And the Animals strike back ..

As the Swines in Mexico decide that it’s the most opportunistic time to strike back at their more prosperous neighbours, little did they expect, that average Mexican Senor would become the unintended target.

Even as Swine flu/SARS over take recession /TARP as the most searched key words on google, I am reminded of boars in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, proclaimed the Old Major.

The banner of revolt was first raised by the Mad cows of Europe. The uprising was brutally culled, even if it meant Mcdonalds had to redesign their menu and the favourite steak was off the standard British lunch fare. The cows licking their wounds , soon realised their folly in understanding the global food chain.

Like the complacent US software developer of the 80s, they did not realise that for every cow in Europe, there are two chickens volunteering for a slaughter in China. Even the Chinese govt.’s once chick policy per cock and hen, still left enough chickens available for slaughter, that can feed the entire African population for the next 100 years.

Globalization had already arrived, but the cows came home late. As dumb as they cows may be, there is always the one smart red bull, who by sheer destiny or a genetic experiment gone wrong was born intelligent. For him, reaching out to the far east was very easy. He registered himself on Baidu/Qzone, the most popular social networking site in china. A community he started, within a matter of hours attracted a million chickens eagerly waiting for a channel to express their suppressed freedom. The banner of revolt was raised again, the chickens started a LONG MARCH from their pens/pickets to the KFCs directly, while surpassing the greedy middle men. Lured in by the abysmal low price offered, KFC bit the bullet. Little could they see of the SARS/bird flu lurking beneath dangerously . Soon the word was out, "Chinese chickens are more toxic than Chinese toys". Now that toys and chickens were out of equation, Chinese economy was forecast to decline by 10%. But Iron Fist of the communist govt. eventually prevailed and the brave chickens of the Talumein soup were all martyred. Few had noticed, the resilience and the rebellion was already silently brewing among the most wretched of the lot – PIGS.

In the meanwhile, Indian govt. hailed the success of their DECOUPLING THEORY. They claim, Indian food chain is highly decoupled from the global food chain. We neither consume any beef to give the mad cows any semblance of a chance nor do Chinese chickens ever possibly land on an Indian plate, due to the 200% anti dumping duty imposed on Chinese food imports. All the ones being smuggled through north east and Nepal usually got consumed even before reaching the main land.

Now coming to the crux of the problem, a recent study by WHO has listed Indian pigs are the most unhygienic among pigs across the world. With the war, now shifting to pig front and having already taken a size able human toll in Mexico, its not long before the Indian pig shows its ugly face.

While the pigs across face the wrath, it is also time the pigs among men to take the beating. It wouldn’t come as a surprise, if feminist organisations start a rally against the male chauvinistic pig , as the main perpetrator of the malaise that affect the Indian society. As I say always, to each(animal) his own.

But it’s the Chinese year of the DOG. The dogs are rocking across the world. Whether it’s the SLUMDOG at the Oscars or the UNDERDOG at the IPL in South Africa, the dogs are soaking in all the attention. While BO replaces BUDDY at the white house, the hutch pug has decided to work only 6 months a year, hence not to be seen at IPL this year.

As they also say, every dog has its day.

Pahaad Aur Jal Pravaah

Whenever somebody recommends a new place for visit, the first two questions I would always ask. How far is the nearest hill station ?. Ohh good, are there any waterfalls nearby ?. Ohh great!, the trip is definitely on, let me put a group together now.


I owe this passion for hills and waterfalls to the 4 years I spent in KREC Surathkal. An amazing campus with a private beach, which I would count as among the second best I have ever been to. KREC is perhaps among the few campuses, where standing on the hostel terrace, you can see the vast sea on one side, while just turning around you find the majestic peaks of western ghats at a distance. A liberal attendance rule and large group of friends high on Enthu, ensured each of the 8 semesters I had at least one very memorable trip to most beautiful places. While the visit to the campus beach required nothing more than a 5 minute stroll, a Sunday evening sunset watch was a regular part of our weekend itinerary.



Now trip to the hills/waterfalls was simple, book a Tata Sumo and pack in around 10 - 11 people and off you go. Overnight stay meant singing and dancing around a campfire, never once I remember booking a hotel room. If you ask me the best place I have been to, I would definitely rate the trek to Kumaraparvatha. This hill clearly visible to all visitors to Kukke Subramanya is considered by many as one of the most beautiful treks in Karnataka.

