Great News

'I have great news!!", I said.
And all of them leaned in, anticipating my next few words.
A million thoughts raced through their heads; "Theres a new guy in my life", "I got a job!", "I am going abroad for my phD"

Here is what I said though:
"My braces are coming off in a month!!"

Total phuski that was....for them... for me, its GREAT news indeed.. :) :)

And just out of nowhere,
the answer emerges,
stares at you in your face.

There it is. As clear as day.

You are left with no choice but to accept it.
Gulp it in and let it course through your veins;

and carry it with you wherever you go.

Of Facebook & Memes

For the past few months it seemed the entire world was gathered on Facebook except me. Curiously I didn't feel left behind. "I already have a social networking site in the form of Orkut. Who needs one more?", I told myself. But a few days ago I realized I was the last to know that Devesh’s family was shifting to Cuff Parade. This news was huge and I was blissfully unaware of it. No one seemed to be updating their Orkut accounts. So finally I joined Facebook to keep track of my world.

A day after joining, I met the same people who were present on my Orkut account, doing pretty much the same things they have always been doing, writing to others the same kinda timepass stuff they have always been writing; having the same kind of profiles they have always had… living the same lives they have been living all along. Everything was the same; it was just packaged differently like for example, here they wrote on walls, not scrapbooks.

I think it has some connotations in evolutionary biology. We like to move. We get bored of the same old place, the same old habits. New surroundings help add that newness factor to our lives. Shifting from one place to another on the web could very well be a new form of mass migration for us humans. And notice that it is not a huge change, no paradigm shift, just a new location for the ‘Friends’ button, or a change in font colour. As I said most things remain the same, it’s just the packaging that gets a redo.

Facebook was in vogue in the U.S. and other Westerns countries a couple of years ago, but had not caught on in India. This recent mass migration of a number of my friends, their friends, and their friends of friends could also be an example of how memes work. Someone must have made a shift from having Orkut as their homepage to Facebook, or they may have fallen in love with someone not found on Orkut but having a frequently visited Facebook account. This tiny little change may have snowballed into mass migration. It’s possible, but I don’t think any of these musings of mine are provable.

What do you think?

Only In Poona..

... can they ask for a 20 Rupees deposit for a milkshake glass.
In Mumbai, you walk into an ice cream-milkshake joint, order for whatever you want, and have it. In Pune..? No!!
You have to pay 20 bucks extra as deposit for the milkshake glass!
Who in the world is going to run away with a milkshake glass???

On second thought, it's Pune, maybe people do nick glasses from restaurants etc.

The regaining of direction

And amongst all the chaos and the noise, an answer emerges.
A goal materializes.
And just like that, the turmoil recedes but is replaced by a newer restlessness; restlessness of the positive kind.
Direction is regained.

About Two Blogs I Read

This is a post about 2 blogs I read. I have never met the owners of these blogs in real life, and I may never meet them. But I know about their lives through their blogs.

There is the one by a Canadian girl. It’s called Honestly. She is about my age, has a boyfriend, is a devout Christian but loves science, especially biology. Funny how I stumbled onto her blog. I was searching for information on how to dissect squids. And she had a post on it, so her blog appeared on my google search results. It’s a very nice, personal blog with a lot of tiny details about her life, ranging from a tonsils operation to learning photography. There was nothing especially enlightening about anything she wrote, just her simple life, but maybe that’s why I liked her blog so much. It feels wonderful to read about the life of someone who lives at the other side of the world, whom I have never met. And even though I don’t know her personally, I still understand the simple pleasures she takes in looking at autumn leaves or her anxieties about scoring enough marks in her exams. I know that we are different when it comes to religion, since I am an atheist and she takes her religion very seriously, or that she has a boyfriend and I’m still single; but in a way she is so like me and I suppose we connect as only girls can. But i suppose the most important aspect of it all is that whatever she writes, she does so with her heart, what she truly feels, no lies, no show-offs. ‘Honestly’, could a blog have a title more apt?

Sadly, she has been silent for a long time now, I wonder why...

A case of me is a blog by a 20-something Indian woman. I have no clue what she does for a living. She was living in Bangalore for some time, but I think now she has shifted some place in Europe.

She writes so well! I love her blog especially for her poems. I come home after a long, tiring day through the traffic and noise, go online to do some pending task, and on google reader I get an occasional treat. She has posted a quiet little poem. I read, and re-read it and a quiet smile crosses my face.

I have relaxed.

The writer though has decided to shut down her blog. I don't know why. I won't try to change her mind through this post. I'm sure she has her solid reasons, well, at least I hope she does..

But yes, her work will be missed. I suppose I need to search for something else now, that will relax me at the end of a long tiring day.

(Btw, I have commented on their blogs telling them about this post of mine.)