Books I have loved in 2008

It's so hard to keep track of all the books that I have read and loved in this year..but I am trying to put in names as and when they come to me..I just LOVED reading 'The Case of Exploding Mangoes'. its brilliant dark humor had me enthralled, and the book also had one of the most tender depiction of homosexual love that I had come across in the recent times. I was laughing hysterically at many places, and also felt saddened at the fate of a country spinning so dangerously out of control. 

confessions

So the question that I am invariably asked by people these days is ' so how are you liking Delhi?' And frankly, when I look inside myself for an answer I draw a blank. It's strange but my mind remains blank when I think of the city..no emotions..

But I have a confession to make..the city's mall crowd makes me nervous..everyone's so fashionably turned up, in all the latest winter fashion, with matching boots and cardigans, that I end up like an absolute fashion reject walking down every evening in front of the N block market in my over-used brown salwar, black shawl, and scarf wound tightly around my head since I can't take too much of the cold wind that blows across my face. I look at women alighting out of their big silver cars, lovely tote bags on shoulder, a cell pressed tightly to one ear, not even a wisp of that shiny jet black hair out of place, and confidently striding across to the innumerable shops and watering holes that dot N market..and I am once again missing my Cal crowd, with their fashion-may-not-care attitude that mixes and matches anything under the sun, with their loud chatter, and in that moment I know that I don't belong here

ah..the smell of a new book

I was just returning from work when I thought I'll just peep in at Full Circle, the bookshop at GK 1 with the most fabulous book collection in Delhi. And then I saw the bookrack displaying 'The Private Patient', the latest Adam Dalgliesh murder mystery novel, and my heart did a billion summersaults...it coudnt' be true, could it, that PD James has finished one more AD novel (bless her, she's 88)? And it was that single act of going inside the shop and paying Rs.695 for the book that changed the contour of that evening..I was deliriously happy, and quite tempted to shout from rooftops 'I am the queen of the world'..and it was then that my reaction caught me by surprise..what is it about books that gives me such unadulterated pleasure that it can lift an otherwise mundane day into a memorable one? 

What I have understood since then is that books tell me that even if everything in my life goes wrong, i'll still have them to return to, to live them, to smell them, and to experience them. They are probably also the only ones where I'll find answers to my queries which will help me to make sense of the life I lead

zombie

I am in an abolsute unblogging state of mind ever since I have come to Delhi...it's certainly not that I don't have anything to blog about..there was so much that I could just write about my London trip and that itself would fill ages, but it's just that I can't bring myself to type out my thoughts anymore.

Leaving

I hate packing, more so because it reminds me how much stuff I have accumulated over the years that needs to go when I move houses, localities, cities..I like to think of myself as mobile, unencumbered by mundane realities of sorting and packing your stuff and worrying about ever being able to transport so much stuff into another city. But in a way packing for me is also a task loaded with meaning..it means that I am wiping off my existence of ever having lived in that apartment..though I did live there for two years and loved every minute of it. But the moment I am out of the house, it's going to get a makeover with walls being cleaned and whitewashed, the holes made in the walls to put up photos plugged in, the dark circles left on the kitchen floor by my microwave swept clean..it's like I have never been..

Anyways, on another note it's yet to sink that I am out of this city, at least for the next couple of years..seems like I am off on one of my tours, albeit a bit lengthy this time. But soon, very soon, it'll be time to call another city my home, however metaphorically. I hate it when people leave, and yet here I am am, doing the same

The List

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER?

Has been really long, but it was probably 'Khela' by Rituparno. Stupid, and over-simplfied.

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?

The Dumas Club by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and my usual dose of chick-lit. Yes, I read them, especially in my dark moments, besides Murakami.

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

Ludo and Scrabble.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

None really.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?

The smell that comes from my mother's sarees, smell of wet earth, the smell of Johnson Baby Powder on my nephew, and the smell of new books.

6. FAVORITE SOUND?

My nephew trying to speak.

