My world is solely defined by your eyes

When they close, the sun seems to set

They open, and lo! once more it will rise

Those eyes spell my life - and my death.

 

They raise me when life brings me to my knees

They shine in dark times, like a fire

If they be my guide through life’s stormy seas

No more should I ever desire

 

However far away they might be

Their shadow upon my heart lies

And try as I might, I never can see

Aught but those expressive eyes….

 

 

Another of my favourite songs. The Lata Mangeshkar version of "Teri aankhon ke siva duniya mein rakha kya hai" from the film Chiraag. This is my humble attempt at a loose translation, you can find the original lyrics at  http://chandra.astro.indiana.edu/isongs/hindi/splitindex/gif/211.gif 

~lakesidey

Yesterday was a rather interesting day. There's this group called Parivaar which takes care of needy children, and some of my friends help out actively and often, taking the children out for trips and so on. Yesterday was one such trip and my friend Shashank suggested I come along too. I admit I was rather sceptical at first - I don't have much of a clue how to talk to kids :)

But it turned out to be great fun. Talking to the kids turned out to be not much of an option (they didn't know English and I didn't know Bangla:) but I think a lot got said without needing any words....they were so enthusiastic, and so genuinely glad to see us.....I managed to lose much of my usual reserve and felt the years dropping off me. Of course, half a day roaming the Alipore zoo with those bundles of enthusiasm was enough to prove to me that I wasn't *actually* getting any younger :P But the smiles of the kids more than made up for any tiredness! 




Thanks a lot, Shashank and "Rachna Didi", for convincing me to go!

~lakesidey 

A couple of days back I had gone for one of my customary night walks. As I was ambling along, I spotted a junior of mine, Aditya, standing looking down at something in the middle of the road. Joining him, I found myself staring at an intriguing mollusc; a snail with a shell over 2 inches long, crawling determinedly straight across the road. A road which, even at that late hour, bore the occasional car whizzing past. Some nerve the creature had!


 
After shepherding the chap for five minutes, during which he progressed a foot or thereabouts, our patience finally ran out. A sheet of newspaper was judiciously laid out in his path, and with philosophical nonchalance our little friend glided on to it.  It was then but the work of a moment to pick up the paper and give the little fellow his first air ride (after all, it was on a plane surface....;)

The poor chap seemed to get a bit airsick though, he withdrew into his shell for quite two minutes after being deposited gently on the far side of the road. Then, after a cautious peek to check that the "monsters" had departed, he emerged from his carapace and trundled off into the undergrowth with the same single-minded determination..... 

~lakesidey

On Tuesday, after a week of mostly sleeping, I went out for dinner. Continental fare preceded by spicy paani-puri (or in Kolkata terminology, phuchkas) Good company, good fun :) Must do this kind of thing more often.....

One of the intriguing dishes which I experienced for the first time was the Fondue. This comprises, in its bare essentials, of a bowl of cheese melting over a tiny flame. A  basket contains little chunks of bread. One gets a weird implement with a long handle, something like a two pronged skewer . The idea being that one spears a breadball, smothers it in molten cheese, and pops the resultant succulent morsel into one's mouth. The catch being, it is extremely hot....in essence it boils down to a trade-off between burning the roof of one's mouth off and watching one's table companions bolting the entire thing.

While not one of the most brilliant gustatory delights I have encountered (distinctly an acquired taste, I suspect!) the sheer novelty value made it well worth the experience. Besides, I always wanted to try fondue, having read so much about it.......It was one of the favourite foods of ancient Roman nobility (though of course they used a far bigger vat. Oh, and since it was such a messy thing to eat, it was generally consumed in the nude. Which made it a hot favourite at the Roman orgies. But I seem to be digressing again....;)



Anyway, then on Wednesday afternoon I finally settled down to read The Da Vinci Code. It's 5 a.m. Thursday morning and I'm still reading (OK I'm taking a half-hour break to type this, since my brain is, like, so much fried noodles right now:) It's certainly an enjoyable read so far, fast paced, detailed and with a wealth of interesting speculation and digression (into science, art and religion). And lots of codes, ciphers, anagrams, the kind of stuff I love. I'm feeling good, I actually managed to work out at least three of the clues instantaneously while reading :)  

Tomorrow (er today) is going to be one of those days; lectures from 9:45 (yeah, right. Like I'm gonna make it for that:P) And that's just for starters......it promises to get worse.

