On a friend's suggestion, recently I watched the series from HBO, True detective. The story had many dimensions but I do not want to dig deep into the story. It didn't interest me. I was more intrigued by the two principal characters in this series, Rust Cohle and Marty Hart. The way these characters, their life and their thoughts about life has been defined, you can't help but see yourself as a bit in both of them. I cannot talk on behalf of the writer; I haven't read any of his interviews. But I feel this series focused on exploring the psyche of humans, the "programming" as Rust would call it, rather than the story itself.

I watched this series only once and I have only analyzed these characters as much as my programming allowed me to. But there were couple of gems that I noticed, which I wanted to talk about. Now, even the writer might not have thought about these interpretations and I might be over analyzing it. But I guess that's what good writing seeks to do. Anyway, I hope it doesn't end up like this.

The first thing to do, would be to refresh your memory about the "programming" that I was talking about. Watch this scene. In this scene, the characters and their line of thinking gets well-defined to the viewers here. Rust Cohle appears cold, brooding and unemotional. He is a rationalist; he seeks questions about life but more on the pointlessness of it. He seeks nothing, so he has excluded faith, religion or hope from his life. As for Marty Hart, he comes across as a regular bloke. A regular bloke that each one of us, think that others are. The "programming" that Rust mentions, has a meaning that is little open ended. It could be hinting at the human's quest for finding a purpose, I don't know. But one thing is clear, Rust wants to deny this programming, whereas Marty has embraced it. Marty veers off from this programming once in a while, his infidelity is a case in point. But lets look further at their conversations. After all these intense dialogues by Rust, at the fag end of the scene:

Marty: “Don’t say that! When you come over to the house, don’t say any of that shit!” 
Rust:  “Of course, man, I’m not some kind of maniac.” 

For a casual observer, Rust's dialog is a natural comeback, perhaps even funny. But I was thinking, that in the earlier exchanges between them, the writer took the pain of asserting that Rust is intense and dont-give-a-damn-what-others-think kind of guy. But here, the writer gives Rust a leeway, he is more amiable. This is interesting. I guess the ability of a rationalist to be self aware of his desire to deny his programming, is what differentiates him from a psychopath. Talking from Rust's perspective, it also seems that he transitioned himself from being a regular dude to a realist. It seems that before his kid's death, he followed his programming to the T.  And when this was disturbed, he switched to "reality". There are so many other psychological interpretations of these characters and their interactions that I am not able to consciously grasp at them to write them out on paper. If a Rust Cohle was reading this, most of it would be bull shit, but he would still nod his head in approval.  

I have always been a news addict. Since childhood.

And some time back I read this "news".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli

When I was growing up, "The Hindu" was the only source of news. I didn't watch news on TV and there was no internet.

Even when electronic news arrived, I preferred reading hard copy of "The Hindu".

But now, after coming to US, news consumption has changed for the worse. My focus has changed to NDTV, IBNLive, CNN, Google news etc. I am even addicted to watching Arnab Goswami's debates, mostly for comic relief. But that's certainly a new low.

The article says "Out of the ­10,000 news stories you may have read in the last 12 months, did even one allow you to make a better decision about a serious matter in your life".

Seriously, I don't remember one. What I remember right now are how bombs and guns are going off in USA and how shitty governance is in India.

So today, with the sacred sanctity of this blog as a sakshi, I make an oath to stop reading news for a week and then check how it has improved my life. I am sure if not anything else, I will get back a lot of time.

Gradually, I would like to shift to reading hindu.com alone. And maybe economist.

So that means, no reliance-owned media, no american news, no reddit, no checking news feeds in twitter and no quora(or  maybe a little quora)

The gushing meadows, the tittering birds,

The spraying rain, the longing pain,

The mystical mist,

The silent hope,

Where has the joy gone?

Life suddenly has turned super hectic. The first week, i fell sick just by realizing the imminent load of graduate studies. But somehow, the next couple of weeks have gone well. "Well", in a sense, that time has been managed just right. But i wish i had some breathing space.

This place is very beautiful. You can see deers straying around here akin to cattle and dogs straying in India(Obligatory Indian reference). There is a wide variety of flora and fauna. The squirrels here are so huge, fed copiously by the squirrel feeding club here. And i find a lot of these bush animals whose names i have no idea of. They just skirt past the road in a flash, evoking that rare moment of peacefulness within me.

I am beginning to like the part time job at Bursley canteen. Not few weeks i wanted to quit, but now iam beginning to enjoy it. It's probably be going to be my only job away from a PC. Well now the real reason is, i get to eat awesome unlimited amount of food for 4 bucks!