tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302355712024-03-12T06:18:40.571+00:00SlishaCrazyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger763125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-32352606152161025542023-01-27T13:41:00.000+00:002023-01-27T13:41:41.035+00:00Traveling in a new post pandemic world <div>Our collective memories are short and even the worst crisis becomes forgotten history in a matter of weeks. Even after covid restrictions plagued the entire world for months on end, any opportunity for normalcy was quickly grabbed earnestly. Travel was one such. </div><div><br></div><div>I don't know when the travel bug bit me. But I suppose when you move to a small island no longer than 1,000km, no wider than 500km; when you are 8,000km from your hometown; and when your only sibling lives another 8,000km away in the opposite direction, you become a traveller. </div><div><br></div><div>After a day trip to Frankfurt on business in February 2020, planes, and plans, were literally grounded because of the mysterious new highly infectious virus that reached every part of this well connected world that we live in. I remained in the same country for 597 days. This is the longest I have stayed in any country after my very first international trip (to London) in 2010. (I know this because I have a nifty little Excel file with all my travel dates so I can fill the travel history of the last 10 years every time I apply for a new visa). <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Of course, we did travel within the UK, which makes for another post. When international travel opened up briefly in between, it did not seem worth it with the numerous covid tests and long queues, apart from the risk of catching the virus itself. </span></div><div><br></div><div>Finally, we went away for a few days to the always sunny <b>Canary Islands</b>, after K and I were double vaccinated, exempting us from covid tests. Unlike the UK, mask adherence was high in these Spanish islands. </div><div> Lanzarote was incredibly different from Tenerife where we previously spent a long weekend years ago. Lanzarote is more volcanic. We went to the Timanfaya National park with a geologist who explained the unique volcanic activity and the rock formations. The vineyards are special too. The locals learned to dig into the mountain side and create barriers against wind, to grow citrus fruits and grapes. Apart from that we stayed in this really nice resort but resort life is not for us and we couldn't wait to get out everyday.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>The very next month we flew to <b>Athens</b> for a quick weekend break to meet friends. In Athens too, mask adherence was high. In addition, we were checked our vaccine status at all the restaurants. </div><div> I had wanted to go to Athens for the Parthenon, after seeing the Colosse<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">um in Rome. But the Acropolis of Athens was largely in ruins and the Parthenon was left largely to imagination. The Ancient Agora was a lot more interesting to me, seeing where the market was held and where the weights were calibrated and where the first voting took place. Yet again however, a lot was left to imagination.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Since then, restrictions further reduced and we made plans to go to <b>India</b> for a family wedding when there were no longer meaningful constraints on the attendees. But that's when Omicron hit and additional checks and restrictions were put in place. K and I took a booster shot each and braved the travel. We were mostly lucky through out the trip but towards the end Omicron spread rampantly. We shut ourselves India to ensure safe travels back. </div><div>Omicron, however, seemed benign and restrictions were quickly dropped. We flew to <b>Washington</b>, in the US, for a week long family holiday and there were no more checks. But it was there that we caught the bug. Five of the six of us ended up testing positive, including me, losing my bragging rights to not catching it. K retrains the rights!</div><div>With no travel restrictions whatsoever and with the virus passing through us, it was a lot easier to travel. The following months I was in <b>Barcelona</b>, <b>Lisbon and</b> <b>Stockholm</b> partly for work and partly to travel. No one stopped me or checked me or were even worried about the virus.</div><div><br></div><div>I've been Barcelona many times and I still love it just as much as I loved it when I first saw it. But there's little to add. Going to Lisbon and Stockholm reignited in me the early Euro trip wonder and the charm of Euro city walking tours. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Lisbon, the poetic city of explorers </b></div>I've been to so many European cities that they all begin to look very similar. Yet Lisbon was different!<div>It sits on seven hills, so there are a lot of ups and downs. Some roads are so step there are just steps instead. The main square of Lisbon has the statue of Luis de Camoes and is named after him. He was not king or a politician or a warrior. He was a poet. The national day of Portugal is 10 June, to commemorate this poet's death anniversary. Not far from this square is a statue of Fernando Pessoa in a chair, in conversation with an empty chair. Fernando Pessoa was a writer who wrote under his own as well as 75 others. He didn't call them pen names since it didn't do justice to the entire personalities he created for them. Hence the empty chair to symbolise that Pessoa was never alone, and always in the company of one of his many personalities that had their own unique views of the world and writing styles. Just down the road is the world's oldest continuously functioning book shop, The Betrand Bookstore, where I bought Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquiet. I didn't know that Portugal has amongst the oldest country borders. The Spanish dictator Franco marched on to Portugal but couldn't win so instead he cut off the country and set a siege. This led Portugal to go the other side, into the Atlantic, becominh a naval force that the sea route to India. The city was not touched by the WWII because Portugal sided with neither and instead sided with commerce trading with both sides. But the riches was lost in personal glory. When the king led his wealth and troupes to South America waging war, the army turned against him. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><b>Stockholm, city of islands</b></div><div>Stockholm is very subdued, like it's biggest known brand, IKEA. Everything is sleek and pale, apart from a couple of jazzy golden tops of buildings. Like the opera house which stands at odds with the rest of bleakness. We took a boat tour of the various islands as the boat sails through the various locks. We took a walking tour with a history teacher but it being off season, we were the only two people in it. But that's where we learnt of the protesters - against Nazism back in WWII and against climate catastrophe in the current world. Interesting to see the Vasa Museum where the ship Vasa is on display. When the Vasa was created in 1620, it was the greatest ship of it's times. But when it set sail, it sank in 20min as the very people the waved it off watched it sink. This is what happens when you surround yourself with yes-men. No one tells you what a disaster the plan was from the beginning. The ship was salvaged and is on display. We also went to the Nobel Prize Museum but it was more boring than I thought. There are no actual artifacts, just replicas. We did an interesting walking tour of the Vikings. Not a lot is left to see and it was mostly just a speech but the Viking runes spread over the city were interesting.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>I have a bit of a self imposed break from travel again! I've not braved travel in the third and the so called fourth trimester. New travels will be interesting with a little one in tow. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-70772348462772160802022-12-31T22:30:00.000+00:002022-12-31T22:30:55.160+00:00KDrama in 2022<div>안녕하세요, 잘지내있어요?</div><div>As the year ends, I want to leave you with some kdrama that I watched this year and liked...</div><div><br></div><b>Alchemy of Souls</b><div>Fantasy done well! It carries an interesting concept of immortality through the souls jumping from body to body, but each jump exacting a toll on the soul. Who doesn't want to live forever? It also shows the warring families of magic in an intricate plot. My only issue - Netflix managed to make it a two season story!<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixf4Eidv__3SBa_636uPookiIGtGHsEh9g76iAZtJcZUzp-qPJsp3uo70-A8educo4DILv37iyJY2fp8xalAqEZ0FmqZ2Gc7MM8FinA_9y1QxLp9KDCndk61Stl0XYuWEz-xUgzQ/s1600/1671973275521974-0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixf4Eidv__3SBa_636uPookiIGtGHsEh9g76iAZtJcZUzp-qPJsp3uo70-A8educo4DILv37iyJY2fp8xalAqEZ0FmqZ2Gc7MM8FinA_9y1QxLp9KDCndk61Stl0XYuWEz-xUgzQ/s1600/1671973275521974-0.png" width="400">
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</div><br><div><br><div><br></div><div><b>Extraordinary attorney Woo</b></div><div>Such a wonderful feel good show. It's interesting and heart-warming. Watch it for Park Eun-bin in yet another standout performance (after a female 'king' in King's Affection last year). </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><b>Twenty five Twenty one</b></div><div>A nostalgic trip down memory lane, filled with comic books, rental libraries, clunky cellphones, sports rivalries and school friendships as well as childhood crushes. And Kim Tae-ri shines in any role she slips into.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><b>Reborn rich</b> (<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">재벌집 막내아들 or the youngest son of a conglomerate)</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">It's crazy how Song Joong-ki can play a 40 year old and a 20 year old and fit into the role seamlessly! Giving HBO's Succession a run for it's money, it looks at how entitled and ruthless chaebol heirs can be in their battle for succession. But if only like Jin Do-Jun we knew how markets move, we could also become billionaires! </span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><b>A Business Proposal</b> : Sweet romance, what kdrama is best known for. Both the couples are cute and mushy. What surprised me the most was that there's a Korean word for archaeopteryx - 시조새 ! Easy breezy happy watch!</div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>Shows that disappointed...</div></div><div>The star-studded <b>Our Blues</b> was a bit of a let down, although I liked the Kim Woo-Bin segment and I'm glad for his comeback. </div><div>Son Ye-jin's <b>Thirty Nine</b> was trailered as three friends living a fun life hitting 40 with strong friendships and finding love. What it turned out to be was a sad story of the reality of aging and death hitting them right in the face and telling them what useless lives they've lived.</div><div>Song Hye-Kyo is as drab as the story in <b>Now We Are Breaking Up</b> that I broke up with the show very very quickly.</div></div><div>Couldn't watch Pachinko, Snowdrop and Big Mouth because they are on services I don't pay for.</div><div><br></div><div>멋진 새해를 기원합니다 !</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-2195424086921703652022-12-31T22:15:00.000+00:002022-12-31T22:15:30.181+00:002022 in BooksMaintaining consistency...<div> After <a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2019/12/books-i-read-in-2019-second-half.html">reading 51 books</a> against a target of 50 in 2019, <a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-in-books.html">34 of 35 in 2020</a> and <a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2021/12/2021-in-books.html">30 of 30 in 2021</a>, this year I had planned to read 33 books but a huge life change had set me back in my reading journey, finishing at 75%. </div><div>Ending the year at 25 books, here is a complete list along with covers of the books I would recommend. </div><div><br></div><div>Book 1. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue: I've watched so many Telugu movies on big corporates ruining villages. But it feels raw and unnerving to read the story in the privileged language of English. It's fiction, but not. How we ruin the land, water and air will live on! <br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><br></div><div>Book 2. Second Place by Rachel Cusk: It is a short book that I found difficult to finish. It received a lot of praise on the way it tackles male privilege. But I didn't understand that. To me, it was a woman's midlife crisis written up like an old English letter to some Jeffers.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 3. The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: a unique book on feminism in Uganda or mwenkanonkano. It's a coming of age story of a young girl who sees women stuck in a world of limited rights and yet wield power... and learns not to judge a woman too harshly. So true !</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 4. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig: It's a children's book written for adults. You know from the very start how it's going to end. But it's interesting and gives you life's epiphanies in a beautifully light and loving manner. Wish it was mandatory reading in highschool.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 5. Uprooted by Naomi Novik: Like Spinning Silver, a young girl learns that she is stronger, more powerful than any childhood monster she was told about. Folklore and fairytale retold with heroines, the story also holds a beautiful female friendship, resilient and resolute!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 6. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Retelling Trojan War is a magnificent task. Told by Patroclus, his cousin, and lover in this version, it paints Achilles as a victim of his prophecy, reluctant to war. I thought it was too indulgent. I need a dose of the original.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 7. Troy by Stephen Fry: Even though it's the same story as the previous book, Fry keeps it interesting with his nuggets of offshoots as well as the colourful descriptions of the war and the temperament of gods. What a magnificent story, and how well retold and narrated.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 8. The Shadow King Maaza Mengiste: Another book, another war, more real and raw than Troy and yet largely untold. Mengiste shows us the ground reality of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (just before WWII) and humanises its oft-forgotten female soldiers.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: A poor woman's cancer cells killed her but continued to grow in labs around the world and led to great progress in medical research. The book is about how her family had no idea and the ethics of it all. Eye-opening!</div><div><br></div><div>Book 10. The Promise by Damon Galgut: A whimsical dark comedy set in changing South Africa. Amor, the little explored protagonist, is a silent witness - the conscience that plagues the Swart family until the Promise is kept. And Salome's nonexistence is a statement in itself.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 11. Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford: It's about 5 random lives which all start when a bomb drops and kills them. Their lives are what-if stories, but it doesn't matter because the author forgets to remind us of that fact. It's lyrical at times, but mostly boring.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 12. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: A coming of age story of a girl left to fend for herself in the marshes, as insects/birds become her teachers. She lives on the edge of civilisation, until she becomes a suspect in a murder. Can't wait to see the movie adaptation!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 13. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield: A blend of folklore, science and mystery with vivid descriptions of the Thames in the Victorian era. In spite of the twists and turns, the story and people are simple, easily believed and believable. Left me with a warm feeling.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 14. Atomic Habits by James Clear: I'm a bad reader when it comes to self-help, never yielding to the ideas. But I believe in the book's basic premise: persistent small changes add up to greatness. The practical ideas the author suggests set it apart - this might just work!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 15. The Club by Ellery Lloyd: a crime thriller that is overly descriptive for its own good that it drags. I skipped paras and paras of apparently ironic descriptions. When the twists do come, they are too convenient, too sensational. But would make for good TV viewing.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 16. She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan: An extraordinary reimagining of the founder of Ming dynasty as a young peasant girl, forgotten by the Gods, who grabs 'greatness' by gambling away her life every step of the way. The additional characters are equally imaginative!</div><div><br></div><div>Book 17. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: it's a fast paced book about crazy space science that makes sense since you learn alongside our hero waking up from amnesia. But dig too deep and the plot holes become apparent. Simplistic sci-fi for the masses that stays uncomplicated.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 18. Daughters of the Night by Laura Shepard-Robinson: in Victorian England, when a lady of the night is murdered, a noble woman scandalously takes on the investigation. The author blends a classic whodunit into a period drama of gossip and scandal, making it a page-turner.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 19: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: Two magical beings, one ancient, one newborn, both lost wanderers in a strange land, 19th century New York. Struggling to fit in, they stumble on to each other with mutually suspicious camaraderie. Wonderfully empathetic fantasy.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 20. The Mahabharata Murders by Arnab Ray: the subpar writing is easily ignored in this thrilling page-turner. But the author's knowledge of the epic is limited to the TV show and connections to the Mahabharata are poor. Also contains unnecessarily angst and goriness.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 21. Reasons to stay alive by Matt Haig: There's a certain melancholy in his writing. This raw and honest account of his own fight against depression gives a new perspective. It's not sugar-coated, yet it's hopeful and does justice to his girlfriend and his support system.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 22. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: 2022 Booker Prize shortlisted book is very short too. It's beautifully written and builds up well. But it is actually a short story and feels like it ends when the story actually begins. Wish the author invested more time...</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 23. After lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah: the book is made up of sadness and disappointment, displacement and war; but also of perseverance and growth, and the curiosity to learn. The author writes of the weight of Europe's wars and the suffering of its colonies. (Nobel Prize 2021)</div><div><br></div><div>Book 24. The Trees by Perceval Everett: This #booker shortlisted book is a powerful novel on race. A historic racial lynching comes back to haunt a small white town in a series of murders. Best described as a horrific dark comedy, the book bubbles with wit, humour and sarcasm.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 25. What to Expect When You Are Expecting by Heidi Murkoff: An invaluable gift from a dear friend, it's a balanced guide to pregnancy on a week by week and month by month basis. The plethora of information comes with reassurance of a holding hand, rather than hypochondria.</div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-52695734526106817442021-12-31T05:56:00.001+00:002021-12-31T05:56:42.506+00:002021 in BooksTo get back into reading, I set myself a nearly unachievable target in 2019 - to read 50 books. I read <a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2020/01/book-picks-from-2019.html">51 brilliant books</a>. But it also took away every spare minute I had. So in 2020, I set out to read only 35 books and <a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-in-books.html">I ended at 34</a>. This year, I set myself and even more achievable target - 30 books. And I completed it. Most importantly, I got the joy of reading back. Reading for the sake of reading and not to finish up any certain number. Here's the list, with a snapshot review of each.<div><br></div><div>Book 1. I start this year with a delightful retelling of the Ramayana, Sita by Devdutt Pattanaik. It's possibly the tale most retold inspiring folksongs everywhere. The author draws out versions from different parts of India and South East Asia, gathering tidbits of stories together.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><br></div><div>Book 2. Oranges in a No Man's Land by Elizabeth Laird: It's a beautiful story of a young girl's matter-of-fact bravery in war-torn Beirut. What makes it special is not that it's from a child's point of view, but that it's a children's book and the simplicity is truthful, heartwarming.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 3. The Vegetarian by Han Kang: It's bizarre (but not as bizarre as Flights by Tokarczuk). Pitched for fans of the movie 'Parasite', it has twist after twist.A woman turns vegetarian and then becomes a tree. But what does it all mean? I really don't know.</div><div><br></div><div>Book4. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami: 16 years after highschool, Tazaki goes on a journey to face some unresolved issues. It touches upon the usual Murakami tropes of regret, loneliness and depression, but lacks his signature surrealism.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 5. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood: Starts off depressing, it turns spooky and surreal. Our narrator goes back to the Canadian wilderness where she grew up, to search for her father and instead reconnects with nature and her honest animalness, shunning inhumane 'civilisation'.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 6. Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf: Two people in their old age deal with loneliness and find a companionship that brings light into their lives. Yet, some scorn at this unusual friendship. Why is that we have such definite views on what someone should or should not do?</div><div><br></div><div>Book 7. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue: A Cameroonian family struggles with the American dream. The stories from immigrants transcend culture, language and race. The book bravely acknowledges that America isn't all that promised land but a rainy day fund is always welcome!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 8. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik : beautifully creative in reinventing the old tale of Rumpelstiltskin into an entirely new world of magical creatures. Converting to gold and claiming your first born have new interpretations. Chernobog's powers and weakness were confusing.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book9. The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre: An insider view into spying, this true story is better than any fictional spy thriller you will read. But like fiction, our author builds characters in a biased unidimensional way: sympathetic to heroes; villains are just evil!</div><div><br></div><div>Book10. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: Set in a wealthy retirement village in Kent, the characters are quintessentially British. Osman's wit shines through and I chuckled along happily for the most part. But the story meanders a bit and could do with a little nudge.</div><div><br></div><div>Book11. The Idiot by Elif Batuman: Catcher in the Rye meets Normal People in this semi-autobiographical novel about a freshman at Harvard, figuring out life. Too self involved yet pointless, but weren't we all, when we were freshmen? I read it 10 years too late.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 12. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi: Unlike her debut 'Homegoing's epic proportions, this is largely inside one person's mind. It's an internal dialogue about faith and science, about addiction, depression; about her relationship with her family. It unravels methodically.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 13. Between the Stops (of Bus #12) by Sandi Toksvig: like you would expect of the QI host, it's Quite Interesting. She stays true to character in her memoir pieced together with anecdotes from across the world. But the route of bus #12 isn't enough to hold it all together.