life under a ceiling fan…

Something I wrote earlier this year in Ghana – inspired by D’s “staring at the ceiling fan and remembering someone” dialogue

While others might think if they should hang themselves by their ceiling fan at times of desperation, he is always worried about the ceiling fan dropping on to him while he sleeps on his queen-sized bed below it. So obviously he doesn’t contemplate hanging himself by the fan, for he knows it wouldn’t take his weight and he would just make a fool of himself. He doesn’t know why the room hasn’t got just a single bed in it, which he could have moved to a corner away from the fan but it wasn’t his house, nor was it his decision to furnish it.

The fan has to be kept running all night else he wouldn’t be able to sleep, one thing he can sleep with is the low humming noise of the fan, everything else would have woken him up, but not his fan; as if its humming is his lullaby. But still he is probably subconsciously aware even in his sleep that the fan might drop on to him spinning its blades at mid-level rotation. And its no wonder that he pushes everything on to the side directly below the fan and lies himself on the other edge. If he was sleeping like this during his childhood, he would definitely have fallen over from the bed, but he is an adult now and his body is probably used to being on the edge – edge of the bed to start with, but also edge of the relations and relationships, edge of the society, edge of the country, edge of this world even.

Best time to write?

I’ve always wondered what could be the best time to write. When I’m involved in academic writing, it eventually boils down to the dreaded “deadlines” – so time could be noon or midnight, Friday afternoon or Monday morning – until I am at the point when I start worrying about the deadline, I don’t write, and when that dreaded deadline approaches, time or day doesn’t matter, I just write, I HAVE TO WRITE! Whether I WANT to write, or am in a MOOD to write is a different matter altogether.

Now writing (or rather musing) like this don’t have deadlines, and I don’t HAVE to write if I don’t want to. This “option” instead of “deadlines” to write means I rarely write – write proper I mean. Its always easy to find excuses not to write it seems, and I wouldn’t choose but the easier option. But then once in a while you are in a “mood” to write, you want to write, and you just sit down and start writing. This mood-to-write is a rarity these days, but there are days and times it occurs and I have to write even when I don’t have to. Its 0400 hrs as I type these lines, and I “want” to write. Doesn’t matter what I write, as long as I write something, I’ll feel good about “writing” (the process counts and not the outcome!).

…ing

I think there is a bank or some finance company with that name, ing (or ING in caps), but given what is going on with the financial sector this year, I don’t think I should venture into that area…better left that with the experts. What I had in mind when I typed those three letters on the title was more interesting (or may be mundane to many) “ing”s from the web world – such as google-ing, f’buk-ing (or facebook-ing to save myself from someone’s wrath!), flickr-ing, twitter-ing, and so on and so forth. Unconsciously it seems I’ve just listed these “ing”s on the order that I most use.

Google-ing has become ubiquitous with web use, and my online presence starts with opening gmail and ends with closing it! In between google is the preferred search engine, google news summarises the news, google ((btw, isn’t “google” supposed to have been added to dictionary officially? my spell-checker tells me I have made spelling error on it! And gives me suggested words like “googol”, “goggle”, “go-ogle” (my fav) and “go ogle”!!)) map provides the directions (and terrain and satellite images), google scholar searches for academic works, google calendar keeps me on schedule (sms notification is great!), and google documents mean i can open the ms office attachments without having to download them locally, and even edit them and send them back all from within the web browser! And it doesn’t end there either, I have google mail setup on mobile which means all I need is mobile network coverage, and I’m google-ing! Well, enough of google-ing now…

As seen somewhere in northern Ghana

as time goesflies by

Time: Practically Sunday night, Technically Monday morning – 01:15 hrs (GMT)
Location: Tamale
State of Mind: Unknown
Playing in Background: Andrea Bocelli (Vivere – The Best of Andrea Bocelli)
Reason for Staying Awake: Got 2 hours of good sleep earlier before being woken up by some noise outside the house (party people returning from the club it seems!)
Reason for not being able to go back to sleep: Unknown
Current activity (other than typing): Observing two (very quick) spiders running around the entire length and breadth of the room – worried they might climb on to the bed…worry unfounded so far!
Inspiration for this entry: Mr Witt’s comment on the previous post, which I just saw on my mailbox (checked on mobile phone, yea I know I’m a tech-savvy person! And I can already feel some people thinking “what a “mapain” this fella is!?!” )
Time since last post: 1 month +
Anything special about this Sunday?: None except that today was the day for my anti-malarial, which I took in timely manner with food in the morning! Oh, no side effects for me as far as I can tell. This staying-up-late has nothing to do with medicine I’m sure (well, I hope!).
In Short: I’m alive and doing well!!

the week that was…

Work without end, struggle without work
It wasn’t my plan to set off with an unfinished paper in hand (on computer rather), but thats was happened. I could probably find many “genuine” excuses but the most genuine of all the excuses – and which isn’t really an excuse – is my excessive procrastination. In any case, the first weekend in Ghana without uninterrupted internet connection (with BBC worldservice to keep company instead) has certainly helped me spend more time reading and writing, not to mention thinking (and not just about work and research at that!). I’ve finished the unfinished paper (or so I think) and have just managed to make “electronic submission” of the manuscript (phew, after nearly two hours of uploading files – not that I had that many files, the “broadband” connection was just not broad enough!). So,the week that was, the week has been one of relative success.

But that’s only half the story! Beginning at the university in York, trying to sort administrative nightmares, ending at the university in Tamale, trying to sort administrative nightmares, the week that was, the week has been one of immense frustration. Beginning at the airport in London, ending at the airport in Tamale – getting away with heavy baggage in London, having to pay extra for “excess baggage” in Accra, the week that was, the week has been one of partial travel woes. Reading The Enchantress of Florence – beginning on the last night in York, continuing during a night in Accra, then during the laziness of the daytime Tamale, the week that was, the week has been one of a fascinating read.

Lets talk about the “struggle to work” now, or rather the culture of work/work ethic. Arriving in Ghana, one thing you pretty quickly realise is that West (or North more appropriately) makes you too impatient. Things here take time to get done, they always take time. If you have an appointment with your local colleague at nine in the morning and s/he doesn’t turn up until 11:30, you shouldn’t be surprised that much. As long as s/he turns up before noon, s/he will feel proud at the fact that s/he made it to the meeting in the “morning”, which was what was agreed after all – to meet in the morning. It doesn’t matter what time in the morning, as long as its in the morning, the person hasn’t missed the appointment! You would think being a Nepali, I shouldn’t be too impatient as Ghana-time is more like Nepali-time when it comes to appointments, but being that Nepali who is now more and more living in a limbo between various cultures, its often difficult to decide how to react. At the end you don’t really have much option than to go with the flow and have things done the Ghanaian way, or rather let things happen than trying too hard to make things happen knowing all well that all your efforts could be better spent in other ways!

If somebody tells you a certain thing will get done that week then it usually means things will be ready before the office starts on Monday the next week. Don’t discount the weekends though – if things need to be done at all cost that week, weekend could be used as well. But don’t expect the job to be done by Friday though, two days of weekend are very important, albeit being public holidays.

However, there is one trick that I have realised works fairly well in these situations, be it in Nepal or Ghana – take the lead yourself, get your hands dirty, show by example, and embarrass those delaying the work. They would then have no option but to follow your lead.