While I was Away…….

I know it’s been some time while I posted…..yet again! I even read two books for Karen’s 1956 Club, but never got around to posting anything, because, something called Life kept happening. Nothing major, no ah-ha moments, no life stage changes; just the usual, sick aunts, working for a international financial conglomerate during a Credit crisis stirred by pandemic, plumbing disasters at home and other inconsequential and minor irritants, topped by the realization that it is the festival season in India, and my Dad who loved all the festivities (not the religious bruhaha) the eating and partying and gifting is no longer around to enjoy it! It’s kind of shifts the ground beneath one’s feet and I am still trying to figure out, why when Mom passed away, 5 years ago, I was much more stoic while now, I am falling apart every alternate day! I was equally close to both my parents so kind of weird all this emotional upheaval!

Anyhow I have complained long enough and while yes, all of these events consumed a lot of energy, there were other happy adventures at play as well. I have been lately cooking with a vengeance, expanding my repertoire for all kinds of Indian cuisines. There is no national cuisine in this country, though many people do think it’s Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala, neither are truly representative of the food cooked in this country for hundred thousand years. The other thing most people do not realize is whole breath of food available in this country. What you eat in North, is way different from what you get in South and they have nothing in common with either the cuisines of East or West. So I have trying out a lot of flavorful lentil dishes from West, cooking fish in the traditional Eastern style like my grandmothers and chicken like southern India. I have also mastered the art of making a Chappati (see here); this staple has been my albatross for years and finally I was able to crack the code of making them soft (easier) and round (IMPOSSIBLE!) This by far has been one of the few personal best of what can effectively call a miserable year!

Claude Monet, Autumn on the Seine at Argenteuil, 1873

I also started training for hiking again! Many many moons ago , I had taken this with the serious intentions of losing weight as well getting in shape for some treks I wanted to accomplish. But crazy work hours and sick parents often disrupted the training. The only good thing for this year is this Work from Home environment which saves me commute time and allows me to do a lot more and accomplish a lot more and I am happy to report that I have been on track for 3 months now and lost 9kgs and have considerably added on to my stamina

Finally, Marian like a true friend directed me to the launch of a amazing online journal specializing in fictions, essays and histories. You have to check out Post Modern Journal if you have not already. I have loved their posts and discovered that they are open to accepting submission from general public. I did send of a short story and they have accepted and I promise to inflict the link on all and everyone of you once it is published. Lol

What else, Fall is finally here and I cannot get enough of this season followed by Winter. We in North India have a short window to actually enjoy these seasons but we try and make the most of it. The smell of woodfire smoke, the chilling breeze and all the gur patties (see here )to gorge on. Is there a better way to describe perfection than this?

I leave you with this short piece in honor of November –

November Night

BY ADELAIDE CRAPSEY

Listen. .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.

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The R.I.Ping Reads…..

When I had first started blogging so many moons ago, Stefanie, had introduced me to R.I.P (Readers Imbibing Peril; originally started by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings) that was hosted every year during the Fall season. Over the years, R.I.P events introduced me to such classics like We have Always Lived in a Castle. But the last few years, like everything else life was became kind of crazy nightmare and though this year is hardly better bringing in it’s own surreal qualities, I atleast have the time and energy to look around and read! So when I saw the posts coming up about the 15th R.I.P. event, I knew it’s time again to pick up those things that I had to let go and start again!

The rules this year are extremely simple and the only expectation is to read books from the following genre during the September-October

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

I am *******trying****** to not buy more books after the splurging of the last few months and instead am digging up from my current TBR. I m not sure if in the end I will stick to this list, but for now this seems to be the plan of action –

1. The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie – This is one of those few Christie books not to feature her regular detective quad of Poirot,  Miss Marple, Parker Pyne etc. There is a dead body and strange neighbors, set in the Cornish Moors and a young woman who is out to prove her finance’s innocence.
2. The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne – The mathematical genius not only created the famous Winne the Pooh but was apparently wrote some very good mysteries. The Red House is one of them and set in over a weekend in the typical English country house where the host disappears suddenly, after some mysterious shorts being heard.

3. Dead Man’s Quarry by Ianthe Jerrold – I was introduced to this book by Jane when she wrote a wonderful review of a cycling holiday gone wrong with one of the members being found dead at a quarry.

4. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo –  A brilliant review by Helen got me to buy the book. Set in 1937 Japan, a newly wed couple’s wedding night is marred with a gruesome death
5. The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz – I have tried reading Horowitz a few time but it never quite works for me. But again a wonderful review by Helen made me pick this mystery within a mystery novel

This then is my plan; I am sure I will deviate and pick something else along the way, but as a starting point, this is what it looks to be!

