Someone from Japan has read my blog!!!!

Yay! Yippity duppity yay! Someone from the country of my dreams has been to my blog! I just hope they liked what they saw! :)

In other news, I'm kinda going through a very very difficult phase and so, it has been a little difficult maintaining the update of the blog. So, please bear with me and if you can, send a prayer or two my way! :)

Well... well... well!

Hello there! It's been quite some time, hasn't it? Well, there were quite a lot of things going on and frankly, I was completely overwhelmed! But now, everything seems right back in order (or what can be a distant semblance of order!).

So, will I be posting regularly here? I might. Though, I honestly doubt if anyone is even interested anymore! Anyway... this place shall always be my sounding board and I shall honour it's sanctity as such. If any of you is bored anytime, do drop by!

Of books and their worlds

How often is it that we find ourselves in a place that fit us as people and as dreamers so perfectly? A place where one feels at home... even if one were to visit that place for the first time! A place that sometimes, confined to the yellowing pages of books we grew up with...

I've always had a deep love for books and what they can teach. And oh, how much does a good book have to convey! It cannot be measured... probably it varies with how much one can learn. A good book is the best of teachers. There is no ego. The words do not change and yet, in those seemingly lifeless pages, there is a force that changes the reader so subtly... so beautifully... so magically!

I've had quite a long history with books. When my friends would play house and imagine themselves to be caught in the mires of the adult world, I escaped to the world of wizards and elves. No, I didn't become any character in the books I read. I was merely the faceless observer who had no part to play. Yet, being that observer gave me such a sense of belonging that I loathed putting away some of my books. I dreamed of the numerous worlds I read about. I yearned to go into them... to live them out. But never take part in them. The part of the anonymous and unaffected observer was all I sought.

One such book that touched my soul is "Silmarillion". True, it's not as famous as "The Lord of the Rings" but there is something about this work of Tolkien that manages to lure me in... I've read it a thousand times and every single time, it shows me something new. No two readings are the same! It's amazing how one can rediscover what one thought one knew so well and realize that everything is not as one thought them!

In Silmarillion, I could always relate to some character or the other and in no two readings have the characters ever been the same. And every time I open the book, I feel at peace! My world could be crumbling around me but as long as I have this book open in front of me, all will be well! I shall forever be indebted to Tolkien for giving me this wonderful gift!

Do you have a book that makes you feel this way?

I'm alive! And how!

It has been quite a while since I've come hither, has it not? There're cobwebs dangling all over the place!



I'm incredibly sorry for not being the most judicious with updates! My life has been a roller coaster ride for a while now. In the weeks that I was forced away from updating my site thanks to excess work and pure laziness, I've managed to get myself invited to the Consul-general of Japan's residence, spoke in Japanese to Japanese diplomats who are really... really big shots! Had my speech covered by Australian TV channels (Apparently!) and tasted authentic Chicken teriyaki! Did I mention I also went to Kerala, literally boiled myself in the sweltering heat, saw three different festivals in three days, shopped sarees that are truly out of this world and played with dogs with heads bigger than the biggest unhusked coconuts?
Yes... I've been busy! :D

And to top it all off, I'm in love with Hermann Hesse! Head over heels! My Sensei gave me a few of his books to read and seriously, I'm eternally indebted to him for showing me Hesse! The guy's what I imagine a good author ought to be! Read and learn, Stephenie! Read and learn! I've finished Wandering and am almost finished with Siddhartha. have any of you read Hesse? What's your take on him?

Shame on you, Indian government!

I know that the title is pretty vast in interpretation as the Indian government is known for shaming itself on numerous accounts. But today, I'm talking about the Government of India cancelling the legitimately granted visa of Ms. Kobayashi Maya who is a survivor from the Fukushima area in Japan.

Now, I, surely believe that Nuclear power has immense benefits and the proper utilization of the same can grant us power without putting another whooping hole in the Ozone layer. But this has to come with the appropriate safety measures. Though I'm against the numerous agitations and demonstrations against the construction of a Nuclear Power Plant here in Chennai, I should clarify my stand. If someone has been granted visa legitemately and then have had it revoked purely because what they say might not please a few corporate honchos, it's about time the government went and hung itself!

Let them give everybody a chance to voice their opinion and let them take a decision that's best for the people....but then again, the Indian Government hasn't given a rat's renal area what the people want! Shame on you, Indian Government!

I got a spanking new camera!

Yep! You heard it right! I got myself a camera, people! After countless years of sufferance when I was forced to observe people who had the best tools of the light yet couldn't take a decent picture and the ones who forever seemed to think having a separate camera was silliness, I've finally managed to get myself a camera... well... technically mommy-dearest paid for it. But technically, I'll pay her back with the salary... oh whatever gives! Please put your hands together for.......
*drumrolls*
The one.... the only.... (let's forget the billion others in existence right now!).... the stupendous....(What's that you say? DSLR? Pfft... What do you take me for? The merchant with the golden eggs?)

CAAAAAAAAAAAAANON SX 150 IS!!!!!!!

Dancing time!

And she's a beauty, my friends! A reeeeeeeeeeal beauty! :D And every time I see my camera, I can't stop myself from giggling like a twelve year old when she's in front of....er.... Edward from Twilight for instance? Just that my giggles have more reason to exist than those spent on a silly sparkly necrophiliac vampire who has no business existing!! (I would've said Fingolfin from Silmarillion... but I doubt if there are any people let alone twelve year olds who fan-girl crush on that poor bloke!)

Are you curious to know how my baby looks? Hmmmm? Hmmmmmmm? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? What's that? No? I can just jump into the sea for all you care? Awwwwww.... such love! Don't worry! I'll show you!

TADA!!!!!

The front!

Isn't she a Beauty? Huh? Huh? Huuuuuuuuuuh?!!!!!!

The Back!

I'm guessing there must be more than one person out there who's most probably wondering what's got me all this excited! You have no idea how I've yearned for a camera! Oh yes, we have, preciousssss!  And another thing, just so you know, the camera in the pictures above is not technically my camera... DUH! But if my camera has an identical twin who was lost in the quintessential Kumbh Mela when it was a wee lil' girl, it would be the camera above! 

Amusing....you are, good sir!

Today, I had a revelation of sorts. Today, I met a person who's managed to baffle me within five minutes of me hearing him speak. And I don't know what to make of it all!
Imagine this... this person seems to have such strongly grounded ideas about everything and some of the things he'd let out were purely unimaginably rude! And it pains me to see how skewed his perception of today's world is! I've realized, thanks to listening to him that when someone has three words to use, one should use a single word to convey the meaning.
And I personally come from a family that never boasted... ever! And being proud in whatever I do has always been an alien feeling for me. But I'm realizing that not everybody need share that philosophy. Today, this person was going on about how things were so much better and his loved ones were the ones who have done so well in life and when he knew I had people in the same field as his relatives seemed to singularly strive to find something to say that would make my point seem trivial. Seriously... it's okay! I've always known there are better people out there and so, there's no point trying to bring down another person. In the end, it only goes out to show how little I can seem when I indulge in such silliness.

Oh! art of conversation... thou art a stranger to that gentleman, aren't you?
In the end, now when I think about it, I'm happy I didn't just bite the bait and try proving him wrong. There's no point in doing that! Obviously the both of us are so very insignificant in the grand scale of things and reality is what we make of it. And the ultimate reality does not depend on what either of us thinks. Hmmm... sometimes, the best conversations are in the midst of even breaths and silence.