Heya! Apologies for a belated post. My house is now set and I have entered into a routine. I am reading on a lot apart from that required for my research and now that I do not have a necessary priority in terms of course work to do - my interest in politics, journalism, issues and the like is rekindling. Stuff that I had lost touch with like Indian law and politics - I am again coming back to it all, albeit quietly. Unlike before, there is no one now to discuss such stuff with, or to casually speculate or predict. Now I remember it used to be fun doing that in college days. I still don't have a subscription to a newspaper here. Must remember to get it done at the earliest. Right now I am making do with an unreliable internet connection. I have to get that fixed too.
As far as work goes at times I find it hard to keep focus. I keep losing track on exactly what I am doing - given the fact that I am very much an outsider here. Often I am surprised by my own presence. And then I go looking for myself. Remind myself of my interest and take it from there - so every other day becomes the first. The year in London was important in terms of ideas and concepts - now is the time learn the practical aspects of it all. But again, it would be great to have someone to talk these things through with. Someone senior.
As usual, when left to myself my mental compass naturally points to literature (and not human rights, much to my chagrin). I had been reading Anna Karenina - it is strangely paced - at times very slow, at others just right. I am halfway through the book but I still cannot make up my mind about a certain characters - why doesn't Tolstoy tell us more about them - often while reading I find myself wondering about the truth of these characters - Vronsky, Anna, her Husband Alexei, Levin and Kitty - half way through the book and it still feels like the curtain is still only half drawn. A couple of thoughts though. I have always been enchanted with strong-willed women - and that's why I like Anna. And yet, to not been taken further into the countenance of her mind and what she is actually going on there, instead to be simply told what she is doing leads me both - to take this book up and to put this book down. (In contrast - how beautifully Charlotte Bronte elucidated Jane Eyre's mind. I am still hopeful though.)
Another book I am reading in between is A Short History of Nearly Everything and I don't know what to make of it because whatever I learn I forget in no time. I do enjoy it. And it is a very very easy read - given that it is all about Science.
PS: I am joining Spanish classes. Declaring it here to make me really go and enroll myself.
