Taking up from where I left off

It has been a long long time. My last post was in 2013!

Kind of lost the motivation to write. None of my friends are writing. I am hoping I can re-invigorate everyone. That sounds lame in itself. Oh well.

I have no idea what to write about. I am just testing waters so to speak - and checking if any of you say hello!!

Would be interesting to see if my blog topics are as carefree as it used to be earlier.

I wrote 2 lines and my daughter is up and wanting to know what I am upto.

This is so not going to be a success!!

A Song of Ice and Fire

I finished the 5 books finally! A book a month. I tried to read it as slow as possible. Reaaaaaaaaaaaally Really slow. But no matter what pace I read it at, I still cannot match finishing it by 2015!! Thats when the next book releases. :(  And then the last in 2020. I cannot bear it!! I would have forgotten all characters by then. And I don't think I can go through the series again. Even though I loved it. Hrrrrmmmmphhh.

I recommend this series to whosoever I meet. Actually I would like to amend that, not whosoever I meet but people who I feel should read this book and would do justice by enjoying it. I do not recommend it to everyone - there's no point really.

I don't think I can actually do a review or anything like it till I know all of you have read the book. Then we can talk.

Mommie had recommended this series fervently. And I picked up the first two books. It had been lying with me for a month or two before I started reading. I was just feeling very lethargic about starting a series and it looked a very heavy read to me.

But once I started I could not put it down. The minute I finished the first book, the first thing I did was call up Mommie to discuss it. Throughout the conversation, Mommie was like errr, ummm, ahh... I cannot really talk about this... you read the second book and call me!!

I read 2nd.. 3rd.. 4th.. 5th.. and now I find I can talk freely to discuss each of these mammoth books and the 1000 characters!! I am not kidding.

So now you know, I cannot really discuss the books here else it will be full of spoilers. I can say this much.. the story starts and is going on at a pace .. when you think "I know where this is heading"..Let me tell you, REALLY NOT!! And that does not change through the 5 books. At every point in time, you may think, ah now this will happen. And it doesn't!! At times it gets irksome. But it keeps you second guessing every strategy, every move. Interesting, intriguing are too mild a term to define it. It is full of cunning, strategising and what not.

So if you have read it, which one is your favourite character?

Mine has to be Tyrion. I loved the character of Cersei... and yeah, ok, Jamie as well. They make the story awesome. They have character. Without cunning and mischief and intelligence and evil, this would be downright boring.

I wish they show the series again on HBO. This time I will watch it!!!

Long time no see

Its been ages. And no I wont give the I am back, or I promise to write spiel.

I just so happened that I wondered about my blog, blog friends.

So, N celebrated her first birthday amidst my and A's friends!! :) Hosting parties is tough. I, for one, have never hosted a party. Neither has A. So we were terribly worried if people would turn up or not. You see, we had never measured our "clout". Many people had confirmed on the phone.. but you know how it is. On the D Day, A reached the venue early. The next trip was N, me and my dad. The birthday girl had to be there early! But we got late unfortunately and all the way I was fretting, thinking it would be so rude if guests turned up earlier than us!! But nevertheless, when we reached there, I found A and his cousin sitting and twiddling thumbs.

WE HAD ORDERED FOOD FOR 100 PEOPLE AND A 5 BL***Y KG CAKE!!

And there were only 10 of us, all family (including Scarlett, yes, she came for N's birthday!!!). The invitation card read 11.30-3.30 and till 12 not a single person turned up. And N started getting cranky.. this party was getting nowhere near what I thought it would be.

Finally at 12.15, some two people walked in. And then I got a message from my friend saying she is delayed. Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. And people started pouring in. Finally. In fact, they kept coming. And I tried to circulate as much as I could but I don't think I spent more than 5 mins with anyone. N was also in a good mood, snatching gifts and envelopes from everyone!! She was pointing at everyones plate and saying mumum (that's what she calls food).

