This one came as an SMS:

Life has so many great options but you don't have to pick what seems to be the best.
Just pick what makes you happy and it will be the best.

Easier said than done, what say?

Handwritten Newspapers

Ever heard of a handwritten newspaper? I must confess that I hadn't till I came across Mr. Osama Manzar's article at http://origin-www.livemint.com/Opinion/XYRX4lhL7OsfX0tWZz8dSO/A-handwritten-paper-gets-a-voice-online.html. Even if you don't have time to go through the entire article, I would urge you to take a look at http://www.deendalit.in/. It's definitely worth a look and more.

Grey's Anatomy

I was addicted to 'Criminal Minds' (Mon-Fri, Fox Crime, 10pm) but it so happened that I had watched one of the episodes and so went channel surfing that day. I landed up at Star World which was airing Grey's Anatomy. I watched the episode and have been hooked to the program ever since.

Why, you ask? Well, there are 3 reasons! Dr. Shepherd!Dr. Shepherd!Dr. Shepherd! He is so handsome that he is practically edible. Of course, I haven't liked that he has gone back to his wife citing marital vows and ring. Didn't he know that he had a wife when he started dating Meredith? Sounds rather hypocritical, doesn't he? On top of it, he is not leaving her alone. What a jerk! But then you cannot be mad at such a handsome man for long, can you? ;-)

Jokes apart, this show has made me realize both - why I wanted to become a doctor and why didn't I become one. I wanted to become a doctor because the profession actually lets you make a difference somewhere, in someone's life. You are saving people's lives, relieving them of pain and suffering. What can be more noble than that? And yet, on the flip side, you are responsible for a human life. That's a huge responsibility. Plus there is dissection! That's what made me make a beeline for the Engineering college. :-)

So there IS a fourth reason why I watch Grey's Anatomy every night. Nope, it's not Dr. Shepherd again.. It's just that I love shows set against the backdrop of the medical world. It reminds me once again of what I could have been but didn't become.

It would have been like any other board that warns hawkers at the entrance of a building except that it had an odd message:

गाडियों का गेट से अन्दर-बाहर जाना सिर्फ मेम्बरोंके लिए

(Only members' cars can get in and out of the gate)

पैदल आना-जाना सिर्फ मेम्बरोंके लिए

(Only members can walk in and out of the gate)

The building in this case being a commercial one, I wonder if the customers are supposed to wing their way in and out of the gate :-)

Tintin @ Sony Pix, 16th September -12pm and 4pm

'You mean to say you haven't read Tintin?' my friend Karthik had asked in shocked disbelief. 'No' I said, puzzled, wondering what I had missed. 'How?' he was still in shock. 'I don't know. I guess because I have done my entire schooling from a vernacular medium school?' I ventured. 'Then you must read it now' he said plucking a book off a shelf of our B School library (I guess they were kept there for the benefit of the students' children') and thrusting it in my hands.

'What? Are you nuts? Why would I want to read it now? You can't always make up for all the things that you have lost out on doing in your childhood, you know'.

'Who told you that Tintin is meant to be read only by kids?'

My common sense did. In fact it was practically screaming in my ears. But Karthik sounded very confident. So I checked the book out and have been an ardent Tintin fan ever since.

In case you are one from this club, tune in to Sony Pix this Sunday (16th September) at 12pm and 4pm. It is going to air 'The Secret Of The Unicorn'. :-)

When I was in school, our favorite pastime during breaks and off periods used to be opening up the Indian Map, locating a tiny place somewhere and asking the other party to find it. There were, of course, no mobile phones then, so no games and no social networking sites. I still remember that ‘Jalpaiguri’ was one of the destinations that used to often come up because it was very hard to find. Maybe I will visit it once just to see what it actually looks like.
I must confess though that I had never wondered about who was responsible for making these maps. Turns out it is National Atlas & Thematic Mapping Organization - NATMO.

Wonder what other organizations like these are quietly doing their job without the general population ever noticing it.

If it were not for Google’s Doogle, I would never have heard about Clara Schumann. In case, you are wondering who she is, read on.