Salvation of a Saint – Book Review

Ok, Please don’t faint. I know I just posted 2 days ago, but there is a reason behind this post. Let’s start with some background. Those of you who have been reading me for a while, know that I do not read anymore. ‘How I wasted my Library membership last year’ is a theory The Dude uses liberally to annoy me. In any case, I have come to realise that if I do not finish a book (on an average of about 500 pages) in 4-5 days, I will never finish it.

Which is the reason why I applied for this book by Keigo Higashino on the Blogadda programme with some apprehension. Because I can give you readers these amazing excuses, but I am not sure they would accept if I said, ‘Er, well, see, since I could not finish it in the first 5 days, I did not even give it a shot post that. Can this be my review?” No sir, they are pretty serious about their 7 day deadline, and today, is day 7.

And guess what. I finished the book in 3 days. Whoosh, just like that. That would be my conclusion on the book’s USP. From start to stop, you do not want to put it down. In fact, on night two, I put it down only because The Dude found the reading light annoying, which is downright mean, but I decided to indulge him.

Anyway, back to the book, I guess I did not expect anything lesser, since this was of one of the best genres in my opinion, a suspense thriller, a who-dun-it, and by an author who had given a much acclaimed book ‘Devotion of Suspect X’ before this, only I hadn’t read it. But I had dependable sources tell me it was good.

This story, based in Japan, starts with the sudden death of a businessman of poisoning. The immediate suspect is his very attractive wife, given the situation. A couple of detectives are involved in the case,  one of who ends up getting attracted to the wife, which impacts the way he handles the details. The story moves fast, details getting added in every chapter, making it more and more interesting. And at one point, quite early on, it moves  from the ‘Who did it’ aspect to the ‘How was it done’ aspect, which remains a mystery till the end., and is closely entwined with the ‘Why did they do it’ aspect as well.

In one word, ‘Unputdownable’. Fast paced, easy to read, well written, and the characters were interesting. But  I would not call it the best suspense thriller I have ever read, mainly because I attribute the awesomeness of a thriller, to the extent to which it surprises me, especially in the end. And I have to admit, here, I had conclusions and climaxed forming in my head by the time I was halfway through the book, and one of the few turned out almost correct. This, to some extent reduced the extent to which I was impressed.

But to be fair, this never stopped me from wanting to go on, even if it was 1 in the night, which is big, considering the hours of sleep I get are now dependent on multiple factors, and I cannot afford to play around with anything that is given to me. Other than that, Japanese names are not the easiest to remember, so at one point, I was wondering why one of the suspects was roaming around with the detective gang, which I later realized was because I had her name confused with another detective’s name.

So will I recommend this book to you? Yes, if you’re into murder mysteries, and fast reads. Will I read any other offering by this author? Yes, I am going to pick up the first one now. Will I give it a rating or stars? No, because I do not know how to do it and I have never done it before.

So enjoy this read, with the night lamp on, a hot cup of chocolate, and the AC on full blast if you’re encountering an Indian summer. This book was made for that.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

And then we were nine

Before we start with anything, let me just say that when you have an 18 month old at home, everything else pretty much is put on the back-burner  Work, hobbies, leisure, everything. So much so, that in my case, I have completely neglected my other 9 year old.

Which 9 year old, you ask? Well, the one you all know very well. Actually, the one because of who you all know me very well. Yep, this 9 year old, my beloved blog..Who turns a grand 9 years old today, and there was no way I would let this day pass without an acknowledgment right?

You can go ahead and call me old, though personally I would prefer the term veteran. And no, you cannot deny me the title just because I am not regular here, hello, I’ve been here 9 years, and going by some of those who seem to be reading me these days, well, I guess they were pretty much in primary school when I started. Ok, I guess ‘old’ makes more sense.

Anyway. Some of you might already have blogs, so you know how proud I must be feeling right now, considering my little blog baby is already 9. And you also must be knowing how tough it is to keep it healthy, and alive. Every year, every post is an achievement. And there might be others  who don’t have any blog right now, but are considering to have one soon. And there will be still others who fall in neither category, but this post is not for them, unfortunately. Because today, I have decided to bestow upon you, 10 tips that you might help you start a blog, or if you have one, maintain it.

