Photo blogging…

I just feel like photo blogging today.

I was arranging my book shelf at home. I missed it so much. These are the only books I have and absolutely no space to keep them, so I resist buying new books.

My TBR pile.

I just love this particular piece of furniture. I don’t use all of the stuff obviously but I don’t have the heart to clear it out.

This is my computer table and the shelf’s above it are the only place I can keep my books. I was still arranging them.

This is my favorite place to read in the entire house. especially when it rains, I open the doors and just sit back and relax with a book.

And this is me. I and J were sitting in a restaurant and he wanted to click my picture. I was obviously resisting.

Half of a yellow sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Half of a Yellow Sun” takes place in Nigeria during the Nigerian- Biafra war in 1967-1970. The effect of the war is shown through the dynamic relationships of five people’s lives ranging from high ranking political figures, a professor, an American citizen, and a house boy. After the British left Nigeria and stopped ruling, conflicts arose over what government would rule over the land. The land split and the Nigeria- Biafra war started. The lives of the main characters drastically changed and were torn apart by the war and decisions in their personal life. (From wikipedia)

I bought this book on an impulse. I had never heard of Adichie before, nor i had heard that she was the winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for fiction. I liked the story, the concept and I wanted a chance to know and understand something about Nigerian History.

Africa for me has always been vast stretch of rain forests, Sierra Leon and child soldiers.

I expected something in the lines of a war story from her, something like ‘A long way home’ by Ishmael Biah. Something which showed the struggle of the people during the war, the atrocities committed during the war.

But this book is all that and much more. In fact I wouldn’t call it a war story. It is the story of unforgettable characters; characters like Odenigbo, Olanna, Ugwu, Richard and Kaniene. They remain etched in your mind long after the book is over.

It is very difficult to believe that this is Adichie’s second novel.
As Chinua Achebe says about her,‘we do not associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.’
And what a storyteller she is.

The book starts with a 13 year old Ugwu who comes to live with Odenigbo as a house boy. Right from the start you get pulled into the story. You can feel their emotions, their turmoil right through the pages of the book.
It has the backdrop of the formation and the death of Biafra as well. I won’t get into the story for the fear of spoiling it for those who haven’t read it.
All I can say is she has a very powerful command and control of the language. Her writing is an Art work. I fell in love with words like sonorous, sardonic, abstemious, sacrosanct, lugubrious all over again.

Miss Adichie in one of her interviews says she would like the new book to open a conversation about our history and the war. “When you say Biafra, some people would say, ‘Oh those Igbo people who want their own country!’, and nobody asks how did Biafra come about. I am hoping that people read the book and realize that a grave injustice has been done to Igbo people; it has to be acknowledged.”

It has been acknowledged indeed.

As Chinua Achebe says, ”She knows what is at stake and what to do about it.”

Site : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Website (You can read a lot of short stories written by her)

A goodbye to Bangalore…

Today is my last working day here in Bangalore. One week in the guest house was wonderful. I met a really nice girl and we got along really well. I just hope we keep in touch.

I am leaving for Pune tomorrow and going to my sisters place today evening.

I don’t believe It’s been 6 months here. I didn’t quite notice the time. I had 2 of my good friends staying with me. I got to spend lots and lots of time with J. I got to stay and experience living in a different city. I can’t say I don’t like the city but Pune has a different charm altogether. I don’t know anyone who would like to leave the city. Once they are in Pune they are generally there for life, unless obviously for some unavoidable circumstances.

I thought Pune was crowded. But Bangalore gives a different definition to the word. The traffic is awful. Even in bookstores, there is chaos. I just feel like picking up whatever I want and leaving the place.

Also, the place is not as open and cosmopolitan as it is supposed to be. People in offices here form groups according to their languages. It’s not intentional, but it tends to happen that way. People coming from outside the state prefer to speak their languages as it makes them feel closer to home. People who are already here speak in kannada. Even if they are friendly, once when they start talking in kannada you feel like stepping back, moving and doing something else.

Bangalore has some really good restaurants, pubs and second hand bookstores compared to Pune. But you cannot do anything other than that on weekends. Sometimes you feel like getting away, going for a hike or being close to nature. There are not many places for that here and most of them are very far. In Pune, if you think you need an adventure, you just pick your bikes or take a train or hire a car and set off. There are places like tamhini ghat, sinhagad, Alibag where you can go for one day trips. That’s something I really feel is lacking here. Sometimes you get tired of all the malls and the multiplexes and the restaurants.

People here are a little conservative. It’s just an observation, doesn’t necessarily have to be a good or a bad thing. Depends on your perspective entirely. I found that a little unsettling.

So I guess my Bangalore tenure is over and I am looking forward to going home and joining a new work place with double the salary (Sorry I just cannot get over that). And obviously being closer to J. He can come over almost every weekend.

