Atheism - The New Religion

In a world full of believers, it is interesting to know that currently there are about 450 to 500 million* confirmed non-believers and agnostics on the face of this earth, roughly constituting seven per cent of the world population. Though the percentage value is small, it is actually very encouraging if we factor in the religious, rigid and conservative nature of the societies we live in.  Followers of atheism are now one tribe that is set to increase exponentially from now onward. But before we talk of why it is on the rise, it is important that we first revisit our understanding of what a ‘theist' or a 'believer’ stands for. 

 

A theist** is someone who believes in a supernatural intelligence (supreme being) who, in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation. In many theistic scriptures and belief systems, the deity is shown to be intimately involved in human affairs. He answers prayers; forgives or punishes sins; intervenes in the world by performing miracles; frets about good and bad deeds, and knows when we do them (or even think of doing them). 

Now, if you read this definition again, you may find the description a tad idiotic with comic undertones. How can a supreme being who created the universe in the first place be relegated to someone who gets involved in petty human affairs on a day-to-day basis and takes great delight in doing inconsequential things? Isn't it absurd? But this is exactly what we, as a society, have been believing in without raising eyebrows since time immemorial.

 

Basis what I have read and understood about the subject at hand, the widespread acceptance and following of religion around the world is primarily because it has been thought to fill four main roles in human life - explanation, persuasion, consolation and inspiration. To understand this, look no further than the ruling class that uses religion as a tool to subjugate the underclass for political reasons, day in and day out. For an instance, black slaves in America were consoled by promises of another life, which blunted their dissatisfaction with this one and thereby benefitted their owners. Thankfully, exposure to alternative theories and organic progression over the centuries have led to a considerable number of people (yes, those seven per cent) realising that humans don't really need a religion to lead fulfilling lives. They have wisened to the fact that absence of religion doesn’t necessarily mean darkness. Science, by virtue of facts and reasoning, alone can enlighten, inspire and guide mankind.

 

Science can explain almost everything today with sound reasoning. For an instance, Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by natural selection explains the living world in the best possible way. It has not only raised our consciousness but also helped our understanding of the cosmos. So, instead of being guided by religious dogma and chasing illusions, it will help if we follow science as it gives us practical premises to study, investigate and understand the very principles that form the world we live in.

 

But, let us be practical. The ones (and it forms the majority) who are staunch believers will never come around to scientific way of looking at things, mainly because of their deeply ingrained religious convictions. For them, the religious faith is uniquely privileged and it is something which is above and beyond criticism. So, the chances are bleak. But, there is a possibility that their next generation who could be fence sitters may still forsake religious spectacles altogether and adopt scientific outlook towards life. For most people, the main reason they cling to religion is not that it is consoling but that they have been let down by our educational system and don’t realize that non-belief is even an option. Right from childhood, we are conditioned to become a believer and we never really get to know that becoming an atheist can be a perfectly acceptable choice. 

 

Richard Dawkins, a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and atheist, advocates an alternative view in his book, The God Delusion. He says, “Any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything, comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution. Creative intelligences, being evolved, necessarily arrive late in the universe, and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it. God, in the sense defined, is a delusion.” This is the best explanation I have ever come across in life. I mean you can't be more convincing than this in your argument against the existence of God.

 

Looking back at history, we have had a number of famous personalities across spectrum who were non-believers: Confucius, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Marie Curie, Robert Frost, Albert Einstein, Periyar, Bhagat Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Khushwant Singh, Sir Charles Spencer (Charlie Chaplin), George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Hawking among others. Talking of contemporary world, we have Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Richard Dawkins, Amartya Sen, Javed Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Suhel Seth, Bhaichung Bhutia, Vijay Tendulkar etc who wear their atheism on their sleeves. This is just a sample size of individuals who realised over time that science provides better and plausible explanations that are more in sync with our past and presence. They dared to go against the wave. Most of them did so at a time when the society was relatively more rigid and less forgiving.

 

On the other hand, we have examples of some 'learned' people or the so-called thinkers who not only believed in the concept of God but also came up with their own weird explanations to prove the point. Blaise Pascal, a great French mathematician, summed up his thought process with a mix of logic and humour. He said, “You’d better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it won’t make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don’t believe in God and you turn out to be wrong you get eternal damnation, whereas if you are right it makes no difference. On the face of it the decision is a no-brainer. Believe in God.” Well, there are rational arguments that need to be taken seriously and then there are arguments that need to be only enjoyed for its humour and sophistry. Pascal’s thoughts qualify for the latter.

