Just thinking...

Some of those things which I need to do 

1. Start taking a serious interest in the art of driving
2. Have  to start sketching, one of my close friends will go crazy if I do not, considering the number of times she has told me this in the past 2 years
3. Need to spend less time on the phone
4. Post more regularly on my blog
5. Read regularly, and not restrict it to the car rides to work
6. Watch the huge list of movies which I have been amassing
7. Plan a trip for this year end, come what may 

I have been thinking, and I think I have been taking my life too easy. In fact, someone told me so also. It did not feel good to hear it being said, but it started me on how true it is. I have been fixated on living each day that I do not even think of things which are long term. I do not think of the different hobbies which I had, and promised myself I would never lose them. I started working and then I stopped all that. When I stopped working also, I did not pick it up. I was just plain lazy. And now I want to pick it up. I have had enough of the time I spend on the internet which ends up me not using my time for anything else.

The lunch box issue

There is a lady in my office who likes to have soups! And she likes to make the same in the microwave, using my lunch box. This is the second time it has happened, and I do not understand how can it be so difficult to get a bowl if you can remember to get the soup packet.

I do not have an issue someone using my lunch box ( though I do not know why would someone want to do that, unless its urgent), but the soup cooked in the microwave leaves a red stain on the plastic, which I do not like. I had a clear plastic lunch box, and now I have an orangish tinge all over it. She has again borrowed the lunch box, and today I am going to inform her that I can not give it anymore!

Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair

Ladies Coupe is a concept which does not exist anymore in the Indian railway. But, I think they would have been a great place to make some wonderful friends. Those who think like you, and those who you would never come across else. Anita Nair looks at this coupe and its travelers in an interwoven way, through the eyes of Akhila, a 45 year old single woman and also through their own eyes. How Akhila thinks what she missed out, and what she would have rather not done. Women of all age groups are in the coupe and each of them show a different energy and zest for life. Some have given up, some have fought back and, some have realized their mistakes.

I enjoyed reading the book, a very simple read, but many a times it left me staring off into a distance, in thought about how my life would turn out. It questions so many things which we take as a passing phase and shows it in a different light. Small things which look harmless in the beginning, how it changes someone's life. There is a sense of despair which we associate with Akhila and wonder is it fate or she who led her life to its present path.

Death by stoning

How are we any different from the Taliban in Afghanistan. A religious gathering is replaced by a khap panchayat in India and death by stoning is replaced with some other means to kill.

That's all I see as a difference.

My Story by Kamala Das

I do not really remember what led me to this title, but once I read a few scattered reviews on the web about it, I thought its a story which I would very much love to read.

Its a story which is part autobiographical and part fiction. It traces the life of the author, Kamala Das from childhood through Calcutta, her ancestral home in Kerala, Mumbai and back to Calcutta. The story unfolds in front of us the family life and the married life of her parents. How she being dark made her the butt of all jokes at schools, and the extend to which the English teachers tried to hide these dark skinned children at all major events. She is shown to be a very good poet and well versed with classic English poetry at a very young age.

Marriage was a concept which was fed into her system since young, and she was groomed to fit the household of any suitable groom. A swift marriage and off to Mumbai. A changed, unhappy life ahead with a workaholic husband who needed her to handle the house and hand over her body. Its interesting to see how she starts to make friends int he circles she enjoys and one thing I appreciated was that her husband let her free as I think he understood he would never be interested in literature, poetry and history as she was.

Her children and her friends occupy her world, and its a story which flows through and its truly an account of a woman's life with the boredom, anticipation, fears and all weaved into one. I would not say its a must read, but its a book I enjoyed reading. Her frank accounts of intimacy and emotions has had this book seen in a completely different light, but at the end of the day, its a woman who is narrating her thoughts.


Image Source: http://www.mangobooks.net/dccurrentbooks/uploaded_files/books/bk_2377.jpg

Turning older

As of today,  I have three more years to get through this list of books one should have read before turning 30.

How many am I through? Which ones?

I am through just 5, and I am not even sure whether I would get through more than 5 from this list. As they say, these books are to open your eyes, but I do not want to realize all this world is about.. I want to leave the years after 30 also for some discovery !

Anyways, the ones that I have read are:

1. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
2. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
3. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Do leave a comment on how many you have read from the list :)

Memories of My Melancholy Whores

A book which has been on my to read list for long. A very quick read, but with some great lines which tend to cast an impression.

The story starts at the 90th birthday of the protagonist, and his wish to sleep with a young virgin. Following this, it moves to show how two people fall in love with each other without themselves being aware of it. Him being a loner and she being poor might be the strongest of reasons to draw them together. His reasons is physical attraction mostly, and hers are just of plain gratitude for someone who has for reasons unknown been overtly nice to her.

One of the phrases which I particularly liked was  

" Fuck all you want, but don't die without fucking in love". 

This is said to the protagonist by an old whore-friend.

As I have said, its a quick read and paints a picture of loneliness, old age and the thoughts that crosses the mind of a ninety year old.

Image Source: http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/102050000/102050726.jpg

A gorge-ful weekend

Now I know, a weekend filled with food and old friends is bound to be one of the greatest!

To elaborate, I met with three of my college friends, and I would say after long spells too. It was great to catch up and sit around talking. There is so much different that every person is doing that there is a great deal to understand from each of them. Some MBA stories, some research stories, and some stories of travel to places far and wide, they were great evenings of Saturday and Sunday.

With a far more than bad craving for seafood, the most probable place for us to head to was Coconut Groove on Church Street, Bangalore. The seafood is phenomenal, a great variety and all cooked in the amazing Kerala way! Gorged on Karimeen, Pearl spot, pork, chicken and mutton. I also realized their pork starter is excellent, was the first time I was trying it! This starter menu was followed with excellent idiyappam with mutton curry.

After all the seafood overdose, on Sunday, the food was to be all Afghani from up up north! Samarkhand it was. Galawti Kebabs have a way of melting in the mouth, and that is something one experiences here. Here too we tried the Prawns and grilled methi fish. The fish was excellent and the prawns was quite standard, just that the size of the prawns were appreciable. To top it, was the chicken dum biriyani, opened and served onto your plate.

Ahh... thats a weekend of bliss!