Domain Maximus

Dearest Readers and other people who often flame this blog,

Yesterday I was travelling between Parel and Andheri, running from one prospective employer appointment to the other in a cab. The traffic was average to bad and I sat back and began to ponder many thoughts. Amidst the trip the cab-wallah stopped at a CNG pump to top up his car. The rain, which arrived briefly and then departed not unlike Mohammad Kaif, remained merely an intermittent dark streak on the smoking roads.

So here are some moral dilemmas (dilemmae?) that river-danced in my head for several intriguing moments.

Dilemma Number One: Is there, at a very basic level, any difference between a religious zealot who is prepared to kill and die for his religion and a member of the armed forces? Both have picked up causes they were born into with little choice. (You normally don’t choose your country and also accept the religion you were born into. Both with little question.)

Both possibly consider their respective causes essential to their safe existence. (And in several places in this country people of a religion stay together because the law simply cannot protect them.) They follow orders blindly even if they know they are protecting or fighting for a country/religion which may be committing moral/humanitarian evils. (Nazi soldiers for instance. But one must still obey if one is a soldier.)

So then why is one portrayed so heroically while the other is a heinous criminal?

Dilemma Number Two: Why are there so many anonymous commenters who leave single-line terse messages that are invariably critical. For example: “You are a stupid blogger”. “This blog sucks.” “Why don’ t you put your d!@# in a mad dog’s mouth and hope he does a favour to you.” and of course the all too common comment: “You are a North Indian bigot who is trying to slander South Indians and get away with it.”

These are actual examples of correspondence I have shared with diligent feedback-givers out there. Why would they do something like that? What actually runs through their minds when they do this?

Is this online graffiti? If you are an anonymous “mad dog sex life advocate” please enlighten me.

Dilemma Number Three: Why do they make passengers step out of the cab when they are filling it with CNG at one of those pumps? Is it because the car might, in a sudden fit of gassy emotion, blow up? This makes little sense as, after getting out, I am still standing very very near the bloody death machine. I would be indistinguishable from the upholstery, Pierre Balmain brass fittings and electric blue tube light shards if something were to happen.

Or is it because a load in the back could tilt the taxi ever so slightly so that it does not fill up properly? But then this means our taxi cabs are perfectly suspended on springs otherwise. To which I would say: HAHAHAHA.

So then why? I need to know this.

Dilemma Number Four: Does that guy called Pirlo who plays for Italy looks surprisingly like that Razak Khan fellow? He is the actor from Kya Kool Hai Hum. Yes the tailor fellow. (Admit it. You laughed.) I once saw Razak Khan at that Mocha on Hill Road. He was wearing a pair of woollen pyjamas and dragging on a hookah. This was sometime in May.

This dilemma, you will admit, was much shallower than the other ones. But it did intrigue me.

Four dilemmas will do for now.

In other news this blog is undergoing a little bit of housekeeping. You will notice three new categories of links on the right side. The first one called “Links” (duh) leads you off to interesting places with many nice things to read. The second called “Must Reads” are interesting articles of lasting significance you might want to peruse. The third one is “Recently Noted”. This is a dynamic list of things I have been reading recently and found worth a reco.

And finally there is “Miscellaneous FatCat”. A collection of non-blog yet online writing from yours truly. Me.

Also I have ported all my ‘Bloglet’ email subscribers to ‘Feedblitz’. Excuse the hassles of confirmation emails. But FB is muchos better and more stable. There is also a slightly more comprehensive means to get the XML feed for this blog right at the bottom of the sidebar. Subscribe with glee I always say.

And to close proceedings a little exercise for all of you who have read my dilemmas and are fascinated by them and want to do something more dilemma-related. Say the words “D’mello’s Dilemmas” very fast repeatedly for several minutes. Do this in your office loudly while standing up. Spread the joy.

Adios people. And yes I need enlightenment on all those issues. Comment away!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 at 11:20 am and is filed under Rambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.