The Towel Day Quest

As you all know, today (May 25th) happens to be Towel Day. Those of you who do not know this can stop reading now.

I was home all day and hence was spared the questioning looks that people give to those of us who are roaming around with a towel. Later in the evening, I was explaining to my Dad the significance of Towel Day. My Mom overheard this and said something to the effect of "Oh, that explains why there were Towels put up on display at the Reliance Fresh store". Needless to say, I was stunned. Remember, this is Nashik, and not some large metro. I didn't even expect that the people here would have heard of DNA, let alone celebrate Towel Day. This was just too good to be true. So I decided to go and check it out for myself.

The problem was that time was running out. Although the Earth wasn't about to explode, it was almost time the store shut down. Thankfully, I reached just in time and was able to take this pic right at the moment the shutters were coming down.

It was true. In the front display of the shop, facing the main road, I could see four towels that were put on display. This was highly intriguing, so I went inside the shop and asked a few people why they had put towels for display. Unfortunately, since it was closing time, I couldn't get a definite answer, although one member of the staff told me that they were up for sale. However, one of the supervisors did mention that the display was put up only today morning.

So it might well have been just a great coincidence. But I would like to believe that somewhere in some parallel universe, a Reliance Fresh store manager wanted to celebrate Towel Day and the WSOGMM led to a similar idea popping up in the brain of the Reliance Fresh Nashik Manager. Whatever may be the reason, it was the froodiest Towel Day ever!

Summer Reading

The holidays are always a good time to catch up on a bit of reading. And the long holidays that I am facing now are no exception. And to get through them I have already got a few books which should last me through the endless days when I have nothing to do. They are as follows:

1. Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman) : I'm already halfway through the book and its damn good. Note to self: Read more of Pratchett & Gaiman

2. Malgudi Days (RK Narayan) : Has been lying with me for ages. Hope to start soon.

3. Night Watch (Terry Pratchett) : The only Discworld novel that I could lay my hands on in BCL. I know its not the first in the series by any means, but after reading Good Omens, I really took the above mentioned self-addressed note seriously.

4. The long dark tea time of the soul(DNA) : Wanted this one for quite some time. Anything by DNA has to be good.

5. Crime & Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky) : One of the all time greats, as they say. I haven't actually read many of these 'classics', so lets see how it turns out.

6. Beyond a Boundary (CLR James) : Widely acclaimed to be the best book ever written on cricket, this book shall be the next chapter in my cricketing education which has been side-tracked of late.


And most importantly,
7. How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT (Arun Sharma) : Got it from Abhishek yesterday. Started with chapter one today. I know this doesn't actually fit here, but who the hell cares.

P.S : Since we are on the topic of books, this is a gentle reminder to all those of you who have borrowed books from me and haven't returned them for ages. Please do so soon.

What single book is the best introduction to your field for laypeople?

This has to be the most useful link that I have put up on the blog till date. Do go through it if you are interested in learning anything new, ranging from Quantum Physics to Pottery.

Link courtesy India Uncut.

So long.... and thanks for all the fish!

Over the last few days I have been charting Arthur Dents's journey through the galaxy through the book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A totally remarkable book indeed. And possibly one of the best ones that I've ever read.

This post is not about the book.

Well, at least not entirely.

And honestly, those who think that this is a book review which will end in me awarding a rating in terms of coloured shapes with 5 edges ( or "stars") will do much better if they stop reading at this point.

This post is about My journey while reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Read on..

I first heard about the existence of such a book about a year and a half ago. It was in some quiz I guess. I would love to give you the exact date, time, what the question was et al but fact is that I have totally forgotten. But as far as I can remember, which is not very far actually, it was in some quiz. And I was confronted with questions based on H2G2 (as I shall now call it) in many a college quizzes since then. And my reaction to every one of these questions was to make a face which would be very similar to the one an earthman would make when asked for directions to the Restaurant at the end of the Galaxy.

But that was not what sparked my interest in the book.

It was the laughter filled discussions that my friends would have about how funny the book is etc etc. And it was during these conversations that I heard that the book consisted of a lot of crazy people with really interesting names like Zaphod Beeblebrox, Slartibartfast, Gargavarr, Zarniwoop and - here's my personal favourite - Wowbagger the infinitely prolonged. That really made me want to read the book. After all, any book with such exotic names is bound to be funny. So I finally bought the book and started reading it.

I really loved the first part and managed to finish it off in three days. The second part I found a bit dull and hence it took me more time. And after some more time, while I was reading the third part, a huge brown coloured humanoid monster who was more depressing than Marvin the Paranoid Android ( I'm talking about Gaurav Singh) converged upon my humble residence and snatched the book away from me. Hence my journey came to an abrupt halt.

And then, for a while , all thoughts of the book vanished from my head as if they had been lost in the eddies in the space time continuum.

But then one fine day the book reappeared in my thoughts when another monster - this time a thin humanoid with spectacles and long hair whose entry in that totally remarkable book Aniket's Guide to the People in the Galaxy reads 'Mostly Harmless' - mentioned to me that he was reading the book and was having a blast. This reminded me of the fun I had had while reading the book until it was snatched by the previously mentioned monster. So I finally decided to confront the monster and after a long and successful war I managed to get back my treasured copy of H2G2. And then I promptly forgot all about the book again.

But the book resurfaced once again in my mind sometime in these vacations. And hence I decided to take a shot at reading the book once again. I spent the first day in trying to find out where I had left reading the book but after a day of false starts I realised the futility of te whole exercise and decided to start off from scratch again. That was about twenty days ago. As I started reading the book for a second time, I somehow liked it more than I did the first time, despite knowing about most of the jokes which form the crux of the content. And slowly, day by day, I once again charted Arthur Dent's totally remarkable journey though space and time in quest for the Ultimate Question about Life, the Universe and Everything! And coincidentally during the same time I was involved in one of those totally useless activities which people indulge in when they have a lot of free time - retrospection. So while Arthur Dent went around the Universe searching for the Ultimate Question, I spent time searching my soul for something like an Ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything! And all of a sudden I began to relate to Dent, as we were both searching for something that somehow remained elusive. And then I decided to finish the book as soon as possible as I thought the knowledge of the outcome of Arthur Dent's quest might just help me in my own search. And so with great hope in my heart I set about finishing the book as possible.

Which I did today.

And on doing so I realised that what I had expected from the book about the quest and the search and the Ultimate answer all was just a lot of shit. And that relating to Arthur Dent was also a lot of bull shit.

So much for the hope.

But then I realised that I did gain something from the book - a lot of fun. And maybe that's what life is all about - having a lot of fun.

I shall accept that as the Ultimate Answer in want of a better one.

And for those who had to tolerate another dose of my philosophy, all I have to say is:

WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE