Booked

I am a huge HUGE fiction reader. A book is a hit with me, if it keeps me interested. That’s the reason why I usually don’t end up reading a Paulo Coelho or a Yann Martel. My absolute favorite books of all time are listed below:

Love Story (Erich Seagel)

What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.

Go on … finish off your sniggering. Done? Done. I am a girl and I like mush…I rest my case!
The first time I read the book was, I think, around eleven years back when I was constantly in the throes of one crush or another and, understandably, I was completely floored by the book. A couple of years later, I chanced upon a paperback of the book again. Just to check whether the book would have the same effect on me as 4 years back, I re-read it. I was reduced to tears the second time around (again!) at the end. I have read the book once more and it has managed to have the same effect on me and to the same degree.

Anyone who would actually have the nerve to tell me that they didn’t absolutely adore the book, would I know, be lying through their teeth and pretending to shrug off this poignant tale as a piece of mush chick-lit.
I must admit though, that the movie base on the book, was a complete DISASTER!

Dracula (Bram Stoker), The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova), Vlad: The Last Confessions (C.C.Humphreys)

First of all, let me clarify that I am no Vampire Tales junkie. The books listed above are listed here only for one reason- Once you start reading them, you just cannot put them down.

Dracula and The Historian are fictionalized accounts of Dracula, the Vampire. The Last Confessions is a near to truth account of the real Dracula, Vlad III Dracula. All the three keep you gripped for different reasons.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a cult classic and has given me many a sleepless nights. The Historian is something like the Da Vinci Code..it has the same mish-mash of interesting historical facts and is a complete historical thriller which will keep you engrossed from the first page onwards. The Last Confessions, on the other hand, has no supernatural elements and no vampires. Its an honest attempt to demystify the legend of Dracula by drawing out the person that Vlad Dracula was and the circumstances which lead him to commit the atrocities that he did. It’s a most compelling read.

The Palace of Illusions (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)

This is one of my recent reads. The portrayal of the big war (Mahabharata) and of the Pandavas and their lives, in the voice and view of Draupadi is fascinating. Apart from refreshing my memory of the Mahabharata tale (based almost entirely on the television serial), the book also managed to shed some interesting light on the core character of each of the Pandavas (I always thought them to be the greatest warriors/heroes of their times) by stripping them off their glorified versions. Must read for the sheer novelty of it.
Curfewed Night (Basharat Peer)

This is not really a fiction novel. It tells a gripping tale of Kashmir and of the eruption of the separatist movement and other developments that had lead Kashmir to become what it is today. For me, this book was an eye opener. The romanticism of the militancy which attracted young boys towards it, the reasons why kashmiri muslims have been spilling their blood for the right of self determination, is something that I could understand and now appreciate. If you are a tolerant Indian, I would strongly recommend this book.

And then there are the classicly inane books like Veronica Decides to Die, The Alchemist, Life of Pi, which I absolutely refuse to appreciate simply because the rest of the world appreciates. This genre of books does nothing (except wastes my time) for me.
Anyways, do drop in a word of recommendation, if there are any books that you feel everyone should read.

Humph!

To make friends and to maintain the “friendship”, is, I believe, one of the most arduous tasks on this planet. To begin with, it is next to impossible, to find a person that you genuinely enjoy having a conversation with, and conversation to me, dear reader, is the most important pre-requisite of striking the bond that we call friendship. Even if you manage to go past the initial hindrance and can indeed have a brilliant conversation with a person, this city does you in. It does not allow you the physical proximity, that you require for having the much desired conversation (I just CANNOT have any meaningful conversation over the phone).

I happened to have had an epiphany today which left me a little disillusioned. I realized that quiet a few of my friendships are not what I had hoped them to be. So I am simply going to prattle on about how I feel all wrong about certain friendships that I have maintained.

Certain of my friends treat me like the “Friend Finder” option on facebook! They make “my” friends “their” friends, which for some reason really ticks me off, and then the “my-converted-into-their” friends become better friends of theirs and then I get to hear things and developments about such “my-converted-into-their” friends from the Friend Finder friend. Yeah, I know, may be I am behaving like an over-grown kid, but that’s that…so sue me!

Another set of friends are those who follow the ideology that if one has to become their friend, then they must eat, drink, breathe and everything else together! Well, I am all for spending time with friends, but doing over-time is really not my cup of tea, which leaves me sort of at the periphery of this group, and that saddens me at times.

Then I have certain friends with whom, if left alone, I cannot have any conversation at all. These are, what I call, the “group-friends”. This category is rather strange, because I know all that is to know about these group friends and vice-versa, I know what are their likes and dislikes and vice versa, but STILL, if we are alone without the “group”, there is no consequential conversation that can be had between us. This really perplexes me to no end.

Then ofcourse I have the “party-friends”. These are the ones who share the most honest bond with me. With them there is no pretence of being BFFs or any such thing. The deal is clear from the onset. We drink together, we party together, we dance together, other than that we are nothing more to each other. I have, quiet often, wondered about what would it be like to be REAL friends with some of these “party-friends”. But then I do not want to spoil the perfectly balanced relation with them. What if they become too clingy, what if they turn out to be absolute bores when sober, what if they don’t bother about me at all. These fears have always restrained me from making any efforts towards being real friends with this set.

But thank God for small mercies. I do have a handful of friends who are just that – FRIENDS. They indulge me, yell at me, hate me, love me and never ever judge me. I have never pondered so much over the nature of their bond with me.These are the ones with whom I have shared the most interesting conversations and the most companionable silences. And these are the ones, I know, I will always be friends with.