Anecdotal Evidence

Me: I give up. Ed: Just another few thousand words. Come on.. Me: Hmmm Ed: Uh oh ! I don't like that grin 800 steps up to the 80 feet breathtaking monolith. It is dated around 981 and is supposed to Asia's biggest monolith. It has withstood over 1000 years of the onslaughts of weather and continues to impress people from all over. Though proportionally speaking he is less reassuring that Michelangelo's David. (Exeunt philistine) The finish - for example seen in these nails and fingers is just wonderful. I don't know anyone who can even write a few lines on paper without scratching. Imagine a monolith ! Karnataka tourism was simple and impressive. For the kind of crowd the place handles daily, it was very well maintained. We in TN have inscriptions lying about every place, with no idea what the deuce they are about. Sravanabelagola has hundreds of inscriptions. Every inscription has been given a serial number, has a glass case over it and an explanatory note for those i

We Tamils are Hindians too. We bellow hoarse about how annoyed we are with Hindians who land in Rameshwaram and expect to be spoken to in Hindi. However when we travel to any place in the South we expect to be understood in our pristine, divine, classical, ancient tongue by the locals, who - after all, we say, only speak a minor linguistic variant. Much worse, the brethren invariably oblige. "That's not true of all us" you say, well its not true of all Rameshwaram visiting Hindians I will say. Then we can talk about percentages and relative weights of our - heh heh - anecdotal evidence (sheesh !) "Kadubu bEku. undhA ?" I ask in my uncertain linguistic babytalk and the waiter pours sweet sambhar on my enthusiasm with "illai saar. Idli veNumA ?" For a state which has its own flag, the part of Karnataka I visited was too all-welcoming. Particularly Mysore. So much so that I couldn't get a taste of the local cuisine. So most of my conversations went l

I am presently at the age where the loco parentis is gradually reversing. That the pace of reversal can be accelerated has been continually impressed upon me. Based on varying emotional situations I have been likened to Shravana and to Emperor Nero - who played the lute and left for the office when the household was stalled because of a plumbing failure. When the latter situations seem to pile up in memory, in a bid to achieve domestic emotional balance - and at the same time quench our thirst for drinking in all of the world's variety- my parents and I go on vacations. I am usually given a carte blanche in the planning except for one killer clause: any place as long as good filter coffee is available . That leads me to an inevitable digression. > When people like something which I don't, I find it difficult to just walk away. I have to say something. Sometimes I am blunt ("I don't watch hockey...you start watching sports other than cricket then one thing leads to

"My boy" said the editor biting into his cigar and letting a puff of smoke envelope his person. He rocked a bit on his reclining chair and toyed with his suspendor straps and continued "we need something new here" " First things first" I said in way of an ahem, "your 'my boy'ness is misplaced. You see, you aren't exactly the blow-hot blow-cold, talent managing rag runner. You are like a publishing consultant guy who will give me inputs. That is all" "Grhmmph" he replied to my curtness, as his smog thickened. "And could your dress be any more clichéd ? Next you'll want me describing your whiskers and liquor cabinet, so we are switching to dialogue mode rightaway",I sai.. Editor : Grhmmph.. Me : Well ? Ed : There is so much about you that the literary public should know Me : Maybe, but this is a family blog, not a tabloid Ed : No no.., what I mean is you could say write a travelogue Me : Pah..I can't even br

DAE: So, it's been a while, how are things... Me: Writer's blog I guess DAE: Very funny. You know that's not what I meant (crooked grin) Me: Oh ok....well nothing much actually. We are mamihlapinatapai 'ing DAE: Oh I see Me: No you don't.We do.Tee hee DAE: Ugggh ! Grow up will you

Quaint stories are indeed pretty But with them you only get so far Just for a moment stop being witty And write a story that's rated R Regular readers of this blog would know that my sentiments towards the Hindi language aren't exactly what one would call 'fond'.Gobind Ballab Pant shakes his head in disgust. And it took some explaining (to myself too) to establish that it was only socio political and nothing purely linguistic.But of late I have been trying to question these things about my 'beliefs'. I try to sift out some which were perhaps not quite true but just forceful self-reiterations (please do not try this at home). And so the pure linguistic question came up and I was sifting through memories to see what went wrong between Hindi and me. I never believed in this 'relative ease of learning' that is widely touted as Hindi's usp. For instance, you have to know the words for the numbers from 1 to 100 in order to know the words for the numbers fr

