Lost in a different world!!

Okay am not day dreaming, I am just reading a BOOK.

I normally start reading a book with a fresh mind and only when the rare hour of "I don't feel LAZY anymore" coincides. I also prefer the Not so Serious books that are on the SLIM side. That sums up my literary choice. But once in a blue moon something good happens.

Whenever I talk about books I can only remember a piece of prose that was given in an exam for interpretation. It was in class 9 and I do not remember the exact words. I ended up thinking that it was a write up in Friendship as the lines hinted so. Like a puzzle the words were silent about the subject but kept adding wonderful descriptions about it's / his nature. Like it was a person by itself. Something on lines like takes you far away places, teaches you many things, is your best companion etc etc. I was always bad with puzzles.

Its rainy in Bangalore. No downpours yet but just an perpetually overcast sky that threatens to open up any moment. But like a dog with all bark and no bite it just drizzles and frizzles around here. With that said, the dim lights and cool breeze have all the makings of a lazy afternoon nap.

Thus the scene. A book that has been untouched on my table for months together which finally got pulled out on rainy day and which managed to make me change my ways.

Yes, it was late in the evening after I had napped a while. It was a boring evening with rain clouds waiting outside. It was also a dark evening with sun hiding in the sky. And then it happened.

If I had to praise this book, I'd be out of words. From the first word it had me hooked. On my first sitting, between all my work and breaks I skimmed through the first chapter. It plagued my mind all night and it stopped only when I resumed reading the next day.

As I flipped through the pages, word after word, I found myself lost in it's world. Though I was sitting at home, the visuals of the lone pomegranate tree atop a inverted bowl like hill, smell of freshly baked NAANs, finger cuts from the glass coated kite flying threads seemed REAL. I could see Hassan and Amir in flesh and blood.

As I addictively scour the pages wishing their company to last, I am also equally amazed at how beautifully a story has been told. I only wish if I could something half as good.

The Kite Runner.

I know I am very late at reading this but it's said " better late than never."

Patience and Courage...

The size of the audience was huge and the speaker was yet to arrive. He was a noted spiritual guru and the people in the hall were all waiting to hear his words of wisdom. With all seats taken, the late comers had to be satisfied with standing up against the walls and many others had to stand out-side in the open braving the morning sun.

He was late.

The hours passed by and still there was no sign of him. The crowd started moving. Slowly people started moving out, mumbling unrecognisable words. By noon the crowd had dwindled to half. Only time passed and the spiritual guru was nowhere to be seen.

The sun had set and it was almost 9 o'clock. That is when a Drunk stumbled into the hall. Screaming few obscenities, he moved towards the dias. He flirted with the ladies in the front rows and overcome with intoxication, fell to the ground.

The remaining crowd too left. A handful few, faithfully waited for the guru to turn up.

The drunkard now straightened himself up. With no sign of liquor in his blood, he walked briskly to the mike. It was the spiritual guru himself.

He addressed the now seated group and said "The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter."

(By Paulo Coehlo in Veronika decides to Die)

In every step in life, from the day i read these words i have understood and applied them consciously... and i know that this is one lesson for life

Sick of Romance...

Since I am enjoying a long leave and have a lot of time on hands, i decided to just do some reading. The unending book supply from a nearby library kept feeding my hunger.

I prefer reading the stories that offer a bit of mystery/suspense in them. Not too emotional and not too scary. I enjoy a good mystery. I also enjoy a Love story here and there, but again I don't want something too emotional and too often.

The category of books i avoid are the serious ones, cause i am looking for some entertainment here. And the ones i wished i had avoided were the Romantic Suspense Genre. I agree that the suspense gives me a kick, but the romance?

I had recently picked an author's book and found it contained 4 stories in them. I should have realised it earlier, but it was too late. They were Mills and Boons style. Heavily loaded with romance and lightly sprinkled with suspense. It was not repulsive but plain repetitive. And when i was finished with it, i swore never to read anything like that for a long time, it had been like an overdose.

I had picked a few books of Sandra Brown and Nicholas Sparks, different writing styles. While reading Sandra Brown, the promise for a good thriller suspense is well fulfilled. It contains a healthy dose of romance in it that keeps the story moving. The intelligent and hurt heroine who gets wooed by the perfect brooding stranger of a hero appealed to my senses. Surely i feel like i want to read more of her works.

On the other hand, Mr.Sparks leaves you with a lasting impression that goes beyond the book itself. His style leaves you with the impression that you have just seen a die hard Romantic classic, his narration gives a cinematic experience. My favourite would be "Message in a Bottle". It tugged the strings of my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Definitely worth a read.

As a final note, I had earlier blogged my need to read "Veronika decides to die". I managed to buy the book but could never bring myself to read it. It stayed idle in my shelf for over 8months. Finally when i read it, i realised that I had found it at the most apt moment of my life. It was more than a novel as the words in it had deeper meaning and a lot more to understand from. More about it later.

Paulo Coehlo - Life Path

It makes sense that i write something about him and the books of his i have read, cause they have made me think deeply whilst reading them. "The Witch of Portobello" and "Brida", the two books that i have read have put to test my beliefs and also gave me more insight to inner-conflict, chasing dreams and most of all MAGIC.

