“That particularly galled me, because it implied the immortality of those left behind: You will live forever in my memory, because I will live forever! I AM YOUR GOD NOW, DEAD BOY! I OWN YOU! Thinking you won’t die is yet another side effect of dying.”

— John Green, The Fault In Our Stars.

As is I am lost when it comes to condolences and I stop at ‘I am sorry for your loss’. This feeling only intensified after reading FIOS. Are we telling what we tell to make the dead more than what he/she originally was? Does death morph the ordinary to the angelic? In our attempt to speak no ill about the dead are we forgetting that our time too shall come?

All these thoughts come back flooding as I read about Robin Williams. Because I want to say something, but don’t know what. So I am going to leave with his Good Will Hunting dialogue that helped me and am sure will continue helping me, “You’ll have bad times, but it’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.”

Every once in a while, I give myself some time off. I leave work early and go straight to a book shop and just hang out. I breathe in the smell of books. I touch the shiny new covers. Smirk at yet another popular and pedestrian new release. (Yes, I work in a library. Yes, I breath in books in the library too. But books must be visited in varied environments.)

The past three years, it has been an interesting social experiment for me. What makes me pick up a book? The cover? The author? A recent review of the book? A prompt from a friend? Sometimes the blurb makes me think about certain incidents that happened in my life

My recent visit as a photo log with my though bubbles.

Chox, my friend, this is for us.

I really wanted to buy Empires Of The Indus , but the print put me off. I find books by Feynman, Richard Dawkins, Hawking and quantum physics books end up in minuscule print like this. It makes me think the author in his/her  enthusiasm to educate and share, ends up producing a 1500 page draft that the editors could only edit so much without killing the spirit of the book and the only thing the publisher could do is to decrease the font and line spacing, increase the number of words in a page, thus effectively producing a 500 page book that doesn’t intimidate a potential buyer, but has to be read with a microscope.

This is delicious. I have been eying Travelling In, Travelling Out for 6 months now, reading a chapter here and there. I am waiting for the price to come down.

Jaishree Misra’s Rani is my first exposure to non-british version of the sepoy mutiny. When I read it, it brought home the point that history is subjective. Besieged is a translation of the mutiny papers by Mahmood Farooqui. I would like to read Besieged, but with a friend. The illustrations on the cover page made me pick up this book.

And these for the child in me.

And then, BOOM! this.

The blurb reads:
Twenty-two-year-old Yash Birla wakes up at the break of dawn to a phone call that changes his life—a plane with his parents and sister has just crashed in Bangalore. Leaving his college in North Carolina on a flight to Mumbai, Yash finds out that they have all passed away. Everything he has known is destroyed and his world is suddenly torn apart.
Reeling from the loss, Yash is handed over a vast empire of companies that he is now at the helm of, where he has to fight for his rights and manoeuvre through relatives who have their own agendas.
This is the story of a man who overcomes one of life’s toughest hurdles and lives to tell the tale. It is Yash Birla’s journey from a state of oblivion to survival, where his deep belief in spirituality and his faith in true love act as a crutch for him to go on. Money, greed, God and an inside view of one of India’s oldest industrial families . . . that is the story of On a Prayer.

Errrm….. I feel that there is chasm between what I see on the cover and what the blurb says. It is as if some one at Penguin decided that for the book to sell there needs to be boobs and ended up with this picture. Oh, come on!

-Author: Jane B.Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens

-Scholastic

-Ages 9 – 12.

-Self readers.

-128 pages.

-Light read. Can potentially finish in three hours or less, if you haven’t fallen asleep.

-Modern day interpretation of folk and fairy tale.

-Series of books based on princesses, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, Ella, Snow White, who are classmates in The Princess School and the challenges they face.

– I read book 4 of 7, ‘Beauty is a beast’.

– The story is how Briar Rose rebels and finally comes to peace with who she really is. In the process she also realizes that even if you are gifted, you still need to work hard to excel.

– I rate the book 2/5.

– The language was simple, at a 8 year old level, while the concept was more tween. Since it was neither here nor there, the book fell flat to me.

– To be fair, I was expecting Princess Academy…. or Ella Enchanted. This was neither.

– Princess with a contemporary twist has lots of potential to play with, but the authors have chosen to play safe.

-If you are looking for a strong charismatic princess as a role model for your daughter, this is NOT it.

– Though the message is good, the way it is delivered defeats the purpose. For example, Briar Rose a.k.a Beauty is thoroughly disgusted by her nickname Beauty. She rebels, dresses up like a beast to finally figure out that she likes looking beautiful.

– The princesses attend courses that are cliched finishing school like.

– Will not read/recommend the rest in the series.

And that is where I must have left the mirror. On the wall.

So this is the background.

The children fight as all siblings usually do. Nothing new there, but I am growing increasingly impatient. I sit pondering why can’t one let go and let the fight die a natural death. As I often do, I decided to take matters in my own hands, find a solution instead of silently bearing it, being the master of own destiny, tackle problems as solutions waiting to happen and all that useless jazz.

