The fortnight gone by....

In Retro Mode...
I watched "To kill a mocking bird" and it was simply the most b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l movie I've seen in ages. I wish I'd read the novel earlier, because I know I won't read it now. I also watched "The King and I" - the original 60s movie, not the 90s remake - but I didn't enjoy it much; I guess I've simply outgrown such movies. It was too artificial.

I realized something else I've outgrown - surprisingly, Jules Verne. I remember enjoying "Journey to the Center of the Earth" when I was a kid; but when I read "From the Earth to the Moon" and "All around the moon" last week, I got tired of Verne's didactic tone, even if I forgave him for getting things wrong. It's a work of fiction after all.

I did like Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a strange land", though I think he would have done better to end the book 75 pages earlier than he did. This was my first Heinlein novel and I like his style of dwelling on the human aspect of his story, rather than the "action". Puts me in the frame of mind of one of my favourite contemporary science fiction authors, Ursula Le Guin.

The Callous Youth...
I seem to have developed a knack for landing up at the public library and picking up a truckload of novels just before some exam. Each time I do that, I make it a point to sigh and tell the girl at the counter, "There goes my exam tomorrow..."

I don't even feel guilty. I know I can't study more than a few hours for an exam anyway, if I study at all. Why not spend that time reading a book rather than waste it in watching television?

The Idiot Box...
Television is one of the Prime Evils in the world, after Diablo, Mephisto and Baal. I never had a complaint against any of my roommates, even when they kept messing up the kitchen without cleaning it, until they started ridiculing my favourite shows like Smallville and Star Trek. Grrrr. I don't blame it on them; I have a new policy, if there is blame, blame it on the TV set or the Weatherman.

What's in a name, anyway?
I'm at the bridge table introducing myself to a lady I haven't played against so far. She has difficulty pronouncing my name and asks me again how to say it. "Croissant, but with a P," offers my partner helpfully. Boy, I had a good laugh! I didn't bother correcting anyone, though. They would only pronounce it worse.

Speaking of names, I owe an apology to the authors Robin Hobb, for thinking she was a man, and Tracy Hickman, for thinking he was a woman. Man, I still have trouble with these American names. But they, naturally, have more trouble with the Indian names. Why else would I meet a man with a perfectly good Tamil name like "Odaiperumal Periyakaruppan", who shortened it to "Odai Peri"? Or a "Shanmuganathan Gnanasambandam" who calls himself "Nathan"? Or a "Sankaravadivelu Viruthachalam" reduced to "Sanky"?

Is the shrink in?
My friend read my last post and asked not too politely if I needed a shrink. Oh well, in retrospect I guess I did go off the wire, but it seemed to make perfect sense at the time. This is when a normal person would say, "I need a vacation". Except that I wrote that post just after Spring break. So I say, "Give me some work, I need my sanity back." And the profs were kind and gave me two mid semester exams and one assignment and three project deadlines for the week.

Cheers,
Prashanth.