Memorial day weekend

Battleship Carolina ...
Carolina Beach...
Wilmington.. North Carolina

Thailand day five ..

Chiang Mai...small nice uncluttered place..with innumerable wats...left and right..and left..and right..tired !

Thailand day four ..

Damneon Saduak Floating market, quaint little market ..not sure though if it was worth the 2+ hours drive..
also .. Wat arun and Wat Trimit....

Thailand day three..

Beautiful ruinous Ayuthaya..
and a very european-landscaped Bang-Pa In Palace..
good day !

Thailand day two..

drive back to Bangkok...check into Holiday Inn hotel..which is an ok-only hotel ..though the location is good..
quick refresh and on to sightseeing...Grand Palace .. Temple of Emerald Buddha..Wat Pho..
great massage at the 'School of massage ' at Wat Pho ..

Thailand day one..

Visa on arrival is easy but possibly lengthy process..

Took a car...a map ...and drove down to Pattaya....
Hotel (Royal Orchid) - surprisingly nice...
the beach - disappointing..
Noong Nooch - overpriced cliched consumerised place..
Ali Baba restaurent - dont really know what they are doing..
Hubby - likes the concept of an indian thali :)

In the evening , checked out the Tiffany Show...quite elaborate...worth watching once atleast...

Hindi movies..or

names of the novels Ive read recently... such long names :

>> Chronicles of a death foretold , by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Im not so impressed..
>> Song of the Cuckoo Bird , by Amulya Malladi
Good one time read..read in one go..and it 'is' a big book..but nothing too great..
>> We need to talk about Kevin , by Lionel Shriver
Amazing !! What a way of expressing..and the end is such a shocker...and since its all in past..I thought I knew all..and just enjoying the literary fest..but..its simply a beautiful read !
>> An Artist of the Floating World , by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nice again !
>> The Inner Courtyard , by Indian Women
Okay read...

Read, every day, something no one else is reading

Read, every day, something no one else is reading
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

- Christopher Morley
an author of delightful books, books about love of books...its fun to read !
check out some online books at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ , search for 'The Haunted Bookshop' , 'Parnassus on Wheels'

Short Note

saw preview of 'Rang De Basanti' ..I was very curious by the promos but was getting no sense of what it might be about...
the preview looks like it might be about students...dreams..alien land..struggle..determination... looking forward to it !

also read 'The blue bedspread' by Raj Kamal Jha.. good prose...style...also the refernces to all the blue, being my favorite colour and all that..though a bit overdone as it goes..
and also disoriented at the end of it ...confused... will need to re-read...

15 Park Avenue

is a beautiful movie...as expected I would say..

Waheeda Rahman...Shabana..Konkana..Rahul Bose..Shefali Chaya...how could it not be .....
at one point in movie I remembered Rani in 'Black' and it seemed so contrived...
in 15 Park Avenue , everyone seems so apt..so natural..Konkana is amazing...
except for Kanwaljeet...he should stick to his soaps..

and the end..how do you take the end..is it all Shabana's imagination .. ? that would be so M Night Shyamalam ...
maybe its a test for the audience psychosis...
I was all ok..life goes on ..nothing cut and dried..
my SIL wanted konkana to die..and solve all the problems..
my mom when narrated wanted her to be cured..

and its not that its all very sad and gloomy and introspective..there are quite a few moments that make you laugh involuntarily..with tears in eyes..

I guess its...as Joydeep says 'It would be very funny, if it werent so sad ' ! ...

Shahnaz

a novel, by Hiro Boga..
An unexpectedly poignant read..
aka Profoundly moving .. Piercing; incisive...Astute and pertinent ..so on and so forth..
(http://www.bartleby.com/61/99/P0399900.html)

Happy New Year 2006 !!

So many blogs are giving 'year in past' for the books theyve read, I am tempted too...albeit very short one..
The right side of the blog gives me a count of 42 since May.. and Im sure I mustve read atleast 10 till then though I do not remember ..so yes...a book a week..I like that :)

Completed 2 more before the year end :

Never Let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro .. my darling hubby sent it all the way across oceans.. I still dont know how I feel about the book.. dreadful... mind-numbing desperation .. cant define !

Book Seller in Kabul - My library owner is hard put to provide books which I read , he says I read books which his other audience doesnt.. so whenever he find some crazy book no one else touches...he hands it to me.. does that makes me crazy !

Began new year with :

A pale view of hills - Kazuo Ishiguro again.. In the end I strongly felt that the narrator and Sachiko are the same.. but I havnt found anything backing that on the google..Im left wondering..

Crash - saw this movie , really impressive portrayal about racism , stereotyping , humanity...nice.. ! I remember one dialog where a South African guy asks his friend (dawg actually) if he knows why the buses have such big windows over there.. its to humiliate the people who have to use the public transport...they can be seen by everyone.. who wouldve thunk that !

