It's not a great song, but it's a nice song.
January 31, 2011
January 30, 2011
The Song...
You're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean.
You want to ask, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely
If I'm lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawns' first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep
If I'm lonely
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning
--Adrienne Rich
Evening...
It was just another Sunday evening. I had woken up from a nap, made myself a cup of tea, compulsively checked, first Gmail, and then Facebook. I was to meet a couple of friends in the evening, and I should be hurrying up, dressing up...but just like always, I was staring out of the window instead. Watching sun-rays bounce off the glass windows, listening to some bird chirping, watching the dried yellow-brown leaves fly away in the breeze...it was just like one those Sunday evenings. But it was different. You were missing from my life.
It was a very sudden thought. I wasn't prepared to entertain it too. I have walked so far away from you, that I'd scarcely recognise you if you were to stand in front of me today.
And I realise, this is the life I chose. When I sat in this same place, a few years ago, I chose this day, this day without you. I made those decisions.
This is how the day looks like. And whatever it is I chose, I must take the consequences. I must suffer the penalties of wrong decisions and I must celebrate the successes of the right ones.
But it did feel like a completely different life. I had changed so much too.
It was a very sudden thought. I wasn't prepared to entertain it too. I have walked so far away from you, that I'd scarcely recognise you if you were to stand in front of me today.
And I realise, this is the life I chose. When I sat in this same place, a few years ago, I chose this day, this day without you. I made those decisions.
This is how the day looks like. And whatever it is I chose, I must take the consequences. I must suffer the penalties of wrong decisions and I must celebrate the successes of the right ones.
But it did feel like a completely different life. I had changed so much too.
Sunday Reading...
There was a phase when I used to collect smart retorts or witty insults from all over the web. While it's true, that I can dish it out but can't take it, I'll make a concession if you manage to make the insult a witty one. Call me a bimbo, but say it in such a fashion that I'd be forced to laugh with you (and maybe even quote you). But such wit is ofcourse rare.
Though not entirely related, this article on Hollywood movie critics, The Poison Quill of Hollywood, reminded me of the "Greatest Retort" collection I had saved somewhere in my Gmail.
And isn't it sad that no one in Bollywood has the guts nor wit to write a good funny honest review? Sigh, and so we must suffer movies like Tees Maar Khan (where I literally cried).
Moving on, also found this in my archives:Hard Road To Travel. A brilliant read about Mumbai's autowalla's. Do read. One of the few essays I read without checking my Gmail/Facebook constantly.
I remember I was supposed to write an essay for some job I was applying to, and the essay question was: What Indian business do you think has the potential to go global?or Indian product...or an idea?
And I remember Parth had suggested I write about the TATA Nano.
Well, looks like a failed marketing strategy, a major roadblock (read: the manufacturing plant) and ofcourse not enough damage control (read the burning car incident) has reduced my essay to rubbish (which it anyway was). No Takers: Is the Tata Nano Running Out of Gas? A good read on how the Nano went wrong. Sigh, and so much potential it had too.
*****
(A few of my favourite retorts)
Truman Capote was fond of regaling people with an anecdote about one of his finer moments. At the height of his popularity, he was drinking one evening with friends in a crowded Key West bar. Nearby sat a couple, both inebriated. The woman recognized Capote, walked over to his table, and gushingly asked him to autograph a paper napkin. The woman's husband, angry at his wife's display of interest in another man, staggered over to Capote's table and assumed an intimidating position directly in front of the diminutive writer. He then proceeded to unzip his trousers and, in Capote's own words, "hauled out his equipment." As he did this, he bellowed in a drunken slur, "Since you're autographing things, why don't you autograph this?" It was a tense moment, and a hush fell over the room. The silence was a blessing, for it allowed all those within earshot to hear Capote's soft, high-pitched voice deliver the perfect emasculating reply:
"I don't know if I can autograph it, but perhaps I can initial it."
***
After a long day of shooting a film in Hollywood, John Barrymore and some fellow actors stopped in at Lucey's, a popular watering hole near Paramount Studios. After one-too-many drinks, Barrymore excused himself to go to the bathroom. In his slightly inebriated condition, however, he inadvertently chose the ladies' room. As he was relieving himself, a woman entered and was shocked to see a man urinating into one of the toilets. "How dare you!" she exclaimed, "This is for ladies!" The actor turned toward the woman, organ in hand, and resonantly said in full actor's voice:
"And so, madam, is this."
***
Nancy Astor was an American socialite who married into an English branch of the wealthy Astor family (she holds the distinction of being the first woman to be seated in Parliament). At a 1912 dinner party in Blenheim Palace--the Churchill family estate--Lady Astor became annoyed at an inebriated Winston Churchill, who was pontificating on some topic. Unable to take any more, she finally blurted out, "Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in your coffee." Without missing a beat, Churchill replied:
"Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it."
