The Voice In My Head…

Rediff ran this very, um, insightful article today about ‘love at first sight’.

Here are some of the more interesting responses from the article & from subsequent comments.

I believe in lust at first sight, making love at first night and then when she proposes marriage, taking the first flight. — Bharat Dharamwani

This is insane there is nothing called love in this world there are just needs which needs to meet. Most of the girls just flirt around with men all they want is money and security. You will see plenty of examples where the most bad looking boy will have a good girl not because he is good natured but has a good bank balance. yes girls do fall in love at first sight not with you but your wallet. — Mohammed Dilawar

I see beautiful gals and i fall in love…maybe 100 times a day. maybe its infatuation,maybe its love i dont know. but at this rate i think i may never know true love. bohohohooooo….– Girish

Yes i really belive in love at first sight. Every time i see a new girl. i fall in love.. — Gyaneshwar Asha

What Mr. Mohammed Dilawar has written in this article is absolutely true in most of the girls ~ by harbhajan

believe only guys think of this thing too much, For gals only 2 things matters, money and flirting wid guys.
As I know 2 of gals from my University days and they use to flirt wid each and every guy they meet and when the guy start liking them, They use to dump them and they are still doing that.
I know after a year or two, they will get married to one settled guy who must be having lot of money.
So for me love does not exist for gals, Guys watch movies and think there is some thing like Love at first sight in the world and after some bad experiences, they realizes it that their is nothing as such known as love at first sight. ~ by Rajesh

and (imo) the most interesting comment:

I am a Psychologist and this is what I ve got to say …
by Vasanthan Bharathy

Huge researches at various universities and human behavioral institutes across the world have already been carried out to find if Love at first sight is true or its just lust.

Majority of the studies shows that Love at first sight is true. It works this way. Men or Women when they are single, they constantly keep searching for their partner. At some point when they don’t really get their right match, they start dreaming of their partner. They start dreaming of their looks, style, behavior, Character etc. This dream of them gets registered in the sub conscious mind without their knowledge. Now your sub conscious mind is more efficient than a super computer. What happens after now is pattern search and pattern match. When this boy or girl who has dreamt about their dream partner, meets a person who is closest to their dream, his bells starts ringing.

One small action/ style or speech of a person is enough for the sub conscious mind to determine his/her entire character set. Since much of this happens at the sub conscious mind, we often don’t realize what struck us and what made us fall in love. Most people finally term this as divine intervention.

Love at first sight is very true and very practical.

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One of the reasons I love Mumbai City so much, is because the people who live here never cease to amaze me!

Backing the truck a little though, yesterday I received this call:

Tomorrow is Avantika’s birthday and we’re having a surprise party for her, can you come?

Now Avantika is one of the sweetest people I’ve had the privilege to call ‘friend’ recently. She’s bubby, pretty and most attractive of all - she has a huge heart. I came to this conclusion when I found out that she dumped her career as a lawyer to work as a teacher to underprivileged kids at the NGO Akanksha.

A celebration for Avantika, naturally I said yes.

But apparently the surprise was for me! For the party was not today (as I made out from the above line) but last evening! Imagine my surprise then when I received a call saying Avantika had already arrived and where was I?! Lol.

By the time I arrived, most people present were in varied states of happy inebriation, mostly due to a (completely groggy himself) host cum bartender who apparently was busy mixing French, Greek & Turkish drinks for the group! For my part, I was happy there was a nice apple juice for me to nurse.

Had a long conversation with Avantika’s other half Kanishk on how India seems to being going the Western way, with so many people in our age group were switching careers completely - certainly there were many people at the party who had done so!

Also met with a pretty American girl, of Sri Lankan origin and with thick Californian accent - who also has left America and come to India to work with the poor kids at Akanksha. I was so impressed with her - imagine, she’s been year almost a year, her first time ever in India and though she’s been to many a slum, she still hasn’t seen any of the sites in Mumbai! Talk about selfless giving!

In this city where excess of almost every vice seem to rule, it’s nice to see excess of virtue too.

A Guest Blog Post by Times of India, Westside Plus’ Nita Deb.

Did you know that the fullgrown trees down your lane, could fetch a cool two hundred thousand Indian, yes, that’s - INR 200,000 - each - for their wood?

I am really livid that these beautiful, peaceful living beings who are older than our grandfathers and who reduce the Carbon Dioxide content in the air, are being cut and sold for money. The amount could be shared by everybody involved, the BMC, your watchman, your society garbage collector. These trees are protected under law but most of them are cut either sans any sort of by-your-leave-your-honour or murdered in cold blood under flimsy excuses such as roadwidening, causing obstruction to traffic or simply, in the name of that great carrot dangled in front of our unquestioning, unsuspecting noses, “development”. Most of them end up feeding the fire at Chandanwadi and similar places.

Leaving empty holes on the pavements.

And in the ozone layer.

Currently, the BMC is planning to cut the 3,173 big and beautiful trees at the Virmata Jijabai Udyan in Byculla.

For those of you who don’t know the place, it’s the 53-acre Botanical Garden and Zoo in the heart of Bombay city, India (yes, it houses a few animals in not-so-wonderful conditions, but it also has trees, planted a century and a half ago, that are doing extremely well - currently…).

Plans are afoot to convert this heritage greenery into concrete, to build a nature education centre after destroying half the nature in the area. Somebody even mentioned destroying the current trees and recreating them in plastic so children can climb them and study them. Wonderful. Why can’t they climb real trees? Or do we want to teach our impressionable future generation that plastic trees are more fun than real ones…??!!

If you want to stop this, go to ‘Save Ranibagh‘ and sign the online petition!

It doesn’t matter if you don’t live here in Bombay and never will - the ozone layer that we destroy is common to us all.

