Happy Birthday, Satyajit Ray

Growing up Bengali means a steady dose of Satyajit Ray in childhood. While I have devoured my share of Holmes books and Bond movies, there will always remain a special place in my heart for Feluda. I have read Ray in Bengali, and also in English, my favourite translations being those of Gopa Majumdar’s.

Apart from Feluda, I enjoyed his short stories and also his films. Shonar Kella is an amazing film for kids and adults. In many forms, Ray has touched upon my adulthood as well. I was pleased to discover his friendship with Audrey Hepburn, for example. And visiting Jaisalmer Fort brought the Kella to life too. I must watch Pikoo again (from Pikoo-r Diary).

A final mention too of Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne – the brilliant political satire that remains relevant in this day and age. But also, perfectly watchable with children – who will love the surface level story involving the King of Ghosts and his magical powers. I loved this show I watched in Edinburgh last year, another strange way to come across Ray after so many years.

Happy Birthday to this legend!

#writing201 #trust #acrostic #internalrhyme #birthday

keeper of my trust, your first
arrival, on this day of my birth, mirth
now – you have a baby boy
i wish for you joy
keep him blessed
and remain my best, dearest

(dedicated to my best friend, who had her first baby this morning, on my birthday :))

Musing Mondays (June 30)

My Musing:

I love bookmarks. You might have guessed that from the name of my blog! I love collecting them, receiving them as presents, making them up as I go along, and hoarding them up. I have been known to use bus and plane tickets, seagull feathers, old postcards as bookmarks. I used to dog ear pages as a child. But somewhere along the way, I just stopped and switched to bookmarks instead. I have soooo many now, especially since book fairs and festivals always have so many lying around to be picked up. I’m always slightly disappointed when I’m reading a book with a built-in placer, the thread type thing. This here was a Birthday present from V this year and I think it is one of the prettiest things I ever owned. Don’t you agree?

Musing Mondays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

Describe one of your reading habits.
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Happy Birthday, Haruki Murakami!

A post from last year…

Undoubtedly one of my favourite authors, he makes me wish I could read Japanese. He is a true God of magic realism, my favourite genre of writing. People like Marquez are on my list too, but I do believe that it is much harder to be this imaginative in today’s world, monotonous and black-and-white.

Murakami began writing fiction when he was 29. “Before that”, he said, “I didn’t write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn’t create anything at all.” Can you imagine, waking up one day, and producing masterpieces? His tales look at such minor nuances of human nature, the complexities of love, the surrealism of existence…

This picture, though it trivializes his work to a great degree, always brings a smile to my face; it is so representative of his work! I love how he deals with everyday object and turns them into things with life, much like how I think.

🙂

My recommendations would include Sputnik Sweetheart (my favourite), Kafka on the Shore, and After Dark. Of course, 1Q84 has been on everyone’s radar for a while and is a good read as well. If you are not the voracious I-can’t-fall-asleep-without-reading kind of person, then try The Elephant Vanishes, it too has all the elements of his longer novels.

Live a long life. And keep writing!

What can I say, but, Thank you…

Early Birthday present!

“Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

 

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.”

Every time I write something here, 100 people want to read it as soon as they can. One Hundred. That is how many books I read in two years. That is how much I spent in one day (in INR ~ £1.2) in undergraduate college.

That is how many lives I have touched. I feel small. Very small in front of such a big number…
I feel loved. Happy Valentine’s Day, then 🙂

Thank you.

Happy Birthday, Robert Frost!

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(from ‘The Road Not Taken’)