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 14. My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci: there is something deeply unsettling about this story of a refugee life in exile and a lonely immigrant's outsider view to the world. But the surrealism of the anamorphic cat partner felt forced. The snake, however, made sense to me.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 15. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju: it was meant to be every woman in Korea. It's actually every other woman everywhere! Jiyoung leads a normal life, even lucky some might say. That's the worst part. I wish we made every boy read this. And I hope it makes them seethe.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 16. My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley: Much like Burnt Sugar, a mother-daughter bond is stressed into acceptance. But more subtle, this story is about the mother, Hen, who struggles through difficult marriages and happiness remains elusive in her quest for a normal life.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 17. No One Is Taking About This by Patricia Lockwood: Made of social media style snippets for the attention-deficient generation, it is exhaustingly fragmented and difficult to read. I'm just not woke enough I guess! 2nd half is terrible grief and I wasn't prepared for it. </div><div><br></div><div>Book 18. The Appeal by Janice Hallett: Absolutely unputdownable! A murder mystery that the reader can solve. The story is told in cases files made up of emails and messages between the various characters which you dive into without even knowing who is killed. The plot is clever!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><br></div><div>Book 19. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong:A Vietnamese immigrant's letter to his illiterate mother with admiration and anger. Beautifully poetic, I loved it when I started but overtime the continued poetic strands overshadow the actual story and it lacks coherence.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 20. Anxious People by Fredrich Backman: A humane mystery solved by building characters and their personalities. It describes how one can be driven to bad deeds with good intentions. It's a heartwarming story about a bunch of anxious people and asks you to cut them some slack.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 21. The Lying a Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante: The author delves deep into our psyche of how often and how easily we lie without even considering it lying, through the eyes of an observant adolescent girl. We think we speak the truth, but we all lie just the same.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div>Book 22. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward: The synopsis is terribly misleading. It's a weird horror story written up like a psychological thriller. It's a disturbing book and drags in the middle but the pace keeps going. The ending is so so and disappointing.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 23. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett: a deep book about identity, haunting a light coloured twin passing for white and those left behind. As much as Stella's choice to turn and Desiree's to return are questioned, Reese's choice is not. So absorbing, in the end, I wept.</div><div><br></div><div>Book 24. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: It took me ages to read this book about little Shuggie escaping his taxi driver father and clinging to his mother Agnes in Glasgow in poverty and alcoholism, while coming to terms with his sexual orientation. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Won the Booker Prize in 2020.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 25. Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes: PhD thesis on 10 female characters from Greek myths. Some are well researched, like Pandora and Amazons, while some are just personal reflections like Jocasta and Medea. Myths are meant to retold and I prefer retellings to reflections.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 26. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood: I said I prefer retellings but this one was spiteful, annoying and childish. The mean girls act with Helen was pointless, the descriptions of ghostliness distracting and the 12 murdered maids lacked gravitas. What was the point again?</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 27. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: A beautifully crafted fantasy with an element of thriller. The book slowly builds a new world of the House, describing the glory of the Statues so vividly that I strolled in the Halls alongside Piranesi. Then the mystery unravels.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 28. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi: yet another story of young people finding their own identity in their own world, but unable to bridge their parents into it while the loving protective parents struggling to understand them. Reminiscent of Celeste Ng.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 29. A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig: A rather sad story for the holiday season. But a children's story read in the bubbly grandfatherly voice of Stephen Fry. A lovely story of a boy who believes in hope and all that's good, in a world where 'impossible' is a bad word.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Book 30. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: I start and end 2021 on retellings of the Ramayana. No easy task, I applaud the author's enormous effort. Yet feels lacking. Like the author's Draupadi, things happen to her Sita who feels victimised despite her best efforts.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-13702927610096833672021-05-22T16:25:00.002+01:002021-07-14T21:41:15.815+01:00My Kdrama picks<i><b>Annyeonghaseyo!</b></i> <div><i>This post is the second in a series of posts on kdrama. Previously published: <a href="https://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2021/05/whats-kdrama-craze.html">What's the Kdrama craze</a></i></div><div><br><div>In this post, I wanted to share with you, my Kdrama recommendations. Oh! Yet another kdrama list I hear you say? I hope this one is slightly different. The many lists that I have read seemed too focused on romance, missing some wonderful Kdramas and instead, recommending clichéd stuff.</div><div> Sure, kdrama is most famous for romance. But<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> it is essentially an industry with a range of genres. And what you like depends on what type of drama you usually like. That's why I thought it's best to approach this by genres. I hope it provides inspiration for newbies, nostalgia for the veterans, and comradery for the rest of us inbetweeners. </span></div><div><br></div><div>Here are my top recommendations under each genre. I've also given the <a href="https://mydramalist.com/">MDL</a> rating, the <a href="https://imdb.com/">IMDB</a> rating and the year of release for each. <div><b>TLDR, 3 choice picks</b>: Flower of Evil, Mr Sunshine and Crash Landing on You</div><div><div><div><div><br></div><div><div><br></div><div><b>***THRILLER***</b></div><div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>Flower of Evil (9.1 on MDL, 8.8 on IMDB, 2020): </b>A crime</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> thriller done right </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b><i> Lee Joon-gi</i></b> acts his heart out as a psychotic man on the run who doubles as a loving family man. <i>Moon Chae-won</i> plays his wife, a detective in charge of catching his original identity. The first episode will get you hooked and there's twist after twist in this cinematographic experience. But the writing is cohesive without seeming forced and keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very start.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> There is one twist that I thought was too coincidental, which I think we can forgive.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> This is the writer, <i><b>Yoo Jung-hee</b></i>'s first long form Kdrama and I'm looking forward to her delivering more amazing stories! </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Here is the </span><a href="https://youtu.be/SlDhptm9Yb4" style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">trailer</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">. </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">The natural chemistry between the leads has a</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> lived-in feel to it, believably portraying a couple together for 14 years with none of the usual Kdrama mushiness. The OST has only 3 songs but has elements of intrigue as well as the tenderness of a loving family.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qi1GZPNRcDU/YC09uro9JNI/AAAAAAAA_Gw/-5rwjY8M1nsL8Y8j5l2bEzqCpHiuJNFPgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1613577654730295-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="439" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qi1GZPNRcDU/YC09uro9JNI/AAAAAAAA_Gw/-5rwjY8M1nsL8Y8j5l2bEzqCpHiuJNFPgCNcBGAsYHQ/w310-h439/1613577654730295-0.png" width="310"></a></div></span></div></div><div><br></div><div><b>Signal (9.0, 8.6, 2016)</b>: A sci-fi crime drama from the past</div><div> We follow three detectives as they solve various crimes. Except, one of them lives in the past and communicates with the present, through a walkie-talkie, and together they solve cold cases. From the writer of <b>Kingdom</b> (8.8, 8.4, 3019; popular sageuk zombie thriller), <i><b>Kim Eun-hee</b></i>, it starts slowly but pulls you in with tight writing, weaving small cases together into a larger picture. The story spans across timelines, changing the past and the present with ease and coherence. The crimes are compassionately portrayed, making it a chilling watch. Especially so because three of the four big cases the trio solve are based on true crimes, aaand the fictional fourth one was the least gruesome. Here is the <a href="https://youtu.be/RsdJLm7Swkw">trailer</a>. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>***'SAGEUK' or HISTORICAL***</b></span></div><div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>Mr. Sunshine (8.9, 8.8, 2018)</b>: An epic saga in turbulent Joseon</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Set</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> in the troubled times of early 1900s, Joseon empire (Korea) is in decline while foreign powers are trying to gain control. We</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> follow three men and two women, all originally from Joseon, in an epic love-hate relationship with their motherland: A slave boy turned American Captain, a butcher boy turned Japanese samurai, a noblewoman turned sharpshooter for the Righteous Army</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> her fiancé and the wealthiest man in Joseon, and the Joseon-Japanese owner of the Glory Hotel.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">From the writer-director pairing of the later mentioned <b>Guardian</b> and <b>DOTS</b>,<b> </b>star writer, <b><i>Kim Eun-sook</i></b> and <b><i>Lee Eung-bok</i></b>, the brilliance of the show is in its poetic writing. The first </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">English words the noblewoman learns are 'gun, glory and sad endings' which defines her</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> as well as Joseon; her character is possibly a metaphor for Joseon. The</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> cinematography turns each scene into a painting, supported by beautiful sets and soulful music. Acting is of course, wonderful, although, the brilliant <i>Lee Byung-hun</i> looks a tad too old for his role. Here is a </span><a href="https://youtu.be/MHa0aw1odvE" style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">trailer</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> and a still from the show. </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><br></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>Moonlovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (8.7, 8.6, 2016):</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Goryeo history and political games</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> Set in AD 940s, the political game of thrones between the sons of King Taejo Wang Geon, founder of the Goryeo dynasty (where Korea gets its name from) is intriguing and partly based on historical facts. <i><b>Lee Joon-gi</b></i> beautifully captures the transformation of the misunderstood Prince Wang So, into a cruel king. <b><i>Kang Ha-neul</i></b> plays the second male lead in the love triangle as well as a formidable opponent to Wang So (although he is historical irrelevant). He sparks a wonderful chemistry with <i>IU</i>, the female lead, while <i>Lee Joon-gi</i> struggles for no fault of his.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">The OST has fun pop songs but a bit jarring in a period drama. H</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">ere is a <a href="https://youtu.be/UAJ8D_ThSp4">trailer</a>.</span><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6JDzKbVf_3Y/YDNwNvMxbjI/AAAAAAAA_Ho/zbuo8CvG0KgxfnsI1pALt1jH2Nc39FvUwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1613983797062369-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6JDzKbVf_3Y/YDNwNvMxbjI/AAAAAAAA_Ho/zbuo8CvG0KgxfnsI1pALt1jH2Nc39FvUwCNcBGAsYHQ/w335-h502/1613983797062369-0.png" width="335"></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div><b>***ACTION***</b></div><div><div><b>Memories of the Alhambra (8.1, 7.8, 2018)</b>: <i>Hyun Bin</i>'s action-packed gaming </div><div><i><b> Hyun Bin</b></i> plays a CEO who is hacked by an AI game and can no longer tell the difference between reality and augmented reality. It has brilliant action sequences and a feel good bromance but the romantic storyline (with <i>Park Shin-hye</i>) seems force-fit and irrelevant. The show progresses into more action as he levels up in the game and the CGI is pretty good. The writing holds well until the very end, when it trips up into a disappointing ending. Watch the <a href="https://youtu.be/2Lcy3XUDd_A">trailer here</a>.</div><div>The ending is only slightly better than<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> the writer, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Song Jae-jung's </i>previous project</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">, </span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">W Two Worlds</b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> (8.5, 8.1, 2016; starring<i> Lee Jong-suk</i>) which also has a similar theme with the female lead pulled into a comic book. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.dramako.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/memories-of-the-alhambra-dramako-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="246" src="https://www.dramako.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/memories-of-the-alhambra-dramako-2.jpg" width="436"></a></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div></div></div><div><b>***COMING OF AGE***</b></div><div><b>Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (8.8, 8.4, 2020)</b>: A relatable story of self-discovery</div><div><i> </i>A young athlete navigates sports college dreaming of being an Olympian. College friendships trigger nostalgia and the insecurities are relatable and endearing. At one point, Bok-joo needs to put on weight to qualify in the higher weight category while she also develops a new crush that suddenly makes her body conscious. She eventually finds the motivation to become an Olympian while also finding friendship that transforms into love. It's loosely based on Olympian gold medalist <i>Jang Mi-ran's</i> experiences in college. Here is silly <a href="https://youtu.be/8IIV2ICd84o">a fan made video</a> of Kim Bok-joo and her girl squad saying 'swag'.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div></div><div><br></div><div><b>***GENRE-BENDING***</b></div><div><div><b>It's Okay To Not Be Okay (9.1, 8.7, 2020): </b>A unique take on emotional issues<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> A writer of some seriously twisted children's fairytales, with an antisocial personality gets obsessed with an extremely calm and composed carer at a psychiatric ward who lives with his autistic older brother. The story is how the three of them help each other heal from childhood trauma. </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I found the acceptance that 'calm and composed' isn't all that healthy, remarkable. The</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> incredibly dark fairytales the show came up with for the writer are so unique. Here is </span><a href="https://youtu.be/_aGYrEcl-Vw" style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">one such story</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> from episode 4. And <b><i>Oh</i></b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i> Jung-se</i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">'s acting is brilliant, as the autistic brother. I'm disappointed that he figures in 'supporting actor' for the awards rather than the lead. The writer's</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> toxic obsession drives her at first but once her emotional healing begins, the romantic storyline was unnecessary. </span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PwtavCUZ8uw/YCpZJZSQAnI/AAAAAAAA_FY/WAfIV_Bqutwtgg3_qeI4wScdcOaiHU6GgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1613388066199430-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="494" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PwtavCUZ8uw/YCpZJZSQAnI/AAAAAAAA_FY/WAfIV_Bqutwtgg3_qeI4wScdcOaiHU6GgCNcBGAsYHQ/w329-h494/1613388066199430-0.png" width="329"></a></div></div></div><div><b><i><br></i></b><div><b>When the Camellia Blooms (8.5, 8.0, 2020): </b>Brilliant acting in this ode to motherhood</div><div> It is genre bending because the main premise of the story is how a police officer, protects his love interest, Dongbaek, from a serial killer. But really, the story is about Dongbaek, a<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> beautifully written character who is beaten down by life and ostracised as an unmarried mother, but can be fiercely protective. And <b><i>Kong Hyo-jin</i></b> wears this ultra-complex character like a glove, with demureness even while she's threatening. There</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> are episodes dedicated to motherhood, particularly one about three single mothers that tugs at your heart. (In fact, there's only one father character in the show and he's shown in poor light.)</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Set in a small town, the tight-knit community is inherently heart-warming with a solid supporting cast: <b><i>Lee Jung-eun</i></b> (of Parasite fame), <b><i>Oh Jung-se</i></b> and <b><i>Kim Sun-young</i></b> to name a few. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Among all the stellar performances, <b><i>Kang Ha-neul</i></b> shines through. While most Kdramas feature successful and suave male leads</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">,<i> </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Kang Ha-neul</i></span><b style="font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> </b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">plays an average small-town guy, awkward and simple, and very straightforward, who cries just as easily as he laughs. Here's a <a href="https://youtu.be/aTblsiPBN4I">compilation</a> of him being a lovable dork. It's also a noona romance.</span></div></div></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div></div><div><br></div><div><b>***SUPERNATURAL***</b></div><div><b>Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (8.9, 8.6, 2016):</b> Magical wholesome entertainment</div><div> A Goryeo-era military general is cursed to become an immortal Goblin or Guardian to pay for his sins and has been roaming the world for 939 years waiting for his moksha, through his fabled goblin bride. She turns out to be a lonely and sad high-schooler who can see ghosts. There is also the Grim Reaper who escorts ghosts into their afterlife, and doesn't have an identity or memories of his past. Yet he feels inexplicably in love with a young woman and all their lives get entangled.</div><div>The mega-budget is used well with Goryeo-era fighting sequences, magical effects for Goblin's powers, the beautiful cinematography, star cast (<i>Gong Yoo</i> and <i>Kim Go-eun</i>) and easily among the best OSTs. The writer-director pairing behind <b>Mr Sunshine</b> and later mentioned <b>DOTS</b> brings together a wholesome show with warm stories, funny bromance, emotional heartbreaks and surprise twists. The acting is obviously good but it's the writing the carries the show through. Although, I felt, the chemistry between the leads is more protective affection than romance. I've leave you with the <a href="https://youtu.be/CEeSm6wpQ94">intro</a>.</div><div>[The writer <i>Kim Eun-sook</i>'s next project, <b>The King: Eternal Monarch</b> (8.1, 8.2, 2020 also starring <i>Kim Go-eun</i>, and<i> Lee Min-ho</i>), feels heavily inspired by this show in its the mystical element and the OST.] </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div></div><div><br></div><div><b>***INDUSTRY INSIDER***</b></div><div><b>Start-Up (8.1, 8.1, 2020)</b>: Plunge into the startup industry</div><div> I don't know if this is a genre but this kdrama explains the inner workings of the start-up industry and all the terms you need to know to sound smart. We learn that behind any successful start-up is a desperately resourceful CEO, a genius techie and a great mentor at an incubation center. The love triangle between these three adds complexity to the drama. The story of their start-up itself is quiet interesting and the personal motivations are real-worldly for young twenty-somethings. The insights the writer, <i><b>Park Hye-ryun</b></i> brings is typical of her writing style and I was educated on the lives of rookie journalists in <b>Pinocchio</b> (8.4, 8.1, 2014; starring <i>Lee Jong-suk </i>and <i>Park Shin-hye</i>), and felt I got an inside view into the workings of the prosecution department in <b>While You Were Sleeping</b> (8.7, 8.4, 2017; also starring <i>Bae Suzy, </i>and <i>Lee Jong-suk</i>) and <b>I Can Hear Your Voice</b> (8.6, 8.1, 2013; starring <i>Lee Bo-young</i> and <i>Lee Jong-suk</i>), even though legal dramas are done to death in the Kdrama world. Here is a <a href="https://youtu.be/0YozIspF1-s">clip</a> of the Hackathon in episode 5 of Start-Up.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rt7pmzWZAj8/YJ4yWgkNh3I/AAAAAAABARI/Li-BKkBteIYZdW5deKvij57YSu-pAmduQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1620980312910812-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="491" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rt7pmzWZAj8/YJ4yWgkNh3I/AAAAAAABARI/Li-BKkBteIYZdW5deKvij57YSu-pAmduQCNcBGAsYHQ/w343-h491/1620980312910812-0.png" width="343">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>***Finally, on to ROMANCE***</b></div><div><b>Crash Landing on You (8.9, 8.7, 2019): </b>Mushy romance with star-crossed lovers</div><div> It was my first Kdrama and essentially a full-on romcom where a South Korean heiress finds herself in North Korea after a paragliding mishap. But it showed me how heart-wrenching the writing can be, from star writer <b><i>Park Ji-eun</i></b> who has given prior hit romantic fantasy shows, <b>My Love from Another Star</b> (8.6, 8.3, 2013; starring <i>Jun Ji-hyun</i> and <i>Kim Soo-hyun</i>) and <b>The Legend of the Blue Sea </b>(8.4, 8.1, 2016; also starring <i>Jun Ji-hyun, and</i> <i>Lee Min-ho</i>), both of which also feature star-crossed lovers.</div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">The lead pair's chemistry is undeniable and the actors, <i>Son Ye-jin</i> and <i>Hyun Bin</i> started dating after the show. The depiction of North Korea received praise (although it also received criticism for turning a North Korean soldier into a hero figure). It's</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> totally melodramatic, sweet and mushy; and beautifully done, that it will make you fall in love with Kdrama. Like this <a href="https://youtu.be/T5uBRKm-PP8">scene</a> where Yoon Se-ri is lost at the local market and Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok finds her with a scented candle.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><div><b>Descendants of the Sun (or DOTS; 8.7, 8.3, 2016):</b> Simple romance, like comfort food</div><div> There are two couples with different hues of romance. The bromance between the two males leads, who are soldiers in the special forces, is as cute as the rivalry between the two female leads who are surgeons/ doctors. Throw in uniforms, a war-torn country and saving lives, you get a brilliant kdrama on the commitment to the hypocritical oath. The first project from the writer-director pair behind <b>Guardian </b>and <b>Mr. Sunshine,</b> it's the writing and production that take the show forward. Without the usual Kdrama clichés, the chemistry between both pair feels real and the lead actors, <i>Song Joong-ki </i>and <i>Song Hye-kyo</i> ended up dating. The show is so popular that it has been remade or dubbed into multiple languages, including Hindi. Here's a <a href="https://youtu.be/wTGwjDqtfzQ">trailer</a>.