Are you participating in R.I.P ? Do you have some good recommendations especially in the Gothic/Horror genre?

#ripxv

And Now for November…..

Ah!! November, glorious November, how I look out for thee, every year! It is in thine hope that I passeth months, that be March to September!! Finally, cold weather, holidays and celebration; what I ask is not like about winter coming? Atleast, winter in my part of the world!

Anyhow, how do I plan to celebrate this month, you ask? Oh! there are so many  possibilities that this month opens up in this city – walks along the 600 year old ruins, explore the less traveled hikes, visit the historic eating joints whose gastronomic delights can only be cherished in the colder weather!! There is so much to do and I will be doing NONE of it!!! Oh! Ye! Gods! Why have thee forsaken me??!! Work and yet more work and yet more work that never seems to go away – are there any other Project Leaders/Program Managers, working for big Wall Street Goliath’s, who can confirm that my misery is not alone??? It would make me feel better immensely, you know, the misery loves company perspective?? Such is life, I with all my exuberance for these seasons have no option to enjoy it and then there are people whom I know; who have all the means in the world and take no pleasure in the season or nature or for anything that is intangible! In fact they seem to take no pleasure in anything at all except in being miserable, both to themselves and others!

Anyway, like I keep saying again and again, Thank God, there are books for the likes of us to make everything so much better! This month though, I have limited reading time, so I have a very short list of books as part of my November Reading plan. To being with, I wrap up the 18+ month long, brilliantly innovative The Pickwick Paper Read Along hosted by O. An amazing event, hosted by an amazing host, which I loathe to see come to an end! But things are the way they are and I am sure O will figure out something fun and unique for us to have fun with, in the near future! I had planned to begin a much anticipated Re-read of The Brother Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I read it for the first time last year with Cleo but I kind of rushed through it to get to the end. Since then, I have been wanting to go back and savor its finer points and I had decided long back that a year since I first read the book, I will revisit this marvel again! I was also under the impression that work would slow down during these weeks. Towards the end of the year, giving me ample time to get through what is for sure a big fat book! However, I propose and my company disposes, and though there will be less time, I will still begin and see how I muddle along, even it take me the whole of 2018 to savor and finish the book! I also have Winter of the World by Ken Follet, the second in his The century Trilogy; I have it so I will read it, but so far it’s very ho-hum! Finally Brona, at her awesome best, is hosting the #AusReadingMonth event. I have enjoyed it every time I participated in this event in past, and this year I will for sure take part again, if only I can decide how many and which book. I should have a post dedicated to that event very soon! Finally by way of fun reading I have Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell and The Semi Attached couple by Emily Eden. I got great reviews of the former, especially from Jane and I really enjoyed The Semi Detached House by Emily Eden, so I do want to explore her second and what is her last novel!

There it is then, my grand reading plans! Just to add, besides the excruciating work load, I also have some parties to attend for adults and babies (my nephew as well my God Daughter turn 1) and some other social activities which I have to accommodate, besides completing a Leadership certification course for which I had signed up for in the middle of year! Needless to say, this will be one hectic month!!

 

Finally, The Wonderful October!

In the words, of L.M. Montgomery, via Anne of Green Gables “I‘m so glad I live in a world where there are October“. I cannot think of a more perfect way to show gratitude for the month of October…fall is here and winter is on its way. It means relief for the searing heat of Indian Summer, wood fire smokes, festivals and celebration and finally a year end, where for the mad year of 2017, I can slow down a bit and take a breathe to read and write! Needless to say, I am overjoyed that October is HERE!

From a bookish perspective, I am hoping to finally get going and pick the pace up! As I write this, I am conscious of the fact that every time I have made a statement like that this year, it has turned into an unmitigated disaster! So I am keeping all my toes and fingers crossed for this month and hoping things will go as planned! To begin with, I am coming at a near close of The Pickwick Paper by Charles Dickens Read Along, organized by O. It was the longest read along ever and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved this book on this revisit! I will also finish the much delayed The Raj at War by Yasmin Khan and I really have to stop procrastinating and finish Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. In terms of new books to read, a whim took over me couple of weeks back and I started re-read the Anne of Green Gables series by the brilliant L.M. Montgomery. I am currently on Book 3 – Anne of the Island and I hope to finish the series between October and November. I am also re-reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I have no reason to re-read this novel that I have read 1236 times, except you never need a reason to re-read an Austen! Speaking of re-reads, I was looking over O’s blog and I saw she was planning to re-read The Brother Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky again; I loved the book when I read it more than a year back with Cleo and Ruth’s more recent review was making me itch to back and read it again. Therefore I re-read The Brother Karamazov again, only this time, I take my time to ponder over many instances of brilliance of Dostoevsky, something I did not do fully, the last time in my haste to reach the end! I do not see myself getting around to it till end of the month and will probably take the whole of winter to finish it!

