A Grecian Holiday!

This September, we went on a dream vacation... a full 10 day hiking holiday in Greece. We ate great food, walked a lot and had loads of fun during these 10 days. It was like a trip down the history books lane, what with every corner of Greece reminding us of a little something we read back in school. Pythagoras, Delphi, Parthenon were just some of the historical aspects that we enjoyed while in Greece!

God, I need to backup a bit and go from the beginning... I've been like this ever since I got back from Greece. You ask me a question, and I start rambling about how nice a holiday it was there.
Sometime ago, I read an article on The Hindu Metro edition about someone's cycling holiday in Tuscany. I read the entire holiday, took note of the website given in the article and mentioned to a friend sitting beside me that someday I'd like to go on a holiday like that. She laughed at yet another item being added to my travel-wish-list, and said I could do all that if I find someone who can plan it all for me. Obviously, I couldnt do it all by myself, she said. As discouraging as they might be, I saw value in what she said, and decided to go with someone experienced. Thats when I realized I had taken note of the company mentioned in the article - The Active Holiday Company, and decided to get in touch with them, when I was ready for a holiday.

After searching through their list of holidays for over a month, and mulling on leave dates with the husband, I finally narrowed down on a hiking holiday to Greece, and got in touch with folks at The Active Holiday Company. Gauri & Uday , the founders of this company, promptly got in touch with me, read my zillion emails patiently, gave me all the suggestions they could, gave me an itinerary that I loved and even helped me through the visa process.
You see, I did not want to go with a pre-decided holiday, and had a list of other places that I wanted to visit in Greece, all of which were addressed in this new custom-made itinerary. And since this was an activity holiday, 5 hikes were baked into the itinerary.

 

Yes, as usual, the husband didn't get involved in any aspect of holiday planning and left it all to me... someday I'd like to travel with a person like me, who would plan all details of a vacation, and all I have to do is to just show up, and of course, pay! :-P

Only after we reached Greece and started our first walk did I realize how well planned the holiday had turned out to be. Every night was taken care of, every hotel knew we were arriving, every walk had enough details given and every place was what we expected it to be. And considering that we were given enough information about various travel options within Greece, we could get a flavor of the life the locals live.

We travelled in metro trains in Athens; took city buses in all the major cities - Athens, Chania, Delphi, Fira, travelled in ferries when we were island hopping from Athens - Hydra - Athens, Athens - Santorini, Santorini - Crete; and even in taxis where required.

We had not opted for meals in any of the hotels, and so had plenty of opportunity to eat the local food, plenty of it, all fresh and yummy at every place we visited. I can say this with authority now that as far as food is concerned I dont think I will get better vegetarian food anywhere in the world outside of India! Yes, Greek food is awesome. Greek vegetarian food is heavenly, and Greek ingredients are out of this world. I could not get enough of the olive oils, olive pates, tzazikis, feta cheeses and roasted vegetables, so much that I carried most of them back home. I am going to do a full feature on Greek food on my food blog, The Meal Algorithm, very soon.

Talking about food to eat in Greece, I cannot forget the awesome hospitality extended by the Greeks. They were in financial troubles, petrol is super expensive in Greece, they clearly were trying hard to make ends meet with the meagre sales they were making in the markets and the heavy taxes they were paying, but had the adorable Greek pride on. There wasn't a single negative word spoken about the country, or a single remark at how they were doing. To the outside world, they were perfect and gracious hosts.

Every meal is served with a on-the-house dessert of grapes or a shot of Mastiha, a liqueur made out of a tree resin, one of the most heavenly drinks I'll ever have or Raki, a fermented liqueur made of honey. As far as alcohol is concerned, I think the Greeks have mastered it all. They have an alcohol derived out of every edible and yummy ingredient. Ouzo made out of fennels, Mastiha from the tree resin, Honey raki, Tsikodia from some spices , Peppermint liqueur ... you name it and they have it.

