Many happy returns of the day.
art by Sudha.
wishes from SLN SGR
February 26, 2009
February 23, 2009
maadhav in kavali
Maadhav,Vidya's fiance was invited and was in Kavali on 19th feb, along with his parents. Here are some photos.
February 22, 2009
Foodaholics Famous (as opposed to Alcoholics Anonymous, of course)
Or even Junkaholics Notorious. I have joined this elite club of Singampallis recently and find myself unable to curb food cravings despite an expanding waistline. This never used to happen to me before- I always used to feel good about my diet control. Can the voice of experience in the family speak and suggest ways, techniques etc that can help reign in these impulses?
February 21, 2009
Also, 'On the beach'
Also managed to lay my hands on 'On the beach' by Nevil Shute. The storyline is interesting: a war in the Northern hemisphere turns nuclear and snowballs into a full blown nuclear holocaust, wiping out the whole of the populace of the Northern Hemisphere. The winds are carrying the nuclear dust down South and it is only a manner of months before the last few folks in Melbourne also die an inevitable death. The book is set in Melbourne and tracks those last few months. The book was written at the height of the cold war when the scenario proposed by the book may have sounded too close to potential fulfilment for comfort.
The style is still the same distinctive one that you would encounter in 'A town like Alice' but overall, I thought the book was average. The best part of the book was that it introduced me to an interesting poem by T S Eliot called 'The hollow men'. The book starts with a quote from the poem (which can be read here: http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/). The poem is also a dark judgement on the 'hollow' intellects of the architects of the cold war. The ending (which is the bit quoted in this novel) goes like this:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
...which is the essential theme of this book by Shute. It is worth reading just for the matter-of-fact starkness of the narrative.
The style is still the same distinctive one that you would encounter in 'A town like Alice' but overall, I thought the book was average. The best part of the book was that it introduced me to an interesting poem by T S Eliot called 'The hollow men'. The book starts with a quote from the poem (which can be read here: http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/). The poem is also a dark judgement on the 'hollow' intellects of the architects of the cold war. The ending (which is the bit quoted in this novel) goes like this:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
...which is the essential theme of this book by Shute. It is worth reading just for the matter-of-fact starkness of the narrative.
Remains of the day
Recently completed this book by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese-English author. An elderly butler takes a road trip through a part of England and simultaneously reminisces about his past, his thirst to be the ideal butler and finally confronts the cost he paid to achieve that nebulous standard: in effect, he contemplates the remains of the day. The book is thoroughly enjoyable for its excellent prose and its lovable and well crafted central character. Definitely worth a read- a modern classic!
The book won a Booker prize and was later made into a movie by the same name with Anthony Hopkins cast as the butler.
The book won a Booker prize and was later made into a movie by the same name with Anthony Hopkins cast as the butler.
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