You may ask why?. It requires you to climb up and down a total of 24 km, at nearly 30 - 45 degree incline throughout, on jungle and hilly tracks with no roads, whatsoever. The uniqueness of the experience is in the night trek, whick you start off midway from your base camp at Bhatta's house at around 3:00 AM, so that you ascend to the peak by 9 - 10 AM. The experience of night treks is simply awesome. With torches as the only guiding light along narrow tracks, where a minor slip up with throw you down a deep ravine of hundreds of meters. In this pitch darkness, the attendance count is very important and also a source of great fun. The leader and his experience are critical, as his decision on the route will decide whether you will reach the peak or lose you way around the mountain and find yourself in a village in Madikeri on the other side of hill some 40 km away, as one of my friends found out on a recent hike. By sunrise, when you are halfway up hill, its the scenery that emerges that completely overwhelms you. In trekkers jargon, we call it Ksheera Sagara ( sea of milk).

At heights over 2000m, most of the clouds are well below your current altitude, this looks like milk overflowing around a vessel formed by the conical peaks of the surrounding mountain range. While you sit there and absorb this amazing feeling, you are reminded of the more than 3 hours of climb still remaining. While remaining trip is pretty much uneventful, the climb down takes another 4 hours. But the risk of injury is very high especially on the ankle. With no access to medication, the injured guy has to be walked down to Subramanya, with others sharing his baggage, while a few others lending their shoulders to support. One such accident on a trip with office colleagues, was probably the best team building experience that I have ever had in my life.

Second only to Kumaraparvata, comes the hike up the Kodachadri peak near Kollur, more famous for the Mookambika temple. The altitude here is much lower and also there is separate jeep track, an alternative to the trekking path. But if you are game, a third more difficuly route through the jungles might lead you near an amazing unnamed 100 m high waterfall in the valley , completely hidden from view across all directions.



Not every waterfall is difficult to access, there is Hanumana gundi waterfall near Karkala, as well the numerous waterfalls in Kemmanagundi - Kalahatti and Hebbe falls. These waterfalls present a different kind of trekking opportunity, which we call the "waterfall trail". Here you start off from the mouth of the falls and trek back towards the source . There is a very high probability you may end of finding another cascade completely cut off from tourists and visitors. The thrill of such a discovery is unmatched by any other experience.


While these are places close to Surathkal, there are of course very popular destinations like Coorg and Uttara Kannada. Any travel guide book would provide details about these places, so i would not delve into the details here.


Whats the big fuss about water falls?. For that you should sit right below a drop of a 10+ m high cascade and with the euphoria & excitement you experience from the force of the falling water on your head, you will find the answer yourself.


Now not to disappoint my beach crazy friends. For me the best beach to visit is Om & Kudle beach near Gokarna. A series of hills alternately separate these beaches, which count among the most beautiful. while being just 100 km away from Goa, it offers privacy and ambience that the beaches of Goa never can provide.


While I have been a few other equally beautiful places like Matheran and Panchmarhi, these were visited at a different time in a different phase of life. I would have to dedicate separate posts to those experiences. Trips around Surathkal would still remain among my fondest memories at a stage of adolescent life that I cherish the most.

10 things to do before the next weekend

1) Catch last Sunday's MTV roadies re-runs on one of the weeknights, just after one banker housemate finishes watching his favourite cookery show and definitely before second banker roommate reaches home from work and forces you to switch over to CNBC TV18 Very Late Night market news :)

2) Drink Hot Steaming Cappuchino, with Irish topping, at the plush Prabhadevi CCD right next door, just that you want to share it one by two with your ever so understanding roommate, while the other roommate's face gets red in embarassment

3) Finish reading Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani in next 5 days or at least chapter - 2 if it is so boring ..

4) Grab an extra slice of Tender Coconut flavoured ice cream from NATURALS .. Heavenly Delight!!

5) Run the entire stretch of Worli Sea Face and back in less than 30 minutes, without being hassled by little kids, old grandpas, burly Labradors blocking your way all the time

6) Find a new mandolin teacher

7) Install FRING on my WM6 and google chat with friends

8) Pray for a good batting performance from Bangalore Royal Challengers, so that they at least win one more game in IPL 2009

9) Refreshing Cleartrip every few hours to check for an near 100% cash back on my flight ticket to Bangalore

10) Run spell check and check for formatting errors before posting the blog

Jane Fonda Revisited

Jane Fonda . who ?.

