Metamorphosis

Gentle Reader, please accept my humble apologies for the way the blog looks now. Not to mince words, it’s a mess.

The blog is in the process of metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Or maybe from an ugly duckling into a graceful swan.

I recently realised that I was getting increasingly frustrated with the template, and with the formatting of my posts. I am unable to find a template that gives me enough room for the post, displays a list of my posts (besides the archives) and looks simple. It appears as though I must delve back into the mists of time and revive my rusty knowledge of html, so that I can pick up a template and whip it up into a shape that I like. I do not know how long this will take, I estimate a week or so – but in the meanwhile, I do promise to leave the blog in readable shape; till then, please bear with my clumsy experimentation.

If your senses are assaulted by ugly templates, or by ugly formatting, please feel free to let fly with a quick comment or an email to kovaiputhalvan (at) g m a i l . c o m (put in an @ and remove the spaces).

Alea jacta est, as good old Julie would say. Of course, he would also be angry with me for borrowing his words, but this is not Gaul, and I am not one of Goscinny/Uderzo’s creations, so I shall feel free to borrow from Julie’s stock of classical quotations with impunity.

“Secular” Music from 1230 A.D

It is extremely difficult to convey in words what you have experienced with your other senses; this is especially true of what you hear. The power of the human brain to visualize is the single biggest reason why books sell, in my opinion. I do not disparage the craft of the writer, for it is not easy to write. It is easier, however, to write about what you see, than to write about what you hear. Small wonder then, that good movie critics abound and good music critics are hard to come by. It is difficult to write about music, and difficult more so to convey to the reader your feelings about the music you were moved by, unless the reader herself, or himself was also present at the concert.How then, is one to write about music that grabs you by the collar, shakes you awake, gets your attention, and then goes on to show that all the attention was worth it?

Gollum, Gollum

I’m in a mood for Tolkien today. The first thing that flashed through my mind when I woke up today was this:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be the blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, are you a window, or are you there at all?

I wonder when I blogged last. Must’ve been Thursday, I think. It’s a strange thing, I was bothered by an urge to write, which is why I started blogging. The fount is not dry yet, not by a long shot, but there are more pressing issues at hand, so I’m not able to blog as regularly as I would like to. Just like it pays to sit back and think before writing a good piece of code, it pays to sit back and think before writing a blog. It’s not quite as simple as putting fingers to the keyboard and letting the mind take over, though that’s what I do most of the time. If there’s one thing I could change about myself, it would be my laziness. If there’s another thing I would like to change about myself, it would be my indecision.

Revenge of the Sith

Have I run out of titles for my posts that I’m now starting to name all of them after the (Star Wars) movies? Well, not exactly :-). It looks like I’ll be able to watch Revenge of the Sith after all :-). Isai agreed, on the condition that I don’t blow my top if she falls asleep in the theatre! I’ll have to tell Lucky Goldstar and drag him along to the theatre too.

Looks like my long pending dream of getting a box is about to become reality. If all the damn reimbursements that the Truth owes me come over by the end of the month, then I’ll have enough dough to blow on a decent box. I’m thinking I should be able to get something good for 30K, let’s see what I land up with :-). Once the box arrives, Operation Make My Better Half A Hacker starts.

A new hope?

I’m a Star Wars fan. I haven’t taken too kindly to the prequels, however. In fact, I haven’t even seen them. Ah well, maybe I’m just being prejudiced. Revenge of the Sith premieres in Pune this Saturday. I hope to be able to go watch it. Depends on how Isai feels. She is not a Star Wars fan, and I am absolutely against leaving her alone at home to go watch a movie. As things are, she is all alone at home for the most part of the day, and the evenings and the weekends are the only time I get to spend with her. Oh yes, I’m a hopeless romantic and firmly believe in the old-fashioned concept of spending time at home with your family. This single belief of mine has also caused my excommunication from the IIT community. (IIT = Insensitive Indian Techie. The first I can also stand for Idiot.).

A cheap excuse for a blog

This is a quick, cheap excuse as to why I didn’t blog since Thursday.

I took Friday off, and I don’t have a box at home. No net access even if I had a box, so no blogging from home.

House Hunt

When I came to Pune, I was given two weeks at a decent hotel by my new employer. The two weeks went by and I moved in to a friend’s bachelor pad. And then I received several friendly reminders from my better half that I had to look for a house, we had to cart all our household items to Pune, and hand over the keys of our rented house in Bangalore to the friendly landlord. <p align=”>Thus began what will probably go down as one of the most frustrating times (fifteen days, to be exact) in my life, hunting for a house in Aundh.

Ungalukku sach me bere arbeit nai ka?

Forgot to add this – how could I? Isai speaks more languages than I do. Let’s see, I speak three and a half, and am learning the fourth, fifth and sixth. She is good at let’s see now… Kannada, English, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Hindi, and can understand Malayalam. That makes six and a half. Someday she’s going to read this blog, and murder me after reading it.

Ungalukku bere arbeit hai ki nai?

I seem to be pretty confused today. I’ve always thought that I have a flair for languages. I can speak, read and write very fluently in Tamil and English. I can speak, read and write passable Hindi, picked up a little German at the Institute, and Kannada as well. Now in Pune, I’m trying to learn Marathi. Isai having Maratha blood in her veins helps a little – then again, her family’s been in Bangalore for almost a couple of centuries, so I guess she’s more Kannadiga than Maratha.

I haven’t bought a bicycle yet ( I plan to cycle down from home to work and back, it’s only 3.5Km one way. ), and the big bad city of Pune has a public transport system that is nonexistent. Coming from Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Bangalore seemed to have a bad bus system, but Pune is the absolute pits as far as public transport goes.