I tried capturing a bit of Greece through my lens, and am quite happy with my pics. I carried a Canon Rebel Xsi throughout the trip, and shot most of these pics using the standard kit lens, in landscape mode. I, of course, did a lot of reading up, because I was apprehensive about the harshness sun can create in the pics, and was so glad that they all came out perfect! :-)

Here's my short take on each of the places we visited -
Athens - A beautiful, quaint capital city. You can finish sightseeing this entire city in 2 days, if you plan it right. We took a walking tour through the major sightseeing spots in the city and ate only in the restaurants in Monastiraki square, the most happening place of Athens. Seeing the Parthenon is an unforgettable experience.


The Temple of Zeus in Athens

Parthenon

Hydra - One of the most beautiful islands in Greece. If you've been there, you know how tough it is to say this statement, but in my experience, this is true. Its your first introduction to the azure skies and white houses, and its also an island which has absolutely no vehicles on it, and a port full of eateries. A ferry from Piraeus will get you to Hydra in less than 90 min. We did a 8km walk on this island over a day trip and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The main port of Hydra, in a 'C' shape

Another mini-port in Hydra

Delphi - If you are a science student, you MUST visit this place. If you are a history student , you MUST visit this place. Oh, what the heck, if you've been to school, you MUST go here. Its a very little and beautiful town, with ancient ruins. Plan to stay overnight, and visit the ruins once more before you return. The European trail E4 goes via Delphi and walking a portion of it is a good experience.

Temple of Apollo, also where the Navel of the earth is!

Temple of Athena

Santorini - Out of all the places I've visited in Greece, this place is the one that we looked forward to the most, and the one that has disappointed us the most. Yes, it is beautiful. But its not something you wont see anywhere in Greece. Its extremely crowded in every place in Santorini - Fira and Oia, and the hotels obviously have seen a lot of tourists to be genuinely nice to you. Sightseeing doesnt have a lot to do there, except for that one most photographed church in Oia. Had it not been for the 10 km walk we did from Fira to Oia, we would've been very very bored for the 3 days we spent there. If this isnt on your bucket list, give this place a miss and go to other nearby islands like Paros or Naxos.

The two ends of the caldera on Thira, the biggest island on Santorini.
On your left is the town of Akrotiri, and its Oia on the right

There you go! Now that you've seen this church,
you can safely give Santorini a miss! ;-)

Crete - The largest island in Greece, and the one where the density of the olive trees is the most, this place stood up to everything that we read up on it. My next visit to Greece will definitely be to Crete, and to the charming town of Chania. We did the tough 16 km hike in Samaria Gorge which was deeply satisfying on a personal level to both the body and the eyes. This place is one heck of a natural beauty. Extremely beautiful, especially at the end of a tiring walk ;-) Also, lying down on the beach overlooking the Libyan sea made me feel quite accomplished! ;-)

The gorgeous town of Heraklion!

The Venetian harbor and lighthouse in Chania!

Ah, the joy this sign gave us. The end of the 13km walk inside Samaria!

This marked the end of the 16km walk inside Samaria.
Over to the Libyan sea from here

Greeks believe a lot in the concept of evil eye, which I found quite nice actually, which is why I carried back lots of them for friends back home. Little signature bottles of Ouzo, olive oil soaps and olive oil bottles make other awesome souvenirs - not very expensive, but still feel like a bit of Greece in your pocket.

If you are planning to go on a zara-hatke holiday, have time to spare, and the patience to train for it (oh yes, some basic training is required. I don't recommend a direct couch-to-16km-walk approach myself), then I strongly urge you to go on an activity holiday like this... will make you feel rejuvenated, accomplished and happy for years to come. And yes, I definitely am visiting Greece again (given that I only want to see a dozen more countries to tick them off my bucket list, I will be visiting each country I've been to, atleast one more time! ;-)) and this time, I will do more island hopping!

Some of the common sights in Greece...

 

A regular run-of-the-mill street!

Not everything is white and blue in Greece

Kafka-esque moments abound!

Some graffiti on the walls!

