The One With The Hearing Problem

I was diagnosed with "moderate" hearing loss in my late teens. The resulting psychological trauma was hard to handle and I am still trying to deal with it to this day. Here's a brief glimpse into my world (and to those who share my special affliction) as seen through your eyes if you were me:

1. You wonder why they always always keep the tv/radio volume on low.

2. You have to read the book so you can understand the movie you had seen.

3. You don't want people to talk for fear that you might not hear them.

4. You have to keep saying "I beg your pardon" for the millionth time.

5. They laugh at someone's joke and you are left wondering.

6. They ask "Any questions?" and you want to ask them to repeat all that they've just said.

7. Your hearing aid magnifies the sounds which you can already hear and it doesn't help you with the ones you can't hear in the first place.

8. You get irritated when the subtitles don't work in the movies even though you know the language.

9. You wish there were subtitles in real life (somehow).

10. You lose it when people think you are dumb when the real thing is that your ears are taking an indefinite vacation (and maybe you should just shout it out: "I am DEAF, okay!!?).

11. You are curious about sign language.

12. You believe that Shakespeare should have written: "To hear or not to hear, that is the question".

Shrugs. Stops typing(really!?). Remembers that there's lots of things to do. Goes about it :)

Far Away, In a Distant Galaxy...

Its funny when you are grown up and old (like me, all bent and bed-ridden at 25 ;-), and you start reminiscing of the days when you were young and the times you used to spend with your siblings. Just today, I was browsing up "fantasy" in wikipedia and I stumble on this article on Visionaries. Its a science fantasy cartoon Rejy, Reni and I used to keep seeing when we were in our early teens. We had borrowed the video cassette (yes, those ancient 1" x 4" x 7 1/2" rectangle-like-cuboids) from our favorite cousins, Ashley and Asha (no orkut profile yet). They are related to us by the fact that both our mothers share the same mother (and father, ofcourse!). We never got around to returning it to them but we did utilize it to the max by watching it during days when the tv was showing some random shit (remember, this was before you ever heard of cable tv). Numerous repetitions of the thing resulted in the three of us memorizing the story word for word. During the summer, when it got real hot down there in the Sharjah Desert (or during long boring rides in the car), we used to wile away the time taking turns in reciting the dialogues. It was fun imitating the accent too, especially shouting out the magical powers of each of the character in the story. Here's the opening sequence of the cartoon for you to savor.

Figuring Out the Most Important Thing in the World

I have always been interested in plumbing people. And more than doing this to other two-legs, I always take delight in getting to know myself. Must be because of the apparent close proximity between the mind and body that it makes me think that I can almost grasp it with my hands. But Oh! How elusive and mysterious is the task of opening the secret rooms in my head in the hope of making practical magic such as unlimited intelligence or divine healing for this ego-shattered mortal such as myself. May there be an answer to the Sacred Question of "Who Am I?".

Xmas Two Double O Six

Its surprising for a Leo to be spending, of all things, Christmas alone. Since my kind is associated with various types of joyous pursuits, its hard to fathom the fact that I am spending this season only with my own esteemed presence. I guess, my current state of unemployment (and the resulting confusion) helped churn out this "very opposite of interesting" turn of events.

So, I ordered myself a parcel of biryani and rented out the japanese movie Sanjuro to see for the second time. It's a must see. My favorite part is when the protagonist belts out the line: "(My name is) Sanjuro, 30 year old. Going on 40". In the end, it all evened out.

PS: I do recommend Akira Kurosawa's movies, my favorite being Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. And Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai (I, II and III). In all of them, we have Toshiro Mifune playing the lead and snarling his way to glory.

A Very and Merry Christmas to all! Now for the Lion to get some sleep.

Orkut and the Art of Being Cool

When my sister Reny handed her orkut profile to be maintained by the oh-so-knowledgeable-computer-whiz. (Ahem! That will be me), due to internet scarcity at her hostel, I did not foresee the inevitable avalanche of troubled and lonesome souls who would want to cast themselves at her profile. Scraps like "I want to make friend with you" and "I just came across your profile and I wanted to say hello" smell of loud desperation. So now, my major task consists of doing elimination rounds on candidates wanting to be friends with my little sis. I know! The whole thing smacks of big brother-ism. And ironically, I am helpless. After facing the first wave of testerone charged males, I had to ask my sister on whether I should continue to do whatever I was doing with her stuff. When she said yes, I pondered on the task laid out to me and I decided I would just have to be cool about it. After all, I can sympathize with the "i need love" feeling running around people's (read guys) minds. So, when I see an unknown scrap, I just ignore it. When there is a friend request, I just do a little homework on the person (check out his communities / profile / ask sis whether she knows him) and just kick him out if it’s just some random dude.

