Howz this for a hobby??

If I only I could do this

http://www.cnn.com/offbeat/

Years from now, Sotheby's and Christies would be setting up auctions for my paintings...

BTW, all I can do is to dream about the money I could make.

Searching for a hobby

Read the title carefully guys! I am looking for a hobby, not a hubby.

I was trying to register for a site today, where I was asked to list my hobbies. "What is a hobby?", was the question swirling in the cup of coffee on my desk. Is it something that you like to do? Then why are you not doing it as a profession? The evilly-inclined part of my mind appeared and started answering my question with another question.

Because I would be broke trying to call myself a "book reader" - came the answer from the angelic part. (If you have trouble following this, picture two figures, one evil-looking and the other with wings, dressed in white. If you still have trouble, don't ask me for another image).

The debate thus raged on. Luckily, there was another part of my mind, the one which I like to call "the cynical, lazy" part. This figure represents the "Thinker", but the only problem is that it never DOES anything. Let me slip into that part and see whats going on...

"Hmmm. So whats a hobby? It is something that you do because it breaks the monotony of your job. All jobs get monotonous after some time, right? Okay, not all jobs. Fashion photography, travel writing etc. Some of us have jobs to kill for and pay to die for.

What else completes the definition? A hobby must be indulged in fairly regularly. Good point. Playing a chess game with a neighbour once in a year doesn't qualify as a hobby. But when you seldom see the sun in a month, where is the time for hobbies? (A swig of water, to lower my stress levels, which increased just thinking about 'time').

Okay, lets move on. What hobbies can I choose, assuming I can pursue on weekends. I want a hobby that is not the usual "stamp-collection" types. Nor the wisecracky "eatin 'n sleepin". I want a real hobby. Take up a game? Naaah, too much muscle strain. Music? I have no ear for it (My family tells me that I have to be the most musically-uninclined person on earth. You have to admit. They are right sometimes)."

By this time, the bad and good parts of my brain had stopped their battle. They were as bored about this as me. A recent advertisement flashed by me - a recent one for one of those soda-cola types. "Chod na yaar. Pada raho shanthi se."

Great. Next time someone asks me for a hobby, I will say, "SCI Meditation". Short for Soda-Cola Induced Meditation. Yippeee!

(In the meantime, if you have got a suggestion for me, say psst.)

River Cauvery - A Previous Post

An older post, somewhere in June last year. The rains came later, probably because the Rain God read this blog ;)

End of the Cauvery

P.S: I had posted in a seperate blog, foolishly, as I was new to the concept of blogging (and I thought I was a geek. Scary!).

Science Today - Can you understand it?

Politics, Cricket and religion - I thought these were the only topics Indians could talk and argue about in public. I therefore perked up my ears when I heard a discussion on a bus on, hold your breath, "How understandable is today's science?"

I got interested and decided to join the conversation. The key message that I could understand was that science and the society were growing apart from each other and we no longer have true scientific greats who can bridge the two worlds. Men like Richard Feynman, Bohr and our own Bose. Another point that disturbed me was that scientists are no longer considered above reproach, morally speaking. There have been numerous instances where scientists have made false claims or supporting unscrupulous companies and governments that their credibility has become eroded.

Adding to the confusion are the raging debates on some of the cutting edge tools of science - Human cloning, genetically modified crops, stem-cell research. Are these valuable tools to aid humanity or marketing conspiracies by influential organizations? A case in point is the recent Avian Flu panic. While governments have chosen to spend millions buying vaccines and cures from a few companies, many human rights activitists are claiming that this is a big hoax to mint money (see "THE SCARE OF EPIDEMICS: What is the reality of the avian flu?" at http://www.abolitionist-online.com/article-issue02_maneka.gandhi.shtml).

Who will speak for science and humanity? Does our education system churn out people who can think of nothing beyond neutrons and betablockers or people who beileve that science is a way to help humanity progress?

We need answers to these questions and we need them fast.

My Search for good Blogs continues

Many blogs that I read were usually about politics, films and the usual conversation-breaking topics. Some focussed on the author's observations to activities around him and situations he finds himself in.

Sidin (http://sidin.blogspot.com), Rashmi Bansal (http://youthcurry.blogspot.com), Vikas (http://bloodhead.blogspot.com), CuriousGawker (http://curiousgawker.blogspot.com), Sourin Rao (http://chappan.blogspot.com) - I felt were outstanding ones. A visit to each will lead you on to more wonderful people and more importantly to their writings, which can reveal their depth of feeling or their great sense of humor.

Some posts in the above blogs can also add to the general melancholy in your life (do we have any less?), as they bring you face to face with the miseries that some people call life.

I started this thread, since I could not find a list of such fine blogs in one place. Send me your favourite lists and we'll introduce readers to some great writing. Ciao...

My Search for Good Blogs

I was bored on Friday evening, waiting for a phone call that would approve my presentation document I had sent. I was thinking of blogging and the train of thought led somewhere else, "Do we have some great blogs - serious, thought-provoking or just plain funny?"

My search took me through cyberspace, literally. There was one guy who even claimed that Google would shut down unable to make sense of the garbage that people keep posting in the name of "blogging."

Hmmm, I do not know if what he was talking may come true.

Another observation: Many people have their own domain names and publish their blogs on their website. Cool!

I was again working my brain cells - which are far and few - to find out if I could import all my blogs to a website of my own. The search led nowhere. I believe I can do this safely, since no one has read my blog, yet! But no, let me wait till some one does and leaves a comment.

Is that the phone call? Better get going. Have a nice weekend.

May the Universe find you on the same coordinates next week.