Rumi Nations

So, I enjoy sleeping. I mean with myself ... not with someone else — that would be a different story altogether. I am merely talking about the prosaic routine we all indulge in for about eight hours every night ... of course, if you are one of the multitude of youngsters employed by India's call center/BPO industry, then you would probably be indulging in this activity during day time ... Anyway, it occurred to me that if more people enjoyed this activity more and partook of it more often in more copious quantities, our species might be better off in some ways ... I mean, what do some folks do when they are not asleep ... planning new ways of killing other people, planning how to proselytize and persuade normal people to become suicide bombers, devise ever more powerful nuclear weapons or missiles or whatever, ever more stealthy nuclear submarines or airplanes, etc. How I wish Hitler was more fund of sleeping and just took an afternoon siesta like folks in my state of Orissa ... so...

So, the Nobel Committee has sprung a surprise -- or, as one might say, sprung a rabbit out of the hat. And the deabte is raging in full bloom! My first reaction was one of happiness as I have no qualms admitting that I'm an Obama fan. Is this premature? Perhaps as the Nobel Committee has said this is a recognition of the window of opportunity that Obama has been able to open by the very fact of his being President. Whether these opportunities turn into real victories ... only time will tell. Often, or usually, that depends on many players ... in complex international affairs. If one were to debate the deservedness of Nobel winners, one might debate whether Peres, Rabin and Arafat were deserving winners ... did they manage to carve out some sort of enduring peace deal out of their efforts? I guess these are often open-ended questions with no definitiveness about them. I have a feeling that Bill Clinton might have reacted with a lot of surprise ... I would love to see his public reac...