JONATHAN LIVINGSTON

Too windy and i am struggling to light my tobacco, wasted many match sticks in the process, i sat down and watched, smoking.

Have to take pictures

Later, let me watch them first.

Its been a while. This post is not annoying, let me assure you.

i don't want to get back to the blog with an annoying post.

That will come later.

Strange feeling, i am coming back to talk to my friends

Its dark in there,  and there is no light in Daylight Again, covered by over grown weed,

tall grass surrounding it.

Leave it alone i thought.

But i want to live there without clearing the weed and cutting the grass.

i still have a lot to tell you

will it stop ? Even when no one wants to listen to me ?

oh !  He's looking at me wondering what i am doing

Two kinds of seagulls here, i am not an expert, they are seagulls i think.

Just flying across, with no apparent purpose. Just flying back and forth, go soaring high and dive all of a sudden. Rising again inches above the water. Go up again, fly across, disappear, come back darting again.

Same routine, just flying for fun.

i saw nearly all the seagulls behave like Jonathan Livingston. They just fly, darting across, up and down, disappear and reappear. Wonder if they have read the book.

Have you read the book ? i shout

What book ?

Jonathan Livingston.

Oh Richard Bach ?

yes.

We don't have to, we all are Jonathan Livingstons here. He shouts

Yes i see that, i shout back.

They are so fast. Its like they dart across with near lightning speed. i fail to capture them in the camera most of the time. i get only the tail or part of a wing in the picture.

We all want to be different from others. But can't afford to be too different when we live in a society.

98% of the world population are followers.  They follow something or the other, Myths, religion, philosophy.

humans are programmed to follow by the natural selection. Its safer to live in groups or a society and you can't afford to stay away or be too different from the others.

Only 2% have the courage to be rational.

NO MORE SMILES

When she has to pay 100 rupees for onions, she is not going to smile any more. With oil prices gone up, the cost of all the essential commodities have gone soaring high.

Who has wiped the smile from her face ?

President Barack Obama.

He does not deserve an inch of the Nobel prize that was thrust on him without any significant achievement in any field.

This is a very strange case.

This perhaps was the first time that the world accepted one person as a world leader.

He became a symbol of hope over night.

There were many expectations of him.

Perhaps that is why he was awarded a Nobel Prize expecting him to bring peace in the world and close the ever growing gap between the rich and the poor which has gone to staggering levels now.

i understand this is not easy. This can't be done in a short period.

No steps were taken in two years of Presidency

Nothing.

First thing he was expected to do was to lower or control the oil prices, which are connected to almost everything. He couldn't control the inflation.

Please remember these are the views of an outsider, i am not an American. He must have done a few good things for the US citizens, i am not concerned about that. i am talking about President Obama as a world leader.

START did not make him a world leader either.

START is a joke. Russia is ruled by a bunch of thugs. You can't have a treaty with them. 2000 nukes and just  two nukes make no difference at all. Reduction is not a solution. And you can't control China's nukes. There is no point in START with any one. It was a waste of time and money.

Reduction in oil prices, controlling the inflation and bringing an end to the war will make him a world leader. He has less than two years to become one. He is running out of time. Unfortunately he is turning out to be just another Corporate stooge like the Presidents of past few decades.

i am angry and i have a right to be angry.  Farmer's suicides, ever growing poverty, suffering and deaths due to starvation is a direct result of US policies and corporate control. Indian government also is a partner in crime. What ever happens within the US affects rest of the world. American citizens are 5% of the world population but using up 30% of the world resources. Laziness, wastage, comforts and luxury of a few is affecting rest of the world. Perhaps American citizens can afford the comforts, luxury and wastage, perhaps they can afford the oil price hike, but rest of the world can't. People are dying.

Looks like the Americans are not aware of  'rest of the world'

This is the chart showing use of oil by country, per day. Figures of 2007

So what the Nobel prize winning President is doing to bring down the misery of  'rest of the world' ?

Nothing so far.

