FROM DORIS LESSING'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY "UNDER MY SKIN"

It is, I have observed, a rule that people who have been on the periphery of events or a life are those that rush forward to claim first place: people who do know often say nothing or little. Some of the most noisy, not to say noisome, scandals or affairs of our time, that have had a searchlight on them for years, are reflected wrongly of the public mind because the actual participants keep their counsel, and watch, ironically, from the shadows. And there is another thing, much harder to see. People who have been real movers and exciters get left out of histories, and it is because memory itself decides to reject them. These instigators are flamboyant, unscrupulous, hysterical, or even mad, certainly abrasive; but the real point is that they are apparently of a different substance from the smooth, reasonable and sane people who have been inspired by them, and who do not like to remember temporary submersions in lunacy. Often, reading histories, there are events which stick out, do not make enough sense, and one may deduce the existence of some lunatic, male or female, who was equipped with the fiery stuff of inspiration-but was quickly forgotten, since always and at all times the past gets tidied up and made safer.

I HAVE BEEN TAGGED!!!
With deadlines in a row and no time to spare, O lord how unfair is that!!!

For the last few weeks I haven't had the time or inclination to check my blog, leave alone post on the site. And altho' a number of half written posts are lying around, none have seen the light of the day. Things have gotten so hectic at work that I wasn't planning on posting soon.

But that was not to be. Because Naughty Notti Nautilus has me tagged!!! Now consider two things. One, silence was never my forte. And two, I have yet to reach THAT nirvan"ous" state when all you do upon being asked about yourself is give beautific smiles.

Plus there's this other thing that not answering a tag is rude and all....and that's not a very nice way to be, is it? (Note to self: All this certainly sounds less pompous than "I just couldn't give up a chance to yak about my great self".)

Put simply, I had no option but write this post. I couldn't give up that!

What then could I give up? Well, perhaps I could omit tagging others, since most bloggers I read have been tagged on this.

And now without much ado, here goes;

8 random facts about myself

1. I am addicted to books. In fact I read as tho' my life depended on it. And no! I don't have my list which I must carry with me to THAT stranded island. I read almost anything! (On the subject of book and stranded island, I prefer Stephen Wright's lines anyday: "A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say 'How to Build a Boat'")


2. And it was to be 3-4 books at a time; all of them lying around different points in the house. And me often getting worked to a frenzy if I can't locate them. (OK enough about books, but you get the pic)

3. (Now here comes the embarassing part that I wanted to save till the very last, but might as well get it off my chest now)
I love Bollywood movies....(wait it isn't over yet)....of the David Dhawan kind. Those Govinda, Mithuda starrers with their low brow humor and constant guffaws. (And this is a secret I guard zealously from my avant garde filmi club friends who poo poo at Hollywood. Poohing at Hollywood! huh!!! Imagine that. However, I am not really in a hurry to discover what these folks would do if they saw Govinda's gyrations.

4. I love BONG food. I know the greatest cuisines of the world are all waiting to be discovered but I still love my shorshe ilish with bhat. Period. (Oh and it must be eaten in Bong style, that is after being mashed till kingdom come.)

5. Likewise I love the old DADU, his poems, his music, his dance dramas, his philosophy, his stories, his politics. I know there's been a ton of talent to follow and spring can just as easily herald the buying of mutton as the coo-ing of birds, but I prefer the latter (with apologies to the poetic Aaji ei boshonter diney, bari firi mangsho kine).


6. I have a terribly bad form of sweet tooth. Chomchom to creme brulee anything goes.

7. Every morning, come rain or shine, I must listen to music the first thing in the morning with a steaming cuppa in my hand or my day is "barbad".

8. I do most things on the 11 th hour, which is why my whole timetable is in a mess before any deadline!! Try as I might I can never get things done in advance and when I do, I end up rewriting or revising most of it closer the the deadline.