tight:)
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Art With Red Bull Cans
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 10:17 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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Not only did Sharon Stone make a 'hole in her bucket of good fortune' but also lost out on thousands of dollars from Dior when they dropped her as one of the actors for their advertising in China. Why?
At the Cannes this is what the grand 40 something year old lady said:
“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”
The rebuttal came swiftly by Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency, which called Sharon“the public enemy of all mankind.”
The comment by Sharon lacked compassion and the second made by the newspaper probably caused Osama sleepless nights - overthrown by Sharon Stone?! What has the world come to?;)
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:50 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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A Rachael Ray's Dunkin Donut ad got pulled off air because the scarf around neck reminded Michelle Malkin of a muslim head gear.
In the ad, Ray is wearing a scarf that Michelle Malkin said in her nationally syndicated column resembled a kiffiyeh, Middle Eastern garb that is "popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos
For crying out loud if this doesn't show moronic racism what does? We see plenty of muslims here in India wearing a kiffiyeh and don't go around screaming - Terrorists!!
All of a sudden the movie - Harold And Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay doesn't seem like a satire movie. Bloody insular media personalities need to realize that a fat Rachael Ray in a Donut ad is more scary for the obese nation than the damn scarf around her neck!
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:17 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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When you are being religious you have no business doing sex, thinking sex or even seeing the word sex- OKAY?!
Okay (taking a breather). Billboards in the Holy city of Jerusalem are banned from using the word- Sex.
.....the three-letter word that appears elsewhere in billboard advertising for the new film “Sex and the City.” Sex in the city became an issue when the advertising company Maximedia told the news media that it would not post billboards featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, above, one of the stars, in deference to requests from city officials concerned about “offending public sensitivities” by mentioning “sex,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 10:41 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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I like to begin my mornings with the newspapers, sugarless tea and a little online animation. I loved this one on billyblob.com
Then begin mundane chores of water plants, cooking, feeding kids, cleaning- you know the regular Desperate Housewife stuff without the desperate part.
Desperate! Makes me wonder what I could be desperate for at this very moment- probably desperate to be in a freezing cold room with room service or go for one of those frikkin expensive all day spa deals or laze the day away on a Lazy Boy placed in a Gazebo made of sound proof glass.
Yeah, desperate for ice cream, desperate for liquor chocos and desperate for someone else to do the book review that is due. Shit!! I gotta do a book review and there is no way I can get away from it. Thats what happens when publishers send free copies- we have to review them.
My desperation knows no bounds, book review along with ice cream while sitting in a Gazebo with cooling showers outside and plenty of sex! There I said it only because I know it had to be said; after all desperation brings only one thing to mind - dirty deeds done between the sheets.
Which is why people tend to say- What a despo!! Not desperado.Desperado brings heroics to mind done before the musty sheets come in, desperado brings to mind Anthony Banderas and then musty sheets or maybe he is too old to be thought of between the sheets. I ain't into old men nor am I desperate!!
Seem to be getting ahead of myself but something tells me a Desperate Housewife being part of a book club may make a good episode but reading her book review may not get that much interest.
Or reading her book review while lying on her Lazy Boy in her Gazebo with a despo mentality may just do it for some.
Time for me to Shud Up and make breakfast for my kids. I am desperate for a cook and not for anything else. Funny how reality intrudes and makes us desperate desperados for the mundane;)
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:19 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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Its been over a week since I posted. Some grand underpass is being made in our area and they cut the cables. No landline , no BSNL and no posts from Deepti Lamba.
But now I am back and rearing to go!
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:11 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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I've always loved her, been by her side and her loving has never changed. Its always been a mutual give and take. Though the giving has been more from my side than hers. Being a creature of the world she can never be completely mine.
Lying in her warm bed, I've watched over her while she's slept, watched her leave me without a parting word, in moments of sorrow and happiness I've always been there; my loving has been selfless in its make. There is no denying she is my all and I accept the little bits of herself she is willing to share with me.
In her own way she is sweet. She takes care of me and has never let me down but my heart breaks at the thought that her loving isn't all mine. She isn't and will never be my soulmate. In my forgotten corner I lie - the king of my home and yet a stranger loved and easily forgotten.