 

The point I am trying to drive home here is that we should challenge the established beliefs, customs and traditions if they don’t provide satisfactory answers. Human beings are blessed with faculties to think and reason out. Let’s put them to good use and reassess our association with things we no longer identify ourselves with. The idea is to raise consciousness and look at things from scientific lenses. If religion doesn’t provide logical explanations, let’s be bold enough to reject it. Let there be no fear at all. Let no reward or retribution dominate your thoughts. Albert Einstein, the renowned Theoretical Physicist, once said, “If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” Being atheist is a realistic aspiration. One can be an atheist who is happy, balanced, moral and intellectually fulfilled. We just need to understand one basic thing. Atheism is not the absence of morality but the ability to think, reason and act. Is that really an unworthy ability to have? Think about it.

*According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, they arrived at the conclusion that 7% of world population are atheists. 

**The definition of theist is sourced from Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion.

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गीत नया गाता हूँ!

कलयुग का दौर है, पाप है चरम पर 

कडुवाहट है भरपूर दिलों में पर रुख नरम है

शैतान और इंसान के बीच का भेद बूझता हूँ, बतलाता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ!

कठिनाई है बहुत जीवन में, सरलता से गरल पी जाता हूँ

आज बेहतर था, कल बेहतरीन होगा और परसों जन्नत सा माहौल, 

इसी उधेडबुन में ज़िम्मेदारियों का बोझ गिराता-संभालता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ!

अनदेखे कल की चाहत में, सुनहरे आज को नहीं भूला हूँ

कोयले सा तपा कभी, बर्फ सा कभी पिघला हूँ

इस तपने-पिघलने में भी अलग ही मज़ा है

मानो तो अाजमाइश, वरना सज़ा है 

जीवन का अपने बस यही फलसफा है

खोया है कम, पाया बहुत दफा है

इसिलिये ज़िन्दगी का साज़, मेहफिलों में बजाता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ!!

जब कभी भी दिल के दरिया में उमंगों का सैलाब जगे

सोमवार का हाहाकार हो, चाहे इतवार का इतमिनान हो 

ओल्ड मोंक में थमस्-अप घोलता हूँ, मिलाता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ!

संजीदगी से कहूँ कभी, कभी मज़ाक में ले जाता हूँ 

अटल जी सा 'अटल' तो कभी मोदी-राहुल सा गले पड़ जाता हूँ 

काल के कपाल पर, लिखता हूँ मिटाता हूँ

गीत नया गाता हूँ!

Almora - the real home!

Every time I visit my native place, I realize and leave behind all that is superficial about me.

Every time I visit my native place, I rediscover and meet the ‘real’ me.

Every time I visit my native place, I feel capable of loving more, sharing more, forgiving more and forgetting all that has not gone well in life.

Every time I visit my native place, I get it that it is possible to lead a satisfactory life even with rudimentary things.

Every time I visit my native place, a small battle takes place within.

A small whirlwind of emotions...

A small whirlpool of cosmic things...

The simpler me emerges victorious over the complex me.

The first light of the day pierces through my body and reaches the soul.

The intense sun rays during noon time soak up all the negativity.

The star-spangled night becomes my quilt and provides comfort and relaxation.

Every time I visit my native place, I bid farewell to worldly things and embrace the rustic life. 


I feel purged off and return to metropolitan life as a better guy.

Every time... Every. Single. Time. 

Never say die!

Winners get written and talked about a lot. Don’t they? They come, they conquer and then they move on to bigger and better things. Nobody focuses on or likes to talk about people who are everything else but winners. I am writing this short piece to put the spotlight on people who deserve it the most...people who are the ‘real’ winners in life. They work hard, miss the mark by a whisker or a mile, go back to square one and try again after some serious introspection. They may be continuously missing out on growth opportunities in life but they choose to remain hopeful and positive about future. They persevere to get that one elusive win and, hopefully with that, a better tomorrow. This spirit of never-say-die or tomorrow-will-be-better for that matter is something I respect a lot. It’s a rare quality. It’s the quality that is found in real winners.

