I'm gonna be on television.....

Has any of you seen the "Beef Cake 4000" episode of South Park? It is the one where Cartman wins an essay contest and is going to be given an award by Kathy Lee Gifford and this is going to be shown on TV. So, Cartman thinks he needs to "spruce" up his figure a little bit so that he could look nice on TV. He orders in the BeefCake Weight gain 4000 product that he saw on TV which promised that he'l put on whole lot of muscles.. Eventually, he becomes way too fat from eating all that beefcake and so and so forth.

Anyway, click here to play the sounclip of cartman singing "I'm gonna be on Telly-vision" to Kyle and Stan to piss 'em off.

It seems Penn State TV - After Hours program wanted to have a a little chat with the representatives of the Penn State Cricket Club. This would provide their viewers a little something to know about cricket and helps PSCC to gain much needed publicity. Considering the fact that we are having a tournament in a couple of weeks, it will be nice. Also, we'll be able to make some promotional material out of this whole thing.

As you may have guessed by now, I have been chosen along with the token whitey (James) to represent the club. Me - i am a veteran of the club and also the event coordinator of the tournament.. and james - already explained :-)) Already I am receiving suggestions such as.. "Don't forget to apply talcum powder". Don't worry, i'll remember it. I am aware of my ability to disappear when it gets a little dark out there!!

P.S. Once I get on TV and become famous.. Next Stop.. Bollywood! Screw you guys, I'm going home

Stamped out

Just from the title of this post, a few of my friends will know exactly what this is about. Am I going to publish very personal and private experiences for others to read, here on this blog? Probably. If it involves other people, I will try to get their consent before I share it here with you. For example, a chat I might have with a friend about sexual positions or just a regular conversation with friends over the role of mosquitoes in maintaining the ecological balance in the swamps of Florida.. I don't know.

Anyway, a few years ago, I was chatting around with my roommates and other friends. We were talking about random shit and somehow, I brought up an ugly episode in my life, I was about 12 or 13, when I was molested by a stranger. I used to go to private hindi classes in the evenings and take a bus to get there. It was a good mile walk from the bus stop to the class. After a few uneventful months of going to the class, one day this stranger guy approached me on a bicycle and started a small talk - where i was going, which school i studied at and things of that nature. He asked me about my hobbies. I was a philatelist as a youngster. He said that he works at the local hospital (one of the biggest in the country) and he had access to stamps from many different countries as they had patients coming from all over (which is true). He promised he'll get me some, soon. After a couple of days, i saw him again and he offered a ride in his bicycle to my class. and I took it. I sat on the cross-bar. A couple of days later, during the bicycle ride, I thought his hand brushed against my genitals and I thought it was accidental and didn't think too much of it. A few days later, it was more than a brush - his hand stayed for more than few moments..a definite fondle.. This is making me sick just to relive the memory, but I am going to get through this. Looking back at this incident, I don't know why I didn't refuse to take the ride to the class or why I didn't stop him from proceeding further. A month or so afterwards, I was walking back from the class to the bus-stop as the class was canceled and I was offered a ride. At that time, I never paid attention to how that guy seemed to be around when I'd be on my way to class, but now I have realized many times over, that he was just stalking his prey. This time It occurred to me absolutely positively what his intentions were and yelled at him and told him to stop the bicycle and jumped off and I started running towards home. I could hear him saying something like, stop.. dont run or whatever. I did not stop running till I got to a well-lit place in the neighborhood. I turned around to see if he was following me. He wasn't and that was the last of this tough ordeal. I never knew his name, whether he actually worked in that hospital or anything of that sort. I have never told my family of this, only a few friends. I needed to get it off my chest, so that I can bring closure to the whole issue. I have heard of stories from people that were molested by strangers, family and "friends". I sympathize with you. In my case, It did not deteriorate into something really bad and The whole episode did not have any severe impact on my psyche. I don't think that probably is the case with a lot of you that have gone through this. Everybody has had bad experiences through their lives. I feel its important to let it out, rather than let it stew inside.

P.S. I did not want to describe the whole thing in graphic detail. I didn't want you to feel very uncomfortable.

