Gosh darn

In the past, comic Marathi serials on TV would make fun of Hindi soap opera like “Sans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” but would kindly leave their ‘sister’ programming in Marathi alone. Time has now come for them to light into Marathi soap opera because Marathi serials on TV have hit a new low.

For a long time now most of them have been either vulgar or prurient or dumb or combination of them. Silly but not dangerous perhaps. Now, they have crossed the threshold. They have turned injurious to our health.

Serial “Asambhav” on Zee Marathi give credence to things like rebirth, ghosts, black magic etc. Many of them (“Vahinee Saheb”, “Avghachi Sansar”) show abominable violence against women. They perhaps would like to show more sex to make the ultimate cocktail but currently don’t.

If there are any sensible actors involved in making of this trash, I am sure they ask:
“During rehearsals, at least, couldn’t I just say ‘Gosh darn’?”

Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 12 Jan 1963

Harrison, yes, it’s just a game

Why have we become so jingoistic when it comes to sports?

Cannot we just enjoy a good afternoon of bat versus ball when no wicket falls, not many runs are scored but still enough happens to show us game’s inherent beauty.

Adam Gopnik puts it well for football: “ -- man accepting his hard circumstances, the near-certainty of his failure. There is, after all, something familiar about a contest in which nobody wins and nobody pots a goal. Nil-nil is the score of life.”

John Carlos 1968 Mexico Olympics 200m Bronze Medallist- who along with gold medallist Tommie Smith raised black-gloved fists on the podium for the medal ceremony to protest US government’s policies:

“Why do we have to wear the uniform of your country? Why do they play national anthems? Why do we have to beat the Russians? Why do the East Germans have to beat the West Germans? Why can’t everyone wear the same colors but wear numbers to tell them apart? What happened to the Olympic ideal of man against man?”

Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 4 Oct 1958

Lead them to their death

NYT article by CARL ZIMMER on March 27, 2007 screams : “Scientists Explore Ways to Lure Viruses to Their Death”.

It says : ” There are only a few basic ways to fight viruses. A vaccine can prime the immune system to attack them as soon as they invade the body. If a virus manages to establish itself, a doctor may be able to prescribe a drug to slow down its spread. And if all else fails, a doctor may quarantine a patient to head off an epidemic.
Now some scientists are exploring a fundamentally different strategy to fight viruses. They want to wipe them out by luring them to their destruction, like mice to mousetraps.”

Next what? Chattering viruses?


Artist: Helen E. Hokinson The New Yorker 2 Aug 1941