With all the destruction that religion directly or indirectly causes, any sane person with a shred of common sense would think that it is better for the whole world really, to keep their religious beliefs and convictions, however stupid they may be, confined to their private lives. A living, breathing human with at least some common sense would know that religion, whatever it may be, does nothing to add value to the betterment of human lives, and all it does is give a mighty great million and one reasons for ignorant, amoral, hate monging, opportunistic fuckers to destroy things and get their 15 minutes on national television. And the fucking man in the prissy embroidered white robe, the ridiculous pointy hat and staff* is included in this too.

To add to this cesspool of regressive, disgusting, rotting pool of worms comes a blatantly concocted 'modern' religion - Scientology. This is a religion, not recognized of course, whose 'creator', L.Ron.Hubbard, the immensely criticized Science Fiction writer, famously stated -

"Writing a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, he would start his own religion".

This is the only thing he ever said that makes any kind of sense. I suppose every religion on earth started out this way, as a way for opportunists to make money.

Religion itself is all a bunch of lies and beliefs that do not practically matter in the real world. But this Scientology crap is really out there, and on top of it they've got celebrities like John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Family and more to endorse it as a legitimate, reasonable religion. I mean, come on.... how fucking stoned out of your mind do you have to be to actually believe in this pack of bullshit ? How retarded do you have to be ?

Freedom of religion, yes, even believing in something as retarded as religion, is all well and good, but Scientology is actually taking it too far. You know, Douglas Adams in his best selling sci-fi comedy series, "The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" actually is a lot more believable than fucking Scientology.

This clip from one of the episodes of Boston Legal, the award winning Legal Comedy/Drama series on ABC, debunks scientology for the farce that it is. And it does it in its own style, freaking hilarious.



(Clip is from Boston Legal Season 3 Episode 5 - Whose God is it anyway?)
* If you've still not got it, its the pope.

Now, this is what I would call an opening sequence, absolutely incredible. Video game makers have made the trailer and the always craved opening sequence something of an art form. I tell ya, they keep getting better and better, while the ones who are supposed to excel in this, Hollywood, have completely lost the plot. If Hollywood cannot hold audience attention for a trailer spanning a couple of minutes, what hope is there for the movie? Seems the movie industry can take a few cues from the gaming industry.

Well, this trailer from Blizzard's Starcraft 2 (official cinematic trailer) is one of the best I've seen, yet, except for the fucking idiotic cigar smoking bit even with the helmet locked on towards the end.

Being a person possessing a mind of somewhat creative bent, notwithstanding the fact that I work in the wonderful world of Branding, I am quite peeved at myself that I didn't think of this much earlier. Last Friday, during the course of browsing the web for some creative inspiration, I came across this cracker of a post from Jane on her blog 'dearjanesample'.

Jane had this 'obvious but never realized' idea to keep track of all the brands she interacts with on a typical Friday. It is one of these ideas that every modern blogger stumbles upon and is really mad at themselves for not coming up with this on their own. In fact, this method is quite interesting to take note of all the brands you encounter on a daily basis. It is in fact, quite astonishing to see how many brands we use in the course of a typical day.

The toothbrush you use? Google? Your breakfast? The cigarettes you smoke? Your soap? Try to think of all the brands you encounter everyday. Your computer brand is quite obvious, but do not be surprised to see a staggering number of logos surrounding you that you aren't necessarily are aware of. As a matter of rule, we do tend to take a lot of things for granted when they are so deeply rooted into our subconscious.

Creating a list of logos I interacted with in a timeline was quite eye-opening since I now see what brands obviously get a lot of attention (meaning - A load of cash into their bank accounts) and it was really surprising to realize how many brands I didn’t think about at all!

This 'list' would serve as a visual representation of your typical day in 'Brand Terms'. In branding and advertising parlance, its called a Brand Timeline Portrait. I chose Saturday, the following day of reading Jane's post, and as I was creating the list it became pretty clear to me that this thing was going to take quite a bit of time (its a very long, long list of logos). But it also served as a reaffirmation of my personality traits as it does reveal a lot about me.....

A Day in Brands - My Brand Timeline Portrait
(click on the images for a larger view)














I think we can have some fun with this, I urge everyone who reads this post to draw up their OWN DAY IN BRANDS. It’s fun and who knows what will turn up?

So if you have your own blog, post your Brand Timeline Portrait and just make a link back to my story.

Not withstanding the title of this story, I am not handsome or fortunate enough to have two beautiful women fight over me. Hopefully that will change in my fast-catching-up future.

I am currently in the process of writing a novel, yeah ,yeah....I too want to have one of those 'Great Indian Novel' experiences. But I definitely am not writing about NRI's, Childhood memories, Yuppie Call Center lives or any of those novels that revolve around Cricket or Bollywood. I wanna write actual stories, you know...the good old fashioned tales that feature great characters and tremendous imagination.

