An extremely interesting read, it contains an essay by Bhagat Singh on why he was an atheist and more. It is strange that a person who wrote like that came to be a hero of those propogating the "Hindu Rashtra" myth.

http://muddle-hood.posterous.com/why-i-am-an-atheist-1

The Owl and the Pussycat - Edward Lear

Finally found this poem. Amongst my 10 favorite.

 The Owl and the Pussycat - Edward Lear

 

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea     In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money,     Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above,     And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,       What a beautiful Pussy you are,           You are,           You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!     How charmingly sweet you sing! O let us be married! too long we have tarried:     But what shall we do for a ring?' They sailed away, for a year and a day,     To the land where the Bong-tree grows And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood     With a ring at the end of his nose,           His nose,           His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose. III 'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling     Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.' So they took it away, and were married next day     By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince,     Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,     They danced by the light of the moon,           The moon,           The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.

                               
Brilliant to sing along and something that has a tendency to get stuck in your head at times like your std 10 board exams, this poem has endured in my head despite all the Ginsberg, Poe or Coleridge I have also read and loved

Crumby Stuff

Alright, I've got a renewed interest in JD Salinger since I found out about his death. So I am going to put down random related stuff:

Comin Thro' The Rye - Robert burns
 

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,   Jenny's seldom dry: She draigl't a' her petticoatie,   Comin thro' the rye! Comin thro' the rye, poor body,   Comin thro' the rye, She draigl't a' her petticoatie,   Comin thro' the rye! Gin a body meet a body   Comin thro' the rye, Gin a body kiss a body,   Need a body cry? Gin a body meet a body   Comin thro' the glen, Gin a body kiss a body,   Need the warl' ken? Gin a body meet a body   Comin thro' the grain; Gin a body kiss a body,   The thing's a body's ain.     Was also sent a link of his Uncollected Writings by the Comedian And to end of:  "It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes. " ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 9

2.40 a.m. Ramblings

Rambled on last night: 

The essence of being Human is being able to conciously enjoy happiness.... if you can't then you probably aren't very human

Basically humans are the only creatures on this planet capable of 'creating' only for happiness (and not out of need/ practicality). if you don't do things that truly make you happy, then it's just not worth doing anything at all.

Now unfortunately I still need to figure out a balance between the practical and not so paractical stuff I want to get done.

Moving on:
The Shashi Tharoor Twitter thingy is in the news (link). Just heard a senior beurocrat and SM krishna who was a bloody governor say that if he does not agree with the govt he shoukd resign his cabinet post. WHAT THE FUCK!!

I dont agree with everything Tharoor says but if a man (whether he is part of the government or not) has an opinion he wants to voice then he has a right to - by law.

It is also public policy he is discussing  and not "matters of state security" and by defination public policy is policy affecting the bloody public who have a right to listen to an opinion concerning it

Moving On:
Went to check on V at the cop station. Had got into a bit of an accident.
The weird thing:
So you have choppers checking all drivers at naka bandi's for a DUI offence but when two cars have been in an accident they don't check if any of the drivers have had a drink? WHAT THE FUCK!!

Academart.com - seriously check it out !

Got sent this link with some amazing Russian impressionists (http://academart.com). I have no idea why some of these guys aren't ridiculously famous. The one on top is a Pavlov and the one below (which is not actually impressionist but still awesome) is a Pjankov .

For those sick of my regular shit:

The 7 Most Badass Last Stands in the History of Battle

I find this leak insanely funny though:

I wonder if the Liberhan report would have been leaked if the Congress was not in power. For all you know it might have been the old judge himself - I mean if you spent 18 years of your life writing something I'm guessing you really don't want it to be stashed away, do you?

My thoughts on this at an earlier point are here

A great little article on the words of our times:

Beyond Inappropriate

Less than a minute

Curlies on the urinal,
Curlies on the pot,
Damn if the guy before me,
wasn't the ape man that time forgot.

Made that up while in the loo. It fairly flummoxes me how so many get there.

Fried Prattle

Well I haven't blogged in a while
- though I've been in the mood to prattle.
And though the rope's still lengthy,
We've been feeling a lot like cattle.

Calling Ms Parker, Calling Ms Parker,
would you please report to the round table?
through the haze of smoke and leftist folk
would you continue to fuck life's fable?


When fried turn to Ms Parker eh?

CODA - Dorothy Parker

There's little in taking or giving,
There's little in water or wine;
This living, this living, this living
Was never a project of mine.
Oh, hard is the struggle, and sparse is
The gain of the one at the top,
For art is a form of catharsis,
And love is a permanent flop,
And work is the province of cattle,
And rest's for a clam in a shell,
So I'm thinking of throwing the battle-
Would you kindly direct me to hell?

Pravda survives! :) - just as bad as it supposedly was!

So since today marks 70 years since the start of WW2 - and since the Russian invasion of Poland has suddenly caught my fancy (mainly the Molotov dude), I decided to check what Pravda "the OFFICIAL voice of the USSR) does today.

