This Past Week

Couple of funny things that I read about or heard this week had me laughing out really loud.
The first was about Abhijit Sawant announcing that he was going to release his autobiography. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Prashant Publications is going to release it. I was thinking that there could be three kind of stupid people in the world. One, who write autobiographies at the age of 17, two, people who publish it, and three, who read it. But then I thought, if there were enough stupid people of the third kind, that would actually make people of the second kind quite smart and people of the first kind would then be stupid NOT to write an autobiography.
Hmmm...Anyway, I think there should be a law preventing people who don't hold a driving license or are not allowed to drink, legally at least, from writing autobiographies.

The second was about the story about President Bush and his retinue of 'security officers' of the four legged kind, which led to an accommodation issue at the Le Meridian in New Delhi which led to the Home Ministry officials having to step in.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I was chuckling to myself the rest of the week imagining the position the staff of the hotel found themselves in. I wonder if they received any tips from those officers, or are they lieutenants. Hahaha...now don't get me started. Chuckle.

There was some indignation from my colleagues as well resulting from the Bush visit to ISB in Hyderabad, which is just across the road from my company. As no three wheelers were allowed in the said road from early in the morning, many of them had to make a trek to cover the last mile to office. I can empathise. Certainly, not the best of starts to a workday. Some claimed later in the day that it was all worth it as Bush announced the opening of an American Consulate in Hyderabad. You see, their trek in the morning resulted in saving the journey for millions to Chennai for their VISA interviews. Of course, karma.

Yesterday night, beer was guzzled after quite some time. Had decided to restrain myself unlike last time and was determined to keep it all in. It still ended up as quite an adventure though, as it poured and poured by the time I left. Lights also went out, it seemed, in the whole of Hyderabad. The result was yours truly, with 3 bottles of RC inside, driving an old bike in the downpour at 11 in the night with only the aid of headlights from assorted vehicles. Squinting through my wet glasses, dropped off a lucky friend at his house and somehow made it safely back home myself. Lights came on as soon as I came in. That was nice. And of course, Mom seemed to be pretty relieved.

She's been forwarding me profiles of girls from these matrimonial websites this last week. I find it all pretty irritating and asked her not to do it.

"But did you take a look at those profiles?" she asked.

"Of course not, I delete them as soon as I see the subject of the email", I lie.

And finally, am in the middle of a book written by Pankaj Mishra, "The End of Suffering". The structure of the book is unlike anything I have read before. He juxtaposes travel writing, history, philosophy and autobiography in a pretty unique way. And I agree with the review that Scotland on Sunday has on the book which says 'It is perhaps in these personal accounts where Mishra is at his best, simply because of the sheer evocative power of his language, and the land and landscape he conjures up'. Of course, am not some lit-snob so maybe am just being naive.

I have been thinking that I am leading a pretty happy life. But Mishra quotes Nietzche in a line, which made me think again,

Is my life the "cheerfulness of the slave who has nothing of consequence to be responsible for, who does not value anything in the past and future higher than the present'?