Anonymus

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese,
You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.

If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,

So the English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see.

Dabangg!!!

Rule:When one get’s ready to watch a Bollywood movie(most of the desi movies), one should keep his/her brain at home.
If the above rule is followed you can enjoy this movie a lot. I almost tried doing it.It was so hard doing it, though.Its something like, I wanted to pee and I had to hold for 3 hours. If assumed that one keeps his/her brain at home, you might be able to enjoy the movie.Salman khan, did a good job as a corrupted(but just) police officer. The cow boy-flavoured back ground score is exhilarating. The centre of attraction of the movie is, obviously, sallu, but in a different way. His dialogues were humorous and entertaining. One can see his obsession with fitness, when one of his superiors asks him "kaise ho" he replys "fit, sir"(dumbstruck).Songs were above average and the routine masala song was good. One might loose one's patience as sallu, vehemently, abstains from removing his shirt till the climax and in the climax he appeases everybody with a mind boggling stunt (with his shirt).
Climax:
khan, falls down hit by the brutal sonu sood.Then his half-brother comes and shows his mother's puss puss(asthma inhaler or nebulizer with a om symbol on it).Now, khan understands the reason behind his mother's death, jumps back into the battlefield and flexes his muscles.For few minutes, one might think that he is turning into a were-wolf with his muscles becoming bigger and bigger and bigger(nah, u are mistaken buddy!!, that is a new story line).Eventually, his shirt tears off and flys off.To know whether he kills the brute or gets killed in the hands of the brute, you have to go and watch the movie.

The waterbed Theory of Complexity

The natural tendency in human language is to keep overall complexity about equivalent, both from one language to the next, and over time as a language changes.Like a waterbed, if you push down the complexity in one part of the language, it increases complexity elsewhere. language with a rich systems of sounds (phonology) might compensate with a simpler syntax. A language with a limited sound system might have a complex way of building words from smaller pieces (morphology). No language is complex in every way, as that would be unusable. Likewise, no language is completelhy simple, as too few distinctions would render it useless. Conservation of complexity!! , my friend.

Book Review: Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Took up a book after quite a while. Usually, I have the habit of
shifting from reading a book to another activity after some time.
But, this book got me glued to it like a leech.. We get caught up in
the cob-web of ambitions,responsibilities etc. Sometimes, when such
books are read one can understand the importance of humanity and
virtuousness, which might change the way one perceives things around
oneself.
This book, mostly, is all about two kids amir and hassan. Amir, a
pasthun(sunni muslim) is from a well to do family in Afghanistan and
Hassan, a Hazara(Shia muslim)is the son of a servant(difference
between sunni and shia:The Shia Muslims believe that following the
Prophet Muhammad's death, leadership should have passed directly to
his cousin/son-in-law, Ali, while Sunni Muslims agree with the
position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new
leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. As a
result, there rose a conflict between these two groups and they keep
fighting all the time. The reason behind this was a political one).As
kids hassan and amir share many sad and triumphant moments. Their
childhood is marked by unrelenting loyalty of hassan to amir. Overcome
by fear, amir turns a blind eye,when he sees hassan being sexually abused
by a local bully.

To be continued...

Steve Waugh On Ambrose

Waugh confesses that Walsh never troubled him. But his battle with Ambrose defined Waugh as a batsman. This is one of cricket's fiercest rivalries that is probably hardest to surpass. In Waugh's words:

"To me, Curtly Ambrose was the supreme fast bowling machine. He moved with the ease and grace of a champion athlete across the ground, was beautifully balanced and coordinated, and could blast you out with pace if needed or revert to strategic assault. As well, he owned a trait every one wants but few possess: the gift of being able to shift into that extra gear when needed. His calling card when he thought he had you plumb LBW was a double clap of the hands that was as reliable as the umpire's finger going up. He detested singles going off his bowling believing the prey had escaped his clutches. The icing on the cake for Amby was his imposing physical presence - legs like stilts, arms that never seemed to end and pouting lips that looked like they'd been stung by a swarm of bees. When he stood a couple of feet away giving me his Clint Eastwood glare, I had the feeling he could take me down at any stage, but still wasn't quite sure which of his weapons he would employ to do the job" - This is an excellent summing up of the kind of bowler Ambrose was.

