Friday, July 31, 2015

Collected Status Messages - 5

Here is a selection of the status messages I posted on social media websites between the months of February and May 2015:

I. I am done with boss-bashing in my fictional memoir. This is the last but one cobweb that had been yanked away clean from some corner of my mind. I am done with that wretched old Head Honcho!
- May 2012

II. Pretty much the same thing, I assume. Life has gradually seized to be a bed of Burfi...but instead, become round and round and round Jalebi... No point in being petulant about the round Jalebi because at least it is sweet…luscious even, dripping with juicy liquid! Not to mention that it is sweeter still with a friend like you to share a piece or two with.
- May 2012

III. A Bone Chilling Tale!
After reading hugely-scary Joe Hill’s “Heart-Shaped Box” I became sufficiently interested in his other books and so I followed it up with reading “NOS4A2” (pronounced Nosferatu) which was published in 2013. NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense. Joe Hill really can scare you like his father the formidable master of horror great Stephen King.

Last night I finished reading the 700-page tome NOS4A2. This fascinating and chilling tale is about its chief gutsy female character Victoria McQueen and her son Wayne who gets picked up or kidnapped by a vicious demented killer Charlie Manx (aged 140 years!) to get him transported in his stolen Rolls Royce Wraith (which has a mind of its own!) to his phantasmagorical horror land called ‘Christmasland’ where every day is a Christmas day. 

Almost all the chapters are beautifully titled such as 'House of Sleep', 'Christmasland', etc., and the sketches/illustrations are gorgeously produced.

I am really surprised by how entertained I was by reading this book. I got a Hard Cover edition from Flipkart at a special price, and that’s the best part of online shopping!
- February 2015

IV. Just finished reading the book “Man and his Mind” by Swami Nihsreysananda of the Ramakrishna Order. The book is a collection of editorial articles written by the eminent monk.

The book deals with understanding man's struggles with his own mind and explaining with helpful quotations from Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Sarada Devi. The book is an anthology of articles written way back in the 1950s by Swami Nihsreysananda and was originally published in the magazine that Advaita Ashrama regularly publishes Prabuddha Bharata.

Thank you Rajib C. for this gift. I have truly enjoyed reading this book.
- February 2015

V. It's raining here... What better day than today to have a bottle of, well, refrigerated Coca-Cola and homemade hot hot pasta and patties with an old pal. This one is going to find mentioned in my blog — at Sainikpuri.
- March '15

VI. I have just finished reading “You Are Neera” by Sunil Gangopadhyay. I am so glad I read this book of love poems: An English translation from the original Bangla. These are unlike anything I have read before by the same renowned author. I found the poems very sensuous and delightful to read.

I have often found myself thinking about the great Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay and every time that I did I went and bought his books.

I'd discovered, to my great joy, that a major part of his works is historical fiction, depicting a bygone era. 19th century Calcutta is one of my great passions.

Each and every one of them is an epic. You can't miss Sunil Gangopadhyay for sure.

VII. I hope everyone is having an awesome spring break. Well, I am singing one of my favourite songs to take a quick breather from the summer heat...
"Raat ke hamsafar thak ke ghar ko chale,
Jhumti aa rahi hai subah pyar kee. 
Dekh kar saamne roop kee roshni. 
Phir luti jaa rahi hai subah pyar kee.
- May 2015

VIII. To the Bookmyshow customer care: Hi, I think you guys are very poor and beggarly and are in dire need of some free money! I am sorry to be so crude. That's why you people don't like to take the trouble to 'cancel' the tickets or 'alter' the show timing even if there's a valid request from the customer. Why do you guys sit with a phone wrapped around your unhelpful dummy heads and say "Sorry sir, we can't help you; we don't have any provision to cancel your tickets or alter the show timing!"? What use is the helpline no. of yours if you really don't have the so-called "provision" to help customers out? To smile on the phone that you guys have employment for nothing! Well, suit yourself you, unhelpful dummies! Booking your show is a no-go for me. Thanks, but no thanks!
- Mar 2015

IX. Discrimination? Really?
Goodness! It isn't 'discrimination' as you say, pal. If YOU 'advocate' about 'Varanasi' then do you truly need to indulge in some gaudy advocacy about Hyderabad or whatever other cities? I just don't think so. It doesn't make a difference who or what you advocate here on Facebook. Why Hyderabad? Why not Cyberabad? Don't rub this the wrong way, @SP. Get over it…if you can. Set your mind free. You know, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to get to the truth. Lord Buddha said: “Three things cannot be hidden, the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth.” The truth is loud and clear.

We ain't not examine/discuss/espouse any advocacy issues when you are well past that stage of small-minded bickering. It's regressive, backward; likens to the brazen fundamentalism that some impotent fundoos like to get into in some dreary dark pockets of our democratic nation! For your kind information and broadcasting, I have been born and raised in Hyderabad (well, almost) and that's enough said about how or what or why I feel about this city! Does that answer your unscientific inquiry? Or do you have more tongue-in-cheeks in waiting? On the off chance that you do have some more questions of this kind fastened, as I find, within the cobwebs of your mind, then you may shoot. How about we get the beached whale of irrational thinking back into the sea of knowingness? But then before you shoot…Think and think legitimately, rationally, and genuinely. It helps. It sure will. That’s all I can say, amigo.

Do read my blog to know how much Hyderabad have I "advocated" recently. Click here:
http://arindammoulick.blogspot.in/2014/09/chapter-17-love-loss-loneliness-and.html
- 13 April 2015

(Note: The messages are not in any chronological order. It doesn't matter, does it?)

By Arindam Moulick

Click here to go to Collected Status Messages 4.

Pix courtesy: Internet