A book that was a Christmas present for someone in London in the 1930s somehow makes it to a second-hand bookstore in Bangalore and almost finds itself on my bookshelf. Surely it must have an interesting story to tell – apart from the one printed in it.

Here is another remarkable coincidence that happend this week. I picked up an old copy of Oliver Twist along with a copy of The 1982 Annual World’s Best SF. The 1964 edition of a 19th century Dickens novel shouldn’t ordinarily be related in any way to a compilation of science fiction short stories from 1982. But to my surprise the latter begins with Dickens’ famous lines from A Tale of Two Cities. Let me reproduce the first paragraph here:

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” That was Dickens’ comment on the crisis of the 18th Century. It could apply now to the outlook for many periods of the 20th. There were the times just before the great wars – and just after. There were the times before the economic crisis that have racked this century… the times of ideological debate, of fog and confusion… times confronting the advent of surprising new scientific achievements.

The remarkability quotient would be so much higher if the book I had just picked was A Tale of Two Cities itself!

+-----------+-------+
| Month     | Count |
|-----------+-------|
| December  |   867 |
| October   |   709 |
| November  |   688 |
| September |   679 |
| January   |   488 |
| May       |   453 |
| March     |   449 |
| July      |   438 |
| August    |   438 |
| April     |   422 |
| June      |   391 |
| February  |   334 |
+-----------+-------+

But then cricketers in India are very special people to start with – aren’t they?

As you’d expect, the dates of the fresh variety don’t taste at all like the dates of the shriveled, dried variety. But what was surprising was that they tasted like something familiar and yet something I couldn’t quite place. I’ve settled on a cross between India Jujube (ber, बेर, Ziziphus mauritiana) and Sugarcane for now.

The biggest problem to have plagued my enterprise has been the non-availability of quality mops. Many things can go wrong with a mop. Its head can wear out and start leaving long cotton strands all over the floor or worse, the head can come off the handle because either the head or the handle rusts, causing the connection between them to sever. Over the years I’ve tried practically every brand, model and make available at the shops here, and all of them have met more or less the same fate. Another problem is accessories – almost all the mops sold are supposed to have replacement heads available – but best of luck actually finding one.

This Saturday while looking for a new mop, I came across a whole section dedicated to them at Spar. Apparently 3M have figured that this space needs a shakeup and have decided to take a plunge. There they were – Scotch Brite Mops – all nicely packed and neatly stacked. I procured one for a princely sum of Rs. 225 and took it for a spin today. So far, I am impressed. The cotton strands are looped for longevity, the head is neatly screwed onto a sturdy handle and there are strips of some synthetic material with dots of a plasticy polymer on them amidst the thick cotton loops, that are supposed to allow me to scrub stubborn dirt with ease. Today, it all worked as advertised. We’ll see how it holds in the coming days. Considering this is 3M we are dealing with, at least a replacement head should be easy to procure.

Will 3M be successful? I have my doubts. Firstly, I know (at least anecdotally) that I am part of tiny minorty that buys mops for their own use. Mopping in most household is delegated to maids – and while we might demand the fastest, newest laptops from our employers at work in the name of productivity and efficiency, a maid at our house isn’t going to get the latest, greatest tool that the money can buy; especially if the tool (as is the case here), happens to be on the expensive side. The product might work if commerical establishments start procuring branded mops en masse, but as long as their are cheaper alternatives available, I don’t see that happening either. But who knows – 3M might just be able to muscle shelf space and bulk contracts and put others out of business. As far as mops go, I don’t think that will be such a bad thing.

The real thing and a dustbin shaped like one.

Similar simian pursuits:

• The Reluctant Poser
• Crouching Monkey Hidden Lens

And then there are CAPTCHAs that just want to mock you, like the one blogger so affectionately threw at me this morning:

Since CAPTCHAs cannot be read by screen readers, a lot of sites also include an audio version of the CAPTCHA. I hadn’t heard one till recently (I happened to click on the accessibility icon accidentally), but what I heard was stuff of nightmares! Turn down your speakers a bit this stuff is not pleasant:

Obviously, the intent here is to stop sound recognition programs in their tracks by introducing a lot of background noise. The overall effect however brings images of prisons, misery and torture to one’s mind. (Or may be I watched one war movie too many this year!)

And then there is this minor matter of spammers with an army of CAPTCHA cracking humans at their disposal. Or may be that explains why CAPTCHAs are becoming increasingly painful even for legitimate users.

A random collection of electricity poles, wires, transformers and such. I think that they are the most common form of visual noise in urban India. I usually hate them for ruining my shots but this time they are the shots. We are now even.

p.s. The moment I published this post, I had a power cut. I am trying not to read too much into it.

Subodh Gupta – Is an Indian artist who is going places these days. He creates very peculiar art and steel utensils are an important motif across most of his works. Be it his installations, like “Very Hungry God” – a huge skull made entirely of stainless steel cooking vessels (thereby giving the installation a somewhat literal bend), or his photorealistic paintings of everyday steel utensils.

Photo: Marc Domage, via Saatchi Online

via The Saatchi Gallery

Brooke Waggoner – Most music that is churned out these days has very little shelf life – most songs grow on you within one listening but then their charm begins to wear off. Within a month you begin to wonder how you ever liked that particular track. Gone also are the days when you’d pick an album and like every single track in it.

So I approach the free tracks that iTunes gives away each Tuesday with very little expectation. Yet, when I heard Brooke Waggoner’s ‘Young Friend’ I knew I had stumbled upon something different.

Her music is a fairly unique sounding blend of folk, pop and country and hasn’t lost it’s freshness after a month of repeated listening. But don’t take my word for it. Her site is giving away her first EP free. Get it from brookewaggonermusic.com.

Filminute: The International One-Minute Film Festival showcases one minute long ‘films’. My attention span isn’t quite that bad yet, but it is indeed a very interesting limitation that has led to some very creative ‘films’, including a couple from India. Do check out ‘Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro’ (don’t if you are the squeamish sorts). Bonus points if you can identify the background track.

Via Gaurav.

The enthusiasm with which people in India deface public places amazes me. Even ordinary objects – like this old bulb-holder – aren’t spared sometimes. Ironically, this one was defaced with a face.

The man was selling candy-floss or something like that. The mannequin was a prop to attract children and aid sales. The net effect of these two would have probably scared me as a child!