Wokay!

After what must be two months or so, I went to the gym again. Ishaan, who was enthused at the idea of me in a gym after reading the original I Am A Wussie took me jogging. After the jog, we went into a gym, where he subjected me to cruel and inhuman punishment.

On the other hand, Ishaan was definitely better than that so-called trainer Vinod at the India Tennis Centre gym, whose idea of fun seems to be making newbies jog on a treadmill, expel all air from their lungs, and then subject them to calisthenics. After that he makes them work on their legs. Since that regrettable experience I have been informed that ARMS COME FIRST!

Anyway, Ishaan put me through a much more balanced routine, involving weights, pull-ups, and other such. I woke up feeling uncomfortably numb in my left arm. I’m supposed to go again today, so by tomorrow the pain should have spread to the right arm too.

Does anybody else think I’m going to unreasonable lengths in my quest to not be a voosie?

The weather was decent today. Dust clouds hung between the ground and the sky, and blocked off sunlight. This made it cool enough for me to finally leave my home in the evening. Cool, of course is a relative term- it must still have been more than thirty-five Celsius. That’s significantly better than forty-two plus, though, so why quibble?

I went to Basant Lok to see if I could obtain tickets for a Saturday show of X2 at Priya. If Priya wasn’t running X2, well, I would go bookshopping.

It wasn’t till I got on the bus (oh, how I just love route number 56) that I realised that I had only three hundred rupees, and not five hundred as expected. Not only did this make the buying of tickets difficult, it also restricted my options in book purchases.

Priya was in point of fact NOT playing X2 next week. So that choice was resolved- go bookshopping.

To my delight, Om Book Shop is running a sale all through June. 10% to 90% off on everything. 10% minimum, that is, 20% on most paperbacks, and higher discounts on a lot of stuff (such as cookbooks, which nobody ever really uses much, but which have such pretty pictures of food).

The only problem with this rosy picture is that I get a 10% discount at all times at Midlands Book Shop (referred to in W-Fillet #27) anyway. And Midlands has a much better selection than Om Book Shop. Sure, Om Book Shop has a big selection, but it’s erratic. It doesn’t have the obscure stuff you’re looking for. Don’t get me started on the Om Book Shop in South Extension, which only has obscure stuff that you’ve never heard of, and don’t want to read now that you’ve found it. You know, the ugly books printed on horrible paper about how evolution is a fraud and how the Koran is the only true authority on the creation of the Universe. At least Erich von Daniken writes well and has his books printed on nice paper.

Anyway. Back to the topic. I then went to Fact and Fiction, five shops down. I was in even more delight. The last time I visited Fact and Fiction, my taste in books was oriented in a slightly different way. This time, though, their selection ran perfectly to my tastes.

They had Dave Barry. They had about five Terry Pratchett books that I haven’t read and Midlands doesn’t have. They had Anne McCaffrey, the complete short stories of Roald Dahl, the Roald Dahl cookbook, Phillip Pullman, Richard Dawkins, and lots of those other science books-but-not-textbooks-that-make-you-really-understand-the-subject that are so cool.

Unfortunately, Fact and Fiction never gives discounts under any circumstances- the owner seems to be a little crusty- and so the cool science books are a fat 400 rupees at least. So is the Roald Dahl collection, and so is the cookbook. The Pratchetts are at Rs. 260. I get them at Midlands for Rs. 220. I know 40 rupees isn’t much, but what can I say? Midlands has spoilt me.

There was this female in there who was trying to interview the owner about Harry Potter V, and what he expected it to do for him. I’m unclear what capacity she was doing this in- whether she was a journalist or associated with a publisher or anything. The point is, the owner’s crustiness made it quite difficult for her to get a very good interview. The owner finally took pity on her, and called up his son and made her speak to him. The son was much less reticent, and the dame got her material. After that, the dame, the owner, and me all had a nice chat about how Harry Potter was encouraging people to experiment with other fantasy/ SF writers. I think I’ve mentioned before that I love to strike up conversations with strangers in bookshops. There’s something in the air. The happy result of this was that the owner promised to try and obtain some HP Lovecraft for me. So that’s good.

