Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

On Friendships

In my view, true friendship is strengthened only when both friends are transparent in sharing their views and don't carry the different of opinions into an issue of the friendship. In a friendship, we don't analyze who is rational and irrational and don't even try to win an argument. The well-being of the friend is what one focuses on. Both need to consider the friendship is more valuable than the individual needs to establish superiority.

In Tamil Nadu, there existed a friendship between two people who were in the opposite views of the religion, God and right living. They are Rajagopalachari and E.V.Ramasamy Naickar. There were great friends. One is a devote Bhakt and a great administrator and another is a Rationalist heading a movement for atheist. When EVR was getting ready to marry a young girl of 30 years at the age of 70, Rajaji met EVR in person and recommended not to do it as it would ruin his reputation. EVR went ahead and did it but still Rajaji maintained his friendship with him.

Viswa

 

Ravishing! The darkened colours. Eggplant is mushier than aubergine which is mushier than the Indian Brinjal.
I don't have an electric grill. I am thinking, should I buy, yes, no, may be, yes, may be, NO. My kitchen may stave in. Yau! I should change my home.

 

Fine Print

Consumer Protection Agency should do something about it. They brought in plain English into Prospectus that investors are supposed to read and invest in equity. Similarly, the companies using EULA should be asked to summarize the content into 1 or 2 pages as "Executive Summary". If anything major is missing in that ExSum, they should be held accountable.

Viswa

 

That F•R•I•E•N•D•S theme song is not only catchy but has kicker lyrics.

It's like you are always stuck on second gear
I will be there for you,
like I have been there before.
I will be there for you,
because you are there for me too.

It is that second gear which defines friendship. In the second gear, transparency is taxing! It is not when things are going great and you scream delight that defines a mate but when things go horribly explosive and you are mad and you are immensely confused how would you convey that incoherence for the other person to make any sense at all.

You need to tell them. I know I am a fool. I know I am being irrational. I know this subverts Newton's and Maxwell's laws but I cannot help but feel this way. Can you sense me? Can you understand me? To commune and not communicate across through that thicket of self-awared confusion is a challenge which even the most expressive folks stumble on frequently.

At times, I am so shabby with expressions to invoke that transparency. I know how I feel but I don't know to tell you. Earlier, I was more vocal with my cranky sentiments but these days the old hag in me just leaves behind and moves on. Move on ..keep moving on...don't turn back ...just keep moving on. Second gear, move on!

 

Executive Summary of Fine Print

Plain English, Summarize, +3 points to that! Reminds me of Blinklist.



When I receive mails like above, I get very excited. Summarize the simplification of "Simplify" with what that ... scrumptious smorgasbord, eh what, whatever highlights, that's all I care.

Blinklist is an app that compresses reading material into a digestible summary, say, books, very long books. They shrink every book into a ten-bulleted note. I don't follow their subscribed feed much and the new releases and notifications just languish in my tool. But when I come across these ambitious emails to over-simply the simplify, I bless those souls for they are effective aids for scurrying people like me juggling between aubergines and avocados.

 

Exposure

I woke up this morning with a residual thought. Last week, I watched a Chinese film "Not One Less" and loved it. So, I was thinking this morning, what personality would have emerged out of me if I had the kind of exposure around films, books, people that I have today. I would have forged a more cosmopolitan taste and outlook in life. I was a frog in a well and then the salmon in me too flight to discover the world. The books and topics and QPQ and friends are so unique in ways that had I sought this company earlier, I would have been vastly enriched in my life. A lingering thought! I need HG Wells!

 

Time

Spin earth backwards with my back ache and my misshapen spine? Thereby, I investigated alternatives. A pantheon of maverick scholars squander their energy and time to devise a time machine, an external contraption to travel in space and time. But I love this dude JW Dunne who figured out an easier way to travel in time through our embedded faculty. Go to sleep and dream. Why? Dreams induce us into a precognitive state to ascend the three dimensions we inhabit in. In dreams, our altered state of mind travels across higher temporal dimensions, 4th, 5th, 6th, so on.

I will miss my time suit with such complacent shortcut to slather navratna oil on my head and doze into an escapade to bridge time. So long, metals and machines, welcome again Queen Mab. Here's his experiment with time.

 

E. Ve. Ra. Periyar

First, what's Periyar? I tried to search, shows up as river? Is that Father or something in Tamil?

TN politics is gripping and interesting. I started to read about the formative years only after Jayalalitha's demise. It's all very Francis Ford Coppola franchise with Justice Party then Dravida Kazhagam (DK) then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Now, I am reading about EVR. I am doubtful how many common people understood his rationalist and self-respect movement in that era. With more humanist and intellectual progress over the decades, we can ascertain logic more fluently today in progressive conclaves. But back then ...

He stated that there is no use of simply acquiring titles or amassing wealth if one has no self-respect or scientific knowledge. An example he gave was the West sending messages to the planets, while the Tamil society in India were sending rice and cereals to their dead forefathers through the Brahmins.

I don't know how he got alive with that piercing remark. In today's twitter and hotheaded world, he would have been trolled for a month for that brave remark. Again, I have doubts whether hurried people ready to take up cudgels on least provocation and misplaced pride really fathom such remarks or get swayed away by slippery mera bharat mahan rhetoric.

 

Altered QPQ

Ira: Viswa, do you know those bean sprouts when they ...

Viswa: Wait, I am struggling with my radish.

Cheeniya: Hold on! Can you both stop talking about your salads and sprouts. You both infected QPQ with your foodie musings and now it has become Quinoa Potato Quiche thread.

Ira: I only mentioned avocado and aubergine still at "A", it will take time to arrive alphabetically at "P" and "Q".

Viswa: Cut some slack to her Cheeniya. Poor thing she lives and dreams food.

Cheeniya: OK, but hurry up with your food fanatics.

Ira: Fast forwarded to sambhar.

 

Friendship

I feel that friendship is like a Seesaw we used to play when we were young.


If your friend is high up with irrational thinking and communicate such thoughts, you need to be understanding and release him/her from that emotion by being so understanding, raise yourself to be a wonderful human being and become light-weighted. On the contrary, if he/she feels low due to the happenings in his/her life and find it hard to communicate, you need to pull him/her up from the trenches by throwing your weight. Eventually, the friendship will balance out for both you and your friend to be at the same level hanging your legs down in the air.

I read a very interesting article about Yudhistra and Draupati. Even though Draupati was married to five brothers, she had a great fascination for the Dharmic Principles practiced by Yudhistra. Similarly, Yudhistra was very impressed with Draupati's selflessness and devotion to the Lord. Eventually, by the time they reached older ages, Draupati emulated a lot of qualities of Yudhistra and vice versa. They balanced out their qualities and became great soulmates.

Viswa