Of L.P. and Sands...

No I haven't become so numb...

But I love this line from this great song by the masters of Nu Metal. Linkin Park, as great bands go, isn't the BEST... But it definitely has a presence, and a commanding one at that.

It's a dull boring Saturday. I hate Saturdays. One more day added to the list of Mondays and Sundays to aggravate my misery. I'm at a dead end with my software project... This will mean that I’m not in any mood to handle any messy programming on my part. It'll just have to wait till Monday. I'll dump it all on my supervisor's lap... (I hope... ha!!!)

But what do I do TODAY!!!???

I've got a couple of loose ends I need to see to. Meet somebody maybe, maybe not. All that matters to me is doing something, seeing something, hearing something that will make this day into a better experience. Earlier, like in second year of college, and before that, I used to wake up on a Saturday morning full of hope and expectation... It used to be an off day.

Guess the charm wore off pretty quick.

I remember there's a part in Antoine de St. Exupery's "Little Prince" when the little prince goes to see a fox. The fox is hiding at the edge of the farmers' fields. The fox says to the Little Prince that all the farmers celebrate today as their holiday and go to drink together. That day the fox lays waste to their fields. The little prince is surprised. The farmers can surely leave somebody behind to guard the crops... right?
The fox explains that people have a strange tendency to enjoy and respect, to cherish something as long as it is in short supply...

As long as they are accustomed to having that particular thing on special/rare occasions, they respect it. Once it is a matter of fact thing for them, it loses its value in their perception.

The fox says all this in the context of holidays... If every day was a Sunday, the farmers wouldn't feel like celebrating. But since they work all week and get one day to enjoy themselves, they don't mind about the fox eating up their crops.

What happened later was that the fox got 'tamed' by the Little Prince.

And when it was time for the Little Prince to return, the fox was deeply moved. And he explained his 'taming' in the same context as he had explained the farmers' holiday phenomenon.

It was a very moving experience for me. Now I realize that at the tender age of 11 I had read one of the most important pieces of literature ever written.

I cried copiously at the Little Prince's return. And I got a phobia of sand into the bargain...
I still don't understand it.

Hail LP!!!

(The Little Prince)