The bus lurches around the corner at seemingly ill-advised speed and stops dead. They clutch the overhead straps to keep from falling over but continue staggering to the exit. You're allowed to wait for the bus to stop, I want to say. Please don't exert yourself, I almost tell the old man standing next to my seat, waiting for his turn to step out into the winter cold. I have a grandfather like you, I feel the wish to confide. Old bones need cherishing. If I said it out loud, would he be offended? I spot an Indian in the queue of shuffling soon-to-be-disgorged-passengers. She's almost at the door. In another minute she'll step out. As she leaves, she turns back to the driver. Thank you, she says, and have a great day. A chord is struck. Board examinations, 1996, Physics. Newton's Laws. I knew them by heart, but I never bothered learning what the words meant either.
Culinary Note: (This is for Adi) You didn't expect it to be edible, didja?
Update: The first part for the curious (yeah, yeah the name has changed, and it wasn't a chronicle - which is why the name has changed, not that this is a chronicle either. Tsk, how complicated)
Update 2: Apparently there's also a second part, so this is actually the third part (d-uh!).
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10 comments:
First! To make up for being soooo late!
@Cloudy: Where *were* you??? Was worried! :|
@t_m_w_w_t:
Nietzsche's niceness of phrasing:
'When we hear the ancient bells growling on a Sunday morning we ask ourselves: Is it really possible! This, for a jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was God's son? The proof of such a claim is lacking. Certainly the Christian religion is an antiquity projected into our times from remote prehistory; and the fact that the claim is believed - whereas one is otherwise so strict in examining pretensions - is perhaps the most ancient piece of this heritage. A god who begets children with a mortal woman; a sage who bids men work no more, have no more courts, but look for the signs of the impending end of the world; a justice that accepts the innocent as a vicarious sacrifice; someone who orders his disciples to drink his blood; prayers for miraculous interventions; sins perpetrated against a god, atoned for by a god; fear of a beyond to which death is the portal; the form of the cross as a symbol in a time that no longer knows the function and ignominy of the cross -- how ghoulishly all this touches us, as if from the tomb of a primeval past! Can one believe that such things are still believed?'
How's that for a plug for atheism without making it an 1. agenda 2. evangelical appeal 3. mass conversion rite
How now, invisible man? :P
N yeah, I am from that city (n y the Shakespearean language? :P :P)
Me 2nd! This story(btw, part-2??? Where's part 1? Is this an equivalent of the film Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part-2, which never had a part 1?) reminds me of an article I read looooong ago, was by Art Buchwald(who died recently), if memory serves me right. He wrote about a day on which his friend went around thanking everybody, from a cab driver to a florist, to a lift-attendant, witha smile, in the hope that it would become a chain reaction, leading to smiles throughout the city, and ultimately the world!
Cloudyyyyyyyyy, where were you???????? Hope everything's ok. How's the little monkey doing? :-)
@Revealed : Well maybe it's just me but we are comparing apples and oranges...he is using rhetorics and logic to question the existence of "Christian" God..and the scope of Dawkin's book was all encompassing..and he was arguing from the scientific viewpoint and the world situation was quite different 120 odd years ago...
I really don't know what exactly do you mean by evangelical and Nietzsche didn't have much success did he? :)
Though I success you would jump at the use of the word "success" :P
Oh you can quote Nietzsche and I cannot use a bit of Old English without bringing in the pool Bard? :P:)
I am from the good ol' city too...:)
Third :)
Saying thank you is nice thing and saying that to bus drivers is a nicer thing :)
I'm not commenting anything on the 'comment blog' :D - Its beyond me.
@Obi n SS: Yeah, its a nice thing. No argument with that. Just a random thought about how noone seems to mean it nemore is all :D. I know, I know, a world in which people in one country kill each other because of a difference of opinion on an evil dictator of another country who was mercilessly hanged without a shred of compassion by the powers of 'good' who are represented by a man who appears atleast as megalomanic and psychotic as the said dictator himself, should not be expected to produce people who say thank you like they mean it. But just saying!
@SS: Not commenting on the comment blog??? :-?
@t_m_w_w_t: Was only drawing a comparison to the language used. Nothing else. Forget the science, the specific religion in question, the logic. Just the use of language. 'When we hear the ancient bells growling' is beautiful. You could read that passage 10 times and find something new in it everytime. That's all I'm saying :P.
N the all-encompassing scope of Dawkin's book! Tsk! He did pretty much the same. He set up a lot of straw men, shot them all down prettily but didn't convince me! If you pick out the most fanatic, the most unreasonable, the most illogical bits of ANY philosophy/school of thought/belief it is easy to ridicule it and expose it. If he was serious about being all encompassing, he should have picked on religions that are harder to pull to pieces, doncha think?
As for scientific view point! I have one word for you, Bah! He didn't do anything good for atheism with this book.
Re: the Bard comment. Touche :P
And a special welcome to a fellow madrasi :D
Revealed: i think u r better at being yr weirdest self than this !!!!!!felt amputated w/o reading yr flaff tho!!!
@maya: heh! slap first, then a hug, huh? :P
@Revealed n Obi: Hey don't be worried, I go underground every so often. In the present case, it's an attempt to study. Little monkey doing well, even letting me study if I make a similar table and "study materials" for him. 'Monkey see, monkey do?' ;-)
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