Monday Musing: Happy 2017

A whole year has passed. Time just flies away. The past year has been quite a dud in terms of blogging, and it was all my fault as I was not able to give it enough time. Too much of workload, too much of negativity in life, and too many of the worries affected me and my writing time. I am so glad to be feeling better.

A new year is meant for a lot of resolutions, but I really don’t have many resolutions. I am so off-the-wagon that I first need to find my feet before charging ahead. The past two months have been quite eventful for the books and the movies.

i) Netflix: I purchased the membership to the Netflix. For many of you, this might not be a big deal, but Netflix came to India quite recently (around a year and a half). I have always read the people watching things on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and now both are in India, I feel a bit spoiled for choices. Mind you, the choices on Indian versions are still less compared to the Western world Netflix, but still, there are many things. Moreover, they have regional movies too with subtitles. As I said I am so totally spoiled for choices.

ii) Kindle: I have had the Kindle for some time now. Six months or so. Initially, I wasn’t able to get a lot of stuff our of it, but now it has become my permanent companion of sorts. I have many books on Kindle (apart from the hard copies) which I am reading these days. And yes, I am stoked about how I have started the year.

iii) Podcasts: I am really into Podcast these days. While traveling, I enjoy listening to the podcasts which make me think. I don’t have any particular podcasts genre that I love, but my phone has quite an eclectic bunch of podcasts that includes romance, crime, daily stories of the strangers, some poetry etc.

These are so many stories and essays dwelling in my mind. Now if I just can manage the time to write as well in 2017, the year will be all perfect.


Monday Musings on Tuesday(Wednesday)

I had a very busy day, and hence this entry is quite delayed. Today’s musing is about the devil, what we perceive as devil.Have you ever wondered who the devil truly is or what form it can take? Is the person who kills the devil, or is the true devil the person who gave the killer the arms? Is the devil the people who are of different caste/color/creed/religion, or is the devil that hatred that makes us forget who we are? I have seen people using rape as the means to destroy the homosexual nature; I see the atrocities inflicted on others– all in the name of love.

I know the answer to the question seems straightforward, but it is really not. A friend of mine, let’s call her P, once encountered  suicide. Her friend had committed the suicide. She beat herself because a day before she had talked to that friend. It has been four years since that suicide happened, and my friend still carries the guilt of it. The reason for suicide was like most of the time failed love. Now the question is who’s the devil here: my friend P (for not realising what her friend was going through), the person who committed suicide, or the cause of suicide? It is not easy to put everything in black and white, right? Each person can be devil or probably not.

I am reading a book called The Summer That Melted Everything. The book is about a boy who came to town claiming to be a devil. The book is literary fiction and has given me a lot of food for thought. I have been thinking of Devil since I started reading the book. There is a paragraph in the book that deeply resonates with me.

If the devil was going to come, I expected to see the myth of him. A demon with an asphalt shine. He’d be fury. A chill. A bad cough. Cujo at the car window, a ticket at the Creepshow booth, a leap into the depth of night. I imagined him with reptilian skin in a suit whose burning lapel set off fire alarms. His fingernails sharp as teeth and cannibals in ten different ways. Snakes on him like tar. Flies buzzing around him like an odd sense of humor. There would be hooves, horns, pitchforks. Maybe a goatee. This is what I thought he’d be. A spectacular fright. I was wrong. I had made the mistake of hearing the word devil and immediately imagined horns.

That’s what we expect devil to be. Dark. Bad. Horns (probably). A fallen angel (for some). We expect that when the devil comes there will be announcements, that everyone will know that.

The book continues with the above passage telling how wrong the protagonist of the story was.

But did you know that in Wisconsin, there is a lake, a wondrous lake, called the Devil? In Wyoming, there is a magnificent intrusion of rock named after the same. There is even a most spectacular breed of praying mantis known as the devil’s flower. And a flower, in the genus Crocosmia, known simply as Lucifer. Why, upon hearing the word devil, did I just imagine the monster? Why did I fail to see a lake? A flower growing by that lake? A mantis praying on the very top of a rock? A foolish mistake, it is, to expect the beast, because sometimes, sometimes, it is the flower’s turn to own the name.

Today, my musing is nothing more than the question: what’s devil? Is it us?  Or is it someone else?

P.S. : I am in love with the book. This is just the snippet of what I want to share. There’s a review coming up soon. 


Can someone loan me Gupta Family?

Have you ever read a book or watched a series throughout the night and then entered bleary eyed in the kitchen in search of a decent breakfast? If your answer is no, I will call you wise and pat your back.

But sadly my answer to the question is yes. I have spent the nights doing either reading marathon or a series marathon and then searched the kitchen for breakfast. This sometimes involved cooking with half-closed eyes because breakfast is a very important meal for me. I can go whole day without food, but not without breakfast.

Today morning was one such kind of morning. I spent my whole night marathoning  a Korean series called Answer me 1997(more on that in coming posts) and then ransacked my pantry for something to eat. Finally I was able to find oats and locate milk to make an edible and quick breakfast. (Yes, cooking oats is also called cooking.)

These kinds of days are the time when I wish for a restaurant that delivers food at 5 or 6 in the morning (I am an early riser even when I haven’t slept for whole night),a place where I can order something healthier than chole bhature and kachori that early. And that is when I saw this advertisement.

This ad is of Gupta family who is as addicted to breakfast as me and loves the variety in their food. They are using Kellogg cornflakes and have come up with recipes which are healthy, hearty and tasty. As the ad continued, I looked at my bland oats and milk combo and wished to be with Gupta family to enjoy the scrumptious dishes served on their table.

How nice it would be if someone invited me for the breakfast on such days? Or may be I can take that family on loan for making creative breakfast? Or as my friend PariKnitha of Fashionoire says, I should keep a part time husband for cooking the breakfast (She actually said that she should keep a part-time husband for cooking dinner, but I stole her lines.)

Because even when I am not on night-watch, I still am rushing for office and sometimes,  I have to make do with plain, old sandwiches. The lucky days are the one when I manage to get up in time and cook something elaborate and tasty.

Can someone please loan me Gupta family which creates creative breakfasts or ask them to adopt me for breakfasts?Or they can cook and parcel me their healthy breakfast packet every morning at 6?

(If you are wondering why have I not kept a maid for this purpose yet, you haven’t faced the morning rush to office along with the wait for the maid. This is a combination bound to burn your tongue with thousand swear words.)