He is of a higher caste than me, but he is poor. What does this thing mean, then, caste? Is it just a fable for old men like him? If you said to yourself, "Caste is a fiction," would if vanish like smoke; if you said, "I am free," would you realise you had always been free?

*

He vaguely sensed that he was being offered something to eat. He sniffed; it reeked of castor oil and shit, and he rejected it. He smelled garbage around him, and turned his head toward the sky; his eyes were full of the stars when they closed.

*

Gururaj looked at the editor-in-chief with new eyes. It was as if the old man had a nimbus around him, of all the things he had learned over his career and could never publish; this secret knowledge glowed around his head like the halo around the nearly full moon. This is the fate of every journalist in this town and in this state and in this country and maybe in this whole world, thought Gururaj,

-From Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga.

MY PHONE SURVIVED.

6000plus messages are intact.

Thank you, E65, but I think i'll switch over.

Now to start deleting all those messages.

While waiting for something to happen on STARS

Hmm it doesn't look that good when it's here. For a better view, go HERE .

haoushoku haki says:
why still back to blogging
should be back to clicking haha

LOL yes indeed, Jeremy.

I can't remember simple French expressions! Oh man. =(

Scavenging

Spent the morning agonising about the lack of vacancies in the courses I wanna do, to my lit friends. WHY CAN'T THEY INCREASE CLASS SIZE. Now I've gotta re-plan my whole timetable.

Went to the Post Office again today. I love posting letters. Sent Vivek's postcard off to the US for him, then sent my own card and gifts to a birthday girl. Hope it reaches on time, and intact.

Then went to the National Library in search of some books I've been looking for. Met Ronnie, who told me about a short story writing competition he heard about. We've decided to participate just for the fun of it! Went to the Singapore Collections and rummaged around for short stories by Singaporeans. There are pitiful few. Managed to find some, then headed to Bras Basah to see if the second hand shops had larger collections. Scavenged around, and found a few more, but it's still a pitifully small collection. I was wrong for thinking the school library wasn't well-stocked. But of course, the Reference section of the National Library is sure to have more. But we wanted stuff we could borrow.

I couldn't find the first book of the Nightwatcher series. But I did manage to find a book by Lee Child. Ronnie's recommendation.

Here's a video about another book by Child, which I didn't manage to find.

I have condemned my phone to the gallows. All I can hope for is a miracle.

On a happier note, I'm using the E65 again, which reminds me of those good old VJ times. =]

Dilemma (did i spell that right?)

My phone has 6333 messages in its Inbox. I have a habit of writing my messages down before deleting them, and I haven't been doing that for a long time, so the messages go all the way back to Dec 2008. I got down to deleting them recently, but the phone started acting up. There'd always been a problem with the contact list, but now, the phone kept freezing and turning to a grey screen. I had 5 days left for the warranty period to expire, at that time.

So I went to the service centre to see what they could do. I was told that my data will get erased, so the guy attending to my phone attempted to do a backup. It took ages (there were more than 6000 messages after all...) and he asked me if I wanna go take a walk cos that's how long it was taking. After prowling around Gramophone for a while, I returned, to have him tell me that the phone restarted once the backup was done, without displaying the Backup Complete notification.

I decided to go home and try backing it up again on my own, but had similar problems, so I'm unsure whether the backup has been done or not. So this is the quandrary I'm stuck in.

1) I could take the risk and give my phone for servicing.
2) I could go through as many of the messages I'm able to and copy what I want, then give the phone for servicing before the warranty period is over.
3) I could ignore the problem and delete my messages leisurely. However, if the problem worsens and the whole thing gets corrupted, I won't be able to salvage anything, nor will I be able to service the phone under warranty.

I'm shuttling between options 2 and 3. Leaning towards 2. In which case, I needa spend every minute I have going through my phone, then give it for servicing tomorrow. Okay, bye.

(Sigh, the trouble I put myself through just for sentiment's sake.)

There and Back Again

(That's the title of Bilbo's tale.)
This place doesn't suggest it, but a lot has happened. Pictures in next post. (If you don't wanna read this whole post, you HAVE to read the last para at least.)

Went to Miami and New Jersey and New York.
-Visited places, talked to cool people, had lotsa long rides in cars, shopped, walked around. Details when I put the photos up.

Went to Chennai.
- Cousin's marriage. The usual gatherings before the wedding, the wedding itself, and the traditional movie/sleepover/early-morning-beach-trip. Dinner with the cousin on the other side. Once again, the details will come with the photos.

Returned home but was busy.
- With rehearsals for Pradhana Vizha, and studio recordings, and the show itself.
- Met a brother to pass him a sweet he wanted from India, and to catch up with what's been going on. Got a ride home in his car!
- Accompanied another brother who wanted to open a bank account. And buy himself a suit.
- Cracked my head about 1) whether to join PERSPECTIVES 2010 and 2) whether to take up a double major.
- Had to do MAJOR cleaning to the poor neglected house.
- WENT CYCLING! =D With Fadilah and Herrick, at East Coast.
- YOG training has begun. Finally met the people I'll be working with. I'm assigned to tennis, archery and soccer!!
- My aunt and cousin arrived, from California. Stayed a week. My sis and I had lotsa fun taking them out.
- World Cup! Spain Spain Spain!
- THE OVERSEAS PEOPLE HAVE STARTED COMING BACK. FINALLY. Met Dhevy and Rama and Mike at the airport, after going with Rama and Mike to collect his new luggage from the EXPO.
- Numbed my brain trying to sort out my timetable for the coming semester. I'm gonna give the double major a shot - for a sem at least, and see if i can cope.
- Met yet another brother today, to pass him a very belated birthday gift and to eat a sundae.

What still remains on the horizon:
- Have to work hard on sorting out my timetable and coordinating it with Kula's and Jas' and Carmen's.
- Meet up with a load of other friends: RnB, VJ people (will meet some of em at Sheela's reception), at least 2 different groups from Uni, Amu&Kastoori this Friday, French Day with Livia and Sha, hiking (choo choo trail! hahaha) with Fadilah, Baking Day cum Disney Movie Marathon with Geraldine & Alina & Jenn & Yuvanes.

Meeting Dhevy tomorrow morning to go cycling, and then to go visit the folks at VJ. AND eat the VJ food we've been craving for. A couple of days back, it rained really heavily, and the streetlights on one side of the road were all extinguished! Singapore's not invulnerable after all. I had never seen the road so dark before that.

I was sitting at my table in my room, when I heard a loud popping noise outside. I peeped out of my room, and saw my mum holding a sheet of bubble wrap and looking extremely delighted =D I squealed and ran out to get the sheet. Mum asked if she could pop one more before giving it to me. I said okay. MLIA.