Series Nostalgia 2: Books and things they bring with them..

I came across this lovely post Memories of Calcutta Book Fair by Arnab of greatbong and was really amazed by the number of parallels I could draw between what he said in the blog and what I have to say about my rendezvous with books.
I come from the beautiful and now-a-days-much-talked-about (for the right reasons like being touted as a pro-IT space to consider) city of Pune, which is teemed as the educational and cultural capital of Maharashtra.. (in the lines of Surat being the Manchester of India, Pune is Oxford of India..)

Pune hosts and nurtures a lot of activities pertaining to art, literature, music.. The one which we frequented initially with our parents when we were too young and ignorant to enjoy it , and later made regular and dedicated trips with friends, was Sawai Gandharva. It's a musical fiesta , a musical festival of hindustani classical and is an absolute delight. Winter nights, filled with classical extravaganza coming from the greatest themselves, few 'your-kinda' friends, bitting cold, steaming (watery) coffee in hands .. it is pure magic.
ok. But the topic was about book fairs. Pune has lots of them.My parents always ensured that I got more than my fair share of books to read. Mom used to bring home books (mostly marathi books of renowned authors, and translations of english classics) regularly from her office library and used to hand them over to me ..I still remember the sheer delight of recieving the huge marathi translation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women by none other than the veteran Shanta Shelke. Reading the un-abridged classic later is another cherished memory.I love huge books. One reason is that I can enjoy reading more, for a longer time. With books that are really interesting but never cross 200 pages.. am kinda disappointed. Ruminating over a book you loved is one thing, but the process of reading it is a different pleasure. And with lesser pages, its a short lived joy.
Dad used to frequent book fairs and public libraries. On thursdays (which was his weekly holiday) we both used to ride down to Gokhale hall library.
Its an old library and the striking memory I carry about it is the wooden staircase, the pin-drop silence, ocassional shuffling of news papers, the echoes of the sound of wooden chairs being pushed back on wooden flooring, as an ocassional few would get up from the reading area and leave.
In the huge balcony, there would be wooden stands, each one carrying 2 news papers on either side. The paper would be put opened up at the center with a wooden plank running at the vertical central fold, so that people can stand in front of these stands and browse through one newspaper at a time.Inside the library, there were wooden chairs around wooden tables, and few chairs with a foldable book-rest. I used to wait to get one such chair. It was a novelty at that time.
Near the librarian's desk, there used to be a basket with magzines. Some times a stack of old Reader's Digest, and children's comics. (Till I came across japanese Manga, I used to think comics are always children's comics.. Not anymore)
I used to spend some minutes deciding which book to pick. If the lady behind the desk didn't object with a 'ssshuk, ssshuk..' I would pick up 2-3 at a time and sit at my choosen chair. The purpose of getting 2-3 books was two-fold. One, I didn't want to lose my chair, and another, I didn't want to lose my choosen books! :-)
I used to get totally absorbed in reading or browsing through the books. Suddenly I would remember that I am here with my dad, and frantically look around for him.
He generally would be at the balcony, or at the table with some magzine.
The silence at the library always induced an urge to disrupt it. :-) I would trot around dragging my feet to make as much noise as I could dare. I would hop in and out of the chair. I would call for my dad from the balcony. But one disapproving look from my dad, and I would be back to reading books. :-)
Ok. I remember I started with book fairs.
The most common ones were at the Acharya Atre Sabhaghruha, and at the Institute Of Engineers.
Atre Sabhagruha was very near to my mom's office. When there was a book fair, I used to be with dad. Atre sabhagruha is a small hall. Tables were put against the 4 walls and a few at the center of the hall. Mostly it would be marathi books and sometimes english as well. Rasik Sahitya, Navaneet Prakashan are the few publications I remember.I never bought marathi books when I was in school. I read a lot of them though. Thanks to the wonderful library my school had. My dad did buy me books about making sketches, painting, origami.. all the self help kinda books. And dictionaries. Lots of them. Oxford, Random house, Webster, Orient-Longman..
Institute of Engineers hosted bigger fairs. And had many national and international publications.When I was too young to really decide what I enjoyed reading more, the visual appeal of the books fascinated me.I used to love going through the encyclopedia - ChildCraft, WorlBooks. And the glossy hardbound books about wildlife photography.
