A random note from a Pakistani diary

Read one of Bubbles' random thoughts.
And this part About her struck a chord:
My views on everything and everyone change so continuously that I think I need this blog just to remember how I was feeling about something a week ago.

PS: Bubbles sounds so much more positive and better than confused babbler. :)

How to get a driving license

Tintin recounts his experience while trying to get a driving license - mighty useful for DL aspirants.
Learners license
Driver's license-1, DL-2 and DL-3.

Tintin has an interesting blog, aptly called Reflections, as he does reflect on life.

Nice place to be

Getting rid of my blues...

Pri's post on Airlines Hotel and her links to Preeth's posts, Nice place to be-1 and 2 have helped me get back on my feet. Bangaloreans would identify with these posts.
Tata. :)

The Brownie is back!

The abdicating / absconding / whatever Brownie is back, although at a different address. :) Now I have to update all the old links. *sigh*

Many of her older posts are available, but the chronological order of the posts is lost. Oh, we can't have everything can we?

Who is Gavin?

Sounds pretty much like the first sentence of Ayn Rand's Atlas shrugged. I am spending the last half hour reading negative reviews of Fountainhead and immensely enjoying myself. For all you Fountainhead enthusiasts please have a look at these reviews.
Coming back to the question - Can Gavin or GB clarify?

For Book-lovers

There is this site, Shelfari, which a friend of mine introduced me to. It is a social networking site that aims to bring together people with a passion of books. (Pingu, are you reading this?)
It facilitates

• creating your own cyber-bookshelf (Jay - you have your own library, right?)
  
• creating a network of friends
• reviewing books (Brownie, Manasi, Madura, Peej, Frida and others)
• exchanging messages with friends and others about books (Vishesh)
• and probably many more things.

Its a great site for book-lovers. I don't know if there are any other similar sites to do a comparison.


Links to some interesting pages:
Abha-Interesting set of quotes about words in her profile page.
A random page of reviews of Rohinton Mistry's - A Fine Balance.

PS: The site sometimes is quite slow and probably has a few bugs.

Collective failure of society

Collective failure of society reminds me of the story of four people: Everybody,
Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There are different versions of the story. This might look like a funny read, but on reflection one is likely to see the tragic outcomes of this attitude as is revealed in a number of instances.

Arunn expresses his anguish at one such instance that he came across in his post - Sad but true.
Mridula records two such incidents in her posts -
A Tragic Death at IIT Kanpur.
More deaths at IITK.

Can we do something about it?

Your life in your thumb-print!

To be honest wth you all - I am in the mould of all those muggles who consider anything related to magic or the supernatural as unbelievable. But now evidence is provided by a man of science (whom I also trust) that these things do work! Dr. (Daddy) Narayanan records his own experience of Nadi Jyothidam. Nadi Jyothidam is a divination method where the thumb print of a person is taken and used as an index to retrieve the scrolls (leaves) from an ancient archive of predictions made for literally everyone.

Stray Pup for Adoption

I was walking down Church street and saw this absolutely cute advertisement in front of Glenands - The Pet Shop:

I'm black & white
my one eye is blue
It doesn't work
but I can still see you

PLEASE adopt me
i'm only 2 months old
helpless against the
             RAIN+COLD.

ADOPT
this stray
          puppy


For more information
RENUKA 99869 20656
  +
  PALLAVI
      99864 23534(?)

Made me misty-eyed.
Any takers?

PS: This pup is still available and is with CUPA now.

PPS: Do you want to pamper your pet?

Feeling maudlin...

Listening to I wanna grow old with you.
View it here on YouTube:

Westlife - I wanna grow old with you


Westlife - I wanna grow old with you - Spiderman-2


Westlife - I wanna grow old with you - lyrics.

Feeling maudlin.

Of Experience, Swami Vivekananda, marriage ...

There is no substitute for experience.
I've taken the liberty to rework Mrs. Indira Gandhi's favourite quote during the emergency: There is no substitute for hard-work.* I fully agree with Mrs Gandhi, but I cannot fully agree with the former statement, which is what Raman seems to imply in his post - The Experiential factor.

Interestingly he quotes a friend of his who holds the view, "Vivekananda never got a first hand experience of what a man enjoys in marriage and so whatever his views are on Brahmacharya as a better way of living are totally based on half knowledge . They cannot be complete and authoritative." He further goes on to substantiate this statement by relating his experience of his marital life (bliss?) till date, which has made him change his attitude-to / view-of life. Raman also observes that we might say this is just a honeymoon period and things would look rosy now since each of you are in a condescending mood. Quite clairvoyant, Raman seems to be. ;-)

I am not a Swami Vivekananda buff to either accept or reject the statement about him, but one of the commentors, multisubj yb, on Raman's blog gave a link to one of his blogs, Vivekananda YB which apparently studies and analyses [on] Vivekananda's epistles, with a different perspective.

* This quote is originally attributed to Thomas Alva Edison.