1. Join a B-school. Because there is free internet and a lot of time to while away. This might inspire you to utilise your time writing extremely useful(less?) blog posts. Some of you might choose to instead play mouse-click games on Yahoo and eat through a whole pack of Lays chips, the 20 Rs pack, but that might just have been me. Also, I know internet is like this free good being given away these days, so don’t rub it in.

2. Take up an IT/Finance/Consultant role. Look, Sales guys have real sales figures to meet, Marketing guys have these numerous vendors, service providers they need to deal with, doctors save lives and stuff, and real engineers build flyovers, or jazzy machines. But if you’re into IT/Finance/Consultancy, you will spend hours in front of the computer, sometimes with nothing to do, and sometimes with a lot to do but no will to do it. In both cases, blogs will come to your rescue.

3. Watch Bollywood movies. The lamer the better. Whenever I watch a movie like ‘Main Prem ki Diwani hoon’, my head fills up with amazing ideas of how I could do a whole post on something as small as Kareena and Hrithik’s annoying expressions. Or the animated parrot and dog. It’s a different matter that as soon as I turn on the computer to put my wonderful thoughts on the blog, reality calls. Ok, I mean Zo calls.

4. Which brings me to the next tip. Have a baby. I mean really nothing but a baby can provide you the variety of  things to think, talk, and the best of all, blog about. Especially if you’re a first time parent, everything your baby does seems to be THE thing the world needs to watch out for. And by world, I mean the poor, hapless, blog readers, who can only read and nod along. So do it. While it also means that too much to do leaves you with too little time to write about it, that’s something you need to manage, like I am doing so wonderfully now (Sarcasm alert).

5. Do something dumb. Like going on diet. Or joining a gym. Or making new year resolutions. Or deciding that you will stay positive henceforth. This might not give you interesting stuff to write about initially, but when it backfires, which it will, you will have enough to write a couple of posts at least.

6. Read widely acclaimed Self Help books. The more famous the better, because then you can also Google and find out about those who have benefited from them. You have a variety of options after that. You can then give your views on it. Or better still start giving your own self-help gyan, helping people around the world live better lives, or manage their time better, 7 steps to gain the success that 7 years of slogging your ass off didn’t , because that is definitely so realistic.

7. Read other blogs. No this is not to get ideas, or get inspired.It is just because I am assuming that when you see all that creativity and regularity, there will be small part of your conscience that will nudge you and say, ‘hello, remember you have a blog too?’, basically awaken some guilt. It’s happened with me, and works, so try it.

8. Go for a walk. This one’s for ideas. I mean if the nature, the roads, the sun and clouds don’t inspire you to pen down your thoughts who will? Oh wait, it could be that horrible clashing outfit of that girl on the 2nd floor. Or that annoying woman who does not know the concept of a queue. Or that bland food you cleverly compared to cardboard pieces or such. Wait, these things work better. So fine, go to a mall, or the cafeteria instead.

9. Look around. In less than 5 minutes, you will find at least 10 things that are not as per your demands, or do not meet your expectations. This gives you a 10 pointer post of rants and complaints, because we all know that’s the stuff most blogs are made of. And that’s the stuff that keeps us going.

10. Write. Just write. I might be underplaying it, but writing is something all of us can do, if we want to. How readable it is for a larger group might differ, but honestly, should you care? Your blog, your site, where you are forcing no one to go to, you technically get to do what you want there. Plus it costs nothing. So go ahead, and write. The ‘Blogverse’ is so huge that in all probability, there is at least person out there, who feels exactly the same way about that song you mentioned you love, which no one else seems to even recognise. And if that person does not exist, you can go back and read this years down the line, and have a good laugh. Else, your Zo will.

So what are you waiting for. Go, start a blog, and if you have one already, update it right now. And if you have any more brilliant ideas, those are welcome too. And of course, birthday wishes are a must.

Nine years is long, and no one knows that better than me.Thanks for sticking around people, because if it weren’t for you, I for sure wouldn’t have carried on.

