Category: personal

I love to argue. I find it the best way to understand something. Because your argument is the sum total of your understanding. If someone points out a flaw, and if it’s valid than it improves your understanding as well. I do understand that all things cannot be argued using logic, but these I find are the topics which I see as beyond arguments. Topics like, “Bitter gourd (karela) is the worst vegetable of the world, cannot be brought to any conclusion. I had previously written here about objective and subjective issues.

But for all my love of arguments, i find it difficult to find a good partner. Egos get hurt really fast and I have had many difficulties in my friendships because of these. Recently I found in a mail by D.R.Nair, posted in a newsgroup, what all not do in an argument. It seems there are standard mistakes commited by many debaters. And when I read it I realized myself of having committed a few. I hope someone will benefit from these. And let the arguers thrive.

a) Argumentum ad hominem – A fallacy seen in most discussions where the person is attacked rather than his arguments.

b) Straw man fallacy is when you misrepresent someone else’s position so that it can be attacked more easily, knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished.It’s a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made.

c) Argument from Personal Incredulity- I don’t know something or i find it difficult to believe. So it should be wrong.

d) Red herring- Introducing irrelevant material to the issue being discussed, so that everyone’s attention is diverted away from the points made, towards a different conclusion.

e) Fallacy of the excluded middle- Seeing everything as only two alternatives. To quote Bush, “Either you are with me or with them”.

f) Anecdotal evidence- Using personal experience to generalize facts. If I have a good Hindu/Christian/Muslim neighbour, then all
Hindus/Christians/Muslims are good neighbours

g) Theorizing the consequences than the causes and arriving at wrong conclusions.

When i was 5 we changed apartments. A nice neighbour aunty was left behind, so much so that i am not able to remember her name even. Her children where not there in their home. Mybe they were away for studies or something. So she showered all her love on me. Whenever i was there i would say ‘ol oleesh’ and she would put a spoonfull of horlicks into my mouth. The spoon would remain in my mouth till all the sweet powder dissolved and then i would repeat my signal of ol oleesh.

I still remember one of the stories she told me, of how she came close to becoming lady tarzan sheena. It seems she was also a child some ages ago. It was a winter afternoon and her mother had laid her on a mat in the courtyard in the sunshine. There were a lot of monkeys around her home. Normally they did no one any harm apart from stealing some food. But luck had that when our baby aunty was soaking the sunshine there was a she-monkey in the trees who probably had lost her child recently. So when aunty’s m other went inside for a minute, this monkey decided to adopt our baby aunty and fled with her. Luckily her mother came out hearing the baby cry and somehow the baby was recovered with only a scratch on her back.

For a long time i teased her saying that she must have looked like a baby monkey.

Why is our memory so selfish, only remembering things that interest us and dumping everything else someplace without a pointing neuron.

p1012984
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

Friday night at midnight i buzzed Raman, and in half an hour we decided to trek to fort Dhakoba. The trek is a actually a longer one with fort Dhakoba and fort Durga with a temple in between. But to complete that needed 2 days, so we decided to just do the first one. Went to bed at 2 and was still sleepless when the alarm went off at 4:30. Raman was to meet me at Mulund station at 5:30.

Met Raman at station, caught a train to Kalyan, then bus to Murbad (Rs.17), jeep to Dhansai (Rs.16) and a finally a jeep to Polu (Rs.12). Reached the base village Polu at 9:45. Now unlike other treks, this place doesnt see much crowd as reaching here is a pain. So the villagers were really staring at us. But they were quite nice and one man went to great lengths in trying to tell us the way. And if someone really tries hard I can understand almost 80% of marathi.

The sky was cloudy in the morning and we were hoping for rains, but as we started walking the clouds vanished. And the combined forces of heat and humidity began to take our toll. We were to walk uptil the hillock were we would find the beginning of a stream. If we followed that stream through the valley we were to reach the fort.

p1012999
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

From what i had gathered from the villager and from Kaushal’s posting, the key point was reaching the stream. But Kaushal and team had taken a guide and lost their way as soon as the guide returned to the village. So i had some doubts about the way. Please see the photos at flickr to know THE wrong way and the probable way.

Soon we lost the track and were scrambling through thorny bushes. Somehow we climbed over hillock no.1. On the right side of hillock no.1 we could see the stream. So we climbed down the other side and walked along the stream. After about 1.5 hours we reached a huge waterfall. Practically a dead end since it was short of impossible to climb without the right equipment.

It was already 1:00 pm. We had to get back to the village at 3 pm at the most, or we wouldnt find any conveyance (jeeps stop doing trips at abt 4-5pm).