Wise enough to be foolish

By now, its common knowledge that I am wary of books by Indian authors. My dislike for Chetan Bhagat is well documented, I could not finish Jhumpa Lahiri's last book, I have read only one book by Aravind Adiga and have never even read Amitav Ghosh. Vikram Seth is different, he doesn't get into this league of writers at all!

So when I picked up this book, I was sceptical. I had attended the book launch and heard some great things about the book by people there, I saw the author speak, I also read the quotes behind the book cover. But the book snob in me was still a bit sceptic. Then, I read the booklet that came along with the book, something like a sort of introduction to the book and the author's style, and noticed myself getting excited.

 

And once I started the book, I was pleasantly surprised. As I got more into the book, I noticed myself getting interested more and more in the story. And by the time I was midway into the book I knew I liked the book. I was engrossed in the plot , completely and finished it in one go, cover to cover in 3 hours!
This is a fictionalized memoir of the author's life, with her drawing inspiration from various incidents in her life to put in the story. The style is narrative and its apparent that the author is the narrator. But when you start reading the book, you forget that this is a novel because it doesn't feel like fiction or that it is a memoir because it is not boring, self-indulgent or preachy.
What I liked best about this book is the flow of the story. It starts at a logical point in the author's life, and ends at another logical point. The writing is breezy, almost as if a friend is narrating her story to you, but it doesn't really have the conversational style, which is a welcome change.
There is humour in parts without the author sound funny because she has to but because the incident is funny, and the English is something you and I would use in our regular conversation, not some flowery language.
Its also an incredibly honest book, touching various serious issues that a regular Indian girl will see around her or happen to her. The author touches a bit upon the expectations the society sets for an Indian girl as she is growing up, the boy-girl child discrimination that most girls see in their houses and the child molestation issues, and yet makes sure that this is not a serious book. The tone of writing is not pat-me-on-the-back-I've-done-so-good-in-spite-of-having-so-many-issues , but is very as a matter of fact look-here-is-my-life-there-are-the-people-that-touched-it.
In my opinion, it is also very difficult to write a memoir and ensure that the reader does not get to know too much about the author's life, because when you are writing a memoir, you do not know how much information is too much. For example, one minute you are talking about having boyfriends and your views on sex and another minute you could put in a little too much detail for the reader's liking. I did not notice that in this book, which again talks a lot about the author's ability to tell a good story.
The treatment of all the various characters in the book is also very pleasant, even when the author talks about the not-so-good people in her life. You cannot help but applaud the maturity of the person if most of these incidents have actually happened in her life for real. And the relationships the author has had with each of these characters evolves as the book progresses and you can feel it in the words used.

At the book launch, I heard the author say that she didn't intend this to be a Booker prize standard book, and she wrote it because she had a story to tell. I liked the honesty behind that statement. All of us have a story to tell, its how you tell it that matters. And I think this is a very well told story, something that might not win awards but will win hearts.

Also don't let the booklet judge you the book. In my honest opinion, the author did not chose the best passages to be in the booklet, the ones in there are just ordinary if you compare it with the rest of the book!
Yes, the book is much much better than the booklet will you think it is.

I will not call this a story of a rebel or a revolutionary tale of an Indian girl. To me, this is a story of a regular Indian girl who has lived her life the way she wants to without getting bogged down by the expectations that she has to live upto and worrying about judgement.

If you are a girl reading this book, you will identify with a lot of aspects in this book. At many parts it feels like the author is talking about your life, at other parts, you might feel that you should've behaved like the author has. It will also appeal to the feminist in you, not the bra-burning one, but the am-equal-to-a-man-in-every-respect and I-have-a-right-to-live-my-life-the-way-I-want-to one.
If you are a man reading this book, depending on how evolved you are, you will feel various degrees of surprise at the honesty in this book, and also get a peek into the mind of most modern Indian girls of this day.

2012, in Books!

