It hurts to part..

 The feeling of emptiness when an enriching, warm, long-running engagement ends is so depressing. I finished Pachinko today - my first book of this year, and I am already missing it so bad. It was a long book and I have spent many wonderful hours with it. Some experiences have this quality of haunting you long after they get over. I am thinking of some other times when it hurt to part. 

1. Books: Atlas Shrugged, Totto chan, A suitable boy. 

2. TV series: Big Bang theory, Friends

3. Places:  Most places where I have spent a considerable time - my two homes in Allahabad, my apartment in Joka, my home for 4 years in Bangalore, my apartment in Hyderabad. Strangely, the 8 days spent in Udaipur + neighbouring places continue to haunt me. 

4. Workplaces: I only felt this for my last software company, Yodlee(now Envestnet) and my last company, Medtronic. Of course, I spent my longest time working in these two. And my school which I had attended for 14 years. Didn't feel much for either colleges. 

These are just off the top of my head, and heavily tainted with recency bias. Starting a new book tonight to ease the misery. So long!

Of Hindi film reviews..

8.8.2019 Pari is a potterhead. As is the routine, it started with the books, progressed with the movies, and now we are sitting on tons of Harry Potter memorabilia - charm pendants, bracelets, wands and Lego sets. The obsession with HP doesn't seem to be waning anytime soon and I have made my peace with it. Yesterday, however, she made a surprising request. She wants to watch 'Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone' movie dubbed in Hindi. I was really puzzled because Pari doesn't watch even Hindi movies in Hindi. The child still has trouble telling apart Amir, Salman and Shahrukh Khans! I prodded further to understand this sudden change of heart. It turns out that Pari has to write a movie review as part of the Hindi assignment in school. Being a devoted HP fan, she wants to review one of the HP movies.The plan is to watch the movie dubbed in Hindi(which, according to her makes it a Hindi movie, duh!) and then review it. I think it is a good plan. Let us just hope that the Hindi teacher thinks so too!

The K-wave

Pari and I love all things Korean. The fascination began with k-dramas which were our window into the Korean culture and their way of life. Through these, we have learnt about the chaebols(the super rich Korean families - thinks Ambani's and Tata's in India), Korean seasons, their flora and fauna, their food - gimbap, Tteokbokki, rameon, soju et al, their traditional wear as well as current fashion trends, the education system in Korea, the work-culture, weddings, societal structure and values - so on and so forth. Our interest in Korean culture is manifesting in different ways, which so accurately reflect how each of us pursues a common interest. Pari is learning Korean language, and has already started framing short sentences. She even manages to understand some of the k-drama conversations without the subtitles. The husband is perusing menus of various Korean restuarants to taste all the great stuff that we see in the k-dramas. Many years ago, we had visited this Korean restaurant in Bangalore by the name Soora Sang. I didn't like the food one bit but the husband liked it enough to polish off both our portions. I am sure he will like it even more now. At my end, I am reading Pachinko - an epic novel by Min Jin Lee. The book is set in Korea in the 1930's, when the country was under Japanese colonial rule. I am only on Chapter 14 and it has already become one of the most moving works that I have read in recent years. Highly recommended!

My year in books

This is a post inspired by the erstwhile POTUS, Barack Obama, no less! End of every year, Mr Obama publishes a list of his favourite books for that year. Reading through his list, I started thinking of the books I have read over the past year. I had imagined that it would be fairly easy to compile my list as I don't read as much. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that smooth as I experienced several senior moments - firstly, not able to recall all the books, and then, not being able to determine whether I had read certain books during the current year or the last, duh! That said, following is the list of the books that I think I have started and completed during 2022, in no particular order, with my quick notes and rating. 

