The Online Novel

Yes, I am reading an online novel that is actually legal! Almost always, the fiction that we read online is a testimony to copyright violation or some archived work whose copyright has died a natural death.

However, Corduroy Mansions is a now and here novel that can be read online, without breaking any laws. Alexander McCall Smith's novel Corduroy Mansions was serialized in the online Telegraph between September and December last year. So you must be wondering why I am writing this post one year too late. Well, the reason is that right now I am enjoying the sequel.

If you click the link and like what you read, come back to say 'thank you'. :-P

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Last week I was part of the audience of a cultural program at the Durga puja pandal in my neighbourhood. Before the events of the evening started, the president of the puja committee announced the winners of the sit and draw competition for children, held that morning.

During his speech I was hit by the change in our cultural values. He reminded the participants that participation was most important, wining or losing was not. Not winning the prize does not mean that an individual is inferior to the person who has won it. How political correctness has invaded our lives! Is this a gift of reality television? Or is it an example of a culture of political correctness that has taken over our social interactions? Whatever happened to good old winning and losing? As kids, when we won competitions we rushed home excitedly clutching the drawing book and set of crayons that were given away as prizes. When we lost competitions, we cheered for our friends. Yes, we did not win all the time, but…well…devil may care!

While it is important to tell youngsters that winning is not everything, is it that important to give them constant reassurance? Possibly the reassurance helps kids to cope with the fact of losing. Handling failures may be more difficult in today’s highly competitive world that we would like to admit. But by reassuring the non-winner, are we not undermining the achievements of the winner?

Sometime back I got an email forward about Bill Gates’ speech at a high school about 11 things school children do not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Of the 11 rules, rule 8 reads as follows:
“Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT.”

After all, you win some, you lose some.

Be careful what you wish for...

...you just might get it!

Phone Phobia and a New Year Message

Tring! Tring! Tring! There goes my phone again! Most of us have more phones than we can handle, don’t you think? And for some of us, mobile phones are the bane of our existence. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that this is another post decrying the tiny gadget, well, it is not! It is a post of how the nature of phone calls I receive has changed over the years.

Well, gone are the days of high school and college when friends used to call up and gossip for hours in the afternoons. It was the best time to get glued to the device, with mom safely away – enjoying her afternoon siesta. Gone are days when the only discussion over phones used to be that of college, friends and fun. Back in those days, I had only access one phone – the fixed line at home. But now even with several phones at my disposal most of the time I get one of three kinds of calls that I’d rather do without. First, from a telemarketing executive informing me about what I am missing out in life by not taking personals loans or credit cards from their organizations. Second, from work telling me what needed to be done yesterday. And finally, from relatives, eternally nagging about how bad I am at keeping in touch! Sigh! Very rarely do I get a phone that I am glad to receive.

Of course, one kind of message I am glad to send and receive is a new year wish. Tring! Happy New Year to all.

Missing Chennai

As my archive indicates, I am blogging after months. And, as my memory indicates, I am blogging from office after years. Well, maybe I just ran out of things to say. Or, maybe, there were so many things happening together that I did not know which one to talk about. But I am back to blogging now as I can understand it will be a useful medium for me to keep in touch with my Chennai friends.

Yes, that is the most important update on life. I have left Chennai for good and have moved back to Kolkata, my hometown. I started by trying to find a good job in Kolkata. When I got down to it, I found it more difficult than what I had thought it would be. The result of it was that, I became even more resolute in my mission. Finally it did happen!

And before I knew it, I was thinking differently. I was missing Chennai even before I had left the city. No matter how much I complained about the place, the city was my home for three years. Now, after being in Kolkata for over two weeks, I miss everything about Chennai, but most importantly I miss my friends, the aroma of filter coffee and the beach.

Memories of Ooty

View of the hills

Botanical Garden

The train seen from above

Tea gardens

Tag done. Finally!

I have a long-pending tag to do and that is today’s blog trigger. Yes, it has come to that now. I need triggers! I don’t know why I do not blog as often as I used to. Maybe it is boredom, maybe laziness, maybe busy-ness. Or, it could be just that life is standing on its head right now. Anyway, the subject of this is post is not self-analysis, but completion of the tag.

AFJ has dutifully tagged me to say nine things about myself one of which is a lie. She wants her buddies, me included, to do this for ‘old times' sake’ and here, I oblige. :P

1. I have this irritating habit of trying to memorize the registration numbers of cars on the road. This possibly springs from my childhood fantasy of becoming a detective. In my opinion then, the ability to remember and report the registration numbers of vehicles was the supreme skill of a private detective.

2. I am not too fond of fish! Yes, that is true and I do call myself a Bong.

3. I am obsessed with spilt-ends in my hair. Whenever I am alone and mega bored, I try to kill time by twirling strands of my hair around my fingers and gently snipping of split-ends.

4. I am a cleanliness freak. Everything in my house needs to be in meticulous order for me to be able to sleep peacefully.

5. I want to get my ears pierced so that I can wear three pairs of earrings. Though I am pretty sure about what I want the trinkets to look like, I am not at all sure about the piercing part. I chicken out every time I get anywhere close to piercing. Same applies to my longing for a nose ring.

6. Try as I may, I cannot bake THE PERFECT CAKE. Something has to go wrong – every time!

7. The fantasy mentioned in point 1 above, naturally springs from a heavy dose of action-packed detective stories that I used to read during my school days. I am okay with the cop-chasing-goon stories, but I steer clear of horror stories. They freak me out and I avoid horror tele-serials and movies. Yes, you guessed it right; I’ve not read much of Poe.

8. I am quick to form opinions about people. Sometimes I am myself appalled by my judgmental nature. But I cannot help being that way!

9. I suffer from a dentist-phobia, if something like that exists. This is another case of chickening out at the last moment.

Phew! There, that is done. I am not tagging anybody to do this. Do the tag, if you wish to.