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vJvawL1ppFk/YCpfvQqWq7I/AAAAAAAA_Fw/kNQrWnygQxMMzO3IyvhAmm8QFosiTq2RgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1613389754838180-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="499" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vJvawL1ppFk/YCpfvQqWq7I/AAAAAAAA_Fw/kNQrWnygQxMMzO3IyvhAmm8QFosiTq2RgCNcBGAsYHQ/w356-h499/1613389754838180-2.png" width="356"></a></div></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>***NOONA ROMANCE***</b></div><div>This is still romance genre but where the female lead is older than the male lead.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> I appreciate that Kdrama has this genre where the struggles of being an older woman are shown, and also allows for a longer career as leads.</span></div></div><div><br></div><div><div><div><b>Something in the Rain (7.9, 8.1, 2018)</b>: A realistic un-Kdrama-like romance</div><div><i style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> </i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">A</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> woman in her mid-30s, who is stuck in life with her career going nowhere and her relationship collapsing, finds companionship and support from the male lead</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">. He also happens to be her best friend's younger brother, complicating it. Writer </span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Kim Eun</i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> and director </span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Ahn Pan-seok</i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> strive to bring a realistic, unmushy feel to the relationship and its growth. But what brings it together is the natural chemistry between the leads, <i>Jung Hae-in</i> and <i>Son Ye-jin</i>. The writer-director's second project, </span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">One Spring Night</b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> (8.3, 7.9, 2019), tries</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> for a similar feel</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> but fails without <b><i>Son Ye-jin</i></b>. The show also has a nuanced take on sexual harassment at the workplace. It is not as loved as other shows because it's not your regular kdrama, making it the lowest rated show that I recommend, but that's what I love about it. Having said that, it does drag a bit in the middle and could have been shorter. Here is a <a href="https://youtu.be/ACD90k0YmEM">trailer</a>. </span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://occ-0-299-300.1.nflxso.net/art/196b5/ed4f13296125a74d42801fb327a6d5b62b7196b5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="426" height="466" src="https://occ-0-299-300.1.nflxso.net/art/196b5/ed4f13296125a74d42801fb327a6d5b62b7196b5.jpg" width="333"></a></div></div></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Romance is a Bonus Book (8.3, 8.1, 2020): </b>A woman in her late 30s struggles to return after a career break</div><div> A woman in her late 30s with an undying spirit, even though she is broke, divorced and on a 7-year career break, struggles to find a job to support her daughter. The male lead is actually a supporting character and he supports her without reservations, even when she marries/dates someone else, never imposing or possessive. The second male lead is also similarly respectful. Such healthy relationships are rarely portrayed in media. Regardless of the title and my emphasis on the male characters, romance is only a component of the story. Much of it is around how judgemental and daunting it can be when your skills are considered obsolete in a fast-moving world. Here is a <a href="https://youtu.be/zjeXZEtEI2A">trailer</a>.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div></div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;">I hope you have found at least one kdrama you would like to watch. If you have stuck around till now, <b><i>Kamsahamnida!</i></b></span></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-87133376085140242562021-05-16T18:38:00.002+01:002021-07-14T21:41:29.136+01:00What's the Kdrama craze ?<p> <i><b>Annyeonghaseyo!</b></i> (Hello!) <br /><i>This is the first in a series of posts on Kdrama. The second post: <a href="https://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2021/05/my-kdrama-picks.html">My Kdrama Picks</a></i></p><div>Like everyone else across the world, I discovered Korean TV shows or Kdrama during COVID lockdowns. And like everything else that I do, I watched them with passion. Apparently, I am not alone, in watching it with passion. Thousands went down the rabbit hole, that for me, started with Crash Landing on You. Undoubtedly Kdrama is awesome, evident from the international popularity it currently commands. The lockdown propelled it from a sub-culture into the mainstream and youtuber / influencers recently have started throwing Korean words at us. Popular kdramas are now being dubbed into many different languages including Hindi, and it is also influencing fashion and beauty (Kdrama is really good at product placement).</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br /></div><div><br /><div><b>So what makes Kdramas awesome:</b></div><div><b>1.</b>The writing is sensitive.... and the characters are fleshed out, doing justice to even the smallest of them. Interestingly, most script/screenwriters are women. And so, the stories tend to have a nuanced female viewpoint and hence, the largely female audience.</div><div><b>2.</b> The acting is fantastic... which is probably a reflection of really good direction.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> And the actors are all beautiful people, male and female. Of course, this is largely because the industry is very competitive with strict views on perfect good looks (many having surgeries). </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>3.</b> Actors play their age bracket... with enough stories for all age groups. To be honest, there are probably more shows with leads in their 30s than under.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> They are also very flexible with age gaps, and there's a genre of 'noona romance' where the female lead is older than her romantic interest.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>4.</b> Budgets are mega... The more recent ones spend on big stars, wonderful cinematography, special effects, locations, etc.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>5.</b> Whole range of genres exist... thriller, fantasy, sageuk (historical), and most blend a bunch of genres to give you wholesome entertainment. But of course, they are most famous for romance.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>Pro-tip: </b>Watch on Rakuten Viki for better subtitles; My Drama List (MDL) has more reviews than IMDB</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>But Kdramas can be annoying too:</b></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>1.</b> They are predominately written by women, for women. The male lead is nearly always modelled as the perfect boyfriend. So, it may not be very appealing to a male viewer.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>2.</b> Given the range of genres, many stories could have done without force-fitting romance. The need for having a bog-standard romance can be annoying.</span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>3.</b> There are some oft-used tropes that can get repetitive. The relationship between a parent and a child form the basis of many stories. A pet-peeve is also linking the childhood/past of the two leads. Memory losses are common too. </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>4. </b>Most Kdramas take one or two episodes to end the show after the story itself has ended, so it can be a drag. If you are fully invested into the characters, it's rewarding. </span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><b>5. </b>They can be too long with each episode ranging between 50min to 1hr 25min and episodes ranging from 14 to 20. But if you are enjoying it, it doesn't matter. Also, they are only one season long with no scope for renewal. (Although, Netflix started chopping them into seasons unnecessarily.)</span></div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><b style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><i>Kamsahamnida!</i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.2px;"> (Thank you!)</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-77895102066747739772021-05-16T15:21:00.003+01:002021-07-14T21:41:39.853+01:00Header update<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2VlZlljEcA/YKEpy2MFgRI/AAAAAAABASo/1iLSZwU2v9UDPIQN8odebC9g4lPHW3jNgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1451/20200814_155957%2B%25282%2529_LI.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="1451" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2VlZlljEcA/YKEpy2MFgRI/AAAAAAABASo/1iLSZwU2v9UDPIQN8odebC9g4lPHW3jNgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/20200814_155957%2B%25282%2529_LI.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The picture is from a trip to the Woburn Safari Park with the little relaxation of rules in between lockdowns in 2020. The rhinoceros to the left would eventually find its way to our car giving the Jurassic park vibes. I thought the COVID-19 lockdowns will go down in history so recording it in this hopeful header image. Also new minimalist theme for the blog.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-61980666142399210842020-12-31T19:06:00.000+00:002021-07-14T21:42:15.067+01:002020 in Books<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> In 2019, I read 51 books in all. I had been really upset that I could not even read 5 books in 2018 and had set myself a target of 50 books for 2019. While I 'outdid' myself, I also did little else I felt. So in 2020, I only set myself 36 books as a target, or 3 books per month. Well, I fell two short. I think I could have pushed myself to finish 36 but 2020 was no ordinary year. But I also learnt to play the piano, went back to some singing and dancing, <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fslishacrazy.blogspot.com%2F2020%2F07%2Fgazing-into-heavenly-skies.html%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0M7XwOvq7H6mByG2ynbrTDQlvVhVPgmodd2GaVSyGDxr_kOLHhJp7BxUw&h=AT16X9MHWzW1z0Cf2Sn8di8Aj3BoWK9tafpBSlbp5pKyh_MrDHbvN6ZS4hcFSBJcOCOSz48nyd5kZlIhK6tDSRKO9KVXrRVLhHYvegF5eQTjWNsK7EKeN7sE4pmr6WypMhh4e0MZivBCchhrqg&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT0T2KOYEwz-Qnjd-9rISiVsKIiZVB63aftg3AkPJhtSYrUcYWZQMkDfzgj3Q9WIbl2-8PJqSI7yKTkK5UgATsz4yaclhhfhYHLqBbUHprqCAhOIvvzQ4N-Xaf2lR3MqHhb6kILKXOVuIMY5qEXN38dOnRI">stargazed</a>, travelled to the hidden parts of the UK but also discovered my little neighbourhood, and worked from home.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">2020 in Books: I read 34 against my target of 36.Three of them are written by friends !!! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For the ones that I recommend, I have put pictures of the books. So even if you don't read the whole blog, you can just browse through the pics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Book1 </span><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); color: #0f1419; flex-direction: row; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElizabethIsMissing?src=hashtag_click" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1b95e0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">Elizabeth Is Missing</a></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Emma Healey: I sincerely recommend it. You feel the helplessness of old Maud as your own, when her mind slips away and she tries to hold it together. Sometimes memories get jumbled and it's hard to follow what's happening, but so is it for Maud.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Uqjncv8K_4/X-3G7_JaSJI/AAAAAAAA-x0/urwTJmGmIE8aJI0DzmCMqqAsByaKhjTHwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1307/EOBGRUfXsAEda9d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1307" data-original-width="740" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Uqjncv8K_4/X-3G7_JaSJI/AAAAAAAA-x0/urwTJmGmIE8aJI0DzmCMqqAsByaKhjTHwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EOBGRUfXsAEda9d.jpg"></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 2. Educated by Tara Westover: This is a story of a girl rising out of her circumstances. Perseverance is at the heart of every good story. Yet she repeatedly flags that she's different and is adamant not to be relatable. Culture shock should have been a very relatable topic.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book3 Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner: A well-loved book that I misunderstood? About female loneliness, it feels like a 1900s Mills&Boon. Relationships begin with no preamble and end in high drama and the author refers to our heroine as Virginia Woolf one too many times.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 4 The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota: It's a slow book about the world of illegal immigrants, living in the dark corners of society, invisible to most and exploited out of choices. A political commentary, it's a reality check for the naive and the policymakers alike.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 5 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is a phenomenal celebration of life. Like Humans of NY or Humans Of Bombay, it's just stories about 12 people - mostly black, female, sometimes cruel, sometimes funny. It's rollercoaster ride through life, in different shades.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dedhmk0-FB0/X-3HBHTm07I/AAAAAAAA-x4/tQAJJunrlGQvwEqU3qE0RnOQJjot3SNowCNcBGAsYHQ/s730/EUMKE37WAAMIN2q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="491" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dedhmk0-FB0/X-3HBHTm07I/AAAAAAAA-x4/tQAJJunrlGQvwEqU3qE0RnOQJjot3SNowCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EUMKE37WAAMIN2q.jpg"></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 6. The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante: The tour de force comes to its glorious conclusion with Italy moving from fascist to communist to democratic but from violence to corruption. But the portrayal of the friendship loses track and the punch line feels lost.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 7. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: Finally read this thought-provoking book that makes you question your beliefs. But it's heavy like a textbook and I'm not sure how much I can retain. It's also scary; how easily can one be manipulated! Self-awareness is a myth!!!</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0uYDwPGQWQI/X-3HIqVT49I/AAAAAAAA-x8/43tu-e7BYZQU6znBMnqsd3nSUdqxqZaPQCNcBGAsYHQ/s677/EXVEeqsVcAAs4yR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="459" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0uYDwPGQWQI/X-3HIqVT49I/AAAAAAAA-x8/43tu-e7BYZQU6znBMnqsd3nSUdqxqZaPQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EXVEeqsVcAAs4yR.jpg"></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book8 The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters: my fascination with Egypt continues with Barbara Metz's fictional Amelia Peabody and her delightful family. In the 3rd book in the series, they get trapped inside the Black Pyramid while hunting down criminals in Dahshur.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></span></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 9. Heirs of Masaha by <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/sachit.handa?__cft__[0]=AZUvfqRHLI6NkEM55k6R2lllX6QkeqpsWXvYX3RLm8IbSlxTubKWfMz9len5VilQgAu7HB1bB0neYENy_3vserhwJoeax4adfHUe610JUuRf9gdKkX6KfE2glLKsmq_kYKdlFAvtzWbY6AiGUeyNLEjh&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline;">Sachit Handa</div></a>: the 1st in the saga, it introduces the 'magic' of aether and the wonderfully layered characters who wield it. Apart from the rich history of the land of Malurk, what captures is the beautiful writing; almost philosophical.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">I would highly recommend it. Please check out <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/aethonsofmalurk/?__cft__[0]=AZUvfqRHLI6NkEM55k6R2lllX6QkeqpsWXvYX3RLm8IbSlxTubKWfMz9len5VilQgAu7HB1bB0neYENy_3vserhwJoeax4adfHUe610JUuRf9gdKkX6KfE2glLKsmq_kYKdlFAvtzWbY6AiGUeyNLEjh&__tn__=kK-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline;">Aethons of Malurk</div></a>. It's written by friend who also put together some music and has made a few chapters available on the Facebook page.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvLYOhCZD_wrsA15kXApDmIa-1DaJ60o7Qr4Z_NdBTGmBbAsKe0RmHVm9Vgm5MPXxVKFw0GJ6uKZmFNp63hbRG0zgnV4h3ouzRJKWyJBQdjd8GnTDsU7AmAbCD3MKm3LSXlQ0mA/s717/EXhC0pvXgAIucnw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="476" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvLYOhCZD_wrsA15kXApDmIa-1DaJ60o7Qr4Z_NdBTGmBbAsKe0RmHVm9Vgm5MPXxVKFw0GJ6uKZmFNp63hbRG0zgnV4h3ouzRJKWyJBQdjd8GnTDsU7AmAbCD3MKm3LSXlQ0mA/s320/EXhC0pvXgAIucnw.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">10. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez: it's a hard-hitting look at the gender data gap, but who is it for? I wish it was aimed at the default male statistician. Instead, it reads like a "women's book" that falls through the same crack that female data historically has.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYOX5z3uOKU/X-3IZL_w8NI/AAAAAAAA-y0/n8XLQBPZR1U-FKUefAHC37z0lQvhQXj5ACNcBGAsYHQ/s682/EX2PmYnWkAANqs0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="468" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYOX5z3uOKU/X-3IZL_w8NI/AAAAAAAA-y0/n8XLQBPZR1U-FKUefAHC37z0lQvhQXj5ACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EX2PmYnWkAANqs0.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 1</span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky: 1st of saga, a coming of age story of Maniye 'Many Tracks', it introduces a world where humans can transform or 'step' into animals. Too focused on Maniye's story, I wish supporting characters, say Asmander, were more center stage.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book14. The Bear and the Serpent by Adrian Tchaikovsky: following on from Book11, two amazing characters take centre stage, Asmander and Loud Thunder. Both are outsiders within their tribes, yet leaders in their spirit. It's a joy to discover new tribes, their gods and complex politics.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book19. The Hyena and the Hawk (#3 of Echos of the Fall Trilogy) by Adrian Tchaikovsky: In the finale, a plethora of different tribes rally together to fight against the common enemy, the plague people. The truth about who the plague people are left me spellbound; ingenuis world-building! I couldn't shake the melancholy.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">12. The City of Brass by S A Chakraborty: Lovely to read a pager-turner fantasy with djinns, flying carpets and political games where every character is grey! A saga of love, betrayal, magical grandeur and politics, reminiscent of GoT, like the Tywin-Lannister-esque Ghassan.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVC08rhXJMdujIubljNd38qNFpClRzm-RJl6AL2rXGlIu6qReR0MEaONK4wtkKd-Qg3J6CbTzy7qzXVPn4Qxb6vAkQ1DN9ZNB30XH7fmgvHwwJkhyphenhyphenG3UuqD1MbZ-jJ2vOX7XKtQ/s892/EaiaqmuXgAEelPr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="666" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVC08rhXJMdujIubljNd38qNFpClRzm-RJl6AL2rXGlIu6qReR0MEaONK4wtkKd-Qg3J6CbTzy7qzXVPn4Qxb6vAkQ1DN9ZNB30XH7fmgvHwwJkhyphenhyphenG3UuqD1MbZ-jJ2vOX7XKtQ/s320/EaiaqmuXgAEelPr.jpg"></a></div></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 15. Kingdom of Copper by S A Chakraborty: Continuing from the cliffhanger in Book12, it has one too many plot twists. It's amazing how the author builds up each character into such layers of good and evil that there is no clear character for the readers to back. It's about trying to choose which of these characters is a lighter shade of evil. To each, their own actions seem justified. I actually feel sorry for the 'cruel' Ghassan who spares the traitors only to feel their wrath. Chaos looms at every turn, setting the stage for a grand conclusion in the final book.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book17. Empire of Gold by S A Chakraborty: Epic conclusion to a page-turner trilogy! Like the first book (Book12), it starts with Nahri on a journey, but this time with Ali. A convoluted plot ensues with all sorts of magical beings getting involved, like the marid or the water beings and the peri or the air beings, apart from the fire beings or Daevas around whom the story revolves. As you would expect, the protagonists, Nahri, Dara and Ali pick up some special powers along the way. The story heads towards a battle, that is short and ends rather abruptly I felt. But after the battle, it's heartwarmingly hopeful as they pick up the pieces. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Not sure what the title refers to, apart from just fitting in line with the previous titles.</span></div><div dir="auto"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">13. The Talking Dead by <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/chandrimad?__cft__[0]=AZWsXIQs8XPS8q9VzdiTdx5dIr0F4FKaPp590xEvt1L0gzYskor-b_p3NQQKZ7P3XEtgi4JFnoFlRALAkThKOmHic8Uesb5ZNO_oTK1SrwojL9F-TpvqRZ8IwFdrMbMHc1w&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline;">Chandrima Das</div></a>: Not referring to the Walking Dead after-show, this is a book and a collection of four short horror stories written by a friend, set in Indian residential college campuses.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rest assured, I was as scared as a child reading the Goosebumps series, which was the last time I read a horror story. Horror is a very difficult genre to write considering you need to keep your readers' fear ticking up but without dragging on. The stories in the books capture that anticipation brilliantly. The icing on the cake is the nostalgia of studying in such a college campus.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 1</span><span style="font-family: arial;">6. The Fifth Season by N K Jemison: Even with the best starting lines, the book drones on. Then I realised, I had internalised the incessant drone of the protagonist, Essun's life. It builds the most unique fantasy world: Angry Earth and civilisations that rebuild seasonally. It's refreshingly original.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6IIOOzlfGsPV1TWKiTDpKPeuCkExBvGX1bXAGB6jhLxBmV1KuIE64ihHrQq-fLhX5adKfsEyadm6fX7DAy6nJwm3ZM_qVpZ2GlehOaj_IAeTy3HegZ1xkWLATKT8udrb2T9ChYg/s658/EcrLM6FX0AIehqL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6IIOOzlfGsPV1TWKiTDpKPeuCkExBvGX1bXAGB6jhLxBmV1KuIE64ihHrQq-fLhX5adKfsEyadm6fX7DAy6nJwm3ZM_qVpZ2GlehOaj_IAeTy3HegZ1xkWLATKT8udrb2T9ChYg/s320/EcrLM6FX0AIehqL.jpg"></a></div></span></div></div></div></div></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 18</span><span style="font-family: arial;">. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: A disturbed therapist with a saviour complex wants to 'save' the beautiful artist who became silent after the death of her husband. It's a thriller with a solid twist. Makes for an easy page-turner/ popcorn read, I read it in a day.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">20. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami: It's a surreal novella that follows a boy on his fantastical trip to the local library that becomes a trap. He overcomes his fear to outgrow his childhood and grapples with loneliness while his memories help him deal with loss.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3K9zmtGwIS144PDUPu6Zq5eFNFXzWkgJltzxdv8tZZjQWgr-ySpwBpGSW3zUTIn1pux8Yar7qhOXe4xh4_jpY9JpW2eTjBiO_7HTKrRtOadMiO18Eywf-nL0aRcceNOtsUvlMiA/s883/EfaUbLiWAAMQvjD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="665" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3K9zmtGwIS144PDUPu6Zq5eFNFXzWkgJltzxdv8tZZjQWgr-ySpwBpGSW3zUTIn1pux8Yar7qhOXe4xh4_jpY9JpW2eTjBiO_7HTKrRtOadMiO18Eywf-nL0aRcceNOtsUvlMiA/s320/EfaUbLiWAAMQvjD.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">21. Those People by Louise Candlish: As a satire on the snobs of a posh South London neighbourhood who hate their new 'uncultured' neighbours, it's brilliant. Characters are so comical. As a suspense thriller, it's terrible! The pace and the (non)twists are poorly written.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">22. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro: Estuko, grappling with her daughter's suicide, starts telling us a seemingly unconnected story of her friend in Nagasaki at the end of the war. As the story progresses, the ghosts of the past dig up Etsuko's guilt.</span></div><div dir="auto"><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">24. