Saturday 20 February 2010

Blink!!

(Yes, yes, we are semi-aware that that is a book by someone, somewhere, we have thus included the exclamation marks to avoid such comparisons, just like Hrithik Roshan wore a moustache and had coffee with Abhishek Bacchan in Dhoom2, and waltzed away unrecognised by the latter, having further stolen a shady looking coin).

My computer, which is chugging along decently okay after the last month's debacle, has this crazy issue though. Suddenly it goes 'blink' - all dark. For just a second or two, thats all. Initially i was super scared of what this implied. But after having thrown reason and caution out of the window and to the winds, I have begun to enjoy these blinks. I use them to re-group my thoughts.

It also reminds me of Grimus. I presume I am the only person in this world who has read Grimus. In some elite fora, it has been claimed that Rushdie wrote that book not with the intention of having anyone read it. I disagree. I come from a long line of readers, people who will read the newspaper the bajji comes wrapped in. So yes, Grimus, I have read at least two times. I think its a wonderful book. You have heard me say this before. But what I want to emphasise today is that in Grimus, there are these blinks. They represent the breakdown of the contrived reality of Flapping Eagle (and the others). They leave the denizens of Calf Island distraught and confused and ennervated. Of course my computer blinks are clearly the breakdown of my contrived reality. But then they leave me energised and ready to take on the world. So thank you, Rushdie, for preparing me for this.

Also, another book reference that no one will get. Scarlett. That sequel to Gone with the wind. Not the one commissioned by Rhett Butler's people. The other one. Again, not meant to be read. I have read it too, possibly more than two times. I absolutely love that book, arguably more than its more famous, penned by someone else, predecessor. Of course, I totally identify with Scarlett O'Hara. Not just because of the Arian woman thing, but for multiple reasons (none of which have to do with waist line or appearance). I believe, of course, that I used Scarlett's example in my life positively, and held on to my Rhett, exhibiting a lot of common sense. I might have exhausted that sense with that decision, however, because now I don't seem to have much (or any). Anyhow in Scarlett, there is a point when she is pregnant, and living alone in Ireland on a big old farm in a house. In that the author says, She would wake up with the cock's crow each morning, with a roaring appetite for breakfast, and for life (I paraphrase, I hope, it has been three years since I laid eyes on the book). Well, thats my aspiration (which I mostly manage to meet). To wake up every morning with the thought 'Oh wonderful day, let me grab you by the horns' (the breakfast - she eats oats without salt - because the salt makes her feet swell, would be fine too). And salt makes my feet swell too, even in non-pregnant states.

Here I come, real-Saturday-with-blinks, here I come.

6 comments:

Sri said...

Hey,even i read Scarlett and liked it a lot!

I used to feel 'Gone with the wind' was incomplete..

Sri said...

Forgot to add-My fav quiz question in college was- Can anyone name the sequel to Gone with the wind and its author!
No one would know and i would say 'Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley'

Choxbox said...

aah my claim to fame at last: have read scarlet. didnt like it as much as GWTW read by the way has been read nineteen times from cover to cover by yours truly before i left campus.

Choxbox said...

*scarlett

(my middle name is butterfingers)

Perakath said...

Some more details on your little Rhett story, pliss.

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

Yo Chox, its ok. Just a T!
Sri- :-)
Perakath - LITTLE Rhett? Ha Ha! College romance still going strong you may say!