Marriage

I have known the smart one for a little over a decade now. We have been married for a little over 5 years. The one "advice" that I remember getting the most is that I should expect her to change once we get married and apparently that's the same advice she got too, though to her they said it was I who was going to change! We got this basically from all the experienced friends we had, most of whom were yet to get married. Thinking back now, it is surprising how many of our friends and family who were married didn't give us that advice! :)

After these 5 years, if I look back, I can see that we have indeed changed but we have also adapted and adjusted (I guess that's what happens in all marriages. In all relationships, in fact). I have adapted to her being a wee bit 'OCD'ic about certain things and she has adapted to me being a lazy bum around the house. I am waiting for her to get used to me cribbing and irritating her intentionally which I find funny. She still thinks I am being a jerk when I do that. (Needless-English-lesson alert: The word "crib", when used as a verb, apparently means "to copy" if you happen to be informally British; means "to steal" if you just happen to be archaic irrespective of which part of the English speaking world you are affiliated to; means "to restrain" if you happen to be archaic but not in the mood to steal; means "to grumble" if you are a dated Brit or an English literate Indian. From India. Not to be confused with native Americans who are also called the same, because, you know, 'Murica!!!)

This reminiscing is brought to you courtesy of my having read "15 ways to stay married for 15 years" in the Huffingtonpost, the reference to which I came across in a column I was reading in a newspaper. Anyway, somewhere in that piece it says, "You and your spouse are a team of two. It is you against the world. No one else is allowed on the team, and no one else will ever understand the team's rules." I concur. :)

A Trilogy awaited

It's been exactly less than 24 hours since I walked out of a brightly lit cinema where I had been to catch a much anticipated movie. Before anything else I might or might not write about this, let me see if I can list down the different 'blockbuster-movie' staples covered.

Romance - Obviously! And not just among the characters you would imagine!! :D

Duets and Dancing - You betcha! Again, not among the characters you would imagine!! :D

Soundtrack - So good and fitting that now bagpipes don't remind me of the Scots anymore.

Action (shooting-beating-and-blowing-up-things variety) - Big Bada Boom

Plot Twist - Of course

Humor and Comedy - But of course

Locations - My. Next. Vacation. (When I can cough up the dough that is!)

So any guesses as to which movie I am talking about? I will give you a clue - It takes place in a village which is twelve days north of hopeless, a few degrees south of freezing to death and solidly on the meridian of misery.

Berk.

Yep, "How to train your Dragon - 2" just got released and almost 24 hrs out, I think I am still feeling the effects of the endorphin release from all the laughing and smiling I did watching it. I haven't read any of the books, so I didn't have any bias going in. I also consciously kept away from reading or watching any reviews of the movie because I wanted to enjoy it and form my opinion based on my own observations instead of having to constantly keep matching the scenes unfolding on the screen to some reviewer's comment to see if they were right, which I unfortunately tend to do all the time. But I am not trying to write a review here. The first movie is one of my all time favorites, so I was ready to like this iteration right from the time they announced there would be an iteration. Let me just say that part dos of the story of Hiccup and Astrid and Toothless and Stoic and Gobber and Berk and the others, as it looks when seen through my fanboi colored lens, is just as much fun and laughter as the first one was and it moved the various story lines forward.

What I want to think about is what the next iteration could involve. 

- We have the romance between Astrid and Hiccup (she is referred to as "my future daughter-in-law" by Stoic) - It could go sour for any number of reasons and they could turn enemies (Remember that Astrid is one heck of a warrior and now rides her own dragon)

- We have Hiccup's mom in the frame now - There is that whole lifetime when she went missing, which begs the question - are there other sides to her which will come out?

- We have Toothless who is older and figuring out what all it is capable of - Maybe his metamorphosis into a big, powerful dragon while giving us a beginning story and a peek into why there haven't been other night furies in the picture so far

- We have Hiccup who is older and figuring out what all he is supposed to be capable of - He is the genius builder, adventurer with an irreverant streak (Tony Stark, anybody?), is a wanderlust at his core , is a cheiftain's son and of course is the main protaganist. Way too many trajectories to explore for this guy. 

But of all the possible story lines I think the most interesting part are the bad guys - Drago and his bewilderbeast alpha dragon. They have lost face, lost the war, lost control, lost power and not the least, lost a significant part of their body. But they are still alive!

