Thursday 10 June 2010

An Ardent Admirer

I was never much of reader. When my sister used to sits hours together with a book I preferred playing outdoors. But I eventually took up reading.

One of my first books was Sawmi and Friends by R.K.Narayan. I bought it in a school book fair. I guess it was one of my first 'real' books and therefore enjoyed it tremendously. It had a sense of me in it and left me with an unforgettable after-effect. From then on came this urge to meet the man who could describe everyday life with humour. This can be considered the prologue to this story.

With a bit of research I realized I was too late to meet the man himself. The next opportunity will come again only in my after-life as he had passed away two years back. With this my search died down. My life moved on with many things happening, like me and my family migrating abroad. And then after a couple of years with too much time to spare during the summer break I decided to take up one of the many R.K.Narayan's books that I owned. The one I chose was a book with a series of short stories called A Town Called Malgudi edited by S.Krishnan. This reignited my flame for the author. With time to spare and not much to do, I began collecting newspaper articles, interviews and all other sources of information on my most admired writer. One newspaper article stated news of his granddaughter living in Chennai. Idea! I am going to meet his granddaughter "she who shared a blood relationship with R.K.Narayan". BEWARE of FANS!

With Google to solve everyone problem it was a trivial affair to find his granddaughter's address. Yet in the beginning the addresses were misleading. I obtained the address of his grandmother's house in Purasawalkam and read elsewhere that the house had been demolished. After searching in Chennai White Pages for his grandson-in-laws name I did not achieve success. This was a time when the vastness of India population size had truly struck me. I obtained about 20 pages of search results for the same name. In a city with a population of 4.34million atleast a few people are bound to have the same name. I realized this was not taking me anywhere and so began again. I needed a more concrete search word. I went back to my collection of news articles and read over them again to discover that his granddaughter was looking after Indian Thought Publications which was started by R.K.Narayan and that he often used to visit his granddaughter's house in T.Nagar Chennai. This was the lead I was searching for. Typing Indian Thought Publications with T.Nagar did the trick. I landed myself with an address. BEWARE of desperate FANS with too much time to spare!

Summer holiday INDIA. The holidays were climaxing and in a days time I will be leaving India.

So adamant to accomplish my motive I started preparing for the visit. As Indian tradition had taught me never visit anyone empty handed I went and bought sweets for my visit. I wore my best clothes, shoes and checked the RavuKalam. I set out on my journey in search of the house, thrilled.

Number 15...16...17...18. There it was. If Mr.Narayan was alive I just might be sharing the same ground as him. A sense of immense joy and pleasure over came me. BEWARE of FANGIRLS with extremely good imagination! I moved forward to ring the door-bell when I realized that I hadnt thought this through well. Who was I going to proclaim I was was? What was my purpose for visiting her when her grandfather was no more? What if they thought I was her grandfather's stalker? These questions remained unanswered and I didnt ring the door-bell.

The sweets that I had bought were placed in the post box along with a note that read "From an ardent admirer of your grandfather R.K.Narayan".



- With love
Maya

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Perfect world

Written with a bit of inspiration from an TV advertisement
In a perfect world, the tastier the food the healthier it would be, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, every girl would look like Angelina Jolie and every boy would look like Brad Pitt, but sorry guys the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, writing your assignment would be as easy as doing your FB status update, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, everyone would give way to you while driving, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, every cold morning would be declared a public holiday, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, you would always be able to fit your favorite clothes, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to worry about ethical consent to clone your favorite people, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, you would always have money in every pocket, but the world isn’t perfect.
In a perfect world, people around you will always make you laugh, 

















 Maybe the world is perfect....


(pictures acquired from unknown source)








Tuesday 6 April 2010

A book and Its End

The aspect of a book that is most sought out by me as a reader is its ending. It is the last source of information the reader is given on the characters they have come to love and have created bonds with. It is the last string of hope the author can give the readers that all ends well. The ending is what remains with me for years to come about the book. Even though I treasure endings, it deeply saddens me to finish a book. I am not the reader who picks up a book and flips it to the last page and am done. I enjoy a book to its fullest by sequentially flipping every page and absorbing all the information. In this process, I tend to not only fall in love with the propanagist but with a few others along the way. It maybe a character with just couple of funny dialogues, it maybe an  interesting personality that the author has not given much importance to or it maybe even well be the villian. So an appropriate ending deemed acceptable by me for each and everyone of the characters is what I look forward to most in a book. That doesnt mean that all books have to end with a 'happily ever after', it is just that every book need to be complete and everyone deserves the best ending. For example take Harry Potter, children around the world grew up with the characters and considered Voldemort as the legendary villian of all times. Everyone including I knew that to end the story in the seventh book he was going to die. It was a given but the manner in which he was going to die was what one looked forward to most in a book and this was what that made me join the Anti-Potter club. It is just ridiculous how the legendary villian died by his curse back firing on him. Pathetic I say. While the rest of the fans world wide rejoiced his death, not worrying about the unfair way he had been killed, I sat there writing a complaint letter to J.K.Rowling. LOL. Jokes. I had not yet become that paranoid but an author to me is not one who knows how to write a story but a person who knows how to end it. And to take such claims of being a good author there is only one soul that exists and that is Mr.R.K.Narayan. He was a man who knew how to begin a story and end it. I would like to raise a toast to the man who has made me laugh the most and cry the most. To the man who has made me fall in love with books, I hope to dedicate a story to you in the near future.

Friday 5 February 2010

Foward 1

This is one of those forwarded emails you occasionally enjoy...

Paraprosdokians

paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or re-interpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.
1.         I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
2.         Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
3.         I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.
4.         Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
5.         The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.
6.         Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
7.         If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
8.         We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.
9.         War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
10.         Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
11.         Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
12.         To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
13.         A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
14.         How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
15.         Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.
16.         Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
17.         I didn't say it was your fault; I said I was blaming you.
18.         Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars but check when you say the paint is wet?
19.         Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America ?
20.         Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
21.         A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
22.         You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
23.         The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
24.         Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.
25.         A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.
26.         Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.
27.         Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
28.         Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
29.         I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
30.         When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
31.         You're never too old to learn something stupid.
32.         To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
33.         Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
34.         Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.
35.         A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
36.         If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child?
37.         Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Credits to author unknown

Monday 11 January 2010

Blog Commomeration

About the blog: This blog has been created to allow me to take short retreats from my scientific writing. It will be a place where I do not have to worry about plagiarising, referencing or using the apt terminology. It will be a place where I can agree with statements and build principles without any valid experimental evidence. It will be a place where every idea is explored and any idea can become reality, it will become a world with me in it.