Author: manuscrypts

  • A bridge across time

    As I sat in the cafe, I occasionally turned around to watch the Metro construction. Vehicles and pedestrians jostled for space on the ever declining width of MG Road. Just before I got into the cafe, I was part of the crowd – most of which was cursing the mess that the construction was creating, not just then, but in many people’s daily routines, thanks to the regular traffic blocks and detours required.

    Detours. I had had a conversation with a friend a couple of days back on how, if I had the perspectives I had now, 5 years back, I might have done things differently then. I might have re-prioritised – things that I wanted to do, goals I set for myself, person I wanted to be,and so on. I said that blessed are those who can turn back, take a look and say that they wouldn’t have done things differently. I honestly can’t. Specific regrets I may not have, but a different set of perspectives, I wouldn’t have minded.

    The friend maintains that whatever path one takes, it would be impossible not to have some regret or the other. I can’t say I disagree. But i do maintain that it is possible to minimise. Does that mean that I am not happy now? Of course I am. But to paraphrase the tee that I keep mentioning says, it ain’t about the destination, its about the journey. The possibility of regret minimisation comes from a belief that if you are doing what you are meant to do, then everything else would fall into place. A faith.

    Faith. The book that I finished later that day had a theme that mixed faith, quantum physics and parallel universes. It had people with different levels of abilities regarding the different universes. One could sense it, one could travel through it, observing, without being able to alter anything, one could transfer objects through it without knowing where they went, and finally one who could travel through it and control it far better than all the above. It talks about every day being a momentous day when we make choices, which creates ripples across other people’s lives (like a butterfly effect on human destinies). It talks about destiny giving you a chance to set it right again. It takes the analogy of an oak tree for a human life. Too many right choices and you’ll have a trunk with a few branches, risks never taken, adventures never had, a life less lived. Too many wrong choices and you’ll have a gnarled tree, fruits never enjoyed, an existence too scarred, a life too consumed to be enjoyed.

    We would like a balance. The friend has made peace with the self on this matter. I need to work on it a bit more, and ensure that I don’t read this post years a few years later and say Oops, I did it again.

    Maybe years later, a new generation would thank the decision maker for the metro. Or perhaps they would curse it for being built for a lesser capacity than it should have been. Time, and context, that would form the perspective. Perhaps its too much to wish for the perspective and the destination before the time has been traveled through, step by step, baggage by baggage.

    until next time, step up 🙂

  • My Friend Sancho

    Amit Varma

    ‘My friend Sancho’ is the debut novel of Amit Varma, made famous by the blog ‘India Uncut’, which incidentally, is given quite a few plugs in the book. A blogger’s work – that explains why i picked it up. 🙂
    The book revolves around Abir, a journalist on the crime beat, who happens to be around during a police shootout, when he was only expecting to cover a routine arrest. It gets more complicated when he is asked to do a story on the victim, which leads to his friendship with Muneeza (Sancho), the victim’s daughter, who is sure that her father was innocent, and is unaware that Abir was present at the scene.
    Whether the book delivers or not depends on what you expect out of it. If you are looking for profundity that would make you contemplate the vagaries of the universe, you’d be better off looking elsewhere. But if you’re just looking for a light read, and a protagonist whom you’d find easy to relate to (net surfing, wise cracking guy who is still not sure what to do with his life) then you wouldn’t mind this book.
    I did expect the humour quotient to be higher than delivered, but it’s still not bad. The lizard, though it only has a ‘special appearance’ is entertaining. I also quite liked the way the story ended.

  • Imago

    That I worship Bill Watterson and simply adore Calvin & Hobbes is not a secret. In fact, it mostly irritates people when i quote from that unique mix of humour/sarcasm/wit and profundity. But no, this is not a gushing post. A few days back, when a friend was talking about her kids, I told her to be thankful that they weren’t like Calvin. She said one of them does have imaginary friends. I am not sure about kids these days, but I simply cannot remember any imaginary friends I might have had in my childhood. To be very fair to everyone concerned, I am quite befuddled even when it comes to recognising real friends of that era and erm, a few eras later too.

