Ullam Uruguthaiyaa....*

Disclaimer: Longest post Ahead.

I love starting early on Fridays to squeeze as much fun as possible into it. Somehow i felt Fridays are the best thing to happen to mankind. Even if it is Friday the Thirteenth. But the last thing i want to do on a Friday is wake up with the memory of a terrible nightmare which had the audacity to repeat itself thrice in the few minutes that elapsed between semi-consciousness and complete wakeful-ness. Damn! Double Damn!

Amma felt it was not a good omen to have such a dream on a Friday morning.
"Acha cho...but why? Are u doing your puja everyday?"
"Err...hmmm..of course i am. I am such a nice obedient Pillai girl, no make it wife"
"Do it today and i will ask Amma(her mom) about it"

So i washed all the silver lamps (yeah, when u get married you move up the pedestal. So no more brass lamps!) and lighted my diyas, went to musicindiaonline.com, searched for TMS' devotional songs on Muruga and while the house reverberated with songs for the 6-faced Lord, i sat and read 'Kanda Shasti Kavasam'.

I am not exactly what my family would call a 'religious and pious' girl. In fact, i don't know if they are synonyms or not. To me God has always been this person/friend with whom i have these conversations as and when i feel like and since i have always been this 'weird' kid who talked to herself most of the times, i did enjoy all our conversations (or monologue, if you insist)

Today was different. It wasn't about conversations. But the moment TMS started "Ullam Uruguthaiya" i was tranported to an another world...a world far away from the luxury of unlimited water and dishwashers.

No:3, Muthiyal Chetty Street, Purasaiwalkam, Madras
1983-89
The Wonder Years

We lived in this tiled-roof house which was home to 6 tenants and the owner, a very old blind woman (Paati) but extremely sharp. She would know who has entered the house by their footsteps and if you tried to go upstairs without answering her probing questions, she would immediately call for Vidya Periamma. (I call her so. Her daughter is Vidya and it was those times when there were no Aunties or Uncles but only Periammas and Chithappas).

It was an old house. As soon as you crossed the wooden door there was a small verandah with grills, where Vidya Periappa would park his scooter and Appa his cycle. Then a long corridor and you entered the big courtyard. On the right was a small dark room in which stayed Lakshmi (the milk maid and the one who looked after Paati) with her daughter and mom. On the left was another small room in which Kala chithi stayed till we moved out in 1989 and then she took our portion. Then in front of Kala Chithi's house was this huge hall which was Paati's residence. Next to the courtyard (in front of Lakshmi's portion) were the stairs that one took for the first floor. Below the stairs was the highly scary common toilet. I hated going in there coz it had the biggest cockroaches in it.

Digression 1: The only time in my 24 year existence that i remember my Amma raising her hand to beat me was inside that toilet when as a silly 4 year old i refused to get in as there were cockroaches and wanted to run to teh road for my ablutions like the slum kids. yes, i did have higher goals then. Amma went berserk and pinched me on my cheek before she started on her tirade of blaming herself for all that i did. Sweet lady, she is!

Opposite the toilet, right across the courtyard stood the common bathroom. And behind that was Vidya Periamma's portion. Her home had one hall, one small kitchen and small storeroom. I loved her house as that's where i stayed after achool till my parents got home from work. She had a very kutti chair in a greyish-green tinge. My chair. Or so i claimed to an already incensed Vidya akka who couldn't stand my tantrums.