I wait for her to return, to caress me, to remind me that she is home. I wait for her to remember that I offer her sanctuary and love like no other can offer. But everyday she leaves me for others and I wait in deepening sorrow. I am the silent soul of her home, the companion with whiskers and tail.
Would she miss me when I am dead and gone? I stare at the door, waiting for the key to turn in the lock and for her to walk and say, I am home baby!!
Dedicated to my silent companions, Kensei and Zoey
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 03:58 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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Apart from the legal protection one garners from being married are there other reasons why one should get married? Society especially the conservative Desi communities demand we bind ourselves in sacred ties forever. Forever! I understood the meaning of the term when I stood holding the Jaimala at the stage.
I saw people on the either sides looking at Aaman and me. On his end the guys were trying to hold him high up so I
couldn’t put the garland on him and everyone laughed. Everyone but me, I smiled but my hands tightened over the garland made with carnations.
I wanted to run away. This was it. Forever. Marriage. The binding that nothing could unravel. I knew I was the
forever type of gal and that scared me.
I tried to move forward. They couldn’t hold him high up for too long. He smiled and leaned down making it easy for me. I moved forward and put the garland on him.
We went and got married.
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 11:29 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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Madonna is still a hottie and Justin Timberlake scrumptious. The song grew on me.
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Posted by Deepti Lamba at 10:16 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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I tried my best not to read about the earthquake that happened in Sichuan Province in China. I still want to act like a pigeon in face of danger, I want to close my eyes to the grim reality that there are large number of parents burying or cremating their young children.
This is the worst fear of all parents. M.F. Hussain had once said that - Picking up his dead child's body from the gutters was the worst thing that ever happened to him. After that nothing much mattered to him.
In China where the one child policy is enforced hundreds of families are wiped out and many couples are too old to try and have children again.
The article in NY Times was heartrending and a grim reminder that we all lead very fragile lives.
Related Article:China Quake Toll To Top 50,000
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Listening to music and wondering about assumptions destroyed. Take for example the song I'm currently listening to - Gueru- happens to be one of my evergreen favorites and heard it blaring from a dilapidated speeding tempo. My mouth hung open - Guero?! Tempo full of veggies playing Guero?! WTF!!
Waiting at a traffic light seeing a fifty something old dude sitting in a 800 shaking his head to 50 cent. Eh? The world gone loco or me still stuck in India I knew some six years ago.
Friends and family back in Delhi still listening to 80s music and wearing 80s clothes. Blobs and sack clothes with huge belts - save me !! People gone Stephen King mad in Delhi; no longer are they chic; Madonna pointy bras and peddle pushers!! blah
Gimme Doors and Nirvana and nothing else from the past. No Abba, no Carpenters, fuck Boney M and for god sakes no frikkin Broken Wings!! i assumed they were hip- yeah more like nostalgic hipsters!!
Play Brian Adams and I will go on a elephantine rampage!! Thats one assumption I am right about- Indians love Brian Adams- enough reason for me to be fucking ashamed of my Desiness.
Bad grammar, good music and here is another assumption I break I aint always coherent;)
Posted by Deepti Lamba at 10:43 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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An Indian blog that gets about 1288 comments belongs to a fellow called Aamir Khan and the latest post is about a dog named Shahrukh! Before you jump the gun- the dog isn't Aamir's nor did he get to name the dog.
Now, before you jump to any conclusions let me add that Shahrukh is the name of our dog. And before you jump to any further conclusions let me add that I had nothing to do with naming him. In fact Shahrukh is the dog of the caretakers of our house. When I bought this house it came with the caretakers and their dog! Apparently Shahrukh (the actor) was shooting for a commercial in this house a few years ago, and that very day the caretakers bought a pup…, and named him Shahrukh. What are the chances of me buying a house which comes with a dog called Shahrukh!!!
Aamir is a precocious fellow and there is supposed to be some kind of uneasy rivalry/acquaintance between Shahrukh Khan and him. In fact, if we are to believe the Bollywood rags, Aamir told his child prodigy Darsheel Safary not to overact like Shahrukh and had the wounded Khan reply 'I thought we were friends'.
It seems this time round, Aamir has ensured that the new gossip came from the horse's mouth.