To a peaceful world

I am quite the small townie when it comes to certain things. Like I will still get excited about spotting celebrities. While you might argue that everyone would like to spot celebrities, the differentiating factor in my case would be my definition of a celebrity. Like in 2005, I was at the Mumbai Airport waiting for my connecting flight for Goa, when I decided that I just HAD to spot some celebs here, because come on, Mumbai, and Airport.. And I did. And I wouldn’t stop talking about it as well. Who you ask? Well, there was this girl who was one of the three girls who were in that music video which was a remix of ‘Tu, tu hai wahi’? In hot pink? Yeah, the one in the middle. Also, some other Aunty, who I swear I had seen in some ad. I also saw Dino Morea, but he garnered the same level of excitement as the other two.

Now that I am in Hyderabad, the only celebs I can spot have to be from Tollywood. I do not watch Telugu movies, but I do know the actors, some even by name. So when this actor Nithin, sat on the table next to us at The Westin, while we were enjoying a lavish Sunday brunch, I just had to tell The Dude. Who thought that it was the unlimited wine that was talking. Then I googled images, and showed it to him, and also told him how this was not cool because this guy had even acted in one Hindi movie, ok accepted it was an RGV film, but still. The Dude felt very ashamed of his lack of knowledge.

The same way, I also get all happy when someone I know remotely (as remote as ‘she used to hold a bank account in your Dad’s branch a few years ago when her father was posted here’) makes it big (‘ yes, now she is India’s first Miss Universe!’), it makes me happy. That, true story, by the way.

So where am I going with this? This year, one of the 23 finalists at Miss India was the daughter of some Family friends of my in-laws. Which meant, I just had to watch it. And I did, diligently. She did not make it to the top 10, but that’s when they announced the question round, and I was generally not doing anything, so I decided that there could be nothing better than hear the views of these women, who otherwise annoyed me by being so tall and so skinny.

By the end of it, the one person I had decided would not even make it to the top 5 because of her answer, ended up winning the pageant. I am yet to get over it. Just so you know, this was her question -

If there were no rules in your life for one day. What would you do?

And this, was her answer .

I’d Ride a Horse in the Busiest Streets, climb up the tallest buildings and scream the world is so beautiful.

I innocently assumed that the answer would elicit the same response from the judges, as it did from me. That of wanting to place my head under said horse’s hooves. But no, she won. So I decided to shut up. Apparently because of her answer in the next round (which I was sure she would not be in), where she said that if she died tomorrow, her only regret would be that she has not done enough for the world. This answer, since it was so original and awesome, got her the crown.

It also made me realize that ‘World Peace’ rules pageants. I believe, that every question, and any question, can be answered with ‘World Peace’, though it might need some workaround. I am going to try just that with the 10 that were asked this time.

Question 1: If you had the choice to exchange your beauty for anything. What would you exchange it for and why?

Answer. World Peace. Because eventually, with my beauty, and this crown, that’s all I hope to achieve. History as already proved that the only way one can bring about world peace, is by winning these pageants and crowns.

Question 2 : These days many Parents don’t allow Kids to watch TV or surf the Internet while growing up. How do you feel about it?

Answer. Not very good. If there was no TV, or internet, children would engage in more physical activity, and be more energetic, which might end up in fights. Fights are chaos, not peaceful. So by keeping them dazed and occupied, they actually bring about World Peace.

Question 3. : Which is more significant for you today. Sunrise or Sunset?

Answer. Sunset. Because that’s when the world goes to sleep, and when you are asleep, it’s tough to wage wars. So sunset ensures World Peace.

Question 4. : If there were no rules in your life for one day. What would you do?

Answer. : Ride a white horse wearing white, and  wave a white flag, thus propagating World Peace.

Question 5.: Being an Independent Young Woman of today. Do you think the State Government and the Colleges have the right to impose a dress code?

Answer. Of course. The dress code should be all white. Because white is the color of peace. We can have doves, or olive branches printed on them for effect. All this will encourage World Peace.

Question 6. : You have been told that you are Beautiful. What else would you like people to think about you?

Answer.  Nothing else actually. In fact they should accept that beauty is all I have. That way, they will watch these pageants with no expectation of sensible answers, and their mind will be peaceful. And peaceful minds lead to World Peace.

