Stuff

Learnt the difference between socialism, Marxism, communism, fascism and Nazism today. The constitution of India seems to be pretty confused. It calls itself a Secular (I might just as well agree to this, but who else will? Especially in rural India?) socialist (not really halping the poor, but is also slowing down economic progress for the country) democratic (25 million extra voters, who thinks we should believe this?) republic (come on, what can the Pres REALLY do?). India is messed up because it tries to be a secular socialist democratic republic. I believe is should be a secular republic. Accounts for anything we need.

So I wanted to blog this on I-day, but it would be a pretty unpatriotic thing to do. I just have to admit it... I don't like our national flag. I never did like it. It has too many colours that mean too many things that makes me feel like I am living in a country of hypocrites, not that we don't live up to the ideals of the flag, but that the ideals themselves are unnecessary to be lived up to. Sacrifice, peace, prosperity and Dharma? I'd rather have peace and prosperity. Would make an elegant, simple flag. End of story. As a personal opinion, I would have simply LOVED this as our national flag. Tose guys who sing naras every I-day morning, please don't hate me for this:



Ok, unpacked more books today, and all the four mega huge packs are done. Am currently reading the invisible man by HG Wells. Here are some pretty unlikely volumes, or books of famous people I didn;t know were ever written:

Man - Rabindranath Tagore
Teach yourself mechanical draughtmanship - SM Hood
The coins of India - CJ Brown
The Kon Tiki Expedition
Personal recollections of Joan of Arc - The Sieur Louis De Conte (her page and secretary)
[There are two volumes or more, I have only volume one]
Indian Child Art - Gay Hellier (It has ACTUAL drawings by Indian kids. WTF?)
Practical time travel (192 pages on "how to reach back to past lives by occult means") - Colin Bennet. Again, WTF?
The future of the congress - Acharya JB Kriplani
The assorted history of the world - HG Wells
Life and Myself - Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
Anothology of American NEgro Literature - Watkins

I am actually going crazy. I might miss a few days of college. If only there weren't submissions. Will talk about two of the books I have gone through. There are too many to actually read. I will have to teach myself speed reading pretty fast.

My India My America by Krishnanlal Shridharani
This is a book published in the mid nineteen thirties, and is very much like "The inscrutable americans" only less juvenile, and has more... you know... classy humour, but it is funny, nonetheless.
here is a tiny excerpt
[First, the girl and I murdered each other's names, and while I asked her if there wasn't a month called "June", she asked me if we hadn't a God called "Krishna."]
Both the books note the fact of the fate of a Shudh Brhmin in the meat hungry America. Both the chars lose their disgust of meat as soon as they eat beef by mistake. This is like the baap of the inscrutable Americans. Plus, it's like eighty years old, AND it is divided into four parts, Personal, Social, National and Political. Really amazing book.

Next is a pretty recent book, Contact by Carl Sagan. I just loved the movie. It had science, philosophy (both go hand in hand too often for comfort) and human values and evolution. Amazing movie, never knew it was based on a book. I am sure the book will be even more amazing...

Going back to the invisible man now. Now a very good book, but one of those things that has to be read. Next on my list is the call of the wild. Although I have read it, I wanna do it again.