State of Apathy

It was always a rough ride, taking public transport to go to my high school. The buses packed to their gills, jostling for space with the book bag weighing me down. I followed a tight routine in high school. Wake up by 5 AM, and study for a little bit with the aid of my mom's early morning steaming cup of coffee, take shower, eat breakfast and rush out by 7.15 AM. This happened for three years. I had a constant companion for about a year waiting for me at the bus stop. A homeless, old man. He looked to be about 60 years of age, wearing a few bit of clothing and surviving on whatever somebody gave, on and off. He would always be curled up in a ball, probably trying to keep the cold hunger at bay.

A few weeks ago, I was involved in a long conversation with Nishant which started with the dropping of Sourav Ganguly from the Indian Cricket team, and moved on to the state of affairs in India vis-a-vis U.S. and the direction the country is probably headed, and how all of us could play an active role in whichever way we can, in keeping the ball rolling. During this conversation, I, somehow was reminded of my old man friend that I never knew the name of, that provided me company with his silence everyday while I waited for my bus.

As a 14-year old, coming from a family that was strapped for cash for the most part, I almost never had anything to give him. Anytime I had something to spare, I tried giving him so that he could atleast eat his next meal. There were many days when I get off the bus to make my walk home in the evening, the sheer inability of mine to help him has made me cry to myself. I was not even aware of other avenues by which this man could be helped. His wrinkled face with the straggly grey beard is still tattooed in my memory. Even while I was chatting with Nishant, I couldn't hold myself back. I remember his health deteriorating, and one day, when I returned from school, I saw the local municipality workers removing his dead body. I didn't do much to help that man. It still rankles me.

Nishant was trying to tell me how Indians are generally good-natured, well-intentioned folks. And I always believed it and want to continue doing so. With the kind of diversity and differences in culture, religion, life-style that we have in India, we need to be even-keeled, peaceful and caring, for the most part, to have survived as long as we have. However, instances such as this, where you see a lot of poeple go through with their lives as if helpless beings like my old man didn't even exist is what bothers me. The apathy towards your fellow man's well being sometimes gives me doubts about the inherent human nature. I understand everybody has problems and struggles in their lives but is there anything better in this world, than helping to provide for someone that cannot provide for himself? Can we be so self-centered that we do not recognize the hardships faced by our fellow men? Have we gotten so accustomed to human suffering that a loss of life does not matter in a country of a billion?

Death-Cycle

Frozen ground, slip, slide, i hold on
lazy winter white don't stay too long
buried underneath my mother blue
spring messengers screaming through

Wonderful world its mighty fine
dancing green in the bright sunshine
hope and joy and full of life
come into this you bloody man and wife

In out up down right and wrong
you're making me feel i don't belong
your space is stiflingly dual
beg you let me be an individual

Didn't ask to be born, it was you
falling down now drag me through
saw you last drooping madly grey
tell me tomorrow is just another day

An Empty Cafeteria

Hello There, Children!

Hey Chef!

How is it going?

Bad.

Why bad?

Anyone that has seen South Park anytime in the last 9 years that it has been on TV, would immediately recognize the above exchange between the South Park elementary school cafeteria Chef (Jerome McElroy is the chef's actual name by the way) and the four foul-mouthed kids. Usually, this conversation would continue with the kids telling chef their problems, and chef tries to help them out by singing a song with sexual connotations and so on and so forth. Looks like, it is going to be coming to an end. Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, is quitting the cast of South Park and has requested to be released from his contract. He is mad that the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, have crossed the line by ridiculing the religious beliefs of certain communities.

There was an episode from season #9 where SP had a good time satiring the beliefs of people (including Tom Cruise and John Travolta) following the religion of Scientology. Apparently, Isaac Hayes is also a scientologist. However, he does not quote this specific episode as the reason for his quitting. Although I must point out Isaac's take on SP's usually blunt ridiculing of religions and any sets of belief for that matter, in NY Daily News article in 2006, "Nobody is exempt from their humor," he said. "They're equal-opportunity offenders. Don't be offended by it. If you take it too seriously, you have problems." I remember him saying something to the same effect even on VH1 ("Going down to South Park"). How quickly he seems to have changed his opinion on religious satire?!

Isaac says that SP has crossed that invisible line between satire and just plain intolerance and bigotry towards religions. Is he serious? Where was he when mormons, jews, christians, muslims, hindus, buddhists and pretty much everybody under the sun was made fun of? I still DO NOT call it intolerance. I understand the views and the jokes in the show might definitely offend more than a few people, but there is an underlying theme to the show... everybody is fair game and everybody is treated equally! That is a lot more than what the proponents of tolerance could say!

