The dreams forgotten ...

I have been rather fond of drawing and painting since I was a small kid. No, I do not think I have a great talent; but nevertheless, I love to draw. A few years back, I bought a sketchbook - my first sketchbook in fact. Till then, I used to draw on loose sheets (and I have preserved a few of them for many years :-)). So, after I bought this new book, I filled up a few pages very enthusiastically. But then, the work pressure mounted up, and later the responsibilities at home did too. So, there is not too much leisure time, and whatever of it is there, I cannot summon up the energy to pick up the book and my pencils.

I wasnt feeling very well today, and so I took the day off. I slept for half of the day. When I woke up, I didnt have much to do, so I brought out my tools, and set to work. At the end of two hours my sketchbook has an entry after a long gap. I quite like the result, but I am happy about just having done it.

Advertising : Brainwave or gimmick ?

Preparations for half marathon in Delhi are in full swing these days. The event is sponsored by Hutch, and therefore called Hutch Delhi Half Marathon. There are ads in the newspapers, and billboards put up all through Delhi. But yesterday I witnessed an entirely new way of promotion.
There was this well-lit-up board advertising the half marathon. Right in front of it, a high platform was erected. On this platform was placed a treadmill, and a guy was running on the treadmill. From a distance, we thought it was some smart animation. But when we reached close, we realised we were wrong. The treadmill was very much real, and the guy running on it was very much human!
Wonder what people would next think up of !!

Down the memory lane - III

The JC Encounters

Nitin's cousin Varun was visitng us this weekend, and yesterday he suggested that we go for a late night movie show. So I reminded him that he has the luxury of sleeping in a class, while we have to go to office and work (well, one can question the work part, but we defnitely no longer have that luxury which we could avail in college).

While a debate on "who sleeps in the class" ensued, I remembered the only time I did fall asleep (and was caught by the teacher, most unfortunately).

Well it was one of the classes of Mr. Jitender Chhabra (usually called JC by us CS students) in my third year of college. JC was not a very experienced teacher - he was hardly a few years senior to us; but he had a passion for teaching and taught well, and was rather strict. For these two reasons, he was liked and hated by an equal proportion of students. I was among the ones who liked him, and (I think) I had a reasonably good impression on him. So, there was this class, scheduled right after lunch. It was quite hot, and after lunch I had an ice-cream, and was feeling somewhat sleepy. I didn't realize when I dozed off; only to wake up JC asking me to repeat whatever he had been teaching. Of course, I couldn't answer, and he ordered me out of the class. It really wasnt a shame to be turned out of the class - happened all the time - in fact, people took that in high spirits. But I was horrified at my first ever experience of being turned out, and that too from JC's class. I met a couple of friends as I exited, and they described my expression at that moment, amidst gales of laughter, later in the hostel. By that time, I was able to laugh at myself, but what I wondered for a long time was, how JC managed to single me out in a class of 60, when I was sitting in the fourth row from front, and wearing specs with photochromatic glasses.

Another "blogthing" - hey it is fun!

I was directed to this blogthing "Are you a lady ?" - through Gincoleaves.

The quiz can be found @
Blogthings

It was fun. Though most of it falls in the "Not Applicable" category for me. I am not a party type person, I don't drink, I didn't really date ....
So, the results can be considered to be biased in my favor :-)
Anyway, here are my results:

***You Are 76% Lady***
Overall, you are a refined lady with excellent manners.But you also know when to relax and not get too serious about etiquette

*GRIN*

Poetry time ?

I shall never be friends again with roses
I shall loathe sweet tunes where a note grown strong
Relents and recoils and climbs and closes
As a wave of the sea turned back by song
There are sounds where the soul’s delight takes fire
Face to face with its own desire
A delight that rebels, a desire that reposes
I shall hate sweet music my whole life long

The pulse of war and passion of wonder
The heavens that murmur, the sounds that shine
The stars that sing and the loves that thunder
The music burning at heart like wine
An armed archangel whose hands raise up
All senses mixed in the spirit’s cup
Till flesh and spirit are molten in sunder
These things are over and no more mine

I first read these lines in the preface of a book where the story (essentially a romance) was based in World War II and spanned three continents. The book conveyed a very strong feeling of love, longing and loss, and moved me deeply each of the three times I read it. The lines above impressed the same feeling, though in a mysterious, haunting sort of way. Though I must confess that I did not fully comprehended the poem. It was many years later, during my post-grad days, when I gained access to internet, that I learnt the source of this poem. It constitutes two stanzas of an epic poem (of 392 lines!) titled ‘The Triumph of Time’, by A. C. Swineburne. I could comprehend the entire poem even less – Though I love poetry, English poetry (or perhaps literature even) of 18th or 19th century is not my cup of tea. The complete poem presented an entirely different picture from the context I had read its excerpt in – it embodies the emotions of a man in an ill-fated love. The central idea of the poem is that the narrator's lover has deserted him, and he is left to endure a fate - a life of loneliness - that he considers worse than death.
As I said, I did not comprehend the poem too well, but there were many lines and/or phrases I just loved. Here are some of them …
***
Before our lives divide for ever
While time is with us and hands are free
Time, swift to fasten and swift to sever
Hand from hand, as we stand by the sea
***
Sullen savour of poisonous pain
***
The stream
One loose thin pulseless tremulous vein
Rapid and vivid and dumb as a dream
***
The loves and hours of the life of a man
They are swift and sad being born of the sea
Hours that rejoice and regret for a span
Born with a man’s breath mortal as he
Loves that are lost ere they come to birth
Weeds of the wave without fruit upon earth
***
The hopes that hurt and the dreams that hover
***
I shall go my ways tread out my measure
Fill the days of my daily breath
With fugitive things not good to treasure
***
My favorite lines are still the ones that I first chanced upon, though. And I just wish I could write such beautiful poetry. Sigh.