2012 Reading Challenge

I set out to read 60 books, I ended up with 35 (same as last year!)

Of course I did not finish the challenge. But then I tried and did the best I could to reach the goal. Hopefully I will read the same or even more number of books in 2013.

So here are the books I read this year. (I know its 10 days early and I can still fit in a book or two but I have other things on my bucket list so don't mind spending these 10 days not reading.)

Stats from goodreads widget!

My most favorite books from this year were 'The Paris Wife' by Paula McClain and 'Hi-Fidelity' by Nick Hornby, '1Q84' by Haruki Murakami, 'Pratispardhi' by Kiran Nagarkar.

The most difficult read was a tough choice between 'Cloud Atlas' and 'The unbearable lightness of being'. Though I liked both!

I hope to read much more in 2013 too!

Wish you all a good-read 2013! :)

Standing up

Letting evil thrive : 

from here

I am thinking about the numerous times I have ignored guys (sometimes guy-friends) indulging in blatant objectification of women. I also have close guy-friends using the term 'RAPE' lightly around women. I have ignored that too. Instead of ignoring I think I could have spoken up and shown my irritation/anger over such objectionable behavior. Of course, saying all such talkers are repressed psychopaths is a harsh judgement but not taking anything related to RAPE or women's respect and privacy and space seriously, seems even more judgmental to myself.

I hope we make topics of taboo a point of discussion. I hope no girl sees her any weaker. I hope sexuality is not repressed but willingly accepted. I hope families treat girls and boys as equal. I hope boys are taught to respect women and their space by example. 

I hope the victims heal. But we as people heal better and faster.

I hope we become more proactive and thus have the need to be less reactive.

Showing up

Today I felt like showing up here, so a picture post for things on my mind for the past few days.

Idyllic! Perfect even!
here

My home is going to have this movie-watching-heaven attic!
here

It's easier to recreate the fairy-tale like spaces for day dreaming :)
here

Wish you all a merry Christmas and a grand year end ;)

'This is water'

Because, literary worship sometimes is the only way out to feel sane.

'[T]he real value of a real education [has] almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

‘This is water.’

‘This is water.’

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime.'

Taken from - http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/12/this-is-water-david-foster-wallace/

~nightflier

Name day and the jazz!

Couple of days back I inched closer to the big 30. here 1 inch = 1 year. Strangely I did not have the same old excitement and was more like let's get this day over with. Most of which I spent cooking and cleaning the home after the 2 month long stay away from it. Plus brother is here too! So add a dash of bickering and unexpected gifts, which made the birth day quite complete!

So I was thinking what I should do/plan after this milestone. May be for the sake of it ?
Continuing from the list I made sitting in central park, here's another list for myself.

1. Do not shy away (get bored) from meeting new people.
2. Travel to the secret list of countries you made.
3. Run. 
4. Contribute more to any task you take up.
5. Show up more than expected or usual.
6. Stand up for what you feel. Hold your ground.
7. Being cynical can wait a few more years. There are lots of nice people around. Stay away from the not nice ones. Simple.
8. If someone annoys you put them in the waiting list. If they continue to do so, no reservations!
9. Read. Read. Read. Complete the reading challenge at least this year, goddammit!!
10. Ask questions. Good questions.
11. If you cannot relate with your friends or what they say, nod your head. Nod some more. They will understand hopefully. 
12. New experiences and adventures. Create and share. Can never be enough of any of those!
13. Feel inspired. 
14. Recommend watching Avatar the last airbender (the cartoon) to everyone! (I finally watched thanks to KT and lee!)

A day before the birthday, I felt like getting depressed about the so many important things/people I do not have in life. But then I thought at least I have the brains and energy to tackle through most of the stuff. And when even that does not work, I am surrounded and supported by the most awesome bunch of people. Online and offline. So depression can wait. Hopefully.

And because its also thanksgiving, I think I can never be thankful enough for the above mentioned factors.

~nightflier

New York

How does one come about to write about a city romanced by so many ? After having had the SATC and woody allen influence, its hard not to look at the city through borrowed glasses.

Neveretheless I tried.