I have this intense need to understand words in songs. As none of you knows the real reason, I can dramatize a flashback: My foray into learning singing was cut short when my teacher wouldn't accede to my demand for explaining the lyric: pilachinapalukavunalukakurA. Cut to today. I have been quite taken by Amit Trivedi's latest song : Iktara And to iron out the niggle of not being able to enjoy the song fully I googled up lyric translations done for the benefit of the Hindilliterate rest of us in We, the nation . The word manvA personifying 'mann' at the head of the song was quite interesting. Not sure if that is something Javed Akthar cooked up or it is a prevalent usage - it ties into the beckoning I am familiar with (in a not so previous jenmam I used to respond to PrabhuA). Interesting particularly because it is a personification that used to exist in poems in Tamil. In the very first poem of the thiruvAimozhi, nammAzhwAr's last line reads: துயரறு சுடரடி தொழுது

...is not a good thing. Anyway, to twist a Gounderquote: பிச்சைக்காரனுக்கு insecurity பிச்சைக்காரனே

Lavanya (never new you blogged) passed on a Kreative blogger award to me I would thank her being very perceptive but then I read the clauses and found I had got tagged. I duck tags and would on any given day have ducked "Seven things I love". But I decided not to flatter myself as if I was actually some bitter cynic. I didn't quite like the fact that it took some time for me to come up with this: 1) Idyll . A few weeks back, a friend of mine wakes me up from a Sunday-afternoon slumber. We head to the Loyola grounds just like that with the sun beating down on us heavily. Settle on the sidelines to watch a schoolmatch, applauding the occasional wicket and generally making wisecracks. We used to do that nearly ten years ago. A lot has changed since then but I can easily delve and enjoy the illusion that nothing has changed. No need to know or do. Just be. And denying that time moves. 2) Long walks in unfamiliar cities ...actually in familiar cities too. Just one turn to an

Don't despair even over the fact that you do not despair - Franz Kafka I have had my share of encounters with evangelists. Spooky uncomfortable ones, hilariously silly ones, engrossingly earnest ones. But there was one which got me thinking. It was in LA in the street where the Kodak theatre is. Christmas time shops decked, its all sale mood. There is Scientology church there and there were bunch of relatively young guys sitting with some tomes of Ron Hubbard spread on a table. They had a contraption that measured the pulse as we answered questions. As I was chronically jobless that evening I thought I'd give the guy a chance. He was asking a bunch of questions in the general direction of :"what are you missing in your life ?", what do you think you have it in you to reach out to but can't, how do you feel about living a life of non-greatness etc. While I understood the direction was to finally sell "the book would fill the hole in your life", I tried t

Our Sumo stops at petrol bunk on the Tirunelvely-Papanasam road. The local driver mentions it as the location of the cellphone-comedy scene starring Vadivelu, from the movie Vel. I recall it : a pretty bland scene - to be polite- from an ordinary movie - to be politer. I was the youngest is the chock-full Sumo which contained, besides others, an octagenarian former civil servant, a retired professor of English literature and a literary critic. Every single one of them was able to recall the quoted scene without trouble ------------------- From the opening scene of Manhattan: Isaac Davis (voice-over): To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture

Specifically themed Western classical CDs I saw in Landmark ... Making out toMozart Shacking up with Chopin Apparently there is also a Bedroom bliss with Beethoven

"...lots of dialogues are in Maharashtrian" Overheard at Sathyam when watching Kaminey ...we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.

I forsee an Ambedkar-style caged existence for Thiru VaLLuvar. Was googling up his opposite number, who is coming up in Natesan Park as a compromise measure. The man who took up the modest moniker Sarvajna , immediately caught my fancy with: " Dinner without butter milk is like a lady without shy".

