It's been really hard to think about something to write, I'm not sure why. This is perhaps the 12th time I'm starting a post and I'm hoping it isn't unconvincing, disconnected and ultimately incomplete like the previous posts. I have many topics in mind, but the ideas seem reluctant to stick around in my cranium until they are neatly formed and digested enough to be put seamlessly into words and eventually, a nice little blog post which my family and friends will read and tell me all about how well written it was and give me the little ego boost that everyone loves but few admit it. Of course, the cynical and the honest brethren will hand out criticism, which is perfectly fine, if not more reassuring as it shows that they think it is worth critiquing rather than a waste of time that can be put behind with a "yeah it was gooood" and an insincere smile.
Well, let me just go on with what I'm doing in life, in general. It's the vacation and there is a lot of what is termed in Kannada as "beedhi suttadu", colloquial for roaming the streets, usually in the context of someone doing the aforementioned roaming aimlessly or while neglecting responsibilities. Well, I'm shirking no work with my roaming. In fact, I'm able to run several errands for my parents on these little sojourns on my bicycle.
It's my cousin's wedding in a few days, meaning a lot of shopping, getting things ready, planning what is to be worn and lots of things I don't enjoy too much. The flip-side though, is a festive mood and cousins and favourite uncles and aunties in town with a lot of good food. You win some, you lose some.
Other than that, as is with a vacation of significant length, I'm attempting to delve into some books. The Lord of the Rings series I downloaded somehow never kick-started. It's been long since I read properly. I re-read the entire Harry Potter series last month and before that, the last months of 2014 found me completing the five books of "A Song Of Ice and Fire" written so far by George R R Martin, the books that inspired the creation of the show "Game of Thrones". I can't remember which book I read before that, but I'm sure for a whole year I hadn't read anything. Dark times Harry, dark times.
Now though, I've got my hands on a 800 page book, a collection of Science Fiction literature from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, edited by none other than Isaac Asimov himself. Science fiction got me through the last years in school and to finally find a book that I couldn't put down with Asimov's seal of approval was a god-send.
Last night, I was reading the story of an astronaut who left his space station to explore some debris from another satellite when he felt movement within his space-suit. Praying it was a trick of his imagination, his wild mind remembered that an astronaut once died in his space-suit on this same space station and then remembered that damaged space-suits are usually repaired and used again.
As his mind went into overdrive, thinking of the possibility of recurring problems in space-suits and then souls of people trapped in space-suits latching on to living beings, he surely felt something warm tap the back of his neck. At the exact instant I reached this juncture of the story, a towel fell from a table a few yards of me. The story, the lateness of the hour and howling of a dog outside combined to give me the biggest fright I'd ever had in my life. My heart absolutely lurched, I felt like my chest and limbs dissolved in an instant and the book nearly fell down when, as quickly as it came, the fear disappeared. Logic, cool and calm, came to the rescue and I had a hearty laugh at myself two minutes later, when my brain had finally succeeded in coaxing feet to stop shivering.
It left me thinking on the magic of a book. For a second I was in a space-suit. So engrossed was I, that a towel falling from a table, which at any other time I'd have given a quick glance and a quick shrug, scared me out of my wits. I was not on my bed in my room: I was transported into orbit around the earth. Yes, you may say it was all in my head, but just because it happened in my head doesn't mean it's not real, does it? (That's my second Harry Potter reference)
For now though, I just say, from outer space, "Oh gravity, thou art a heartless witch".
PS - The story is "Who's there?", by Arthur C Clarke, in case you're really curious about the ending.
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