Monday, September 05, 2005

Morning walks are bad for skin

While everybody was talking about sunsets and I was talking about Wodehouse, I was reminded of his poem Caliban at Sunset. Not that I have anything against sunsets. They can be really beautiful and infact I kind of specialize in painting them (in five strokes with a size 10 brush. Very helpful when you have your painting homework submission in another 30 minutes), although mine tend to come out bright orange and red with the sky looking distinctly angry. Must be the red fixation or all the hidden existential angst. Some people might say that those are the only two colors I bother mixing (apart from the blue for the water ofcourse), I'd go with the existential angst however.

Coming back to the poem, I like funny, witty poetry best. The shorter the better as well. If its too long, I often don't get to the end of the poem only. Haikus are good that ways, for example you definitely can't complain about length here (which happens to be a double dactyl actually as Lakesidey pointed out).

Higgledy-piggledy
Ludwig van Beethoven
Bored by requests for some
Music to hum,

Finally answered with
Oversimplicity
"Here's my Fifth Symphony:
Duh, duh, duh, DUM!"

-- E William Seaman.

I do like other kinds of poetry. Its just that I think that usually there's enough sadness in life anyways to be generated internally, so one should take external doses a little sparingly.

So much traffic! I had to walk some 3 kms today in the morning, wading through all the vehicle fumes, to get an auto to work since no auto wallah was ready to drive through the traffic-jam on airport road. Hopefully now that the flyover construction has been resumed, once its over the traffic situation on airport road should ease a bit. Meanwhile I rejoice at my whim which made me splurge on buying shoes which I didn't really need at that point of time.

I came across an extremely talkative auto driver, Murti, yesterday. He asked me the time somewhere in the middle of the drive (later on he explained that if I hadn't answered him then he would've insisted on my getting off his auto), and then once satisfied that I didn't mind him talking, spoke non-stop for the rest of the journey. It was a little difficult to understand everything he said since his Hindi wasn't very good and I couldn't ask him to repeat himself very often since he would turn around, away from the road, to patiently explain what he was saying. He assured me (every 5 minutes) that every woman who sat in his auto was his sister and even if Aishwarya Rai was to come and sit in his auto, he would treat her like a sister. I received some friendly advise that I shouldn't spend too much in Bangalore, should save everything and take it back home. When I was getting off his auto, he shook hands and told me how he had met a new sister today and then promptly asked me to give him ten rupees extra.

9 comments:

kray said...

But what, in all this, makes you think morning walks are bad for the skin?!!

Akshi said...

Hmm well yeah people on a ship in the middle of the ocean can't really be expected to know abt vehicle fumes, pollution etc. and how damaging it can be towards maintaining a rosy complexion, anyways you can take my word for it hehe :P.

Anonymous said...

Aah.. the PG Wodehouse poem reminds me of this sherman's lagoon strip.

You can check it out at :
http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/supriya/Sherman/megstrp.gif

Damn cool it is :D

Supriya

Anonymous said...

Umm, that's not a haiku, it's a double dactyl (a very specialised form, even more so than a haiku - the first line has to be nonsensical, the second a famous name, the 6th has to be a 6 syllable word, and so on....hajaar rules)

/end nitpick :D

And don't give me these scary stories about B'lore ya, I have to go back there in a fortnight.....

Akshi said...

Hmm complicated but short enough nevertheless, so I guess I like it :D.

Arey can't help it, traffic in bangalore is bad. Par hopefully if you are living somewhere close to where you work, you can avoid the morning rush atleast.

Anonymous said...

I plan to stay about ten min from my office (if no traffic). Getting out half an hour early should see me there in time...Old Madras Road is crowded even in the a.m. :(

Akshi said...

Or u could invest in a good pair of shoes and walk the distance :D. Its actually faster at times!

Anonymous said...

And arrive at office hot, sweaty and covered in dust? Naah! And it would take 40 min walking.....:(

Akshi said...

Vijay D. Thank you for dropping in. Smells of cooking remind me that I'm extremely hungry right now. Sigh. Food always seems to loose out in the eternal contest between catching some more sleep or catching some breakfast.