A super-good year for books... I touched a number that I only dreamt about touching.
Reading 120 books in 12 months is a big deal, especially to me.
That means an average of -
10 books per month
2.5 books per week 
a book every 2 days
All this combined with a very demanding job, and another demanding hobby... well, I felt like I ran past the finish line of a marathon as I closed my 120th book earlier today.

[Do check out my book list by clicking on the pic above]

It was indeed like a marathon. I started off with great gusto, I grew disillusioned in the middle, I told myself that number doesn't matter(which didn't till I finished my 100th book, after which it was merely a challenge I threw to myself to see if I could touch 120!), I drew inspiration from other readers, my elbows ached with all the book/Kindle-holding I did, and when the finish line was visible there was exhilaration and excitement, and when I finally reached the magic number after some huffing and puffing, I was overjoyed. And am overjoyed because as I hit the number, I also know that I enjoyed and savored each book, even the not-so-good-ones.

One of the reasons why I am not able to contain the excitement is because I am not sure if I will ever be able to read 120 books in an year again. Life is busy and it will only get busier in the coming years. Also, I want to not read 120 books in the coming years... I want to concentrate on other hobbies... coz as much as I love them and think that they are really the only things that matter, I know that books alone cannot satiate the zest I have for things! I want to work on other aspects of the hobbies, like working on my cooking techniques and understanding better photography...

When I started off this year, I wasn't sure if I would be able to read even 50 books, which is why I set myself a modest target of 30, which I think I crossed by the 6th week of the year. And as the numbers kept on increasing, I kept on piling them up. I spent a lot of time on figuring out what my next books would be, where to source them from and internalizing each book that I finished reading. The last bit was particularly important because I've read some great books this year. Some books which I will carry with me forever either because of the marks they made on my mind or what they have introduced me to.

 

I finished the Tome-Travelling challenge I picked up at the start of 2012, read some incredible writers for the first time, read some real duds and some life-altering-awesome books.

The Tome-Travelling aside, I have read some great books in 2012. Thankfully, there were not many young-adult books, a genre I still enjoy reading, but know for a fact that they cannot teach me anything new. There were a lot of authors I read for the first time and wondered how on earth I survived without reading them before. There were also some disappointments in the form of highly rated authors whom I couldn't enjoy as much as I thought I would.

Here are some of the best books I read this year, in no particular order -

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – A very well researched and written non-fiction book, something that’s not my first choice but am glad I picked up, which opened my eyes to a whole new world.
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – As I mentioned in my review of this book, the word ‘beautiful’ doesn’t even begin to describe this book. A very poignant love story with a lot of other elements interspersed, this is a very interesting book.
3. A Room of One’s Own – Ms.Woolf’s account on why there are not many women in literature is a very profound book, something that aligned to the theme I chose for this year – Feminism.
4. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle – One of the most complex works of Murakami’s that I read this year, this is also a weird yet thoroughly awesome amalgamation of worlds, in a classic Murakami style.
5. Kafka on the Shore – Oh.My.God! What a brilliant book! Every aspect of this book will mess with your head for days after you are done reading, and every aspect of it will remain with you forever. You will talk about sardines, portals and wish you heard the title song somewhere… the book will haunt you forever and you will love it!
6. Wide Sargasso Sea – Like the reviewers say, this is indeed the other side of Jane Eyre, a book that implores upon the story of Rochester’s first wife. You will not feel the same about Rochester after you read this book!
7. Thirteenth Tale – What.A.Book! It’s a pity Diana Setterfield has not written any book after this, and am eagerly waiting for someone to make a movie out of this one, though I know the movie will NEVER live up to the book. As I mentioned in my review, this one is a thorough book-lover’s paradise.
8. 1Q84 – I’ve written, spoken and thought about this for every waking moment for up to a month after reading this, and am still not done.
9. Ines of my Soul – I took a free trip to 1500’s Chile and came back when I finished this book. Yep, Allende’s prose is as captivating as the interesting life Ines led back then.
10. A Doll’s House – Ibsen’s short play is anything but short. Thoroughly feminist and thought-provoking, I would recommend this book to every girl.
11. The Bell Jar – Slyvia Plath’s talent is not unknown to the modern world but I think this book is am embodiment of it all. Though the concept is depressing, Plath manages to write it in an un-depressing way.
12. The Shadow of the Wind – A profound tale of undying love, extreme hatred, time-tested friendship, deep sorrow and above all Barcelona, this book made me a fan of Ruiz Zafon’s.