***
In a profession noted for windbags, the 30th U. S. President Calvin Coolidge was a politician of very few words, well deserving the nickname, "Silent Cal" (he once said, "I've never been hurt by something I didn't say"). Coolidge's taciturn style frustrated the many people around him who felt a man of his stature should be more talkative. At a White House dinner one evening, a female guest sidled up to the President and whispered in his ear, "You must talk to me, Mr. President. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge whispered back:
"You lose."
***
Perhaps the most celebrated retort in the history of wit occurred in a famous exchange between two 18th century political rivals, John Montagu, also known as the Earl of Sandwich, and the reformist politician, John Wilkes. During a heated argument, Montagu scowled at Wilkes and said derisively, "Upon my soul, Wilkes, I don't know whether you'll die upon the gallows, or of syphilis" (some versions of the story say "a vile disease" and others "the pox"). Unfazed, Wilkes came back with what many people regard as the greatest retort of all time:
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles, or your mistress."
Though not entirely related, this article on Hollywood movie critics, The Poison Quill of Hollywood, reminded me of the "Greatest Retort" collection I had saved somewhere in my Gmail.
And isn't it sad that no one in Bollywood has the guts nor wit to write a good funny honest review? Sigh, and so we must suffer movies like Tees Maar Khan (where I literally cried).
Moving on, also found this in my archives:Hard Road To Travel. A brilliant read about Mumbai's autowalla's. Do read. One of the few essays I read without checking my Gmail/Facebook constantly.
I remember I was supposed to write an essay for some job I was applying to, and the essay question was: What Indian business do you think has the potential to go global?or Indian product...or an idea?
And I remember Parth had suggested I write about the TATA Nano.
Well, looks like a failed marketing strategy, a major roadblock (read: the manufacturing plant) and ofcourse not enough damage control (read the burning car incident) has reduced my essay to rubbish (which it anyway was). No Takers: Is the Tata Nano Running Out of Gas? A good read on how the Nano went wrong. Sigh, and so much potential it had too.
*****
(A few of my favourite retorts)
Truman Capote was fond of regaling people with an anecdote about one of his finer moments. At the height of his popularity, he was drinking one evening with friends in a crowded Key West bar. Nearby sat a couple, both inebriated. The woman recognized Capote, walked over to his table, and gushingly asked him to autograph a paper napkin. The woman's husband, angry at his wife's display of interest in another man, staggered over to Capote's table and assumed an intimidating position directly in front of the diminutive writer. He then proceeded to unzip his trousers and, in Capote's own words, "hauled out his equipment." As he did this, he bellowed in a drunken slur, "Since you're autographing things, why don't you autograph this?" It was a tense moment, and a hush fell over the room. The silence was a blessing, for it allowed all those within earshot to hear Capote's soft, high-pitched voice deliver the perfect emasculating reply:
"I don't know if I can autograph it, but perhaps I can initial it."
***
After a long day of shooting a film in Hollywood, John Barrymore and some fellow actors stopped in at Lucey's, a popular watering hole near Paramount Studios. After one-too-many drinks, Barrymore excused himself to go to the bathroom. In his slightly inebriated condition, however, he inadvertently chose the ladies' room. As he was relieving himself, a woman entered and was shocked to see a man urinating into one of the toilets. "How dare you!" she exclaimed, "This is for ladies!" The actor turned toward the woman, organ in hand, and resonantly said in full actor's voice:
"And so, madam, is this."
***
Nancy Astor was an American socialite who married into an English branch of the wealthy Astor family (she holds the distinction of being the first woman to be seated in Parliament). At a 1912 dinner party in Blenheim Palace--the Churchill family estate--Lady Astor became annoyed at an inebriated Winston Churchill, who was pontificating on some topic. Unable to take any more, she finally blurted out, "Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in your coffee." Without missing a beat, Churchill replied:
"Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it."
***
In a profession noted for windbags, the 30th U. S. President Calvin Coolidge was a politician of very few words, well deserving the nickname, "Silent Cal" (he once said, "I've never been hurt by something I didn't say"). Coolidge's taciturn style frustrated the many people around him who felt a man of his stature should be more talkative. At a White House dinner one evening, a female guest sidled up to the President and whispered in his ear, "You must talk to me, Mr. President. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge whispered back:
"You lose."
***
Perhaps the most celebrated retort in the history of wit occurred in a famous exchange between two 18th century political rivals, John Montagu, also known as the Earl of Sandwich, and the reformist politician, John Wilkes. During a heated argument, Montagu scowled at Wilkes and said derisively, "Upon my soul, Wilkes, I don't know whether you'll die upon the gallows, or of syphilis" (some versions of the story say "a vile disease" and others "the pox"). Unfazed, Wilkes came back with what many people regard as the greatest retort of all time:
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles, or your mistress."