7.WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

There are so many...it'll run into pages.

8.FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP?

is it morning ALREADY?

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?

Gariahta roll joints.

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?

????

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT.If I had a lot of money I would....not hold a job to earn a living but do things that I really want to do in life.

12.DO YOU DRIVE FAST?

Can't drive and don't wish to learn.

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

used to. not any more.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?

Cool, of course.

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?.

Our first car is a Maruti.

16. FAVORITE DRINK?

cold coffee made by my husband.

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT,"IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD....Forget

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Dont eat broccoli

.19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Yellow?

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.

Kolkata, Bombay, Vasco in Goa, and soon, Delhi

.21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

football only when it's being played by at least 11 drop-dead gorgeous men.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.

Noone sent me this.

:P23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?

Luggage.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?

No. It would be too boring, repeating the same mistakes twice in a row!

.25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?

night owl, obviously.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?.

Sunny Side

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?

my bed.

.28. FAVORITE PIE?

Apple.

29.FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?

vanilla

Pujor Kolkata

Kolkata just before Durga Pujo is a different ball game. The sun is mellower, the air is less poisonous, even the ramshacle public buses spewing black smoke at other times take on a kindlier disposition. The air hangs heavy with expectations: of notun jama, notun juto, notun thakur, notun pandal, notun prem. The city is also at its glittering best during these few days....most street lights draped in swathes of red-colored tuni bulbs. The people are also a little happier and shinier, less angrier, more accepting of others and of themselves. But the best part is probably the sky which spends a better part of the year in various shades of grey, but turns an amazing shade of blue with white flaky clouds adding just that touch of contrast. in Bengal, and elsewhere with Bengalis, pujo is also the occasion for getting together as a para or neighbourhood, and unleash one's creative potential on unsuspecting neighbours. Pujo is the time to drop one's single status and finally take that long-planned plunge. Pujo is the time to showcase one's changing (and more daring) tastes in clothes, and spend endless hours on deciding whther it will be the backless choli or the micro-mini with matching stilletoes or both.

a perfect life

Just now I was chatting with this old collegemate of mine. Then in response to something said by her, I responded: "some people have perfect lives, but you and me:we are not that lucky .' And then in response to that she said something that startled me. She said 'Not you babe.You have a perfect life'. It struck me then how we view each other through different lenses, how my life appears to be a 'perfect' one to someone, while left to myself, I would hardly categorise it as one. How can people's views of the same thing differ so greatly? Is it because it is not possible for someone else to ever know what is happening in another person's life unless one has lived through the experiences herself?
Or is it that my life actually is 'perfect' except that I am too busy chroincling the imperfections?

Poetry on Feminism

Have been really really crazily busy for the last one week.. still haven't updated feedbacks on the movies and the books I read (Vikas Swarup's 6 Suspects is the latest one) and the play I saw (Tagore's Chaturanga) ..but just thought of a quick upload on this banner that caught my attention today. It was an ad for one of the sarees, posted on the back of an auto. It showed a demure girl displaying a saree, and on top it was written 'Poetry on Feminism'. It was supposed to be an advert for the saree brand.

weekend

Generally I love weekends..in fact I am so downright crazy about them that I spend all my weekdays in planning out the best way of spending those two precious days. However, the last couple of weekends have been pretty taxing with the whole family away in Delhi. In fact. last Saturday was a sheer torture....in the end I returned back to my office work to help me pass time. As you get older you realsie that all the people whom you used to know in school and college have either moved abroad (90% of my college and university friends have) or they are too busy with their respective careers and families to have an unplanned weekend in hand. But this weekend I am rather well-prepared..I have 4 movies to watch: two by Wong Kar Wai, Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn (it may seem strange but I am a big fan of him. I thing he's an abolutely fascinating actor, especially after watching him in Mystic River and I am Sam) , and also a movie that I have been wanting to watch ever since I read the book: Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl, a look at the life of Anne Boleyn. It's always tricky converting a book into a film, and there hardly have been instances where the film has improved upon the book (case in point The Kite Ruuner, the most recent literary adaptation that I have seen). So watch this space for my feedbacks. Oh and not forgetting the 3 books that I have lined up..The Dumas Club, The Bad Mother's Handbook and the Cairo Diary.

