Day 67 : Poems

I have a friend who is a big fan of poetry. Writes a little of it himself, mostly in tamil. And mostly in old Tamil which consists of two many complicated words that we generally used in common dialogues now. So obviously makes it a lot tougher for me to comprehend. But once he gets around to explaining to me what these words mean, I turn and compliment him on the great poem it was. Then he starts on his usual rant over how poetry is dead.

I am not kidding, this is like a routine now. Every other weak he sends over a text with a peom and voice clip of him reciting it. I reply to him asking a few meanings. He calls up to explain the meaning of them words. I understand them, he reads the whole thing again, I compliment him on how good the poem was. He starts his usual rant. Which goes on for about ten minutes, or the end of the talktime on his mobile, whichever comes first.

I do get what he's saying though. I mean, how many of us really do the whole poetry thing anyway. Everything that we see is in prose (or rap). Even the new Spoken Word fad is really just prose words written in rhyme. I sort of do miss the whole poetry style that we had in the earlier times. And some of them were really good. Poetry can say so much about so many things, in so few words. I love it!

These are the one's that most recently caught my attention - 

Day 66 : Eggs In The Basket

I think it was Warren Buffet, who said, 

'Do not put your eggs in many baskets.

Keep all your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket closely.'

I do get what he was talking about now. 

Why you ask? Well let’s just say that I've been graced with an array of a few very exciting eggs for the past couple of months. Few very interesting prospects indeed. Things were looking to get all the more interesting very soon as well. But of late, mostly this month, I've been witnessing them eggs go to rot one by one. Not a pretty sight as you could obviously guess. And not a single thing I can do about it either. 

Don't fret now, this not going to be a depressing post with my whining about stuff. I am not one to spill my shit in the open. At least not on this blog, I have another blog for my thinly veiled autobiographical fiction.

Anyways, back to the eggs. There are a few things in there, I think now, that I could've handled better and sooner. But most of these things were as then kept on a slow flame cooking away, so I'd obviously thought to give it sometime, let it all stew for a while. Thought everything will play out just fine in the end. A very amateur move indeed. When has anything ever come anybody's way by just waiting for it? Woody Allen famously said - 'Eighty percent of success is just showing up.' Well damn, there wasn't even much of a chance of showing up in here. If at all there was, nobody clued me in anything about the location.

My point in all of this is - Mr. Buffet was right. 

You see, when there are a lot of things going around with you. You end up juggling all of them simultaneously and inevitably raising the chances of them fouling up on you pretty soon. One by one all of your chances have gone kaput. When so many things are going on, there is really not much chance for you to concentrate on one specific thing. And you end up giving a lot of the stuff up to chance and luck. These little thing that you over look or just plain think as inconsequential, are the things that come up out of the blue and bite you in the ass. Luck is never a harbinger of success. Luck is just a friend that comes by to meet you once in a blue moon, only to find that he's got the wrong address and gets cozy with the lady staying at the wrong door he knocks. Luck never gets to you when you need it, even when it does come to you a lot if it is plain cross connection.

And how often does that really happen?

Getting your hopes in a bunch of different things will only get you day dreaming a lot more. Start avoiding putting in the extra effort you usually does. Even start being smug with the people around you. I guess it is much practical to hope for one thing at a time, and prime up all your efforts for just that one thing.

This way you are giving this one thing your all, you have the most to say about what the outcome is, you are in CONTROL.

This will also mean that when things get sour, you have nobody else to blame but your damn self. Nobody likes to own up to any of the blame, and just to avoid that there is a good chance that you will start working extra hard for the thing that you desire. You are in CONTROL.

These things have a lot to do with our own sense of purpose I suppose. We cannot just waltz through life thinking that good things would just be dropped into our laps. Wish it were that easy. Some blows in life will take you by surprise; some will take your breath away. But every single blow thrown at you will make you wary of the next. You will be aware if life tries to sucker punch the same way again. And if you let it happen again, you can't really blame anyone for it. You've taken it before, and still were no wiser for it the next time. It is wholly your fault.

