Minor Pains

Request: Download the live version of "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC from somewhere and play it in a loop while you're reading this post. I rediscovered this today and have been listening to it incessantly. It would give me happiness if you do the same.

My words have been getting increasingly foul over the last few years. I had decided, however, to desist from using invective on my blog. So everytime I wanted to say "Fuck!" I said "goddam" or something equally unsatisfactory. I am lifting this self-imposed embargo on swear words from my blog with immediate effect.
The reason, correction: the catalyst, for this change is that I had two minors today, the second of which did me in the posterior, with style. The first minor in this course was bad enough (and when I say 'bad', I really mean AWFUL, not like people who claim they are neck-deep in shit and promptly score straight A's), but I consoled myself with the thought that since I hadn't studied it wasn't a reflection on my intelligence. I suppose I can say the same about this one if I really want to, but the honest fact is I studied for the little fucker, I learnt formulae, I memorised graphs, and made more of an effort than I usually do to understand stuff. And yet, the minor managed to comprehensively crush me.
Why? Because the instructor is a bloody sadist, that's why. I can't elaborate because I don't have any logical reasons for making this claim. All the same, this is how I feel and I'm entitled to my opinion, so that's that.

Also, I rediscovered Maddox. The guy is God. Read his page - you'll feel either love or hatred, both of which are feelings that add colour to our lives and are hence welcome additions.
I have been following this blog pretty regularly too. It's highly recommended, especially if you like Maddoxian deviant humour. A bonus is that this blog has a really cool url and following tag. You'll probably get a dry laugh out of it.

I earlier mentioned how today's happenings acted more as catalyst than as motivation for my decision. Something similar happened with English, August when I read it about a year back. It is the only book I can think of that I actually know changed me.
I had been thinking weird stuff for a while but the deviance was always tinged with a kind of guilt. This book removed all the guilt and all the reservations about subversive humour in one clean stroke. I suppose I loved that there were others in the world who saw the potential for humour in strange situations. Maybe I was just at a malleable stage of life at the time.
Not only does E,A combine subversive and self-effacing humour extremely well, it raises issues that I was starting to get very interested in. Cultural identity, the importance of 'roots', the politics and power of language in India, the differences between urbanised and small-town India and those between their citizens, our colonial baggage and will we ever discard it, our attitudes towards foreigners (read this article that appeared in this sunday's HT), our positions regarding our own history and culture - basically, questions of identity - these are questions that were raised by E,A and remain unanswered. The beauty of the book is its lack of stances on any of these issues. It doesn't create stereotypes (at least of the main characters) and doesn't offer simple answers.
This book also made me realize the importance of reading Indian fiction. I hadn't read much before E, A and I still haven't read much, but hey, at least I want to.