Well, he can say that i am just a President of one country, 'rest of the world' is not my responsibility.

but you can do something to help the poor to afford one square meal a day.

please be less dependent on oil

please use public transport, if you don't have,  you can demand public transport in your area

Please avoid flying within the country, demand re establishment of already established network of trains.

fast inter city trains

i'll write about wastage in flying, this post is getting too long.

all my love

BEGINNING OF THE END

Congratulations !

Good news ! We are going.

i think the present generation would live to see the beginning of the end of human race.

This is going to be fast, it will not take millions of years.

Good for the planet, Good for the animals, they'll have a party.

The monkey would dance

This is not my opinion, the experts say the same

"If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before" - Jonas Salk

The recent WIKI LEAKS marks the beginning perhaps.

What are they doing ?  they are operating from Sweden. not from a different planet.

They are aware that they are dealing with the CIA. The most powerful organisation in the world.

so powerful that they can stop the sunrise

you are staring at me

yes the CIA can stop the sun from rising

ok.  it was a bit wide, please adjust. It was just to make you understand how powerful CIA is

CIA can finish Wiki Leak people in a matter of seconds, but they'll make a mess of it. They are very messy people. They can finish me, they can destroy my house kill my family and my neighbour's who don't even know know what a CIA is and i would be standing outside scratching my yeddu. 

These chaps can't light a cigarette without setting the house ablaze.

Right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. Where ever they go, they leave a mess behind. What ever i know about CIA comes  from various books i have read.

i have not met any of them, thankfully.

CIA has no country

Then why would Wiki Leak people take such a risk ? Unless CIA  leaked the information themselves ?.

Why would they do that ? except for the embarrassment,  the information doesn't help any country, not even the USA.  

Does it help any one ?

yes it helps the corporates to gain control over different countries. 

In another 50 years we will have only corporates and no countries. 

This is just the beginning, beginning of the end of human race.

Corporates have near total control over USA and unfortunately people are not aware of it. They think they vote and see 120 varieties of coffee to choose from and they think they are free. 

Corporate control is spreading  all over the world.

It is a bit difficult to gain control over India. No one runs India really. India runs by itself. It is not even walking. 

India is a carriage drawn by four horses going in different directions. The carriage is not going anywhere as it is too heavy with people inside resisting any movement.

i think i am wrong here
India is actually controlled by a bunch of demented rats called astrologers,
and moonstruck cockroaches called Gurus Bhagwans and swamis. Most of the politicians go fall at their feet. 

Think of four different astrologers advising our four different leaders. You can imagine the mayhem, chaos confusion gripping the country.

Part of India has been sold to the corporates by our greedy and corrupt politicians. The corporates partially control Indian agriculture now. This being the main reason for the spate of suicides among farmers.

i have written about it HERE - THE POISON - GLOBALISATION.

The governments however inefficient and corrupt, are afraid of the people. The corporates are not. They own everything, they own your life.

If you don't have money to buy food,   you die. Simple.

This takes care of three fourths of world population, there will be mass suicides like the farmers of India. It is happening in Orissa.

There would be no racism, only useful and useless will be differentiated, not blacks and whites or browns and yellows

the useless have to go. the corporates can't feed the useless like me..

So what remains ? Only a few millions of useful people who will die in corporate wars.

There goes the human race.

But the corporates forget one thing

The will to survive, the fighting spirit and the willingness to sacrifice found only in humans.  This will defeat the corporates.
And they forgot the power of love.
Please don't worry

MY FAIR LADY

Yes, you got it right, i am matrimonial. changing my profession,

there is money in matrimony

Matri and money...... See ??

Match maker is old fashioned. i am matrimonialist 

how about matrimonializer ?

Quite a mouthful it is.

Good morning

One Common factor in the picture above

Fair  Fair   Fair   fair   Fair   Fair   fair, we Indians are obsessed with fair skin

Fair and good looking

Fair around 25

Fair good looking well propertied ...Well propertied ??  deeah me !

Fair professional

pretty slim fair tall,  professionally qualified employed girl ...oops !  Tall order !  some god wants to get married i suppose

what else do we have heeah  ?

