Last day of the Year : 2012

Congratulations to one and all as we did make it to the end of this year without facing world annihilation!!! Now that I/we have got this far might as well spend sometime jotting down my thoughts on the year that will soon be filed away under the label 'bygone'.

In more ways than 2012, was a revelation to me more so on the personal front than anything else. My belief that my world is a combination of a String theory with a mix of the Chaos theory has only strengthened. The String theory not from the physics perspective but more so from the perspective that we are all mere puppets connected to 'Strings'. One yank of the String here and things shake up causing a puppet at the far end to make a move which it seldom expects to make- that is how I bring the Chaos theory into the mix.

I have always been on the look out for newer life experiences expecting each one to teach me something new and make me a better individual. 2012 has been replete in such life experiences and I thank this year for that. Of course more than anything else this year I have felt the need for friends and I am proud to say that they have been steadfast and I am thankful to them. I do wish I will also be able to return the favor if called upon in the future, which I am hoping will not be anytime soon for their own well-being.

Now that I have got the heavy stuff out of the way here are a few other things which I would like to brag about and I few I wouldn't:

1. Completed the GR reading challenge of reading 50 books in the year
2. Blogged regularly. A total of 45 including this one is no mean feat 
3. Didn't totally suck at Fantasy Football. Atleast didn't end up 12th in the league of 12 :) 
4. Went to the gym for 2 days in the entire year. Spending a total of 35 mins overall
5. Did not puke but cried thanks to too much of alcohol. Dont want a repeat of that ever. :X
6. Frequent trips to Austin made that my second home in the US.
7. Am successfully staying alone and commuting in the bus as I go about my daily business in Des Moines
8. Didn't visit India in 2012. Plan on doing it in the first half of the next year.
9. Arsenal is still battling for the 4th spot in the EPL, like every year.
10. The Patriots will win the Super Bowl this year.

No new year resolutions for 2013. I would be more than satisfied if I could continue in the same vain for next year. Nothing more, nothing less!

Wish you all a Happy New Year! Be safe and God Bless!

2012 Reading Challenge - 50/50 :)

Yay!!! Its still only Christmas eve and I have finally laid down my 50th read of the year 2012. Here is me patting myself on the back for the achievement :) .

Highlights of what I read this year :

• Harry Potter - All 7 books and yes for the very first time. Better late than never :)
•  Jack Reacher - 7 of them Lee Child novels. The first 6 and then jumped to the 9th only because I wanted to prime myself for the Tom Cruise flick. Though now I am not sure I will even watch it considering the lukewarm reception it is getting in the face of The Hobbit. Also I am highly critical about the casting of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher
•  Read quite a few freebies out of Amazon. Yeah the ones which cost you exactly $0.00. Also fell prey to the marketing strategy where the first novel of a series is free and then the second and third are priced. Folks buy the remaining two as they are hooked onto the story thanks to the first and want to finish the series just for closure sakes. Case in point - The Mind Readers series by Lori Brighton.
•  Was introduced to the concept of the novella. Something which is not as elaborate as a novel but also not as short as a short-story. Eg : The Wool series, a set of 5 sci-fi novellas based in a post apocalyptic world. Also Legion by Brandon Sanderson
•  Special mention to Neil Gaiman and the magic I got to read in Stardust and Anansi Boys.  

There were also a few failure along the way. Could not make head or tail of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and gave up within the first 80 pages. Finally watched the movie and consoled myself. The Cloud Atlas and Joseph Anton, similarly were started and left mid way. Those will be tried again at a later point in time. Same applies to Vikram Chandra's 'Sacred Games'.

As Dr. Seuss puts it - Be Awesome, be a book-nut! Happy Reading!!!

