Myth of 13th FLoor

The Crazy 13th Floor (I always get an uneasy feeling in the Office elevator staring at the missing number between 12 and 14. And since I am utterly bored right now, I might as well churn my brain to capture the story of the Missing Floor).

A known fact in all of our unknown Multi-storied buildings is the lack of the unlucky 13. Yes, as you have guessed, there is no 13th floor on these high rises. But what bothers me is that, this is a practice that makes no sense (at least to me). I mean there is obviously a 13th floor. Just renaming the 13th floor as the 14th floor doesn’t really omit the presence of the 13th floor. It just makes the whole scenario spookier than it already is. It kind of freaks me out to see the number 14 in the elevator right after 12. It makes me feel as if it is the Haunted floor or something (Watching too many Horror flicks lately). Maybe someday, when I am all alone in the lift, I may suddenly see a 13th floor button, and the doors automatically open to the 13th floor… (I would have a heart attack for sure.)

Some crazy facts of the 13th floor superstition point to the fact that based on an internal review of records, a very important decision maker of ‘Otis Elevators’ estimates that 85% of the buildings with their (Otis) elevators do not have a named 13th floor.

However, what I like is that the Empire State Building, one of the most famous buildings in the world, has a 13th floor.

Wikipedia says that "new buildings in some parts of China omit the fourth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, etc. floors, as the word 'four' sounds like "death" in Mandarin." Well, there’s your freaky spooky story now. Taking this a step ahead is Italy: Seventeen is considered unlucky in Italy because rearranging the letters in the Roman numerals for 17 could spell "VIXI" which means "I lived" in Italian. Well… to add to the confusion “Lufthansa airplanes do not have row 13 or 17. You would certainly expect Alitalia airplanes to be missing row 17, but this is not the case. To further confusion, Alitalia's Boeing 777s have row 13 while the rest of their fleet does not.”

Personally, I feel that this is just like shaping up and nurturing your worst fears! I mean what is the purpose of the mindless myth. It can’t be a superstition, it can’t be folklore, and so, it has to be something to do with the way our mind functions. It is just that we have been trying so hard for centuries to ward off all that is evil (don’t even get me started on 666), and trying so hard to emancipate ourselves from the so called allure of the evil, that we have tried every possible act of utter desperation. We have omitted unlucky numbers from our lives; we have erased unlucky symbols from our texts, we have burnt witches (again not going in to the details) through decades. But the end result was futile. Were we ever able to ward of any evil at all???

We were never able to stop any one of Devil’s calls. We were not able to stop buildings and planes from crashing just by renaming a floor. We were not able to stop the mindless political games that have caused the World Wars. We were not able to ward off the cold war, or the Holocaust, or the Great Depression. Why are we trying so hard? When will we get it that it is not our choice to be made! It is not our power to influence. 13 is just a number in your head. I suggest we put it in its real place, Right after 12!

20 something vs 30 something women

Revisiting the *Sex and the City* 20 something women vs the 30 something women.

FRIENDS OR FOE... For all the ardent S&C fans, who remember this episode, allow me to remind you that this is the perspective of a 20 something woman! I believe that if the 30 something story has been put forward, I deserve a right to put across my side of the story as well.

Somehow I realized that 30 something women are actually not foes to us, neither are they friends. They have been immortalized as 'Thirty Flirty and Thriving' which is not really the case most of the times. No harm intended, but I guess by the time you are 30 you are too exasperated with life, and you start caring too much about the 20 something woman. The 20 something woman on the other hand is one of great strength, foolish dreams and fashion misjudgments (well, not all! ;P). They generally don't notice the 30 something women, until, they find their boyfriend cheating on them with a Thirty Flirty!

Is it really a rivalry, I don't know... I don't know if the "vs" suits in this phrase either. Do the 30 something woman really care, or are they actually watching us closely?? Do they judge or Do we judge them? I have no answers now..but I am trying my best to fathom why the lady on the 12h floor office (in her pretty pink suit and handful of chudas/bangles) keep staring at me in the lift: I HATE being judged. Not that I don't judge them (not to sound hypocritical here) but the truth is, I really don't know what these women are looking for. I mean they must have already achieved whatever WE are still looking for..right!?! They must have met the man of their dreams (hence the red&white bangles), and they must have been promoted enough to buy the car they drive to office in. So, I really don't get it.