I look forward to reading more books as I’ll get more time at home, catching up with friends, watching more movies at the theatre(there is a multiplex very close to my house), more blogging and commenting (some sites are blocked here in the office and I did not have internet at my place. I have internet at home).

On a last happy note, I just got Stephanie Meyer’s ‘New moon’ and ‘Eclipse’ from landmark the other day. I had been looking out for these books since long, but they were always out of stock. But this time when I went, I found a whole new shelf with her books. May be its something to do with ‘Breaking dawn’ releasing. I also got a cool ‘Breaking dawn’ bookmark for free form Hatchett along with the books. I am already half way through New Moon’ and so far loving it.

So the next time I blog, it will be from home.

BTT: Stories

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

Ummm…no, it’s not only you. One of the main purpose of reading a book, for me, is the story. Many books I have loved have strong story lines, be it fiction or non-fiction.Moreover, I tend to remember books which have a good story.

But sometimes, I just might read a book because it has some interesting and different concepts. For e.g. Eleven minutes.

I don’t know many people who like the book. But I loved it. I don’t think it has a strong story line, but I was still interested to read it back to back.

Sometimes, I read a book because the writing is very beautiful. It may or may not have a strong story.

Caution: Rant starts here

The past 2 weeks have been rough. So taxing that I did not feel like writing it on my blog even.

Starts off with my roommates getting transferred to Pune. One left on the 18th, one left this Friday. We vacate the flat and I have no place to stay. Of course I could have gone to my sisters place. But I didn’t. I had my reasons. Her house is very far from my office, around 3 hours every day by bus. Also, she is newly married. Now I would really hate myself if I had to disturb her for 2 weekends and 5 weekdays. So I asked my manager for a guesthouse on company expense. As I had already asked him to release me on 25th and he didn’t in spite of telling him I had no place to live, I thought it was his duty to at least try and see if I could get the guest house. Instead he gave me a vague contact to ask if it is possible. I had to make almost 7-8 calls before finally giving him the conclusion that he has to approve it and the company has no problem at all. Ha, I already knew that.

The movers and packers guy had come this Friday to pack all the things. He said he’ll charge 40 Rs per KG. My friends had their stuff but I just had a TV (J’s) and my bike. He said he’ll charge me 2,500 for the scooty and the TV will be charged on the weight. Now how much will a 21 inch TV weigh? Maximum it could go up to 30-35 kilos. He called back later the next day and he said he’ll charge 4000 for the T.V and 3000 for the bike. I mean hello? You get a new TV for 5000! The guy is such a jerk. He said after packing the TV weight was 80 kilos. What have you packed it with? Steel?

I was so pissed off with him for that entire day, trying to lower down the prices, telling him that this was cheating and so on. He did not relent. I called up another Movers and packers. They said they will take the TV for 2500 without any additional charge. I told the previous guy I wanted to take the TV back. He is like okay, take it, but pay me 200-300 for the packing that I have already done to the TV. I agreed. I send this other movers and packers guy to his office to collect the TV. He asked him to pay 1600 for releasing it. I couldn’t believe what a jerk he could be.

I had to pay a DD to the company for the notice period I am not serving. Saturday was the only day I could do it. I went to HDFC bank and told them to accept cash as I did not have my chequeue book with me in Bangalore. They refused. They said they need a chequeue to issue a DD. It is not possible to do it any other way. I really didn’t know what to do. If my roommates were here I could have got a DD from their account and paid them the cash. But both had already left. Luckily I saw SBI bank just round the corner. They agreed to issue a DD by accepting cash. I tried to withdraw that much amount of cash from the SBI ATM, but the machine said ‘Insufficient funds’. I thought the ATM did not have enough money (This happens often with the ATM close to my house). So I went back to the HDFC bank ATM. But it said the same thing. I was so frustrated that I just wanted to give up. That too standing in line for almost half an hour at both the ATM’s

My expense report is still not approved and it needs to be approved before my release else I won’t get that money. I tried to contact the person in charge of approving it, but to no avail.

May be all this doesn’t read as much to you, but I was absolutely exhausted by it all. I think it was because of the movers and packers guy. I was fighting with him almost the entire day. And I hate fighting. It disturbs my peace of mind. Even when I had major fights with my sister I used to get all drained although I never told her that.

But all’s well that ends well, right?

I got the accommodation approved for the guest house.
I realized in time that maybe my account did not have that much money. I checked and viola, I was right. But I had some cash so I emptied my account and added up the cash I had with me.
I called the mover and packers guy and it took a huge amount of effort to speak politely to him and ask him to release the TV. He said he’ll take it for the same amount the other guy is. Although I still wanted to take the TV from him, I relented.
And while writing this, I just got an approval for my expense report.

