Things that Upset and Irritate and Sir Vidya's Pronouncements

Despondent thoughts. I am sorry for the absence of posts for the past few days. Reason: madly busy after coming back from Kerala, to be hit with the realisation that two key people in the team are scooting - for better pastures, what else? - and the whole load is to be on me. So my days are filled with angst and anomie (personal state of isolation and anxiety resulting from a lack of social control and regulation), with too many things happening at the same time.

Like what? Like: some repair works on the home (a must before rains) have been delayed by the contractor, editing of novel not going as desired, some petty social networking issues bugging me, some architecture students walked up to my house and wanted my opinion on Artist Village (this was elevating, but the fact that I can be traced from a blog post is somewhat a revelation), somebody phoned me based on my social networking information on Facebook, so was in a dither whether my information is so transparent. The last one is indeed upsetting because this person is not a friend on Facebook. The how? what? of it is to be investigated.

Issues, issues, issues, is what Dhansukhbhai Jethalal Shah, my portly billionaire friend who lives in a six-storey mansion on Malabar Hill says.

Seems Nobel Laureate V.S.Naipaul has stirred a hornet's nest with his comment reported in the Hindu "I don't think so…I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me."

Now, I don't know what prompted the comment. I think Sir Vidya is a great writer given to great thoughts, which may err on the side of controversial pronouncements now and then. That's why I don't agree with him now and then. But Anthonybhai disagrees. He says Sir Vidya is growing old and it is showing. I say "Shut up, Anthony, nothing of that sort."