I hate you, because I think ... you hate me

The element of hatred between a selected subset of people and the United States is growing exponentially these days. It's been doing so for the past few decades. But now this is different. There used to be a genuine rationale in doing so for both sides in 80s or 90s or even in 2001. It was the slow-healing wound on religious or ideological sentiment that was hurting.

Now, it's not the wound, its the illusion that is blinding people in doing so.

What encouraged me to write this is an email my wife received from a good friend based in Dubai last week. It was a stupid email forward with the subject "No:1 Terrorists in the world". The interesting part is that he has put a disclaimer "Sending as received .. may need confirmation" before the "poison spitting" starts.

I found the list of questions very interesting. I am not a big admirer of US or its foreign policy. Nor I am as crazy a critic has Noam Chomsky or Michael Moore. I am just somewhere in between where it is convenient to distinguish right and wrong, and ignore it without feeling guilt.

Anyways, the questions are pretty close-ended kind, like "Which is the only country that dropped a nuclear bomb?". You are not expected to say "I know, but the circumstance of WWII..". You are expected to just keep repeating "United States" for every such question.

My friend, if you don't endorse these questions or their answers, why are you forwarding it to ~100 friends? This is what I said about the rationale. Many of us don't have a fundamental reason to hate the Americans, but we are expected to do so. Unprovoked hatred has taken full control of our decision making capability.

I thought of spending couple of hours investigating each one of the question and answering them from an impartial stand point. I did some google'ing and figured out that the forwarded email was long back used by leftists to blame Americans .. and now a different set of people are running with the same baton.

I thought for a while if I should post the following link, as it doesn't present an impartial view. Instead it's more of how a pro-republican American would respond.

I liked some of the facts he is quoting and hence finally decided to quote the post -

http://www.solport.com/roundtable/archives/000107.php

What must have happened in Poland?

Do you remember the dialogue - "Polandine kurichu mathram mindaruthu"?
Sreenivasan's character says this in the movie "Sandesham" when Jayaram's (who did the right inclined younger brother) character criticises Poland.
I was a kid and laughed the heck out when I watched this movie first time. Even now I search for this video on youtube and I laugh like I am seeing this for the first time.

Often I have wondered - what must have happened in Poland that provoked a leftist character to get so emotional?
Apparently this is what happened in 1981 in Poland - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_warning_strike_in_Poland
12-14 million Polish citizens did a warning strike against the ruling Communist party and it was one of the biggest strikes against a ruling Communist grovernment in World History. Western historians love this incident as it was one of the biggest blow on the face of Communism.

No wonder Sreenivasan said that.
In the next friendly get together you would hear me say that too :-)

Which car are you?

People are like cars. There are people who are like sports cars, the ones like minivans, the ones like SUVs... all kinds. When you read the following, keep the type of car and the people you know of that type in mind. It might be interesting that way. :-)

Sport car type: These are the fast and furious type. Very aggressive bunch of people. They talk fast, they act fast. And it is fun to be with them. But like a sports car they come with a cost. You might jump into any kind of trouble because of these fast moving types.

Minivan type: Very accommodating people. You feel very mature when with these people. They have a broad perception on any subject and you feel safe with them. However. being more serious, these folks don't fit in most groups very well. Even with their ability to open the 'sliding door' of their mind, you may see them standing out in a group of 'compact" people.

Compact type: Well, the last type dropped me into this circle. My personal favorite. They come at low cost, fits very well to most groups you tag them along to, gives you a longer mileage in the relationship.

SUV: This kind comes with a "Wow" factor. You are proud to present them to anyone. They look good, act good and mostly 'fully loaded' :). On the negative side, they consume a lot of your energy (or petrol/gas) and makes you wish to get rid of them.

Convertibles: These are the angel kind. During most time of an year you will find them with hood open ("open minded", not what you thought ;-) ). You can see very well what's going on inside them.

Hummer/Limo type: Okay, get rid of them if you know someone of this type. They just look so elegant, but only take them when you have to show-off to people something that you are not.

New caricature series - Part 1

Click on the picture below to read it. This is something I wrote in 2006 while the IT was still in boom. Like any caricature the facts are a bit exaggerated and mixed with sarcasm.