I journeyed in Coach USA to get down at port authority of New York and walk down the dreamy landscapes of central park. How can one not love central park! At first sight its kaleidoscope of people, couples, friends, teenagers, oldies, dogs, trees, foreigners, onlookers (like me) hit you like a storm. When you do settle down, there is just scope for being oneself. When the feeling of not belonging runs high, the idea of getting lost in the central park-ness of new york is just fine! And over the course of next 3-4 hours I read a book, walked aimlessly and sat on stones to answer questions about happiness and contentedness to a couple of chinese student film makers. You know I tried to sound profound to those guys. But blurted out saying, I am reading a book I have wanted to for a long time and that to me right now is happiness. Also told them that I was going to meet some friends later, which equated to contentedness. If at all I become a celebrity one day, one can imagine how boring tabloids will sound.

So on so forth. I walked and walked. With the sun going down as my indicator. At one moment I thought I could do this all night and for the next day and the day after. But boredom set in. Was frantic to be reunited with friends. Familiar faces. Took a turn on 42nd Street towards 5th avenue. Times square beckoned. In the wait to meet friends bought souvenirs. 'I Love NY' and the assorted bunch. Some Irish-ness and forever 21 later, I was taken. The glitz, the power, the wealth. It is this which makes people migrate to this city. I found Mumbai-ness in it. Because my liking for Mumbai has evolved over the years, NY liking came by easily. There is just so much to look at and soak in, it was not at all possible for me to remain unaffected. Promise to self - NY on foot and trains and buses. Sometime soon. Oh and a visit to the Public library in the day time. Not just to click pictures outside a closed one.

Taken!

On a slightly tight schedule the next day, Brooklyn bridge visit happened. This was my 4th bridge in the cities I went to in US, I did not feel the excitement. But it got me closer to people I had not really grown apart from. Some interesting conversations later, I thought to myself, may be this is the point of bridges. Literal. Metaphorical. Call me slow.

My most humbling experience in this trip was visiting Ground Zero. I am not sure what I felt, but it felt like a symbol of resilience and not a place of tragedy. The towering freedom towers make your jaw drop and feel small. 

I am awed by cities*. I may be a city-girl even! The most therapeutic thing about them cities is they make you lose you to find your way back. And because one finds strength in this routine. However cliched this may sound.

~nightflier

*Chicago love, you are the most loved!

A Sandy Adventure!

The thing with apocalyptic American movies is it looks really dreadful in the movies and you hardly wonder the 'what ifs'. But then as you all might have come to know, Sandy did happen and wrecked havoc. If you have not heard about it then I will not really judge you. Because guess what, even I took it pretty lightly and went ahead with my plans of travelling to NJ/NY over the weekend of 27/28th October.

My adventure started on saturday 27th when unaware of what was approaching (not unaware but unprepared more like), my return flight to california got cancelled. Panic mode and some frantic calls to the airlines later, none of which went through due to the congestion in the network, I made peace with the fact that I was to brave the hurricane sitting at home. We lost power on Monday evening and then slowly the connection with the outside world was lost. Well we were saving phone battery for emergency calls and messages and the phone signals were also getting weaker.

Ticket to ride to europe! Much fun
when played in candle light.

Thankfully the friend's house had stove and hot water running on gas, so we were not so famished on the warmness and food front. Every day we would divide the chores voluntarily cook, eat, clean utensils and then get down to real business. Sitting idly, trying to read or play boardgames. Playing board games was the real savior as it kept everyone pepped up.

The biggest ordeal for us was accepting the fact that we could not work on a weekday and not feel guilty about it. The other factor for worry was the heat at home. Slowly the temperature inside the home was dropping to a little unbearable values.
By day 3 everyone was desperately seeking to go out, check the damage and get back to normal life.

We headed out to shops where everyone was busy stocking up for the uncertain power outage and the gas stations had super long lines to stock up fuel for generators. We started getting news that some areas were really badly affected with flooding. But thankfully nothing bad had happened where we were staying. So it just meant an extended power cut and  more board games and food.

The power cut officially ended on thursday which to everyone's relief meant no more sitting inside home in layers and be able to connect to the internet and outside world.
To my shock the damage was really bad when we got the gist of all news of the last couple of days.

Well, I was able to fly back on saturday and did start missing the life of minimal interaction with outside world!

~nightflier

P.S. This post is almost a week late. And now there's a snow storm on the east coast. Hope things do not turn out to be as bad.