As soon as my boss saw the book, Midnight’s Children, on my desk, he snapped saying, “Oh! Come on; don’t say you are reading that crap. If you are, I bet you won’t cross 30 pages.” But he was wrong, I crossed 50 pages. Here, I am compelled to say that, it is not an easy read. Forget those unknown words, that don’t matter at all. The problem is with the concept and the sentence formation, to be precise, the narration. When I say problem, I am not representing, the whole lot book readers. It is just my problem.
And after 50 pages, I had enough of his complex words and sentences and of course, the imagination. I cannot stand the perforated sheet and the Humming Bird. Finally, yesterday, I dumped it. I may return, later. Not now for sure!
I started reading Istanbul, Memories Of A City, today.
It is raining a lot here in Singapore. No day has passed in this week without an hour of rain. The usual, hot-and-humid annoying air has given way for cool-and-misty enjoyable climate. Suddenly, Telok Blangah looks like Camaroon Highlands. The chillness of the floor passes through my feet, as I step off my bed in the morning. Certainly, I miss Camaroon Highlands and Kodaikanal. And again I am compelled to say that, I have never been to Ooty.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Whatsitsname, ah!, Sarcasm
Sometimes, I feel like, Rushdie deserves Fatwa. No. I haven’t read his Shame or Fury. But I have read The Ground Beneath Her Feet and now, reading – for a second time, though at first time I wouldn’t say, I read. I just flew through the pages, for no apparent reason! – Midnight’s Children. This time, I have to admit, I am enjoying it thoroughly. I always wonder where in the world he keeps all these words. Both the novels – The Ground Beneath Her Feet, is a first-class word galore! – use lot of unknown words, atleast for me. Again, No, don’t be silly, the Fatwa is not for using unknown words.
And then sometimes, I feel like, I love him, for his way of criticism. How in the world, he finds such sarcastic comments over anything and everything he sees or come in contact with. Being sarcastic is too bad, when the sarcasm is false. But he is right, at times, very right, indeed!
I can quote a lot from his books, but this thought – that urged me to write it down – popped up, after I read these lines in Midnights Children.
The twin hearts of her kingdom were her kitchen and her pantry. I never entered the former, but remembered staring through the pantry's locked screen doors at the enigmatic world within, a world of hanging wire baskets covered with linen cloths to keep out the flies, of tins which I knew to be full of gur and other sweets, of locked chests with neat square labels, of nuts and turnips and sacks of grain, of goose eggs and wooden brooms. Pantry and kitchen were her inalienable territory; and she defended them ferociously. When she was carrying her last child, my aunt Emerald, her husband offered to relieve her of the chore of supervising the cook. She did not reply; but the next day, when Aziz approached the kitchen, she emerged from it with a metal pot in her hands and barred the doorway. She was fat and also pregnant, so there was not much room left in the doorway. Aadam Aziz frowned. 'What is this, wife?' To which my grandmother answered, 'This, whatsitsname, is a very heavy pot; and if just once I catch you in here, whatsitsname, I'll push your head into it, add some dahi, and make, whatsitsname, a korma.' I don't know how my grandmother came to adopt the term whatsitsname as her leitmotif, but as the years passed it invaded her sentences more and more often. I like to think of it as an unconscious cry for help… as a seriously meant question. Reverend Mother was giving us a hint that, for all her presence and bulk, she was adrift in the universe. She didn't know, you see, what it was called.
- An excerpt from Midnights Children.
And then sometimes, I feel like, I love him, for his way of criticism. How in the world, he finds such sarcastic comments over anything and everything he sees or come in contact with. Being sarcastic is too bad, when the sarcasm is false. But he is right, at times, very right, indeed!
I can quote a lot from his books, but this thought – that urged me to write it down – popped up, after I read these lines in Midnights Children.
The twin hearts of her kingdom were her kitchen and her pantry. I never entered the former, but remembered staring through the pantry's locked screen doors at the enigmatic world within, a world of hanging wire baskets covered with linen cloths to keep out the flies, of tins which I knew to be full of gur and other sweets, of locked chests with neat square labels, of nuts and turnips and sacks of grain, of goose eggs and wooden brooms. Pantry and kitchen were her inalienable territory; and she defended them ferociously. When she was carrying her last child, my aunt Emerald, her husband offered to relieve her of the chore of supervising the cook. She did not reply; but the next day, when Aziz approached the kitchen, she emerged from it with a metal pot in her hands and barred the doorway. She was fat and also pregnant, so there was not much room left in the doorway. Aadam Aziz frowned. 'What is this, wife?' To which my grandmother answered, 'This, whatsitsname, is a very heavy pot; and if just once I catch you in here, whatsitsname, I'll push your head into it, add some dahi, and make, whatsitsname, a korma.' I don't know how my grandmother came to adopt the term whatsitsname as her leitmotif, but as the years passed it invaded her sentences more and more often. I like to think of it as an unconscious cry for help… as a seriously meant question. Reverend Mother was giving us a hint that, for all her presence and bulk, she was adrift in the universe. She didn't know, you see, what it was called.