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler: To turnaround and look into another point of view, a view where you are wrong, is always so hard. Harder still in today's world. But we could all do with a little bit of that. A warm introspection set in Baltimore</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/2020bookerprize?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXNRrNk5aYey12XWHhLeR28IUhH-bywKu8z4rse7kwRY6sOK0L5fc30tDYK-uvNeeypbYPGz0ZjtvCF0w5rM_XQURmpySb2Iqg6bSQd-ODTRo78KpiF2X76DuA9m8Ca1Cc&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0">#2020bookerprize</a> (I know this wasn't shortlisted, only long listed)</span></div><div dir="auto"><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">25. She by <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/deepa.mardolkar?__cft__[0]=AZXirhWXUm_2jU1RreNE21DEsSgw8QA4-Rl9oiGgUo0BT6RKyX9o5NFRt-OruvuRn5ZCWy_GMw9ZpPcpxrmLPwBbshUGRlg71chsMg6Ve06eN7FBCElLlNlR7ySq7seUE7c&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline;">Deepa Mardolkar</div></a> (another book by another friend): It's a collection of poems, reflections on being a woman. Every poem is so well modulated. It could be a celebration, a spark of anger, defiance, or a designated sigh but there is an undercurrent of strength and calmness that pervades all of them.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">26. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: A master in introspection, Ishiguro paints the generational disparity after WWII in Japan, but draws a contemporary picture. A poignant view of the acceptance of guilt of the older generation & resentment of the young. It is hard to accept and live in a world where your way of life is wrong even though you have been so diligent about it.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmosdmZPAxU0c2T2Nv9asK4qKeIFSrq7YIcthKm_mRFM40yiOHe0jGcdUA675zen1EmsZ39sa1ewy3CZVHexjr4Qu0vaarZe3goZXBhyWAYLW-bFrB8t00ivYIoDb6BR_YYtYKw/s1024/EnX1IZ7XEAgMeJx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="709" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmosdmZPAxU0c2T2Nv9asK4qKeIFSrq7YIcthKm_mRFM40yiOHe0jGcdUA675zen1EmsZ39sa1ewy3CZVHexjr4Qu0vaarZe3goZXBhyWAYLW-bFrB8t00ivYIoDb6BR_YYtYKw/s320/EnX1IZ7XEAgMeJx.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><br></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">27. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe: A political satire, it's a short book that explores the corruption of democracy and how the democratic people begin to accept it as part of everyday life. Greed transcends cultures and peoples.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">28. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Twelve short stories from the master storyteller. The overarching immigrant narrative is relatable. Even in the 12th which as I started it, thought was not relatable at all, until I reached the very end and burst into tears.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FGwNuupUq3I/X-3IH6mVUHI/AAAAAAAA-ys/EmIYotxVX_QV6tJZDjtYIevjVIilKZnIACNcBGAsYHQ/s650/EprYUPaW8AE1qvS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="429" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FGwNuupUq3I/X-3IH6mVUHI/AAAAAAAA-ys/EmIYotxVX_QV6tJZDjtYIevjVIilKZnIACNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EprYUPaW8AE1qvS.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">30. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: Is there a right or a wrong decision; Or are there just decisions and we need to believe they are the right ones? Like Celeste Ng's debut (Everything I Never Told You), the story starts at the end and then builds the characters towards it, who ask the question in different ways.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AIEATV8k2Qo/X-3IL8pe1YI/AAAAAAAA-yw/puNSONI5OSI1ZP5-HXnhUZ1vkq00RY4BQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1650/EqPBOYHW4AA37T6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1073" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AIEATV8k2Qo/X-3IL8pe1YI/AAAAAAAA-yw/puNSONI5OSI1ZP5-HXnhUZ1vkq00RY4BQCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/EqPBOYHW4AA37T6.jpg"></a></div></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">29. This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga: Tambudzai's hopelessness permeates all. The use of the second pronoun draws you in and holds you accountable for the plight of women in independent Zimbabwe. But it's a finale of a trilogy I did not read, so to begin with, I was lost. <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/bookerprize?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXxhnXYU5GUgUUL2vnFTIXM48I90znR8zeeVD2P_f4drqVMpsaneXmttXp7gkBTxgGwwIN_rCGnWvUXTv_q6Fj8ay2PgmvCzVR_02sPMIWFDV88118v8hF1wlAgyYekj8I&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0">#bookerprize</a> <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/shortlist?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXxhnXYU5GUgUUL2vnFTIXM48I90znR8zeeVD2P_f4drqVMpsaneXmttXp7gkBTxgGwwIN_rCGnWvUXTv_q6Fj8ay2PgmvCzVR_02sPMIWFDV88118v8hF1wlAgyYekj8I&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0">#shortlist</a></span></div></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">31. The Crowd and the Cosmos by </span><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; flex-direction: row;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/chrislintott" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1b95e0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">Chris Lintott</a></span></div><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">: A fascinating read about how crowd sourcing comes to the aid of science in the Zooniverse project. This democratisation of science gives the new phrase </span><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; color: #0f1419; flex-direction: row;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CitizenScience?src=hashtag_click" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1b95e0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">#CitizenScience</a></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">. Would Wikipedia be the first such successful crowd creation?</span></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;">32. Weather by Jenny Offill: It's a worryingly witty doomsday book, sprinkled with weird questions and observations. I warmed to it because I often have similarly weird questions in my head. But it's sad to think that we won't have apples anymore as global temperatures rise.</span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">33. The Forty Rules of Love by </span><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; flex-direction: row;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/Elif_Safak" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1b95e0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">Elif Shafak</a></span></div><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">: Challenging the rules of righteousness that we've created, it gives us the rules of love, in the form of a discourse between Shamz & Rumi and Aziz & Ella. But rather simplistic, it reads like a sermon, making for a difficult read.</span></span></div><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span></p><p style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Book 34. Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik: It's a thoughtful introduction to Mahabharata for children. It has these grey boxes which are sometimes filled with tidbits of info on the vast folklore that originated from the great epic and sometimes it has thought-provoking points of discussions. The breath of the epic is always fascinating.</span></span></p></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-57237813904969570632020-07-22T16:37:00.000+01:002021-07-14T21:41:54.518+01:00Gazing into the heavenly skiesI remember stargazing as a child on the terrace of our apartment block. We took bedding and made ourselves comfortable for a meteor shower which turned up for a short time, but I still have fond memories of the stars and constellations. It seemed natural to me all those years ago, that you looked up into the sky and saw stars, some that made patterns like the Saptarishi Mandal (the big dipper) and occasionally the Milky Way was visible. Only decades later did I realise that we lost that ability to pollution (light and air) and that it's almost like losing a superpower. People didn't believe me that I had done it or the one could even do it - look up in the sky and see the Milky Way. Made me wonder how many other superpowers were lost to civilisation. May be it's true that once upon a time people could bend spoons with their mind and survive years without food.<div><br></div><div>I digress. </div><div>Stargazing came back to me when I looked up at the sky above the Grand Canyon and saw the Milky Way as bright as I had ever seen, like the milky stardust it is meant to be and you could see why it was called as such. It was spectacular! K had never seen it before (and neither did he believe that I had). Then I found out that there were some smart people who had realised that we were losing this superpower as a civilization and had decided to designate certain areas as 'dark-sky preserve' or 'dark sky reserve', free from human light polluting activities and are trying to preserve the ancient art of stargazing. The Grand Canyon is among the darkest such areas in the world!</div><div><br></div><div>Years later, on a drive back, we stopped at Buster Hill in the UK, which is an urban dark sky reserve, to watch the stars. The sky was so different from anything I had seen before and the Big Dipper was not where it was supposed to be. That is when I realised that this is a NEW sky. I grew up watching the sky at 17.7° N and Buster Hill was 50.9° N.</div><div>Nevertheless it was a beautiful night sky. We saw the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn, Hercules, Cassiopeia and Big Dipper, and even a couple of shooting stars. </div><div><br></div><div>A few months later, I took K to see the stars in my hometown, to see more familiar stars. But I barely saw the Big Dipper (in its rightful place), mainly due to air pollution!</div><div><br></div><div>A few months later, the world shutdown due to a new Coronavirus, COVID-19. The world stopped flying aeroplanes and industry reduced capacity. Air pollution levels dropped remarkably and stayed low even after the lockdowns lifted and slowly activity began to resume. Around that time, I bought a very basic telescope. </div><div><br></div><div>I took the telescope to Meerbrook, at the edge of Peak District in the UK, at 53.1° N in mid July. Blessed with a clear night sky on a new moon night (probably clearer than usual, thanks to reduced human activity), we had a spectacular show with thousands of stars in the night sky.</div><div>We saw the unexpected visitor, <b>Neowise comet</b>, (although very faint) between the <b>Ursa Major </b>and<b> </b>the<b> Lynx.</b> Within the Ursa Major, we saw the binary star system, <b>Mizar and Alcor</b>, or Arundhati and Vashista of the Saptarishi Mandal. We also saw <b>Ursa Minor </b>which is usually fainter than its larger sized neighbor.</div><div>Only a week past its opposition, we saw the gas giant, <b>Jupiter</b> and it's four Galilean moons, <b>Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto</b> through the telescope.</div><div>With the Saturn in opposition, we were able to see the <b>rings of Saturn</b> clearly and one of its moons, <b>Titan</b> next to it. I remember when I managed to focus on Saturn and distinguish the icy disk, it took my breath away.</div><div>As time passed, we also saw <b>Mars</b>, bright and red. Later into the night and closer to dawn, <b>Venus</b> rose becoming the brightest in the night sky. There wasn't much to see through my telescope though, without moons and rings.</div><div>We also saw <b>Uranus</b> but couldn't stay up till Mercury rose.</div><div>There were so many stars yet it was hard to see or focus on any nebula. For example, we could see <b>Hercules</b> but it was difficult to pin point M13 cluster and then couldn't really focus. We could see <b>Cassiopeia </b>and<b> Andromeda </b>constellations but hard to point out Andromeda galaxy (M31) or the bubble nebula. And of course, we saw the <b>Milky Way</b>.</div><div>I feel like I've managed to rediscover my superpower ! </div><div><br></div><div><b>Telescope and the tech</b>: I bought a <b>Celestron Astromaster 70AZ </b>(which is 70mm refractor). It comes with two eyepieces (a 20mm focal length which gives me 45x magnification and a 10mm or 90x). In addition, I bought a Svbony 2x Barlow lens, a Celestron moon filter and a Svbony 5x Barlow lens. I was able to see Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings very clearly with the 2x Barlow screwed into the 10mm. The 5x Barlow wouldn't focus with my telescope.</div><div>K gifted me some stargazer accessories: a Celestron red and white flashlight that doubles as a handwarmer for the cold night skies and a little book called '50 things to see in the night sky'.</div><div><b>Stellarium app</b> is highly recommended and is beautiful too. You can change the location and time to see a different sky.</div><div>Astrophotography is totally different to stargazing unfortunately. So I don't have photographs of anything from that night. But here is a screenshot of Stellarium of the alignment of Jupiter's moons when we saw them. We didn't see the stripes on Jupiter but otherwise the view was very similar.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div><b>Next up: </b>For the rest of July, Neowise remains visible, as do Jupiter and Saturn after sunset. As you stay up, Mars rises. Venus follows Mars and when it is up in the sky, Uranus and Neptune would also be visible towards the end of July. Mercury peaked on 22 July but will remain visible through the month just before dawn. So if you are lucky. You can see all the seven planets, and a comet thrown in, one of these nights.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-22677870954549334602020-07-10T20:08:00.000+01:002020-07-10T20:08:28.253+01:00Four days in Egypt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have wanted to see the ancient world of Egypt for as long as I can remember. We decided to not put off the trip anymore and go for a short trip, even if. Turns out, we covered most of what we wanted to, in a very short time - 3.5 days to be precise.</div>
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Incidentally, we covered the spots in the reverse chronological order, visiting Luxor first, Giza second and Dahshur/ Saqqara third. I will go through them in their correct order instead. But first some info.</div>
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Here is an itinerary for people who are short on time:<br>
Day 1: Luxor. Having landed in the morning, we covered the West Bank sites and spent the afternoon and evening at a leisurely pace.<br>
Day 2: Luxor. We covered the East bank, including a sound and light show at Karnak.<br>
Day 3: Giza/Cairo. In the morning half we visited the great Pyramids. In the afternoon, we visited a few sites in Cairo.<br>
Day 4: Dahshur/Saqqara. We spent the morning at these sites and headed to the airport, stopping briefly at Cairo.</div>
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Itinerary notes: it is possible to cover most of West and East bank of Luxor on a single day. It is also common to cover Giza, Dahshur and Saqqara (may be even Memphis) in a day. That could mean you could visit Abu Simble by flight as a day trip from Luxor, but it is a long way away. So it's possible to cover the main sites in 2.5 to 3.5 days. </div><div dir="ltr">Pro-tip update: one of my friends tells me that the Cairo Museum is glorious and has Tutunkhamun's death mask on display, even though the rest of the treasures are on tour around the world.</div>
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Other notes: only Egyptian pounds are accepted as payment in Luxor and USD is not used (unlike what travel forums tell you) and credit card payments are rare. Cairo/Giza had card machines and ATM machines are widely found. WiFi in hotels is mostly poor.</div>
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Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs by Barbara Mertz is good reading. [Review of the book: Mertz narrates the original Game of Thrones: the stories of Pharaohs, their achievements, plots and gossip, piecing together information from excavations. Ancient Egypt is enchanting, as is the process of understanding it.]</div>
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And what did we see!</div>
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Dahshur and Saqqara</b> are the oldest areas. Dahshur has the tombs of 3rd dynasty kings, most famous of them is the Step Pyramid of Djoser who reigned in 2600 BC, built by the legendary Imhotep.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The first king of the 4th dynasty, Sneferu, attempted to build a pyramid. The first attempt is lost. You can see the second and third attempts in Saqqara - the Bent Pyramid and the successful Red Pyramid. We went into the Red Pyramid to see a couple of little empty rooms. The descent and ascent was hard; we could feel our thighs quiver. It's also not great if you are claustrophobic. However, if you do want to go into a pyramid, this one is better since it has very few visitors and not too deep.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In Saqqara, there are also pyramids of later kings such as Unas and Teti. We went into the pyramid of King Teti which is one of the earliest pyramids with engraved hieroglyphs or the Pyramid text, and also into the tomb of Kagemni, a vizier, which contained embossed images, raising farm animals for food, meat, oils and wine. </div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Giza necropolis</b> is famous for the three Great Pyramids. The largest of them all is that of Sneferu's son, Khufu. The second largest is for Khufu's son, Khafre and the third largest (which is actually smaller than the Red Pyramid) is for his son, Menkaure. But actually there are a lot many more Pyramids. We can see another 6 of them in a panaromic view. There is also a Sphinx with a broken nose, potentially made to look like Khafre and likely to be built during his time in 2500 BC. We can go into Khufu's pyramid but we did not. This is more popular and busier but it is empty, like the rest. There is supposedly a boat that was buried with Khufu which is now on display but we missed it. The Sphinx has some hieroglyphs between its feet which proclaim Thutmose IV's divinity that the Sphinx spoke to him (ancient propaganda). We didn't see that either. The entire place was more of a photospot with little actual guided tour. Our 'guide' was keen to take good pictures of us, apart from also helping us with the horses that we took. We had the choice between horses and camels. We did not know that we could also just take a car. We watched the sound and light show that night, but from our roof top, just like every other place in Giza.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div dir="ltr"><b>Luxor</b></div><div dir="ltr">Years later, by which time Thebes (modern day Luxor) became the powerful capital of Upper and Lower Egypt, tombs moved away from the gigantic pyramids to quieter, underground tombs to ward off raiders. Thutmose I of the 18th dynasty (c1500 BC) was a warrior king who pushed Egypt's southern boundary well into Nubia. He wanted to be buried in secret to prevent tomb raiders and his royal architect Ineni decided to build it in what became the Valley of the Kings. Of course, tombs were still raided. We can't go inside his tomb today (KV38).</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Now for the first female reigning Queen in history!</div><div dir="ltr">Thutmose I had a daughter from his royal queen, Hatshepsut. She was married to a half brother from a non-royal consort, Thutmose II, who became the next king. When Thutmose II died young leaving Hatshepsut with a daughter, that daughter was married to her half brother from another consort, Thutmose III, who was declared an infant king. Hatshepsut took the throne as regent. However, she soon became King Hatshepsut and ruled for 22 years. (Here I must tell you she is actually the second female to rule; Sobekneferu was the first female Pharaoh but for a very short time). In contrast to her father's reign, it's marked by trade and beatification. She brought trees such as frankincense and myrrh, and animals like donkeys, to Egypt. She built glorious temples like the <b>Deir el Bahri temple</b> to the sun god Amon Ra (who she claimed was her father) which also served as her tomb in the Valley of the Kings (she abandoned her tomb in the Valley of Queens), the twin obliseks at the Karnak temple which were then the tallest structures, the Red Chapel at the Karnak temple among many more. You can visit these today in Luxor. Two smaller obliseks that Hatshepsut built are now in Central Park in New York and at Embankment in London.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">When you visit them, you will see that the Polish restoration was so good, the buildings almost look new and rather disappointing. But you can also see how destroyed they were before they were painstakingly restored. When Thutmose III finally came to power as a young man in his twenties, he went about destroying everything she had built and replacing her name with his to erase her from history. He may have succeeded, but for our archeologists.</div>
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<br></div><div dir="ltr"><b>The Karnak Temple</b> was an ongoing project for all kings that ruled from Thebes, to immortalise themselves through their glorification of Amon Ra. Parts of the temple date back to 1970 BC but much of it was in 18th and 19th dynasty, prominently Hatshepsut and Rameses II. </div><div dir="ltr">Not to be missed are the avenue of rams in the approach to the temple, the mud blocks that aided the construction of the pylons, the hypostyle hall (RamesesII) which is the largest of its kind and gave the inspiration for the columns we associate with Greeks and Romans, Hatshepsut's obliseks, the statues of various kings including Tutankhamun, and the engravings on literally everything. You can still see few colours on the walls. There is a sacred lake and a large scarab which is seen as lucky and local guides tell you to go around it 7 times for a wish to come true. We went back to the Karnak temple in the night for a sound and light show.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div dir="ltr">Rameses II, also known as Rameses the great, ruled for 67 years and much of the 1200s BC making him the longest reigning monarch of ancient times. He had more than a hundred children from more than fifty consorts, some his own daughters, and he outlived many of his children dying in his 90s and succeeded by his thirteenth son, Merenptah. He had lots of military conquests in his time including the world's first known peace treaty with the Hittites that had extradition language. His reign was also marked by glorious buildings and festivals. During the festival of Opet, Amon Ra is paraded from Karnak temple along a 2.5 km lane that was adorned with Sphinxes on either side called the avenue of Sphinxes (180 of the 365 survive) down to the Luxor Temple. </div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><b>The Luxor Temple</b> has a huge hall for festivities and a variety of food and mead is free for the city, or at least that's what the inscriptions say. At the edge of Luxor temple you will find a church and a mosque built in that order in history. But, at the entrance of the Luxor Temple, alongside the colossal statues of Rameses II, there were two obliseks at the entrance. Sadly only one stands today. The other was gifted away to France and is now at Place de la Concorde in Paris. </div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><div dir="ltr">When the Romans came, they destroyed a lot of the ancient temples and replaced them with churches. Occasionally, they just plastered them with cement to cover the old inscriptions and painted on Coptic Christian depictions. But over time, the cement facade fell away and the ancient inscriptions stand the test of time. </div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BBo8nU8BR5I/Xad7C_3FbJI/AAAAAAAA0zw/cOcmmyFUElAbbFOZ0HW0bMdvyIUP_FN9ACNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1571257096723632-4.png" imageanchor="1"></a></div></div></div><div dir="ltr">The mortuary temple of Rameses II is called the Ramesseum, which we didn't stop for. Rameses also built the rock cut temple at Abu Simble with the iconic four colossal statues of himself as well as a temple for his wife Neferteri. We didn't visit Abu Simble. But we did go to <b>Medinet Habu </b>which is temple of Rameses III, who came generations after Rameses II but sought to take after his namesake in glory. The depictions in Medinet Habu are the largest we saw. Some of the colours are so exquisite.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div></div></div><div dir="ltr">We also had a quick photo stop at <b>Colossi of Memnon</b>. There are two large monolith statues of Amhenotep III and have nothing to do with Memnon. This was supposedly the largest mortuary temple and is earlier to Rameses II but very little remains. The Colossi themselves broke apart in 27 BC due to an earthquake and the stones supposedly sang due to the cracks. They no longer sing now and have been restored.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div></div><div dir="ltr">Finally, we come to the <b>Valley of the Kings</b>, which although started by Thutmose I, it's most preserved are the later tombs. With the entry ticket into the Valley of the Kings, you can enter three tombs - Merenptah (son of Rameses II), Rameses IV and Rameses XI. Merenptah was the oldest we saw being built around 1200 BC and Rameses XI is around 1100 BC. Each one was a slightly different style but all were remarkably well preserved with beautiful colours - red, golden yellow and blue - through more than 3000 years. </div>
