I have to acknowledge a blogger who particularly made me want to blog, though she doesn't know me or that I have been reading her blog. But all the same, thanks to Nancy Gandhi of Under the Fire Star. It is a pleasure to read your entries - I wish I could write as effortlessly and evocatively as you.
I'll gradually add links to other blogs that I read.
So what do I have to record today? Let me see... didn't have much work to do today, so I was done before lunch. The "mobile" lending library guy had brought the first batch of our monthly magazine fare in the morning. We thought it was a good deal to have about 25 mags a month delivered home for just Rs. 265. The best part is not having to see them pile up because you'd never have the time to read them all. I hate when that happens. Here he comes back and collects them in 2/3 days' time, so you have time to sort of browse through them and read only what you want to.
My excitement was short-lived because the mags he gave us - Alive and New Woman (both June 2004) - were mind-numbingly insipid and of poor quality. I don't remember reading either of them before, but not only were the contents unimaginative, there were glaring errors in the language/grammar and what was really annoying - images. Alive was full of unintentionally (I think...) hilarious fiction/poetry/reader snippets/articles with no focus, with stuff like "the cops were in a hot chase for her" and missing articles (as in "a, an, the") virtually on every page. It has a full picture of Sonia Gandhi in a trademark white handloom saree - but it has obviously been flipped so that her attire looks like that of Sri Lanka's Chandrika Kumaratunga! Now why would any magazine want to do that - there seems nothing wrong with the image that they had to play with it, or did they want to play a prank?! Can't imagine a so-called national magazine allowing such shabby work to go to print! New Woman (edited by Hema Malini, though I don't know whether that's good or bad) was better language-wise, but the contents were oh-so uninteresting. Again a problem with an image - in the Recipes section at the end, one image has been used for two different dishes! I mean, I don't understand... don't they check their pages at all before they print them?
Well, enough of the griping - i think i'll pass on these two mags from now on!
And enough of blogging for today too - feels more like slogging (pardon the pun). I really have to try to write faster - this one entry has taken me more than an hour. Isn't there anyone out there who has to slog at his/her writing like me?
But on the whole, i'm happy to have started on this :)
OK, one more thing before I log off, it rained in drizzles and showers here in Chennai from about 4 to 8 pm. It's wonderful to see the rain-soaked streets and houses and especially the gulmohars that are still in bloom. It lifts my spirits up... I don't think I have any other words to offer on that. I got a picture yesterday of a gulmohar from our terrace - I'll try and post it later with M's help. (He's busy with a game of The Age of Empires, which is his favourite pastime on the comp).
Ciao,
W
My excitement was short-lived because the mags he gave us - Alive and New Woman (both June 2004) - were mind-numbingly insipid and of poor quality. I don't remember reading either of them before, but not only were the contents unimaginative, there were glaring errors in the language/grammar and what was really annoying - images. Alive was full of unintentionally (I think...) hilarious fiction/poetry/reader snippets/articles with no focus, with stuff like "the cops were in a hot chase for her" and missing articles (as in "a, an, the") virtually on every page. It has a full picture of Sonia Gandhi in a trademark white handloom saree - but it has obviously been flipped so that her attire looks like that of Sri Lanka's Chandrika Kumaratunga! Now why would any magazine want to do that - there seems nothing wrong with the image that they had to play with it, or did they want to play a prank?! Can't imagine a so-called national magazine allowing such shabby work to go to print! New Woman (edited by Hema Malini, though I don't know whether that's good or bad) was better language-wise, but the contents were oh-so uninteresting. Again a problem with an image - in the Recipes section at the end, one image has been used for two different dishes! I mean, I don't understand... don't they check their pages at all before they print them?
Well, enough of the griping - i think i'll pass on these two mags from now on!
And enough of blogging for today too - feels more like slogging (pardon the pun). I really have to try to write faster - this one entry has taken me more than an hour. Isn't there anyone out there who has to slog at his/her writing like me?
But on the whole, i'm happy to have started on this :)
OK, one more thing before I log off, it rained in drizzles and showers here in Chennai from about 4 to 8 pm. It's wonderful to see the rain-soaked streets and houses and especially the gulmohars that are still in bloom. It lifts my spirits up... I don't think I have any other words to offer on that. I got a picture yesterday of a gulmohar from our terrace - I'll try and post it later with M's help. (He's busy with a game of The Age of Empires, which is his favourite pastime on the comp).
Ciao,
W