Oscar winning Hollywood actress . Right!. That's a correct answer!

Aunt of actress Bridget Fonda & Daughter of equally popular Henry Fonda. Even Better!

Flag bearer of Aerobics/Fitness revolution in US in the late 70s. Perfect! 5 bonus points for this one :).

I so much wanted to write a post about an activity close to my heart. Fitness!.

Flashback to 10 years ago!. I was nothing more than a mildy overweight lazy kid, who had the stamina to play little except may be a game of Cricket or may be TT. Swimming beyond one length of the pool was a daunting task. Running was restricted to a short sprint of not more than 100 m. Growing up in a big city, with an excessive academic orientation, forces you to compromise big time on a physically active life. Hostel Life at Engg. College Campus is somewhat better, but by now you have grown a little too cozy with your lazy self to make an effort to improve. All this continues, until one fine day at the end of long working hours in an IT company you complain of back ache. Your in house medic diagnoses it as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), and recommends a compulsory fitness regime. Now that's what i call inflection point.

If you are one of the lucky ones working in an MNC with an awesome in house gym, you are blessed. Others might crib of the high monthly fees and travel time to gym everyday. I am sure in the first two months, you would think of quitting every single day. May be you even actually quit a couple of times. But you are back again, for the hard work of exercise is still preferable over enduring a painful back ache.

While you start off with modest stretching exercises for the back, but you are soon drawn by towards the omnipresent TREADMILL. This sudden love is something i have seen in so many people and still fail the fathom the reason behind it. and then the treadmill changes your life foreever. As you graduate from your 5 kmph for 15 min to a running at 10 kmph for 45 minutes, you build amazing stamina. This doesnt come easily, might take anywhere between 4 - 6 months to achieve. But you seem to start liking this new feeling, that you lose your penchant for quitting. In fact, you start feeling restless, every single day you miss your exercise. In fact scientific evidence says, that exercise releases adrenalin into the body, which creates the sense of well being. Now you can be classified as a fitness addict.

As you loses multiple tiers of fat that encircle your body at ever available girth, you start craving for more. Now you start eyeing a more muscular physique. Now you have the stamina for doing weights, so there is not much stopping you. except that if you are pure vegetarian (egg is non veg) like me, muscles take their own sweet time to develop. While eggs and whey protein are preferred dietary supplements, a veggie has to make do with plenty of dry fruits, bananas, soya and sprouts. It always helps to have a supportive mom/grand mom at home, to understand your nutrition requirement. As a bachelor staying alone in a big city, good nutrition is one big handicap one has to live with.

While the perils of working out are limited to occasional injuries that may put you out of action for a few weeks, you are back to your best in no time. The positives are innumerable. Besides, showing off a fit body, you are that much more capable of performing strenuous physical activity like playing soccer, trekking, running marathons etc. Physical exercise is also recommended for a stressed out mind, combined with meditation. Now coming to meditation. After reading about a hundred different forms of meditation, I felt the most effective one is the simple breathing exercise. no seating posture required, no locational constraints, not thought constraints. Just slow down your inhaling/ exhaling to three times your normal duration, while closing your eyes. Continue this for 15 - 30 mins.

Talking about a few fitness impediments, I faced while in Mumbai. I have realised that, eating out often throws our diet out of gear. While north indian masaledar food tastes amazing, its spiciness ensures you consume very little sabzi and more carbs (roti/nan). Also the excessive use of alu in food, just adds more carbs at the cost of other nutrients especially fibrous vegetables.

Now what happens is, the excessive carbs all get converted to fat and add your bulk. I call it the MOM'S PARADOX. While mother's expect their kids leaving home to grow leaner because of lack of quality food, their kids actually put on more weight eating junk away from home.

Instead of only carbs, if vegetables were consumed, only a part of them would be absorbed, while rest would help in easy digestion. Ideally, fruits would be best supplement to carbs, as they do provide plenty of minor nutrients in addition to providing the fibrous alternative to a carb rich diet.

