All smiles...

yiippeeeeee
that describes my mood today
euphoric
just came back to the insti while it was raining..got a little wet..came to my room which is soooo beautiful..(its has to be considering the pains i took to decorate it:) )..i have wall hangings..i have posters..i have cuuuuteee flowershaped yellow slips..a bright curtain..great bed..ganpati idols..a gentle breeze coming in..
what else does a gr8 room need:D:D:D..nd most of all its my ownnnnnn for 2 years now:)..gr8 feeling..tho i do find being alone a little odd..but il get used to it soon i guess:)..
so the result being i'm all smiles:):):):):)..i wish blogspot had smileys...just want to stay in da room and take in the beauty of the rains outside now..

The catcher in the rye

I dunno if most people have heard about this book..its been a very controversial book at the time it was released..written by J.D.Salinger..i still dont understand why the author wrote what he wrote..but still i loved the book..couldn't put it down once i started though not much made sense to me..but just putting some quotes here i loved..

“You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phoney stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.”

"If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody. "

"If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible."

"I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though" "I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it. "

"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible. "

"People never notice anything."

"It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to."--and I think thats what the author did..:D

PS:its finally raining here..yaayyyyyyyyy...mmmmuaaaahhh mumbai:)

Phir bhi dil hai hindustani

Recently when my cousin who lives in canada came to visit us, we ended up discussing on settling abroad and I heard myself telling her how I didn't want to settle abroad.

Even I did not know my views clearly until that moment.
I don't want to settle abroad as I don't want to sit in taxis playing english songs and kill the pani puri craving with burgers always.

Mindgames..

I was thinking today about the things I fear in life. There came out to be a lot of fears like losing my loved ones, people I love being angry with me, lizards, cockroaches etc. and one of the major fears was a situation in which people can read my mind and heart.

I realised that, thats the most private thing; your thoughts, your true opinions about people, your memories. Is this true for everyone? Or are there people who are dead frank with all they feel. Because I know am not.

Everyone's mind jumps from one cue to another uniquely. There are so many links to my thoughts--like books make me crave for coffee/tea and cake..rain always reminds me of mumbai..a particular person always makes me smile--and i would never want to reveal those links to anyone at all. I detest some people in my life(i have a vague feeling they know my true feelings) but sadly i can't say it to their face; but it wud be pretty bad for me if they came to read my thoughts :D..(waise not bad for me..just awkward..hehe)

Just imagine a situation when your mind gets a voice of it own.

You're sitting with some relatives saying"what a beautiful dress" and your mind blurts out "this gaudy dress makes you look even fatter than you are"

Or you are sitting with a classmate talking and suddenly your mind blurts out "why da hell are you such a flirt"

Or you're listenin to a friend talk and suddenly your mind starts snoring...zzzzzz...

:)))..hehe..thank god people cant read minds..and our minds dont have voices..

To kill a mockingbird

the cover page:) at least of the edition I read

Jem and Scout in the movie

I just happen to be plain lucky these summers to chance upon one good book after another:). Just finished To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee. Its a beautiful book:) and quite hard hitting as it shows the hypocrisy and prejudice of society through the eyes of an innocent 8 year old.The plot revolves around 2 siblings-jem and scout-elder bro and younger sis(maybe thats why i loved it even more:) ). The story is narrated by 8 year old Scout of her childhood, based in a sleepy town Maycomb, when the society was fraught with feelings of racism towards the blacks. It also covers the rough times faced by these kids when their father, a lawyer, is handed a case to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. Inspite of everyone knowing the fact that the black man was innocent, the jury pronounced him guilty, despite all the efforts put in by their father to save him. At one point in the book, Scout is baffled by one of her teachers who criticizes Hitler’s prejudice against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks. So, the book shows in a satirical way, how irrational adults can be, due to prejudice. It also makes you reflect upon the fact that children are the purest human beings, as they haven't been exposed to the evil in the world yet and thus have clear-cut concepts of what is fair and what is not. Putting some lines I liked below:

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of geting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Its when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see through it no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."--said by Atticus(father of jem and scout)

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird."--Atticus

"I came to the conclusion that people were just peculiar. I withdrew from them, and never thought about them until i was forced to."-- Scout

"..chewing gum cleaved to her palate and rendered her speechless."--reason a lady gave to Jem for not eating shewing gum :D

There is a movie on it also. I haven't watched it yet but I can bet it can never catch the essence of the book. And its a short book of 300 pages so an easy read also. Do try it:)

PS: The book won the pulitzer prize in 1961, an year after it was published.

