The Kite Runner

3 days of Diwali holidays and all I could think was my next book in queue to parse my boredom with words of imagination and wisdom. Which one was it? Well, it was ‘The Kite Runner’, a book by Khaled Hosseini, author of ‘A thousand splendid suns’ whose cover of a little boy trying to peek through a dark room caught my kvetching eyes. Without any vindication of my latest interest in his books, ‘The Kite Runner’ for me was indeed a page turner. Every chapter brought in new plots interwined with ‘friendship’, ‘loyalty’, ‘love’, ‘happiness’, ‘innocence’ and ‘helplessness’, ‘inhumaness’, ‘heartlessness’, ‘pain’, ‘misery’ with ‘abuse of all kind’.

What started as a story of an inseparable friendship and loyalty between ‘Amir’ and ‘Hassan’ from a tender age of birth to teen, might remind you of your childhood days, of your bestfriends, of that innocence and mischiefs. It’s the sheer love that connects you to that lane of golden memories even now irrespective of how old you grow or where you are. An unfortunate incident breaks the transparency between the two young boys leaving an unhealing scar till the very end with a glimpse of Taliban rule portrayed and evinced eloquently placing you amid the violence and chaos in the country by a group of men who I believed played God.

It’s sad to see one side of the world springing with new technology, rights to liberty and speech, equality, power, etc, all for the use of mankind while the other side, the darker side like that of earth not facing the sun, filled with cruelty, worthlessness, misery, tears of blood. Sitting comfortably at home with all the priviledges, mussitating words of forgiveness and mercy to those killing for fun could never describe or experience the torments and trauma cored to the very nucleas of the soul. It is difficult! Very much difficult!!! Many a times, we think of life in the good old days where people catered to their problems or their neighbours, where law and order were maintained, respected and feared. These days nothing of that really matters. Killing has become a hunting game of humans than animals. Beheading an innocent, raping little boys and girls, chopping off body parts, feeding dogs live yet, severly wounded humans, stripping and strangling a person, shooting a bullet through the temple, shaving the head of a woman followed by charring her to ashes watched by hungry eyes of lust and evil… the list just wouldn’t end!!! The so called ‘Bad’ people always find different ways to torture and humiliate the weak and innocent. The adrenaline rush would probably be flowing like a turbulent sea striking the shores with full throttle numbing the sense of sympathy and empathy. What should really be done to such kind of people is what those going through or undergone only have the right to answer but never live past it. Do they ever think of what will happen to them after death or do they even believe in God? Well, looks like only God knows the answer to such a question, while others, hope for serene future.

Favorite Quotes:
It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime..."

"There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth."

"it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place."

"When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

"I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my legs blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away."

Oh…My…Weight !!!!

Gone are the days,
When my stomach was young and jammed,
Gone are the friends,
Who were larger than my only fans,
Gone are the smiles,
To a regime of gym and diets ,
Here I am again,
tormenting over my weight gain !!!

WEIGHT !!! Believe it or not, it is the most feared and obsessed ‘disease’ as I would call it. Nothing could be worse than an increase in your waistline, chubbiness of those smooth cheeks, slender biceps turning into an elephant trunk and legs swelling up into a rectangle. On the whole, it just makes you shapeless. To your loved ones, you are nothing but ‘healthy’ while the world sees you as another fat soul burdening the earths crust.

Some would suggest heading to the nearby gym, shedding those calories and rendering into a better self. Few suggest ‘dieting’. You know what, it is not easy. Take me for example. I have always wanted to be in good shape without having to feel slightly embarrassed or low in front of my many friends who have such great bodies and beautiful curves. This kind of feeling my friends, is called the ‘Inferiority Complex’.

Every time I see them, this is the only thought niggling my bone driving my tiny head insane. Shopping with them couldn’t be worse. Imagine falling in love with the prettiest outfit hung on a mannequin only to be worn by your friend as you didn’t ‘fit in’. You might get a larger size of the exact dress which would fit you but, don’t forget, your friend is also wearing the same piece in a ‘smaller size’. Ouch!!! Jealousy is a term you just cannot ignore which gets rooted to your very core. Its tough, tough and very tough!!!

