Lazy Winters

Winters inherently have something lazy about them and that has got to be the main reason for my love affair with winters. In the same context, I often feel that this season is an extension of me.

"Tangibly" speaking, the layers and layers of winter clothing make you almost partially inactive. I simply love that feeling. You are just happily forced to slow down your movements. When you are bored of that minuscule amount of activity too, simply tuck yourself under a warm fuzzy fat blanket for insane number of hours- Magical.

The season offers lazy heavy food, unlike other seasons, which you can enjoy over an enormous number of seconds and minutes and (and even over a few hours, in my case). Winters let you just bury your hands in the deep warm pockets of your coats and pullovers and walk. And feel the chilly lazy breeze on the skin of your face.

The whole world around seems to have lost its sense of urgency during winters and that is my idea of a perfect life or a perfect season atleast. It is all very very lazy, slow and immensely sweet.

Recommendation Of The Week

Yo people. From this week onwards, I am going to start posting "Recommendation of the week" once a week (any day of the week) Basically, it will feature some Internet gems that I have discovered including web links and blogs :)

This Week's Recommendation (1)-InstantFiction

If you are on Twitter, then InstantFiction is definitely worth following. Sweet little interesting snippets are definitely clutter-breaking in the hyper Twitter world..Even if you don't use twitter, just read through some "tweets" directly from this link. Its totally worth it!

Save some for me

The winter snuggles
The warmth of snow
Cranky sun
The depth of rain

Save some for me

A heart wrenching love story
A walk on a leaves laden lane
Words that you walk on
Butterflies in the stomach

Unplanned time travels
Dream saddled eyes
Mischievous smile
The twinge of lie
The lark of truth

The view of the sea
Luminous twilight
A dark day and a bright night

Save some for me

A day in your life
A moment in your day

Save some for me

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The Solitude of Prime Numbers-What a fuc**ng sexy title. FYI, Its a book which then got adapted to a movie..But that's not important. I am in love with this title. Its a story in itself! Brilliant!!! Really like it.

Im Juli

I first saw Fatih Akin's German movie 'In July' about a year back and then re-watched it recently. I have just seen two of Akin's movies- his most famous 'The Edge of Heaven' and 'In July'. Comparing the two movies would be to compare an apple to a banana. The only thing I would like to mention is that 'The Edge of Heaven' is a complex movie (in a very very good way) and 'In July' is sort of simpler in its narration. I can't even pick out my favourite of the two because it would involve comparing. Its just that I relate to 'In July' a lot.

It has a number of cliches but the protagonists in this movie are sort of "Everyman" which we used to read about in our English Literature classes in the context of plays written by people like Christopher Marlowe. A rather staid term to describe "everyman" would be a common man.What I really mean here is, the movie fleshes out very normal contemporary characters on the screen. You could just tear apart the screen and exchange your souls with those characters and nothing would change (if you know what I mean!).

Not surprisingly enough, the female protagonist of the movie, named July, is one of my most favourite characters of all time. Its such a simple character but with all the relevant layers of complexity. She sort of defines or projects a very common predicament of "today's woman" (Ahhhh, resorting to stereotypes again!!!) She is soo adventurous in her spirit that she is ready to decide her next holiday destination according to the first car that comes her way. It could be anything, any place. She once went to Afghanistan like this, she tells the male protagonist in the movie, much to his amazement.

However, the beautiful and a rather poignant irony comes from the fact that during this particular trip (the course of the movie), she is so badly in love with this guy and her free spirit sort of clashes with this part of hers which is clinging onto someone who is apparently not even in love with her. She is now changing her adventurous decisions based on this guy's "directions" and allows the strong adventurous streak in her to mellow down. Its all very subtle and well-played out. I just think that it is just such a beautifully etched out character.

Even the male protagonist's character is like "everyman" but it still has some unique personality disorders but this woman's character is bang-on, atleast for me :)

(PS: Btw, check out the picture above, thats Akin in the middle, playing a cute cameo in the movie)

Some favourite lines from 'Kafka on the Shore'

"No matter how far you run. Distance won't solve anything."

"Chance encounters are what keeps us going."

"Its hard to tell the difference between sea and sky. Between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart."

"I am alone, inside in the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world."

