-- A Walk in the Rain --

Thank god for blessing us with a cool breeze and heavy downpours in the last couple of days here in Calcutta. Ahead of Poila Baisakh, the Bengali New Year, I sure am glad to have gotten a temporary respite from the heat, the sweat and the grime!

It's not like I don't like summer! I mean summer too has its own pleasures -- the awesome variety of mangoes, mouth watering lichis, the watermelons and then alu-bukharas (sorry I don't recall the English name of this fruit) ..

But the humidity coupled with the stifling heat in this part of the country is sure to drain you of all the necessary ingredients in your body!! ha ha, does this sound like the latest Glucon-C ad?? Just in casse if it does, do be sure to go out and feast on the lovely drinks and the ice creams which promise to beat the heat!

Feeling nostalgic as I am writing this -- I sure am missing our walks down those memory lanes when I so much enjoyed getting dragged out of my dry surroundings out into the wet and the muddy roads by some of my great f(r)iends like Ditesh, Dabhishek, Daurav, Dahul, Damit -- et cetera et cetera .. Drinking those chais at the roadside dhabas - -Azad hind, Bachchan Singh and our all-time favorite, the Russell St Dhaba!! Kya din the wo .. Purani jeans aur guitar .. Ditesh ki lambi lambi baatein -- The ever-present sense of humor of Dabhishek -- Our never-ending "KYUN" sawaals to Daurav -- apne CA, Damit, ke wo awesome one-liners and speeches borne out of frustration and - not to forget -- the omnipresent madness of Dahul!!

But not to worry, we are all constantly in touch with each other and yep, ye dur rehne wale hum calcuta-wasiyon se milne k liye frequently aate rehte hai .. So, once-in-a-while, main meri in yaadon k sahare apne ye pal kaat leta hu!

N.B.: Names of friends changed for obvious reasons!

Book Review -- The Kite Runner

Hey guys, after reading the two-part review of a fellow blogger's review of the Kite Runner, I thought of sharing with you the review of the book which got me my first official job!! Written over 2 years earlier, I hope you still enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it then!

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is one of the finest books I've ever read. It is the first novel to be written in English by an Afghan. The novel derives its name from the Afghan custom of doing battle with kites. The following paragraphs give a brief sketch of how the book is written.

As a boy, Amir cravenly betrays his servant and best friend, the Hazara boy Hassan. When the Russians come, Amir and his father move to America, where Amir becomes a successful writer. He embraces America because it "had no ghosts, no memories, and no sins." But when Amir learns that a childhood mentor is ailing back home, he returns to discover that his relationship to Hassan had been deeper than he realized. This leads him on a hazardous journey to rescue and adopt Hassan's son, whose father the Taliban had executed.

The book can be read as a three-part novel. In the first part, Hosseini engages in nostalgic childhood recreation of a lost Afghanistan during the last days of the monarchy of the then-ruler and the regime that overthrew him. The second part explores emigration during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the tragedies of a displaced and tired people living in cultural bubbles of the past; it describes the process of migration and character of the expatriate community. The last part explores the Taliban's Afghanistan. It deals with the horror humans can inflict on other humans and stresses the underlying tone of standing up to repression.

All in all the novel portrays the various human emotions ranging from envy to betrayal and finally to a sense of duty and redemption of Amir's pride and honour. Although Hosseini claims that this is only fiction and a product of his imagination I felt a sense of deja-vu all throughout the book. But despite all that I feel that the book packs quite a punch and it is a must read.

JLo -- Pregnant & Blonde!!

Oh well, I know I know she is no more pregnant now, she gave birth to beautiful twins four weeks earlier but this is a confirmed news that she has gone in for a change of looks!! Oh JLo what have you done?? Blonde doesn't suit you, we are BUTT-your-fans!!

Will upload her latest pic as soon as one is available; till then enjoy this crafty piece of imagery! ;-) Spotted this pic in rediff.com!!

Blogathon India

Hey guys let me take this opportunity to share something about a marathon of a different sort -- A Blogathon.. Check out the details @ Blogathon India [http://blogathon.in/].

The format is simple and straightforward - on the 12th of April, six topics of social interest would be released in genres that touch infrastructure, politics, religion, media, sport, cinema and gender. What you need to do is to pick up one or more topics, and express your views on them by simply posting on your usual blog, or by commenting on the blog posts if you don’t call yourself a blogger. What’s more, the best posts of the Blogathon are decided by a jury and web awards are given for bloggers to sport on their blogs.

So what are you waiting for? Begin by checking out the Blogathon India website [www.blogathon.in] and the FAQs to answer some of the questions you might have. And then go ahead and spread the word sporting the ubercool badges. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a blogger, you could come along and comment on any of the issues. Or maybe, this is a good time to take up blogging?