What was he* thinking?!?!

Some of the most enjoyable conversations I've had are those which start somewhere, twist, turn, flash, burn and go through winding lanes, across trees, meadows and finally land up in a place that has absolutely nothing to do with how that conversation begun.

At the end of such a conversation I often wonder, "How did we get here?" and then go on to retrace the dialogue back to the original topic of discussion.

Similarly, when I come across a delicacy or a novel idea, I often wonder how this came to be? What was the thought process... chain of thought... spark of imagination. At times it makes sense, for example, Fire. One can imagine the first fire must have been the result of a lightning or a spontaneous forest fire and that gave out heat (a desirable thing for early man). Rubbing hands for warmth is intuitive so someone must have made the connection, did some experimentation an voila FIRE!... but this is an example that makes sense, an origin story one can imagine, but that's not what this post is about. This is about the random things that I am unable to fathom.

Milk - The first person who saw the udder of a cow and went like you know what would be really cool... let me squeeze that and drink whatever comes out ... What was he thinking?!?!?

Sausages - For those who don't know... sausages are basically cheap parts of a pig ground and stuffed into the small intestine of what is usually the same pig. Now while they are really tasty, if you think about it, whoever came up with the idea to push meat down the pigs piping before it goes down yours... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Cheese (Mature) - I can imagine curdling of milk to get cheese must have been an accidental discovery, but who was the smart Alec who decided that it would be a good idea let this thing spoil to the point where it begins to smell and then eat it... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

Birds nest - I'm not wondering what was a bird thinking when it decided to build itself a nest. I'm talking about using birds nest in deserts and soup. Whoever came up with this idea must have really had something against these birds. He would have thought to himself, "I will show that bird, I'll eat its family, and its eggs and you know what ...for good measure I'll eat up its nest also"...Seriously... What was he thinking?!?!?!?

And then there are the weirder delicacies in the world which I cant even begin to imagine what was going on in the persons head when they came up with the dish. For example century egg or urine brine eggs ... I'm not going to try and explain what these are (feel free to google them (Not Safe For Work)) but seriously... WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!?!?

If you have had similar thoughts please leave your ideas in the comments.



*For the purpose of this post he= he/she. 

The Welcome

There are things in the world that are crazy and then there are those things that we do because they are crazy, insane, embarrassing and at times downright outrageous. Yesterday was one of those days when we did something just because it was just too much fun. A small back ground, Joey, a close friend was interning for the last one month while all of us were sitting in college, he was enjoying life in Mumbai and constantly bragging about all the meetings and deals he was working on. He kept saying things like no one in the firm knows what the deal is about except for him and we were pretty much fed up of it. So we decided to bring him down to earth the moment he was back. Momo and I decided to go pick him up at the station and embarrass him… basically have some fun. Now it just so happened that he called me the night before saying that he had left Mumbai in a half sleeves T- Shirt and that he would freeze here early in the morning and so I should come and save him with some warm clothes, so it was all pretty much set. So at around 6:30am Momo, Vinitha, AK and I reached the station and while the three of them waited outside the station with the embarrassment package I went in to fetch him. I brought him out and what followed is in the Video below, and they say a picture speaks more than a thousand words.

Yes we did have a real live BAND !!!

Welcome back Joey

Thou must be Crazy .....Crazy is good

Insanity as a way of life is gaining popularity…. The Joker put it very nicely .. Insanity is like gravity… all you need is a little push.

Insanity .. it is not a state of mind, it is not an abnormality, it is a way of life. It is a choice of living life in the absence of convention, in the ignorance of tradition, the freedom to make your own mistakes and learn for yourself. Insanity, the way I know is doing what you love and loving what you do.

It is the absence of control, the absence of knowledge. It’s like writing a novel without knowing the ending, so that you can enjoy it as you write. Insanity is eliminating the concept of understanding. Not needing to understand things as they stand because they stand, not needing others to understand your actions, your thoughts and finally the elimination of the desire to understand yourself. That is true insanity… true freedom … true life J

- Kanishk Kakkar

1100

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The Meaning of 'Interesting'

I have always maintained that the word interesting is a very interesting word. I have also always wondered what the word actually means, and what is the concept of interest? Well here goes an attempt to answer the questions that I have just conjured.

The proposition:

“Some thing is interesting when you don’t know everything about the specific thing but you do know enough to know that you want to know more”

The explanation:

Things are not interesting when we know nothing about them; say if we were to talk about some weird abstract string theory concept of physics with a student of arts. The guy has never heard about it, he knows nothing it is boring. On the other had, going by the principle laid down if you know everything about something there are no questions and therefore no interest. So in order to be interested in something it is not only important to know a little bit about it but also important to have the want to know much more.

