A wedding blessing

Now you will feel no rain
For each of you will be shelter to the other
Now you will feel no cold
For each of you will be warmth to the other
Now there is no more loneliness for you.
Now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two persons but the life ahead of you is one
Go now to your dwelling place
And enter your days of togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon this earth.

- Apache wedding blessing

Congratulations on your wedding, SublimePattern.
May your days be good and long upon this earth too :-)

I TOTALLY know this feeling - too!

I'm not a grad student but at this exact minute, this is how I feel anyway.

Link via Ash.

Case Closed : The Victory Of Justice

The Priyadarshini Mattoo case was one instance where the loopholes in the Indian justice system were brought to the public eye. The gory incident took place in 1996, ten years ago. Today, the Delhi High Court convicted Santosh Kumar Singh, son of a former IPS officer for the crimes he committed.

I used to think then that there was no hope for a country where who you knew mattered more than who you were. That may still be the case, and not just in India but other countries as well - but today, I am honestly glad that I stand corrected, at least in this case.

One thing that I couldn't help but notice : The sentence is to be prescribed 'after Diwali vacation'. I only hope that decision doesn't change.

I just wrote to say....

I write because I want to write. No, really. I write because I want to re-acquaint myself with the language I was once so familiar with. Words that I loved to use once upon a time that are lost now, that resurface unexpectedly, like quiet echoes in a valley. I want to hear laughter through words, and sadness and anger. I laughed today, eating my Oreo cheesecake. I laughed like that years ago, in Leicester Square, eating strawberry cheesecake ice-cream. In childlike glee. Childlike. Glee. See what I mean, words which are so visual they make you understand immediately. They make you SEE immediately. That is the power of words. Take ‘icy stare’. I’d hate to be looked at by someone like that. Or ‘soul-shattering tears’. I’ve cried like that a few times. It really did feel like my soul was being shattered, like I was being asphyxiated by my own self. In today’s world of the omnipresent Internet (how many people with access to the Internet do NOT visit Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google at least once a day), television (likewise for BBC, NDTV, MTV, or Discovery) and radio (ditto Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Magic 105.4 or the radio stations of whichever city you’re in) – all of these being brilliant introductions to the world notwithstanding, I think I’ve lost the comfort I used to have with plain-Vanilla English, as it is written on paper. (Words seem more beautiful to me, somehow, when I see them on paper. Like seeing a bride on her wedding day, as opposed to seeing her in photos. Somehow, reading a book on a computer is not the same as the real thing. And I’ve done that as well – reading an e-book, I mean). Less meaningful conversations with people and more dependence on technology mean less moments to remember Forever. I want to read, and discuss, and debate and converse – and write. I want to swim in turquoise-blue pools.

Of words.

Hyperventilation

It’s a pleasant grey day today here in Bangalore. By pleasant I mean it’s not so overcast you feel the grey of the concrete pavement is a happier colour to look at than the sky. There are tinges of blue even, showing through here and there, and the lake outside my office building looks greener than ever (Yes, green. This lake has never been blue in all the time I’ve looked at it). Funnyman (previously called V, which was highly unimaginative, shame on me) is now living up the New York life while I am being wished farewell and congratulated and tying loose ends up before I quit work next month. Oh, I didn’t mention that I was requested by my boss to stay a few weeks more than initially planned (that essentially means one more trip to good ol’ Portland is in the offing), and I agreed. I’m a bit nervous about what’s going to happen next year, a bit excited, and a bit of me feels like I’m watching the story of someone else’s life on TV or something. I don’t know if that’s usual or I’m just unusual. This whole new phase thing also means that I am not restricted to doing the same thing I was earlier, in terms of work, when I start working again. That also means I don’t know if I should stay on in the corporate world, or go back to the development one, and even if I do stay on in the corporate world then what kind of job do I do? This is one of the quandaries I fall into every time I start thinking about my career, irrespective of the fact that I have never got anything less than a pretty successful performance review every single time I’ve had one, no kidding. I feel I’m sort of a Jack-of-all-Trades (yes I know how that phrase ends but I’m being positive here for a change). Someone once said it’s OK to try out whatever jobs you want to till you’re 30, but after that you need to fall back on the one job that will give you security. I don’t know if I will ever get that fall-back plan in place even when I’m 40! I suppose that’s why I’m marrying someone who is as constant as constant can ever get. In my world of change and often-confusion, that’s a relief.

