Friday, May 28, 2004

Meese Mama

This article is a tribute to a friend of mine.

The moustache,(derived from Greek mustax, mustache, upper lip) is a symbol of manhood in many cultures. Matter of fact there is a saying in kannada "jaTTi biddarU mIse maNNAgalilla(The wrestler fell but his moustache did not get soiled). A way of saying "Down,but not out".Such is the importance of the moustache and the pride
associated with it.

Moustaches range in shape and size from the grand Veerappan style to the pencil line style of the screen heroes of the 60s-70s(That is the normally seen ones I mean, for other categories http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/Categories/categories.htm).The Guinness World Records mention a 11 foot long moustache. hmmm....

Not that the moustache has not had its fair share of controversies over time. Moustaches were considered eccentric, barbaric and often were forced by law to be shaved. More trivia at the Moustache Database

We have beauty contests for women, with young 18 to 20 somethings strutting around on catwalks. The men are not far behind though, with the beard and moustache competition for the men to show off the grandeur of their facial hair to the world.

This guy in my college (to whom this is a tribute) had the grandest moustache of all of us guys. His nick name itself was "Meese" and his moustache made him the target of quite a few comments (which he took very sportingly). Some of them being:
"Half his weight will be his moustache"
"His moustache is too heavy for him. That is why he is short. It is pulling him down"
"Will he fly away if his moustache were to be shaved off?"

A moustache can come in handy if u want to avoid being detected by your boss. If you dont know what I am hinting at, see the hindi movie Golmaal. The story revolves around a moustache ;).

Confucious said that "A man without a moustache is a man without a soul", "A kiss without a moustache is like egg without salt" goes an old Spanish proverb.But whatever be the case, it is the clean shaven lot like me who keep businesses like Gillette profitable.

Long live the moustache.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

What do i know?

I am writing this in a highly confused state of mind. I hope to make sense of what i am saying...
..so here goes ......

Can one quantify knowledge?
I know something. But how much of it I know, that i don't know.;) What I mean is that if there is
a certain concept i know, I may not be aware of everything associated with it, say I know some bits and pieces of physics,not everything. If I were to know everything about things, I can be called perfect (to some extent). BUT, nobody is perfect(more on this later).

While that is on one side, there is another side to what i am saying. There are things I dont know. Say, I dont know to drive a truck. And I know that I don't know to drive a truck. Fine till here.

What about the things we don't know that we don't know? I don't make sense is it? Well, till the day I was told about the existance(or extinction) of the dinosaurs, I did not know them. I did not know . That is we are living in this world oblivious to a the existance large number of things.Since we do not know about it, we actually dont know that we dont know about it.
Right?

In this case, given the fact that i don't know what i know and also that i don' know what i don't
know, is there something i DO know?????

PS: I am not the only one facing this problem. See Sanjeeth

Inspired by what a professor of mine told once : "I don't know what I don't know"

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Identity?

It is not uncommon that somebody gets called a different name but my case seems to be bit unique. I regularly seem to be getting called names other than my own.I have been called quite a few different names like Ananthraman, Ananthkrishnan,Ananthapadmanabhan etc. And a few "high profile" and popular names like Ananth Kumar, Ananth Nag and even Aanthashayanam

Interesting to note is the fact that all the "high profile" names are of people who have been or are still involved in politics. Ananth Kumar is the sitting Parliamentarian from south Bangalore. Ananthashayanam Iyengar was the second speaker of the Lok Sabha after GV Mavalankar.
Ananth Nag is an actor and was a cabinet minister in the state. Unfortunately in the last two elections he lost badly;he couldn't recover his deposit :(.

Actually some of my relatives too dont remember properly. I remember an incident in school where all the "Ananth"s of 7th standard were called to the office because they had a visitor who did not know the complete name of the student.

By this time most of you would have probably guessed what my name is. If not keep guessing ;)