Highs and Lows of 2010

Highs

Espana!

The boyfriend turned fiance.

My gang at the office. My stalwart Google Talk pals.

High-speed broadband internet. What does one need a TV for?

The morning-after blogs. Love this new genre of TV show blogs. Often fascinating, always funny.


Lows

The Times going behind the paywall.

One of my authors accusing me of spoiling and ruining beyond repair his near-perfect jewel of a textbook.

Liverpool FC and Michael Schumacher. Next season had better be bloody brilliant.

Amethyst, as we know it, will be gone soon.

Retail. Its astonishing/depressing how much tat is sold at sky-high prices.

Christmas Tea

Old Sweatshop, as Madrasgirl calls it, in keeping with its usual Scrooge-like spirit, isnt giving us a party or anything remotely enjoyable. The Recreation Club likewise, doesnt seem to be able to scrape together the energy required to organise anything. So we have taken it upon ourselves to entertain us. Or rather whats left of us. With so many people off on holiday, this time of the year does drag a bit. Esp when one hasnt much to do by way of work (spending the day browsing and downloading things can be surprisingly boring). Maybe we should also follow the west in basically closing things down for a couple of weeks. Might improve morale, recently brought even lower by lousy hike.
Anyway, so what have we got lined up? Carols, a not-so-Virgin Mary or an angel (depending on the costume), stuffed-toy Baby Jesus, no Joseph, plum cakes, a skinny Santa Claus, some poisonous coffee, other asssorted eats and hopefully a lot of laughs. Ho Ho Ho.

Find of the Day

Just came across this doggy website, which is chock-full of dog-related quotes, proverbs and wisdom. Like

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."

and

"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever - in case I need him. And I expect I will - as I always have. He is just my dog."

Oh and this too

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts."

The A/C Man Cometh and other tales

MadrasGirl: Hi..In early inspite of heavy rain etc
Me: rain or shine
MadrasGirl: Where's the Good Doctor?
Me: like the US post. she's here; The Poo just came in
MadrasGirl: Oh OK
...
MadrasGirl: Just had a call from Kamala; she has been here for 3 weeks and her comp was out. What is it with people called Kamala and their comps and net connections???
Me: wow!!! she's just being Kamala
MadrasGirl: Ya ...
I feel like being Daniel-y
Me: and saying ' you are the problem'?
MadrasGirl: Ok Shall not waste more of your precious morning hours. Esp since admin people are waiting to quiz U later in the day
Me: oh yes the meeting is there; by the way the a/c has still not been fixed
(The a/c conked out yesterday, midmorning, and was the subject of some discussion yesterday)
...
MadrasGirl: Meeting over? How did it go?
Me: it went fine really; nothing of note. very important news: the a/c man is here
MadrasGirl: One major crisis resolved
Me: resolving; as we speak
do you have any idea where we can get stuff like this here? http://dwell.co.uk/101887/Swivel-base-lounger-white/
MadrasGirl: No, ask The Poo
Me: since she went all official i think its prudent that she not know what i am doing on company time
MadrasGirl: Is she now. That u didn't tell me
Me: As in if we have to let her know stuff, lets not overburden her with knowledge
MadrasGirl: Right U are young but wise one
Me: wise beyond my years! but since it comes naturally no real hassles
MadrasGirl: Absolutely
Me: i have some shocking news
MadrasGirl: Loo not working again??
Me: the Good Doctor has been ordering lunch from outside. three days in a row!!
MadrasGirl: Why?
Me: she has not bought veggies from the market: since her weekend was spent in WhyNotNad
MadrasGirl: She really is slipping isn't she? WhyNotNad or no WhyNotNad
Me: its a terrible thing to behold. the beginning of the end
MadrasGirl: But miracles do happen as we of the Faith like to point out
Me: civilization is crumbling; ah! what miracle can possibly save us?
MadrasGirl: I wish she could read this chat!!!
Me: she'd murder me
MadrasGirl: That the doctor will unwind
Me: certain death
MadrasGirl: Yes she will. That way she and the Poo are alike ...not much by way of a sense of humour
Me: true but better than HeadGirl. i remember in those early halcyon days, when Mr José thought he was hitting on me by sending me message fwds, the Good Doc just laughed, whereas HeadGirl went all nip this thing in the bud now
MadrasGirl: HeadGirl is in a class by herself. She has absorbed the ORG into her every pore
...
MadrasGirl: The Psycho is online. Wonder when she will join our cosy company?
Me: no idea. when she gets a good alarm clock?
MadrasGirl: Ask her. They have empty seats and new comps, now's the time. Maybe we can gift her the alarm
Me: though the flat screen offer has expired
MadrasGirl: Oh really. Who got that?
Me: they say there are clocks that will hit you if you dont turn them off; maybe thats what she needs
rumour has it that SafeBet is the proud possessor of the flatscreen
(Fate tragically intervened at this point. MadrasGirl lost power)
...
MadrasGirl: I am bored with working from home
Me: yes it is very boring isnt it? i hated it. but you know if you do it for a week or more you get used to it; still the lack of conversation is boring
MadrasGirl: OK. Now you’re giving me ideas
Me: Hmm, what else happened today...
the printer is printing stuff in reverse; like mirror writing
MadrasGirl: Wow
Me: artistic temperament
(The killjoys in the office fixed the printer soon after)

