All that Jazz

Before the year ends, I wanted to scribble my two bits. It has been a eventful year no matter how cliched that sounds. Things are on track;as Watterson would say, 'let's go exploring'.

It was a memorable year, nevertheless. Piles of books. Books on food. Travel.Contemporary fiction. Cult fiction. Chiclit. And cinema.

I discovered cinema with a vengeance this year.

There's so much to talk but some other time.
Till then, good night and good luck.

Quote of the year:

Stay hungry, stay foolish
-Stewart Brand

There's something about Murakami

There has been quite some time since I was actually moved by a writer and his writings. The last may be Mitch Albon who after a stellar debut as "Tuesdays with Morrie" turned out to be a tad too disappointing. I have been reading Murakami these days, and there is something about him that has got me hooked. Maybe it has something to do with the genre, fantasy or magic realism as purists may prefer calling, but this fantasy in my opinion is not about fairy tales. I first read Murakami a year and a half back when "kafka on the shore" was talk of the town. The book had had a strong impression on me even then but it was only when I read "Blind Willow Sleeping Woman" that it got me into the thinking mode. I picked up "After Dark" after this and finished it in one go. His heroes are not sterotyped, they are non-conformists, high on culture, and neither naive nor cynical.

Murakami is an exprience to be savoured

Poetic Justice..

Smart men of deed
Woo the ladies.

Poets
Fall in love,
Hapless and spurned,
Inscribe rended hearts,
Into musty parchment scrolls.

The world marvels
At the poignant expression
And waits for
Sadder tales,
From saddened men.

Cross-posted not so long ago on Caferati (requires subscription).

http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=583196&confid=1199

Arbit about life and Arbit CP

The yuppie's cultural hotbed, Bangalore , continues to stimulate. There is theatre at Ranga Shankara and then there are cafes, sprouting in every corner of the city each with its own USP.

Strategy is the most abused word among all MBAs.

Bheja Fry is the funniest among all films I saw recently. Annie Hall is the best film among the ones I had not been able to see all these years.

I hate money and hence I hate Financial Accounting. And I am not sure if this is a cause-effect relationship.

Management education is all about numbers. If you do not have numbers to support your data one gives two hoots about what you are saying.

I have become a fan of Jimmy Wales.

The Professor simulated the Pepsi Challenge of the 80s in the Strategy class.
Interestingly, only three out of ten were able to differentiate Pepsi from Coke.

I am neither happy nor said that Harry Potter has come to an end. Because there is Sussana Clarke.

Growing out of a crush is a *painful* experience.

CP[read Arbit CP] is the worst thing to have happened to the management education.

I have started writing in bullet points.

How to read books?

If you are reading a Stayijit Ray in the day, read an Agatha Christie in the evening and throw a Tom Sharpe or Evelyn Waugh in between.

It's finally confirmed, Bilekhalli is the place to be.

About Kings & Queens:
I am too bored to write on this.
Marie Antoniette, 300, The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. They are all good films and I strongly recommend them.


Reccomendations:

Watch Everybody's Free(To Wear Sunscreen) and read the story about it here.

Where's Olive?

Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.

Frank: You know Marcel Proust?

Dwayne: He's the guy you teach.

Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh... he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're 18... Ah, think of the suffering you're gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.

If you haven't seen this, you are really missing something.
Interestingly, this took five years in the making and faced many a financial problems.

And, another bookstore does it again.

Next: Of Kings & Queens

The Tale about the Road I took

At times all I want is, to walk barefoot and stare at the stars coming out one by one, as they shine at the advent of the twilight. But then there is an incessant fear lurking inside: did I tread onto the road not taken. Maybe, the journey has just begun and I may have become too objective in some aspects of my life. My ephemeral life that appears mammoth under the microscope of eternal time. It may also be my continuous confabulation for the destination or the sudden sense of mundaneness that has creep ed into my life. I hear no words in the songs that I listen to and come across no punctuation marks in the stories that I read. And then there are other times when I feel I have just walked on and never stopped by to look around me. Did I take the wrong arm at the fork of the road? Have I walked so far that I could not imagine turning back now? And do I hoist my own petard by retreating steps? I am not chickening out . The die is cast and I have decided to move on.

"Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same"

All I want is poetic justice to be meted out.