So, lots of stuff from the F&F shelves has now been added to my wishlist. Nice stuff. Books that I can really enjoy, appreciate, and assimilate (not necessarily in that order) over the next few years. But, alas, I don’t have much money to do it with.

I now have 4.6 kilorupees in hand. Of this, about 1 to 1.5 will be taken up by driving lessons, another 1 by movie tickets and transportation through the holidays (Did somebody mention Matrix Reloaded?), which leaves just about 2 for books. So. Time to prioritise.

Maybe I should start a wishlist on the site so you guys know what to get me for Unbirthday presents.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no I didn’t actually buy anything today. It was just a scout and recon operation. 🙂

It’s hot. I’m wilting. I’m melting. Gaaaaaaaaah. I’ve never been affected by heat this badly before.

My daily activity consists of cowering inside my house in an airconditioned room. For variety, I take showers every now and then. My higher brain functions are shutting down to prevent my neurocortex from overheating. This prevents me from writing, or doing any other good stuff. I can’t watch any movie that has a plot, so it’s Mortal Kombat and K-serials for me.

The good news is that NDTV 24×7 has reported that the monsoon has finally reached Kerala, so I should get a reprieve of sorts in about two weeks. After that, it’s time to stop calling people and get on with actually meeting them.

Nothing more in this Fillet. It’s too damned hot to write.

Today, I googled for “Yin! Tan! Tetra!” on a whim, and landed up here- the Annotated Pratchett File. I’ve spent a happy five hours or so browsing through it, and other documents on lspace.org.

In case you don’t already know, I’ve been hooked to Terry Pratchett ever since I first received The Truth as a birthday present two years ago. Since then, I’ve read twelve of the Discworld novels, with sixteen more to go. I plug them unashamedly (and no, I’m not getting any money for this).

I’m quite pleased to find out that I’d already spotted most of the references in the books (which, by the way, are parodys of a high order). What I’m blushing about is not spotting most of the references made in Soul Music, the book that I’ve found the funniest ever yet.

Soul Music is a delightful parody on rock n’ roll. Though most of the references in it are to Blues Brothers and Meatloaf, which I’m not really informed about, there were lots of others that were about songs or bands that I knew. I’m kicking myself for not seeing ‘in a coat that he borrowed from James Dean’. Urrgh.

I realise that most of you will not understand a word of what I’m saying. The solution to this is simple. Go buy the book and read it. Once you’re done, make a small altar and place it there. Worship it daily.

On the other hand, just read the synposis at the site. If you really want to do the wimpy thing.

The air conditioner in this room has kicked in, and I’ve finished my Career Launcher exercise. I am now ready to write again. Delight. Joy. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

I’ve been talking to even more people since I came back. What with this heat, talking over the phone is all I can do- going out and meeting them is infeasible. It’s still all good. This Fillet is about the deeper cosmic significance of the nostalgia attacks I’ve been suffering.

The first flutterings of nostalgia were triggered this February. It started with a guy from Final Year Mech. called C. Seshagiri. For obvious reasons, he’s called C-Dot.

What C-Dot did in February was this: he took a committee of the IEE student chapter called the Survey team and did lots through it. He started French classes on campus on his own initiative. He started a publicity team to market TIET to corporates for research projects and placements. He even tried to organise an inter-university techfest, and would have done so successfully, only the Director pulled the plug at the last minute.

That C-Dot did this at all is quite remarkable, and shows him in a very good light. He’d got brilliant grades, he’d been placed in Maruti, and it was final semester. He didn’t need to do anything for the college, especially since our college doesn’t really do a lot for us, but he did it anyway.

By now, you must be asking yourself what all this has to do with nostalgia.

Well, here it is. Even though they had very different motives, this flurry of activity on C-Dot’s part reminded me of the one initiated by Maya [She still talks like the TGV moves- Baldy (Quotes 16:44)] Jain back when I was in Class 12.

That was what triggered it. The resemblance is trivial, but nevertheless it affected me at the time.

After that, of course, I started the W-Fillets, and started getting replies from people whom I had classified as long lost- Ankur, Dolan, et cetera. Nostalgia piled up a little more.

