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Words Fascinate me.

I am starting a series of blogs wherein I will be talking about the books that I haved loved the most.

Let me start off with one of my all time favourite books, One hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, one of the masters of the Magic Realism genre. To define what Magic Realism is indeed difficult but let me make a try. Magic Realism is seeing life with a new set of eyes : combining magic with the mundane, coupling the ordinary with the fantastic, seamlessly blended so much so that you are left wondering what is real and what is unreal. You cannot survive from the hands of a master of magical realism like Garcia, without doubting your own sanity. You will learn to laugh when you should be crying and cry when you should be laughing. In short, at times reading a book like this can be a life altering experiance :)

One hundred years of Solitude is easily his best book : a story about the island of Maconda depicted on an epic level ending with its ultimate disappearance. An extract from the book : . . . for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth. (422 ).

read an interesting lecture on this book -> www.mala.bc.ca.

Learn more of Julio Cortazar, the argentine master of the fantastic short story -> kirjasto.sci.fi.

An extract, "'It's like a waiting room, life is,' said the bald gentleman, carefully grinding out his cigarette with his shoe and examining his hands as if he didn't know what to do with them now; the elderly lady sighed a yes born of long years of agreeing, and put away her little bottle just as the door at the end of the corridor opened and the other lady came out with that look all the others envied, and an almost sympathetic goodbye when she got to the exit.' (from 'Second Time Around')

Read an excerpt from German Master of Magical Realism, Gunter Grass -> www.randomhouse.com.

A couple of extracts, Often after airing he finds time to sit by my bed for a while, disentangling his strings, and spreading silence until I call the silence Bruno and Bruno silence.

I shall begin far away from me; for no one ought to tell the story of his life who hasn't the patience to say a word or two about at least half of his grandparents before plunging into his own existence.

and how can I forget our own Salman Rushdie and his Midnight's Children, that fantastic interpretation of Midnight, August 15, 1947.

An extract, Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible. Suppose yourself in a large cinema, sitting at first in the back row, and gradually moving up, row by row, until your nose is almost pressed against the screen. Gradually the stars' faces dissolve into dancing grain; tiny details assume grotesque proportions; the illusion dissolves - or rather, it becomes clear that the illusion itself is reality. read more of him -> www.trill-home.com.

Have fun.

I hope, I got the spelling correct :D

Let me tell you something that is happening inside me. There are two voices inside me : A programmer and a writer. The programmer keeps on wanting to add new features to this blog while the writer just wants to write. Usually, the programmer wins and writer waits in silence, biding his time.

If you are confused, here is the complete explanation.

I shifted hosts again. Yes, I know this is the third time but kya karre, It is difficult for me to be satisfied. Anyway, this is my new home and hopefully, It will be a permanent one. As a result of the shift, I lost all my comments, all the guestbook entries etc etc. But I managed to transfer all the stories. I am planning some nifty features for this site as these guys offer free hosting. Yes, you heard it right. FREE ( image + other goodies ) HOSTING. So be prepared for more razzmataaz on this site.

Do come back.

Instead, I am at office on a friday evening waiting for a late night telecon with my onsite co-ordinator :( People, not part of this stream, think software is a high paid low work job. If only they knew .. If only...

Anyway, the good news is that WEEKEND is here. So guys, have a great weekend. I plan to finish off the design of the site this weekend so that from next week, I can solely focus on the content.

Till then, this is /.\ n a n d signing off.

'Today there are once more saints and villains. Instead of the uniform grayness of the rainy day, we have the black storm cloud and brilliant lightning flash. Outlines stand out with exaggerated sharpness. Shakespeare's characters walk among us. The villain and the saint emerge from primeval depths and by their appearance tear open the infernal or the divine abyss from which they come and enable us to see for a moment into mysteries of which we had never dreamed.'

• Ethik, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1940.

from here.

Sharbat Gula : A 12 year old girl : Afghanistan : 1984,

2002,

read this.

Further investigation inside the nationalgeographic website got me this one,

For wallpapers like these, , go here. Once you have got your wallpapers, do go here to read this prize winning story about life in kuwait after the gulf war,

Then click over here to read a fascinating article about a Royal Miss pageant on Georgia's Jekyll Island,

Happy reading.

The guys at tinywords.com are doing a good job. Every day, they put up a new haiku on their website. Haiku, for the uninformed, is a japanese form of poetry written in three lines and 17 syllables. This is the epitome of the understatement, where a lot is conveyed in little. Tinywords.com will send you a email or even a SMS message with a haiku everyday, if u subscribe for it.

You can find a ton of links regarding haiku here.

and finally, a couple of haiku wannabes, from your truly :D she taught him what love was not. for she was not, what he thought. the heavy silence of the dark night around me. nothing but my thoughts for company. As the night waits for the sun, I wait for the right one. I know, I know. Those are not proper haikus .. but atleast, I tried :-)

from the rest of india. I just love my cricket :D

Today, I got to watch what must be one of the greatest Test innings if not the greatest ever. Nathan Astle scored a swashbuckling 222, of a mere 153 balls in an unbelievable chase of a mammoth 550 target set by England. Ultimately, New Zealand fell short by just 99 runs but that doesnt take away anything from that stupendous effort by Nathan Astle. No words of mine could describe the kind of innings he played. Read more about it at cricinfo.com.

I admit to having a soft corner for New Zealand. After India, They are the team that I like to see win. Something about the cheerfull persona, their die hard spirit and the impossible wins that they come up with frequently always fascinates me. They are a lot like bhuvan and the Lagaan team. Always underdogs and the least fancied team. And always achieving the impossible.

New Zealand cricket team, You inspire me. All the best folks, in the upcoming world cup.