An unnecessary woman- the book

There are people who live and breathe books, I, most definitely, am not one of those and yet I loved every bit of this book in which Alia, the main character, is all about reading books, quoting authors and judging translations.

On my way back from work related travel, which went rather well, with the intent of treating myself  I gravitated towards the shopping area looking for a shoe shop. Quite unfortunately Bangalore airport has no shoe shop, and tired hunting for it I found myself, quite accidentally, in a book shop browsing books. The first page and the blurb of this one suggested it to be a light read with an interesting premise which matched pretty closely with the level at which I wanted to be engaged in at that point in time. Well, it kept the promise of being sharp, witty and full of humour but while I laughed reading some of the passages, the grim realities of the back drop stared at me deploring each time I did so.

Set in Beirut, the story is structured such that while Alia's present life evolves slowly, Alia takes you back to its connections with her past. As you get to know her better, from each incident she narrates and analyses, you can figure out that her interactions with the world at large have been disappointing at all levels. Her coping mechanism to deal with this monumental disappointment was to dive deep into the world of written word and western classical music. Not only her immediate surroundings and interactions could never measure up to the immense possibilities and choices that this world could offer, it also conveniently demanded nothing in return. She is most animated and passionate when in this space for herself that allows her to be actively engaged with literature and music, it is the real life happenings that reveal her vulnerability and her unpreparedness to deal with it.

Her immense sense of self-belief  and ability to see humour in everything is so endearing that you do not want the conversation with her to end. I wish there were more such books which are light but don't necessarily lack depth.

Painting the lady with a parasol

Summer time in Kanpur can be pretty devastating unless you are prepared with stuff to occupy your mind so that your body doesn't feel the scorching heat in its entirety. I am sure this wasn't the thought process then but perhaps just a lot more time available time on hands that led my younger self to sketching and painting during the summer vacations. My subject would most often be the back cover of older copies of reader's digest that I had taken from my grandmother, a regular subscriber. They often used to have reprints of famous works of art during those times. It also happened to be a time when I was greatly inspired to try oil-pastels thanks to my father's  very good friend who once made a beautiful birth-day card for me, a bunch of flowers in a vase done in oil-pastels. It was a wonderful painting, rich in colour as well as texture, it captured the essence of the flowers so well but most importantly it was made specially for me!

The choice of subjects in my case, being reprints of famous paintings, of course often had a great disconnect with the local setting. Like this oil-pastel painting I made was of a lady with a parasol!

I was curious if after all these years I could trace the original painting. Thanks to Google and my honed-over-the-years googling skills, sifting through several images of various ladies with various parasols, was I guess quite a favourite subject with painters at one point, I could find the original…..

Finding Calvin

I had forgotten how much fun reading Calvin and Hobbes can be. I mean, reading the daily comic strip in the newspaper is a bit like having ice cream drop by drop.

RRJ has pulled out a couple of collections from our dusty bookshelf and seems to be enjoying them immensely. And so am I.

The aspect I love most- the possibility of a relationship being so fulfilling......... is only in our imagination!

And I love the parents too....

To life .....

Somewhere deep down I think it has finally sunk in that the glass is rarely ever empty. There is much happening in life that can keep one engaged positively. And this positive engagement is what I believe ensures that the glass is never totally empty. In my viewfinder is the little patch of green next to one of our favourite restaurants. It was lunch time, the weather perfect, cool blue sky in the backdrop. That little water body that you see behind the trees, on its day, can stink you out of your mind but luckily  even the wind was blowing the right direction!