Ghosts of a summer past

A cool breeze on my face as I stretch luxuriously after hours of studying.

Tendrils of hair tickling my nose and the scented night air.

The light of a bulb, bleaching any colors to yellow and gray.

The frantic scratch-scratch-scratch of a pencil, sharp shadows against a single-lined paper background.

Earphones, Lady Gaga and Zor Ka Jhatka.

Quadratic Equations and Mensuration.

Then sudden, glorious freedom!

Bright nailpolish, Dexter, swimming and mangoes

Ghosts of a summer past.

A year has come and gone.

A new season of Dexter will soon begin, mangoes will flood the markets and pools will throw off their plastic covers.

Already I leave my windows open, savoring the warm, sweet air flowing through my bedroom.

Nothing has changed.

The radio stations have the latest Bollywood hits to replay, until we become zombies, singing Chikni Chameli in our sleep.

Derivatives and Conic Sections replace those old topics I now view with scorn.

Yes, nothing has changed at all,

Nothing but me.

Because those ghosts of a summer past continue to haunt me.

Embrace The Sari

Today, I had gone to a handloom expo held in my city where textile traders from all over the country came together to exhibit their work. When we were leaving, I saw a fully grown woman with her son and husband, waving her hands and stomping her feet in frustration. Listening closely, I realised she was throwing a tantrum saying, "That chanderi sari we saw back there... I want THAT one." :)

I was immensely entertained, but that's not the point. The only things I can think of that could induce so much passion in a woman's heart are shoes, bags, and saris. We LUST after them. There's just something about seeing yards of beautifully floaty brocaded cloth draped along the walls of a stall, the feel of smooth silk between your fingers, the intricacy of embroidery around the edges and the deep, bright colors. Just fingering the material makes you want to buy it and wrap it around yourself and never let it go.

I know this sounds almost creepily intense, but I have never gone to a sari shop without coming home half in tears because my mother wouldn't let me buy one. And she does have a point. I would never dream of wearing a sari to design class or to a movie with friends. What bothers me is, why is wearing a sari such a big deal? Teenagers in so many other countries embrace their national dress (no matter how odd it is), but here in India we have such an elegant and beautiful way to dress ourselves and we pick jeans and skirts instead.

My great-grandmother (Mother’s grandmother) is the only person I know who can wear a 9-yard sari by herself. I find that number horrifying. The nau-var (nine-yard) is a traditional Maharastrian technique of draping a sari that goes around your legs like a pair of pants. Tell me, could there be anything more convenient for the modern woman? Draping 9-yards is a dying art, and I hope that I’ll be able to learn it in my lifetime to pass on to my daughters and keep the tradition alive.

No matter what people think, draping a sari doesn't take more than five minutes with practise. It's elegant, chic, sexy, empowering... Everything a woman aspires to be. Saris look beautiful on full, curvy Indian figures (I actually think that skinny people look rather stick-like in saris) and can be dressed up or down just as easily as the little black dress. They're perfect.

I do know that most girls end up wearing saris at school farewells or for family functions, but why can’t that be extended to regular use as well? Our grandmothers do it, even our moms do it sometimes, so why can’t we? Decide a day with your friends when you’ll just randomly show up at class wearing saris. Try to drape a sari yourself, at least once. Experiment with 9-yard and 5-yard saris, go to the movie theatre wearing saris… start the movement. The main thing to realize is that wearing a sari isn’t something monumental or exceptional. Make it a part of your life. Rub the cloth on your cheek, obsess over the zari and gota work with your friends, revel in the lushness of the pallu and swish the pleats at the bottom. Buy special shoes to match your saris and see what a backpack looks like as an accessory. Hug saris. Sleep in them. Embrace the sari as a piece of clothing, not as a rare treasure, and use it that way. That’s the only way saris are going to survive their seemingly inevitable fate of storage in boxes and the smell of mothballs.

What I've Been Up To :)

So, I know I haven't blogged in a REALLY long time, but I needed motivation, and I'm just writing this general post to get back in practise and get myself up and running :)

Books I've been reading:

1. The entire collected works of Agatha Christie

Let me start by saying that my favorite fictional private detective is M. Hercule Poirot, and not Mr Holmes of Baker Street. I do not say this out of ignorance, because I've read both, and I find Poirot so adorably human with his ego and his OCD that I don't understand how anyone could prefer Sherlock. I have the utmost respect for him, of course, but Poirot will always have a special place in my heart.

