All in a days work

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 5; the fifth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

All in a days work: The following lines from one of my favorite songs define my average day --

"... I want to be a Doctor of Philosophy,
With a hood and my gown and a beard down to my knee.
I want to be just like the man who's granting my degree,
I spent six years prostrate to a higher mind,
got my diploma and I was free!"

"We go to our professors, we went to conferences, we look to proceedings, we read all our references, we read up many journals, we're trying to get a book out!" Amen!



The below link(s) will lead you to a .pdf file that is my entry for Blog-a-ton 5.
There are several grammatical errors and sundry spellings gone haywire. The first person to correct all the errors wins a trip to my backyard...

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-iPdrARcWoNNjhlNjM0OWQtMjcwZi00MjAwLWIyOWItZTE0YmI1OTE5MGM1&hl=en

If the above link doesn't work, please use:

http://rapidshare.com/files/313170621/AneetDN_Blogaton_AllInADaysWork.pdf.html

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The Gradstudent... is that one word?!?

The poem below belongs to the Villanelle style of poetry:

Consistently high on caffeine,
I am a grad student, what ho!
I am here for an "advanced degree" supreme!!!

When young and fresh we were keen,
'twas a competition, ready set and go!
Now our shoulders are a-heavy, and we have a ruptured spleen!

Our games now are with acetylene,
While just yesterday it was with play-doh!
A number of years have since passed, the count last week 'twas umpteen!

Aaargh! proposals, papers, proceedings unforeseen,
And shoveling through six feet of snow.
Oh lady luck, is that you? And may I ask where you have been?

Now meetings I have to convene,
All I've eaten is cheese and a limp nacho!
How many more years of this? Eight or will it be eighteen???

At last, the promised land is seen!
Beyond half a dozen epsilons and the random rho.
'Tis my thesis, I carry in my arms between,
If you are a novice, watch out! But you'll end up going with the flow!

Thanksgiving Haiku

I've been publishing a Thanksgiving post since 2006. This year, I thought I might try my hand at Haiku! Now, cut me some slack as this is my first Haiku!

The end of Fall.
Bordering on winter.
Its Thanksgiving! The town's emptying!

April in Paris

Picture source: www.fantasyfiction.co.uk

Over the last one week, I have been exceptionally enraptured by Ursula Leguin's surreal works and I attempt to review a short story by the American authoress, "April in Paris".

The story starts of in "modern day" paris. In 1961. April 1961. The 2nd of April 1961. The 2nd of April 1961 with unseasonably cold weather. It starts with Barry Pennywither, a professor from Indiana on sabbatical in Paris. Barry Pennywither continues to moan and mope as a result of the raw deal his life had dealt him. He is nontenured in the throes of penury as his published works that detailed the mysterious circumstances under which french poet, Francois Villon, had disappeared in 1463, was not really "appreciated" by Munson college in whose employ he was.

Meanwhile, in mid 1400 AD Paris, Jehan Lenoir, an alchemist, continued to moan and mope over the failure of his book, "On the primacy of the Element fire over the Other Three Elements". Circumstances similar to which Pennywither was floundering in. Only separated by three centuries, were these two men.

Jenas Lenoir out of sheer desperation and hopelessness brought about by the raw deal his life had dealt him incants snippets of spells. Black magic. He summons into his company Barry Pennywither, quite by accident. The rest of the story details the time spent by these two erudites, from two different centuries, under the same dilapidated roof. Lenoir, the stereotypical french man. Pennywither, a run-of-the-mill American. Both scholars. Both objective, yet linked together by the incongruity to reason that Black magic provides!

To add to the current crowd of "chronological co-existence gone wrong", Lenoir further summons Bota, a medieval naked slave girl from the B.C era, Jolie: a lost white puppy from the street close to his and Kislk: a tall, beautiful and perfect interstellar archeologist from the 21st century who worked on the star Altair.

Finally it is shown that this motley crue can actually co-exist, hand-in-hand (quite literally!) in early 18th century Paris without the shadow of a doubt! All the characters wanted was to be somewhere else or with someone else, less monotonous than their previous existence.

Ursula Leguin's surreal imagery is stunning. She has woven many a yarn and I intend to imbibe as much of her breathtaking art as I can.

Vaster than empires and more slow

I just got back from a rendition of Ursula Leguin's "Vaster than empires". It was real vivid. The imagery... my gawd! The imagery... some of it sends a shiver down my spine. I was overawed by the surreal experience that I had today. In both my lives.

Hmmm...

As Liverpool continue to languish in a less than ideal position, I continue to cope with the tomes of assignments that are quickly rendering my appearance quite haggard. Haggard enough to rival the haggardness projected by something recently mauled by a crocodile and then trampled over by a herd of rhinos!

To make matters worse, it hasn't snowed in a while and the temperatures are a miserable 10 degrees C when they should be quite the opposite: a cool -10 or -15 degrees C! Thanksgiving is fast approaching and so is an exam. The end of the semester is actually in sight. Whoa! This was one quick Fall semester and by far my most happiest.

If I were a baby again

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 4; the fourth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Disclaimer: Of course, the semi-half-controversial way the topic has been addressed here might not be to everyone's taste. So if you feel offended...... go take a running jump. What I am trying to say so inarticulately is that sit down, relax, ..., unbuckle your pant and make out with the person sitting next to you. In other words, don't get your knickers in a twist: this is just a blog after all! Please note that I am going through my "punk" phase right now and this blog post is a direct consequence of my disaffection... like Berlin in 1939...




If you are expecting coo-ing, gurgling and other random baby-manufactured-noises, you are SO mistaken! As mistaken as a chicken stepping into KFC to buy a lingerie!


Here's how it is: I DON'T want to be a baby again if it means that I would need to sleep around in my own pee. I DON'T want to be a baby again if it means that people are going to make weird sounds at me in high-pitched tones as if I were an R-tard! I am not an R-tard! Yes, I said R-tard -- grow up, it ain't taboo to say R-tard anymore. I DON'T want to be a baby again and be toothless. I DON'T want to be a baby again because all vogons are bastards and must die (don't ask me why as I would start a long convoluted explanation that would, in all probability, rupture your spleen).

If memory serves me right, I don't remember what it was like when I was a baby!!! So my memory doesn't serve me right as far as that aspect of my life is concerned.

Most of us don't remember what it was like being a baby. And if your brain thinks that this portion of your life needs to be erased or blocked out, I am sure there is a pretty good reason for it. Think about it, I am sure we can put 2 and 2 together.

So to do justice to the topic, "If I were a baby again", I would say that if I were a baby again as a result of some unfortunate incident involving eddies in the time continuum, I would start drinking lattes. BOOYAH!

"It's a mistake to think that you can solve any major problems just with potatoes" Douglas Adams

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.