Steve Waugh's stand off with Ambrose at Queens Park Oval is cricketing folk lore. The confrontation has been interestingly described. This narration, to me, describes Steve Waugh as a person as a cricketer the best; "Ambrose, who cut me in half with one delivery and then forced me to jab at the next ball as it moved away from the outside edge. With each play and miss, he would pull up in front of me and glare; it was as if he thought I was purposely taunting his efforts. For me, a volcano of emotions was brewing: frustration at my inability to get on top of the situation, anger at the booing that had greeted my arrival at the crease, irritation after a restless night's sleep and now Amby's bloody stare. A steeping bouncer that flew harmless over the top of my head was almost a relief, because it didn't pose a danger, so when I saw Ambrose staring intently from close quarters I snapped back at him ' what the fuck are you looking at?' It was what I was thinking, but saying it took even me by surprise. It was pure instinct, as my survival mechanism took over;" "Ambrose was clearly stunned, most likely because no one had ever been stupid enough to employ such an aggressive measure against him. Furthermore respect is very important in the Caribbean ...in this culture profanities are rarely heard. Ambrose countered my bar-talk bluff by saying ' Don't cuss me man'. Common sense should have told me to leave it at that. But I needed to have the last say, to get all the anger out, clear my thoughts and start afresh. Unfortunately I... another piece of personal abuse 'why don't you go and get fucked?'. Curtly's eyes were spinning and the situation had rapidly escalated to the point of total ugliness. Thankfully Richie Richardson stepped in, and grabbed his great bowler by the wrist with both hands." "We needed to show the Windies it was our turn to dictate proceedings and that were weren't afraid to get in their faces and get our hands dirty." "I was totally unsure what to do if he lunged at me, because I'm certain he would have made short work of me even though I had a bat in my hands. I kept saying to myself, 'Don't move, don't move. Look tough, stay focused. He'll have to go away." " However, as he ran in to deliver the next ball I braced myself for an exocet missile at the throat. He put in the big ones, striding out to full pace before letting go an absolute scorcher of a bouncer that reared alarmingly of a shortish length and crushed my top hand against the handle, directly in front of my grill. Such was the venom in the execution that I was a foot off the ground at the time of impact. Again Amby was there menacingly staring me down, but this time my lips were sealed."

Whats more interesting is his assessment of that confrontation's mental impact on him "For many players, getting involved in a confrontation is a death sentence... as it consumes their thoughts. I didn't mind the clash with Amby because I knew I could forget about it after using the altercation as a motivation to do well.I never minded being the villain because it set me up against the rest - a scenario that turned me on." While the same concept worked for Ambrose as he finished 5/45 from 16 overs, Australia lost the game. However, Waugh describes his unbeaten 63 (team total 128) as "one of my finest test knocks." He also mentions Lara as a person looking for a cause, a reason to feel like a victim - a scenario that turned him on. Waugh knew it and carefully never gave Lara a reason. "Often he would initiate a conversation by being assertive and confrontational, to give himself a cause. I sometimes did the same thing. Out of the blue as he stood regally awaiting his next delivery, he slammed me for not walking during our first innings. I ...countered by saying 'At least I am consistent. I just don't walk when it suits me'. After a massive appeal by us for a caught-behind was denied by the umpire, I'd remind him "Told you so, you only walk when it suits you'. It seemed an alien took control of his being. The next 10 seconds went like this, with Lara screaming 'shut up' as Waugh shot back ' Told you!'; 'shut up!' 'told you' 'Shut up!' 'told you'. He then walked my way stood two inches from me, quivering as he said, 'C'mon, lets go, lets get it on right now!' "

MISC1

As a country colonized by the British, We are bound to learn English. Anywhere we go, we find people talking in English. But, it has become a sort of class division in India, now a days. A person, who doesn't know English is considered as an ignorant country fellow. My point here is stop stereotyping people based on his/her familiarity with a language. A person might have more knowledge compared to you, but he might not be able to speak a well-known language. Languages might come and go (2000 years back Greek was a widely spoken language. Someday, another language might replace English). It is the knowledge and the character of a person that really matters. It's elementary, my dear Watson!