Language Progress #1

Progress in language learning as of today

• Spanish : At a respectable level of fluency. Need to practice it a bit more so that I keep in touch with it. I'll be getting a copy of Cortazar's Rayuela (Hopscotch in English) from a friend, so that'll help out a lot. Not found many Spanish language partners on italki so that's not an option. Still stuck with just indicative tenses. Need to work on conditional tenses a bit. At a post A2/mid B1 level. Comfortable enough for now.
• Portuguese : Improving thanks to some practice on italki, and some study. Sometimes, getting it mixed with Spanish, but thankfully not too much. Listening to Brazilian music for practice. I've got this one movie, in European Portuguese to help me get accustomed to it. Since I'm learning the Brazilian variety, whatever I know is pretty informal. That's fine though. At probably a mid A1 level at the moment. Learning slowly, but very steadily. Knowing Spanish helps greatly. Love the rhythm of this language! Need to practice more. Focusing on this for now.
• Japanese : Practicing Kanji for now on memrise. Getting them stored in memory with repetitions, though, only the symbols and their meanings, not the readings. Still nowhere near ready for an exam, but this way I won't have to focus too much on worrying about kanji and their meanings. Keeping this aside.
• Persian : Not really focusing on this too much. Getting to know some words through Urdu, that's about it. Keeping this aside.
• Russian : I read up on this when I'm bored/tired of Spanish/Portuguese. I know just the very basics thanks to memrise. The more I do, the more I feel that this is a really classy language, more so than French! Would really like to study this in the future, due to its difficulty can't focus too much on it now. Just been practicing my Cyrillic again, and learning some very basic words, and doing reading practice. Keeping this aside.
• Urdu : Getting some reading practice done from the local library, and from this site that I found just yesterday. All in all though, I still find Urdu extremely alien because of all the Persianate/Islam culture it was born in and the Perso-Arabic vocab. Reading about its history, I can see why it was such a big deal, because now, it's pretty useless, except maybe in Hyderabad. Most Urdu speakers (in India) can read Devanagari anyway, and official stuff is in proper Hindi... So proper Urdu's (with Nastaliq and all that) use is confined to Muslim neighborhoods/cities, and by definition it's an exclusive community language nowadays which adds to its disuse. I'm not distressed about that though. That's something for another post. I'm learning this for the literature/poetry it has/had. Late beginner level, I guess.

Tasher Desh.

       "Why do you want to fly away, when it's far more sensible to live in a cage?"

-----------

Today I went to this pretty cool event : http://www.indiearth.com/xChange2013/ConferenceProgram.aspx

Found it through Twitter, just when I was despairing that nothing ever happens in this city. Went for it with some friends. Wanted to check out some bands, but the music events were way too late (around midnight) for us to go to.

So anyway, we ended up going for the film program. When I looked up the schedule, I was excited to see Tasher Desh by Q on the list. Why?

Q, is one of the coolest modern Indian directors. He's done some of the most revolutionary (in both senses of the word) Indian films I've ever seen, including Gandu (not seen this fully) and Love in India. I'm also eagerly awaiting his new documentary, Sari.
He has many other talents as well, like being the frontman of a band, Gandu Circus.

Going by all that, I had high expectations for Tasher Desh. I read reviews, which were very glowing. Knowing Q's work, I wasn't surprised. Then, I saw the trailer.

Just wow. Blew me away. I knew then I HAD to see it. So I did.

The screening room was perfect. Quiet, with great speakers, and soundproofed totally.

The movie starts :

It's basically an adaptation of a Tagore play of the same name, set in a strange, trippy world that's like a medieval Indian society, but with a strong European feel, and stuck in ruined castles, and with barely any people. Not for long though : The movie shifts to somewhere else, and the craziness ensues. The card people from the trailer make an appearance, and the rest of the movie is pretty much set there.

Now, I'm not gonna talk much about the story, which is a good thing because it was pretty much abstract and had no concreteness. Pretty open ended. Also because it's better seen than spoken about, because it'd make a different impression on everyone.

