Seven Across

“and it’s so hard to do

and so easy to say

but sometimes

sometimes you just have to walk away

walk away”

— Walk away, Ben Harper

Twitter is great fun and I’ve been using it for a while now. Yet, until today I have not seen the way it can make people jump into action with such incredible speed. #Amazonfail appeared over my Twitter feed. For the folks who are not yet in the know of the matter it was recently discovered that Amazon.com was tampering with the ratings of any material they deemed as gay. There were a number of people in my circle of friends who set things rolling with a link to this piece by author Mark R Probst which describes how Amazon.com have been quietly removing the sales rankings from books with gay content. Writer Craig Seymour notes it happening to a book of his back in February. They claim this is done as part of their policy of removing sales ranking from anything deemed “adult” and is intended to help (ie: protect by blanking) customers who don’t want to see “adult” material turn up in their searches. A number of people I know are boycotting Amazon.com as a matter of principle.

I find it quite hard to believe that in this day and age a company of this size would do something like this. I thought censorship of this level was a thing of the past. Too bad for them I was about to place an order with them for my digital camera.

I have a awful problem with procrastination. I am always waiting for things to be perfect in order to do something I want to do (or don’t). The weather, my mood, my health, the time or day, my environment. It’s too either loud, or too quiet, too sunny, or too grey. And these are things I want to accomplish… honestly. I guess I am intimated and ashamed by the process in some cases.

Yesterday I sat down to try and finish an article I had begun writing. The weather was perfect, my tummy full, and I had a fine cup of coffee sitting it front of me. My MacBook was open, and the path was clear for me to write. And then it struck. I suddenly realised that my chair was ever so slightly tilted to the left. That was the end of that journey. I ended up spending the next hour or so trying to figure out a way to fix the chair.

I began reading some productivity weblogs on beating procrastination. Though quite enlightening, they are all pretty superficial. The one thing that I’ve seen gets me going is an inspiring song, or something I read that motivates me. So I decided to try something totally new. I plugged in my iPod and put on the playlist I use for my workout at the gym. It’s packed with Kanye West, Tupac, and the likes. In the worst of cases, I think It will at least give me an hour’s worth of kick. Will settle for that now.

I love the saying: living in a democracy is not just a right, but a responsibility as well.

Nevertheless, the state of affairs in our democratic societies has gone back to pretty much where it was some fifty years ago, especially with regards to war, poverty and the environment – some might even claim that the overall situation has in fact worsened overall. I would not be one to dispute them. I think over all the state of governments across the world, and definitely closer home here in India is bad. The one hope I have is new media. I’m not sure what kind of impact social forms of media will have on the systems of governments, or if the government of India is even aware of social media. Yet, there is a sense that more and more people are aware of possibilities by reading, writing, and sharing thoughts on government using the social platforms. That gives me hope.

What is to be learned from this? Will we ever learn? Well, the first step is for all of us to go out there and exercise our franchise by voting for someone who you know will not will, so you can tell the whole world that you did not elect the idiot in power :)

I just hope that we don’t end up with demon-ocracy instead of democracy.

Gloria Jean’s is an Australian coffee brand. They brew a great coffee and have recently launched a few outlets in Bangalore, India. One of them happens to be near my workplace, at 100 ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. I’ve been going there to get my morning cup of delight almost 3-4 days a week. I would highly recommend it to people who live or work in the area and like a good cup of coffee. They also sell some pretty exotic coffee beans and coffee makers at this place. The food’s pretty good as well.

Super cool stuff.

I so want one of these. It’s quite smart and doesn’t look all geekish like most bicycle helmets.

Hillary clinton, the new US Secretary of State called up the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday. You can imagine how the conversation must have gone. Zardari would have tried to flirt with Clinton telling her how pretty she looks and how she does not deserve to be married to a cheat of a husband. He then would have tried to get an appointment with her with a political pretext, only to try and steal a kiss out of her.

Or they could have just discussed foreign policy.

There’s a financial “bloodbath” of sorts at the Wall Street, the markets world over, and closer home, at the Indian stock markets. Banks are shutting down, companies are laying people off by the hundreds, and the valuation of the richest individuals and companies in the world are taking a huge hit. Hundreds and thousands of people will be affected by these events. The United States of America, a great nation, is probably feeling it the most at the moment. At this time it is important to remember that ‘this too shall pass’. Some of us may lose our money, our jobs, our homes, and even hope.

Even events that threaten to completely destroy us have a certain lesson they carry. There might just be a silver lining to this oh-so dark a cloud. When all that you love can be taken away, when those that you have is gone, you wake up as a human being. All the silly things that you placed value in, now appear – well, silly. A product of suffering is a new respect for live and a deeper love for what is true.

This is my hope for us as dark days come.