Quantum Fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Particle-Antiparticle Annihilation. Deuterium and Helium Production. Matter Domination. Recombination. Blackbody Radiation. Local Contraction. Large-Scale Structure Formation. Violent Relaxation. Virialization. Galaxy Formation. Turbulent Fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Massive Star Formation. Deuterium Ignition. Hydrogen Fusion. Hydrogen Depletion. Core Contraction. Envelope Expansion. Helium Fusion. Carbon, Oxygen, and Silicon Fusion. Iron Production. Implosion. Supernova Explosion. Metals Injection. Star Formation. Universal Acceleration. Supernova Explosions. Star Formation. Planetesimal Accretion. Planetary Differentiation. Crust Solidification. Volatile Gas Expulsion. Water Condensation. Carbon Dioxide Solution. Water Photodissociation. Escaping Hydrogen. Ozone Production. Ultraviolet Absorption. Polymerization. Coacervate Formation. Molecular Reproduction. Protein Construction. Fermentation. Photosynthetic Unicellular Organisms! Oxidation. Mutation. Evolution. Cell Differentiation. Respiration. Sexual Reproduction. Multicellular Organisms. Evolutionary Diversification. Fossilization. Trilobite Domination. Land Exploration. Comet Collision. Dinosaur Extinction. Mammal Expansion. Homo Sapiens Manifestation. Language Acquisition. Glaciation. Innovation. Religion. Animal Domestication. Fermentation. Food Surplus Production. Inscription. Civilization! Exploration. Warring Nations. Empire Creation and Destruction. Expansion. Scientific Explanation. Colonization. Revolution. Constitution. Mary Jane. Vaccination. Industrialization. Emancipation. Invention. Mass Production. Urbanization. Migration. World Conflagration. Suffrage Extension. Penicillin. Depression. World Conflagration. Fission Explosions. Computerization. United Nations. Space Exploration. Population Explosion. Environmental Degradation.  Superpower Confrontation. Liberation. Terrorism. Lunar Excursions. Resignation. Inflation. Internet Expansion. Globalization. Reunification. Dissolution. Union. World Wide Web Creation. Stock Market inflation. Elementary Education. Composition. War. Invasion. Work. Friendship. Labour. Athletics. Toil. Academics. Homework. Finals. Graduation. IT Invasion. Terrorism. US Invasion. Extrapolation?

Shucks …
//Basic from Eric Schulman @ improbable research

My years ran wild and keen
lurking in drab doorways and shady tails
where languorous with lust and venal luck lives
The Green fairy that drives me

Wondering with wanton abandon and a sensual strut
under indigo skies tinged with a gossamer harvest
With sweet dulcet tones of pyrrhic victory she burns
The Green fairy that drives me

The bile comes with the anvil
The walls of charred paper and callous
It saved me and will kill me slow
The Green fairy that adores me

I dream of the irascible ire of that earthy cadence
Of mongrel caresses and hellion desires
despite parched darkness of those searing lamps
beneath the Green mush and swamps

Fleeing the woman from vestigial isolation
A curtain of red, perhaps sunshine in offing
Tardy vicarious extract of an eternal dawn
The Green fairy was evermore stillborn.

I wrote this sometime back while visiting my hometown in the height of summer and promptly forgot all about it.

Bad roads and the dust.
That’s all I could remember
Of this musty old town seeped with rust
I can use big words now -
Apathy and superstitious neglect
At least those were true before and firm
No more now
Cleared with last of the chaff
Would there be any sense
To treat this discontent ?
When even the intent has been burnt
And all that remains are
Bad roads and the dust.

Its strange the surprise one feels after a long sojourn away from ‘that’ place and the minute you reach there almost everything seems the same but just a little bit more dusty and just a little bit more rundown. Or in contrast you see an ever growing jungle and neon lights and what not. Call me an old gizzard but oh, how I used to hope that everything would remain just so -
Now as I’m preparing to go back again, I wonder what I’ll find … I’ve heard about the swanky new malls and the new place by the lawns. I’ve also heard about the even worse roads and mosquitoes becoming legion. Well, I’m not too sure I’d like to change the bare and open stretches with concrete even if they were barren rocks full of earth and cactii. As such give me mosquitoes anytime over the smooth salespeak of posh new stores.

He looked around on his deathbed
All his most formidable friends were there.
Wearing his heart with tears leaking like a seive
His father, vehement, nursed the family grief.

And armed with her knitting needles and shawl
His aunt, who even when they were small,
Had but to look in their innocent game
To make them guilty of some great wrong.