So bring on part-3, I say. With the characters stacked up the way they are and given how bloody enjoyable the two stories woven around them have been so far, I can only wish it doesn't take them another 4 or 5 years to bring us HTTYD-III.

Trivia Quiz

1. Who is black and cute and funny and extremely dangerous if provoked?

2. Who is black and white and cute and funny and extremely dangerous if provoked?

3. Who are black and white and orange and cute and funny and extremely dangerous all the time?

Answers in the comments, if you please.

I had to get this out of my system :)

So there I was on my virtual surf board surfing in the choppy waters of the net called youtube ( See what I did there?! :) Do pardon that excuse for a metaphor but I guess you got the point) when I came a video about someone talking about how God created the universe in 5 or 6 days and then rested over the weekend. You know, the whole let-there-be-light and adam and his rib and the apple and the snake and that darn box which apparently should have been left closed. Now I don't have any problem with what people believe or want to believe but what got to me in this exposition on 'creationalism' is the fact that it was part of an argument against science!!!

I am paraphrasing but the dialog went something like this: " ...you are asked to accept a lot of stuff - like evolution, like how life formed, like how humans came to be and so on and so forth - based on the words of a few scientists. This is called science and it is supposedly good. You are asked to accept a lot of stuff - like God, like how man came to be and so on and so forth - based on the words of a few men of yore. This is called religion and gets so much flak. Why don't we realize that people espousing evolution as scientific fact are just asking you to accept it based on faith and that makes it as much a religion as any other... ". So if my understanding of this is correct, what he was saying is that science is as much a religion as any other "traditional" religion because we just need to have faith and accept what we are told about things we don't have an explanation for. Fair enough I suppose. I mean, as part of our daily life we don't really see things like electrons and neutrons, do we? Nor can we actually verify things which are supposed to have taken place millions of years back or are supposedly happening slowly over the last so many millions of years. So I can see why it might be equated to a faith based system like a religion.

However, one simple thing that people making this argument keep forgetting or missing or avoiding is that science, especially those fields which involve explaining all the heretofore unexplained phenomena that we see around us, is ever evolving. There was a time when we thought the earth was flat. There was a time when when we believed that we were the centre of the universe. There was a time when we waited for a gaint snake to swallow the moon every month. There was a time when diseases were thought to be because of a curse or because of bad deeds in a previous life. We now have more rational, observable and provable explanations for all of these and more. Our understandng of these has evolved just as the science has evolved. Which just goes to show that while science might ask us to take some things on faith, it doesn't insist on holding on to that same faith in perpetuity. In fact, the core tenet for anyone wanting to pursue science is to question established norms and try to prove them wrong in a repeatable and verifiable way. That, in my opinion, is why any attempt to show science and religion as equals will fail to find acceptance.

PS: That was a long rant but has been cathartic. So no apologies.

PPS: God of the gaps! Listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson talk about this. Makes a lot of sense.

PPPS: In matters of God, I am agnostic. I think that is mainly the consequence of me being born a Hindu. When you have 330 million Gods (give or take a few thousands!!) to pay obeisance to, I guess it was bound to happen. I am not complaining though. I love the temples (make no mistake, I am talking only about the physical structures, not the inane things they insist you do there) and I absolutely love the 'prasadam' they distribute there. It gets my goat however when someone tries to shove their religion down my throat.

All Doom and Gloom

The human race is headed for big problems! Why? 

 - Because we don't realize we are going over-board across the board. 

 - Because we don't recognize that sometimes going back to how things were can actually be a good thing. 

 - Because we have shown that we definitely never learn the right things from history.

Like the wise one keeps saying, "Common sense is not all that common!"

:) Have a good day!

The new normal

I was reading the newspaper recently ... that in itself could very well be my subject, given that in this era of the interwebs I am actually still reading a printed-on-paper-the-previous-night newspaper. I can imagine reactions like "how quaint", "Luddite alert!!!" and "are they still making those?". That being the case, I think that there is still space for the good old newspaper in our gadgetified and caught-in-the-wwweb world. Or maybe I am already at that age where I am too stubborn to give up my old ways for something new.  