Another trigger was Rishi getting his exchange programme, which reminded me of his earlier exchange programme, my own trips abroad, and brought back a little more memories.

So now we go into the whole cosmic and spiritual significance bit.

I think it isn’t just nostalgia. I’m beginning to believe that my life these days is actually beginning to take on facets of what it used to be like five to three years ago.

Here are the resemblances:

• My co-curricular life- quizzes, programming, et cetera is on an upswing. I’m quizzing after three years, and coaching (well, trying to coach) after the same duration. The quizzing isn’t a lot, either, but at least it’s there.
• Rishi’s off on an exchange program again, just as he was four years ago. Similarly, Baldy is once again globetrotting to attend global conclaves.
• Many people are once again either just entering a new educational program or about to leave it. I know that’s something pretty obvious given that a Bachelor’s degree is only so long, but it’s a resemblance nonetheless.
• On a psychological level, also, people seem to be what they were in those days. Shiven, for instance, who was quite depressed for almost a year is now back to his old areskicking, determined self. Madhav, too, has started using bad words after a long period of abstinence.
• You want coincidence? How’s this for coincidence? Two Sundays ago, at my Career Launcher MBA coaching class (where I’m being coached, not doing the coaching, please don’t get confused with the earlier point), who should walk in but The Person Formerly Known As The Q? Unexpected and unannounced.
• Most importantly, perhaps, is that my love life is hopeless once again. Since Class 12, I was always trying in one direction or the other, hopeful that something would work out in the face of all obstacles. Nowadays, though, I’m resigned to being cast in the mould of Bertie Wooster. Class 11 again.

There are other coincidences, too. Like the first question of the first exercise of the English Usage book from Career Launcher being about Preity Zinta. Or the ratio of N/(N+1) being discussed out there. Or Mansha being propositioned by a lesbian. Or many other things. Chances are, if I’ve written about something in a W-File, a W-Fillet, or Quotes List, it’s popped up in some other context somehow. And I realise that I’m not explaining it very well, but it’s something so nebulous that even I don’t know exactly what point it is that I’m trying to make.

But let’s summarise.

Over the past few months, there have been a series of remarkable coincidences in my life, which seem to link all its different facets together, and which have also sparked off a nostalgia wave. When I act upon the nostalgia wave, and call my old friends up, I discover even more connections.

So, there are two conclusions that can be drawn. The first is that I’m beginning to see what Dirk Gently, aka Svlad Cjelli calls ‘the fundamental interconnectedness of the universe’.

The second is that there is no fundamental interconnectedness in the universe, and these visions of connections are merely a symptom of schizhophrenia, which happens to run in the family.

If it’s the first, though, then the implication is this- that for an unknown period of time, I’m not driving my life so much as surfing it on a wave of fate. Setting a route isn’t relevant any more, it’s foreseeing and navigating the obstacles on the way that’ll be important. That is my current fatalistic frame of mind.

Do let me know what you think. Particularly you, PP, I want to know whether your initial reaction was ‘How DUMB!’ or something more on the lines of ‘Classic sci-fi, fitted into all the characters we know so well’.

It’s taken me almost two hours to write this Fillet. I’m going to sleep now. Fin.

I am now 75% of an engineer.

Carp. Out of the five people who were taking this course, one didn’t even show up for the endsem. The instructor told us not to worry about grades, so I guess he didn’t. I’m now thinking he was actually very smart, especially since I could have taken all my stuff home a week ago and been done with it.

On the other hand, giving the exam may have benefits anyway. I’m waiting to find out what they are, though.

Things to do today- pass textbooks on to juniors, book a taxi for tomorrow or day after, buy a carton for the books I still need next year or at home, and separate the PC into it’s component pieces.

It’s the PC that’s causing the whole problem, really. I can leave everything else at the hostel, but not PCs or music systems. My bedding will go to the cloakroom, and so will the books, but the PC has to come back with me. The clothes, I already took back last week.

For the first time ever, I’m appreciating the portability of a laptop.

Anyhow, third years over, and it’s been the best one so far.