Thought
If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. ~ Juan Ramon Jimenez
Varun Nair’s Personal Blog
~ Miles to go before I sleep ~Why do I blog?
I blog because I love words.
I blog because I like talking - ask my friends!
I blog because I like putting my thoughts into words.
I blog because 10 years hence I want to read what I wrote.
I blog because it allows me to play with the CMS, WordPress now, Drupal earlier.
Sometimes I blog to tell friends and family about the stuff going in my life.
Sometimes I blog to confess.
Sometimes I blog to unwind.
Sometimes I blog to talk to my inner demons and to retain my sanity.
Sometimes I blog just to blabber about nothing in particular.
Hmmm… I think that’s about it.
Back to blogging
I am blogging after a long time. Almost 4 months since I wrote a proper post.
I came home after work today and was a bit stressed out. I needed to work but before that I had to unwind. I decided to read something. I am reading Atlas Shrugged but I was not in the right frame of mind to enjoy that book so I did not resume reading it. I turned to Slashdot, however my mind refused (gasp!) to take in the green hues, the news for nerds and the stuff that matters. I am usually a very avid follower of my friends’ blogs and I have a blogroll right here in the sidebar so I started clicking one after the other and realized that most of them had not blogged in a while, just like me. Prude also has been bugging me since quite some time to resume blogging and it’s also due to her persistence and insistence that started this chain of thought.
That got me thinking. Of course before I started thinking I shot off emails to my friends asking them why they were not blogging, very typical of me. I am the blogging evangelist in my circle and I had to live up to my unofficial title. OK, so I got thinking. Why the heck was I not blogging? Laziness? Yes. Being busy? Yes. Lack of material? Not at all since life has been full of ups and downs in the recent months (more on that later. Hopefully) and I could have blogged at least 20 times if not more. I guess for me it was just laziness and also wanting to write the “perfect” post.
I have been very lazy and very stupid. Blogging is easy, you just have to take out a sum total of maybe 60 minutes in a week to write 2 posts. And aiming for the perfect blog is idiotic because there is nothing called the perfect post. One just has to write, some posts will be good, some will be terrible. Some will be timepass, some will be memorable.
So dear friends here I am. Back to blogging. And happy about it.
A Post. Crap.
A Post. Crap.
Deadlines
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. - (the one and only) Douglas Adams
Lots of whooshing sounds going on in my life right now 
Inspiration gone dry - Amazing poem
My favourite snippet:
…
To see a spot of green,
in the sky of blue.
For a word of encouragement,
to make this seem true.
To walk through a meadow of marigolds,
And let go of fears never told.
To wake up in the middle of a fantasy,
And feel its touch of ecstasy.
I hold in that cry,
As my inspiration runs dry.…
Isn’t it simply beautiful? I can totally relate to the poem; I guess most people can. This poem is definitely going on my cubicle wall.
Retail therapy
I indulged in a modified version of retail therapy yesterday. I went to the Crossword bookstore in InOrbit and bought 4 books. A clearance sale was going on in Crossword and lots of books especially classics were heavily discounted. Moreover I had a Rs 250 gift voucher I recently won in an office contest that I wanted to spend so I just headed out to Crossword with the intention of passing some time and grabbing whatever was good and not so expensive. The bookstore was too crowded so could not leisurely browse through the books… but you don’t really need to check out classics so that’s what I mostly bought.
Books are:
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Pulkit recommends this highly so am looking forward to reading this. We had Oscar Wilde’s hilarious play The Importance of Being Earnest in 10th standard that I immensely enjoyed and I am sure I am going to enjoy this one too.
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I read this novel long long back but I hardly remember any of it now, though I do remember that I had liked it. Another good book for my collection.
- 1984 by George Orwell - “Orwellian Society” is a term I frequently come across in security literature especially in this era of increased mass surveillance. I have been looking for this book for quite some time but only recently happened to find a copy.
- The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens - I picked up the book and read a few randomly selected pages. I liked the contents and the style of writing so bought it. Looking forward to reading this one too.
By the way if you are ever confused on what to gift me there are 2 very safe items - books and chocolates 
The complete collections of Calvin and Hobbes, Tintin and Asterix are on my books wishlist and will be bought as soon as I “settle” down.
Offline for around a month
Net was down at my place for around 25-30 days. And since I cannot check personal email or sites such as Orkut from work my apologies to friends who had sent emails, scraps etc. I am working my way through all the email that has accumulated; should be back to normal in a couple of days.
Email Jail
A place where the no. of emails coming into your inbox is greater than the speed at which you can read them or respond to them. Sigh.
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