To end, in other reading adventures, the October round of Dewey’s 24hrsReadathon is coming up – 21st October is the date. I have been having so much fun since I joined up last October, that there is no way I am passing this one up! I have yet to decide what books I will read for the event, but I am sure, I will have PLENTY to choose from! I know for a fact that The Rector by Margaret Oliphant, recommended by Jane and pending from September will for sure be on the Reading Plan, but I have yet to decide on others! This is the 10th anniversary of the event, and the hosts are running a 30 days short challenge to celebrate the occasion and you can find the details here. Finally, there are also hosting the short run up weekend challenges to the main event – this weekend (Oct 6-7), they are asking you to read a book that has been on your TBR for more than a year – considering I have endless number of books in that category, it took me some time to narrow it down and finally I decided to ease into it with a fun mystery – The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers. I loved her when I read Busman’s Honeymoon and I am hoping to enjoy this to a T! Also for the October event, in a departure from my usual Reader only participation, I have offered my self as a host for a couple of hours, so that I can help the hosts in a small way as a show of thanks for the awesome event they have been hosting for years now!

That’s that for the month folks! Happy October and lets be thankful that we live in a world with October 😉

October and Reading

October is HERE! Yes…October is REALLY HERE!! So what if it feels like I am inside a boiler and there are no winds with a hint of chill and no delicious smell of wood fire smoke signaling the onset of Winter, but October the calendar assures me is here! As most of you know I live only between October to March, the rest of the months are just a bid to survive somehow. Fall and Winter bring out the best in the geography I live in and being a Winter borne, I take it much more in my stride than the pelting merciless heat of the summer! Everything about this season is joyous….more festivals, more holidays, more travels and naturally the hope of new year and new beginning! But I am as always getting ahead of myself and I must stop and add, that this is an especially good season to get a big book, a comfortable blanket and a big cup of coffee/tea/Irish coffee and indulge in my most favorite work time  – Reading (Reading cannot be a past time; I was born to read but am forced to work!)

My October Reading plans do not look very good, especially since I have HUGE left overs from September! But like I said, this is the season of more holidays, so heaven have mercy and I should be able to get through more, this month for sure! ( One’s gotta be Optimistic!) I was immensely proud of myself about not giving into the temptation and not going for Classic Club Spin #14. Just as I finished patting my back, I stumbled on Lauren’s blog and discovered the Victober and I was in before I knew the whats and hows. So while Classic Club would have been only 1 book added on to my tottering pile, I have now added 4. I have a IQ score that is tagged under the category of Superior, but when I do things like this, I feel somebody messed up the scoring for sure!! Anyhow I am in with 4 books written during the Victorian age for sure. I just need to quickly figure out what those books are and get going. Besides this additional load, I have the 12 Months Classical Challenge Reading Event and the theme is  A Classic by a Female Author and I go with O Pioneer by Willa Cather. Because I know that reading a female author for the Victober is also a criterion, I will combine it with the Women’s Classical Reading Event and read a novel; just need to figure out what that novel is! Under my woefully neglected Reading England project I am planning to read Under The Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy covering Dorset. I read Hardy years back and I did not get him at all. Hopefully as a more mature individual I will find something to appreciate, but I am not holding out on that hope very strongly!!I also have to finish Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome as part of my September Reading England Project. (Yes! I am hanging my head in shame!)

Finally come my read alongs and they remain completely unchanged and thank fully I have added only one book, which is a matter of some rejoice! I will continue reading   The Pickwick Paper Read Along and chase to catch up with Cleo  in reading The Brother Karmazov’s by Foydor Dostoyevsky and Jane Eyer by Charlotte Bronte Read Along, the latter, hosted by Hamlette. I  also  am reading The Silk Road – A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan and Jerusalem, A Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore from last month, but these two I am taking slowly and I think these two books will stretch to December! The only addition to this never ending pile is How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer J Adler and again I have been tempted by Cleo to join this as well! To be very fair, I did not need much temptation!!!Thankfully, this too is a book that will stretch for week on ends and each chapter is small and adds to my never ending efforts to read and better understand the nuances of philosophy and concepts like Truth, morality etc!

Thats that then! So here’s to happy reading and some wonderful autumnal moments in October!!