There are a number of celebrities, actors and even anchormen who have blogs maintained by their PR people and treated as sites where their official statements are made:
The Celeb List goes on, and yet the websites of most celebrities don't give glimpses into their lives except when deeply effected like Paris Hilton (I couldn't help that one).
Aamir Khan's blog, like Neil Gaiman's, is a novelty since he lays his life somewhat open for others to read and observe. Aamir's blog is his personality and in many ways his life. He is a hardworking man with an impish sense of humor and while the google news is buzzing with words like - Aamir's dog's name is Shahrukh, Aamir is having a ball acting like a cat amongst the pigeons.
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Posted by Deepti Lamba at 09:30 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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Here is the thing about the much talked about movie - Bhoothnath – Amitabh Bachchan did a great role as the ghost obsessed with his house, Juhi Chawla acted well as the 'much suffering always on the move' wife, Banku was the mischievous imp and Shahrukh Khan overacted as usual, while managing to look suave in his guest appearance but it was watching little tots dressed as hip hoppers and cheerleaders or little Fergies in a song that made me shift uneasily in my seat.
Like any other parent, I am used to seeing my little daughter grab my purse, wear my sandals and act like a grown up, but if she happens to gyrate and shake her hips like Mallika Sherawat or shimmy like the cheerleaders nowadays at the IPL cricket matches, I would hang my head in shame as a parent.
But it seems this Bollywood virus is quite contagious amongst the current breed of parents. There are specific dance instructors who hold workshops where tots are taught Bollywood dance steps, wear skanky clothes and perform for the proud parents.
It seemed the audience found more reason to say Aaeeyo when Anthony, the street bum, took a swig of alcohol but no reason to blink seeing little tots do dance steps that screamed sexuality loud and clear. They seemed more offended by drunken behavior.
There is much reason for us to be disturbed if such trends are allowed to take root. We used to find little girls dressed as little Britneys to be horrific but now it’s being promoted in India as well. Where is our censor board? Where are the women organizations screaming morality and claiming this is against Indian values this time around? Is no one going to protest that we are taking away their childhoods too soon? Are we to have desi ‘Miss Little Sunshines’ soon?
For Christ sakes - eight year olds wearing torn leggings, skanky tube tops and minis that barely cover their bottoms is not okay whether in a kids movie or in adult movies.
While leaving the theater, I wondered why otherwise such a sweet movie left such a bitter taste in my mouth. Take that song out and the movie would be a pleasure to take the tots to.
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Sometimes I wonder at the futility of writing. It isn't as if I stand to gain much from maintaining a blog or writing stories for the online world. Tomorrow if I am dead gone my blog too will die a quiet death. No one will pay Go Daddy and Daddy will give the tag line- oops this site does not exist or something along the same lines.
I know along with my body my words too will go up in flames. I'm no Salman Rushdie nor a Stephan King. I just an average woman writing mediocre crap. There is gonna be no one saying - hey what ever happened to whats her name with that swing or some shit like that site?
No one asks after online phantoms, such is the virtual world and it makes me kinda depressed. My value here is nothing and my words carry no weight. Morbid, depressing thoughts with much truth in them. I feel blue when my mind meanders in that direction and there is no feel good answer here but dull acceptance.
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Posted by Deepti Lamba at 11:56 PM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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There all kinds of bites- love bites, food bites and then we have the insect bites!! Nothing like that itchy sensation that demands a scratch. I can manage ant bites, bee bites, mosquito bites even those caused by big fat black bumble bees but not by cat fleas.
Cat Flea bites are the worst and my acquaintance with them happened when we got Zoey and became worse with Kensei. Having kept dogs all my life I was familiar with tics and regular fleas even cow fleas but not these little buggers!!
It is painful and the itch never goes! Well, only Lactocalamine and cold water helps till one absentmindedly scratches that area again and viola! the itchy and scratchy show begins all over again. These little monstrosities actually leave a trail of devastation behind – the bite marks actually follow a pattern. Its as if the little fleas actually dip into the skin while taking a leisurely stroll over the body.
Many a times it’s a line of four five bites with little bumps and a tiny dot in the middle. The pain felt from a cat flea bite drive cat lovers mad. And when it finally sinks in that the love of your life is suffering from mange the household is turned upside down.
