Tip: How to lose 5 kilograms in 2 weeks:
Take a complex project with a really tough client. Struggle to understand the client's requirements that are more difficult to interpret than the obscure language in which these requirements are articulated. Forget everything except how the whole thing is going to work when it all goes live.
Work like a demon. Forget everything and everyone else except work for a year or so. Work so much that you fall sick from physical exhaustion even as your sharpened brain hungers for more work, and then work from home while you are on sick leave. When your family member falls sick, work from the hospital. Keep on working, even when your greatest love - the muse calls loud and clear, divert your creativity to the project and carry on.
Look at the perfect documents, the neat blueprints and swell with pride at your contribution to the team. Scroll through the algorithm, admiring its perfection, visualizing it running live as a system.
And then after a year and a day of the above, have all your work snatched away and given to someone else on a platter, an ignoramus who grins smugly at the thought of 'onsite assignments' as he ruins the work that you have nurtured and watched grow, like a garden. That is all there to it, for weight loss.
It works, it really works. I have lost over 5 kilograms in the past two weeks. Project Zen was so special to me, it hurts so to let it go. Last winter, I made a wish at the Benzaiten temple on a snowy Sunday evening that I would be back soon to seek the blessings of the Goddess before we started the testing. And now it would never be. You live and learn to let go.
Many things have vanished from my life over the past few weeks. My PC crashed abruptly, taking with it about six years worth of writing, photographs, music, memories and whatnots. Somehow what I regret most is the loss of my account spreadsheets, especially the ones maintained when I travel. The remarks against each expense, such as 'Birthday treat for D, had a lovely time - the perfect risotto and tiramisu and the most delicious gossip', or 'Boating Expenses at Nikko - S conveniently forgot to return my change of 200 Yen, darn' and so on, remarks that traced daily moments of life that had just a single focus - work. All of that has returned to the void. No wonder, that ancient Tamil poet sang 'Isanodayinum asai arumin' - Let go of attachments, even to the Lord Himself.
There is hope, and there are books, and there is chocolate in its many forms.
Books bought over the past few weeks:
The Comfort of Saturdays by Alexander McCall Smith Saving this to savour on a long journey.
La's orchestra saves the world by Alexander McCall Smith
Yet another wonderful book by the great author. A work of historical fiction set in the time of the Second World War, it was somewhat more melancholy in tone compared to the contemporary worlds of Isabel Dalhousie and Mma Ramotswe, yet it bears the spirit of McCall Smith's writing that brings out the moral courage and dignity of the human spirit.
Not only the Booker prize, the good Professor truly deserves the Nobel prizes for Literature and Peace, for these gentle books expounding morality, kindness and humanity, books that remind one that there is still hope for the world.
Executive Charisma: Six Steps to Mastering the Art of Leadership by Debra Benton Bought this at a sale. Another of those Business books that stand apart from the rest. Must get hold of How to think like a CEO by the same author.
Sun after dark. Flights into the Foreign by Pico Iyer
Yet another exquisite travelogue by Iyer exploring Oman, Bolivia, Tibet, Japan, and Cambodia. I am saving it again for a long journey, so that it can be savoured slowly.
Tiya A Parrot's Journey Home by Samarpan
A philosophical fable that I picked up impulsively at a book fair last week. Yet to get around to reading it.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time By Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
Several people had recommended this book to me and I remember reading glowing reviews in other book blogs.
The Big Moo & Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Looked interesting. Turn into a purple cow so that you stand out, even as you fit in. How? I really want to know.
The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead by Marcus Chown
Like most people, I have 'A Brief History of Time' safely locked in the living room bookcase, where it remains after several failed attempts to read it. This one looked more readable, raising all those important questions like Where did the universe come from? Where did we come from? What the hell are we doing here? Questions that are always fun to ask and argue about, even if there is no absolute answer.
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Loved this even more than Shalimar the Clown. Rushdie is an enchanter with words. My favourite Rushdie books still remain Midnight's Children and Haroun and the sea of stories. Wonder if the sequel to Haroun lives up to the first book.
The Red Carpet by Lavanya Sankaran
I remember Stephanie, my then client and good friend asking me about this book during the time it was released. I said that I hadnt read it, so I did not know. How I regretted having missed this gem of a book when I read it recently. Most of the stories were perfectly crafted, reflecting a city and its people in present times.
Given a choice, I always prefer to read a full length novel over a short story. I haven't read too many short story collections, except the Masters. I adored Saki as a child and still dip into his sharp, satirical writing, stories that get better with evey re-reading. Some of my fondest memories of a college trip are woven into the O Henry stories that I read on it. And of course, R K Narayan's Malgudi vignettes, and Ruskin Bond's tales from the hills, bracing like the invigorating mountain air. The biting, witty worlds of Muriel Spark (Portobello Road, Bang-Bang you're dead among others), the stark, dark tales of Graham Greene, the chilling stories of Roald Dahl. The psychological studies of Maupassant. The reflections of Chekov's society. The surreal, gauzy little worlds of Murakami, I do not always understand his stories but enjoy them neverthless. Mysteries and humour, served in bite-sized slices by the queen of mystery and the King of Humour, Christie and Wodehouse, though I have often felt that their novels were comparitively much better than their short stories.Translations from Premchand, Sharat Chandra Chatterjee, Tagore.That is about all. I was quite glad to add this wonderful collection celebrating present day Bangalore to my library.
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama
I was disappointed by many things in this book, especially the lack of plot and the flat, uninspired writing. It was at best, like a budget Hindi film with a stereotypical plot and one-dimensional characters.
Bye-bye Blackbird by Anita Desai
Another story of immigrants and the clash of cultures. This is vintage Desai, beautifully and poignantly written. I thought that it seems somewhat dated in present times, living as we do in a shrinking global village.
Bought quite a few books I had read many years ago, for the fun of it:
Some Roald Dahl classics: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The Witches
Agatha Christie - Gruesome, wholesome comfort food. The Pale Horse, Murder is easy, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit My favourite of all of Nesbit's books and two books on English and Irish Fairy Tales. I had quite some explaining to do to my Mother, who assumed that these were for my pesky little cousins. (OK, they are decent, likeable kids and I love buying them books but these were really for my own library)
Strange, all my life I have preferred books over people, over everything else, living behind thick walls of paper and ink, of words. But the Words that bring comfort during dark times as these are not the hard, unmoving words in the pages of books, but the warm, flowing words of foul-weather friends. How comforting to hear cliches (Take heart, chin-up, smile, move on) from these dear souls who mean it when they say that hackeyed phrase, 'Take care'. I am lucky to have these people in my life.
So the next assignment beckons, Gods knows where. It might even be, God Forbid, in this rainy little town that I cannot wait to leave. Then there is the vacation I have been postponing for three years. And then there is Nanowrimo. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on...