Lessons from my Dell notebook

My blogging and other online activities have taken a toll due to the unavailability of a computer and so I have repaired my notebook, Dell  mini Inspiron 10 and have started using the same. To begin with, inspite of being thankful for the wee toy, I must admit that using this small thing is not quite easy for me. So, along with stating reasons for the difficulty in using this mini gadget, I will also jot down the lessons that this wee thing instills in me.

Being gentle always: My mini one likes me to be gentle on him. if I press any key (esp copy and paste) in quick succession, he retorts by stopping the page from loading. Invariably, I have to wait, press the keys slowly and gently, and then proceed with whatever I intended to do. Similarly if I click on the facebook notifications twice, the icons on the screen quickly become either very large or small. So, I have to be gentle, click once, wait and then proceed. Oh! The joys of a laptop/desktop! Sigh.

Awareness: I am not the harried/hurrying types but there is a limit one can take something in their stride. My small one forces and coerces me to take that one extra step in being aware of something in a leisurely pace. It does not like me opening many tabs at one given time. If I try that and go ahead, the small guy just stops working and is stubborn about staying in a state of limbo for a couple of minutes. I promptly close the online shopping tabs and force my concentration on two tabs at one time. Lessons in being aware of only the essential items are learnt.

Patience: The pages, while working on this notebook, load slower than the laptop forcing me to sit, wait and be calm. I know that no matter I try to press the keys over and over, the little guy will make sure that I follow his speed and not the other way round. In the interim, I have learned to slow down, wait and not get worked up if the page in question does not load the moment I click on it. Phew.

Strategy: For everything in life there is a certain strategy and when it comes to charging this small moron, I have to imagine and conjure all the possible strategies to make sure that the plug, the socket and the notebook are in perfect position. Again patience and awareness make their guest appearances here: I have to first choose the socket that is at a correct height so that the wire can be held in such a way that it is in a certain position, otherwise inspite of everything working perfectly fine, the computer does not get charged so I have to use a strategy where I use a chair to balance the three-pin point and make it sit smug on the plug-point and slowly I use the charging end and insert it into the notebook. If I try to hurry, then the process fails so the strategy is to use a perfect strategy!

Beauty is skin deep: My Dell mini Inspiron has a jazzy design and looks cool but beyond that if one tries to judge the working based on the exterior than one is in for a rude shock. Well, the notebooks have a different philosophy of working and one cannot blame the small fellow. The smallness is to blame - If one is used to laptops and desktops, then it becomes a tad wearisome to work on this small guy. Small is beautiful but also a bit tiresome to continuously work on. So, after all the old adage fits my small man well!

So, this is my computer story! I am glad that I can blog frequently alongside learning valuable life lessons from my wee computer.

So, what have your gadgets taught you? Are you willing to learn from them?


Image: Internet

Murakami and related thoughts

This year began with me reading a brand new author - the much acclaimed Haruki Murakami (whose name somehow always reminds me of the word, 'harami') Well, I have seen different quotes of his adorning different friends' Facebook walls and when an online book-club that I am a part of, decided to read Murakami for the month of January, I was filled with glee. I decided to pick, 'Kafka on the Shore' on a whim because of the name Kafka. Please don't think that I'm a fan of that metamorphosis Kafka! In fact, I hated that book - Metamorphosis! It is considered as a great piece of art and art is always something subjective and that subjectivity made me dislike that book! But a Japanese author dabbling with a Western writer's name in his Japanese novel's title made the book intriguing. And yes, as you guessed the book is definitely not a sunny read which one can savour with a cuppa tea and some muffins! Far from that, the book compels you to give it your complete attention and time and in doing so, it pulls you into the vortex of the dark aspects of your mind which you usually don't want to dig in normal times.

Murakami fashions his story after the famed Oedipus myth and leads the reader into various layers of the protagonists' minds. There are various allusions to many famous works and writers which point out to the different interests and sympathies of the writer. That he is fascinated and enthralled by many Western philosophers and music is no doubt and after reading the novel, one feels enriched by the information that we gain out of the book. Information on one hand and dissection of the self on the other is what this book did to me. It is quite impossible for me to maintain an emotional distance while engaging with the book because it is not possible to get into the skin of the different characters without drawing similar insights from our lives and the lives of those we know. One caution which I should use is being able to distance myself from the work of art. I guess that's a great lesson which time alone can teach me!