I suppose we all could be more unidirectional with our progress through life. You cannot go to sleep wishing to be an astronaut one day and dream of being a musician the next. Things have to happen gradually and over a long strenuous period of time. And all through that long duration, you have to bust you ass working on whatever it is you desire. That ONE thing you desire.

Get all of the eggs that you want for yourself. Club them into this one big dream basket.

Work. Your. Ass. Off.

Make sure that basket doesn’t come down torn on top of you, with egg yolk and egg shells all over your head, and you looking like a darn fool.

Day 65 : Nothing Important

I am reading Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King right now. Pretty good book with the usual King-ness to it; quirky, weird and whole lot unnerving. But this post is not to be a book review that is to come later.

I am pretty sure about my vocabulary depth. But every once in a while whenever I am reading a book I come across a word that throws me off balance. Mostly I try to guess it based on the context but sometimes the word is so mysterious there is no hint at what it means. That happens mostly while reading anything by Dan Brown, that guy must sit with a freaking thesaurus while writing most of his mysterious words are also of the most rarely used breed. Our King does the same as well, but his 'new' words are usually in context and once you look up its meaning you cannot think of any more conventional word that could take its place.

Today's word -

Alacrity /əˈlakrədē/ (noun)

A brisk and cheerful readiness.

That's a rather beautiful word, isn't it? Even saying it out loud gives a little jump in your decibels. It really does do justice to the notion it is supposed to stand for. I sort of do think I need to change my Twitter handle and self-bio everywhere else now. This word does seem apt. I must be alacritous about every damn thing on this planet.

Today we were in this conference call with a bunch of folks from work, vendors and client analysts. Usual project health analysis and stuff. Blah blah. The light goes dim, the presentation starts. The same PowerPoint goes up on everybody's screen that’s joined the meeting from home. In between somebody pings on my mobile from within the room, a colleague asking anybody up to skip the meeting halfway? Who do you think was the first person out? Yours truly.

(Only one other skipped with me though, the rest - traitors)

Anyway. This was a completely pointless post about a WORD. There you go. Now you know how bored I am right now.

(Except Mr. Mercedes of course. This one is bloody brilliant!)

Day 64 : Fahrenheit 451 - Book Review

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare breed of writers who is capable of creating whole new universes out of very few words. This is only the second book of his I've read. Only just as big as my palm, and as thick as my thumb. Considering the type of work he usually does, this is a very big accomplishment. His books deal with aliens, and weird species, and the supernatural, and a distant possible dystopian future. Things and events in his book are usually out of this world, unfamiliar and unknown to the readers. Him being able to transport you to that place, is by itself is a big accomplishment. But doing it in such a small bulk of a book, without intimidating the novice reader, which is a feat worth singing ballads for.

I am a big fan of his writing. And F 451 makes my resolve even stronger. This book at first couple dozen page feels like something out of The Twilight Zone, incidentally he's written for that show as well. The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman working for a City in an unspecified future. Only in this world, the fireman's responsibility is not to put out the fire but to cause it. In this future, it is believed that books and informational print of any sort is the cause for world's downward spiral. A world where any progressive thought or belief not pre-approved or mandated by the System is illegal. The world here is addicted to TV stories and soap drama (inspiration for Hunger Games?). This norm seemed to work for the most of the population there. Most of the people here know only of this world, and hence are content with it. And now and then if any books are to be discovered, down comes the firemen to douse it in liquid flames.

Come one day, during another routine day at work our hero goes to a house where it was alerted to the authorities a bunch of books were hidden away. They get to work; tear down the walls and drapes. Gather all the books they could find, pour kerosene over it and one by one move to the front lawn leaving one behind to put it all to fire. That guy is Montag. And he is in a dilemma; the lady of the house who hid the books doesn't want to leave them. She'd rather burn along with them. That passion, that level of attachment to a few glued together sheets of paper confuses Montag. And here starts our story. With a woman hugging her books, inside a house put to flames by one of Montag's coworkers.

