Flowers and candles in the corner....

Orchid with a mauve tinge...

Blooming orchid at home...

FM Channels....

Of late , theres been a buzz in the local radio scene. Two new private operators have set up shop in Guwahati and are airing FM channels...one has been named "Ooh La La" on 91.9 MHz ( don't ask me why they chose that name) and another one called "Big" FM on 92.7 MHz. As the FM channels are rather new....the RJs are still at a nascent stage trying to woo the audience with the gift of gab. They do a lot of blabbering ....trying their level best to sound cool, young and fresh in English , Assamese and Hindi!!! Some are quite good...the rest really need to brush up their skills.

During the night over the weekend, they air programmes on western music. None of the RJs feel it necessary to mention the names of the songs that they play (for reasons best known to them) and each of them are soo theatrical that it actually is quite funny!!! There's one fellow who introduces himself as the "father of the phantom" and in a rather grave voice presents the program, interspersed with shrill laughter. Then there was another RJ who gave lessons on spoken English language , commiting several mistakes himself!!!

For all its worth, they have brought in quite a change in the radio scene and I'm hoping that things would change for the better soon....

Several blooming orchids .....

A different shade...

Regal looking Orchid blooming at home...

Books ...books ...more books..

Books I have read in the recent past..

*Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (it was my second time....a wonderful read...very real).

*The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh (took me some time initially but it is extremely engrossing ... beautifully written)

*Snow by Orhan Pamuk (haven't progressed beyond the twientieth page or so...will have to go back to it soon)

* The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (abandoned it midway...it wasn't very interesting...didn't keep me glued to it).

* South Asia's Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms Proliferation in India's North East by Binalakshmi Nepram ( I'm currently reading it and its very informative. An interesting book...its related to the work I do and that makes it all the better . Gives a good overview of the security scenario plaguing India's North East. It might scare off people reading about North East India for the first time. It is no doubt the reality but just one facet of life as lived by people in these parts of the country.

Books I'm planning to read in the coming few weeks:

*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

*Aparajito by Bibbhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

One often gets driven by niggling self doubts. For me, today was one such day. I just woke up with such a terrible disposition….I was terribly upset and frustrated with my life and the way it was heading. Of late, I have begun to feel that my life is not going in any particular direction…that I need to make choices but I am not doing much about it…and that can be damn frustrating….the feeling that its all within your grasp and you are letting it all slip away because of your lackadaisical attitude!!! The feeling that there is so much to do…but for whatever reason one is not doing enough....
Its midnight now and I just hope tommorow I don't wake up with the same suffocating, nauseating feeling...a feeling that makes one extremely depressed about life....