However, the movie made me think a lot, in simultaneously different paths. It was one of the most unique Indian movies I've seen till date. Some of the things that really stood out to me :

• The editing. It was just world class stuff, could compete with editing from American or world movies, that's how good it was. It had a really nice sense to it. It'd be abrupt, subtle, jarring, glitchy, smooth - whatever the situation required. There was a glitchy introduction scene when the 'actual' movie, ie, the play's content begins, that was just amazing. It was a scene that starts, and then gets stuck, and starts glitching in this sorta pixelating way, and then continues!
• The language : Well, I don't speak Bengali. However even then I'd be able to tell when English words get mixed up with a language as is in the case with colloquial Hindi and Tamil (Tamil has more so than Hindi, ironically!). The language in the movie IIRC used the original Bengali text of the okay - Tagore's own lines. That means very minimal English influence in word choice, almost 0. (Minimal Perso Arabic words also, AFAIK). I could pick out a lot of literary type words (tatsama ones), which gave it a grand feel akin to using lofty, older English for a movie. That gave it a really striking elegance to my ears. (Any Bengalis can tell me if I'm close to the mark and how it sounded to them.) 
• Spontaneity : One of the things that defines modern Indian society to me, especially in contrast with the West, is the inertia of the society. We struggle to let go of things, and our worse cultural aspects tend to stick around for generations. However, I feel in modern days things are speeding up thanks to the much faster pace of growth, plus globalization and the internet. Plus, younger people, including me, are more used to either living in a comparatively faster bubble of society, or identify with one. So there's a culture clash there. The movie was kinda a metaphor for that to me, but not in an in your face way : Rather builds up the frustration and then lets it go, with the results being ambiguous. Thinking back, when Tagore wrote the play, something similar was going on in Bengali society, with the changes and formation of a national identity.
• Sexuality : In this movie, as the lead actress Rii Sen said at the venue (Yes, she was there! To promote the film and to talk a little about it.), the expression of the female sexuality was much more subtle and aesthetic as opposed to in your face and crude. Another thing was, the women were shown as being in control of it and acting on it, in spite of opposition from the higher ups and peers. Again, in contrast with society, and also in very stark contrast with most Indian movies, where this sorta stuff is not portrayed very well generally.
• Counterculture feel : This movie had a strong counterculture feel to it, with its theme of rebellion, its psychedelic, dark sounding music, and general abstractness and its very nature of being different and eclectic in concept and execution. From the editing to the idea to the music to the costumes.
• Aesthetics : As you can see from the trailer, the movie had a strong commitment to a certain aesthetic sense : The eccentric costumes of the card people, the old, trashy costumes of the prince and his retinue, the run down castles and their furniture, the make up, and the general visual feel it had.
• Camera work : The camera work in this, according to the guy who did the editing (also at the venue),  was done by both Q, and another camera man. One shot was still, and the other one was running around. Both were used in the film to great effect. You've suddenly got steady shots, and suddenly haphazard ones.
• Music : The soundtrack to this movie had very varied styles, jazzy tunes, folksy tunes, and electronic sounding ones, not to mention the mix within the songs themselves. Add a nice sound production and great lyrics to this mix, and you've got some really cool music. Add that to the visuals the music was portrayed over and you've got a great movie soundtrack. The music visuals were closer to musicals than their Western counterparts, seeing as it's a movie based on a play, but thankfully a far cry away from the senseless excesses of Bollywood song and dance routines. This, to me, is a perfect balance that they struck, that really needs to be seen more in Indian cinema. 
• Relevance : Now, a lot of 'intellectuals' in India have some very theoretical points that are either arrived at through mental masturbation, envisioning an ideal society, denial, or projection of ideas onto others. In my opinion, this movie was smart and did not preach or claim to have any answers, yet still stuck to its sincerity and made several points and spoke on certain levels. Rather than 'THIS IS IT', it was more like 'So, have you considered...'.  
• Open ended-ness : This was nice because even though the movie was very different from usual, and had a lot going on, it was very abstract and could be interpreted in any way. This was confirmed to be Q's intent at the venue, by the guy who did the editing. The whole movie was what you make of it, rather than pushing an agenda or (a) message(s).