Fair Brahmin bride, Brahmin is a high caste Hindu

Fair and beautiful, oh that is simple, thank you

Fair slim preferably in US/Canada, it is getting tougher

9LPA Fair clean habits ? wait wait,

What ?
What is THAT ?  9LPA Fair clean habits ?

i can picture the guy wearing rubber gloves, holding a hose pipe in one hand and a can of disinfectant in the other,  
Hey open your mouth psssssssk, spray the disinfectant in the mouth

hokkay,  you can talk now

What is 9LPA ?
Fair and clean habits !  oh i am exhausted!

please don't ask me about the other code words there, i have no clue myself.

Raghu and Ketu are not two brothers seeking a fair bride. They are stars in some galaxy, something to do with astrology. Don't ask me.  Its a big thing in India. . Astrology is big money here. If i don't make money in matrimony, i'll take up Astro-money. Its easy to cheat people.

What else do we have up there in the picture ??

Divorcee Innocent ?   oh ! innocent... wow, poor chap
If you are too innocent your wife will pack her things very fast and call her mom.

 
Then we have 'God fearing and divorced after 5 month marriage' Perhaps our friend shoved too much of fear of God down his wife's throat. She must have given him a warning.

Any more God and hell  scare,  i am leaving.. and she left.

As i went along,  the matrimonial classifieds were getting more and more absurd. 

And this commercial is even more absurd
please watch this.

please watch a couple of related videos as well.

What they say is,  being fair is the secret of your success. You get your dream job, you get  a handsome prince if you apply their fairness cream.

 Why are these people dumping all the fairness creams on us spending millions on commercials promoting them ?

 Because we want them and we are demanding them.

i don't blame the manufacturers, i don't blame the insensitive and irresponsible advertising agencies. They are here just to make money. Corporates want your money, that is what they are living for.

Give them some money and tell them to make a film on how nice it is to chop the trees. They'll convince you to chop all the trees in your garden and chop all the trees in the world..

They are smart. They are vultures. They feed on your fear, they feed on your weakness, they feed on your obsession of becoming fair, how ever harmful it may be for your skin.

They don't care, They want your money. And you happily give it to them.

This is Shankari. Gorgeous she is ! She is happy with her skin. No fairness creams for her. Everybody loves her. She has lots of friends. She has a  great job. Without using fairness creams. Qualification  talent and experience counts in getting a job, not how fair you are. 
And This is Selvi, sweet thing, sweet by nature and no fairness creams for her either and She is beautiful 
I wonder how many realise that dark skin is beautiful too

Fairness creams for women have been around for quite sometime now. You have some celebrities promoting fairness creams for men. Irresponsible people. Big market, big money there. Specially in India.

We are people, a very strange species, other species are fine, they are what they are. We the people, the strange species, don't want to be what we are.

We are white people, black people, yellow people and brown people. We have been intolerant of each other through out our history..

We are Indians, We are Brown people.. No, Gordon Brown is not brown, he is white but he is not Gordon White like Snow white. NO NO NO, Gordon Brown did not become white by using fairness creams, he is originally white, i mean he is Brown, he was born white but became Brown. And he is still Brown.

There is racism within Indians, within fair skinned and within dark skinned. Racism of the worst kind

i told you we are a very strange species. And fairness cream is not an answer to racism..

Even if you get seven dwarfs as your side kicks you can't become a Snow White using fairness creams. 

What are these fairness creams ?

We have a pigment called melanin which makes our skin dark. Less melanin makes the skin lighter. Secretion of Melanin blocks skin cancer and sunburns. Less cases of skin cancer in black and brown people. Fairness cream bleaches the skin, and blocks the secretion of melanin making the skin lighter. not good for the skin.  We in tropical countries are exposed to very harsh sun rays. Using fairness creams we lose the natural protection.

The manufacturers don't disclose the composition of fairness creams. most of them contain steroids, hydroquinone, a bleaching agent, very strong and very harmful for the skin. Some have mercury in them. There is more information on the net. Please check and correct me if i am wrong.