PS: Reny does log-in to her profile and she is the only one who scraps or sends friend requests to her friends since doing that is a big no-no for me. Just want to assure her friends that all messages coming from her profile is a 100% Reny genuine :-)

And since I am done with narrating my ever-continuous ordeal, I think some tips for members of the same sex are in order:

1. First of all, grow up and get a life! You ought to be better than just having a presence on the web. Be good at something or a number of things (like playing a musical instrument, or developing some other skill). Something which will make you interested in yourself.

2. Realize that chicks join online communities mainly to connect with their long lost friends and/or current people in their lives.

3. If you really want to get to know girls, do so in REAL LIFE first (that will be another blog-post @ my blog-spot OR do a google search ;-). Then when you are on talking terms with her (and thus, a friend), ask her whether she is into orkut/facebook/gazzag/hi5/friendster/myspace/whatever. When she gives you her profile id, you send a friend request and scrap away to kingdom come.

The Making of a Star

"Focus, practice and passion
thats what makes a star*"

*Mphasis ad in the Appointments section of The Times of India (6/12/6)

Going Randy

"Now everybody has a book that has changed his or her life. The Holy Bible. Das Kapital. Tuesdays With Maury. Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Whatever."
--Linus Torvalds, Just for Fun

In my case the winner is "For the New Intellectual" by Ayn Rand. Check Objectivism out.

Dhoom Machale

So! I was watching Dhoom (part one) with my little cousins, Kuku and Deol, today. And this scene comes up when John Abraham trashes a newly acquired car, stolen by one of his gang member, by running it over a cliff. I turn around to make out my cousins' impression of the part and I notice that Deol has this look of wonder on his face. After a pause, he exclaims without the slightest shred of doubt: "John Abraham only wants Bikes and doesn't like Cars!!". Yeah right :-)


kuku



deol

The Good, The Bad and the Guy-Who-Owes-Me-Bigtime

A word of advice to myself (and all the others who can take the hint ;-). Its a really grave matter to lend money with the hope of expecting it back. Usually, these sort of lessons are learnt the hard way. Either that or I am so sadistic as to really wanna to hurt myself.

A very recent experience of lending an undisclosed sum of hard cash to a friend with an undisclosed name resulted in me trying very hard to track the guy down to retrieve my sum total. All of these efforts were met with excuses so convincingly absurd as to border on the incomprehensible (just like this jargon peppered post).

Suffice it to say that at the tender age of 25, I have resolved to agree with the good old saying:

"Your friends require your time not your money"
--Anonymous (I think)

No more being mister niceguy

Saying Goodbye

When I said goodbye to the Freshers Gang at Sobha Renaissance IT at the end of September this year, they gave me a few momentos to take back with me



a denim shirt, a water-logged show-piece and a book asking me to "slow down". I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was slow enough to put a turtle to shame (prospective employers please ignore that last statement)
:-D

Doggone Dogear

Q: What do u get when you cross a obsessive-bus-rider-who-purchases-a-day-pass-for-every-round-trip with a compulsive-multitasking-more-than-5-books-at-a-time-reader?

A: day pass tickets being used as bookmarks



;-)

The Wheel of Time

For fans of fantasy fiction like Lord of the Rings, here is another series which will provide enough excitement for a long time to come. Its called The Wheel of Time . What blew me away was the in depth detail Robert Jordan writes in. He provides a lot of character information/growth (yes, even for the villains). We have thrilling twists, political games, gentle humor going side by side with mighty magic, epic battles and prophetic fulfillment. I fully recommend this. There are a total of twelve books in the series of which eleven are published. The last one has yet to be released. Do check it out.

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

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;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

The Height of Detachment

I don't know why but this slight form of fever (warmth in my head, a soft cough and the almost-anytime-body-ache-will-blossom feeling in my body) seems to trigger a detachment of a sort in my mind as if my pulsing thought and feel stream (including the love and\or lust feels) was only taking a tiny portion of the blackness in my brain and I am on instinct able to literally choose the ones which get converted to conversation and smalltalk. Its not necessarily a good or a bad mood but I kind of like it for its ability to say what is Right and carry a Ready Wit. More than that, I don't fear the slight rejections of people who are too busy or who don't give enough damn to talk to me. Its as if I have dropped the cloak of my insecurities and embraced who I have become and who I will turn out to be a long time later from now.The problem is to duplicate this "situation" such that I can call it on demand or, better than that, to be always this form of Rejoy in the hope of achieving a Satisfactory Happiness.Together, till death do us apart, my dear Aloofness. And to you too, my reader (Chilling Smile :-)