Digression 2: And they were the only ones with the TV initially till my parents got embarassed by the tantarums i threw in their house and got our first Uptron B&W Tv. I have really been a bad kid :(

As soon as you got off the stairs you would find our small abode on your left. 3 steps( or was it 4) to enter my house. There was a big hall; in fact that was the only big room in that entire house. On the left corner was a small slab of stone under which we kept all our shoes and slippers and next to it was the kitchen. Then a small wall and the bathroom. (I was proud then as we were the only ones who needn't have to share bathrooms with everyone)

Digression 3: Madras wasn't a populous city then but the water scarcity was still a huge monster. Our bathroom had tubs fondly called 'andaas' in various sizes and colours, buckets, pots and u-name-it-we-store-water-in-it vessels and 2 mugs. Yes, 2 and my favourite past time was making my own stories while i played with those 2 mugs. One would be this ship with Sindabad and i would ofcourse be The Surpreme One sending a huge wave over his ship, by pouring water form Tub1 to Tub2 with Mug2 :) Till amma screamed that i shouldn't waste any more water!

The corner next to the bathroom had the Tv and on top of it was my fave Princess toy in Red sponge dress (made by someone in the family) and our Radio - the one with knobs and no buttons. Next to the Tv was window 1 under which stood the grinder. Next to it was the pooja set up till we bought the fridge when we moved our deities to the kitchen shelf. Next to the fridge was window 2 - my favorite haunt in the house....there was always a chair near it and every morning appa will sit there and read his paper and that's where i sat to have my food, stare at the world outside, tell my little stories to the sparrows which stood on the sill...

Digression 4: The house was really old so the bars on the window were really rusty and weak. I kept playing with it and one day in a fit of anger i just gave it a hard push and threw the broken iron rod down. Saran's mom who was standing in front of the house was saved by a hair's length as she moved from the very spot where the rod fell just seconds earlier. Aaah...the dressing down that followed.

Next to the window stood the door to my haven - the bedroom with my BIG double bed(which is at present at Kala chithi's house) and my book shelf with 'Puss in Boots' and 'Cindrella' and my small steel wardrobe( i still have it) with its secret locker to store my feathers and nuts & bolts. Amma's big wardrobe and all other boxes.

As soon as you walk out of my house on the left was Saran's portion which had just one room and one kitchen and after that, directly opposite to our portion stood Vijay & Vinod's house.
And right next to Vijay's house stood the most important member of the entire house - THE WATER PUMP.

That brings us to the point of this entire essay. Oh yes, there was a point to all this nostalgic roller-coaster ride( which by the way is not over but i decided to cut short since talking of 6 years in one post is not possible even though you might not agree that it is short).
Now though there was a pump one never knew when we would be blessed with water. Appa would wake up every morning at 3 A.M, have a bath, read some novel for sometime and then proceed to try his luck with the pump. Amma would get up at around 4 A.M, take bath (The bath was essential so as to empty tubs to re-fill again) make coffee and then they both will again have another go at the pump and if there was water, start the 'filling tubs' ordeal and then wake up Vidya Periamma, saran's mom...in short my parenst were the alarm clock for the entire household.

And in those days at around5 A.M ( after we bought the BPL tape recorder) Appa would play TMS' Murugan songs...a cassette he made with all his fave songs and one of my strongest recollection from those days is that song...the way it played as i stared bleary eyed at my amma running with a pot on her hips, making sure she finished cooking, having a story ready for me so that i get into the bathroom to brush my teeth...

It was a small house and it leaked during the rainy season but somehow i feel some of my best years were under that leaky roof, playing with the rain-drops falling into the plastic bucket which was patched up to close the hole...a life not dictated by money or the lack of it...a life quite content with a small shampoo packet got for 50p, sitting on the steps and eating roasted peanuts, going to school in a rickshaw...a life so beautiful!

P.S:: After Paati passed away in 1989, her (selfish - that's what i felt as a small girl) daughter sold the house to a Marwari businessman who demolished our beautiful home and built a colossal, ugly many-roomed stone edifice. Along with the rubble the poster which covered the hole in our walls must also be buried - "A house is built by hands but a home is built by hearts". True.

* Means - My heart melts (everytime i see you, O Lord Muruga)

Unmasking Masks

She walked in silently
Her white gown
sashaying to the soft music.
Heads turned, voices exclaimed,
Tall glasses clinked;
The 'Ice Princess' had arrived.

