Aah the joys of seating oneself in front of the computer and typing nonsense. So much has been happening in the last week that I thought I’d have enough to sit and write about. Two sentences later I am beginning to wonder if I am merely going to end up humiliating myself but then that wouldn’t be something new, perhaps only a man by the name of George W. Bush has a greater desire and ability to keep a foot in the mouth at all times.
Speaking of good, old Dubya I can’t seem to find him anymore on the news networks. It is so remarkable for a person from this country to see such languid behaviour after being elected to office. Over here we are used to seeing ministers occupying their posts even before they have been allotted to them and even continue to occupy the houses and offices allotted to them well after being removed from office. Though I am sure Bush will be back with a bang. Even if he isn’t there’s the ever present ‘axis of evil’ he will continue to shadow box with and has to smoke out the rascals of the axis no matter where they are. A few thousand troops is a small price when compared to the larger gain which is errr…something someone who advices Bush knows.

The bank where I go to has implemented what is known as ‘core banking’. A fancy term for a fancy system that seems to drive everyone nuts besides the sagacious old guard who quite wisely tells people that unless they have urgent work they would do well to come another day. The past few weeks have been nothing but mayhem with lines that snaked through most of the bank with people just joining any line in the hope that it would take them to a counter where their work would be done. The beauty of central government organizations is that they implement the latest systems but they consistently ignore a crucial step in the implementation process called training, without which unfortunately any system seems to work as efficiently as a Windows system. So I had the opportunity of seeing old ‘Uncles’ arguing with bank staff with statements like “What ya buggers do all the time?” and often was the listening post for many an aggrieved customer. They seemed to think that I would have an intelligent opinion to share regarding how the bank was going to the dogs but then how were they to know of my lack of ability to make intelligent comments regarding anything?

I have also tried to enhance my health and appearance in keeping with the general trends of my contemporaries. After all this is the age of appearance when bodies are toned, enough gel in hair to lubricate condoms and machinery into the next millennium, jeans low enough to ensure underwear remains under nothing and every one seems to have an accent regardless of whether they have stepped beyond the limits of the city. I have tried gel but due to the lack of hair on my head it makes as much impact as the researcher who said that Bush was intelligent. I try clothes of various types but the clothing industry seems to have conspired against me to ensure that I shall never look very becoming in clothes (and no I am not willing to try nudity). I don’t get it, why can’t I be like one of the ‘dudes’? Although I am still undecided as to whether the lack of my conformity is as bad a thing as I make it out to be.
 

Saw the Kanheri caves at National Park, mumbai today. Quite a few miles from the entrance the caves lie at the border of the only forest in the heart of a metropolitan city in the world. These caves were carved by monks between 1B.C and later. The most remarkable part about the caves are that there are over a hundred of them on the hills, all of them carved into rock by hand. No explosives, no fancy machinery and do-hickey things just god-provided tools, a few man made tools and a whole lot of faith. Its remarkable the strength faith can give a man. The entrance to the main cave has two Buddhas that i read somewhere to be only seven feet high while in reality they are almost twenty feet high. A civilization of monks driven by faith carved the most spectacular buddhas into rock, carved over 100 caves into a hill, lived there braving the elements, carved their messages of faith into rock hoping that future generations would read them and maybe find the path of peace. However the language lies forgotten, the carvings fade into obscurity and the handful that do know what it means dont take the trouble to put it up. The message lies lost in time but what I wonder more about is that if it had been put up would we have found the time to understand and implement it.Scary isnt it? Every few years a man discovers a truth, its a fad for a few years and then its lost in the annals of time and all that remains is a rehashed version of the truth once said. freaky and not to be taken seriously for i am just babbling under the influence of weariness. 

Making a career out of being useless. Too lazy to get work done and I lack the genius to get people to approach me so am compelled to get of my big butt and start the running around. 'Tis a bad thing to be lazy and it is even worse to have no work and be unoccupied. Compliments and praises do not provide one's meals and I still have a long way to go in that department.
Saw the movie "12 Angry Men" which has to be one of the best films ever made. Grappling with the issues of justice, personal prejudices and people's natures its a movie that holds your attention and doesnt let go till the very end. I had seen a recent version of it with George C. Scott acting in it and I wish he had been available while they had been making the old version. No disrespect intended to Lee Cobb but the fact is that Mr. George brought a greater sense of rage to the role and had a look of insanity in his eyes that held me the first time I saw it. Watch the old version because it is the original and watch the new version for George C. Scott
The tsunami relief continues to pour in and yet there are perhaps years of work needed before we can even begin to consider that we have truly overcome it, that is purely in the economic sense. The people who have suffered due to it will never forget it. It is only the couch potato sitting and viewing the situation as displayed on a cathode ray tube or LCD screen who will forget it as soon as its off the news. And it will be. Once the dead are counted, once the basic repairs are begun and life beigns to reach some sense of normalcy the news cameras will vanish. It is then that the true test of the rehabilitation efforts will begin for then the greedy will no longer have to fear the media and the theft that has been delayed eventually will occur. It is a recipe to line the pockets of the corrupt but yet I hope that there will be a change and the rehabilitation will continue unabated and unhindered until it is truly completed.  

Saw Michael Moore's documentaries "Bowling for Columbine" and "farenheit 9/11". Remarkable documentaries and as I had read in the article by Swaminathan Aiyar even more so because they are blatantly socialist documenatries that have been released in the very heart of capitalism by capitalists and yet it has been a resounding success. Whether this means that Americans are sociaists who have embraced capitalism i know not and frankly I am not really concerned about it either. Moore is scathing on Bush and is so horribly a democrat that in his earnest to pull down the republicans ignores all the things that the democrats could have corrected while they were in power and chose not to. I don't know much about the american political system but what i do know is the current president is an ass and so is everyone else if they couldnt stop him from going on wild trips on fantasy ever so often.
Indian politicians have no qualms about making sure that the majority of the people live lives that reduce them to mere numbers. What I wonder is that if i made a movie that showed the truth about the political sytem in India would it be allowed to release in theatres and more importantly would anyone besides politicians, who would want to stone the theatre after the movie, get to see it? We protest about implications about lesbianism in our movies, we protest about religion, we protest about showing the truth in it. so then are we as free as we like to beleive or is it that we can be free as long as we are allowed to be free by the powers that be. A debate that still hasnt yielded any answers in all these years of existence of humanity and is present in every civilization and undoubtedly there arent going to to be any answers soon.