- An excerpt from Midnights Children.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Not a Secret Anymore!
Sometimes you will be careful. Even Geetha (Not my friend. But Bagavat Geetha) says, what ever happens is for good. Yes. But sometimes things are out of your dirty littlle hand. We try to catch it, we do action well. We may feel like we are holding it. We may even feel like we had it in ourselves all along. But still like air, it will elude us. Like BinLaden. We will never get hold of air, can we? Even if we catch it, we cannot prove it, can we really?
What happened is, I should have gone to sleep, at least now, with this cold and cough. But the Cine-maniac inside me wanted to see The Departed for upteenth time. I selected the VOB file and played using VLC Media player. But after I saw Decaprio, I cannot control myself. I wanted a mustache like him. That’s where all started. Now I regret, earnestly.
At first I was going alright and yeah, in line. After all I just have to cut short my mustache, like Decaprio. I did it. But suddenly I got a call in my cell phone and now am doing a double duty. Result over-enthusiastic-me, cut a lump under nose. I became anti-hitler, at least in mustache. What can I do after that? What other options do I have?
Get rid of the mess or mustache or what ever you name it, that thing you got under your nose, shouted Charming-Me. So I got rid of.
PS:
Honestly, for this story, do you think it is fair to drag Bagavath Geetha and Hitler? Nazis, if they exist as they do in The Seventh Secret written by Irving Wallace will feel so upset.
What happened is, I should have gone to sleep, at least now, with this cold and cough. But the Cine-maniac inside me wanted to see The Departed for upteenth time. I selected the VOB file and played using VLC Media player. But after I saw Decaprio, I cannot control myself. I wanted a mustache like him. That’s where all started. Now I regret, earnestly.
At first I was going alright and yeah, in line. After all I just have to cut short my mustache, like Decaprio. I did it. But suddenly I got a call in my cell phone and now am doing a double duty. Result over-enthusiastic-me, cut a lump under nose. I became anti-hitler, at least in mustache. What can I do after that? What other options do I have?
Get rid of the mess or mustache or what ever you name it, that thing you got under your nose, shouted Charming-Me. So I got rid of.
PS:
Honestly, for this story, do you think it is fair to drag Bagavath Geetha and Hitler? Nazis, if they exist as they do in The Seventh Secret written by Irving Wallace will feel so upset.
Such is the power of the boy!
Reading is a habit, which has to be developed over time. It is a skill that can be acquired –not easily though- at any period of our life. Most of the people acquire it when they retire- to be more precise, when they got nothing to do. Yes, that’s what the whole lot non book lovers think- reading a novel is such a waste and you have to do that only when you really have nothing on hand. When I say “I was reading” to my brother when he calls me, he would whine saying “oh, come on, do something more useful”
I read everywhere. I usually carry a book with me, always (Now I am carrying Black Swan Green by David Mitchell). Except, for the toughest stand in the train –yeah, sometimes you’ll have nothing to hold on to but the near by girl’s waist, which you’ll eye up on but will never try. Mind you, you’ll do some amazing dance steps which you will never be able to repeat under normal conditions, howsoever you try- I read all the times. I even read at escalators, if the novel is so interesting.
Then there is a new girl in our office. It is almost a week now and I never talked with her, didn’t get a chance, actually! And then there we are in a lift.
I began with a usual Hi. And it picked up from there. After formal mutual who-what-where introduction, she told she knew me even before she joined in our office. “Oh, Really? How?” “I am staying in the same line (MRT) and we have traveled together a lot of times. I have seen you all those times. Of course, you wouldn’t look at me, because you always bury your stupid head in to your stupid Harry Potter book. Honestly, what is there for you in that kid’s book?”
As a matter of fact, I finished 5 Harry Potter books at a stretch. I was carrying one after the other for the whole 2 months. No wonder she got pissed off.
She noticed me not because of my charms- yeah, sometimes I speak truth- but because of Harry Potter. Such is the power of the boy. As Rowling wrote - confident or premonition? - in her very first book in the very first chapter like this:
-There will be books written about Harry. Every child in our world will know his name.