This book has only a handful of characters, but each so rich and so important to the storyline. You will feel attached to all of them, feel like you've known them for ages. And the philosophical monologues, that almost all of them inevitably has in this book proves to be more riveting than obnoxious.

There is a storyline much like this in one of the short stories in his other book, Illustrated Man. Both times the world he writes of, a world without books did scare the living crap out of me. That would be one sad world indeed.

This book is a must read for all book lovers. Something to pick up on a lazy Friday afternoon, complete before it is evening tea time on Saturday. And spend rest of the weekend, having day nightmares about a world without your favorite books.

The terror.

Day 63 : Why I Will Not Mourn Jon Snow.

This morning the internet is filled with a lot of hue and cry over last night's death of Jon Snow, Bastard of Winterfell and the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

(If you have no clue what I am talking about, stop reading. Leave. Just leave)

I can understand where all that is coming from, honestly I do. Lord Snow is a very relatable character. Honorable and naive to a fault. And though it is a popular belief that He Knows Nothing, every time when faced against great odds he always comes through, every single time. And come on, he dueled with and killed a White Walker single handedly. Who else living in all of Westeros can say that. (Sam Tarly's was a fluke, doesn't count.)

That I think is the main reason why I just won't mourn Eddard Stark's bastard yet. The ASIOF and GOT both need a hero, someone we can all root for. Jon Snow has been playing that role for a while now. And as is the tradition of the Andals, the honorable men are always to be first beaten down, weakened, slaughtered, but always find a way back to power (or life). Come back with a bang and bring havoc to those that wronged them (remember Lady Stoneheart?).

There are a bunch of theories out there about what is really going to happen in the coming months and years in Westeros and Essos. Some of which G R R Martin has secretly hinted at being true. And a lot many of which involve Jon Snow. True, this mutiny happens in the books as well, maybe not exactly for the reasons as it does in the show. But yes, Jon does get stabbed by a lot many of his sworn bothers. And yes, all of them do so saying "For the Watch". In the book as it is in the show, Snow is there dying. No doubt about that. But he is not shown to be dead yet.

(And in the show... um, have you noticed Jon Snow's eyes when he lies there? The pupils dilate. Who's to say whether it was by plan or not. Who's to say that is not a hint that he's been transported into Ghost? After all he is rumored to be a warg isn't he?)

But most of all, the reason I WILL NOT mourn Jon Snow is one very specific theory about the final outcome of the Song Of Ice and Fire. - The Three Headed Dragon.

We all know there are at present three dragons in Westeros - Drogon, Rhaegal, Viserion

Did you know there are supposedly three other Targaryen at present in Westeros. Yes, Daenerys Stormborn is not the only one. Guess who?

Candidate 1:

Tyrion Lannister - Dwarf. Imp. Father Slayer. Remember that part where his father says when Tyrion shoots him in the gut for the second time? "You are no son of mine." Agreed anyone can see it as a hate spouted off of on a spoilt child shooting arrows at his father. Perfectly understandable. 

But did you know that, in the book Tyrion has one green eye (Lannister trait) and one black (Like Daenery's). Also Tyrion's hair is said to be more of a platinum blonde than the usual Lannister golden. Rumor has it. Tywin Lanninster's wifey Joanna had something with the Mad Kind, of which Tyrion was born. The outcome of the mating of the Lion and the Dragon was supposed to be ill-fated, hence the birth of the malformed infant and the death of the mother. Hearsay? Maybe. But you gotta agree, he'd be a brilliant ruler.

Candidate 2:

Jon Snow - Bastard. Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Wields the Longclaw. Rumored to be wargs with his pet direwolf 'Ghost'. As mentioned before are a lot of theories floating around about the parentage of Jon Snow. Most popular being "R + L = J". 