It reminds me of the famous dialogue from the Hollywood blockbuster Rocky Balboa wherein the protagonist (played by Sylvester Stallone) says, "It isn’t about how hard you are hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” 

Isn’t it all about attitude more than anything else? Shouldn’t we be living our lives holding on to this aforementioned mantra? After all, life is not a battle. It’s a war which has numerous battles within. In the course of life, you lose some, you win some. Irrespective of the outcome, you stay in the war as long as you don’t give up. If we swear by this attitude, no loss can be heart-breaking for us and no victory can go to our head. We will remain grounded and continue to move ahead in life with great intent and higher purpose.

Roti, Kapda, ‘Gaadi’ aur Makaan!

It is every common man’s dream to have the proverbial essentials in life - Roti (bread), Kapda (clothing) aur Makaan (humble abode).  Some driven-souls, with a stroke of luck, actually go on to realise the dream but, for most of them, it largely stays what it sounds like - a dream. While the first two components of this dream are relatively easier to come by, it is the third (makaan) one that takes a toll on our lives and saps us financially, psychologically and then physically. In a way, our entire lives revolve around attaining them. Though times haven’t changed much, the same common man - a little ambitious and enterprising now - has widened the scope of their millennium dream. The dream has one more addition to its equation now – a Gaadi (a Car).

Since all my blogs emanate from personal experiences, I will not go past myself here too to drive the point home. When I started out in this big bad world, I used to dream like any other common man. However, over the last few years, I realised that instead of wasting a lifetime in chasing the ‘dream’, it would be a good idea to achieve the ‘target’ (worldly things) at the earliest and be done with it. And then, while you still have time and will, set out for a new dream which is more meaningful and has depth to it. I have also wisened to the fact that our mind works better and evolves faster when we are not concerned about our next meal.  Now back to the little story from where I trailed off.

Communications Practitioner by profession, I have been working for almost nine years now. By dint of my hard work and the non-existent God’s grace, I have managed to do reasonably well in life. In the course of my professional career so far, I got married; bought a humble flat followed by a nice car and earned myself a not-so-healthy bank balance in the process. Back in 2007, when I began working as an Assistant Consultant in a fledgling PR agency with a meagre salary in hand, I used to have moments of serious doubts about my ability, career choice and growth prospects. A cloud of gloom would often pall over my confident stance of realising my dream. From there to reaching here - where I have all four - has been quite an eventful journey for me.

                                                       

Today, when I look back, I consider this as an achievement because it was not a cake walk for me. I feel contentment and proud beyond words.

When I was 21, I had set myself a target that I would own a house and a car by the time I was 30. There were times when I would be occupied with these thoughts for weeks. And then, gradually, I got busy with the daily grind and forgot about it completely. Never did I consciously take stock of things and checked if I was still on the right course. Fortunately, things started to fall into place for me. Incidentally, I bought a small flat about two years back which turned out to be my biggest investment in life. It was a WOW moment for me. I felt like I had arrived! There was a sudden change in my gait and I would walk with my chest puffed out. For me, it was something I could boast about with friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Even to this day, it ranks amongst one of my proudest moments. I mean little else can beat the feeling of owning a house - dimensions notwithstanding - in a metropolitan city.

One of the two items ticked off from the wish list.

During early stages of my career, I never thought that a car should be in my scheme of things. For the better part of my professional life, I had used a bike to commute from home to the work place; and I was happy with it. Like most youngsters, I used to love the freedom that came with it. The feeling of wind running against my face; easy maneuverability at traffic snarls and fooling around with friends occasionally on bike would give me a different high.

And then, like most people, I grew professionally AND became more practical.

I am a man who likes to be completely in control of his life. So, it used to irk me when Weather Gods would call the shots when I had to go for some urgent client meetings. It would sting me when my clothes got soiled because some goddamn spoilt brat chose not to slow down his car before a string of potholes on a rainy day. The Sun wasn’t kind to me either. It seemed all of them conspired against the common man who loved his bike. The process of keeping an extra pair of clothing daily while straddling my bike to office started to become tiresome. The very thought and possibility of being defied by weather despite best preparations would rankle me all the time.

Moreover, it would burn a hole in my pocket every time I had to book cabs at exorbitant prices for family members wanting to attend social functions. Soon I realised that the solution to all these multi-layered problems and the one missing piece from the puzzle called my dream is the same – a gaadi.