Shantaram

I have been planning to put up this post for very long now. Happened to read shantaram in these summer holidays and have one word for it"awweessoooommeee". Its the best book I have read in quite a long time. The last book that impressed me this much was Godfather i think or maybe atlas shrugged. This book is one which doesn't lose its pace at any point. Full of action, drama, emotion. And the picture it paints is very colorful. Very vivid descriptions and amazing use of metaphors.aahh..il run out of adjectives but will not be able to praise the book enuf..
I loved the characterization also a lot..of khaderbhai, lee, abdullah tehari, lisa carter and of course karla, one of the most impressive characters(atleast in the initial part of the book). Another thing lovable in the book are the lines spoken by karla..which have inspired an earlier post also..:D so just putting some i liked here(most of them have been spoken by karla my all time favourite:D)..read them with a little attention..ull love them..:)

"The world and I are not on the speaking terms. The world tries to win
me back, but it doesn't work. I guess I'm just not the forgiving
type."

"It's my favourite place in the whole world, to be treated like dirt."

"The truth is a bully we all pretend to like."

"He is the kind of man who wears his sleeve on his heart."

"I could never respect a man who didn't have the good sense to be at
least a little afraid of me."

"Sometimes you have to surrender before you win."

"Wisdom is just cleverness, with all the guts kicked out of it."

"I'd only give you advice if I didn't care what happens to you."

"If fate doesn't make you laugh, then you just don't get the joke."

"I take everything personally- that's what being a person is all about."

"They look like monuments of something that died. Something very
unpopular.. like... human spirit, for example."

"Sometimes I think that's what heaven is- a place where everybody's
happy because nobody loves anybody else, ever."

"Happiness is a myth, it was invented to make us buy things."

"I don't know what frightens me more,the power that crushes us or our
endless ability to endure it."

"Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more
you wish they'd never happened."

"It isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts."

"Depression only happens to people who don't know how to be sad."

"Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting"

"The past reflects eternally between 2 mirrors:the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say"

"Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one,always and inevitably, kills the other"

And for all those who are too lazy to devour the 900 something page book, there is a movie being made on it. But I suggest the book.

summer of '07

holidays finally nearing their end..juss another 10 days to go..i have enjoyed dese hols juss so much..best hols ever..so i thought they deserved a blog post..summer of '07 :D

they started with a family get together after quite some time..bhai me mama papa..livin in 3 diff cities..mum dad in one, me in another nd bhai in 3rd can be quite tiresome..we r together juss 2-3 times an year..and tat too for not more than 2-3 days at a stretch..so it was nice being together for almost a week for a change..

and den came my cousin sis from canada who is gettin married in august..she stayed wid us for a month..and i had a balll...really..had an elder sis for da first time..nd it felt gr8..felt especially nice to have company to talk late into da nite at home..was shoppin everday for a month i think..it was interesting..jewellary..wedding lehenga..wedding suit..sherwani..saris nd da rest..punjabi weddings are so grand really..i thnk dey must be leaving parents quite impoverished:D..

den after she left, i started reading and devoured awesome books this time like midnight's children, shantaram, 1984, 48 laws of power...by the way, those who havent read shantarm are really missing out on something(a blog on shantaram l8r).

also, all this time i started blogging wid new fervour and i think building this blog has been the most constructive thing i have done this summers..because it has given me sumthng to look forward too..i am totally smitten by it and love nurturing it..blogging dus being my fav daily activity:)

and den the gr8est trip ever to mussoorie and singapore..enjoyed just too much coz tried so many new things..and saw so many new places..made me feel i want to host a travel show one day:D:D hehe

and tomorrow, am going to my brothers place for a week ..gosh..cant believe he has his own place nd all..seems like yesterday we shared a room..aahh..ok am gettin senti..probably coz its my last day at home..im gonna miss mum nd dad..im gonna miss my house..am gonna miss my library(320 books at da recent count:D )..im gonna miss home food..nd am gonna miss da clean bathrooms:P:P..
bbye fairyland..aka palace..aka dreamworld..:(:(