People came in even at 3!! Can you imagine that. We had ordered a 5kg fresh fruit cake - kiwi, oranges, apples, green grapes, red grapes, guava, strawberry, passion fruit etc. It got over in a jiffy. I, at least, got 2 teaspoons, A got none.

Finally the party ended with 98 people having attended (our estimate was superb!) the lunch.

A and I were stumbling, fumbling along the entire planning thing. We have never created invites.. he made one for the first time. We thought we will keep the decorations simple. Simple got equated to nothing by the decorator.. 30 bunches of balloons in a huge space was equal to nothing. And then the board telling people it is N's party!! We were just all over the place with the arrangements.

The cake too didn't have any child appropriate decoration. We ordered an "adult" fresh fruit cake.

I was also confused about return gifts, does one give it or not? What is the protocol? I finally decided against it. And the minute I did that, dad came in saying kids expect a return gift. Of course I took Scarlett for the jaunt!! The entire time we were at the kiddie store, we were oohing and ahhing over kid stuff that none of us never had.  There were these mickey mouse pencils and fruit shaped erasers and bubble blowers and what not... And we picked up some random return gifts. Did I tell you how expensive everything was turning out to be!!!

ps: if you were at the party, please to ignore the above!! 

In any case, finally the much awaited party happened. We gave only half the return gifts. A forgot to give it to his colleagues' children. N got a lot of gifts and was sitting happily among balloons and wrapping paper and cardboard and enjoying herself. All in all, an eventful day, sunshiney, happy day.

The next day we were invited to a birthday party that was at a place called claytopia. Kids could paint and adults could order  from the menu. So cool!! Why didn't we think of it?

Next year, a small birthday party please.

Govinda

I am still on leave.. Alas!! They come to an end. Sob.

So I just finished a book called Govinda. It is written by a lady who goes by the name of Krishna Udayashankar. I have never heard of her before.

It was an impulse buy. I was reading the back flap of this book at a shop when the shopkeeper (obviously the non crossword, non landmark ones who do not have an opinion on anything and just sit there to bill people.. the owners of these small stores actually have an opinion and recommend books) told me that I should try this one out. And I do not usually need much persuasion to buy a book!!!!!!!!!

I did not read it for more than 10 days. It was lying around for a long time waiting to be picked up. The print was small. That is a big put off for me. And I had just finished the "Fallen" series and was still mulling over it. No, I did not like it. And I did not feel like starting another series especially on Krishna. I thought it will be one preachy Krishna story and I just did not feel like wanting to be preached to.

But finally I ran out of all books till I had only this one left. I even thought to order more books from Flipkart just to put off reading this one. Finally I felt guilty enough (of buying this book and not reading it).. so I decided to skip read it. Skip read as in skip paragraphs, chapters in between.

But of course things turned on its head. I quite enjoyed reading this absolutely fast paced non preachy book. YES, NON PREACHY.


It is about Govinda, aka Krishna, yet not about him. It is about the events around the era of Mahabharat. So there is the inevitable Panchali, Bhishma, the 5 Pandavas, the kauravas etc. But, it is so different from what we have seen or read earlier. The focus is not on Mahabharat per se.

There is a dying breed called firewrights - they create weapons. This art was passed on from generation to generation. But now they are a dying breed. They are hunted and killed. Then there are the firstborns (sages like vyasa) - firstborns of the arya race or aryavrat. They and firewrights have always been at loggerheads. And then finally the third set of people..the kings who serve the firstborn.

The books is all about politics. If you enjoy reading politic thrillers, then you must read this. It shows a very different side to that era. There is no good vs evil as portrayed on TV. Everyone falls in the "grey" range. This is what I liked about it. No one is shown to be right or wrong. Everyone is shown to be political, as it should be among the rulers. Like Suyodhan (i.e. Duryodhan) was always a big "NO" for all of us. This book showcases him in a different light. A positive person who Dharma (Yudhister) always falls back on. Or the fact that it is Panchali who rules the kingdom, who deals with all adminstrative work etc and not Dharma. These are of course the side tracks the book veers off to and form an important though small part of the bigger picture.


