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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, May 20, 2017.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    I suppose that there could be a hundred reasons why Google would be a female. Strangely none talks about the possibility of Google being a male. I have a friend who knows how to make Google play ball. Google is like a puppet in his hands but even he gets frustrated with it on certain queries. Says he, 'If a woman decides to frustrate you, you will feel all the emotions lying hidden in your system for ages!'
     
  2. PushpavalliSrinivasan

    PushpavalliSrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Mr Cheeniya,
    I am so sorry for asking such stupid question on snoring and made you to visit several websites.

    I think we can classify snorers as temporary snorers and permanent snorers. I think the temporary snorers can be tolerated as they snore only when their nostrils are blocked due to cold and the permanent snorers are the ones who irritate us.

    Luckily my BH belongs to the temporary category. His cousin belongs to the permanent category and whenever he comes to our house he would prefer to sleep in the balcony.

    PS


     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Both scientists and philosophers have been dealing with Time in two different modes. Both are extremely fascinating but I love the philosophical exploration of Time more than the scientific one. Both continue to be uncertain and are looking for a greater insight into it.

    Sufism has some thought provoking ideas about Time:
    "Sufis talk of extending their experience of the world in higher states of consciousness, and affirm that these states involve a radically different experience of space and time. They emphasize that they go beyond ordinary three-dimensional space in meditation, and, even more forcefully, that they transcend the ordinary awareness of time. Instead of a linear succession of instants, they experience an infinite, timeless, and yet dynamic present. The spiritual world contains no time divisions such as past, present, and future, for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present, where life quivers in its true sense."
    Sufism and Quantum Physics by Dr. Ibrahim B. SYED

    But Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy continues to be my greatest inspiration on this subject.
     
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    On the subject of donkey as a mount, here is some more info for you:
    "Shitala is represented as a young maiden crowned with a winnowing-fan, riding a donkey, holding a short broom (either to spread or dust off germs) and a pot full of pulses (the viruses) or cold water (a healing tool). Among low-caste Hindus and tribal communities, she is represented with slab-stones or carved heads. Sometimes, she is said to be carrying a bunch of neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves, a medicinal herb used throughout India since ancient times that is believed by some to be an effective remedy to most skin diseases to this day."
    Shitqala Devi (Fighter of fever and other maladies)
    [​IMG]

    Note the broom on the right hand which may signify the need to keep your place clean to avoid all diseases and a pot of medicine on the other hand.
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    The more we talk about a donkey, the keener I become to replace my Owl with this:
    upload_2017-8-8_15-22-38.jpeg
     
  6. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Ira: Did you find the origin of our donkey?
    Sri: Not yet! I am looking.

    upload_2017-8-8_12-33-16.png
     
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On dubbed films and subtitles

    Ditto! I can live with the unsynchronized Chinese faces but Indian vocals. Long ago, we didn't get tickets for the movie The Lost World (a.k.a Jurassic Park - II). So my friend and I ended up watching the dubbed version of the movie. The pizza in the original English dialogue "Hand me that pizza" was naturalized to "uttapam". You can check that, not sure if it's available online but dubbed English films are crazily hilarious for such brass. I don't know of any censor rule that such imported largesse should be stripped of all foreign tracings. I am happy when such stickler-ish uttapams are accorded in native accents rather than foreign vocals.

    I have watched very few dubbed or original Malayalam movies. There's this goofball comedy movie called Akkare Akkare Akkare. I watched it as a kid but cannot recollect much of the plot. The Sunday afternoon regional films were award-winning art-house films with very poignant themes so I refrained from watching them. But the late night movies were goofy like that Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen.

    Do they have regional censor boards in India per state? I think they do. That might be the reason why cross-regional movies are tampered to gratify the regional censor boards. One board might be too puritanical and the other too lenient. Funny when you think of the reformative Hays Code of Hollywood of the 30s setting forth a prohibitive directive called "Don'ts and Be Carefuls". I wonder whether voice was covered in that censorship. If so, what would they have preferred under that "careful" header? Say, obscenity is allowed in Southern accent but not in Yankee tongue, eh?