Less words to pass

Password. What an exciting word that used to be. As a 10 year old, I would think of Secret Seven and other Enid Blytons where the password was a magical word, allowing you entry to a world of secrets that your parents and elders couldnt gain access to. My cousins and I used to form secret societies for the sole purpose of having a password. It meant adventure, mystery and most of all, fun!

Fun. HA! At the age of 30, passwords have become a chore. A daily reminder of my failing memory and of the complexity of life today in an increasingly untrustworthy world. In a normal day, we need to know at least 7 different passwords:

to log in to the comp at work, and sometimes at home
to access work mail
to access personal mail
to social network
to read newspapers
to read blogs
to buy something online
even to just check one's account balance

Everything needs a password and like any game worth its name, its rules have become
codified. It cant be anything simple or obvious, like your mother's maiden name or the date when you paid the first installment on your housing loan. It cant be all letters or all numbers. It has to be of a certain length. You need to type it twice. Dont write it down anywhere. Dont use the same password for everything.

Banks go one step further. After making you perform mental calisthenics to arrive at an alphanumeric password that doesnt offend their finely tuned sense of what is fitting, you then have to change this password, that you laboured over, the first time you log in properly. So they can start the whole game all over again.
The fiends also ask you to remember some other answer to an inane question that will be asked, should you forget this work of art..er password. And of course, you need a fresh set of passwords to transact any business on the phone.

Phew. Is it any wonder that we all feel wretched and demoralised all the time.

Nature abhors an empty room

For as long as I can remember, I've never thought of my family as being particularly sociable. We visited relatives and friends and they in turn came home of course, but on the whole there was none of the people dropping in whenever they felt like or sharing of food or impromtu get-togethers that are fairly routine with other more closely knit families. And we wouldnt want to have it any other way.
But for the last two years, the guest bedroom has hardly had a week to itself. First it was the uncle who used our home as base camp while he plotted and schemed to get the courts to grant his daughter a divorce. That the daughter ran away a week after the divorce came through is another story. Then it was another relative with an infected foot who needed medical attention. On the rare occasion when both these uncles were in their own homes, another uncle who had some litigation going on about some longstanding water dispute would take their place.
Then the first uncle's son, who'd finished some generic degree (in Australia; so every night we had to endure conversations dealing with every aspect of 'The Austrialian Life') used our house as a sort of labour exchange, meticulously exploiting all of my Dad's contacts till after five months, he managed to land a job. It took him another month to actually move out to his own place. Then his father (the first uncle, are you keeping up?) breaks his collar bone and his wonderfully concerned son decides to bring him here to get the docs to take a look at him but does the uncle stay in his own son's house? Oh no. Why should he when he can stay with us! Even though my cook only recently had an operation and therefore needed all the rest she could get.
Then another aunt and uncle turn up and stay put till they find a tenent for their house. Now at long last, we are guest-less. But since there's no polite way of telling people to buzz off, we've decided to put it about that we're going to paint the whole house, redo the false ceiling, inject anti-termite chemicals and generally stir up such a whirling fury of dust and paint and white cement that our house will hopefully become invisible to the naked eye (the PC term is 'unaided'; how prissy). If only we lived in Harry Potter's world, we would be the first in line to make our house Unplottable.

