Whew. That was frantic. Just handed over to the courier a few reports that were already too late last week. Had thought to complete them during that much-anticipated three-day weekend. But immersed myself in books – and drowned. Woke up with a hangover today morning.

Sophocles’ Ajax, Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I, Milton’s Samson Agonistes: O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon… – Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him / Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves…(Just two lines from Milton’s play: either has inspired the title of well known books – Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, Aldous Huxley’s Eyeless in Gaza.)

Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is one of the most gripping things I ever remember reading – a rich, suggestive, puzzle of a book – Poe and poetry…. It has been called the greatest ghost story ever penned; it is said to have inspired more commentary and discussion than Joyce’s Ulysses!

Sunday I spent with a collection of 20th century short stories edited by Clifton Fadiman. A treasure inspiring fascinating discoveries. Stunners like Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Babylon Revisited’, my first piece by Jorge Luis Borges – a tantalizing ‘Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius’. The same collection had earlier offered me Kafka’s unforgettable ‘In the Penal Colony’. And I’m through only a quarter of this almost 900-page volume.

Gracias.

Went shopping for books last week – used books. The bounty:

1. The Complete Plays of Sophocles
2. Parallel Lives (Selections) (2 vol), Plutarch
3. The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha
4. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
5. The Ethics and Selected Letters, Baruch Spinoza
6. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
7. The Turn of the Screw & Daisy Miller, Henry James
8. Eight Great Comedies
9. Swann’s Way (Part 1 of 7 of Remembrance of Things Past), Marcel Proust
10. Ulysses, James Joyce
11. ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound
12. The Waning of the Middle Ages, J Huizinga
13. A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
14. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
15. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson

All for Rs 620. Bargain. [Understatement.]

Came across this during my last visit to Eloor lending library. Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

In 1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and successful seducer of women and priest of the parish of Loudun, was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of being in league with the devil and seducing an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage. Huxley’s vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.

‘When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasures where there is only trash… Too much sanity may be madness, and maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.’
- Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha



In 2002, around 100 well-known authors from 54 countries voted for the ‘most meaningful book of all time’ in a poll organised by editors at the Norwegian Book Clubs in Oslo. Miguel de Cervantes’ tale of misguided heroism gained 50% more votes than any other book. ‘If there is one novel you should read before you die, it is Don Quixote,’ the Nigerian author Ben Okri said.

Here’s the full list of the 100 best works of fiction, as selected by them, alphabetically by author.
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Still Life 2005
software: AliasWavefront Maya
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Landescape 2003

Softwares:AliasWavefront Maya

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Landscape 2003
Softwares:AliasWavefront Maya, Photoshop
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I was just going through my old works, and this was one of my favourite stilllife.








apples and pots 2003:
Software: Alias Wavefront Maya
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Mumbai_Clipping_02
The pimp pressed a switch on the wall and an irritating ring like that ofa fire alarm is heard. Beyond the violet and dirty chinese silk curtainsome movements could be sensed.The pimp slipped his head into the curtain and said something in marathi,then came back with a reassuring smile.Slowly the girlsstarted to come,one by one,and stood against the wall. The pimp pressed anotherswitch on the wall and a harsh thousand watt bulb came into life, making the girls squint, which made them look vulnerable even in their gaudy makeup.Few of them tried to look attractive, so they smiled with their bright redlips.Rest of them look bored, and they looked elsewhere. The pimp now came to each customer and asked them to point out the ones they want. One of them pointed out a girl, other two mentioned the colour of the cloth the girls of their choice were wearing. Once the selection is over the pimp told the girls to go and follows them behind the curtain. Now the room is empty except for a dirty fish tank in the corner of the room.Inside its green murkiness a large fish could be seen swimming in a circle. Almost like chasing its own tail.Then a beautiful bangled hand comes out of the curtain and switch of the hot bulb.Blue light prevails.
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Mumbai_Clipping_01

A young wealthy looking man is buying cigarretes from a rickey old shop.
A street dog sniff at his feet. he looks at the dog lovingly and buys a
packet of biscuit, tear open the pack and drop the biscuits on the curb and
walks off. The dog sniff at the biscuits. Suddenly a wrinkled up old woman
climbs out of the shop and shove the dog away, picks up all the biscuits and
climb back into the shop.The dog look puzzled at the shop and then at me, the
witness.

One day, when I was in class seven our young Maths teacher was talking about logic.
To illustrate his point he said
God is love
Love is blind
Therefore
God is blind.
Even though I was a hardboiled Catholic at that time, I was impressed by the power of logic to prove god is blind. Later in my late teens I met philosophy and found logic in its finest form there. So, if I go back to the exercise of making the god blind now, I have to face the impossible task of defining god and love. So it is not only logic but but also words and statements with concrete meaning that philosophy wants. Philosophy stays away from ambiguity. It demands clarity and exactness. Over the years philosophy has been considered dry and unpoetic. On the contrary, philosophy is the poetry of unshakable truth, as beautiful and as unbreakable as a Diamond.