Question 7. You genuinely Love someone. Which are the 3 things you would never do to hurt that Person?

Answer. 1. I would not cheat him

2. I would not lie to him

3. I would not ‘not try to bring about World Peace’.

Question 8. : You have chance to make one Phone call. All lines die after that. Apart from your Mother and father whom will you call?

Answer.  I would call the last Miss India who talked about World Peace in her question round, and ask her how in the world she would answer this one with ‘World Peace’.

Question 9. : Would you choose to be Water or Fire?

Answer. Both. First I will be fire, and then I will become water and pour myself on the fire, extinguishing it. By this, I will show how violence can be ended, and spread the message of World Peace.

Question 10. : If you were Crowned Miss India tonight. What would be your Message to your fellow Contestants and the World?

Answer.  To the fellow contestants, I would say – Haha, Na, na na, Na Na

To the world, I would say, the pageant is over, you can go back to bed, while I go party. And now that I have been crowned, I do not have to talk of World Peace. Thank you!

Yay. Confetti showers. Glitter all around. Loud Music. In total pageant style, thank you for being such a wonderful audience. And also a big thanks to this person, who took note of the questions asked, because I could not find them anywhere else.

Have a nice day people. May the Miss India, Miss Universe, Miss World, all bless us with World peace.

The leap of faith

‘Let’s do it’, she said.

He stared at her, bewildered. If there was anyone who could suggest something so silly, so impulsive, it was she.

 ‘No way, you’ve lost your mind.’

 Her face fell.

 ‘So many people do! It’s not that big a deal anymore. Why do we have to be the good ones always? Besides, no one needs to know right?’

 He shook his head. ‘No. I am not ok with this at all. You just don’t do these things one fine day because everyone else has. It is not a joke. There is a time and place for everything. Besides I don’t want the first time to be here.’

 ‘You’re a prude, you realise? I cannot believe that a girl has to coax you into something like this! I am so sure anyone else would have been all set at once.’

 He looked hurt. ‘I’m not being a prude, I am just being sensible. You’re all okay now, and if something goes wrong, you’ll be the first one to say that I should have stopped you.’

She pouted. That was true. ‘Ok, I will be honest, it’s not that I am not scared, but I know for a fact that it cannot be that wrong if it is with you.’

 He melted a little, but maintained his stance. ‘No means no.’

 She turned away. Silence followed.

 ‘You are such a spoilsport.’

 He refused to respond.

 She turned back slowly. ‘We’ll be very careful. Nothing can go wrong. Trust me. It’s us we’re talking about!’

 He sighed, giving up. ‘Ok. Fine. You always have to have it your way. In any case,  at least let me arrange for some protection? And God knows where I will find a store around here.’

 ‘Emotional blackmail, always works with this guy!’, she thought, grinning to herself  a whole 2 hours later, as they jumped into the murky, moss filled pool of water for their first swim ever, life jackets fastened securely.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

PS: If  it reminds you of a certain scene from Jab we met, well, same pinch.

Mere paas ma hai

I am a Bollywood child. I took a long time to be initiated to the world of Hollywood. And even longer to World movies, which by the way I still don’t think I am into, because somehow, it is tough for me to watch a movie where the lip sync is off, and I have to solely depend on subtitles. ‘Amelie’ was an exception but there is not much being said in the movie anyway, so I managed.

But Bollywood, I swear by. I was introduced to Bollywood movies at a very early age, and my mother’s favourite memory is of me accompanying extended family to watch Dimple Kapadia starrer ‘Saagar’, where while the whole cinema hall went into a silent stupor as the beautiful actress bathed in the sea, and then stepped out marginally clothed, I broke the magic of the moment by squealing “Yeh Aunty yahaan kyun naha rahi hai, inke ghar me bathroom nahi hai kya”? Google says I was 3 months short of turning three then, so yes, like I said, very early.

