XXX

When I first started writing this blog I mentioned that I already was starting to have writer's block .I was not kidding. I haven't updated my blog for seven months. Or maybe I'm too lazy to write. Probably laziness coupled with not being sufficiently inspired enough to blog. Tonight I found that I had no movies to watch and I'd just finished watching my football club being beaten(Aaaargh!) so I found time to spare before going to bed. What shall I blog about this time?

An obvious topic would be to blog about me turning thirty (Yay!) which happened last October. This must be one of the most common topics people would blog (brag?) about . Its an important milestone to have completed thirty years on this earth so this post will be a short review of how things have turned out now that three decades of my life have been completed.

Big thanks to the Man up in the sky for having given me good health, a loving family, a decent job etc. I have had a few close calls with death - so far I've almost drowned twice, met with a pretty nasty road accident while driving on my way back from work, inserted a stone in my nose and it fell down into my throat and I almost choked to death. Yes I really did that but this was when I was a kid. The last time I spent more than one night in a hospital was when I was born so basically I was a healthy enough baby/ toddler/ child/ teenager/ adult. Drinking Horlicks must've really helped although as promised on the carton it didn't make me grow 6 feet tall . I might sue them.

I don't think I really was a problem child for my parents. However there was that one time when my father discovered one of those erotic novels lent to me by a well meaning classmate . I'd hidden it behind a cupboard and my father stumbled on it while chasing a rat who led him to that treasure trove of erotica. I hate that rat. I had a tough time explaining that one. I think I said that the previous inhabitant must have left it there. The previous inhabitant of that room was a theology student so I don't think my dad believed me. Did okay in school and I was beaten by my teachers only once (as far as I can remember). High school was awesome but my college life was spent in Tamilnadu.....

On the romantic life front I have had my heart skewered , roasted and turned inside out (not literally) and I've also done my share of breaking hearts. (No I'm not proud of it.) Anyway enough about my love life already.

And then when one turns Thirty , we start getting asked the "When Are You Going To Get Married? Your Younger Brother Is Already Married And Has A Kid. Your Brother's Kid Is Going To Beat Up Your Kid.. HA HA HA " question pretty often. If I had saved a paisa for every time this question was asked to me in this exact format I'd have collected Rs. 342 already. (Yes I counted). The simple answer is "I Don't Know" (Ka Hre Lo!) . The oft repeated cliché that we men like to remain bachelors as long as possible doesn't really apply to me so when I feel that the conditions are right and that the planets are stars are aligned correctly I'll get married.

And as far as my career goes I'm glad to have a job that enables me to sit quietly behind the scenes and chat with friends do my work. There is a running joke on the popular FRIENDS tv show where no one knows what Chandler Bing's job is so similarly I bet that 99% of my friends do not know what I do . Anyone? Anyone? ... [Long Silence] Well, thanks for asking - I edit Microsoft's support and help websites for the UK and Ireland regions. It pays the bills and enables me to travel to exotic places around the world and buy the latest cars enables me to take economy class flights home and purchase a Honda Activa.

And as for extra-curricular activties - I can/could play any game (indoor or outdoor) but I never excelled in any sport which is why I'm working a desk job instead of playing as a striker for Arsenal Football Club. I also suck hard at playing carrom board. People have cried in despair watching me play. I can paint/draw a bit. I can sing a bit. Yes I can. I can write poems . Yes I can. I suck at card games. The only card game I'm good at is playing Solitaire on my laptop. 145 games won in a row. Yeaaaaah!! Books are the only extra curricular activity I excel at. It's easy to beat a book 'cause you can carry it into the loo and finish off reading a book. I also excel at watching movies. I must have watched at least 90% of the movies on IMdB's (the most popular movie website) top 250 movies list. Great achievement!

Usually these kind of posts end with some kind of sage philosophical/practical advice that the author will impart to his/her readers. I have none uh... okay maybe one : Do not insert stones into your nose. They hurt like hell and will probably kill you.

However (kinda out of the blue) I would like to take this opportunity to make a public service announcement. Please take care to preserve our fragile ecology and environment. Do your bit by not using plastic shopping bags in stores and take more showers together (only for married couples) to save water. I will end with one of my favourite quotes. This is a Carl Sagan quote which he made in reference to a photograph of Earth suspended in space.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

God Bless.

(PS: Why is the title of this blog "XXX"? - well, duh XXX denotes the number 30 using the Roman numeric system.)