I just had one of those moments when you NEED to put everything in its right place.
So I created a new blog, “Del(h)ightful Del(h)irium”, where I will be posting about my Indian life.
“My India -A to Z-” is already there, because that’s it right place.
The address is www.lascrittoria.com/delhirium, check it out.
Oh, and keep checking here, I am not closing “non sa/non risponde”, just ordering stuff.
Quando ho letto sul quotidiano (online) dell’esistenza di un Ministero della Semplificazione ho pensato che c’era da ridere.
Invece proprio non ce l’ho fatta, a riderci sopra.
I’ve been here for the past two weeks. Two weeks of sort of empty days. Empty, because almost all I have been up to has been watching the painters, the electrician, the plumber and the cleaning guy getting our house together. Sort of, because doing that is a full time job. You sit from 10 am to 6 pm and make sure that the workers actually do work. You stare at them. You make them chai - tea with milk and lot of sugar - thrice a day, otherwise you just stare at them.
The best were the painters. We hired them and three days later than the agreed date two painters arrived. One knew how to paint and the other knew how to speak English. For a day and a half it was the two of them, then three more decided - we never requested more painters - to show up. Which would make the job much faster, you’d think as we thought. Not the case. Most of the times, out of five guys, one would paint, one clean, one hold the ladder of the painter, one give direction and one, finally, simply watching. Quite an amusing view. When there was nothing more to clean the cleaning guy would stop. And then the painting one would stop,because, you know, paint needs to dry before another coat. You could propose them to begin painting another wall, in the mean time, but the english-speaking-guy would reply to your suggestion with one of the local most favorite sentence: after some time. Five minutes, half an hour, a day after, they would actually begun painting another wall.
After some time is more than an excuse for being lazy. It is one of the most popular local sentences and I am under the impression that simple statement unveils a whole philosophy of vague appointments. Appointments with things happening. In a western country you would aim to get stuff under control, to begin with future. You would say I will paint that tomorrow, or the lamp you want will arrive in a week or the person you are looking for will be back tonight at eight. Here they just say anything would happen after some time. Which is, if you think about it, very exact.
And when I ask - I have a lot to learn - how much time I always get the answer I need: one day, one week, three hours. But the answer is delivered by an half-laughing face, the face of someone that just found yet another one of those who want to find out how much time is some time.
Updates coming soon, meanwhile you can entertain yourself as I do by simply clicking here. Look for Mauja Hi Mauja, it’s The song, here.
Leaving tomorrow, destination Indira Gandhi International Airport - New Delhi.
My new address will be in New Delhi, Chittaranjan Park, CR Park for locals.
I might even happen to meet myself while exploring the streets, yet please don’t worry: that’s not the reason I am moving to India.
I am bad at keeping journals, but good at keeping things.
Lately I have been cleaning up my room from the stuff I’ve accumulated in the past six years. It was a lot of stuff. So much that trying to decide what to keep and what not wasn’t even hard: throwing away any object I had no idea how I got in contact with was enough of a choice criterion. Whatever survived that is now mostly packed and safe in my grandparents’ place. The price of leaving: dropping all your memories in humid garages.
Of all the things I found, a few say a lot about me. And they remind me of what I have done, where, when, with whom.
ONE: Notes
I packed eleven A4 folders, each one of which had been chosen for having the nicest cover available, filled up with notes. Each one of them contains note of 4/5 university course for a total of 5 academical years and 50 courses. All these notes are written with a blue fountain pen and the subject of every lesson is written in capital red letters.
I have been absent from a maximum of ten lessons in total. Yes, I do like school.
TWO: Cinema Tickets
I have been keeping cinema tickets since highschool. Until a few years ago tickets wouldn’t say, as they do now, the day and the movie, so I wrote the indication by hand, with a pencil. Now things evolved and you can totally use your ticket as a valid alibi, I guess.
I have counted 195 cinema tickets, which means that since highschool, and without counting film festivals, I have spent a minimum of 12 days in cinemas (considering the length of 90′ per movie). Yet, for some reason, it doesn’t seem enough.
THREE: Train Tickets
I have been seriously keeping every single train ticket I have used since the beginning of university. As for today I can count a total of 557 train tickets, divided in:
447 general tickets, 20 cm lenght;
75 kilometrical tickets, 10 cm lenght;
9 regional tickets, 11 cm lenght;
4 receipts for tickets bought on the train, 15 cm length;
2 tickets bought on the train, 15 cm length;
2 intercity tickets bought on the train, 16 cm length;
7 ticketless receipts, 15 cm length.
Which means if I put one after the other, in a line, all my tickets, I get to a length of 100,3 meters.
Now I have no idea why this information should be relevant; it is, though, to me.
This project by (Joao Roque, Luis Silva Dias and Icaro Doria) is quite old (2005) but I just found it and it reminded me how powerful communication can be when it is done with intelligence and creativity.
In this post-graduation confusion I thought this deserved a post.
More flags here.
Today, is the Earth Hour day. Which means that tonight from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm (whichever is your time zone) you turn off the lights and any other electric device you are using.
It’s just for an hour; just once a year.
Do it.
This reminded me of a quote I use to be fond of when I was a teenager and oh-so-in-love with the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco. Here’s how it goes (sorry for those of you who don’t speak Italian, if you’re interested contact me for a home-made translation):
“Quando, negli anni venti, si misero a cercare il posto giusto per montare il loro “200 pollici”, scelsero il Monte Palomar, per tante ragioni, e perché era in mezzo al nulla. Poi le cose non andarono come se l’erano immaginate. Los Angeles e San Diego scoppiarono di gente, di case, di strade, di automobili, e soprattutto: di luce. Il buio, per un telescopio, è come l’ossigeno. Adesso il 200 pollici soffoca in una delle aree più luminose d’America. Lighting pollution, la chiamano loro: inquinamento da luce. Di fatto, le mille luci della California meridionale hanno ridotto la vista del telescopio a poco più della metà. È largo 5 metri, l’enorme specchio, ma se fosse grande la metà ormai sarebbe lo stesso. Così hanno messo un cartello, a Palomar. Si intitola: tu puoi aiutarci. Molto americano. Dice che bisogna sensibilizzare le autorità al problema, dice che bisogna convincerle a usare certe lampade meno inquinanti. E poi dice una cosa bellissima: se vivi in California meridionale, la sera, per favore, quando vai a dormire, spegni la luce, se puoi, del giardino. Grazie.
Magari non molti, ma alcuni ci saranno. La sera chiudono la porta a chiave, si mettono il pigiama, e spengono le luci del giardino, così qualcuno, sul Monte Palomar, potrà vedere qualche anno luce più lontano.
Non per buttarla sul sentimentale, in spregio a Palomar, ma mi è venuta in mente una cosa.
Se proprio vuoi sapere chi ti ama davvero - ma davvero - guardati intorno e cerca qualcuno che spegne la luce del suo giardino,la sera, perché tu possa veder le stelle più lontane che puoi, nel cielo.”
I thought I had grown up. But I kind of love the quote, still.
It must be - as I have recently heard - that crushes never really pass.
Have you even noticed how much more productive you are whenever you have someone around reminding you about deadlines and similar?
Now the Internet does it. Here.
Next time you boss bothers you, tell him he/she’s of no need.
Better: fire him/her.