Random musings past midnight!!

Whew!!! that was one breezy week. Seetling down - at work, in the new apartment. Not much time to laze around. I am surprised that I am beginning to like the state of affairs for a change. And to signal the end of the first week, decided to celebrate it with a movie - at a cozy theatre that shows offbeat movies - JUNO!!

It has kind of become a pattern - a normal, down to earth story that inevitably is picked and everyone decides to run with for the oscars - Sideways, Little miss sunshine and now Juno. I was hooked onto the movie long before it was a hit - an article about a copywriter-turned stripper-blogger-turned author-and script writer and her movie about a 15 year old preggo girl. Not something that hollywood manages to come up with regularly. But I never stood a chance of catching it in my earlier neck of the woods. And now that I finally got around to watching it, I can see why everyone seems to be so gaga over it.

Ellen Page - all I can say is wow!!. This is one lady that is going to set the screen on fire with her sheer understated casualness. Something that I last saw in Julia Roberts in pretty woman. Sad that these manifestations seem to be purely onscreen phenoms and I can't seem to bump into one who can hold a conversation beyond a cup of coffee. But something tells me that there is a strange underground movement happening here.

Looking at the way things are going, I have this creeping sense of this planet being slowly taken over by intelligent creatures of the fairer sex - while the weaker sex is distracted by the sisterhood - Britney, Paris and the lot. Path breaking blogs, unbelievably original music, fashion and for the sheer in your faceness - chicks are beating men at their own game. Refer here

So dudes wake up!!!I will be glad to organise a male chauvinistic movement from my blog - Volunteers welcome :-)

The end of Part 1

Last weekend marked the end of a challenging yet interesting 6 months in the US. My first 6 months. Part nomadic. Part bundling against the cold. A lot on the road. A bit spent reading NYtimes at work. Forming friendships across races, colors and tounges. Shovelling snow. Cooking and eating lots of potatoes and getting a little career planning out of the way. All togethor a good six months.

Moved to my new hometown - Waltham/Boston. A nice apartment with a gud internet conn. a river by the side, and indy movie theatre right opposite to it. Something tells me I will like this place a lot more than PA. Touching wood!!

FILTH!!

It was during one of my brain-trawling sessions that something strange struck me, make that two. I am suffering from, for lack of a better phrase,information overload. And two, I am married to my laptop. After 4 years of "working" and not really much reading, I tried getting back on the habit. I did get myself a few books in all earnesty, among them "The argumentative Indian". An unbiased, lucidly written , highly thought-provoking collection of essays. I read them with rapt concentration, only to wake up the next morning to realise that I couldn't recall much of what I read. Instead, what came to my mind was Britney being rushed to the hospital and Saif and Kareena's "Nikkah"...I know...WTF??

I begin my morning routine and settle down at work with the US, UK and Indian editions of google news. And every edition screams at me with news designed to capture eyeballs, literally. I was happy with the sports and the front page in "The Hindu" and the occasional filmfare featuring Vidya Balan and off late Ms. Padukone and now I can't seem to find what I want anywhere. It is as though every snippet has tentacles, that go deep into your eyes. And the fittest survive. I can only scream in helplesness - FILTH!!!!

There is so much filth around these days. Now, don't jump the gun yet. I am not a member of the moral brigade and I do enjoy titillation when done correctly. But that is besides the point. Filth is all the information out there that I do not need and yet information that is being shoved down my throat. Surely, the human brain obeys the laws of physics and to top that,it doesnt have Moore's law in its favour. Result - rejection. It plainly quits and I am thinking that is what is happening to me.

I forced myself offline for extended periods of the day, reading up on things that really matter. Tried starting off with a fresh clean slate and Mark Twain. The ever reliable Calvin and Hobbes. All to no avail. And then I stumbled upon Einstein and his thoughts on creative expression. Creative expression that has the power to cleanse one's soul and free the mind.

And here on, I am laying bare all the filth in my mind, on this blog for the few of you to see. In the fervent hope, that I cleanse my mind and free up some RAM inside my head - Space that is reserved for my imagination.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge... knowledge is limited, but imagination encircles the world. To see with one's own eyes, to feel and judge without succumbing to the suggestive power of the fashion of the day, to be able to express what one has seen and felt in a trim sentence or even in a cunningly wrought word... is that not glorious? When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.” --Albert Einstein

P.S - I am no Einstein and I harbor no ideas of becoming one. I am too busy right now and will not be able to handle the extra attention. But anyways thanks for the suggestion.