'Horrorscope'

This was written approximately two years ago, when the then editor-in-chief aka Su had insisted vehemently that the MaG was almost ready and that he was waiting exclusively for my article. Ofcourse that MaG has never seen the light of the day or the artificial light of the night until now .. and since I dont expect it to see any either, I am reproducing it here. And it is quite suitable too, comes as it does at the begining of the new academic year and a new life for me and many of my friends....

A Peek into the Unknown !!!

Dedicated to the all the people who are actually reading this article (if u can call it that)

Acknowledgement:
This piece of non-fiction was written on the sole insistence of the Editor-in-Chief of the Interface. It’s not his fault, just that there was nothing to fill up this place.

Disclaimer:
The author does not take any responsibility or liability if anything that is stated within turns out to be true.

Preface:
This article has been written with the aim of dispiriting as many people as it can. The job would be well done if at least half the people who read this are turned into hardcore pessimists. We all are sick of reading the daily-weekly-monthly-yearly predictions that are dished out to us by the innumerable publications. The dose of astrology that many of us cannot do without is so 'crystal clear' that it can never be proved either right or wrong. "A problem has been occupying your mind for some time,"(Who the hell doesn’t have problems?) "Its solution may come nearer this week" (It was coming nearer last week too!). "Your romance may take on a new shape" (Its already invisible, who cares what new shape it takes? ). Or the all time favourite "You will settle in your life in the coming future."(As if I expected to get settled in the past!) Hence the author has taken onto himself the noble task of predicting the future as it should be, simple and straightforward. No frills or fuzziness.

Here comes a DisAmbiguated look into the Future !

Now lets begin from the beginning:

All the people who were born in the month of January: (Yep, Sun-Signs have no place in this flavour of astrology)
You all were actually a born a bit after your time. That is to say, you are quite old-fashioned. You have no sense whatsoever of the changing times. You try to cling onto the past. Before the next issue of Echoes, you will be dealt with a severe blow, not emotionally or professionally but physically. The reason, uhm i am unable to cobble up any. Anyway, u better stay away from the heavy-weights, literally.

For all the people who were born between 19th and 26th of any month:
Unlike the Januarians, u people are actually before your time. So u always find yourselves to be the ones waiting for the other person to turn up, who most often doesn’t turn up at all. Basically you are loners, but always trying to maintain a large following, but in order to be among people, u tend to follow someone even if you are against them. Nothing interesting ever happens to you, So there is nothing much to predict about u.

Those who were born between 19th-26th of Jan :
You always think about the past whenever you are made to wait.

Those who celebrate the Date-of-Birth in Nov or Dec :
You are quite extravagant. You want to do everything in a grand fashion. Fortuantely of unfortunately u fail miserably in your attempts at grandeur. They are nothing but mediocre. But dont worry the future holds some promise for you. Your financial position is going to deteriorate to such a level that u will no longer be able to think or act lavishly. From Riches to Rags, thats your life-story.

Those who bloomed in Spring time:
You are quite opposite to the time when u were born. Instead of being bright and cheerful, you are always gloomy and depressed. A born pessimist that you are, you expect nothing but the worst. Dont worry, your expectation is gonna come true. The following weeks would be one of the worst in your life. And it will not get any better. So save your glum for the future too.

Those who belong to Sept and Oct:
I am not going to predict anything for these people. They do not believe in such stuff. None of them is going to read this. If anyone belonging to this group has actually read till here, I suggest u better go and check your date of birth. You have been celebrating the wrong day all these years.

Those who fell onto this earth with the rains:
Simple and clear you appear on the outside,
but the gap with the fact is quite wide.
Cunning and scheming that you are,
there isn’t a day that u haven’t lied.
Your deeds are going to catch up with you in the next month. But you won't learn any lessons from this experience. You would still be as sly and wily as ever. It’s in your nature after all.

Those who were born either between the dates 3rd May-14th May or 17th June-23rd June:
You are quite a special group. Unlike others, you are quite similar to the time of the year that you were born. Always hot and fuming. If it were in your hands, everyone u didn’t love would be burned to ashes. Fortunately for us, your hands hold no powers. However there is the anger simmering within you. I advise all the others (esp Januarians) to stay away from them. Their volcanoes may burst sooner than later.

The Februarians:
You are quite a good people actually and always think of the benefit of others. But somehow your actions result otherwise. Forever the innocent culprit, you are the one who always end up with the brickbats. This month would be no different. You would be abused left, right and center.

All the rest:
Your future is too insignificant to even deserve one sentence.

