Farmer teaches Vicar

In church one sunday the vicar was disappointed to find that his congregation consisted of just one farmer. Wondering whether he should hold the service, he decided to ask the man’s opinion. ‘If I take a bucket of food to my hens and only one shows up, I dont send it away hungry’, said the farmer thoughtfully. Moved by this simple analogy, the minister climbed into his pulpit and delivered a vigorous and lengthy sermon. ‘Did you enjoy the service?’ enquired the vicar when he had finished. The farmer replied testily, ‘When only one hen turns up, I don’t give it the entire bucket.’

P.S. – Author Unknown.

The Next Book

Selecting The Next Read

We have too many options, when it comes to reading. And, sometimes, it can be very difficult to just make a choice. I want to feel satisfied and rewarded when I complete reading a book, and that’s why I’m always faced with the question “What will be the next book?” What should I go for – Fiction or Factual, Modern or Classic, Archer or King? At times it can be very perplexing; at times I just know what ‘exactly’ I want to read next (but only sometimes)! Time and money both are precious; I don’t want to waste it on something I’m not going to like! So, I end up thinking a lot than the usual. But, I was intrigued whether other readers face this problem too, and surprisingly for me, I found a few many articles on the topic, that means others too have a bit of befuddle while selecting the next read!

So, how do we select the next read? Well, browsing online for recommendations or going through “Bestsellers’ Lists” can be a good idea, but not always. I mean, it hasn’t always worked for me. I’ve ended up not liking and leaving unfinished a couple of books from the bestseller’s list in the past (they just weren’t what I was looking for at that time.) Friends’ recommendations have worked for me, but no blind faith there. I got my hands on any of the suggested ones only after discussing it! Surprising it may be, but my favourite is a free stroll through the bookstore (or being a Calcuttan, through College Street ). It seems the most natural and easy way for me to select ‘The Next Book’. If you’d remember in the Harry Potter series, the wand selects the wizard rather than the reverse. I feel it’s the same way when I’m walking around those huge piles of books and one of the books grabs my attention, like there’s a connection. I pick it up, read the excerpt, skim through a few pages and I know whether I want it to be my companion for the next few days or not!

College Street

[P.S.: I came across a hilarious article while browsing for this topic, do have a look here]

My Top Ten: Best Incorporated Songs In Movies

Music. We can’t survive without it. Neither can movies. They’ll choke to death trying to express ‘it’ without music. I, simply, love scenes where the music has been incorporated exactly. The right song for the right moment. So, here’s my Top Ten List Of Songs Best Incorporated In Movies (Not a list of best songs from movies, but right songs for the right scenes):

10. Music and Lyrics – Way Back into Love Demo (Song Recording)

The hesitations clearly ‘visible’ in the scene and in the song.

9. Walking on Sunshine – High Fidelity (Monday Morning Tape Scene)

Barry ((Jack Black): OK, buddy, uh, I was just tryin’ to cheer us up so go ahead.Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care.

Rob (John Cusack): I don’t wanna hear old sad bastard music, Barry, I just want something I can ignore.

Barry: Here’s the thing. I made that tape special for today. My special Monday morning for *you*… special.

Rob: Well, it’s fuckin’ Monday afternoon! You should get out of bed earlier!

8. The Bigger The Figure – Igor
Explains exactly what it has to!

7. Se7en – Closer (Opening Credits)
The Godfather of Opening Credits!

6. Born Slippy By Underworld – Trainspotting (Theme Song)
I don’t know, I just like it! It’s Perfect.

5. Dare Devil – My Immortal
“While attending her father’s funeral, Elektra (Jennifer Garner) believes that Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) is her dad’s murderer and ignores him. Matt, Daredevil, wants to reach out and comfort Elektra but cannot. ‘My Immortal’ plays in the background as the two fail to understand each other.”

4. Matrix – Spybreak By Propellorheads (Lobby Scene)
Bang Bang Bang!

3. Rocky – Gonna Fly Now (Theme Song)

It’s the Rocky Song!

2. Reservoir Dogs – Stuck In The Middle With You

Mr. Blonde: “Can you hear me?”

1. Office Space – Printer Smash Scene [Die Mother Fucker Die]
Just the sheer number of parodies of this scene on YouTube can tell you how legendary this scene is! The frustration of a job hater oozing out of it and the song yelling out the emotions. My mother f’ing favourite.

Rumi…

Random searches on the internet sometimes yield the most splendid results. As is this one… a passage from Coleman Bark’s translation of Rumi:

Not Christian, or Jew or Muslim, nor Hindu

Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East

or the West, not out of the Ocean or up

from the Ground, not natural or
ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist.

Am not an entity in this world or the next,

Did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a
trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath, breathing human being.

Leaving A Book Unread

Pile of bookmarked books.

Is it okay to leave a book half read? I mean, I used to get miffed at myself when I did that. I felt this guilt when I didn’t complete a book. And, I had to face this question quite a few times thanks to my horrible choice in buying books. But when I looked it up on the internet I found out that it’s not that bad to do so, rather it’s a pretty great idea. The thing is, when I leave an uninteresting book incomplete I save some time to read something that I’m going to enjoy. If I started reading it for pleasure and it’s not giving me any, why on earth should I continue reading it? Would I sit through a horrible movie just because I paid for it, I don’t think so. So, unlike before, I can now abandon a book and keep feeling guilt free about it. Although, I would try to persist with a book as long as I’m able to, because sometimes they do turn out to be great, but only in the last few pages.

Ghost Rider… Jharkhandi

I was browsing through Facebook, when I stumbled upon this video. This is Legendary!

This Time, God Promise!

Not that anyone’s interested, but if you check the post prior to the last one, named ‘The One With The Promise To Self’, it reads me promising to myself about doing a post DAILY. And if you check the dates of that post and the last one – there’s a gap of almost two months. So, obviously, the promise has been broken, and, pretty blatantly. To be very honest, I’d almost forgotten that I have a blog and it was only yesterday, while wasting time on twitter, I read this and liked it so much so as to include it in here along with all the other posts that I have ‘included’. (Only after giving the credit to the actual writer and putting in the source in tiny, little letters below the paragraph. That is, more or less an open steal.)
So, anyways, this too is a meaningless post, promising again about doing regular posts but not specifying the *rule*, because I know I’m not going to be able to follow it.