20s is the time, when office romances blossom, while by the time you are 30, you see through them. We fear the 30s too btw! We live in an endless fear of reaching the 30s. We don't get them too! They are just too damn organized. To be a fearless 30 is a matter of envy to the 20s. If all our dreams are sifted through quickly we can pick up a piece of 'aging gracefully' as our biggest desire and our biggest fear. The truth is Life starts at your 20s. Come to think of it, it is the first time that you actually taste freedom in the true sense of the term. Leave aside the fashion misjudgments, they were bound to happen (it happened when you were 12 yrs too.. with the frilly frocks and the netted stockings your mom bought for you ;P) So leave these extra baggage behind and start enjoying the 20s, cos you never know when you cross over to the 30 something side... And mind it! there is no coming back my friend..!!

A Fishy story!

The Latest edition of my mindless philosophy! There may be some sense in it. I am sure someone out there will relate.

So here it goes... There is a little bit of a *fish* in everyone of us. Think of the countless times you wanted to sleep with your eyes open. As one of my colleagues pointed out "I am not a fish"... this is just to prove my point to her. (LOL) Let me point out the endless fishy activities of a human soul.

Let me say this at the very out start that a lot of research and dedication has gone into this, and I realize that you may feel that I am absolutely jobless, (as I am googling the mating and feeding habits of a fish). But, come to think of it, it is this sheer joblessness that has driven me to this consolidated effort.

NOW, let me quote : " Omnivore fish will eat pretty much anything. They are also voracious eaters and aquarists can sometimes mistake their eating frenzy for hunger. It is a common tendency to overfeed these species, and they do tend to pile on the fat very quickly if overfed. "

Comparing this species of fishes to my fat brother, I don't really blame my mother (the pseudo Aquarist) who feeds him day and night thinking that he is hungry. He is actually not hungry, his pass time is to eat. He eats and he sleeps, he gets up and he eats again. His incentive for studying before the exam is eating (junk food to be precise), his only intention for going out with the family is to go to a family restaurant and eat his heart out. So the voracious Omnivore, is my fishy brother.

CASE I closed. ( I shudder to think, how many more such people are around)


Now quoting again: " Proper feeding practices are a matter of habit. They require some amount of patience, observation and consideration. Understanding your fish and appreciating the differences between the different species help a lot when you feed them."

So these are our diet sisters. When you look up to them in awe of their sheer awesomeness, and be blinded by their sheer control to bypass a chocolate fudge cake with almond on top; you have to realize that 'They require some amount of patience, observation and consideration'. If you want to be like these fishy petite woman in their perfect figure you have to 'appreciating the differences between the different species of fishes' and know in your heart that every morning you WILL end up cribbing about your weight and when you reach work you will end up eating fattening food in each of your gossip breaks. ;P

Now, coming to the third case: "Some aging fish may switch mating habits".. research shows "as the female fishes grow older and larger, they spend more time with asymmetrically striped males than with symmetrical males, when offered a choice."

I am sure I don't need to explain this one. We all will reach a stage we will thrive for that thrill in life. I mean who doesnt need a 'bad boy'. At the end of the day, when my perfectly 'symmetrical male' is watching tv at home with a can of beer, I would rather go out and spend some time with a young 'asymmetrically striped male' and have some fun.

To end this mindless topic from where it started, lets go back to sleeping with the eyes wide open. I am this species. I can sleep off literally any where and every one, I do not need to close my eyes to sleep, I can doze off at the slightest trace of boredom. I am proud to have this fishy trait! And I hope to keep this up. :)

Mind over soul!

Time can not be told of the endless activities that go on in slow motion in your head.

Chronicles of a thoughtful mind:

The day that came today to my door, brought some dark clouds along with it. When I looked out my window, the clouds were there too. I thought to myself, is it me who is upset, or is it the cloud that is upsetting me!!

Maybe it’s the cloud which saw out of the window and saw me. You never know! What goes around comes around I guess! Whenever I try to focus on something, I start thinking out of the box.

For instance! Once I thought that I want to finish my work in the next two hours and go and play pool with myself, instead of doing that I started looking at Google Image search, for ankle tattoos. Guess what? The next week, I had a tattoo on my ankle.

It was my 23rd Birthday, and I was looking at the half drunk bottle of beer lying in front of me… mocking my presence as if I was good for nothing. Can’t even finish a bottle of beer? With a new vigour I emptied the mocking bottle and the three shots that came after it, and the other three after that!!

Next day by noon, the elegant tattoo was staring at me!! I wonder if it was me or the shots that were to be blamed.


So it is not a matter of time I guess. It is a matter of endless twisted activities in my brain that orders me to go about the mindless acts of nuisance! The Chronicles of a thoughtless mind: reminded me to get another tattoo… here we go again! We’ll see you all soon next week… I am busy surfing the net for my next best!