Free Association Poetry

Signboard Signboard burning bright
In the sputtering neon light
By what twist of fate did I
Find myself beneath this sign?
What're the odds that my brain
Has gone over the edge again?
Free at last, bounden never
Do I not think I'm too clever?
To think at all there is no need
My fingers on this keyboard bleed
Cockroach, cockroach bleeding white
Beneath
the

Sputtering

Neon

Light

Arty Farty

ok, before i start on anything here, i'd like to point something out... Art can be Really Cool!! The reason i'm pointing this out is this: Everytime i download what i feel to be a fun picture from the net, and spend about half an hour admiring it, i realise that i want to share this incredible thing with my buddy-boys. So i take all the effort of copying out on floppy, carting off to said buddy's computer and showing him, voila, cool pictures! He stares and then goes, "Vaat all this art fart gas (Annirudh and Koshy, if you're reading this, please do something unspeakable to yourselves). At any rate, i dont think people should see art as "egads! look at the interplay of light and shade across the right ass cheek", or "gosh, those lines are so indicative of a classic oedipus complex". In other words, i feel that art is not to be the preserve of the few who can talk technical about it. On the other hand, i also have a problem with those guys who automatically dismiss anything classified as "art" from the purview of their mental mindscape. Basic upshot, you dont need a 90 degree nose or a degree in Artistic Appreciation to enjoy art. Here's a collection of a few of my thus far favourite artists. i found this really good site which provides pretty high-def online copies of their work called Art54 . It's got a lot of pictures of a wide range of artists. My favourites are:

1. edvard munch . When you check out this site, make sure to look for the pictures of the lovers painted in a blue light. I think its one of the most beautiful i've ever seen.

2. h r giger . One of the totaly weirdest artists i've ever seen. if you like very in your face psycho art, check this out.

3. m. c. escher who seems to be a brilliant sketcher, please notice the "face-belt in the sky" painting, as made famous by the two famous art critics,Koshy John and J. Anniruddha. If you dont like these, please surf around. You're bound to like something. Give it a shot.

Origin of Name ViralFish

Ok, there's this absolute moron of a buddy of mine who says i'm a ripoff artist over the name of this blog. Ok, for anyone who's interested, this is how i got the name:

I found it on a matchbox.

There, now that I've got that off my chest, here's the sad truth about my efforts at getting this blog listed on Google:

Viralfish's Lodi

Interesting argument for free software in schools

A brilliant case here for using free software in schools. More importantly, it argues for the knowledge to read code as something to be made available to all. Check out this link on free software and code for all

Comment Away, and Lawrence Lessig

ok, faithful multitudes of eager followers of my now incredibly popular, featured on wired magazine's blog of the year blog (yeah, right). I have a comments section. no longer need the common reader suffer in silence. Post your views, one and all!! post away! i love it when you do that. By the way, i realise that i havent hyperlinked a cool place to go to in ages, so here's lawrence lessig's blog. He's a person everyone who's passionate about the internet, and the freedom and opportunities it gives you should take a look at. And his articles are incredibly fascinating. check it out. oh, and now you can post stuff to me telling ME what's interesting. cool, no?

Viva cheap books and darya ganj

"The Sexual Politics of Meat"
"The Use of Light and Shade in Close Combat"
"The Tongue- a Creative Tool" (Philosophy, i swear it.)
I pray that every major city in every country has its own version of darya ganj. As far as ive seen, every major city in India ive been to does. Delhi’s darya ganj needs little description for the dedicated book lover. Something of a 3 kilometer stretch of books stocked with books of all types, falling over each other… its too brilliant for words. As brilliant an area is koti and abids in hyderabad on Sundays. A whole lot more chaotic but all the more fun because of the infinitude of exploring you have to do. Madras’s Moore market is supposed to be pretty good too, but all I’ve seen of it is a desultory four or five shops selling old text books and pirated bestsellers. Bombay’s stretch of booksellers between churchgate and fountain is really good in terms of quality books but very OUCH pricey.. well, for a second hand book junkie at least. And its not as if the only fun part is the actual acquisition of the books.. that's pretty cool, no doubt, but the really amazing bit is in the major fast paced bargaining, the back and forth duel for the best price, the (usually) jocular exchanges of famous bargaining one liners ( try mentioning the quality of the book, the fact that its so old, look, see, someone’’s scribbled all over this page). Try doing this with the equivalent knowledge of hindi as an American who’s just done with an ISKCON conference and the fur’ll really fly. The best part is the fact that these areas are usually (with exception of Mumbai) located in the “proper” areas of their respective cities, the “old towns” so to speak. Happily divorced from any semblance of a Barristas or a Pizza Hut, you can munch on bread pakoras and kachoris all over darya ganj, or have lots and lots of chai and chaat in Koti and Abids (try looking for a place called, I think, Gokul’s Chaat Bhandar, if you can find it, you’ll know it by the AMAzing bhelpuri), and in Mumbai, ok, you can have lots of peanuts in Mumbai. Unfortunately, it’s also my belief that these places are starting to… somehow, sag. 3 years ago in darya ganj, the sellers were exploding with offers, deals, buy 1 kg of books for 10 bucks, buy 2 books for 15 etc. now it seems they’ve become a whole lot more, I don’t know, professional? Here, this book costs 50, take it or leave it. No saar, fixed rate. This time’s trip was a whole lot less productive thatn the last, but I still got hold of: the wilder shores of marx, 1 michael moorcock satire collection, l ron hubbard, aldous huxley’s a brave new world revisited and a full William blake reader for only total Rs 200. ok. Im cheap. I love books. What better combination could exist for me?