Today's happiness

a)black coffee+ Tiramisu
b)some well chosen words of praise to improve someones bad mood

Today's happiness

a) waking up feeling rested and fresh
b) I wrote limericks that made someone laugh and feel happy

Today's happiness

a) Watching Zimbabwe beat the crap out of Bangladesh
b) Played a prank on someone who was stressed. It made them laugh.

Today's happiness

Thing that made me happy

My cup of morning coffee with chicory

Thing I did to make someone else happy

I cooked for someone

Today's happiness

Thing that made me happy
Listening to Do Kadam by Sonu Nigam from the film Meenaxi

Thing I did to make someone else happy
Zilch. Nada.

Tag Line

Viagara's encouraging tag line: Keep it up

Today's happiness

Thing that made me happy:

It rained all night. I slept like a baby and woke up refreshed.

Thing I did to make someone else happy:

I listened to someone vent.

Off the top of my head

Sperm Banks: Cum-pilers
Indian actor with man-boobs: Stan-jay Dutt
Game perverts play: Peek-a-Boob

Weapons of Mess Destruction

The massacre of my (good)name

I've been in the US of A for five years and have probably heard a gazillion variations of the way my name could be pronounced. You would think nothing would surprise me anymore but yet, people are ingenious (and mostly indigenous) and keep springing up newer variations. In India my last name was funny for a lot of people who thought that the sex-hain na or sexy-na was a tribute to their sense of humor. I found it lame and unoriginal. At least, these make me laugh. Here are a few of them.

I was in Florida. This lady takes my credit card and jots down my name. Here's what the receipt has written on it:

Turum Sekana. Probably she was dyslexic, right?

This is funnier:

"So you spell your name as T A R U N: that's, T0-raaan"? like seriously?????

Most people will call me: Troooon or Taa-rin....what's that about??

Now this guy came to my school to interview for the position of a professor and all the grad students had to meet him. So we had to introduce ourselves to him. A lot of the students were from Asia. I was the first person he asked to introduce themselves. Here's how my conversation with him went:

Him: "What's your name? Who do you work with?"
Me: Tarun. I work with Dr.Hasenwinkel
Him: Whats that...Duddle?
Me: Tarun.
Him: Duddle?
Me: Tarun.
Him: Duddle??
I turn to Pam who is American. "Pam can you help me out here"?
Pam: Ta-rooon
Him: Oh Trooon.
Me: Thanks, Pam (with a straight face).

That was the end of the introduction session for him, considering the number of asians in the audience. I mean, how on earth does Tarun sound like Duddle? This was by far the funniest experience I've had with my name's semantics.

I've been called Tyrone, Tarin, Troon etc. with the T sounding as the T in Tomato, Saxena as how you would pronounce Sax-ophone and countless other variations, some of them too hard for me to pronounce!

Well apparently the sound of a person's name is the sweetest to their ears. I don't know what to think. That doesn't sound right to me. Talk about bittersweet.

A funny fiftieth!

Courtesy: Dr.Joe Chaiken

Thought for the day

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

-- Anne Moriss

What's in a name??

So I am at a conference and I come across this exhibitor:

JALI MEDICAL , INC.

I doubt these guys will do well in India.

PS: Knowledge of Hindi is a prereq to understand this.

proving the point

There are people who will go to great lengths to make their point. Quite pointless I would say. But obviously not for them. I have tried to understand such pointers (as in characters) but needless to say, I haven't been able to grasp the mental make up which leads to such annoying behavior. Such behavior stems from low self-esteem and inferiority complexes, is what I think. People often tend to forget (or maybe not) how irritating they can be in the process of all this pointing and poking, often pushing others to their tipping point! At this point in the blog, I think I am having a lot of fun with the word point ( this is besides the point I am trying to make..uh oh..I am one of them! but the blog is still short at this point!!). So coming back to where such behavior stems from. Although the above maybe true, a superiority complex, or a overinflated ego (which might burst from a pointed object) or plain ignorance might be the reasons as well. So what really is the point I am trying to make. I've written about this in my previous blogs and I think it is a thought which often comes to my mind: I've never understood why people feel very strongly about something inconsequential and try and force their agenda's on others. It is easier to agree to disagree rather than just disagree.

Are you now thinking ' so why is he going to great lengths to prove his point?'

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DEPRESSED?



Medication?



Try meditation.
It makes a C- change.

