These Are a Few My Favourite Books

I’ve been into books for a long time, and over time, I’ve had a lot of favourites. These books made, completed my childhood, and some of them I still turn to whenever I’m tired of the world. (Which is, a lot of times)

So, when I realized that IndiSpire had the perfect prompt for this week, I decided to take the plunge. Here’s a list of 10 of my favourite books. In no particular order,

1. Poems for Pleasure: I love reading poetry. I don’t know why exactly, but there’s a sense of peace that engulfs me whenever I curl in a corner with this book. There’s also a sentimental value to this book – my mother bought this in a second hand sale ages ago, and she gave it to me when I first started writing.

2. Tuesdays with Morrie: I watched the movie first and was so impressed when I learnt this was a book. It’s a small, simple book, but it’s so relatable. You can’t help but agree with the ideas expressed in the book. It’s quite amazing what an ALS patient has to tell the world. Wonder what Morrie would say about the Ice Bucket Challenge?

3. Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix: It’s not the only HP book I like, but there’s something about Harry’s fifth year that strikes me hard. I remember not wanting to read this after I heard of Sirius death in this part. But ever since I read it, my love for Sirius has only increased.

4. Eragon – #1 of The Inheritance Cycle: I was so surprised when I read that Christopher Paolini was only 15 when he finished the first draft of this book. This isn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but it is a special book. I was captivated by the simplicity of the narrative. Surprisingly, Eldest (#2) and Brisingr (#3) weren’t that great. And I didn’t read Inheritance (#4)

5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: I can’t claim that I’ve read all of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, but of the few I’ve read – I’ve never been so impressed. What an amazing man, Sherlock Holmes! Everytime I think about Sherlock’s powers of deduction, I can’t help but imagine what kind of a man Arthur Conan Doyle would’ve been!

6. Agatha Christie: Again, I haven’t read all of Agatha Christie (quite impossible, actually) But of the ones I did read, I was impressed with her writing and the complexities of her plots. “Minute,” that’s how I describe her crimes. Particularly, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. No wonder she’s the Queen of Crime!

7. A Christmas Carol: This is the first book I ever reviewed. Once in our English class, we were asked to write about “my favourite book,” and I chose this. That’s when I first learnt that when you write about something you’ve read, you get better at explaining your thoughts.

8. Les Misérables: I stayed up until 4 AM reading this book. It was a translated copy of Penguin Publications that I had borrowed from my school library. Great story, and the quotes are still etched deep in my memory: “Unwitting innocence is sometimes more penetrating than cunning.”

9. Wuthering Heights: A love story like no other. I often wonder how the literary world would be if Emily Bronte had written more than just this one book. But perhaps that’s her greatness: one book that shook the world. This book remains my favourite story of love to this date, no competition.

10. Enid Blyton’s classics: Childhood is incomplete without Enid Blyton. What hasn’t she written about? Adventure series, The Famous Five, Secret Seven and The Find-Outers mysteries, The Malory Towers and St. Clares for school goers to relate to. And so many other books every child should enjoy.

The list doesn’t end with these books though. There are countless other books that didn’t make the list, but still deeply affected my life.

Remember the Tinkle Digest? Suppandi, Shikari Shambhu, Tantri the Mantri and all those comic characters that made boring days bearable – ah, this prompt makes me nostalgic.

Epic Understanding. Finally!

I read a new book.

For a long time now, it’s been artcles and magazines online. It felt so good to feel a physical book again. I’ve been trying so hard to finish reading at least one book, and I’ve been repeatedly failing. But this one was different. I could sense it as soon as I started it.

It’s a work of fiction. From a novice writer; Kavita Kane. It’s “Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen.” And it’s a nice book.

It’s longer than “Immortals of Meluha,” and I can’t help but instinctively compare the two. Comparing in the sense, not as in ‘compare and contrast the stories of…’ (Phew! How glad I am that I’m not in high school) It’s more of musing of how similar both of these novels are.

