Amnesia, The Jackal, and Fried Bugs

Jolted during my amnesiatic state by a good friend, I remembered that I do have a blog, and there are some good folks who read my stuff. And as everyone is prone to promise in such situations, I too thought I will say "BloggerFolks - I will try to blog more often", but then, couldnt that be more cliched? So, I wont make any promises. But I will reason out my absense. The whole departure from blogging was propelled primarily due to lack of enthusiasm, and probably slightly due to lack of stuff related to the BSchool process. And although I had a couple of things happening around my life, it was really difficult for me to give those mundane stories a spin-worth-reading. Now, you might argue, why I do care if my posts need to be readable. Because, I am no ordinary man, I am First Among Equals (ok, almost). And I have to live up to my reputation, and am never allowed to let my fellow countrymen down. Nevertheless, I have been jolted twice in the recent past, so I thought I would atleast give you guys an update.

The last couple of weeks have not been very exciting on the BSchool front. Kellogg isnt showing any love, so I dont know what's in store there. I have almost stopped thinking about it, but it aint so easy to let go.. So I am hanging in there, as optimistically and smilingly as I possibly could[one cant do much about the contorted face I was born with ;) ]

The above para might give you the feeling that I am complaining, but dont worry, the rest of my post will be all happy-happy nice-nice, so read on.

In my search for heavenly bliss, I have recently found good entertainment in books [Truth be told, I have never been of the reader type. As a child, I didnt understand what my classmates found so interesting in the Hardy Boy's and the Nancy Drew's (I know no other names), while I was just used to read many comic series we had in our country. I was intelligent enough to realise that I was different from the crowd, but not so intelligent to understand that I was not on the right end of the spectrum(2+2 isnt 4 always). Thinking about it now, I am most surprised why my parents never said anything. I guess parents can be true only to an extent, after all, it doesnt help for you to tell your child that he/she is dumb/or ugly ;) So this "I-am-the-stud" phase continued till I landed in under-graduate school, where by some stroke of good luck I finally realised that all those people trying to conquer the 10 point Arial, single spaced, 500 page Ayn Rands or the Mario Puzos werent fools after all. It was then I gave book reading a serious shot, and have enjoyed my ride since then. But it took me a long time to shrug off many years of inertia, and probably, some of it is still there. I still cant read a book in one sitting(and fantasise that one day I will), but I am trying]. So where was I, ahh, books and entertainment. I recently realised that the $20 annual library subscription I pay gives me access to 4 books for 3 weeks each, which isnt bad at all. Hence, I ventured to atone for past sins, and I have recently read 1) Bringing Down the House and 2) a PGWoodhouse short story collection(both very readable books). I am currently reading both Monkey Business and The Day of The Jackal. Both hugely interesting books, but the not-in-a-hurry reader that I am, I am just 2/3rd through Monkey Business and 1/3rd thru the other one in about 10 days. I will leave the book reviews for another post, because this one is already getting long enough and your attention must be fleeting away.

Lastly, the fried bugs. This last weekend, I made a quick trip to Bangkok and Pattaya. There's a lot to write(and not write) about those two places, but one of the most interesting features of my trip was a sight I hadn't seen before. I was on one of the beaches in Pattaya, when I see a lady carrying a cane-basket full of fried bugs. Although I knew that this was part of the local cuisine, seeing it for the first time gave me all sorts of feelings(some humorous, some sombre, some surprising). Someday, if I get to be part of the Amazing Race, I might have the motivation to try this Thai snack, and who knows, I might like that stuff.
[Photos and detailed trip review coming, hopefully :)]

[edit 1] - based on the first comment to this post, I realised that I might have given an impression that I tried eating fried bugs(hopefully, I understood the comment correctly). For sake of clarity, I didnt taste anything freakishly close....I would need to be re-born in Thai-land to muster the courage for something like that.