Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Happy Diwali 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

In support of Raj Thackeray...

A forward I got.

We all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by doing more... 
1.   We should teach our kids that if he is second in class, don't study harder.. just beat up the student coming first and throw him out of the school
2.    Parliament should have only Delhi-ites as it is located in Delhi
3.    Prime-minister, president and all other leaders should only be from Delhi
4.    No Hindi movie should be made in Bombay. Only Marathi.
5.    At every state border, buses, trains, flights should be stopped and staff changed to local men
6.    All Maharashtrians working abroad or in other states should be sent back as they are SNATCHING employment from Locals
7.    Lord Shiv, Ganesha and Parvati should not be worshipped in our state as they belong to north (Himalayas)
8.     Visits to Taj Mahal should be restricted to people from UP only
9.     Relief for farmers in Maharashtra should not come from centre because that is the money collected as Tax from whole of India, so why should it be given to someone in Maharashtra?
10.   Let's support Kashmiri Militants because they are right in killing and injuring innocent people for the benefit of their state and community..
11.   Let's throw all MNCs out of Maharashtra, why should they earn from us? We will open our own Maharashtra Microsoft, MH Pepsi and MH Marutis of the world
12.    Let's stop using cellphones, emails, TV, foreign Movies and dramas. James Bond should speak Marathi
13.    We should be ready to die hungry or buy food at 10 times higher price but should not accept imports from other states
14.    We should not allow any industry to be set-up in Maharashtra because all machinery comes from outside
15.    We should STOP using local trains... Trains are not manufactured by Marathi manoos and Railway Minister is a Bihari
16.    Ensure that all our children are born, grow, live and die without ever stepping out of Maharashtra, then they will become true Marathi's
JAI MAHARASHTRA!

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Russell Peters

Okay. Russell Peters is live at Siri Fort Delhi on the 29th. Book your tickets at ticketpro.in now! For those not in the know Russell is a knee-slappingly, roll in the aisle inducingly, fantastic comedian.


Sunday, October 19, 2008

Banned!

You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.

Banned!

You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Greetings with a Smile

MDTL is proud to present our very first guest blogger, DarkeRose. Here is her first post -
Say not the struggle nought availeth,
  the labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faint not, nor faileth,
  And as things have been, things remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
  It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
  And, but for you possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
  Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making
  Came, silent flooding in the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
  When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly
  But westward look, the land is bright.
                                   ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.


Greeting the morning with a smile.
We used to have a cheap blue alarm clock which we acquired early in our marriage after we realised that our body clocks were just not doing their job after a late night of partying. It served us well through the years. Only now and then would we fail to wake up to its dulcet tones. On those days I and my better half (worse half on those days) would miraculously find ourselves on our feet with staring eyes and hair on end screaming at each other for not hearing the alarm. Then there would be a mad rush for the loo, sometimes in the wrong direction. While doing the job and going through Femina's tips on how to greet the morning with a smile, I would be interrupted by a pounding on the bathroom door and a voice asking frantically where the sugar was for the tea he was making. Grumblingly I'd crack the door sarcastically asking if this was a hotel or what that he didn’t know where things were kept. Then I would give directions that the sugar was in the cupboard whose keys were in the other cupboard whose keys were in the--------. This exercise was a painfully failing attempt on my behalf to curb the pilfering activities of my maid servant, who invariably when I lost them would hand them to me with a smirk. Hence the continuous change of hiding places. Finally after the keys were found, he would make his way to the kitchen, but not before passing snide remarks on senility and Alzheimers. I would go back to what I was doing hastily. No time to peruse through that article now!

Nowadays we wake up to the ring of a brand new alarm clock, which has come all the way from Disney land, Paris and was presented to us by our son. Its ring in the morning is enough to wake up the dead. Its ring is also a cue for me to cower under the bedclothes as I see my sleeping partner flail his arms searching for the clock and bringing crashing down all the doodahs with the vase of flowers I had placed on the headboard following another mags advice on how to spice up your bedroom life. In the ensuing silence I'm asked, ’Where did you say the old blue clock was?' I mumble something about senility and Alzheimer’s and turn over.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Answer

I'm publishing New Scientist's best Sci-Fi short story below . . .

Fredric Brown, "Answer"

Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes,
now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

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