After completing 'Kafka,' I also dabbled with Murakami's collection of short stories titled, 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.' It did not impress me much.

Most of the stories from the collection are quite abrupt and abstract. Being used to reading delightful short stories with equally delightful characters, Murakami forces me to let go of my previous experience of reading short stories and leads me into another reality which left me a bit disoriented. Metaphors and words are the characters of some of the stories and often they leave me heavy and tired. The pleasure that one associates with short stories is not present in Murakami's short stories instead each story leaves the reader distraught and groping for meaning and sense. Well, as I mentioned earlier, art is subjective and my conclusions can be subjective as well. I would very much welcome a debate or argument on the topic of Murakami's short stories.


So far, so good. Have you read Murakami? If yes, please tell me your thoughts on him and if no, I'd say, give it a try and see!

Image 1: Internet
Image 2: Internet

Balancing equlibrium

So, by and by 2014 arrived quietly and stealthily into my life and the euphoria which wasn't there in the first place died down. I had grand plans to write a sweet and fantastic post welcoming the new year but not having a computer to call my own, I postponed the post. Little did I realise that postponing a post is almost like forgetting it. These days when posts do arise, there is no keyboard to tap in and hence I seek refuge in my wee journal. It is quite cathartic to see pages filling up rapidly but the itch to read comments remains unfulfilled. I have forgotten reading and replying to comments. Well, that does not mean I don't have any plans for 2014. I do have. Like everyone, I also vocally and virtually scream that I don't make any resolutions, far from it, I make resolutions every single day consistently. Some infamous ones are:

1. Stopping sugar completely (Wait! Stopping anything white - rice, maida, sugar, milk . . . And so far I have managed it by baby steps)

2. Stop the past from pulling me down (Half the time I'm half-bent by the load!)

3. Stop worrying and analysing details too much (Ah, if wishes were horses)

4. To stop listing my weaknesses in social media (I will not go beyond three)


Well, anything new always excites and makes me savour the joy of living and a new year certainly is one such time.

Hope your year started off well and that you didn't make any resolutions like me.

Cheers to us and our blogs.

Image: Shutterstock

Surprising and sudden stillness

It's a normal day with everything going on as it ought to be and then all of a sudden the power goes off. Shhhh. The whirring of the fan is gone and the buzzing of the fridge has stopped. Before the sweat and the mosquitoes (if the time is after sunset), one can hear the heart beat softly and a distant train with its siren. The drip-drop of the bathroom tap that always gets lost in the humdrum of the fan, fridge and the exhaust fan, is loudly audible and one, if inclined can set it to rhythm -- drip-drop-drip-drop-drip-drop. The call of an unknown bird strikes the ear and the sound though familiar is at its shrillest. How lovely it sounds!

I have undergone the torture of scheduled power-cuts while living in Tamil Nadu but here there are seldom any power-cuts and so the times the power goes off for few minutes, one is treated to a variety of sounds. Sounds always thrill me and each sound is distinct and speaks to us in different ways. Sounds often synchronize with our own moods and emotional status. If one is angry, then the drip-drop of the water faucet is an irritating and annoying sound but if one is in a lighter bent of mind, then any sound is music to the ear. I hope you agree.

The sound of the distant train always spells journey and the journey is often to places where one finds comfort and joy but on peppier days the sound of the trains reminds one of the unseen and unexplored places that may or may not be seen and felt.

Life is strange, indeed.

What are your thoughts.

Before sunrise, Before sunset and everything in between

Just imagine, two strangers in a train decide to spend time together walking the streets in Vienna and getting to know each other! The very idea sends a tingle down my spine and fills my mind with a sense of being overwhelmed. And, the same strangers, of course not strangers any more decide to meet in the Vienna train station after six months, and in the interim not exchanging any phone calls, letters or visits. Well, they don't meet but connect after nine years in France. Well, more than the films, what really interested me was the conversation that transpired between the strangers during their first walk around Vienna which lasts until the wee hours of the morning - before sunrise, to be precise. To me the film is an ode to conversation - A conversation which is genuine, frank, occasionally punctuated by the gurgle of a stream, song of a street singer and by the different sights and sounds of the city. A conversation without mobiles, facebook and other usual suspects.

