Antilia

What is the difference between Hamas and Hummus?

Just in case you’ve been confused like I was.

What are they?

Hamas: an acronym for Harakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning Islamic Resistance Movement.

Hummus: a spread made from minced chickpeas, seasame, lemon juice, salt, garlic and spices.

What is their origin?

Hamas: created in 1987 by a group of Palestinians to kick Jewish ass.

Hummus: has its origins in midieval or even ancient Middle East, though it’s not clear where or when.

What do they go well with?

Hamas: Islamist imperialism, Israel-bombing, Jew-hating, America-hating, terror-mongering, Gaza-capturing.

Hummus: bread, hard-boiled eggs, falafal, chips, crackers, salads and if your name is Zohan, you eat spoonfuls of it for no particular reason.

Who loves them?

Hamas: Arabs back them. Jews hate them. Canada and the US hate them. Even the Norwegians and Japs hate them.

Hummus: Jews love it. Arabs love it. Africans love it. Asians love it.

What do they look like?

Hamas:

Hummus:

No prizes for guessing which one I would prefer.

On censoring India's news media

Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook, had said sometime back that the reader is a nice hypocrite. And he's right. We criticise our papers and channels for their journalistic standards, but we don’t do the one thing that would stop these media houses from doing what they do: stop subscribing to them.

The operations of media houses, like any other business houses, are largely dictated by subscriber demand. Had the subscriber demanded greater journalistic integrity, he would have got it. He didn’t. He chose to watch the tamasha – the cat stuck on the rooftop, or the man holding a gun to his own head — but insisted, as he watched, that this programming is rubbish.

Hence, it’s dangerous when the same people ask the government to regulate the news media. Regulation won’t solve a thing. It would only feed more power into the hands of the government to keep critical information away from the public. I’d agree that self-regulation is a way forward, but state-endorsed censorship would prove disastrous.

I agree with Vir Sanghvi’s thoughts in the recent edition of his column, Counterpoint.

One of my concerns is that we have lost sight of the distinction between ‘bad’ and ‘unethical’. You may not like my articles. You may think I write badly. You may not think much of the HT as a whole, even.

...

The recourse available to you is not legal; it is commercial. Stop buying the HT. Or at any rate, stop reading me. But you cannot demand a ban on me or the paper because you think my articles are crap, or because if I pontificate too much.

It’s the same with TV. To say — as I do — that the channels did not cover themselves with glory is not to say that therefore, they should be censored or banned.

It is plain commerce. Why is it so hard to understand in a country that's known to be good at trade?

Post 26/11

I don't know if this is happening to you, but I'm sure fairly sure there are plenty of Indians out there who have shared this experience with me.

I have been having recurring dreams about the terror attacks on Mumbai. I see myself with a weapon in my hand and taking to the street, exchanging fire with people. I don't remember who these people were but my subconscious mind might have scripted them along the lines of the Mumbai terrorists.

I've had a similar, crazy dream in my younger days. Lots of Americans had weird dreams about Sarah Palin when she entered the presidential elections. But this is quite different.

And I'm sure much of this stems from the anger over the terror strikes. Anger, that still hasn't found its way out.

Is anybody else having similar dreams?

Do you stuggle with phonetic alphabets?

I have a peculiar problem. I fumble over phonetic alphabets while instructing people over the phone.

Today, for example, I was on the line with a customer care executive. I was telling him the model number for my DVD player, which needs repair.

So, since the model number was alphanumeric, I used phonetic alphabets - like 'D for Delhi', 'E for Elephant' so that he may not mistake 'D' for 'T', 'A' for 'J' and suchlike.

Those were the easier ones.

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of the letter F?

Or S.

Or P.

Or B.

Maybe I have a rotten, corrupt mind, but I struggle to promptly come up with 'clean' words for some letters.

"S for... err... you know... ummm... (blush)...Patna?"

Does anyone else have the same problem?

Ever been in a situation where...

... you chat with someone on the net for hours, but in a face-to-face interaction with the same person, the conversation gets a bit awkward?

Just wondering...

Whom does an atheist thank when it's Friday?

Just wondering

If he never really killed any crocs, why was Steve Irwin called the Crocodile Hunter?