Led Zeppelin and Whisky is a potent combination.


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Like any other red-blooded...

I never ever thought that I would one day be formally called a Corpuscle.

It's not exactly something a little kid in middle school immediately aspires to be called, is it?
When he hears the term for the first time in some sleepy biology class, he doesn't exactly look at the blob in the picture and think "One day... one day...", does he?

Couldn't they have picked a better name?

Oh well.

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A very belated update on 'No Bread Day', which was on June 14th, 2008. This is part of the mail my friend sent out:

"
The first ever 'No Bread Day' ( as a friend aptly named it) - how did it go for you?.

A little under 600 people fasted yesterday. One conservative estimate shows that it translated into 300 kilos of grain saved for the hungry, enough to feed 2-3 villages of 250 people. By the laws of networking, we touched at least 1500 people with our message and people from around 30 countries received the message. But we were never after the numbers anyways. For it was the spirit that counted, not the numbers.

I received various responses to the call for fasting. One friend said "it was too simple to succeed". Another said "this is an emotional act, not a rational one". Yet another called it a "useless gimmick". These comments were most welcome. Because the moment you responded to the plea, the moment you thought about the Food crisis and found our action good/inadequate, our mission in organising this day was accomplished.

On the positive side, one friend wrote in saying the day really tested his inner strength. He realised how dependent our lives are on grain. Another said it made him realise how so few of us are privileged enough to have comfortable access to food. But beyond it all,it was about the fact that we did SOMETHING. And we did it together. And we found that others shared the concern. Now it's time to translate that concern into more action. Please share your ideas. In turn, I can mail you back some of the ideas others have come up with.

At the end of the day, it's a learning that's applicable in transforming our society in everyway: TOGETHER, WE CAN.

"

RK and I had a chat before he sent this out and he seems to have incorporated some of that discussion in his email. This was my first voluntary fast (I tend to skip meals on weekends, mostly because I am too lazy to make them, but that's another matter) and I'm glad I did it. An interesting experiment yielding interesting personal experiences, but that's just a bonus.

******************

The Indian embassy in Kabul saw a suicide bombing today, which killed 41 people and injured 141. I sent RK a quick message to check he was alright, and to my great relief he replied quickly confirming he was. He also said he was just about to go to that area when he heard about the blast. I told him to get out of that fucking country immediately. That his 'do-gooding' could be done from elsewhere too.

But is his situation all that different from what we have seen in Mumbai, Hyderabad and other places in India? He can just as well tell me to get out of here - I could have been eating at Gokul Chaat, I could have been at Lumbini Park. Hell, can it get more unpredictable than Islamic terrorists planting bombs in Mecca Masjid in the Old City? What was the point of that?!


I have a whole bunch of stuff to say on terrorism. Another day, maybe.

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