To finish off, here's brilliant review mirroring my own thoughts (though in much more detail).

Languages Spoken In My Neighborhood.

A few weeks ago, I saw this video by a famous Irish language blogger I follow, and his friend, another language blogger. It blew my mind! The Irish blogger, Benny Lewis, has traveled the world and has practiced his languages as he travels. Laoshu however, the Cleveland blogger, has practiced most within his own city!

He says it's because, if you look under the surface, you'll find a lot of foreign languages in a city. For example, since there are lots of Arabs and Chinese, he was able to practice his Arabic and Chinese. And so on.

Now, Cleveland, being in the US, gets a lot of immigrants and what not. There aren't that many here. But what there are though, are non native languages. Instead of listing what's found in the whole city, I've listed what's found on my street/neighborhood.

Let's start with non native. Native to this city is Tamil, which can be found anywhere.

• Telugu
• Malayalam
• Kannada
• Hindi
• Marathi
• Bengali
• Marwadi
• Saurashtra
• Indian English
• Oriya
• Urdu
• Nepali

Foreign languages now.

• Japanese
• American English
• Korean
• French

Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil.

Recently, I read Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil.

I've known who he is through his band, Sridhar/Thayil. Around last year or so, I read a Rolling Stone India interview they did, and it was mentioned that Thayil had just written a book, and he was asked about it. He said that it was written about his experiences in opium dens in Bombay, in the 70s and 80s. I was intrigued, because I'd never heard of that sorta stuff by an Indian writer. I was further intrigued when I heard that it was selected for a Booker Prize (but didn't win).

I looked for it for a while, and couldn't find it. I forgot about it. But then, like last month or so, I saw it at an Odyssey store. I got a copy and read it.

It opens with a sura from the Qu'ran. I found it that sorta curious. Why from there? Anyway. The book begins with a very flow-y stream of consciousness style - 1 single sentence over whole pages - that you'd associate with late evening chats, maybe over food, maybe drunk, maybe intoxicated. It goes here and there, from asides to descriptions.

The book is based in a Bombay that to people of this generation would probably seem sorta surreal, far away from the technology and (uneven) development.

It's divided into four books. The first one has four chapters, each describing a different character. From the strangely familiar hijra/chakka/transexual Dimple, to the druggie Rumi, to Rashid the businessman, to the ominously talked about painter Newton Xavier, to Mr. Lee, the mysterious Chinese gentleman. The narrator doesn't talk about himself too much.

Dimple is familiar - She seems like a stock character at times. Rumi is outlandish and entertaining, but we don't get enough. Rashid is menacing and you mentally note to keep an eye on him. Xavier, is sorta unreal yet real, but disappears as suddenly as he appears. Mr. Lee is portrayed as very mysterious.

The introduction being done, we move to book two. The chapters about Mr. Lee, and delving into his family history and the Chinese government, seemed sorta pointless to me. It took away from the main, Bombay based story, and left me waiting for it to return. Ironically, this the second biggest book out of the four, and I didn't get the point of it. Surely it could have been done in a few chapters instead of so many?  It's written well and has a nice story, but it's very out of place story wise, in the sense it doesn't relate to the rest of the book at all. Mr. Lee dies quickly anyway, there is no need for this elaborate backstory. This was the hardest part to read, because I kept thinking, where's this going, how's it relevant? It turned out it really wasn't.

The third book - the biggest - continues where the second left off, but focuses more on Rumi, Rashid and Dimple. It talks about Dimple's transformation from hooker to concubine and further, her spirititual awakening, her self awareness of her attractiveness and as a sex symbol, Rashid's losses both personally and financially due to the introduction of 'garad' (dirt in Urdu) or heroin into the market by his 'Muslim brothers' in Pakistan supplanting his own opium, Rashid's struggle with his Muslim-ness, Rumi's family problems, his 'escapades' and brush with jail and addiction.