Could this be her?
Without her singing voice
And her lovely smile?
A sculpture of poise and stature
But of life devoid?

'Twas the day to be different -
When Hitlers sang with Jews
And Cleo giggled with Octavius;
The Fancy Dress Ball
To make a fool of y'all!

The party was a hit
but for her ringing laughter
And exuberant banter.
They longed her to rid that mask
And just talk as they did ask.

She stared at the expectant eyes
And smiled a deep smile
Would they ever know
That the girl they longed to see
Was the one with the mask?

New England's New Quote

Found on sign board outside a shop :

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Truer words have never been spoken :)

Yummmyyy

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is the most

adorable, amazing, aesthetic, creamy, chocolatey, delightful, delectable, dainty, delicious, enthralling, enticing, exciting, enchanting, enjoyable, frothy, funny, fabulous, fantastic, good, great, heart-warming, hilarious, innovative, ingenious, imaginative, jolly, lovable, marvellous, nice, pleasant, quirky, rapturous, sweet, spicy, scrumptious, tempting, upbeat,vivacious,wholesome, yummy and TASTEFULLY done movie i have seen in the recent past.

Run to the nearest theatre NOW :)

It isn't easy being easy

When you want no expectations from someone, aren't you expecting something and doesn't that contradict what you stand for?



Nine months ago on a dull, grey day
I came in here with nought to say
It wasn't easy speaking first
Now it is hard to control the thirst
To mould a sculpture from verbal clay


Coding didn't interest me much
Felt i was always in a clutch
I did love to write in verse
Tho not always terse
Guess i had loads to say as such :)


As in a hypnotic trance
My words did dance
But at moments they stood still
Like they had their own will
And refused to change their stance


But this moment is for all to see
So do please congratulate me
As your witty and senti-'mental' host
As i write my 150th post
Time to scream "Yipeeeeeee"

Spread of WWW - Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes!

Disclaimer : Beware! Spoilers Ahead (Well there aren't any but then every review i have read so far starts in this manner so i shall do so too :p)

This is not a review so much as it is my fanatical eulogy to a world i love to disappear into....the world of spells and charms...of Unforgivable Curses and Unbreakable Vows...of enchantments and engorgements...a world full of magic - The magic of Love!

[Not bad an intro tho it wouldn't bring me 1/10000000 of what JKR earns. But it will still do for my review.]

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince - The latest trick JKR pulled out of her Magic Hat isn't many things but it is definitely not a damp squib like the few reports that i have read online. The 6th book though a little slow and lagging at places does make up for all that once you cross the 400 page mark...The unexpected twist towards the end which makes it one of the riveting climaxes i have ever read (if i ignore the 3rd book, that is) also leaves a lump in your throat if your a sloppy romantic like moi.

And thankfully the book does answer many questions that cropped up in Book 5 and boy! every time you come close to figuring out who the HBP would be, the farther you are thrown away from reaching a conclusion. On that front, she definitely did rock, keeping me on tenterhooks on who exactly HBP could be.

JKR has really gone in depth this time around to explain certain traits of certain characters and that by far is the only let down. Nopes, i do not mind all the info i can scrounge about the Magical world of 'Arry but then that kind of reduced this book into a 'journey down memory lane' and 'an introspection of sorts' than the mind-numbing, action-packed book i expected it to be considering The Wizarding World is really at war!

As for the fun parts in the book, i did like the new spells she had created...kinda quaint but interesting nevertheless. And the romance, tho stretched did have me up in surprise as though i have been hit by the Stunning Charm on my stomach. So much for all those speculations and i bet there still would be people who would go in that shrill Hermiony tone , "I told you so" to their benchmates in school, or cubicle mates in office as they discussed the book.

And in case you were expecting a long drawn out battle like that in Book 4 or a monologue from Lord Voldermort on blah blah, then this book is not for you coz JKR must have felt there are much better things to do than fight - like fall in love or look into a crystal ball and introspect.

