from my LB to A

dear A,

hope you get well soon
for your doggies miss you
especially bow-bow
you know they love you

you bring them french fries
and put them to bed
now that you're not there
it's no fun, they said

and your lovely yellow car
is waiting patiently
for its favourite driver
who worships it ardently

please come back soon
once again, to play with them
while i wait to hear your tales
my saintly little friend.

words don't come easy to me

i'm in a very random mood with time to kill, so anyone looking for a meaningful post might want to return another day!

i'd mentioned my love for words in an earlier post. this post is about some of my pet hates. like many across the world, i subscribe to 'A Word A Day', and it brought me the following words that i can never recall:

1. contumely.
i mean, who would ever guess this is a noun? i think it'd make life simpler if 'contume' was a noun and 'contumely' it's adjective.

and anyway, what about this word lends itself to its meanings:
- "rudeness or rough treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt; scornful insolence"
- "an instance of contemptuousness in act or speech"

initially, i thought i was being very bright by identifying the 'cont-' of 'contempt' with that of the word in question. but it doesn't help. it ALWAYS makes me think that contumely is an adjective. worse...can u believe that "contumelies" is an accurate word?

eg. the pedlars find satisfaction for all contumelies in making good bargains -
nathaniel hawthorne, 'the american notebooks'.

and knowing the latin root for this word, contumelia (insult/outrage), doesn't help!

i feel contumely for 'contumely'? is that correct? say yes, then i'd have finally found a way to remember it!

2. gloaming.
another noun. means 'twilight/dusk'. worse, unlike either 'twilight' or 'dusk', 'gloaming is always prefixed with 'the'.

eg. 'it was the gloaming' vs 'it was twilight'.

of course, the word is strongly reminescent of 'gleaming', an adjective that comes roughly close to its opposite. antonyms often serve as great mnemonics, but here, it makes me think that gloaming is an adjective. sigh.

3. brummagen.
meaning cheap and showy. also, spurious/counterfeit. an adjective which sounds like a noun to me. and this one doesn't have any fancy latin root. it's an alteration of 'Birmingham', which was known to produce counterfeit groats in the 17th century. this should make it easier to remember, but nope! i remember Birmingham but ALWAYS get the word itself wrong...anything from 'bummergem' to 'brimmingham' to 'burmangem'. never the right one.

any effective mnemonics that u can think of for me?

astad deboo, being cyrus and the coffee song

Astad Deboo:.
had always wanted to see him perform while i was in bombay, but never ended up doing so. had the chance recently, and though it meant a 2 hour train-cum-bus ride, one way, i just had to take it...i'm a sucker for good dance performers.

and it was truly worth it. the theme was "nav-rasas". it was not really the contemporised rendition of the classical that i had anticipated. rather, the stylised movements were at once modern and classical. and even the transition from one mudra to an unexpected one seemed to flow seamlessly. in particular, his rendition of "anger" and "love" were stirring.

the 10 girls in his troupe were deaf and mute. so they didn't dance to the rhythm of the music, but to that of the counts in their heads. quite amazing. they could have smiled more, (in the "joy"' rasa), but i thought they were remarkably synchronised, really graceful and wonderfully self-assured. a big thumbs-up for them.

Being Cyrus:
watched it recently and really enjoyed it. found it refreshingly different in concept, and found saif very impressive. the parsee stereotype, i thought, was well-portrayed, though dimple rattled my nerves a bit. but perhaps that was the intention.

The Coffee Song:
every single time osibisa plays on our system, i can't help but smile...i totally love their beats and joie-de-vivre. and in this case, the lyrics. how in the world did they come up with a song like this one...

"you date a girl and find out later
she smells like a percolator
her perfume was made right on the grill
they've got an awful lot of coffee in brazil"
"there's an awful lot of coffee in brazil"

oh

This one's from s to g and k, with fond memories of Mr. Tata.

for daddy long-legs

you say you knew it from the start
but i'd never have guessed i'd be your wife
that your boyish grin and mad ways
were to become my very life

you won't believe it but it is true
i do thank god everyday for you
and now even more than ever before
for our little bundle that lies in store

dont know if we'll ride into the sunset
in a rickety jalopy, as you once said
but yes i know we'll have great fun
for you really are the shine in my sun.

PS - and just so you know, i think of you each time i hear these lines from the song 'waise hi' by euphoria -
"achcha hoon main kehte hain sabhi,
mashhoor hoon, kehte hain sabhi,
vajah tu hai, unhe maloom nahin,
aise hi jeena hai to yehi sahi...

dil tho dhadakta hai waise hi..."

the joys

the joys of work:
the good news is that i have FINALLY been employed! all my working and studying years, i never realised how important it was to merely have "something to do". if anything, i longed to have nothing to do. now i am wiser!
the better news is that i'm doing something fun. never really thought i'll be doing such stuff, but am enjoying it. more on that in my next post.
the best news is that it's a 6-month internship, which is PERFECT. soon after the internship gets over, i'll have a full time job - my baby :)

the joys of vacation:
in addition, the next 2 months look very promising. mom's visit and a number of jaunts. AND, my office is shut for 2 weeks in july. these europeans REALLY know how to live life...can u imagine such a thing in bombay? or ny? or london? it is apparently a law that belgian companies HAVE to close shop for at least 2 weeks in summer. like school summer vacation! waah.

the joys of summer:
i'd forgotten what heat and humidity meant. thanks to the extreme tempereatures here, i am reminded of college days in bombay when we'd go window shopping and then run into ac shops to get a breather from the sultry heat. here, its worse...no ac. no fans even :) fun! i'd rather die of the heat than of the cold. at least it feels like home in ONE way. so i'm still happy.