NET-(act...INact)-ivity …

I accept that this word coinage may not be obvious to some people in the first glance but I hope to make it clear by the last word of the blog. However if I fail then try your luck to google and see(subtle hint!)

A lot of things have changed in the recent past. I am un-employed, having resigned from my job(clarification not thrown out for my activity/inactivity).I am peacefully at home and not sharing my space in a rented apartment. However the peace is not the utopian ‘comfortably-numb’ state because it is the preparation phase for the next lap which is a total stranger. Not delving much into deeper stranger stuff. I am going to write about the one change that makes me fret most often and gives my mom fresh ammunition to charge at an entire generation plagued with the ills of living away from home.

The simple act of connecting to the internet has turned into an infinite wait. After a patient/impatient ‘lucky’ wait I manage to get connected, only to find my connection crawling at 15kbps,20kbps and back to 0 kbps. I can always walk up to the AC cyber café near my home, however that makes internet too labour intensive when just a few days back it was so readily and speedily available at a click’s notice. Well I am still scouting for ways to bring my internet woes to end but that is not the point of this blog.

The point (my mother’s point) is- what makes me so restless? For any immediate need the cyber café is just a small walk away so why all the fuss. It turns out all my needs are immediate, for all the questions that keep coming to my head I need immediate answers. Then to aggravate matters I have developed a compulsive random surfing/downloading habit. Most often I scout for songs primarily English bands. Perhaps for me the initiation was a little late. It coincided with my younger brother’s guitar learning quest.

I trace a band and plough the net for all its relevant history geography. All I need is a cue to the band, may be a mention by someone or a shared audio/video link on Facebook. I might notice the song of the band feature in some movie or popular TV sops. Now this is an elaborate process, you listen to the song, watch it on YouTube, read the lyrics and further read the reviews of the song. This part is completely net dependent and I’m completely paralyzed with my awesome net connection. The next discussion phase with my kid brother is pretty easy these days. However all I can discuss sitting right across the room is about the awful speed and wasted effort. Thus not finding anything new to explore I thought of writing about songs that are a real treasure for me.

My most recent discovery is the band, The National. It is a pretty much quaint band (judging by the fact that I have encountered it just a few days back.) The baritone of the lead singer and the musical arrangement really got me hooked. One of my favorites is also the first song that I heard of this band-Slow show. Interestingly in their songs, the lyrics have certain lines that just cling to you. There is a vivid visual imagination that goes with the song, sample the following lyrics with the instrumentation.

You know I dreamed about you
For twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
For twenty-nine years—Slow show, The National

I’ll not quote further from this song, because I’ll end up pasting the entire lyrics. Then there is the deeply melancholic, About today. The last lines as he croons and the song slowly fades..

How close am I to losing you
How close am I to losing—About today, The National

We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire—Fake empire, The National

I know you're a serious lady.
Living off a teacup full of cherries.
Nobody knows where you are living.
Nobody knows where you are.—So far around the bend, The National

How can anybody know
How they got to be this way--Daughters of the Soho riots, the National

The other songs that I downloaded of the band and am now listening with the backdrop of pitter patter rain drops are: ‘Mistaken for strangers’,’ Racing like a pro’, ’Afraid of everyone’,’ Apartment story’. I just realized that all these songs are beautifully melancholic although not quite upbeat. I have lots in my repertoire for all moods but for today this is the flavor.

Coming back to the NET-(act...INact)-ivity, let me try my luck if I can post this blog in the next 15minutes and gladly sigh a breath of relief.