Colleague- trying to sound prompt - on a call with a new phoren client, with a prospective long term relationship ahead: We will do the analysis today only

Girl's father: One Club Boy: One Diamond Boy's realist counsel: One spade Girl: Two Hearts Girl's father: Two No tramp Boy: Double

Mugabe's still got it I mean you, must grant the old man his due for the sheer ingenuity of it. I have decided to take his side and build up the plausibilty of the accusation, which detractors may feel is on the weaker side. So here I go: He has his stuff in sackful but a little more is always helpful - PG Wodehouse

Apparently in one of her scrapbooks when writing Fountainhead, Ayn Rand wrote a note to herself that read: "Don't dialogue thoughts". Guess that's some kind of inside joke, as dialoguing thoughts is what she majored in. Kurosawa apparently used to have a co-writer whose only job was to blow the whistle. i.e. say "Ah...you are cheating. That's a convenient conversation. That character won't speak/act like that himself. You are making him speak/act thus because your story demands it". In Unbearable Lightness, Milan Kundera dismantles characters in full view of the reading public. He pauses to comment:" It would be senseless for the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived. They were not born of a mother’s womb; they were born of a stimulating phrase or two or from a basic situation. " Yet we, I mean I, remain perpetually wedded to notions of credibility. That what we are reading is a life and we can't

A confection whose taste defies classification. Prepared once a year for grandfather's remembrance feast. It easily trumps rationality and makes a sufficient case for upholding tradition.

What could my mother be to yours? What kin is my father to yours anyway? And how Did you and I meet ever? But in love our hearts have mingled as red earth and pouring rain - translated by AKRamanujan (Kuruntokai 40) The identity of the man who wrote the original lines is unknown. He goes by the attributed pseudonym sempulappeyalneerar (quite literally 'the red earth and pouring rain' dude).A few years back I read about AKR's translation making it to the series of international poems in the London subway. I was naturally excited that something I thought intensely local was sufficiently universal in context to make it there. "Well it was deemed universal enough to be translated into English, dummy" I had to remind myself. Popular culture then took away my baby. The lines made it to film songs... twice.There was an Indianenglish novel with that title. It is a matter of time before newscasters use the expression daily and wring the imagery dry. The sense of proximity

Accent is something other people have. Kind of the same with colloquialism too. I came to realize only when I moved to Chennai that many of the bread-and-butter usages in my Tamil were local to Madurai. However certain colloquialisms seem to be chaste expressions that have lost currency in the more 'formal' language that exists today. I keep running into them very now and then. Here's the most recent one... மொத்து a common expression for 'a good thrashing' is something I haven't heard outside Madurai. Yesterday I was in Thiruvaathavoor. Birthplace of the poet-saint ManickavAsagar. The temple of had a sannidhi for him with one of his poems written in a plaque outside. Describes legends about SivaperumAn including the story of how he was whipped by a Pandiyan King. பண்சுமந்த பாடற் பரிசு படைத்தருளும் பெண்சுமந்த பாகத்தன் பெம்மான் பெருந்துறையான் விண்சுமந்த கீர்த்தி வியன்மண்ட லத்தீசன் கண்சுமந்த நெற்றிக் கடவுள் கலிமதுரை மண்சுமந்து கூலிகொண் டக்கோவால் மொத்துண்டு புண்சும

The man returned to the lower office and sat down again at his desk. He stared intently at the incomplete phrase: In no case shall the said Bernard Bodley be... and thought how strange it was that the last three words began with the same letter. The chief clerk began to hurry Miss Parker, saying she would never have the letters typed in time for post. The man listened to the clicking of the machine for a few minutes and then set to work to finish his copy. But his head was not clear and his mind wandered away to the glare and rattle of the public-house. It was a night for hot punches. He struggled on with his copy, but when the clock struck five he had still fourteen pages to write. Blast it! He couldn't finish it in time. He longed to execrate aloud, to bring his fist down on something violently. He was so enraged that he wrote Bernard Bernard instead of Bernard Bodley and had to begin again on a clean sheet. - from Counterparts by James Joyce

Let us consider the rebus principle utilized in logo-syllabic scripts. Most signs were originally pictures denoting the objects or ideas they represented. But abstract concepts such as 'life‘ would be difficult to express pictorially. Therefore the meaning of a pictogram or ideogram was extended from the word for the depicted object to comprise all its homophones. For example, in the Sumerian script the drawing of an arrow meant 'arrow', but in addition 'life' and 'rib', because all three words were pronounced alike in the Sumerian language, namely ti. Homophony must have played a role in folklore long before it was utilized in writing. The pun between the Sumerian words ti 'rib' and ti 'life' figures in the Sumerian paradise myth, in which the rib of the sick and dying water god Enki is healed by the Mistress of Life, Nin-ti. But the Biblical myth of Eve's creation out of Adam's rib no more makes sense because the original pun has

