The Prolific Dyslexic

The Prolific Dyslexic header image 1

Wishes and Rains

July 31st, 2010 · poetry

rain is here, so is weekend

The parched earth seeks solace
From the dry wind and burning sun
You can feel the heat on your face
And thirst plagues all, bar none.

And then the rains come over
First mild showers and then downpours
Relief for the sower and the office goer
The greenery shows, the monsoon’s set in its course

And then it refuses to stop
Swinging to the other extreme
Rain, from the hit, it’s turned flop
All the lakes and rivers now full to the brim.

And with most things we wish for and want
We’re never prepared to receive
Consider the giver’s largesse a taunt
And we’re always ready to grieve.

Written on a boring rainy afternoon.

As always, a hat-tip to Compulsive Writer for the push.

Image courtesy Paavani.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ No CommentsTags:··

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-31

August 31st, 2010 · Uncategorized

Powered by Twitter Tools

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ No CommentsTags:

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-30

August 30th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Powered by Twitter Tools

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ No CommentsTags:

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-29

August 29th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Powered by Twitter Tools

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ No CommentsTags:

Night Time Follies

July 14th, 2010 · poetry

Hoping for unbroken silence,
you tip-toe into the night
But that is not to last,
As the cat gives you a fright

The dogs start barking
And on comes the light
There’s no escaping questions
However hard you might

The best options that are
Answer, fight or flight
But it could all have been
Avoided, this folly of the night.

Written to while away time while not really sleepy

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ 1 CommentTags:·

Eyes

July 14th, 2010 · poetry

Pushed to write by Compulsive Writer. Thanks.

I looked at you
And you were busy,
Many pots to make,
They were turning out
just right, you said,
But your eyes,
They gave you away.

Ever the perfectionist,
Forever absorbed,
To hide that sadness.
You said you were happy
But your eyes,
They gave you away.

You seemed hesitant
To ask for help, as always,
You needed support,
I could see, for
Your eyes,
They gave you away

Always on the move,
Looking for that place
Where you’d find peace
The search unsuccesful,
Your eyes,
They gave you away

Always absorbed in
The cares of others
Never a moment for
Yourself, you attract
The helpless, your eyes
They give you away.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ 2 CommentsTags:·

Twitter Then and Now

June 20th, 2010 · thoughts, twitter

I’ve been on twitter now for a little less than three years. In the Indian context, I can claim to have seen twitter when it was just another bulletin board for techies to discuss technical matters and share interesting stuff.
I’ve seen twitter when it looked like this:  and it asked “What are you doing?”
I was there when you could use twitter through IM.
When it was just a small bunch of people you followed and loved to interact with all the time.
I’ve been through the days when everybody on your timeline participated in same discussion.
I’ve added people just because they made a nice pattern on the “following” thumbnails. It was an interesting time to be on twitter. It was the first time I could call myself an “early adopter” (in India) of some technology.

I’m really thankful (and I keep mentioning this time and again) to twitter that I could meet wonderful people and that I’ve managed to keep in touch with a lot of them (on twitter or otherwise).
I’ve met people who I can share the best and worst days of my life with. I’ve met people who have introduced me to new ideas, who have inspired me to do things I wouldn’t have thought of doing. And I’ve met people who’ve helped me change my view of life.

I’ve been through the phase where I have spent days conversing with many people on random topics of mutual interest, where I’ve bombarded people’s timelines with inane updates, random twitpics and rants. I’ve participated in hashtag trending, some good some inane, all in good humour.

But twitter is not the same any longer.
The traffic has increased tremendously, and I’m guessing atleast a thousand new Indians sign up each day.
There has been a distinct souring of conversations, cheerful banter has been upstaged by moralistic conversations. Some are good valid discussions, others are just intended to put down people for what they say and what they do.

Some of us took a “detox” break from the 1st to the 15th of June and it has helped us to now view things from 10000 feet above ground. Now I can claim to see clearer, things that I just rushed into before. I find it comforting to stay away from them and not get myself into a tizzy over inane things. It has also helped me put twitter relationships into perspective like ShaaqT describes in a very good post . And lastly, I was going to write about the numbers game, but B50 has put it better than I ever could.

So I’ll be on twitter for the people I love and admire and for some good discussions, to participate and to follow. I’ll be on twitter to get to meet new interesting people (who I haven’t followed or haven’t discovered twitter yet). But twitter has changed, and not for the best.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ 7 CommentsTags:

Scars

June 8th, 2010 · poetry

Man, he furrows my body
Lays one grain at a time
And soon the land
Is ripe with grain

How beautiful it looks
So many it feeds
These scars are fleeting
But I treasure these scars

Man, he rends my body
With claws of steel
He can’t hear my screams
Painful it is, still.