Another question that I have been asked by many, what is the ideal jogging/running technique ?. Some complain they exhaust very quickly, others crib that its a boring and monotonous activity. My solution would be simple. If one runs at what is called as breathing speed, you can run any distance as long as boredom/mental exhaustion doesn't catch up with you. Breathing speed, I would define as the speed of running/walking at while you continue your normal breathing and not increase it. Well, this would be as low as 5 kmph ( normal walking speed) and as you build your stamina it increased to say 8 kmph in about 6 months. My breathing speed is about 10.5 kmph and that's the average speed at which i complete my half marathons, which last nearly 2 hours. Now to beat the mental exhaustion/ boredom part, It requires tremendous will power. a few like listening to their ipods, a few others hum songs as they run along. I recollect fond past memories, which keep me occupied during the run. Another simple method helps a lot, while running always look down, not ahead. This ensures that you are not too bothered by how far, your actual destination is, while you focus on continuously build the rhythm.

Whenever, I meet Europeans, I always envy their physical fitness. As Indians, we lack a fitness culture. Its high time, we develop one especially when we are in our 20s and 30s. If not, the consequences are there right in front of us to see. The increasing number of patients suffering cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, especially if one has a family history of these diseases.

Mera Naam Chun Chun Chu ..

One eternal question, I have had for my mom, how on earth did u manage to find an absolutely unheard of name for your only little one. Not that I hate it or something, thankfully it doesn't sound weird enough to help some mischievous prankster figure out a few outrageous puns. Just one problem , no data entry operator ever has got it right on the first mention. Small hassles, but still why ?.

But given the plethora of options available in our country , 24+ Jain tirthankaras or 330 million Hindu gods ( say half of them are male) or even one lakh word rich Kannada vocabulary, she managed to overlook. Neither google nor my mom has thus far been able to provide me a commonly accepted meaning for my name. Bengalis are known to coin names for their kids, starting with an idea in mind( a vivid description sort of thing) and then finding Sanskrit words to represent the idea and later joining them to form perhaps a unique, but easy to decipher name. like a Shubhpuspabrata Devdasgupta .. makes sense u see.

Many inspired moms of the 70s and early 80s named their children after their favourite film stars, sport stars, performers, writers. Not so long ago, I read that Lara Dutta's mom named her after a song in her favourite movie Dr. Zhivago. Three chottu cousins of mine, all born in 90s and all named Manisha, stand testimony to this trend. My mom defies this logic as well.

An interesting article i read a few years ago, talked about the most common baby names (boy & girl) for a particular year in UK. A nation crazed over the birth of celebrity children, started placing bets on the likely name of the still unborn baby of the first couple - Tony & Cherie Blair. The national statistics association of UK even publishes the most popular baby names each year. Sample this http://www.statistics.gov.uk/specials/babiesnames_boys.asp

If one were to conduct such a research in India, I would not be surprised. If you include all states north of the vindhyas, my guess on the most common boy name to be Rahul and most common girl name to be Neha. If my 550+ orkut friend list is considered a decent sample representation, the final leader tally for boys and girls is 12 Rahuls and 9 Neha. Thankfully, having studied in REC & IIM, I have interacted with a variety of people from across the country, so i have reason to have confidence in my research. As far as the south indian names are concerned, its a v v tough guess. But one thing for sure, if instead of considering the names, we include the meanings, I am sure Lord Shiva(mahesh,dinesh,suresh .. xxxesh) and Lord Vishnu ( 9 avatars & their alter egos) would top the leader board. As far as girl names in south are concerned, my observation is that they are named after beautiful adjectives. Soumya, Priya with many prefixes & suffixes, Ramya .. etc. Birth stars are another favourite for girl names, mostly coz of sweet soundedness,if not anything else.

Another aspect of a typical south indian kid's name is the I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S. Ranging from 3 - 4 letters in AP to just 1 for some lucky city kids. Sometimes I sorely miss the charm of introducing myself like a 'Hi, I am Rahul ..Rahul Malhotra'. How do you say that with initials ?? Hi I am Shreyan .. Shreyan ML .. weird huh. Now may be, my mom thought of this impending inconvenience, that she made sure that the first name is so unique that it would obviate the need for a surname. While ML, doesn't sound that bad, I have had batch mates and friends who had funny initials like WL, YK,PK. Its not surprise then, these friends ended up being remembered mostly by their initials rather than their names. While concept of initials as a unique primary key ( father's name + village) was acceptable for official usage, its usage never lasts beyond ur schooling. The passport, Pan Card or Voter ID inevitably expanded your initials and gave you a new moniker, which you might like or dislike based on how sweet sounding a name your village of origin had like a Sivakasi or a yerrawada .. whatever.

