Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog, page 30

To preen or not to preen?

You know this thing about 'reading between the lines'? THAT's the one thing that God forgot to put in when he was making me. Or, maybe, He just did not realize that it was even necessary. I mean, He was probably the sort of chap who believed that what is said is what is meant to be shown in action as well. And, in THAT particular thing, He made me just like Him (Alas, not in any other, more

Preemptive illogic?

"You will never really be a success, you know that? You believe anything you hear. Like, for example, you believe logic works." By now, you know that there is a friend of mine doing a free psychiatric evaluation of me. Though he was not exactly doing a miraculous act of prescience, a la Nostradamus, in predicting my future success, considering that I am already in my mid-fifties and have

Loopholes

This loophole business has always had me flummoxed. Whenever I have heard that someone had found a loophole in a law or a procedure of the government, it has always been in admiring tones, especially in corporate circles. The chap was a veritable hero, an intellectual giant to be looked upon with awe or envy, depending upon your nature. As I understand it, if you want to do something and check

Misused sayings

If there is one thing that can be guaranteed it is that anything that can be misused will be misused. That applies to sayings as much as to anything else. The thing, though, is that there are sayings that seem primarily to be misused, especially these days. Take this Tamil sayings for example - 'Aindhil valayathadhu aimbadhil valayumaa?'. Literally, it connotes that what is not flexible at

A modern Utopia?

"I want everyone to be able to have food, clothing, shelter, education and medicare", said the Humanitarian. "So be it! Let the brains of the world unite and work to that end", commanded the Lord of the Cosmos. And long labored the brains of the Cosmos. Yet, amongst them, there was dissent about how best to achieve it. And, of course, about what was in it for them. "There needs be

Trekking near Dharamshala

There are those who feel that it is not a trek unless they crawl into a tent every night, stuff themselves into a sleeping bag and try to sleep on a sleeping mat carefully avoiding those couple of pebbles which lurk around on the ground waiting to give you an acupressure treatment when you least expect or want it. There are even those who believe that it is namby-pamby of you if you do not lug

Trekking near Dharamshala - II

When we left for Dharamshala, what we checked on the Net indicated the possibility of some three to four day treks. As it turned out, though, Triund Peak was expected to be a 4 hour trek from Gallu Mandir, up to where we could motor down. Lahesh Caves, another option was a 4 hour trek from Triund and beyond lay Indrahar Pass. Which essentially meant that we either trekked only to Triund or we

Winners don't lose?

Being an inveterate reader, I cannot resist reading anything...even unto T-Shirt slogans. This habit of mine, I am sure, is going to lead to immense trouble, some day or the other, going by exactly where the slogans are printed, especially on women's T-Shirts. No matter my age, I'd find it rather tough going to explain that my focused staring is only an attempt to read the slogan. Which, I

Work-Life balance?

Every time I hear of this Work-Life balance I get a weird feeling. (No, you @#$$, it is not because I neither have work nor life. If you choose to think that there is no work without a job and no life without a spouse, that's your problem, not mine.) I mean, I get this strange feeling that, just as they start for work, people switch on the 'Zombie Mode'. And switch it off when they go back

Money and Happiness

"You know, you suffer from the wrong notion that money is enough to be happy." As usual. Here is another friend who knows exactly what is wrong with me. If ever the day came when a friend found something right with me, I'd probably die of the shock. "Whoever said money can buy happiness just did not know where to shop", I said triumphantly. It is not often that I can remember the right