Once it occurred to me that things wouldn’t work out without a four-wheeler, I got down to business in no time. A bit of market research on car models falling under the budget and suggestions from friends helped me zero in on a premium hatchback that was and has been creating ripples in its segment, Hyundai’s Grandi10. It turned out to be my first car and I can’t even express in words how great and satisfying it felt that day!

Both the items struck off from the wish list now.

Also, it dawned on me how everything has fallen in place over the years and my dream of owning a house and a car came to fruition just when I was in the 30^th year of my life. Today, it’s been about eight months now that I have been driving to office in my car; and I must say, life has changed for better. There is more of comfort, style & ease and less of inconvenience and helplessness now.

Human mind is complex in nature. It is dynamic and thus, never stays the same. So is the case with dreams. It keeps on changing. Sitting in the comfort of my home, one day it suddenly dawned on me that creature comforts were fine but life was not all about just attaining roti, kapda, gaadi aur makaan. Working like a machine and living a mundane life till we die paying our bills - life doesn't need to be like that. It can be like a good book instead. With chapters full of topsy-turvy episodes - events, adventures, fun, problems, tussles, adversities, overcoming the same with grit and gumption, learnings, benevolence, opportunities, spiritual acts and everything else that turns it into an absorbing affair. Our narratives should have a logical ending. It should be a tale worth telling. Someone has fittingly said, “Woh jawaani jawaani nahi jiski koi kahaani naa ho!”

With the millennium dream achieved, I believe I am perfectly poised now to turn a new chapter in my life. It feels like new vistas have opened up before me. A new sense of freedom and confidence has quietly slipped into my system.  I think I can do whatever I feel like. I can achieve whatever I choose to set myself out for. I can become whoever I want to be like. I have never felt this confident before in life. A life with great promise and endless possibilities seems to be beckoning me...only waiting for me to take notice and respond favourably. Guess what...I don’t intend to disappoint it!

P.S. – Upgrading from bike to a car has got me my fair share of problems and challenges. Perennial episodes of monster-sized SUVs (driven mostly by Yadavs and Chaudharys) with blaring music overtaking me from the wrong sides and stupid drivers (bikers/rikshawallahs/truck/ buses etc) - with absolutely no traffic sense - brushing their vehicles against mine every now and then with great impunity have become a daily ritual. Witnessing road rage and parking woes intermittently has now become an inseparable part of my life.  And I am living with it with borrowed patience not knowing how long it will last me. J

                                                                                                                                             

Roots Beckon!

For as long as I remember, I have always drawn enough joy and pride from the fact that I was born in the lap of nature. My native village, Brijwar, is located in Almora – one of the 13 districts of scenic Uttarakhand. It is placed on a foothill and is surrounded by a wonderful range of mountains. The journey from the arduous and boring landscape of cities to the breathtaking and refreshing views of my birth place is nothing short of an adventure. Once you reach within the radius of 20 kms, you can see the gigantic hills from a distance. The labyrinthine roads then lead you up to the top of mountains which then spiral downwards; and the routine continues for three hours (approx time taken to cover a distance of 100 kms on hills). Sudden mystic appearances of fog, rain and sunlight in turn on the way leave you mesmerized. Not aware of the scientific reasoning (clash of tectonic plates that gave rise to mountains millions of years ago), I spent all my childhood kicking my bottom wondering as to how mother earth had given way to such huge protruding alps. 

 Untill my graduation years, I used to visit my home town frequently but ever since I started working (for eight years now), the trips to Brijwar have been very few and far between. Fortunately, last month, we got a wonderful opportunity to go all bag and baggage with the entire family to the village. The occasion that called for the entire clan to be present was a religious ritual that takes place once every 30 years. It was expected to be big and turned out to be so. Most of the fellow villagers, like us, had moved to cities years ago for better prospects. In the past two decades, the exodus our village witnessed was alarming. Brijwar – once a home to over 150 inhabitants – has now been reduced to just 60-odd people. So, for this reason too, it was a heartening sight to notice the entire village back in its old glory and going full throttle.