26 Acts of Kindness

Yesterday evening as I was standing at the bus stop near Walmart, a girl approached me and handed me a envelope, wished me a Merry Christmas and walked away. The envelope from the looks of it had a card and some quarters. A random act of kindness I thought, which sure did bring a smile to my face, until I got home and opened it. This is what it contained apart from the quarters:

 

#26Acts is a campaign to do one act of kindness in memory of each person murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I was a part of that anonymous girl's 26 Acts of Kindness, and I feel blessed that I was a part of it. 

As she wrote in her card : Please be kind to others!

Check out this link for some more info: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/20/167713372/newtown-shootings-inspire-26-acts-of-kindness-campaign

End(?) of the World?

The world didn't end. Not that I was doing a J-Lo-esque 'Waiting for tonight' number, counting down to 12/21/2012 0000hrs. But even then, it didn't end.

The very first time I realized that this was in all probability going to be a hoax was when I checked that the day in question was a Friday. We all know how the working populace just craves long weekends. So who ever started this pop 'End of the World' hype was/is planning for a very long weekend indeed. I am very sure that the Mayans did not really subscribe to the theory of weekends let alone long weekends, for Mother Nature never rests – would be their credo!!!

I have confessed many times to my near and dear ones that I remember birthdays, anniversaries etc, but in my pursuit of happiness, I just don't realize that those particular birthdays, those particular anniversaries are upon us until well after the day is ripe and almost near its end. Something similar happened to me with this whole 'End of the World' hoopla. I knew for sure it was 21^st Dec 2012, but I only realized that when I walked to my office and had the wittiest of them throw a 'Hey, you feeling safe today?' line at me, of course followed by a booming self-appreciating laugh. Ohh yes, FB was of help but then it doesn't really help when majority of friends are in a different time zone. It just complicates matters.

So the day continues to unravel as the 'end of the world' propaganda silently makes way to the 'Waking up to a New Conscience' mantra which seems to soothe most of us. I guess I will have to sign a couple of online petitions before I am permitted to experience this newer, higher conscience though.

Wish you a Merry Christmas as I plan to gulp all those 'End of the World' specials which downtown Des Moines has to offer!!!

How Free Freedom is?

The recent arrest and subsequent release of two girls over the FB post pertaining to Bal Thackeray's death has once again brought to the fore the argument of how free should freedom really be?

While there are many that argue that a simple FB post should not warrant an arrest I for one would like to examine what actually transpired and put forth a balanced opinion. I must say that my opinion has been shaped by a number of articles which I read about this.

Was the Sena functionary wrong in lodging the complaint?  Now there are reports that there were some earlier misgivings between the Sena functionary who lodged the complaint and the family of one of girls involved and that this act was to settle previous scores, looking from a legal point of view I don't think there is anything stopping anybody from approaching the police if he/she feels aggrieved.

Once the complaint is filed, it is upto the police to take the requisite action. There have been cases, where the police have been pressured to act in a certain way by various groups and there is every reason to believe that the same would have been the case here. My research led me to an article which pointed out that each police station has access to certain law officers, whose job is to interpret the laws for the police and help them out in exactly such sticky situations. It so transpired that here the police officers in charge did not sought the assistance and went ahead with the arrests prompting the public outrage. The fact that Shiv Sainiks vandalized the hospital of one of the relatives involved colored the entire situation in a different hue.

The police instead of doing what it did, could have very well used discretion and acted intermediary between the parties and looked for an out of the books apology and settled the matter amicably. There is no way to know if this was tried, however no statements regarding this have come out.

 It is about time we start taking the electronic media, specifically the electronic social media seriously. The impact of this medium has already been felt in the Arab Spring. Just as we are bound by etiquettes in our daily verbal interactions, we would also need to employ etiquettes in our mannerisms on the social media. "Where is the freedom of expression in that?" you will say. If you think about this a bit more there is no country guaranteeing absolute freedom for the simple reason that as individuals we are all different and words have this incredible ability to deliver different meanings under different circumstances.

Do I sound like an advocate of censorship? These things are separated by such fine lines. No doubt 'utopia' is only an idea!!! J