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The Cart Before The Horse

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Apr 15, 2017.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Ooty hill train is great stuff and is considered the best in India. Now it runs on diesel but during my time when I was working for SBI there, it was run with coal and by the time we completed the journey, we looked like a worker in a coal mine! Darjeeling is also good stuff if you had someone to sing 'Meri sapno ki Rani kab ayijii tu'! But the hill stations have become brutally crowded and even for a cup of coffee in a hotel, you need to wait for an hour! During my time in SBI, it used to be empty in winter but now winter is more crowded than summer!

    There are no more comedians in Tamil movies of the standard of Thangavelu and Nagesh. Even the pin-up dancers are gone as they have been replaced by the heroines themselves!
    Sri
     
  2. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Gary Dexter has written a nifty book on how great books got their names.

    Originally commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph as a column for literary enthusiasts, that enterprise in a more full-fledged version is available at his blog here

    Knowing your taste for literature, you will love the tales, trivia and toe marks left behind in naming these great books. I came across the blog when I was searching for the origin of the phrase "The Postman Always Rings Twice", also a novel by James M Cain. My favourite in Gary's compilation is Holy Tango of Literature. Though there is no main entry on this book, I think it features somewhere in explanatory notes of the derivation of some book title.

    Holy Tango of Literature is a 2004 anthology of absurdist poetry and drama in the style of various poets and playwrights, written by Francis Heaney. Its content is dedicated to anagrams (thus the title: "Holy Tango" is an anagram of "anthology"), in that each work's title is an anagram of the name of a noted poet or playwright, and the content of the work is based on that title, and written to mimic one of the original author's most noted works. Thus, for instance, Gerard Manley Hopkins is anagrammed into "Kong Ran My Dealership", which parodies Hopkins' The Windhover, and describes how King Kong was hired to manage a car dealership.

    The text of the book issued under Creative Commons licence is found here

    Isn't that an unbeatable novelty in creative writing demonstrated in the waggish title itself.

    More on Ooty trains and pin-up dancers later. You can still retain your “all knowing” title similar to my “all redirect” title. I don't cache everything I read but once a while when I come across an interesting phenomenon, I bookmark the page. No magic, no memory, just a pointer that Gary has a prodigious warehouse tucked somewhere that came to my rescue. That's the lead on the tongue-twisting title.
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2017
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Do you ever do anything other than reading? Your book marks floored me completely. Gary has clearly put me in my place! The references that you have given just flabbergasted me. I took a random sample from his long list: Ubo Roi by Alfred Jarry. So much is happening in the literary world and I am just rambling. I have not been a bad reader myself; there was a stage in my life when I was a crazy reader and quoter. Then a friend advised me to stop quoting as it got on his nerves. I realised that if I had to stop quoting, then I must stop reading. I started reading books for a while which could not be quoted! Senile Rambling is not blog writing at all. It is just 'thinking aloud'. Sometimes I feel that I should supplement my writing with extracts from what I have read but nothing of what I have read comes to my mind when I sit to write. Ubo Roi has made me sit up and take notice of what others are writing. But Senile Rambling has to have some limitation to justify its standing!
    Sri
     
  4. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir,

    Doesn't experience in life come in many ways either through a physical or mental challenges experienced or someone saying something that is very unique, an author saying something that is extraordinary, a child doing a great action, etc.? Can you tell with reasonable certainty that your great sense of humor is not due to your early reading of P.G.Wodehouse? I am pretty sure reading Ramayana created a very strong impact in your subconscious mind and influenced your life in a positive way. I agree in Kali Yuga, everyone is a mixtures of positives and negatives and no one can replicate Rama's quality in its entirety.

    I happened to see a poor old man trying to enter a private function to get a chance to take a plate of food who was repeatedly thrown out by the guards. A child kept watching this scenario and eventually went and took a plate full of food and brought for this poor old man. When he choked as he was trying to gulp a big portion of the food, the girl was getting ready to rush to get water for him and suddenly the security guard emerges with a smile and offers her the cup of water to be handed over to this poor old man. This was in Facebook page yesterday. A small action of a child had a considerable influence in a man's life.

