The 1^st of December

I remember, I remember
 The fir trees dark and high; 
I used to think their slender tops 
 Were close against the sky: 
It was a childish ignorance; 
 But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm farther off from heaven 
 Than when I was a boy.
               -T. Hood

The 1^st of December was when school closed for the winter vacations. The onerous final exams (The Third Term as we would call it) would meet its painful death on that fortunate day. The exact moment of the demise would be 11:30 AM. After Bro. G. would very carefully explain the winter night sky to a rather uninterested, ungrateful and impatient lot, we would hurriedly collect our pencils, rubbers ( I still call them the politically incorrect rubber because that is what I grew up calling those things which are called erasers these days ) and pinecone battered clipboards and run out into the warm december sunshine. I use the word run very carelessly. That annual phenomenon could be more accurately termed as a mass movement for the great, wide, open spaces. Whereas bland souls like me would employ conventional modes of transport to get going, the more adventurous ones would employ rapid dashes, wildly flailing arms and loud screaming. The stairs would be navigated by sliding down the bright orange balustrade.

We were free for the next 100 days !

I would feel an incredible sense of lightness I remember. I would feel relieved from all burdens. Burdens were not possible anymore. There would be a sense of accomplishment without any palpable victory. As we would chatter down the steps past the old hospital block and past the second field, we were happy.

Old habits die hard. Till today, on the 1^st of december, I keep very careful track of time. At about 11:30 AM, I know there are a bunch of unruly boys running out of the exam halls. It still brings a smile on my face.

I however have not felt the same lightness in years and years now.

Tags: nostalgia, St Edumunds School

The Sunset

The sunset is bland.

In his dreams, it was red ruby and fiery orange. It was from within the wild whirligig of colour, the silk voiced enchantress with rose lips had sung sweet, mad melodies for him.

He is now in Dry Dusty Grey.

Death comes in many ways, but always brings black, stony numbness.

Tags: fiction, 55words

The Rule of Four -- Oh My God !

Never has it happened to me, that I have rushed through the book because it is so bad. This entry is about the mind numbing experience -- The book is markedly forgettable and absolutely nothing to write about.

This was my second grapple with this exercise in self importance. The first time I tried to handle it, I was taken completely by surprise. The sheer enormity of the ridiculousness of the first five chapters floored me. With a meek wave of the white flag, I retreated, curling up with an old volume of Wodehouse. Wodehouse always has a soothing balm like effect on me. A single Jeeves yarn was good enough for the Bourne Ultimatum, but the above mentioned five chapters required the combined powers of three complete books from the Psmith Omnibus. Thus renewed, I returned for a rematch.

I think that the rematch idea was a bad one. I had given up the first time because the book bored me. I never realised, the first time around that apart from being singularly insipid, the book also does not have a point, apart from the dripping pretentiousness. I had been trying very hard to finish it for the last four days, but last night, as I slept I kept having the same nightmare -- I am reading the ridiculous ramblings from the The Rule of Four. Trust me, that is scary shit. I had no option left. Any hot Bene Gesserit would say, "I will face my fear.I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path." Any hot Bene Gesserit would do what I did. I decided to let the damn thing pass over me. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, and by 7 am I was through the Vapid Volume. I might not exactly be a finer deeper man after doing so but am certainly a much more relieved one.

For those who might be interested, the book is about nothing. Unrelated to the plot, it mentions a bunch of college students who generally trudge the snow and prepare for some thesis thingy about some 16th century text. Also totally unrelated to the plot, it mentions an art collector running amok with a pistol because somebody stole his blueprint or thunder or mojo or something. This art collector eventually sets fire to an alcohol soaked clubhouse and in the process, burns himself to a cinder. Oh yes, there is a girl there also, but again, not really a part of the plot.

Tags: books, bad books, reviews, The Rule of Four

The Effed Fourth Estate

Rarely does the Indian MSM dole out such wholesome entertainment. They generally fail to deliver when they trying. However, extremely efficient reporting has come up with some scintillating news. Monica Bedi hates Indian prisons and is getting wildly nostalgic about her comfy old days in Portugese prison. To make it worse, she has been estranged from her bosom buddies who lovingly have been referred to as 'those two' by the erudite reporter. Sad, since they were moved out 'before she could develop friendship' with the comely 'those two'. When will the bad english, braindead reporting and the numbskulls stop ?