    But I wonder about the character of these childhood imaginary friends, and why they exist. Is it loneliness? Considering the minimal baggage that we have at that young age, are they confidants of doubts and thoughts that we think we can’t share with others, even if they are of the same age? Calvin has his club, theories about society and education, ‘scientific experiments’ etc which he shared with Hobbes. Is it because he felt that he would be laughed at, if he shared them with others?  Hobbes usually attempts to give him a more mature perspective on all the stuff he discusses. I’d like to ask the kids with imaginary friends about the conversations. 🙂

    Maybe, as we grow up, our baggage grows and as we conform to the norms around us, we figure out that imaginary friends have to go? Or it is perhaps a need that gets filled or forgotten about amongst other priorities, as we acquire new real people – friends, relatives or any other relationships along the way, and maybe figure out that we can share different things with different people, and not have to reveal ourselves totally to everyone? And that takes away the reason for having an imaginary friend to whom we confide all?

    Real people bring their own baggage, they perhaps shield us a bit, and tell us things that we want to hear. They perhaps validate our beliefs and thoughts and inferences, either because they don’t want to be the people who deliver the bad news or they don’t care enough. Of course, I am not taking away anything from the good friends that we manage to get, if we are lucky enough – the conscience keepers. But they’re human too, and their objectivity would waver, they’d have their biases. Perhaps, we should build an imaginary friend all over again, our own objective self, one which can show our own prejudices without fear of retribution.

    until next time, object of my imaginary attention 🙂

  • Cafe Pascucci

    As Namma Metro construction turns MG Road into what seems like the aftermath of a Transformers All Spark brawl, and as pedestrians and motorists battle it out for control of the footpath, we decided to wake up and smell the coffee. Okay, there was a significant delay between the two, but Cafe Pascucci (part of an international chain) which opened shop right in the heart of the battlefield, between the HP petrol pump and Prasiddhi silks, (just before Brigade Road when coming from the Trinity Circle direction) was where we landed up on Saturday night. Parking? Don’t you get it? MG Road as you know it, is gone. So, try parking at Bangalore Central/Brigade Road and walk it up.

    So we stepped off the chaos and entered this lively cafe, which was almost full at 7.45. But we managed to get a decent table. The music was loud enough to drown the memories of the world outside, though the tracks were a few years old. The ambience is absolutely great, well lit, with comfortable seating, a great place to hang about, and if you get one of the two seating options facing MG Road, you can have a great time watching the world go by.

    For all you coffee lovers out there, there is a separate menu card only for that!! But before we get there, the food. Italian is the cuisine, and there’s a decent spread, if not elaborate. There are about half a dozen appetisers, ranging from Rs.45-65, both veg and non veg, with add on options of olives, cheese, chicken stuffing etc, for prices ranging from Rs. 15- 30. There are also an equal number of salads, but mostly veg, ranging from Rs 75-150.

    For the main course, you can choose from pasta – penne/fusilli (Rs. 75), and then add your choice of sauce (Rs.25), add a couple of extras from a choice of 8 for Rs.25 (mushroom, broccoli etc)  and chicken/smoked chicken sausage for Rs. 35. If this doesnt work for you, you could try a Gnocchi di spinaci, risotto (with veg/chicken add ons) or spaghetti, all of which range from rs.125 – 150. There are also sandwiches – you can choose your bread (regular or multi grain) at Rs.55/60, spread and fillings which are priced from Rs.20-40. You could also try out Piadine (an Italian bread).

    We chose to start with a Fresh herb crumbed chicken with cheese and paprika dip. The portion had six pieces, so quite good on the quantity front, but was a bit salty. The dip was just about good. For the main course, D ordered Spaghetti Meatballs, and I chose Fusilli with creamy sauce, mushrooms, parmesan and smoked chicken sausages. Both the dishes were very good, though the garlic bread they gave along with the dishes were too crusty. Though we had read in some reviews that the quantity was very less, we felt that, for the price, they were quite decent sized portions. We could be biased because they left enough space for dessert 😉 The only cause for complaint was that, in spite of specifically asking for the main course to be brought only after we finished the starter, all the 3 dishes were brought together. Thankfully, the main course stuff was really hot, so no real heartburn.

    And now, a preview of coffee heaven. A dozen different kinds of espresso, a similar number of capuccinos, half that number of hot chocolate versions, and soft drink/juices- including a bottled coffee soda, five kinds of filter coffee, from different parts of the globe, 13 kinds of iced coffee, ten kinds of teas, a dozen different ice cream combinations almost all of them operating in exquisite combinations of chocolate, coffee, whipped cream, chocolate sauce etc. You get the idea!! No, actually you can’t. Not until you see those photos, which I thought was sadistic, because whatever you choose, you will always miss the others that reached the final round!! After excruciating elimination rounds, I settled for an African Nera – made of chocolate ice cream, coffe ice cream, espresso coffee, dark crema confuso coffee cream, chcolate sauce and cremino chocolate. D chose a Yogurt Cappuccino fruit, made of gold espresso, light yogurt mousse, and fruit. My loud slurps towards the end were a testament to my deep appreciation.