It's set in a increasingly 'communal' background, with the Bombay riots featuring, and the Muslims self-identifying more and more with their religious identity. This is probably the best book of the four, and is the best read of them all. There's a sense of the story getting somewhere, it has interesting stuff happening, and unlike the second part, it's more solidly connected to the the story presented in book one.

Book four is sorta an epilogue, and in this, Dom visits Bombay to meet his old friends. He meets with Jamal, Rashid's son, who is a right wing Muslim, bordering on extremist, using every opportunity he can to talk about his religion. Rashid, is just a shadow of himself, predictably. The ending of the main story is pretty predictable, yet nonetheless not forced or abrupt- it seems natural.

However, there is a sort of second ending with Jamal, which is very different and genuinely disturbing to think about, involving his radical beliefs. It seems like a warning about the Islamic radicalism in the country at present.

On the whole, the book was a good read, especially since I could feel a Beat-y vibe/influence (William S. Burroughs specifically) and it dealt with something that you always suspected existed, but never could hear/read about, and maybe because the voyeur in me enjoys 'grit'. I loved the music references, with Hendrix, Miles Davis and R.D Burman being mentioned and talked about, something I've not read in Indian writing before. I really liked the anecdote of Kind of Blue being in 'heroin time' rather than musical time. The writing suited the content, but at times could get too abstract.

Having said that, I did not get the point of the Chinese story at all. Also, the characters were fleshed out only to the point that the reader becomes acquainted to them and no more, except for Dimple, but who she is and what happens to her is pretty predictable anyway so it didn't matter. The narrator is almost absent for most of the book, and I cannot get over why the Chinese story was given so much importance. Also, not being Muslim, a lot of the Islamic references were totally alien/unrelatable to me, I don't get why there are so many, including the sura at the start.

A decent debut novel, but could use less abstraction in the writing/anecdotes/side stories, more relatable characters, more fleshed out characters, and a more coherent story. And no random Chinese story that takes up a quarter of the book. (Sorry, couldn't help it.)

Still, since it's urban Indian it has a good sense of relatability (as opposed to small town/village stuff - totally alien lifestyles), and it doesn't overdo or exaggerate its grit for effect (I'm thinking of you, White Tiger!) but has just the right amount - feels realistic for the most part - and thanks to nice, flowing writing, it's a good read... I'd give it a 16/20.

Flibbibbbil.

Okay so far I've been posting random stuff here, mostly some stuff I've jotted down in notebooks or whatever. Some music stuff here, some book stuff there, some attempted writings there. I'm planning to make the blog more structured and serious. I've already edited some of the older posts. I'll try to put up stuff on language, any books I've read or feel I have to write about, any general stuff, music stuff, and the usual jottings, etc etc. 

Beat-y (?) Jottings

I was going through a notebook I used for my first sem in college, and found something I'd written there around this summer. Something I scribbled down after reading On The Road, and parts of William S. Burroughs stuff at the library, like Interzone, Queer and Junkie. Speaking of which, I saw a copy of The Naked Lunch at Odyssey for just 200 bucks, I should get it! Anyway, yeah. I tried writing something spontaneously like how Kerouac would have suggested, and mixed it up a bit like Burrough's cut up stuff. It was half finished (as usual), but I wrote a second half yesterday. I don't know what to do with it from here, I'll post it anyway. Here goes.

----------------------------

I'm a pair 
of eyes
A voyeur
Vicarious scavenging
Rrrt rrrt
I lap it all up
Washing it down with beer
- Changes of scenery 
- There are more 
things
In this land
Than are written of 
in your travel guides
- Neurotic second guessing,
A turning missed?
I'm a pair
of eyes
A voyeur.

I'm a pair
of ears
Eavesdropping
Taking in sound and rhythm
Bop bop
Like a long blues jam
Tap my feet, keep in time
- Some syncopation now
Counting in, with
a son clave
Ba ba ba, ba ba
Superimposed with your 
own grooves and opinions
- Neurotic second guessing,
A drum roll missed?
I'm a pair
of ears
Eavesdropping. 