 
Now here is something which is good and bad.

These fairness creams have temporary effect. Which is good. If you stop using the fairness cream your skin heals itself of its deficiencies and gets back to default setting. Good news.

Bad news is, this temporary effect of fairness creams is good money for the manufacturers. When the skin gets dark again,  we buy another tube, and we keep buying tube after tube making the corporates richer and richer at the cost of your skin. That is not good news.

This is the worst case of attempted cross race jump. i am not talking about athletics.

i have two cases on my hand. three actually. Two cousins and a friend's wife. One of them is a grand mother. They will kill me if i post their pictures. Their skin specially on the face is patchy. some areas light and some dark. looks hideous. This is due to continuous use of fairness creams for years. Patchy skin is permanent. .

Fairness cream is not an answer to racism. Racism will remain, even if you become fair. Use all the creams on your face,  colour your hair, still you are not upgraded to a different race. You remain brown for ever.

Added later :

This is what i am talking about
please take a look at this dumb commercial. A sad and dark Indian, her friend gives her the fairness cream. You see a complete transformation. Back to the same place and she shows contempt for her friend who gave her the fairness cream. The guy at the counter says, 'foreign passport that side m'aam'. She replies in rustic Punjabi, meaning she is a local not a foreigner.  
This happens to be a spoof as Jyothi pointed out.

You just can't change or alter the genetic structure.

Please be what you are.

All my love

VIVA PORTUGAL

what ?

i think i am kidnapped.

Viva Portugal ?

where am i ?

My kidnappers have brought me to Portugal ?

i don't even have a passport, i would be arrested here. No one would pay even ten rupees ransom for me. i would soon get on the nerves of my kidnappers. i keep nagging always and i smoke, i'll tell them boring stories, i would laugh at their dress, their beliefs, and their food habits

what ? you are my kidnapper and you are a vegetarian ? How funny ? get me a beef steak

oh deeah ! i am in sunny Lisbon, all white people, i am indeed in trouble.

i don't trust you, i tell my kidnappers

why wouldn't you trust me ?

bikkass you are wearing a ghastly tie, look at your shirt, ugh ! is that a shirt or you tore off a curtain from somebody's window ?

oh deeah ! look at your pot belly, go jog, i really pity the tailor who makes clothes for you, don't walk with me, stay away.

and you are not qualified enough to be my kidnapper, you can't locate Portugal in the map ? go back to school get some fresh education

get rid of this idiot they would say

So the kidnappers would give me money and send me back home, though i am not expensive to maintain. i am a CHEAP MAN.

oh Portugal is beautiful. Thank you for bringing me here My kidnapper friend

you are not in Portugal you idiot, my kidnapper says

Hey look ! This is not Portugal, this is India, look at the cow running on the road

where else you would find cows running on the roads ?

Muuuwa Muuuwa, can i go now ?

Push him out of the car, says my kidnapper, he is getting on my nerves.

i was not kidnapped, i was in Goa. on the western coast of India. Obviously some one made Viva Portugal stickers for football world cup and people bought them.

they all wanted Portugal to win. Goa was a Portuguese colony until 1961 (please correct me if i am wrong)

Taking a walk in Panjim is like walking in some sunny small Portuguese town.

Many old buildings here, though not in good condition. 

in the picture below
Lorenco Afonso the Gents tailor still in business ? i can see some one walking in.

oh deeah ! the building is falling apart.

Aleluia Menezes ? Must be a Portuguese name. and he is a key maker

A key maker is a person who makes keys. Looks like a very very old establishment.

And here is Pedro Fernades, the music shop and Inocencio Fernades. wonder what he sells. Had no time to walk in to find out.

oh a beautiful house. walls pillars and grills have stories to tell you. Only the hot stinging sun reminds you that you are in India. Goa is clean, lot cleaner than rest of India and more beautiful than Kerala. Similar landscape. Similar climate.

