If you’ve met me….then you’d probably ring up the insane asylum on finding out that I’ve googled for poetry on the Internet. Heck…2 months ago, I’d have checked myself in.
But this babe called Wendy Cope, dude…oooh. I’d have checked her up on Orkut, and mailed her a thinly veiled “How you doing ?” already, if it weren’t for the sidebar which said that she’d published her work in 1945.
Watch out for a post on my renewed interest in the written word. For now, Granny Cope…here’s cheers to you.
I’ve mooched off 3 stanzas…these are from Strugnell’s Rubaiyat. The first one serves as the primer to the rest of the poem.
Awake! for Morning on the Pitch of Night
Has whistled and has put the Stars to Flight.
The incandescent football in the East
Has brought the splendour of Tulse Hill to Light.
The 2nd one’s for everyone in Gokhale, post farewell
Another Pint! Come, loosen up, have Fun!
Fling off your Hang-ups and enjoy the Sun:
Time's Spacecraft all too soon will carry you Away
- and Lo! the Countdown has begun
The 3rd for my favourite road tripping allies…this may seem like familiar ground to us, yes? :)
Here with a Bag of Crisps beneath the Bough,
A Can of Beer, a Radio - and Thou
Beside me half asleep in Brockwell Park
And Brockwell Park is Paradise now.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
hum senti ho gaye
I am slumped in my chair, headache and cold pounding away at my brain, and I cant get sleep. I know I need the sleep, but I’ve spent the last 40 mins tossing and turning in bed. Thing is, I’ve been sleeping from 4 to 9 pm today. And even yours truly cant manage to catch any shuteye after such a sleepathon.
I’m basically prepping you for the fact that this post would suck even more than the usual fare.
So why am I braving this fever alone on campus, instead of packing for home half an hour away? Coz there’s last minute work to do here, and it has to be done by tomm, coz day after, I’m headed to Bangalore for 2 solid months. Mom’s prolly playing that “I told you so” tape at home. She’d asked me to come home to decent food, a lovely pillow, some working Crocin, and some good old mothering. I’m now sitting in my room here, hungry, delirious and trying to fall asleep. So its your turn to get tortured too.
At least there were the movies here. Saw 2 brilliant films back to back…one being Rang De Basanti, and the other this gem called 21 grams. Aamir Khan and Sean Penn should do a movie together sometime. Uhh no wait..they shouldnt, if u think about it.
The thought of leaving scares me. I’ve been too used to this city, the people, the net here, my home close by…. And my Gokhale buddies have gone through this really emotional farewell party. Whenever I needed a break, or a reason to celebrate, or any other excuse to take off to Ashish and his pals…I’d catch the first bus and head over to Pune to meet them…now when I come back from the project, they’d all have left.
Parting ways with some1 who’s a real buddy isn’t as much of a bitch to me as it should be. I blame my NRI parents, waltzing in and out of India, for a month a year, for 16 years now. After a while, you just learn to say your goodbyes at the airport and take a cab home. Of course…this only works on the premise that they’d be back next year…and the phone calls every week continue.
But this business of looking for a job, going where your company takes you, looking for a US degree…its something else. When neither of you know when you’d meet next…when places like the school canteen, or the ledges & last benches in my junior college, the 7th floor balcony overlooking the Arabian Sea in Fr. Agnels, or even the pondside and the mess ataria in NITIE turn from here and now to “aaah…those days”.
I’ve gone through these “Ok, it’s moving day now” moments way too many times. And the fucked up part is, its not going to stop. 6 months from now…I’ll be in some arbit company in some arbit city. Family has plans to move to the States. People are going to fall in love with their new cities / jobs…or even fall in love, get married and buy a house there.
The beauty of this all is that it never really makes a difference. I’d walked out of school in Muscat, convinced that I’ll never see my buddies again. Email and yahoo would only be a waste of time…wtf is the point if u cant ever meet the dude again. We’re going to grow, change, and the less we think about the memories we’ve shared, the less it hurts when we revisit them.
Well…school buddies did meet up. Lots of times, amongst themselves….they then came over in December to Mumbai, and I was assigned the job of arranging for their 4 day stay here.
7 blooming years, since we last saw each other…and not a thing’s changed. They’ve grown thinner / taller / fatter…but still…it’s like we’d met half an hour ago at PT class.
