Random Musings

Got my feet up on the coffee table. It’s that time of the year in Delhi when it’s sweltering. And I have little to do, so I sit with my feet up on the coffee table, listening to Greenday singing ditties about the last of the american girls, or something like that.

The last few months have been all interesting. Lots of paperwork to complete, lots of things to get through. Now, though, it’s all done. I’m flying in a month to Logan Airport, Boston. Yup, Boston, the home of the bean and the cod. Where the Lowells speak only to the Cabots. And the Cabots speak only to God. Ah, the old feudal system. Just like home, then.

I’m going there to attempt to get an MBA. I know, I know, long time readers of this journal are currently wide-eyed. I’m full of surprises, I am. You can send incredulous emails to the usual address.

So it’s another transitory month. My expectation levels are about at par with what they were when I went to law school, and from law school to Bangalore. And I had a nice time at both places, so this should be alright as well. Naturally, I’m going to freeze to bits, but on the bright side, I can make a snowman!

However, there’s still some time before I leave. I’m spending that month in peaceful contemplation, mostly. The World Cup is over (SPAAAAAAIN), so there’s a large, football shaped, void in my life now.

I have decided to be less anti social on Facebook now. I’ve actually opened my wall for comments! and even allowed people to see where I’ve worked. I still have only 66 friends though. And no, there are no scandalous pictures of me. Not just aren’t there any on Facebook, they just don’t exist. I don’t do scandalous things.

I’ll give you a minute to stop smirking nastily.

Done? Good.

So, moving on, where are we now? Ah yes, if you’re expecting explanations for the previous few cryptic posts, forget about it. Those are sentences stripped of context, sadly alone, with no story attached to them.

If there’s anyone in Delhi who’s reading this and wants to hang out before I’m off, email me. I’m going to go and read about octopuses now.

So your average 5th year law student comes home after a gruelling semester all exhausted. Arrives at 1:30 AM. What does he do? Set up his computer with dual-monitors of course!!

heh heh heh

Avid readers of my blog (laugh not, there are a few…well, alright, I’m talking about me) will be aware that I bought a widescreen LCD monitor a while back. A nice big 20.1 incher. I still kept my 21″ CRT though, but left it at home while I took the LCD to college. I’ve been itching to try them together for a long while, and yesterday I finally managed.  I used dual monitors ages back, when I actually had to use one AGP and one PCI card, and the monitors were 14″ CRT’s.. ah, those were fun days.

The best part of dual-monitors is the multi-tasking. If, like me, you have a lot of windows open that don’t need your concerted attention, but just a glance every now and then, dual-monitors are better than a large screen (of course, if both of ‘em are 20 inchers… heh). And of course, the geek factor is nice too. People walk into my room, and their jaws literally drop. Nerdvana!

So, as you can tell, I’m home, I’m happy and I’m geeky. Good food beckons, so I leave you now.

Beware the autumn people says the book. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury, and I have just read one of those books you remember for a lifetime. I felt like this when I read Second Foundation, years ago. The end of that, when Preem Palver, First Speaker.. Oh boy oh boy.

This book is dark, spooky, macabre and brilliant. It draws you in from the very first page and grabs you by the throat and does not let go for two hundred and ninety thrilling pages. I won’t describe the book anymore. If you like to read, read this. End of story.

I was reading a few blogs and emails from people in my college, and I noticed something curious. We use very long words and weird sentence construction. The blogs especially are guilty of this. For some reason, it seems to be cool to write stuff that is difficult to understand. Not because it is difficult to fathom, but because it is difficult to read.

This thing that I write is not really a blog. It’s more like notes to myself, and for friends to read. And yet, it’s been criticized for being shallow, boring, and too simple. Well, it IS shallow boring and simple.. but not to me. I write for myself, and for fun, not to sound smarter than I am. If you don’t like it, I’m not forcing you to read it! I like to read what I wrote six months back and remember how I felt when I was writing that.

Should I sprout existential philosophy? Use big words and complex construction? Would you be impressed? Well, I hate to tell you this, but if you get impressed by big words and complex construction, I don’t want to know you! Call me opinionated, if you like, but that’s just me. I’d rather talk to someone who would wear another fellow’s cap. “Charles was the kind of fellow who would never wear another fellow’s cap.”.. Which book? heh heh.. see, now I’m showing off. You are welcome to roll your eyes and go click on some link to somewhere less mindless and narcissistic..

I wonder why it is that when we write, we try and be as obtuse as possible. This seems to be an pan-Indian phenomenon. I’ve been a law student for five years now, and I’ve read a reasonable amount of cases and articles written by eminent lawyers and judges. With some refreshing exceptions, most of these people seem to believe that the more they write, the better.

Our examinations from day one are weighted this way. I just wrote a paper today, in which I filled quite a few sheets. The paper could have been answered in half the space, or possibly even a quarter of it, but I had to do the filling up nevertheless. This starts in school and gets worse in college. Some teachers do try, by putting word limits, but most of us are incapable of writing briefly. We seem to freeze inside if we are asked to write within 250 words. The general opinion is, “Write everything, something has to be correct!”.

Is it just me, or does someone else prefer brevity? I do a little bit of writing for some websites and the like, and this was the first thing my editor told me when I started out. Smaller sentences! Active Voice! First person! These three rules made writing suddenly so much more fun. Where I used to write eight sentences, I now write three.

I think law students especially love to use humongous, poly-syllabalic words, in the belief that it makes them sound erudite. The previous sentence could easily have been “Law students like to use big words. They think it makes them sound smarter”. Which would you prefer? Does studying law make people like this, or do such people only study law? There’s a conundrum (a puzzle?)

This is one major reason for me not wanting to practice. The idea of writing briefs in stilted, antiquated English that takes eighteen hundred words to get an idea across, leaves me cold. You might say I am not talented enough, and I’d cheerfully agree.

Oh well, I’d welcome comments. I know I’m not a very good writer, so please refrain from ripping apart my syntax and grammar.