I'm reading a book by Su.Ki. Jayakaran on Lemuria aka the lost Kumari continent. (குமரி நில நீட்சி by kalachuvadu publications). He traces the history of the pseudo-scientific Lemurian myth, its growth into a holy-cow, colonial politicization of Indian archaeology, anthropological history of India, polemics of linguistic research etc. He dismantles the myth effortlessly by simply showing the quality of 'historical research' that has been done around this subject and placing the evidences that has come from more obviously pertinent oceanographic tools that have been applied very late. This post is not about Lemuria. The book is written directly in Tamil and not translated into Tamil from English. Jayakaran is the brother of the more popular columnist Theodore Bhaskaran - who writes about environmental issues and ornithology and is also a national award winning film hisorian. He contributes to the Hindu as well notable middle-brow journals in Tamil. Jayakaran too contributes

Weekend + Car + Ilayaraja + Manickavasagar

“What the Journal posits is not the tragic question, the Madman's question: "Who am I?", but the comic question, the Bewildered Man's question: "Am I?" A comic --a comedian, that's what the Journal keeper is.” - Roland Barthes, Deliberation To endow the writer publicly with a good fleshly body, to reveal that he likes dry white wine and underdone steak, is to make even more miraculous for me, and of a more divine essence, the products of his art. Far from the details of his daily life bringing nearer to me the nature of his inspiration and making it clearer, it is the whole mystical singularity of his condition which the writer emphasizes by such confidences. For I cannot but ascribe to some superhumanity the existence of beings vast enough to wear blue pajamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience.” - Roland Barthes, The writer on Holiday

Publication is the auction of the mind of men - Emily Dickenson Auction 1: அமுதசுரபி ஜூன் '09

Long autobiographical blurb ahead. Blame mutruppuLLi's nice post for spurring this confessional. There is an RK Narayan story aboout a man who spends his fortieth birthday in a park (not going to work !) thinking of how nothing has actually changed in his life as he grew older. He had the same tendencies, weaknesses, joys and fears but just cloaked differently. Magician that he is, somehow RKN made it sound like a happy realization ! I am hunting for that story. June '00 Q: Why economics after PCM ? A: I hate physics. I refuse to submit to it. Three years of being looked at with eyes of pity by uncles who were considering the calamity had befallen my parents Jun '03 Q:What now ? A: Masters in Economics I guess Q: Why ? You like it so much ? A: Hmm... actually I learnt squat these three years so I am trying to justify my past.... Q: ....!?! A: You'll atleast have to grant me the freshness in that argument Jun '05 Q: What now ? A: I like this reading and writing stuf

One Deepika Padukone please Smoking or non-smoking sir ? Non smoking....but can I have it in wheatish ? History has shown that a face can launch a thousand ships - Murugavel Janakiraman

அவர்கள் அவர்கள் பங்குக்கு உதைகள் வாங்கும் காலத்தில் உனக்கு மட்டும் கிடைத்தாற் போல் சின்னக் கண்ணா அலட்டாதே. - ஞானக்கூத்தன் ( உதை வாங்கி அழும் குழந்தைக்கு ) In these days when each one gets His share of kicks in the rear Don't make a fuss as if its just You who get it my dear

For good quoting. there should be originality in the quoter - bent, bias, delight in truth, and only valuing the author in measure of his agreement with the truth, which we see, and which we had the luck to see first - Ralph Waldo Emerson

One is only to oneself. Even that is not wholly true. And to other people one is only what one does. And the trial begins

The problem with recycled space-fillers is that before one knows it becomes main course. That sentence presumes things about the main course. Let go of such self-consciousness and keep things going. Friday night I dream of two Unfettered days that's called weekend The week was sold for bread and brew Now all the time is mine to spend Seductive unread pile of books (The read pile is a sandclenched fist) Spring cleaning due the house it looks Other errands from my mother's list Unnanounced aunts just happen to drop in Liberty with my plans they take 'Read later now come with us shopping He can wait that William Blake' Possessive pronouns for Time's a blunder We exist together and not asunder

