Boggle Blog

I know the problem that's been happening around here... yes, I see it clearly now... There have been these few complaints from certain thoughtful individuals stating that the blog is too varied frequenting the extremes of the trivial and the serious...

Well, as the title puts it most aptly, this blog aims at chronicling (Damn, that word sounds so ancient!!!) honest observation and reaction... so it must possibly do so in all kinds of situations...

Well, that should satisfy a few concerns and should rid me of several pings in the middle of the night from people who've just read the blog and all...

Been There... Seen That... Knopfler, thou knowest not limits!

One of the best evenings of my life... one of the worthiest investment of the better part of two hours... Two hours that barely felt like a few minutes as time refused to wait and let me soak more of that beautful music and ambience. If music is food, I couldn't have hoped for a better banquet.

I have been to rock concerts but what unfolde on stage was the perfect marriage of folk and contemporary music. There was a grand piano, an accordion, keyboards (and the popular trademark Dire Straits rock organ drone), two drumsets, a cello (first time I've seen one of those outside an orchestra), a double bass and all of 36 guitars! Yes, that was Knopfler's amazing arsenal on stage. I lost count of how many times he changed his guitar.

The high point of the concert for me has to be the host of improvisations in "Walk of Life". The cello really adds life to the song and the accordion gives it a certain quaintness. Of course, this is one song which is just carried through coz of the rock organ. Sometime into the song, all the instruments stopped playing except the rock organ which continued with the tune from the prelude which we've grown to know so well. The accordion joined in giving it that "quaint" touch. Next to come in were the drums and bass. The piano followed making it brighter. And then came the cello which is when you realise that the cello is the heart and soul of that wonderful rhythm. And finaly, Knopfler was in with the guitar.

The 2 songs that he played from his new Shangri-La album were awesome and other-worldly. They seemed to take you back to a different era even though they've just been written. Both songs were tributes.

The other songs that made the evening worth it were Sultans of Swing, Telegraph Roads, Brothers in Arms, Sailing to Philadelphia, Money for Nothing, So Far Away and Going Home.

Money for Nothing sounded great with "I want my MTV" being sung to the chord progression of the chorus, something that is not there in the original studio recording but which the band has been doing in Live performances of late. And the cello was at its best in So Far Away, quiet and wistful...

Going Home was awesome. It was preceded by a beautiful solo on the accordion as the background of the stage transformed into a beautiful starry night and the only light on stage was a beautiful flourescent blue from the drumset at the centre. This instrumental theme from Local Hero was the icing on the cake and I refused to return to reality once it got through. That awesome tune with the starry-night-flourescent-light beauty transferred one to someplace else.

And then it was over... outside the mind, yes... the inside has a different story to tell.

The love-hate paradox

Well, so after quite a break, I end up clearing some of the "Under Construction" haze surrounding this blog. It's been a long time, yes, since I happened to glance this way but it's been a general lack of resolution more than anything else... Much has happened in the meantime...

To lend some serious thought (and that does happen once in a while with me), what do you do when you find yourself in a love-hate paradox. What do you do when in some dark recess of yourself, you find lurking, a certain strange emotion, hugely revolting to all the better senses, operating with a mind of its own... not allowing you the luxury of voluntary control. Trains of thought occupy rails forsaken for brief disturbed periods before you pull them back onto the right track. Its almost like a Hyde living somewhere in a corner of your mind, at constant war with your Jekyll-ian "medical philanthropy", and which despite your best efforts refuses to move out. It rears up its head in short pulsating moments of emotional conflict, moments that are later reflected upon with anguished regret... What hurts is the lack of voluntary control to crush it before it even gathers root...

Particulars are something I avoid where I need to...

The Chicken-Egg Debate

This is quite an old e-conversation I once had. This was during my last week at IIT Kanpur where I had this with Sid, another of those species of "I nearly made it to humanity" or "Homo: Definitely, Sapien: Approximately". So this was predictably a day before my final exams and we had a whale of a time... this being one of several para-intellectual intercourses that we indulged ourselves in. Interestingly, this was the tagline of another guy who was already bugged with us so we decided that the summation fnction works just as well for the bugging variable and went on with it... Read on...

What came first, the chicken-biryani or the egg-fried-rice?

Sangeet:
Definitely, most definitely the egg fried rice...
says S!
S=S->next
What say, S++?

Siddharth:
Neither... the afghani murg -- alphabetically.
S=S++

Sangeet:
Not to forget, considering alphabetix (abeg ya pah-don Monsieurs Goscinny and Uderzo), the Addis-a-baba Da Dhaba Dee Andey dee Biryani...

Siddharth:
Again beaten by the Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa chicken. This is what you get ifyou order chilli chicken at certain railway station refreshment rooms:after some time, there is a long, high-pitched, prolonged scream from thegeneral direction of the kitchen and then the dish is dumped on yourtable (personal experience, I assure you).
Ssuperego

Sangeet:
And then there was the 111 chicken, also called Nelson's chicken... but then, that beat the vagaries of mere alphabet considerations and resurfaced as the first ever...
Mind you, the notion of the 0 chicken has already been discarded.
First ever... alphabetically , if not historically...
Historically, Adam met the Chicken before she laid the egg... but since the chicken lived to lay the egg, he didn't have a chicken biryani... ate the egg fried rice instead...

Siddharth:
Historically, we must not forget El Poio Diablo, the Terrible DemonChicken (anybody played Curse of Monkey Island here?), which ate Adam soonafter, thus creating a recursive cycle.
But anyway, more proof that the egg came later:
"And on the seventh day He rested"
Seventh day = Sabbath = Sunday
And as we all know:
Meri jaan meri jaan sunday ke sunday
Meri jaan meri jaan ande ke ande etc etc...
The egg came a day later.
QED.
S++

Sangeet:
Bamboozled in the spiritual realms... the vicinity of Hades... you talk of the demonic chicken but provide no reference to any demonic chicken Biryani... am sure that Lucifer et al enjoyed a lot of El Poio Diablo's eggs' fried rice...that is, before any chicken biryani came into the picture


And that's how it ended... no, it wasn't us... it was the third party in question who cried murder over the violation of his tagline... that guy was properly bugged out of his wits...

Credits

You have the unparalleled privilege of chancing upon this blog coz of the following people:

ME: Cmon, isn't that obvious... If I hadn't conjured these magical bytes from the "ethernet" in the first place, what exactly wolud you have been able to do? You must admit, this adds spice to your life... (bows).. I'm graceful about appreciation... thank you!

Kima: Now what the hell is this bugger doing here... Turns out that he is one hell of a "go-and-check-out-my-blog-na" kinda guy... So he pings me 24X7 about his crazy blog and finally, I end up with some space for myself as well...

Devika: I like people who prefer delusion to reality... More so when, in their delusory state, they feel that I have my way with permutations of the alphabet... So till she gets back to reality and starts telling me I'm a "no-good"er, she can bask in the glory out here... :D

The Twisted Shout gang: They are as jobless as I am...

All those out there who firmly believe I am nuts: Not only do you provide me with yet another opinion, you also provide me with an excuse for all the accidents on this URL...

And finally, to the rest of the human race (and all similar specimens who claim membership) for without you all, I would have nothing to comment upon... U punks make such an entertaining pack! esp. the specimens...


For the convenience of lesser mortals who have been in the habit of putting 2 and 2 together and always getting 4 (life can be so predictably boring for some), there is something called Sarcasm... an appreciation of which is a prerequisite for any subsequent navigation of this blog...