“Immortals of Meluha,” the first book of the Shiva Trilogy was a fictitious account of the life of Shiva. Whereas this one is a fictitious account of the life of a warrior’s wife.

“Karna’s Wife” is self explanatory. It’s about Karna’s second wife, Uruvi. The whole story is spun from her point of view, but we get a glimpse of the elder wife, Vrushali, and her seven sons. And I didn’t even know Karna was married in the epic! (I like and know of Karna only because of a movie that portrayed him well. And that movie said nothing about Karna’s wives.) The title itself came as a shock, but the story steadily got better.

I also got to know the background story of the Mahabharath. It was the epic I never understood. Yes, I didn’t make too much effort to understand it, but the Ramayana was much simpler.

With a hundred brothers on one side and a quintet (they don’t sing, by the way) on the other, the Mahabharath is a battle of cousins. The “good” predictably wins, but it depends on your perception of good.

It’s a twisted tale. Where the good warrior (Karna) sides with the evil Duryodhana just because he is his friend. Karna knows well that Duryodhana will exploit his brilliant archery skills against the mighty talented opposition. But nothing falters his affection for Duryodhana. Not even the knowledge that he’d walk into Death in the war. Because, Duryodhana was the only person to give Karna the respect he deserved. (Everyone else abhored Karna because they thought he was of a low birth and was not worthy of being a Kshathriya (a warrior))

Ah, the friendship is supposed to make you tear. And even if you know it’s stupid of Karna, you will feel the sadness when he dies.

That’s how great epics work. And the author has captured it well. It was good enough for me.

The more I read about writing, the more I recognized the too many adjectives in the novel. Perhaps I use a lot of adjectives too, but I realised it only while I read the book.

That’s a lesson for me to take as well.

Coming back, “Karna’s Wife” will keep you hooked if you like to know the Mahabharath story. But of course it’s fiction and will contradict with a lot of other versions of the Mahabharath. Overall, this is a good book to read on a lone Saturday afternoon.

I’ve been using the wrong dictionary all my life

Back in school, when I got bored, I’d take my copy of the Oxford dictionary and look up random words. You can always trust me to have a dictionary. I even influenced a few of my classmates to start referring to the dictionary.

Now though, I mostly use Google dictionary.

I read an article recently and it made me realize a lot of things about dictionaries. It was a long, but good read. The main reason I’m posting it here is because I couldn’t not talk about it.

I found it on the new Longreads series on WordPress. Regular WordPress followers would already know about this. And if you’ve come across other articles that you think I must read, please let me know.

“You’re probably using the wrong dictionary.” The title jumped out at me. I’m a great believer in compulsive titles, and I couldn’t resist. Even before I opened it, I knew it would be long. 1500+ words. I had my doubts. I was at work, could I manage it?

I decided I could. And I’m glad I did.

Read it if you can. If you’re a lover of the English language and literature, you will surely enjoy this article. And once you’re done, you might want to check out Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 and 1828 editions.

You’ll find a sense of the word that is somehow more evocative than any you’ve seen. “2. To convey as by a flash… as, to flash a message along the wires; to flash conviction on the mind.” In the juxtaposition of those two examples — a message transmitted by wires; a feeling that comes suddenly to mind — is a beautiful analogy, worth dwelling on, and savoring. Listen to that phrase: “to flash conviction on the mind.” This is in a dictionary, for God’s sake.

And, toward the bottom of the entry, as McPhee promised, is a usage note, explaining the fine differences in meaning between words in the penumbra of “flash”:

… Flashing differs from exploding or disploding in not being accompanied with a loud report. To glisten, or glister, is to shine with a soft and fitful luster, as eyes suffused with tears, or flowers wet with dew.

Did you see that last clause? “To shine with a soft and fitful luster, as eyes suffused with tears, or flowers wet with dew.” I’m not sure why you won’t find writing like that in dictionaries these days, but you won’t. Here is the modern equivalent of that sentence in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster: “glisten applies to the soft sparkle from a wet or oily surface <glistening wet sidewalk>.”

