When I tell my college and school friends that I have grown apart , that I can't associate with them anymore, they tell me it's just in _my_ head, that I'm the one who has changed and that everyone else has remained just as I had last known them. I don't understand how that could have happened. At least in the case of my college friends (some), I ( Read more... )

There is a sort of busy worm,
That will the fairest book deform.
Their tasteless tooth will tear and taint
The poet, patriot, sage or saint,
Nor sparing wit nor learning.
Now, if you'd know the reason why,
The best of reasons I'll supply:
'Tis bread to the poor vermin.

- J. Doraston, quoted by W. Blades

From Inkheart.

Oh, boy! What a day ( Read more... )

The thing about being a researcher is that one never really can take a break even when on holiday unless one does something so intense that it knocks out all thoughts concerning the subject from the mind. Sports and sex do just that. In the event that the person is not particularly active, an equally effective alternative is to deliberately knock ( Read more... )

Every morning between 5 am and 6 am was 'Juke Box' time on Channel V (or was it MTV? Don't remember now). A whole hour of DJ(anchor)-free music, and great music too. This was 6 years ago. That was also the time when I had the hostel common room television all to myself. Imagine how powerful and invincible I felt holding that remote control in my ( Read more... )

Ever since I was a kid I have been a 'starer' (if there is a word like that). I would stand in one position and stare at things for a really long time, sometimes for hours. No, I'm pretty sure it's not observer. I do observe but mostly I just stare. I didn't realize I was doing this until one Sunday I was found missing for the entire afternoon. ( Read more... )

...
My heart is sore pained within me:
And the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me,
And horror hath overwhelmed me.

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove!
Then would I fly away, and be at rest.
...

I just returned from my 3-week trip to India. I never imagined I'd enjoy it so much or that I'd miss the place so much when I return. I've gotten over the initial hopelessness that comes from being homesick. Now it's a happy memory ( Read more... )

DEPRESSION - THE THICK BLACK paste of it, the muck of bleakness - was nothing new to me. I had done battle with it in some way or other since childhood. It is an affliction that often starts young and goes unheeded - younger than would seem possible, as if in exiting the womb I was enveloped in a gray and itchy wool blanket instead of a soft, ( Read more... )