Archives: Seen on the Web

The online world is one of such hoaxes that it gets my goat quite too often. My mailboxes (I have loads of them, and they collectively get me hundreds of mails every day) collect email hoxes far too many for my sanity. Either I am too steeped in work or simply too lethargic to respond to the senders. The average sender, usually, is a friend who is blissfully naive or unaware of email hoaxes or both. He or she would have, in turn, got the mail from some friend of his/hers and would have forwarded it to me in good faith. There have been two which have been doing the rounds for close to a year, both involving UNESCO. One claims that the Indian national anthem has been declared by UNESCO as the best in the world, and the second is about the UN organisation naming Bengali as the sweetest language. I am at the receivieng end of both hoaxes since I happen to be an Indian and also a Bengali by birth.

Hidden tribes make an esoteric subject for films. But, this one was for real — one that did not quite make news. A man belonging to the only uncontacted tribe in South America outside the Amazon basin has been sighted near a region targetted for deforestation by Brazilian cattle-ranchers. When spotted, the man hid behind a tree, and later fled. The next day an abandoned camp, a clay dish, and game ready for cooking were found nearby. The man, according to Survival International, is one of an unknown number of uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians living in the dry forests of northern Paraguay. The Totobiegosode have lost huge swathes of their land in recent years to cattle-ranchers, such as the Brazilian firm Yaguarete Pora SA.

If you look at the photograph, you will know why I wasn't able to resist from putting this up on my blog. This photo provided by the Archaeological Society SAP in Mantua, northern Italy, on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 shows a pair of human skeletons found Monday February 6 at a construction site outside Mantua. Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons, believed to be a man and a woman, from the Neolithic period, buried between 5000 to 6000 years ago. It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. (AP Photo/Archaeological Society SAP, ho) I surely wouldn't have known what Eternal Embrace would have meant. Till I saw this. I am going to remember this one. And so should you.

Being a Bong, I love jokes about Bongs. This one came as a forwarder a day back. Sometimes I love being spammed. Read on... The A to Jed of the Bengali Alphabet From a poor benighted Kolkatan soul ... A is for Apish(Office). This is where the average Kolkakattan goes and spends a day hard(ly) at work. If he is in the Government he will arrive at 10, wipe his forehead till 11, have a tea break at 12, throw around a few files at 12.30, break for lunch at 1, smoke an unfiltered cigarette at 2, break for tea at 3, sleep sitting down at 4 and go home at 5. It's a hard life! B is for Bhision. For some reason most of the Bengalis don't have good bhision. In fact in Kolkata most people are wearing spectacles all the time. The effects of this show in the city.

We Bongs are Anglophiles. We laab Ingreji. And we laab kobita. Someone forwarded this to me. And I must share this with you too. Through the jongole I am whent On shooting Tiger I am bent Bashtaard Tiger has eaten wife No doubt I will avhenge poor darling's life Too much quiet, snakes and leeches But I not fear these sans of beeches Hearing loud noise I am jumping with start But noise is coming from damn fool's heart Taking care not to be fright I am clutching rifle tight with eye to sight Should Tiger come I will shoot and fall him down Then like hero return to native town Then through trees I am espying one cave I am telling self - "Bholanath be brave" I am now proceeding with too much care From far I smell this Tiger's lair My leg shaking, sweat coming, I start to pray I think I will shoot Tiger some other day Turning round I am going to flee But Tiger giving bloody roar spotting this Bangalee