And the biographies which had photographs interspersed between chapters.. clubbing together an era about the person's life. I used to look for these pages and just browse through all the photos.
The books about body building also interested me. :-D
Especially women body builders- there never used be any indian ladies.. all firang ones.. I found that quite amusing..and wierd.
I used to look for children's books which had pop-up pictures-the fairytale books definitely had these. And bedtime story books with lots of pictures.
I even used to thumb through the books teaching alphabets.. just for the pictures in it.
Books about ikebana, interior decoration, gardening, a book which had step by step pictorial instructions about the sailor knots .. I used to devour them all at the fair.
I never bothered about the content, the print. It was just pictures.
Later, when the words started interesting me more than the pictures, I would look for the size of the print.Generally Enid Blyton's books used to fit this bill. I adored her at one point. So much so that in my school years I internalised her work ;-) and my english teacher warned me to write more original stuff in essays and comprehensions! :-)
Archies comics was one more craze.Dad never encouraged comics. So buying any was out of question. I used to stand and read as many as possible. :-)
Somehow, the books my dad or mom got for me .. were the ones I used to love the most.. (till one point of time ofcourse.. :-) ). Dad, on one of his trips , got me a collection of Aesop's Fables. I loved it.. so much so that I had the tattered book with me till a few yrs ago. It had short stories (and a moral at the end, which I never bothered to read), generally depicting animals, birds, even insects at times, which spoke, discussed stuff, thought etc etc. It was all very fascinating to read.I read that book over and over again.. (and then the morals too started getting more meaningful and profund, for the short stories).
A few years down the lane, I started picking books on my own. My best friend, is an avid book worm.. and she led me into the wonderful world of books. She has very positively influenced my reading likes and dislikes.. in fact she introduced me to a lot of classics, which was a teritory I was kinda apprehencive to tread. I started with abridged versions .. Emma, Rebecca, Jane Iyre, Prisoner of Zenda, Tale of two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, Mill on the floss, Silas Marner, Adam Bede, Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Three Musketeers, Kim, Ivanove, Around the world in Eighty days..a huge assorted spree of book reading! Science fictions..War of the Worlds, Time Machine, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (not sure how many Leagues actually) , Journey to the center of the Earth..Issac Assimov short stories (LAter was hooked to the Foundation Series) , Mr Jayant Naralikar, Niranjan Ghate, Arun Sadhu (marathi authors)there was a whole new world opened up!
There used to be trivial reading as well.. 1 famous character was Faster Phene. We enjoyed reading it.. my book-worm friend and me used to buy these books too!
After a few more yrs, I started experimenting with different books. If I heard an author being discussed too often, I would make a point to read at least 2-3 books of that author, till I could decide for myself if I really enjoyed reading him/ her or not.
I used to pick books from British Council Library at random, and give it a try. One such book I picked during my engg days was by Sylvia Nasar. Nope, the author dosen't ring a bell I guess, but the title of the book does.. Its 'A Beautiful Mind' , biography of Mr. John Nash. And this was way before Russell Crowe's movie.
There were times when we read books bcoz they were 'in' :-). In my high school days, books like 'Brief History of Time' , 'Dancing woo-li principles','Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintainance', many of the Alvin Toffler books ('Future Shock', 'The Third Wave' ) were kinda 'hot'.
Being able to discuss them, thrash or appreciate them was kinda cool. :-)
So we all made it a point to read them.
Then came a time where all these contemporary fiction authors were read a lot. (Not sure what catergory to fit them into). Sidney Sheldon (read 2 , 3 books and never touched another book by him..), Aurthur Hailey, John Grisham, Jefferry Archer, Robin cook, Stephen King, Ayn Rand and all that. Some books were really good, some just passed the muster.
Then came again a classics wave. This time it was un-abridged versions. Jane Austen rode the wave. :-) It was more enjoyable, to delve into finer aspects of english.
P. G Woodehouse was 1 more such wave. You can never find another genius like him!

The journey continues.. there are tonnes of more books to read, and a life - time isn't enough to read them all.

