To go, or not to go...

There's still over a half-week left of my 'three week break', that I might never get to see. Then again, I might! So yeah, details of the coming crew-change rather rudely interrupted my break a few days back. Right in the middle of a somewhat impulsive trip to Shantiniketan actually. Oh yeah, I went off on another visit.

But now I'm back in Cal of course. And there's a flight booked for me leaving Delhi in 11 hours, unfortunately, I don't have a visa for Angola, which is where I'm supposed to land, and neither do I have a flight to Delhi. Heh, no, they better not be expecting me to hike my way from here to there in time for that flight :D. Obviously, the flight would be a somewhat redundant issue without the visa...

I'm not sure if I want things to arrive within the next couple of hours or not, to be honest. I wouldn't particularly mind an extra night or more at home... But I wouldn't really want the crew-x 'schedule' (that is so in name only now, and bent so far out of shape it's not even funny) to go even further out of whack either. Thankfully, no part of this is dependant in any way on my actions, so I'm just waiting and watching.

And hoping that the lights don't go out again, leaving me unable to check mail :S.

Currently: packed and ready with nowhere to go :|
Listening to: Leroy - Good time

Edit: Imagine that! Not 2 minutes after I hit 'Publish', tinggg!! I get a bunch of emails with everything I need to travel :|. And now I'm supremely un-thrilled. Ugh! So in another hour, I'm off to Luanda, again :-<.

By Thunder!!

It's officially, properly summer. No, it hasn't gotten any warmer, quite the contrary! You see, summer in Bengal isn't summer, without the kal-boisakhi, and today, finally, we had the season's first :). It is a rather sudden thunderstorm that is often seen in these parts this time of the year, but had been ominously absent so far this year, letting the mercury soar to unprecedented heights!

And when I say sudden, I mean it in the extreme sense! One minute the sky would me mostly cloudless and the sun bright and unbearably hot. Then, as soon as you turn away from the window, the sky would cloud over and the driving winds build up to a crescendo! Of course when, like today, the earth's been particularly dry, a dust storm is inevitable. You can more or less see (and sometimes hear) the consequences in neighbouring households as people scurry to shut the windows and keep the rooms from sprouting mini sand dunes :|.Then when the rain does come, well, let's say this the kind of rain I like best :). It has none of the brooding nature of the monsoon rains here. Or the long drawn out, somewhat depressing nature of the Mumbai rain. (Yes, sacrilege, but I never liked the Mumbai rain, with its rather overly persistent nature and therefore its lack of character, in my mind.) Definitely none of the barely-there annoyance of the Norwegian spring rain. Or the hide-and-seek short-lived exuberance of the Perth variety... This rain has character.

Part of it is the total authority with which it dictates life! Commanding reaction at a speed that is otherwise quite unbelievable for most people in these parts :D. Then there is the rapidity with which the first drops are followed by the rest of the millions! This rain means business! And you better not get caught out! Within seconds you would get more thoroughly drenched than if you were standing under a shower-head! And the best of rain gear gives you only minutes :).

Once it is in full swing of course, it has the ability of drawing out that kid inside of you :). Maybe it's just the sudden and absolute relief from the heat, or just the joy of the first rain, but it is not surprising to see people out on terraces and streets :). I usually stick to watching the sheets of torrential water that's just everywhere!!! Water that is driven almost to madness by the invisible whips of the shrieking wind! It's hypnotic :).

I was reminded of times when there'd be hail stones with the rain, and then the rooftops would quickly be littered with these pebbles of ice! And we'd go trooping up to collect them :D. You learn very quickly that an umbrella is absolutely no good, you need a metal or plastic bucket on your head! And there's no stopping the stinging on the rest of your body :). Just get out, get the really big hail stones, the ones that wont melt away by the time you're done, and race back under cover :D.
But the best part of this rain is how once it's done cooling down the earth, it doesn't linger. Most of the time the sky is back to it's bright blue self quite quickly. The sun shines down on the now lush and rejuvenated, and the happy :). Now we'll have a couple of days before it'll get really bad again, and then everyone will be waiting for the next one!
Well, except for the owners of these hoardings I suppose :D.

Feeling: cooler :)
Listening to: The Weepies - World spins madly on

Letters to the void.