So all in place, I guess.
The guest house is really nice with very good food. It tastes almost homemade.
I am sharing the room with another girl from the company and we get along really well. We spent almost half of the Sunday chatting like old friends.

I had to submit the DD to this one guy. I called him and he asked me to submit it to another guy. He gave me the contact. And all kinds of thought came to my mind. The guy would not have come to office today. He’ll refuse to accept the DD. My clearance form won’t be closed and I won’t be released. But yeah, I was over thinking. I went to the guys desk. He took the DD, gave me the receipt and closed the form in 2 minutes flat. I could not believe my luck. This week started off on a good note. Hopefully it will continue that way.

And I end my rant here. Sorry, just had to get it out.

————EDIT————

I just realized what a long post this is. Oh…well.

BTT: Libraries

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

Hmmm…yes, certainly started off with the library. The first library I remember was my school library. The librarian was a nice, pretty lady who used to apply lots of make-up with her hair loosely tied behind. Funny how I still remember that.
In my free time I always wanted to go there. It was nice, small, cozy one. But I never did. All my friends always wanted to play or talk or do anything other than reading. Once I went to the library to help this new girl find the last terms question papers. I guess that was the first time I ever stepped into it. I came back later obviously. I remember the first book I picked was one of the Nancy Drew’s. And I loved it. That’s all I did in my school library I think. Read Nancy Drew’s. Or flip though the Guinness world records book.

When I went to college I visited the college library for educational books. Biology, physics, chemistry and stuff. Never literature. My mom used to borrow Marathi books sometimes from a library close to home. That’s when I read a little of Marathi literature. But I was a little slow at reading Marathi. So never really got into it. But I do remember reading quite a few books there. Mostly thrillers.

Now, where I live, I often go a library right behind my house. It’s not that great. I mean all you ever find there is Sidney Sheldon, Nora Roberts, Jeffery Archer. Basically popular authors. And yes, a whole wall of Mills and boon books. I realized I wasn’t satisfied with their collection. That’s when I started buying books. It really broadened my horizon whereas books were concerned. But I still go back occasionally whenever I feel like reading a 2-hour mills and boon book or a nice romantic novel by Nora Roberts.

So yes, my earliest memories are that of my school library. I just wish my school realized the importance of reading and did more to promote it. It could be the turning point in a Childs life.

Books made from human skin

I was reading ‘The time travelers wife’, when the author mentions books made from human skin. I had never heard or read about anything like this before. So I decided to Google a bit. And surprisingly I have come up with loads and loads of information.

 The practice was fairly common in the 19th century. It even has a name: anthropodermic bibliopegy. It was commonly used to bind medical books. The skin used was often that of prisoners to be executed, preferably murderers.  They found human leather to be relatively cheap, durable and waterproof.  There are quite a few books in many reputed libraries from the world including the Harvard University Library.

The private Boston Athenaeum library has an 1837 edition of a highway robber’s memoirs wrapped in his own skin. Brown University holds an anatomy book that, appropriately enough, is bound in human skin.
One copy of “The Dance of Death” dates to 1816 but was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London. A note to his client reports that he did not have enough skin and had to split it. The front cover, bound in the outer layer of the epidermis, has a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, made from the inner layer of skin, feels like suede
In 1821, John Horwood was hanged for murder in Bristol, England in 1821. Horwood’s skeleton became a prized exhibit at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. A book containing details of his crime, trial, execution, and dissection was published and retained at the Infirmary. The book was bound with Horwood’s skin.

Apparently, there are even books written on this topic
(—Bouckaert, Albert, “Bookbindings of Human Skin,” Sexology, March 1949, p480-482.
—Blementhal, Walter Hart, Bookmen’s Bedlam: An Olio of Literary Oddities. Rutgers University Press, 1955.
—Goodman, Lee Dana, “He Was bound to Come to a Bad End,” Yankee Magazine, June 1991, p99.

There was an auction of a book with human skin. Yikes. It’s quite creepy actually.

I wouldn’t even want to touch it, forget about owning it. Would you ever own a book made from human skin?

(References: Go
Here, here , here and Wikipedia)

The Moment of truth

Do you believe you are better looking than all of your friends?
Did you ever fake it in bed?
Do you ever check out other women/men in front of your spouse?
Are you in love with your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Do you find any of your spouse’s friends attractive?
would you cheat on your partner if you knew you wouldn’t get caught?
do you have a secret that if discovered would break up your relationship with your partner?

‘The moment of truth’ was aired on 12th August for the first time in India. It’s the series where contestants are supposed to answer very private, intimate and embarrassing questions about themselves for the whole world to see and hear and judge. Their answers are judged by a lie detector, which if tells them they were wrong, they would lose the money won until that very question.