"A dense artistic imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert.....-that a certain type of imperfection can only be realised through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect."

"just like Adolf Eichmann, caught up-whether he liked it or not-in the twisted dreams of a man named Hitler."

"What I imagine is perhaps very important. For the entire world."

"You are seeking something, but at the same time you're running away for all you're worth."

"How we stumble through our lives desperately fumbling for our other half."

"The library is quiet enough most of the time, but on a day like this when it's closed its like the land that forgot time. Or more like a place thats holding its breath, hoping time wont stumble upon it."

"But tolerant, narrow minds with no imagination are like parasites that transform the host, change form and continue to thrive. They are a lost cause and I dont want anyone like that coming in here."

"But irony deepens a person, helps them to mature. Its the entrance to salvation on a higher plane, to a place where you can find a more universal kind of hope."

"Time expands, then contracts, all in tune with the stirrings of the heart."

"Oshima told me people cant be in two places at once, but I think its possible...Infact I'm sure of it. While they're still alive, people can become ghosts."

"You have wandered into a labyrinth of time, and the biggest problem of all is that you have no desire at all to get out."

"Artists are those who evade the verbose."

"Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of theselves. So anyone who is in love gets sad when they think of their lover, its like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you havent seen in a long time."

"But beyond any of thsoe details of the real, there are dreams. And everyone is living in them."

"Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving trying to slip through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you wont be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there-to the edge of the world. There is something you cant do unless you get there."

Jim Morrison-The Phoenix

A story that I had written for Suite101 a few months back. Click here

Idiot and the Idiot Box

“When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships,” said Andy Warhol. I couldn't agree more. The cute little idiot box is indeed my best friend. Anyways this post is not about delving into the nuances of my relationship with it.

I just realised that I am currently completely addicted to STAR World. Initially, it started because my cable guy did not broadcast half of the the channels that I usually watch and also because of my dad's totally ridiculous and pointless theory that his laptop will get spoilt if I watch movies on it! Anyway, so broadly this is how I got hooked on to STAR World. It has awesome programming, atleast during the prime time. Some of the current crop of shows on the channel including Masterchef Australia, Modern Family, Simpsons, How I met your Mother, Lie to Me and the newly launched Burn Notice are pretty cool.



So on a usual weekday, I generally kick off the STAR World marathon at about 9 pm with Masterchef which is in its finals now. I am completely in love with the show and its contestants ;)

After this, I used to watch Lie to Me but now that has ended. The new show that comes at 10 is Burn Notice whose protagonist was initially publicised as "James Bond of TV!!!!"...Yes, advertising can be misleading, as someone on Twitter just pointed out. However, the show seems okay so far (its two episodes old).

This is followed by my most favourite show currently 'Modern Family'. Its a "mockumentary" style of a comedy sitcom.Its simply superb. (I watch the repeats also!!!) Must Watch

This is followed by repeats of Simpsons. Then at 12, there is "How I Met Your Mother" which is a sort of a 'Friends' me too but grows on you gradually and is fun. Then I wind up with re-re-re-re-re repeats of 'Friends' at 12.30.

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll

A BOAT beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?

Haruki Murakami and Kafka

'Kafka on the Shore' is the first Murakami's book that I am reading. Honestly, I was introduced to Murakami through a very dear friend who had suggested that I should read 'Sputnik Sweetheart' because (as per my friend) I bear some sort of resemblance to one of the characters in the book. When I couldn't find that book at a bookstore, I impulsively picked up Kafka.

Kafka has been one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. I am yet to finish the last 100 pages but I am actually clinging on to it because I don't want to put it back in the bookshelf. Kafka has been like a dream, a mesmerizing dream, a kind of dream that you don't want to get over.

After Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I think Murakami has made the most wonderful use of magic realism. He treads into the deepest recesses of mind and dreams and takes you, the reader, along with him. There are instances of subtle play between reality, dreams and the subconscious.

Each and every impossible thing that he talks about seems more real than the actual reality. His narration is flawless and especially unique in this particular book. The way the two seemingly parallel stories are running only to intersect at some of the best parts in the book.

Will post some awesome stuff from the book once I finish it. For now, I leave you with this.

"The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory."