Love before first sight?

Disclaimer: The views in this blog are solely my own.. Its not meant to hurt or disrespect anyone's sentiments. Also, I am not giving any form of "how-to-find-love-online-advice". So don't ask me for any. Just kick-back, relax and read forward..

I have been meaning to write this post for quite sometime now.. To start with.. how many of you believe in love-at-first-sight? I am sorry to disappoint you.. but I am not one of those die-hard romantics who does. In fact I am cynical about the whole thing because I believe that at first sight what you at the most feel is an electric attraction to the looks of the person which I personally don't classify as "love". That it may blossom into something beautiful in future... that you may cherish it years ahead, that it was 'just-right', etc doesn't count here.

But coming to the modern world... how many of you believe in love-before-first-sight as I've coined it? This is the age of 'internet-love', where MySpace, Orkut etc. are the best matrimonials that singles can themselves rely on... Having truly witnessed many such unions between people who didnt know each other from Adam, I can tell you it exists and its true. And in many ways, I feel that its more real than love-at-first-sight. Its a purely mental connection that happens and you like the person for who he/she portrays themselves to be. Its not physical (hopefully) and you share similar interests (hoping more so) etc. But this is the deception point as far as I am concerned. This way of finding love has sooo many holes in its fabric that you're lucky if you find anything pseudo to true-love. What if the person is sooooo not what they claimed to be? What if their tiny thumbnail picture on their profile was one moment of surreally great photography? What if they lied about anything from their hobbies/interests to their educational/family background? There are sooo many 'what ifs'. Yet, how are these hundreds of people finding love?

I'll tell you when love-before-first-sight has the best chance of working..

1) Timing is everything - The people involved definitely need to be the right age and 'marriage material' - What may not have worked on a girl even 6 months ago may as well work for someone who "tried" right now coz she is all ready to 'settle-down'

2) A little bit of genuinity - Lies ain't gonna build no love castle... All the stuff people say better ring true

3) Taking it beyond the scrapping - No love stories are truly built around the initiator engines.. The stories have to transcend these boundaries into the IMs - Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk or whatever works for you and then on, you'll be surprised at how similar the process is to the typical matrimonial engines themselves. (Except you arranged it for yourself! )

And so on... you get the idea...

So, how many of you believe in love-before-first-sight? I do....

End of an era...

Its the end of the year... for many reasons, its the end of an era...

Well, this post is the last one of the year... I have mixed feelings about this year... while some moments I cherish and can never exchange for anything else, overall I felt that this year for me was a year in wait... literally for many many reasons... I have been waiting for many things to end. And nothing has.. So, for selfish reasons, I can't help but push this year behind and look forward to a more fulfilling 2007. However on the bright side, I have matured as a person, learned more about people, maybe lost a lot of my innate innocence in not-so-pleasant ways, gained new perspectives on things and people - so maybe it involved a lot of pesonal development. But I am not sure it was necessary for me at a stage in life where I am looking forward to many important things, a Masters Degree amongst many.

It was the end of an era of pure bliss with my dear Nokia 3100 which I still cherish. With the technological advancements, it was but natural for me to go savvy and choose a more loaded phone like the Samsung T629 which I have now had for just over 24 hours.

It was the end of life for Saddam Hussein. He was the first political leader I knew when at the time I was 8, he (read Iraq) invaded my then home country, Kuwait. The only positive I attach to the whole traumatic episode that me and my entire family were very lucky to have been on vacation in India at the time it happened - 2nd August 1990. So we didnt have horror stories like all our neighbours and friends who went hungry for days as they evacuated the country. It wasn't easy as a 8-year old to understand why we'd been uprooted from one place to an alien country - my good old India was alien to me having lived most my life till then in Kuwait. My bro's this post gives a better perspective of things. However, the point being, no matter what a cruel ruthless man he may have been, I couldnt but help feel pity at the way his "illustrious" life ended... at the gallows with media coverage and people dancing over his remains.

This year...


People use me... England wins the Ashes

My jobsearch's kickstarted... Saddam Hussein is executed abruptly and people dance over his remains

My advisor won't look into my thesis... Google buys Youtube

I have papers published and more invitations for technical writing... Italy beat France at the World Cup

My bro drops in for a surprise visit... The biggest hurricane in 50 years strikes Australia

I have a tizzzzzzy vacation... Aiswarya Rai marries a tree to rid her "Manglik" stamp

I have developed truckloads of patience... Movies like KANK are called BoxOffice Superhits!

I did most of the work for my Masters... And the temparature on Dec 31st in Cincinnati is 56 F

I could keeeeeep rattling n rambling.. But the bottom line is

Bye Bye 2006! Happy New Year 2007!!!!