What have I been up to....daily ramblings

I have been out of action for sometime now, but I visit my blog almost everyday. In the last few weeks, I had an interesting time. I acquainted new neighbours and now they are good friends. In matter of 2-3 weeks, we hung out together, watched a movie, dined at each others' places, played games together and just had a good time. 

 

Sometimes we are so consumed by our daily routines that we tend to stop ourselves from treading out of our cocoons. Good that my hubby loves making new friends, and because of him I get to know new people; otherwise I really don't have any friend around, who is just mine! Of course, apart from him :-)

 

Well, anyways, at this moment, when I'm thinking about what all things I did in last few weeks, my hubby is watching Roadies or Splitsville (one of those)! I know because of the beeps......for all the expletives the channel "censors"! My personal opinion is both the programmes are sickening! I really don't know what all this fuss is about!

 

Hmmm...so here's what I have been doing all this while:

 

1. As expected, I bought 3 more books:                               

 

                - After Kurukshetra

                - And now let me sleep

                - Mrityunjaya

All the above are again books on Mahabharata. The first two are translations in English and the third one is a translation in Hindi.  I was really ashamed of myself for thinking so much before buying ‘Mrityunjaya’ because it was in Hindi! Can you believe this? But now that I have bought it, it has opened doors to Hindi literature as well, and I’m definitely ready for more. I have already got a list of books in Hindi on Mahabharata:

 

Duryodhan by Kaka Vidhate (still searching for this. It is in Marathi)

Yugandhar by Shivaji Sawant

Mahabharat ki ek saanjh

Radhey Karna Ki Atmakatha

Rashmirathi By Ramdhari Singh Dinkar

Bhatko Mat Dhananjay

Main Bheeshm Bol Raha Hoon

Yah Mera Antim Yuddh Nahi

Yugnayika

 

And few more in English:

 

Ramesh Menon's Mahabharata (2 Volumes)

Kamala Subramaniam’s Mahabharata

 

 

2. When I’m on the subject, I am reading my fourth book on Mahabharata – Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It pales in comparison with Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni. The latter had a classic touch to it; it had the aura anticipated from the story of kings and queens. ‘Palace of Illusions’ is very naïve; Draupadi’s infatuation with Karna is almost out of Mills and Boon. I’m reading it, just to finish it but it does nothing to my research on Mahabharata. It treads on a tricky terrain of Draupadi and Karna’s relationship but handles it very amateurishly.

 

3. I updated my Shelf on Shelfari; and created my Wish List. And I’m still adding several on daily basis.

 

4. A glimpse of a huge book shelf on some site has encouraged me to build a library of my own. In any case, I cannot stop myself from buying books. I already have more than hundred. Of course, now I will be more careful while buying books. I will invest on books which are worth reading again and again. One thing is for sure, I’m definitely going to buy, every book I know of on Mahabharata. May be someday I would write something on this complex epic of relationships, ethics and dharma! It would be interesting.

 

5. I have discovered that I absolutely love making collages; and I have been doing it since school. My walls used to be collage, my penstand, my piggy-bank, posters I made, cards I designed, just about everything. I just gifted a huge collage of our pictures, to my husband on our anniversary. So here I have got another idea for another collage. I’m going to make a collage of book covers for my guest room; and get it framed. It will give the room an aura of reading and books! I’m thrilled just by the thought of it!

 

6. I saw 13B, and loved it. It was nothing like your regular horror movies; it was entertaining, even funny in bits and pieces.  I read somewhere that some Hollywood production house has bought the story. India shining, really!

 

7. How can I not write about the euphoria about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’? Frankly, the movie was average, acting of all the lead actors, none which was Frieda Pinto, was below average.  I’m just not able to understand how Frieda Pinto is getting all the attention? She hardly had any role in the movie. Besides, she did not really do anything much in whatever paltry screen time she had. She was ordinary. It just reminds me of beauty pageants in 1990s, when suddenly the world woke up to India and when Priyanka Chopra still won the crown despite naming Mother Teresa posthumously, when she was asked to name a role model from amongst people who were alive!

 

 

8. I love music but surprisingly I never listen to music, not even when I’m driving. I feel driving or traveling is a time when all of us should just think, think about things in life, what we are doing, where we are going, whether this is what we wanted, or may be think about spirituality or god or anything. It is such a nice time to introspect. Most of the time otherwise, we are completely preoccupied with the humdrum of routine activities at work as well as at home; we never take time out for thinking. This is the time to do that. Atleast, I do that!

 

9. I have planned so many things for my home and just taking things slowly. This is really not the time to splurge!

 

10. I’m trying very hard to get up early, atleast by 6 am, but not able to go beyond 7 am as yet. Every night I sleep thinking that I would rise real early, but mornings are different stories altogether.  I really miss looking at sunrise. It is a lovely experience.

 

11. I’m writing my review of C. Rajagopalachari’s Mahabharata. It is difficult to remember points after you have read the book, so keep pen and paper handy while reading, to make points for reference.

 

Well, that’s about it!