So I Googled it and was pretty amazed to see the site I went to (Pravda.ru), still having a major cold war hangover. Articles on the latest Russian weapons, an article on an aircraft the US made to drop nukes on Russia - and also an article stating how Germany alone was not responsible for the start of WW2 and that England was heavily involved... awesome fun stuff.

After a little more searching I figured that Pravda pretty much got shut down when the USSR fell and that the site was started by ex Pravda employees. HA! - but the site is definitely a fun read.

P.S it is strange that the amount of factual information be so tiny (comparitively) on a guy who survived very comfortably through practically every purge in the USSR - except for Khrushchev's. For the few who do read the crap i write if you have any info/ good book on Vyacheslav Molotov lemme know.

Mon mon

With a long and ranting speech,
given by the host.
With a great dinner - 'cept the baby seethed
with liquor flowing with "GOD?" looking on,
All in All not bad for a bored mon

Goya's Ghosts - was underrated and is totally worth a watch

Rep Mulling

So after 17 years the Liberhan Commission finally submitted its report today. I'm not going to write about the report itself as to me the real issue here is why it always take so long for these sort of reports to be tabled. For instance it took a decade an a half for the Srikrishna Comission report to be opened.

It pretty much depends on which party is currently at the center. There is no way that the Liberhan report would have ever been allowed to be submitted much less tabled at parliament if a NDA coalition was in power. Just like the Justice Srikrishna report was rejected by the BJP/Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra in 1999.

Also, these reports are very rarely revealed, in complete, to the general public - and revealing only half the information in a report could be an extremely dangerous thing.

A question - Is it worth having a report as touchy as this (and especially something like the Justice Srikrishna report), tabled so late? Maybe all it will do is open old wounds.

Def mulling

Hahaha what a bunch of hypocritical farts. Also "Weaponised Keynesianism"!! The term hits the spot bang on! Sounds like an RATM song or something.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/23/frank-f22-monopoly/

Point to note - Concerning the system of governance in the US I didn't know that House Armed Services Committee can over overrule the objections of a Defense Secretary as well as the Presidents Administration (essentially the President himself). Does this not nullify the failsafe of having an elected representative itself? Especially when you have a president with a fairly strong hold over Congress.

Also, what's the process out here? All I hear about is the delays in funding defense projects and the fact that we are very slow when in this sort of situation (which may actually be a good thing?? dunno).

Add to places to travel to

Illegal Arms market - Durra, Pakistan

Moron of a filmmaker but what a crazy market. Now that is a trip worth making.

Tiananmen Square Blues

It is a sign of the times we live in that so few people remember the Tiananmen square massacre whose' 20th anniversary would be today. Except fo the usual "we need to make this token protest - but we don't really mean it - and everyone is gonna forget about it by tomorrow anyway" stuff nothing much seems to be happening in the international communiy. The weird thing is why nobody has said a thing about why the media has been so silent on the subject.

I guess if things were different now it would sort of be ok to ignore the anniversary - but the truth is that nothing's changed since '89. China continues to have a miserable civil rights record, the Commie govt still does what it likes to the environment, what happens outside a Shanghai or a Beijing is still anyone's guess, even the actual figures and facts about what happened in Tiananmen square that day is murky. The Tibetan issue has been shot to hell and back. Hell! I recently met more than one person who did not know that Tibet had been an independent country just around 40 years back.

Actually let me correct the 'no change' bit - China's economy is booming. This has basically resulted in the governments of most countries stampeding over each other in order to kiss some Dragon ass. This has obviously resulted in most nations "suggesting" that mainstream media go easy on China. As far as Indian foreign policy on the issue is concerned it's simple - there pretty much isn't any. Ignore it ever happened and maybe China will suddenly feel for us and give up their claim over Arunachal Pradesh - HA!! What else do you expect from a bunch of old fogey babus who can barely take a stand to pee much less on an issue of concern.

Anyway, I am going to do what most well-meaning, direction-less folks do in this situation.... light up, curse, and probably hope that the times actually are a' changein'.

Kam dhanda nahi tha. And for the uninitiated, yes I am carrying a Bo.

Album Art

This is a pretty decent collection of album art considering the fact that there is a lot of really good work out there. Most of them are not that obscure though. Good to see the King Crimson and KMFDM albums on the list.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/13/100-obscure-and-remarkable-cd-covers/

No shelter if youre looking for shade
I lick shots at the brutal charade
As the polls close like a casket
On truth devoured
Silent play in the shadow of power
A spectacle monopolized
The cameras eyes on choice disguised
Was it cast for the mass who burn and toil?
Or for the vultures who thirst for blood and oil?
Yes a spectacle monopolized
They hold the reins, stole your eyes
All the fistagons the bullets and bombs
Who stuff the banks
Who staff the party ranks

From RATM's Guerrilla Radio.

I did not cast a vote for anyone this General Election (I registered though). I am glad. Even more so because it does not matter in this fucked up system of coalition politics. With everyone sleeping with everyone irrespective of any ideology or principle.