Language List.

Here's a list of languages I know, and can speak, and others that I've learnt, even to just a basic level :

• English : Pretty much my first language. Specifically speaking, Midland/Midwestern American English (the variety in and around Cincinnati OH) with generalized Americanisms. Also Indian English, to a lesser extent (Madras English).
• Sourashtra : My native language/mother tongue. Can speak it fluently, but it's not a very established language by itself and lacks a lot of nouns which I usually use English ones in place of. I have a Sourashtra dictionary, and the formal language seems pretty Sanskritized, which is fine. But I've never really had any occasion to use anything other than the conversational language. Maybe if I tried writing in it.
• Tamil : Can read the script with some difficulty. Am comfortably conversational, though I have a thick accent while speaking it and can mess it up badly while nervous. Can get the gist of formal speech using more Sanskritized vocabulary. Cannot understand 'Pure Tamil' at all (Using mostly Dravidian roots, ie). Can't really understand poetry/lyrics in it.
• Hindi : Can read the script easier than Tamil, but not to the extent of English. Indic scripts are extremely logical and have few ambiguities, arguably, Devanagri has the least. Can understand conversational Hindi and the gist of stuff spoken in formal Sanskritized Hindi. Can't really understand poetry/lyrics in it, or more Perso - Arabic vocabularies and usages. Learnt it in school, but forgot most of what I learnt, except for the Sanskritized vocab. Phonology is like a simplified version of Sourashtra's, so no problem there.
• Spanish : The first language I've actually attempted learning properly, with classes and the like. I can read it well (thanks mostly to the alphabet). I have no problems with pronouncing any of the phonemes, though now and then I stumble on the 'rr's while speaking fast. Can speak it without much accent, and I can approximate different regional accents, too. Vocabulary wise, still need work. Weak with prepositions. Semi fluent, but making lots of progress thanks to classes. Will be writing the DELE A2 exam in November. Can understand song lyrics but poetry, not so much.
• Portuguese : I attempted Portuguese after Spanish, when I started getting into Bossa Nova and Brazilian music in general. Later, I got deeper into it. My background in Spanish helped. Speaking, can do with some thinking. Not fluent at all, but probably could get around in Brazil with a phrasebook for reference. Thanks to music, can understand a decent amount. Studying Spanish helps, because the two languages have many things in common, first off, a Romance structure and general form, as opposed to English's Germanic, common vocabularies, similar conjugations (Though definitely not the same - just similar). Can understand lyrics and poetry with a dictionary to help (The flow of Portuguese is naturally very lyrical, and has more in common with lyrical English than lyrical Spanish for some reason, maybe the French influence on English and Portuguese is to blame?). Lovely phonology, challenging, yet worth it! I can make most of the sounds, I think!
• Japanese : The only East Asian language I've tried. I can read Hiragana. Don't know Katakana. I know the meaning of around 200 - 300 individual kana. Cannot speak or understand much, except for some words and phrases. I've forgotten most of the tiny bit I learnt, years ago. Phonology is dead easy. Has some of the most melancholy poetry in the world - like Portuguese!
• French : I learnt this in school. Never could get it right back then. After I got into languages after finishing school,  I learnt some basic French in college, though I promptly forgot it soon after. Cannot really understand spoken French, or speak it myself (except for very basic sentences, probably). Phonemes don't seem too hard - All the phonemes that exist in Parisian French, seem to exist in either British English or Brazilian Portuguese, as far as I know. Or at least it feels like that. Can understand written French to a good extent relative to my basic knowledge of the language. For some reason, I don't really see the appeal of this language. Probably because it was a lingua franca rather than a practical language outside of Francophone regions, and now English has taken its place. You think it's classy? Watch  Un prophète. It can be as gritty or street as Cockney.
• Russian : I can read and write Cyrillic but I am slow at it. I have no knowledge of Russian except for a few words I learnt on Rosetta Stone, and some more from Soviet rock (Yes, that was a thing!). The only reason I put it up here is because of the alphabet. Phonology seems intimidating but probably won't be after some study.
• Urdu : I can read the Perso Arabic Nastaliq script with some difficulty. (The native Urdu script, different from Arabic and Persian's). Can understand certain Perso Arabic words. Can write it. The conversational form of the language is the same as Hindi. Only the lyrical and formal registers differ. Though all in all, I don't get the point of Urdu.  I mean, either go for pure full blown, ACTUAL Persian, or Sansrkitized Hindi. Why bastardize either? That's just my POV as an anal ousider though. Persianate words don't sound as good with an Indian grammar/rhythm to me, IHMO. Or maybe I'm just a purist.  And other than being a Sufi language, I don't get the point of Urdu. As an atheist/agnostic/apatheist, the whole sufism stuff doesn't really appeal because GOD KHUDA GOD. No disrespect to the language though, just my views. Phonology same as Hindi's. (Because same language, in a way).
• Persian : Has a substantially easier form of  Perso Arabic script than Urdu. Makes it way easier to read and write. The language is actually extremely easy except for grammar. Especially for Indians. Phonology is like a simplified Hindi phonology, with like a very few exotic sounds thrown in. (I think no more than 3). Has some of the most beautiful poetry in the world. But to understand it, would probably need to know Persian REALLY well. Persian words, terms, suffixes pop up a lot in Medieval Indian sites that Sultanates and the Mughals built, their cities, and their cultural stuff. I don't really have much of an idea of spoken Perisan, it's more of the cultural Persian.
• Arabic : The script is even easier than Persian's. It's got a wide reach, and was one of the most influential languages of Asia and Africa in it's classical form. I can understand some words, and lots of toponyms (place names) and people's names. Also, Arabic words pop up a lot in Medieval Indian sites that Sultanates and the Mughals built. And place names here, too. Like Persian. Has a crazy phonology that is totally alien to me. I don't really have much knowledge of spoken Arabic, but I have an idea of cultural Arabic.
• Swedish : I tried to learn it, and I stopped after a while. It's a very harsh, grinding language. It didn't appeal to me much. Turns out, most Swedes are fluent in English (I think stats are 90 + %!), and there's not much point in learning the language. In fact, some of the best metal lyrics I've heard were by Swedes! (Opeth, Pain of Salvation!)