Charlie Kaufman (voice-over):The only thing I'm actually qualified to write about is myself and my own self - Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) In his essay sixty three words, Milan Kundera speaks about the process of " dizzying reduction that reduces lives to our social functions ". He argues that the novel's raison d'etre is to exist resisting this reduction and champion the spirit of complexity saying things aren't simple. But with the quote above I have attempted to do exactly that kind of reduction and with limited success. Times demand you reduce and not do justice to your reading experience. Quite possible when you it is impressive stuff but not quite possible when it is flooring. You throw the pencil away because every line is underlinable and the experience of reading is just that. No occasion to be quote happy or express well enough why it is magical. That's how I feel about Adaptation . Revisited and floored again. If you want to write well, you sho

Farmer suicides, state sponsored genocides, cross-border terrorism, corporate frauds and such yawn. Then they get all high and moral about why we don't exercise franchise. As if there is a new opinion out there to side with. All barks soaked in the same puddle. But try touching our mp3s and we will smite thee with political philosophy and unified action. “We young people have a whole platform on the internet, where we have all our social contacts - it is there that we live,” said Malin Littorin-Ferm of the party’s Ung Pirat youth league to the crowd in Stockholm. “The state is trying to control the internet and, by extension, our private lives.” Must check if these guys are contesting in Central Chennai. We have no 4% limit , ours is an organized free-for all.

A caterpillar this deep in autumn still not a butterfly -Matsuo Basho

Modern Stupidity means not ignorance but the nonthought of received ideas - Milan Kundera

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo So, next time something doesn't make sense here, dear reader, you have only yourself to blame.

I am all for incest and tortured souls in moderation, but a good laugh from time to time never hurt anybody - PG Wodehouse It is for things like that that the man is arguably one of the most loved in the history of the world. People - like this author- wear his badge and profess their admiration. After a critical mass it also becomes one of those signs of 'culture' ------ SathyaRaj: pEr ennanga GoundaMaNi: mArimuthu Gounder 'nga.... SR: ........ GM: siva gOthram , kiruthikai natchathram... archanaiyai aarambikkalaamE I watched this last night before shutting down and retiring with a hearty laugh. But it got me thinking. Apparently this is how it should be. Humorists are supposed to make you think and thus justify their existence in this weighty world. But this one was not that kind of thinking. It was about the man who made me laugh. This man will be lost in history. He suffers from multiple handicaps.. Film heros, writers, musicians, sportspersons and poets will all find

Life - now that's a big word- but well written works make you shed your inhibitions and wax eloquent on such weighty stuff providing you the temporary illusion that you are equal to it. Anyway, life is a string of evidences. Thoughts, tendencies and such formless things do not by themselves complete life. Life demands occurrences as concrete proofs of these things. And these demands are not externally placed on us. Each of us demand it of ourselves. Only events leave their impressions on life. Possibilities that did not materialize wane in definition over time. States of mind and pressures that dominated our consciousness at some point vanish without a trace. Only events stay. Where does this event-based memory start ? From one's actions ? Or from occurrences one recalls ? If so, then occurrences one recalls precede one's existence. Why they are indeed more vital considering the germ of one's existence is from the action of two individuals. It is inevitable for man to

பாலைத்திணையதில் வாகைக்களிப்பதை பொருத்துவதில்லை நற்பாணர் சாலைக்கடந்திட தேவைநெறிமுறை மீறுவதுண்டே சிலபொழுது ஏழையிவனது உவகைநினைவுகள் உட்படவில்லை சட்டகத்துள் காளையுட்புகு பீங்கான்கடையதை நினைவில் நிறுத்திய ஒரு பொழுது மாலைசித்திரை வெயில்மணலது சூறாவளியில் சுழன்றதுபோல் ஓராளை எதிர்கொள மஞ்சள்ளணிபவர் பத்தோடொருவரும் உழன்றாரே வாளைவீசுடும் வேங்கையொன்றதை சொல்லிலடைப்பதும் சாத்தியமோ ஏழையிவனது ஆசைக்கெனவோர் அரிசிப்பதத்துடன் நிறுத்திடுவேன் ஜ்வாலைப் பார்வையை கண்ணிலிருத்தி சடுதியில் வீசிடும் காஸ்ப்ரோவிச் பாலை எதுவோ மிதசுழற்பந்தன் எவனோ ஒருவன் போட்டதுபோல் சேலை அணிந்திடும் மாதர் அவரது நளினம் கலந்த கொலைவெறியில் மூலை ஒன்றதில் ஆழக்களித்திடும் மாந்தர் இடமதிற் பதித்தானே நாளைமுதுமையில் பேரும் பாலும் உறவும் மறக்க நேர்ந்திடுமோ ஓலைப்படுக்கையை நோக்கிடும்போது நாரணன் பேர் சொல மறந்திடுமோ ஒரு வேளை - அதுபோல் இதுவும் ஒருநாள் மறந்திடுவேன் என பயங்கொண்டே வாலைப்பருவ காலத்தில் கண்ட பேரழகிங்கிதை வரைந்துவைத்தேன்

