Such are the ways of religion

My A Word A Day subscription informed me about the etymology of the word 'termagant':

Termagant

MEANING:
noun: A quarrelsome or overbearing woman.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French Tervagant. The term originates after an imaginary deity that Christians in medieval Europe erroneously believed was worshiped by Muslims. It was represented in morality plays as a violent, overbearing personage. Over time, the term became generalized to apply to any brawling person, and eventually only to women.

Imaginary, did you say? Ha ha ha.

Man creates God

God created Men or Men created God? This might help you in answering that question. It is about a 'chor baba ka mazar' in Patna where thieves come to pray so that 'jab kaam karne jaayen, chori karne jaayen, to safal ho ke aayen'. One guy that explains the faith of the devotees is particularly enjoyable.

Follow up video: Have trouble getting a passport, or failing in exams? Go to passport baba!

Pre-emptive action

Notice to all students

Coffee, Tea etc. is made available to students for use in this room only. Recently, many items have been disappearing rapidly, cups, coffee, and tea. Due to the increase in supplies, we may need to stop coffee services in the future.

Please drink responsibly

Thank You


The above notice is placed in the common room in my department. Now why is this here? Because it has been in the common room every single day for the last 3 years and I thought a change of place would be good. Talk about preemptive action! Not to mention giving new meaning to the phrase 'please drink responsibly'.

Prabhu Ki Leela

Gorakhpur is on boil, and the fire has spread to other parts of the state. So I hear from the news media. For what, you may ask. From what I could gather, it started when Adityanath, the local MP, was arrested by the police. Surprised on how could this lead to so much trouble? After all, politicians are arrested all the time without a feather being ruffled; it forms the achievements section of most politician's resume. Don't be surprised. His greater qualification is being Yogi Adityanath of Gorakhnath temple. So, bogeys of trains have been burnt. It is all natural. After the blasphemy of arresting a religious leader, the gods need to be appeased.

I, on my part, am trying to figure out which gods are likely to be gratified with this show of solidarity among brethrens. Agni Devta, Yam Raj, or perhaps more likely, Election Devta. Although, the political commentators tell us that all this is politically motivated, I don't really understand how all this helps out political some group or the other. Are people really so stupid? I know they are, but it never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps it is part of the whole 'prabhu ki leela' thing that the serials of the league of Om Namah Shivah so devoutly tell us!

Junk

While deleting the messages in my junk mail folder, I noticed this:

'Meet beautiful Latin singles and get free calling card'.
Just what's the connection?

Funny?

In the greeting card section of a general store I saw a "Sympathy" section. Is it funny?

Is it a ‘bye’ or 'byee'

I never knew how to say a 'bye'. Reason can be attributed to God's evil scheme which deprived me the company of females during my 'formative years'. After all, you can't expect someone who grew up among semi-goons in an all-boys boarding school to develop the etiquettes that only female presence can provide.

I, in fact, never knew that I lacked the basic bye-etiquette. Going into college, I was as aloof from technology as a Gorakhpuri could be in pre 2K era. So I was not net-savvy or chat savvy by any standards. By the time I started chatting on Yahoo! and my family and friends away from college became net-literate, I was already molded. It was my cousin sister who first brought my attention to this problem of mine. One evening, after a half an hour or so of chatting, she said she had to go - 'I gotta go'. I replied, 'Ok then, bye' (or was it just 'bye'?). BIG MISTAKE. 'You were just waiting for this!'. I thought, 'What? If you got to go, you got to go!!!' But that was my immature self. It has taken a few times with various individuals over several years to finally understand to some extent the bye-etiquette. Here are a few tips for unfortunate souls like me.

How to say a bye..

1. 'okkk.... bbyeee...talk to you later then' is the least you should do.
2. Never reply a 'bye', especially the first 'bye' (or for that matter a 'got to go') with a simple 'bye'. Most people don't mean what they say. A 'got to go' probably means 'I eventually have to go'. So, let there be several bye's before you finally sign out.
3. If you have to leave, start the byes at least 15 mins before you really have to go. Say 'bye' followed by another totally unconnected sentence, but one that is sure not to start a new thread of conversation.
4. 'Byeee' is better than a simple bye. the more e's the better..or for that matter a few extra b's and y's won't do much harm either. Show as much enthusiasm as possible. I think people take it as a measure of how glad you are to have talked to them.
5. Bye or bye.... -- connecting the dots. People see the dots and read more than there is to read. Like u don't want to leave, not just yet, no matter u r missing your bus or class, it kills you to quit the chat. So, always keep a few dots handy.
6. :( - Nothing beats a sad emoticon. Oh how you wish you could chat a little longer!
7. All said and done, perhaps an equally important thing is you have to be very alert, always on your toes. The very fact that I am writing this piece indicates that I have slipped a couple of times in recent past. Remember that no theory is any good unless brought in practice. :)