Where I debase myself and prove that I am not worth literary conversation

You are an addict, SP.

Yeah, I know.....

No, there's one more addiction you have that you don't know of, dude.

WTF?

Okay, how many books have you read this year, SP?

Hmm.... Six... oh, OK, 'Deathly Hallows' doesn't count, eh? Why? What the hell... but OK, five then.

OK, name them.

One. Beyond a Boundary.

Oh, sports book, huh?

Bullcrap. Did you read it? Did you read it? Best bloody piece of literature you can find, I tell you. It's the history of the West Indian islands, dude. Read it, I tell you. RIGHT NOW!

Alright, I will. So what next?

Next? One minute. Yeah, OK. John Wright's Indian Summers.

Sports book, no?

Kinda, but no. You know, I like autobiographies. And hell, it's about the BCCI, dude. What sports book?

Theek Hai, dude. Fine. What next?

Fever Pitch. Nick Hornby. Nononono... hold on. You find the book in the humour section of bookstores. It is a Hornby book, dude. It's a fun, angsty book about nothing. And it is super entertaining. Surprisingly deep. Great fun. OK? Basically a growing up saga kinda book, man. Catcher in the Rye more than Castel di Sangro. Alright?

Shit, man. You should try some sports literature sometime. They are good, you know. You might just like them. But anyway, fourth?

Yes. How Soccer explains the World. Franklin Foer. No no, forget the 'Soccer' word, dude. This one is on globalization. That's job. That's what I do for my daily bread. Now tell me.

Oh, educational read, I see. Okay fine. Five?

Okay, five is a sports book. The Rivals - Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.

And I heard you stayed awake the night and finished it at one stretch, like you are reading some kind of a Robert Ludlum or something....

(Smile) ... I mean, it is a real good book and all....

Okay, so which is the last book you bought, SP, this yesterday? Honest, OK?

Okay, I give up. Barca, a people's passion.


So basically, this post is a confessional. I am an addict.

Come on, live a little...

Was a line in the advertisement poster for a play in which three of my good friends were performing....

And come to think of it, I was wondering some time ago, do I really have a life? Am I living, or just existing, as many a person (and many a blog) often tend to state...

I am still wondering.

I have a job I am rather fond of. I really like the work environment, and the work is quite good in most parts. So I devote about 12 hours everyday to it. I don't begrudge even a minute of it, this is what I want to do, I am a bit of a workaholic, and am not doing badly.

I do not read as many books as i would have liked to, I read a book every two months. That's about par for the course for a lower-middlebrow reader, i suppose. I scrounge the net for hours at end. Doing nothing useful, really. Just gathering useless information and doing useless analysis. I play scrabble. On isc.ro . Was more regular with that earlier.

I talk with my girlfriend. On the phone. It is tough to keep up a long distance relationship, and both of us are committed to making it work. Extensive phone calls are a requisite.

I talk to friends. Regularly. For long durations. Sometimes in person, and sometimes on the phone. My friends are spread all around the world, and this is totally required.

I go out wasting my life drinking with friends and colleagues often. Again, that is equivalent to wasting time.

I play fantasy football on the net, and post on a footballing mailing list. Am very serious about both.

I watch football, cricket, tennis, golf and to a lesser extent the WWE.

I follow the Indian Idol and (to a lesser extent) Star Amul Voice of India.

I download music and movies from the net.

I listen to a lot of music. I watch movies, some in the movie hall, and some on the DVD.

I sleep for 5 hours a day on weekdays and 10 hours on weekends.

[Edit: I forgot, I invest (mostly in Mutual Funds as of now, but will get seriously into dabbling in stocks soon), and spend a lot of time everyday tracking the stock market]

I don't do Salsa, I don't do guitaring (okay, I do play the guitar, but only on the weekend, and i don't take a course or anything), I don't do pottery, I don't do part-time jobs, I don't do French, German, or Spanish. I don't quiz anymore (and am a tad sad about that). I don't blog with any amount of regularity. Which shall change, thanks to Mo, and her comment on not to think of my blog as literary and write whenever and of whatever I feel like. She is doing the same, and doing a great job of it, honestly.

So, do I have a life? Honestly, no. But am I complaining? Hell no. Am doing a decent job at existing. Or whatever, I am happy.

Will try and live some other day.