Manjolai (important bit)

I forgot to add this in my previous trip to Manjolai. One of the craziest things I did was walk half a kilometer up the hill - ... - In a water-pipe! There was some maintanance work going on there, a friend of ours wanted to meet the foreman. The workers said he was working in the pipe half a kilometer up hill! So we went! We climbed up the ladder and let ourselves down the hatch into the looming water pipe, which by the way was five and a half feet in diameter... The walls of the pipe was coated with some sort of black slime. There were light-bulbs lighting our way, so there was no room for getting scared. But we all got a little claustrophobic in a little while. The feeling that the walls of the pipe are going to crush us wasn't exactly exhilarating!

Manjolai

Oftentimes, when I hear my friends describe the beauty of the mountains, i rarely get impressed. I've seen the mountains of Kodaikanal, Thekkadi, and even a bit of the Himalayas! You see one, you've seen them all. What's so great?!
Today, standing at the top of an unnamed cliff at Manjolai, Tamilnadu, I couldn't think the same! Standing on the edge of the Western Ghats and looking at the plains below, my ancestral district slowly lighting it's lamps all over to chase away the incoming darkness, I decided to raise the 'beauty' scale a little higher.
The mountains completely clothed green with the trees were stretching in ups and downs all around me to form a great horizon. yet , from where I stand, I can see the range give way to the seemingly endless flatlands spanning at least 50 villages, flourishing because of the sparkling water streaming down from the mountains into a dam.
For a city-slicker like me, staring at starry skies is a rare sight. Last night, I could have spent the entire night looking at the real live planetarium, watching shooting stars, and wondering what to wish for, 'cause for the moment I couldn't remember a single care in the world!
In a few weeks time, I'll be the busiest man on the planet, settling down to a new job, a new life. This could be the best stretch one could ever wish for!
Beside this awesome beauty, I did spend some 'quality-time' with the family. Great pics will soon be put up!

Ode to my inspiration

Two days ago, a friend of mine thanked me (and my blog) for being her inspiration to start a blog. It definitely is very nice to hear that you've inspired someone to do something good. (Especially when her blog slowly turns out to be richer than yours!) But that kind gesture got me thinking. What was MY inspiration to start a blog? Ah! Menoncholic! I shamelessly have forgotten add his blog to my set of links. Also don't even know how to trackback him showing him the (rather sideshow) fruits his toil!
A giant salute to you, guy with the nerdy glasses, hope you continue posting! For god's sake, you were really good!

Farewell time 2

One more exam to go, and I hopefully will be done with my education! (For now, at least) Oh, and about my other three exams that past? Let's just say I like creative explosive writing! (The writings inspire explosions) I have just got my airplane ticket back home, and I can't wait till I START counting the days!
The exams thankfully are not as taxing as they used to be. I am able to relax all I want and study for it in the last minute. Though I had an exam today, I was able to watch the UEFA ManU Barca match last night! (Just so you know, I don't follow football... this was just a freak accident.) Sometimes I wonder why they bother to give us an exam! Might as well correct our term-papers properly! We work really hard for them!
The Hospital (hopefully my second source of financial support. The first one is my dad's card) just called to set up the interview timings. The guy on the phone sounded very professional. I'll be going for my very first job-interview on the 5th of May. Monday. Please pray for me guys!
OK. Where was I? Oh! Farewell! yes... come to think of it, right now I don't feel so much that I will be leaving this place for good. I have grown too attached to the people here and to the place altogether.
Great friends like the guy in the green shirt, the angry ol' man, lil girl, digg, rolly, the peppy linguist, 'what's there' girl and her best friend, (and so on and so forth) will be people I'll really miss, and would be altogether happy to stay in touch with. I've done things here that I've never done before!
I've stood in front of an out-door church, played the guitar and sang and led worship all at the same time! (Smirk away guitar greats... smirk away) I've listened (and have been inspired by) great singing at church (that's you guitar greats, and you tabi, if you ever read this). I've begun to like singers like Dylan, Marley, Beatles, Jars of Clay, Jaci Vel, Billy Joel. I've started listening to rap.
I've danced to tamil film songs on stage twice! I've worn a suit and sang in a concert, performing the same show for two different audiences. I have had the blessed chance to dance under the snow. I've been frostbitten (not dog-bitten yet, but looking at the number of hounds in campus, it will soon happen). I've chatted with a rajasthani local in Hindi for around 20 minutes without an interpreter. I've stayed awake for 72 hours straight. I've slept for 16 hours flat (pun intended). I've learnt how to juggle. I've learnt the art of writing graffiti on paper (duh wait till I get spray cans!). I've got a decent collection of movies. I've learnt to love the open-source (not that I use it right now).I've learnt that being a hooligan is not as bad as it looks (learnt that on holi). I've learnt how to eat the spiciest of pork, fish, maggi without worrying about my leaking nose.
Thanks a lot guys!!! Will miss you lots!!!
Ok... Enough, I'll have to stop now and bawl for a while in the restroom... So if you'll excuse me...

