Lust for life

A new look for my blog site… But the quote which followed the header seems to be lost…. Needs to be investigated…

Watched two Hollywood flicks: Iron Man, The Forbidden Kingdom. The good thing about Iron Man was the humor which thankfully stayed till the end. And the bad about The Forbidden Kingdom was that the two teachers Jackie Chang and Jet Lee could not carry humor when together. They looked too old and Jet Lee was too stiff to be humorous… esp. the scene where he snatches the wine jug from Jackie was too animated…. And the boy-turned man-turned boy again was too boyish to be taken as a man…. he kept failing at all the occasions….. The fight sequences were the usual ones…. fight scene b/w Jet Lee and Chang was too long and boring…..

I have started jogging everyday in the evening and my Squash has taken a backseat at the moment….. The new tee that I’m wearing today is cool…. soothes the eyes….. The life is beautiful….

Started with The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell….  the book is gripping… i like it… a line from the book - “Animals are happy so long as they have health and enough to eat”

Reading James Herriot’s Vets Might Fly… another from Vera’s collection….

After my brief stint with (stray) dogs, I have come to believe that as humans we are very cruel…. too cruel and selfish to think of animals and our mother nature….. it gives you pleasure as much as it gives them when you caress a puppy or give her milk to drink and biscuits to eat…. sometimes you feel they have a lot to say and just because they can’t they do things to show, to acknowledge…. they jump at you when they meet you, they run after your bike for as long as they can… I think all these are their way of showing that they love us too…. And believe me, if you really have to know whether you have a human side or not just try and see if you can feel for the things and beings which are not exactly human…..

18-Mar-2008

Completed Vets Might Fly…. nicely written book and it made me laugh at many instances…. Hilarious and very humane…. I liked it when in the course of story, Herriot kept going back to Helen - his wife.

I have picked up R. K. Laxman’s autobiography “The Tunnel of Time”…. Vera got the book from her library long ago…. it was great to learn that Laxman has been with TOI as staff cartoonist for over 50 years. The narrative is simple, flow is goood….

“To be young is very heaven, my boy, very heaven….”

3/5/08

Completed Laxman’s The Tunnel of Time…. didnt take long to complete it considering the time that i spent in finishing Dr Zhivago…. By the way, found this on Wiki about Gattu, the lad with a paintbrush in his hand…. this is what Laxman has to say about him,

“I gave him a shock of black hair eternally dangling over his right eye. I dressed him up in shirtsleeves and half pants with braces. I made him clutch at a rather over-worked bristling paintbrush in one hand and a dripping can of paint in the other. His unruly locks of hair, his posture, the wide grin on his face were all suggestive of a fellow capable of unpredictable mischief and, at the same time, exuding a mood of cheerful, carefree abandon.”

Who can forget that famous line - Any surface that needs painting needs Asian Paints.

What a timing…. When exodus from Maharashtra has already begun for many of the migrants, i ended my own. My interest in this small country namely Israel has been growing and this beautiful novel proved to be of great help. And i read in the papers y’day how Tatas are joining hands with some Govt. owned Enterprise in Israel to maufacture defence equipments. And I’m suddenly reminded of Davidka, a Little David, handcrafted by Jewish genius which had Arabs running for covers….

I wish we had that feeling of nationality in us. I wish we joined army not because we were not good for any other thing but because we wanted to guard our borders. I wish i felt more and more for my country as my homeland….

Vera finally managed to persuade me to read Agatha Christie’s ”Cards on the table”….. She, it appears, has read all of Agatha Christie and even used to dream of working with this short, Belgian detective….

I liked Poirot… he is not eccentric, not frantic…. he thinks…. he is logical, unorthodox and too methodical….. he has an eye for details….

As a piece of advice, the best time to read this genre of fiction is when you are in transition and are surrounded by fellow travelers who are too stupid to connect to…. and un/fortunately i meet loads of them…….

Post Script: continuing with “Exodus”….

After Dr Zhivago, it was the time of Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County….. I have already finished this book and am waiting to watch the movie…. when you read the book, images of Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep keep flashing in mind….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSqW9kYl7_U   I found a video on this link….

“I’m last of the cowboys” so fits Clint Eastwood. And you discover through this book that Love really is like falling from dimension Z…..

I dont remember when i started with Dr Zhivago, when i left it in between and when i took up Exodus…. Had to dump Exodus in between only to realise that the copy which Vera had with her was already misplaced. She is going to get the other copy from home. By the time it(Exodus) arrives i had better read Dr Zhivago…. i have already started with it again from where i left it….

Updated : 17-Jan-2008

I’m about to finish Dr Zhivago….. conclusion followed by the epilogue… poetry part i’ll be taking up later…. and hopefully would watch the movie with Vera… more than me it is she who is impatient with my reading speed… but somwhow i have never checked my reading speed….

Updated: 18-Jan-2008

Yesssss. I finished it…. poetry remains to be read but that will happen slowly… in the meanwhile, i’ll watch the movie and then write a review…. And i hope Sharayu gets Exodus from her home and I can start from where I left it….

I’m yet to finish this book but feel like writing about it…. nothing compelling…..just a feeling…..

About Yurii and Lara…. about a love which has not found an expression yet but you know it’s there…. unsaid but so very evident…. today the weather in Pune is very gloomy… not at all bright and sunny…. reminds me of Russia… how unfortunate on their part not to know how it feels to be out on a bright and sunny day…. Vera tells me English weather is also very gloomy… cold and dark…..

Vera tells me (yes! she tells me too many things but you would not be interested in all of them) it’s a tragic story…. what could be the tragedy…. Lara and Yurii not living together…. or Revolution killing them and their spirit…. or making them numb….. or one of them sacrificing for another…. I wonder (You see it’s different from wander and be careful when you pronounce these two words!) what could be tragic?! 

I’ll be adding something to this blog every now and then….

Hemingway said, “Bullfighing is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honour.”

Another good line from this book which can aptly be applied to different situations in life is “anything capable of arousing passion in its favor will surely raise as much passion against it”.

Barney wants to marry Emily but she is hell bent not to marry. Reasons - none given, none taken. Then they move in to stay together and she thanks Barney profusely for being so understanding. Barney however does not know what to understand…. One day he wanted to know why she cant marry him and he wanted this knowledge badly. She did tell - She couldn’t bear children and as much she knew Barney he had always wanted to father a child. Barney is hurt but nevertheless he asks Emily not to desert him. And Emily says she wont till Barney kicks her out.

What kind of feeling is this - being a father?! We have seen it so may times……. varying degree of intimacy between a Son and a Father. On one side you are reminded of ‘Love Story’ where Ollie(Ryan O’Neil) and his father never see eye to eye. And on other side, there are movies like ‘Life is Beautiful’, ‘DDLJ’ where you have the father doting on their sons. Let me guess - Does the father want to give to his son what he himself couldn’t get in his youth? When fathers want that their sons should come 1st in the class is it merely because they want the best for their sons or is there a hidden feeling to see your flesh, your blood( atleast a part of it) acheiving the same that you did not.

Another movie that I’m reminded of is Godfather-II -> remember that look in his(de Nero) eyes when he watches over his newly born son Sonny.

We men have this enigmatic trait as a part of our character- we very openly display our love for our ladies but when it comes to our sons esp when they are grown up we are probably too proud to show it….. strange isn’t?