Yup. A truly enjoyable read. Worth a buy.


 

Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles

I have heard often enough from people , "but these are children's books". Of course it doesn't help that my nephew who is in the 9th std also reads them. Percy Jackson is his hero I guess. The super cool demi god with powers. I would have loved him too.. when I was in 9th std.

Percy Jackson is a demi god i.e. the son of a greek god and a mortal. Percy is Poiseidon's (god of sea) son and then you have various characters who's parentage includes Zeus (god of skies), Athena (god of wisdom), Ares (god of war), Hades (god of the underworld) etc. They embark on various quests which involve fighting demons, Medusa etc with the ultimate objective of defeating the Earth Goddess Gaia. There is this prophecy you see ..of course.. all these books have to have a prophecy. Have you read any fantasy book that doesn't.. in answer to my own question, I think Golden Compass does not have a prophecy. No, wait, I think it does. So the prophecy is of 7 demi gods defeating the ultimate enemy by uniting with the gods. The "heroes" series is the extension of Percy Jackson series.

Similar to this one is Kane Chronicles which has two central chracters Carter and Sadie, a brother sister duo. They are the last bloodline of pharaohs and born into magic. Here again, many Egyptian gods make an appearance - Horus (god of war), Isis (god of magic), Seth (God of evil), Ra (God of sun), Osiris (god of dead),God of chaos Apophis. And then there are various interesting gods :

God of crocodiles - Sobek
God of knowledge - Thoth who wears a labcoat and looks dissheveled
God of Baboons (they apparently serve Thoth) - Babi who is a giant Baboon
God of Vultures - Nekhbet
God of river Nile - Hapi who is perpetually Happy
God of Dwarfs - Bes
God of Cats - Bast
God of Scorpions - Serquet
etc etc etc. .

Which interesting god would you want to see?
In between these gods, there is a house of life i.e. the magicians.The entire series is about defeating chaos.

Why I like these -

a) I am very interested in mythology. Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Indian.. anything and everything. Which is why I like the angel books too!! 
Gods flit in and out throughout both the series. How cool is that! I mean what more could I ask for!! What I love is the portrayal of these gods. The personality traits are cleverly defined. In the Percy Jackson series, each of these gods almost have a human avtaar. For eg, Dionysis, the wine god, has a punishment posting to look after a demi god camp. Ares, the war god, rides a bike, wears sunglasses etc. None of them are perfect , some have a huge ego, some are prone to anger, some to laziness. It is  really interesting to see the human rendition of these gods.

In Kane chronicles, whilst they dont have a human persona, they can take human form by finding a human / animal host. They are quirky - I find myself unable to define them without repeating what I explained for the Percy Jackson series.I am sure you get the drift.

b)  I quite like Rick Riordan's easy writing style. It is humourous and a very everyday language that you can identify with. Kane Chronicles is a narrative by the brother-sister pair. I do not remember how the other one was now.

c) The characters are etched very well. Well, not as well as Harry Potter (just because it is my first love.. of course) but still. The initial jitteriness, the sense of awe  the confidence building stage to defeating the enemy. It flows easily. And the best part is each character is unique (why do I feel I am repeating what I liked about Potter.. Did you know some guy has written the extension series to Harry Potter.. more about that in the end of this post.) They have their own fears, their own sense of disappointment, excitement. And they are quite normal.. They are shy of the opposite sex, they keep embarassing themselves.. Yeah very similar to HP characters in that sense!!!

d)  Magic and Power entice me. These books are full of both!! It helps me escape the regular hum drum of life.

I think I should write another post on why I like Fantasy books.

e) Everytime I pick up the first book in a series, I hope I will enjoy it. There's nothing better than waiting for the sequel to a book you like!! And Rick Riordan does not disappoint.