Farewell time

Approximately an hour to go before the first of my final exams begin. Unlike the rest of those in my class, I have learnt one thing about taking exams. Don't take things too seriously. Do as much as you can, and leave the rest to Him. I don't think I can cram any more into my brain. All I will do now if I do that is hyper-ventilate, palpitate and finally collapse into a great big heap of ...

Before I say anything more, I'd like to thank all you readers who have been motivating me to write into here. You guys were great! scrapping me and asking me to write more! Really felt that I was doing something worthwhile! (Also would like to thank Google putting my name into it's search list.. Google Samuel Joseph JNU and see what you get!!)
What you get is that master-piece I wrote, basically bashing up JNU! Now, that I have to leave the place, I realize that in a place like this, you could easily get comfortable. In spite of the fact that you have to walk a lot before you can get anywhere, you get used to it! The forests in the middle of the city are something that I guess I might never see again. The friends I've made here have been one of the closest! I don't show it too much, but they are. JNU definitely grows into your skin, and I feel that I might miss the place when I go out. (boo hoo)
Ok, for all you readers, another announcement (before I get into hyperventilation mode) I will be completing my 'formal education' phase of my life, and The Floating Leaf will either be entering the working class phase or the unemployment phase.
Will write in detail soon. (May be after the exam gets over)

Linux woes

Being the Change makes you weird...

I came up with this phrase a few days ago when I joined the ubuntu bandwagon... Everybody who had windows either thought i was very brave, or was just showing off, or just thought i was weird. I on the other hand thought I was a part of a new revolution against the system. Against microsoft, the money-hungry exploitative giant...

Anyway, the above phrase was well-meant, and was really useful, on my part... Unfortunately,
being the change doesn't only make you weird... It knocks the daylights out of you, and makes your days filled with pain, anger, and frustration because things never ever go easy when you swim against the tide. With no internet connection, no sound, no video on my computer, it with all it's cool hardwarde (1gb ram, 160gb sata, dual-core, lcd screen dvd writer) is completely useless! Ubuntu doesn't come loaded with these drivers... You'll have to hook your comp directly to the internet.. The internet walas don't know how to get my comp compatible with their servers, so no internet connection possible! :( Geez! What frustration

Haven't found a single decent ubuntu book as of yet... Once I do so, I hope i devour it before classes start! Hope there's a chapter on temper-management!

Sorry for taking out my bitter feelings on you... thank you for your patience

Baudelaire

I picked up a book called 'Flowers of Evil' by Baudelaire, a renowned french poet. This is the English translation by the Peter Pauper Press. I was always curious about poetry, but this book blew me away! Brilliant poetry, and great hold on metaphors. I really liked the translator's meter and rhyme patterns...

Here is the poem...

To the Reader
Folly and error, sin and avarice,
Labor our minds and bodies in their course,
Blithely we nourish pleasurable remorse
As beggars feed their parasitic lice.

Our sins are stubborn, our repentance faint,
We sell our weak confessions at high price,
Returning gaily to the bogs of vice,
Thinking base tears can cleanse our every taint.

Pillowed on evil, Satan Trismegist
Ceaselessly cradles our enchanted mind,
The flawless metal of our will we find
Volatilized by this rare alchemist.

The Devil holds the puppet threads; and swayed
By noisome things and their repugnant spell,
Daily we take one further step toward Hell,
Suffering no horror in the olid shade.

As an impoverished rake will kiss and bite
The bruised blue nipples of an ancient whore,
We steal clandestine pleasures by the score,
Which, like dried orange rinds, we pressure tight.

Serried, aswarm, like million maggots, so
Demons carouse in us with fetid breath,
And, when we breathe, the unseen stream of death
Flows down our lungs with muffled wads of woe.

If poison, knife, rape, arson, have not dared
Yet stamp the pleasing pattern of their gyves
On the dull canvas of our sorry lives,
It is because our torpid souls are scared.

But side by side with our monstrosities
— Jackals and bitch hounds, scorpions, vultures, apes,
Panthers and serpents whose repulsive shapes
Pollute our vice's dank menageries,

There is one viler and more wicked spawn,
Which never makes great gestures or loud cries
Yet would turn earth to wastes of sumps and sties
And swallow all creation in a yawn:

Ennui! Moist-eyed perforce, worse than all other,
Dreaming of stakes, he smokes his hookah pipe.
Reader, you know this fiend, refined and ripe,
Reader, O hypocrite — my like! — my brother!

I really thought it was a great description of myself, actually. Most of the time, I act revolted by evil... I scorn all those who commit such... But am I not the chief of evildoers myself?

(Ennui means boredom)