At every point in her life, she was always 100% sure she was absolutely right infact the rightest possible, except each of those views was as contrasting as India and Pakistan or Israel and Palestine.

A fact that least bothered her.

Return ticket needed

I have been on a trip for past few days (or has it been a week already?  not sure).  On a trip to nostalgia. Reminiscing about people I havent thought about forever now.

Reading up emails - which is what started the trip in the first place- searching for something in gmail, I ended up in an email I couldnt connect to.  I read up a few threads and now I cant stop even after few days. This isnt just thinking about people from past - randomly googling up people whose names i am surprised i remember, also i have been horrible to a friend why he stayed friends with me is a big puzzle in the first place. i am literally there 10 years ago - the emotions - the silly ones are all back. Its the whole package, yo.  That is not a good thing. I havent felt this out of control in a long time.

I am going through life but thoughts are all from the past. It has slowly glided and reached all the way upto high school-undergrad days. I just logged into my hotmail today after eons - beyond words silly.

Anyway, need to snap out of it, right now. Hoping this post will shame me into it.

Srilankan tamils, LTTE and tamilians of Tamilnadu

Tamilians in Srilanka were wronged for a long time. The fight from what I see started when there wasnt even an attempt to treat them as equal citizens. I support their cause. I support them the same way I support loads of causes from Tibet to Palestine to Israel.

But as some one who grew up with news of terrorism dancing at every corner of the country( primarily the corners), I cant support LTTE nor can I support separatism. 

Supporting LTTE is even more of a farce. It has in its history, abducted, brainwashed child soldiers- - a crime of the gravest order. No cause in the world is worthy enough to ignore that. 

It also harmed other tamilian leaders fighting for the cause simply because they didnt put their allegiance with Prabhakaran.

Yet today loads of tamilians are asking for the release of people who plotted the most heinous terrorist act that happened in tamilnadu.  Some comments I read in the vernacular publication(my answers).

1. why avenge one man's death( not true ~25 people is what wiki says). 

    Besides, Terrorist attacks arent just about numbers, they are always an attack on the sovereignty of  nation

2. 21 years is  too long time while waiting on the deathbed. 

I dont find this argument too appealing but this is what supreme court used in commuting a death sentence. But it didnt nullify Life imprisonment until death sentence. 

3. Their argument - they are political prisoners. 

Politics or anything else isnt a reason to go and attack innocent people. Not to say the terrorizing effect it had on rest of the population( like a less than 10 yr old who later that day looked at the young world cutout of a charming looking leader with a lot of disbelief)

4. They didnt commit the actual crime

Loads of politicans/powerful people in India indulge in murder/other threatening tactics involving force/ physical harm. this argument is akin to saying only the contract killer has to be punished and politican should be let go off since he didnt actually commit the crime.

5.21 years is a too long a time. 

People who committed a heinous crime like that cant be left out  free among the general population. 

I am not speaking on behalf of Rahul Gandhi who never uttered a word about repeated parole of Sanjay dutt and so many other cases. Just as a citizen of india and a normal human being who is opposed to any act of terror. 

It is interesting to note the varied reactions tamil nadu over time. Jayalalitha swept off the elections after Rajiv Gandhi died since she had an alliance with congress then- the first time TN witnessed that sort of a sweep i think. One of the things people liked about her then was how she went with an vengenance against LTTE compared to the Karunanidhi's soft corner for them. 

Sivarasan and Dhanu were considered the heinous people.

Today, tides have turned to an extent where the same people are arguing for the release of terrorists who were involved in that crime!

Again, the tamilian cause in Srilanka needs to be fought for. But terrorism isnt the answer for that or anything else in life!

I luvs ANNANAGAR. Missing it, but might need a time machine to go there.

 Lot of books continue from last time. I did learn a couple of things in the process.

One, You cant read a book and multi-task something else unlike watching TV:). All along I thought I was spending way too much time on TV, but it just seem to have provided a background noise.

Two, tastes change. I dont think I am that drawn to fiction anymore, the only ones I seem to be reading are auto-biographies. 

I  made some progress - did read about 4-5 books. ( tender bar, From third world to first, couple of Sophie kensella's books and  Einstein's biography and Lowland - partially).  

 

I liked tender bar,  though felt the writer skipped over the portions that readers look forward to in auto-biographies - the path to success. He had plenty of positives in his life from getting admitted to top university to making it editor of a high profile newspaper instead the book exclusively concentrates on the tougher portions and barely mentions the good stuff. Nevertheless, he is an amazing writer. It is actually tender. He is one of those writers who can recall exactly how they felt during their childhood and make you feel the same. I might just pick up his biography on Agassi just for his writing.

Picked up the biography of Einstein by Walter Isaacson on a similar vein. Walter wrote Steve Job's biography where I didnt enjoy the writing initially but later warmed up to his approach towards the steve's life.  Unfortunately, 100 pages into the Einstein's story, I had to return it (Note to self: dont talk abt the book to friends/neighbours who share the same public library as yours). I was anyway stalled because they were talking about physics that I was sort of familiar with but couldnt recall entirely - planck's constant and the likes.I almost felt like a refresher course to junior high physics class.  But a recommended read for sure. 

From Third world to first - vayathuerichal( stomach burning) is the word. I will write about this book in detail later but it is amazing how one single man can transform a small city nation that had no chance of survival while we have just faltered completely. An extremely interesting read.I still have couple of chapters left. 

Bridget jones diary was a book that I have thoroughly enjoyed over many many repeated readings. I can flip to a page and always expect a laughter in return. So picked up couple of Sophie Kinsella because it was suggested to be in that lot. IT WASNT. ( yes that demanded capslock) - girls  women finding their true love deal - written in the most cliched way possible. The plots are sometimes interesting - one of the two books I read was about this girl getting the dream life she wanted - rich handsome guy who is madly in love with her except he is super annoying and her life is the most boring. Somewhere all of us have a lesson there, isnt it? But there wasnt anything else engaging abt the book - neither the way it was written/ the characters.

Next 10 days do look promising. I have to be at work when I shouldnt be and I am not travelling. So looks like its story time in sachu kichu land.

So, I have taken a resolution.
No junk food - fried or sweet for 5 weeks + hitting the gym everyday for a month. Hoping to get to this, so that I can borrow the graph :). Actually I wouldnt mind doing the graph at al god :)

Lets see.

Meditation, blogging - all good things in life

Went for an hour of meditation. Closed my eyes, observed each of the surrounding noise so that I can tune them out, took  couple of deep breadths and let my thoughts flow.

A procedure I picked up from a  brief yoga class few summers ago. Except I dont get any thoughts, instead I let the images roll by in my head.

Have you tried meditation? do you follow a procedure too?
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Also back to blogging, going for a post a day. Online world, I heard is bereft of garbage.