If we backtracked for an hour, and then searched for the right track it would mean 3 hours min. So there was no point in doing that. So we did what is best in the situation, that is take a nap.

p1012994
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

after about 1.5 hours of wakeful sleepiness, we turned back. Dhakoba would have to wait.

p.s. there is a village called, guess what, “Singapur”, next to Polu. We forgot to take its pic. Next time 🙂

After a tiring and restless bus 15 hour ride, I landed in Goa in the early morning. Took a pilot (bike taxi unique to Goa) to Dona Paula, where synapse has a great bungalow called Monte Carlo.

digs @goa
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

Its supposedly an old portuguese house which they have slightly modified and revamped. And I absolutely liked its architecture. Infact buildings in Goa have a lot of portuguese influence, even new ones which even an untrained eyes like mine noticed. More on that later.

I went for a stroll in the evening. Saw the Dauna paula Jetty. There were water scooter shaped motor boats, complete with a handlebar. But tourists in there picnicking frenze hardly noticed that the handles were there only for show. It was totally controlled by the boatman riding pillion. But that hardly mattered as people would twist the handlebars at bends and getting an adrenaline rush anyway.

img_2374
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

Then i took a bus to Miramar beach. Miramar was just ok, nothing worth mentioning. Roamed around, and ended the day with squid garlic fry and goan chilli chicken. Both were awesome.

On sunday I left for Calangute beach at abt 10 am. Calangute is the beach of the commons. I saw ordinary folks with holes in their undies, along with there families taking a dip. It was really nice seeing people from all categories sharing the same surf. I do think there is something unique about goan peple. maybe they have been influenced by decades of easygoing hippies. but all of them seemed so happy. With there brightly colored houses. It will be a nice place to settle in after i retire.

At one end of calangute beach is a hillock. I came to know that if I walked around the hill I would reach anjuna beach. So i did a small trek. Atop that hillock was a small christian shrine. Also a family (adventurous dad, proud mom, and two pretty chicks in red hot pants) was preparing for parasailing. I got down and was so thirsty that I entered the first beach shack i came upon. Now these people know how to create an ambience. Nice goan trance music, chataieees, wooden benches. …OH baby…I spent about 3 hours there just relaxing.

not out
uploaded by kaa on flickr.

At 3:30 caught a bus, rushed to panjim. missed the ferry by a min. waited for the ferry to return. took a bus to dona paula. reached at 6 pm. came to know that my bus for mumbai was to leave at 6 pm. One of the bungalow staff, Rajesh took his kinetic honda and at a speed of 50kmph, with the kinee groaning we reached panjim bus stand at 6:30pm. And guess what i again got the last seat of the bus and that too the middle one.

PS. i missed to mention this – -” the hotter chick and the adventurous dad did a double decker landing coming from above my shack, surprising me in the process. then both the chicks proceeded to undress to their hot two piece bikinis. After some frolicking around in the waves, the whole family proceeded to eat a whole lot of seafood. “

Travelling in mumbai locals has become such a daily thing that normally i wouldnt mention about it. But today is different.
A guy was speaking on the phone in marathi.

Guy: me kurlala pahunchte aahe…(subtitle.srt — I am about to reach kurla…)

Phone:.. … . … . .. . . . .

Guy: tumee lagnla jaavat aahe ka? (are u going to the marriage?)

Phone: .. .. . .. . . . . . .

Guy: naay …lagn usi divas aahe… (no…the marriage is on that day only)

Phone:…. . …. . . . . . . .

Guy: mulgi doosre mulgela saath bhhagli..magar doosri mulgi gaon madhe taiyyar aahe ..toh shaadi usi din aahe … (the to be bride ran away with another boy..but another girl in the village was willing and ready..so the marriage is to be held on that day only)

p.s. to marathi readers (if any), I respect all languages including marathi. But i have found that using incorrect language is the only way to get people to teach you the correct version :).

Also on the same train a middle aged man came and offered me a small glass of chilled water. And not just me, he offered it to practically the whole bogey. he had a lots of plastic water bottles. What he didnt have was batch of any organisation, nor any words.

Lets look into two recent soft drink advertisement, namely pepsi and sprite, and see whether the advertising agencies really are worth the crores they take.

“Oye Bubbly Grind”
Pepsi is going all out on the ‘Oye Bubbly’ grind, roping in many celebreties, and also bringing out a compilation album. Ringtones of the jingle can also be downloaded from the internet. And you can view the video here.
In this ad, a bottle of pepsi in Shahrukh’s hand starts enticing inanimate objects. The bottle of pepsI is ‘Bubbly’ or ‘Babli’. Babli is a common pet name for a girl child, particularly in the northern part of our country. So while Shahrukh grabs ‘Bubbly’ and gets going from the beach, girls in sarongs gyrate to the grind. And their navel turns into vertical lips and starts mouthing the jingle in a female voice, which goes as,” Oye Bubbly, aaja bubbly, be my lover bubbly”. Next is the turn of a guitar, the Elvis doll on his rearview mirror, then overhead lights of a stadium and finally his glasses from inside his shirt pocket. All these characters have a male voice. Particular is the last one when from inside his pocket his glasses ask, “sirji mera chance!!”, which is a take on Coca Cola’s ad, featuring Virendra Sehwag.