This brings me to the biggest beef I have: Tolerance vs. Acceptance. Everybody seems to be so keen on promoting tolerance. Religious tolerance, homosexuality tolerance etc. There is a definition for tolerance - The capacity to endure hardship or pain. Is that what the society is asking us to do? Just try to put up with the differences you may have with the person next to you!! Or should I recognize the differences in the person next to me and appreciate them for who they are? So if they are middle class white of polish descent, I should be able to respect them what they are and still be able to make jokes about it! Political correctness is hijacking a whole generation of people in this country. Screw you guys, I'm goin' home!!

street -- cricket & tamil

Warning: If you do not understand the concept of gulli cricket (street cricket) and/or the concept of madras baashai (madras language), for your own well being, go no further.
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The other day, Raasa and Venky were over at our place to watch the 2nd test match between India & England. Raasa mentioned about the "street cricket" entry in Wikipedia and all the associated terminology especially those that are used in TamilNadu (TN). This brought back a flood of memories from my childhood and adoloscent years growing up in TN.

First of all, I had to come up with excuses to get permission from my parents to leave the house (Ma, I have to go to Satish's house to get some of my homework done, or Appa, He borrowed a book from me at school but forgot to return it & I desperately need it right now!!) After the escape(or in Tanglish (Tamil+english), escape avarudhu or escape udradhu) i'd go to my friend's neighborhood and play cricket. The street cricket(SC) link above lists almost all the tanglish slanguage needed to interpret the rules and efficiently play the game. Almost everybody (atleast guys) that grew up in India will have their own version of terminolgies, depending on where in India they grew up.

After carefully going through the list, I must say I'm thoroughly impressed. It looks like they have almost all the terms used in TNSC. Almost. (Those from TN-- get the TNSC pun? Chittukuruvi pola, siruga siruga semiyungal!). They have left out a few.

1. Gandhi Kanakku - (Gandhi + Kanakku (Account)). This is brought up when one team is accusing the other of cheating with their score. The origin of this goes back to the days of Indian independence struggle. Pre-1947, individuals and firms that donated money towards the freedom movement could write it off as "Contribution to Freedom movement" in their accounting statements. So, if someone's numbers didn't add up at the end of the financial year, they used this as a loophole to make numbers match. So, from there on, any cheating with numbers is called as "Gandhi Kanakku".

2. Poo - Any ball delivered with no real pace. (Poo - flower in Tamil). The origin could be from ball badminton (called Poo Pandhu (flower + ball)). I don't know if you are aware, but badminton (not only the kind with shuttlecocks but also with a feathery yellowish-orange ball used to be pretty popular back in the day. This one involved teams of five though and used wooden racquets).

3. Well batting, well bowling, well fieldings.

There were couple of innaccurate definitions I could find.

1. Hits the bat after every ball - This is the usual practice followed by the batsmen in the middle. This gives little time to take breath and also signal for a quick singal (single) in the next ball. The best part is even if they dont want to discuss anything, they still need to hit the bats. I agree that there is no proper term for it. However, the reason for doing it entirely different. Usually, its done for "bat exchange". Typically, there will only be one good bat. For the non-striker, you could use a not-so-good-bat, a stump, a stick that's as lengthy as a bat or any other serviceable thing. After taking a single, you meet your batting partner in the middle of the pitch, exchange bats and hit the bats to show that exchange has been accomplished. I think the definition of "current" could be invoked here (sort of). By the bats touching each other, the transformation from non-striker to striker is complete.

2. Double side batsman -- This situation arises when there are odd number of people to start the game. So, the final person is eligible to bat for both teams and keep wickets for both teams as well. Although they have mentioned the fact he keeps wickets usually, I have to say that he ALWAYS keeps wickets. So, this term should have been called "double-side keepings" rather than double side batsman.
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While I was reading up on SC, i came across a link for madras baashai and Thathuvams (pearls of wisdom). Take a look when you can. Its hilarious. I have a couple more to add to this as well,

1. Well left -- If you are faced with an issue or a situation or provokings, "to not react to it and stay idle". Origin from cricket where a batsman lets a ball go, if he doesn't want to play at it.

2. Gujili - A female with whom you do Gujaals (making out). Another usage is gujili-kaaran pettai - (area where you can find a lot of gujilis/figaru). (figaru - hot female (from figure)).