The strangers, okay the actors, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy converse on an assortment of topics ranging from feminism to climate change to love, sex, popular culture, media, animals and so on. Their discourse is peppered with anecdotes and in the process of sharing thoughts and ideas, they get to know the other quite well and also by the end of the meeting are attracted to one another. The film consists of only walking and talking and there aren't any more characters in the film than the two actors. Reading up on the film, I found that most of the dialogues are written by the actors themselves and that does not come as a surprise!

I wondered at the possibilities of me doing something similar - chatting up with a stranger on a long distance train and impulsively deciding to walk the town with that stranger. The thought did seem quite thrilling to me and I guess I would have done it, perhaps some years ago when I was in my turbulent twenties! Real conversations are definitely a turn on and as the talks go on, layers of our selves start peeling off and unwittingly we reveal our personalities in the intoxication of words. The same transpires between the two on that walk. I find that I miss that sort of real conversation sometimes. Books allow oneself to travel to unknown lands, mingle with exotic cultures and imagine surreal situations but it is a process that is done alone unlike conversation, and here I mean 'real' conversation where I can see into the eyes of the listener, catch the faint smirk, observe the change in the tone of the voice and take in the gestures of the speaker. You get the drift, don't you? And, if the person on the other end has an equally arresting face, body that fits the conversation then it is imperative that sparks will fly but don't get me wrong here. Conversations don't always have to lead to physical and emotional attraction in the form of love/lust. But I don't deny that there is a higher possibility of falling for someone who can hold an exciting and meaningful conversation for hours (This trait is fast dying because of the various gadgets that vye for one's attention throughout the day/night).

If this post on 'conversation' has made you curious, you must watch the films - there are three of them -- Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight

So, are you turned on by a heady conversation sans any distraction?

Image 1: Internet
Image 2: Internet

A kiss is just a kiss

This post has been itching to escape into the blog ever since it has been stifling in the crevices of my mindscape and I wonder why I have imprisoned it for so long. So, today, I've given a solace to the itch by applying a potion in the form of writing the post! I have always longed to devote a post to THE KISS and not the kiss that every one gives everyone but the special passionate ones that are employed to many forms of expressing love and extreme fondness in the name of lust. Well, a kiss definitely gets it started and suspends time and place. And for people like me growing up in the 90s, a kiss was as scandalous as sex itself and it was one of those forbidden pleasures that made us yearn for them on TV shows.

 

 

I remember awaiting those 'kisses' in the 'foreign' (read English) films when first Metro channel came about in the 90s. And, of course, the after kiss 'scenes' would also be eagerly anticipated but alas! they were denied to keen watchers by the censor boards who chose to not corrupt the young and fiery minds of productive youngsters like me. Well, we waited patiently for those passionate kisses and were rewarded by many during our growing up years. So much so that I even thought that a kiss is fatal enough to make one pregnant! I cannot digest my naiveté and today I wonder whether innocence of that sort was actually possibly imaginable!

 

 

I remember the famous TV program of those years, Guinness Book of World Records ended with a kiss and I would wait with bated breath to just watch that brief kiss. Ah, what thrill it gave me to imagine a kiss. I even shared the vital piece of information with a friend who also waited for that 'kissey' ending.

 

 

And it is for all the above mentioned reasons and more that the film, Cinema Paradiso is a film that is very close to my heart. For those who have seen the film, you will understand the connection between kisses and the film. For those who haven't seen it yet, here you go: The small boy Toto is fascinated by films and spends a lot of time at the cinema house  with Alfredo, the projectionist. But the films have many missing scenes - kissing and embracing scenes which are cut, following the instructions of the local priest. Many years pass by and  Toto is a successful director and comes to his village after a long time to attend the funeral of Alfredo. Alfredo's wife gives Toto something that Alfredo had left behind for him and it is a reel that is a montage made of all the deleted 'kiss' scenes and as Toto watches that he cannot stop thinking of his growing up years and Alfredo. That scene from the film is something that will never ever leave my mind. It is a wonderful mash of memories, desire and nostalgia. And every time I see Cinema Paradiso, I can't stop thinking about my tryst with kisses.

 

 

 

 

P. S. I still love kisses the same way as I used to then but no longer await those passionate kiss scenes like yore!

Images 1 & 2: Shutterstock
Image 3: Internet