I am so PROUD of us!

A friend of mine told me that when she thinks of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, she mostly feels anger - first towards the terrorists and then towards the hotels that lacked proper security systems.

I told her that I feel proud. She said that its the last thing that she would feel on a day like today.

And I really don't get it.

"They" attacked two hotels - Oberoi-Trident and Taj, a hospital, a cafe, the Chabad house, a railway terminus, a college and a cinema hall. All on the same night.

Sure, one can complain about the hotel security, but what about a popular cafe, that for years has served the residents of our Glorious City. Did they see it coming? Its not most expensive cafe in the country. its not even the most expensive. I doubt they (the owners) had foreseen a future as grim as the one that greeted them  - I doubt anybody did. And the railway station?  This is India, we don't have state-of-the-art security arrangement in railway stations...they were just ordinary people going back home...hoping to retire early, maybe, watch some TV, enjoy the meal mom had prepaird - माँ के हाथ का खाना ... the cinema hall, the college, the hospital - so many innocent souls, the youth of the city - all targeted. And the Chabad house - the whole family was murdered - all except for little Moshe... Would you believe me if I told you that terrorists would one day destroy your whole family? The question of security hardly arises.


On this day, I refuse to get angry - why should I think of those who don't deserve to be remembered? Why should I talk about those who tried to destroy the city I love, the county that I call home, the people who are my "brothers and sisters"? I wont be angry. Because that will just take the focus away from the brave souls who refused to give up, those who fought till the end, those who are still fighting. I will grieve with the families who have lost; I will cry for those who have shed all the tears they had. I will remember the true heroes, for they are the ones we need to remember - and I will be proud, proud of the fact that despite our shortcomings, we put up a fight. We didn't sit quietly - for a change we did something! I am so proud, of being an Indian, being a Mumbaikar! On the anniversary of the worst day I have witnessed, I am going to stand up and feel proud. 

The Fairest Of The Seasons

Now that it's time
Now that the hour hand has landed at the end
Now that it's real
Now that the dreams have given all they had to lend
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe try another time
And do I really have a hand in my forgetting ?

Now that I've tried
Now that I've finally found that this is not the way,
Now that I turn
Now that I feel it's time to spend the night away
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe finally split the rhyme
And do I really understand the undernetting ?

Yes and the morning has me
Looking in your eyes
And seeing mine warning me
To read the signs carefully.

Now that it's light
Now that the candle's falling smaller in my mind
Now that it's here
Now that I'm almost not so very far behind
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe follow another sign
And do I really have a song that I can ride on ?

Now that I can
Now that it's easy, ever easy all around.
Now that I'm here
Now that I'm falling to the sunlights and a song
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And do I have to do just one
And can I choose again if I should lose the reason ?

Yes, and the morning
Has me looking in your eyes
And seeing mine warning me
To read the signs more carefully.

Now that I smile,
Now that I'm laughing even deeper inside.
Now that I see,
Now that I finally found the one thing I denied
It's now I know do I stay or do I go
And it is finally I decide
That I'll be leaving
In the fairest of the seasons.

(Jackson Browne, Gregory Copeland)

That reminds me, I have a joke...

How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
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Two. One to screw it in and one to observe how the lightbulb itself symbolizes a single incandescent beacon of subjective reality in an etherworld of endless absurdity reaching out toward a maudlin cosmos of nothingness.






You're Welcome.

For I am bored, shitless...

More sketches and my latest doodles....warning: doodles usually contain anti-human remarks and/or sad puns. Stephen Pastis is my hero....what else could you possibly expect?

Right now I'm working on the 1992 Addams Family sketches :)

Waiting

She didn't reach on time. He was heartbroken.

Fossie Fruitsalad and his cat TomTom

Based on Norah Jones's Shoot The Moon

A snowman disguised as a salesman on a hot summer's day

Uncle Fester

Grandmamma

Flipping the bird

Classy......... ............Weirdo

My mood always weighs me down

Addams through the ages

As you all know, I am, for all practical purposes, an Addams... so here's the "evilution" of my family (sad pun, right?)


Behold, regular people, the journey of the Addams clan:


The Original "Family" as created by Charles Addams:
Appeared as a series of single panel cartoons, published in The New Yorker between 1938 and Addams's 1988 death. The characters were un-named.