All along Jon's lifetime and our history with the books and the show it is been repeatedly mentioned that Jon's the son of Ned Stark, born of a woman he'd had a thing with when he was off warring with long time pal Robert Baratheon. And it is also been said repeatedly, even after his demise, that how much of a honorable man Lord Eddard Stark really is. So I sort call bullshit on the theory that this big mighty honorable man let it all go for a bit of action some damp lonely night, allegedly with Ashara Dayne. I just can't fathom Daddy Stark doing that. But how about him taking the fall for somebody else? Somebody he thought he'd be able to protect if he took the blame for fathering this child? Somebody whose protection was his solemn oath to somebody he loved dearly.

Remember Lyanna Stark princess of Winterfell? Remember her last words to Ned Stark? "Promise me, Ned". What does she want Ned to promise her? How about her child with Rhaegar Targaryen. A son. Jon Snow. A child born with the blood of the First Men and of the Dragon. The last of child of the d     ragon lineage, a dynasty that Robert had sworn to kill off no matter what. So avoid a nasty argument with his bro, Ned just takes the baby boy back to Winterfell and raises him as his own child. Now that's something like what an honorable man like Ned Stark would do.

Tentative Candidate 3:

Aegon Targaryen. There is a character from the books that has not so far showed up in the show. A child with Elia Martell. Another of Rhaegar's. So this one has the Dornish and Dragon blood running in his veins. And supposedly has a bigger claim to the Iron Throne than his aunt Daenery's.

By now we all know, the really war that is coming is not for sitting on the Iron Throne, but for survival against the Others and the White Walkers. To that effect throughout the story there has been two main Prophecies mentioned - Azor Ahai and the Prince that was Promised.

Now with all that information injected into you.

Let me paint you picture about the final battle scene of the ASOIAF/GOT.

We’re at a famous historical spot in Westeros, Moat Catlin. The same spot where the Children of the Forest camped to keep the First Men at bay. 

To the north there is the largest army ever seen in all of Westeros and Essos and Asshai and the Seven Seas. The army of the dead men, and wights, and polar bears, and giants, and ice spiders, and other ghostly cold ghouls of the Old Nan’s stories. The vanguard is a battalion of White Walkers in their special armor and weapons of ice. And their Leader King, maybe the Night King. He strong, ruthless, and commands the most deadly host ever seen.

This is a very intimidating sight.

Opposing them, to the south, is an army of all of the Andals joined together as one.  The Greyjoys, and Boltons, and Lannisters, and the Baratheons, and the Mormonts, and the Arryn, and the Khals and the Face Less Men, and Meerenese, and the Children of the Forest, and the wildlings. And the Targaryen.The leaders of each of the large houses are at the vanguard. Including three Dragons. Mounted by three Targaryens.

The Mother of Dragons rides on Drogon. Tyrion Lannister riding Rhaegar. Young Aegon on Viserion. The leader of them all Jon Snow. Brought back to life by Lord of Fire. Riding his dire wolf, Ghost, with flaming red eyes. His sword of Valyrian steel, Longclaw, is now the flaming Lightbringer. His whole body radiates heat. He is Azor Ahai. Young Aegon is the Prince that was Promised.

Together they shall all wage a glorious war against the Darkness...

Now tell me. Don't you think something like that would turn up in the final chapters of ASOIAF?!

(Ooh mama. Bring it on!)

Day 62 : Gone Girl - Book Review

"I am a great husband because I am very afraid she may kill me."

There aren't many books out there that have that one line which gives away the complete plot altogether.

This book is like the "How to Scare the Living Crap Out of your Husband, enough to Make Him Stay Married with You" manual for newlywed wives. Any person man/woman ought to read this once when they get that giddy feeling to get hitched to the one they are currently porking. Then sit and contemplate whether they are really smart enough to out-maneuver their spouses in matters of pure evil. This book would bring things into perspective.

Say what you must about the storyline - Amy Elliott Dunne is one craaazy conniving genius!

She is the best part of the book. And the flow and texture of the book will help you in keep coming back to her with more excitement. Like most Anti-Heroes of late, you will end up rooting for this villain.

