In the past few months I have been regularly urged by various men and forced by one to read various blogs. I don't yet understand the utility of blogs but have started blogging lest I miss an important socio-cultural phenomena of my times. Which makes me wonder. What percentage of our actions are dictated by the logic , "Everyone does it"?

I was trying to think of a tone for my blogs. As in most things I am undecided. There are too many things. Project, job search, MBA entrance exams preparation, things imperative to final year undergrad education at IIT.

I saw a flower fall from a tree right outside my hostel room window today. This is a champa (Plumera alba) tree, and champa flowers are divinely fragrant. It is nothing special but its the first time I noticed. the fall was simple, very quite. It was not caused by a gust of wind, there wasn't even a breeze. And no bird had flown off or settled onto the tree. There was no rain and the october sun in Delhi is unusally mellow this time around. simply the flowers time had come. My time too has come, it seems, to get away from IIT, I no longer find joy in the various events of IIT life and wish to get away even in the knowledge that most who go away wish they never had to.

I have been reading a book, 'The Name of the Rose' by Umberto Eco. I have often heard vaguely about the dark ages in europe when there was no learning, a great deal of superstition, fights between the church and kings, inquisitions. It is the first time that I have come across a novel that is set in the dark ages. It fleshes out the vague impressions. Another thing, the book doesn't feel like it has been written in the late twentieth century. The descriptions are so long, the language is winding. A church entrace is described in four pages. It seems more like a victorian novel. I am enjoying it thouroughly though. More about it when I finish.

This would be it for my first post. To Anant who has forced me into, what Mann has just called an extremely "vela" activity.

Achal