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There are a couple of other tombs you can go into but we didn't.</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Seti I (father of Rameses II) is supposedly incredibly beautiful but it's also the most expensive entrance at 1000EGP. Apparently the colours were very well preserved when it was first found but since had lost its colours so it was shut down for a long time. It's only recently opened up.</div><div dir="ltr">The most popular tomb is that of Tutankhamun, the boy who became king at 9 years and died at 18. Tutankhamun himself actually did little. He rebuilt parts of temples, including Karnak, that his father Akhenaten destroyed. (Akhenaten brought on the world's first monotheistic religion of Aton worship who is the sun god but Akhenaten destroyed temples of Amon Ra, also sun god, Osiris, Isis, Anubis, etc.) But Tutankhamun tomb is popular because it's the latest tomb to be found. It was also one of the few tombs to be found that evaded robbers and the whole tomb was glittering with gold. It gives us the scale of Egypt's wealth since it had a lot of treasure buried in spite of the king's relative youth and lack of power. It also costs extra to go into Tutankhamun tomb but I understand it's a lot less impressive since everything is in museums. Some of the treasure is currently on tour in London.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><b>Luxor Museum</b> makes for a great midday visit since it's air conditioned. You'll appreciate it in the Luxor desert weather. It contains some beautiful sculptures which were amazingly restored to nearly their original form. Watch out for Amenhotep III, his vizier Amenhotep, son of Hapu, and a number of others. You can see brushes and pallets with paint, much like what we used. The insides of a painted sarcophagus is on display. There are a couple of mummies too, just to compete your Egyptian journey.</div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><b>Cairo</b></div><div dir="ltr">We also visited Cairo briefly. We went to the Tahrir Square, which was essentially a traffic island. We visited the Khan el Khalili market. It was a little disappointing and seemed more like a large souvenir shop and objects weren't great quality. The cat calls are put you off. We went to a large, peaceful old mosque. We didn't go to Cairo museum since apparently half the exhibits have already been moved to a new Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza that will open in year or so. </div><div dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-57197511914856127902020-01-02T13:29:00.000+00:002020-01-02T13:31:09.663+00:00Book picks from 2019<div>I managed to read 51 books in 2019. Here are my recommendations from the 51:</div><div><br></div><div><b>My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante</b></div><div>Ferrante captures young female friendship in all its inexplicable beauty, in its interdependent on support and jealousy. I have never read a coming of age story that was so relatable. So honest that I felt the need to reach out to my own school friends. The struggle to rise above your circumstances and the self discovery feels universal. To me, the rest of the books in the series don't match up to it. I watched the National Theatre's adaptation into a play and was deeply disappointed but was delighted with the Italian TV show directed by Saverio Constanzo!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>Milkman by Anna Burns</b></div><div>A wonderful read, it's a serious tale of The Troubles but the barely 16yr old girl's troubles are nonetheless all too contemporary and unsettling. It casually highlights the 'us vs them' peppered with witty sarcasm and all kinds of digressions. Characters remain unnamed (like 'maybe-boyfriend' or 'third brother-in-law') and things just happen to our narrator without her so much as making a statement, giving you the uneasy feeling that it could happen to you, in your town and feels extraordinarily contemporary.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>Circe by Madeline Miller</b></div><div>It was refreshing to read a traditional tale, after all the twists and turns the modern day books seem to contain. It's a sympathetic reimagination of a Greek "evil" temptress, Circe as someone who was ignored by her parents like an unwanted child. Since little is known about the character, the author seems to draw heavily from a better done version - GRRM's Cersei. The harsh father, the scorn of society, the epic love for her child, all seem to be portrayed similarly. But I recommend it since it pushed me to read more books on mythology, in general.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>Pachinko by Min Jin Lee</b></div><div>It's an epic intergenerational story of Koreans through Japanese colonisation, WWII and the partition. The first of its kind that I read and yet it's so similar to much of the colonised world that it is relatable in spite of the foreignness. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton</b></div><div>I had been looking for a good mystery and it couldn't get better than this. The twists are unpredictable and the story is a puzzle you piece together through the narrator who wakes up a different character every day. It makes for a thoroughly unique experience.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman</b></div><div>It's a beautiful read as a lonely woman with a horrible past learns to develop friendships and to live ordinarily like everyone. It's warm, funny and full of hope; how the smallest act of kindness can go a long way. It envelops you like a snuggle blanket and a cup of hot coffee.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div><b>A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness</b></div><div>It's a short children's book yet it captures grief so succinctly and is relatable regardless of age. It's about a boy whose mother has cancer; how he copes with it and the toll it takes on him. His love for his mother and his perseverance to be a responsible boy who can take care of her is tender and endearing. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></div><div><br></div><div>Books that I would NOT recommend at all:</div><div>Origin by Dan Brown</div><div>Harappa by Vineet Bajpai</div><div>I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>If you want to have a look at all 51, here are some links:</div><div><br></div><div>Good Reads 2019 Year in Books</div><div>https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/50347599<br></div><div><br></div><div>Twitter thread of 140 character reviews</div><div>https://twitter.com/SlishaCrazy/status/1092725939266641921<br></div><div><br></div><div>Blog post on H1: http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2019/07/books-i-read-in-2019-til-end-of-june.html</div><div><br></div><div>Blog post on H2: http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2019/12/books-i-read-in-2019-second-half.html</div><div><br></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-89766016335099154912019-12-31T22:57:00.000+00:002019-12-31T22:57:38.930+00:00Books I read in 2019, the second half<p dir="ltr">Read 51 books in this year 2019!</p><p dir="ltr">In 2018, I signed up to one of those reading challenges to complete 50 books. If I could have done it in any year, it would have been 2018 given the significant amount of free time I had. Somehow I didn't even get through five books. Instead I worked on an adult colouring book and some origami, and also tried to learn python.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Come 2019, I decided I should at least try. Also, I took a friend's advice on audiobooks and realised my library had a huge collection. So may be this year, I can read half that number.</p>
<p dir="ltr">June update: I have read 19 books in the first half of the year. If I keep that up, I might actually end up reading more than 50 this year. But we all know that's unlikely. Yet, I felt I need to publish now, lest the post is too long.</p>
<p dir="ltr">December update: this is the second version of that.</p>
<p dir="ltr">20. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante: after My Brilliant Friend it was inevitable that I immerse myself in the follow up literary experience. Just like Elena Greco's book, it's difficult to say what it is but every page has a certain energy that lends beauty to it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">21. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: Have been looking for a good mystery and it couldn't get better than this. The twists are unpredictable and the story is a puzzle you piece together through the narrator who wakes up a different character every day.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">22. Winter by Ali Smith: Following on from Book6, the author indulges in even more poetry than before. The wittiness of weaving political events into the everyday is charming but the ebb and flow of poetry leaves you a little confused, making the text feel somewhat jumpy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">23. Heroes by Stephen Fry: the book covers a host of heroes, well known like Heracles and lesser known like Atalanta, and through their labours, it covers creatures as well, like Chimera, and Sphinx, in the voice of a loving and witty grandfather that Fry carries well.</p><p dir="ltr">24. Norse Mythology by Niel Gaiman: it's a collection of stories strung together making it easier to digest the vastness of the Nordic culture. It covers the most important stories, but leaves us begging for more. I'm going to reread this one!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">25. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma: The joyful childhood of four brothers growing up in 90's Nigeria slowly turns dark and wistful at the lost opportunities. It parallels MKO's 'hope' presidential campaign, his victory, imprisonment and the eventual military dictatorship. [I went on to watch a wonderful adaptation into a cast play (Benjamin and Obembe) at The Trafalgar Studios.]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">25.5: I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes: TLDR. Read 44% before giving up. Supposedly a page-turning thriller, first third is spent praising our smartest secretest American agent. He then chases an ex-'muj' who synthesises an unbeatable virus. And presumably wins/ saves the world. </p>
<p dir="ltr">26. Our House by Louise Candlish: Fi discovers her house has been sold - every London homeowner's nightmare! The story unravels as it alternates between #VictimFi podcast and Bram's confession statement. A domestic thriller with a lot of twists, it hooks you from the start!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">27. Leila by Prayaag Akbar: Unlike Handmaid's Tale inspired web series, the book is original. A dystopian world where water and air are luxuries afforded by the rich, and classism/communal boundaries are enforced for resource sharing/ preventing excesses.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">28. Wild Swans by Jung Chang: it starts with the author's great grandmother to her own 27 years of life, through imperialist China, Japanese colonisation and the rise and rise of Mao in communist China. It showcases resilience of humanity through a very personal lens.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">29. When I Hit You by Meena Kandaswamy: a raw account of a marriage to a man hiding abuse behind communist values; surreal after Wild Swans. The writing style is poetic with a dollop of irony flowing in phrases like "the rest, as they say, is the unrest of this story".</p>
<p dir="ltr">30. Nice Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty: The characters come alive with their back stories and personalities, both endearing and engrossing. But the mystery towards the end falls flat. Can't wait for the TV show Nicole Kidman is making. Think she plays Masha, or Francis?</p>
<p dir="ltr">31. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman: it's a beautiful read as a lonely woman with a horrible past learns to develop friendships and to live ordinarily like everyone. It's warm, funny and full of hope; how the smallest act of kindness can go a long way.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">32. Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry: two aging gangsters reminisce their past and the toll of crime on their bodies and lives, while looking for their daughter at the port of Algeciras. Philosophically lyrical but without punctuation, it's a beautiful but difficult read.</p>
<p dir="ltr">33. The Private Life of Mrs Sharma by Ratika Kapur: Mrs Sharma is a respectable woman, a good woman; as she will tell you repeatedly. The book shines a light on how we find ways to justify our actions and see ourselves as 'good' people who are victims of our circumstances.</p>
<p dir="ltr">34. Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphics by Barbara Mertz: Mertz narrates the original Game of Thrones: the stories of Pharaohs, their achievements, plots and gossip, piecing together information from excavations. Ancient Egypt is enchanting, as is the process of understanding it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">35. Crocodile on the sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (pen name): 1st of Amelia Peabody series written by Mertz of Book34. They are mystery stories of an Egyptologist, set in late 1800s Egypt with a childlike sense of adventure, peppered with actual facts and historical figures. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">36. Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: Retelling an epic so old is commendable in itself and Draupadi makes for a great narrator. But her voice is too womanly, contrary to what the author wanted. And all other characters are 1D, while her relationship with Karna is overdone.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">37. Mythos by Stephen Fry: Greek mythology unfolds from Chaos into ether and earth that produce the sky. Then, politics takes over! Titans are born, who become Olympians, and give us the inherently humourous stories that Fry unravels, adding a generous dollop of his own wit. Ideally I should have read this before I read Heroes.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div></p><p dir="ltr">38. Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves: I might be a little old for this but I enjoyed Joe Harker and all the kinds of Joes that walk between worlds and fight the bad guys. The first book in the series ends with Joe assembling his team, incl the cute mudloaf, Hue! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">39. A Man called Ove by Frederik Backmanland: Backman creates a grumpy old man who has a big heart filled with love for his wife and his Saab. It's a warm and fuzzy story that's remarkably sad and left me in tears more times than I would have liked. Still, a thoroughly lovely read! <br></p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">40. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schafer: it's about a gathering of people who supported each other through the German occupation (of Guernsey Island) by reading books. Written as letters of correspondence, it makes you fall in love with letter writing all over again and drawing in a sense of romance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">41. Lullaby by Leila Slimani: The book opens with the nanny, Louise (a nod to Louise Woodford?), killing the two children in her charge - similar to the real life murder of the Krim siblings. The rest is life in the Parisian society, the poverty and desparation leading to it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">42. A Monster Calls by PatrickNess: It's a short children's book yet it captures grief so succinctly and is relatable regardless of age. It's about a boy whose mother has cancer; how he copes with it and the toll it takes on him. It's tender and beautiful.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">43. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre: a hard-hitting black comedy that got me so shaken, at times I had to stop. Accused of being an accomplice to a Texas school shooting, a young boy gets lost with no adult to look up to in his life. Echoes with JD Salinger's Holden Caufield.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">44. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari: It's his stream of consciousness on woke topics pandering to his cult of followers. Dissing religion in favour of meditation is not visionary but that's how new religions are born. Sounds like the birth of a new preacher!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">45. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga: Poverty sells and Adiga knows it. In this collection of stories set in fictional Kittur of Kerala, the poor struggle with poverty and casteism that transcend the multitude of cultures. Some stories flow, others seem forced.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">46. The Wall by John Lanchester: A brilliant portrayal of the bleak future that climate change brings, problems from human migration that follow and the guilt the current generation ought to carry. The ending, like one taken out of Walking Dead, is ripe for sequels.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">47. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (3/4 Neopolitan Novels): The title sounds like it refers to the readers. The characters go around in circles but the society and economy are changing rapidly in the background and brought to life through their lives. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">48. Raavan by Amish: In spite of an attempt to give the character layers, the author creates a remarkably unidimensional evil character. I might have warmed up to the series, had it not been based on the Ramayana at all. It's just too different from the original epic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p dir="ltr">49. Cell by Robin Cook: Cook bases this page-turner on the the stressed out healthcare industry. The book questions the medical profession's hypothetical oath when apps replace doctors. Meant to be futuristic, it feels unnervingly real. The future is here and it is scary. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">50. Flights by Olga Tokarczuk: It's a collection of snippets, on travel and on the preservation of internal organs. Weird book this! Bits on travel are warm and soothing. Not sure how I feel about taxidermy/anatomy. It won the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize, FYI. Ummm... </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><div><br></div>51 (cont'd from 25.5): I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes: Secretest agent with a bloated ego, answerable only to the President, saves and makes America great again. Add on a super intelligent terrorist with an evil plan, an unhealthy dollop of racism and a pinch of plot. And voila!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-83209288276417052762019-10-18T09:10:00.000+01:002019-10-18T09:10:13.887+01:00A weekend in Rome - Pompeii & Herculaneum<p dir="ltr">Republishing from September 2017...<br>
If Rome was magnificent, Pompeii is fascinating and Herculaneum ever more so!</p>
<p dir="ltr">We took a day trip to Naples for a tour of the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, so that we can accompany our dear friends Ivo and JR on their Euro trip. </p>
<p dir="ltr">To give you a bit of history, Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD spewing lava and ash catastrophically for the two places and many other cities. Pompeii and Herculaneum were both between 7-10kms from the mountain and with lava flowing at 80km/hour and hot gases ever faster, the towns' people had little warning, especially considering that Mt Vesuvius had been dormant for 800 years prior.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We first arrived at Pompeii.<br>
To tour an entire town would take you a couple of days one would think and we had a couple of hours. We picked out what we wanted to see, nevertheless we got lost. You see, it is very much a city. It has street names, a town center, the market, residential quarters differentiating the haves and have-nots, and not one but two theatres, not to mention the main amphitheatre. Pompeii must have been a metro of its day.</p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br><p></p><p dir="ltr">What people probably find fascinating is the decorations in some of the rich houses. They had these mosiac patterns on the walls, on the ceilings and even on the floor. Some had enamel paintings which are largely lost but you can still make out the structure of the painting. Many of the houses of the rich also had nicely maintained gardens with pathways and sculptures well preserved. A brothel is also a popular spot, for the well-preserved paintings. The market square is so impressive with its large pillars and it is also here where they foundthe remarkably preserved bodies of a dog and a hunched up man, under all the volcanic ash. </p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">What I found most fascinating was the fastfood restaurant on every other street. They have this kitchen area and serving area so fundamentally similar to any fastfood restaurant you can think of. That little Chinese place around corner from my office has the same layout. That tells you that this is the same city as today. Might have had horse carts instead of cars and people had some zebra crossings so they don't set foot on the road, but fundamentally it's the same as today. We live the same way with the same differences between rich and poor and gather around market squares.</p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p dir="ltr">Herculaneum is slightly different. Although it's currently dug up underground and is far from the sea, back then it was a multilevel Hamlet on the sea. Hence it doesn't have the same roads that Pompeii has and neither did it have it's organised structure. Roads are narrowing and winding, many ending in stairs at you get closer to the sea. Not unlike the historical center of Edinburgh. It has its own charm, that of a small community. When they dug up Herculaneum, they underestimated the number of people who lived and died there. The archeologists assumed that the people of Herculaneum had too little time being too close to Mt Vesuvius and hence couldn't have run far. But as they continued to dig they found a closed warehouse near the erstwhile harbour where at least 300 took refuge or may be waiting for boats to get away from the lava. A grim picture. But it also helped the archeologists figure out where the sea used to be versus where it is now and all the land mass that now exists between Herculaneum and the sea has been contributed by Mt Vesuvius, albiet over multiple eruptions.</p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><p></p><p dir="ltr">Today there are 3 million people living in the vicinity of Mt Vesuvius which last erupted in 1944, compared to the 800 years it was dormant before spewing lava on Pompeii.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-14143524399972589512019-07-10T19:22:00.002+01:002019-07-10T19:26:40.513+01:00Books I read in 2019, til the end of June <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In 2018, I signed up to one of those reading challenges to complete 50 books. If I could have done it in any year, it would have been 2018 given the significant amount of free time I had. Somehow I didn't even get through five books. Instead I worked on an adult colouring book and some origami, and also tried to learn python.</div>
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Come 2019, I decided I should at least try. Also, I took a friend's advice on audiobooks and realised my library had a huge collection. So may be this year, I can read half that number.</div>
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June update: I have read 19 books in the first half of the year. If I keep that up, I might actually end up reading more than 50 this year. But we all know that's unlikely. Yet, I felt I need to publish now, lest the post is too long.</div>
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Here is me documenting it - the first half of the year:</div>
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1. Origin by Dan Brown (Jan): I wanted to start 2019 with some light reading. But this is beyond light, pointless. This book wasn't expected to be spectacular in terms of writing but this time it lacked even a basic plot. Large sections of the book were used to just build up to a plot scene which has little mystery to it. And ultimately the stark truth that will "change the world", "destroy all religions" has no merit to it. I'm guessing the author wanted to write something else and then decided he can't deal with trolls. Dan Brown tries to reconcile this plot hole through one of his characters saying that the final "reveal" was softer than the first "reveal" of this "truth".</div>