How far would you go to win a hundred thousand dollars? Would you sit in a chair attached to a lie detector in front of the whole world with people closest to you sitting right in front of you, watching your every reaction and listening to your answers?
Questions like ‘Do you think your mother is overweight’ and ‘are you jealous of your sister’ are still okay. But don’t you think a question like ‘Do you feel uncomfortable when you are with your less attractive friend?’, when your less attractive friend is sitting right in front of you, is so not worth answering? May be you’ll say the truth, you’ll say yes, and win that round, but what about the relationship you have with your loved ones?

Questions like ‘Would you breakup with your current girlfriend and go back to your ex-wife if she wants to get back with you’ would make or break your relationship. It is an hypothetical question obviously, but what if the guy who was asked this had said yes? Or what if he had said NO and the lie detector would have said the answer is wrong. What would have happened next? Lucky for the guy. He said no and the lie detector supported him. The instant relief was so very obvious on his face.
We all know that majority of us are not completely honest with people who are close to us. Most of the times it is because we do not want to hurt them, because it is not worth it, because it would do more harm than good. J watched the same series from Mumbai. I asked him if he was willing to participate in such a show? He said ‘Why not? I don’t have anything to hide’. Well I won’t participate. That doesn’t mean I have closet full of lies. It’s just that I wouldn’t feel comfortable answering questions that were so personal in nature. Some things are better left unsaid. Sometimes its better not to know or tell.

Would you do it?

BTT: Gold Medal Reading

You, um, may have noticed that the Olympics are going on right now, so that’s the genesis of this week’s question, in two parts:

First:

Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?
And, Second:

Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.(Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)

(For the record, I am not a sports fan at all, but I’ll watch almost any Olympics event, have indeed read books about the Olympics–and strongly recommend The Second Mark, which yes, is about Figure Skating, but was a fantastic story and particularly enthralling in its view into life as an athlete in China, so no sneering at the sport, okay? The book was fascinating. I’ve also read a history of the 1896 Olympics (there’s also a good mini-series which just came out on DVD).)

I had to think a little to answer this weeks BTT question.

Okay, First: I am not a sports fan and Second: I don’t mind reading sports related books if they are not too technical.
Having said that, I don’t think I have read any except ‘It’s not about the bike’ if that falls into that category. It’s not more of the sports that made me read it, but more like how Lance Armstrong managed to overcome his disease. That itself makes for a mind blowing story. But then again I loved reading about the cycle races he had described in the book as well.

About Sports movies, I don’t remember watching any English ones, but I absolutely love a couple of Indian movies. ‘Jo jeeta wahi sikandar’ is a perennial favorite and the latest ‘Chak de India’ was an equally mind blowing movie.

I would be grateful if any of you could recommend me a good sports book, I am absolutely ready to read one. Is Seabiscuit a sports book?

I need some answers…now

My days are spent in a daze. I don’t know what is going to happen next week, or tomorrow for that matter. No body does, obviously, but I am talking about something specific here. I submitted my resignation on 4th August, but still there is absolutely no progress on my release date. My manager was on leave the entire last week and this week his wife had a baby, so I am guessing he’ll be on leave for this week too, which is totally frustrating.

My roomies were trying to get a transfer to Pune since last 6 months. Their hometown is Pune as well. Now we know anything can happen all of a sudden right? So the other day they come home and tell me they have been transferred to Pune and they have to move by 25th of this month. THIS MONTH. We are planning to vacate the flat by this month end. So if I do not get released by this month end I don’t have a place to stay. That’s the reason why I am so frustrated and angry on my manager. I know and I understand that he just had a baby, but come on, how much time does it take to write a one-line mail? Okay, I do understand. J says it is not his fault. If he were in his place and if his wife, i.e., I would have been pregnant (futuristic thought/ wife obviously) he wouldn’t have given a damn about the world. *defeated sigh*. He is right.

I don’t feel like working. My days are spent listening to radio while working, because otherwise working would simply be a pain. At least the songs provide me some relief. To top it all, Bangalore does not have Hindi Radio channels. There was this channel called ‘Radio One’ where they played one kannada song after every 2-3 Hindi songs, which is understandable considering Kanadda is their official language. But lately it’s the opposite. Its 5 kannada songs and one Hindi song, which is again incredibly frustrating. Out of 4-5 radio channels, not a single one is totally Hindi. I get tired listening to the same old songs from my cell.

But there is hope. There is an English channel called ‘Radio Indigo’ and they play really good songs and the R.J.’s are equally good. So yes, I do have something to fall back on.

Do you get good radio channels where you stay? Or do you even listen to the radio except maybe when driving? Are you frustrated about something? Are you waiting for something to happen and feel as if you are hanging on a cliff? Or do you feel about bitching about life in general just because you can? Or are you one of those rare people who think their life is perfect and you should be happy for whatever you have because half of the people in the world are not as fortunate as you are? Okay, don’t answer that last bit.