That is however not my subject, so let me move along. I was reading about a zoo in the Philippines which is offering a free massage to any visitor willing to take it. There are 4 masseurs - Michelle, EJ, Daniel and Walter - who will all work on you for about 15 mins. So why is this news? Ah yes! The 4 masseurs are 5m long Burmese pythons. That, I bet you agree, is newsworthy. "Relaxing with Pythons" as they put it! I finished reading the article, my eyebrows came back down to their regular position and I was ready to file this away under the "We are weird in that way" section and move on. But I couldn't. I kept thinking about it through the day, especially the part of human nature which makes us do seemingly illogical things like this and decided that I have come across enough stories over the years that it shouldn't actually be considered weird any longer. As I mentioned earlier, I guess it is that "I-am-already-at-that-age-where-I-am-too-stubborn-to-give-up-my-old-ways-for-something-new" mentality I am stuck with. 

So here are the other stories that prove that "we are weird in that way"! (This is where the interwebs come in handy. You can easily search for old stuff here)

Swimming/Diving with Sharks - Really? People want to do this? Hasn't anyone seen Jaws!

Running with the Bulls - Again, really? This proves what exactly? Please remember, the bulls are better endowed in every physical aspect!

Living with Tigers - Mind = Blown! fo shizzle (I had to look that up!! ;) )

Pet Crocodile - Dude, what were you thinking?! Oh, sorry for assuming you were! SMH! 

These are a few that have stuck around in my head long enough for me to recall and decide that being weird is the new normal for us. I am now looking forward to headlines along the lines of "Picnic with the Piranhas" or "Run Rhino, Run". That is, if they haven't been published already.

nom de plume

So what do I remember of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn? First up, I read Huckleberry Finn before Tom Sawyer. It was part of school syllabus. I caught up with Tom Sawyer a little later in a pocket sized book. Anyway the thing is I don't really remember much beyond the names of the two protagonists (I think there was also slave called Jim though I am not really sure about this. I am trying hard not to turn to Google to fill me in. "Google dependency" is probably a separate post on its own. Or not!!). I do however remember the author - one Mr. Mark Twain.

I recently learnt that Mark Twain is not the real name of Mark Twain! Confusing? No? It was for me. Apparently the great "Mark Twain" is a just a pseudonym - also known in literary circles as a 'pen name'. Not to be confused with 'pen pal' which apparently doesn't mean a pen is your pal. Alright, back to Mark Twain who was actually not Mark Twain. That's because he was actually one Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Who wrote under the pseudonym Mark Twain.

PS - I wonder. Wonder if Samuel Langhorne Clemens was related to the Longhorn or the Greenhorn!! ;)

PPS - By the way if 'pen name' seems too bland and 'pseudonym' sounds too mainstream, try 'nom de plume' for size. I don't know which language that is or which century it was prevalent in but it definitely has a ring to it. Plus, saying 'nom de plume' makes you seem cool and knowledgeable. :)

PPPS - I promise this will be the last! Mark Twain has also been a constant in my reading over the years because of all the quotes attributed to him. My favorite? This one - "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." I am looking to buy a T-shirt with this on it.

PPPPS - This is fo' sure the lastest one. I mean it! Two words - Robert Galbraith. :)

All the best

I know that the world's largest democracy has finally seen the end of the most massive elections in its history a few days back. But I have to confess that I am still on an election high. I voted. The BJP won. 

To be clear, the party I voted for didn't win and I didn't vote for BJP because my gut says they haven't let go of their hindutva radicalism. Another reason for not being positive about BJP is Modi, the current PM designate who is apparently an astute administrator but seeing how belligerent (and in my opinion, arrogant) he comes across on TV, I look at him only as a full fledged politician. Whether he has the administration chops required or not will be found out over the next five years. Given that we regressed during the tenure of an intellectual, maybe it is time for a politician to take over! Everything said and done, the democratic process has handed victory to BJP and Modi and I have no problem accepting that the next five years will be theirs to run the government and do something about the mess we find ourselves in.

So the pertinent question now is: what can we look forward to? Broadly speaking, Modi won by saying and promising the right things - Development, Growth, End of corruption. Hopefully he can deliver on those. And hopefully without any accompanying hindutva related nonsense being shoved down our throats.

Wishing all of us the best of luck for the next 5 years.

Pop Quiz

Quick, what is common between the occupy <fill-in-your-favorite-cause-here> movement and the parties sitting in opposition in the new Indian government? 

A. They don't have a leader & are capable of a whole lot of noise for no outcome

Twigger

Was wondering why I cant do 140 characters in my blog. Turns out, I can. Who'd have thunk it!! :O So here it is. I am calling it Twigger!!