This was my after-Std-10 present from my dad, and I'm still working my way through these one at a time. What I found absolutely fascinating was that although Mrs Christie is known worldwide as the Queen of Crime, I found her romantic novels written under the nom de plume of Mary Westmacott equally compelling. With beautiful language and imagery almost equalling that of Roald Dahl at his best, these books are a fascinating read and chilling in their portrayal of human nature. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone who claims to be a true Christie fan, because they've only increased my respect for her writing. A must read :)

(Here's the link if you'd like to take a look

http://agathachristie.com/about-christie/the-queen-of-crime/mary-westmacott/)

2. To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I am ashamed to say that I hadn't read this book until very recently, but that was because when I first tried to I was much too young to understand it. I'm not going to spend too much time gushing, because that has all been done before by various people before me. All I'd like to say is that no other book has touched me this way, and it's a beautiful piece of literature that I'm going to cherish forever :)

3. Inheritance, Christopher Paolini

This was quite possibly the most-awaited book in my life after HP7, and I actually bought it an entire week after its release, which was killing me the entire time. Sadly, the finale to this amazing series didn't even begin to match up to my expectations. I knew that the writing went downhill after Eragon, which was by far the best, but I wasn't expecting that Inheritance would be THAT bad. The storyline is actually perfect, but I'm wondering if Chris shouldn't have just stuck to his original plan of combining Brisingr and Inheritance. The book is an incredible drag to read, and we didn't get to find out more about Angela, which was something I was looking forward to. The ending, however, is perfect, and I finished the book in seven hours straight and then sobbed my heart out. That was more of emotion because this amazing series that I grew up with is now over, and less of sadness because of the depressing ending. Still, if you've been with Eragon and Saphira from the beginning, then please read this as a nod to their journey until we meet them again.

4. The Lynne Truss Treasury

I've been obsessed with Lynne Truss' dry wit and British sarcasm ever since I read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, her no-nonsense punctuation guide that's a stickler's delight. So imagine my glee when I found an entire omnibus of her novels in a bookshop! The one that I own has four books, With One Lousy Free Packet Of Seed, Making The Cat Laugh, Tennyson's Gift and Going Loco. My favorite by far was Going Loco, which describes the rather horrifying way a cleaning lady takes over her employer's life (Yes, it sounds crazy. Read it). This particular brand of humour is something that I enjoy, and I absolutely revel in creepiness, so I loved these books. All of them have rather ordinary premises that transform into absolute madness by the end of the story. You can try reading them, but I'm not making any promises. You might find them too weird for your liking, or you could be awesome and love them instead. Then we can be best friends :D

5. Not Without My Daughter

Three words. Horrifying, poignant, inspiring. 'Nuff said.

READ IT.

I've read a whole bunch of others as well, but I don't particularly feel like writing about them, possibly because they didn't mean that much to me. Books I'm planning on reading when I have some semblance of a normal life again are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (My father won't let me read this, and I'm dying inside. Grr). I've also heard about Jo Nesbo, since he's being hailed as the next Stieg Larsson (is that possible?!), and I'd at least like to sample his writing to see if it's as good as people claim.

Moving on. Movies I've seen, a paltry list of two:

1. The Three Musketeers

Nice movie, Logan Lerman, ruined by terrible 3D effects. I really have nothing more to say, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad as well.

2. Sherlock Holmes, A Game Of Shadows

If any more epic awesomeness could be squeezed into a movie it would burst. Robert Downey Jr. at his swaggering, smooth-talking best, and Jude Law is incredible. Of course, they haven't left much of the original Holmes intact, but Jared Harris has done a ripping job as Professor Moriarty, and I was delighted to find that Noomi Rapace (who plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish Millennium films) is also in this movie. Watch it for the ultimate bromance that is Sherlock and Watson, and for some seriously well-shot fight sequences.

In other news (this sounds so much like a bulletin on my life :D), I've been undergoing the torture that is CBSE Std 11 science, and I have never been as alienated. Believe me, Std 10 seems like a walk in the park when you compare it to this. I've never studied this much in my LIFE. The utter pointlessness of almost everything we learn never escapes me, but I actually find most of it kind of interesting (KIND of), so I scrape through :)

I am also contemplating writing a Fan Fiction for Harry Potter, so I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for bearing with me, and I'm going to keep writing :)