From shadows to the stars

Why do humans feel happy when someone else is feeling sad because of them? Over the course of my teenage + adolescent years, I have noticed this weird behaviour. I'm going to use a scenario that most people might understand. Suppose A breaks up with B. A is the dumper, B is the dumpee (there's always a dumper and dumpee. There can never be a mutual breakup).So technically, A should be alright, while B is down in the dumps. Now after sometime, B (hopefully) has gotten over the dumping. Now, if A finds out that B has gotten over him/ her, then A feels disappointed. A wants B to feel sad because they were dumped by A. Maybe A wants this person to remember the good times they had and feel sad that those can never be again. Why do people want this? Why should you feel happy when someone, whom until recently you cared for, is suffering because of you? Is there a twisted sadist in everyone of us? I believe that this provides people some validation of their o...

RO #1 Technology might be bridging the gap between those who are far away, but it is also increasing the distance from those who are near to us. RO #2 If you are using a fairness cream, it means you believe that 'fair is better than not fair'. Doesn't that make everyone who use fairness creams a racist? It just makes you a racist dumbass RO #3 If you are sitting inside a car (which is probable to have been equipped with an AC) and you are wearing sunglasses or shades, then I hate you. Simple as that. I hate you. RO #4 Quality of writing often seems to be judged by the ability of the author to make the reader feel the need to open a dictionary to understand the meaning of some of the words used by him/ her. I think quality of writing should be judged by the ability to make the reader feel the need to turn the page. RO #5 If memories are triggered by olfactory glands (the gland that helps you differentiate smells), do olfactory glands get triggere...

Another old FB post. INSOMNIA - You wish you had it during the nights before exams. But that never happens. When you have Insomnia, you are never really awake. But you are not really asleep either. You can feel your eyelids getting heavier. Time to switch the light off and get cozy under your blanket. Close your eyes. Ahhh.. you think your are gonna fall asleep. The illusion of sleep takes over you. Time passes. And yet, you are still rolling around in bed, waiting for your brain to stop thinking and let your sub-conscious take over. Let the imagination pour into the dreams. And yet, somehow, your mind wont let you sleep. You shut your eyes tighter. "Shut up and sleep". Start counting sheep. A big flock of sheep. A VERY big flock . You wish you had a "power off" button. Is this just a dream? Then your mind starts lingering. The past becomes present. All the times you screwed up torture you again, coming to life in your own head. The self-executed punishment...

Note: This an old post of mine that was on Facebook. The first sentence when I meet a new person invariably happens to be “You are tall!” or a paraphrase of it. If it weren’t for the sake of acting “civilized”, I can assure you that they would have had some scars to show-off for the rest of their lives. Once, when I was on my way to college, a complete stranger came up to me and asked, “How tall are you?” In my mind, images of a chainsaws, shotguns and torture devices started popping up. Breaking my fantasy, the guy repeats “Hey! What is your height man?” Thoroughly irritated, I reply “Well I’m between 6’2” and 6’3”” and walk away. Others ask me if I play basketball. Some go down to unprecedented levels by asking me my shoe-size. I guess, after experiencing thousands of such questions and awkward moments, how a beautiful woman must be feeling when all kinds of people tell her that she is beautiful. It is flattering for the first few times and thereafter, it gets irritatin...

RO #1 Isn't it ironic how strip clubs are called "Gentleman's Clubs"? (at least according to pop-culture). Or does it imply that if you're a 'gentleman', the only way you can see a woman naked is in a strip club? RO #2 To the only thing in this world I cannot live even a few minutes without - Oxygen! RO #3 The one thing Indians are punctual at is cutting the electricity. Shocking though, it may seem to the rich countries, we, the people of developing countries do have power cuts. Especially in the summer. While Indians are notorious for giving a damn about punctuality, the men working the power stations are dead punctual. In fact, they cut the power a couple of minutes earlier than the stipulated timing. RO #4 There is something perverse about the way people on the internet seem to seek out opinions that they know will enrage them. Being on twitter, i observe that some people go out of their for arguing with people ...

The Convert hypothesis has a simple premise. Converted Christians feel burdened (or "driven") to prove that they have just as much faith or belief in the tenets of Christianity as the natural Christian  (I use "natural" only because of the lack of a better word. No one really is a "natural" believer in religion/ God. They are born into families who have been practicing a certain religion and therefore adopt, at least in most cases, the same beliefs.) Because they have converted from some other religion, they want to make a point that they are just as religious as those 'natural' Christians. If you collect data on how often converted and 'natural' Christians visit Church, i'm quite positive that the converts go more often. I dont know why this is. Maybe the 'natural' Christians look upon the converts as 2nd rate Christians? I'm just speculating, I dont know for sure. But this phenomenon is observed only in first g...

I think I might have figured out the reason behind the chaotic traffic situation in my city, Hyderabad. For a long, long time, many people in the city have been driving two wheelers. In Hyderabad, and presumably India, two wheelers are driven in a pointedly different manner than in the rest of the world. Two wheelers (including myself), regularly snake through the traffic, squeezing through the smallest nooks and corners in an attempt to escape the horrors of the traffic congestion. The relatively smaller two wheelers do not cause an additional congestion by snaking through like this. It would be understandable, though probably not commendable, that two wheelers are driven in this particular fashion. The problem arose later. A lot of the people who had been driving two wheelers, due to certain reasons like financial boom through the IT industry, were suddenly able to afford a more lavish lifestyle. They were able to afford cars and other such four wheelers. Yaay! For t...