The love continued to grow, and my personal first memory of watching a movie in the cinema hall is ‘Mr. India’. The parody song which I went to learn in sequence and by heart then, remains etched in my memory till today. “Arun Bhaiyya” was a hero in my head, and “Mogambo” scared me shitless. The very cool aspect of going invisible and bonking horrible bald villains on their heads with Hanumanji’s statue, priceless. And of course, those many tears I shed when little Tina gets killed because of that bomb in the teddy bear, right there in my head. Then there was ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’. While my sister insisted on watching the “Prem-Suman” movie every time the TV was switched on, I was now capable of admiring the squeaky voiced  Bhagyashree’s , gauzy, frilly ‘frock’ from “Mere rang me”. That, and a lesson on how pigeons have a photographic memory, and they will hurt you back if you hurt them ever.

Post this, we moved cities, and my dad declared that we would no longer be visiting cinema halls, because they were not safe enough. So the only way we could watch new movies now was to rent a VCP, and two video cassettes for the day, and mostly, the print would be awful. But that didn’t deter us, and we would religiously watch whatever we had brought, scrunch our eyes to make out the outlines, try hard to listen to the dialogues, and eventually like the movie by default.That’s how I watched ‘Deewana’, feeling all smug that my namesake was perhaps the prettiest actress ever , ‘Bol Radha Bol’, where I couldn’t have enough of “Tu tu tara” and Juhi’s atrocious green and pink  gaon-waali clothes, ‘Aankhen’ (oh-so-funny, look there is a monkey!), and ‘Hum hain Rahi Pyar ke’ (Wow! A south Indian character for the heroine, and she speaks good hindi, AND, wait for it, she is fair (Gasp!) Wait till my classmates watch this!) out of the top of my mind.

This went on for 3 years, and when ‘Jurassic Park’ released (Hindi me), my dad conceded to take us to a movie hall again. References to the “Badi Chipkali” apart, this was an awesome experience after a long time. And marked the beginning of a new era, where on random Sunday mornings, we would pester Dad for a movie, and then rush to “Mottai Uncle’s” place to pick up the day’s copy of ‘Dainik Jagaran’ for the movie listings.Then, we would all pile onto the scooter (later a shared ‘tempo’) and go to catch the pick of the day. This was invariably my choice, since the little sister pretty much accepted what I said. So there was a long barrage of Akshay Kumar movies, as now I had realized that you could actually fancy actors, and didn’t always have to root for how pretty the actresses were. And fancy Akki, I did. So a few good movies, and some really rotten movies later (I picked ‘Jai Kishan’ over ’1942 A love story’, beat that), I got over the “I will only watch Akshay Kumar movies” phase and accepted that there could be other movies out there.

Then came DDLJ. This was a turning point which created an even bigger space in my heart for Bollywood. DDLJ was the complete package. Hello, there was SWITZERLAND! Zurich! So exotic. So romantic. So Sigh. So real right, I mean obviously one had to fall in love with the guy who was a super flirt, and annoyed the hell out of the girl in general, but like changed for her! Right? Right. And wow, pretty clothes, and Eu-rail  It also helped that I was in n a co-ed school which was highly into crushes, and Archie’s cards with hearts on them, and “I really like you and want to make friendship with you” stuff at the time. So, all that, combined with the “Come, fall in love” declaration, well, added up to quite a lot of filmy daydreams, where you were Simran (obviously!), and there was a Raj waiting for you. Only the ones who eventually did approach you were super short, or bad at studies (yes, that was a criterion), and hence rejected.

Anyway, starting then, Bollywood was all about the larger than life glamour for me. Locales, flimsy chiffon sarees in the snow, huge havelis, large groups of backup dancers with synchronized steps and clothes.The movies also impacted our lives. Like one of friends grew her hair after maintaining a stylish boy cut all her life, because of the universal fact that guys choose girly girls over tomboys (credit: Kuch Kuch Hota hai). I, thankfully restricted myself to wondering if my current crush at school would see my 5 years later (I didn’t want to wait for too long also) and sing “Dekho yeh pagli, bilkul na badli”. Or if any of those boys around who were awesome at annoying me, actually had the ‘Raj’ potential, because you know, there is a thin line between love-hate and all that. Heh..