3. Tukkar - Excellent, super. Origin unknown to me. Usage - Tukkar figaru.

4. Mama Velai - Pimping (Origin - Tamil) Mama -Uncle; Velai - work. Since uncles and aunts are usually the ones that come with horoscopes of prospective brides/grooms, hence - to get a couple together is to do mama velai.

5. Pottu kudakkaradhu - To add fuel to the fire; to snitch; to complain about someone else. Origin - Tamil.

6. Orai - alcohol. To prevent production and sale of illicit alcohol, TN government, in the 80's came up with the idea of selling liquor in small, polythene packets (orai). orai adikkaradhu = sarakku etharadhu.

7. Saami Padam - soft porn movie. (saami - god; padam - film (or more correctly, filim). So, if you want to tell someone someone about a softcore porn, in front of others, you hint at it by calling it a "Bhakti padam" or saami padam. Another equivalent, bittu movie.

Just Plain and Simple

There is only one principle I follow when I blog: KISS. No, not the " touch or caress with the lips as an expression of affection, greeting, respect, or amorousness" nor the Rock band from the 70's - more ridiculous costumes and pyrotechniques than music. I am referring to "keep it simple, stupid" philosophy. In my case, my blogs are more exactly a reflection of what's going on in my head at that point time or something that recently happened than anything else. I see a lot blogs that have a central theme, such as sports, politics, a commentary on pop culture, abstract thoughts etc. Usually, it will be a funny take on any of the above or explaining the happenings in one through the situations in the other. For example, take dialogues from a movie and apply it to a sports team or something. (Read Boston sports Guy's blog on ESPN. He does this a lot!). I don't think I am quite that capable to recognize the relationships that easily. So, in my blog, WYSIWYG.

People go through a whole lot of rough drafts before they publish an online article. Screw that. I don't have that kind of patience. Obviously, this is going to make most of my posts, insipid, disjointed, not worded well and might look incomplete as well, But, you know what, i can be satisfied that I put it out in a form that is as close as to the original thought. I believe it is nice to let your thoughts be published in as original a form as possible instead of going back and making changes to it too much. You are never going to be perfect.. so why not?

Once in a while, i might put out something that might be funny or thought provoking or actually makes sense.. This is where the bottomline needs to be established: Why is it that I am even engaing myself in this whole exercise of blogging? Am I just looking for an avenue to record my thoughts as they happened (you know, like maintaining a diary or a daily journal of sorts) or Am I looking to provide amusement/entertainment to those poor ones that might somehow end up on this page? May be, we try to make our posts funny to provide a channel to the comedians that's in all of us to come out. Maybe, its just a feeble attempt by us to verbalize the comic strip that is life, outside and within ourselves.

My initial motivation was to make a diary of my thoughts that I could look back on a later time. A compliment here, an appreciation of your thoughts there, or a friend telling you that the recent post you wrote - which you thought was rib-tickling funny - is not that funny at all. Infact, it was just a regurgitated version of a whole lot of blogs he has seen and read many times over. (I have had all these happen to me. I am glad somebody even made that effort.. This will keep me going all the more.). I guess my style of writing is influenced by books, newspaper articles, blogs and TV etc. But that is to be expected, isn't it? We don't live in vacuum. Every waking hour, you are hit with a barrage of opinions and viewpoints in media. Its up to me to derive my own way of narration from it all -- which i try to do - but even that, i'm sure someone has done it before. After all, history repeats itself - Now, doesn't it?

My ten favorite movie lines

1. I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart! You broke my heart !! -- "Godfather II" Michael Corleone's reaction when he figures out it was Fredo that went against the family

2. Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie or are you gonna bite? -- "Reservoir Dogs" Mr. Blonde to Mr. White when Mr. White is raving mad about Mr. Blonde's handling of the situation while robbing a Jewelery store.

3. Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity -- "Snatch" Bullet tooth Tony lecturing Sol, Tyrone and Vinny when they try to get the diamond back from him by using a fake pistol.

4. You have to be able to drop anything and run within 30 seconds if you feel the heat around the corner -- "Heat". Robert De Niro character explaining to Al Pacino's the guiding principle in his life of crime.

5. Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson? -- "The Graduate". Benjamin (Dustin Hoffmann) to Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft)

6. Why don't you love me Jenny? I'm not a smart man but I know what love is --"Forrest Gump"

7. FREEEEE-DOMMMMMM! -- "Braveheart". Towards the end of all the torture that William Wallace goes through, the executioner tells him he'll still be left alive if he begged for mercy. Noticing that the prisoner is trying to say something, he quietens the crowd, only for Wallace to let out this bone-chilling cry.

