Kickbacks

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The blog "Car Puja" posted a couple of days back has been widely 'viewed' and generated considerable interest:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/04/car-puja.html

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In a mail titled Father & Son Saswat writes:

Dear Sir,

Your different blogs have different flavors. The blogs from your childhood village are in black and white, so to say. Your blogs about your Hyderabad adventures with Sonoo (like the cable one, and the recent one about the new car) are in hi-def.

I think your blogs about your adventures with Sonoo belong to another separate compilation: The Adventures of the Professor and the Junior, or some such title. :)

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gps:

Well, my only son Sonoo and I have lived together for almost all of his 30 years, which is quite rare. So, our kinship is rather crazy.

Here is the sequel to that post 'Car Puja':

On our way back home after the Police Challan incident, my son was driving his new 'sedan' excitedly and I was in the front passenger seat.

(Actually to call Tata Indigo a 'sedan' is a wee hyperbolic...it is just the Tata Indica with its hatchback replaced by a hunchback...don't tell him this).

From about Necklace Road to the Jubilee Hills Checkpost, my son was explaining to me its fantastic new features (from our Matchbox Maruti) like the AC vents, power steering, RPM meter and stuff while I was writing up in my head the days' blog: Car Puja.

Suddenly he was aware I was silent:

Son: Kya soach rahe ho?

Father: I was recalling that ad starring Amitabh and Abhishek for a new sedan, where the son was driving with his dad sitting beside

Son: Which was that?

Father: The one in which Amitabh steps out and when asked by the sales guy about his 'Drive' replies: "Driver ka noise thoda jyada hai"

Son: Saalah, majaak uda rahe ho!!!

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About the same post, Pratik says:

Dear gps,

`Car Puja' is one of those with `gps Marka'.

I do not know the etymology of this word `Marka' and also not sure if it is Bengali, Hindi or English. But I think it means having an exceptional stamp which signifies the authenticity or the quality of the product.

`Car Puja' should be included in 'GPS Blogs -- The Signature Series'.

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gps:

Well, Pratik is a connoisseur and we must take his word for it. As I see it, the 'gps marka' he mentions consists in:

1. Magnifying a Trivial incident like buyng a car, which a thousand Indians do daily

2. Trivializing a Magnificent Tale like Yudhistir & the Doggie

Talking about feature # 2 above, Shyamal writes:

"...Heretic as you are, you make fun of holy scriptures!..."

It may be that Shyamal is tongue-in-cheeking. Or may be seriously offended; in which case I heartily apologize; with the caveat that what Shyamal calls 'scripture' I call 'mythology'.

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Apropos of BoB:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/04/bob.html

Dharmesh comments:

"Instead of 'Charm, Top, Bottom or even Strangeness', 'Charm, Truth, Beauty or even Strangeness' might have been more appropriate in this post's context... "

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gps:

Amen!!!

But our Poet Keats doesn't see Truth & Beauty as different quantum numbers. He sees a Unitary Symmetry between the two:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

But Top & Bottom are as different as Heads & Tails (ask Dhoni).

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Shajesh writes that Professor D Basu's book is published and is available on the website of World Scientific.

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