The Pile of Books

It was a wonderful, refreshing break after a few months. We went off on a trip to Mahabaleshwar and it turned out to be only a tad short of heaven (nothing beats Kashmir). We were continually surrounded by fluffy clouds, that kept rushing up at us and leaving our hair and clothes damp. Visibility could not have been more than 200 metres and with only my hoodie on, it was remarkably freshening. Naturally, reading wasn't exactly the topmost on my mind. It was good to be back on the hills. Sadly I'm now back, and before the grind could take over, my husband took me out to buy books (bless him !). We returned with a bag of tomatoes, a packet of flattened rice flakes and three books.  Go Set A Watchman : Naturally, it had been on my list ever since The Guardian ran sneak previews of the book. I had been putting off for the simple reason that our shelves are bursting with unread and half-read books, but what the hell now !its never too early or late to buy books. The Mart...

I can never have enough time for both books and movies in a day. For obvious reasons (not obvious to me though), I am constantly having to categorise and prioritise my free time. Its hardly unimaginable thus, that when books get converted into movies, it gets quite difficult to keep pace with both. I am left with a shamefully long list of movies I have put off for the simple and highly pertinent reason that the book-version is yet to be touched. Thanks to the The Top Tuesday feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , I get to put a tentative number to my ignominy: 1. Pride and Prejudice: Well, yeah. I haven't read it yet. Please don't judge me. Yet. 2. Divergent series: I've had it up to here with YA novels. Most of them are actually nice, but I'm so done with having to nurse a bruised and battered heart every time. The only plus are the leading ladies, which make me feel utterly useless and super-inspired simultaneouly.  3. Eat, Pray, Love: I l...

Back in my schooldays, we did not have rainy days, quite unlike most of my friends and colleagues now, who reminisce about rainy days like some long-lost treasure. It did rain pretty hard during monsoons, but being a dry area in general, the water would percolate quite fast, leaving the soil soggy and squelching. But I have recollections of beautiful moments spent on my bed or my study tables, hunched over a book, as it poured buckets outside... The flickering flames: A heavy spell of rain inevitably meant a power outage. Back in those days, invertors weren't all that common, and we would have glass lanterns and candles lit up while I studied in its light ! Somehow, this always happened right before my Hindi exams, and I remember one particular evening, when the rain was lashing at our glass panes, while I was ploughing through a beautiful Premchand from my text book... The crumpling pages: As the drizzle just commences when the sun is about to set, the first few, fat drop...