There's something very sexy about Russian surnames. They sound the way they look. Specially the ladies. But we aren't here to think about Russians. Nor people of any country as such, per say. Are we?
I went to the library a couple of days ago. I know....I know.. I have already started to sound intellectual and all. It feels pretty good to sound like an intellectual for a change, you know? It's like this. Once, somewhere in a blue moon, you happened to visit the college library and this 'someone' caught you 'red handed'. NO, you weren't stealing a book!! Being in a library is a crime of sorts, I guess. It so happens that the next time there was a blue moon, you happen to visit the library for some special occasion and the same 'someone' caught you. Now this 'someone' thinks that you are a nerd. So he/she calls out to you and says(forgetting the 'Maintain silence' board), "oh, so now you are 'THE' nerd". You blush happily, inside out, with the thoughts of being a nerd in your own head(I know exactly how good you feel when someone calls you a nerd! Don't hide it!), until that is, if you just came to pay the fine on some book you lost about a year ago.
By the way, I just went to the library...literally just like that. No, I don't have a girlfriend, with whom I can chat endlessly.... Damn! I shouldn't have mentioned that! Don't ask me why..Even I don't know why..
Okay! So I finally go to the library in search of this one book on something.. WOW! Brilliant. Now I forgot what the book was I was searching for. Yeah, I actually went to the library and forgot what I was going to look for. But it's a library. Awesomeness is quite literally being shot at you in this place. You'll eventually get hit by it unless you are wearing an 'Awesomeness-proof' outfit. I am still not sure if that protects your backside, though.
So after forgetting what I was looking for (Which, for some reason reminds me of a U2 song), I just took a stroll around the place. Okay, I was jobless! First I noticed this book on Bio-Mechanics. Yeah, it sounds like rocket science. Most will stop reading after the previous line. So moving on, at least for the ones who remain. The book was called 'Occupational Bio-mechanics'. It's like a product isn't just designed with 'task-efficiency' in mind. It needs to be easy to use. Look at a pair of scissors. Not only do they have to cut stuff up properly, they also need to do so without causing discomfort to your fingers(Duh!). Same with a hack-saw, hand-saw, even the chairs we rest our arse on. Remember the ones that hurt the bottom? Obviously poor design. Hah! But we know all this, don't we? What seems so obviously trivial has quite a number of heads behind it....or under it(our arse), in case of the chair. All of that, the designing, the modelling and the finished product, it's efficiency, it all comes packaged neatly under two terms(daunting looking, although) called 'occupational Bio-Mechanics'.
I just leafed through the book. As awesome as it was, frankly speaking, it was a bit too big to carry around. So I kept it back after about 15-20 minutes of picking it up. Then I wandered about a bit more.....And a bit more. By the way, I had a train to catch at about 6:30 pm. It was already about 4:15 pm. All of a sudden, I ran into this book(actually a set of them) that looked familiar. Not that I had borrowed them before.
A senior of mine had showed me these books that lay somewhere in the overlooked corners of the library. This senior of mine has a penchant for rare things. I won't mention the book's title. That's because anyone in his right mind wouldn't leave this book in the library for anyone else to issue. Basically, it will become difficult for me to get my hands on this book in the future. But I seriously doubt that, given that in the past 30 odd years(By the way, the book came to the library, somewhere between 79(1979) and 85. ), the book has been issued only twice before, that too, just a few month ago. And surprisingly, I know both the people who could have issued the book. Talk about serendipity! It looked it's age. An off whitish hardbound cover gave a hint of it's white glory, that hasn't yet left it. But it looks mundane. It is supposed to look mundane, thankfully. Frankly speaking, any lay man(anyone who saw the book's tittle), who saw me with the book would have taken me for a lunatic. Not because the book was titled 'How-to-become-a-psycho-and-not-let-anyone-know-about-it', but they would never think I had any business with it. Never mind, so much for others! I picked up the book, went out trotting happily. Now, a bit about the book.
-It's not available online.. like most stuff nowadays. Sadly. One needs to really dig deep in old book stalls for this one
-It's publication stopped roughly 2 decades ago.
-In the 90's, these were available for about 5 bucks a piece..Yess!! Rs. 5! One can't buy a notebook in Rs. 5! (those little palm sized note-pads don't count!!).
-And...Yes, the guy behind it is a Russian.
-If you have a decent enough imagination, stuff given in these books will look like miracles taking tangible form!!!
A few Russian books have already given me a lot of pain, trouble and sense of accomplishment in the past, specially when I could solve stuff from books like 'Irodov', 'Ivanov' and 'Krotov'.
But again, all of it isn't about/for libraries or Russian stuff. It's just about the 'awesomeness-proof-jacket' and how it can help generations pass through stuff under ignorance. Throw it away! For good! Okay... I guess 'Bonnie and Clyde' just got downloaded! Yaay!
P.S.
By the way, the book is titled 'I.I. Artobolevsky-Mechanisms in Modern Engineering Design, Volumes I-V'
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