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2. Red Notice by Bill Browder (Jan): I don't read nonfiction normally, but a friend recommended and I didn't know it was non fiction! Nevertheless, this is very well told, like fiction. Browder manages to capture himself in the early days of his business as an arrogant American overachiever and yet emotionally captures Magnitsky's story and his crusade that follows.</div>
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3. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (Feb): It's story about the members of one family, among it's three generations. It's about ordinary, good people, who try to do the right thing but have their ordinary flaws. It's about their happinesses and their struggles with life. It's as spectacular as ordinary drama gets. I can't tell you why I like this book. I can't put a finger on it. And that's why I think, it comes down to the art of story telling. It's a lot more beautiful in its ordinariness than book 15, Ordinary People.</div>
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4. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Feb): Every female character is strong and every male weak, in this book, and yet patriarchy triumphs in '80s Nigeria. It is the story of a couple and their want of a child. Like the democracy in the country, the children are conceived yet lost, while the couple hope and pray for the best.</div>
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5. And then there were none by Agatha Christie (Feb): Old school. I can imagine it was a ground breaking story in 1939 and I might have been impressed at 14. But I wasn't swept away by Christie at 14, nor now. So mindless a story, an explanatory epilogue is the longest chapter. (I know this will angry some of my loveliest friends. Apologies!)</div>
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6. Autumn by Ali Smith (Feb): It flows like clear spring water in some untouched Highlands brook. Yet enveloping this magic, art and rhyming words, is an uncomfortably divided country, post-Brexit and the sarcasm of public services failed by austerity. A portrait of our times! That little anecdote of a passport photo is so true, across the world!</div>
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7. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Mar): A wonderful childhood female friendship beautifully unfolds through the pages of books. So honest that I felt the need to reach out to my own. The struggle to rise above your circumstances and the self discovery is truly relatable. This book is purely the joy of reading.</div>
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8. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (Mar): A spiritual saga of a girl born with ogbanje (Igbo spirit). A nearly autobiographical glimpse into multiple personalities, self destruction and sexual orientation, all with mystical surrealism and none of the Western scepticism.</div>
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9. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Mar): The title is literal, narrated by Korede about her relationship with her sister, the beautiful Ayoola. Darkly funny and sort of crazy, this short book is captivating and brilliant. Even the tiniest characters are colourful.</div>
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10. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (May): eerily nostradamic, it's about a British Muslim family's suffocating struggle with the identity, the Britishness and the security, of the family but also of the country, and of the British Home Secretary from Pakistan. It's hauntingly surreal.</div>
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11. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (May): I've read it but I'm not sure what it's about. It's about a woman with a degree in anthropology but working as a barista, who is shaped by her wheelchair bound mother on account of an imaginary illness, and her absentee father. Lost and drifting, I am as is the book.</div>
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12. Normal People by Sally Rooney (May): A tenderly written coming-of-age story of two people through their high school and college years, set in Ireland. Words are direct and crisp, and a lot is left unsaid between the characters. But a lot of subtext lies in this unsaidness.</div>
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13. Milkman by Anna Burns (May): A wonderful read, it's a serious tale of The Troubles but the barely 16yr old girl's troubles are nonetheless all too contemporary and unsettling. It casually highlights the 'us vs them' peppered with witty sarcasm and all kinds of digressions.</div>
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14. Circe by Madeline Miller (Jun): A refreshingly traditional tale, it's a sympathetic reimagination of a Greek "evil" temptress. But seems to draw parallels from a better done version - GRRM's Cersei - the harsh father, the scorn of society, the epic love for her child.</div>
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15. Ordinary People by Diane Evans (Jun): While young people in search of love are Normal (ref: book 12, Normal People), middle aged couples losing it and themselves, in the monotony of life with children and the bitterness of unfulfilled dreams are Ordinary. The author can get poetically beautiful even on something so drab it's like a soap opera. But the descriptions of areas in London are endearing and the one about a stabbing is heart wrenching.</div>
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16. Children Of Blood And Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Jun): Three teenagers team up to bring back magic and turn diviners (chosen ones) into magic weilding maji, while the kosidan (muggle) king of Orisha hunts them. An old story (like Harry Potter and the likes) bit told anew and refreshingly woven with Yoruba culture, making it unique.</div>
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17. Harappa by Vineet Bajpai (Jun): The fascinating story kept me going in spite of the terrible writing style, which unfortunately is inspired by Dan Brown, who himself is a poor writer. I wish to complete the trilogy but I'm already exhausted wading through unnecessary prose.</div>
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18. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Jun): What does it mean to be different? A man who hates being different and a woman who yearns to be just that, create a family which is constantly haunted by this question. They forget that everyone is different. The story is spooky that you think you know someone inside out and then you wonder if you knew them at all.</div>
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19. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Jun): it's an epic intergenerational story of Koreans through Japanese colonisation, WWII and the partition. The first of its kind that I read and yet it's so similar to much of the colonised world that it is relatable in spite of the foreignness. The title of pachinko doesn't capture the story though, unless I'm missing something.</div>
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...continuing my endeavour...<br />
On twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SlishaCrazy/status/1092725939266641921">https://twitter.com/SlishaCrazy/status/1092725939266641921</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-66308838854919568222019-01-24T13:11:00.001+00:002019-05-05T14:35:37.366+01:00Flying high<p dir="ltr">It was a typical winter morning in London. One of those days when the rain remains unseen, yet it leaves your face wet and freezing, and the darkness doesn't seem to lift even when the clock says it's well into the morning. My flight was on the tarmac, ready to take off. The tarmac was glistening in the rain, separated only by a thin strip of grass from the undisturbed watery surface of a dock that is no longer in use and had been turned into just a beautification project for the luxury flats next to it. The wetness from the nonexistent rain on the tarmac began to glisten just a little bit more as the twilight of dawn persisted and made it almost indistinguishable from the dock, especially as the flight started to pick up speed. Then the flight took off. </p>
<p dir="ltr">As the flight flew straight into the clouds at an angle more inclined than normal due to the utterly short runway that merges into the dock just seconds after the flight leaves the tarmac, the twilight stayed with us. As always on a cloudy day in London, the layers and layers of clouds took a while to pierce through. And then all of a sudden, we burst through the clouds into the mid morning sunshine, bright and warm, as if we were now in another realm and time had traveled a couple of hours ahead in all of five minutes. The clouds around us, feeling like the ends of cotton candy after you've just tugged at them, reflected the brightness of the sun with a fervour so otherworldly, that I wondered - is it always here everyday, while we live our lives in the world under the clouds, in the depressing darkness of cold London?</p>
<p dir="ltr">About an hour of cruising in the skies with my face soaking in the warmth of the sun, we were well into mid morning. Having flown westward, by the time the descent began, the sunshine made me forget where I was. The flight crew gave me ample warning as did my ears, of the descent. But without warning, in less than a minute, the sun disappeared as the clouds enveloped us again and pulled us down into yet another cold, wet city in Europe with little natural light. I got out from the flight into the twilight darkness, a world away from the warmth of the sun in my face only minutes ago.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The next day, I was heading for another flight to catch when the nearly non existent rain (all European cities seem to have this in common) transformed into light fluffs of snow that drifted around us but disappeared before they touched the ground, leaving unassuming rain on the roads. As my car whizzed past, the wind screen showed blizzard conditions but from my backseat window, I could barely make out the fluff. Past the airport security and the serpentine duty-free corridors, once I finally settled into my window seat for another short flight in this dark midday twilight, I was now excited to fly up high to see the sun again. But there was a delay. The flight needed to be de-iced. Is it that cold, I thought. And when I looked out of the window, it was indeed that cold. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Some of the white fluff had managed to stick to my window. And for the first time, I saw snowflakes! I know snowflakes are supposed to be star shaped but I only know that from clip arts, cartoons and Christmas decorations. I guess, I assumed it was a representation rather than a reality. It hardly snows in London and when it does it barely settles. But here I was, watching the wonderfully intricate fractal patterns that are these fragile snowflakes. Each one was so prettily perfect and all of them separately hugging my window, that for a second I thought it could be some design on the window. But nature has a way of showing that it's prettier than anything we can create. It had managed to create such beauty for my eyes even when I was surrounded by the industrial bleakness of being on a flight on the tarmac with a huge crane throwing some green chemical liquid on to the wings of the flight. Nature indeed is magnificent, even in its tiniest detail.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-284829492460579212018-11-25T13:40:00.000+00:002018-11-26T11:31:32.735+00:00For the joy of writing...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the last few years, I have struggled to write, and to keep up my blog. I kept blaming how life took over and that I find no time for myself. And then I had a few weeks to myself and I most certainly had a lot of time on my hands and yet I chose to do origami than write. That is when I realised, it was because I had forgotten the joy of writing.<br>
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I saw a snapshot of a publication of someone I know, who like me fancied oneself as a writer. That snapshot seemed to be snippet of terrible writing, in my opinion, and it felt like it was a reflection of my own view of myself where I am probably propped up by a select few creating an echo-bubble that praised my writing, but in reality, I am probably a terrible writer.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">(Update: I feel I should explain a little here. That piece of writing from someone I know isn't objectively terrible. It's obviously good enough to be published. But the style is very different from what that writer projected it to be, which has been endorsed by a group of people, where I draw a parallel to my own echo chamber.)<br>
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I have had similar questions about my writing skills before and reading my first ever article I had published in The Hindu would always fill me with joy, pushing aside any doubts that I had. But not this time. This time I read it and considered a number of sentences that I could rewrite into what I now feel is better English. This revelation was very unsettling since my life had gravitated towards some form of writing, whether creative or not. So if I am really bad at writing, I started to question my ability to express my views and opinions. You might think I am my worst critic but I know I am not. Someone I trust has praised my writing for years and someone I trust has literally (pun intended) cut through my writing with criticism.<br>
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However, I had a wonderful discussion with a couple who supported my writing without ever reading anything I have written and that really evoked my joy of writing. It is true that I write without a need for validation. And what gave me the joy of writing had originally been the art of story telling and with the view of striving to get better every time. Somehow, I lost that over time.<br>
Armed with all the arguments my friends had presented to me in terms of why I should continue writing, I went back in time to read the post I had written in July 2006 - "<a href="https://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-do-i-blog.html">why do I blog...</a>". When I started reading the post, my first reaction was that of annoyance at myself for being so stupid and childish. But it was 12 years ago and I am indeed a different person now. As I continued reading and I read the poem that followed, I loved it. Yes, I used "wat" instead of "what", but art is art and it is the flow of words that counts. My form of expression may have been different because I used a very different language back then, but the poem is still very valid today and it reminded me of who I am and rekindled in me the joy of writing.<br>
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My feelings, my own<br>
My principles, mine alone<br>
Never did I expect<br>
An audience or an applause<br>
I dreamed of it, yes of course<br>
But didn't steer my path or plan my course<br>
Validation is too big a word<br>
For a world so small and a heart too bold<br>
To follow it, wasn't to equal<br>
The world's greatest who inspire us all<br>
To write, and to write alone<br>
Is to enjoy the flow of words ebbing in us all<br>
To string together with words<br>
People, places, emotions and worlds<br>
Is to find the joy of writing<br>
By opening up my heart and expressing<br>
But no one needs to know<br>
And no one needs to reflect my own<br>
Write to only write, for it's true<br>
to myself, my past and present, my hopes and dreams<br>
My feelings, my own<br>
My principles, mine alone</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-43030488739720035472018-09-22T11:59:00.001+01:002018-09-22T17:31:05.214+01:00The Luckiest Girl Alive<p dir="ltr">Recently, I've been trying to read books, a few books that I haven't been able to finish. I started Sapiens which I found extremely interesting but lost interest when the book started discussing empires. I started the Great Indian Novel which I continue to read but need to wiki a lot in between. I started Trinity by Leon Uris which is a phenomenal book but it is a slow read and needs to be absorbed in parts.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Just to feel good about myself, I wanted to read a page-turner, a pot-boiler, a masala book. I turned to The Luckiest Girl Alive. I came upon it after watching Big Little Lies. Reese Witherspoon picked up three books to turn into movies/series. The first was Gone Girl, the second was Big Little Lies and the third that she is currently working on is this book. I thought, for once let me get ahead of the movie version.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The story is about TifAni Fanelli, a small time middle class girl who is trying to transform herself into Ani Harrison, the socialite magazine columnist/ trophy wife of a wealthy (not just rich) Wall Street man. We meet her as the newly engaged woman planning her wedding and her perfect life. But she has a disturbing back story from her school life which made her very infamous, which is also why she is hell bent on changing her life.</p>
<p dir="ltr">For the first half, I was frankly bored and annoyed. Because all Ani cares about is perception and how she meticulously manipulates people and projects herself. Or at least that's what she talks about all the time. True, we all try to do the same but surely not to that worryingly obsessive degree. Nevertheless, I<br>
persisted with the book because I didn't want to pause another book in the middle. And then the story unravels: the incidents from her past and how she tackles them. <br>
The incidents are sad and depressing and the book indeed becomes dark. But it is also eye opening about what people think are problems and how one prioritises them. Of the incidents that happen to Ani, I can understand what hurt her the most like it's the most obvious thing. Yet people around her in the book don't and very realistically too.<br>
Like Gone Girl or Big Little Lies, the tempo picks up towards the end and the book is absolutely worth the read!!!</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-75486042232828525132018-06-24T16:54:00.000+01:002018-06-24T16:54:27.682+01:00Japan: Tokyo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tokyo is a mishmash of a number of things. It's pretty with lovely gardens. It's busy at all its train stations. It's futuristic with its neon displays and technology. It's weird with its maid cafes and love hotels. It's cute with its pop and cosplay cult. It's warm with people willing to help you even if they have no idea what you are talking about. It's a bit hard to decide whether I like it or not. Most people I know find it very impressive and overwhelming. </div>
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For some reason, I found it slightly underwhelming. Dare I say this to anyone because you are expected to fall in love with Tokyo almost immediately. May be my expectations were clouded by people who visited many years ago. Tokyo apparently hasn't changed much in the last decade or so. I can imagine visiting it 10 years ago when I would be blown out of my mind by the technology or the subculture. But now, the world is fast catching up. Or may be I just kept upping my expectations of the the unexpected when the world has grown smaller and we know a lot more about the country.<br />
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The most impressive thing about Japan was the food. Everyone told us that before we went there and we completely dismissed it because we are not foodies. But food in Japan is amazing, and I don't mean Japanese food. Any food is so well made.The handmade sushi outside the Tsukiji fishmarket being awesome is expected, as is the Hida beef in Takayama that is internationally popular. But, a packaged brioche bun with butter and jam purchased from a local 7-11 was by far the best bun I have had. The avocado and shrimp sandwich in a cafe chain called Dontour is so fresh. And the pancakes we had at places we can't even remember were the fluffiest I've seen. They make any food just brilliantly, it is as simple as that.</div>
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Shibuya crossing for instance, didn't look as busy as I expected. May be because it's so open. Surely, the number of people there are a lot more objectively than at Canary wharf jubilee line entrance/ any Northern line station in zone 1 at rush hour. But because these places are smallish, everyone seems jam packed while Shibuya seemed open and able to accommodate crowds. We took so many pictures trying to take the perfect picture of a crowded crossing but we just couldn't get one because it wasn't crowded enough. And half the crowd is other tourists trying to create a crowd and take pic, or videoing themselves crossing.<br />
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Nevertheless, Tokyo is still impressive in every which way. Harajuku is like a constant cosplay with cute little stores selling you all kinds of hair accessories. It wasn't full of tourists as I expected. Well the streets were, especially Takeshita. But the little stores didn't have so many people and when it did they were all locals who were truly pumped about whatever it is that there browsing to buy, like full-on costumes from actual theatre/shows or Kpop magic.<br />
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Talking about pop, Akihabara is a crazy neighbourhood. It was the electronics town with the black market after the WWII. It is supposedly the birthplace of a lot of the electronics global brands that Japan is so famous for. Akihabara now is filled with video game arcades and manga and anime shops as well as some adult themed places like love hotels. Locally, it is probably most famous for the phenomenon that is AKB48. It is some kind of a pop girl band, except it has 130 members (48 originally) and viewer polls get to decide who stays or leaves the group making it a reality show, and they all look and dress alike. They have a theatre where they perform.<br />
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I liked the concept of Golden Gai and Omoido Yokocho where you have tiny places, each like a single room with a space for 10-15 people, some tinier with only space for 7. Some are bars and some are restaurants. They don't really have menus and the place we went to, the chef just brought us a basket of all the raw chicken and vegetables and we picked what we wanted grilled. The menu is just that, so they are not full-fledged restaurants. You can go hopping but I am guessing the experience is pretty much the same. Everyone is welcoming and unlike other places to hangout, Japanese here would interact with others (though mostly we only ran into other tourists, that too British or Australian).If there is no English signage however, tourists are so not welcome.<br />
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Our most important day around which our entire trip was planned was the traditional wedding reception. Some of our friends chose to don a kimono although I couldn't convince myself to wear it for about 5 hours. They looked lovely and I was indeed envious of their decision in the end. The venue was pretty and it was nice day out with everyone looking their best. The food looked great, let alone taste even though I went for their vegetarian options. The bride and groom were in traditional Japanese clothes and the most gracious hosts.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-75356163212225574042018-06-24T16:36:00.003+01:002018-06-24T16:36:41.118+01:00Japan: Kanazawa to Alps to Matsumoto & Mt Fuji<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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From Kyoto, we wanted to visit the Japanese Alps in Gifu prefecture. We had booked accommodation for one night in Takayama and the next in Matsumoto using them as connectors.<br />
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Now, the fastest way to get to Takayama using JR pass was to take a Shinkansen half way and a JR rail for the rest, reaching in 2.5 hours (timed correctly). Instead we opted for the longer, more scenic bus route. After all, the fun is in the journey and not the destination. And another similar way of travelling to Matsumoto.<br />
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Itinerary details:<br />
Kyoto -- (train) --> Kanazawa -- (bus) --> Shirakawago -- (bus) --> Takayama (night stay) -- (bus) --> Shinhotaka Ropeway -- (bus) -- Hirayu Onsen (change) -- (bus) --> Kamikochi -- (bus) --> Matsumoto (night stay) -- (train) --> Kofu (change) -- (bus) --> Kawaguchiko for Mt Fuji -- (bus) -- Ostuki (change) -- (train) --> Tokyo<br />
