Slave Virtues

"Punctuality, regularity, discipline, industry, thoroughness, are a set of slave virtues."
- G. D. H. Cole (Historian, Economist, Fabian Socialist)

Lennon Park, Havana, Cuba

25 years back, yesterday, John Lennon was shot dead. 5 years back, yesterday, Fidel (El Dictator of Communist Cuba) Castro unveiled a bronze statue of a seated Lennon in a Havana park, which I believe is now called Lennon Park, yesterday I read about this in a five year old CNN report and today I’ve decided to visit Havana, Cuba and sit next to the bronze statue of Lennon and maybe get a picture or two taken... of me and John... like in the ‘ol’ days.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/12/08/lennon.cuba.reut/

I'll take my red shoes along...

Tea et aL

I’ve become a compulsive tea drinker, a total wreck with out it, mornings become cruel, 3:30’s become unbearable, work goes disarray and my body sinks into a state of transient lethargy… with out my cup of TEA.

My tea habit has become an inexorable addiction and who or what do I blame it ON!!!????

‘Me Self’..!?.. Naa! ...

... never blame your self for anything, not when you can conveniently shift the blame on your parents, your grand parents, your teachers, the society … history… class struggle… capitalism… inadequacies of your bodily organs… yada yada yada.

‘Me parents’… a couple of a compulsive tea drinker themselves, never really imposed the habit on me though and even kept me shielded from it till I reached puberty.

‘Me granddad’... the ‘granddad’ of compulsive tea drinkers, regimented ex-serviceman, had to have his cup of tea in the evening, made him many a cup when grandmom wasn’t around to do so. Pity, he isn’t around to share my new found tea dependence.

The Fucki’n British Empire Man... the great colonial power, the bastards who ruled India till about nineteen forty something AD, had to introduce tea cultivation (and a tea habit) into the subcontinent, a classic tale of capitalism; virgin forests felled in the colonies and replaced by alien cash crops, exploitation of available cheap labour, creation of a Nuevo class to control the labour, ship the finer produce back to the home land and cultivate a habit amongst the native and create a market to dump the surplus. We become a nation of ‘chai’ drinkers, a ‘chai’ shop in every corner of every street.

But then, about 5000 years back, in ‘freakin somewhere’ in china a draft blew a bunch of dried leaves of an unclassified bush (tea bush of course) and dropped it into a cup of hot water, ready to be served to the emperor; an obsessive compulsive nut who believed that the safest way to drink water was by boiling it first. The hygiene freak failed to notice that the cup of hot water had turned light-brown in color, and his nostrils were probably blocked, cause the nut couldn’t smell the aroma (hmmm… the enticing tea aroma) coming out go his cup. A sip of it and the obsessive compulsive hygiene freak (of an emperor) became an obsessively compulsive tea drinker. Being lunatic Despot et al, he imposed his obsessively compulsions on his subject, china became a nation of tea drinkers and the rest… history.

Thus we have the most significant draft in history, totally responsible for my Tea Addiction.

…I Blame Thee, you insignificant draft,
What compelled thee do blow those leaves
And guide them to the lunatic’s cup…

I suppose all this adds a new twist to the ‘butterfly effect’ theory, doesn’t it? An insignificant wind blew a few of leaves of a bush some 5000 years back and I am stuck with a ‘bloody’ addiction…

REALITY!!! I’m stuck with a ‘bloody’ TEA addiction!!!

On the path to higher consciousness

In the past few months I’ve learnt a lot about my self. The most significant lessons I’ve learned, surprisingly, is about something that I hold very very dear; my sleep. I simply can’t do with out sleep; well most people can’t do without it, but then I need lots ‘n’ lots of it, more than eight hours of it every night, I abhor waking up in the morning, I prolong my sleep till about eight thirty in the morning on an ‘office goin’ day (much later on a weekend… probably till about 11) and still feel extremely lethargic in the afternoon, ready to drop my head on my keyboard at the minimal of nudges and doze off into a happy afternoon siesta.

But… Hey! Why didn’t I realize my ‘sleepaholic’ tendencies a little earlier… much earlier? It isn’t one of those subtle symptoms that pass unnoticed till the doctor gives you a death certificate (say like duodenum cancer). It’s a glaring ‘on your face’ ailment that makes life sluggish, unproductive and every bit self INDULGENT…


…I LOVE TO SLEEP
(mumbled aloud in a slow, dreamy and drugged sorta way)

(still mumbling)
I loose all purpose, realty and any sense of time and space, … its my drug, my opium, my dope and the crutches that I hold on to withstand the ravages of daily life.

…I LOVE TO SLEEP
(mumbled aloud in a slow, dreamy and drugged sorta way)


… enough of mumbling and self indulgence and let me get back to answering my left brain’s query on my ‘sleepaholic’ tendencies and why it took me such a long time notice it… ,

‘Sleepaholism’ sets in slowly as you pass into the wrong side of 25. I wasn’t as (quote unquote) lazy as I used to be. In the not so distant past I did wake up early, caught my worm, worked out in the gym, put in productive hours at work especially in the afternoon, and spend significant hours in the evening devoted to the higher purposes in life.

But ‘sleepaholism’ can’t just be about age, can it? Is it an ugly reflection of where my life is heading; directionless, nowhere? Reality seems absurd, the proposes disdainful and my work alienating. Sleep seems to be the only remedy; it doesn’t require great intellect or significant capital to sustain it as a habit (gee.. any ‘ol’ corner will do for a nap, wont it?).

But then, I do desperately seek a cure for ‘sleepaholism’, I can't drift in to this cycle of lethargy and apathy. Need to kick start ‘me brain cells’, get the positive energies flowing thru… again...


…hold on boy, there is hope for you, a glimmer at the end of the tunnel…


… there is this drink, discovered quiet accidentally, an entire empire built on its trade, and wars fought for its control….


…the catalyst for great ideas and inventions…


…the Elixir of life…


…TEA!


…my next blog entry!