On Endings

Lets say you are reading a book, or watching a movie or maybe a racy TV series, and the story has come to its climax. It has been okay this far, a few cheap thrills, maybe a couple of classier ones, but now everything hinges on that last move of the story writer. How good can he make that final brush stroke, on that would depend whether you recommend it to your friends or not. That's because anyone can get you to the edge of your seat, doesn't take all that much, a likable protagonist playing the high stakes for an honest cause maybe, or a point of decision that needs to be taken quick or else all hell would break lose. Its not the edge-of-the- seat sensationalism that matters, its the feeling you walk out with. Its whether the movie can make you sit and smile while the end credits roll, or a book, you flip back through the pages of, after you've done reading. It's all about the ending.

There is always an end that you have thought of, that's because you have seen too much TV already or read similar stuff. You know a million dramatic scenarios the story could end with. You could be one of two types depending on whether you want to be surprised, or you want it to end with a self assured smirk from you on your successfully second-guessing the story. I belong to the former.

I always feel cheated if my fare ends like I expected it to.

Which type are you?

Tall: /tol/ adj, long from bottom to top

The little byline of my blog title is borrowed from Frank Herbert's Dune. Absolutely love it. So succinctly describes life and our constant struggle with finding some logic to all that happens around us.

Had a similar moment of realization, last night. Had gone with a friend to the nearby Starbucks. We usually order our coffees grande, and I ever bothered to find out what the other sizes were. Until, we saw one guy order mocha, tall. I couldn't quite see what was the glass he walked off with. My friend, said that 'tall' was in fact the shortest  glass available at Starbucks. I refused to believe this, I mean, there must be someone pretty educated and sensible guy up there in the Starbucks chain of command who would have come with these names, how could tall possibly be the shortest. It would be an insult to the word. Well, I was so cocksure that the world is logical, that I placed a bet, it's not possible, the tallest glass has to be 'tall' while the shortest glass could be called something else.

Alas, i walked out of the coffee shop with a lost bet, a bruised ego and  in a very confused state of mind about the affairs of the world.

Trust Dreams, Trust Your Heart and Trust Your Story

In midst of all this confusion called Life, often also given the very onerous sounding sobriquet, "The Real World", we forget the things that used to make us smile. Then one day you run across something that brings it all back.

The following I found on YouTube, on looking up Neil Gaiman, while reading the Sandman series.

Listening to this was like sitting in a room, drinking coffee with Alice, Baba Yaga, Ivan the youngest, Jack with his handful of beans, Little Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling and their whole gang, discussing on what to do and what not to do. The complex yet so simple rules they live their life by, and the cliched yet so profound lessons you learn from them.

Then you realize that all the answers you've been looking for, have already been told to you, hidden in these long forgotten stories and all your trials and tribulations are but simple manifestations of what these characters went through while you were tucked away in your bed sucking your thumb.

Hope you enjoy the following video, nice little funny introduction in the beginning.

Neil Gaiman's "Instructions", text is here.