Life, The Universe, And Everything In Between

16 Voix celeste led me to flanging, which was mentioned as the slang for ADT, and coined by Lennon, from made-up acoustic-babble that a sound engineer said to him. 17 Frasier says “nota bene” and it is still the last of the tabs open in Chrome since I started perusing the scripts. Little coincidences that take us full circle, or part-way-spiral. Towel Day is a week away! :D 18 Met the founder of the company today. 19 Saturday. Chilling. Frasier orders a tart tatin, which makes me search, and the intriguing pen name of a gastronome comes up: Curnonsky. His name was M E Sailland, which also raises my brows. He refers to his nom de plume as his “tunic of Nessus”, which was what killed Hercules. I click to make sure I remember correctly, and gain the additional information that Tresckow called it a robe. Reading further, I come upon the tunic/robe having been used as a metaphor in The Count of Monte Cristo, which I vividly remember reading in the smaller prep school library next to t...

1 May Epistemological apperceptions Is any of the music by Eminem syncopatic? Thematic apperception test (cards >> TAroT cards) Read about Tristan and Isolde from the Frasier reference to Wagner, and now checking out Tannhauser from Gravity’s Rainbow. Classical art keeps recurring throughout the kind of creative works that click with my mind. I cannot bring myself to inveigh at anything or anyone – bar a few temporary aggrievances. It is a good change, I am sure, from the venting of young adult angst onto the question papers of engineering exams, in the spaces between the problem statements. 2 The search engine at the Wayback Machine is “having issues momentarily”. What do you do THEN? When even failsafes start to crumble, does anything apart from your experience remain? 3 Tannhauser is Wagner, and Wagner also scored Un Chien Andalou, “written” by Salvador Dali. Found this after starting from Georges Melies’ Google Doodle homage. A Sunday to rest my eyes from the compute...

I first read this book in college circa 2005, and it has stuck with me ever since for its dark humor and satire on corporations and bureaucracy. The real-life experiences of Joseph Heller served as the inspiration for this 570-page wartime novel. My last re-read is timestamped 2nd to 13th September 2014, with my final penciled comment reading, "The love of a woman scorned." Most probably, I recalled William Congreve's "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" at the time, in reference to Nately's plight. The character of Nately is part of a huge ensemble of diverse specimens viz. Yossarian (who has "no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions"), pejorative takes on authority in Major Major, Colonels Cathcart and Korn, the plaintive chaplain, Milo Minderbinder with his profiteering schemes et al. Adding personal commemorative value to Catch-22 is the fact that I had the good fortune of getting Upamanyu Chatterjee, the author of Engl...

Published by Rupa, this collection of short ("super shorts", according to Mr Bond) stories is a breezy read, partly due to the format itself, but mainly because the twist-in-the-tale genre was handled better by authors of old. From the occult to the criminal, motives that arose from individual character exploration were a fairly common hallmark of English fiction writers. Ambrose Bierce, whose stories have been placed by Ruskin at the beginning of the anthology, had a sharp wit by all accounts. I have had his Devil's Dictionary  on iBooks since day one, and still find myself flicking through it while traveling. It certainly rips apart the contemporary political and religious landscape, with his trademark satire and acerbic wordplay. One of Douglas Adams' books, Liff , was constructed/compiled along somewhat similar lines, but to equally, if not more, uproarious effect. Ruskin (he is a charming, gentle, all-smiles man, so I like to refer to him by first name - when...

In short: I like the show. Great production values and impeccable performances. The convoluted plotlines may put off some viewers, as might the graphic content, but it builds up to a larger-than-the-characters scenario. Adamant viewers' patience is rewarded with unexpected (or, in the case of Anthony Hopkins' character of Dr. Ford, expected) outcomes and plot twists. The concept has been taken further than Michael Crichton's original treatment, which starred Yul Brenner. Additionally, the later episodes are pacier, with out-of-the-blue murders (of real people, not hosts) and hidden intentions plus actions. These serve well to increase the anticipation going into the season finale, and high expectations from the upcoming season. The trailer at Comic Con in July 2017 was well-received, although trailers are not the most accurate yardstick for the quality of TV shows. Drawbacks: meanders sometimes. That's about it.

Writing is going well. It is giving me peace of mind with only a few minor hiccups. This restful phase is certainly letting my body recover from the extensive stress - not damage - that it had gotten used to. Now, on to the Delhi Book Fair to stock up some new books!

Perhaps the intrinsic inability of any person to “see” neither the light entering the eyes of another, nor the sounds heard, odors smelt, skin crawls felt and palates tickled, is the reason we cannot ever empathize truly. Whilst this observation may not fall into the 'epiphany' category, I fail to see a reason NOT to put it in here on my blog, considering this is How I Wrote The Book I Never Wrote. Expounding upon the fragments and snatches of self-conversations that continuously go on in my mind is fruitful, to the end that I make better sense of the world than before. When I re-read things I am working on, the endless urge to edit, re-write and alter comes to the fore, and I give in to it. Well, 32 is as good an age as any to get rejected for getting published, so this August, 2017, I shall print out the hundred-odd pages of single-spaced text spanning my under-construction works, and do the proverbial rounds. As I keep telling myself (and immediately ignoring), I’ve got to ...