Tête-à-tête

Thought of the week:
"When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you achieve it."
~ Paolo Coelho in "The Alchemist" ~

I think it's really funny how relationships change. Someone who was your best friend yesterday might suddenly become a stranger today. You might spend years hanging out with a person, and then discover you know nothing about him/her.

Instant Messaging, probably the most popular aspect of telecommunications today, has helped complicate matters. It's now possible to have a meaningful relationship, complete with a wide spectrum of emotional involvement, without the persons concerned ever meeting face-to-face. Sometimes, people find themselves able to express textually what they can't say in words or in person, and discover a side to themselves they never knew existed.

Dear readers, excuse that bit of idle philosophy. For the past few nights, I seem to have lost myself in this weird IM existence that feels more real to me than reality. The same people I chat with for hours on end, I can't carry on a decent conversation with them when I meet them up front, and that leaves me feeling disoriented. Speaking of chatting, we have this letter from X-Asheq, who writes:

"The problem that I want to tell you about is one type of cyber crime. Let me make it clear; if you chat regularly, then I am sure that some time or the other, you have faced some rubbish people who use erotic words with out any reason and offer nasty proposals. Most of them are boys, but there are also girls who engage in such activities. I can give you an example. I send e-cards to many people (known & unknown) different occasions from gallery_hijibiji@yahoo.com. I had found a girl who sent me spam. I had told her to stop that, but she did not. I think these persons are mentally sick. However, I was very surprised when I come to know that some of my friends do the same thing. They take it as something to do for fun. It is my humble request to you; please write on this type of cyber sickness."

Well, Asheq, I don't as a rule go to chat rooms. Most of my interaction with people unknown to me is through the letters from my readers and my replies to them, so I really haven't faced much nuisance…
unless you consider all the hate mail and troll letters I get (and I do get a LOT). Hence, there's not much I can write about what you interestingly named 'cyber sickness'. However, I'm sure there are loads of people who've been on the receiving end of spam e-mails, rude propositions while chatting, virus attachments and what not. Those who enjoy such forms of malice are hardly better than those losers who call up random people in the middle of the night and practice heavy breathing on the phone, hoping to 'make friendship' with the person on the other line. As for the victims of such pranks, my heart goes out to you, and if you have some interesting experiences to share with us, I'll be glad to hear from you. So write in and let me know.

Till our next tete-a-tete, take care, and have a great weekend!

Send your polls, opinions, and queries to thegirlnextdoor1@hotmail.com or teteatete_tgnd@yahoo.com
By The Girl Next Door

Go ahead. No peeking.
1. perspicuous adj - A: smart. B: conclusive. C: easily to understand. D: thoughtful.
2. anachronous adj - A: out of time. B: temporary. C: disruptive. D: compelling.
3. dollop adj - A: false impression. B: dull or stupid person. C: gloom. D: lump.
4. adulation n - A: related to adultery. B: flattery. C: indirect reference. D: complete ignorance.
5. termagant n - A: an agressive, quarrelsome woman. B: explanation. C: debris. D: disintegration.
6. rex is the Latin for - A: aristocrat. B: dinosaur. C: King. D: fashionista.
7. inveterate adj - A: temporary. B: deep-rooted. C: original. D: over-indulgence.
8. dilettante n - A: frantic. B: drastic. C: dabbler. D: disdainful.

Answers.
1. perspicuous - C: easy to understand. If you write with a perspicuous style, your language is clear, simple and easy to understand. Don't confuse the word with perspicacious which means smart, sharp and being able to look through and understand quickly. Both the words are derived from the Latin root specto, or in a variant spelling spic, which means ' to look'.

2. anachronous - A: out of time. Imagine a character from Pride and Prejudice turning on a TV set. Exactly. Television wasn't even invented in that era. So it's an anachronous act. The derivation of the word is Greek chronos, which means time.

3.dollop - D: lump. Actually, dollop is a lump of semi-solid food. As in: She always loves a dollop of ice-cream on her custard.

4. adulation - C: flattery. In fact, adulation is flattery carried to an exaggerated, absurd extent. The word is derived from a Latin verb, which I am still searching for. I'll let you know when I find out.

5. termagant - A: an agressive, quarrelsome woman. Virago is a synonym to termagant, which is derived from vir the Latin for man. Hence, a virago or a termagant is a stereotypically masculine woman - coarse, aggressive, loud-mouthed. Make sure you use this word next time when you break-up with your girlfriend.