Afterword: If anything predicted above turns out to be true, please do inform the author so that such errors aren’t repeated in the future.

ps: Incase you are wondering about the author’s birth date, it in February :D

For the future members of the MaG TeaM: You are allowed to publish this piece incase you want to and you are actually getting the 'Interface' published. You may find it as a file in your 200 account by the name 'Why.txt'. Now dont ask me 'why' it was named so.

fountainhead and dunderheads

So, I have finished almost half of the very famous book 'the fountainhead'. And my verdict is that it is very gripping, infact one of the most gripping books I have read since Bourne Identity or Da Vinci Code (which totally disappoints in the end) .. but then again it doesnt at all come under that thriller genre. Yeah it is a story of quite a unique (weird maybe) individual who is surrounded by a few other equally distinctive individuals :D. Thankfully, It has less of great-natural-beauty descriptions that we so often find and wish to jump ahead and has its focus mainly on the individuals that it is about. Still half the book left and it is a ride I look forward to. However, though I think I realise what Ayn Rand considers an ideal man, I dont think I still have a clue about the famed 'Objectivisim'. The most interesting thing about this experience is that even when you are not reading the book, your mind continues to dwell upon the characters and their behaviours.

Now coming over to the dunderheads, who is a bigger one? Our Govt which bans a few blogs or the ISPs which block blogspot and all?? Yet again the totally confused Indian government has taken an absurd decision of banning a few blogs. Anyone can easily change their url to something else and lo .. it wont be blocked anymore. Anyway, the government found some offensive sites and wanted them blocked.. I never expected anything more savvy from our government. But what I never expected was the response of our dear ISPs. How could they just block the whole sites like blogspot, typepad etc?? Now thats really silly. I dont care about the technical difficulties of blocking just a few pages of a site, it really is absurd to deny Indians all the millions of blogs out there!!

Yeah I know a few people are trying to rectify the situation but until then we have to use pkblogs, vtunnel, shysurfer etc. And yeah, I am publishing this post on a 'banned/blocked' blog :D whoaa.

A paragraph which captured my attention

Yet this is the view with which- in various degrees of longing, wistfulness, passion and agonized confusion- the best of mankind's youth start out in life. It is not even a view, for most of them, but a foggy, groping, undefined sense made of raw pain and incommunicable happiness. It is a sense of enormous expectation, the sense that one's life is important, that great achivements are within one's capacity, and that great things lie ahead.
It is not in the nature of man--nor of any living entity--to start out by giving up, by spitting in one's own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differs from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one's mind; security, of abandoning one's values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential

- Ayn Rand in the Introduction to the 25th edition of 'The Fountainhead'.

Weird calls and weirder happenings!!

Am lying around leisurely on a wonderful afternoon after having chatted with around 15 people and talked on phone with a few others ... when I get yet another call. But this time, it was an unrecognised number. And the conversation goes (translated from telugu to english for my writing and your reading benefit):

Caller: Hello, Ramachandra garu? *garu means sir in telugu*
Me: haan .. *softly and doubtfully*
Caller: Is it Ramachandra garu?
Me: haan, it is Ramachandra
Caller: I am .. you know Paddy (name changed) of IIIT? I am her husband's friend calling.
Me: Oh kay .... *wondering what this is all about*
Caller: I want to meet you, can you tell where?
Me: *taken aback .. now what did I do to warrant such a meeting* aahn .. can i know what this is about?
Caller: Nothing, just wanted to ask about your job and all .... *trails off*
Me: * a bit relieved* aahn No, I am going for further studies
Caller: what?
Me: I am planning to do MS, so no job for me.
Caller: Oh, I wanted to discuss some life insurance policies with you to see if you would be interested in something.
Me: *the realisation hits hard* Well, I wont be in India for long, so no point of any life insurance here ..
Caller: US aa??
Me: *whatever .. keep the phone now!!* yeah yeah something
Caller: Fine, thanks
Me: Thankyou *what a connection to what end??*

Then, I hear some shouts coming from outside. Go to the balcony of my home, which is on the third floor and look down to see a huge group of people. Yet another shooting going on, I think. Yeah, there would be some movie-teleserial shooting atleast once every week in front of our apartment. Its prime locality you know ;) However, coming back to the point, I search for the camera and the shooting-help-bus. Can find neither. Just then more shouts, I look directly below to find two people hitting a third. Oh fight scene .. I think. But no camera anywhere in sight. And no film crew either. Puzzled i observe closely and find what? Thats an actually fight going on! The person runs, his two tormentors run after him. And they are followed by a huge procession of silent and not so silent bystanders. The victim/culprit runs to the end of the compound and foolishly ends up at a deadend and the supposed righteous assault on him begins. Its looks like he is being accused of something and punished at the same time. People surround him and are giving him a short trip to hell.

Just then, my phone rings again. Same number

Caller: Hello Ramachandra garu?
Me: *Yeah the same old me* yeah tell
Caller: Can you give me Ravi Shankar's number?
Me: *Nope not from me, I wont commit the sin*, well he is not in hyd, joined some institute somewhere ..
Caller: Oh, no cell phone?
Me: I guess he hasnt taken one yet
Caller: Okay, can I have his email id?
Me: *you are more modern than I thought!* sure ..

and so I provide the id, end the call and blog about it :D

ps: And for the people who still ask me, 'so where are you going finally?' , I have an answer now :D
oops that was a ps :-ss