Sotto Voce

Just finished reading The Rule of Four …… a Da Vinci Code takeoff…. only, much better. Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason have managed to spin a much more plausible yarn, with a touch of whimsy about it…. I was not too impressed with the Da Vinci Code anyway, but this book is definitely much better.

However, if you do want to immerse yourself in Renaissance-based fiction, then Umberto Eco is still THE MAN… "The Name of the Rose" and "Focault”s Pendulum"… and best part: just bone up on some of the more obscure references and you have enough ammunition to bore the socks off anyone at a pretentious party! Lock and load baby!!!!

All this talk about the Renaissance, cloisters and monks led me to think…. about rum…. (Renaissance – monks – old monks – rum!) … recently got hold of a bottle of Old Monk Gold Reserve… and must say… ”tis the smoothest dark rum I”ve had…. beats Bacardi Reserva hands down….. Its got the definitive Old Monk flavour, without the bite…. goes down like a dream…. get some!!!!

I have been observing this very interesting (at least to myself!) trend in my inebriated behaviour over the years….

when I started off drinking as a young boy, I was kinda the aggressive drunk… not very, but definitely slightly bellicose….

then I progressed (or regressed is perhaps a better choice) to the excitable drunk … mostly in B-School…. somewhat like the jumping jack variety…..

the Mumbai years were characterised by the sentimental, whingeing, sad sack phase… with interludes of exceeding embarrassment….. (my friends and drinking buds from Mumbai know this, of course!)….

nowadays, I am your garden variety happy drunk…. the chap who is slumped quietly in the corner, pondering over seriously existentialist questions (what is holding that babe”s dress together? who gives a flying fu*k if the water supply in south delhi goes up from 3 hours to 3.5 hours a day?), all the while with a beatific smile on his face….

Was flippin channels just now and caught one of those celebrity paparazzi shows on AXN …. shot of paris hilton and some other vacuous hieress babe called kimberley stewart on two choppers on a red carpet… preening, wearing miniskirts… some dude starts the stewart babe’s chopper… she pumps the throttle inadvertently….. and takes off…. you can see the panic on her face….. and falls flat on her pretty white a*s within 10 feet….. hilarious….. there is a god… and justice in this world!!!!…