The Barber Shop

Don’t expect me to write a review about the Arthur Ripley’s flick “The Barber Shop”, but rather this is about my stupendous experience at a saloon. Well, I’ve always spiked going to a barber shop.

Day before I’d been to the barber shop, and the barber happened to have just arrived at the shop. I guess I was a bit too early. Anyway, he asked me to take a seat. Then he started with his morning chores which turned out to be quite a ritual. He turned on the lights and dusted the chairs, then he lit some incense sticks & started moving all over the place to spread the fragrance across, then he opened his cupboards and spread the smoke all over the place, including his scissors and combs. Phew…quite a religious guy I thought. Then he took some flowers which he had got from his place & spread it across a god’s photo that he had in the shop. And then he got a lemon out of his pocket, took it outside his shop and crushed it. Then came the arthi to the shop and finally he entered the shop feeling elated. And yeah he then turned on the TV and I got my hair cut.

All I could think at this moment was the Karl Marx saying “Religion is the opium of the masses”. I think that it’s an absolute impeccable saying, for instance this barber was losing the whole essence of praying to god by making it a bare ritual which obviously he’d be carrying out everyday.

You can judge most things in life by looking at it in a dichotomy. You could look at things in a romantic way (extrinsic) or in a rational (intrinsic) way. A mix of the two could be the most ideal thing but most ppl have a dominant side which is called as the groovy dimension. The problem with the groovy dimension is that you tend to miss out the things below the dimension or the things that fall beyond the dimension. It's better not to have a groovy dimension, and take things the way they come.

Guess Why They Call It The Blues?

I’ve been just listening to some good old country & retro music….and lazing around. And now I’m of to sleep ;).

The Fountainhead

"The Fountainhead" is touted to be one of the best modern classics, and I personally think it's one of the greatest books ever written. It tells the story of Howard Roark, a young architect who lives life on his own terms and strictly in those terms. Roark's architectural design of buildings are considered extremely radical and are considered by many fellow professionals as offensive and obtrusive because he fails to pay homage to the artistry of the period. He is also criticized for his stubbornness to collaborate with others for any part of his designs. As Roark himself states that he believes that buildings, like people have one central theme or idea and that idea cannot be compromised.

Ayn Rand then formulated the common perception that altruism, the fundamental human value is seen as an evil because the part of society that seeks to achieve this can only do so at someone else expense.

This classical book is a novel about a hero, his individual crusade fighting a violent battle against convention and the threat of fascism. "The Fountainhead", I confess it brazenly that this book has changed my life.

Googol

Hey you got to read this article, the folks @ anandtech picked up a "Google Mini" for a price tag of $2,995 and have put a sneak preview about it.

http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=2523&p=2

Of Net-iquette & Nomenclature

I don't have my net connection from the past 3 days, whilst I've been reading the book "The Odessey of the Gods". The book is pretty interesting with interpretations on the various Greek myths. The best part is where you get to read Greek names which i really seemed to like (and offcourse most of the techies seem to like & emulate) like oracle, posedion, polydeuces, heracles, athens, zeus, telechon etc (many more which i'm not able to reminisce right now).

Another book in which i really loved the names is "Lord of the Rings". The names range from hobbits, dwarfs, men, orcs, wizzards etc. I mostly liked the elvish names & the names of cities.

Well these names are good to sound but might not have any intrinsic meaning. But if it is the meaning that really strikes you, nothing beats understanding & interpreting the names of Indian gods. There is not a single name in the Indian mythology that does not have a meaning and there are even stories explaining the evolution of the names. Most of the gods also have a sahasranama (1000 names). So, I'm kind of planning to make this my new hobby...interpreting names.