Friday, February 26, 2016

Decimal Point

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An Online Coaching Portal:

"Submit five question papers and earn a five-figure remuneration"


gps: I know this portal...the five figures include the decimal point and two zeroes after it.





....Posted by Ishani

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Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Politics

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Don Marquis
1878-1937

"aesop
revised by archy"

a wolf met a spring
lamb drinking
at a stream
and said to her
you are the lamb
that muddied this stream
all last year
so that i could not get
a clean fresh drink
i am resolved that
this outrage
shall not be enacted again
this season i am going
to kill you
just a minute said the lamb
i was not born last
year so it could not
have been i
the wolf then pulled
a number of other
arguments as to why the lamb
should die
but in each case the lamb
pretty innocent that she was
easily proved
herself guiltless
well well said the wolf
enough of that argument
you are right and i am wrong
but i am going to eat
you anyhow
because i am hungry
stop exclamation point
cried a human voice
and a man came over
the slope of the ravine
vile lupine marauder
you shall not kill that
beautiful and innocent
lamb for i shall save her
exit the wolf
left upper exit
snarling
poor little lamb
continued our human hero
sweet tender little thing
it is well that i appeared
just when i did
it makes my blood boil
to think of the fright
to which you have been
subjected in another
moment i would have been
too late come home with me
and the lamb frolicked
about her new found friend
gambolling as to the sound
of a wordsworthian tabor
and leaping for joy
as if propelled by a stanza
from william blake
these vile and bloody wolves
went on our hero
in honest indignation
they must be cleared out
of the country
the meads must be made safe
for sheepocracy
and so jollying her along
with the usual human hokum
he led her to his home
and the son of a gun
did not even blush when
they passed the mint bed
gently he cut her throat
all the while inveigling
against the inhuman wolf
and tenderly he cooked her
and lovingly he sauced her
and meltingly he ate her
and piously he said a grace
thanking his gods
for their bountiful gifts to him
and after dinner
he sat with his pipe
before the fire meditating
on the brutality of wolves
and the injustice of
the universe
which allows them to harry
poor innocent lambs
and wondering if he
had not better
write to the paper
for as he said
for god s sake can t
something be done about
it



Book gifted by Shyamala Rajan




...Posted by Ishani

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Sunday, February 21, 2016

Pronouns & Antinouns

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"Man suspects MLA got his son murdered..."

...DC Headline Page 4 21 February 2016




gps: Whose son got murdered?






...Posted by Ishani

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Mother of Euphemisms

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"At least 10 CRPF jawans have been wounded, two of them fatally...."

....DC Front Page Sunday 21 February 2016








...Posted by Ishani

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Saturday, February 20, 2016

Ultramodern Science

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"...And yet Weismann began to investigate the point by behaving like the butcher's wife in the old catch. He got a colony of mice, and cut off their tails. Then he waited to see whether their children would be born without tails. They were not, as Butler could have told him beforehand. He then cut off the children's tails, and waited to see whether the grandchildren would be born with at least rather short tails. They were not, as I could have told him beforehand. So with the patience and industry on which men of science pride themselves, he cut off the grandchildren's tails too, and waited, full of hope, for the birth of curtailed great-grandchildren. But their tails were quite up to the mark, as any fool could have told him beforehand. Weismann then gravely drew the inference that acquired habits cannot be transmitted. And yet Weismann was not a born imbecile. He was an exceptionally clever and studious man, not without roots of imagination and philosophy in him which Darwinism killed as weeds..."

...From Preface to Back to Methuselah by GBS





....Posted by Ishani

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Sunday, February 14, 2016

So sorry...But

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"A massive fire on Sunday night engulfed the stage at a cultural event held at Girgaum Chowpatty seafront here where a string of film celebrities and political leaders were present as part of the high-profile 'Make in India' investment meet here but there were no casualties."

....DC Front Page Monday 15 February 2016




gps: 


but

  (bŭt; bət when unstressed)

2. Contrary to expectation

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/but



...Posted by Ishani

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Saturday, February 13, 2016

ABC of Dogs & Bitches

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KTR tells GHMC to curb strays


"....Mr Rao directed the GHMC commissioner to appoint additional staff for the Anti Birth Control programme."

....DC Page 2 Saturday 13 February 2016






gps: May Their Tribe Increase!






...Posted by Ishani

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Friday, February 12, 2016

Arvind Gandhi

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This Letter to the Editor appeared in today's Deccan Chronicle:




PUBLICITY STUNT

The sending of a DD for Rs 364 to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to buy footwear is nothing but a publicity stunt. No one raised an eyebrow when Mahatma Gandhi wore a dhoti and chappals to meet world leaders. Simplicity is what our country needs and not suit-boot. Hats off to Mr Kejriwal.

Dr M. A. Rasheed 
Nizamabad




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I didn't agree with this writer of the LTTE. So a few minutes back I sent a Letter to the Editor of DC contradicting the above letter. The chances of its appearing in tomorrow's DC are 1 to 100. So I am copy-pasting it here under:


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$



This a rejoinder to the Letter to the Editor titled 'Publicity Stunt' published in DC today. Arvind Kejriwal is no Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was never a CM of Delhi nor PM of India. People representing the Government should follow the prevalent norms if they are not to stick out like sore thumbs.

G. P. Sastry
# 7615
Road # 12
Madhavapuri Hills
PJR Enclave
Chandanagar
Hyderabad 500 050



$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


By the way I love Arvind and his politics, sort of. Like me he is an alumnus of IIT KGP. He was a student there while I was a professor there. We never met though.

But I never wore a lungi folded up to my knees when I went to teach my students. It was ok for him and his classmates to come to their classes wearing bathroom slippers.

"When in Rome, do as Romans do"...

By the way, Dr Rasheed's 'suit-boot' is a cheap dig at our PM.




...Posted by Ishani

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Saturday, February 6, 2016

Onondagan's Wisdom

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...Huston Smith on The Primal Religions:


 ...Oren Lyons was  the first Onondagan to enter college. When he returned to his reservation for his first vacation, his uncle proposed a fishing trip on a lake. Once he had his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him, he began to interrogate him. "Well, Oren," he said, "you have been to college, you must be pretty smart now from all they've been teaching you. Let me ask you a question. Who are you?" Taken aback by the question, Oren fumbled for an answer. "What do you mean, who am I? Why, I'm your nephew of course." His uncle rejected his answer and repeated his question. Successively, the nephew ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onondagan, a human being, a man, a young man, all to no avail. When his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked to be informed as to who he was, his uncle said, "Do you see that bluff over there? Oren, you are that bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore? Oren, you are that pine. And this water that supports our boat? You are this water."




...Some bells ringing there with Uddalaka and his son Svetaketu...




...Posted by Ishani

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