My mother would be surprised if she found out that in our generation we setup the internet in a new house much before we setup the kitchen. And to take it a step further, I blog too before I open up the five cartons and the three suitcases.

Singapore!!

The use of 'Can':
"Can you pick me up from the bus stop?"
"Can"
[Okay]

"Let's see what the apartment looks like"
"Can"
[???]

At the end of a meeting... "Can"... [Weird!!! Can is not Okay, alright or anything similar!!!]

The woman at the cafeteria, when I ask for coffee: "Sugar - 3?"
I look at her confused. After I've explained I want 1 sugar.. "You are so long that's why I thought you want 3 sugar" [Long!?!? and the relation to sugar!?!?]

Cab driver: "Are you from Mumbai or are you from India?" [Hmmm.. we always thought only the Americans were ignorant]
"Mumbai is in Punjab right?" [Maybe I was actually really weak in geography!!]
"So are you white Indian? People from Mumbai, Punjab are white Indians right?" [I have absolutely no idea what he was smoking!!]

Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes:

To enjoy something, it's essential to guard it with the fence of leisure.

It's difficult to know a person until he turns twenty-five---difficult to say what would happen to him ... but it is easy to recognise a twenty seven years old--- it can be said he's become what he's supposed to be, and from now on this is how his life would be guided, there isn't left anything in his life to get astonished.

I believe in the true meeting of the East and the West.
It hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that the Western education can only injure us.

I say again and again that I am a poet, that I am not a fighter by nature. I would give everything to be one with my surroundings. I love my fellow beings and I prize their love.

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.

I have become my own version of optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
For thereby some have entertained angels unawares
(Like)

Time, don't let it slip away
Raise your drinking glass
Here's to yesterday
(Like)

Merry met and merry part
I drink to thee with all my heart
(Hmmm..)

Work is the curse of the drinking class
(Funny)

.. some 'writings on the wall' at Social, 48th and 8th Ave, NYC

At Starbucks, Ridgewood, New Jersey. Waiting to start our drive back to Chicago. And I love the randomness of my life.
I like these pretty towns of NJ but most of all I love New York. This was after a long time, a sudden trip for no reason other than entertainment.
New York is vibrant; the city gives me so much energy. I think I'll always love it. The craziness, the pace, all that's happening around you, the subways, randomly walking down the streets - all of it simply fascinates me. I feel living in the city is awesome too - the hassles of the everyday life can keep one's days happening. The place gives me energy.
I was also in the bay area last week, saw an amazingly pretty part of the city this time - the beach at the pacific ocean (err.. I forget the name of the place). Bay area, though, was all about catching up with friends, in general it has a very settled feeling, very unlike New York. Maybe the settled feeling is good to have in the place you live in but I love the NY madness. What New York lacks when compared to Chicago is the sophistication (in the everyday regular stuff at least). But you can't have everything.
Okay, that's as much of the analysis as I can do... I'm hoping I'll post a set of pictures sometime soon.

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
- Pink Floyd :)

Floyd always does a great job of reminding what life is all about. This time it points to Heraclitus' - "Nothing endures but change"
Interestingly, he also said: "Much learning does not teach understanding"

And just because I am talking about understanding, a code for life should be Arjun's story, when he said: "Sir, at this point of time only the eye of the bird is visible to me"

Peepli Live

"Rajneeti mein matbhed ho sakta hai lekin dushmani nahi"... quite an insight from Naseeruddin Shah in Peepli Live.
That's just rajneeti, this movie takes on the media more than politics. A very intelligently made movie that not only points to the right issues but also does it in an entirely entertaining way. I would heartily welcome this kind of cinema, but only if it can be quality work.