6. rex is the Latin for - C: King. It has nothing to do with rex, but you might find it interesting to know that in Greek mythology Incubus are devils which molest woman in the sleep. The devils that molest men are called Succubus. ( Now, who the heck says you can't learn anything from the U.S. Billboard Countdown?!)

7. inveterate - B: deep-rooted (usually of habit). An inveterate punter is one who has grown old in that habit. The word is derived from the Latin vetus, which means old.

8. dilettante - C: dabbler. If you're a dilettante, you take a superficial interest in subjects without a serious study of it. Its an insult, not a compliment... mind you.

Taking 1 point for every correct answer, your result:
0 - 2: How about suing your English Language teacher?
3 - 5: Good.
6 - 7: Cool.
8 : Oiii... I said, no peeking.

By Phreak T

Scoring Goals in a Ruud Style

Name: Ruud Van Nistelrooy
Age: 28
Nationality: Dutch
Position: Striker
Clubs: PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 80 Kg

Ruud Van Nistelrooy has become a household name in the last 3 years. People refer to him as the "Goal machine" and some pundits have been comparing him to the legendary Dutch striker Marco Van Basten. Since his big money move to Manchester United 3 years ago the prolific Dutchman has scored an astonishing 110 goals in 145 matches and etched his name in United's folklore. People tend to forget that he came back from the same career threatening knee injury as Ronaldo suffered with such aplomb. Due to this injury his initial move to Man United collapsed in the 2000/2001 season.

United's manager Alex Ferguson kept his faith in him as Nistelrooy recuperated for one year. Finally Nistelrooy joined United in the summer of the 2001/2002 season as the most expensive striker in English football. United paid PSV a British record 19 million pounds to secure the Dutchman's services. In his first season although he scored 36 goals, United ended the season empty handed for the first time in 3 seasons. In his second season the master Dutchman scored an astonishing 44 goals that helped United to stage a comeback and snatch the Premiership from Arsenal's grasp. Although he scored 10 goals in the Champion's League United again missed out on the big prize as they lost to Real Madrid in the quarter finals.

The 2003/2004 season was very disappointing from United's standards as the awesome gunners romped to the title unbeaten and create football history. Nistelrooy had a poor second half of the season with a persistent knee injury that robbed him of many games. Still the awesome Dutchman proved his worth by scoring two goals in the FA Cup Final and helped United to lift the FA Cup for a record 11 times.

He was the second highest goal scorer in the recently concluded Euro 2004 and his four goals helped Holland to reach the semi finals in his first major international tournament. Holland didn't qualify for the last World Cup and he missed out on Euro 2000 because of his knee injury. The 2004/2005 season has just started but unfortunately Nistelrooy is out injured for a month. United is counting on him to come back and propel them to another successful season with his goals.

By Shakib Huq

Letter to Harry Potter

Dear Mr. Daniel Radcliffe(HarryPotter),
Hi! And congratulation for your latest film "Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban". As we (my friends and I) are a big fans of J.K. Rowlings “Harry Potter," we are also a big fans of yours. But we are sorry to say that after watching your "Prisoner of Azkaban," with my best friends, as a fan of "Harry Potter" we really had to get disappointed, like others. Although, the new director (Alfonso Cuaron) has destroyed the story of "Prisoner of Azkaban" of "Harry Potter" book, the move was then also not at all bad for us. Anyway, we had to enjoyed a bit of new to it, as it was a teen movie and we are sure that this movie has also earned some new teen fans of Harry Potter. A new things may be look cool in old creations but we also hope that the next film "Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire" will not disappoint the Harry Potter (HP) fans sometimes it makes us feel sad, that, J K Rowling maybe one day will turn Harry Potter into a man.

We hope that you'll receive this message. We are lastly hoping, if you can kindly give us your e-mail address or contact address. Well, but it's true, that, even you have you won't give it to us, or the readers of RS (I am sure) will send you thousands of massages you wouldn't have expected! Don't mind, just kidding!

Well, now I think I have to shut up my pen because it writes too much and writes whatever it wants to write. I am sorry for if it has written any unexpected request!

- Ankita (that's me), Rubaiyat, Saima and Oshin.

Poem

A rainbow

We know
a rainbow.
It can't fly
but stay in sky.
It's cool
and so wonderful.
It has seven colours
It's red is like a dark flower.
It's green is deep
He tries this brightness to keep.
It has a yellow
red and orange think, it should be low.
It has a orange colour
green thinks it's much duller.
It's violets name is 'jell'
It's like a brinjal.
It has a blue
It likes glue.
It has a Indigo
you are first, go, go, go.

By Meghmallar Bosu, Class-II, Ananda Niketon Europian School