Sigh! I still love the book and it demands another reading but for now all i can say is, it is worth the wait and doesn't demand all the negative review it is getting. Maybe yes, it didn't live upto the mental image of Book 6 but hey you can't write a book that transfigures itself into 'My Favourite Book' for millions across the globe and it is not easy to create a fantasy world and make it run...Magic doesn't work that way.

In my honest opinion, Book 6 ROCKS despite the minor glitches. And if you are a hard-core Potter fan, you wouldn't even know there were glitches :)

Have a rollicking week, drink the 'Draught of Euphoria' and dance as the Potter magic binds the world yet another time.

You...

You -
Like the first drops of rain
On an untamed land
soothed and caressed
the fighting beast.

You -
Like the undying embers
Of a wild forest fire
fought and tempted
the God within.

You -
Like the lone leaf
Braving the autumn winds
trembled and tried
to resurrect Hope

You -
Like an unhealing gash
poke and burn
refusing to remain
just a sweet memory.

An Indian cow in the American Market

As far as cultural shocks went i must say i landed in America with 'Shock absorbers' much to the disappointment of The Mr who expected me to go "Oh my Gawd!" at every tube top and hot pants i saw. Having grown up watching HBO and Star Movies and spending a few months in hep Bangalore i set foot at The Logan International Airport with a rather bored look. But then the latest fashion statement in downtown Nashua has made me sit up and ..and well GRIN!

All the ladies in my town are walking around in denim shorts (They all look so alike you would think it was The Summer Uniform in Nashua) and hold your breath! - 'chappals'. Yeah! the very same ones which go by the name of 'Bath-Slis' back home and which you wouldn't wear outside the sanctum sanctorum of your home unless you want to be laughed at.

In fact, even in college you restricted it to within the four huge compound walls of the hostel unless of course you were 'one of the boys' like yours truly whom the men never bothered to give a second glance except when they wanted to know the name of that young pretty thing in high heels (who happened to be your room mate) with whom they wanted have this highly 'intellectual' talk on, well, the weather :) (The Bitsian guys did come all the way to Parihar's class or the Ref-Lib in their pajamas and chappals unless it was winter when they were forced to wear shoes :-D Spare the swear words guys, i gave you company in those chappals!)

That was then and this is now. Well some things hardly change except maybe the name. So here i am in small obscure town Nashua, in North East America wearing The Uniform - denim shorts (Target), spaghetti blouse (Sears) and westernized chappals :The Flip - Flops (Walmart).
And to show the world i am the 'well- read' type without glasses, i got myself Flip-flops with The English Alphabet written all over.

Now who will dare say i am a dumb gurrrrl? ( I am rolling the R)
Nopes, The Mr will not say so, not if he wants dinner.

*********

The morning after we landed , thanks to jetlag, The Mr and I were up as early as 3 A.M. After emptying all the 'Ready-to-eat' packets of jeera rice, peas pulao, veg khorma and channa masala he decided it was time i was introduced to The Great American Dream - Shopping at WalMart!
So we reached the 24/7 Walmart close home at 6 A.M and walked down every single aisle - him pushing the cart laden with everything from paper towels to fancy mops and watermelons while i regaled amma on our flight stories.

All aisles lead to the cashier and ours was no different. The 50 year old at the desk gave me a sweet smile and said "Hello! And how are you doing today" to which the newly wedded bride coyly answered "Oh! we are good. Just the jet lag. You see, we just got married and we landed here only last evening from India and..." She gave me a bewildered look, smiled at The Mr sadly and gave us our packages. And for the first time i kept staring at the floor like the Indian Bahu while The Mr couldn't stop laughing his heart out.

10 visits later, i am a pro with just an imperceptible (whatever that word is which is supposed to mean that you can't make out that there was a movement) nod and a random "Good" everytime the person at the counter says "Hi. How are you today?".

