A cynical point of view.

There was a time when there was peace in the world and no bloodshed.
Or was it all in my mind?

Right from the beginning of human civilization, there has been bloodshed all the time...the savage in the humans was there always to be seen throughout the pages of history...Human life is akin to an animal's...initially all the humans are nice and cute and innocent...but then as they come of age...they become more intelligent, savage and cunning...Where does all this lead us to? is there any difference between a primate and a homo sapien at all except for maybe his intelligence which might be used for more savagery across human mankind?

A slight detour to one of the ideas in the movie Matrix -- one of the first Matrix created was a perfect one - where all were happy. It failed miserably. I'm just thinking, could there be any shred of truth in it? Is this what the real world is all about too? Should there always be someone sad for someone else to be happy?

And does this mean that a world of peace and harmony is just a fools dream that most are chasing - a mirage that everyone is chasing? Does that mean that all the wars that are happening in this world has no solution? If yes, then why the effort to go through the motions of trying to make things work? Isn't this stupidity on part of the superpowers that they are striving to do something that they might think is never going to work somewhere deep down in their mind?

I know that nothing is going to happen unless one keeps trying, but then I'm just thinking. If the Al Quida is eliminated, wouldn't there be some other organization to take its place? Isn't this going to be a cycle that will never end? I guess the only thing that could happen is that an individual might come up with a solution that would be temporary to say the least. He would get all the Nobel prizes and accolades and finally die, leaving the world in the same situation as it was before he was born.

This sets me to another thought - what could be the aim of a person in life then? Exist? Try to be happy, try to make a mark in this world before one ceases to exist? The word "Life" has never been so meaningless. I guess, its better for one to look at the micro picture, feeling happy about the small things that life offers and forget the big picture because its never going to change.

- a cynic

Windy experiences

Its been some time now since the last blog. I'm still in Chicago. I'm still trying to understand how things work, and how things can work though should not be made to work that way.
Chicago is a beautiful place (i would say that to almost any and every place) with tall (and i really mean tall) buildings. The place where I am staying is smaller than most of the buildings in here and even that has got 25 floors. (just to give you a sense of what do i mean by tall when i say tall)

Now to the list of places where I/we have been to:

1. Millennium park: A nice park which has got a few weird structures (which could pass off as modern art) which always has a group of people who keep wowing at them (though i have this feeling that no-one, not even the creator of the "modern art", knows what it is all about - guess that's human nature, what one doesn't know is regarded highly till you understand it, in which case its not novel enough to be had in high regards.)
2. Devon street: This is a place where all the desi people should go atleast once if in Chicago. Im sure that you would feel closer to apna des than in here. Loads of Indian/Paki stores and this is going to be our choicest place for groceries in the coming days. (There is an interesting incident that happened the first time we were over here - My boss got 3 sugarcane juice glasses after we had a meal that could have fed a heard of elephants. We couldn't drink it, obviously coz we never did look like elephants at any point in our lives, and so it was destined to be on a cardboard case, orphaned and not cared for. Just at that time, there was a Gujji couple who saw the cane juice and exclaimed "Ganne ka ras!!". That could have been me exclaiming when i see 100% in my marks card, or navjot singh sidhu on any stupid joke. We, like true desis gave him the info as to where to get the juice from. In the end, my boss even gave away one of the juices to them too, free of cost. Would have garnered him loads of blessings and a sure shot place in heaven along with getting relieved of the burden of carrying the juice glass all the way back home... back to the places of visit)
   
3. Sears tower: This is as tall as a building can get. (well, almost - there are 2/3 buildings higher than this too, but again, let's not get into the details on that one because a) I dont have any details to give b) I hope you have read the heading of the blog - it doesn't say Malaysian experience) Interestingly, this building's idea was thought of by an Indian (I guess this is a knack of all Indians - Indians in India don't try to do any good/think anything different. As soon as you give them an opportunity to do something good for some other country, they will do everything under their powers to oblige them. I hope this changes for good in the coming years with India on the way to getting into the league of superpower countries. Am I expecting way too much?) The entire Chicago was illuminated with zillions of lights. Right in front of us, there was GMaps for Chicago with lighting effects added to it.
   
4. Navy pier: We have been to place 3 times till now. Each time we have been there, we have done something different. The first time we went on a ferris wheel. The next time we had beer and listening to the live music that a band was playing over there. The third time, we went on a night cruise from where we saw fireworks - I've don't have many words to describe that night - it was amazing and beautiful beyond any word that might have been created to describe such things in the English language.
   
5. Michigan Avenue: I'm not sure if this should be over here or not, but then since this has been mentioned in all the Chicago guide books as a place to walk along, I guess I should add this too...just for the records. Since the day we came over here, we have been walking along this road, and more often that not, there is something different happening - be it the shows that people come up with along the pathways, or the small patches of gardens that keep changing once every couple of weeks

That's it, for now - there are a few notable omissions from the list - theater, movie halls, museums and clubs. I'll try to rectify these aberrations as soon as possible - most notably the last one :)

peace
sid