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Having visited so many places in the 3 days, we only saw the highlights in each of these places. In Kanazawa, we immediately headed out to what is usually referred to as the prettiest garden in Japan, Kenroku-en. It was indeed pretty. There were a couple of ponds, some sakura trees, a large pine grove and a plum grove which K really loved. There was an interesting self operating fountain. Being on high ground, the garden also had great view points of the city.<br />
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When we reached the bus stop, we felt that the bus to Shirakawago was a bit full so we opted to take the next one. Turns out we were the only two people on the bus! Shirakawago is a meant to be a preserved village with the iconic Gassho-style huts with quaint village life. They say the best way to experience it is to stay in one of those huts for the night. We didn't plan it that way unfortunately. Or fortunately? There were at least 40 tour buses and the village was teaming with tourists taking pics of literally everything. We walked around and finally found an open air museum which contained some of these mud houses that you can actually go into. The museum has a few houses, a mill, a granary, a waterfall and a pond as well as a few Sakura trees. We had the whole place to ourselves apart from a couple of wood-chopping locals.<br />
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Takayama had a nice hispter vibe like Haridwar or any smallish place near the Himalayas. It is often used as a base by hikers/skiers into the Alps. It has some trendy places to eat although we chose to go to a very traditional grill restaurant where you leave your footwear outside, sit on tatami mats and grill your own meat. Even though I only tasted the red meat, I felt that the Hida beef was softer and sweeter than the chicken I was grilling.<br />
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From Takayama, we sat on a bus to Hirayu Onsen to go to Kamikochi but as we realised that our bus was going to the Shinhotaka Ropeway, we decided to stay on it. There we took two cable car rides to reach the highest point where the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. During winter, it is a great place to ski. You could see snow-capped mountains everywhere. We weren't prepared for the weather though, so after a quick photo-stop, we took the next gondola back. Kamikochi is a pretty little village/town in the valley between some of these mountains. There are a lot of hiking trails along the river. We walked for about an hour or so, stopping to soak in nature's paintings.<br />
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Matsumoto has a tiny little castle. It is also called the crow castle because it is black in colour. but the most fascinating thing about this castle is it is the oldest original castle. As I mentioned on my post on Kyoto, older buildings in Japan are spoken of in reference to the original constructions even though they are rebuilt many times after being destroyed by fire (sometimes as many as eight times). However, Matsumoto castle did not have to be rebuilt. When we visited, there were some Samurais performing for the crowd in the gardens.<br />
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From Matsumoto to Kawaguchiko Five Lakes area was exhausting. And when reached, the station/bus stop area was so confusing with so many people around. We found some cycles for hire but had to return it because of the traffic everywhere and instead just took a taxi to north bank of the lake Kawaguchiko and began walking back to the station hoping to find good views. Finally we found a small cove just under the bridge which had unhindered views of Mt Fuji, right by the lake. It was so serene to just sit there and watch the never-changing view.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-84540188004802553672018-06-24T16:35:00.003+01:002018-06-24T16:35:59.509+01:00Japan: Kyoto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Kyoto at first seems like a beautiful cute little town. It's actually a sprawling city. But for tourists that cute little town is all that we need. It sits snugly in the valley between many hills.</div>
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Kyoto is super easy for tourists to navigate as long as you can read and write English. Many restaurants would have menus in many other languages as well. Many tourists rent kimonos and samurai clothes and walk around the city dressed in the gear to make for some nice pictures. For the rest of us, these tourists provide an atmosphere of tradition. The city has an insane number of temples and some shrines and one really needs to decide which ones to visit, otherwise you'll just be lost.<br />
We were in Kyoto for three full days and were not very productive on our first day because of jetlag and continuous rain.</div>
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Just a bit of background: Shrines are temples of the Shinto religion which is the traditional religion before Buddhism came into Japan. Japan saw phases of acceptance of Buddhism and rejection as well as outright abolition and finally in today's world, a mixture of Shinto lifestyle with Buddhist beliefs. What this meant was that shrines and temples pretty much exist along each other in the same compound. </div>
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First in Kyoto, we went to Ryoan-ji temple which is supposed to house the best Zen garden. Now, this is our first ever Zen garden and we just didn't get it. It made no sense and we were very underwhelmed. (Our understanding improved on visiting Daitokuji.)<br />
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On the rainy day we also did a Kyoto Free Walking Tour (check on Facebook) which was pretty good. It gives you a bit of orientation on Kyoto. We walked through the Gion Geisha District (and learnt the difference between Maiko and Geiko Geishas and how it's all different from Memoirs of a Geisha), the pretty area of Higayashima, visited a temple and a shrine. Afterwards, we wandered by ourselves to the 700 year old Nishiki market which has a lot of street food and some nice restaurants.<br />
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On the second day, we took a train to Nara. Nara is similar to Kyoto with many temples but the big one is marked out for you - Todai-ji. <br />
Todai-ji hosts a Daibutsu or Vicarana Buddha or simply a massive Great Buddha. It was a mesmerising image. He has a halo of smaller Buddha statues and is flanked by two Bodhisattvas and two guardians. There is a small hole in a pillar that is meant to be the size of a nostril of the giant Buddha and there is a belief that anyone who can pass through it takes good fortune with them. The complex also hosts a 5 level pagoda.<br />
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There are many other temples and gardens in Nara and we chose one of each, which were on the way back from Todai-ji to the station. We visited the Yoshikien garden which was as cute as a cupcake and we went to the Kofukuji temple. The Kofukuji temple is smaller and less visited. We went there mostly for the National Treasure Museum which hosts many old statues of Bodhisattvas, guardians (who are Gods from Hindu mythology), a six-handed Ashura and a remarkable 1000-handed standing Buddha (Avilokitesvara) in all his glory. The actual statue may not have a thousand hands but he was as impressive as the Daibutsu. Many of the temples have been rebuilt many times over due to destruction by fire because they are all made of wood, sometimes including the idols. At times when the idols were saved yet could not be used in the new temple, they have now been preserved in the museum. No pictures are allowed in the museum.</div>
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On our way back to Kyoto, we got off at the Inari station for the Fushimi Inari shrine. Here we have the iconic image of Kyoto, the innumerable vermilion coloured torii. All shrines have a torii at the entrance where you bow and enter. But at Fushimi Inari, while there is one big torii when you enter, there is a path way of 4kms winding over a hill filled with toriis, not linked to the main shrine. There are however, many smaller shrines along the 4kms. The are also good view points of the city of Kyoto if you persist on the path. This is probably the most visited site in Kyoto and hence almost always busy. Yet because of its length (and the altitude that comes with it) if you walk long enough, you'll find a secluded spot for photographs, only interrupted by a handful of tireless tourists and some pilgrims. A famous scene in Memories of a Geisha was shot here.<br />
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From Inari station, we went back to Kyoto station. The station itself has some nice view points. It took us a while to find it but we eventually found an elevator that would take us to the 10th floor from where we could access the sky walk. It has some great views of the city and the Kyoto tower. There are some nice restaurants in that square that follows from it.</div>
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The final day in Kyoto, we woke up early, finally with jetlag overcome, because we wanted to visit Arayashima bamboo grove. Another iconic Kyoto spot, we wanted to beat the crowds. It turned out to be a very short stretch of road and hence, going early was a good idea. Turns out, there are also taxi tours later in the day where the taxis drive through the road which can be really annoying.<br />
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Midway along the bamboo pathway, there is an entrance to the Tenryu-ji temple. This is the first temple of the day (of the six we saw in the whole day) but it was just the garden that we were able to see and the garden was really pretty and well laid out. <br />
At the end of the bamboo pathway, there is a scenic rail route by the river and through mountains, that takes about 25mins from Torokko Arashiyama station. It's a very nice route and you can sit in the fifth car whose ceiling is made of glass. The ceiling comes in handy during spring due to sakura and autumn. We didn't catch much sakura though. That leaves us at a suburban area from where you can take a 2 hour boat ride back, or just the train. We took the train.</div>
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The second temple of the say was Daitokuji. It's a temple complex with many sub-temples which are mostly fully functional. There were some 6 temples open to public when we visited and we went to 3. All three of them (may be all of them ?) had Zen gardens and thankfully, they had English pamphlets. One particular garden helped us understand the meaning of what a Zen garden is. It's usually the sea of life with ripples and the way that the stones are arranged tells us different stories. The most impressive was the tormented sea of life with a turtle for disappointment, a crane for youth and optimism, a door of self doubt, and finally the calm sea of life. We may have appreciated Ryoan-ji better if we had the Zen garden 101 first. In general, Daitokuji had a serene atmosphere to it and left like you were entering a different world.<br />
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Our third temple was Kinkakuji which translated to Golden Temple, because it is golden. There is a also a Ginkakuji which is a silver temple, although we did not visit it. Kinkakuji was essentially a photo stop. It was crowded when we entered and we were shepherded to a place where we could click pictures and that was pretty much it.<br />
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The fourth temple was Higashi Honganji temple which is a short walk from the Kyoto station. We went there on the recommendation of Lonely Planet guidebook. It was by far the largest in terms of the main temple size and with a remarkable display of wealth that you normally don't associate with a Buddhist temple. Surprisingly, it's not that popular and has few tourists. </div>
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Our fifth temple of the day, my favourite, Sanjusagendo is also a lesser known temple. More importantly, it's a regularly visited temple by devotees and hence, has a calming vibe. This is a unique temple that contains a thousand life-size standing Buddhas, a large Buddha with many hands depicting a 1000-handed Buddha (Avalokitesvara) and 28 guardians of Buddhism among which are the famous Wind God (Vayu) and Thunder God (Varuna). There was pleasant incense in the air and many pilgrims were reciting the 1000 names of Buddha as they slowly made their way from one end to the other end of the temple. I wanted to visit Xian, China to see the Terracotta Army on this trip but it was just not possible. The visit to this temple seemed a lot better due to the intimacy of the display and how tightly they are packed. </div>
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Finally, the sixth temple of the day was Kiyomizudera. Being the only temple open till 6pm, rather than 5pm, you see a lot of tourists aiming to visit it at the end of the day looking rather tired. Unfortunately, the exterior of the main temple was being renovated and hence the wonderful views were slightly impaired by the scaffolding. Having said that, this temple and the shrine next door together create a tranquil setting atop the hill overlooking all of Kyoto.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-615585944392106362018-06-24T16:35:00.002+01:002018-06-24T16:57:03.552+01:00Japan 101<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So many people have so many stories about Japan that we were so excited to go there! Especially, because we were going to a traditional Japanese reception of our dear friend's wedding. When we started to plan our itinerary, we had no idea what we wanted to see. It took us a while just to orient ourselves to the culture and geography of the country. Planning can be daunting so I thought I should begin with some basic information that could be useful to another traveller. Here I also have our itinerary as well as alternatives that some of our friends who were there for the reception planned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Generic pic to bright up the blog (and really, I took it on my phone):</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Travel essentials:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Pocket WiFi:</b> the concept is pretty good. It's a WiFi router you can take with you (like JioFi in India) and it doubles as a power bank. You can rent it at the airport when you arrive and return when you leave. We didn't take one because our Airbnbs had one we could use, apart from the room WiFi. We instead took a data-only prepaid sim in the middle of our trip from a Bic Camera store.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>JR pass:</b> This is a travel pass that the train company called JR has which can be purchased for 7, 14 or 21 days. But it can only be purchased by non-residents and from outside the country. Everyone told us that we need it. So we blindly bought it. We later figured that we didn't really need it. In fact, instead of giving us flexibility, it restricted us considerably as there are many trains, buses and routes that are not covered by JR pass. The pass can be really helpful if you don't have a fixed itinerary or take </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">at least 3 bullet trains (shinkansens). Japan official train app can help you plan journeys using JR pass so you know which trains are covered and which are not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Trash:</b> it's meant to be segregated into 4 units: plastic, glass, metal, burnable. Paper is occasionally recycled. But mostly, I see only burnable vs plastic. It's very hard to find trash cans on the street and you see signs that tell you to take your trash with you. You can find some plastic and metal recycling bins next to vending machines and in stations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Language and getting around: </b>Google Translate allows you to download a language for offline use. You can also use their camera feature to read street signs or menus. However kanji script is not supportive for this because the same character can mean different things given context. Many people at touristy places understand English and they have maps and directions/signage to help you. Tokyo and Kyoto trains and buses have English language support. Google maps is not perfect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Sakura season</b>: Sakura season extends for one and half months around March and April, across the country, but at any given place it doesn't last for more than 3 weeks. So it's hard to ensure you catch Sakura if you already have a fixed itinerary. If you stay flexible and take a JR pass, you can easily travel by shinkansen to wherever there is Sakura during the time you visit. Japan guide website has a Sakura forecast for each area. Autumn is also very beautiful and lasts longer and locals prefer the it to the Sakura season given less crowds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Driving:</b> you need an international driving permit and even then you need to hire from big brands because most local rental companies only accept Japanese license. We couldn't hire because we didn't get an IDP. It could have saved a lot of time and added flexibility when travelling to rural areas. Japan drives the same as India and the UK.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Itinerary (with links to blogposts):</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We did Tokyo-Kyoto-Alps-Tokyo<br />
Day 0: Flew into Tokyo and Japan<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-tokyo.html">Day 1-3:</a> Tokyo<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-tokyo.html">Day 3:</a> we were meant to go to Mt Fuji but it was cloudy and we went around Tokyo instead. We reached Kyoto by night<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-kyoto.html">Day 4-6:</a> Kyoto, of which we did a half day trip to Nara<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-kanazawa-to-alps-to-matsumoto-mt.html">Day 7-8:</a> We were in the Japanese Alps where we went via Kanazawa, stayed the night at Takayama and another night at Matsumoto<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-kanazawa-to-alps-to-matsumoto-mt.html">Day 9:</a> Kawaguchiko (Five lakes area) to view Mt Fuji<br /><a href="http://slishacrazy.blogspot.com/2018/06/japan-tokyo.html">Day 10-11:</a> Tokyo<br />
Day 12: Flew out of Tokyo and Japan</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some of our friends went to Hiroshima through Osaka instead of the Japanese Alps and some went to Hakkaido chasing the sakura. Some went to Hakone to view Mt Fuji instead of the Five lakes area. Most people we knew spent 3-4 days in Tokyo and 3-4 days in Kyoto. Many went to Nara from Kyoto. We don't know anyone who went to Kamakura.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-76555364292892717272018-06-13T18:59:00.001+01:002018-06-13T20:34:45.678+01:00Iceland: Nature's majesty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Iceland reminds us that nature is magnificently fascinating! This blogpost, I shall be writing as I experience it rather than after the trip because I realise that sometimes we need to capture our immediate responses to nature. (After writing the entire blogpost, now I have a word to describe Iceland - otherworldly.)</div>
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I always thought of chasing the sun westwards. For example, my London to Seattle flight would only seem 2 hours long due to timezones, or my Amsterdam to London flight may even travel a few mins back in time. But I never even considered that it is possible to chase the sun northwards. Our flight took off around 9.30pm. Ordinarily, my tropical childhood would suggest that 9.30pm is night. But in June, in London, the sun was nearing the horizon with a 30min journey left before darkness descends. It had taken me a few summers to adjust to that. Our flight continued to chase this setting sun, not allowing it to touch the horizon. We landed in Iceland at 11pm (midnight in London) with the sun still another 30mins away from setting. </div>
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We reached our airport hotel, which was the only hotel that I booked with not much thought going into it except trying to keep the costs low. After all, we just need a place to crash for the night before we pick up our car. Turns out, our "room" was actually a studio cottage on absolutely flat land. Here is a picture. Taken at midnight, you see the daylight. I imagine the daylight persisted through the night so really there wasn't any night at all.</div>
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<b>Day 1: KEF airport to Jökulsárlón and retreated towards Kirkjubæjarklaustur</b> for the night (570km of driving)</div>
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We found that our first day in Iceland was bound to be rainy, and very rainy for the plans we had. So a little adjustment meant that we had 400+ km or over 5 hours of driving east to Jökulsárlón which would be the furthest point of our trip. This is an iceberg lagoon. We saw the massive glacier hanging over us and the tongue of the glacier collapsing into this lagoon which is filled with varying sizes of icebergs. These icebergs, most of them powder blue in colour and few black with volcanic ash, float around melting fast under the near constant sun.<br />
We jumped on an amphibious boat which took us around the lagoon passing by some impressive icebergs. Our guide got a piece of the iceberg and we tasted fresh mountain water. After the tour, we walked up a little hill for better views.</div>
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So impressed we were by this iceberg lagoon that we went in search of a smaller one on our way back from Jökulsárlón, called Fjallsárlón. This is much smaller hence quieter and pleasant to sit by the pond filled with small icebergs. The glacier tongue was also much closer and almost feels like you can walk up to it.</div>
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We were all ready to explore a glacier next but realised that while the daylight stays all night, restaurants shut at some point and glacier tours are anyway closed for the day. We found a nice sit down restaurant for dinner in the village of <br />
Kirkjubæjarklaustur after which we headed to our Airbnb close by. We had a found a cosy little place by the banks of Tungufljot River, literally in the middle of nowhere. </div>
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<b>Day 2: From Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Hvolsvöllur </b>(only 200km of driving but we walked 18km)</div>
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Our Airbnb host, a Kiwi who moved to the other end of the world for love, was helpful with suggests on glacier hikes. We called Arctic Adventures in the morning and booked a guided hike and then headed out to Sólheimajökull glacier parking lot. There we met the Arctic Adventures guys who sorted us out with a helmet, harness, icepick and crampons, and additionally hiking boots (for me) and waterproof trousers (we only had jackets). Then, we set out around 11.30 with our guide Jeff up on to Sólheimajökull glacier which sits snugly on top of the Katla volcano. This glacier is much smaller than the one that flows into Jökulsárlón. The volcano underneath is also a smallish one, yet it's bigger than the nearby Eyjafjallajökull which when it erupted in August 2010, caused flights to be cancelled across all of Europe, if you remember.</div>
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We were pretty much on the glacier within 15mins, but at the bottom. We began climbing it with the help of our crampons that dig into the ice and our guide who helped us navigate the terrain. He called himself a drill master and we followed him to the t, which meant we could see a lot more. Ice is constantly melting, forming little rivulets and flowing down along some ridges. The glacier, because it sits on a volcano, had volcanic ash mixed with ice. As the ice melts away, it leaves black mounds of volcanic ash. So closer to the tongue (at the glacier lagoon), the terrain is otherworldly, with ice and volcanic mounds.</div>
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As make our way up to the plateau, we see more ice and less ash. And finally at the plateau, the terrain is also otherworldly, but in a different way: hard ice everywhere with volcanic mounds in the distance and on either sides in the far distance is the glacial gorge where nothing grows (where the glacier used to be some 20 years ago). The ice up here had been crushed under the weight of all the ice that has melted away before it and so it is very densely packed and without any impurities, even air. Hence, it is blue, clear and hard. After hiking up for about 2 hours, we took some pictures and checked out the ice, and the hike back was only some 30mins. </div>