It happened again, 2 weeks later, when Anish hit town. The 3 of us indulged in that patented indolence, with a speed like we’d been practicing all of last month
That realization has made life a lot easier to live…the fact that ur dudes remain the same…and that you get to meet new ones too. Maybe you could be lucky to get them to meet up someplacesomewhere, but yup....absence does make the heart grow fonder.
No I aint gay. Thank you. This post is probably going to come back and haunt me.
Currently listening
It’s probably me - Sting & Eric Clapton. Scary song...it inspired this post.
I’m basically prepping you for the fact that this post would suck even more than the usual fare.
So why am I braving this fever alone on campus, instead of packing for home half an hour away? Coz there’s last minute work to do here, and it has to be done by tomm, coz day after, I’m headed to Bangalore for 2 solid months. Mom’s prolly playing that “I told you so” tape at home. She’d asked me to come home to decent food, a lovely pillow, some working Crocin, and some good old mothering. I’m now sitting in my room here, hungry, delirious and trying to fall asleep. So its your turn to get tortured too.
At least there were the movies here. Saw 2 brilliant films back to back…one being Rang De Basanti, and the other this gem called 21 grams. Aamir Khan and Sean Penn should do a movie together sometime. Uhh no wait..they shouldnt, if u think about it.
The thought of leaving scares me. I’ve been too used to this city, the people, the net here, my home close by…. And my Gokhale buddies have gone through this really emotional farewell party. Whenever I needed a break, or a reason to celebrate, or any other excuse to take off to Ashish and his pals…I’d catch the first bus and head over to Pune to meet them…now when I come back from the project, they’d all have left.
Parting ways with some1 who’s a real buddy isn’t as much of a bitch to me as it should be. I blame my NRI parents, waltzing in and out of India, for a month a year, for 16 years now. After a while, you just learn to say your goodbyes at the airport and take a cab home. Of course…this only works on the premise that they’d be back next year…and the phone calls every week continue.
But this business of looking for a job, going where your company takes you, looking for a US degree…its something else. When neither of you know when you’d meet next…when places like the school canteen, or the ledges & last benches in my junior college, the 7th floor balcony overlooking the Arabian Sea in Fr. Agnels, or even the pondside and the mess ataria in NITIE turn from here and now to “aaah…those days”.
I’ve gone through these “Ok, it’s moving day now” moments way too many times. And the fucked up part is, its not going to stop. 6 months from now…I’ll be in some arbit company in some arbit city. Family has plans to move to the States. People are going to fall in love with their new cities / jobs…or even fall in love, get married and buy a house there.
The beauty of this all is that it never really makes a difference. I’d walked out of school in Muscat, convinced that I’ll never see my buddies again. Email and yahoo would only be a waste of time…wtf is the point if u cant ever meet the dude again. We’re going to grow, change, and the less we think about the memories we’ve shared, the less it hurts when we revisit them.
Well…school buddies did meet up. Lots of times, amongst themselves….they then came over in December to Mumbai, and I was assigned the job of arranging for their 4 day stay here.
7 blooming years, since we last saw each other…and not a thing’s changed. They’ve grown thinner / taller / fatter…but still…it’s like we’d met half an hour ago at PT class.
It happened again, 2 weeks later, when Anish hit town. The 3 of us indulged in that patented indolence, with a speed like we’d been practicing all of last month
That realization has made life a lot easier to live…the fact that ur dudes remain the same…and that you get to meet new ones too. Maybe you could be lucky to get them to meet up someplacesomewhere, but yup....absence does make the heart grow fonder.
No I aint gay. Thank you. This post is probably going to come back and haunt me.
Currently listening
It’s probably me - Sting & Eric Clapton. Scary song...it inspired this post.
Friday, April 07, 2006
7th April 2006
So here's how stuff stands at this moment, and the run up to it.
I am one of those dolts who'd live but not learn. This applies to every aspect of my life...girls, sports, resolutions i've made for myself.... but especially runs true during exam time. It's a ritual I go thru every year for the past 7 years of my education...to vow that I'd do better during the next sem, to take note of the 1 month mark before exams and make the study schedule..
Then another schedule 2 weeks before exam, that factors in all my unfinished submissions, and the unstarted studies.
Then the schedule making stops, while the scram for submissions go on. A little breather after submissions...and its then the weekend before exams. Bada boom...another one hits the dust.
Hence...this time too...exams went strictly okay. The last few exams are the electives, and I finished mine off yesterday evening. There are a few of my classmates writing their electives right now, and some who're preparing for theirs later today. But I am done.