I am becoming absent minded these days. Rajesh Khanna's demise put this post right out of my head. I cannot remember how I planned to end it. In any case I hope I am helping you,a little bit, to make up your mind about the so called "kiddie" books.

Rajesh Khanna

I cannot claim to have watched his movies. I used to constantly question my mom and my grandma.. why did you watch his movies. I don't think I ever got an answer except well he was Rajesh Khanna.

Yesterday grandma and mom were recalling the yesteryears - grandma remembered that they always used to run to the theatre to watch all his movies. She remembers going to watch Aradhana particularly. The crowd, the frenzy. They were trying to describe to me the craze around Rajesh Khanna. Many girls apparently tried to commit suicide when he got married. In my mom's school, girls would keep his picture below their pillow when they would go to sleep. They would cold compress his brow (in the picture) if he had fever in real.. and such!!!

A superstar my grandma says. She cannot describe why. Some people are just that.

A sad day yesterday.


Update : I have 351 friends on FB of which about 30% are very active. People write about everyone and everything!!! But there are only 3 updates on Rajesh Khanna. Its weird.

I recently read..

I re-discovered flipkart and found a new site called goodreads.com. I keep checking these sites for new books, I read reviews, I look at lists enticingly called Cant' wait books for 2012!!

So here's what I have read recently :
 The Hush Hush (not a trilogy, what do you call a series of 4 books?) series : Becca Fitzpatrick

The fourth book is yet to release. The main protagonist Nora falls for a dark broody character aptly named Patch. He is a fallen angel. WAIT! Before you think this sounds likes Bella and Edward, let me assure you it is not absolutely not like Twilight. It is an interesting book. I am not sure if I love it. But it is interesting and definitely not weird (unlike the Twilight series). I couldn't put the book down one instant! I had read the first two books much earlier when I accidently ran into Silence. Of course I re-read part 1 and 2 before starting on the third.

My take : its a good read. Please to buy!!

I 've got your number : Sophie Kinsella

Its a cute book like all other Sophie Kinsella books. A guy loses his mobile number which a girl picks up. And she starts intervening in his life - personal and work. A nice breezy read.

The Rozabal line : Ashwin Sanghi

 I had very high hopes from this book as I had loved Chanakya's chant. That was a racy book from the start to the finish. This book has a nice concept - it is based on the theory that Jesus traveled to India. While the historical plot is fascinating, the story keeps jumping time frames and locations. It was a bit tedious to read.

The Kane Chronicles : Rick Riordan

I absolutely love the writing style of Rick Riordan. For those of you who are not aware, he wrote the Percy Jackson series. And no it is not childish. It is delightful. I like the idea of Greek / Roman gods. It is like escaping into another realm altogether. The portrayal of each god with the characteristics that define them was phenomenal. It is because of this series that I picked up the Kane chronicles. And I was not disappointed at all.

The two key characters are Carter and Sadie Kane. They are a brother - sister duo.The entire book is written in first person. And this series has Egyptian gods. The two children are the descendants of pharaohs and and hence are born into magic. They have spirits of Horus (the war god) and Isis (I forget what she was) residing in them. It is a lovely read.

Worth a buy if you like fantasy!!

The books in waiting that I want to read right now!!!

I have already read Angelology. It is a super duper book. Waiting for the sequel Angelopolis now.

Others am contemplating to read : Fyre(Angie Sage), Insurgent (Veronica Roth - Good reads has a good rating for this one), Krishna (Ashwin Sanghi), The mortal instruments (Cassandra Clare - Good reads again)

I haven't added Fifty shades of grey. Reviews are frightening.. MB like books!!

What are you reading right now? What are you eagerly waiting for? Do you all have any additions to my list?

 Update: I just realised all seem to be fantasy books!!! And most of them series. I love series actually.. I like the anticipation of waiting for something familiar that I loved previously.