  The religious practices continued for three days. All the denizens and guests participated in full vigour. Ceremonial dance and feast were organized; ritual killing took place (I seriously hope no animal rights’ activist visits this blog); other customs and practices were carried out in due manner; and pleasantries were exchanged. Now, I am not too religious a person and firmly believe it is the root cause of all the ills that are prevailing in the society today. However, I couldn’t help but notice the upside of it. Religion, as it is, and traditions help a great deal in keeping the social fabric intact. It keeps the society together and prevents it from falling apart. How else are we to justify the kith and kins and the distant acquaintances coming together here after years and in this magnitude? People join hands when it comes to performing pujas (religious practice), following centuries old rituals and traditions. Thus, it was a heartening sight.

Throughout my stay in village, my mental faculty worked at two levels. One was observing what was happening around and the other one was filtering the information and running it parallel to how things used to happen back then in older times. Since I had the luxury of time, I dwelt on these matters and wallowed in the past at length. Everything flashed before my eyes. How we would go in groups to distant places to fetch water from natural resources. What fun it was to play childish games while at it. It was nothing short of an adventure going to neighboring villages on foot to meet near and dear ones and trekking arduously to reach a temple of our family goddess which was about 10 kms from our village. The nearest telephone booth was three kms away and the electricity was yet to reach our part of the world. Compared to the same, we have water taps in each and every house today, roads have become better and the transport system has improved. Mobile ringtones can be heard from every corner of our village and electricity is in abundance.

Earlier, the farmers were largely dependent on their produce for their livelihood. Now, the educated and competent ones are vying for winning local elections, applying to schools for teaching assignments and turning tradesmen.  While all these development and forward-looking thinking is good, the rustic charm which has always been known as the hallmark of hills is found amiss these days. The villages are becoming more like the cities. People are fast turning into smugs. There is less of kinship, mutual love and respect and more of one-upmanship. I have no idea where will it lead us to and what fate we achieve eventually.

While all this seem to be deterrents, I try not to get affected by the same. After all, there is a long-standing connect with the roots that I find hard to forsake. The majestic mountains, free-flowing tributaries, eye-pleasing terraces full of rice, maize and spices; pristine air and favourable weather – how can one not miss them? The feeling of staying connected with one’s roots surpasses everything else.

Previously, my grandparents used to take care of our ancestral house but my grandma moved with us last year as it became increasingly difficult for her to manage without my grandpa who passed away a few years back. The house is lying vacant now and there is a sudden sense of isolation that has crept into my being. The feeling of drifting away from the motherland is rampant more than ever now.

We stayed at our village for about a week. When we left for plains, a part of me wanted to scream out in pain but the better sense muffled that voice. While coming back, I quietly made a promise to myself that I would be back soon and keep up this wonderful relationship that I share with my native land for as long as my body will allow me.

We may have come to Delhi for better prospects and leading a comfortable life but somewhere in the quest of attaining sophistication, our lives have become more complex as we have lost the simplicity in the process. Today, I might be a well-settled professional living in a metropolitan city and given to creature comforts but I still think I draw more satisfaction from rudimentary lifestyle than anything else. The serenity it brings to life is beyond words.

My heart is set in Almora and its country life. I think I am and will always remain a rustic at heart. As they say, you can take a rustic out of their village but not village out of a rustic. :-)

Egglomaniac!

“Egg main aur egg tu….dono mile iss tarah….aur jo tann-mann mein ho raha hai, ye toh hona hi tha!” My dear fowls (folks), I have a confession to make tonight. Yes, right. Confession. And the confession is that EGGS drive me crazy and how! After having eggs, I tend to lose control on my nerves, behave erratically and sometimes just ramble on. I can’t even get a song right whenever I am five-six eggs down. You must have seen for yourself how I struggled through the lyrics of a popular Hindi song in the first line of this paragraph. Tonight, my fowls, I am high on 14 eggs and feeling a little inEGGriated. While my senses are a little eggy now, I want to seize the moment by declaring my love for what I reckon is a blessing for mankind – Egg.

I am not worried or in the least bit embarrassed that people will judge me after this rambling tonight. I know I may wake up tomorrow with egg on my face. Some prudes (vegetarians) may scoff at me but what the heck! It’s a small price that I will pay to connect with hundreds of fellow egg-lovers on social media. They would definitely understand and relate to my emotions. Frankly speaking, I don’t give a chicken’s arse what the other half will think. And anyway, someone has rightly said that you can’t make an omelette without breaking an egg. So, let it be.

