Too Indian?

Sometimes I turn to this blog to vent my feelings when people around me are not interested, have heard it too many times, or I'm being too polite to express these feelings. But regular blogging has its advantages, first to try to build a sustainable readership is hard so if you have one, be proud my friend. Second writing as much as reading hones your mind, and comments only make you push yourself. So in this process of self-improvement I am trying to write something today, bare with me, it will not be beautiful or make sense, might just be plain boring:

What does it mean to be Indian? Is there something as too Indian? Well there is because I have evidently fallen into the too Indian category, I don't know how exactly it happened or started. Could be that last year in the sept/oct navrathras, I kept one day of fast. Well honestly my whole life, I never quite grasped what navrathras where, what you could do and what you couldn't do, what food you could eat if you were fasting or not. Very confusing for me, so last year, it was the first navrathras I ever attended in India as many people at my work place were keeping them so I joined the bandwagon, to feel I could belong to this exclusive fast-keeping group in which people would not eat my food and would bring special chips for me. It was part of my cultural assimilation project. Previously in this project I had decided to not wear revealing clothes to work (revealing to mindset of people at work not any other place I've been to), to always come to office waxed, threaded and in no way show that God almighty has graced me with hair, as I understand that it nothing short of a felony to go natural. Going further in this cultural assimilation I had decided I will try to speak hindi as much as I can. So far so good, but I guess my project fooled people into thinking I was totally integrated and assimilated. WRONG MY FRIENDS. Slowly time went by, and my coy and soft demeanor lead people to think that I cannot scream, I can scream so hard your ears will hurt.

Well the navrathras were a good learning but that does not mean I believe in it, because I don't, I have zero faith in it I would like to learn more about it, but as much as any religious festival. It seems incredible but this small act has led to people believing that I am too innocent, and gullible and that somehow it is the right time for me to get married. HOW on earth did they land on this topic, WHAT on earth was the logic. And here are the reasons to get married:

-All the good guys will get married and it will be too late for you- Maybe but I don't see any good guys around, and what is to say that marrying at a young age will ensure that I will get a good guy

-There is a certain age till you can have babies- You are not wrong but babies are not born because everyone should have babies, babies should be born because they are wanted and you have the maturity to give them a good life

-Your circle will widen- Thanks but I can do that on my own

-You won't have time to read books- Well thanks, you just gave me a reason not to get married

-Your priorities will change- Well my priority right now is to be healthy, If it changes then it's not a good thing for me

-You will learn more from life, you won't only think about yourself, you will have to manage different relationships-DUH, any change teaches you, doesn't mean the change is good. I already manage different personal and professional relations

-You need a companion- I know that, I am not saying I will never get married  what I am saying is:

                      IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME

P.S: My project assimilation is close to an end as "Getting blackmailed into getting married" was one of the few things that remained

Living in India

It's been almost two years since I've shifted to India. There were a lot of challenges, some good some bad. Overall living in Delhi NCR makes you tough, it makes you aggressive, you learn to fight for yourself. It has also turned me into a typical Delhi girl with the usual complaints of I can't step out at night. And now as more time goes by I feel living in Delhi is really not such a wise move, it was good for the beginning, I had family, I understood the culture, I knew where to get things but now living in Delhi just pisses me off. If it were not for the cultural activities and history I would have hated it. Two years in Delhi and I've almost stopped feeling outraged at rape, it's called the mass effect, you hear or see something so many times that you come to accept it as normal. It's what happened in Nazi Germany. I can't say it enough Delhi is a disappointment. I don't know if other cities in India are like this, but it wouldn't hurt to try and find out.

I fear by Being Erica

I fear that you will learn the lessons of beauty and injustice
That the poetry your body can create will abandon you
The gifts of your own strengths and passion will be dulled before they are even born
I fear that you will cease to yearn for flight

William Walker's first year of marriage a horror story by Matt Rudd

Reminded me a lot of Bridget's Jones' Diary but only a male version, it's William Walker telling the story. A total chick flick but since it's a guy's story I'll call it a dick lit. Some of the one liners and jokes are funny enough to make you laugh out loud, the story is well written in the beginning, gripping enough to make you want to read it till the end. Yet somehow by the end leaves you with a feeling of it being not only a dick flick but a shallow one as well ( unlike Bridget's Jones' Diary), the book leaves a sort of not-so-good after taste in the mouth. It might soar high in the Chick literature category but not anywhere else (unlike Helen Fielding's book again, although to be fair her acclaim also came from being the first of it's kind). It's too bad because in the beginning I really enjoyed it and couldn't wait to finish it. You can see right through Alex's game who is the main antagonist, you can foresee that his lamps are more then just that. This was it's loss being far too predictable although we do expect everything to be resolved in the ending. A happy ending doesn't exclude a good journey. Recommended only if you are looking for some light reading.

Unless by Carol Shields

I started reading this book even though Sam had told me it's below average. And well according to my low expectations, it was a lot better. The problem with the story is that the character of the mother, who is the narrator is just not believable enough. You can just feel the falseness of it. The story is good in parts but what really troubled me is that the whole story is only in the book, you cannot imagine it for one second to be real. You can't get lost in that world. You just know the story is just a story , that all the efforts the author puts in to make the story look real are just efforts. She doesn't manage to make the reader believe that this story could have actually happened. Pity because I think the story could have been great now it's just average. I'm not sorry I read this book just for the small passages that touched me. I don't really recommend this to anybody.