8. You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? -- "Taxi Driver" Travis Bickle (DeNiro) looking into a mirror at himself and talking.

9. I think of a man and take away reason and accountability -- "As good as it gets" Melvin (Jack Nicholson) responding to the secretary's question, "how do you write women so well?"

10.Drop the gun, Take the Cannolli -- "Godfather" Peter Clemenza, after Paulie is shot three times for conspiring to expose the Don to danger. Even after a cold blooded kill, he remembers his wife's instruction not to forget the cannolli.

A Bird's Tale

Sitting at starbucks, chatting away to glory with the Rajput, exchanging stories on falling out of a running bus and getting bumped out of an ATV, Rajput expressed that he would like to make a movie. Not a full feature film or something, but 5 minute-long, short film that adequately captures a story. After a few minutes of yapping, I told him I have a funny story line but will only be a real shortie.. maybe for 10-20 seconds. The following sequence of pictures describe the story line. If you are ultra-sensitive in life, go no further.

Disclaimer: I am no big fan of guns. I do not support "hunting for fun". I do think its not the most appropriate story, but hell, its funny. And yes, we had a good laugh as I told the story. You are absolutely right if you think I am sick and demented, and in fact, puerile. Hey, I am 29 and I still get kicks out of watching south park and family guy. What did you expect?

The Radical Loser

A friend of mine - maps - sent an email to our high school egroup with a link to an article by a German writer, wherein, the author has tried to explore the reasons behind the genesis of a "terrorist". He calls him the radical loser. I am posting a link to the article, also maps' take on it and as well as Shubha's (another classmate of mine from high school). My view on this at the very end. (I got their permission but I took some liberty in terms of formatting and fixing typos).

The root article -- The Radical Loser by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Shubha Says:

He is talking about losers - radical losers. They are there all over the world and no less in the developed countires as well. Just because he is from the west - he has not taken a global view of the topic and being a little cynical here about the rest of the world. he can't in general compare the middle east with the rest of countries in Asia. There are a few muslim dominated countries for which this article might apply. It would be better when people are unbiased. Just noticed, the author is a German. Europeans are extremely conservative and in particular Germans. They are also quite popular for being racists. But somehow, this article gave me the impression that not enough work has gone into it.

Maps View:

You'll have to scroll to the very end to see the Arab-bashing bit. But you are exactly right that not enough work (or thought) had gone into that article. The author appears to be one of those armchair experts-on-everything characters, who thinks he is too good to do actual research like the more humble social scientists. Like actually travel to a place, talk to people or at least learn about the other person's point of view..What is shocking is that the author is some kind of a famous writer/poet in Germany. I guess their equivalent of RK Narayan or something like that. For such a prejudiced piece the article found a wide resonance across the Internet too.

Especially see this classic comment from an admirer:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1717676,00.html

This writer claims to have found the explanation for why young men become suicide bombers. Because they are not getting enough love from the ladies of course! What morons these writers are. The sad part is that there is a small grain of truth to his theory, so it is almost guaranteed that everyone will agree with it. Oh well!!.

My Take:

I am going to assume that the writer logically arrived at his reasoning for the origins of an Islamic terrorist by exploring the psyche of the loser - first alone and then in a group - like the way he has structured his article, rather than looking for ways to justify one of the most floated around theories you could find on even FOX NEWS on any given day they have a "terrorism expert" on to explain the most recent bombing in a place of worship or a marketplace or whatever. Having made that assumption, I think what is presented in the article is one possible explanation for the birth of a terrorist and that's about it.

More often than not, we are all victims of our circumstances. It takes indomitable will to beat your environment (for better or worse), if you want to get out of it and not all of us are capable of it. We all have a little bit of "terrorist" in us. Its just that when it rears its head up, (ugly or beautiful -- When Bhagat Singh and his comrades took to arms, a lot of Indians amired them and still do, remember. One man's food is another man's poison, let's not forget that), do we have it in us to reason with it and make sure it does not get the better of you.. The levels vary based on the situations you find yourselves in. It could be that you lost all your livelihood and family because some country 5000 miles away wanted to test their new brand of cruise missiles, or you got stepped over trying for a college education by some wealthy twerp or any of the million excuses that is out there.

