I've moved to crustyjugglers.blogspot.com

Most people start their re-entry to blogging with something like "it's been a long time...", backed up with excuses like "I have been busy for the last 3 months..."

In my case, I can't deny that the excuse is partially true, but the real reason I haven't been blogging is Facebook... and its posting capability!!! This totally rocks! Combined with Notes, posting and sharing is one of Facebook's most powerful tools...

What brought me back to blogging were two events... actually make that three...

1. Kapil's reentry with some smashing articles... he's a school senior of mine... and a person with an excellent insight into the Tamil and Indian persona. He's an avid blogger too, and had recently emerged from a blogging break, refreshed and ready...

2. The market is raping me... and as a result of the time I get to myself by willing myself not to look at my stocks, I have been trying a few things... and blogging is one of them.

3. Two pieces of feedback from Facebook and a blog comment that sort of implied that I am not as bad a blogger as I thought myself to be.

Ji Monkey ji

The news just in.... Apparently New Delhi is overrun with monkeys... Now I can't think of any reason why that might be considered news!!!

The Actual 'Mirror Syndrome' (House MD)

First things first...
Who here thinks the team selection is getting over-dramatic?
Who here thinks that Kumar and the Mor(m)on need to be fired? (I like Kal Penn... but cmon already!!)

The last episode was one of the better episodes in what has been a lackluster season... if only for the fact that it was overdramatic... sick guy reading minds? Becoming people? Knowing all their secrets? Come on....

I'm not gonna dwell upon the story, as there are quite a few bloggers who deserved being stoned to death for giving out spoilers... Rather, I wanted to see if the Mirror Syndrome actually existed, and if it did, whether it was as dramatic...

A few google searches provided a few links... Wikipedia threw up something about a pregnant woman, and most others linked to House MD based sites... Apparently the formal name in the episode in Giovannini's Syndrome...

A few more google searches... aah... Giovannina Conchiglia (from Wikipedia -> List of House episodes -> Mirror Mirror) ... and now we got a few more entries on this (I imagine) hunched wizened old man who discovered ESP... among which were these three links...

To quote,

“AD seems to have lost the capacity to keep his own identity constant, as he adapts himself excessively to variations in the social contexts, violating his own identity connotations in order to favour a role which the environment proposes”

A few more quotes throw up similar stuff... I wonder who the guys in charge of material research for this sitcom are... geniuses...

In perspective

I thought my last month was really crazy... then I took a look at the news...

First, Putin visited Iran, and promised his support for the nuclear reactors, probably making Russia the only 'Western' power Iran can have as a friend. What did he get in return? Death threats from suicide bombers.

In Nebraska, God has been hit with a lawsuit by a moron, who accuses Him of killing "millions upon millions" of people among other things. And God got his own attorney when other religious zealots thought this too good to pass.

The Chinese have apparently been confused by law and rhetoric. Anything that a Chinese premier says once in five years is now included in the Constitution... as law. It includes pseudo-economic theories, Martha Stewartesque tips on how to live, heck I bet a speech on hamsters playing guitars would have been immortalized if it was delivered by the premier.

But the icing on the cake was a really juicy piece...
The deputy mayor of Delhi was killed by... wait for it....


monkeys!!!

Apparently the urban pests jumped on him en masse when he came out to the terrace to chill out. Last word was he was chilling out in an ice box getting ready to burn.

Time to start digging out those Planet of the apes CDs... you never know when one of those 'survival tricks' may come in handy.

Snapshot

Listening to : Echo by Incubus
Practising: (or rather trying) Malaguenas Salerosas
Addicted to: scouring the internet for video highlights of the T20.

Return to Innocence

Shahid Afridi had a pretty bad day today, and, at the presentation of the consolation prize of Man of the Series, I expected this would reflect. So, when Shahid went up to collect his award and congratulated the Indian nations, I sort of shared his feeling. Somewhere in a lonely wigwam, Mighty Wolf would have squinted into the cathode tube and felt proud seeing the modern Indian braves returning to tricolored warpaint and howling encouragement to the warriors. If only the Chief had a feather in his long hair, Mighty Wolf would have given him his daughter and his father's tomahawk.

Eye of the storm

Rarely does a person get high without using alcohol or the such. Fast guitars, fast cars, hitting sixes and getting examination results apart, I have found it hard to manage it. And suddenly, in one day, it strikes twice.

The first lava-lamp hallucination was between Mark Knofler's exquisite guitar solo and Stevie Ray Vaughn's House is Rockin' on my way back home. I must admit this was partly because of hunger. But what the hell. A high is a high. And the second was towards the final moments as Misbah was lofting Bajji. Rather I should say 'is'. What a match. I do rather feel bad about Misbah missing the last one. That guy thrashed India to within inches of its life twice. And India winning without its veterans was a brilliant outcome, perhaps the rejuvenation that international cricket needs now - a release from the glorious past - of ODIs and scandals and war heroes in fading armor.

But even at this point, in the middle of this euphoria, I feel that one veteran will still need to play a huge role for the next three years. Dravid is needed. The Master has come, inspired a billion Indians and left them proud of a legacy no one will surpass. Along with Sehwag and Ganguly, He has had His day and, as a guy who plays, lives and quits by His own terms, He must be relieved, looking forward to a long vacation in Khandala or Bermuda. But despite the talented Uthappa and Gambhir competing for the spot, there doesn't seem to be any one who can replace Dravid, not only for laying foundations on which other batsmen can prosper, but for the overall mental stability and freedom he brings to the team as an overall anchor through the game. Dravid is needed, if only for the reason that he needs to choose that one in a billion who can be a worthy successor.