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

Set in Baltimore about 2 families (one American, the other Iranian) who adopt Korean babies: Jin-ho and Susan. The families meet at the airport and become friends.
It talks about routine life, about the character's interactions with each other, a lot about family and it's importance. A certain debate on Americanisms and Iran-isms  One of the things that struck me was the similarity between Iran and India, seems to me all Asian cultures put a lot of emphasis first on family then food. Both our women produce such a variety of labour intensive dishes for each meal. Worries me that I might have to spend as much time in the kitchen later in life.
Anyhoo, light and easy read.

I read A Patchwork planet by Anne Tyler as well but it's not as good as the above mentioned one.

Mercredi au Parc by Ayelet Waldman, original title: Love and other Impossible Pursuits

This book is a one time read. It'as about a Jewish girl Emilia who loses her new born baby and how she finds it difficult to reconnect with the world and most importantly  to love her husband's first child William.
William is a pre-schooler who is rejected  from the Collegiate, Trinity, Dalton, UN International School & Riverdale County. The supposedly best schools in New-York, he gets really upset (he's only 5 years old) so this is what Emilia, his step-mom says to him: " C'est une très grande ville William. C'est une ville immense Collegiate est un petit point minuscule. C'est un minuscule petit point insignifiant. C'est une ville immense et tu vas avoir une vie immense, alors je te promets que Collegiate ne veut rien dire. Qu'importe ce qu'il se passera , tu dois juste te rappeler  a quel point tout est grand"

A passage that really resonated with me.

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Good book, the summary at the back of the book is terribly wrong . They just talk about the last chapters. This book is like an interesting history lesson. It's about Aurora Del Valle, she talks about her grandmother, her parents, then about her life. Set in the early 20th century. It's quite interesting the way she talks about her marriage, her lover, her memories. Well written, finished it in 3 days. Praise:It is an intimate examination of the inner lives of a woman and the canvas of Chile and San Francisco. A family epic described through the eyes of Aurora (because she was born at dawn), full of eccentric characters.

Good book but I'm also sure that are other novels by Allend that are even better

The Palace of illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Gifted to my by Ridhi on my 24th birthday last year, Palace of illusions is a novel based on Mahabharat, Draupadi's version. Sort of historical fiction, actually more like mythological fiction or novelised mythology. It's well written and told me a lot about Mahabharat, I knew it in bits and pieces but not the whole thing, so that was nice.
One thing I really liked was that Divakaruni doesn't dwell too much on the biggest and most famous parts, so there's no feeling of being repetitive and boring. The book starts of very well. Interesting and refreshing & for me very informative on mythology. This book actually started my trend of reading mythology. Draupadi comes across as a strong character. This I feel largely stems from the fact that she is not portrayed as a super sweet, beautiful, self-sacrificing and obedient woman. That alone makes her  interesting and real. She has definite choices, likes and dislikes, anger and love. Makes Draupadi a character we can relate to. One of us, just set in ancient times.
I think Divakaruni had a very good plot to begin with, her descriptions and her narrative style is very good. It's hard to tell such a famous story in a new way. A way which makes it more compelling for women. Who ever thought of Mahabharat from Draupadi's perspective, she was always a side character who makes the story go forward. Just a tool, not someone you think about too much. But this book changes that, you actually see her emotions, she is human.
Now that I have praised book enough , I have to say that this book doesn't go into my favourites book list. Somewhere near the end of her book she loses steam. The writing doesn't hold your attention as before. The intensity wanes. There are a few other points I can't remember as I read this book last year.

Plains of the Wolf by Con Iggulden

Plains of the Wolf by Conn Iggulden is the first book in the Conqueror series. It is about the journey of Genghis Khan.

It's a good book, slightly slow on the pick up but carries on to become very interesting and engaging. If anything I would describe it as an almost page turner, almost like Sidney Sheldon's books, with the exception that this book has a soul, it has depth. It's historically quite accurate, all the more reason to like it. He writes well, crisp, to the point and never overly verbose unlike Christopher Paolini in the last books of the Inheritance Cycle. Clearly a much more seasoned writer, and a stronger story to tell. That would be the advantage of writing historical fiction, you don't need to invent worlds and a true story is usually the root or inspiration of our imagination. There is only so much we can imagine, if we imagine a dragon it is mostly what we already know about a dragon. Exception exists but many literary fantasy worlds lose their steam after the first book itself. Historical fiction takes you to a part of ourselves, of our history that is now alien to us. Terribly captivating. After my Philippa Gregory phase about the Tudors and Plantagenets, it seems this could be a new obsession. I would recommend this to everyone who likes adventure books. 

This blog still exists

Now might be a good time to change my blog name from Irregular Ramblings to Once-a-year Ramblings.
What can I say in my defense  Nothing except that i's hard to write without a PC and internet and even harder when you don't know what to write.

My resolve for this year is to write as much as I can and not really bother about how it sounds. This part is of course easy as I have built up my readership to a steady zero.

Words that flow out my mouth are not always poetic or insightful they are sometimes thoughts stemmed from boredom but as I now endeavor to write something people might want to read, I would want something genuine and honest if not always gripping posts.

So to all my future readers or existing readers (if they still exist or if I manage to force people to read this blog :p), kindly share your thoughts on how to keep blogging.

Hasta la vista baby