Suara!

Am listening to this brill J-Pop song by Suara right this moment. Its called "Kimi ga Tame"... beautiful, beautiful lyrics. The first line says it all: Kimi no hitomi ni utsuru watashi wa nani iro desuka? (roughly translated: When your eyes catch my reflection, what hue am I?) Isn't it romantic? You can download it from Gendou (link in the sidebar).

20 SE

The Twentieth Year of the Sharadian Era

I, the Grand High Master Sharados of JUDEaea, Emperor of the Galaxy, Devourer of Worlds, am pleased to announce the completion of the twentieth sun-cycle of my being. Praise my glorious perfidy and insiduous splendour!

The lowpoint

Yesterday, I happened to flip the TV channel to HBO, where I was horrified to watch "The Mummy" dubbed into Hindi. What's going on here? I feel a cold dread grip me when I think that very soon, all our TV content could become Hindi-dubbed. I had to give up watching Cartoon Network because of it! All that godawful dubbing, all those "fikr mat karo"s and "chalo dosto"s... I can't help feeling a little sad when I think that English is slowly becoming a foreign language here in India. I mean, I learnt my English mainly by watching cartoons like Dexter's Lab and The Flintstones, and of course good ol' Star Movies (as if I'd ever learn anything listening to my teachers with their ludicruous accents)... Ah well, time goes on. But I will seriously use the f-word if another ICICI Bank agent calls up and acts confused if I reply in English.

My manga

Right now, I'm reading the manga Anatolia Story. Check it out at manga.bleachexile.com

Meanwhile, across town...

I was at University yesterday, checking out books in our departmental library. That's a distinctly dangerous hobby, with khenchi there. But seriously, it's time to ditch the Japan blues and get down to business. Looks like I'll have to go old-school this term. That's right, I'm going to have to ... <gasp>... STUDY!!

For my fellow JUDEans, welcome to the new semester. Before we meet on 7th July, I hope we are all on the same page here. We'll be studying Old English [shudder], Middle English and Renaissance English literature. I personally think it's going to be a lot of fun, studying Chaucer and Langland and Marlowe and Shakespeare and Kyd. In other words, Dead White Europeans. Dontcha jes love 'em? Also, my optional is Drama of Ideas chosen mainly because it sounded easy. *keeping fingers tightly crossed*

Also, an Important Announcement:
When we sally forth to our dust-drenched first floor next month, we shall be greeted by a sight that shall make us instinctively fall to our knees and grovel in praise of all the gods of the multiverse: new toilets! Of course, the floor is a complete mess right now, and I literally had to leap over piles of rubble to get to the library, but the aroma of stale pee shall hopefully be gone by the 7th, replaced by the nice-new-urinal smell. Thank you, Professor Lal/faceless University Funds Manager!

2008 Cyclone Nargis

As you may have heard, Cyclone Nargis was a very powerful cyclone that ripped through Burma (Myanmar) on 2nd May. Please, let us pray for the people who lost their lives, for the people who lost their living, and for those who lost their livelihood. The world shall not soon forget the ~50,000 men, women and children who died because of this storm. And this is only the beginning: famine, disease and crime are the vultures of disaster, and will be so on this occasion as well. Nargis was certainly no timid lily, but a nettle.

Nargis

It was stormy weather in Calcutta tonight,
And the seething water-claws
Scraped against the dribbling cement
Of the concrete caves,
And every flash of lightning
Looked to me a petal of a white lily,
A blooming Nargis.

Was there a boy like me, ploughing the Irrawaddy?
Did he too love the musty, dusty smell,
The love-mist of the dry earth and wet air?
I shall not know, I shall never know,
For he was drowned.
He cried and he drowned.
He cried aloud to the Lord that he knew,
He cried aloud and he drowned,
Tossed aside by the waves,
Thrust aloft by the crushing waves
Of Nargis.

And was there a little girl I shall never know?
Did she hear the sighs of her goats
When they heard the far thunder?
She did not,
She could not,
She cried and she drowned.
She cried aloud, “Oh Lord, save us!”
She cried and she gagged
When the swirl swept her little face
Into the mud of her father’s field,
And her nostrils filled with muddy darkness,
She cried and her lungs filled with the salty tears
Of Nargis.

Near the village field,
Was there an old woman?
Breasts fallen, face wrinkled,
Hips loosened by the fruit of her husband’s loins?
She felt the grip of the swell on her waist
And it lovingly embraced her, wetting her clothes
As it smashed her brain into
Her household shrine.
She cried aloud,
She wept and she cried,
To the Lord that she knew,
To her lord as it blew
Her skull into the brick wall,
Smashed among the tall
Limbs of Nargis.

What poison lily? What treacherous friend?
What vicious mercy! What catastrophic end!
What wind did blow! What storm was seen!
What hatred! What beauty!
What delusion was wend!
For it was no calm wheel of dharma,
Wheeling across the Burmese sky,
But the terribly gorgeous
Chakra of chaos!

Let us whisper in the garden…