"Unaccustomed Earth"

This is the latest collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.

I have fallen in love with it, if I can exaggerate. Jhumpa Lahiri always captures my attention 100%. Such intricate delicate emotions handled with such enormous strength and style. Phew! And I like her style of narrating. Its slightly placid and in passive voice but it draws you into the story as you read it. Her stories take my breath away, almost because they are just so realistic. Namesake did it to me. This time, its this one. Unputdownable.

I am zipping through it with nothing else to do during the weekend. The second short story was touching now. The first one was itself just so natural and free-flowing that I was already swimming in those mixed emotions for the father and daughter, not to forget the grandson Akash!

I can relate to those people so easily in her stories. I wonder why. Is it because her writings have a feminine touch and sentiment to her? Maybe. I can so easily feel what the girl's character goes through in the second story - as much as I've read it until now. The mother confesses the pain and tumultuous turmoil to the daughter wherein both have been through similar grief of losing out on a guy whom they each banked for love (though quite out of turn).

Now I know about four families - all of them Bengali (coz the writer is herself one). I wish she would write about other regional families too. One family is struggling to deal with a drunkard. Another family is about a couple who think love is out of their married life after spending 10 years together. They realise in the end that it has not actually vanished but was taken for granted so long, in very complicated ways and after getting hurt. :)

Kudos to J.L. :)

White Flag!

DIDO LYRICS

"White Flag"

I know you think that I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over"
then I'm sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on....

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of my favorite numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!! This whole song has its own reasons and is justified because love is different for every person. Dido has captured the nuance of this delicate line perfectly! :)

Seed of doubt

When a seed of doubt enters your head, what do you do? Jump to conclusions? Wait and see? The former indicates lack of patience and latter the contrary. The middle humanly approach would then be to exhaust all logical polite options of finding out if the doubt is worth it. Last but not the least and the best approach is, depending on the person's maturity level and sensitivity of the situation, to talk it out frankly.

I am yet to see if this middle approach works for me this time. I hate suspense, if it brings disappointing news with it. Sigh.

Simpsons Jr.

Well, episode continued...

PY - The place to be in when am almost done with rat-race --> My dream 5 years ago. Now, I have to rethink about it because of all this commercialization and unexpected ridiculous atrocities - eve teasing, hooligans, bad customer service, firangi worship, horrible traffic followers. It was such a beautiful, different and purely French-Tamil balanced picturesque place 5 years back. Sigh, there are just remnants of that elegance now which set it apart previously. Civilization and evolution - Bah! :(

Anyways, thats the sad part of the visit. Happening part - Me walking aimlessly, being unreachable, enjoying the landscape wherein I am feeling so lost but safe, sitting and gaping at the ever-lashing waves on the rocky seashore at sunset, experiencing few sudden pleasant short-lived but memorable unexpected incidents, getting to see weird but passionate and affectionate family bonding, the best one - getting completely into the sea where the waves are almost drowning me and I become icky, sticky and salty - Most amazing experience, thanks to them! :)

To complete the list, managing to get an almost sound sleep in the middle-seat of a Qualis! :) I managed to do that coz I had blinded my eyes with a kerchief to avoid the head-lights of vehicles coming in front! Ha ha. Feels so funny. Oh, how can I forget? A generous soul shared her blanket with me and a moral support was next to me.

One of my most memorable trips. Somehow, now I am left with mixed emotions - Am I anywhere there to where I want to be or was this whole thing just a timing and place thing? When will I know the answers? :)

Waiting again with bated breath!