THE Toilet Seat Rodin's Blog

Even if someone gives you free tickets to go watch 'Rascals', the latest (mis)adventure by David Dhawan, please do not give in to the temptation. You might get the tickets free, but you'll have to spend on parking, snacks etc. and believe me, you do not want to do it. Not for a movie like 'Rascals'. The plot is hackneyed, a rip-off from inane Govinda and D. Dhawan movies of yore. And just when we thought that the torture is over, the genre of stupid movies was a thing of the past, David Dhawan strikes back with a vengeance! Right where it hurts the most!Why the hell does not D.D. retire and raise sheep somewhere where no one can find him? Can't even begin to tell you who was the worst off the lot. Was it Sanjay Dutt who is looking more and more like an uncle, or was it Ajay Devgn, who along with the 'A' from his name, also seems to have lost a few of his marbles.Or was it Kangana Ranaut, who is being touted as the find of the decade but far as I kn...

Someone once said, say 'sex' instead of 'cheese' and you'll find a lot more adults giving genuine smiles when they get their picture taken. I beg to disagree- slightly. There is another word that makes us grin..and the word is 'FREE'!!! There is something about the word 'free' that we react to at a very visceral level. It is almost like an instinctive, evolutionary reflex kicks in when we see the word! 'FREE??!! I want it!' That is a standard human reaction to the word. Our juices start flowing, we start drooling, and we are suddenly hostage to the impulse that says, get it now! I have brought home 'free' adult diapers- don't need them (yet!), free dog food- i had to eat it myself, free dental check-up coupons, and free folic acid capsules- to help keep 'my' non-existent fetus healthy!  This post is about my FREE Reebok watch. I and my better half had gone to buy me a new cell. We were vac illating between a Noki...

Ah! The Steely Gaze! (http://www.newsreporter.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Anna-Hazare-in-Tihar-jail.png) http://posteropolis.com/store/images//00exodusphotobusta.jpg  In Leon Uris' historically inspired novel- Exodus- which was set in 1947, a boat full of German concentration camp survivor children held the British Empire hostage till their demands of being allowed to go to Palestine (later Israel) was conceded. I am not the story teller that Leon Uris was, and will limit myself to providing a summary of the events that took place in the opening chapters of the novel. Ari Ben Cannan, an operative of  Mossad Aliyah Bet, smuggles nearly 300 Jewish concentration-camp-survivor children on board a rickety ship and sets sail for Cyprus. He also informs the world media about something big waiting in the wings. When the British warships and armed speed boats surround the ship and ask Ari to turn back the ship, he lets them know that they are not going back. He also tel...

Photo Courtesy: http://orange.cricket365.com/Story/0,18086,6673_6291923,0 August, the month of India's freedom, has been very tumultuous. One of the most heartbreaking events this month took place at the venue in the picture. It is the Edgebaston Cricket Ground where an abject surrender was enacted out in front of nearly a billion pairs of disbelieving Indian eyes. India lost the match, and with it the undeserved No. 1 test team ranking at the hands of marauding Englishmen. Signs were there in plenty, but we, the Indian Cricket Fans, did not see them. Historical and, more importantly, philosophical precedents were there, but we did not see them. Don't we have a saying in India that 'Termites grow wings before they die'? Haven't we all heard that 'a candle burns brightest just before it is about to go out'? This was the same vaunted Indian team that had upstaged the mighty Aussies to lift the Cricket World Cup. This was the same team that had won the Twen...

Came back the other day from Goa on a flight that was offering serious competition to world's scariest roller coasters. Could not help but wonder what would have happened if a couple of(or more of) old Punjabi women had been aboard. By Punjabi 'old women' i beg to exclude all those drop dead gorgeous women who look their daughters' age, but beg to include our typical Punjabi buddis... Imagine, a flight yo-yoing in the sky and the buddis yelling out their favorite God's name with fervor (and loudness) that is in direct proportion to the extent of the dip!! After all, heaven is much closer at an altitude of ten thousand feet!! God might just hear them!!    If one of the bhadr- mahilas (civilized ladies- to all you linguistically challenged folks) grabbed a barf-bag (air sickness bag) and puked into it, our beloved buddis would go goggle eyed with shock and surprise...vekhin, jahaj valeyan da falafa kharab kar ditta(See! she has spoiled the bag of the airline wallahs)!...

Now that the hype surrounding the Valentine's day is over, i think it is safe to stick my head out and ask, "Who the hell gave him sainthood?" This bugger alone is responsible for 20 percent, that's right, twenty percent of a man's woes. One might wonder how i got at this conclusion and that precise number. Well, i guess it's man's intuition! Having observed women for forty springs of my life, i've reached the conclusion that women, and women related causes, are responsible for ninety percent of a man's heartaches, headaches and heartburn. Sure, there are other issues like job stress and crappy bosses that constitute the remaining ten percent of a man's woes but the comparison is so inadequate that it is like comparing the carrying capacity of a Mack Truck with a puny three wheeler.   At number One , constituting a whopping 50% of a man's 'Up Shit Creek' moments is....yes, you guessed it right, it's forgetting girl friend...

You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one - Imagine- John Lennon It is kinda hard to tread the ground between being an idealist, a dreamer and a cynic, but without blowing my own trumpet i can say that i try to be all or one depending upon my mood. The best thing about treading this lonely path is that the idealist and the cynic battle and balance each other out while the dreamer leads them on!! The problem that i would like to solve is universal and probably the oldest in human civilisation. We choose, yes choose, not to give our best. We choose, make a conscious choice, by not being proactive, of being satisfied with mediocrity. This isn’t a problem that i need to imagine about. I see it every morning when i look at the man in the mirror. I see myself plagued by my own insecurities, fears and shortcomings- real and imagined. The question that arises now is that am i being presum...