The TV show which I was most reluctant to watch had always been ‘Friends’. I was unnecessarily living under a rock for many years and thought that since everyone is watching it, I must rather stay away. Unnecessary egoistic struggle. I eventually caved in and watched it a few years ago because the pop-culture references to it never stopped going away. I have started rewatching it now with my wife as the need for humor has never been higher in recent times and I believe that ‘Friends’ is something you can always trust to bring a chuckle to you.
Each Graph Theory class would mention the Königsberg problem once. The problem is simple but the solution isn’t. Basically, there was a city in Prussia (old Germany) called Königsberg (now known as Kaliningrad and it is now in Russia) with 7 bridges over a river. The problem statement was to find a path that could cross each bridge just once in such a way that one could return back to the point where one started.
I know we live in a world that is trying to be more and more Gender Neutral. And, I have no qualm in saying that it should be. Many writers and people whose words matter have started to use ‘She’ instead of ‘He’ in their common parlance. In fact, if you have actually understood the meaning of the word Feminism (and not just from a high-level but the actual intention), you would know that there is a need for this -ism because the world is titled in an obvious direction (The World is not straight! Self-pat on the pun. Tilted as in ~23.5°. Bad one!). However, many people get confused and often up-in-arms about why it is called Feminism and not Human-ism or Egalitarianism or whatever your nearest Synonyms Thesaurus can suggest.
I guess some confusion is understandable. Everyone can be confused. Like my Google Mini and FireStick’s Alexa, although they claim to be the smartest and all, are confused themselves as to where they should be. They speak in a feminine voice but when I ask whether they are female, they decline and try to stay neutral. (I know how to change default voice.) Obviously, we have very primitive AI tools at our disposal at the moment. Even if they appear to be amazing, they are closer to being Bluetooth powered Voice-Enabled tools than being actual AI/ML breakthrough.
The Only Problem with Rajma Chawal is that we cannot have it every day. We cannot have the best every day. Life is like that. Sometimes, all we can get our hands on is the dreaded Lauki (Bottle Gourd), but we still need to carry on.
Mark Twain said,
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
It is another thing that David Blaine took it literally without any pain but Twain is actually making sense here. Maybe when you start a week, all charged up and ready to rumble and then Monday hits you and throws you off the tracks. Then the first thought which comes in mind is that if the start of the week is bad, the week is going to get worse. But days don’t have a memory of their own. Remember, you had New Year Resolutions for 2020 too! We have to move on.
You might have had your day, week, or even your year at one particular time but then there will be another day that is not yours. But carry on as another day is right around the corner. There will be another Rajma Chawal Day soon.
P.S.: When is the Government bringing a bill to make Rajma Chawal India’s National Dish? It will pass with my voice vote for sure. *burp*
It is not very common to believe that a Hero for one can be a Villain for others. Usually, heroes are heroes, universally. However, there are some heroes who have been catastrophic for others and that needs to be told to get the real picture.
Whenever you search for a quote about leadership, Winston Churchill’s name easily comes on top of the search results. In fact, the rhetoric device Anaphora, often referenced in speeches and in writing, is pretty easily understood by this example from his speech in 1940.
….We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
I am writing from a place of privilege, providence, and a pedestal of good fortune but I just feel sad when I open LinkedIn nowadays. The feed is full of people writing about their untimely exit from their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic. I am not an expert to give any advice to people who were working till March/April but not working anymore. The times are unprecedented and until we get a fully functional vaccine, chances of normalcy are bleak. So, we must keep trying, is all I can say.
However, I do have a word or two for Freshers who had job offers but they haven’t been called to report yet, or even if they hadn’t, they were ready to enter the professional arena this year but things have gone upside down, for no fault of their own. I do have empathy with them as I was in the same boat around 2008. I don’t want to mince words but the reality is simple: this time is worse than that time. I have stated this earlier on this blog too that I had 2 Job Offers when I graduated as a Computer Science Engineer. Thanks to the 2008 recession which did all it could to crush my confidence, I had to wait 21 months to get a proper job I preferred. Again being lucky, I got back the job offer in March 2010 from the same company which had sent me a regret letter before imploding due to a financial crisis of their own in early 2009.
