Off the top of my head

I was trying to write a poem today dedicated to my friend Roop for his birthday. I came up with zilch! Not that I haven't done it before. I guess I was out of touch. I remember this game we came up during farewell parties our school from our batch. We collected information about the seniors (our class genius, Amit, came up with this idea of making a form which looked like a survey form - and the teachers helped us distribute it and get it filled. I don't think the seniors ever had a clue as to how we knew so much about them at all at the Jyotidaan!). We composed a four line poem for every senior - and played a Guess-Who game at the party - it was a huge success. I did a lot of those poems - and it sort of came more naturally to me back then than now! Where went all my poetic skills?

There is something about writing that brings out the best in both the reader as well as the writer. When one reads something, the mind goes about conjuring up images to match the words. And sometimes, some of these images can be fantastic! When I try to imagine what Richard Bach says or Paulo Coelho has written about, I come up with a different idea each time. And it doesn't get too boring for me. As my favourite teacher said, our perspective changes with time, our experiences. And it is always fun to re-discover a book from a whole new point of view! This is so much unlike watching a movie - or to a certain extent, even music! The scope for imagination is much narrower because we explore the theme of the mediums based on what the director or the composer, the actor or the singer thinks is appropriate. Not that watching movies TV or listening to certain kinds of music is without it's charm - but the charm wears off maybe after the first or second or twenty times. Or maybe I am just too partial to reading!!

Talking about music, I have finally got raaga.com working for me. The new website management seems to be working much better than the before one - and now I get to listen to a delicious variety of songs without worrying that I might be listening to pirated stuff. My playlist has been playing non-stop for the last 2 days ;-).

Golden Week is coming up ahead - and we are yet to plan to go somewhere - though I am sure that every visitable place would be well booked in advance - but we are still exploring possibilities. Maybe Kyoto or Nara or Ise or just enjoy a quiet holiday at home!