Many people couldn’t digest the imagery of the vertical lips on the navel and that is probably why the Pepsi people have edited out that part. Predicting people’s response over things like this is very difficult and not everytime can a advertising agency succeed in doing so. But did they really want to show, navels (as female characters in female voice) going crazy about bubbly/Babli and wanting her as a lover. Most people would not have seen it as such but there is always some subconcious effect. Our society may be progressing, but same sex love is still looked down upon. And since they edited out that part, its likely that they realized it too.

“Kiss me”, says the frog!!
While not as big a campaign as ‘Oye bubbly’, Sprite has used the fable of kiss the frog and get a prince, or in this case a princess.
A young man takes a break and sits on a park bench. He is all sweaty and a ideal cold drink customer. He hears a husky female voice asking him to kiss her. He turns around to discover the source to be a frog. Not in the least flummoxed, he just picks up his backpack and cool as c ucumber starts to leave. Upon this the frog now a little desperate, asks him, “Kiss me, I’ll become a princess, then you’ll have everything, money, palace…” Hearing this the guy who now is at some distance comes back picks her up, and for a split second seems to be in a dilemma on which the frog asks, “Don’t you know how to kiss?” Upon which he proceeds to put her into his bag, while telling her, “Money, palace, these things can easily be found, but a talking frog is extremely rare.” And walks away grinning.
If the guy found a talking frog so amusing and even more desirable than a princess and money, why did he leave when first asked by the frog to kiss her. Its only when she challenges his manhood with, “Don’t you know how to kiss?”, that the guy returns. Or did they wanted to show the guy as impulsive and indecisive? Whatever be the case, here also I guess they realized their mistake as they have edited out that part. Advertising rates being in lakhs for minutes, how much would have they lost because of the redundant and contradicting scene.

NAINA is a supernatural / horror thriller directed by debutant Shripal Morakhia, releasing on May 20th. In this film,quote ” a young girl of five loses her eyesight and her parents in a freak accident in London. Twenty years later, she is bestowed with the gift of sight. Thanks to the marvels of modern science, a cornea implant brings her vision back. Her period of darkness is over… or is it?

With the implant through which her vision is restored, she starts seeing a new world hitherto unknown to mankind.” /quote

Very original, just that i have seen a the same movie without Urmila and in a different language (chinese). Its called “The eye”, what else. And its not very obscure also, as it has been dubbed in english and released in the US. And I am pretty sure no related to the movie will ever mention this. And even though there are many film magazines I wonder why they do’nt have the guts to expose them. And i am also sure if by remote possibility the director is confronted, he will probably say that he is doing a favour to the indian masses by bringing such good movie to them.

From scripts to movie names to heroine’s costumes not much can escape the copycats.

There is this site called associated content which pays for writing articles (not any different from blog postings). And in dollars too…which in our country goes a loooong way. And you do’nt have too worry much about what to write. As long as its somewhat readable you can always find some category suitable for it.

So register here and do not forget to show me your gratitude for telling you about this great thing -plz click my name as the refferer. And when you have posted 5 articles i’ll get paid (at least I hope so). And for the record my name is K.A.Anand.

ZoeElleGirl

Found this Zoe girl (BHMB:), all of 14 years, who hosts her own radio show. Though she uses the word ‘cool’ way too often, I must say that for a 14 year old she has good taste in music. Though she would have to try hard not to let the success go into her head. Check out her site, they also have the recordings for download.

And talking about music, got to hear Antony and the Johnsons. Found its review on anarchytect’s blog. And in his words, it has :

“strange beautiful voice singing songs of longing and loneliness – songs that lies in the interstices of genre and gender.”

Roger Ebert says,”imagine a movie where Jackie CHan and meets Quentin Tarantino and BUgs BUnny” and I agree. Gangsters do choreographed dances and march in formation. Closet kungfu experts cloaked in ordinary roles. Moves straight out of Naruto.

The best kung fu movie I have seen till date. The thing I like most, it doesnt try to be something which it is not. Well some people would definitely find some deeper philosphical bullshit out of even this, but let me assure you its only there imagination.

The fighting scenes are done mostly on land, and are mostly realistic unlike in some films where everything happens in air.

I saw it in chinese with english subs…downloaded it with bittorrent. I am all in for piracy.