Back...

Back to Blogging after 4 months! But I have to start on a sad note. Fatima Arunkumar Marneni, a batchmate of mine, passed away yesterday. I don't know the exact details of how it happened. I am shocked and sad. He was such a nice guy. I have been thinking hard about life and death lately. I am unable to comprehend either of them.

I am back in IIM after a 5-day log vacation at my hometown in Bilaspur. All I did during the holidays was to eat and sleep. Need to start working out to get into some decent shape. Jogging, which I did a lot the past 4 months, has not helped much. Or may be I didnn't stress myself enough.

Bought a book, which I had planned to finish reading during the vacation, but barely managed to start. It's The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen. The topic is quite interesting, but Amartya Sen's style of writing sucks big time. Each of his sentences runs 5-6 lines of printed text - so long that when you end the sentence you forget the beginning, and almost 80% of it in my case. Many times, when I finish a sentence and try to think what is being said, I go blank for a while, a long one at times. I wish Amartya Sen wrote in English that is more contemporary and simple, one almost like the spoken form of the Language. But I am sure he takes pride in his ability to write in such English, of whatever style that is (Victorian?) and hates the current simple style. Can guess that from his hatred for the reply "Good" for "How are you?", rather than "Fine". Incidentally, and interestingly, I too at times find "Good" quite weird, having been taught by Anglo-Indian ma'ams and sirs. But have now understood well that "Good" is the contemporary, American way and you better use it if you want to sound normal. I do sometimes use it now, though with noticeable reluctance. I still prefer "Fine" though. That's why I don't blame Amartya Sen for sticking to his old 6-line-long-sentences-wala English.

I've read 75 pages so far, of the 400-odd pages. Will finish it, no matter how painful it is to read it, and how little of it really gets into my head. Coz starting a book and not finishing it is very very frustrating (for a book-lover). Can you notice analogies with something else? ;-)