Redistribution of days

Friends, enemies and frenemies:

Today is the last day of April. Grab the day by both your hands. Next year you may not get 30th April at all. I'm told that the Calendar committee of the United Nations is going to redistribute the days of the months from next year. This will be for the reason that folks put in equal effort in all months. 

For starters, April will be reduced by a day and that day will be added to February. So, both the months will be of equal days. Equal effort in both months for folks to earn their bread. There is one more suggestion that is floating around: remove 1st April and add to February. That is, April starts from the 2nd. That way, we would have removed All Fools Day from our Calendar and still serve the purpose of redistribution of days.

The Z axis

The picture below was taken by my friend Rakesh Vohra a few days ago, during Australia's autumn. The picture has been reproduced here with his permission. It is a remarkable picture composition. The sky has this Z axis written all over it. There is even an arrow pointer to the right of the Zed (Zee, if you are an American) axis name, showing the positive side of the Z axis. The earth below is the x,y plane, with many coordinate points in the form of bonsai trees. The remarkable thing is the unsaid things: the heart, and the head therein.

The earth is the first and second,

Sky is the third dimension,

The sky is the z axis,

Earth's is the x and y

The earth holds the heart in place,

And the sky holds the head high.

Focus on your heart throbs

 

Focus on your heart throbs,

And you will know

When your love is near,

And, who is dear.

Ink is ephemeral, voting ink is not

The lady is requesting for a bottle of the ink in a polling booth to apply to her hair

Because the dye that is available in the market does not last even for a month whereas this ink will last for nearly 4 months! 

I've kept faith

 

I've kept faith:

In country, Guru, and God.

And it has worked.

How the leap year saved the world

 

If 2024 were not a leap year, today (12 April 2024) would be Friday, the 13th. Rest, all of us are wise enough to understand the implications. Of course, some are wise, some are otherwise. 

Another Chance

 

I was too hurried to touch you

When I roamed the Milky Way, my stars,

I was too worried and didn't caress you,

When I sped past you, marigold fields,

I scampered and scurried, before your drops

Could drench me with love, my first rains,

And, I was too drenched to ask for more,

When you loved me just a little,.

Will you give me another chance?

Modern hieroglyphics

 

Are we going back to hieroglyphics? Not exactly hieroglyphics, but more like picture writing. Because hieroglyphics are about phonemes, or sounds: just like the sound of the word 'water' will give you the picture of 'water' in your mind. In social media posts, we are using what we call emoticons. In India, there is an unregulated interpretation of emoticons. I've read that in one occasion in Canada, an emoticon was interpreted by a judge as acquiescing to a business agreement, and a respondent had to pay damages for infringement of a purported business deal as the respondent had posted an emoticon (showing thumbs up) in response to a proposed business plan.

But emoticons can be interpreted differently in different cultures. A 'thumbs up' 👍would be agreement in one culture, and 'angutha dikhaana' in another. Now, 'angutha dikhaana' in Hindi is an idiom that means mocking someone. Similarly, the emoticon of owl would be to show wisdom in one culture, and 'Ullu' in another. 'Ullu' in Hindi is owl, but is also idiomatically used to describe a fool.

Another thing we find today in social media posts - and lately in formal writing - is emphasis given to a sentence by repeating the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence. For example, if you want to shout out how important your question is just print a dozen question marks after your sentence. If you want to show how important or profound your sentence is just add a few exclamation marks after your sentence. In any case, interrobang (!?) is being used like loose change in social media posts these days. And, we also have repetition of a vowel purportedly for emphasis: for example, loooong for very long, etc.

Many social media headings are full of hieroglyphics (read emoticons): some with flowers, followed by bouquets, followed by hearts, followed by what we call smileys. At least, I'm unable to decipher the meaning of such headings.

How will the future generations read such hieroglyphics? Perhaps they will take help of the Sumerians or the millennial generations' limited vocabulary.