2013 is going to be about classics. I intend to read classics, both old and new. I also intend to re-read some books that I love - Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, Harry Potter series, The Thirteenth Tale, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the likes…
Am also going to pick up the books I chose for my 2012-Tome-travelling challenge, those that I couldn't read either because I couldn't source them or because I barely couldn't finish them.
I will also read Vikram Seth's Suitable Boy and Rushdie's Midnight's Children, or at least try to read them.
There is also a plan to finish reading all Murakami's works, though I highly doubt if I will do it all in one stretch, for the fear of not having anything to look forward to if I finish Murakami.

The ONLY thing I regret in all this mad-cap-reading is that I did not take the time out to review each book that I read, something which I enjoy doing otherwise. As a result of this, all I have are the ratings I gave for the books and no track of my thoughts as I was reading them, something I love to read at a later point of time to reminisce. 

2013 will have a new Kindle, the new Paperwhite one which has just been ordered(Yippee!!), which might hopefully mean undisturbed sleep for the husband who gets bothered by the reading lamp by my bedside but is sweet enough to not mention it, because he knows that I cannot sleep without reading. There will also be a new Surface later in the year, which will hopefully make updating my reading progress in Goodreads much easier.

So here’s to an exciting 2013… an year full of good books, great conversations with friends, some travel and some great work. :-D

2012–the Year that was…

Oh, it has been a good year. A very good year, indeed.
I read a lot, enough to compensate for the very less travelling I did, cooked quite a bit, learnt a bit more about photography and learnt how to knit.

Travel: There has not been a lot of travel, thanks to the very colliding holiday schedule both I and the husband kept this year. Right when I would be free from work, he would be swamped with it, and when I would be busy, he had some free time. In spite of this killing schedule, we went out twice... Delhi-Agra and a week long trip to Coorg, which was essentially a reading holiday, where we both did nothing but read in our respective corners in the charming little homestay we stayed at. And I went for a short holiday to Goa with friends where I did nothing but eat mangoes in the comfort of our hotel room, take a couple of long bike rides and squirm as usual at the thought of sitting in the beach.

Blog: No, am not talking about this one. Am talking about The Meal Algorithm, which is where I blog more frequently(72 posts in 2012!). I love to write, and the love for cooking has continued even in 2012. I discovered slowly that baking is certainly not a strength, though I can bake to save my life, its cooking that I'd like to do. Even that has suffered a bit in the latter part of the year, thanks to the house help disappearing for a full 4 months, without whom, I had to cook the basic meals of the day too after which I was too busy to think of something new to cook or even shoot what I cooked. So yeah, both cooking and photography suffered in the latter part of the year.

Books: This is going to need a whole new post for itself. Yes, reading has been the focus this year. I was busy and stressed at work. A lot of family visited us this year, I watched some mindless TV for months at a stretch (imagine watching back to back episodes of Gilmore Girls, The Good Wife and 30 Rock). I also picked up a new hobby-learning to knit which didn't really kick off as well as I thought it would and hence required me to spend a lot more mind power and time on it. During all these, reading was what I did. With great focus and lists in tow, I read every day, for atleast an hour. And thanks to the incredible speed at which I could read, I finished a great number of books (all of which will be in a separate post!) and am mighty proud of it...

Hobbies: As mentioned before, knitting suddenly piqued my interest. Well, there are reasons to it. I once saw a bunch of girls crocheting in an episode of The New Girl which I totally loved as a stress-buster-idea. And then, there was this awesome cardigan and handbag that I wanted to make for myself. Only when I finished learning knitting(I can do a decent knit and a pearl now but knitting sweaters is a long way ahead!) did I discover that it was crocheting that I should've done, if I wanted to make myself that cardigan and the handbag. So yeah, 2013 is going to be the year where I learn crocheting.

