He left no trace
of himself in his books. No notes
scribbled between the lines; no
passages underlined, not even a name
on the first page.
—
Look closer though,
and you might see a face form
in the mist: a smoothed out crease
on page seventy four and the stain
in chapter three that shrinks with
every turning page; an invisible
presence buried in a tear,
a crumbling grocery list pressed
against a page.
—
The force of his breath
turns the pages, a faint echo rides
the spine, before the mist is blown away
in a stronger current, leaving behind pages
that bear the stillness of salt flats.
A Middle Class Neighbourhood(edited)
old people fill up
the park every evening
cotton pajamas shuffling along
paved paths, brushing against
trimmed hedges and clipped grass
once in a while they greet each other
a bit like prisoners allowed outside
for some sunshine and exercise
some of them sit on benches
in clumps of three or four
the men and the women separately
their conversation is sparse
and mostly unintelligible
save the name of some pill or affliction
floating in the slow summer air
others, of creaking arthritic joints
attempt exercises, their skin flapping every time
on calcium coated washing lines
and as the sky darkens
every passing bird looks like a crow
outside, the road runs putrid
with overflowing drains
and the wet air smells of rotting food
down the street an old bum
pees in the municipality garbage bin
he licks the saliva dripping
from his toothless mouth
his dick in one hand, the other on his hip
his legs spread wide apart
fast cars churn sewage into paste
and noisy children play with a ball
behind painted fences
I am convinced it is a primal instinct to drink till you don’t have a single penny left.
And then some.
“But the avoidance of self-contradiction makes great demands upon us; Hegel and Bradley imagined that we could know the nature of the universe by means of this principle alone. In this they were pretty certainly mistaken, but nevertheless a great deal of our ‘knowledge’ depends upon this principle to a greater or lesser extent.”
- An Outline of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell
also
The subtlety with which connoisseurs can distinguish among wines and cigars is the despair of youths who wish to become men of the world.
Title? Hah. Title.
it is not in fire
it is not in water
it is not in faceless rocks
it is not in the folded palms
and shaven heads
of holy pilgrims
not in the drop of honey
that dangles over a saint’s
painted forehead
not in the rotting flesh
of yesterday’s dead
it is not in the clouds
it is not in the winds
not in the pustules of want
that erupt on your darkening skin
where is it Yajnavalkya?
is it in the speeding car
that skids to a halt inches away
with a primal screech from beyond time?
in the blank stares that are exchanged
in that moment of utter stillness
the eyes at odds with each other?
walk carefully, brother
there is danger afoot
I don’t know anything like time-beats and metre
nor the arithmetic of strings and drums;
I don’t know the count of iamb and dactyl.
My lord of the meeting rivers,
as nothing will hurt you
I’ll sing as I love.
- Basavanna vacana 494 from Speaking of Siva translated and compiled by A. K. Ramanujan
Reasons To Like The Summer
Girls in skirts. And summer dresses. Oh summer dresses.
More daylight
Lychees
Watermelons
Mangoes
Masala Coke
Swimming
Checklist For Becoming A Real Gentleman
[x] Tweed coat
[ ] Pork-pie hat
[ ] Cane (with a sword inside)
[x] Cigarette case
[ ] Metal lighter
[x] Bigotry
[ ] Pipe {Should have one in a few months}
[x] A knowledge of esoteric and fatuous things such as the difference between a Mughal and a Timurid Turk
[ ] Opium addiction
Week #1 in the Box
- Plates will accumulate stains in insidious ways; you’ll find them in the least expected places.
- The newspaper is your saviour. The Times of India works particularly well – there is less guilt when you use it for purposes other than reading.
- Jat boys spend their day shirtless and in boxer shorts. They spend their evenings in their underwear. They can also often be found bathing together outside the bathroom using a hosepipe.
- Jat boys think having long hair is gay.
- When you stand outside the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel around your waist, bucket and mug in hand, half asleep and harbouring hate for most of humanity (particularly the motherfucker who thought keeping a class at 9 AM is a good idea), seeing the fat bastard from the house across the road strolling around his terrace throwing his hands up in the air and laughing makes you toy with the idea of murder.
- Cigarette cases are fucking awesome.
I’m Not Gone Yet
I can explain.
Bureaucracy.
The goal of every bureaucrat is to do exactly what his superior has told him to. Exactly just that.
The goal of every bureaucrat is to make sure that it’s not his fault.
On a completely unrelated note – Gotta love David Mamet.
What are you going to do about it *the most beautiful pause ever on film* asshole?
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