The 1964 T.V. Show:

The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons from September 18, 1964 to April 8, 1966. It starred John Astin as Gomez, Carolyn Jones as Morticia (Gomez's wife), Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester Morticia's Uncle), Ted Cassidy as Lurch (the butler), Blossom Rock as Grand mamma Addams (Gomez's mother), 

The 1973 Animated Series:
The first animated series ran from 1973–1975. Unlike the T.V. Series, this series took the Addamses on the road in a Victorian-style RV. This series also marked the point where the relations between characters were switched so that Fester was now Gomez' brother, and Grandmama was now Morticia's mother. The characters were drawn close to the original Addams creation.

The 1991 movie and its '93 sequel:
The movies were directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starred Anjelica Huston, Raúl Juliá, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman, Judith Malina and Carel Struycken as Morticia, Gomez, Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandmamma and Lurch respectively.The film was much closer to the description Charles Addams made for the show, and followed his instructions closely. 

The 1992 Animated series:
It ran from September 12, 1992 to November 6, 1993. The series' development began in the wake of the successful 1991 Addams Family feature film. Two seasons were produced; the third season contained reruns.

Addams Family Reunion movie, 1998:

Addams Family Reunion is a movie released straight-to-video in 1998. Cast includes Daryl Hannah as Morticia, Tim Curry as Gomez, Patrick Thomas as Uncle Fester, Carel Struycken as Lurch,  Alice Ghostley as Grandmamma, Nicole Fugere as Wednesday, Jerry Messing as Pugsley, Kevin McCarthy as Grandpa Addams, Estelle Harris as Grandma Addams.

The New Addams Family T.V.Show, 1998:

was an American/Canadian sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999. Its starred Glenn Taranto and Ellie Harvie as Gomez and Morticia, Brody Smith and Nicole Fugere as Pugsley and Wednesday, Betty Philips as Grandmamma, Michae Roberds as Uncle Fester and John DeSantis as Lurch.

The Addams Family Musical:
 A musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The original Broadway cast includes: Nathan Lane as Gomez, Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandmamma, Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday , Adam Riegler as Pugsley and Zachary James as Lurch.

Bad Day

I has one :(


I want chocolate and bubbles and coffee. Also nice friends.


:(


I want my mommy's hug :(

Quoting Mr. Wilde...

"Most people are other people. 

Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, 

their lives a mimicry,

their passions a quotation"

These days that quotation is usually a Jonas Brothers/Taylor Swift/popular hip-hop meets club track lyrics.


Seriously, if I go post this on BookFace, out of the 20 who will "like" the quote, 5 will understand it. 5 will like it because it "sounds cool". The rest 10 will like it because the "cool" people did. Sigh.

Chile, Chillies and Chill

Chile is pronounced as Chi-le. Not Chail. Not Chill. And definitely not Chili.

I know this now.

Back when I was 11, Wikipedia was not the go-to encyclopedia. Encyclopedias were go-to encyclopedias.

And to refer one was well, time consuming.

So, when I was 11, we had to do a science (or was it geography?) project. My mom suggested underwater volcanoes. I know, sounds cool, right?

Somehow, the volcano didn't materialize as expected.

What was supposed to be a reaction with brisk effervescence turned into a heavy lump of wheat dough with red cellophane for lava, covered with blue cellophane.

Yes, it looked like a pie during Mardi Gras.

Anyway, when you are a kid, you usually suffer from something called Optimism. So we went to school, with our ugly lump of a natural disaster in hand, ready to face the world.

When the exhibit started, parents started flowing in through the doors, sharing criticisms, comparing marks and dragging unwilling children who couldn't imagine a fate worse than seeing school on Sunday.

Parents love things done by children. A certain category of parents, who I call Insecure Pretentious Dickweeds (IPD) love these things even more. You see, it gives them a chance to:
1. Check whether there is some evil kid who is better than their darrrling son/daughter.
2. Criticize other people's children.
3. Lower morale of other people's children.

IPD's make up about 40% of the general population. In Indian cities, its 89.5%

We were supposed to mention many countries. And so we did. Amongst the God-knows-how-many nations we were naming, we named Chile, which we pronounced as Chai-il. Coz that's what some kid told us.

Every parent (particularly IPD dads) completely ignored our lumpy work of art and instead paid attention to only one thing.

That's not how you pronounce Chile.

And every IPD dad had a new pronunciation for the country...

Chilli

Cheel

Chill

Chayl

Chill-eh
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Also they ridiculed our "project". (Okay fine, so it was a wee bit ridiculous - but c'mon! We were kids!)

That day taught me two things:
1. Never pay attention to IPD dad's. They don't correct you to help you learn. they correct you because they wanna prove that they know much more than you.
2. For all practical purposes, there is no country called Chile.

Every time I think of this incident, I thank God for one thing: non-IPD parents. :D