The ultimate guy device !

Disclaimer : By posting this image, in no way do I suggest that I recommend the development of such a life saving device (for half the worlds population - the guy half) nor do I subscribe to this line of thinking.

A little too much ?

We are in an age of advanced political correctness which, although is right in its own way, does tend to make life a bit complicated as seen by the contents of this New Year greeting I received today. Enjoy !

Dear All,
I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and colleagues, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my attorney yesterday, and on their advice I wish to say the following

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted Gregorian calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

In short, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Dylan sang it best

There are some things in life you love to cling on to. Old cards from friends long forgotten. Old magazines which you’ve read & re-read so many times youre familiar with the contents each time you flip through it. That old t-shirt that you’ve grown up in but steadfastly refuse to throw away. And the belief that youre young, irrespective of the number of New Year eve parties that you’ve witnessed.

Each time I catch up with my school friends who I grew up with, we end up recalling the good old days and share a very good laugh. And we end up thinking how long back that was. Its not easy realising that lady time is taking us along with her day by day while we vehemently refuse to let go of our notions of being forever young(a Dylan classic). Sitting in the rather popular Cocoa Tree in Cochin is often a surprisingly honest slap on the face. Not only do we get to witness kids (Defn kid - anyone younger than me) with jeans ready to fall with the next breeze while wearing t-shirts 3 sizes larger than their actual size, but we also get to learn whats happening & whats not. Last week I saw 5 guys troop in there sporting beards identical to mine. Time to change my style then, cant be seen as one of their brigade ..... Each one of them whips out a mobile phone at all possible times for no discernible reason and I could go on and on but you get the point - they seem to be really different from how we were when we were their age(which is not a great gap in itself).

Now I realise what our parents must be feeling when they look at us & think 30 years ago life was never like this & wonder how to deal with us. And here I'm talking about kids 3 or more years younger than us. Wow the next generation of kids is going to have one bunch of confused parents (read - us). Gulp ! As Dylan sang - the times, they are a changing .....

Adios 2008

Its that time of the year again when I look at the little pop up at the bottom right corner of my screen & realise that yet another year has passed by in the blink of an eye. Of course just about everybody who thinks that their writing matters (journalists, bloggers, diary writers) will be sitting down penning their thoughts on the year's events both on a personal as well as general front. Which reminds me its back to my days of diary writing from tomorrow onwards. Party planning is going on in full swing everywhere I look. Beverage companies (cant call them alcohol manufacturers now can I?) sure must love December. Relatedly my home state of Kerala has just been in the news a couple of days back for witnessing record sales of booze despite the slowdown in its IT sector, the not positive stock market & increasing number of unemployed NRIs in the gulf. God bless Mallus. Anyways today calls for some introspection time which is probably the only thing good about New Years eve.

Am looking forward to settling down in work & having as much fun, if not more. Marriage age is setting in for both my childhood friends & TAPMI brethren, a couple of weddings are happening in Feb. Looking forward to more in the coming months. The R15 which I blogged about earlier is as tempting as it ever was, crappy after sales service included. Now to build my bank balance towards its high asking price. Thing is by the time I'll be able to afford it Bajaj wouldve come out with newer & better bikes & I'll be back to square one. Hopefully I finally get off my lazy butt & start writing my one-shot-at-writing-glory novel. Hopefully I dont have to upgrade my wardrobe to account for my increasing waistline. Hopefully I get my hands on all the eipsodes of Seinfeld which I'm really loving these days.

Its been a royal mixed bag in the last 364 days, hope the next year is as topsy turvy as this one. What’s life without a little uncertainty anyways ?