P.S: Damn! Inspite of being inspired by The One my post is far from rib-tickling. Double Damn!It doesn't even make ME smile. Next time, i'll ask The One to write it for me :)

Reality Bites

I never believed this could happen to me.
No. Good girls are not traumatized like this. And i have been more than good accompanying Amma on her million pilgrimages all over South India when i should be checking cute guys at Spencer Plaza.
Why me? I wouldn't want this to happen to my worst enemy. No Ma'am, this time capsule is not for you.

I MISS SUN TV.

Sigh. Yes, I actually do. If someone had told me 2 months back that i would be in the Big USA(pronounced ooosah) and miss Metti Oli types sloppy serials, i would have not invited them for my funeral but then it is TRUE.

I miss listening to their News at 8pm which doesnt go beyond the DMK portfolio and how many lines of poetry MK wrote on water scarcity in Chennai and what Stalin feels about Amma (and this is not my mom it is TamilNadu's Holy Mother) and her chamchas...

Their comedy time on Tuesdays which play spoofs on famous movies and which are anything but hilarious and how the entire family never misses a single show...

Those thrillers on Wednesdays where they take 10 minutes to cross a 2 foot long corridor and just as we move to the edge of the sofa to see if the hero would actually open the door to the loo, Ta-Da! we have Trisha in an artificial accent saying why she buys Horlicks for her toddler...

And how can you forget those "First time in the history of Tamil Television" they show Thalaivar's Baasha for the 12th time...

And you don't find these reasons enough to miss Sun Tv?
Let's move to American television.

Channel 6( on my TV) -- 'Maury' show where the American mothers cry and discuss on how to stop their 13 year olds from getting pregnant... Reality Tv show 1
Channel 7 -- Jerry Springer where the wife and the mistress beat each other up...This beats WWF hands down on TRP i suppose...Reality Tv show 2
Channel 8 -- Pat Croce moves in to solve family disputes. That's a first!!! ...Reality Tv show 3
Channel 9 -- Boston network chooses Family A to solve 'amicably' the appearance of new daughter of The Husband born out of wedlock ...Oooh. This is not a run-of the-mill programme...Reality Tv show 4

And then my local News channel has this scoop on, hold your breath, "Did late JFK Jr have an affair with Late Princess Diana"...Gosh! Is this what they told about dying and still living?

I am not saying i was not curious about the affairs of the High and Flashy when in India but somehow it stopped with living people and it did not extend to whether late Silk Smitha (Porn Queen of yesteryears) wore chiffon in bed or not.

And when you just have the TV for company for almost 10 hours a day, you would expect something more than Reality Tv shows. Coz you know what, there is nothing real about them at all. To me, Ramesh Prabha and his pause-after-every-word accent has more entertainment than all of American television put together.

To quote from As Good as It Gets:
"This is too much reality for a Friday."

P.S: And if you know what happened in 'Chidambaara Rahasiyam' do drop in a comment. Thanks for being so nice :)

So what is it to be married?

My Hubby's act as i blog
Originally uploaded by ponckumari.

Is that a trick question?
Soups wants to know and so do many of my other friends who never ever in their wildest nightmares thought that some guy would actually marry me.
Come to think of it, neither did i.

To all those who think that i get up much before he does, tidy the kitchen, brew a strong cuppa coffee and wake him up in a saree with my head wrapped in a wet towel, i have just this to say - WAKE UP!

I get up much after he does and on certain days only when i hear the "Kumari, am leaving for office" tune. I then slouch on the bean bag and watch re-runs of Becker while i tell my Amma all about the new dish i want to try. And at around 11.30am i pull myself into the kicthen and conjure up the most scrumptious meal The Mr has ever tasted and set everything up on the carpet (we are yet to buy that dining table) for lunch.

And all this 'hardwork' is for nothing.As the tired Missus blogs her way to nothingness, The Mr walks in with coffee and snacks to rejuvenate her spirit -- so that she would feel pampered enough to get into the kitchen again and start on the dinner.