What a circus!

I have been following the US presidential election nominations with a lot of interest. Anyday the drama produced between only TWO contesting parties can beat the hell out of our very own Ekta Kapoor. First it was this whole race versus gender issue, which got to show that ambitious women in politics are still a strict no-no in the US. And now we have Sarah Palin, the REpublican VP nominee. And what does she come up with? Getting her 17 year old daughter to give birth to her child and marry the father of the baby!! My god..is this US for real? It seems so much like India, where having a child without wedlocks still hasn't got the social sanction. But what was Mrs Palin thinking when she released her public statement on her daughter's pregnancy? Just because her party has a stand against abortion, and Palin herself is a member of a pro-life group called Feminists for Life, can she let that dictate the choices that her daughter's life must make? What's the point in burdening your 17 year old with the care of another child, and then, on top of that, get her married as well? What did the daughter feel when she found out that she was preganant? Did she want to have a baby at 17? No one knows. Bringing another life into this planet, and being responsible for his/her upbringing and well-being is a damn tough job at any age, and making a 17 year old do that....and being married at 18...burdening your child's life with your belief system is the cruellest thing that a prent can do.

I tried posting Google Adsense on my Blog, and I was instantly filled with mortification..do I want to make money out of something I love? Am I getting too commercialised? Have removed it since then.

What I want

I saw this somewhere on the Net and the words really struck a chord... a list of things I want/don't want...
I remember happier times… when little things brought me much joy
I don't want to be a lot of the person I am today….
I want a life where I can be truly happy and content
I wonder if true happiness ever does exist
I have forgotten but never forgiven
know too much about life to not be jaded and cynical
I wish I was a born in a fairytale…
I won't ever stop fighting for what I think is right
I hope that people will learn to co exist in a more harmonious less cannibalistic manner
I try to live up to my expectation but fail constantly…
At timers I desire luxury and a deccadent lifestyle
I choose to be who I am.. to do what I do.. and face the consequences..

Gulzar..

Aao fir koi nazm kahein,
fir kisi dard ko sahla ke suja lein ankhen,
fir kisi dukhti rag se chhua de nashtar,
ya kisi bhooli huee raah pe mudkar,
ek baar naam lekar kisi humnaam ko aawaaz hi dein lein,
aao fir koi nazm kahein...

Loved this poem..

I loved this poem..can anyone help me with locating the poet?

sedin ami rod e snan kore elum...
ek jhank sheeter thanda hayoa podmobil er jol chuye
pheesh phees kore gelo amar kane...
"onek din por dekha...khobor sob bhalo to?"
Ek jora raj hansh ghar bekiye aar chokhey dekhe gelo...
"chena chena thekche jeno!!!"
"A molo ja!!!
ei to sedin ghure gelum...
kada r opor hete hete,
kopai paarey ese chilum.
er modhyei bhule gele!!!"

ashomoy er brishti bheja ekta dupur mone elo...
rosh er khoje beriye chilum...
adibashi gramer pothey...
ek fali kopai niye khela korlum...
6 ta manush...

Kopai ekhon ghumer ghorey...
jol beshi nei...
kuyasha-r lep muri diye ghum ghum chokhey
takiye olpo ektu hashlo...
oi ek phali hashi te onek kotha bola chilo...
amio ek phali mridu heshey,
alto kore oke chuye, firey elum
lal mati r poth ta dhore...

roddur e snan kore
poushali akash tate mele dilum
ichche dana...
podmo bil er dharey rekhe elum
ek mutho shukno pata.