These days, with work demanding more time, books are a bit side stepped.. but they can never go out. I am into picking up random titles these days. Cheaper by the dozen, Catch 22, Beloved, Surely You'er Joking Mr. Feynman, To Sir with Love.. just pick a well praised book and finish it off.
Each book gives a different pleasure to read. And the search for more continues...

P.S. My friend S mentioned quite rightly that I didn't mention dear ole Calvin and Hobbes!
Well rightly noted. Comics - Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes - Comics. Thats the equation for us! Bill Waterson gets all the kudos and bows and bravos for such an amazing creation!

London London

On a Sunday, windy and bright,
we all set out to see a sight.
A splendid show was on the cards,
They call it the Change of Guards.

Braving the winds with scarves and sweaters,
we then joined all the eager spectators.
People leaned against the barricade,
And the crowd waited for the parade.

They pressed their noses against the gates,
And caught a glimpse of the soldier mates.
The gaurds marched and then stood still,
Cameras clicked in the wind that was chill.

And then came a ringing sound,
as the royal gaurds marched around.
Flutes, drums and cymbals in the band,
indeed made the march quite grand.

Grey uniforms and black fur caps,
shiny shoes in harmonious raps,
togehter they marched, not one flaw,
the crowd stood still and watched in awe.

One gaurd amongst all those,
had a sharp and pinched little nose,
and with all the frills and stashes,
he also wore a pair of glasses!

The royal band and the drums,
In my mind the tune still hums,
but the picture that it always pecks,
is 'The Bobby who marched with specs!'

Food For Thought

There are times when you feel like writing after you read something well written by somebody.
Thats how this blog started..
And to keep my blogging instinct alive, I read blogs.
If they are really appealing, I'm inspired to write.
If they aren't, am inspired to write, better.
But its all individual perspective. What I call better, might be worse for some.
But then one who blogs should not bother about all this, after all there are always two sides of a coin.

OK. The above lines were what popped out of my mind (pun intended) in the few moments I took to decide that I did want to blog today.


I have come across some really good Food realted blogs, and find their efforts commendable.

And there is this strange thing, if am hungry, I feel like reading these blogs: they serve like an appetiser.With all interesting pictures, interesting receipes, and interesting anecdotes along with it.

I have always enjoyed food. [ those who know me, pls don't give those wide-spread grins.. :-) ]

Am not fussy about food, but neither am a hearty food-lover.
I like to try different stuff (preferably veg), and I like to experiment in the kitchen.
I am not fond of cooking, but I don't hate it..
I enjoy my daily cooking routine (...yes ppl-who-know-me , I do manage to cook and feed a couple of mouths daily, twice! )
And once in a while, I can flip through some cook book, or website, or even a TV show and try to make something new.
So that's what brings me back to the food blogs.
I appreciate the efforts these people put to jot down their cooking experiences, delve into the finer aspects of ingredients,bother to click step by step snaps of their preperations, experiment with the mundane to whip up something new and in general celebrate food and cooking.

I love to read what experts, critics, anyone passionate and knowledgible about food has to say about food and related things.
Be it a wine taster telling about what cheese goes well with what wine and why, or be it a sugarcane juice walla telling why adding an extra dash of lemon to the sugarcane juice makes it better than the rest.

I love the language that describes food.
Its amazing how a few words convey a whole new world of tastes and aromas..

A blob of butter is different from a dollop of butter,
drizzling your fruit dish with honey isn't same as dressing it lightly with honey,
and a kiss of sugar dosen't draw any parellels with a pinch of salt. :-)

All those mouth-watering perfect descriptions which almost let you taste and smell the dish... wow.. that's some really beautiful use of words! :-)

I have noticed that I don't really mind watching TV shows on cooking.
I love the neatly arranged, spic-n-span kitchen.
The cutlery, crockery being used, the fabulous display of ingredients;
its nice to see how everything from a mandoline to an indoor grill is at-hand for the hosts.
Its a happy sight to see the dish take its shape, size, color ,flavor and aroma.
Its beautiful to see the finally done and decorated dish, with garnishing et-al.

I think these things related to food click because people invloved relish it.
They enjoy the entire process and not just the end results.
They appreciate, acknowledge and understand the art involved in cooking.
That makes it a real special serving....what say?