~lakesidey

I don't have anything specific to write about today, so I shall just ramble on about the vicissitudes of my life in general....

It's been a very up-and-down week.....from random headaches and fevers to unexpected grades. The weather changed suddenly last saturday and being the fragile ephemeral being I am, I promptly fell prey to various maladies. Lots of sleep (and missed lectures) ensued. Much better now :)

The worst part about having a fever is that reading hurts the eyes; given that for me the only saving grace of being ill is being able to curl up in bed with a good book, it seems patently unfair to be denied even that :( Anyway I managed to pass plenty of time playing pingu and related games:

http://yeti3.yetisports.org/_ylympics/
http://meph.eu.org/penguin.html

Statutory Warning: don't start playing these unless you have *loads* of free time on your hands. They can be *bloody* addictive :P

Another term. Another sheaf of resolutions to be a good boy and attend lectures and sleep early and well. Another set of dreams shattered within a fortnight.....*sigh*

My favourite place on campus is the jetty, a frail blue construction of increasingly fragile wood that has been defying the elements for years. Once upon a time it was fairly robust, but recently neglect and the vagaries of the weather have combined to give it a fragile and dilapidated appearance. The planks are waterlogged and swollen and the structure creaks alarmingly when one steps on it. A section of the railing is broken off. Even now, however, it is a lovely place to go (as long as you know which planks are safe!:)

Perhaps, long ago, it served some purpose, but now, with boating banned on the lakelet, it stands as an anachronistic monument to better days. Yet I am perhaps hasty in saying that it no longer serves any purpose; for those who desire it, the jetty serves as a haven of peace in a world gone mad. When the tranquility of my mind is disturbed, when things seem to be spinning out of control - or when I just feel like a peaceful read or a quiet think - I repair to the jetty and regain my equilibrium. I often spend a couple of hours of quiet contemplation there of a night, especially when the moon is full.

I am an ant.

I was born in darkness and my nurses taught me, from the moment I entered the world, what it meant to be an ant. I learned quickly as I grew and eventually took my appointed place in the community, a tiny cog in the machinery of the hive. Each day I went out to seek food, playing an endless game of follow-the-leader between the nearest source of nourishment and the hill which has always been my home. I carried home my own weight and more in food every day, and at the end was rewarded with my fair share of this provender. I was insignificant, less than insignificant, but that was as it should be. The colony was all that mattered!

 

I was content with my lot, having known no other life. I knew that we (not I, but we, a gi-ant community that was exactly equal to the sum of its parts) were the lords of creation. Surely no more perfect organism could exist! The individual might be killed in battle or destroyed by a vagary of nature, yet the community as a whole, the hive, would go on and on, forever and ever. How could any creature stand against such power? We were, in fact, so powerful that our language contained no concept of failure or destruction. We were evolved for eternity, and I, like my brethren, took inordinate pride in this fact.

 

Time passed and the colony prospered - and spread ever further in search of food.

And then, one sleep period, I dreamt. In my fantasy I was huge, a dozen, nay, a thousand times my usual size. From this tremendous vantage I looked down upon my brethren and saw that they were feeble indeed. One step from my mighty foot and I could crush a score of them effortlessly! And they moved so stupidly, so mindlessly, one following the other blindly……Yet I could see that they were moving slowly but  inexorably towards a structure which, in my giant avatar, I considered my home. And perhaps, I would have to do something about that.

 

Since then, every time I sleep, I find myself trapped within that giant body, thinking the thoughts of that tremendous mind. And this latest time, as my brethren finally invade that structure, I sense an implacable purpose in that mind of my dreams. A decision to be rid, once and for all, of the annoying pests. A decision involving fire and death for me and my brethren. I wake up knowing somehow that this is no ordinary dream, no mere nightmare…..that Death (not the death of an individual, a thing that holds no fear for an ant, but the Death of the community) looms threateningly. I have to warn them. I must run out and yell at them, tell them to run, fight, hide, anything!

 

......and I have no words for it.