I was staring at my adorable little pug today and thinking how hard it would be for him to survive the Delhi summer with all that darned fur on him. Then I realized he never sweats so I inquired my cousin about it. He told me dogs don't have sweat glands, that's why they stick their tongues out when they feel hot! Dayum, can you imagine how strange it would be if humans didn't have sweat glands either? This is how our conversations would be like: Hello. *huff, puff, stick your tongue out* How are you today? *huff, puff, stick your tongue out* Now don't get me wrong missy, you're not really that hot *huff, puff, stick your tongue out*
Bullocks. What am I even typing?
Anyway so after leaving college with a heavy heart, so heavy it almost crashed on the floor with a loud thud, kids came and stomped all over it, pointed their fingers at me and laughed, my girlfriends and I have been exchanging emails, phone calls, sms, all the works. With all that "miss you, love you" I never felt more gay in my life. And I wish I were lying. Like one of my friends said "This is what a true break up feels like. We must get over this almost physical sickening pain"
:(
It's been just a few days I finished what I thought was my last piece of education, but look what I found! This is making me cry. If there's one thing I've learnt at Communications school it is that generally Programme aims, course objectives and learning outcomes are just a whole lot of crap but here I don't feel like believing that. Someday baby, someday.
I thoroughly apologize to all the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy lovers but I tried picking up the book three times to realize it can't possibly be more random than my own head, so I quit. That doesn't mean I won't ever try again, I have good 2 months not just to kill, but slaughter really.
But if you haven't heard the deal about the answer to life being 42 and all that, you've seriously been living under a rock. I mean, I know decently intelligent people who have tried convincing me about it, without any possible logical explanation. So I gave them the f-word. F-I-N-E. No point arguing regarding my own misjudgment of their intelligence.
More than the question itself, what baffled people, atleast to the few over-inquisitive ones like me, was "Why '42'?". The answer from the horse's mouth was a simple Google search:
It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one.
Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense.
I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.
Best,
Douglas Adams
London, UK
Currently in Santa Fe, NM
If Douglas Adams lived to see all the furore, he would have been having the best laugh about it. Again, he might have died laughing.
Anyway so one night during my usual long "alone-time" train journeys I couldn't sleep. The train was giving me violent swings and singing harsh lullabies. And everytime a train passed by on the parallel track I imagined a very "Final Destination Part-5" happening. I tried to distract myself, and that's when this struck me. Behold! *drum roll*
Statement 1: 42 = reverse of 24
Statement 2: 24 = number of hours in a day
Statement 3: We could attain true happiness if we could "rights our wrongs" which could happen if we could turn back or "reverse" time, lets say one day at a time, which means 24 hours
And as per Statement 1, 42 is the reverse of 24.
Hence, answer to life (I don't know about the "universe and everything") is 42.
Now we could debate about existence of happiness without sadness and all that BS, but I would only leave you with one of my favorite Coldplay songs :)
Frozen eager partly parted lips yearning for warmth
Restless fingers lingering over his shoulders
They don’t know where to settle
The faint whiff of his perfume is familiar and safe
But something holds them back from an embrace
They don’t know whether the wait is in confusion
Or to create anticipation
Her heart unfollows the 8/8 metronome
Just a second away now…
to Hallelujahs.
How lovely are preludes!
And so much more
In slow motion.
*************
This post was written while listening to one of the best songs I have heard in recent times, "Teeth" By Lisa Hannigan. If I could make one song like that - complete with the lyrics, the vocals and above all, the musical arrangement, my soul will happily leave my body the next day. Thank you Rohit for letting me know that Lisa is more than just a Damien Rice sidekick. ("I Remember" happens to be my favorite romance and shower-singing song!)
The title is inspired by "Carnival Town" by Norah Jones which also inspired this post.
