Finally did a couple of very important things that were supposed to be done just two months back.Can you imagine that?!This procrastination business is getting worse daily.The unemployed status further compounds the problem instead of easing it out.There's nothing else to do but that which is staring at you for a god-awful two months and yet...It's one of the unexplained mysteries of my life...
Why do people in India make a big issue out of caste?Higher,Lower..It's so evident among the adults but decreasing in intensity among the younger generation.There was this Christian girl who fell in love with a low caste Hindu boy and then married someone else under family pressure.Her mother said"Anyone else it was ok, but a harijan?!"
The West looks at the Indian model of marriages in awe.. all these arranged marriages and stuff...even in the dotcom era its hardly different,people fall in love after checking out the surnames as in real life.Marriages here were never about love.It has everything to do with prestige,coming together of two familes,business ties,etc.Where else in the world will u list your degrees ,income ,visa status,ancestral property,bank balance,etc.Nobody asks themselves whether they want to get married at all.It has to be there right along with the board exams, an indisputable impending unavoidable part of life.The ultimate test of manliness is ofcourse fathering a child within the first year of marriage.
Whats the real purpose of this institution as old as whoring ? Convenience? Dependence? Financial stability? Emotional cover?I am yet to see a marriage having the same intensity right through the end.If we look to recreate the magic in romance and continue it into marriage with the same intensity ,I don't think its ever worked with anyone.And boy, dowry is big business in India.One of my friends got a crore, that is one followed by six zeros!! just like that! Coz he had the prefix Dr attached to his name.
Meenuji ,flattered you included me in the list of writers...I consider myself more a pretender than a real writer...it has a lot to do with inspiration ,I have to be inspired and pumped up to write(which hasn't happend for well over two years ;-) )...a true writer ,i read somewhere, doesn't sit around waiting for inspiration. He just writes.
Anita Desai & erotica
Anita Desai has intrigued me ever since I read Village by the Sea , a delightfully charming little novel.You can really see that village come alive before your eyes .It demands to be read again.Despite critical acclaim ,I couldn't appreciate much what the big deal was about Fasting, Feasting.The book I'm reading now,falls into a style she seems to be enjoying doing of late. Diamond Dust is a collection of short stories and almost all of them without exception dissapoint.As usual , she's a master at description but the stories are just sitting around waiting for a solid plot or conclusion.Apart from the stories Winterscape,The Artisit's Life and The Rooftop Dwellers ,the rest are just mediocre.Almost as if that the descriptive style is almost an obsession with her .It leaves with you the vague uncomfortableness of having had half a measure of a good dinner.Winterscape,though, is almost perfect.
There's this site where they send a novel to ur mail box daily ,piece by piece so as to speak ,and which can roughly be read in five minutes or so.I picked up Shakespeare's sonnets and Lady Chatterley's Lover .I had read the latter years before mainly to check out what the fuss had all been about.This time, reading it properly for the first time, I realized I had missed out on a lot earlier.Sample this:
it's no good! It's no good trying to get rid of your
own aloneness. You've got to stick to it all your life.
Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At
times! But you have to wait for the times. Accept
your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And
then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when
they come. But they've got to come. You can't force
them.
I have noticed it with certain writers that hidden in erotica is usually profound philosophy and because its clothed in erotica it doesn't seem that hard to digest ;-) A good example is Marco Vassi.But he's in a different league altogether...sublimally powerful stuff ..Especially Mind Blower and Countours of Darkness...err I haven't read any other titles,very hard to come by here ,I feel.
There's this site where they send a novel to ur mail box daily ,piece by piece so as to speak ,and which can roughly be read in five minutes or so.I picked up Shakespeare's sonnets and Lady Chatterley's Lover .I had read the latter years before mainly to check out what the fuss had all been about.This time, reading it properly for the first time, I realized I had missed out on a lot earlier.Sample this:
it's no good! It's no good trying to get rid of your
own aloneness. You've got to stick to it all your life.
Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At
times! But you have to wait for the times. Accept
your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And
then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when
they come. But they've got to come. You can't force
them.
I have noticed it with certain writers that hidden in erotica is usually profound philosophy and because its clothed in erotica it doesn't seem that hard to digest ;-) A good example is Marco Vassi.But he's in a different league altogether...sublimally powerful stuff ..Especially Mind Blower and Countours of Darkness...err I haven't read any other titles,very hard to come by here ,I feel.
S and me were just idling around when I suggested we go for Red Dragon.So off we went to The New Theatre ,the oldest and largest of its kind in Trivandrum.The man at the drinks counter seemed really reluctant to sell us stuff, guess he's grossly underpaid and is taking it out on his employers.During my pre degree days in The Government Arts College ,this theatre screened only soft core pornography.Now they seem to be out of their bad times .There was the usual crowd for a good English movie on the fifth day...around 20 (well its usually one fifith that number but since this movie had an A certificate ...
I had read the book earlier and the movie is a close adaptation.Very slick and fast paced .The novel, I've felt was better than Silence of the Lambs.For the uninitiated, Red Dragon is the first part of the trilogy which consists of Silence of the Lambs(SOL) and Hannibal in that order.But SOL was filmed first ,then Hannibal and finally Red Dragon.Soon found out the reason for the A certificate.Ralph Fiennes runs around in the state he was born in for close to five minutes..So if u like to watch male butts and privates , don't miss this !
Watching the movie I was awed by the professionalism of Hollywood.You couldn't say of a single actor that he/she acted badly.They were all superb.Contrast this with the hamming we have to suffer from SRK and co...Sheesh..come on how many ACTORS are there in India except for an Amir Khan or Amitabh? Not many I'm afraid...Oh , New theatre now features R.B.E(Real Body Experience).When the heroine screams ,the audience screams with her.At least S did.I asked him Why.He pointed to a peruchazhy(huge rat) scrambling away..seems the rat fancied a bite of pop corn from Shetty..It made a few more appearances all impeccably timed to the horrors on the screen!! That's genetic engineering technology for you !
I had read the book earlier and the movie is a close adaptation.Very slick and fast paced .The novel, I've felt was better than Silence of the Lambs.For the uninitiated, Red Dragon is the first part of the trilogy which consists of Silence of the Lambs(SOL) and Hannibal in that order.But SOL was filmed first ,then Hannibal and finally Red Dragon.Soon found out the reason for the A certificate.Ralph Fiennes runs around in the state he was born in for close to five minutes..So if u like to watch male butts and privates , don't miss this !
Watching the movie I was awed by the professionalism of Hollywood.You couldn't say of a single actor that he/she acted badly.They were all superb.Contrast this with the hamming we have to suffer from SRK and co...Sheesh..come on how many ACTORS are there in India except for an Amir Khan or Amitabh? Not many I'm afraid...Oh , New theatre now features R.B.E(Real Body Experience).When the heroine screams ,the audience screams with her.At least S did.I asked him Why.He pointed to a peruchazhy(huge rat) scrambling away..seems the rat fancied a bite of pop corn from Shetty..It made a few more appearances all impeccably timed to the horrors on the screen!! That's genetic engineering technology for you !
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