A rare book

This is a book I picked up from M G Road and is a collection of T S Eliot's poems. It is what is called a review copy, which is sent to the author and sundry reviewers. (I don't know if the practice exists now.) What is rare is that I found the manuscript of an unfinished poem in it, in a beautiful ornate hand which matches Eliot's (see pic of manuscript alongside).

Enjoying the rain and the Sabbatical

Breakfast of Noodles

Having a breakfast of noodles sitting on my swing on the terrace.

Here, Take a Look at This. Can't Vouch for Veracity

If what it says in this article is true the Central Intelligence Agency looks like it has some heavy explanations and clarifications to be made to environmentalists, and concerned citizens such as yours truly. Take a look. Be prepared for some chilling factoids.

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here. View my Youtube Channel Page. Read about my novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

CCD, Inorbit mall Vashi

Its fun to watch people in a mall. Right now two men wearing imposssibly upward-curving pointy shoes walked past to the escalator. I don't know how they would stand on the steps. Most of the pointed shoes I have seen these days are coated with dirt. Hm.

The Sudden, Sharp Decline of the American Middle Class

This Rolling Stones article is about the sharp, sudden decline of the American middle class. I read that with tears in my eyes. Compared to that we Indians are better off, we have our families to fall back upon. Imagine living in a car in a parking lot. Our people would rather construct a slum in the parking lot. Hehe. Joking.

I had thought of the U.S. as a prosperous country that offered social security. But this sentence sent a chill down my spine:

"Most of the social-service systems in the United States function not to help people like Curtis and Concita Cates get back to where they were, to a point of productive stability, but simply to keep them from starving – or, more often, to merely reduce the chances that they will starve. Millions of middle-class Americans are now receiving unemployment benefits, and many find themselves compelled by the meagerness of the assistance to shun opportunity and forgo productivity in favor of a ceaseless focus on daily survival. The system's incoherence and contempt for its dependents fluoresce brilliantly in the wake of a historic event like the Great Recession. When floodwaters cover our homes, we expect that FEMA workers with emergency checks and blankets will find us. There is no moral or substantive difference between a hundred-year flood and the near-destruction of the global financial system by speculators immune from consequence. But if you and your spouse both lose your jobs and assets because of an unprecedented economic cataclysm having nothing to do with you, you quickly discover that your society expects you and your children to live malnourished on the streets indefinitely. That kind of truth, says Nancy Kapp, "really screws with people's heads." 

Heaven isn't perfect anymore, is it? It won't be after you read this. And what about those rose-tinted stories brought back by brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts? Don't believe them. Period.

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here. View my Youtube Channel Page. Read about my novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

Heavy rain in Bombay

It's been a bitchy rain since morning. Taken from a moving bus, so excuse for the lack of clarity. The ac bus is leaking. Damn!

The Famous Five Still the Favourite English Series for Children

It says in this article in Guardian that the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton consisting of: Julian, Dick, George, and Anne, are still the most popular children's books in the UK. They polled 30 per cent of the votes leaving behind Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with 22 per cent.

Why am I blogging about this? Because they were my favourite too. I remember the pleasure of reading the Famous Five's adventures and about George's father who was a mad scientist who would tolerate no loud talk or adventure in the house. Reading the series made me hungry always. Because Blyton described food rather nicely and the result was I would be hungry. Then there were gypsies, thieves, robbers, shady characters who loomed in the darkness. How sweet was innocence!

Forty years have passed. Some days ago I picked up a Famous Five series book and glanced through the contents. All that it contained seemed irrelevant, somehow I couldn't relate. I had matured. I had become alienated and lonely and not innocent anymore. Sigh! That's life.

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here. View my Youtube Channel Page. Read about my novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

The entrance to the Dadar Parsi Gymkhana

This is the entrance to the venerable dadar Parsi Gymkhana, one of the last oasises of greenery on Bombay. Of course only Parsis can be members here.

Breakfast of Appam

Breakfast of kerala special delicacy of appam. Beside that is my new notes holder, bought yesterday. Starting fiddling with guitar again. (Note mixed metaphor;)