"Ma'am, Prabhu here doesn't believe in God" he said. He was a typical specimen I was forced to spend school-life with. Uglier in the same uniform with an expression displaying unfathomable levels of stupidity and cruelty. There are numerous ways a nine year old can mess with another. I don't recall what I had done. It could have been something as mundane like flicking his pencil. The vindictive rascal gets back at me by putting me in a spot in value education class. He was a clever chap, I must grant him that. That "gotcha" grimace of his made it clear that he understood putting me in a spot where I had to explain myself to the rest of the class was more painful than socking me in the jaw. The teacher was waiting with an unasked why. The class was teeming with rebuttals to whatever smartass logical arguments I may make - just that I had none. It was something that happened. As a nine year who could spell agnostic, things were never going to be smooth. So

'Plain quoters are a dozen a dime So add your take don't lay it bare' 'About a craftsman in his prime An explanation I shall dare When it's a True Artist I'm Contended just to gape and stare Perhaps write a doodling rhyme And just proceed to humbly share' From 'Chicago Zen' by AKR Watch your step, watch it, I say, especially at the first high threshold, and the sudden low one near the end of the flight of stairs, and watch for the last step that's never there.

அணங்கு ஆயினள் தான் பிறந்த ஊர்க்கே - மருதனிள நாகனார் (புறம் 349) Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? - Christopher Marlow, Doctor Faustus

Winters Rains and Consolations Broken rubbers, Miscalculations These are our Honorable Roots Whether or not it suits Our Thoughtful Interpretations (2004)

Think of what you're saying. You can get it wrong and still you think that it's all right. - The Beatles Jack : When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just... Marla : - instead of just waiting for their turn to speak? (Fight Club)

Don't think of it as dumbing it down. That is condescending and incorrect. But when you can snip out aspects of your personality which are not as essential as you would like to think they are, then you - and I mean everyone - would be more accessible and categorizable. But isn't it all about growing in all possible directions and realizing all that we can. Most welcome sir. But for your own good, keep the dichotomy between "what you are" and "what you do" clear. As in "You like flowers" vs. "you are a flower liker". To expect "like like same same"s is to inflate your liking for flowers. You don't like them that much really. Confusing causal cycles there but worth trying. But it's going to be tough.Particularly with others, what they do is what they are. They are either that or not. Poetic appreciation for instance. Let me use a lovely phrase from நற்றிணை for example. வினை முடித்தன்ன இனியோள் . Roughly translates to &quo

Baldrick : I heard that it ( World War I ) started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry. Edmund Blackadder : I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot. Baldrick : Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir DAE : You don't not exist in vaccuum. Reactions to the world and its realities are expected from you. You can't just keep talking about yourself and expect people to be interested. Me :I see that...but the problem with opinions is one things leads to another .... I stick to stuff that interests me DAE : Cricket interests you and yet there was not a word about the attack on cricketers in Lahore... Me : ...There is carpet bombing and mass murder happening next door as we speak, it would be inconsistent and absurd to make noise about this minor hassle DAE : Okay if that disturbs you so much why don't you write about it ? Me : Wall perching is better when you don't know enough about the facts DAE

Snooty literary standards are injurious to health. Poets are nasty, particularly about other poets. Perhaps being nasty in poetry is a way to assure oneself of his poetic status. Add to that something that can be retrospectively be labeled as both chauvinistic and juvenile. Or just plain naughty.... It Shows Ugly Sight. What's the honest thing to do ? All that matters should be the mind-content But honestly its only the beauty. One has to be cruel with a kind intent And do a friend's moral duty. Thou art lover summon some gall To tell her straight she'd rather shed all Pretensions of art. When her poetry has no fire It shows.