I have done a lot of things. Tried Swimming, Jogging, Exercises…What not??? Phew!!! Now all I have is ‘Osteomalacia’, a goodbye to my days of keeping fit. Diet was never in my chart. Common, I cannot imagine a world without potatoes or chocolates. I literally eat them daily. These days I can say that I have kept my addiction under control. Still, do I see any results? No. A big Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. My mom has off late been yelling at me a lot. Like I said earlier, to your loved ones you always look the same or leaner. You are never ‘fat’ for them. My mom falls under that category. She has always wanted me to be like Kajol (an actress, a roly poly and my fav too). I come from a mixed background of culture, cuisines and beliefs. My intake ranges from eating idli and chutney to aloo ke paratey, sambar-rice to rajma-chawal, curd-rice to veg-biriyani, thanjavur poli to gajar ka halwa, murukkus to jalebis and hot samosas. My list could go on and on and on. Even though I promise myself daily to control my pounce, rebounding is never un-announced. This is a disaster of massive immeasurable proportions.. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing about India is we learn a lot and respect other cultures and ‘Foooooooooooood’ is the first thing which intrigues you. Breads, Cornflakes, Musselli, Oats… wow, a fantastic creation and a miracle for all those working women, tastes yum but occassionally in my case. Let’s take today as an example, I had oats with milk. I know, I know. It’s good, nutritious and has a lot of fibre. The combined flavor and nutrients from both make a complete balanced diet. I get it people, really do, but every spoon that went down my food pipe replinished memories and images of parathas in desi ghee served with curd and pickle or the tiny idli’s soaked in a pool of sambar. Seriously, it was tough eating and sulking at the same time. Now how am I going to battle out this problem is something I need to work upon. Sigh!!! May be I’ll just go and have a samosa first and then we all could think of a solution. ;)

Weekend Mania!!!!

So folks, what is it that you love about the weekends? Uhhhh, lemme see, Is it the gifted 48hrs of slumber, of treating yourself like a Queen or worse, more work? Lolz!!! To me it is where I can spend hours sleeping late in the morning. Doesn’t it feel good waking up on your own free-will without worrying about heading to office, completing a new task or deadline, chit-chattering of colleagues on ‘she has an affair with xxx, ‘he eloped with his friends wife’, ‘he still pees and stinks’ or something better like ‘new guy in the block’. ‘clothes and apparels at an affordable rate’, ‘new tries at looking different from the other’ or ‘blooming of young love’? Everything is a movie, only sophisticated yet, boring.

Life seems so bustled with talks throughout. Heading home is what everyone loves. Why? To spring onto that long stretch of wood crafted symmetrically coated with stocks of soft cotton piled vertically. Minutes of contact on that spongy surface feels heaven, numbing your ached feet, hands, neck with your slender back topping the list. You look up at the moving blades working its way to cool you down or watch the shadows of leaves playing hide and seek. Soon, you forget about all this, soothing and drooping your little soul.

Next day, Sunday. Is it different? Nopes... It’s Sleep, sleep and more sleep. Nothing compares to those hours of laziness with you craving for more. The alarm is long put away behind those cupboards or high up on a shelf only to be taken out again. I wonder how many of you had fallen off your cots while dreaming of castles and knights in shining armour. Thinking of it, I really don’t remember falling even once, not that I wanted to or wish for. Hurting those adipose tissues would definitely send waves of reds and yells which, I don’t yearn.

Getting excited for another short weekend already???? Try to go out for some fun till it comes to a speedy end. Keep your fatigued thoughts in an oven while you just go and get all geared up once again. Cooking, cleaning, washing would abide by your task, what the heck, weekdays are not too far. Sum up your jiggling toes, winding in a nearby store. Give that soul a treat but please….. don’t go about eating meat.

Happy feasting or fasting!!!