My love for eggs began when I was a child. So young I couldn’t even boil an egg to save my life. Today, I can’t thank my parents enough for initiating me into eggs. But the love was never this intense. It evolved with time and age. In fact, my fascination and love for eggs started with hate first. When I was a kid, my dad would mix egg-yolk into my milk and then ask me to gulp it down without creating a scene. His rationale was that it was healthy for growing kids. Though I would buy his theory, I used to find the pungent smell of raw egg-yolk repulsive.  For my parents, I proved to be a tough egg to crack. They would have hard time dealing with my tantrums. Then my mom came up with a solution. She asked me to drink my glass of milk (with egg yolk) with my nose pressed closed. Sensing I didn’t have much of a choice, I would meekly follow the instructions. Though it took some time, I developed a taste for raw eggs in my milk.  

The next wave came when, a few months later, we started getting one boiled egg daily with our breakfast. I took an instant liking to them when they would be served piping hot with chatpata masala sprinkled over generously. I was amazed to learn that raw eggs, if boiled, can result into such a tasteful delicacy. Also, it was the time when, like every other kid, I used to think for long hours about the chicken and egg situation. And like every other kid, I never reached any conclusion as to which of the two existed first and which caused the other.

In due course of time, I was introduced to omelette in different forms – Fried omelette, Half-fried (sunny-side up), Spinach Omelette, Iranian Omelette, French Omelette, Greek Omelette and, of course the very own, Indian Omelette. Also, I think the list will be incomplete if I do not add the mouth-watering Bhurji (Scrambled eggs) to it.

I remember quite vividly how during my primary schooling, I had fooled one of my best friends, Ashish Pandey – a vegetarian, into believing that eggs which I would get from home were not begotten from fowls but from machines in factories. I had to do this because otherwise he would not partake of my egg bhurjis and omelettes. He developed a liking for the eggs soon and I would happily share my lunch-box with him for years to come. He did feel bad for some time when I confronted him with the truth one day but that was that. Today, after all these years, our bonding has become even stronger. We recall that episode with great delight and just laugh it away.

Today, I may have graduated to Chicken and Mutton but the love for eggs is simply unparalleled. For a long time now, my favourite advertisements have been the ones by NECC that have beautiful lyrics “Sunday ho ya Monday, Roz Khao Andey” and I hate, even to this day, that story where the stupid and greedy guy killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

Sometimes I romance with the idea of investing all my savings one day into owning a huge poultry farm spread over many acres on the suburbs. I will then have an uninterrupted supply of eggs. Of course, managing thousands of fowls would be a tough task and having all of them creaking non-stop would be a nuisance but that is ok. After all, he that would have eggs must endure the cackling of hens.

On other days, I daydream of living it up in my ideal world where there is abundance of eggs, no bird flu and easy availability of good chefs who know how to experiment with eggs. I am sure such a society can never have a bad egg (dishonest man) and all the good eggs (agreeable & helpful men) will have equal and enough opportunities to flourish in life. I almost begin to revel in that surroundings but, more often than not, the worldly things and duties bring me back to the real world and add to my frustration. Frustration of living in a world where epidemics like bird flu can break out any time.  Bird flu means culling of fowls. No fowls means no eggs! For an egg-lover like me, this is only next to world coming to an end. Such a thought sends chill through my spine and I forsake thoughts of investing in poultry farm. How can I risk putting all my eggs in one basket?

(Deep silence for 20 minutes.)

On second thoughts, I think I spoke too much tonight. Excess of everything is bad. Isn’t it? We shouldn’t over-egg our pudding if we really want to enjoy it. I suddenly realize my fascination for eggs is bordering on obsession because I just observed that most of my sentences had idiomatic expressions related only to eggs. Hey fowls, I suggest you stay away from eggs else you might become my reflection. Wait a second…..when did I become observant? And how come I am sounding preachy? Guess the drugs (rich intake of eggs) are wearing off and my faculties are returning to normalcy. I think I will stop now. You all are educated, intelligent, seasoned and sound people. Preaching you will be like teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs. Gosh! This is going out of hand now. I think I am walking on eggs at the moment.

Hope you liked this blog. If yes, then three loud cheers and numerous eggs to life! If not, I frankly don’t give a chicken’s arse. Go fry an egg!