All Talk and No Action

I have been taken in by this wonderful initiative and have written to four people already.

I urge you to go through the letters. Some are cheerful, a few are uplifting, but the majority  are heartbreaking.

Which brings me to my closely held belief of saying it while you still have the time! 

I've been away for so long that the whole business of blogging seems alien to me.

Every time I wish to share something, it invariably ends up being better expressed by someone else.

Plus, I always wonder what more can I ever add to the humongous pool of blogosphere. Everything worth saying, has been shouted from the rooftops; every news dissected, every emotion discussed threadbare, every worthy cause upheld and all possible outrage had.

Friends and readers have reached out at different times. I am grateful for the attention and, regret the woeful state this blog has come to.

Though some important events did claim majority of my time in the last few months, I won't offer them as valid reasons to not have blogged.

The only reason I didn't blog is -  I didn't have anything intelligent to say.

This feeling may have lingered had a friend not written a seemingly uninteresting mail a few days back. All he shared were thoughts that crossed his mind while he traveled to and fro office everyday.

What struck me then was how silly I had been all this while.

The very reason I started blogging was to give voice to the thousands of random thoughts that crossed my mind every day. The point was never to make readers think. The point was never to agonise over the wrongs in the world. It definitely was not to be a torchbearer of any sort. The only aim was to enjoy myself. And maybe, learn in the process.

My favourite bloggers have always been the ones who have created magic out of mundane subjects. They have connected with me, entertained me and if time permitted, made me think.

This is not to say that I won't link to important issues on this blog or discuss worldly and otherworldly matters.

It only means I will be more real to myself.

It also means I am already feeling better and less silly than from when I started penning this post.

And before you sign off, please try to answer this completely unrelated, but profound insight -


“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” ― Herodotus, The Histories


Is this how knowledgeable and worldly wise Indians feel?

A remarkable talk by Mark Pagel.

A tiny number of ideas can go a long way, as we've seen. And the Internet makes that more and more likely. What's happening is that we might, in fact, be at a time in our history where we're being domesticated by these great big societal things, such as Facebook and the Internet. We're being domesticated by them, because fewer and fewer and fewer of us have to be innovators to get by. And so, in the cold calculus of evolution by natural selection, at no greater time in history than ever before, copiers are probably doing better than innovators. Because innovation is extraordinarily hard. My worry is that we could be moving in that direction, towards becoming more and more sort of docile copiers.

If you're scrambling for time, I recommend reading the transcript. Pagel posits a thought provoking argument, the evidence of which you 'll find within your own environment.

A related article appeared in The New York Times, earlier this year.

Very few people discuss ideas, fewer still, come up with newer ones. The what if quotient of our generation has suddenly plunged. 

Television, print media, movies and books don't seem to be helping either.

I don't know if it's to do with information overload, shorter attention span, lack of incentive,  lack of desire to engage in meaningful dialogue or a killer combination of all of these.

But it sure is unnerving to be moving towards zombieland.

A gripping tale of survival, determination, and, transient love. And of course, Karma or Luck (depending on whichever side of the fence you are on).

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The human body never ceases to amaze me.  Its capacity to recuperate and rebuild itself is remarkable.

Though, I have known this  for years now, my Vipassana experience drove home this point even more lucidly.

The other day, a friend shared someone's account of Vipassana. A must read.

This is a very engaging video of the Norwegian Royal Guard performance (apparently on ice).

Apart from the famous "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly" theme, around 6:28 you should be able to spot the tune of a melodious bollywood song.

Ofcourse, we are the copycat here, as explained here.

Interesting find this has been.

Link via Abhishek S.

The below is a 9 minute video on Esref Armagan – a Turkish man without sight. 

The video is remarkable as it shows Esraf drawing and painting with much finesse. We are also reminded again that we really know very little about the human brain.


I would be much interested in understanding how Esraf is able to determine the colors of landscapes he paints. Just how does he ever understand that the sky is supposed to be blue and a tree is supposed to be green?

I once taught a visually challenged girl and found it extremely difficult to explain the concept of colors. During one of my sessions with her, I was meant to explain stuff like guessing the time of the day by looking at the color of the sun and its placement in the sky. I started with using dense terms like deep red and burning orange and sunny yellow till she happened to mention that she had never ever seen and probably will never see what these shades look like. 

Just how does one explain how cool the sun looks with a tinge of red in the morning sky, to someone who has never had the luxury of vision? 

As a part of a project at work, I have been looking at the importance of visual merchandising in retail. 

Delving into how visuals/design influence buying decisions at the market place has been quite a revelation. 

Ofcourse, there are statistics like 60% of the buying decisions in a store depend on the look, feel, music, lighting and flooring. But, I would rather interest you with a more appealing demo. 

Consider the below video. 


I love the way the designer has infused life in an otherwise boring product (a scarf).

Though not much of a shopper or a brand conscious person, I enjoy strolling through apparel stores. It is much fun to decipher their visual merchandising strategies and the stories their brands narrate.

but friendly neighbourhood termites, who are feeding on your money.

10 m.i.l.l.i.o.n rupees only.

Given how much I depend on pen and paper and how beautiful my handwriting is, very soon, you may have to pay, to visit me.

What? You think Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Sastu Sangrahalaya entry is for free?

It would be an understatement if I said 2010 was like any other year. I had made a list of things to be taken care of (most of which have been attended to). The year tested my patience and belief in myself. All things that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. 

To top it all, the last day of 2010 presented a perfect culmination to the year that was.

With a pizza party gone wrong (we were sent non vegetarian pizzas and had to cancel the entire order) and no cable television (our area network being down), all plans of watching Bigg Boss 4 and new year programmes evaporated.

So, while my phone kept buzzing with new year wishes and blessings, all I could think of was a warm bite of a spicy pizza + a cool sip of Coke, accompanied by a bittersweet Dutch Truffle pastry.

However, like you, even I receive silly SMS forwards like :

When life throws lemon at you, make a lemonade out of it.

So, my family did what it is best at - we played the 4 player variant of 3-2-5 (teen do paanch), where, Dad and I beat Mom and Mukund at most rounds.

Served them well for cheating.

Chotu couldn't understand what the excitement was about and kept prancing around.

I don't think I would have liked the year to have ended any other way.

Wish you a very Happy 2011.