Shield of Steadiness

Green Green Green, Is it just a color with a wavelength of 520-570nm, an outcome of yellow and blue mixture or something else, perhaps more? My recent understanding of the term is imbibing a culture to protect our planet from further devastation with the mandatory primary step, Afforestation or planting more trees to balance the trends in climate change. Theory behind it is simple, plant more trees>reduce the level of CO₂which is the primary reason for global warming>prevent soil erosion and disasters like floods or droughts and maintain the ecological balance of the ecosystem which in reality is imbalanced immeasurably. Another advantage of planting especially for those living in the coastline is its role as a strong pillar to fight strong currents, rough tides and tsunamis.

2004 Asian Tsunami or Boxer Tsunami was an opener to the craving yet, dormant fury of massive destruction our planet has been patiently withholding since the start of industrial revolution in just one day. Thousands lost lives as the waves hit the Asian countries. Millions saw how seconds turned a calm, serene planet into a mass of unidentifiable debris of lives, property and agriculture. Though a rough count on lives perished has been entered in records, the reality is, we can never really estimate as the number of people drawn into the arms of the angry sea is still unknown. The day Tsunami hit my city, neighbours rang our bell telling water has come into the city; water has come into the city. My mom and I were thinking, how can water come into the city? We don’t get floods and what’s worse, even decent showers who had seemed to change their course of flow during the monsoons and honestly speaking, none of us even knew something like ‘Tsunami’ existed. As we switched the T.V, news channels buzzed with talks on Tsunami hitting countries, what it was, how can we predict it and what should be done? What started as a strong earthquake in Indonesia was about to unfold the hidden mysteries of our planets capability of destruction and certainly, made way and big waves into History and Geography books. Learning about all this was frightening, bottling ways of surpassing the loss deep inside to combat the greed of commercialization. One of my attempts was the ‘visit to Pulicat.’

Pulicat along with 5 other villages comes under the jurisdiction of T.N., a coastline with dwellers ignorant to the luxurious lifestyle of the mushrooming city. The villagers earn their income by venturing out in the sea early mornings, placing their handmade nets over a wide open sea, waiting patiently for their catch only to bring them back to the main land and sell at a negotiable rate in the market. For years, this has been their only source of income. Medical supplies and schools were not so big but existed and catered to any emergencies. Concrete buildings housing them was a barrier for the unsteady winds hitting in the evenings. Life was not exquisite yet, precious.

We travelled on the 28th November, 2009. Reaching the destination was exhausting and thrilling, just like the feeling one encounters when you watch a patriotic movie. You are soooo pepped up, ready to join the defence services of your country. Yipee!!! Closer and closer as we reached the remote villages cut off from the main grounds of bustled life, I got the glimpse of the first house or victim of the great Tsunami. Houses followed, arranged horizontally behind which you could see the sea and inhale that peculiar combined smell of salt, sand and sea. Shortly after stepping out, I realized that this is going to be tough. The sun was in its full form casting all its heat above our fragile heads, charring our skin with visible rashes in minutes desperately attempting to halt our mission. The sand wasn’t friendly either. Did you know that walking on sand was difficult? Yes? Think about hot sand then. For those who don’t, try it. Anyways, our mission for the day was to cover minimum 5 villages and plant coconut trees there.

On your marks:
It kicked off by making the perfect pit to shelf the young saplings and maintaining a proper distance between each to enable individual trees to space out with ease, spreading its roots and leaves wherever they felt like going. Our worn out feet didn't feel the pressure of bending or knealing on the hot sand. The only thought was doing our task of smoothening the cover perfectly just like how mothers clean their infants. We became parents too for that day, giving the necessary supplements for our little tree to nurture under the blue sky.

Get set:
After getting 150 pits ready, we just had to place the saplings in the hollow space. Hold on, it’s not over or simple. Before plantation, an imperative step when it comes to planting a coconut tree is always ensure the surface is clean, devoid of any sprouting roots. Removing by hands was out of the question, they are really tough so the razor gladly came to our rescue. Phew!!! Oh, I forgot to mention, you should only plant coconut saplings after the first shower just in case you want to do the same.