New Year trivia :
Remember the 'sorrry' by the bimbo in Salaam Namaste.. its copied from a hollywood movie 'Noises Off' .. when will this stop !

Next on reading list :
> We need to talk about Kevin , Lionel Shriver
> Lolita , Nabokov

Coincidence ?

or maybe not..

Recently I saw the James Ivory acclaimed movie 'Howards End'...decent movie..Emma Thompson is good...nothing much for Anthony Hopkins to do though..
I havent read the book , so I dont know how the movie compares to the book...but seems that it must be lacking characterisation, which are specialities of such books I believe...

And..recently I took up reading the latest Zadie Smith - 'On Beauty' ..
Pages and pages on , I realised that its very similar to 'Howards End' !
Now..the funny thing is that Ive seen the movie 'Howards End' , while now Im reading a book which is based on the book on which the movie is made..

So , since I dont have the narrative style for reference...this book seems such a copy ! Why would anyone do that ?? I mean the plot is the same..you are just telling it in a different way..and then what do you get so much appreciated for ? for the style ? well..this might as well could be a disassertion on the original book..how can you call it a new novel ?

or is it acceptable ? seems very strange to me ...

Nach Baliye

on Star One..Im really really enjoying this show..and its with relief that I see Delnaaz and Rajiv chucked out..a 4-5 rounds too late I would say..

and I do get irritated by the hosts so...they should be chucked out too..

I have a feeling that Sachin and Supriya might win this.. they are not bad..but Rajeshwari and Varun are better...more experimenting.. and Ive always liked them both...individually too.. Rajeshwari in her song 'Mukhda piya ka' ... and Varun in tele..

definitely not gonna miss the next two shows !!!

Un-scheduled update

Books :

The Sea , John Banville.. picked bcos of booker .. and since its a small book..yet abandoned midway...just didnt get it...will pick it later..or not..

Mistress , Anita nair.. despite not-so-good reviews..I liked it..maybe because its set in Kerala..with which I have a special connection .. :-)

American Pastoral , Philip Roth... great book..Im slowly understanding what the phenomenon called Philip Roth is..though did not complete it...as my very picky-abt-books-wont-read-unless-very-interesting husband took it along ..

That Long Silence .. a typical Shashi Deshpande ..which Im liking a lot these days..

Brides kimono , Sujata Massey - disappointing after her earlier books that Ive read..or maybe Ive moved on ?

Currently savouring Arthur and George .. its a book :D

Movies :

Garam Masala - mindless timepass...good for some time..but irritating by the time it ends...

Mei , Meri patni aur Woh - good one time watch


Thats it ! Outta here !

The Joys of Diwali that was...

Its here !!

the smell...
the feeling in air...
the longing for
..freshly sprinkled grounds...
..the chilly pure mornings...
..freshly scrubbed houses...
..freshly painted houses...
..delicacies..
..savories..
..diyas..
..rangolis..
..sparkles...
..happiness..

joy..oh joy...the smell...the ..oh so sweet ..
so haunting smell of D i w a l i is here !

Queen of Dreams...

Picked up Chitra Divakaruni's latest..'Queen of dreams'...and surprisingly Im liking it...I say surprisingly because I had a feeling I wont like it...When I started with her books, I liked her work...somewhere down the line maybe it became repititive
..maybe the way it happened with Danielle Steele..

During my college days , I started reading DS.. in my hometown there are no english novels to be found...except for the library ...and that was too insufficient for my voracious reading appetite...every bombay/pune trip I used to visit the churchgate book sellers/book lane..and get all books possible withing my spending budget...

neways....so somewhere along that time I grew out of DS...moved on...
but...Divakaruni still can capture my attention.. Im really savouring this one..

One more reason of my apprehensions might be the fact that , when I heard of Aishwarya rai being casted as the main character , I was very disappointed...How could Divakaruni let this happen...Dimple...or Dipti naval would have been perfect for such a role, I think !

How one thought twines in another...casts a shadow...clouds judgements...

Book update

This month I read 2 books I really liked :

>> The binding Vine , by Shashi Deshpande
Its a very simple and small book... which starts from the middle and ends in the same way..there is no start..no end.. to all that is narrated...simply put..its beutiful..
and
>> The kite runner , by Khaled Hosseini
I can just imagine this one being made into a great character movie... it would be a very poignant one...I wish for it to be made !

Also..I watched a very good movie
>>Iqbal
Such a great story..such superb acting...I have increased faith in Nagesh Kukoonoor...and I hope Iqbal..and his sister keep on getting such good exposure..

These are the books..movies...that linger on in your mind...which make it difficult to read/watch another...lest the sweet aftertaste is lost..

Situations...

How do we decide how we should react to situations...
Im very transperant that way...My face..my voice tells it all...is it honest...or rude ..I cant decide..
I know its tough...to mask your thoughts...opinions...though Im sure wiser..what is the point expressing negativity when there is nothing you can do about it...
I need to learn..