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Having done this exciting thing, we were back to regular sightseeing. The closest sight to the glacier is a plane wreck (famously features in the hindi song, Gerua). We went up to the parking lot and were told that it's about 7kms to get to and back from the wreckage. We went anyway. Bad call? May be. It's a good 50min walk on black gravel with a bleak surrounding of black gravel as far as the eyes can see. One may call it otherworldly too although not in the pretty way. On trip advisor, you see people say it's only about 30mins to get to the wreckage while others say it's an hour. We figured that it's possibly because the location of the parking lot may differ from season to season. In any case, we walked all the way to see a tiny plane with people crawling all over it and names scratched into it. It was just about ok but we lost about 2 hours and exhausted ourselves with the walk (after the glacier hike). This was bad because the next stop was Skogafoss, a beautiful waterfall.</div>
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Skogafoss is fed by the Eyjafjallajökull. It's really pretty and you can get quite close to where the water crashes into a lake and then the river Skoga continues. Next to the falls, there are about 400 steps to get to the top of the waterfall for wonderful views of the numerous cascades ahead of the falls and the meandering river after the falls. On any given day we wouldn't have thought twice about 400 steps but we really struggled through it, after our 4.5 hours of hiking for the day. I'm glad we did. The views were definitely worth it. Beyond that there are hiking trails that take to the various other cascades the river goes through before the falls. We only walked for about 10mins but it's the start of a 25km hike if you are willing and able.</div>
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The final stop was Seljalandfoss. This waterfall, also fed by the glacier on Eyjafjallajökull, is famous for being able to walk behind it. Even with our rain jackets on, we didn't have rain trousers so we didn't venture all the way in but we did get a peak for how it is from behind. Also for some reason the winds were strong, the water spray was wide and I was freezing. There is a pathway in front of the falls to see two smaller falls, although far less impressive. We then made our way to a lovely little farm with horses and sheep, south of the falls for our night stay.</div>
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<b>Day 3: From Hvolsvöllur to Leidarendi and then to Laugarás (2/3 of the golden circle)</b></div>
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We started the day off by driving towards the Rekjadalur thermal river while also debating which activity to do next. In the end, exploring lava tunnels won and since we liked the Arctic Adventures, we called them and booked a tour. They only had a pick up tour operating from Rekjavik but were happy for us to join at the location. We reached the parking lot of the Rekjadalur thermal river only to find out that it takes about an hour's hike to get to the river where people bathe in and we didn't have enough time. Nevertheless, all the little streams around us were warm and we also saw a bubbling mud pool on the way. We then turned around and left to find the lava caves.</div>
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Driving towards the GPS coordinates of the lava tunnel, we couldn't see anything anywhere as far as the eye can see, except lava fields. Lava fields are large expanses of land where the lava flowed and now we have rocks the look like bubbles, completely covered in moss. Some of the moss is many inches thick and hence these "rocks" are very soft. They reminded me of Kristoff's troll family in Frozen. Finally, after 11km on a gravel road, near the coordinates, we saw a small flattened area and one car alongside a tiny board that said "Leidarendi". If not for that car, we might have be searching for a while. We had about half hour for some sandwiches before the tour arrived.</div>
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We were a small group and our guide had some British humour to him. He got us helmets with tiny flashlights on them, and I also rented hiking boots. He took us to the entrance of the caves which seemed like a pit that had caved in. We navigated large rocks and jumped into the tunnel. I had been to caves before. They usually contain some lighting, smell musty, some have stalactites and stalagmites, and possibly have bats. This was completely different. For starters, it's pitch dark; as in as dark as it can get. It takes some time for the eyes to adjust and when ten tiny flashlights and our guides' handheld beam look into the same direction, we see a lot more. But then you turn around to see where you are coming from and it's nothingness.</div>
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The sun has never touched these places. The only thing that grows here is a type of bacteria that gives a silver glow to the rocks (when the flash falls on them). The surface can be uneven but most of the way it's actually pretty flat, where the lava flowed. These tunnels or tubes are formed when as the lava cooled from the surface and solidified as rock while the lava underneath flowed out. Some of the rocks have beautiful colours due to trapped minerals. Mostly it's all greyish basalt but occasionally you see reddish hues from iron, some blues and some greens. </div>
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The most fascinating are the seemingly silver coloured stalactites or stalagmites. Actually, they are just basalt rock that melted and squeezed out of the ceiling or the floor as the lava cooled and expanded into place. The rock also solidified after. So they are actually rock. Everything in the cave was formed in a very short period of time about 2000 years ago and nothing has changed ever since, except for the silver bacteria. The ceiling is fascinating. It looks like it's melting, especially because it was raining for the past few days, so we see the rain water seeping in and dripping. But basically the ceiling is frozen rock that was melting. And it is now the bacteria gives it a beautiful shine. This indeed is truly otherworldly in the truest sense of the word, and as our guide pointed out, looks very much like the egg laying alien in the movie Alien. </div>
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The lava tubes are about 900 metres long and are longish with a circular loop at the bottom. We entered through one side of the circle, went up the tube and came back the other side of the circle to exit at the same point. You would think that it should all look the same but all the sections show different aspects. The other side of the circular area, for example, saw some lava flow in few other eruptions in the 1950s. The new lava smoothed out the walls which almost look manmade now, like a proper tunnel. To get into the various sections, you sometimes need to get on all fours and through some tight spaces but only for very short lengths. I've never used a helmet as much, bumping my head to the ceiling many times. We probably spent an hour and a half in total in the lava tubes. Our subterranean adventure would be my highlight of the trip!</div>
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After the tour we are back on the tourist circuit to do part of the famous Golden Circle. First, as a starter, we had a pitstop at Kerid to see a smallish volcanic crater that was most likely formed by a collapse rather than an explosion. The water is blueish green but towards the bank you can see yellow and red hues. The inverted cone itself is reddish sand with the green grass in places. The crater is a nice oval shape and looks pretty but I can image it looks really interesting if the sun shines strong and the colours are evident (it was cloudy when we went). Interestingly, on the lee side of the crater, I saw a large grove of trees which would be the most trees I ever saw in Iceland. We walked the rim in some 15mins. </div>
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Next, we went to Geysir. It is a geothermal area in Iceland where the biggest geyser is called Geysir and it lends its name to all geysers in the world. However, it's currently inactive. The entire area is just fuming everywhere. Even before entering the park, the little stream on the side was at least 50 deg Celsius. As we were walking in park, the star attraction, a small geyser caused Strokkur that erupts every 5-10mins, erupted. It was a tiny eruption. We were a little underwhelmed but as we continued on our path we saw a really high eruption. Eventually we ended at Strokkur, watching four more before leaving. It was more fun watching the surface to predict when it would erupt. You can spend 20mins here or hours, just watching Strokkur. No pics unfortunately; I only have videos. Here is a picture of Geysir.</div>
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Our final stop for the day was Gullfoss or golden falls. It's enormous, pushing out many gallons of water, first in a step and then off an oblique cliff which makes the falls look like a triangle, and then it flows as river Hvita in the gorge. Many say it compares to the Niagara falls. This is really pretty but also not much to do. I believe there are some hikes which take you to different view points but can't be better than the two that you can reach easily. We sat down for dinner soon after and then reached the lovely house of our Airbnb guest which overlooks a river, where we had some homemade bread and fresh tomato jam or breakfast.</div>
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<b>Day 4: From Laugarás to the airport, via Þingvellir National park (1/3 of the golden circle)</b></div>
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With our flight in the afternoon, we only had time for one place after breakfast. We thought we should complete the golden circle and headed to Þingvellir National park. This is usually the first stop on the golden circle if you start from Rekjavik. It's a really large park and you can spend hours hiking it. We obviously did not have the time so we picked the highlights.</div>
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Þingvellir is most famous for being part of the mid Atlantic fault line between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate. The continental drift can be observed here with many fissures and rifts. The Almannagja fault is more than 7km long and the rift valley could 60m wide. The only other place in the world where you can see continents drifting and walk between them is the Great Rift Valley of Eastern Africa. </div>
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If you, like us, wondered why there are so many flights to North America than to Europe from Iceland, you know now. Iceland is half North American! And so we walked between the two continents. We walked for about 15min from Hakid visitor centre to Silfra. Silfra is a lake of crystal clear water with the fissure in it. The rain water seeps through the volcanic rock for about 2-4 months before it reaches the lake and hence is devoid of any impurities. The clarity of this water lends itself to a wonderful snorkelling and diving experience to observe the fissure between the two continents. There wasn't much for us to see from the surface though.</div>
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Back on the track along the North American fissure wall, we come to Lögberg or Law Rock which is the place where Icelandic parliament first met in 930 AD, making it the oldest parliament in the world. However, because the rift is drifting, the exact position is unknown. Continuing along the fissure, we come to Oxararfoss where the river Oxarar falls off the fissure wall creating a waterfall. The wall itself is pretty imposing. </div>
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And soon enough, we had to head back to car and to the airport, bidding adieu to mesmerising Iceland! On the flight I met this lady who works on whale watching tours who tells me winter is equally mesmerising. There is still so much to do, although we are very proud of ourselves having driven 1200km on our first driving trip by ourselves!</div>
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<b>Other itinerary suggestions which we didn't do:</b><br />
There is indeed a lot more to do in Iceland. You can encircle the island if you have a week or more, and the North East has a lot to offer. Even in the South West, we haven't covered a lot many activities. There are many thermal lagoons. The most popular ones are the Blue Lagoon which is right next to Rekjavik (it's really a spa resort) and the Secret Lagoon near Gullfoss on the golden circle.Horse riding on Icelandic horses is also very popular. They are meant to be very very docile but sturdy. Whale watching from Rekjavik or the North East (near Dalvik/Hossuvik) is specially popular in summer. The lady on my flight back who worked in both places and told me that the whale watching opportunities in North East in the summer are excellent compared to Rekjavik at any time. Puffins watching tours are also on offer from Rekjavik or Vik. Some companies offer snowmobile tours where they you on a glacier and give you a snowmobile to drive around. There are some manmade ice caves which are nice to see as the ice which is very hard, clear and densely packed, and hence allows you to see through it for a considerable distance. And of course there are volcano tours.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-72216047230847837382018-04-18T18:14:00.000+01:002018-04-18T18:14:58.988+01:00Hola Barcelona - Montjuic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The title is not in reference to the travel card called Hola Barcelona which gives you unlimited public transport travel for a set time period. You might find that useful if you are travelling alone. If you are more than one, you might benefit from buying a 10 metro tickets set that makes it cheaper per ticket as well as that the tickets can be shared by multiple people or consider cabbing it as taxis are reasonably cheap. </div>
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We spent a weekend in Barcelona. By that I mean, we flew in on Saturday morning and flew out Sunday night. <br />
We missed our outbound flight in the early morning by probably 90 seconds. We looked at the departures board for the next flight, and bought tickets online. But we couldn't check in online as it is too close to the departure so we needed to go back to the check-in counter. Exiting the security area at London Luton airport turned out to be a huge hassle. In case you ever need to know, you need to go to Gate 6 which is far from the departures area and you need to call the airline responsible for your flight and ask them to send a personnel to escort you out of the airport through staff access which includes a passport check. Random piece of information, I know. But it may come in handy some day.<br />
The<br />
Anyway, we got there and joined our friends for a Sandeman's Barcelona city tour. It turned out to be less of a city tour and more of a history lesson. After 1.5 hours, we probably stopped at 5 places, each with a history lecture. So we left at break time. I've done many of the Sandeman's free tours that introduce you to the city. They used to lightly touch upon all the important sights in any city and show us at least half of them from the outside as well as tell us how best to visit those sights. This one was just a history class. So we left.</div>
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We just wandered around La Ramblas and Placa Riel. We ate some fruits and ham at the farmer's market nearby (La Boqueria), had some nice tapas and sangria, and watched a flamenco show at Los Tarantos. It's an interesting experience. I was very intrigued by how graceful the male dancer was (so was the female dancer although that was expected from the public perception of flamenco). Another thing to note is that dancing is only a part of flamenco. Our show started with a wonderful solo piece by the guitarist, followed by a musical performances by the band who were eventually joined by a dancing couple who gave us solo performances each before a duet.</div>
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The next morning we went to Park Guell. I absolutely love it, especially so after watching Emerald City, a TV show that portrays Park Guell as the palace of the Wizard of Oz. But may be because of all the shooting activity, a large part of the roof was under renovation. Then we made our way to Montjuic.</div>
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Montjuic<br />
Montjuic is a hill. We can drive up there but we can also take a cable car from Parc de Montjuic. To get to Parc de Montjuic we can take a different "funicular". We googled up about cable cars and we find out there is one at the beach. So we went to the beach where we had a nice lunch and then we waited in the queue for the cable car. I had twice previously stood in this queue on my visits to Barcelona but I left because it takes so long. But this time we waited. While we waited we realised that this cable car doesn't seem to go to the hill at all. The hill is too far away. Nevertheless the website and all tourist info is telling our there is a funicular that takes us to the Parc. It took us a long time to figure this one out but anyway it's not from the beach.</div>
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We got into a cab and asked the driver to take us to where we can catch the funicular to Montjuic.<br />
We needed to take the Montjuic funicular from Parallel metro. We cabbed it to metro and couldn't find anything remotely looking like a funicular. Instead we found a bus that takes us to the Montjuic funicular. We took it. It delivered us to Avinguda de Miramar where Parc dear Montjuic is. I repeat there is actually no cable car that goes to Parc de Montjuic. It is a bus. From there we take the cable car to Castle Montjuic. We didn't go into the castle. The views from the hill are beautiful and you can see out into the sea. On the way back we stopped at one of the stops which is simply a park around a view point.</div>
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Sagrada Familia</div>
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I went to view Sagrada Familia in 2012 and was disappointed a little bit due to the fact that I paid a lot of money for what was really just a construction site. </div>
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In 2017 I sort of had to go for it with my friends and I was expecting more of that and was pleasantly surprised! A lot was completed over the last few years and now, it looks beautiful!</div>
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I would highly recommend!!!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-864478359183933752018-02-03T19:58:00.000+00:002018-02-03T19:58:17.481+00:00Homegoing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Homegoing is the history of the tribes of Asante and Fante, spanning centuries and continents, through the stories of the members of one lineage.</div>
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Maame, taken as a prisoner of war in a Fante village, delivers Effia and escapes the same day leaving her newborn. Back in her Asante village, she gives birth to Esi. The novel follows the two women's progenies as the political and social background transforms.</div>
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For a debutant author, to cover an entire history of a people is a tremendous task. To make it simpler, Yaa Gyasi broke down the stories into a number of chapters, one for each character that showcases a generation of each women's progeny.</div>
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Through these characters, the author shows us how the slave trade of the prisoners of war between the two tribes, eventually led to slave trade with the British and then ultimately their subjugation by the British. <br />One chapter showcases the introduction of the cacao crop, and another the slavery in plantations in Americas. Soon we move into the exploitation of the free black people as prisoners working the mines, the discrimination in free modern society and the identity crisis of young people born and bred in relative equality.</div>
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By separating the chapters which are essentially short stories, she worked on them individually which gives it a certain charm. However, it would have been a lot more interesting had the stories been woven together. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30235571.post-70170317547833704042018-01-17T08:02:00.001+00:002018-01-17T22:31:26.465+00:00The Network play<p dir="ltr">I watched The Network at the National Theatre and give it a 2/5 rating.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I give Bryan Cranston a 4/5. I deduct 2 points for poor direction that did not use the actor in a better manner, for costumes/sets that were too modem to worry about television and the overdone plot with little meat in that it barely holds together it's elements.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Let me start by reiterating the brilliant acting from Bryan Cranston. He was perfect as a middle-aged man with a monotonous life reading the news in the blandest way possible, even when the news is not so bland. He was perfect in his frustration with the mundane when he decides to end it. He was also perfect in his feverish madness as the messiah of truth. He was however repetitive and lacked any other dimension to his personality which is where I believe the director falls short.<br>
Also, I couldn't help but wonder if Rory Kinnear might have done a better job.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The sets and costumes did not have anything inherently wrong with them but they just did not seem like they were from a past era. May be it was the use of glass (for rooms, etc) which I associate with the modern. May be it was clothing which possibly has not changed in generations for news readers and corporate employees. May be it was the restaurant (there were a few audience members having dinner on the stage) with its diners looking like ordinary people of today rather than the yester years passed. May be it was the use of this massive screen at the back which is effectively a flat screen, which we did not have during the 1970s when the play was set in. They could have at least put a box around the screen to make it resemble a box television. Instead they put three sound engineers on top of it and it looked like an EDM concert with the DJ deck above a screen where the DJ rolls his psychedelic visuals. The main stage also had a very shiny surface which is probably how TV studios look like but on stage it was glaring off a lot of light.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The plot itself was light. A bland newsreader is fired because his show has low ratings. He is so frustrated that in his bland way he announces he will kill himself on television. His ratings go up and the network keeps him on in this lunatic tabloid type show.<br>
Because the sets fail, the story fails. The sets keep us firmly in today's world and the story is too yesterday for the internet generation. Not only are our newspapers and television tabloid, we create our own tabloid news through Twitter and blogs, the take down of Aziz Ansari as a case in point. We probably don't even read newspapers and watch television. We read WhatsApp forwards and watch Netflix. I understand it was an old movie that won Oscars for some of its actors as well as the screenplay. <br>
I have not watched the movie but I can only imagine it was not adapted well. The story line seemed disjointed and the emotions not relatable. For example, the story tries to compare the television generation with its previous generation through a romantic relationship between a middle-aged man and a younger career oriented woman. I failed to see the chemistry between them and assumed it was just an affair so I was rather surprised when the man left his wife of 25 years and professed love to his younger partner. I was also so uninvested in this plot line that when he expressed his frustration regarding the lack of emotional involvement from his partner, I was surprised again. <br>
A sad fact is the wife has a five minute role which seemed completely unconnected. And this is the same role that won the actor in the movie an Oscar, the shortest role to win an Oscar.<br>
The play does have a number of monologues that makes it well placed for awards.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Without the romantic story line, the play could be cut short to 90 mins and may have kept the audience engaged as well as be able to keep the tempo on the play.<br>
The audience members having dinner on the stage we pointless, except as a money making scheme which Jensen would approve.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Watching the play mostly on the large flat screen it felt like I was watching a movie. If I wanted to watch a movie, I would rather have watched the original.<br>
Having watched the Black Mirror episode caused Fifteen Million Merits and also having watched the brilliant play <u><a href="http://http://slishacrazy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/ink.html?m=1">Ink</a></u> only months ago, this play was underwhelming.</p>
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