The mountain goat run

Hurray!! I did it. I ran a 10 mile race. I finished it in little over 90 minutes. I am so glad I finished it. Running it was more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. 6 miles into the race, I ran into a hill, a familiar foe. I stopped, walked for 5 minutes, then ran again. But for me the hardest portions of the race were the first and the last mile. Through the initial third of the race, I kept thinking I couldn't do it. The last mile though, was killer. It was flat terrain, with people lining up around the roads and the fact that the finish line was not easily in sight was not helping. The roads had a few turns and it was hard to estimate the distance remaining. But finally, when the end was in sight, my good friend Chris (who finished the race 5 minutes before me) came back looking for me and egged me on to sprint. God knows where that energy came from. We sprinted like a tiger was breathing down our necks; I couldn't feel my legs! I must've improved my standings by at least 50 places due to that sprint. But it was exhilarating, to say the least. We had hardly trained for the race and the maximum we had run was 7 miles. The last two sessions, we had run 6 miles both times with either one of us having to stop due to exhaustion or nausea. For a first time run, I think we did great . Our only objective was to finish the race, which we did. Of course, I stopped, but thats besides the point. It was inspirational to see older folks race you, amputees running with high spirits and break the barrier of handicap, or just the fact that my body could take it without complaining. There was music playing throughout the race course and at one point (where I just began running after stopping) it was so enthusing that I actually felt a rush of blood and had goosebumps. That was a fantastic moment for me in the race. I ran faster after that. I must also acknowledge the support of complete strangers who stood by at various points on the race course and were trying to boost our morale. And Chris. He was the one without whose presence, I wouldn't have had the motivation to train or run the race. In activities like running, it is important to have a partner ( in my case, both Shailly and Chris) who runs with you and who you have to show up for since you already told them. I am sure it is the same for Chris too.

The results of the race are on the net at the following address:

http://www.leonetiming.com/2008/Goat08.htm

I learned a few things from this race, and this has been a common theme in my life so far. Most battles are mental. Physical barriers are for the weak. We often underestimate our own abilities and shortchange ourselves often. It is hard to put things into perspective, but that is an art we all need to learn. Also, age is no barrier to most things in life. Finally, we msut back ourselves to the hilt and trust our abilities, more than anyone else.

Picture puzzle- Easy

The picture is a clue to a famous person's name. It is a two word name. Guess the name.

P.S. Don't mind the feet of the people. They are not part of the clue.

Anomalies

This is going to be a quick blog. So I am watching TV and see a commercial for something which says, buy this and you will get a 'free' gift. Like seriously?? Since when did one start paying for gifts. This is like saying Karan Johar is gay. Well, duh. The next commercial which came up was for Viagra. Well if you want to sell the drug, why are you showing old men fending trees and playing golf? Show a woman exhausted after a great night. Wouldn't that make a better point? Also, why are all of Abercrombie's models semi-nude? Aren't they primarily a clothes store? Again, why do commercials for cosmetics feature the most good looking models? Aren't they the guys who don't need make-up or is the point that if they need it, you need it too? I think ( and so does Darren Hayes) that the cosmetic industry promotes low self-esteem.

Just another one of my musings.

Unwitting

From this week I've decided that I will blog once a week. It will be a kind of a summary blog. At least that way, I hope to keep my write side in shape. As I write this, I'm thinking man! that is a formidable task. Will I really be able to do that? And I answer myself (ah! I love rhetorical questions) of course you will be able to. A busy man finds time for everything. In fact, another thought went through my mind as I typed the word busy. It always does, especially when I'm chatting with women.

Me: Hi
She: (after a long pause) Hey!
Me: u busy?
and I think...gosh...thank God there wasn't a typo there...busty? (considering how close t and y are on the keyboard)
It'd be funny if I said that to a guy who had man-boobs, but thankfully..I don't know (m)any [??...?] such men.

Sorry for the diversion. I have too many of those sometimes. Often I've been accused of having a sense of humor skewed towards lewdness. But hey, at least I have a SOH. Someone once told me "better a witty fool than a foolish wit". Gosh, how much people love talking about themselves. But this is my blog, so duh! I've often read blogs (including mine) where people when they write their first blog, have a "this is my first blog so I have to give a reason to blog-blog' and then when they come out of a hiatus have a blog like this one I am writing. Seriously. We humans lack imagination. Wow! I do have some random neurons firing as I write. And btw, I am watching Davydenko play Nadal in the Sony Ericsson final as I write, so that might explain all the randomness. (how??) Talking of which reminds me that while I was watching the women's final yesterday, I see Serena Williams struggle against Jankovic after having a comfortable lead and I think, wow! here is a champion player who has won 8 grand slam titles, and come match point, is a bundle of nerves? Only proves that even champions are human. Well I doubt anyone ever doubted that, but just a mini-epiphany.

I always think I should write stuff which is thought provoking, brilliant, lucid and read-between-the-lines profound .

Like that is ever going to happen.

So I revert to writing such blogs which are simply clogs. Btw, the match is fantastic, and yeah, I know, my jokes aren't that funny. Probably you are thinking, there was a joke somewhere here? Well people, blogs..clogs. Oh! nevermind.

And just a word about my previous blog; It was a 'I got this idea, I should jot it down' blog. I should probably work on a short expansion. Aha..another oxymoron.

A pj to sign off: If Indiana Jones was made in India, it would be named: Indian Jaanu.

Sorry.

Oxymoronic?

I feel full of life
So if I cry, they are tears of joy
If I fail, it would be at a successful attempt
And if I die, I would at least die alive!