Monday, September 29, 2008

It is one of those nights

It is one of those nights

When you want to, but you won't sleep
When you want to, but you can't weep
When you want to, but you won't drink
When you want to, but you can't think

It is one of those nights

When you want a hug, but you can't get it
When sleep can cure you, but you won't let it
When you want a smoke, but you can't get it
When the pristine wind can revive you, but you won't let it

It is one of those nights

When it is too dark to see, but you see the red
When it is uncomfortably silent, but you hear what she said
When your hands tremble, but you write your epitaph
When the memory-axe is blunt, but it cuts you into half

It is one of those nights

When you want the night to freeze,
An aethist, you pray to god: please
When the armies of emotion have driven you to a rout
When everything you see, think, do, is owt

It is one of those nights

When you want to jump, but you can't
When you can let go, but you won't
When you want to shout, but you can't
When you can break your illusion, but you won't

It is one of those nights

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Judging books by their covers

If i had a penny for every visit to Hussain's bookshop, i'd be a crorepati by now ( with the falling rupee and all, even an arabpati) I know more about the books that are in his shop than he does. Generally i browse through my favorite sections and then sit at the counter and count how many people brought a Chetan Bhagat book. But this sunday, when that number became large enough to make me sick, i went around looking at the other sections i do not usually frequent. The self help section, the management book section and the bestseller section.

Now since i had no intention of even reading a blurb on one of these books, i thought i'll try guessing the content of these books by their covers. And here i have invented a whole new form of entertainment.

Honestly, what would you expect in a book called 'Where's my Ketchup?'. Breakfast table conversations? Anyway, what is this whole thing about losing foodstuffs. There's this one called 'Who moved my cheese?'. Duh! just look into your FRIDGE you moron!
And even if your food is lost, you really have to have a lot of free time on your hand to write a whole book about it.

Okay, how about this one ' Who love, die well!'. Well thank you for clearing that up. The rest of the populace devoid of this beautiful emotion turn up on the discovery channel serial killer program as the victims, right?
The honesty is still laudable. The writer does truthfully uses the words love and death in the same sentence. But i'm still not sure as to what the book is really about; those who died well or those who did not love.

This one was a bit more practical, but still bowled me over. 'How to have creative ideas?'. The title was very honestly telling me what was inside the book, but then the thinking part in my head says: ' if there's a process for getting creative ideas; well that defeats the whole concept of "creative ideas", right!!" A highly creative idea, probably an outcome of the processes mentioned therein.

And then there was 'Chicken soup for a shopaholics soul'. Do they also need comforting??That's rich. Never thought how many of them were vegetarian? It'll probably have to be a vegetable soup for the shopaholics soul then.

There are other writers who think they can fool their readers into buying books whose titles sounded famous. I repeat, 'sounded famous' . So there are books like 'in the DARK of the NIGHT', 'the return of THE GODFATHER' and 'The RINGS for the LORDS'. Do they think that people who are going to buy these books cannot read?? ( a bit too presumptuous maybe)

Nonetheless these titles are better than seeing people buy five point someone.