Middle Earth in Kodai.

Note that this post needs a certain amount of imagination on the reader's part. Middle Earth like many other things, lies in the eye of the beholder.

Middle Earth is real, as real as the wild lunges of Hobbes which greet Calvin when he comes back home from school, as real as the never-ending tapestry that the Wheel of Time weaves.
As real as the vengeful nature of Ashwattama, as real as pride and hubris of Agamemnon.
As real as the continent of Westeros, as real as the dogmatic nature of the magisterium.

I am getting carried away though. The post is about how I had my few glimpses of middle earth in the expanses of Kodaikanal. JRRT may have seen the Misty mountains in the Swiss Alps, the eternal snows of Jungfrau sculpting the Celebdil of his dreams. Me, I saw Berijam lake becoming the Cuiviénen of mine, and the shola forests becoming the Fangorn of my fantasies.

And from there I was transported to Beleriand, glimpsing Amon Rudh as the last rays of the setting sun fell on it.

I walked under the mellyrn of winter-time, of trunks silver and leaves a bewitching shade of green, tall as towers beneath the morning sun.

You see it now, maybe?

George RR Martin spoke for many of us, I think, when he said, "They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to Middle Earth."

And what was it that Blake said?

To see the World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour...

Words more true have rarely been spoken.

PS. People who use RSS feeds will get really ticked off at me, I think. I edit my posts like a dozen times after I first publish it, and then again maybe once a day. So those of you who do so - have fun!

Time.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

- Pink Floyd

Ever felt that you were identifying a bit too much with a song?

One more day.

A lot has happened over the last month. Usually it's not much coming from me, 'a lot' gets redefined here all the time. But this time around it was really a lot.

I turned 21. Amidst little fanfare, thankfully. Is 21 too early to start feeling too old? Is it? I can see myself starting off on the Gone are the halcyon days of my youth... vein already. Methinks there is something very, very wrong with me.

The blog turned 1. As the author forgot the anniversary himself at the time, he feels large-hearted enough to let his readers off the hook for having done so. 40 posts in a year. Not pathetic, but not great either.

I learnt a lot about myself in these past few weeks. Not things which have irrevocably changed the course of the rest of my life or which have made me an alarmingly nice person, but some obscure, insignificant li'l things that I did not know before. I have also changed a lot in these past few weeks, past few months.

I found out that my Tamil isn't as terrible as I'd thought it would be. I was wa-hay better than the other two in using Tamil in Kodai. And later on in and around Madras when dad and the brother came over. I also found out then that I am far better a host than people give me credit for. (In my opinion, at least.) And my tamil is way better than dad's as well.

I am also fitter than I have any right to be. If one were to go by the time I spend in physical activities here (moving your fingers across the keyboard and bearing the weight of your laptop doesn't count, dang,) I shouldn't have lasted for more than half a day on the trek. Yet I managed the 4 day thing with ease. *Is unbearably smug*

Notwithstanding my own ill-conceived smugness, I should say that 40 year old aunties and 50 year old uncles also managed the same.

At this point I am also incredibly apathetic to just about everything academic. Usually that prized apathy was reserved for courses and classes alone, but now it seems to have spread to lab work, application work, you name it. Extreme apathy and extreme laziness. Frightening combination. Also, I had the good sense to pick up a new vice - DotA. I honestly thought that I did not have enough vices to spend all the time this semester has to offer. Idiot. The only way I am different from all those degenerates who game all night is that I game all day instead. (Good people who will help determine where I end up by this time next year - please don't read my blog. Pretty please?)

I have also forgotten how to write. Let alone write things even remotely funny. This post is so freakin' lousy. But as long as it increases the count...

I've used a record number of 'I's in this post. How kewl is that?
(OMG no he didn't, yes he did, I stooped to the level of using the word 'kewl'. And went on to use lolz 'OMG'. Just when you thought I could sink no lower.)

Everyday this past week I have been telling myself that I'll start work in earnest after just one more day. I really will! God promise. I just need today for goofing off, that's all. You know, to get it out of my system. Only this one day. Just one more.

Friday, January 18, 2008.
Addendum: (There seem to be quite a few of these nowadays.)

I am still following the Just one more day routine. Had a thesis review today. Met my advisor after more than two months. Heck, I hadn't been to the department since the fifth of December. I have vowed (to myself, I make no promises to anyone else,) that I will start work from Monday. Really, I will.

Identification, again.

Ye Olde Vulture is looking much better now, yes? Far more of a looker than some random nondescript brown thing that resembles the end of a branch.

Identify away!

In related news, I went to Kodai for a trek last month. And what a trek it was.
Next up: 'shrooms!