Go:
Each of us had our own sapling or worked closely in groups of two or three carefully placing them in the pit, sprinkling a handful of manure and later watering them. The villages covered were Arangem Kuppam, Koonan Kuppam, Nadu Kuppam, Vairavan Kuppam North and Vairavan Kuppam South, one being the last village in the border between T.N and A.P. 150 saplings were planted on that day. Throughout the hours of passion and tiredness, came huge satisfaction. We all felt achievers, proud owners to a once long lost moment of worthiness. Everything was felt within. No one applauded at the others contribution or said a word of what they did. It was a feeling which said, finally, I may not have accomplished something big in life nor compared to many who have constantly supported the importance of life and ‘Going Green’ of all. It was just a little voice within that said, ‘you did well’ and ‘you have more to do. Go home and come back to a whole new land waiting in queue for nurturing a green life.’

My Hollow Paulo

Love, a wonderful immeasurable experience which everyone sense at any age. It’s a feeling of wanting to live and love life, wanting to be with the only one person for whom your heart skips a beat, feels like the blood in your body is conspiring to make you (cheeks) turn red, darker than color of blood itself, a desire to be in the arms of your loved one with his/her voice ringing in your ears, constantly desiring to look at that beautiful face every morning the minute you wake up after hours of dreaming, wish for the world to stay as it is where you are not able to see anything just but, your true love. Ahhhhhhh, it’s so good to be a part of that experience.

I still remember when things were not going smoothly for me years back, I was so devasted that I wished my life would just end. My interest in friends, foods, shopping and living life queen size lost its space in my pithy life. All I could think of was being with that one person who seemed galaxies away. Fear of not hearing the voice on the phone, not being in contacts crippled my basic activities. Everything around me was no more important as if I didn’t have a life or was worthless. Depression can make you think and perform actions beyond your imaginations which I had seen in many of my closed circle of friends. I however, would head to the beach, sit for hours and watch the waves. It’s funny, you realize your nothing in front of a massive sea, home to thousands of dwellers we would never know or see. One of my close friends suggested me this book called ‘The Alchemist’ by ‘Paulo Coelho’, now a book very close to my heart.

Onset of Change:

Okie, so I have a book by some Brazilian writer I had never heard of. So what? Its better to read this book instead of sulking myself and showering the same feeling on my loved ones, that was my so called attitude when I started reading. Few of the pages seemed boring initially because I was really not interested in actually reading the book till I don’t know when I came across this quote ‘If you truly wish for something, then the whole universe will conspire in granting you your wish’, apologies if I haven’t used the same line but this is exactly what it meant. After a brief moment looking at those letters written in black came a sudden gush of energy loaded with positivity. That moment, that very moment changed my life as I had started to think on those very lines. Rapidly moving back to the start of the book, I sat on my chair for a journey in Paulo’s land through a young man named Santiago.

Some of my fav quotes:

When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.

The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles.

This book may be interesting, exaggerated, another boring love story, philosophical or whatever for different groups of people. For me, it holds a special place for it changed my belief. Without sounding too dramatic, this book holds a lot of value, teaches you of something you seem to ignore though you have been a carrier all your life, it’s a mirror to your internal you.

I am going to stop here to continue later… till then, grab your very own copy and enjoy reading!!!

Hope amidst Solitude

Lately, I have pledged myself to quit lazying around, spend my time in constructive activites aimed to furnish my way of living and thinking. One Saturday, I buckled up, got into a pair of jeans with a not so full wallet, all set to try something new. I thought of buying something for myself, shoes or clothes, bags or junk food or just go to the beach and enjoy the sounds of restless waves as it hits the shore. As I rode my activa, I found myself in front of a bookstore, pondering to what should I really buy or which book should I pick up.