There are parts/characters in the book that will stand out like a sore thumb though. Most of that has to do with the writer Gillian Flynn's incessant need to inject new-age feminism into every single page of this otherwise well-written book. If we were to remove the snarky male bashing paragraphs in the book, it'd probably come down by at least 200 odd pages. There is so much of this malice going on in the book that if you are a woman and have not really been affected by the misogynistic society in your life, by the end you'd feel like you've too got take up a placard and fight for your sisters around the world.

That is probably the only thing that'd make me want to not recommend this book to some people. The feminism thing stands out so much that you soon develop a detector for it and your mind quickly tends to skip over parts that calls out men on their bullshit. The writer has already told you that a zillion times, couldn't tell us more about how Amy plans to murder Desi or get back at Able Andie. I really did wish Ms Flynn had spent some time on fleshing out those parts of Amy's POVs. Those were some of the better parts of the book.

All in all it is a good book. Well thought out suspense and impressive lead characters. Read it along with the OST from the David Fincher movie, very apt.

P.S. - If you're reading this book now, you must've probably seen the movie. So I'd just let you know right away - THE MOVIE IS BETTER.

Book Review

Day 61 : Mister Right and Miss Cool Girl

I’d just gotten off the phone with a serious headache and resonating 'eeeeee' noise in my ears. Well, you try get off an hour long call with a hyperactive girl trying to explain how frigging awesome her new boyfriend is. Let me save you the hassle, it is torture. Especially, if you've been having a nascent crush on this girl for some time. Why don't I do anything you ask? Well she's an old school mate, and one of my best friends in school dated her for a while. And you do not mess with the Bro-Code. But damn man, how was I to know she’d grow up to be such a hottie. Shame.

Anyways, now after a round of some aspirin-like pill and a drink of cold water, here I am sitting in front of my machine trying to work. And there is this one thing about our conversation that keeps coming back to me. Every other sentence she'd say 'and you know what just feels so RIGHT about him...' then she'd proceed to tell me just what mind-numbingly cheesy thing this dork did to get her to make out with him. (No! Of course I am not jealous at all. I promise.)

She is one of those girls who thinks that the guy who quits a bunch of his favorite things just to please her. Or does cute things for her, even if he doesn't realize he is. Is the one for her. Let me just tell one thing to all the women out there, we completely realize what we are doing! Do you think any one of us dumbasses is capable of being Mr. Right just by divine fate? Hell no! A lot of meticulous planning and a history of messed-up experience/research goes into creating your version of Mr. Right. So if you think you have found your Mr. Right, who simply just seems to get you, take my word for it this guy, this wonderful guy, has had a lot of practice being a dick with other girls till he got around to priming his game to as you know it now.

We men are not perfect, not even by a long shot. We are dirty, stinky, lazy dumbasses who like doing dumb shit just 'cause. We hate doing those girly things that you love so much. And we definitely hate that cute flowery bed sheet you bought into our bedrooms last month! We do not enjoy haircuts; we get them because growing greasy dreadlocks with occasional Cheetos in it is frowned upon at work. I mean, we would all be sitting there on our couches in the same set of clothes (or not at all) and watch TV all day if society didn't make it a mandate to pay for stuff. If men had their way the world would be a much shabbier (albeit awesome) place than it is now.

And don't get me wrong, you women are no walk in the park either. Hypocrites. You will walk about in high heels, spend like a thousand bucks on cosmetics a week and then turn around and say how misogynous today’s society is. I mean, come on, you are the one who is portraying yourself as the prepped up doll each week to score points with the leering crowd. I am hell sure that you don't buy those thongs and them underwire bras just cause of the heavenly comfort of them. I know society's dealt you with a shitty hand, but with all these fake stuff all over you are only playing right into their trap. Heck, even mother nature seems to have given you enough of bother with all that childbirth and PMS and whatnots.