And I introduced this wonderful concept I learnt in my childhood, namely the mirror. When some one says something nasty to you, you just say mirror and the nasty stuff gets reflected back to them. ‘Stupid’ – ‘mirror’ – the person who said stupid sees his/her reflection and is stumped – you walk away with a smug expression. Simple stuff.

The children were thoroughly kicked with the concept! (Gasp! Really amma?)

They drank from the fountain of knowledge. (Do you have to hold an actual mirror? Should I hold my hand, palm facing out or just say mirror? Can I do both? Can I hold both palms and say mirror? What angle should I hold my hand? )

They checked testimonials. (Did you do it when you were young? Did it work for you? Whom did you use it on?)

Then they executed it.

‘Stupid’.

‘Mirror’.

‘Youuu caaan’t (read it sing-song), because I was already holding mirror when I said stupid. So my stupid goes to you, reflects on your mirror, then bounces on my mirror and goes back to you.’

‘How? How? How can that even happen? It will again bounce on my mirror right?!’

‘But I was holding mirror even before I said stupid. You said mirror only after you heard stupid. By that time my stupid already reached you. Haaaa haaaa (insert sing-song again for complete experience)’

‘Fine, my mirror is bigger than your mirror, so even if it came out late, it completely reflects. Since your mirror is small, the stupid goes around your small mirror and reaches you.’

‘You can’t even see my mirror, how will you know it is small? My mirror is bigger than your mirror.’

‘No mine is the biggest on earth.’

‘No, mine is bigger. I am holding god’s mirror.’

‘Too bad I am holding god’s super mirror, which is the bigger than god’s usual mirror.’

In fact they are walking around the house with one palm, if not both palms, on forehead like a head light, because that is their mirror and they are ready to reflect any insult that may or may not be showered on them.

I am again pondering what I can do about this. Or rather what I must NOT do about this! The biggest joke is how all this was some how mirrored right in to my face.

I am training the second child. Given a word, she needs to write one sentence with the word in it.

She was struggling. When I asked her what is wrong she explained patiently, ‘Amma, when you say ABOVE, the photo that comes to my mind has a red house with bird circling above it, children playing in front, tall trees from the backyard with branches spreading on the top floor. How do I put all this in ONE sentence?’

I felt like some one slapped me and I remembered this speech by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of Reggio Emilia Approach.

The Hundred Languages

No way. The hundred is there.

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.

A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.

The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.

They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

-Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)
Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach

My Hyderabad Literary Festival find:

Artist PP Raju, a calligraphy artist. His interpretation of Ramayan in calligraphy was out of the box.  Simple half white background, bold red lines and the entire story in 34 x A3 frames was enjoyed muchly by yours truly!

He has a booklet out with all the Ramayan calligraphy pictures. The book is priced at Rs.1000. If you are looking for a coffee table book with a difference this is it.

Found the paper below when I was cleaning up after a play date.

The children had been playing doctor-doctor and the my first born had written this ‘detailed’ prescription.

Yes. This has been our life since Oct. First born sick – younger one sick – husband sick – younger one sick – younger one sick – younger one sick again – I am sick – younger one sick – younger one still sick – younger one hospitalized – younger one on antibiotics but out of the hospital and is still sick – first born sick – I am sick – first born falls and tears a ligament and leg in cast – younger one sick – I am sick…..I swear none of this is exaggeration! This truly is the number of times we fell sick between Oct – Dec last year. Hopefully the new year is good.

Finding a surprise note(from the older one) in one’s office bag….

So the children get invited to a child’s 7th birthday party. It is Barbie themed.

Let us just say that the Barbie theme party is a first experience for them. And let us leave it at I am HUGELY responsible for this state of their existence. Anyways, at some point main streaming has to happen and I decided to test the waters.

They went, they danced, they ate junk food, they came back with ‘interesting’ return gifts.

Make up set. Fake nails. Nail decor.

Naturally they were very excited and there were 1001 questions.

Can they start using the make up?

Since it is a gift to a child, it must be appropriate for children?(I am not sure if this was a question or they were thinking loud .

How frequently they can wear make up?

Chula’s birthday is coming, so can she launch in to the world of make up starting that day?

Etc.

I braced myself and started with the fact that they have their whole lives ahead of them to grow up. Please don’t rush it girls I told them. And I finished with a strong, ‘The minute you start putting make on your skin, your skin thinks that it can grow and get old. Its starts getting much much much older than you actually are.’

Chula recoils, looks at me horrified and asks me, ‘Amma…. is that what happened to you?’

Kind readers point me to a hole. I want to crawl in and die.

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Contest Rules / Requirements:

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The contestants must strictly adhere to the rules given above. If any rule is not followed the contestant will not be eligible and therefore will be eliminated from the contest. The terms and conditions of the competition are set out above. Please note that these terms and conditions may be modified by Parul Sharma at her sole discretion. In all matters connected to the competition, the decision of Parul Sharma shall be final and shall not be subject to any challenge. It is clarified that without prejudice to the above the decision of Parul Sharma as to the winners shall be absolute and final. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the owner of this Facebook page and not to Facebook.
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PS: Should I do OB and call this post P Is For Parul Sharma’s new Book?