Worth checking out.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/297#playlist

My 25 things. Some fo you know most if not all 25.

1. I have never eaten from a thattukada, have always wanted to.
2. I'm an atheist, have been since early teens. I don't publicly talk about this, and I never broach the topic with a believer.
3. I like sneezing.
4. My parents were liberal compared to the parents of my friends at school/college. But once in a while it used to occur to them to be more like other parents they know and enforce random stupid rules that drove me crazy. I have rebelled constantly against everything until I left home at the age of 21. I have learned some patience since then and try to understand or turn a deaf ear since, I'm somewhat successful in it.
5. I have very vivid memories of certain things from my early childhood- being fed on the Hill Palace terrace when I was about 2, learning how to tie shoelaces at the age of 3, going to see my new born baby brother (age 4), the peacocks in Pushpagiri hospital, being shown big bright yellow kolambi flowers, eating chiclets. I know these memories may actually be memories of memories, from remembering them since. I still find them cool.
6. I'm very bad at grammar, spelling and structure and form.. well writing. I can never find the right proposition or punctuation. Though this does not make me take an effort in spell checking or proof reading, it does make me hesitate before writing.
7. I once spent about 21 hours with Roger Federer.
8. When I read Broca's Brain when I was 17, I felt validated.
9. As a child I assumed I'll be famous. I did not think about what I will be or how, it just came naturally to me that I'm going to be famous. I even used to remind myself not to do things that I don't want my parents to know when they read my biography.
10. I dream every night. Well everyone does, but I remember them in the morning. I kind of know the insecurities and unexpressed thoughts, feelings and judgments that trigger my dreams and though sometimes it's really weird and depressing to face the facts dreams throw at me, I think it keeps me honest. To myself.
11. I have the job that I thought of as my dream job a few years back. But I have become more of a cynic since then.
12. I made a few new year resolutions this year, for the first time in my life, I think.
13. I don't have the same enthusiasm for learning new languages any more. I blame information overload.
14. I love falafels.
15. Hyderabad is my favorite city. Cochin would be, when it's safe for women.
16. I secretly believe that most North Keralites are in general better people (compared to south) - more honest, more down to earth. I know I have not met that diverse an array of people to say this, and that in any case is too general and too unfair a statement to make, so I try not to say it aloud.
17. There is a song that touches me deeply. It's the Trawlerman's song. I like how Knopfler says 'scars on her belly' in there. I did not know this song when I went for the Knopfler concert in India around that time, so I do not know if I ever heard this song live.
18. I'll return to India next year if everything goes as planned.
19. Like many people who leave India for a developed country for a few years, my perception of India has changed very much in a very positive way. Not really because I miss those things here (though I sometimes do). It's just that I needed to be an outsider at least in one way to take an objective look. For instance, I really appreciate diversity and what it really means in the Indian context and how rare that is in this world and how fast disappearing. I'm not terrible proud of this new look I took, because it should not take this long. My plan to return to India is definitely not based on this changed perception though it definitely helps in transitioning mentally.
20. I used to dream about running and losing control of my speed and being unable to stop.. ever. It's scary.
21. I have lost many friends recently. Distance due to other preoccupations, priorities and lack of accessibility. It's very tempting to think that the only real friends are the ones that stay. But I know this is not true, people keep coming together and moving away and that there is no pattern in this flow.
22. There is someone who has deeply influenced the way I am. I met her when we were both 10. I learned the immense appeal of being yourself from her. The irony.
23. I can see in the dark better than most people I know.
24. I don't like having "principles" - I like doing what is best for the situation - clichéd as it sounds.
25. I like deep ravines, huge mountains, skyscrapers, large bodies of water - because how small they make everything else look.

 Translate "ripe almond" into Malayalam, for example (10)

Some Saturdays are sunny . This one is not. This is probably the coldest week this winter so far. And we're going to Philly for the long weekend..Look who else is in Philly this morning..

I look forward to eating at Beijing and Mad For Mex (warning: flash website behind link). Wonder if the insane hot burrito will be as tasty.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)

Sometimes I miss the steamed dosa at Chutneys.

I noticed this week that Kochi now has two (more?) things I like - Kaati rolls and Blossom book store. Neither is new in Kochi- I just hadn't noticed these last time I guess.

( Read more )

Mera Piya Ghar Aaya - Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Fever and sore throat. :|

Horses are a common sight in the city. As are cops on horses.

"
In the roads where the teams moved, where the wheels milled the ground and the hooves of the horses beat the ground, the dirt crust broke and the dust formed. Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again.

