Books

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

I have always been a girl of few words when it comes to describing my feelings.

But when it comes to novels I just can’t help myself.

I feel at home in my novel world, at home with the surroundings, and more importantly related in some way to the characters.

I feel free, free to explore and pass time as I like, free to live their life, stay there, enjoy their customs, dress like them, fall in love with the hero, and have a happily ever after.

I dream of what happens after the book is over, a happy ending or a normal life with its twists and turns but still being together till the end.

It’s feels like a vacation away from all the stress, away from the reality. Just me and my book and the characters. I can spend years there, but still feel like only minutes, still yearning for more.

And I at least for a while fall in love with the characters and live their happily ever after, dreaming that one day I might have one of my own.

Language Barriers

I have never seen such blatant discrimination in my entire life!!!

I am born and brought up in Mumbai. Mumbai the hub of the never ending dreams where you will find so many people from so many different backgrounds staying together in one small area. Mumbai where every other person you meet is from a different state, different place, different upbringing but never have I seen them not able to communicate with each other.

In Mumbai a common language and a common goal binds all of them together. Only in Mumbai you will find that people also have building friends whom they hang-out with. It is a city which never sleeps, never gets deterred, and never there is a gap in communication. Even in local trains you might find some unknown person taking part in your conversation.

I have learnt that every language is important; every language has its own status of importance and never to disregard, or consider someone’s language lower than us. We have learnt so many different languages in school like Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, French and I still remember those. I can still speak Marathi fluently and I can still sprout verses in Sanskrit.

Being stagnant can hinder your progress. We had learnt this in school. Learn all that you can. But in today’s world it is not so.

After coming to Bangalore, I have seen such bad and such unwarranted behavior that reminds me of high school. Though being an IT Hub and there being a good amount of North Indians working in that industry it still is a total Language Industry. You can still see same language groups have coffee session together, you can still see their language people preferred over the others.

Today as I was having breakfast, I heard a comment somewhere that they speak their language because they want to show respect towards it.

So shouldn’t all the other people start talking in their own language? After all even they want to show respect to their’s, don’t they? Let’s have all the meetings and discussions in all the languages one can speak.

Do you think we would have made progress if all the great thinkers were adamant on only talking in their language? No. Then why still are we doing that?

Is speaking one’s language equal to giving respect to that language?

Does not speaking one’s language mean that we don’t respect it?

Titanic

Many blogs are there about Titanic,  but there is a common theme between most i.e. Titanic Movie.

But what about the real Titanic? The ship which claimed as Unsinkable? The ship which sank despite that? The Ship which tried to save many but could only save few?

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland,Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship designed as the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins

Today after 100 years of the ill-fated event,the question that is on my mind is, What happened?

Carpathia, the ship that helped bring the survivors to New York, docked at 9.30 pm on 18 April at New York’s Pier 54 and greeted by some 40,000 people waiting at the quayside in heavy rain.

Nearly every one in the crowd that waited at the shore for the survivors to arrive, had lost a relative. Almost all the crew members had perished. It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking. 4 out of 5 crew members came from this town.

There were only 700 odd passengers saved from 2000 odd passengers on-board.

For some people it was the last trip they would take.

Children in Third Class, Women in Third Class and Men from all the classes including the crew were lost. Less than a third of those aboard Titanic survived the disaster.

Imagine their anguish, their scared and pale faces knowing that they wont be returning to their homes, wont be meeting their family, and wont see their children grow up. It’s enough to give you goosebumps. But what about the people who lived it? They must have gone through torture which no human should go though.

Only 333 bodies of Titanic victims recovered, one in five of the over 1500 victims. Some bodies sank with the ship while currents quickly dispersed bodies and wreckage across hundreds of miles making them difficult to recover. By June 1912 one of the last search ships reported that life jackets supporting bodies were coming apart and releasing bodies to sink.

Many survivors lost their sole breadwinner and many third class passengers lost everything they owned. Help was given and many charities were set-up. Monuments and Memorials for the victims have been built since and many Museums around the world have displays on Titanic.

This is just the tip of iceberg, as the deeper we go the more things we find, the more we uncover. Here is one such site for Titanic.

RMS Titanic home Page

 

Along the way

‘The walls we build around us to keep out the sadness also keep out the joy.’

Its strange how we change as we grow up. We trusted everyone we met, nowadays we don’t. We used to be happy even in small things, now even big things cannot make us happy. We were making friends everyday now we have become too cautious. We used to forgive our friends easily now our pride and ego come in between. We let everyone we met inside our hearts but now we have walls built around it.

True we have grown up but have we lost the child inside of us?

We were so focused on growing up that we din’t notice that the small things that mattered the most to us had lost their importance. Bigger things started to matter more and we stopped enjoying , stopped being us. The child inside of us taught us to live, to look around us to enjoy every moment you get without question but today in the times of finding answers to the questions we have started questioning things that are not to be questioned, over-thinking things that are not worth bothering about.Our relationships today have become so complicated because of the questions and our over-thinking and over-analyzing about every small thing.

Let the child laugh, play, accept and give without fear. We should grow up but keep the child in us alive because it will help us live better in this questioning world.

Years

It’s weird but true.

Seems only yesterday that we were fighting with our siblings over some new toy , pretending sick so that we can take a day-off school or just hanging out with friends in recess time.

Today we don’t even get time to take breaks and even if we get time others are not free.

Sometimes I wonder where did the time go?yesterday we were going to school learning subjects like Geography , History , English , Etc. Some we used to like and some like Maths which many people hated.

Or going to college , learning Science or Commerce or Arts based on our choices but mostly enjoying bunking and completing projects and practical copies at the last moment.

Or doing Bachelors degree and organizing or participating in Fests just for the fun of it or  staying over at friends place or attending Fresher’s and Farewell parties.

All those memories happened in the past but they are with us as if they had just happened.

They bring a smile on our faces when we are sad and tears to our eyes when we are happy.

Miss those days when we could bunk just for the fun of it, hang out with friends the whole day and not worry about tomorrow or just doing nothing and still be occupied doing something or other.

Its true those days are gone and only the memories remain and a wish that we get to live those Years again.

Some Small Beautiful Things

‘This is what Novels are written about’ .

I thought this not long ago when i was on a trip to Binsar in Uttaranchal. The beautiful mountains surrounding our resort like guarding the nature from pollution made you forget everything….even ur exams…;)

I loved being there…every minute , every second was like from a book….be it clouds hiding the mountains….unexpected rains…trekking to Zero Point to see Kumaon hills @ 5 in the morning…or visiting Bell Temples….Uttaranchal has everything…i guess thats what makes it one of the best vacation spots…

Today as I have started writing blogs , i thought of the vacation n what better way to start this then writing about such a beautiful place.

Not only the place was beautiful but also the weather was superb…

And for a foddie like me i have to agree that the food there was simply Delicious….be it the momos , or the parathas or typical kumaon thali…it was just plain awesome….

The weather we see in films and read about in novels just doesn’t do justice to the real thing…u could see clouds hiding the vilages which were in the valleys in the morning n the weather could be as un-predictable as a moody person.:)

We had so much fun roaming about in the hills that while returning we were really sad….but happy to have seen things far more beautiful…happy to be a part of the nature’s beauty….happy to have seen things which we only had heard about or seen on tv….n i must say…

NOTHING BEATS THAT EXPERIENCE.