Trying to love India
Seth Stevenson’s trying hard to love India. Good read, very.
But the truth is, I’m not quite wired to surrender my will to a higher power. And, getting back to my main point, I certainly don’t see why India should corner the market on spirituality. Why do we get all mystical and fuzzy-headed the moment we hit the subcontinent? Look at The Razor’s Edge—the W. Somerset Maugham classic I’ve been reading over here. Protagonist Larry Darrell begins as a run-of-the-mill Midwesterner. Then he goes to India. By the time he gets back, he’s received illumination and communed with the Absolute. Also, he has telekinetic powers.I’m not sure I believe in the Absolute. But I do think I would enjoy having telekinesis. Mostly so I could alter the outcome of sporting events. (Oh, wide right! Too bad!)
(emphasis mine)
[via Tilo]
Mourning the death of a writer + weekend Trackback
There used to be a good writer. Taking no names, we shall call him S.
His writing, though difficult to accept the philosophy, were good reads, laced with a subtle wit and charm that kinda endeared one to him. When he described his grandma’s house in Egmore, you liked him because a) you were parochial and importantly b) for he wrote with a quiet passion and intelligence and lucid prose.
And then, perhaps he divorced this side of himself, or perhaps had a change of heart, or learnt a different kind of writing. One that got more and more – what shall we say – amateurish. In the end, it was expected. The blogosphere lost a good writer to an incoherent rambler.
But one set of people who don’t ramble are the members of the Open Trackback Alliance.
Here’s what they speak, this end-of-the-week
Dan Mancini has an open post, so link away. Blue star Chronicles too has a weekend open post, while playing with dolls.
Linkfest Haven has more fine posts and trackbacks, check them out.
Tel Chai Nation: Seven terrorist gang leaders arrested in Sears Tower plot | Woman honor thyself: Why Can’t we Just Get AlonG | Freedom Watch: THEY WANTED TO ‘KILL ALL THE DEVILS WE CAN’ | Florida Masochist: Florida the rules are different here Chapter XXX
The Madras Filter kaapi(n) sabhai
Chenthil and I are proposing a small club for like minded citizens of Madras, Mylapore preferably. Modelled on the lines of the great ‘Mylapore brahmanargal sangam’, the Madras filter kaapi sabhai is a place to meet comrades every week over a davara-tumbler of piping hot filter coffee, Brittania Marie biscuits and discuss the merits and demerits of the Madras coffee.
Our other activities are detailed below.
- Lament the fact that the vulgar American culture of coffee pubs and kapuchino are killing the traditional South Indian Coffee
- Campaign to extend protection to the indigenous coffee brewers
- Lobby for tax benefits to those drinking more than 20 cups of filter coffee in a week
- Petition the government to ban the custom of giving kids pocket money, who are spending it all on barista and cafe coffee day. (Kandraavi. ara kuraia, thopil theriyara maadiri dress panikkara ponnungala…)
Membership to the club on a first come, first serve basis (no pun intended). Members are expected to write eloquent letters to the Editor, the Reader’s Editor and the Editor’s Reader of The Hindu, on how filter coffee and Hindu are the Tamil, Madras way of life. And how Deccan Chronicle is conspiring to put an end to it by tying up with Baristas of the world.
All of my dear and near friends in the blahgosphere who want to join Chenthil and myself, please do leave your comments.
…
Someone told me “Obscenity is a symptom of an inferior vocabulary”.
Fuck, what a statement
Since SelAm sucks
I decided to concentrate my blogging energies on this ignored little kid – The Chicken Rules.
A few friends will be joining me there, and writing for the site. Hopefully, we will see some action there. And since I won’t be the only one writing there, the suckiness quotient would be more bearable.
My blog sucks
Big time. The archives, especially. The futher back I dig in, the suckier gets the content. How did you folks even tolerate me then? How did I become a top-blogger on such stupid posts?
Chewing on something?
When people tell “the article/presentation/copy isn’t writing itself”, do they actually expect the article to take a pen and write on itself? Where do we pick these expressions from? I’ve used it too, in the past, never wondered about it. Are they metaphors grossly misused in our days and times?
Take the term ‘take your mind off something’ – how does one even do it? Physically plunge your hand on to the said something, search for your mind and tear it away? Or the term ‘fodder for your brain’ – why does the brain need fodder, of all things? And how does a post, such as this, become fodder? Is that how cheaply we judge our writings as? Is thinking such a simple thing – regurgitate, cow-like, and chew on?
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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