because

Because a close friend said that the Ondaatje poem had left a funny feeling in her , that lasted all day. Viva good literature! Death to drivel!

Because I always wanted to talk about Anil's Ghost and indeed propose to re-read it for the fifth time today. (I never understand people who say that they cannot re-read a novel, who gain about 90% of the book in the first reading). How can anyone love a book then? I find it truly incomprehensible.

Because I found another Indian literary blog today that celebrates Ondaatje amongst others. Because he has never written a false note, incoherent though as it may be. Because he is an excavator, first and foremost. Because his writing yields most after intensive study and can never be read without drowning.

Because Aldous Huxley, once, long ago saw Sri Lanka as a model for utopia and not the dystopia that it has become. Because no one else records Sri Lanka as Ondaatje does. Because I saw him and fell in love with a voice. Because I want to, and don't want to, live at this pitch for the rest of my life and then, drop dead.