And his mother, simply weeping floors,
The hard headed house wife, with her bitch of chores,
The temple pundit, the head master and the town mayor,
The man who’d sold him the first ice cone,
The manager and the cashier at the bank,
All note worthies piled layer on layer.

And the Dogs, Whiskey and Brandy, shameless beasts
From whom, he learned the first similes of sex,
He died solvent and sad, alone as all things do
He was a great man intoned the government and the good.

He’d lived and worked on a desk all his life
Staring at a screen and typing without sight.
His parents wanted him to get settled
When he got his first office car.
So he married and married well, a dear lady
And bought a house, a dog and yet another car.

He had two children, worthy citizens and nice
Sadly away on a US trip this very night.
He’d paid his taxes and was a member of PETA,
Always the first to laugh and swore by the Gita.

He’d voted regularly and loyally with his party,
And did’nt condone or subscribe to mindless apathy.
He’d been listed in the census as a fine person
An upright citizen and model man.

But then he’d retired and wanted to roam and remarry
To see the world and listen to the bees
To meet up with his friend and his niece
The right hon’ble Mrs. Angela Carry.

But he’d been struck down with a sharp pain
The left side of the chest felt like lead
He was old, so old,
And he’d lived a good life they said.
So why did he feel the need of a second lifetime.
To be away from his cheering ex-wife and snotty kids
To write and ride and sample the wine
Which he’d thought early on would be his life.
But then he’d settled down and was game
For the mindless routine that was his bane.
He’ll get away yet, he thought,
As his eyes closed as he heard the keening from afar.

Remember when you were a kid and used to imagine all sorts of scenarios about people around you. I mean I used to know what people were saying about me since way back. What I imagined the people around me were saying when I was -

Twelve
Conversation at Dinner with Mom and Dad’s friends
Loud Friend – “I’m Loud”
Drunk Friend – “I’m really really drunk.”
Dad – “I’m pissed off at POLITICS ! “
Grandfather – “do u know how much money I have ??”
ALL – nodding yes
Father – “Dont give it to kids ! “
GF – “You think ! I’m an old fool”
ALL – “yes” , nodding
Hot Friend – “I had sex. I dont need food”
Mom – “i had sex too but i’m eating”
Loud Friend – “I’m still the loudest”
ALL - laugh
Hot Friend – “Oh I get it.” Laughs

Thirteen while playing cricket
“Oh man, I cant believe that kid Nipun missed that simple catch. How pathetic ! “
“Wait. He’s staring at his hands with a confused expression and rubbing his temple.
Probably something wrong with him. He’s hurt or something. That’s why he messed up.”
“Yeah, that’s probably what happened.”

Fourteen
“Did that kid sitting behind us on the bus just give us a leer ?”
“I don’t know. For a while, I thought that was the case, but now that he’s so engrossed in his
book, its impossible to tell.”
“I guess we’ll never know what the situation was.”

Fifteen
“Why does that kid have a black ‘X’ on the back of his right hand?”
“I bet it’s because he went to some kind of cool rock concert last night.”
“Wow. He must’ve stayed out pretty late if he didn’t have time to scrub it off.”
“Yeah, and that’s probably why his hair is so messy and dirty—because he cares more about rocking out than conforming to society.”
“Even though he isn’t popular in the traditional sense, I respect him from afar.”

Sixteen
“Hey, that kid is reading Che Guevara”
“Wow. He must be some kind of rebel genious”
“I’m impressed by the fact that he isn’t trying to call attention to himself.”
“Yeah, he’s just sitting silently in the corner, flipping the pages and nodding, with total comprehension.”
“It’s amazing. He’s so absorbed in his book that he isn’t even aware that a party is going on around him, with dancing and fun.”
“Why aren’t any girls going over and talking to him?”
“I guess they’re probably a little intimidated by his brilliance.”
“Well, who wouldn’t be?”
“I’m sure the girls will talk to him soon.”
“It’s only a matter of time.”

Seventeen
“That kid is so lame”
“He’s come to the farewell all alone without a date”
“Oh, but he’s that same kid who sits in library all day long and wrote that
scathing poem about the school.”
“Ah, I bet he thinks all girls are phonies.”
“But we are ..are’nt we ?”
“Oh yes. But I’d like to go out with him for sure”
“But he wont ask, you know”
“I know, but then I’d have to refuse him if he asks only because then he’ll be like all the others”
“yeah, wish there was some way I could go out with him”
“yeah, me too”

Do good? I? No! Evil anon I deliver. I maim nine more hero-men in Saginaw, sanitary sword a-tuck, Carol, I — lo! — rack, cut a drowsy rat in Aswan. I gas nine more hero-men in Miami. Reviled, I (Nona) live on. I do, O God!