 

 

 

The Autumn Winter Joys….

I know I have been away for like a mini-while but work and social commitments and everything else got in the way!  But I am back and I realize so is Autumn –Winter! I have soooooo waited for this season to arrive; I hate and the word is HATE summers and cannot eulogize enough about the Autumn-Winter. Many who have read my blogs in past know that I always celebrate the coming of these seasons and push away the thoughts of summers into far back subconscious of my mind and make believe that they will never come back again – unrealistic I agree but I don’t want to think about unpleasant things, when good times roll! God know there will be time enough for the long, blazing unrelenting heat, where the earth is scorched and fire pours down from the heavens! Therefore on, to the good things and happy times – and in celebration, I began this game last year, where I quote my favorite autumn/winter poem, and list some of my favorite place, books, films and music, that celebrate this season with me –

Film – Fargo directed by Cohen Brother. Francis McDormand made history by playing the character of pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in trail of kidnappers and murders, set in the white snow bringing home the fact that goodness does triumph!

Music – Can there be anything better than the wonderful, rich and velvety voice of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald immortalizing the autumn, specifically in New York.

Book – I know this is may be a bit clichéd but nothing speaks Winter as brilliantly as War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It a tome of history, philosophy, politics and fiction, but it all set in the backdrop of the crystal white snows of Russia- the picture perfect postcard season that finally stops Napolean’s unstoppable march! One of my most favorite all time reads, a perfect winter book, to be read during the cold long winter nights

Thing – Tea, pots and pots of tea! Especially the “masala chai” that’s made in this part of the world, with dried cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon sticks and black peppercorn, all mied with black tea. The most fabulous drink for big books and cold winter nights!

Poem – I love this beautiful and a little melancholic poem by William Butler Yates; it is not the most happiest of the poems, but it is beautiful and absolutely brilliant – published in 1917.

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

So, here’s to the smell woodfire smoke, hot chocolate/chai and gathering around the fire, here’s to festivals and togetherness and merry making, here’s to holidays and long nights under warm blankets and big books!

Ahh…The Glorious Autumn is Here….

I think by now one and all are aware for my love and obsession about Autumn – Winter. Like the true winter child that I am, I thrive in these 6 months, while I wither and die in Spring/Summers. (Yes! I know it’s unnatural to be depressed about spring, but in my mind, it heralds summer, which I CANNOT tolerate!) Therefore I take a break from my bookish musings to scribble some of my all-time favorite poem/film/music/book about autumn. I will do the same exercise in the month of December to celebrate winter. Without further ado, here goeth the list –

• Poem – I have already mentioned this in one of my posts, but I love the lyricism of William Blake’s To Autumn

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

“The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.

“The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

• Film – ‘Autumn in New York’ is to clichéd, besides, I did not like Winona Ryder in the film, not to mention, I had a lot of difficulty in digesting Richard Gere having a fling with the mother and then many years down line, falling for the daughter!   So my choice is choice and I LOVE this film is Autumn Tale  – a sometime funny and sometime heartwarming tale of widowed 30 something Magali, a lonely winemaker, whose friends secretly set out to find a husband for her. The film has the most breathtaking shots of France in Autumn, especially the acres and acres of vineyards!
• Music – Simple, classic and elegant…Viva Vivaldi

• Books – I realized when I was surfing the net, before last week’s post that “Rebecca” is a much looked upon as a perfect autumn novel, why, I sit and question. Anyway, my favorite autumn book is a toss-up between (I know two is cheating, but this is MY game) “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott and “Ann of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery. Classic coming of age books, set at the start of autumn, which till dates teaches us much about courage, kindness and faith!
• Thing – While this is true for all seasons, the big mug tea and the blanket, aah…that just adds perfection to the book and the bed!

So what are your Autumn favorites?

P.S. We got some press today for our project – http://www.mid-day.com/articles/reclaiming-a-forgotten-food-culture/15712156. Our website is also up – http://cogitofilmsindia.wix.com/idenityonapalate

I would again urge all to please help us in supporting this project, that will ensure preservation and continuation of a now practically extinct culture – there are many ways to support this cause –

1. We need financial patronage – We need your monetary help to complete this project. Every contribution is of great value and you have our heartfelt appreciation for any amount that you put forth. You can pay via a credit/debit card, directly at Indiegogo’s Website (The project is called Identity on a Palate)
2. Help us Spread the Word – Please share this campaign on your social network so that more people can become aware of this project. The more people see this, more the chances of us reaching our goal. Please so send me the link or a mail for the same, as we would love to see this live!

Please do help and Thank You again!