    Dubbing, I tell you, is embroiled is shady dealings. The intrepid Woodward and Bernstein in us should investigate this racket further. Let's make this also sticky alongside our donkey musing.
     
  8. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Memory

    I am currently reading Umberto Eco's essays in his book Turning Back the Clock. I too share that sentiment of missing out on books but in my case while growing up I was confused what to read. Before I tell you more, let me first tell you this: I am glad that you liked the synopsis of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. That condensed passage in the review struck me —what it feels like to be attracted to someone and not remember having loved them or not in the past. It makes one wonder if themes like Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine will resolve or only worsen the love-stricken condition. We all have those impulses where we wish to erase our memory of bad events but would such erasure bring a closure or invoke curiosity on status quo ante later?

    Now the tell more part: I regret not having read the books of my interest in the past. I was swayed by the popular books when my preference was quirky books. There are books that everyone imposingly recommends you to read though no one inspects your tastes and tailors those recommendations to suit your reading palate. You must read this book! This is before the Amazon algorithms stealthily profiled you. Back then, the only way is self-realization like your Wodehousian epipany. I found my reading mojo late in life. I lost interest in fiction for a time and only picked up lately. Last week, I was reading Peter De Vries' Slouching To Kalamazoo and thought to myself ...how come no one told me about this bawdy and funny and imaginative book when it fares better than other acclaimed books. Miss Shumway, History of the world in ten and half chapters, Slouching To Kalamazoo have a pattern .... they are coarsely witty and imaginative with a madcap plot. I regret not having picked up such books earlier.
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On moon and romance
    In the 90s, film-director Sankar was lauded for his stylish movies. In all his films, there would be at least one song with metallic orchestral music and spandex pants and eclectic stirrings. Amidst such reverberations, no one pays attention to the lyrics. He is a futurist in spirit, soul and songs!

    Back then, I was only confounded with Sankar's choice of cyber lyrics, but then when it came to other film makers like David Dhawan, I would feel squeamish about the vulgar lyrics of Govinda. Today, I shimmy to all kinds of chikni chameli nonsensical songs. I play the music loud and shake my booty to any garish music. There's this singer Nazia Hassan who again passed away at a tender age like our recurring Lynne Frederick. But Nazia's voice is mesmerizing here and here. Those disco beats were quite popular back in the day in birthday parties. Some other day on my childhood birthday parties. That said, a sneak peak here of the most popular birthday dance in my community. I don't know how Sankar would have orchestrated that Owwa Owwa dance swing in cyber space.

    Back to our forlorn Moon. Where does Moon feature in songs anymore? Even the Apollo mission has been dismantled as it lost its lunar charm. We should therefore retire the moon as interlocutor in romantic liaisons.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2017
  10. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On television

    I have never heard of "crystal sets". I shall read up on them later. Sounds interesting.

    By the time I crawled out of my playpen, cable tv proliferated, which means no dish swirling. The cablewala comes with a fixture to the house and plugs it into the rear end of the television and the device has been bumped. There was no child-lock or parental control or other trappings to prevent us kiddos from viewing sassy channels. The invasion of satellite television changed the upbringing of a child. No longer were the parents or teachers the key players in a child's life. I grew up with a lot of television around me, especially the cartoons. My expressive and cartoonish English is a product of my unlimited television hours. It is strange that when I catch up with mates who grew up in India and recount those mecha animations, no one seems to recall. I would never have believed that my cartoon binge would fructify into a senile rambling one day. Jeez! If I hadn't watched so many cartoons, I would have so less to talk today. Can you imagine such vocal constipation? I can't.

    True! I cannot recall how I weaned off from the television trance. Perhaps I was stultified with the choice galore at finger tips or may be a spell of disenchantment with the idiot box which estranged me from my favvy toybox while growing up.

    This will be covered separately. I have too many doubts on this particular topic.
     

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