rantlust

Posted by riyer on July 24th 2007 in Animals, Health & Fitness, Life, Nature, Thoughts
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The other day while riding downhill on my bicycle, averaging speeds above 35mph, I happened to notice that a squirrel had been struck, perhaps a few moments before I passed it, by another cyclist or a car. The squirrel was not dead, it was struggling and writhing, its head almost entirely severed and it lay there dying. It probably died long before I reached the bottom of the mountain. Note that I captured all this in a fleeting moment - there was a brief instinct to brake and help put it out of its misery but I continued downhill, my thoughts moving quickly - from the shame of not helping the miserable creature by putting an end to its suffering, to the ethics behind my inaction.

I asked myself the question what my “kartavya” (duty) was to that squirrel. What was my role in the death of that squirrel? Am I as responsible for its death as the person who directly laid the hit. What if instead of a squirrel it were a person? Is letting a person die as dastardly an act as laying a hit on that person that caused them to die? I know the utilitarian answer to that question but that is not at all comforting.

I know that if it were a person, I would have done everything in my power to help that person, but that got me to the question - what if the only reasonable help that I could offer that person was, like the squirrel, a quick death. Would I act illegally? Obviously what was supposed to be an exhilarating downhill ride was quickly filled with angst. At least the physical pain of the uphill ride was masked easily with memories of funny expressions. There was zero thrill to be had in this downhill return. I confess that I was at a complete loss, I even blew past a STOP sign, with a middle-aged man yelling sarcastically from his car “Nice Stop”.
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Posted by riyer on January 08th 2007 in Food & Wine, Thoughts
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There aren’t too many of us who did not enjoy a quick lunch or dinner of Ramen noodles either because we were in a hurry or because we were short of money.
It turns out that the creator of this wondrous food-group. Mr Momofuku Ando has died at the age of 96. There is a very nice appreciation here

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Posted by tafkap on November 30th 2006 in Religion, Society, Technology, Thoughts, Travel
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I flew to Chicago over Thanksgiving for a wedding. Yeah - perfect timing. I don’t consider myself to be a person with too many prejudices, but I was surprised by thoughts that went through my mind as I observed people at the gate and on the flight on my way back to Boston.

A middle aged woman. Friendly. Reading an article. It was entitled something like “Why I am against prayer at games - an Evangelist’s story”. Must be from Kansas or something. Probably hates Boston.

An elderly African American couple. Flying to Atlanta so they said. The man had a newspaper in his hand and he was doing a crossword. I am irrationally surprised.
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Posted by anupcs on June 30th 2006 in History, Life, Thoughts
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A curious look at important events that happened on this day in history doesn’t reveal much of earth shattering significance. After some research on the big bad Internet, I came up with the following shortlist:

• In 1520, the Spanish retreat from the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan suffering huge losses
• In 1859, Emile Blondin, a French daredevil, crosses the Niagara Falls on a tightrope
• In 1936, Margaret Mitchell’s epic “Gone with the Wind” is published
• In 1950, the US enters the Korean War officially
• In 1953, the first Chevy Corvette, a white car with a red interior, is produced
• In 1971, the crew of the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 perishes on re-entry
• In 2002, Brazil beats Germany 2-0 in Japan to win their fifth World Cup title in Football

And oh, I was born on this day, one and a half scores and then some, years ago. Even as a child my mother made sure this day was special for me. She used to make me invite my friends and cook for them. I don’t celebrate XMAS, thanksgiving, or any other holiday with much enthusiasm. But birthdays are important to me; whether they are mine or those of close friends and family.

I more or less continued this tradition of big parties until about a few years ago when most of my friends decided to have progeny and settle down. Bummer. For I have had quite a few memorable birthday parties. The best of the crop was in my former apartment when about thirty people showed up and dunked me in the swimming pool. I was drunk and fully clothed. It was after midnight. I had only moved in a week before that day and the managers of the complex weren’t pleased. I was promptly served with an eviction notice the next day.

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Posted by jcaldera on March 08th 2006 in Humor, Random, Rants, Thoughts
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For those of you that know me, or better yet for those of you that don’t, before Sebastian (year and a half old son) I used to stay up pretty late partying intaking copious amounts of alcohol and being just barely affected the day after. After Sebastian things changed dramatically, of course for the better, but in the subject at hand, my ability of staying up partying went south completely (that is to say that it’d be a miracle if I can survive awake drinking until 10:00 pm, rather than my abilities going to Florida… … I guess my jokes abilities went the same direction).

Anyways, the people that know me, also knows my relationship with Las Vegas. Last weekend I made my annual gambling trip with my two brothers to Vegas. There was big doubt in their minds about me staying up pass 10, in fact there were not doubts but bets (which seemed pretty appropriate) about how late I’d stay awake. Much to their surprise, and God knows, mine as well, I went back to my pre-kid behaviour and drank and stayed awake all night, to the point that they went to bed before I did.
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Posted by dharpe guje on March 01st 2006 in Random, Thoughts
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As you move through life, ambitions guide you to bigger (in some cases) and better things or situations. It is often difficult to gauge where the ceiling of achievement is and it is even more depressing to figure out that the ceiling itself is an illusion, the more you reach for it, the more distant it becomes. However to keep your interest, the net progress one makes always seems encouraging enough to keep on reaching. This can be somewhat explained scientifically by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For those who haven’t gone through this hierarchy before, Maslow categorized human wants and needs into a pyramid with the lowest part of the pyramid denoting basic human needs and the highest levels signifying self actualization. His contention was that man essentially has to move from one level to the next and cannot really be at a higher level if his more basic needs aren’t addressed first. References to this are also made in the vedas and some of the Indian and I am sure other mythological texts under the headings of maya, mithya etc. The central idea being that there is really no end to doing well; wealth accumulation and/or search for a better living is all but an elusive and temporary endeavor.
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