Saturday, December 6, 2014
Do you know english? No, I'm a Bihari.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Passion. Intensity. Harm
Every now and then, a reader may be lucky enough to find a book that changes his or her life. I read Wuthering Heights when I was 15, and my perception of the world has never been the same again. If I had to chose only one classic to read for the rest if my life it would be, without a doubt, Wuthering Heights, a novel that can be read again and again, with different insights each time.
Wuthering Heights is realistic, but it also deals with ghosts and grave and a love that transcends time. In many ways the book is a mystery. Why do people self-destruct? Make the wrong choices? Marry the wrong man? Betray the people they love the most?
Catherine's frantic and fevered declaration-I am Heathcliff- is as chilling a moment as it is brilliant. Is that what love is? To lose yourself completely? Does it add to who you are or take away your identity? These are the questions Wuthering Heights asks, and the answers are left for us to mull over.
The heart of the story unfolds slowly, as though it were a take told directly to you as you sit beside the fire on a dark and stormy night. At times it can be difficult going: the distinction between the two Catherines, mother and daughter, the convoluted family ties. Catherine's choices may seem foolish or selfish but these choices makes her more real. Break people after all, make mistakes, are haunted by doubt, take revenge, die before their time, love two people in different ways.
When I first read Wuthering Heights what affected me the most of all was the fact that this incredible masterpiece was written by a young woman with very little life experience. She was 29 when the book was published and died the following year. Surely no one thought that a mere girl can create Wuthering Heights, a universe where the moors are wild and love never dies.
I have come to believe that the real hero of Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë. Her great accomplishment is a timeless story of love and loss. Once you have read it, you will never forget it and that is the real magic of the book.
7 reasons why Fifty shades series is a wild success
1. The perfect on-paper man.
Christian Grey is the dream man of every girl. He is rich, successful, good looking and charming. He treats Anastasia like a princess. Women wonder what it is to be like taken care of.
2. Taming the bad boy
3. A life of luxury
4. It is a sex novel, not a novel with sex in it.
5. The dominating factor
6. Danger & pushing your limits
7. Monogamous relationship.
Deadly ever after
Have you heard of happily ever after? I'm sure you have. But what about deadly ever after? What if the all the fairy tales you know are wrong?
Sunday, September 14, 2014
The dwindling young reader
I was 11, and had recently discovered Agatha Christie; it would set my pulse racing, and make a pleasant distraction from the sultriness of the days and the noisy bullies in the van. On the first day, as I was reading I noticed an uncanny silence in the van. I lifted my eyes and found every girl staring at me, one of them trying to figure out the title of the book. Their eyes were brimming with astonishment and as I like to imagine, the allure of seeing something mysterious. But when I looked back at them, they broke into a dismissive laughter. Apparently, they had never seen anyone reading before in the van.
Being a teenager who loves books( reading, buying, collecting and talking about them), I feel disappointed by the exoticism with which many young people perceive reading. Reading is as natural as breathing to me, and that's why I didn't realize that for many people in my milieu, taking extraordinary interests in books was bizarre.
Most Indian youngsters, on being asked which books have they read or are reading would give the following answers: The Da Vinci code, the Twilight series and everything written by Chetan Bhagat. Literary fiction is by and large unheard if and remains a unexplored territory. While there is nothing wrong in reading about Potter or vampires, why should young people restrict their choices to such narrow options?
Looking back at the days when my reading habits would surround me by circus of curious students, I don't think things have changed much. Parents too would rather have their children study for the umpteen entrances, success in which would ensure a seat in a top professional college, rather than waste time reading novels , from which in their opinion little can be gained.
As long as teenagers do not openly express their love for reading, these irrational attitudes won't change and my generation will have to live with the label of being ignorant to the pleasure of reading and cherishing books.
For me, books opened up a mysterious world, one that I couldn't help but fall into, one that saved me from myself. Words filled my days with laughter, stories kept my storms at bay, fictional characters became my best confidantes and pages filled my head with wonder.
Growing up friendless was a hard thing, so finding solace in reading wasn't surprising.
In a nutshell, BOOKS SAVED ME FROM MYSELF. Words ignited my soul and Reading consumed my very breath, I do not regret it