And so it has stayed. My obsession with typical Bollywood movies. This is not to say that Bollywood does not give us realistic movies, it does, and  more so these days. I watch these ‘intelligent’ movies as well, and enjoy them too. But with time, I have come to realize that I actually love Bollywood movies much more for the niche genre that they have built for themselves. The  whole drama, the exaggerated emotions, impromptu song and dance, the elaborate sets, the “British museum turned into a college”, and  the shiny costumes. Because when I start watching such a movie, I know beforehand that I am about to enter a world where 17 year olds wear designer brands, and their biggest worry is that their boyfriend of four years is not taking them seriously enough, because when I was 17, I had board exams. Or a world where an Armani suit donning, extremely good looking billionaire, falls in love with this hitch pitched Mithai shop owner girl, because he sees her dancing on the road when India wins a cricket match.

In short, the impracticality of it all. The unrealism. The whole “this is too exaggerated to be true” aspect. Pretty, but silly. Fun, but duh. Awesome, but ‘Seriously?!”While some might think that this is what makes Bollywood’s commercial offerings extremely dumb and inane, I think this is exactly what makes it hardcore, unadulterated entertainment.

Because if it is reality you’re looking for, you always have life to get back to at the end of the 3 hours.

This little blogging world of mine

Blogging is stressful. Let me explain. A person like me does an average of a post every 2 weeks as the stats say. But of course these are not evenly spread out which means sometimes there are month long breaks, and sometimes posts within a few days of each other ( scarce yes, but they’re there, so don’t smirk, and check the posts). Anyway, what happens is that these longer breaks occur when a lot is happening in life. Like in my case, there was a family wedding, then travel for work, followed by a vacation, which meant more work to finish before the whole long break happened, amidst which there were house guests, and family visiting, and the icing on the cake, a little girl growing up at an enormous speed with which you can associate a lot of talking and continuous running around.

So when a lot happens in life, you have all the more reason, and food for your blog. However, this also means that life lacks at that moment, the one important element of blogging, time. But you’re optimistic, and you feel all happy that there is so much you can write about once your life’s routine is back to normal, only you never have an estimate about when that would be. But eventually it does. And that’s when you open your Google docs and create a new document all set to record the happenings of your literally happening life. And disaster strikes, because now there is just too much to cover, and no, bullet points do not do justice to them, and there is no way you can do a post for each thing. End result, 7 half written drafts in the past one week, not one which will ever be completed or see the light of your blog. And the next time you do post, not only is it more than a month since you posted last, but also, you have eventually not covered anything that you wanted to. Forget full blown posts, or even bullets, there is just a mention of all that in one long ‘typical-you’ sentence in the first paragraph and that’s about it.

And that’s what the readers have to make do with too. And adjusting that you are by nature, I’m sure you will manage pretty well. It is mean I know, you don’t get to know just how much Zo speaks now , her favourite sentence being “Mummy naiyye aapish” which means “Mummy nahi hai, Office”, or how she has become a brat who pouts with her lower lip out, hands on her hips and shows her disdain at the on-goings frequently, which is cute, but also bothers me at the same time. Or how I finally made use of all the shopping done specifically for my brother-in-law’s wedding, and how it was fun but super tiring like weddings usually are. Or how I got to stay in this wonderful old chateau in Spain for work, but did not see anything much because there was just, so, much, work and how I ate my weight in freshly baked cakes and homemade chocolates and Tiramisu and truckloads of cheese there, and eventually found all my clothes a wee bit tighter. Or how I had a lovely vacation in Barcelona right after that, where us bad parents left little Zo back,  and roamed around the streets of what I found very ‘Storybook Europe’ with the narrow lanes, and antique-y street lamps, brown buildings with small balconies with flower pots, and patisseries around every corner, selling wonderful freshly baked goodies, with the specials written on the little blackboard outside with chalk.

And most importantly, how all of this happened in span of 2 weeks. But I can’t. Because every time I try, the post sounds more and more like a “Dear Diary” entry from a 16 year old’s Diary, which could be interesting for some if there was actually a 16 year old writing it, but no it isn’t.  It is the same old 30 year old, sometimes cynical, usually incoherent me behind the page, and that would just scare people away.

