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?

2010

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

Cant wait!!!