You women are not perfect. You are complex, too needy, too kind, too generous, too naive, too sick, too angry, too mellow, too silent, too bold, and too shy. And that is just during the first half of your day. By the end of your lunch break you turn into something different altogether. And people around you have to start from scratch again to try making sense of any of it.

Men will never understand women. And women are forever destined to crave for a guy who just 'gets them'. Both are forever destined for disappointment.

We are all programmed by the media, and the books, and the songs about the kind of people we need to look for as suitable mates. Or the kind of things our spouses have to do to earn any of our affection. I am one of those people who just think all that is BULLSHIT!

There is no one method to find somebody that you'd want to spend the rest of your life with. Nor is there any one specific test that this person has to pass to make it into your good graces. Love has to just happen, I suppose. Affection does not come out of a do-it-yourself box. You cannot do this, this, and this, and the - 'Voila! The girl is in love with you'.

There is no Mister Right and there is no Miss Cool Girl. Get over that dream, ladies and beeps.

None of us is perfect. We are all just bunch of ugly, complex, pieces of messed up baggage walking around in search for some companionship. The best we can do is find somebody with whom we can be completely honest, and pray to Lord Almighty that this person doesn't turn chicken out of the blue and get his scared ass out of there before you can say 'noodle soup'.

Day 60 : What is Honor?

Honor can mean so many things to so many people. All I know for sure now is, that it used to mean whole lot more earlier, than what it stands for now. Everybody is out there playing their own version of the Game. Everyone scheming, and moving their life around to build their own little castles in the air. Most think that what they do actually mean something. It will lead to something worthwhile for everyone. But in the end what most of it leads to is just another sorry excuse made by a sorry-ass prick trying to make sense of whatever shit it is that he is doing right now. There's this one line that I've heard someplace. 'If you are doing something that calls for you having to do explainin' and shit, take my word for it, that something is most definitely ain't good.'

There is not much hope for anyone these days to go out there and that things will get handed over to him on a silver platter. 'Things that have to go wrong will go wrong'. That guy Murphy knew it before any of y'all and he was a bloody right about it. The best we can do now is just hope that we do not mess things up so much that we screw the people around us as well in the process. I guess that is the only honorable thing that we can manage to do now-a-days. Do our crap to ourselves. Mess things up for ourselves. But when we go out and do things to other's life that is when we've gone and done wrong for sure.

These things have no coming back from. You will forever be 'That Guy'. You will have that title follow wherever you go. Even if they do not say it your face. Once they know that you have it in you to harm them in any way. They will shut out a part of themselves for you. A part that was always open for you to come and go as you please, is not closed shut for business. In the beginning you will not notice it, but that silent sigh once in a while. And do-what-you-have-to shrug when you ask them for an opinion about something, they all add up one day like a small tornado building up to become one that bring down skyscrapers.

Every relationship that you build in life isn't completely incorruptible. Relationships are actually very easy to get go ripe and rot at the drop of a hat. Everyone only likes the people who treats them well and gets things done when they need it. Yes it is a little selfish maybe. But when you sit and think about it, don't you think that is what everything comes down to? Can you name anyone in your life except your parents that has ever done good anything for you, 'just because'? Even some of the siblings and spouses do bad shit to each other all the time. Doesn't mean that they do not love you. In a way they do, a lot even. But then as we all know, love is corruptible as well, a lot.

I suppose things don't really need to be this way. Things can be a lot better between people. But people can only be as they are. And people are just big bags of messed up emotions and priorities. We do bad things for no reason and most just at the spur of the moment with little or no thought process going into it. We obfuscate our existence in the process and are forever destine ask ourselves in the dead of the night, 'What am I doing with my life?'

Honor. Isn't what it used to be? It still can be. If not for the fact that there aren't many honorable men/women left out there anymore.

We all bungle and botch our way through lives. We are all destined to make a mess of things. The least of honorable thing we can do is to not let any of reach into life of others. I guess we owe at least that much to the ones we hold dear.

Today, try to be honorable.