As an aside, the sun is now shining and the lake looks silver.

Wow, that was one large amalgamation of words. Also one large vent for my current thoughts. Bye for now.

Kiran Desai's 'The Inheritance of Loss' wins the 2006 Man Booker Prize

Two things that I didn't know about this year's Booker Prize winner:

Kiran Desai is the youngest woman ever to win the prize, at 35.

Her mother Anita Desai has been shortlisted three times since 1980, but never won.

Read the press release here. The book sounds intriguing. Must get my hands on a copy soon.

Anonymity, obscurity and the importance of being a blogger

In a piece called ‘Bye Bye Blogger’, the New York Times interviews Lee Siegel, whose blog for The New Republic met with an unhappy ending after he was found to deceive readers by commenting anonymously on his own blog, shooting direct daggers at his enemies and basically telling everyone, in so many words, that he was God’s gift to the blogosphere. A couple of comments Siegel made about bloggers made me think of my own experience in the field of blogging so far:

Q: (…)don’t you think it’s intellectually lame to express one’s opinions
anonymously?

A: I do indeed. Everyone seems to be fleeing from the
responsibilities that come from being who you are. I think that is why the
blogosphere is thriving. It allows people to develop a fantasy self.

Some things I’d like to say in response to this: It is true that I don’t use my real name to blog, just like many others who write witty, entertaining, and/or personal blogs (a few of whom are on my list to the right of this page) but I am certainly not using the blogosphere to create a fantasy self, or alter-ego. I suppose I started out wanting to be anonymous, yes, because I thought (quite naively) that it would give me the freedom to write about things that may be controversial, or even boring (seriously, at that point I did not want to be blogging with the expectation of writing purely about my political views, for example, not that that is necessarily what people would have expected of me) and I would have been able to defend my viewpoints without having to wade through the baggage that others may have had of who I am through their interactions with me in the real world. But that, of course, is no longer true because most of the people I know who read this blog, are actually people I know in real life as well so my Master Plan turned out to be a damp squib :-) Why have I not yet revealed who I am then, you may ask? I guess now it’s just a matter of having got used to being Wanderstruck. And besides, it’s a free world, right?!

And he also says this:

Q: Anonymous bloggers are also saddled with obscurity, which I doubt you would
similarly glorify.
A: That’s right. In their case, anonymity is obscurity’s
rash. At least for those who practice incessant character assassination, which
represents a good portion of the blogosphere, they vent out of the pain of being
unacknowledged.

My thoughts: I know there are people who do leave character-assassinating anonymous comments, but I am not one of those. And as far as anonymous people being obscure is concerned, I’m OK with being obscure to the larger blogging world. Doesn’t bother me in the least! And besides, I may become famous yet!

If dessert be the soul of life, eat on!

I have a weakness for sweets. I admit it openly. I think they are among the things that make life worth living. I mean, do other animals know the difference between strawberry cheesecake and a rasogulla? It's probably all the same to them! The kind of happiness I get from good desserts is slightly difficult to parallel. Those of you who have tasted good food know what I'm talking about. There are people who say we should not live to eat but eat just to get the bare minimum nutrition required - and well, live. I beg to differ.

I've been compiling a list of the best desserts I have tasted in my life so far, and while the list is progressing very slowly (there really are not as many desserts around that send my tastebuds to heaven - average just doesn't bear mentioning here), I think I will put the list up for public display now and keep adding to it as the years go by, instead of waiting till I get a definite number. If anyone reading this has any more suggestions to offer, by all means, do let me know!

1. Banoffee Pie at The Big Chill, New Delhi
2. Oreo Cheesecake at Spiga’s, Bangalore
3. Strawberry Cheesecake ice-cream from Haagen-Dazs with whipped cream and coloured sprinkles on top
4. Hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco
5. Lemon Passion Cake at The Macaroni Grill, Portland, Oregon
6. Watermelon ice cream (seasonal) at Gokul, Santacruz, Bombay
7. My mom’s sponge cake :-)

And the best years of my life are yet to come - whoohoo!

I Rock..and Blogger Beta does too!

I am completely software-programming illiterate. I swear. And yet I was able to carry out some PRETTY funky changes to my blog design, as those of you who are reading this have figured out!

It's the little things in life that make me happy. I am not as clueless as I thought! :-)

Pictures from Portland

6:32 PM in Bangalore

This picture was taken ten minutes ago. It's the view from my office window. They say I have one of the best seats in office :-)