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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
    On Soap (504)
    A friend of mine once told me that if you can't soap your body with a soap, it means it has expired; not the soap but your body! Soaps are immortal. I once had an idea. Why can't people innovate a soap that changed its colour and smell every month? They can ask people to buy a dozen and watch how the soap changed its colour and fragrance with the efflux of time.
    You will be surprised to know that the skin cells do not even last as long as the soap you use. Skin cells die almost every fortnight and get replaced with new ones. In other words the body on which you spend a fortune on to keep it young and glowing will ditch you and vanish in a couple of weeks! That's why perhaps the ancient sages declared that this body being fake, why do we have to spend a fortune in nourishing it. Probably this is at the back of the minds of our Purohits that they just scrub off their perishing skin.
     
  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Donkeys (505)
    Thank you for introducing me to okapi. A fascinating creature indeed. I wonder who gives them such fascinating names!
    The other day I saw a clip showing how they made coffee with customer's picture on it. It was amazing!
    The introduction of okapi has further increased my interest in donkeys.
     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Names (506)
    When I was in the Bank, we used to have words formed out of the initials of colleagues which we always used to refer to them. A C Nagarajan would be Acne, C R Krishnan would be cranky, A Doraisamy would be Adore (though there was nothing to adore in him) and so on.
     
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On parking (507)
    Bike ads have become quite trendy now like this one
    Some of the modern bikes are as expensive as the most expensive cars. They touch incredible speeds. 'At the top speed of 420 mph, the Dodge Tomahawk is the world’s fastest motorcycle ever produced. Dodge unveiled this ultimate superbike in 2003. According to the reports, only 9 of this motorcycle has been sold yet.' quotes a report! Rich youngsters show more interest in fast bikes than cars. In Chennai they run a race in busy roads frequently endangering lives.
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Gold (510)
    Many people have lost interest in gold. They have switched over to Platinum Jewels
    Gold continues to run supreme in market now. Yesterday I was taking a ride around the markets on the eve of Diwali. There was no moving space in gold as well as silk shops. Who says India is a poor country? If I had invested all my salary in gold or real estate from the start of my career, I would be rubbing shoulders with the Ambanis now!
     
  6. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    "Silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of a sound".
    "Shakespeare?"
    "No, Sir. Oliver Wendell Holmes. His poem, The Organ Grinders. An aunt of mine used to read it to me as a child."


    — Much Obliged, Jeeves

    I mostly agree with Jeeves and his practical wisdom but I found that counsel disquieting. Is "silence" a relief or a twitch esp. after an explosive chatter? The blows of a sound may numb one's eardrum but if that noise is blissful nonsense and wanton ramble, then it is the "silence" which has inflicted the malady and not the sound.

    Missed the ramble! Had a busy week. Back now ..
     
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Chocolates


    I have never heard of this "kamarkat". Sounds like a kit-kat chocolate stowed in one's cummerbund. I watched the video on its preparation, and I want to try that. I doubt if my handiwork will look that glistened and seductive. Look at that colour and juiciness (picture clipped from a YouTube video).

    upload_2017-10-21_11-30-26.png

    Hehe! These days I don't indulge in ice creams but there was a time when Amul & Kwality ice cream carts were a craze in the neighbourhood. They also had a unique bell ring to identify that an ice cream cart was approaching. And, these carts would hawk past the midnight. I was in hostel then. The gates would be closed by 11 pm so we had buy those creamy waffles through the grilled gates and head to the unlocked terrace and relish our melting sweet. At times, when the watchman was derelict, we would step out at midnight and seek an ice cream cart. The adventure was not in eating an ice cream — I don't think anyone favoured it too much, but the thrill was in hunting in the darkness of the night for a toothsome prey. Those were the days of mischief and dosti covenants. Fun and absolutely spoiled! There were no lofty and Gru-styled aspirations to conquer the world back then, we were chuffed on digging into the ice cream tub.

    upload_2017-10-21_11-43-29.png
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
  8. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Soap

    Talking about status conferred by soaps, do you remember that Camay soap. When it was launched, it were hailed as the quintessential soap for a woman who wishes to have milk and butter for a skin. Also, that soap had international appeal. Back then, Camay was for the niche Indians who wanted to cultivate the aesthetics of the West. Once our family bought a Camay soap. It's arrival was a little celebration. I don't recall our skins turning into milk or butter but that soap lasted till the last squish. None of our faces looked any better but, hey, we were inducted into the Hall of Foam.

    upload_2017-10-21_11-40-26.png

    I could not have put it better. Also, soap is the barometer to measure our liveliness. A lively person would foam more than a listless person. The day your soap refuses to foam you up, then you have to resign to your uncharming self. Soaps are finicky in that matter. They don't engage a dead soul. No wonder all those bikini-clad models in Liril advertisements foam up like a cloudy froth in their vivaciousness.

    Interesting! We might want to insert a chip and program the transmutation schedule from our mobile app. Why monthly? Why not weekly or daily or on-demand? Does a soap last more than a month? Say, mon: blue and jasmine, tue: yellow and vanilla, wed: wild and random pick.

    By the end of the week, you would smell a dozen flowers and sport a mottled skin. I like this idea. We might want to patent it. Not many innovations make headlines in the soap world. This bleeding idea is a paradigm shift in how soaps can be cared for in our human world. Mind you, with such volatile soapscape, even the last drib of the soap is enthusiastically consumed.
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Animals

    Names! If we talk about animal names, then we will never come out of the rabbit hole. Note, an animal has a formal and an informal name. It is like they are christened by two families. One natal family (the scientific community), and another the nurture family (common people). Scientific names are rarely interesting save for few but the imagination of the common people is best captured in "Sarcastic Fringehead". It's a fish, a pugnacious fish, that has a starring role in every 'strange animals of the sea' show. How I love this fish and his expandable maw! And a bit of sarcasm keeps it alive!

     
  10. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Names

    See! That is the reason why so much thought should be devoted to naming. You cannot pick a name! You have to scrutinise a name! You have to probe from all angles on how that elastic name would appear when contracted, when stretched, when folded and when freighted to foreign tongues. It should sound appealing in all ways.

    I like that diminutive "Adore" for a Doraisamy.

    I like to foreshorten names from front and back. A C Nagarajan as Garage, C R Krishnan as Shanon, Doraisamy as Assam. Flexibility is a greater tool, more so when appropriated for nonsensical tasks.

    Not many know the anecdote behind Gillette, the safety razor. You will be convinced that names are vital and parents cannot be careless with christening once you recount how a badly named chap lost to Gillette.

    The safety razor was designed and improved jointly by King Camp Gillette and William Emery Nickerson. When the time came to brand their product, Gillette had a funny first name and William Emery had a comical last name. As was the norm in those days to choose last name, Mr Gillette won the bake-off. If only Nickerson's parents gave him away for adoption, he would not have demurred to loan his adopted family name to safety razors today.
     

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