And never breath a word about your loss..
...
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
...
-- Kipling.

Oru Nadhi, Oru Pournami, Oru Odam..
I just love some of the lyrics from the songs of the movie Samurai, particularly the following song..

Oru Nadhi, Oru Pournami, Oru odam ennidam undu..
Odakaaran.. Odakaaran.. ungalil yaarundu?

Oru Kaadu oru medu sila pookkal ennidam undu..
Pookkaaran.. pookkaran.. ada ungalil yaarundu?

Oru Pudhayal.. oru kuviyal.. malai vaasal ennidam undu..
Alibaaba.. Alibaaba.. ada ungalil yaarundu?...

I can transalate - but I dont want to spoil the kick that's in there! :)

Do listen to it when you have time, but not from here

P O T A..
Read Cho's views on the arrest of Vaiko here.

Interesting read, I thought..

Flirt quotes..
(With a flower in hand..)
I was just showing this flower how beautiful you are!

Do you have a map? I just got lost in your eyes!

I remember you only twice a year..
When it rains..
And when it doesn't!

Cry for help..
Guys - STOP!

Just think for a moment how much you all have put into your blogs over - say - the last one month! Imagine yourself to be a newbie just trying to get the hold over blogdom- as I am.

Now tell me how am I supposed to pay attention to all that you have written. From the samples that I see, I see so many things interesting, so much to vouch for, so much to contradict, so very many different varieties of ideas and thoughts and opinions to pay attention to.

And I admit - I am not able to! :(
But I want to..

Either stop blogging interesting stuff for the next one month - all of you - and wait for me to catch up with you guys.
Or make the day comprise of 72 hours each - for me alone - and for the rest of you - just 12!

If not both, such cries of help will be the only blogs from me! :(

Simply put - I really think you are all more interesting than me - to even consider blogging instead of reading your blogs! :-|

Thank you for the attention..
(*frownish-sheepish-irritated-smile*)

Humility, modesty etc..
'Cho' Ramaswamy, the tamil journalist has a writing style. He will take authority to comment on everything - from politics(his home-turf) to pop music - from communism to cricket! Then he will follow it up with an addendum telling us, in a strange show of humility, how all his name and fame is so undeserving. How lucky he has been throughout his life and how 'little' he is as compared to greater people. How little his knowledge is in each of the fields he is talking about!

He even had a series running in his magazine under the name 'Adhirshtam thandha anubavangal' - Experiences that luck gave me!

The whole of that series talked about how he got positions and respect where(according to him) he didn't deserve it. All the way there will be the hidden message getting conveyed on how great he actually is(or he actually thinks he is!)

Humility and modesty are modes of expression, after all! Strange expressions - because once the person who expresses them knows that he is being that(humble or modest), they lose their meaning! They infact become a show of vanity - the exact opposite of what the person intended(maybe!).

That categorizes them as rather risky ways of expressing oneself - for the risk of conveying the radical opposite is just as far as understanding the expression itself!!

'Cho' - is an example!

Other examples came from a few blogs that I read today - as part of my 'getting-the-know-how' of weblogging. Most of the blogs with a self-introduction let out the same brand of modesty(?) - portraying the self as 'stupid-lazy-clumsy-not-worth-a-penny' but still 'a nice being'! Some of the blogs infact even gave hints of the 'greatness inside' the writer - though not explicitly!!

You can safely add myself to the list of examples! And even as I say that - I confirm the fact of it, is it not?

Question - Can't we do away with this? Can't we do away with being knowingly modest?

Or rather.. does modesty have a meaning at all after we do away with it, in the above sense?

I don't know whether I am being very clear here, but all I can say is that at this point of time, I am searching for better words to express myself on this! :(

Cricket in the US of A..
I am happy and sad..

Happy - India registered one of their best one-day wins (if not the best) in history.. :)
Sad - I was denied the opportunity of watching it on TV.. :(

This has happened always. And should be happening for other cricket fanatics like me, too. After all, I don't want to be the only loser!!

When I put off the TV and start my cribs about how badly India is playing and put it on again - a dream knock would have just passed. Crowd on TV will be elatedly giving farewell to the guy who played it and I will watch with this mixed feeling again.. Happy that he did it.. and sad that I didn't watch it!

Memories.. -
Remember bunking college one such day just to watch India play..
Test Match against South Africa.. Venue - Eden Gardens..
India lose wickets as regularly as TV ads inbetween overs..
Alan Donald is making merry..
The man whom I had hated for sometime then walks in.. I put off TV..
Put it on after an hour or so..

The same guy is walking off not even waving his bat to the frenzied crowd at Eden..

Score card reads..
M Azharuddin c & b Adams 109(77 balls) (18 fours)(1 six)

I watched that innings in highlights a couple of times after that.. I cursed myself more than a couple of times..

This time it was worse. I am in Seattle, USA! And down here..

Cricket - Leaping insect; male makes chirping noises by rubbing the forewings together

What are the ways through which I can bring cricket on my TV here? Friends in the Bay area tell me that they have cable operators who provide special timings on the local cable channels to tune into cricket whenever there is a match. There seem to be none like that here! :(

Poor me..

Alice.. Alice..
It is'nt great literature in any sense. But the humour in Alice in Wonderland forms a category wherein it impresses children and grown ups equally well - in entirely different ways.

Sample the following passage. The background being Alice and her friends are all really wet and they are looking for a method to dry themselves.

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, called out, `Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.

`Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, `are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria--"'

`Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.

`I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: `Did you speak?'

`Not I!' said the Lory hastily.

`I thought you did,' said the Mouse. `--I proceed. "Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable--"'

`Found WHAT?' said the Duck.

`Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: `of course you know what "it" means.'

`I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the Duck: `it 's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?'

The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on..

Is'nt it a beauty?

Policy Decision..
In view of my concern for full english words in the internet age, I promise, hereby, to use only those in my posts!

With all sincerity I request my fellow friends not to follow me, so that I can be one of a kind! :)

Thanks
And welcome me to blogs..