Wednesday, October 29, 2008

It's been awhile

I've been avoiding the computer chair (which is in fact not a computer chair at all) because it gives me backache. Age and grey hair - the troubles they bring along. And because I've been avoiding the computer chair, the computer has been getting the royal ignore too. But today I decided to catch up with people I've been out of touch with. This included a Cousin Dadi (who I spoke to), an aunt (whose phone was busy) and Mr. Computer (who has kindly forgiven me without a word of reproach).

I've written a lot today. I've also finally submitted my latest article (this one on the Russell Peters show in Kolkata last week) at work. Here's the link: Laughing out loud with Russell Peters. This caused me a lot of insecurity while I wrote it. I constantly worried that I wasn't doing a good job, but despite all the worrying, it's turned out well enough at the end.

I've been telling everyone that I'm reading a bad book by Hemmingway (the same dude who wrote The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls). This one is called Fiesta, and I have only about 20-odd pages left, and I would like to say that it has finally turned interesting. As in, this is no thriller. That sense of chill anticipation is absent, but the last few pages have been an improvement over the first 150-odd pages. I guess, even Mr. Hemmingway had to start somewhere. Nobody's perfect.

Except my father, by his own admission.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Surprise!

Sometimes you think you know somebody inside out and then they spring a surprise trait on you that you would never have guessed they had. It's nice. Two fishy people have done the 'Surprise' routine back-to-back and I'm quite pleased about it. One lies through his teeth like a professional, the other has a fascination for green because that's the colour of the house she belonged to in school.

You think you know people... The question is, 'How much?'...

Btw... 2 latest stories:
1. A first for Bengali animation
2. Lal Kalo: Going beyond red and black

PS: Made a major goof-up on the review. A small but major one. Thanks to Coffee Stain who corrected me.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Belated Happy Birthday Parcel

My sister's happy birthday parcel is planning to get sent off today. Her birthday is on the 17th. It takes a week or so to reach. Procrastination is my middle name. Call me Poojo Procrastination C. starting today.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pampers

Pamper Poojo spree by Poojo.C is on. It's expensive by her standards, but it keeps the stress away and brings on the smiles. A good deal I would say.

PS: The title of this post should in no way be confused with the Huggies competitor.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

After a long time...

I'm whistling at work again. That's a good sign.

Colloseum Capers

A temple of gold melts in the heat of man-made flames of greed and a monument is built for generations to see. Ancient Romans make off with relics from an ancient Jewish temple, using the loot to build an entertainment complex that would later become a tourist hotspot.

One theory goes that the Collosseum was built with blood money. A temple of gold in Jerusalem was set aflame till it turned into an aureate river. The river cooled to form solid gold pieces which were carried by Roman soldiers into a Rome in ruins. A great fire a few years earlier had razed buildings that once occupied the area which is now the Collosseum.

It was time for an image revamp. Emperor Vespasian started building the amphitheatre. The work continued and was completed under his son Titus and witnessed all the blood and gore of gladiator fights, animal hunts and executions. And the wealth that had originally belonged to the Jews never returned to Jerusalem.


Now, the Collosseum is just another symbol of times gone by... and one more must-visit spot on my bucket list.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Machu Picchu Diary

Am a fan of the Incas today. They lasted a hundred years but built stone walls that lasted five hundred, and they didn't even use cement or mortar; they were simply extraordinary at jigsaws. They fit the pieces in exactly, and these refuse to budge even today.


Plus, they housed over a thousand llamas.

What more could one want?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

No love lost anymore

My first job. Aaah... now that was love.

This is just a marriage of convenience.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

De-stress Now. Ask Me How.

I'm looking like Jon Bon Jovi today. The pretty version. It's the hair I tell you.

From stressed to destressed... That's the wonder of bookstores and credit cards. A thousand rupees of pure joy + another 80 bucks for Blended Mint Mocha (+ tax + tip) and another 44 bucks on commuting via cab (What's the point of spending 1000+ bucks if you scrimp on commutes. Scrimp days should be separate from splurge days).

In case you didn't notice, today was a splurge day.

And it made me happy.

Book-buying is my best mood uplifter. It has always been. Beats the occasional Dairy Milks also. Whenever chocolate isn't working on my stress points, send me off to buy books. It could get a little expensive, but given that I limit myself to a 1000-odd rupees at a go, and stay away from bookstores for the rest of the month, bankruptcy is a little distance away, even in the face of a global financial crisis which threatens ICICI bank (shudders).

I bought 3 books today.
  • A volume called 'The World's Greatest Short Stories' priced very reasonably considering the thickness.
  • 'The Wednesday Letters'. Priced at 375/-, it was a little extravagant by my 3-digit-prices-starting-with-2 standards, but the epilogue is actually a letter (a Wednesday letter) placed in a sealed envelope on the inside of the back cover of the book. How could I ever resist.
  • My favourite. A book of poems by Ogden Nash. 'Candy is Dandy'. That's the name. And it's given me my latest blog idea. Dunno how long this one will last, but for what it's worth, I'll add a Quote of the Day with every post and try to post daily like I once used to.

Today's Quote of the Day (is actually an entire poem of 2 lines):
I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nousiance.
-- Ogden Nash, 'Introspective Reflection'

And Happening of the Day:
I am now a fan of Mountain Dew. Having officially disliked white/colourless fizzy drinks on the whole till today (which happens to be Amitabh Bachchan's and my first cousin's birthday), I have finally tasted the champ of all white/colourless fizzy drinks. And my newest motto comes from there: Darr ke aage jeet hai. :D

And Moral of Today's Post
Books make this babe happy. Very very.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Post-Pujo post

The Pujos came, made a lot of festive noise, and it's gone already. For those whose offices were generous enough to give their Kolkatan employees four days off, "You lucky pigs!" For those whose offices didn't, "You poor things."

Surprisingly though, I didn't miss having to spend most of Durga Puja 2008 facing a computer screen. I hated having to be at work while the rest of Kolkata wore new clothes, ate chicken rolls and took photos of the heppest pujas in town... but having had two days off (Navami and Dashami ... one of which is my weekly off anyway and the other a holiday across the country), I feel light and happy and in an I-can-conquer-a-small-world-like-Pluto mood.

I read a wonderful book yesterday: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. It's the Holocaust again, but from a refreshing, childlike perspective.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

ScroogeSpeak-I

Life is officially fucked up. 'Officially'.

poojo.c is officially Scrooge starting yesterday. Puja fever? Bah! Humbug!

More ScroogeSpeak posts coming up over the next few days.