The airlines announcer can't say this the last boarding call , when it quite clearly is not. She can't say this is a final boarding call - which, while being the most honest thing to say is unlikely to achieve a thing. So the poor dear says: " this is final boarding call... ". And you thought Indians were just careless with prepositions !

When you take something unoriginal and put your stamp on it by trying to rhyme, then I guess that may be termed re-verse. I mean, what is original anyway... As it goes in Latin: prudens interrogatio dimidium scientiate - all that a scientist discovers in a fact is the language in which he enunciates it. So here's an old joke.... In another instance, quoted from the dictatorial regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, Mr Luther said Zia's barber used to ask the General when he would usher in the promised democracy.An annoyed General once admonished the barber for asking the question repeatedly and wanted to know how he was concerned with democracy. The barber replied: "General, I have no idea what democracy means, but every time I ask the question, your hair stand on end and it makes my job easy!" And now it is mine: அரும்பெரும் அண்டை நாடாம் பாகிஸ் தானம் அதற்கு ஒரு தலைவன் அரசது வமைக்கு மொரு முறையாம் ஜன நாயக மதற்கே செறு பகைவன் மறுமொழி கேளா ஜெனரல் ஜியா என்றால் அண்டம் நடுங்

"Our sambhar may be sweet, our women too forward, our government right-wing, we may have opened the gates to a greater integration with -what the informed rightly call - the North Indies...But sir, at the end of the day, we have Cubbon Park. Your city does not." he said dipping a slice of his kadubu into a cup of liquid jaggery. I smiled patronizingly. "The reason for that is quite simple sir" , I said dusting the sand off my gentle moustache. "You see, a place like Cubbon Park with its deceptive sense of idyll encourages all and sundry to attempt poetry. Even I came within an ace of that this weekend about Eden, Fall of Man and all. Scary, no ? We - the Hindu reading population of Madras - take our role as protectors of our national language quite seriously. That is why we make do with Panagal Park and even build flyovers next to it. Even with that, our boundless imagination sometimes threatens to make us susceptible to poetic afflatus. Then, we sit down and

Work is the curse of the drinking class - Oscar Wilde திங்கள் விடிந்தால் காதைத் திருகி இழுத்துக் கொண்டு போகிறது - Gnanakkoothan It's good to have land - Stewie Griffin

G.K.Chesterton most famously said Angels fly because they take themselves lightly Let's ignore that and celebrate the virtue of self-consciousness along the lines of Matsuo Basho the founding-father, so to speak, of Haiku. He once recalled something he wrote ten years earlier and mentioned to his pupil, how the last line should have been re-written. A poem is never really completed, only abandoned - Paul Valery via AKR Here is something abandoned in 2004, 2006 and 2007 and further scissored down further this morning Brittle Beauty A moment’s beauty is always there For every creature that was around It’s only those who’ve some to spare Who give hope of life unbound. But then there are morals, then there is shame And worse: ‘each one has an innate talent’ God! Whoever said ‘twas a fair game? It’s just us cynics who are gallant The rest go armed with handkerchieves That play purdah to the eager eyes Evolution indeed from the days of fig leaves But then, Adam hadn’t a choice So here

Often I feel like the girl in "If Tomorrow Comes" who plays chess with the American and Russian. To the technical guys I am the business guy To the business guys I am the technical guy I speak of Tamil literature to 'English medium' friends Moffusil politics to Chennaites I'm the conservative's liberal and liberal's conservative All that, I assure you -not in a show-offy manner. But in a simple what-can-I-bring-to-this-table contributory way. I could be the only screenwriter who plays the oboe - Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation But what's impressive about the iceberg is that we assume there's more from where it came from. We know we only see a part of its monstrous size and rest is below the water. The difference is, the knowledgable man doesn't sync enough. To be judgemental on this is being unrealistic. Biting off more than you can chew is a virtue in Tamil culture. So it took me some alienation to appreciate the wisdom in.. I'm always amaze