Now coming back to where I started, while I am still to figure out what the true meaning of my name is. I have found that that google/orkut lists at least 10 - 15 people with the same name as mine. Ting! .. then came the brainwave .. May be .. Its all the coz of a TYPO in this popular baby name book, that the gullible mothers of these 15 odd people, referred to in the quest of doing something different. you know, during those days, when you didn't have spellcheck in word or forget it word itself never existed. A typist might have inadvertently typed 'SHREYAS' as 'SHREYAN'.

whatz in the game ?

A recent article I read somewhere said that Football is the most played/watched sport with a following of over 3.5 bn people. Unsurprisingly, Cricket comes second with a following of 2.2 bn. Hockey, Tennis are other games with following of over 1 bn people. I always wondered why some games are more popular than others and why some regions love specific sports more than others. Team sports naturally have bigger following than individual sports as the loyalties and association(nation,club) surpasses the glory of individual achievers, who are limited by their own individual frailties and span of their career.

Cricket was definitely not the most popular sport in India some 50 years ago. A game played by the elite, complicated rules and little spectator involvement, while being stretched over 5 long days. Hockey was sport of choice for long, inspired by the unending streak of gold medal winning performances. For a brief period in 50s, Indian football team did raise the hopes of many in the country. What about individual sports? .. Tennis .. Wrestling .. Badminton, these are largely based on individual skills. It was mere serendipity, that right talent was provided the right opportunity and the right support, while nursing an extraordinary hunger for sporting glory. But individual sporting achievements can never generate the mass interest that team sport generates.

A few would say, the the success of Indian cricket is because of its sporting legends in the 70s and 80s, who brought the game to the common man. If one world cup victory could do that, then why couldn't 8 consecutive gold medals didn't do the same to the game of hockey in India ?. While football continued to have a global appeal, why was the interest in India pushed to the corners of kerala and west bengal only.

I feel there is more to the story. Cricket's uniqueness lies in the fact that, its a game that relies on hand- eye coordination for batting and fielding and a strong shoulder for bowling. While every other team sport, depends on strong overall physical fitness, which I must confess Indians lack big time. While the rest of world, witnessed declining interest in cricket due its lack of physical exertion and spectator involvement, Indians took to it like fish to water. Personally, I would have loved to play football or hockey. While I lack the stamina to run around for 90 minutes, hockey brought in an additional issue for being an injury prone game and the game being not adaptable to being played in any available ground. While interest in cricket as a player is justified, I should say that despite being a hard core fan of the game, my attention span in test cricket never lasts beyond 10 minutes. Then why would spectators pay a few hundreds to waste their time on the ground for 5 full days.

That brings me to T20. While reducing the game's duration to 180 minutes, the excitement and the convenience is comparable to any other easily accessible recreation/ entertainment option. A movie, a football game or a dinner. Now the question .. what appeals to the spectator most, is it bowling, batting or fielding ? Honestly, Bowling is fun to watch only on TV not on ground with all the camera angels and replays. Batting is as much on Ground as on TV mostly because of the anticipation from the pavilion. But to me fielding would generate the maximum spectator involvement. But in the rules of the game, fielding is relegated to a support activity, where the reward is not commiserate to the effort. I would like reformed game of cricket, where each of the activities are equally rewarded without the unwarranted bias towards batting.

Another way to get more people in non playing nations to take to the sport is to simplify the adaptability. Why not popularise, tennis ball cricket in these countries ?. Simplify the rules. I guess over 50% of the people across the world who play football barely understand the offside rule, while still continue to play the game.

Cricket has one big advantage over football or other like games. In its very nature of scoring, the game has provision for some amazing twists and turns of fate, which offers excitement unlike the simplistic goal scoring nature of football. You are welcome to disagree on this :).