The story of Adnan Patrawala has all of Mumbai asking that question.

For those not in the know, Adnan Patrawala was the 16 year old son of a businessman from Lokhandwala area in Andheri. Last Saturday (18th) he went out in his Scoda Octavia to play pool at a mall with some friends. He then called home (around midnight) to tell his parents that he “would not return that night”.

Unfortunately for Adnan, he was never to return home at all.

His parents were informed about the kidnapping on Sunday morning at 11am, through this call:

Your son is with us. We have kidnapped him and if you do not part with Rs 2 crore (INR 20 million) you will repent for your actions.

Adnan’s parents called the Oshiwara police and the police were able to track the calls (three subsequent calls were also made). They stated that Adnan spoke to his family during the last call and it was during this call that the trace went through.

By Sunday evening the cops had detained a junior college student Himesh Ambawat (18) (some newspapers report his name to be Khimesh Sambatvad) after some eyewitnesses said Adnan was last seen with him. Subsequent to all the questioning, Ambawat led the police to Sujit Nair (28), a BPO employee and alleged mastermind of the crime. Nair and another accomplice, Ayush Bhatt (19), also a college student, were detained in Navi Mumbai on Monday afternoon.

However it was too late for Adnan, who was drugged, intoxicated and then strangled to death with what is believed to be a belt.

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Just a few days ago, one more chappie, says to me;

“You know I only look at the pictures on your blog”

I say “one more” because there have been others in the past who’ve told me that same thing but this one is particularly close to me, so it is annoying, isn’t it?

I rather fancy myself a brilliant blogger, besides the whole gorgeous thing. Humph.

Couldn’t help but recall to mind Twisted DNA’s guest blog post here, on what he thinks are my statistics!!

Anyway, here’s a rather interesting picture taken over the weekend - Do not ask what I was doing with two persons (’gentlemen’ doesn’t seem to go with that image now does it?) dressed like that. But do know, that if the pic was taken on the length instead of the breadth, you’d see the two very attractive colorful lungis they were wearing. Um, yes, really

(click to enlarge)

Never let it be said I don’t cater to the needs of all my blog readers, er, blog lookers?

The little girl finally found a friend.
A bird.
They sat like children.
And it sang vaguely.
Sometimes on Figs
and Frogs.
Sometimes on Running Miles
and Second Quartiles.

Then the bird flew away.
She wondered, “Will I ever hear it sing again?”
Come back, come back oh bird.

The bird came back…
“I’m not sure I can trust humans”
But she held out her hand
and cried.
And the bird said;
“Listen…” 43 more songs.

And then she murdered it. Brutally. Beyond Recognition.
At night she wondered, “Do I have the right to mourn for something I killed?”

There I am getting a pedicure and chatting about inane things with my pedicurist when she springs this bit of wisdom upon me:

What mobile phone are you using? Is it a Nokia? They can use it to bomb you

Wha-huh??

Sorry? What? I didn’t understand what you just said?

Repeats earlier statement. And with these added goodies.

It was in yesterday’s Mid-Day. And on the news today. Some cell phone numbers were given too. If your number contains any of those numbers, you should change your sim card immediately.

Ok seriously; WHA-HUH??? My eyebrows are SKY high. Trying to figure out if there is indeed any sense behind all this blabber:

What article in the Mid-Day?

Yes it was there. And you know, my aunties neighbour, his number was there and he changed his number immediately

Ok. Fine I’ll check online. But I really think you’ve got all of this mixed up somehow. I’m sure there’s no need to worry at all.

Today anyone of us can die at anytime, we cannot be sure.

I try to placate her.

Yes, I guess so. Which is why we should keep our affairs in order and be a peace with everyone I guess. But I still think it’s no reason to live in fear.

Living in fear. No, no, that would be the most scary thing. No, baba!

Inside my head, I smile at the irony.

Later when I check the Mid-Day online, I find no reference whatsoever to what she may have been referring to. Anyone want to fill me in?

Yesterday a close friend and I were discussing Taslima Nasreen.

The Bangladeshi writer was attacked last week in Hyderabad during the press release of the Telugu version of her book ‘Shodh’. Headlines now are screaming out about the fact that the police have lodged a case against her under section 153 (A) of IPC for:

“promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.”

This, while her attackers, the MIM were caught on TV throwing whatever they could get their hands on at the press release at her, making live statements on TV stating that she should be “beheaded” or that she “would be killed” if she ever came to Hyderabad again. Incensed by all this “goondagiri”, other Muslim groups too have been acting out:

The Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT), a MIM rival, meanwhile alleged that MIM foiled its (MBT’s) plan to kill Taslima outside the press club. MIM also came under criticism from some Urdu newspapers for attacking Nasreen with bouquets.

Carrying pictures of MIM legislators hurling bouquets, a newspaper came down heavily on the leaders for allowing her to leave Hyderabad unhurt. Considered a critic of MIM, the Siasat newspaper lampooned the legislators for their failure to inflict injuries to a woman. The paper suggested that Nasreen could have been killed as the police reached the scene 30 minutes after the attack.

I am fairly shaken up by all these happenings and on telling my friend this, I received this response:

Melody, you do realise, don’t you, that you are as fundamental in your beliefs as those Muslims?

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A photo post ~ Click on any pic to enlarge.

Soon, the crowds will come.

Soon, the Church compound will be filled with thousands of devotees, hour upon hour offering novenas (nine day prayers with Mass).

Soon, Mother Mary will be venerated. Decorated. Implored of for millions of favors.

Soon, candles will be bought. In every shape and size. House shaped candles to pray for houses. Children shaped candles to pray for children. Candles in every shape of the body. Every shape and size.

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