Work has been good, with even some good stuff towards the 3rd quarter of the year. As usual, I met some amazing people, didn’t lose friend (touchwood!) and have gotten slightly better at reading people. I still take things at face value, but the cynic in me is back, which I think is good. The positive attitude is still there, and I hope it will continue.

We have absolutely not been socializing, partying is beginning to look like a chore. The husband and I have been hanging out by ourselves on a weeknight , mostly in HRC to do some people-watching, and meeting some good friends at either their or our homes. I stopped worrying about this trend, which I initially thought was alarming, and have not begun to understand as yet another change age brings in. I’ve realized that I’d rather have conversations with people I like than sit with a drink I don’t drink with blazing music in my ears, and am okay with it being a sign of growing old.

Weekends are either spent reading on my couch or with family around. There have been quite a few alone-weekends what with the husband travelling a lot over the weekends initially. So yeah, there has not been a dearth of alone-time which I’ve always enjoyed. I spent most of this time by myself and some of it hanging out with friends, all of it super fun! New babies by friends are welcomed into the world and good things have happened to people who are dear to me, this year, and that has made me immensely happy.

Health has been bad. Yeah, pretty bad. Its not something that’s visible to the naked eye and people wouldn’t know if I don’t mention it, but its been bad, to the point of being traumatic in the first half of the year. There were days I was so down physically that I couldn’t even get up in the morning. I am glad persisted through it all, and now its all getting better. Only in the past 3-4 months have I been settling into feeling good. I know I have to exercise, coz only that is the solution to everything I’ve been facing, but then, that’s a problem I have decided to solve on another day. For now, Homeo is what am relying on.

2013 Resolutions:
I plan to read up a lot more on food photography, bring in some technique to the way I shoot pics, learn some photo-editing software to enhance my pics and see what I can do with my food photography.
I will aim to post atleast once a week on my food blog, this should be do-able, but lets see where work will take me!
Crocheting - learn this!
Read as usual, but not with the mad fervor! Also re-read some books.
Travel. Take another holiday in Goa and may be a reading holiday as well.
And please, for the love of God, get in shape. Exercise!

Tough decisions…

Yep, only when you have to make them do you realize that you are indeed a grown-up. And that life is not how it was when you were Daddy’s little girl, you’d run to Daddy and tell him the problem and expect it to be solved in the next minute. Or pick up the phone and talk it out with Mommy, and expect her to solve it for you. Well, when you grow up, more often than not, you discover you cannot even discuss many of your dilemmas with your parents. That’s the downside of being a grown-up, I feel.

I will take a slight digression and mull on how much watching Gilmore Girls again made me miss my Mommy. And how many times in the middle of an episode, I would pick up the phone and talk some random stuff with Mom, not the usual, how are you doing, did you take your meds, no, I cannot visit you this weekend etc. Yeah, I realized that watching the show made me grow closer to my Mom, reminisce all the moments I spent talking to Mom when I was staying at home, and how we are still close, except that we now don’t see eye-to-eye on most topics. Watching the show has also made me understand Mom more, understand how she would’ve felt when she saw her kids leave home, how she dealt with the empty nest syndrome and how she is coping with it even now… Well, as I said, I digress.

Back to the decisions, it sucks, doesn’t it. To be all grown-up, with the whole world expecting you to know what you want in life and how to get it. To have to deal with all your problems without support. To be an adult, pay bills, make plans etc. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for independence, but I sometimes get nostalgic about the irresponsibility, of depending on someone else to get your stuff done and of having to pick up the phone and just expect problems to be solved. Yeah, I chose this world, and as much I whine about it, I want this. I want to be able to decide what I want to do with anything I would like, and how things have to be dealt with in my life. Makes me feel all super-powerful.