Aaah! How gullible The Missus is!

Coming to the question, it is NICE to be married :)

Passing Tags

I can't put it off any longer. Meant to work on that book tag long ago but then with so much time at hand and so little to do, one never gets to do what one really wants to do and ends up doing al the inane stuff that one never had time to do like sit n watch TV. Ok Stop. More on my boring life later. Let's move on to interesting talk -- BOOKS! Thanks Daddykins, you did make my day!

Being the only daughter and the only child to a book lover, i walked into this beautiful realm as early as 1983, as a starry-eyed little toddler on Appa's lap staring at a Big Fat Man and a Little Man and a Small Dog walking around forests and beating men in armour. Asterix & Obelix were my best buddies...and they still are. Well, i never did grow up, did i?

Okay, let's do it the way everyone has done so far.

Total No of Books I Own:
Now this is a toughie. I know there are around 20 or more of my books at Timmy's house and then there're another 20 or so i gave to my cousins as they started to string the letters together to R-E-A-D, and few more which i bought for myself and then gave off as gifts to buddies and all those books in cartons hidden in our attic but which are not technically mine ( coz Appa has been treasuring them) but they will be mine one day....So excluding all of this but including the ones still with people who haven't returned WHAT IS NOT THEIRS, i think i Personally own around 250 odd books. Phew! That wasn't so bad.

Last Book(s) I Bought:
This is easy. None :) I mean, there is this silly voodoo associated with anything that i buy for myself with my money. It never stays with me. I end up giving it away or losing it. So i make people buy my earrings and my books. That way i can give it as a gift on my grandson's 11th birthday (If i live to see it, that is). But yes, the last book i bought was The Little Prince by Antoine Saint Exupary, Sonnets by Sri Aurobindo, Bharathiyar Kavidhaigal and of course, recently made The Mr order Harry Potter and HBP :)

Last Book(s) Read:
The Magician's Nephew by C.SLewis.
The first book in The Chronicles of Narnia. An amazing fantasy tale. Had never heard about this author till ~Di told me about it and gosh! am i glad she did. And did you know that C.SLewis and Tolkein were best pals and they felt bad that there weren't enough good books that they would love to read and hence decided to write one themselves? Well, i guess you did know it much before i did :)

Asterix and The Black Gold
Need i say more? I'll bet my life on those indomitable Gauls to entertain me anyday.

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Never have i read a book that has been hyped so much and it isn't so great as they claim it to be. Gosh! You would go ga-ga over it if and only if you haven't read 'Doomsday Conspiracy' or 'If Tomorrow comes' or any other thriller by Sidney Sheldon or Jeffrey Archer. So much for so little. Sigh.

Book(s) I Couldn't Finish:
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. You know the author so i won't mention his name. Plus i can't spell his name. I haven't gone past the first 100 pages yet and i have tried 3 times already. Hopefully someday i'll see what is on Page 101.

The World of Fatwas by Arun Shourie. This is a really good book on Islam. More importantly about their fatwas and how Imams are looked upon for every little thing by devout Muslims. I did want to read it but the only hitch was that Mr.Shourie uses really big and bombastic words and i lose track midway. This is part of Dad's collection so I guess i can always take it up later.

Books That Mean a Lot to Me:
I removed the 5 coz c'mon even a book-hater would have more than 5 favourites.

Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki : I don't know if i can ever do justice to this classic by talking about it. Appa n Amma gave it as my 23rd b'day gift. Vandhiyathevan and Kundavai's romance, the little details that Kalki has looked into, the way he compares Kundavai with Nandhini...He is the best and there is no question about it. And when you walk into Thanjavur's Brihadeeswara Temple and you play back Arulmozhi Verman's speech on how he wants to build the biggest temple, you can't help feeling for each and every stone there...and listening to them tell their own story. The story of the great Chozha dynasty.