So when my sister told me she's thinking of building a house, my only reaction was 'Invest in some virtual reality, 3D, CGI screen that makes your spare bedroom permanently resemble some building site, if you dont want to be inundated with relatives who casually invite themselves to long stays at your house. She had a simpler idea. Hide the door to the room behind a bookcase. Afterall most people wont go within 10 yards of books. How true.

On a day like today

Random things seen/done/heard today:

"I have never been bored in my life." So says the Good Doctor. Is that even possible? How? Its my default setting. I imagine it would require rigorous self-discipline to forbid boredom. To exile it to the no-think list. Her point is, she doesnt do nothing. If for some reason she has nothing to do, she immediately finds something interesting to do. All I can say is that that sounds exhausting. And to paraphrase REM 'Everybody gets bored'. Its part of the human condition (make that living condition: even my Golden Lion gets bored from time to time).

Mango rice. In all my 30 years I've never eaten it. Even once. Didnt even know it existed. Even worse. Shame on me.


The Pleasure-Seeking Doshi. One of the perks/hazards of having a work-free working day is that one's online trawls sometimes bring up unexpected objects of interest. You begin the day without the least notion that Welsh-Gujarathi dancing poets call Madras home and you end it by discovering that you're separated from them by just a couple of degrees. Apparently Poo and the Doshi's mother belong to the same 'Female of the Species Only' organisation and are therefore well acquainted. So thats two degrees of seperation. And they say the Universe is expanding.

Fishing Quiz Man. This is strictly speaking something I saw yesterday but who cares. My Dad bought a copy of Following Fish authored by this FQM. Its about his travels in India based on the theme of areas where fish and fishing are an important part of the fabric of the local culture. So thats Bengal, TN, Kerala, Goa Bombay etc. I read a couple of pages and it sounded rather promising. Tarot Seeker and I lost rather spectacularly to FQM's team at a movies and literature quiz but I remember meeting him at a Vikram Seth book reading actually. Maybe we'll come full circle and I'll pop into his book reading some day.

My Man Utd Preux Chevalier gave me a tip today about getting tickets for EPL games. Buy a season ticket for one of the lower-ranking, about-to-be-relegated clubs. Then you can watch the big teams when they come to play at the home games of the aforementioned clubs! Easy peasy.

Summer of 2010

white hot days

warm scented nights

the sound of wind rattling through the trees

leaves blown right into the house

the first tart and juicy spoonful of strawberry jam

the sweet cold shock of ice cream

the quick sharp stab of a mosquito

the incoherent chatter of children playing on the streets

the welcome and sudden shade of trees

the toe-curlingly salty smell of the sea

the drops of water that shiver off a wet dog

the graceful dance of white drapes in the breeze

the all-pervading sunshine

the never-ending stickiness


all make a case for compulsory summer holidays

Bird song

The birds are chattering away outside my office window. Or rather window wall, because thats what it is. We see tree pies and owls and crows and parrots and squirrels all the time. But yesterday, we saw a Brain Fever Bird. Which made me think of Vikram Seth at once. I have to admit I expected it to be something altogether more exotic-looking (such an evocative name!), but maybe thats just me.

Normally I dont much notice them, not being much of a birdwatcher, but they are making an absolute racket now. Or maybe its just that there's just me and the Poo in this room, quietly working our way through yet another doomed book. Pin drop silence, they used to call it in school. What a quaint expression. You dont hear it much these days.

Yesterday was the last day at Cygnet Noir for one of the 'pillars of the establishment'. He joined the company as a 19-year-old. Thats thirteen years that he's spent here! Almost half his life. When I joined here, the Head-girl said "I hope you'll be with us till you retire". I laughed when she said that. I still do. But sometimes I dimly see that its not an impossible thing. There is comfort in the familiar. Be it family, friends, workplace. Or perhaps thats just an illusion. Everything changes. All the time. Some we notice, some we dont. But nothing stays still.

Whats the point of all of this musing? I wish I knew.

Mad women

Having watched two complete seasons of Mad Men in less than a month, I now feel incomplete without a smoking cigarette in one hand and a tumbler of whisky in the other. (Apparently the actors smoke herbal cigarettes. Wonder if we get them here.)

Such is the power the TV and storytelling. You start feeling nostalgic for things you never knew in the first place.

The Fame Monster

Big news! The pal and I had made it to Glam-Sham after all! Yay!

Lookee! Lookee!
(in the What's On page)

Tra la!

Obliviate!

Even if this were possible, do we really want it to be?