random post from Purdue

I am now at Purdue. It had snowed here before I got here.. but now the weather is pretty good. it was soooo beautiful yesterday night...with the snow hanging off the trees... and some of the snow had melted and refrozen as icicles. I realized that if California was beautiful... this too was a kind of raw beauty.

I have a friend here. He is a good guy... but a tad unreliable. So.. he said he would pick me up from the bus stop. I wait and wait.. and wait.. and no sign of the good guy. So...I carry my 50 lbs suitcase and walk to his room (10 min walk away) and knock on his door. I call the number he has given me... but it goes to the person's voicemail. I call up another friend, waking him up from his sleep, and discuss my poor plight for 20 minutes that ends up almost draining my battery!! After 1.5 hours outside...it started getting a wee bit cold.. (I was reading my book for a bit)... so I decided to give up. I called another friend who lived across the street from there and went to his place before my cell phone battery died on me. In the end, it turned out my first friend was taking a nap at his friends' place as he was too scared to sleep alone after watching the Mothman Prophecies!!! Jeez!! Excuses!! Oh well. that was my incident for the day.

You know... my mom and sis were telling me that some relatives read my blog regularly and pass comments on me and my family behind my back. They say mean things that sometimes upset my family members. And you know what...I tell my family.. why do you worry? You know the truth and I know the truth. I have no reason to keep anything secret... and thats why I put it up as it is. I am after all a human being going through life ... normally. If someone passes a comment on my life, it is their problem.. and there is no reason to worry or feel upset about it. But there is one thing that makes me mad. That someone will behave in a manner that is mean or will say something to someone. However, they do not realize that they do not follow their own words / suggestions. They pass a comment but do not realize that that same comment applies to them too!! I know that I am guilty of that occasionally but everytime I say something... the first thing I ask myself is... how would I have behaved in that person's shoes. The only thing I expect is that other ppl show atleast that amount of consideration for other ppl's feelings.

moving on....I would like to tell you ppl about a discussion that I had with a friend earlier today. This is just a discussion showing my extreme apathy... and maybe it will offend some ppl. Hopefully though, you will see my point of view.
My friend was telling me how India had not banned the harmful chemical DDT till very late... resulting in large traces of chemicals being present in even breast milk. (upto 23 units in India compared to 2 in the US). And that too when DDT was a useless chemical. I took the argument a level above it all and said... When we humans are taking over the world in such an unnatural form... living in such unnatural population densities... it is ok if a few ppl die here and there. And such a thing will in fact weed out the unfit. I believe that survival of the fittest comes into play each and every time. However, my friend debated that survival of the fittest is only for brutes.. and that humans were capable of rising above that. Her position was that birth control would be the best method of reducing population. However, my argument remained. In today's world... we are making great progress. We are developing better and better technology. We have great technology. But in doing that... we are addling the human mind. Fewer and fewer ppl are writing instead of typing. Fewer and fewer ppl are actually doing simple math in their head. Leave such things aside.... with better medical technology.. people are surviving that would have lived earlier. i.e. Survival of the fittest will break. But will it? With more people surviving.. the unfit will remain... the longer they live... the more the chance that they will suffer from some other disease... or will cause a breakdown of some system because these people are unfit. Somehow or the other... people will die because they are simply not physically or mentally the top of the pack. I have seen arguments stating that in such cases Beethoven would not have lived... or so many other ppl. But my point is not of individuals. Mine is of the world as a whole. As long as we use up a larger piece of the pie than we should, we will have to suffer the punishment.
Does this mean that I will support homicide or mass killings of any sort? Nopes.. absolutely now. I still believe in the sanctity of life. But I do not believe that life is everything... and I do not believe that improving medical technology is the best thing in the world. But would I say the same thing when it came to my own family and friends?? I have thought about that long and hard. Often...I have thought... how would I react if my close relative or friend had cancer or some life threatening disease... would I encourage the best medical technology? I think I would. But would I be mad if my family got hurt or was affected by a natural calamity. I have decided that I would not.... as thats what mankind deserves. Thats why....I do not feel that bad about the people dying in the tsunami. I feel bad for those affected and those suffering as a result. But I am not affected by the deaths. It was something that had to happen. If humans were in smaller numbers... far fewer numbers would have died. Just another way for nature to keep things in check. It's like an invisible hand guiding our actions I feel. The more people get better medical facilities.. the more unfit people survive.. and the more the chances that these people will do something wrong. It's just my belief. However, I do not let this effect my views towards the handicapped. I do not say that they should be killed. NO. In fact, many times.. the handicapped are more fit than some apparently healthy humans. I am only talking on a macro scale... and on that scale... I am on the side of nature. I will not do anything to further my cause as I am too lazy and I know it is not worth it. There is always that invisible hand ... guiding our lives.. and deaths... and working to ensure that earth maintains some sort of balance.

I see that hand