Who decided that the American public couldn’t handle “a soft and fitful luster”? I can’t help but think something has been lost.

Read more…

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I recently watched “The Perks of being a Wallflower”. Though I don’t usually watch movie adaptations, without first reading the books, I know I can’t read every book that was adapted into a movie. So I decided to shed my useless ego and watch the movie.

First, I liked Emma Watson’s look in the movie. Free spirited, smiling girl. With short hair.

But the movie was more than pretty faces.

From sexual abuse, to introversion and deaths, the story speaks of stuff that any teenager can easily relate to.

And yes, bad relationship decisions too.

Thing is, a lot of movies nowadays, cover all these topics. But, this wasn’t just another story.

The protagonist, Charlie, is an introvert. The story begins with him writing a journal entry about his fears for the following day, his first day of high school.

Personally, I could relate to this character unlike, any movie I’ve seen before. (And yes, I’m selective when it comes to movies) An introvert, he makes his action plan for the next day, but as all plans go, he was flunked.

That’s when I felt like shouting, “That is so me.”

At the end of his first day, Charlie is left with one friend. Which, his English teacher thinks, is good for starters.

“If my English teacher is the only friend I make today, that’ll be sorta depressing.”

Then come his friends. Patrick and Sam. Step-siblings. And seniors.

Those two, reflect simplicity. Their love for old songs, and the way Sam enjoys tunnel rides, all of that will bring a smile on to your lips. If it didn’t, well you need to loosen up a bit.

All seems fine, until Charlie realizes his feelings for Sam (Sam’s a girl (FYI)). Yet again, he does something realistic, he ignores it. He wants Sam to be happy, but he also knows that she has chosen the wrong person.

The English teacher Mr Anderson is a perfect embodiment of a great teacher. He lends Charlie books to read, and does give away some brilliant relationship advice,

“Because we accept the love we think we deserve.”

We, as an audience, are constantly surprised at the depth of the characters. Patrick, shows that he is capable of some deep thoughts as well.

“Why can’t we save anybody?”

This is probably one of the most relatable quotes of the movie. We’d have all had the same thought at one point of time. I know I did.

And though it might sound trivial, the situation is not.

This movie is full of wonderful dialogues. Even though I can’t tolerate romance, I’m wondering if I should read that book, only for the dialogues.

“You see; you understand, you’re a wallflower” – Patrick

They were that good.

Student, Teacher. And me in Between

Game-changer

This is something I witnessed, and it surprised me how easily some kids take advice. I was travelling home, along with a friend.

There was an eight year old next to us. He was reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. From what I heard, it was his school library book. And so, as library books go, it was in a pretty bad shape.

But I was more surprised at his involvement to worry about the book’s state. Just looking at him read, brought back old memories of myself. I’ve read that particular book no less than 12 times, before I laid my hands on the others.

I was smiling to myself, thinking about my younger self, when I noticed that boy bookmarking the page he was reading. He made a big fold on the top right corner of the page. It was a bit painful. (I am touchy about cruelty to printed books.) But I held my silence. I didn’t think it was right to correct that boy. Afterall, his mother was a little grumpy. No saying how she’d react.

But my friend stopped him.

She told him to take a piece of paper, when he got home, and make a bookmark. She told him, that folding the page will damage the book. I’ve seen her advise her sisters loads of times and observed, “you should stop being a teacher all the time.”

She smiled, as always. And for the next couple of minutes, we forgot about it. Then, suddenly my friend tapped me on the shoulder and said, “He listened to me.”

I gave her a what-the-hell-are-you-saying look.

The boy had left the book lying between her and me. She mutely opened the book and gestured me to look. I did.

There was a piece of old newspaper in the page the boy was reading earlier. And the folded page was back straight.

Well, well well.

That child taught me, that if you say it right, kids will listen.

Some people are game changers. And sometimes, they’re called teachers.

This post is for the Weekly Writing Challenge: Student, teacher

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