The problem is, I have two stories in mind, vastly differing in subject nature, having not a shred of similarity with each other, and I find myself tearing my hair out (which is already falling in alarming clumps, thanks to the good ol' Chennai water) deciding which one to go with. And a great many random scene ideas for both stories seem to suddenly pop up in my head with no regard for my wishes whatsoever.

The Two Stories
1. Science Fiction Epic
I say Epic in the literal sense, the story will be vast, encompassing the whole of cosmos...and some more which my healthy imagination will conjure up.

2. Politico-Police Thriller
Ever since I watched the greatest and most entertaining Indian cop movie of all time, "Kaakka Kaakka", I wanted to write a story that will have character of the film's Hero, Anbuchelvan(Surya) as one of the protagonists. This story will also be a dedication of sorts to the best friend I ever had the fortune of having in my life, may she rest in peace.

Well written Science-Fiction stories always attract tremendous appreciation from everyone, not just fans of the genre. But they take a lot of research and a bloody long time to write. On the other hand, a Politico-Police Thriller set in current times, while they too require a fair amount of research, have the uncanny ability to get written in a lot lesser span of time.

I don't want anybody's opinions, views on this matter. I just wanted to put this dilemma into words so I can have a sudden stroke of decision making ability to finally settle on a topic matter and just start to fuckin' write.

I seem to be in a depressing funk these days, and that is particularly depressing for me, that I am in a depression. I haven't done anything, except lounge around and eat junk food for the past week or so, I hate I'm like this.

For a whole week, still going on, I feel rather heavy, I know I am heavy, its just, you know....you don't know? Hmph...forget it.

The point I'm so fucking pathetically trying to make is, I feel as if nothing matters anymore, I haven't worked for a week, I can't blog, I just do not have the energy to lift myself up and do something, anything. I get these 'spells of laziness' sometimes, I know it is some form of latent depression I may have, but what do you do if you cannot bring yourself to do anything about it?

This is where family or friends come in, or at least the comforting presence of a girlfriend. But I don't have that luxury either, do I? God I hate this.

*Names have been changed.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about Lavanya*, a friend of mine who stayed true to her sexuality, an act of great courage in hypocritical Chennai. If you cared to read the story, you would have known that she and her lover Aparna* walked out of their parents' homes and started to live together. What is even more gallant about them is that both women belong to the so called "Higher Caste", you know, the Brahmin Community. They haven't gotten married or anything, as the law here does not recognize same sex marriage, but they are living together, as lovers, happily.

I already have great admiration for these two beautiful, courageous women, but what cemented my eternal respect for them is the common sense shown and how they responded to the threats they received from their respective families; money-wise and physical threats as well. Lavanya and Aparna didn't come out of the closet until they finished their college and settled into well paying jobs, really displaying common sense that is quite rare among most people their age. Once, one of their parents (I don't remember which girl's parents), hired some local rowdies (paid hoods) to threaten and frighten them into returning back. Their response was the epitome of calm and level-headedness. These girls aren't stupid, they have a lot of friends, friends who had connections they weren't afraid to use. They lodged a police complaint for eve-teasing and sexual harassment against the rowdies, I'm sure they even purposefully exaggerated their fear. The police here take eve teasing complaints rather seriously, and if the complainants pass along a bit of cash and also happen to have some friends in high places, then, end of story. The girls haven't had any trouble since.

Well, the reason I am writing this post is that the both of them decided to take their relationship to the next logical step: start a family of their own. They already live together, and now they have adopted a baby from one of the orphanages around the city, that too, a very cute baby girl. Its a good thing that they didn't go for all that 'I want a baby with your genes' crap and instead gave a life to an abandoned child who needed a loving family. Now, they really are a beautiful family, in the most literal sense. Both the girls are exceptionally beautiful, and the new baby girl, they've named her Ramya, is also extraordinarily beautiful, even as beautiful as all babies go. This has put to rest the doubts of many people, even mine, that the girls will eventually succumb to societal norms and family pressure and split up. Furthermore, to cement the bonds of their spanking new family, they are planning to buy a house in one of those posh townships that are cropping up all over suburban Chennai.

Truly girls, you continue to amaze me!

I wonder:
The law against homosexuality, Art. 377 of the Indian Penal Code (enacted by the Victorian British in the 1890s), prohibits acts against "the order of nature." But the law states that such acts require "penetration". I may be wrong, but isn't there a loophole here? Lesbians technically cannot penetrate anything naturally (tools and aids didn't figure into the legal picture), so shouldn't they be exempt according to the law as it is currently worded?