~~

...And Classes End.

My semester classes have ended, finally! Come to think of it, I don't know when they began, and they ended before I even settled into the sem.

But I'm not complaining, no, hah.

I've got exams though, from Monday. Need to start studying a bit. Sems are from mid October or so. Might have to turn in some assignments too, so I've got that to look forward to.

My Spanish classes have been getting knocked up a notch as well ("Oh, it's Elzar!") and I need to gear up for that. Half the people in our class have left. That's bad and yet good. Bad because it's more serious and there's less joking around and less of a casual atmosphere, but good because we're getting more done, learning more, and the teacher, Ana, can give us more individual attention.

Right now, we're learning the difference between two types of past tenses (there are THREE). The conjugation itself is pretty easy, but knowing which to use when and where is annoying and will take a while.

Books I've read this week : 1984 - George Orwell and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz. Oscar Wao was pretty cool, loads of dark humor and the regular kind, with lots of Spanglish and movie/book/comics references thrown in. Would be a must read, except for all the Spanish words.  1984 had a pretty disturbing ending, which I didn't expect either. But I guess enough's been said about it lately, lol.

My Thoughts on (Parts of) Ulysses. Part 1.

In one of my last posts, I was talking about how I had started reading a lot again. Whenever I'd look for recommendations, I'd see Ulysses by James Joyce high on the recommendations as one of the best, if not, THE best work in English. Other people disagreed with that, saying it was a heap of exaggerated trash, too self indulgent, whatnot. I decided I'd give it a try myself.