It marks a path
To his own destruction
These bare hills and land
I do not treasure.

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ No CommentsTags:···

Twitter Detox

May 31st, 2010 · happenings, thoughts

Regular readers of this blog (fine, there aren’t any) will know that I’m an inveterate twitterer. Or a twitterholic, if you please.

At close to 39K tweets, I have wasted13 days or so in a period of 2.75 years.

Time Sink

Time Sink

Add to this the time spent reading the tweets in my timeline, and that goes up to atleast 65 days (5X). More than the number of Sundays in a year. All in all, a significant amount of time.

During a short vacation to Goa (the pictures from which I’m yet to post), I did go off twitter for close to 10 days. It was quite refreshing. Then the tweeting restarted in earnest and coupled with a lull at work, it really took off.

May has seen too many tweets (100+ per day, on an average)

Mad graph!

Mad graph!

So when @surekhapillai tweeted this:

twitterdetoxifitis.Wed May 26 08:21:50 via Seesmic

#detox was born. As usual @b50 took the lead and we followed it. Each one had a vested interest (which they might want to write about).

So as of now people involved in #detox are:

Others are welcome to join in too. If you’re following all of us, this means you’ll be seeing close to 200 tweets less in your timeline everyday. Easier on you too.

So how will I gainfully spend the time that I’ll save on tweeting?

  • Spend more time crafting (yeah) blogposts
  • Read more books as compared to links
  • Do my taxes – the deadline is near
  • Watch more movies (in cinema halls)
  • Get reacquainted with music
  • Meet more people physically
  • Talk to friends who I haven’t talked to in a while

Like we were discussing the other day, there isn’t much value that twitter is adding to us now. We’ve forged the relationships that we wanted to on twitter, we have our own closed groups now and we’re satisfied with it. One of my long overdue posts is on how twitter has helped me.

So how can you reach me?

  • Email: Its p at this domain. (p@…).
  • Comment on my blog, maybe have a look at some posts from the past.
  • Visit my Flickr account, I’ll be uploading pics soon.
  • Visit my Tumblelog. This is where I’ll post links with short descriptions. Interestingness that I find, as I trawl the internet thoughts as they occur to me and quick reviews. Email posting makes it easier.
  • Call me, if you have either of my phone numbers. No I’m not posting them here. Ask for it from someone you know, if you really need to reach me.
  • A DM to me (that is, if I follow you) between 8 am and 10 pm will result in a text notification. A quick way to reach me during that time.
  • Plancast. I use it to notify/be notified of events (in lieu of Facebook).

Where you won’t find me:

  • Twitter. On any of my accounts.
  • Facebook. I am also taking a holiday from Facebook .
  • Foursquare. Yes, that too. Sorry, you won’t be able to stalk me for a while.
  • Friendfeed. FF might cross post an occasional tumble/blog link to twitter, I can’t quite figure out those settings that exist. But they’re all automated.
  • Google Buzz. Yeah that weird service that I use from Google Maps sometimes.

That’s pretty much it, I think.

What if you’re addicted to twitter and still want to find me there? Ummm… I’m sticking to the 15 day thing, so you won’t. I recommend you follow some of these wonderful people instead:

  • @surekhapillai, who triggered the whole thing off.
  • @anaggh, who is God.
  • @aparanjape, a fellow citizen from Pune who is very well informed.
  • @hemantmmehta, who tweets the most interesting links.
  • @mumbaicentral, who has a razor sharp wit.
  • @angadc, who is by far the most random person on twitter.
  • @adityab, who writes wonderful short stories.
  • @jun6lee, our friend from overseas who devours all sorts of interesting food that will make you jealous.

Consider this my followfriday or whatever. And then you can dig into my “Following” list and follow whoever you want to.

So that’s it from me. After midnight, you won’t see another tweet from me till the 15th of June. It’s become sort of high profile now.

See you (and your comments) around on this blog and flickr. Give me a call, let’s meet up. Have fun.

Cheers!

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ 18 CommentsTags:····

Embed tweets?

May 9th, 2010 · twitter

This is a test post. To check how well the tweet embedding feature works. This seems to be a new feature that’s now live.

Twitter’s logic behind this is interesting. This also complements what the Korean researchers recently presented.

It’s perfectly possible to construct grammatically correct sentences in 140 characters. Drop the sms-speak, people.Fri May 07 10:29:50 via Gravity

A hat tip to @kazimor for this info.

Looks pretty to me.

One downside. I use the https: protocol instead of http: for using twitter. That doesn’t work with this tool. I hope someone has a workaround for that.

Update:
https: now works.

Now @xdamman of @publitweets has fixed the https: issue with the bookmarklet which grabs twitter quotes. Cool!Mon May 10 04:03:52 via web

Thanks Xavier!

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

→ 4 CommentsTags:·