Seven random things about me. I suppose that ususally bloggers would look at a tag as a nice tool to break that bloggers block. Truth betold, I’m actually dreading this post. What if I don’t have seven random things about me? What if they aren’t random? By no stretch of imagination was my life (and my personality) anything but dry and boring. But here goes…
1. My third toe (whichever side you count from) on both feet are quite oddly shaped: they curve inwards; in addition I have a unibrow and a very irregular hairline. The latter two being more noticable. I always wondered whether they would just become normal with the passage of time. It really bugged me when I was in school but in college, I realised that my personality more than made up for it!
2. Since about sixth grade I’ve had this massive sneezing problem. It would creep up on me all of a sudden and then I’d sneeze 15-20 times in a row leaving me quite drained. I still suffer at the hands of my nose to this day.
3. I just love Bob Dylan. Most poeple say I overdo it. Udayan introduced me to his music. One day, sitting in his room, he played Like a Rolling stone from the 1966 Manchester concert (the “Judas” concert) and it was electric (in more ways than one). The experience wasn’t dampened by his (Udayan’s) off-pitch sing-along. Picture if you will, two guys sitting next to a music player and screaming “how does it feeeeeel?” with a lot of soul and contorted faces.
4. The two humorists I idolize are Woody Allen and P.G. Wodehouse. They epitomize the two strains of humour I enjoy the most. That quick talking, full-of-smart-references, New York variety and the tongue in cheek, absolutely-perfect-choice-of-word, descriptive variety.
5. Right from school, my ambition was to be able to do nothing. Nothing at all (though I told everybody that I wanted to be a banker- I figured if they would be the ones with all the money). Just sit around and watch TV or something. If I could do that, I would consider my life a success. My dad has achieved this goal (at the ripe age of 60), though he makes tall claims he is going to do this and that and it frightens me how we all secretly want the same things.
6. I have a fetish for wooden furniture. I really like looking at and figuring out designs for study tables in particular. I used to carefully scan the stacks of Ikea brochures we had as a kid and I just couldn’t stop myself. My grand-dad used to design furniture in his spare time (which in those years seemed to be quite abundant) and we still have a lot of it at home and they are some of the cleverest designs I’ve seen.
7. If I like something, I overdo it. If I like a song I will listen to it for months together. This is true of movies as well. I can repeat them and not get bored. I am yet to however re-read a book.
Ok Navin, Thankar you’re it..
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I was remembering you in the morning. I had put on Bob’s greatest hits (shame on me for not having all his albums, but who cares, it has all the songs I love).
I realised there would be no other person like him ever. I also realized how deeply it is possible to love him.
I thought about you and your deep devotion to Dylan. It was the only window you ever opened into your mind for the others to see. By displaying him in your otherwise spartan room, Dylan’s importance in your life was evident.
I heard them all, thought about how, despite all his angle, Tirthankars email id still is dancingbeaneaththebrokensky@yahoo or something.
Every now and then, as I was doing the Su-do-ku, I paused to smile at the sheer brilliance of his lyrics.
God Bless him and you.
“Don’t follow leaders, watch you parking meters.”
Peoples! Download the Basement Tapes!
http://gnugnadiscstra.altervista.org/MEGAUPLOAD/DYLAN/dylan.htm
Singing along with a contorted face is half the fun. I had a second wind of Bob Dylan worship at the end of 2007 — it was more intense than the first time! It was because I saw Martin Scorsese’s documentary about him, and then I watched “I’m Not There.”
Dylan is a mysterious continent, and I feel like I’ve only made the most modest of incursions into it.
@salil: I thought I was the only one who smiled when I heard clever lyrics. I still do. I think I liked his persona so much because there was a lot of stuff I could relate to. His paranoia of judgement and his reclusiveness. Here’s a quote for you from visions of johanna (one of my favourites)
Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin’ our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin’ you to defy it
@Millenium: Thanks so much for the link.. I loved the documentary. A very complete picture it gave. The best thing about the dylan experiance is that there are a lot of interpretations and they sort of boggle the mind. For instance there are interlinkages within the songs. The joker in “All along the watch tower” may be the same person as “Jokerman” who very closely resembles Jesus and who interacts with Mary in “Shelter from the storm” and so on.. Its briliant. I don’t know other artists who have so much in their kitty that people can spend years trying to interpret it other than probably the Beatles.
Oh and Salil when will you be in Chennai? Let me know.
I am there on the 9th morning, leaving on 12th morning. Have to squeeze in a Pondicherry trip between that. I am also coming for a longer time 24th onwards.
Yeah I’ve only recently seen Dylan as the creator of a whole mysterious mythology. His protest music is what originally grabbed me, but it’s those three wacky 60s albums that are the real path-breakers. Even though I like the lyrics of Lennon-McCartney and Paul Simon, I think he’s in a league of his own. Here’s a tiny quote from The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest that still boggles the mind:
“Nothing is revealed.”
You’ve heard Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust right? I think it’s a startlingly sincere take on her relationship with Dylan.
Acha so I can see I’m the odd one out here. Shall I just say it? He’s ugly and nasal! Although I do like a couple of tunes.
The sneezing thing is truly random. However, it perfectly true. And I can vouch for it.