Shot from a speeding train. This is just like Kerala, its on the same coast. Its the names of places roads buildings  and the attitude of the people's which makes all the difference, quite opposite of Kerala. Locals are very friendly and eager to help and direct you. They'll drown you with details The only problem is there are more tourists than the locals, you may stop and seek directions from a tourist. They locals have time for you and they guide you properly. This man is walking with a guide book on India and a local stops to guide him.

the roads are beautiful, in good condition and clean. Very green. Goa is a small state, you can't get lost. Public transport is mostly privatised. Not very good.

Long distance buses are government owned (hardly any long distance as Goa is a small state) But you can hire a scooter or a motorbike for 200 rupees a day which is quite reasonable. Most of the foreign tourists who have an Indian or international drivers license hire scooters to go around. Nobody really stops you to check, the foreign tourists are free to roam around.

if you don't have a drivers license you can always engage a biker as a taxi, you go as a pillion for half the rates of an auto (three wheeler) Goa is the only place in India where you can get motor bike taxis. Tourists find it very cheap.

Buses are small and always crowded. Though rest of India discarded its colonial past the Goans are still clinging on to it. Women dressed in western outfits like in the picture above is a common sight. Woman in an Indian shalwar khamees looks on

By and large Goans are Catholics. 

Goans, Goans ?? like Indians, Americans, 

English Irish Ish Ish  Goaish  ?? doesn't sound good, 

Englanders Irelanders, Swiss ? Swissish, Switzerlander, Hollandish ?? Londoner, New Yorker i am a Hamburger. i come with fries.

Goans sounds nice, i like it. yes Goans are mostly Catholics. Very religious. lots of Churches in the small state. Mostly Portuguese style of architecture. Some in ruins, in an abandoned state.

This was shot from the train late in the evening. This old Church is simply majestic.

i went there at a wrong time, pictures are not good, sorry, and i was in a hurry, friends were waiting outside.

The board says do not photograph persons. This is India. You can't take pictures without people in it. If you want to take pictures of the clouds you will find people sitting there, some chaps selling peanuts or tea coffee.

there are a few Hindu temples as well, not very old and not much history there.

But the locations are beautiful

Goans love fish. They eat fish every day. Sea food is offered everywhere. it is difficult to spot a pure vegetarian restaurant.So for the locals fishing is a major occupation.

i can spend weeks just taking pictures of old colonial houses.

This is in Vasco da Gama, named after the Portuguese explorer navigator. Google the name and read about him.

The locals speaak English very well. so you will not be talking to a tree. the local language is Konkani. And Konkani music is very lively, mostly with western instruments. Do you remember George Baker Selection ? Konkani music sounds something like that. And Goans love to dance.

my journey was comfortable. i was traveling with Rajkumar, very pleasant company. We took Konkan Railway. took a few pictures standing by the door.

The train goes through many tunnels on konkan railway. Both sides are very scenic. Mist greeted us in Goa early morning.

its pretty warm actually, looks cold in the pictures. You can see that the children are not wearing any warm clothes. Gets pretty hot in the day. there is no winter here.

Gets pleasant by December. That is when the tourists come flooding into Goa. But Goa is a tourist's paradise all the time all 365 days. June to September is the rainy season. You'll find lots to buy, spices, silk, herbs, herbal soaps shampoos, tea with different flavours.

Haven't tried any of them myself.

you have to bargain a lot. Lots of things to buy. Even a tourist with a tight budget can afford them. Then we come to why tourists come to Goa.

Mostly for the beaches, some like me for its Portuguese colonial history.

Goa can boast of some very picturesque and romantic beaches in the world.

But you will not find crystal clear emerald green waters here in Goa. Gets pretty crowded by evenings. i missed the sunset pictures. In fact i missed a lot of Goa. This was my 4th or the 5th visit, the pictures i took 15 years ago were lot better than these. my first visit with a digital. Have to go there again. Perhaps in February to watch the Goa Carnival. Sorry the pictures are bad. Most of the pictures were taken from a moving car.

Be silly, be stupid and be foolish

enjoy your life

all my love

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