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Showing posts from December, 2008

Was it Premonition?

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We were up early and Nandini told me as she was leaving for the Airport that she read about a fire in a Bangkok club and around 50 people had died as they were celebrating the arrival of New year 2009.
After they left for the Airport I checked the internet around 5 am and I saw this at the club's website! The small icon you see is actually a picture of a flame and it is an anitmation of an active flame!

GOODBYE SANTIKA With BadBoy Party
31 December 2008

http://www.santikaclub.com/event/joeyboy/index.php Surprisingly there was no mention of this fire either in Bangkok Post or The Nation websites while the others around the world had the news of this fire on their websites. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7806658.stm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28452686#28452686 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/54_dead_in_Bangkok_nightclub_fire/articleshow/3920930.cms?TOI_latestnews Here is a quote from MSNBC: BANGKOK - A fire swept through a high class nightclub jammed with hundreds of N…
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Sunflowers to Cheer you up!

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We thought we will go and see the sunflowers as it is the season. Twenty of us Adults, kids and a baby took a whole day trip on a Train. The train was slow but still wobbled as it was on narrow gauge tracks.

Mukund gave us a lot of gyan about sunflowers, not how much oil an acre of sunflowers yeild, as Aditi had predicted.

I copy this from Wikipedia as I did not remember all the things Mukund said about Sunflowers!
"What is usually called the flower is actually a head (formally composite flower) of numerous florets (small flowers) crowded together. The outer florets are the sterile ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into what are traditionally called "sunflower seeds," but are actually the fruit (an achene) of the plant. The inedible husk is the wall of the fruit and the true seed lies within the kernel.
The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spi…
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Roy views India!

As a rambler I hesitated to take on the subject of Terror for my blog. Then I see that the editor of Guru Magazine (Bangkok Post) has written to Santa asking for many things for Christmas and eighth on the wish list is for a definition of the word 'terrorism'. While he has written this in a lighter vein, I am still relieved that I am not the only one who is confused.

There is so much written about the Mumbai Terror that I still keep getting fws. on the subject. I admired the one written by Payoshi Roy, Class XI,Bishop Cottons Girls School, Bangalore and forwarded it to others. (I know most of you abhor Fws.) Her purpose: 'We are here to figure out what exactly is wrong with us, because it is evident that there is something horribly amiss in this country and it's people'.

She is very clear about our faults. 'Discrimination is sadly practiced in every nook and corner of our country. We think it's insignificant, we think that it's just the way people are. It…
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Seriously, is there a way out?

After the Mumbai terror, we are all upset, angry and want everything done. What is that entirely depends on the nature of the person or the position he or she is in. I see that Thomas Friedman, who called the world flat now wants it to be a village. Very sensible I think.

I quote: 'Because, I repeat, this kind of murderous violence only stops when the village - all the good people in Pakistan, including the community elders and spiritual leaders who want a decent future for their country - declares, as a collective, that those who carry out such murders are shameful unbelievers who will not dance with virgins in heaven but burn in hell. And they do it with the same vehemence with which they denounce Danish cartoons.'

Is he thinking of small manageable tribal villages and not the global village? Whatever, I wondered whether at my age, would I be consulted as an elder in one of these small segments of humanity. A modern Rishi as it were. I remember reading that the influence of th…
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Something to bring Cheer.

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Tara suggested I write a blog about something to be happy about. That was a few days ago as we were just recovering from the Mumbai Terror week. While we are really Punekars at heart, Mumbai too has a special place in our hearts. This could happen to a Bengalooru-born person like me as Independence happened when I was nine and I became an Indian.
Cross my heart, Inshah Ishwara, I hope to continue to be one. Seriously, as a Hindu kid in school, I had started this ritual of crossing my heart and saying 'Inshah Allah'. I do not remember why, must be because of the original 'Gandhigiri' that was still relevant those days!
Anyway, what really prompted me to write now, was this unattractiveold mutt which has adopted Rishi court, the apartment complex we live in. On our early morning walks, as soon as she sees the dog, Rhea breaks into a big smile and talks to him. I hesitate to take her closer to him as I am sure he has fleas. I do not think it has had a bath for years unless…
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