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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

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

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On obituaries

    That one-eyed wink of the silk merchant says it all!

    Your grandson is brave. When I saw a corpse in a science exhibition held in a medical college for the first time, I nearly puked. Actually, that event was a sensation back then that a medical college was hosting a dead body. I am going to tell you something which is slightly disturbing. Dead people are cared for and honoured varyingly across different cultures. There's a tribe called Fore in Papua New Guinea who eat their dead and there's a compelling reason to do that. Why did this spooky dietary habit of the Fore tribe interest the science world? Because of what followed when people ate people here. Notwithstanding, the reason they ate their dead is because

    As one medical researcher described, "If the body was buried it was eaten by worms; if it was placed on a platform it was eaten by maggots; the Fore believed it was much better that the body was eaten by people who loved the deceased than by worms and insects."Women removed the brain, mixed it with ferns, and cooked it in tubes of bamboo. They fire-roasted and ate everything except the gall bladder.

    Back to our deaths and obituaries. I wonder what the obituary of that Fore tribe would look like.

    Hey, thanks for the meat. Will last the entire winter.
    - Love, your family.

    It is amazing how BBC travels across the world rounding up the bizarre and the breakthroughs.
     
  2. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Music

    You have a good taste for music. I go junglee and am into electronic dance music like techno, trance, house, club. No label or artist but I just play what ever suits the mood. Few years ago, a friend of mine inducted me into Goa trance music like here. I also heard that music festivals are quite a norm now in India. Heh! Now that I scared you of my hippy predisposition, I do love soft music. I love soft lyrics in Bollywood. In the recent times (for a decade), some of the songs that caught my attention are this and this and this.

    I also like songs that feature the storyline and are not just aesthetic diversion. For example, this is one of my favvy songs in Tamil: here. The emotions in blossoming love are portrayed so well. And also this and this.
     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    I looked up for this guy in the Google as is my wont and it told me that 'Lewis Carroll was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and photographer.' I wonder what makes you say that he made his living out of his nonsensical writing. I think I may need to read the entire Google post to find out why you labelled him 'nonsensical'. You almost made me believe that he was of my mould!
    I would say a hearty Amen to it!
     
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Is it not some kind of self deception? Of course, my ID (owl) never portrays me sincerely except for its dumb and pointless stare at the wilderness! I have enjoyed what my head had to offer me at every stage of my life. Now its a barren head. Though the hair has gone, I try to recreate the image it gave me years ago by combing it. What I see in the mirror does not shock me as it did Dorian Gray. On the contrary, it sooths me gently and reminds me of all the nonsensical wisdom I have gained over the past for which my bald head stands victim!
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    On donkey
    I feel highly enthused by your offer of assistance. It makes me feel that I have won half the battle. Coming to that story of Mouse as the Mount of Lord Ganesha, it is mandatory to read that story after performing the Pooja on Vinayaka Chathurthi day. Without it the Pooja is not deemed complete. But that story does not offer you a logical conclusion to what we are seeking to find. And the Donkey intrigues me more than any other mount. Rest assured that together we will find a logical solution to the riddle.
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Music
    When I first read the Bard's words 'If music be the food of love, play on..', I wondered why there should be a doubt about it for him to use 'If'. Did he expect it to be the food of hate as well? Music can never be but the food of love. But then I grew up at an age when music was of a totally different genre. I have witnessed how much it has changed over the years. A decade back, this was a rage but now it may have lost its charm among the younger generation. But still in all TV music contests, the kids select and sing it without fail!
     
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Lewis Carroll

    That She-Google fed you bollocks! Hehe! I tell you, Lewis Carroll made a living out of writing about Jabberwocky.

    True that Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and his so-called nonsensical writing is a play on the mathematical axioms. One of the reasons why people advise you to read up his books year and year is to discover hitherto unhit mathematical metaphors in his writing.

    If Mr Carroll was able to fashion the indisputable maths into nonsensical looking paradoxical riddles, then conversely, on that account itself, you and I should reverse engineer solid mathematical proofs from our utterly nonsensical conversations. Here we come academia to claim our Millennium Prize.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2017
  8. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Hair

    Why owl? Why has it always been owl? What is the story behind owl?

    Don't call it nonsensical head hereafter, call it mathematical head. Remember, after our donkey project, another project is lined up for us to churn our nonsensical talk into a mathematical thesis. I am sure we will topple Pythagoras and Euclid in Geometry with our new-found inflections on time and space. I think I confided in you once that I have this impulse to shave off my head. Singe my hair, get rid of it! Your hair fall is a result of the unbearable weight of your wisdom, mine is a floating frizz that reminds me of the levity in my head. I should insinuate myself to be wise with a glistening head for I cannot demonstrate it anyways.
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On donkey

    There is no mention of the kind of mouse. Ok, it is a rodent but is it a mouse or a rat? Why a mouse and not a rat? Did the rats take it in stride that they were not the chosen species and their conniving brethren, the mice, impressed Ganesha. I sense foul play here.

    There is a faint explanation for other mounts like tiger and mouse in Indian mythology. There is none for donkey. It just feels like suddenly the sky opened up and a donkey was hurriedly beamed to the Earth as that was the only animal loitering at the airlock at that time. How can such critical piece of information be lost to time? At least one sage or scribe should have preserved that narrative. I tell you, such indignation to donkeys is unacceptable. We shall get to the bottom of this riddle. Where shall we begin?
     
  10. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Devadas

    I haven't read The Art of Living. Will check if it is available in the library. Our Wodehouse would cure the lovelorn sickness by prescribing Highballs for Breakfast. He would reckon that Devdas skimped on his dosage, hence, suffered a fatal collapse. Had he quaffed his magic potion more heartily, he would have been cured.

    Seventeen years is too young to write about abiding romance sagas. No offence, hence it turned out to be juvenile take on romance.

    But in real world, aisa kahan hota hai? Devdas should have read Alain de Botton's Essays in Love and mustered the will to deal with romantic setbacks. Devdas should have travelled, learnt Mandarin, bought a microscope, tried his hand at glass painting, and on return braved another love. His suffering is tragic but that is unnecessarily inflicted tragedy that could have been averted with an ear-pinch of worldly advice which would have saved him a heart burn. I think our novels and films romanticize pehla pehla pyar too much. Agreed that Devdas was besotted with Paru but he should have read the books of willowy Derek Parfit on identity crisis and reasoned that few years on he might not be attracted to Paru anymore. Paru today is not Paru tomorrow. Devdas today is distinctly different from Devdas tomorrow. Corollary: tomorrow's Devdas may not feel the same love for tomorrow's Paru. Even if Devdas confused himself while reading such theories, he would still have lived to see the day amidst such disorientation.
     

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