I read a bit last year, on Wiki. I wasn't in a mood to pay much attention, plus it's hard to on the computer, so I gave up pretty much before I began, promising that I'd try properly, later.

I forgot about for a few months and kept reading books that I COULD finish + understand (including, but not restricted to the ones in the list I put up). Then, I remembered what I said to myself. 

Remembering the warnings about the inscrutable use of language in the book, I picked a day I'd not be distracted by anything else, and when I'd have a 'heightened awareness'. I went to the library, made straight for the fourth floor and found their copy of Ulysses and went through the first chapter.

I had to read the introduction to get a sense of what to expect, and the annotations. There was an appendix in the back of the book I had to keep referring to to get a sense of the context and meanings of certain words (Latin, French, Irish Gaelic, Irish English - so far) and cultural aspects (mostly dealing with Catholicism and Irish and British culture of that period) and politics (Irish republicanism and unionism, British imperialism and apologists - but this at least I already had a good idea of because of the IRA and stuff and the history of 'our own' British Raj). I had to refer the appendix pretty often but I don't think there would have really been a way to get into the atmosphere otherwise, since 1904 Irish/British society/values are totally alien to those of my my own (which themselves are alien to me).

That day I finished the first chapter, Telemachus. I really liked it. Granted, it was still pretty simple compared to the rest of the book, but it serves as a good starting point to gradually (?) get into the feel of the next book. Though, the links with the Odyssey, I didn't get. It seemed normal, but had lots of quirky turns. It had a sense of simmering frustration on the part of Stephen Dedalus, the main character, especially with Ireland. It went suddenly, at random, into his thoughts, usually diverting from what was going on, or his own musings on them. 

Another day, I came back and read chapter two, Nestor. It was like the first but there were more internal musings, because it's set in a school where Dedalus teaches, and he's bored/frustrated with the kids (who wouldn't be). He makes some references to stuff related to Irish history, that I needed annotations the understand. He speaks to a fellow teacher and they talk about the state that Ireland is in, and once again we get the sense of Dedalus' frustration with his nation.

I tried reading chapter 3, but it was too vague and rambling. I skipped it for another time, and settled on chapter 4. This dealt with Leopold Bloom, an Irish Jew. Chapters 4 and 5, both with him as the focus, were less heady, but not easier to read, as Bloom has a very wandering mind and breaks his train of thought frequently for trivia. It dealt with more 'current' stuff, and day to day things. Both the chapters ended with things I can't imagine people writing about in the period Ulysses was published (1922) and so I was shocked. Chapter 4 starts with him hogging on meat and ends with him taking a dump. Chapter 5 has him thinking of women and checking out one, and ends with him ejaculating. Yes, shocker, hah, coming from someone using language like that while writing, to write about something like this and describe it too. (Not graphically though, thankfully)

That's all that I've finished successfully. I'm working on another post, about what I felt about what I've read so far (I know it's not enough to give a proper judgement, but bear with me), and the parallels I felt between India and Ireland (I was surprised by this), about his use of language, use of internal monologues, and things I could relate to in the book -- making it not just some piece of literature, but something relevant and insightful as well.

I wanted to include it with this post, but thought it'd be too big. Plus I want to make it good, and work on it, it'll take a while, what with exams and general laziness. More than a month probably. 

Indie Band Plan.

Been sick, so couldn't update and post about the books. I'll save that for later though.

So yeah.
My friend and I have been jamming some 60s/70s/80s stuff for a while. At first it was for fun, and without direction, but 3 months ago we kinda hit upon a sound for ourselves, pretty different from the other bands in the city. We finished some covers and got some own comps laid down.

We didn't have a backing band, but we thought we'd keep it 2 piece and acoustic till we did. We were aiming for a 70s ish type style. Semi jangly chords, with harmonized vocals and R&B type call and response stuff. Dancey bass and some Indian elements in the rhythms.

Unfortunately. He's left to Bangalore :\ And I'm now filled with these song ideas and these half finished songs just waiting to be jammed and finished. What's worse, I've found a backing band, a bassist and drummer who are ready to jam as well. But I need to decide what to do about the lead vocal/rhythm guitarist/co songwriter position. It's a real dilemma. Aaargh. 

