Death of a bird

My daily commute to office is a dreary affair, gobbles up 20% of out of home - in office time. The sounds of everyday offer nothing new and nothing really shakes you up in the time you spend traveling. It might be the scraggly beggars or the bold eunuchs or the honking honchos who think decibel is a credible solution to a traffic wipe out. I find it fascinating to listen to the auto drivers and pretend to understand their  stories. While you have the "I want a star inside my auto" drivers there are other who believe in driving a spartan existence. 

Today was one such sample. While Vijayakumar (aka the spartan driver) was negotiating a turn suddenly I was kicked by a sound that appeared to be a cross between an emergency siren and almost the sound of chirp.

Something is awry, I thought. I checked my "usually dumb" smartphone to see if it had chosen to emit sounds, after being silent from the day it was possessed. That not being the case, I triangulated (the third point of this triangulation is day dreaming, which is not a skill I possess) that the auto must be experiencing a snag, so I asked Vijayakumar. You have various spectrum of people who want to model their horn-sound on their characters, their likings, their songs. Left to me I would put a horn that would say "Hat jaa M#^$%jaat" in an escalating crescendo.

Back to the auto ride, Vijayakumar informed me that this was a sound of a bird, obviously marred by the cheap electronics of his auto. Why would someone put the sound of bird - I asked. He said that this was the sound of a sparrow. Sparrow - the relic of our immediate past - that somehow vanished from our daily existence. The sound of this past was something unexpected. Even if its a surprise (which it is intended to be), it does not quite convey what I felt then.

V added - with a confidence that indicated he must know his stuff well - "You can only find sparrows in villages". "These towers kill them". When I asked them what towers (buildings or something else) , as if correcting a wayward child, he said "Cell phone towers, what else". The power emitted by them (at those frequencies, I am assuming) kill sparrows.

If you want to see sparrows - go to Bangalore International Airport. Sparrows - the closest definition of a chirp, long dead in our ears. 

Some lines

Collected memory from the last few weeks -

"A friend in need is a ghost indeed" - From "Hamlet - The Clown Prince" - Adaptation of the eponymous play by Shakespeare - Rajat Kapoor

"...after these long years don't ask me how have I been but instead ask me who have I been or what have I become..." - Bungled / Mungled lines from a play that I dont remember.

As one goes through their lives, dip stick at the 35s should answer the question - "See how much rubbish I have collected over the years"

Some paradoxes that puzzle me -

"Our brains helping us understand about how our brains work." Mighty self referential

On a similar vein -

"Language helping us understand the nature of language itself." We live in powerful, self reinforcing ideas.

Soul searching

Cat on a hot tin roof, woof woof or rather meow. Very influentials for an 1880's play.

Naseeruddin Shah doing a GB Shaw for $20. Definitely not worth it. I slept through Arms and the man mostly.

I be the difference between Run and Ruin. Wow Linguistic overtures is back.

And finally from the vaults of outbursts of anger - like electricity, anger also seeks the path of least resistance. There is no use putting up to it (or resisting), you will be burnt and the anger will seek a better prospect.

Die all ye people who shout for no rhyme or reason or even for patriarchal reason.

Consumables

Some thoughts on changing atmosphere I see around -

1. Indigo Manza is now being called Tata Manza (Guess now it has become a brand of its own)
2. Facebook Ads - All the options, if one clicks the "x" button is that it tries to get feedback about the ad insert but never asks if the user is actually interested in the ad? Why?

Wordplay

Trees of fruits bearing life hanging over the river of death. Waiting for their fall!

Resume Hat tip - Peter Norvig

Job hunting while sucky, tacky etc can be fun as well. Consider this piece from Peter Norvig's (Research Director, Google) resume / bio / self description bit. I consider this ingenious, a great moment to turn the conversation to places.

File it under other information / achievements or just below professional summary. Of course the nay sayers may say only Peter Norvig can do this. I think its crazy style brilliance.

Fun from the world

As I spend more days waiting for someone's final decision to finally hire me, I continue to enjoy the small world around me. For proof -

Text under the fold is an email I got for a job posting -

Hi

Warm Greetings. We have an excellent opening with one of our client for the Position "French resource".
Please find the details below:
Location: Bangalore
Shifts Any one of the below options
1) Rotational shift (Preferable) every 3-4 months
2) Early morning shift starting 8 am
3) Regular day shit-9 am thru 6 pm .... (so on)

Regular day shit - That's one typo I would never forget / condone. Mighty LOLs occured.

University of Iowa's Internation writing programs mentions this -

"His short tories ....."

Short tories ? I understand but short tories. Please explain.