....

The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way. Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust, and carried it away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke.

...

When the night came again it was black night, for the stars could not pierce the dust to get down, and the window lights could not even spread beyond their own yards. Now the dust was evenly mixed with the air...Houses were shut tight, and cloths wedged around doors and windows...In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood.

...

In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood. All day the dust sifted down from the sky, and the next day it sifted down. An even blanket covered the earth. It settled on the corn, piled up on the tops of the fence posts, piled up on the wires; it settled on roofs, blanketed the weeds and trees.

"

-John Steinbeck, in The Grapes of Wrath

That was about Oklahoma. This pic is from Salinas Valley, of East of Eden and others.
( Read more... )

Remember those old movies where someone gets hit on their head and lose their memory? And then towards the end of the movie regain it by getting hit again, just in time to identify the villain? That happened to my camera today. Well i ruined my camera a few weeks back . And got it working again by dropping it. Apparently it is a common solution for digital devices - to drop them onto a hardwood floor from a height of half a foot!

I have vowed to take proper care of my camera. I have never missed anything material in a long long time, like i missed it when it wasn't working.
( So here is to a long long life.. to an abused camera... )

Konkan rail route is beautiful. More pictures here. All train-window quality.

Eyebrows Are Raised Over Passages in a Best Seller by Ian McEwan

McEwan has been accused of copying phrases (for none other than "Atonement"), from “No Time for Romance,” the memoir of Lucilla Andrews who was a British novelist who wrote hospital romances.

"In the article Mr. McEwan continued: “I have openly acknowledged my debt to her in the author’s note at the end of ‘Atonement,’ and ever since on public platforms, where questions on research are almost as frequent as ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ ” "

Though the article has quoted only one example of a copied paragraph there could be several more. Going by just that paragraph it does not really seem like plagiarism to me.

I found the article interesting because it mentioned Lucilla Andrews. I have read a few of her books, as a teenager. They are like all romantic novels in that the hero and heroine hate each other for the first half of the book. I remember loving those books.


I have a copy of Atonement  in Cochin. Among several other books I left unread. Here, the luxury of free access to so many books and movies has dulled my senses and reduced my attention span to that of a three year old. I need to check my impulses and resolve not to stagnate my taste. I also feel that the more I speak the less I am able to write; not that writing has ever been a thing for me. But my written vocabulary used to be different and better than my spoken one. Now I just have a small potpourri of words from different languages from which I generate insipid verbal material. Wow, that sentence sounds so fake; now that a poor vocabulary is a part of my identity itself.

I work for two departments on campus. Two different buildings. I take classes from two other departments. The coffee shop where I sometimes spend an entire day reading and writing is on the western most part of the campus. The Chinese food truck from where these days I eat my lunch is on the east. The Grad student center, with its free coffee and comfy couches, is at roughly the center of the campus.

So I walk. Here to there, at least every 2 hours. (That is how I lost 15 lbs in a few months). I appreciate the exercise surely, when the weather is good.

I find it quite a problem in winter. The way to dress for winter is by layering. Which basically means you wear clothes in layers, suitable for the weather and maybe your style. This makes transition from the cold outdoors to warm indoors easy - just peel off a layer. But I find the whole exercise cumbersome. Most of the times, the layer I want to take off will be immersed under the layers I want to keep. Then why don't I just wear the layers in my preferred order of taking off? Well, each building is set in a different temperature, and for any given day there is no optimal order of layering that will minimize the pain of adjustments.

And so I grumble.

Watched this today. A witty, imaginative movie which mocks too many stereotypes for me to identify all.
( Over the last couple of weeks )

The first procrastinator probably had a document to submit.

( more.. )

I'm graduating in December.

I have booked my tickets to India.

I'm fairly certain where I will be from Feb 07 onwards. In terms of geography of course.

Sounds like I'm all set for working full time again!

I think I will go back to school. May be after 5 years. May be 10. May be part time. May be academics. May be in a field to which I am completely new. It was not in my mind when I started with my masters last September. But now I feel the ripples of a tiny urge often. A second chance at my second chance.

It is about the freedom of college life. The life and passion in it. It's about the things that you have to do/know/have for yourself before you feel you deserve happiness. The kicks. The simple pleasure of getting a mathematical proof right. The possibilities inside the microcosm of a campus.

I hope I get to do this again.

I want hot soup and chocolate. I want to find the pair of sneakers I lost. I want this horrible throat ache to go away. I want coffee. I want to take an allergy test. I want to work non stop all day and curl and sleep in the night.

Thasssit.