Another Roadside Attraction...
I am in love with this guy! If I could, I would quote his every word!
*****
"Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not.
Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious question is whether time has a beginning and an end.
Camus clearly got up on the wrong side of bed, and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm.
There is only one serious question. And that is: Who knows how to make love stay?
Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself."
— Tom Robbins
*****
"People tend the take everything too seriously. Especially themselves. Yep. And that's probably what makes 'em scared and hurt so much of the time. Life is too serious to take that seriously."
— Tom Robbins
*****
"Love easily confuses us because it is always in flux between illusion and substance, between memory and wish, between contentment and need."
— Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)
*****
Perfume is a disguise. Since the middle ages, we have worn masks of fruit and flowers in order to conceal from ourselves the meaty essence of our humanity. We appreciate the sexual attractant of the rose, the ripeness of the orange, more than we honor our own ripe carnality.
Now today we want to perfume our cities, as well; to replace their stinging fumes of disturbed fossils' sleep with the scent of gardens and orchards. Yet, humans are not bees any more than they are blossoms. If we must pull an olfactory hood over our urban environment, let it be of a different nature.
I want to travel on a train that smells like snowflakes.
I want to sip in cafes that smell like comets.
Under the pressure of my step, I want the streets to emit the precise odor of a diamond necklace.
I want the newspapers I read to smell like the violins left in pawnshops by weeping hobos on Christmas Eve.
I want to carry luggage that reeks of the neurons in Einstein's brain.
I want a city's gases to smell like the golden belly hairs of the gods.
And when I gaze at a televised picture of the moon, I want to detect, from a distance of 239,000 miles, the aroma of fresh mozzarella."
— Tom Robbins (Wild Ducks Flying Backward)
*****
"Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on them arrow of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning."
— Tom Robbins (Still Life with Woodpecker)
*****
"Our lives are not as limited as we think they are; the world is a wonderfully weird place; consensual reality is significantly flawed; no institution can be trusted, but love does work; all things are possible; and we all could be happy and fulfilled if we only had the guts to be truly free and the wisdom to shrink our egos and quit taking ourselves so damn seriously."
— Tom Robbins
*****
"If you lack the iron and the fuzz to take control of your own life, if you insist on leaving your fate to the gods, then the gods will repay your weakness by having a grin or two at your expense. Should you fail to pilot your own ship, don't be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked. The dull and prosaic will be granted adventures that will dice their central nervous systems like an onion, romantic dreamers will end up in the rope yard. You may protest that it is too much to ask of an uneducated fifteen-year-old girl that she defy her family, her society, her weighty cultural and religious heritage in order to pursue a dream that she doesn't really understand. Of course it is asking too much. The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought."
— Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume)
January 29, 2011
Rooted...
Her incapability to deal with more than one relationship at a time was something I never understood. It was like she could entertain only one person at a time, all her energies focussed only on that one person, irrespective of how it affected other relationships in her life. Her Biggest failure was perhaps this.
In the days I spent living with her, I realised, there were many lessons to be learnt. The biggest perhaps was knowing how to deal with others.
Her second failure, which made things much worse for her, was her further inability to prioritize relationships. She was never able to judge which were more important and which not. Should one jeopardize one's close relationships for the inferior ones? Yes, sometimes it was okay to let a distant friend be upset if it meant keeping the important ones happy. Sometimes, it was okay to overlook the important one's mistake, sometimes it was okay to take sides even if the close one was in the wrong.
It was only after studying her that I completely understood the difference between what "one should do" and what "one must do". Right was after all an abstract concept. In relationships, atleast. She taught me, in failing to understand herself, that "appropriate" was right.
It was sad how she went about life with a relationship blindfold, with a rigid view of what was right and wrong, no matter who got hurt in the end. And this was why she was so unhappy.
In the days I spent living with her, I realised, there were many lessons to be learnt. The biggest perhaps was knowing how to deal with others.
Her second failure, which made things much worse for her, was her further inability to prioritize relationships. She was never able to judge which were more important and which not. Should one jeopardize one's close relationships for the inferior ones? Yes, sometimes it was okay to let a distant friend be upset if it meant keeping the important ones happy. Sometimes, it was okay to overlook the important one's mistake, sometimes it was okay to take sides even if the close one was in the wrong.
It was only after studying her that I completely understood the difference between what "one should do" and what "one must do". Right was after all an abstract concept. In relationships, atleast. She taught me, in failing to understand herself, that "appropriate" was right.
It was sad how she went about life with a relationship blindfold, with a rigid view of what was right and wrong, no matter who got hurt in the end. And this was why she was so unhappy.
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