Valentine’s Day Greetings

somewhere i have never travelled

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

It’s the day of love, isn’t it? And what better way to celebrate it than read my favourite romantic poem! (BTW The capitalization is NOT screwed up. Cummings wrote completely in lowercase. He even changed his name to e. e. cummings, yep, lowercase. )

According to me, if we celebrate love, and dedicate an entire day to it, it shouldn’t be restricted only to romantic love. There are different kinds of love; you can love a friend, your family, the ‘special someone’ or even a pet. So why not wish each of them on this special occasion!

Someone who I can’t name for privacy reasons suggested that I change the theme of my blog to something more flashy, something in red or pink to reinforce the spirit of the day. I’m not the one for too much celebration, and I really can’t have a pink theme. Sorry about that m’dear. I’m quite fond of this plain and simple theme. However, any comments and suggestions on this topic will be appreciated.

I guess have been a LOT off-topic in this post, so I’ll just shut up now and end this post with my Valentine’s day greetings and a message for a special someone.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Ah Meng, I dedicate this special day to your memory. I remember watching you years back, and it’s sad that today you’re no more. You’ve touched the hearts of millions of people and have been a symbol of the saving the earth campaign, a cause I’m passionate about. You will be missed.

I went to a party, Mom…

I went to a party,
And remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink Mom,
So I had a sprite instead.
I felt proud of myself,
The way you said I would,
That I didn’t drink and drive,
Though some friends said I should.
I made a healthy choice,
And your advice to me was right,
The party finally ended,
And the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car,
Sure to get home in one piece,
I never knew what was coming Mom,
Something I expected least.
Now I’m lying on the pavement,
And I hear the policeman say,
The kid that caused this wreck was drunk,
Mom, his voice seems far away.
My own blood’s all around me,
As I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the paramedic say,
This girl is going to die.
I’m sure the guy had no idea,
While he was flying high,
Because he chose to drink and drive,
Now I would have to die.
So why do people do it, Mom
Knowing that it ruins lives?
And now the pain is cutting me,
Like a hundred stabbing knives.
Tell sister not to be afraid, Mom
Tell daddy to be brave,
And when I go to heaven,
Put Daddy’s Girl on my grave.
Someone should have taught him,
That its wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his parents had,
I’d still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter, Mom
I’m getting really scared.
These are my final moments,
And I’m so unprepared.
I wish that you could hold me Mom,
As I lie here and die.
I wish that I could say, “I love you, Mom!”
So I love you and good-bye.

-Josh Dye

This is being sent to President Bush as a part of the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ campaign.

Taj makes it to the list

The Taj Mahal has found a place in the ‘coveted’ list of the New Seven Wonders of the world. A great achievement. Believe me, I’m glad, really glad to see it there. This is going to increase the tourism manifold and is definitely going to help our economy.

But what is the significance of the Taj finding a place on this list? UNESCO has detached itself from the entire thing. Just because a random Swiss adventurer wakes up in the morning one fine day and realizes that the seven wonders of the world had been decided by a guy in 200 BC doesn’t mean that this voting process is the most important thing in the world. If what UNESCO says has got no importance at all, then tomorrow why don’t I set up a site inviting people to vote for the 8th wonder of the world and earn a fortune in the process? Innumerable lists can be made in this fashion. Most beautiful cities, best beer…no limits there. And all of these people stand a chance to gain that kind of worldwide popularity and a couple of million hits, if they can match up with the crisp promotion.

And what exactly does a wonder of the world mean? Are they looking for places with intriguing history, or are they mere architecture awards? How can engineering achievements like the Eiffel Tower or Sydney Opera House be put in the same category as the Acropolis or the Colloseum?

I realize that a lot of people may not agree with me. But I’m entitled to my opinion, right?

And what is it with these news channels and SMSs? First it was the Vote For Taj campaign where the voters stood a chance to win iPods, and now it is the congratulate Taj campaign. Really…

Wi-Fi Thieves?

Okay. I’ll admit it. I have used my neighbour’s wi-fi. I just opened my browser without really checking whose wi-fi it was running on. I used it for nearly an hour after which I felt it to be a little slow. That’s when I checked and realised that is was my neighbour’s internet.

I did it unintentionally, but there are loads of people who do it all the time. In fact it has become some kind of an addiction with a lot of people I know. And their excuse for doing this: “I wasn’t really doing anything illegal, just a bit of net surfing. It’s not like I was using his/her internet to do stuff like downloading child porn or anything…”

Excuses are many, they range from person to person. but the bottomline is the same. Isn’t this as bad as stealing something. Generally Wi-Fi networks are those unlimited connections where you have to pay a certain amount every year irrespective of usage. This as transformed into another excuse. The other guy will have to pay that particular amount, it doesn’t really matter if other people use his connection too.

And can you really blame these ‘thieves’? If the other person really cared about his wi-fi, i.e. protecting his connection from such users, he could put up a password. But how many people do you know who’ve actually password protected their connections? I haven’t (Though I know I should). If the person paying the bill doesn’t really care about such things, what is the harm in using that guy’s net?

It’s like either you lock your room or you keep it open because you don’t really care if anything is stolen.

If you feel insecure about your connection, using a password is really easy. But if you choose not to protect it, don’t grumble if you are caught one fine day for downloading illegal stuff.

I am the last person to say this, but I’ll put it forward. I feel there’s no harm in using your neighbour’s connection once in a while if your’s is not working. (The other person will not really come to know unless you start downloading some real huge stuff and he happens to be online at the same time or if he knows some mean tricks.)

With all this about problems of a wi-fi network, I’m really looking forward to WiMAX where entire cities are under one single network, and you pay the bills just like your water or road tax bill. Wouldn’t that be the perfect future?