Every gawd damn thing has to be fumigated- the carpets, the furniture, the linen and even the clothes in the cupboards. Yeah, as it happens that little nasties can live in clothes as well. So don’t go around leaving your clothes on the bed if the cat happens to sleep on the bed or forget to wash the clothes you had been wearing while the war was being waged against you on your own body.
Everything and I mean everything has to be washed in hot soapy water, add a little Dettol just to be sure. But while doing this remember to give the little kitty a bath as well. Not a good proposition, I know, but it has to be done and remember the evil-lets may try to jump ship as it happened during one such baths and had me hopping. The flea didn’t drop but deliberately jumped ship which was me!!
And the mad dance began – cats yowling and me screeching in pain and jiggling like a crackhead bellydancer. Not amusing believe me, not at all.
What came to our rescue before the insidious dacoits terrorized our tots? This ingenious little thing called Advantage. Its damn expensive – the American one is for about fourteen hundred and the German one is for about eighteen hundred. Lot of money but it buys sanity for four to six months for both for the cats and the owners.
Don’t let any of the pet shop owners palm off powders for the cats. Felines love to lick and they merely lick the poison in. What works is putting drops of Advantage on the base of their tail and neck and that’s the nuking of the little pests.
But all in all, the damage has been done to me. A single bite from any kind of insect has me petrified. I scratch and think the worst- check the bite, check my kids little bodies, scold my little munchkins who wave their little tails at me and rue the day I fell in love with felines and found myself besieged by unwelcome guests barely visible by the naked eyes.
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Posted by Deepti Lamba at 12:39 AM Stumble It! digg this del.icio.us Fark It | Permalink
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People don't know how to deal with me anymore. Take these incidents that happened with me being a cat amongst the pigeons:
Why do Hindus think Muslims are dirty people? I have yet to see a Masjid thats kept dirty. Look at this mandhir! Its so frikkin dirty, prasad bowls thrown right in front of the deity and the loos have turd all over!! What? Are you telling me that muslims and low class hindus are dirty? Is that it?
Of Course I got a dirty look and a whole lot of mental cussing.
No, I don't want to buy diamonds. I'll wear them to one function and then can't wear it in front of people again and I don't know that many people that I can wear the set at least twice. Silver it will be.
Eyes were rolled at me.
Look, I am all in favor of sexual liberation and all but don't let the dude milk you for free.
Dudes hate me when I say that.
No! don't take a bite of my sandwich, its got chicken in it. Yes, I know its 'navratras' but I am an atheist.
Grim expressions from those who fast for their Gods
Yeah, I'm a big gal and no I won't stop eating those god damn Lindt chocolates, even if you consider it sacrilege that a big person like me eats with such passion and gutso.
More eyes roll
Traditions and I don't blend and I am bad at dates, heck remembering my own birthday is a chore.
Invariably the person puts a -remind Dee of so and so's birthday or anniversary on their calendar.
Don't fucking lie to me. I don't suffer fools gladly. (This I do more through actions than words but its more than clear to the party concerned)
Here people wish I knew the art of diplomacy and kept my big fat mouth shut.
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"If my soon-to-be-ex-husband thinks he can:
bed down cheap women,
buy them underwear,
wine and dine them in the best restaurants,
take them on five-star holidays,
take 'excite' tablets for erectile dysfunction,
go out boozing each night AND not pay me my maintenance as ordered by court,
and think I will take no action, he has another thing coming."
----------Public Shaming Of a soon to be ex
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Here is a lady who has written over fifteen books, written thousands of columns, has a frisky personality, gift of the gab and more and glamor that gets her places. Her latest book is more like a collection of blog entries which have nothing new to tell us. I'm talking about Shobhaa De's new book - Superstar India - From Incredible To Unstoppable.
Its just one big tirade against neo-liberalism, the denial of poverty, corruption, love and hate for all that is Western, lack of compassion, jingoism, lavish weddings, gender relationships, sex, the new generation, traditions, festivities, jhola carrying commies, and our collective dirty nature. Did I miss out on anything else? A lot - but nothing you don't know about if you happen to be an Indian.
The book is nothing more than a marketing stunt.