We have heard about witches, the pointy hats and the black robes and an ugly mole, the ones making soup of frogs n human bones. But i have seen wicthes. When you read his book, you realise that the powers of the witches he describes, is pretty much the same of what we have seen in that sooth-sayer we have visited some point in our life.

The english burned witches at the stake but we believe them to be messengers of God and revere them. I have met them. I was awed as a kid and as an adult i was in doubt. I even imitated a sooth-sayer in a skit. It was an insensitive potrayal depicting them as money minded impostors.

But on further reading the books, i started to wonder whether the powers are real. I have seen my aunt get "saami" many times. I never understood it and and never doubted it. In my own life i have experienced the power of my instincts. We all do i believe. I have known somehow how things would end up, whether it would be impending doom or a happy ending. I somehow knew a year before my marriage that i would be leaving chennai and moving to bangalore. Where from that thought came in my head, i don't know. But it did happen that way. And whenever i have gone against my instinct i have found trouble.

What intrigued me more was the fact that the Witches connected with the MOTHER. He says that GOD was FEMALE, (a nice thought on Women's Day),and later the male GOD concept came in and they started dominating the scenario.

The thing that got me thinking was that, every sooth-sayer that i have met also gets a Female deity in them. It is always an Ambal/Bagawathy and never a male God. Across continents the beliefs are the same. That was a surprise for me. Hindu mythology also says that the origin was from SHAKTHI who later created Shiv and other Gods (based on the serial SHAKTHI i had seen).

My uncle explained it to me in simple words that Shakthi is ENERGY and that is why she can exhibit herself through various mediums.

I am confused for sure. The MOTHER, SHAKTHI and even the concept in the movie AVATAR where the Navi are also in touch with the MOTHER. The same concept reflecting in different cultures.

What do i say about the author? When i read about him, he has had a difficult time up to his 20's. He wanted to be an artist and was considered mentally ill for being a non-conformist. Yet he had the courage to pursue his inner dream and finally became a writer. He published his first book at the age of 38. It only re-assures me that it is never late to follow your dreams.

In "Brida" he says that don't chose a path that is not right for you and keep trying to prove that it is not the right one. Like him having been forced to not be an artist.

Then he says "It’s necessary to take risks, and to follow certain paths whilst abandoning others. No one is able to choose without fear."

"The path to wisdom is not being afraid to make mistakes"

These lessons i will incorporate in my life to live in the present and make the best out of it.

"Once a Reader, is always a Reader"

Just finished reading a book. Just finished reading about its author. Just decided which book of his i am going to read next "Veronika decides to die" by Paulo Coehlo

Books have once again become a part of my life. My reading, i believe, has also reached a different level.

My first book - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". As a kid i have read it religiously over and over again at my aunt's house.Knowing every line and imagining the 3 bears looking into their bowls of porridge and wondering how sweet it would have tasted. My journey into the world of books has begun.

From that point onwards, i used to read - read - read and read.Every year before school begins, i would finish reading all my English prose and non-de-tale books. And buy books from the Book Bus with little care for how much i was spending.

My father ensured a supply for my reading. The Junior encyclopedia, Amar Chitra Katha, Ramayana, Sri Krishna, Fairy Tales, Gokulam magazine, Reader's Digest and so on. I was glued to books by Enid Blyton. Had one book and would re-read it. The one with the Golliwog doll. And most of all, i read every Shrerlock Holmes book i could lay my hands on.

The books gave me a lot of things, good language, imagination and the sights and sounds to experience from my home itself.

I fell in love with the Scarlet Pimpernel and felt sad for Oliver Twist. I wished to meet Olivia and tell her how cute her love story is.

I will never forget "Ebeneezer the never could sneezer" or what i read about Aung Sang Syu Ki. I even used to read Essays from small books. Reading, never stopped till one fine day.

I do not recollect when i stopped reading. Even when in 1st year college, when i read my first Sydney Sheldon - for long believing the author was female, i used to read quiet a lot.

When i joined professional studies, the distance between books and me grew. It started with the laziness to read my subjects and ended as a laziness towards books itself.

In the years that followed - almost 4 full years i hadn't touched anything but subject books before exams. Remember reading a Mills n Boons book in between. But the gap was now too wide. For the once voracious reader i was, it could be compared to a hunger strike.

My redeeming moment came when I attended an interview. He asked me about my hobbies. I casually remarked that music is a hobby and that i was once a voracious reader. To which he didn't agree. He simply said, "Once a Reader, is always a Reader".

It struck a blow to me. In all those years, sitting on my lazy bum, i had stopped fueling myself with the one thing that had given me so much. Books. I had forsaken it. I really couldn't understand why i stopped something that i was so passionate about. And then that day itself i made my mind.

On the way back, stopped at a second hand book store and bought one book and broke my fast. Now i am hungry for more.

My Childhood Fav books - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" - atleast up to Class III. "Ganga" - the story about the descent of the river from the heavens above - till date a favourite