Month: November 2005

wha…?

Yesterday my wife was called an Anglican. The bean placed this accusation neatly on the comments page. You’re in trouble mate, commas notwithstanding,,,

A relevant extract

….one of the popes back in the 400s was called…

Hilarius. Known as the Pope Saint Hilarius.

He signed his letters,

P.S. Hilarius

People would point at him and inform the new touristy barbarians ‘that’s Hilarius!’ The barbarians in order not to give offence to the local natives would giggle and smile at the ol pope and have their heads chopped off for the tolerant gesture.

from sunil chandy’s to be published book: Fictive facts and factual fiction – the fun way for your child to be confused

Long weekend

Friday:

Take Kiarna to hospital for the second round of shots. She decides that her breakfast was inadequate and demands immediate brunch. Nurses helpful for once. Get a makeshift feeding room. Long wait for doc. See doc. Brunch not enough for Kia – very early lunch. Long wait to pay bills etc. etc. etc. Long wait to get the shots. Kia is not amused. Long wait for orthopaedic doctor. Kia filing complaints in septiclate. 3 stressed people come back home. Washing machine decides to go on strike. Dinner provided by Ajit. Phew! Kiarna decides that 3 am is a good time for play.

Saturday:
Ask for washing machine service person to make an appearance. Prompt appearance assured. Prompt appearance unfulfilled for the entirety of the day. Luiza gets a stomach bug. Gives the washing machine people a good shouting. Kia’s play time is now 2.30 am. Dinner provided by the Pauls.

Sunday:
Washing machineless but surviving. Sunil gets a stuffed up cold. Luiza’s stomach bug a bit better.

Monday:
Sunil’s cold graduates to a fever. Self-imposed exile imposed to the other bedroom.

they don’t fit

I enjoyed watching the first part of Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring) when it came out. But I missed one of the most enjoyable bits or should I say characters of the book.

Tom Bombadil.

A deep mysterious character, full of power, completely in control, yet simple, humble and rustic. Peter Jackson the director of the LOTR series it seems omitted Tom because he didn’t really add to the narrative. The narrative is not jerky or interrupted without him and his episode in the Fellowship of the Ring. Pity, because there is something really intriguing about him.

While on Wikipedia I stumbled on to this interesting article. It set me thinking (which normally is an unproductive exercise). Why is he in the story? Is his character important or is he just a concept or an ideal which many people say he was?

I chewed over it for a while and I thought…

Melchizedek.

Who appears and disappears in the space of 3 verses in the bible. (Gen 14:18-20)

some similarities…

We meet him on Abraham’s journey like the fellowship who meet Tom on theirs.

Melchizedek seems to have a timeless quality: ‘Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life…’, mirroring Tom Bombadil who was there at the beginning before the dark lord entered and Goldberry describes him as ‘he is’.

Melchizedek serves bread and wine and some of the best bits of the book are the meal times that the Hobbits have with Tom.

Melchizedek is the king of Salem meaning peace, and he doesn’t participate in the war that just took place, even though there seems to be an alignment with Abraham and his purpose. Tom also seems almost disconnected to the ring. It has no power over him and he doesn’t join the battle though he does seem aligned with the hobbits.

The only speech that Melchizedek makes is in poetic terms, and Tom Bombadil can’t help but sing all the time.

Most oddly, neither of these powerful characters seem to have anything to do with that particular story itself. They seem to come in and out of the story like a pleasant interupption. A non-comical pleaser.

So why are they there? Tom Bombadil gets a very brief mention towards the end of LOTR but we don’t really get to know about him more. Melchizedek’s character is however expanded, thousands of years later. And this gives us the clues to these mysterious characters and to the reason why they need to be in the narrative…

Melchizedek’s name reappears in the book of Psalms as a prophecy. Later Jesus quotes a portion of this Psalm. And much later the writer of Hebrews compares Jesus to Melchizedek. The mystery surrounding Melchizedek himself isn’t really cleared but we can see a bit more into his purpose within the overall story. He seems to point towards the bigger purpose of the story or the overall big picture. At interesting junctures Melchizedek’s name pops up, giving us signs to the overall scheme of things. Tom Bombadil also seems to point to the bigger picture. In the Silmarillion, (the expanded history) LOTR seems to be a rather short tale within the Big Story. But Tom is there from the beginning and will probably be there in the end, when the dark lord is finally vanquished and the second music begins.

For us who continuously flounder in the small picture, Melchizedek and Tom Bombadil give us hope that there is something more out there and that something might be truly good.

oooh scary

I had a dream that we’d died and become ghosts. So I told Kia, put on your shoes and shocks, we’re going out for Boo-berry pie and I-Scream… and as we went out, I saw Darth Vapour laughing in the distance, standing in Ghoullege, telling a student, ‘Spook when you’re spooken to’…

‘nother of those shows

did a corporate gig the other day. The inauguration of a new generator it was. So we were supposed to play a half an hour set in the beginning from 6.45 till 7.15 because the actual program was supposed to start at 7.00 but a couple of ministers were invited and since they were usually late we would fill in the time.

For some bizarre reason the minister landed up early! He was there at 6.45. Hurried consultations and the band hurriedly went on stage without their bandleader. So we started our half an hour set and stopped after 2 mins! The minister had to go to another function. Ah! it all becomes clear now. After the amazing squeezing of 30 mins into 2 everything seemed to go smoothly according to schedule. There were long welcome addresses, longer addresses, longer thankyou addresses… Phew! I like Christ college, Hosur Road, Bangalore – 29. It’s short and sweet.

The jarring bit of the evening was when various people were introduced and asked to come up on the stage, they kept playing the Star Wars theme music. It probably was a bit much for the ocassion but the players kept their part, walking past the smoke machines, and the trumpet calls. Yes, the smoke machines. These generators are supposed to be environmentally friendly, and upon this announcement for extra effect the guy at the console gave a full exhibition of his beloved smoke machine. Lovely.

Then we did our second set. Quite fun overall, because I didn’t know90% of the tunes. There were some real shaky moments but we got through.

2 images from the night.

Middle class men, with middling waists and hairlines walking with a slouch to Star Wars theme music.

A dear old gentleman slightly drunk, but good natured and good humoured getting on stage and dancing gracefully to whatever we played…