These are sad times for Monica Bedi in particular and the Indian fourth estate in general.

Tags: India, msm

The Puri-Sabji of Bangalore

When it has to be told, it has to be told. I have been witholding it long enough, but I can no longer do so. Ladies and gentlemen, the puri-sabji in Bangalore is not the Happy Combination. It is not the Right Stuff.

Back in my wild, younger days when I was in Gurgaon (about a four months back), after a hot and dusty week out in the open, roping in a herd of inexplicable deadlocks and taming a bunch of difficult memory leaks, I would go to Om Sweets in Sector 14, kick back and unwind over a plate of puri-sabji. That plate of puri-sabji, single handedly would restore the deep scars left behind by unindented code, non-recursive locks and team meetings. In short, it rejuvenated.

The Bangalorean Puri-Sabji in sharp contradistinction, depresses me. It leaves me glassy eyed, silent and markedly unfulfilled. There is a very distinct and profound flaw in the Bangalorean Puri-Sabji -- It Lacks Zing (as Dr. M.D. so correctly points out). This singular lack of zing saddens one. It leaves the poor spirit wanting more. I am a lost soul trudging the weary desert without the Manna raining from heaven.

Tags: Bangalore, food, Culture

My foray into Karaoke

I had a short stint in Japan. About a three months. At the end of my three months of badly pronouncing wrong japanese (nihongo), all my japanese (nihonjin) colleagues decided to celebrate the fact that I was finally leaving. For their entertainment purposes, they took me along too. The place we went to had small karaoke cabins and they were not soundproof. Due to this slight flaw in the design of these cabins, the musical exertions of the denizens in neighbouring cabin were no secrets to us. Noting my slight puzzlement at exactly which song the artiste in the adjoining room was rendering, S-san opined that it was 'Careless Whisper'. T-san however thought it was 'Killing Me Softly'. I thought that it was an original -- 'Carelessly Killing Me'. O-san, being the perpetual philosopher that he is, sipped his beer elegantly, and in his rather curtailed, utility-english apologized, "B-san, bad musicians". He then gave a deep, understanding nod. I was totally convinced. I dove into my sushi.

Last weekend, I went over to U.'s place. He has got this Karaoke application which runs on windows. To be truthful, U. turned out to be rather good at the karaoke thing. He sang me a few songs to which I had to admit that the man was not very tonedeaf. I then decided to try my vocal skills with 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I am a bad musician.

Tags: Culture, Karaoke, Japan

Switched To Opera

I just switched to Opera. Very nice browser. Two reasons why I switched.

The tab browsing extension for firefox just broke.

Opera went free ! Hated those pesky ads on the top.

Things that I discovered about it, after I started using it

It has a nice look and feel on linux. The fonts are very pleasing and the skin interface is very convenient. Also, the tabbed browsing is just perfect. The desktop is never cluttered with runaway windows. Has a links sidebar which is also very nice. Displays all links on the page you are browsing. Very convenient.

The mail interface is very cool. Has the google mail style label thingy which is rather neat. Combines it with the evolution style vfolder thing. It also categorizes the attachments in you mailbox which is really helpful. It also incorporates a very usable RSS feed reader. The sad thing is that I will return to evolution after my company has shifted to Exchange calendaring.

The mail client does NOT have any LDAP support. AAARGH !! That is rather stupid. Imagine a mail client not having LDAP support. I did not even bother to look up the documentation whether LDAP was supported. I kept trying to configure it. Then I discover that in a rather curt reply that it might eventually get LDAP support. I have to do this aargh thing again.. AARRRRGHHH !

It crashes rather abrubtly at times. Did it a couple of times on blogger.com itself. Go in to edit a draft and the whole browser just disappears. Also it does not have a bug reporting system in case it crashes. So this fellow is crashing away and the developers do not even know. The open vs closed source debate again I guess....

Tags: internet, browsers, opera, firefox