Against The Fall of Night by A.C.Clarke: A wonderful sci-fi tale. One of my first sci-fi tales and i fell in love with the protagonist so much i named my diary after him - Alvin. One of my other faves of the same author is the Rama series. Everytime Appa took me to British Council Lib, I used to run to his shelf to pick up sci-fi books. And then read Isaac Asimov - Truly a great man. His Robot series rock big time! Get hold of his short stories and you'll know why.

We The Living by Ayn Rand: It's one of her best novels the other being The Fountainhead. And somehow tho Leo is closer to reality than Andre is, i guess i still prefer Andrei Taganov ( i fall for tall Russian men with romantic names). The description of Communist Russia really stings. I finished the book in one sitting by the garden next to Insti Cafetaria in my second year. And who can forget Roark. I read Fountainhead when i was 13. I don't claim i understood much of what she said then (not that i do now) but i sat and memorized Roark's speech in the courtroom. My cousin was moved by the act and got me my first gift from someone outside Amma & Appa - The Fountainhead :)
My fave quote till date is " To say 'I Love you', one must first know how to say 'I' ".

The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton : She is the best thing to have happened to the world of little girls and little boys. The Farway tree is just a small subset of the many wonderful worlds she has created for us. The forest where Brer Rabbit lives, the Famous Five and The Secret Seven, of bacon and eggs and tarts and muffins...of Fairies and elves and gnomes. Now you know why i refuse to grow up.

The Little Prince by Antoine Saint Exupary: This is a wonderful book. Very simple, to the point and no fluffly philospohy that boggles your mind. Truly wonderful. I recommend.

The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier: A brilliant book. A Masterpiece which has been made into a movie in Tamil starring Late Sivaji Ganesan in a dual role. It's about two people who look alike exchanging places and how one guy does good and the other spoils. 'Cliched' you may say but then never underestimate Ms.Maurier. She captures your attention and does not let u waver even for a moment. If you get hooked to her do read 'The House on Strand' and her more famous 'Rebecca' :)

Illusions by Richard Bach: Now how can one talk of philosophy and not have Richard in here. I like this book next to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Sometimes, even more than JLS. he is starightforward in this. Plus i like the whole idea of being The Messiah. It's damn cool.

Oops I forgot. make way for The Emperor of our times. And his Minister.
Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson : Office would never be the same if i couldn't read C&H before i started work. Cuz Shiva introduced me to these dudes and life has not been the same since then. It's like having a whole new dimension to everything you do. "So what would Calvin say now?".

Okay there are lot more.
I am grouping Lord of The Rings & Harry Potter into one big box of unlimited entertainment (Tho' the fans may protest at this blasphemous act)-- Fantasy at its best. Now for all you fantasy lovers, you can also try Terry Brooks' 'Sword of Shannara' series. Pretty good read.

HitchHiker's Guide to Galaxy by Douglas Adams is the source of wit and sarcasm. Speaking of sarcasm who better than P.G.Wodehouse. His books are one of the best reads in English...the flow of language, his character sketches and their little quirks...aah the world of Blandings, Bertie, Jeeves et al is downright hilarious.

And if you love suspense & spy stories try your hand at David Morrel - he is really good. Few of his works that i do remember 'Black Evening' (collection of black humour short stories), 'The Fraternity of the Stone'.

Books Currently reading:
The High Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks.
Pygmalion by G.B.Shaw
Poetry Collection of John Keats (for the nth time)

Gosh i did end up speaking too much, didn't i? Well, what do you know, i still have so many books i haven't really talked about. I have tried to link up some works and some authors and the rest you can google yourself. And i pass the tag to 2 people whom i know do read but haven't been blogging for a long time...a really long time.
Please welcome

• ~Di. I don't know your blog id :( So pls resurrect it and do the needful. You definitely read a lot :-D
• Mandoo. Yes you! Enough of lying low, get ur ass moving and fill up bandwidth.