But now that February is over and I can take a breather, the best way to relax would be to blog properly, one could say. Only every time I open a page to write, my eyes grow wide, and there are these animated concentric circles going round and round in them like you’ve bonked Tom of the Tom and Jerry fame on the head. And then the breathing gets heavier, and eventually it is just too much to take, so you quickly close the whole page and get back to reading what the other bloggers have been up to. And then you come across these brilliant pieces and you’re like ‘let me go back and open my docs right away’ because you’ve just thought of this awesome opening line for your next post, only that’s how far you eventually get before the concentric circles take over again.

So like I said, it’s tough. Blogging used to be therapeutic, it used to be a relief, it used to be a mode to vent out, and generally connect with like-minded people. And now it’s one odd post every month, and a huge list of untitled documents in your Google Docs account.

Either way, we cannot seem to let go of it, so here we are. It is more of an addiction to the concept that the intent to actually write, but as long as it ensures that the page is alive, who cares right?

The Reader (or not so much)

A day has 24 hours. Before you say that you know it, I will clarify that I am not being a know all who is claiming to spread enlightenment by stating a fact the world knows. I am not. I am just reiterating this to myself because apparently, I did not know this. Actually, a more logical explanation would be that I  knew it, but looks like I did not realize it. Till now, that is. These days however, this basic fact has taken it upon itself to make me aware of it’s importance and inevitability. And the whole “24 hours in a day” rule seem to be too much of a constraint for me to be able to fit my life into it.

You might go the gyan way and say “prioritize”. Or “plan well”. Or “it’s all in the mind”. Only, hah. You think I haven’t given these amazing options a look? I have. Did it help, er, not so much. Instead, it ate into  another 15 minutes of my already precious and extremely limited 24×60 minutes that day.

The issue is same old, same old. There is just so much to do. And the more the things that interest you, the more things you try doing, the more complicated it gets, and the less of everything you end up doing. The jack of all trades philosophy can be modified and applied here. More like, “the intender of all things, the doer of none”, only better sounding than that. And that is exactly what is happening with me, too many “want-to-do”s vs no actual “do”s.

Again, there might be some bit of exaggeration here. This who “no actual doing” thing. There are things I do because I have to. Like the job, like managing the baby, the home. But that’s where it doesn’t seem right. That’s like saying “I do a lot, I live life”. But then who doesn’t  Those are the must haves after all  It’s the add ons which are not as easy. The good to haves. In specific, and in the context of this post and me, reading.

A year ago, I would have said reading was a must have part of my life. It was never an effort, it was just there. Like waking up, working, eating, there was reading. It was fun, and I looked forward to it. But 2012 was bad. I tone it down when I say bad, it was a disaster. I hardly read! I very optimistically got myself a library membership, and stocked up on all books I thought I would love to read, but I didn’t. I am not able to. And it sucks. I am not sure what the cause is. If I am picking up the wrong books. But that seems like an excuse because come on, 1 book can be bad, two, even three! But what explains 6 half read books in the last year?

One word, laziness. Or two, wrong priorities. After a crazy first few months of running around trying hard to manage life with a baby, life is now back to plonking one’s ass on the beanbag in front of the television, while the baby romps around the room, flinging her toys and walking over you. Why this scenario cannot be changed to the lazy ass reading a book while the rest of the scene remains unchanged, beanbag, baby, toys, everything included, is beyond my understanding. So is the fact that I ‘invested’ in a book light so that the baby would not get disturbed while I read, while what happens is I sit watching nonsense on the television and said poor baby sleeps through that.

Also, bleddy Internet. Yeah yeah, the same internet which is allowing me to write this, and will ensure that someone reads it, and also that some of those someones are some of my closest friends, and will understand my predicament better than anyone else. That internet. Why in the world is it so damn addictive? Why? And to top it, Twitter. Oh My God. The hours I can spend just scrolling through my Timeline and smirking and smiling and rolling my eyes is unbelievable. And disgusting. And this, when I follow 118 people (only).

So I guess the only solution is to take matters into my own hands and do something about it. Where matters = a book and do something = read. Haha. But for that I will first have to keep the damn I pad down. Or alternatively, I could try and convince those guys who manage calendars and time and all that it’s been way too long that we’ve had this 24 hour limit and it is high time that we increase it.

And unfortunately, it’s  the latter which seems to be the lesser challenge of the two.