Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Of politics, books and cold, harsh winds.

The weather in delhi is finally looking up. Today was gorgeous. Sunny, windy and not too cold. I'm hoping against hope that it lasts. Someone told me that the awful cold was a direct consequence of global warming. Weather conditions are becoming extreme everywhere. That's pretty evident actually, what with bombay being colder than delhi last week. Anyway, if that is the case, then we're in for one hell of the summer this year. Christ........

Nature's way of saying it's payback time, i guess.

This year the weather's really put me off, mainly because i fell ill last week and couldn't go to college, and now my attendance is so fucked up i'll probably have to attend every single bloody class this term. *frowns very hard*

The great bird flu scare came and went, yet the consumption of chicken and eggs in the bhattacharrya household(my household basically) was not affected one bit. Nothing comes between a bengali and his food, clearly. It's a little worrying, honestly. Bengalis love eating, but the extent to which they love it became clear this past one month. The bengalis comprising my family at least. Disconcerting or what.....

I haven't seen a movie in so long. Possibly becasue i haven't heard of a halfway-decent movie in quite some time. I'm wondering what Mithya would be like. Would've watched American Gangster had it not been for Denzel Washington. can't stand the guy for some reason.

Which reminds me, Clinton or Obama? I'm for Barack Obama all the way. Hillary Clinton is too much of a feminist and too Marxist for me and has serious Cummunist leanings (completely my personal opinion of course). I know she's a Democrat and her ideologies will obviously be leftist, but i think Obama is much more balanced, and truly secular, if we come down to that. Anyway, history will be made in any case.

Last week, since i was stuck in bed thanks to my fever, i did lots of reading. Read two excellent books, one by Shashi Tharoor, called 'Riot', and another by John Irving called 'A Prayer For Owen Meany'. 'Riot' is excellent; very well-written and ve-ery unsettling. The narrative is based on the killing of an American woman in the 1987 riots (a direct result of the demands made by the right extremists calling for the rebuilding of the Ram Mandir and the demolition of Babri Masjid).Using this one incident as the base, Tharoor paints a vivid picture of the social scenario and alarming unrest in the country during that time. But it's pretty relevant 20 years later also. The issues are the same, and mindsets have not changed. A darn good read.

'A prayer for Owen Meany' again questions your religious beliefs but in a completely different context. It questions the very essence of your faith, and can be quite disconcerting if you are even slightly religious. Of course, in the book the faith that is being questioned is Christianity, but it works for every religion. The book is about a boy called Owen Meany and how he has unshakable faith in certain things, some quite illogical, even though he is highly intelligent. Another very well-written and slightly disturbing book.

Okay i'm guessing i've bored you enough. I'm gonna stop jumping from one topic to another (i really digress waaay too much). In fact what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna stop talking altother and i'm gonna take off. Do i hear a sigh of relief?

Until next time, goodbye and Happy Valentine's Day. Just for the record, i'm going out with friends from college tomorrow. :-p