To read, to love, to cherish

So I've been meaning to post this blog for over three months now. Having finally gotten over my sheer laziness and procrastination, here goes! Thanks Nava for the prompt. :)

Books I’ve read. Books I like to read. Books that have influenced me. In an ideal world, I’d like to say ALL BOOKS EVERYWHERE ON THIS PLANET. But obviously and very unfortunately, that is not true. So I’m going to list off the top of my head the most fascinating, inspiring, life-changing books and authors I’ve read up till my boring 19^th birthday.

1.     Agatha Christie

Oh Ms. Christie, I owe my childhood to you! Hercule Poirot became one of my few select idols. Your brilliant thinking and your way of writing murder mysteries made me think, yearn, solve and ultimately fail because Ms Christie, you’ve never failed to outsmart me. For me, The Last Curtain would always be a legendary book; (spoilers ahead, I’m afraid) the fall of the great Monseuir Hercule Poirot in the grandest way possible.

2.     Jeffrey Archer

Mr Archer formed the backbone of all thriller, drama, romance books I’ve ever read and all that I ever hope to read. He’s got so much packed and going on in just those 400 odd pages, so much that it makes you wonder what has the world not experienced yet! The most striking of all his books are the Clifton Chronicles- a series of seven books,  of which five remain still to be written. Can’t wait!

3.     J K Rowling – HARRY POTTER LOVE!

Reading the HP series marked some of the happiest days of mine as a kid, a pre-teen and a teenager. She could make characters talk to you, sing to you when you were sad and reproach you when you made a mistake. And only one other series ever created that impression on me; I’ll get to that later. Rowling created a whole other world; simple yet complex, good and bad, and yet completely lovable. Cheers to all the HP fanatics!

4.     Inkheart Trilogy

Cornelia Funke may not be that well known but these three books of hers – Inkheart, Inskspell and Inkdeath are beautifully and wonderfully written, so much so that this is the only other book that can make characters come alive and talk to you. Ironically, that’s what this trilogy was about; characters coming out of books, getting pulled back in, magic and lore galore.

5.     Ken Follet

I LOVE YOU. Period. The amount of history, love, war and peace in his books can never be matched.  He’s written enormous amounts and yet the mighty 1000 page novels of his make complete and utter sense. Finishing his books can give you a feeling of satisfaction that you’ve probably never felt before. Must read books of his include World Without End and its sequel The Pillars of the Earth, and The Century Trilogy- of which the third book in the series is to be released any time this year. Waiting kills me.

6.     Dan Brown

Dan Brown impresses me. Beyond doubt and reason. Angels and Demons was absolutely brilliant. And the Da Vinci Code! I run out of adjectives when I have to describe his books. Though I consider Robert Langdon to be a bit silly and foolish, I love how Mr Brown’s woman characters are always stronger and have the upper hand. Excuse the infinitesimal small amount of the feminist in me, please.  I did not like his latest book, Inferno, but then the love I possess for the rest of his five awe-inspiring books trumps my selfish viewpoint.

7.     Khaled Hosseini

Your books make me cry, sob, laugh in the midst of tears and when I finish them, I smile for hours together for no particular reason. A Thousand Splendid Suns affected me the most. I didn’t sleep for three days , was just pacing around the house and re-thinking about things. Mr.Hosseini, your  writing is simply beautiful and soul-touching, if I may.

8.     Ayn Rand- The Fountainhead

Intense. Heart-breakingly difficult to read. Philosophical. Impossible to understand. Characters so strongly defined that it gets scary at some point of time. This is more than just a story. It’s life through this frighteningly transparent looking glass. It’s in a real and an ideal world at the same time; a fine line drawn always to confuse you more than ever. This masterpiece of a book took me a month to put down. Objectivism took a whole new meaning, and so did perspective. Read it, y’all. It’ll change some inexplicable part of you. For good.

9.     John Steinbeck- East of Eden

This was the only book, I must admit, that bored me in its early chapters. It was highly descriptive; so much so that I was willing to leave it beneath a pile of textbooks for a fortnight or so. But boy, aren’t I glad I picked it up, dusted it and began reading with a fervour that is hard to describe now. As I read, I grew. I read about horrendous things. Things we may presume impossible in the real world. Things so frightening that I even had nightmares about a particular character. Characters so black and white. This book made me change my mind about the descriptive writing style. And the ending.. plain beautiful. A special thank you to the friend who urged me to read East of Eden.

10. Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities

I was always a huge fan of the Classics. Be it Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Each of them took on a special and unique meaning whenever I read them. But Charles Dickens took Classics to higher, unreachable heights. This book particularly, made most other love stories seem fake, and portrayed The French Revolution brutally and completely accurately.

11. Gabriel Garcia Marquez -Love in the Time of Cholera

Written in Spanish and recently published in English, this book speaks of a heart-wrenching love story in a long forgotten time and place. As far as love tragedies with an anti-climax goes, this book’s a winner! Marquez brings out tenderness and brutality, and spreads a message that love could be everlasting and fickle at the same time. The end to this tragedy was somewhat disappointing as I read the book with an expectation, which I shouldn’t have. Yet the experience of just travelling through the times of cholera, feeling the pain, misery and the occasional joy of the three closely-knit characters was unforgettable.

12. Markus Zusak- The Book Thief

Written by Death. During the Second World War. My favourite history topic. Ingenious writing. Painful heart-hurting story. Finished in five hours. All of you, Must Read Now.