It only stinks when I have to prioritize. When I have to decide what I want to do over something else I want to do. Its the difference between ‘want to do’ and ‘have to do’ that bugs me, and by what I see around among all the adults I know (those who don’t want to be adults but have to be ), its a problem all of us have.

I just made one of such tough decisions. It was between what I want to do, and what I have to do. Have to do is pretty important stuff and yes, it keeps me happy. Want to do is something I always wanted to do. An option I wanted to explore as an alternate career. Something I wanted to do when I grew bored of my Have-to-do stuff. Something that was my cushion. I thought I could do both of these, I am a super-woman after all , just that it turns out I am not. Deadlines in both these areas of work, and I figured out I will have to let the want-to-do go away. I cannot screw up with my have-to-dos, can’t I? And so, I decided to take a shot at want-to-do when I am more relaxed with my have-to-do.

I know I am going to regret this decision, moreover opportunities do not keep coming. And so this will get filed under the Missed-Opportunities list I am maintaining. This might even be a Dear Diary moment, for me to look back when this list grows too big because I will forever be busy with my have-to-do. Sigh. Sometimes, at very very rare times, being an adult sucks. Coz I alone am responsible for this decision, no?

Mango!

Nothing says summer like the arrival of mangoes and watermelons to the markets. And of course, the sweet songs of the cuckoos in the mornings, the power cuts and the hot afternoons. And yes, the reminder that I've indeed grown up, and so I do not have summer vacations anymore.

No more running around grandparents' houses with cousins without a care in the world.
No more sitting by the todu and squeezing the mangoes out of the last drop of their pulp.
No more competitions on whose mango seed flies the longest, and who will hide from the rest of the cousins the longest.
No more of those very expensive put-a-hole-through-cousins-pocket gad-bad ice-creams.
None of the pelakkai gattis, mango rasayanas , tandoorlis and kukku bajjis.
No more summer exhibitions where you would meet all the people you've ever known , all in the span of just one evening.
No more of just-cut-me-a-mango-Mom all three meals a day.
No more sleeping on the terrace till the sun tans you to the darkest shade possible.

Well, I can make, eat and see them all as much as I want now, but its not the same without the company of the people with whom I shared my childhood.

So , come every summer, I inevitably miss the summers I spent in my grandparents' house in Hidingala and Ujire, and the careless 12-hr-long night and days I spent reading all the books I want. Basically, I miss being the 15 yr old me.
And of all the things I miss in summers, I miss the tastiest mangoes ever – Banaganapalle mangoes a lot.
You do get them in Hyderabad, but they are not as good as the ones you get in Kurnool, the place where I grew up. Very tasty, export quality mangoes for the cheapest prices possible, straight from the orchards.... oh yes, that’s possible only if you are in Kurnool. And yeah, you gotta be as mad for mangoes as we as a family are.

I was whining about the lack of good mangoes in Hyderabad and how I haven't eaten an Alphonso mango till date with no particular action item in mind. And now the house is full of mangoes. From the orchard, from the streets and even the Alphonso variety ... you name it, and the husband has managed to get it for me this time, making me grin wide, but also miss my childhood all the more.

As I am making lists on whom all to share the Alphonso crate with, I called Mom asking her to come over, just to taste the mangoes (yeah, that's how crazy we are for mangoes). She promptly refused my offer to share my Alphonsoes and told me that her Banaganapalles are way tastier than any other mango under the sky, and that I should go over to Kurnool if I want to have a bite of them. :)
So yeah, I am not considering driving over just to taste them, because she refused to parcel them to me the way she did it for the brother... :)

After I am done sighing at the awesome smell of mangoes the minute I open my fridge, I have to plan a short vacation and also the endless work that has been piling up when I was busy doing... well, eating mangoes... :) and yeah, the home photo studio for my food photography experiments.

Tell me, how are your summers going? Lots of fun? Vacations? What other plans?