Her 'hot' appearance is what Penguin banked on. Don't get me wrong - the lady has class and is a good writer but the book was an utter bore. It wasn't a 'V. S Naipaul' that had Indians either wanting to strangle the author or love him for his observations on post-colonial India. Instead, Superstar India merely states what we all know. We know what India is all about, we know that the new booming economy, the flyovers, the new jet setters of India do not represent our country and those who think along these lines are leading delusional ignorant lives.
In many ways, she has treated the readers like sounding boards where we might try to unravel her rants like unpaid psychiatrists driven insane by a mind emptily discussing problems and offering no solutions.
Instead of writing her memoirs (and I don't understand why people touching their sixties want to write memoirs), Shobhaa De should stick to writing risque stories as she once told Prince Charles.
The book should have been named The Satirical Reflections On Superstar India And On Indian Middle Class Drawing Room Conversations. and maybe then I could have been a little less nasty in my review.
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A booming economy does not induce instant erections.
------Shobha De from the book- Superstar India
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Those of us who live in the online world realize that the electronic world is as real as the outside world where the sun shines, birds twitter, stars shine and where human interaction happen on daily bases. And just like we can shut out the outside world so can we shut ourselves away from the online world but for most its an imprint of us left in the cyber world that we always are pulled back to.
We read news before it hits the next days papers, download music or episodes, talk across state or international lines and most of the times either we pay pittance for it or all these services are just plain free.
Those who are addicted to the online world know that its all about freedom. There is a hacker in all of us net users, its more than about reading the mail, passwords, usernames or online communities- its about being plugged into the pulse of humanity and thats just so fabulous.
Its about being a bit of an exhibitionist, well at least those of us who blog or write just for the passion of it suffer from. We write not to impress but to let lose the inner beast and find ourselves suffering the consequences when the real and electronic world collide.
Many lead secretive parallel lives in the online world, there are emotions vested in online relationships, entire personalities built in sites that when destroyed cause sort of a online death by the maker and the followers. There is much grief felt and understood but only by those who live the electronic matrix.
The freedom granted by the online world is addictive since it is an anarchy of sorts- where people can take up whatever persona they want, dip into the pool of virtual knowledge as far as they like or evolve or debase themselves entirely. Its the taking away of this unruly freedom that causes much pain to the psyche.
No barrier; here is the wild west where with our words we can drive another absolutely insane or pull another away from self destruction. Here is where we truly know ourselves- this is sort of an enlightenment- place where humanity exists in electronic reality in all its beauty and shittyness.
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While standing in the long security check line outside the Taj entry we burned in the shimmering spring heat last month.
Agra is a couple of degrees hotter than Delhi. The line of human beings barely moved and tempers flared when people tried to jump queue. I berated myself for not getting my tots sun hates and covered their heads with handkerchiefs
. The heat was getting to all of us and I wondered out loud as to how many of us would suffer from sunstroke that afternoon.
I grumbled whether the Taj was far more important than our collective health. To which my mother replied, "Not only is the Taj more important than our health but even our lives!!"
I was shocked but she explained that such buildings are monuments of posterity that we bequeath to our children and so on. Our life span are short compared to the Taj and the happiness it brings to thousands year after year, decades and centuries later continue.
Since my mom is a history reader at Delhi University I did not have the heart to debate with her knowing her bias for all that is historical but once I feasted my eyes on the Taj my need to protest disappeared.
I felt a surge of happiness sweep through my heart. This was my third visit to the Taj and it still enthralled me. I grabbed my camera and clicked away like a tourist, all the while trying not to bump into people who in turn seemed to have become even tempered.
There was no pushing at any of the entry or exist points, water cooler had been provided at a certain point, the public loos were still dirty but inner chambers of the Taj were cool.
People sat in the shadows of the Taj, kids ran around, there were foreigners and Indians from different states who enjoyed the beauty of the tomb. The Yamuna river was parched dry and thankfully the much
despaired Taj Corridor by Mayawati a thing of the past.
Due to the mind numbing heat and exhausted complaining children I wasn't able to take too many pictures but the monument left a lasting impression in my mind.
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Philipp von Boeselager provided the explosives used to pack a briefcase planted under a table in the Nazi leader's East Prussia headquarters. He was the last known survivor of a group of German army officers who tried to assassinate Hitler
---BBC
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