La Vita Nuova

La Vita Nuova

In that book which is
My memory . . .
On the first page
That is the chapter when
I first met you
Appear the words . . .
Here begins a new life

~ Dante Alighieri

Would you date a guy like this?

Would you like to date a guy who says that Akbar was the last Mughal king? And that the Brahmaputra is a river in Punjab? And that Lal Bahadur Shashtri was the first president of independent India? Would you find it ridiculous that a guy could get to be 23, know all the dating tricks and still take about 5 minutes to figure out how many hours are there in 300 minutes? I do. I find this absolutely ridiculous and incredible.
But am I getting old, and therefore setting my standards too high? Otherwise how could someone else find him date-worthy, so much so that he is the winner of a dating reality show? Guess it's just me growing old and getting nostalgic for the kind of guys I grew up with!!

The Big Fight

Yesterday I watched The Big Fight on NDTV (on decriminalising Article 377), and I was absolutely amazed at the level of homophobia which was being showcased on prime-time television by some of the participants. In addition to the usual bluster about gays needing to be redeemed through religious compassion, and about Bharatiya Sanskriti, what caught my attention was some of the other points being bandied about..like scrapping 377 would lead to pedophilia, spread of venereal diseases, brothels in every corner and what not. They all made it seem like a disease or at best a habit that one can kick off with enough counseling. OH and I made another discovery yesterday, that lesbianism isn't a crime in India, in the sense 'unnatural offences' were in 377, simply because the British in the 19th century couldn't imagine that such acts could take place between two women as well..
But anyways, I think we Indians are intolerant in nature, intolerant of anyone who doesn't live his/her life in the prescribed format of the society

Peanuts

Why do I love reading 'Peanuts' so much? Probably because it goes so well with the morbid part of my character. I have been doing some research on Wikipedia on this, and one critic puts it that through his characters, "[Schulz] brought... humor to taboo themes such as faith, intolerance, depression, loneliness, cruelty and despair."
Charlie Brown's main characteristic is either self-defeating stubbornness or admirable determined persistence to try his best against all odds: he can never win a ballgame but continues playing baseball; he can never fly a kite successfully but continues trying to do so. One recurring theme in the strip is Charlie Brown's Little League baseball team, the Saint Paul Saints. Charlie Brown is the manager of the team and, usually, its pitcher, with the other characters of the strip comprising the rest of the team. Charlie Brown is a terrible pitcher, often giving up tremendous hits which either knock him off the mound or leave him with only his shorts on. The team itself is also poor, with only Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy being particularly competent. Because of this, the team consistently loses. However, while the team is often referred to as "win-less", it does win at least 10 games over the course of the strip's run, most of these when Charlie Brown is not playing.
Does it seem familiar?

I was channel surfing on a clear Saturday morning out of sheer desperation when a serial on this new channel 'COLORS' caught my attention, and I sat through it absolutely fascinated. I am not much of a television person, but the bouts of human cruelty unfolding on the screen in front of me kept me hooked. It was one of those zillion soaps doing the rounds aajkal, and the story starts with a bahu's first day at her sasural. One whole episode was spent on depicting how her saas and sasur, and the elder bahu plotted on making her life miserable in such a clever manner so that the poor girl had no idea what was happening with her.
The entire episode was so brutal in its execution of harassment towards the girl that I was shocked and hooked. Do misery, exploitation and meaningless vengefulness on screen have their own share of worshipers so that even when you know what's happening on screen is absolutely immoral and unethical you still can't bring yourself to pull the plug? As a nation, are we in love with the idea of torturing and humiliating unsuspecting souls? Otherwise what can explain the popularity of such shows whose only reason for existence seem to be deriving sadistic pleasures?

My first blog

Yesssss.....I have finally done it..created a blog for myself..after endless months of hemming, and hawing and dragging my feet over it, suddenly here I am, on a slow Saturday morning, finally managing to catch that elusive bit of free time. I hope I continue to keep updating..it's difficult to find things that hold my interest for a time longer than a month..