Some Pencil Drawings

(pics are taken using webcam)

She was somewhere in my pencil and jumped on me. (I wish)

 Anonymous Girl

 

This one is a (bad pic of a) good drawing

Upper Berth

THE SONG OF MAJOR-GENERAL

  From 'The Pirates of Penzance'
-- W S Gilbert

GENERAL: I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

ALL: With many cheerful facts,  about the square of the hypotenuse.

GENERAL: I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

ALL: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He is the very model of a modern Major-General.

GENERAL: I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

ALL: And whistle all the airs, etc.

GENERAL: Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

ALL: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He is the very model of a modern Major-General.

GENERAL: In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery --
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy,
You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.

ALL: You'll say a better Major-General, etc.

GENERAL: For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,

Has only been brought down to
the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.


ALL: But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He is the very model of a modern Major-General.

Credit: http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.in/1999/05/major-general-song-w-s-gilbert.html

Nandini's Banaras Walks

This was a link to the pages of famous walks around Varanasi by Saraswati Nandini Majumdar (on the page made by Irfana's Kahani class)

I am removing the links on request from the author.

If you are planning to visit Varanasi, you may be interested in knowing that the walks will be available in print in a book form complete with maps and illustrations! Please email me or leave a comment if you want to order the book.

Ah! Mr. Browning: Excerpts from His Poems

Clever Mr. Browning

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;

 

 Opening lines of How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix

Ay, because the sea's the street there; and 'tis arched
   by ... what you call
... shylocks bridge with houses on it, where they
   kept the carnival:

 

Lines from A Toccata of Galuppi's

Naughty Mr. Browning

I
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
II
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

 

Meeting at Night

Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so

   red, - 

On her neck  the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower 

   on its bed,

O'er the breast's super abundance where a man

   might base his head?

 

Lines from A Toccata of Galuppi's

Sad Mr Browning

I
Room after room,
I hunt the house through
We inhabit together.
Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her—
Next time, herself!—not the trouble behind her
Left in the curtain, the couch's perfume!
As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew:
Yon looking-glass gleamed at the wave of her feather.

II
Yet the day wears,
And door succeeds door;
I try the fresh fortune—
Range the wide house from the wing to the centre.
Still the same chance! she goes out as I enter.
Spend my whole day in the quest,—who cares?
But 'tis twilight, you see,—with such suites to explore,
Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune!

 

Love in a Life

 

Spiteful Mr. Browning

Take the cloak from his face, and at first

Let the corpse do its worst!

How he lies in his rights of a man!
Death has done all death can.
And, absorbed in the new life he leads,
He recks not, he heeds
Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike
On his senses alike,
And are lost in the solemn and strange
Surprise of the change.
Ha, what avails death to erase
His offence, my disgrace?
I would we were boys as of old
In the field, by the fold:
His outrage, God's patience, man's scorn
Were so easily borne!

I stand here now, he lies in his place:
Cover the face!

After

References:

Browning, Robert. Poetry Foundation. Web. 04 July 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/search/?q=Robert+Browning>. 

Browning, Robert; Selected Poems; London: Bloomsbury Poetry Classic, 1994. Print

http://www.poemhunter.com

Why Bother With Sex?

I would never think of the phrase ‘why bother’ in the same line of thought as sex, but I am a perv. It seems that some people are holier than me and they do. I was searching for articles about food in South Asia on JSTOR when I bumped into this article about sex and evolution titled “Why Bother?”[1]

In the essay Mr. Charlesworth writes: The early fathers of Christian Church [anyone could have guessed they would come up in this essay] were sorely troubled by the question of why god had not provided human beings with “some harmless [emphasis provided] mode of vegetation” with which to propogate themselves.

They were sorely troubled. Poking young boys leaves you sore. I will agree that many of them wanted to go to all-male orgies, but I will not agree, and I know this for sure, they were not vegetationarian. That is just a mis-print or confusing it with priests of hindu or some strange religion like that.

If you hadn’t guessed it yet, sex is the most prevalent mode of reproduction in all multicellular animals. And plants. There are very few plants (<0.1%) and animals (only a few dozen species) that reproduce without having some fun, on the way to leaving the babies with the mothers.

Most asexual species seem very recent in evolution, only a few have had long enough time to diversify. Most celebrated of these are Bdelloid Rotifer. Yeah. They are celebrated. That’s the kind of parties they go to: vegetationarian ones. Poor Rotters, even dung beetles got a more exciting deal.

Now Mr. Charlesworth is not very original in asking- why should there be any males? This question may send a wave of happiness down some types of feminists, most married women, and all lezzies. Why don’t females just re-produce exact replicas of themselves, instead of, for example having males to interfere in the matter of exact replicas? Imagine that scenario. No more “you are as lazy as your father” talks. And complete accountability of genes. No more “who taught you to act like that, not me!”

So Mr Charlesworth… he wants me to call him Brian. So Brian explains why should this (no males) have happened, or could have happened very easily. If there was a mutation in a female that they could reproduce asexually, mathematically they would very quickly over take the population of sexual females. Especially if the mutation was happening on Halle Berry.  One Halle Berry for each male within a few generations! Bye bye wife! But then Helle Berry would not need males for reproduction. Only for fun.

If that can happen so easily why hasn’t it happened in the billion years of evolution of life?

Wait, these are your choices:

     Because god created us, evolution is a farce

     Because the mutation happened on the Ms. Dis-sexy and Obnoxious!

     Because we are the 99%

     It depends

If you chose any of the above. you are wrong. Yes, it does not even depend.

You see, if a species inbreeds, it needs a long time to diversify. It has to wait for the bolt of lightening or the spider bite or the uranium exposure, for many generations. In the meanwhile they go on breeding with less efficiency and digging their own grave.

The other day I was on a porn website and one f$%&-ing stupid advertisement there said: “Still watching porn? Get laid tonight.” That really turned me off. But that is not what they mean when they say Inbreeding Depression. That would be erectile dysfun.. anyway.

Even as early as Charles Darwin, evolutionary scientists have noted that when species inbreed they produce less efficient offspring. Babies that have less seeds less tolerant of the changes in environment etc. That is how they produced the depressed kings and queens of Europe. And suicide bombers.

A big advantage of sexual reproduction is variability. Other than cloud mirrors in domestic arguments about whose genes lead to self-destructive behavior in a child, variability also affords a larger chance of survival when the adverse circumstances strike. In long summers without food, in floods, in sudden temperature changes due to earthquakes or volcanic dust, more variation meant that at least some individuals of the species will survive and go on.

 

Homo Sapiens have survived because of diversity! As a species we should celebrate diversity because diversity has sponsored us the tickets to the fair. And since I have done a great job of convincing you to bother with sex, put up a great performance about the way we got here at every opportunity!

Still watching porn? Get laid tonight!

---

[1] Charlesworth, B. (Spring 2007). Why Bother. Daedalus, 136(2), pp. 37-47.