    If you’re planning to go for lunch, they have a fixed menu combination – salad, pasta and dessert, at Rs.149 and 179 for veg and non veg respectively.

    Our meal cost us just below Rs.600, absolutely good value for money. The coffee menu and I look forward to meeting each other again, several times. 🙂

    Caffe Pascucci, United Mansions, 39, MG Road, Ph: 40912134

  • I feel funny?

    [I wrote this post quite a while back, but the trigger to post is Cyn’s recent post of a similar nature]

    Those of you who read my other blog – brants, know the site by now. When I announced it on twitter at that point of time, Twilight Fairy‘s immediate response was “mubarakein! so finally you use ur real name in the virtual world 😛 :)” I told her, that the real name already existed in the virtual world – Facebook, LinkedIn, but I had an inkling of what she meant, because I felt a twinge when I took ‘brants’ out of the manuscrypts domain. Though I did not dwell on it, it was a defining moment for me in its own way. I did dwell on whether I should write this post, and you now know the result.

    I checked the names on my blogroll and was reassured to find a few handles that are just that – handles, not names. Maybe we’re from a different generation of bloggers. Ones who blogged for reasons that were utterly different from the reasons now. That’s generalising, yes, but there was something then about virtuality that offered a haven from reality.  Some have moved on, some have clung on, and some have just drifted on, like me.

    As a handle, ‘manuscrypts’ has been in existence for more than half a dozen years now. Long before the blog, there were chatrooms. Then came the blog, and while it was a personal one, over a period of time, the persona slowly overshadowed the personality, my picture does not exist on the blogs, the M symbol does. Actually, I think its a bit more complicated. A part of me is vastly different from my overt personality. The blog became an ideal location for this  rarely revealed (only when I’m very comfortable with people)  personality to manifest itself. So its more than just a handle. It was a world in itself.

    This was the only place the persona had, and I realise that I’ve been trying to shield ‘manuscrypts’, but I got carried away. Let me explain. Its to do with what Ideasmith calls the personality of a blog. Thanks to the shielding, the blog has come to dictate what kind of posts appear here – the kind of humour, the kind of seriousness, its all getting stereotyped? Conformity within non conformity. But manuscrypts wasn’t supposed to be constrained. Where once I wrote stuff even if it sounded fun only to myself, these days, I think before I post. I wonder if the jokes sound stale, I wonder if the puns are too subtle. I wonder if I’m being funny enough. I obsess. I’m guarded. I measure.  I even wonder if i play to the gallery, yes, both of you. 🙂 And I’m not sure I like that.

    Meanwhile, six years is a long time, the world and the real personality have been at work too.  In the real world, we  now build personal brands online. 🙂 We don’t have to, but it helps. That partly explains the reason that I shifted the ‘work’ content to a different domain altogether. It was a significant step – a giving in to reality.  The real and the virtual moving towards each other. And while I could have kept the two domains thoroughly apart,  without the person connecting them, I didn’t see a point. Both are facets of my personality.

    And while that was happening, a life has also been evolving. New interests, old interests rekindled, new people, new experiences, new avenues to be explored, all of it to be done in reality. Many times, a post has come up here only thanks to self discipline. For something like blogging, i don’t know if that’s a good thing. There is a power struggle between my own evolution and the expectations I have set for myself on this blog. I think that is pretty dumb and pompous for a little blog. There, i make it all easy for you – you just have to agree. 🙂

    So I saw it coming, actually even before I wrote this. But sometimes, something becomes so much of a focal point, that you stop thinking about it objectively. For me, it was the blog/s. But these days, I wonder if you have as much fun here as you used to earlier. And I have to confess, it does make me feel inadequate, helpless, and strangely, old. Not old enough to quit blogging, but old enough to wonder whether churning out 5 posts a week (both domains included) was the best way, for everyone concerned. And that’s not including the microblogging. (self hosted, so you can comment)

    So erm, that was what all this was about. To tell you in the only rambling fashion I know, that I am going to reduce the frequency here,  maybe once a week, so that I free up a little more time for myself, to do things that I don’t want to postpone and regret later, to figure out things for myself, to let myself roam a bit, to see if i can reach a state which the persona and the person will be happy about, all without having to worry if the blog will be updated.

    And for those kind people have been reading manuscrypts from the time he was only a little handle, he  still lives, at least for now, and thinks there’s no page like home. 🙂

    until next time, handling it 🙂