1Q84 – A World, a journey and an experience…

Wandering , I was lost in the big almost-bad , never-ending world of books, YA novels and some dumb series , fluttering from book to book, wondering where in my book-journey I lost a purpose and where I had forgotten all about my favourite style of writing and the worlds I'd live to get lost in and worrying about what my next book would be like and telling myself that quantity is never better than quality but still piling on the number of books I read per month and questioning my own attention span ... And that is when Murakami happened. Almost every time he happened, he managed to fill my head with unimaginable worlds and beautiful paired sentences and aptly used words... Thus showing me what the joy of reading is all about!

Like how they say that when you are in love, every step you take in your life is so that it might take you closer to your love (am refraining to use a reference from the book here, something which Aomame does towards the end of the book), every book I read this year so far was to get me closer to this book – Murakami’s 1Q84.

It was to read this long a book with complete dedication that I spent weekends and weekdays maniacally reading all other books in my To-Read list. The sheer size of this book was deterring me, and I was questioning myself if I would persist enough to finish this book at all and if my restlessness take a upper hand from the love I have for Murakami. Well, turns out my love for Murakami , his words and the worlds he creates for me is greater than anything else!

At the core of 1Q84 is a beautiful hopeful love story, something very deep and soul-touching, taking course over an year, 1984. Well, Murakami has his way with words for sure, can do a great job with love stories and his translator does a good job too, but what is better than the love story in this book is the way it shapes up. The characters that are introduced in the midst of all the action in Aomame’s and Tengo’s lives, the worlds they exist in, the individual characteristics of each of these characters , their purpose in the book, and the sheer world he created in this story… each of these are brilliant. Murakami sure did give a lot of thought on how he would develop each character, where he would end them, how they would play according to his wishes in 1Q84 and what impressions they will leave in our minds.

I will rate this book as one of the best books of this century. I’ll even go ahead and say, this can be a Must-Read for any fan of the Magic Realism genre.

No, don’t attribute this to my undying love for Murakami . Read this book for yourself, get lost in the world he created, try to find your way back to reality like how Aomame does and then sit back in wonder and recount all the happenings of this book, and the time you lost in reading it, which gives its 900 odd pages is nothing. Yes, time just flies when you are reading this book. You’ll feel like you’ve lived through an entire year yourselves, lived both Aomame and Tengo’s lives, been to the world of The Little People by yourself, and even wish for your own Air Chrysalis.

There is an obvious Orwell reference, and something to do with pasts and remembering it as well, but this book is not dystopian. Its magic realism with tonnes of learning embedded in it. If not anything else, you’ll come back richer with knowledge reading up on all the references he gives for a varied set of music, movies and books. And yes, you’ll listen to Janáček's Sinfonietta a zillion times to understand the different undertones to it! And not to forget the haunting feeling you’ll get every time you make a decision in your life, leaving behind another world… its like being opened to a whole new world of What-ifs, like this quote below -

Quote link – GoodReads

More than any of these, Murakami gave me something else. One more thing to share with my husband, we are as different as chalk and cheese , the both of us, our music, movies , books and even pace of living. How we manage to live together , that too, dare I say, happily is a question for another day, but Murakami is one author we both love. Equally. 1Q84 is the only other book we both read at around the same time, and fell in love with it, equally.

As I was reading this book, my moods varied from being exhilarated, excited, curious, shocked, amused, look up to the sky(you’ll know why!) , scared and worried that I might get stuck in a Town of Cats as well and wish that I was in Tokyo among all the lights, Sakigake and in the Ichikawa school myself. I gasped every time either Aomame or Tengo looked up into the sky and moved pages in a hurry at the end of every book in this mega-book. I just couldn’t wait to finish this book. I loved the method of story telling, the pace in the plot and the introduction of characters. Oh what the heck, I loved the book in its entirety.

Word of caution though, if you have never read Murakami, or do not like his style of writing, you MUST not read this book. It will only turn you against him, something my poor heart cannot bear! ;-)

As a sidenote, my GoodReads reading progress…