I read everywhere. I usually carry a book with me, always (Now I am carrying Black Swan Green by David Mitchell). Except, for the toughest stand in the train –yeah, sometimes you’ll have nothing to hold on to but the near by girl’s waist, which you’ll eye up on but will never try. Mind you, you’ll do some amazing dance steps which you will never be able to repeat under normal conditions, howsoever you try- I read all the times. I even read at escalators, if the novel is so interesting.
Then there is a new girl in our office. It is almost a week now and I never talked with her, didn’t get a chance, actually! And then there we are in a lift.
I began with a usual Hi. And it picked up from there. After formal mutual who-what-where introduction, she told she knew me even before she joined in our office. “Oh, Really? How?” “I am staying in the same line (MRT) and we have traveled together a lot of times. I have seen you all those times. Of course, you wouldn’t look at me, because you always bury your stupid head in to your stupid Harry Potter book. Honestly, what is there for you in that kid’s book?”
As a matter of fact, I finished 5 Harry Potter books at a stretch. I was carrying one after the other for the whole 2 months. No wonder she got pissed off.
She noticed me not because of my charms- yeah, sometimes I speak truth- but because of Harry Potter. Such is the power of the boy. As Rowling wrote - confident or premonition? - in her very first book in the very first chapter like this:
-There will be books written about Harry. Every child in our world will know his name.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Book-Kraken
For the past two days, I had lots of free time, enough to finish up a 375 paged Man Booker prize nominated book. And then I started another one of same kind. I didn’t know how this booker thing got in to my mind. I have read some –a lot really! - Yester year’s nominees. Let me revisit my brain like Dumbledore visits his pensieve. First I got hold of The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson, then The Perfect Man (didn’t care to finish!) and Seven Lies (finished it, but not sure of the story line!). Then I stopped. I really felt like had enough of war and people of Scotland or British villages. As a coherence all of the novels had something to do with War and it’s after effects. One thing for sure is, every one wants to have a go about war and they all have got something – or same thing - to say.
I jumped to Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix and finished it in one week. I really love it –needless to say. I love the creativity and the imagination. But what amazed me is how the imagination fits in for all the age groups? How she writes for all of us? Kids, Pre-Teens, Teens, Adults and even for grand-pa and grand-ma. I have a –stupid- habit of reading everywhere- not to mention trains, I have a story, which I will share later. Guess all the bloggers share this habit. Yes. As a matter of fact all are bookworms. Else they wouldn’t be blogging in first place. What on earth will they have to write –if they are not reading- daily? I have already told in my Tamil blog that bookworms are not supposed to be called like that! I hate that word, worm. Apart from the fact that worm slowly –rather patiently- eats up a book (or for that matter a leaf), that word doesn’t make any sense at all. I have seen book-anacondas. I have seen them gulping Shantharam in a week. I know a girl who reads 4 books per month- no matter what-so-ever business she has got. I would call her, the Book-Kraken!
I started somewhere and ended up at another place, like a kid learning to write in an un-ruled exercise notebook. So is this entry.
I jumped to Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix and finished it in one week. I really love it –needless to say. I love the creativity and the imagination. But what amazed me is how the imagination fits in for all the age groups? How she writes for all of us? Kids, Pre-Teens, Teens, Adults and even for grand-pa and grand-ma. I have a –stupid- habit of reading everywhere- not to mention trains, I have a story, which I will share later. Guess all the bloggers share this habit. Yes. As a matter of fact all are bookworms. Else they wouldn’t be blogging in first place. What on earth will they have to write –if they are not reading- daily? I have already told in my Tamil blog that bookworms are not supposed to be called like that! I hate that word, worm. Apart from the fact that worm slowly –rather patiently- eats up a book (or for that matter a leaf), that word doesn’t make any sense at all. I have seen book-anacondas. I have seen them gulping Shantharam in a week. I know a girl who reads 4 books per month- no matter what-so-ever business she has got. I would call her, the Book-Kraken!
I started somewhere and ended up at another place, like a kid learning to write in an un-ruled exercise notebook. So is this entry.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Casafina
Last Saturday my boss gave us a lunch party, at her new house. As usual I was asleep until 11 am and was woke up by her phone call. She was really startled to hear me say: just now woke up, mam! Never mind, I am still a bachelor.
But on the contrary I was the first one to be there, for which she gave a sharp surprise by commenting : wow. you are very much punctual man. For which I promptly gave a reply: Yeah. At least here.