The same thing also applies to people, people are interesting when they are intriguing, and you believe that there is a lot to them than meets the eye. Using the same concept on a much lighter note, if you want someone to be interested in you, you should be interested in them let them know something about you but only enough to want to know more, which is probably why the girls like the bad boys ;-)

Obama and the almighty

A while back someone asked me to write something about what if Obama were to become the president of USA, so i thought lets make this interesting and radical and this is what the outcome was.

The election of Barack Obama as the president of the most powerful country in the world will naturally have several impacts. While US foreign, trade and military policy would not be affected at all, as there is little difference between Bush, McCain and Obama on these, there would be several that are more far reaching. The biggest interest in the election is clearly Obama’s color.

Never before in the last 234 years of the American democracy has a non-white become President. Given US’s self proclaimed leadership of the world, this should inspire Christians around the world to review the ethnic profile of Jesus. History tells us that Christ was born in the Middle East, a Jew by race and a West Asian or Palestine Arab by ethnicity. However in most portraits of Christ, he is represented with Nordic features - fair skinned, blue eyes, brown haired, very unlike his Asian self. This, the oldest form of racism, is also the most widely propagated. With the US people shouting their preference loud and clear, the dark skinned will no longer be the backward race. With Christ regaining his true color, mankind will be lead by two powerful role models that will change the color of the world.

Paradigm shifts will be seen in various fields like illustrations in school books and nursery rhymes.[1] There would be a change in color in fashion magazines, advertisements and beauty contests. All these will show the beauty of the dark skin and pale beauties would be accepted only to prove the liberal credentials of the organisers. Fair and Lovely would be replaced by Brown and Beautiful and matrimonial advertisements in India would praise the bride’s darker values.

Steven Spielberg would struggle with white humor and Afro-Americans will proudly call themselves black instead of colored euphemisms. Idioms like ‘colored view’ would change to ‘whitened view’ or ‘pale outlook’. Sports writers would bemoan white dominance of swimming or fencing as unnatural and emerging from some longer muscle fiber the whites have.

Michel Jackson will decide that black is the new white and go for another plastic surgery to regain his original skin colour, causing a stir among his fans and media that would elevate him for being a carbon copy of Christ. There would be a mass appeal from the Caucasian, ‘white’ would of course be politically incorrect, world to Nelson Mandela that he was not being fair (dark ?) by focusing his activities to the part of the world privileged to be born black.

Black magic would have to be renamed and so also the dark arts and black humor. Being fair in dealings would not be a complement and unfair trade practices not such a pejorative. Would judges discard their black robes for white gowns and nurses and the Pope don black uniforms ? I wonder if this would carry to changing hair dye colors too.

---

[1] Curly hair, very fair,

eyes are blue, lovely too

coke vending machine

Hi,
i was having this conversation with voix, and she expressed her desire to be a coke vending machine, and what perused was this very interesting conversation about why one would like to be a coke vending machine, now i am not going to past the conversation not because it never happened but simply because i don't feel like doing that.

disclaimer:the following contents are contributions of voix and myself and therefore i refuse to take the whole blame for the impending insanity.

Reason 1
one may like to have coins put inside them and then throw drinks at those who do.
Reason 2
one may like to be the center of attraction especially on a hot day. or another way of putting it would be one might like to be remembered when people are hot ;-)
Reason 3
one might like to be a stationary tin can that sits eats coins and throws up coke.
Reason 4
maybe people who blush a lot and are anyway red all the time, might as well make some money
Reason 5
ofcors a good option for the CPM to collect money.
Reason 6
and last but definitely not the least maybe your just not sweet enough to be a Pepsi vending machine

more are always welcome

Nonsense Hang over

Non Sense Hang over

Once upon a time in the middle of a dream

I saw my self struggling through a puddle of cream

Nonsense it was it was so insane

I was laughing with joy while shrieking with pain

This dream had no beginning it had not an end

To a vogon space ship had I been sent

The poetry I am writing was stupider than theirs

I read it to the vogon who started pulling his hair

His large intestine strangled his brain

While the ship was blasting I ran into the drain

Where I met the mice the rulers of the land

Took some cheese from them in exchange for some sand

The rats are weird the sand they ate

And were singing like crazy, shit it’s the alarm I’m late.

Kanishk Kakkar

8/2/2007