The notion of peace of mind has had several varying avatars in my mind over the years. For the first time though, I had to accept my Dad's take on it today. I usually don't directly accept his take on anything quite without qualification, as a matter of course :).

--
Does it become easier to expect others to accept what you accept of yourself? The reference is obviously not to the trivial situation when there would be no trouble for anyone to accept... whatever. Instead, to all those things one would not imagine to be quite readily acceptable. But where such non-acceptance appears at least somewhat unjustified.
--You can probably only truly tell if you are at ease (peace? not necessarily,) with yourself, life, love and everything considered, when said life, you and everything have all slowed down to a point where the surrounding static has wound down to a whisper. Longer-than-usual breaks are good for that :). As long as you are, indeed, at ease that is. Otherwise they can lead to an intensifying of the unease....
--
Some things in the past are best never forgotten. And others that can't be. It would appear, though, that happiness is in striving not to forget, but to assimilate. The past with the present. Whatever surprises the future holds, few can be more... surprising, for lack of a more appropriate word, than the ones that bring up something of the past, hidden away, or forgotten.
--
Happiness, however, appears to be distinct from peace. Inside the mind or outside in the Universe. Sometimes I almost wish I could imagine, no, see (I do imagine,) the strings and webs stretching across space and time that would make everything make sense. Except for this tiny wrinkle, I do not believe.

Feeling: at ease...
Listening to: Aqualung - Easier to lie

An unexpected newcomer

It's really wonderful how awesome very surprising, good news can make you feel, even momentarily at least :). Could put you in a proper good mood :). Of course you still have to avoid messing it up in under 2 minutes flat :|.Not that I need any particular reason to be in a good mood these days :). The break's going quite nicely, despite the almost Sahara (or maybe Thar) - like weather, uncharacteristically dry and soaring Mercury levels. I'm done with most of my mandatory travelling and I've still got almost 2 weeks of break to go!! :D

Blissful joblessness :). I am, of course, aware that under the circumstances that's not necessarily a state one hopes will last overly long :|. Still, while it lasts the least one can do is enjoy it :). I think I've not been spending much time at home over the last year or so (like, DUH!! :|) Usually, I never actually get to this comfortable state without already having to worry about the next travel stuff!

Currently: at peace :)
Listening to: Barenaked Ladies - Pinch me

Summer is here

12 hours straight, and I'm satisfactorily de-zombified! Ah, it's good to be home :). I think I recover from lack of sleep somewhat more slowly these days... Getting old :(.

I actually had quite an easy trip back this time! Only the long stopover in Delhi, and the new terminal. Which I had to get to through what looked like miles of rubble, 'cos the bus driver didn't know that the new terminal was already operational! The terminal itself was quite nice though! Wi-Fi, power sockets, half decent food places open well past midnight!
I don't think I was looking at quite the same piece of geography while taking off from Oslo as I did on the way in, but it was still obvious that almost all the snow was either gone or soon about to disappear :-<.

Also worth a mention would be the fact that I finally got a PSP. Not a big fan of gaming on small screens... but the deal with NFS Undercover was kinda hard to pass by :P. It's surprisingly (and somewhat scarily) easy to end up spending way too much time on it :|. But hey, I'm on break! :D And so far I'm still supposed to be on break for the better part of three weeks, a first since the beginning of '08! So that's good. Should get some more reading done. Finished off the Asimov and started off with Slam. Almost done too! A Long Way Down remains my favourite Hornby. I like this one a fair way better than I liked How to be Good though :). The 'wizzing' into the future bits put me off a little to be honest... I think I'll carry on with Robots after this. I'm actually toying with the idea of getting some more Asimovs... We'll see when I'm through with the next 2 books.

Currently: hot and sweaty, it's 40 degrees in April!! :(
Listening to: Audioslave - Be yourself

Edit: See now that's exactly why I usually wouldn't go ahead and say something about a book before I'd actually finished :|. But how was I to know that right up to the end of chapter 18 it wasn't going to be all that and right there, between the end of 18 and the end of 20 it would all get better?! Anyway, just to clarify, A Long Way Down is still my favourite Nick Hornby. But now this one's gone past High Fidelity and well, while it's not past About a Boy, it's quite close :).