I started my lunch with mysorepak (a south Indian sweet, if not prepared carefully, would make you build your tooth again -may be one or two). Cautiously I gave it a try, but not bad. She packed some for my friends.
And then we went on for an in-house tour. Ah, what a tour it was? and what a beautifully, enchantingly decorated house it is! All the rooms are well maintained with all possibilities of decorations, simple but superb. Particularly I liked two rooms. The office room (that includes a piano, a computer and a laptop) which has a false ceiling made up of glass and brought in non-irritating soothing sunlight. And then the bed room with hight ceiling, so that you can hear the rainfall clearly. Hearing the rainfall is more enchanting than Yesudas's "Om" chanting, I believe.
Lots of showcase dolls caught our attention as a whole. She must have collected through out her life. Budha's different faces was soo good and so is dasavatharam dolls.
That casafina apartments as a whole is beautifull and had an enjoyable greenish surroundings. I would like to live in this kind of environment, but then who else wont?
But on the contrary I was the first one to be there, for which she gave a sharp surprise by commenting : wow. you are very much punctual man. For which I promptly gave a reply: Yeah. At least here.
I started my lunch with mysorepak (a south Indian sweet, if not prepared carefully, would make you build your tooth again -may be one or two). Cautiously I gave it a try, but not bad. She packed some for my friends.
And then we went on for an in-house tour. Ah, what a tour it was? and what a beautifully, enchantingly decorated house it is! All the rooms are well maintained with all possibilities of decorations, simple but superb. Particularly I liked two rooms. The office room (that includes a piano, a computer and a laptop) which has a false ceiling made up of glass and brought in non-irritating soothing sunlight. And then the bed room with hight ceiling, so that you can hear the rainfall clearly. Hearing the rainfall is more enchanting than Yesudas's "Om" chanting, I believe.
Lots of showcase dolls caught our attention as a whole. She must have collected through out her life. Budha's different faces was soo good and so is dasavatharam dolls.
That casafina apartments as a whole is beautifull and had an enjoyable greenish surroundings. I would like to live in this kind of environment, but then who else wont?
Friday, January 26, 2007
Babel
Again a boring day, not much things to do. Got loads of forwards from my dear friend in KL, that almost flooded my mail box. And in turn I flooded my colleagues mail boxes too. Forwards are Fun, aint it? I usually send forwards to my colleagues in my floor, and it became a habit, to watch them if they really enjoy my forwards. Sometimes they frown.
Went to the movie Babel, Brad Pitt starrer. Actually this movie is one of the nominees for this years oscar. A fantastic movie with lots of obsorbing characters. Soon I will post a detailed review in my tamil blog kuralvalai. Enjoyed the movie very much with my friends Saravanan, Raj and Ashwin, forgot to take a snap.
Still reading Harry Potter and the order of pheonix.
Went to the movie Babel, Brad Pitt starrer. Actually this movie is one of the nominees for this years oscar. A fantastic movie with lots of obsorbing characters. Soon I will post a detailed review in my tamil blog kuralvalai. Enjoyed the movie very much with my friends Saravanan, Raj and Ashwin, forgot to take a snap.
Still reading Harry Potter and the order of pheonix.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
IceCream Melts
Feeling very much tired today, particularly, because of this stupid cough. I don’t know some how I have developed a character to whole-heartedly accept others diseases. I got this cough from one of my roommates. And that too virus stays with me for a long time. Its almost a week, this stupid cough haunts me. Since I didn’t have good sleep for 3 days, I feel sleepy now. And as a solution I have bought Pankajakasthuri syrup, that says, breathe easily. Don’t know really if it works. It was recommended by my boss. Lets see how it works.
And one of my colleague celebrated his birthday today and as a result I got a cake. Cheese cake with 2 layers of ice-cream. One other colleague, reminded me to eat it straight away since ice-cream would melt soon, a theory I have learnt before ages. With out a second thought I stuffed my mouth with major part of the cake, with loads of ice-cream, too cold to handle.
And through the whole process of stuffing and grinding the ice-cream and cake, I didn’t remember that I got cold. Grr.
And one of my colleague celebrated his birthday today and as a result I got a cake. Cheese cake with 2 layers of ice-cream. One other colleague, reminded me to eat it straight away since ice-cream would melt soon, a theory I have learnt before ages. With out a second thought I stuffed my mouth with major part of the cake, with loads of ice-cream, too cold to handle.
And through the whole process of stuffing and grinding the ice-cream and cake, I didn’t remember that I got cold. Grr.
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