    Another Facebook post was about a Uber driver picking up someone. When he was getting ready to move the vehicle, a well-dressed elderly person pulls out his car in front of him. The old man gets off from the car and shouts at the Uber driver and the driver just waves his hand and smiles. The passenger asks him, "How are you so calm when this old man could have damaged your car and sent both of us to the hospital?" and the Uber driver replies, "People are like garbage truck. They have so many disappointments, frustrations, etc. waiting to dump it wherever and whenever they get an opportunity. They may sometimes dump it on you. In such situations, don't let it get to you or take it with you to work or home. Let it go. Always appreciate those who treat you well and pray for those who misbehave. The life is about 10% of what you make of it and 90% how you take it."

    These two Facebook posts created a strong impact in my mind.

    Viswa
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2017
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  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Viswamitra

    My dear Viswa
    I too have watched quite a few touching incidents during the course of my life and they just made me feel good but if you ask me if they had changed my character for the better, my answer would be an emphatic 'No'. Watching a soul stirring incident may touch my heart but it wears off during the course of my grind through life. I have watched enough good deeds in life but I remain what I have always been. I do not believe that reading a good book or watching a humane incident would change our character. This may happen in one in a million cases but I certainly do not belong to that million. In my mid seventies, I am only happy that I have not become worse than the person that God made me born as. Our character is determined by our
    'prorabdam', not the books we read or the incidents we watch.
    Sri
     
  6. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir,

    I respect the way you are already and you are a good soul. May be you don't need to take any information to change. I wonder what you would be if information you take in, makes changes in you. But I was a bit surprised by your final statement that our character is determined by "Prorabdam". I am under the impression that "Prorabdam" influences our character but by our company, knowledge and good deeds, we will be able to change our life and associated "Prorabdam". Otherwise, the life will be like Airbus 320's "fly by wire" technology with no human intervention. Why human beings are blessed with discrimination, if Prorabdam controls the life?

    Viswa
     
  7. PushpavalliSrinivasan

    PushpavalliSrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Mr Cheeniya,
    When I read the caption "Putting the cart before the horse" I have remembered another proverb almost with the same meaning.
    " Don't count your chickens before they are hatched". I remembered the story of a milk maid which I read during my childhood.

    A milkmaid was on her way to the market to sell some milk from her cow. As she carried the large jug of milk on top of her head, she began to dream of all the things she could do after selling the milk.

    ‘‘With that money, I’ll buy a hundred chicks to rear in my backyard. When they are fully grown. I can sell them at a good price at the market."

    As she walked on, she continued dreaming, “Then I’ll buy two young goats and rear them on the grass close by. When they are fully grown, I can sell them at an even better price!"

    Still dreaming, she said to herself, “Soon, I’ll be able to buy another cow and I will have more milk to sell. Then I shall have even more money..."

    With these happy thoughts, she began to skip and jump. Suddenly she tripped and fell. The jug broke and all the milk spilt onto the ground.
    No more dreaming now, she sat down and cried.

    There are people who buy lottery ticket and assuming that they would get the money, preplan what all they would buy with such large amount.

    My only dream is that one day I could also become a rambler like you as I also use only one finger to type.
    PS
     
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  8. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Friend,

    Since you have forbidden me from writing long responses to your delightful compositions, I have no choice but to alter my medium of expression. I am adding something below, which I hope will not challenge your vision, leave alone your phenomenal mind.

    chaplin.jpeg

    oj
     
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Viswamitra

    My dear Viswa
    Can you explain how some children born of noble parents should fall into wrong ways? Do we need greater examples of this than the children of Mahatma Gandhi? Today's hired killers in Tamilnadu are in their teens or early twenties. If you are destined to turn into a noble person despite your lowly birth, it will happen if it is in your Poorva Janma Karma. How many are able to change their lives by reading soul cleansing books? A 'near death experience' of Venkatarama made him a Maharshi. But it only makes lesser beings like us a hypochondriac! I never read soul enriching books. I go strictly by the codes that my mother taught me during my growing years.
    Sri
     
  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @PushpavalliSrinivasan

    That story which I too have heard during my school days runs counter to the clarion call of Dr. Abdul Kalam to dream on and become better. The dream that he talks about is some kind of fire that never allows us to rest until our dreams become a reality. The kind of dream that the milkmaid had was not Kalam's kind.
    One finger typists of the world unite! But my problem now is that I have become one eyed with the affected eye not seeing eye to eye with the functional eye. My right eye has become a wrong eye!
    Sri
     

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