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…..

Tke Kokkum race

The summer vacation that ended quite abruptly a few weeks ago was enjoyed in so many ways that one could almost forget the debilitating heat and the meltdown inducing visits to the passport office. And still, in spite of all the joy I am increasingly becoming aware of the fact that slowly but surely I am getting sucked into the kokkum race, and unless I dig in my heels it will end just the same way it ended many years ago. I know, must explain in more detail. Another time.

Muffled roar

The elections are over and done with, much to my disappointment the results are as the exit polls had predicted. And the euphoria that the results have generated all around has only added to the disappointment. Is there something I am missing here? Is it in spite of involvement in mass murder we as a nation accept him as a leader or is it because of the sheer efficiency with which it was committed that we want him as a leader? Anyhow, the whole election thing kind of distracted me from feeling happy about being done with a very hectic semester. Met every deadline at the last minute.... and now, I am in the cozy comfort of my wonderful malyali side of family. I feel pampered and carefree and ready to head for Munnar equipped with a full strip of avomin.

Long time

This painting actually started last winter vacation. The sketch was made with much care and I was really excited about painting it. The painting, however, got off to a terrible start as I was completely out of touch with doing the acrylic paints with less medium (water), that makes it look more like an oil painting.  I had done a few messy petals and left it at that. There is nothing more dissatisfying than a good sketch spoiled by bad painting.

I had kind of forgotten about it till my good friend asked me last week why haven't I painted for the longest of times. That little nudge got me watching a few youtube videos and the one I really enjoyed was this one. It is really nice because she teaches not only how to paint but also how to fix your mistakes as you go along. I was decided up on doing the pear, as in the video, when I found my half-messed sketch in my crafts kit. I must say, that is one thing really nice about doing the oil painting style with acrylics, they are way more forgiving than water colours. They allow you to cover your tracks when the need arises. I had a brilliant time doing this and am hugely satisfied with the end product ......

Ghoom with a view

We stood together staring into the distance as the fog was a little late in getting its act together.

Dumpling soup for the soul

You perhaps know how it happens, in the grocery store you spot something which was not in the original shopping list and then suddenly all you can think of is how to incorporate this item in your next meal. A bag of frozen dumplings was the item that day.

Rather than the usual frantic search on the internet for recipes, this time it was a quick consultation with younger brother over skype. His acquired experience in east-asian food was put to good use in making of this dumpling soup.

Recipe:

Ingredients: 3 cups of water, 1 green chilli, 1 tsp ginger, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1 small tomato, 4-5 tender green beans, half tsp pepper and salt as per taste.

• Boil 3 cups of water. 
• In boiling water add thinly sliced green chilli, ginger, salt and pepper.
• Next add the beans and diced tomatoes
• Finally add frozen dumplings and let it boil for 20 minutes

A study in rabbits

There is a thorny bush near my study where lives a family of rabbits. Every now and then they sneak out of the bush and show a glimpse of their rabbitness. Some of the moods that I could capture:

"Oh this sodding English weather!"

"Can't complain too much though.... gets me my grass."

"We are all ears.....did I see an Indian lady peeping through the glass door?"

"On your marks, get set...."

" .... and go!"

But my favourite is the next one, early in the morning I caught this rabbit facing the sun and letting his ears down, a picture of peace and contentment:

"Time for my Surya Namaskar."

Vacation-I

A couple of weeks ago, we were cursing our miserable luck and feeling so sorry for ourselves. Wilted by the heat, soaked in humidity and troubled with our sore backs: we were a totally desperate lot. We dealt with our vacation-in-crisis situation with the sense of equanimity that we are rarely capable of, of course interspersed with shorts sessions of yelling and blaming each other. And then all of a sudden, perhaps a planet changed its position, and the hell hole released the last passport. Next, got an email from my father with an excellent website on how to deal with back issues. Reading it I could easily identify my problem and did the appropriate stretching and in a miraculous time span of exactly a day my back was alright! But then it was the turn of british high commission to act pricey. As the said planet fine tuned its position, a week of our well practiced equanimity cum yelling later we got the visas late one evening. Much activities followed and the next evening we were on our way to the airport for our much awaited vacation. Relieved, exhausted but very excited.

As a concept, this vacation is supposed to give us a break from our regular routine in Chennai. Break for me from being a high strung working mom, break for RRJ from being carted around between school and daycare. For RRS, this is supposed to be those few weeks of focused time at work when he doesn't have to worry about school-drop, creche-pickup or any house-work (okay, if we ignore that little bit of dish washing done post dinner). The concept, therefore, provides mother and son with this excellent opportunity to spend a lot of quality time together without any pressures on time. Hmmm…. it sounded so perfect as a concept…..