One thing I have failed to understand all these years, what draws people to watch formula one. Publicity/Push strategy can generate initial interest, but it can be sustained only through some peculiar aspect of the game.

hmm .. some food for thought

May the force be with you

Now before you question my years of grooming and education in scientifically proven ideas .. you should realise that my post just puts forward a view on astrology - something a surprisingly large section of the society even the educated elite believe in ..

I never was much of a believer all my life .. prayers meant nothing more than a daily routine, an important part of the culture .. that you inculcate from parents and family members .. While you were made to believe that success or failure solely depend on efforts .. bad luck was always the lame excuse of a loser .. Needless to say .. Astrology was as absurd as anything could be .. For me a more acceptable belief at this stage of life was Karma .. a fear of retribution .. justified in very nature of human beings .. hence believable

Well that was then ... as you grown older .. you start understanding life in a much wider perspective .. some things happen / don't happen for no apparent reason .. the quest for the non existent reason and the self denials eventually succumb to the fear of unknown force ... A force that wedges in through every aspect of your life .. and we call it destiny

and then you read .. The Alchemist .. The Secret .. For somebody like me who has read very little all his life, Non fiction and piles of self help books start making sense .. gradually .. astrology .. faith .. religion everything seems connected ..

Now understanding astrology is very simple ... it draws from the understanding that existence is a function of space and time .. each one of us in the world are manifestations of cosmic energy .. which is influenced by the positions of various stars and planets in the time-space coordinates of the universe .. Several key events play an important role .. birth for one is a key event .. based on your location on earth and the time and date of birth .. your coordinate in the three dimensional solar system is fixed .. the life force injected into you at that time is a combined impact of the various forces from all the stars, clusters, planets at the time in space .. that explains the birth star, raashi(constellation) and the kundali (planetary alignment) .. with positions of different planets in the different positions .. now the ambiguity arises in the interpretation of these influences on our existence .. one way is to verify would be through pure statistical analysis .. if you could establish correlation between these parameters to certain characteristics of individuals then .. these predictions are plausible ..

Next major unknown force .. the power of faith .. I believe in the unknown (u call it god) and not in religion .. religion is merely a channel used by preachers to inculcate faith in people .. While religion was born out of circumstances (social,political) .. faith has been universal .. whether it is prayer or heartfelt best wishes ... or even ill luck brought upon by bad omens .. it all leads to the thought espoused by Paolo Coelho and Rhonda Bryne .. that when something is very strongly desired .. good or bad .. the whole world conspires to make it happen .. You might say .. an individual would naturally focus all his efforts towards the singular goal .. But in reality most often, experiences in life make us believe that there is a strange unknown force backing you in ur pursuit ..

Now .. when everything in life goes horribly wrong despite all efforts .. you wonder, worry then you visit the friendly neighbourhood astrologer .. and he identifies it as the ill effects of unsuitable planetary alignment .. the unknown force is working against you .. so what does he recommend ?.. some pooja .. some meditation .. some donations (Charity) .. there is some justification to these as well ...Pooja /meditation are meant to help you gain the power of faith and the confidence so necessary to enable you to overcome the ill effects of planetary alignment .. the charity to some extent is used to offset the effects of bad karma .. sounds fairly logical doesn't it :)

Now why match horoscope for marriages .. while marriages are expected to lead to creation of new life .. the future of the new born is as much a function of its coordinates in 3 - D space - time universe as it is of the parents DNA embedded in the life form .. that would mean DNA is essentially the fingerprint of some of the forces that embedded during the origination of life ..

Well beyond this .. how will job prospects, health prospects are determined by astrology is beyond my understanding ..

I completely feel each one of the explanations is trash .. absolute trash .. but i cant agree or disagree either .. as there is always the unexplained .. until then .. every hypothesis is a plausible interpretation .. astrology is just one of them .. To make it easy, just let go and believe in the power of prayer .. doesn't take much effort .. if it really works then so be it :)

Amen!

ಭೋಣಿ

Boni (ಭೋಣಿ).. in my mother tongue refers to any activity performed for the first time .. it has a lot of symbolic value associated with it .. for some its auspicious .. for others an excuse for first time gaffe .. sheer excitement for a newbie .. Well for me its none of these .. Off late .. i have been thinking a lot, while also wondering what each one of you thought of the same as well .. if you are as vella as i am these days .. we mite just have a good time .. doodling over some exceptionally arbit stuff :) ...

To my latest effort to write,
Cheers