A Fortune Cookie's Words of Wisdom

Your conscience never stops you from doing anything. It just stops you from enjoying it.

The Simple Life !

A signboard in downtown New Delhi

Literally translates to :
One succulent piece of meat...
Two pieces of bread...
(perfectly gels with the universally understood word) ...Bar !

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- Quest World

Low Waist ... On Sale !

In the midst of all the jostling at a jumbo clearence sale at one of the popular branded clothes store ... somebody was grabbing their pick !

Deja vu

Now this might sound a bit bizarre ... but for me it's a little surprising and sometimes disconcerting when suddenly things that I have interpreted, analysed and locked away for lack of better judgement or simply given up on are sprung upon me...

Today somebody asked me a question - Why don't you just make choices of convenience ?

Hell !
This subject of convenient choices has the knack of irritating me...


Of course I should ... I need to ... The whole world does it ... Fine !
Happy ?

Everybody knows that you've been faithful, Ah give or take a night or two !

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that youve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows youve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when youve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that its moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But theres gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that youre in trouble
Everybody knows what youve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows its coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Hope

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.

- The Architect

Tales of Ordinary Madness

"Intuition and romantic fatalism shouldn't be taken lightly"
-Love and Other Catastrophes

"The longing for a destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to share our bed with those who can not fathom our soul, can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams? Can we not be excused a certain superstitious faith in a creature who will prove the solution to our relentless yearning? And though our prayers may never be answered, though there may be no end to the dismal cycle of incomprehension, if the heavens should come to take pity on us, then can we really be expected to attribute the encounter with the prince or princess to mere coincidence? Or can we not for once escape rational censure and read it as nothing other than an inevitable part of our romantic destiny?"
-On Love by Alain de Botton

Thats got to be the best excuse in the world for being a romantic fool. However, put so eloquently, even the fake cynic in me forgives the ones who think prince charming or lady love is right around the corner.

Refreshing !

In & Out

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Some are born mad, some achieve madness and some bring madness upon them and those around them.

Unfortunately greatness and madness go hand in hand.

What makes all the difference is striking the right the balance ... Its called making a choice !

Day of Revelations

They say anger greatly reduces the functionality of our brain's logic centres but somehow to my surprise I've learnt the reverse is also true.

I suddenly have answers to so many questions that have puzzled me for the longest time.

And today (now) I can actually sit back and laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole affair. I mean what a fool I've been, its all been so obvious from the start.

Conclusion ? All that thought, energy, emotion, time and even stress ... everything wasted in such an eloquently elegant way ? ... Hmmmnnn ...

Well I don't think so ...

I suppose I've come out of this a lot wiser. Call it 'experience'. At least I now know everything I should internalise with a pinch of salt.

Any Regrets ? ... Ummmnn ... Not really courtesy the experience and the learnings. Though I wish this moment had come much earlier. Would have saved me incredible amounts of time and effort.

Earthquake !

... Moderate Tremors ...

Should be at least 5 on the Richter scale ...

When Insults Had Class !

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." --Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." -- Clarence Darrow.

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." -- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -- Groucho Marx

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it" -- Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... If you have one." -- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

... (followed by Churchill's response)

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one." -- Winston Churchill

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -- Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." -- John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."--Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -- Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." -- Paul Keating

"He had delusions of adequacy." -- Walter Kerr

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" -- Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." -- Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -- Oscar Wilde

Lady Astor once remarked to Winston Churchill at a dinner party, "Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee!" Winston replied,"Madam if I were your husband I would drink it!"

Mr. Intellectual Once Said ...

"I must say that I find TV very educational. Everytime somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book."

So much for all the hours of research we put in...

Experience

It's not our abilities that show what we truly are ... It's our choices.

That's what differentiates us from the rest of everybody out there.

... And choices usually are like a double edged sword!

So the next time you make one, be damn sure of what you decide. You might not get another chance.

Reinventing the Wheel

Some of life's toughest lessons can never be taught ... They just have to be lived, experienced and felt to be learnt.

Yet another night ...

Physically exhausted

Mentally drained

&
Wide awake

What ?

I did'nt do it ...
I did'nt control it ...
I can't cure it ...

Chaotic Logic

Flip through any book of quotable quotes and its more than likely that you'll find the famous lecturer and essayist of the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson declaring with the strongest conviction...

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

... Profound... That's what any leadership guru will say. And of course all those who've paid tons of money to hear him faff will shake their heads in unison.

And now the entire thing has been taken to ridiculous levels, courtesy the latest Bollywood money spinner 'Om Shanti Om'. Watch as Shahrukh Khan eloquently uses a mildy distorted version of Emerson's fabled belief more than 6 times to make it the film's punch line ...

May I implore the esteemed brains of this world to please take a moment and think about what Mr. Emerson believed to be so true and what 99% percent of today's advise / love gurus use to make money...

I mean think about it ... if simply deciding was enough to force things to happen, life would have been so damn neat.
Hell ... I want / had decided to be the richest guy in the world in pre school !
The Result - All the conspiracies have happened ... life is a goddamn mess and I am nowhere bloody close to it.

And then I read somewhere 'you need to decide from your heart and not just your brian ....'

Bull Shit !

A Slice Of My Life

If ever in my lifetime I make the mistake of being lost between fantasy and reality, remind of a story. Its called...

'The Little Pink Frock & A Box of Cadbury's Gems'

Morning Glory

A smile erupted from the very depths of his heart and spread across his face like the morning sun

P.S. - Kindly excuse the photgraphic quality. Picture taken on a humble 3.2 MP cell phone camera.