The sweet joys of being the dude who gets to decide the exam schedule for his batch. I've been getting hate mail from some quarters for this, but yeah...balls to u. You got an extra day to study, na.
* me sooo evil.
Came back to the laptop at 6 pm...watched this movie called Jarhead (fucking brilliant one) and then the tiredness finally catches up. Hit the bed at 8 pm (never happened before), slept through dinner, midnight snack and whisky parties in assorted rooms, and woke up now...9 am. 13 hours of sleep.
I woke up mostly because of the rumbling in my stomach, and then found several song requests on IP...the instant messenger software we use on campus. People had finished their whisky, but they were still high....and wanted to keep rocking, never mind the incident sunlight. I oblige as many requests as I can, then pay heed to my own whisky cravings....
But the bastards finished the booze. So here I am...Friday morning, convincng people that it's not illegal / sinful / wrong or even wierd to go whisky hunting at 9 am. I even offer the incentive of using my 6 champagne glass set. Balls to breakfast, or the hateful glares of my classmates still studying for their last papers today.
Sigh. Tonight we party. Ashish, dudo...get urself here asap.
Currently listening
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog (Acoustic Version)
I am one of those dolts who'd live but not learn. This applies to every aspect of my life...girls, sports, resolutions i've made for myself.... but especially runs true during exam time. It's a ritual I go thru every year for the past 7 years of my education...to vow that I'd do better during the next sem, to take note of the 1 month mark before exams and make the study schedule..
Then another schedule 2 weeks before exam, that factors in all my unfinished submissions, and the unstarted studies.
Then the schedule making stops, while the scram for submissions go on. A little breather after submissions...and its then the weekend before exams. Bada boom...another one hits the dust.
Hence...this time too...exams went strictly okay. The last few exams are the electives, and I finished mine off yesterday evening. There are a few of my classmates writing their electives right now, and some who're preparing for theirs later today. But I am done.
The sweet joys of being the dude who gets to decide the exam schedule for his batch. I've been getting hate mail from some quarters for this, but yeah...balls to u. You got an extra day to study, na.
* me sooo evil.
Came back to the laptop at 6 pm...watched this movie called Jarhead (fucking brilliant one) and then the tiredness finally catches up. Hit the bed at 8 pm (never happened before), slept through dinner, midnight snack and whisky parties in assorted rooms, and woke up now...9 am. 13 hours of sleep.
I woke up mostly because of the rumbling in my stomach, and then found several song requests on IP...the instant messenger software we use on campus. People had finished their whisky, but they were still high....and wanted to keep rocking, never mind the incident sunlight. I oblige as many requests as I can, then pay heed to my own whisky cravings....
But the bastards finished the booze. So here I am...Friday morning, convincng people that it's not illegal / sinful / wrong or even wierd to go whisky hunting at 9 am. I even offer the incentive of using my 6 champagne glass set. Balls to breakfast, or the hateful glares of my classmates still studying for their last papers today.
Sigh. Tonight we party. Ashish, dudo...get urself here asap.
Currently listening
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog (Acoustic Version)
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Da dum dadum dadum dadayee
Found this on a dude's gmail messagebox.
Sex isnt the answer. Sex is the question.... Yes is the answer.
Amen brother.
This might have happened to you...this situation where u're upto your neck in studies / work / whatever...u still havent gotten anywhere...and ur time ends in 2 days....aka exams from monday, and not a single subject done.
I mean sure...one fights it out...has cups of coffee, goes thru past papers looking for patterns, struggles thru problems and ppts, discusses problems and theories and what not...we engineers are nerds of habit. But there reaches this point when stuff gets so hopelessly loaded, people go mad. I mean, mad...:)
A friend of mine googles for speeches by Luther King and Churchill throughout the day, for no real reason. Another proposes methods to screw the happiness of our profs through civic unrest on campus...and studiously backs them up with reasons like greater interests of the batch and bla bla. We hunt for little video clips that amuse and offend. Today's raging favorite being one on football bloopers, with the song "Always look at the bright side of life" voiced over.
NGC should do a feature on campus now....young male adults spotted walking around with telephone poles up their butt...grinning in despair and sleep deprivation. They could title it "Bumboo lag gaya" since this is how the resident species define this recurring condition of theirs.
I actually boogied tonight to this Kannada song from the 70's...when that dude who was kidnapped by Veerapan was in the prime of his youth and belting out songs & pseudo dancing on a sheer mirrored floor. Priceless video..i shall carry it wherever i go.
Come the 7th of April....that's me in the pic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)