happy noo yeer

no i'm not drunk, i've just been clicking through the rajasthan forestry department site.

they show you dazzling pictures of the animals you can see in the forests of rajasthan. the gallery starts the list with a breathless "tiger"-"tiger"-"tiger" and then charms you with these:

hoopoo
spotted dear
sloth beer*
flying squirals

*would the drunken bums we'll see collapsed on the roads today count as sloth beers? :D

the site is evidently also very aware of the plight of people who find wild animals parading in their house. if you go through the "FAQ's" section you can almost see them standing beside the distraught residents and wringing their hands sympathetically with each "What to do?" question.

Q.1 There is a monkey menace. What to do?
Q.2 There is a deadly snake in the house. What to do?

how to say? it is hilarious. please go see.

happy noo yeer to all.

5 things you didn't know about me

the yearly quota of two tags is about to be completed. evidently ive been tagged by vivek, whom i do not know - and who, i imagine, cannot possibly know me personally if he's a techie! :D

in case you experienced a burning desire to know 5 inane things about me, 'ere you go:

1. i love bitter chocolate. it gives me shudders of delight. almost nothing in the world can depress me to the extent that bitter cant reach and pull me out of. i also think milk chocolate is ee-yew and should be outlawed!

2. my face often betrays what im thinking or how im feeling - it used to get me into heaps of trouble in college! whenever a prof talked nonsense in class, ole reliable would promptly assume an "eeks! what garbage are you talking?!" expression, making it necessary for me to drop my pencil and duck out of sight until i could freeze it into plastic indifference.

3. in my management classes (and even generally i guess) i tend to think like an employer. i have very limited sympathy for trade unions and communist outrage against wealth. my commerce teacher used to give me a sardonic smile every time i was conspicuously silent when the class broke into heated pro-labour discussions.

4. there are some odd jobs around the house that i really love doing - ironing with a steam iron, cooking, and washing dishes. they all give me a sense of peace and the feeling that all my troubles will be sorted out. i like embroidery too. when im embroidering i can switch off to the world and spend hours chewing over some topic peacefully or just being oblivious to the world. (that is how i spent most of today.)

5. i get hassled by ugly noises and colours. i feel uneasy if my bedsheets or pillowcases are wildly mismatched or in jarring colours. if my phone rings more than 4/5 times in half an hour, i generally switch it off and, if possible, push off for a quiet walk.

the hole politics of english

its about lingual politics again folks - some stuff ive found about the vagina -

the word "vagina" adopted from latin originally meant "sword sheath" or "scabbard". upholding the frameword, the word "clitoris" is from the greek kleiein which means "to sheathe" or "to shut". the noun form kleis means a key, latch or hook.

i suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later we'd have the english-speaking world screaming about hollowness in a woman. my guess is that it also set the stage for dr sigmund fraud and his penis envy theories and how women feel "incomplete" and as if they are living with voids in them.

what i really liked though, was this little tidbit i came across about the concept of waxing the vulva. evidently, only prostitutes used to shave off the hair there and it was to avoid pubic lice. (they took to wearing merkins to disguise this and also the marks of venereal diseases.)

so isnt that just like the patriarchy! you're sexy only if you conform to a norm that insults your womanhood and sexualises children, and if you're sexy, you're also as sexually available as a prostitute.


note to self: think "yoni".

perspectives

i think one of the nicest things about the eastern cultures, is the way they show how one can use cloth for self expression - from sensuousness to businesslike sharpness. with mass media extolling minimalistic (or a lack of) clothing as the only way of making a statement or expressing an attitude, this photograph is such a terrific case for the other side! its supposed to have won a photo of the year award (2005).

its also a very simple non-academic explanation of how even if the west sees certain things as being victimising (like veils), they could have a completely different connotation locally. theres is such a happy, upbeat tone to this picture - who said anything about oppression or loss of identity!





i unfortunately dont know the photographers name. if any of you do, please do let me know! :)

merry christmas

this is what ive been listening to and chuckling over since december 14th, when sanketh first sent it to me.

pliss to check this link out: its brilliant!!