Commies, Hippes, Liberals, WMDs, Iraq, Mushroom Clouds, 911, 911, 911, 911, 911, Iraq, Nukes, Russia, Muslims, Death, Destruction, Pot smokers, Iran, Iran, Iran, Britney spears, Shahrukh’s 6 pack, 911, 911, World war III, Emergency, Elections, Emergency, Elections, Google, Google, 123, copyright, DRM, open, open, open, Iran, Iran, Iran ….

I think I’m sick !

“For sale:
baby shoes, never worn.”

This short story by Hemingway is said to be one of his best works, Its amazing what words can do, with either their very brevity or extreme loquaciousness. Each have their beauty. But here comes the fun part. Ran across a few the other day on Wired with the contributors comprising of people from sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games.

“God said, ‘Cancel Program GENESIS.’ The universe ceased to exist.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore
Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood
With bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller
Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.
- Steven Meretzky
“Cellar?” “Gate to, uh … hell, actually.”
- Ronald D. Moore
Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
- Vernor Vinge
1940: Young Hitler! Such a cantor!
- Michael Moorcock
I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?
- Neil Gaiman
The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card
Husband, transgenic mistress; wife: “You cow!”
- Paul Di Filippo
TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison
Tick tock tick tock tick tick.
- Neal Stephenson
To save humankind he died again.
- Ben Bova
Epitaph: He shouldn’t have fed it.
- Brian Herbert
Batman Sues Batsignal: Demands Trademark Royalties.
- Cory Doctorow
Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
- Robert Jordan
Bush told the truth. Hell froze.
- William Gibson
Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
- David Brin
Temporal recursion. I’m dad and mom?
- David Brin
Microsoft gave us Word. Fiat lux?
- David Brin
I saw, darling, but do lie.
- Orson Scott Card
Mozilla devastates Redmond, Google’s nuke implicated.
- Charles Stross
Salinger story: three koans in fountain.
- Howard Waldrop
Time traveler’s thought: “What’s the password?”
- Steven Meretzky
Leia: “Baby’s yours.” Luke: “Bad news…”
- Steven Meretzky
Parallel universe. Bush, destitute, joins army.
- Steven Meretzky
Dorothy: “Fuck it, I’ll stay here.”
- Steven Meretzky

I can only end this with
“Wow! She’s wonder… Shit ! “
“Save and Continue Editing. Pressed Save. Exit”
“Suicide Note: Cant match Windows Vista DRM “

When that crazy sadhu balls up
Read not the mystic but the hash
When the friend who thinks him sane
Read not the growing together but the vain
Cars and motorbikes and petrol hearses
Think not carriages, just tired horses
And the horses themselves
the preacherman’s game.
And remove those lights and gross mannequins
Pray and it invests it with divinity ??
What of the clean nuclear fuel ?
I just see Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Then the preacherman shouts apocalypse
I tend to agree
Planes falling of the sky,
Guardians on rampage killing on the sly
Throw in a junta and you got yourself a Bush
“It just is” and Why ?
Oh nothing great about the sunlight
Its hard to directly see
I like the smog better
My eyes are accustomed to it you see
And to those cubes and coffee and salaries
Interactive machines and strobe lights
I loved those gossamer colours
When I should have been living clean and salty
Not the tuna but the sea.
Too long a list to put down ?
I don’t know, possibly an ad hoc reel
But change it will from guns and rockets and the soldierman
Howling and god damning to the end of the line
Or maybe the cigar ash and the tree felled with lime
But what is and ever will be is that
I reached for that beer and tonic
When she was within reach calling out to me.

All I see are rain and traffic jams and mud,
The rush of people swarming and going on.
Perhaps they’ll reach somewhere someday
Before loosing all in the bargain.
Big God men have a tent erected there with
millons poured into the holy one’s idol and gait.
Then you hear the muezzins’ cry,
No doubt pious praises and telling of sacrifical glory
But it sounds to me a wail and yet another story.
Loudspeakers and bands and microphones all too real
For competing Gods.

How right the hell and damnation sound to me
When I think of the boy who died in that terrorist blast
The God men condemning it and more
Preaching doom and gloom and gore
From behind idols and towering minarets,
A far cry from the hovel that his old mother lives in.
You can hear the canned laughter as you ride by
From a modern news channel claiming to be live.
You can hear the moral flyers and the sharp sermons pound
Like the thunk of a spade on hard ground.
Much more grotesque and alive
than the husk of the old woman rooted to their side.