You have said the not doing thing before, and I don’t remember if you remember me nodding vigorously then. Anyhow, I think I asked you and Navin the same question on gtalk a few days ago. Both of you replied differently. Navin said “No”, which is perfectly true. You (George) said, you know you (me) don’t really want that (the answer was in a different context (greed) but the sentiment was the same), whereupon I agreed.
I love bob dylan too. I can still be reached at dancebeneaththebrokensky@yahoo.com. I think it was Jacob who said I could not possibly use that id for my foreign applications. I couldn’t see why not. Then I reluctantly changed it when I realised that it would not fit in the boxes provided on application forms. I listen to Desolation Row a lot.
“The pump don’t work, ’cause the vandals took the handles”
Joe, a Bob post might be a good idea, what? Or a Bob mixtape/playlist? Just a thought.
@Yohan: Something is always revealed, the problem is to find systematic information in what is revealed, or to find it completely ‘random’. <– I love being a bore. I loved your playlist. This time in order
You really must do this more often.
Nice tags
Brilliant. Glad you liked it. Leave comments! It’s the only reward for carefully choosing the order and then editing filenames and tags appropriately! Hehe.
And yes, I think I’ll do it more often.
@Perakath: Looks hardly matter, as anyone who’s seen pictures of Dream Theater will attest! Hehehe. Bob Dylan looked pretty sharp in the 1960s, and he had women like Joan Baez and Edie Sedgwick. I think he did all right.
@A.S.H: I have no idea what you’re talking about. What did I say no to?
@George: I have similar sneezing issues. Apparently, mine is a family curse – it seems to be triggered by lack of sleep. Crazy, huh? Toss in apparently-chronic insomnia, and you have a helluva headache.
As for Dylan, I can’t really say too much. Can’t take too much of it at once. The only albums of his that I could really listen to over and over again were Desire and Highway 61 Revisited. Oh, and his new one, Modern Times. Everything else I liked has been Best Of collections
Never really got the protest bits. Always seemed a little alien to me. But I could relate to some of his more women-oriented songs – Just Like A Woman, It Ain’t Me, Babe, etc.
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose; you’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
Wow everybody’s got their Bob quotes.. I had no idea..
me: But boring, so boring
Work sucks dude
Navin: hehehe…
me: Is there no way you can live well and not work?
Navin: Anyhoo, dude, I’m going to turn in man… dead tired. And I have waaaaayy too much worrying to do tomorrow
And um, no.
me: hehe
Navin: Or so I’ve been told.
me: Ok ok
me: George why can’t we all sleep away the rest of our lives under a jackfruit tree?
I can’t
George: ants?
me: Because I just bought a bicycle
If I walked it would ruin the purpose of buying a bike#
George: i’m imaginng a jeckfruit bicycle connection
me: Life is tough George
haha
Life is tough
George: tis true
but sweet
hahaha
me: Like watch movies all day under the jackfruit tree
I am going to change my last name to PLammoottil
George: it can be that easy if we weren’t conditioned to be so greedy
me: I am not greedy
I just want a tv and said jackfruit tree
George: you are and you know it
me: I am so not greedy
George: not materialistically
me: Haan
George: but otherwise
me: There you might have me
He has you, boy, he has you. Greedy bum.
This, I suppose, is what is known as “weirding out.”
Care to explain, MH? I don’t know what you are referring to, but if it is the conversation style above, then it is how I normally speak
If the comment on your blog, then I am sorry about the lad-mag references.
No no. I was talking about copying the IM conversation. That’s what it was, right?
Lad-Mag references are perfectly alright. Let’s hear it for Lucy Pinder.
Yes, it was a gtalk conversation. Do you find it weird? That would explain a lot. Like why Navin always has something urgent to do whenever I message him. Hmm. I really don’t think of myself as saying weird things or silly things but I suppose I do say stuff like that sometimes.
You know who Lucy Pinder is? Do you then also know what Nuts Knickerpedia is? *Snarf*
@George: The most played song on my Media Player is ‘Last Goodbye’ by Jeff Buckley at a staggering 2767 plays. The movie I have seen the most number of times is ‘What Women Want’, I kept count till I reached about 50. I used to have the movie playing while I practised for my First year exams. In my little room in Kamla Nagar.
I didn’t know about this Knickerpedia, but now I do!
Don’t worry about your chat style. Everyone talks like that. I was talking about the fact that you inserted a seemingly irrelevant IM conversation into this commentspace.
Sample this conversation between Madhu, Ragupathy, and some madman.
http://postsoph.blogspot.com/2005/05/perils-of-conferencing.html
[This was my rubbish bin blog before I discovered Furl.]
O but it is not irrelevant. I was saying that I had had a conversation with George and Navin about idleness in life not a few days ago, and pulled out those conversations because they both responded differently.
The conversation above is truly random. With Madhu and Ragu involved you’d expect nothing less.
Hehe. I guess you’re right.
I remember the “what women want” phase you went through in college.. I just never figured out why *that* movie.. I think that the best conversations are the random ones.. I specially like the ones in rez where 4 people would talk about something at entirely different tangents and there would only be these moments where it all seemed to make sense.. . I think a bob post wouldn’t be such a bad idea.. maybe my favourites or something..
and Thankar I still can’t subscribe to the dismal blog on the reader..