I promised myself that every book I read I would note down . But some books are so inane , I dont have the energy to do more than return them to the library . They are not worth talking of
Orhan Pamuk -- tried reading him a few times before but just was not in the right frame I guess . The other day I bought RED by him . Was in Chennai for a whole day in a hotel room so read the book and enjoyed it . He is good . Very informative of Islamic illustrated books . But the strange thing is you try reading up a bit more on the net or you want to see what an illustration is like but all you get is obscure and weird sites . I guess Islam is the new four letter word .
THE OTHER FAMILY --  by JOANNA TROLLOPE -- Nice . Again a story of people , families .
THE PREGNANT KING - DEVDUTT PATNAIK --  Wow . I still have a few pages left . You know how it is ? A very good book and you dont want it to end ? Just read it . The author has made mythology and dharma very contemporary . Waiting to recommend it to all my friends

Climate in Tibet - Tibet Travel Information

Climate in Tibet - Tibet Travel Information

You know why I read ? Read all those random books that no one has heard of . that dont make it to those lists that are treated like God has made them , when it is actually another frail human being or maybe sales has decided it should go onto a list . 
When I read someone like Michael Ondaantje  it makes the whole thing worthwhile , to read a whole lot of stupid books . 
I have just read DIVISADERO by Michael Ondaatje .  It is fantastic how he can get the reader interested in little stories and feelings without a start , middle and end to his story . 
After I read a book by him I just feel - my god  all these people , I want to meet them . No, I know people like this . And the ends are not tied up and tidied away in a neat closing scene . 
But isn't that life ? Is there ever a " The End " in any of our lives .Read it 

Been reading a bit
LACUNA by Barbra Kingsolver -- Its about Mexican Artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo their lives , their friendship with Trotsky and then of course how the USA handled (mis) the communists in their midst
Lacuna is a mexican word for an underwater cave in the sea , which when the tide is right lets you swim up to an opening in the middle of the island
A very clever pun on the blackness of thought - when a country refuses to use its common sense and goes on a senseless rampage of accusations .
I wonder if its is something to do with the western culture or Christianity . The Spanish Inquisition , The Salem Witch Hunts , The Holocaust , The red threat , and now the Terrorist threat from the Muslims .

Then a book called  'Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother ' by XINRAN -- Female infanticide on a large unacknowledged scale . Well, what is there to be said about it ? Women are doing it . Why ? Does it affect all of them ? What is the pressure / force from the other side that allows parents to kill their children .
Is not the instinct to pass on their genes supposed to be the main force that drives all beings on ?
So then how do they go about killing that instinct ?

Fieldwork - Mischa  Berlinski  -- A first person account of his contact with a remote tribe in Thailand , an anthropologists life there , and some missionaries . Trying to talk about Animism without offending the Christian Missionaries . Anyway it is a fictional tribe . I dont know what he is trying to say and in any case the print was so small that it took me ages to read it

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/peter_eigen_how_to_expose_the_corrupt.html

One of the best talks I have heard
http://www.ted.com/talks/raghava_kk_five_lives_of_an_artist.html

Read a few books that were so obtuse that I wonder that I even mention them . Girl with Glass Feet  by Ali Shaw . Its about a girl on a remote british isle who is slowly turning into glass . This isle is filled with creatures that  can with one look tun you white . Can with a bite turn you into glass . So the marshes around the isle are filled with glass bodies or parts .
There are moth winged cattle and  ....
Another was about an imaginary detective
Oh these first world books !!!
Family Album by Penelope Lively was anything but
Now I am reading " The Beautiful Tree" by James Tooley   . He was a teacher who is then asked to look into the matter of education for poor children in developing countries . In Hyderabad India , he discovers that every slum is filled with private schools  for the poor and why the parents prefer these to government schools .

To be able to read

The past few weeks have been wonderful . Full of the illicit pleasure of being able to read . to read without having the weight of unfinished work pressing down on you , hovering at the corner of your eyes and nudging you in the back of your shoulder .
I have had this felling for more than 6 years now , ever since I became an office bearer in this NGO that I work with .
I borrowed an armful of new books from the club ( we are allowed only one out of 7 ) And I have been spending day after day reading and I love the feeling . Getting lost in another's life in another time on another continent .
I just finished "The Settler's Cook Book" by Yasmin Alibhai Brown . A kutchi Ismaili , born in Uganda , thrown out by Idi Amin and now in London . Did not think much of her recipes , though that was the reason I borrowed it in the first place . But her impressions of attitudes over the years to immigrants , the immigrants themselves - indians - are ones that I agree with to a great extent .
And yes I find this whole business of blending in with the place that you migrate to or  keeping up with the trend really very tiresome and boring . You just have a whole lot of clone like creatures at the end of it . Clone like - because they are not clones and will eventually come apart with the strain of being alike .
I like the way she put the Satanic Verses issue . Yes , you have a right to your opinion but not to wilfully hurt or abuse another.
And all those dogmatic , jingoistic people who belong to NGO's , think tank's and organisations - they have a  desert of their own - where alien thoughts and ideas are shrivelled at germination itself

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

I loved Blackwater Light Ship and I loved this book too . Its great . His books are full of brothers , sisters parents and neighbours . That is the world I know and that I can relate too .

This book is about leaving home cause you have to and when you come back you realise that you would give anything to just settle back into the comfort of the known . But you cant , you never can

Reminded me so much of young girls in India who are married to total strangers and leave everything to go and live in their new homes .When they come back for a visit its a flurry of activity and pampering and no one speaks of the impending departure.

The forgotten Island

The Forgotten Island by Sasha Troyan

A little book that I picked from my daughter's collection of books

I picked it up because it was slim( would fit in my bag ) .Was travelling the next day and did not want anything thick and cumbersome

Its a story that I would call a fugue - rather than a tragedy .

You know what happens to the older child from the back cover and then the whole narration is a repetitive one of the child's wilful behaviour and you think each time , each page is going to be when she disappears forever .

A sibling whose voice is never heard because she doesn't think she has one .

Raghava KK: Five lives of an artist | Video on TED.com

Raghava KK: Five lives of an artist | Video on TED.com

Just watch this . Its amazing

How come I have never heard of this guy

Have you