Back! And here's a list.

Okay, so I'm back after a hiatus. My net's been back for a while but I've been too lazy to update for some reason. Meh.

Lot's happened since I was last active. Too much, in fact. Someday I'll get around to writing it down here, maybe.

I've been reading a lot of stuff for the last year or so. After not having read much for like 3 years before that. They opened a library near my house, a pretty massive one with a huge collection of stuff... And well. I started reading a lot, I guess to compensate for those 3 years. Anyway. Here's a list of some of the stuff I've read since then, with a rating out of ten, with ten being the highest. Rated not necessarily by quality, but by how much it was relatable and made sense/made me think/rethink my view of things.

• The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart - [8/10]
• The Search for The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart - [7/10]
• The "A Song of Ice and Fire" Series, George R R Martin- [9/10]
• Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut - [3/10]
• God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut - [5/10]
• God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, Kurt Vonnegut - [7/10]
• Choke, Chuck Palahniuk - [2/10]
• Time Out of Joint, Phillip K. Dick - [7/10]
• Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa - [11/10] (Yeah, you read that right!)
• after the quake, Haruki Murakami - [6/10]
• In The Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami - [4/10]
• My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel García Marquez - [3/10]
• Strange Pilgrims, Gabriel García Márquez - [7/10]
• South of The Border, East of The Sun, Haruki Murakami - [8/10]
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip K. Dick - [7/10]

Etc etc. There are lots more but yeah. I'm not gonna write them all down.

All this reading's really changed my perspective on stuff, since it was after a period of not really reading much other than masala stuff or thrillers/spy books.

After a long, long time of being bogged down with work and being tired, and other stuff generally, I've started appreciating language and the subtlety of words more, and their intricacies and imagery. I've started appreciating the smaller subtleties in life, the settings and scenes of day to day things. I've started getting more emotionally involved while listening to song lyrics, especially when it comes to stuff like 60s/70s music. Stuff by guys like Dylan,The Beatles, jazz singers, bossa nova musicians, folk musicians, CSNY, Floyd, Steely Dan and others gained additional dimensions suddenly. There's this willingness to see things from many perspectives at once, and see the pros and cons of each, that grows once you're past your selfish, selfcentered  mentality of your teens and start listening to people and what they have to say, and have the courage to admit that they might be right or to even consider things like that.

There's more I want to say on the subject... Especially concerning certain books specifically. When I post next (tomorrow, hopefully - but probably not, knowing me)!

No Internet Blues.

My internet's been down from the New Year, and I've not been able to come online much, much less update my blog. I've written some stuff that I'll post once I get back.

Till then~

The Ambience Yatra (?)

I was fooling around on my phone and thought I'd write something to pass time, with the Color Notes app. This is the result. I gave it a tentative title of  "The Ambience Yatra". It's from the point of view of a young man from Chennai who's driving on a road (one of the national highways). To Kathmandu via Bangalore and
Pune I guess (NH7).

I'm sorta happy with the result so far! Though it's pretty rambly.

~
The nostalgia in travel is dwarfed by the memories of places we've wanted to go to, that we've simulated in our heads. When you leave, you're leaving to something familiar - It could even be your home.

But in spite of loads of precautions I still feel apprehensive.

The haze on the road at night is everywhere. It's thicker than the incense from Durga Puja.

I look around at the road. Thousands of people have died over the years, I thought to myself. Armies, from Indian - Tamil, Telegu, Maratha - to Turks and Mughals, to Europeans - French, Dutch, Portuguese, British. And now there's nothing to show for it here. Just a sign saying 'Muthu hotel - Vegetarian meals available' and signs with Tamil writing scrawled over the front.

I think to myself - Is it good that we, as a civilization have put our defeats behind us, or is it a sign that we will be - as the cliché goes - doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past?

I shake my head. I'm too tired to think about it. It's been quite a while since I last slept.

~