We are fighting this war to win peace. How moronic does that sound? Maybe, 100 people needed to die to gain freedom for a million. What about the offshoots of that 100? It might seem insignificant now, but in due course of time? We are apparently civilized. That is, we have "progressed" from animals. I want to go on a tangent about the futility of armed struggles but that's for a later time.

Random thoughts

When i first decided on having a blog, and wanted a title for it, I went with "random thoughts of the reckless one". Very generic, very banal, very usual and very very commonplace. There are probably hundreds of blogs with the words random, thoughts and one in their title. So, I eventually made the switch to "un momento ....." 'cause i thought it probably never occurred to anyone to have a spanish title to their blog.. Yes, yes?? and besides, I love latinos. Did you see Salma Hayek last night during the Academy awards? Hotness Personified with her accent and.. and.. you know.. I want to say doobies, but its not that, it rhymes with it, though!

Coming back to this post, I am calling this one "random thoughts" 'cause that's what that they are. Its not a well thought out, a constant stream of ideas or at the least, a continuous story.. Its going to be all over the place.. as random as a spider on a keyboard (whatever that means, but thanks anarkist).

I was in Dallas, TX a couple of weeks ago for my former roommate's bachelor's party. It was real nice of him to invite me and top of that, send me the tickets to fly down to Dallas. I am not going to discuss what exactly happened during the bachelor's party.. There were many married dudes with us and I don't wanna jeopardize anybody's chance of sex whenever the better halves might get to read this. So, i am taking the safe route. Anyway, if you know already what happens during a bachelor's party, this one pretty much followed the script. Add to it things like VIP and Twelve etc. My only question is: Why do bachelor's party exist? I mean, is it done to let the guy that's getting married know that , these are all the things he's going to miss once he's married? I feel it should be called sadist party than anything else. One thing was really impressed with the strip errr.. gentleman's clubs in Dallas, TX was : you could take your own booze in. In places like PA, NJ, NY.. no booze is served at these clubs. You get loaded and go in. In TX, I saw people pulling in 4-wheeled igloo coolers loaded with beer cans. I saw this group of guys with a few cases of budweiser as well. Very impressive. The more drunk the customer is, higher are the chances of him throwing money at the ladies. Excellent.

I was impressed with dubya (W) trying to play cricket in Pakistan. I came to know of it during the first test match between India and England. Dean Jones brought it up and Nasser Hussain's reaction to it was, to put it modestly, PRICELESS. If you watched the match, you'll know what I am talking about. BBC has photos from Bush's net session (there's an associated video with it, you can watch it from this page). I am completely impressed with Bush. As an Indian, I am not surprised that he has more than 70% approval rate in India (in U.S. its in the mid- 30's right now). I understand selling nuclear technology to India means more business for the American nuclear Industry.. I always thought that U.S. and India are very natural partners. Oh Hell!! For a while, we WERE the U.S. of the world.. go back and check the history.. People came to India, for education, for products etc., and we assimilated as many cultures as we could.

I cannot finish this without commenting on the little onslaught that the Indians put on England during the last session of the first test. England held the upper hand for the longest time and I am completely, thoroughly happy with what the Indian team management (read: Chappell G) did to gain some positives from the dead-as-a-dodo test match and put some jitters in the English camp. Masterstoke, really!! Here is a take on it by Prem Panicker from Rediff.

Also, what's the matter with the selection of U.S. Basketball team for the Olympics in 2008? There are people that say they can't play and there are standing invites etc. I mean, come on! If you get a chance to represent your country, how can you say no to it? Why isn't there some sort of penalty when someone says no a-la missing the army draft? Bloated salaries, boosted egos, I guess !!

Also, I need to address something about what mudit has to say in his recent post about homosexuality and homophobia. Its more hetero-mania than homo-phobia. People wanna come off as macho and not a pansy - if i could say that.. I think its more of the alpha-dog image that has been cultivated in the majority of us. In fact, when I went home (the first, last and the only time I have been in India since I came to Penn State), when one of my best friends, put his arms around my shoulder, i was a little uncomfortable and I let him know of it. The good guy that he was, he immediately realized the problem with me and the perceived homophobia that i may have developed in the U.S., - helped me get over my stupidity by not removing his arms.. and I got used to it and it was like old times back home again. Hey Mudit, if you wanna go for dinner, let me know - as long as you're paying for it!