Land of Five Rivers

I wonder how people write such beautiful stuff...

I just happened to read Khushwant Singh's book "Land of Five Rivers"

This book is a compilation of short stories...well i havent completed d book...just managed to complete 6 stories out of 21. and ech story was like...ek se badhkar ek...

Oh forgot to mention most stories are translations.....each story was so very arresting....u just cant put the book down....

The image i had of Khushwant singh was a middle aged gentleman more interested in lewd jokes....the dirtier d better... i had happend to read his joke books before reading any article of his....

Another of his interesting articles was about how he came up in life.....read it in my bro's text book....

This book has made me rethink....

Of course he does like that stuff...but he writes pretty good stuff too....

Land of Five Rivers is a book worth reading.....

The story that seriously moved me was a story called "Stench of Kerosene"

It's about a guy who marries d girl he loves....but they do not get a kid for 8 yrs....finally his mother forces him to marry a girl when his wife is away....

He is not willing....but does it with a dead mind...coz he cannot contradict his mom.....the poor wife hears of this and commits suicide by drenching herself in kerosene and setting herself on fire...

In due course this guy gets a son from his second wife.... the son is then laid in his lap....

 Suddenly he starts screaming....."TAKE HIM AWAY TAKE HIM AWAY"....he stinks of kerosene.....

thats the gist of dis one story... and i found it so bloody haunting......cant express it....

hey u ppl shud read this book.....its really gud....

The White Tiger

well guess what...

i managed to get and read The White Tiger....

The story is about a guy who is from the Halwai caste...and how he manages to make it big in life...

and unusually...thro the wrong means....

The narative is in th eform of  a letter to the chinese minister who is about to come to india...

This guy he starts off in a tea shop...then becomes a driver....

and then what happens in his life is wat d story is about....

its a cynically happy ending.....

good reading....

Nostalgia....

can there be anything better...?

well... i am just back from hyderabad... after more than a year...and well....

its so good to be back home....i had almost forgotten how it was......

absolutely no worry...no care in the world....well....life is so good...

and i am curled up in bed....with a book.....and music in the
background....and rain outside...

rain....that brings back more memories.....

me and my bro walkin to school in rain coats.....playing in the puddles of water along the way making paper boats,watching water gush thro' gutters....fishing in the local streams.... (once we actually brought home a tiny fish and kept it for a few days in a
bisleri bottle). watching water flow under a bridge near an uncle's home...we would throw things in the water from one side of the bridge and run to the other side to see how long it wud take...
and later on.... me and my dad standin on our terrace with an umbrella over our heads....

still later on having ice cream and shev puri in the rain......well seriously...ice creams tastes best when ur wet.... [;-)]heh heh

and most recently....in hyd......well...rain definitely is a lot lesser
here...
and well....most ppl never bother about umbrellas or rainy shoes....the way these things were absolutely compulsary in goa.....
well so i too being one of these normal ppl never bothered about umbrellas...until the day i got caught so badly in the rain....
and still i wasnt so bothered.... but HE insisted...so i bought one...it was a cute umbrella with pictures of cute little doggies and kitties...
well now i had a new umbrella and i was very enthusiastic about using it.
But as luck could have it, it never rained!!! not even once... while i
had the umbrella with me.... it rained cats and dogs till i bought it and
now....poof!!!
hmph!!! so i brought it with me to goa...since the rain here is heavy, i was sure i would get a chance to use it.well, im here, and heavy rains lashed hyd.....
and here...well...it rains while im at home or when i forget to take the
umbrella...now im very sure its jinxed.....

Why I blog

I write not here for beauty
I write not here for fame
I write to be remembered
and now I sign my name...

Kiran...

How I operated on my Wall Clock

Somewhere in 2002 we moved into our new house. We had a small party with family and friends... now party means gifts... ;) and we too got gifts....We received four wall clocks in total. I immediately took the prettiest one and put it up in my room… my brother took the most sophisticated one for his room and we kept the third one in the hall. The three clocks lived happily along side for a full year.

Then on one sad day my brother’s wall clock just stopped...silently...never to go again.

My watch was the next one to go...it had a dramatic ending...a year later...on one tragic day it had a great fall (while we were dusting).

Then the third watch…..on 2nd september 2006…..( i remember the date coz i wrote this soon after the fall)

I resolved not to let it go without a fight...

I settled down for the surgery(that was the feeling I got) with the instruments necessary, the scalpel(my screwdriver), an oxygen tank(battery), and my forceps.

I turned over the watch to open it. There was a little lid that had to removed first (undressing).(mind you, I have never opened a watch before except to change the battery) I removed the lid… Inside, was a small,transparent, plastic box.

With a little force I managed to pull out the box. I broke the seal and struggled to open the box…. To my horror the box opened all of a sudden with a pop and tiny little wheels tumbled out onto my lap. (I was sitting on the floor you see). There were around six wheels in total.

I was in a state of shock now… I had planned to open the box slowly…observe the setting and then remove and put the inside parts back hoping it would solve the problem…. Now I had just one option replace the parts wherever I thought appropriate….. I did so… and tried to close the box….it turned out to be more stubborn…. It decide not to close…

Now what to do….??? I scratched my brains for a few minutes…. And then an idea struck me….get out the older clock and compare it…luckily it was from the same manufacturer….now of course I had learnt not to remove the box out… so I tried to observe it from outside… I discovered a little mistake… I had placed one of the wheels upside down…. I corrected it and the box closed peacefully.

I heaved a sigh of relief and replaced the box and turned the clock over…..and I got the biggest shock of my life!!!

The hands of the clock had disappeared…. I tried to look below the glass….hoping it would be near the border…. I couldn’t see them so I had to remove the glass….there they were !!! winking at me from one corner……

I put them back closed up everything and was getting ready to set the time when I noticed a tiny wheel near my leg…. I groaned and opened the whole thing again….

This time I didn’t hesitate to open the box of the other watch…but I did it carefully… I placed all the wheels in their proper positions, fixed the box back, and the hands….and I set the time to 10.30 (that was the time then) and lifted the watch to see my handiwork…the hour hand immediately dropped down to the number 6, I tried again…the same thing happened… and then I realised that I had fixed it loosely… I fixed it again … now it was fine….

I put in the battery. It seemed to be working perfectly…I replaced the glass and began to set the correct time… I turned the little dial that was behind the clock….the second hand moved freely….the minute hand also moved……but not the hour hand!!! I turned it again and again and again….It stubbornly refused to move. I had to open the glass again (the third time now- my patience was on the border line…), remove the hands and put them back all over again… That was the end…. I had successfully managed to repair my beloved clock….

I was tired so I didn’t set it accurately… it was showing 9.30 at that time…after an hour I checked again…. It showed 10.30…. I was happy now…At around 11.30… when I checked again ….it was showing 9.30!!!!

That was the height !!!

I gave up trying to mend the clock….. And brought a new clock….

Even now minute and second hand still work…it’s the hour hand that refuses to do the same…..