Paddling my own canoe

Last Sunday was fun. I went out with bhai, had a hearty meal at ‘Urban Tadka’. Went to Crosswords, and bought few books. While browsing through the books and reading a few paragraphs from few I realized I am subliminally drawn to SR or Salman Rushdie’s books. I read a lot of books written by him and have thoroughly enjoyed every time I read anything written by him, even if it is a small newspaper column. V doesn’t like SR. He argues that SR’s book lacks content and he just writes longwinded paragraphs, dense phrases and idioms. He doesn’t write about anything, he just writes complicated English. I on the other hand do not agree at all. SR is one of the few things V & I are not on the same page with. I often tell him that saying “SR is not a good author” is like saying the water is not wet.

This time I bought two children’s books which SR wrote. I have started reading ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ and loving it. The ruins of an old city, the allegorical description in the book and the character of young Haroun spews delight.

I also bought ‘Luka and the Fire of Life’, another children’s book by SR and a Lauren Weisberger’s book for guilty pleasure. I love her books also. She writes glamorous books which are ridiculously irresistible. The protagonist has a shiny, glossy, manicured life and carries a quilted leather bag. She wears posh outfits and returns to her musty apartment. She longs for love, wants to create a niche, sometimes feels energized and other times is enervated. She is wild, weird, naïve, juvenile and demented. We find ourselves in some or whole parts of the tale!

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Yesterday I was again alone after two weeks. Bhai left for Nagpur and I came back to my empty apartment again. I closed the door behind me still talking to Ma and assuring her that all is well. Bhai called several times to just chat and I really missed him. Yesterday Dad and I also chatted for long. My Ma & Pa-in law also called to check on me and the telephonic-conversation went on for an hour. I changed, washed and ate while chatting with them. It was 10 in the night when I finally asked my Ma-in law to hang up, take rest and assured I will be fine. I was exhausted. I touched my forehead and felt my palpitations were quivering like some sea animal. I went to my bedroom, changed the sheets, switched on the AC and took this month’s Reader’s digest and read till V pinged, we Skyped for some time. I told him how much I missed him.

I read Reader’s digest and fell asleep while reading something on parental trap with the book in my hand. There was some loud, scratchy song which was playing last night. At half past 12 it stopped, I think then I started to fall asleep. Some pigeons dashed against the Ac at 4 (maybe) and I was jolted with the loud noise. I got up and saw I had some more time to sleep, so switched off  the lights and slept till my maid rang the doorbell at 7.30
You can get tired doing nothing also!