English:

1. A Promised Land - Barack Obama. Exhaustive & exhausting. The longest read this year. I found it worthwhile and enjoyable. 4/5

2. Will - Will Smith. Mediocre content but nevertheless, entertaining. 2.5/5

3. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain - A life of JRD - RM Lala. A quick, bordering on superficial, peek into JRD's extraordinary life. 2.5/5

4. Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman. A satisfactory read with plenty of moments that resonated with me. 3.5/5

5. Never Split the Difference - Negotiating as if your life depending on it -Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz. Can't say I learnt enough negotiation tactics but I sure enjoyed Voss's stories. And to me, that was value enough! 3.5/5

6. Wings of Fire - APJ Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari. A simple book, reflective of the simple yet exceptional person that Sri APJ was. Inspirational and fulfilling. 4/5

7. A man called Ove - Fredrik Backman. Emotional & heartwarming. 4.5/5

8. Anxious People - Fredrik Backman. Another story that makes the heart ache. 4.5/5

9. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - Gail Honeyman. I quite liked it. So you see the trend - heartwarming novels remain the closest to my heart. 4.5/5

10. Blandings Castle - PG Wodehouse. It is a PGW - need I say more?

11. Maus - Art Spiegelman. A graphic novel on holocaust. Always heart-wrenching, this is special because of the unusual approach. 4.5/5

12. Ikigai - Miralles and Garcia. Outstanding work. Worth its weight in gold! 5/5

13. Atomic habits - James Clear. I remember this being a good book, but it was early in the year and I can't remember most of it. Senior moments, here we go again! 3.5/5

14. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho. Repeat read, so 5/5

15. Sapiens - Yuval Harari. Repeat read. 5/5

16. The greatest works of Oscar Wilde - Wilde. The Oscar Wilde.. Enough said! 5/5

17. Down Under - Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson's insights on Australia. What is not to like? 4.5/5

Hindi:

1. Gaban- Premchand. Every word written by Premchand is 10/5 for me. 

2. Boodhi Kaki and other stories. - Premchand.

3. Roz Savere- Narendra Kohli - Nice read, the lack of breadth is compensated by the depth of writing. 3.5/5

4. Manto ki sarvashreth kahaniyan - Manto- Tad difficult to comprehend due to so many Urdu/Hindustani words. Awe-inspiring. 4.5/5

That's all, folks! I will edit the post if I can remember any more.

Tagged again..

This time by lostonthestreet. It is again a nice tag about books but not so intuitive for me at the moment. I have hardly read anything significant in the last 3 years or so, and most of it in Hindi simply to stay in touch with my mother tongue. Even Pari has some little Hindi books, quite hard to find here, thanks to her mother's obsession with the language. Anyways, I'll do this tag mostly with English books except where it can't be helped.. like the first point itself :)

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Premchand, Bill Watterson(if you count CalvinnHobbes as books).
2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Three men in a boat - three copies : my mom borrowed mine before I could finish which is why I bought another one, my husband also has one.
3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.. I hardly noticed.
4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
This has to be Calvin! Rhett Butler comes second.. And yes.. Mr.Darcy remains the childhood fantasy :)
5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Totto Chan.
6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Love story :P Belonged to my parents, and I got hold of it somehow.. Officially, it is Jane Eyre.
7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
5 mistakes of my life.. I made my biggest bothering to read it..
8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
First They Killed My Father
9) If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
To Sir, with love.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Can't comment.. Wonder why Premchand did not win it ever..
11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Rebecca.. there is already a movie for it, but I haven't seen it yet.
12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The fountainhead, they have already made a movie out of it, sigh!
13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Mila 18 : I had horrible dreams while reading it
14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Sidney Sheldon's - so many of them.
15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
A Suitable Boy - simply because it was so huge! Technically there was this book, with Bathsheba as the central character, can someone help me with the name please?
Edited to add : Far from the maddening crowd. Thanks M-I-L!
16) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Milton.
17) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.
18) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Harry Potter.. my little cousins consider me illiterate because of this :(
19) What is your favorite novel?
The Fountainhead.. did I hear people cry 'ewww'? I still like it.
20) Play?
Arms and the man.. seriously, I don't remember many except off course those by Shakespeare, as part of the curriculum.
21) Short story?
Somerset Maugham - All
22) Work of non-fiction?
Totto Chan, again!
23) Who is your favorite writer?
Now now.. this has to be Premchand.

Okie.. now I tag Sundar, Banno,thirtysixandcounting to do this. Tell me your taste in books.