The long stretch of labels across each corner of the room led me to many options like fiction, non-fiction, suspense, travel, food, history, sports, astrology and so many. After picks of quite a handlful of books, I noticed ‘A thousand Splendid Suns’ and ‘The Kite Runner’ by ‘Khaled Hosseini’. This was my first introduction to the author and his books though they have been published earlier. Well, I was delighted reading the summary of the books and headed home as soon I settled the amount.


A short review on ‘A thousand Splendid Suns’:
I felt indebted to read this first as it dedicated to the lives of women in Afganistan. The details in the book really made me picture myself in every line and I thought this would definitely make me cry in the end. The book is a story of two Afgan women named Mariam and Laila, their lives from childhood before and after the Taliban rule. As you read you feel so connected to them, picturing some of the events you might have noticed on T.V. I however, do not have any intention of telling you the story but a word of advice, you must read it. In my opinion, the ending could have been different and before the last few pages I had my very own prediction of what will happen which was quite the opposite in the book.


Some of my favorite quotes from the book include:
"A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated..." , so true yet, ignored.
"Marriage can wait, education cannot", a virtual reality only when girls are treated with equality and with security.
"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls" , unless we try we will never know what destiny has in store.


A note of advice to whiners like me: Life is beautiful and we, are a gifted lot of few who own the basics of a lucrative lifestyle. Make your succinct stay worthwhile and cherish yourself for having the unconditional love of those to whom you are the world.

P.S. Have fun reading!!!

Quest for Nests

The sky rocketing population and minimization of open lands has opened the eyes of at least a few people. Suddenly we can hear politicians and celebrities talking about preservation of planet and its creatures. Your TV screen too seems to have caught up with the debate on what will happen next? How long will this climate continue to change and how much deprivation are we of the present generation going to bring for the future inhabitants? Though the answer is known, somehow I don’t see much happening around me. What would our lives be 20yrs from now is a mystery with a certainty that our world will never be the same.

Watching NGC, Animal Planet and Discovery has always been a treat where I find myself travelling to all parts of the globe by sitting at home. Yea, Yea, I know. Physical presence is different from a virtual tour but for not so lucky ones, it is a blessing. Many of my colleagues abroad travel to exotic locations and experience the rich diversity of our planet. Pictures of Flora and Fauna, wow, I can’t describe how beautiful it is to look at them. The only feeling that seeps is, laying on the green carpet looking at the sky, watching the clouds and birds dance side by side, insects and other noises from around sounding like a lullaby crafted to slumber you with ease, the smell of grass and mud mixed with scents brought by the flirty winds, fleeting your senses with a strong desire for time to just pause, halt for hours till you get exhausted from not being exhausted. I have often imagined myself opening my eyes to find myself in a far far away land with a small hut in the centre of a thick luscious carpet, trees swaying in the air, mist touching the skin on my face, droplets of rain falling down in traces hardly seen with a sudden shiver making me wobble like an infant is to die for or should I say live for.



As part of being an active member of a green team formed in my company, I have been interested in knowing what my city has to offer. Going for turtle walks to save Oliver Ridleys, planting trees along the coastline which acts as a defence against tides or tsunamis, participation in ‘keeping the city smoke free or dirt free’ involves patience, dedication and constant passion. Though my group is small, I am sure that people will find themselves believing in our cause to join us. Sad? Yes, so am I to see everything around me turn into concrete with little peeks of greenery. No, I have nothing more to say.



A recent program aired on TV showed how fast the glaciers were melting and what’s worse, animals living in it are on the endangered list. Watching polar bears, penguins and other sea animals who have always been remote have been migrating towards warm waters while others simply perish. Animals have always been and still are poached for their skin, hide and organs for medicinal purposes. As if this was insufficient, I feel we have disrupted their niche, a hope for a better future . Finding parrots or sparrows has become a rare sight in my area. The only birds I get to see are crows cawing every morning to feast on the food given by locals as an offering to Sun God. Soon their quest for nests will be over while we start our struggle for search of a sustainable nest. As said ‘Understanding is easier if experienced’, lets hope it not too late.