There are so many more books, so many more authors I’ve failed to mention. Especially J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin who produced entire worlds through their mind-blowing series Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones respectively. I hope I finish them off real soon. Also a special mention to John Green who made a LOT of people sob (including me) after going through The Fault in Our Stars. AND SHAKESPEARE. How could I ever forget the man who gave us Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, the Hamlet and so many more. A big thank you to Arthur Conan Doyle who gave life to the eccentric Mr Sherlock Holmes. I bet he never knew the ruckus he was going to create in the hearts of the ‘Cumberbitches’. Jawaharlal Nehruji’s letters to his daughter Indira were compiled into this heart-warming book ‘Letters from a Father to his Daughter’ which I absolutely adored!

As of now, I’m going to stop, even though I don’t want to. Here’s to my dream of creating my own library and reading till the day I die..

Transient Everything- Mainstream Philosophy for Now

So this is my first ever blog. I'd never thought I'd be the kind of person with enough patience to continue writing a blog if and when I begin to write. That's why I never wanted to start. Well that's just what I told my heart whenever it wanted to speak through ink. Spoken word is so much more convenient mate, at least you won't have evidence of what you say or think. Frankly, our thoughts aren't always intellectual or inspiring or logical. Sometimes they hardly make any sense! And some other times we'd rather keep our thoughts to ourselves. BUT as we age, we grow and in the process,  we learn. And we keep learning till our name is just a whisper amongst the few living. And till I reach that state of oblivion, I want to track what I'm doing with my life. I want something more than just a diary to jot down my daily schedule. No, that's just sad. Life's too short to be so organized, which ironically clutters the mind. At some point of time or the other, we all realize that. We realize, what's happened has happened. We also realize there's nothing stopping us from talking about those memories, from combining our acquired knowledge with whatever little experience that we all have. We want to inculcate a habit per se of keeping an account of what we feel, what we sense, what we perceive of things around us.

So here's to challenging my patience, widening my imagination, strengthening my mind and just letting words, thoughts, views pour out.. Until my heart begins to speak.

This blog's going to be a poem. I've been writing poems for a long time now. Or I should say, I had been. Then I turned into an everyday teenager, when procrastination became my best friend! My thoughts still flew, my views were still strong and ever so debatable! But my words came to a halt. With this poem, I want to begin something that I wouldn't dream of stopping, something I wouldn't give up even if I was asked to.
Enough about all that! Here goes..

Lightning in the midst of darkness
pitch black and then a whip of light
The world floats in a mess
and creeping fear clamps you tight.

Confusion spreads far and wide
Grief wrecks, mind and soul
They all lay by your side
yet their closeness takes a toll.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe away
Darkness strikes once again
Desperate, you look for signs to stay
Signs unfound, yet you stay ignoring the pain.

Pain is trivial, pain is weak
your mind is strong and bold, you say
words clashing thoughts, you try to speak;
This night shall pass, it shall be your day.

Waiting alone, waiting in uncertainty
with each passing second, you yearn to feel
something but the immense pity
your wishes trampled, you're forced to kneel.

Cold and Hungry, Hot and Sweaty,
contradicting emotions run through your brain
Then it all stops. You curse the city,
Sleep arrives, and you move on to catch the next train...

Hope y'all caught yours!

Till the next time,
Kv

Yet Another Awesome Internet Article

It's funny, the kind of things you can find on the internet.

Beyond the unlimited superficial means to entertain yourself, the endless noise that is annoying people leaving comments on random videos and the never ending pointless internet battles, the internet recently gave me something i wasnt really looking for (PORN! just kidding.)

Perspective.

I came across a random blog a couple of friends and I created some 4 years ago and I was left a little shocked. As to how well i used to write. And how well i used to write about absolutely random topics. Which led me to question myself.

What happened?

You grew up the little voice in my head kept yelling. And i'd have to agree. (well to an extent)

Growing up widens your horizon, people say. Makes you adapt to different situations. Makes you figure out what you want to do. The positives one can draw from growing up are innumerable.

Maturity is underrated. Its more than just growing up. Its a perspective on life.

Why does life demand maturity? Because life is asphyxiating. Every moment of life requires you to be on your feet once you've grown up.
When you were young, its your parents saying "Do this, do that" and all you're thinking is "Wait till i'm older and i can do what ever the beep i want"
And then you grow up and BAM. Its life that says "do this, do that" and you're left as bewildered as a deer under a hunter's spotlight.
Thats where maturity comes in. You'd think that over all the years of growing up made you "mature enough" to handle life's stresses, but at the end of the day, you're doing exactly what you've been programmed to do. Listen, obey. At the end of the day you're still a kid. But a kid with blinders you cannot see.
The world terms it maturity, but its just a perspective. You're older, wiser and yet you're doing what is expected of you and rarely what you want. When the world hits you, and hits you more, its not all the years that you live that keep you going. Its not all the classes you've sat through, all the friends you've met. Its how you view the world. Your perspective. Your maturity.

You go to sleep as a kid, on a bed of roses, dreams and desires, warmed by the gentle flame of your innocence. Yet when you wake up, an adult fully grown, you find the bed full of thorns, the flame a raging fire and the reality of your dreams not half what you expected. Adapt, people say, but no. Your perspective is what keeps you going.


I thought this post was going to be something clever and deep and amusing and what not. The random mess you read above is whats going through the minds of many a student on the brink of graduation, young adults waiting for life's hideous arms to embrace them.

Go hug it. Perceive what you must. Win.


Eash