Sunday, December 21, 2003

 
Letters and Biographers I just shifted base from Chennai to Pondy…was a very nostalgic experience. Shifting entails packing and packing in turn, the opening of old boxes. And old boxes have a way of holding memories… I had one old, leather suitcase of sorts that once belonged to my grand mom. In Chennai, it sat on my cupboard, out-of-reach, holding greeting cards and letters I had received long back. These days nobody writes a letter to me. Everyone just shoots of emails…emails that can be easily lost, when the inbox becomes full. Not so with letters…they sit their patiently, waiting to be unfolded and read. They speak of things that seemed important a few years back. Preoccupations. They speak of love and of other bonds…they remain. Most of my letters are dated between 95-96…they year I moved to Pondicherry from Mumbai. My classmates and friends from my apartment there wrote to me. My teacher, my Principal and my grandmom also wrote to me. They wrote about a new teacher, boring lectures, the pressure of a board exam, new classmates, the growing rift in the class between boys and girls, about pets and other things Later I received letters from a brother studying in Chidambaram…if ever he were to become an ace coder or some such genius…I have lot of material on him. I also received one letter from an ex-sweet heart. A very cherished letter from another friend on my 20th birthday and that more or less sums it up… …And now that I think about it, they wrote to me because I wrote to them. And I have stopped writing…if you don’t count those stray letters I send my grand-dad. And so I have stopped receiving any letters! Was just wondering… that most biographers would love to find letters and diaries written by their subject. But now that most of us don’t write letters and most of us definitely do not write diaries…what will the biographers now rely on? Email accounts? Will Websites like Yahoo and Hotmail allow biographers to access accounts of dead subjects? Was just wondering…I would like my biographer to get a very clear picture of who I was and what I did… This fear took root when I read extracts from various biographies written about Lewis Carroll. Right now I am in no mood to write in detail about the man and how the biographers had a gala time painting an ultra drab or ultra colourful picture of the man…but all I am willing to say is that one biographer on reading the first few paragraphs of `Alice in Wonderland’, psychoanalyzed Charles Ludwig Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) to be a pedophile and Alice to be his Penis. How he did that and how people took him seriously is something I fail to understand…but I would hate to be remembered for things I never was or never did. So I would here like to make a pact with future biographers…that you write about me the way I am…and I promise to provide you enough material (interesting stuff at that) about me. Warts, insecurities and the lot…I promise to be an interesting person…but don’t make me more interesting than I already am (or was…you see too much of a good thing is also not advisable!) I just read the sunscreen song…its kind of cute…nothing to rave about when you read the lyrics…but sounds good when you hear it…very much like my Gin soaked boy song!!! Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99 If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen… The Divine Comedy Gin-Soaked Boy lyrics I'm the darkness in the light I'm the leftness in the right I'm the rightness in the wrong I'm the shortness in the long I'm the goodness in the bad I'm the saneness in the mad I'm the sadness in the joy I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy I'm the ghost in the machine I'm the genius in the gene I'm the beauty in the beast I'm the sunset in the east I'm the ruby in the dust I'm the trust in the mistrust I'm the Trojan horse in Troy I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy I'm the tiger's empty cage I'm the mystery's final page I'm the stranger's lonely glance I'm the hero's only chance I'm the undiscovered land I'm the single grain of sand I'm the Christmas morning toy I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy I'm the world you'll never see I'm the slave you'll never free I'm the truth you'll never know I'm the place you'll never go I'm the sound you'll never hear I'm the course you'll never steer I'm the will you'll not destroy I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy I'm the half-truth in the lie I'm the why not in the why I'm the last roll of the die I'm the old school in the tie I'm the spirit in the sky I'm the catcher in the rye I'm the twinkle in her eye I'm the Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly" Who am I?
Hetal 10:57 AM