Other Colors & Essays by Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk once famously quoted..."when i speak of writing, what comes to my mind is not a novel, a poem or a literary tradition, but it is a person who shuts himself up in a room, alone, sitting on a table, turning to himself...". And yet his writings are loneliness filled to the brim with memories, the sights and sounds of his surroundings, people's voices, dreams etc.

The idea of loneliness of the writer is an important theme in Orhan Pamuk's writings and he goes back to this theme repeatedly. As an occidental turkish, influenced by Foydor Dostoevsky, Pamuk's "Other Colors & Essays" depicts every shades of life. Even the Black, Grey and the White are colors here...

...The book starts with "...for 30 long years i have been writing..." for those who read his previous book 'Istanbul' would remember how he wrote the finis for it. He concluded it by "...I dont want to be an artist, I want to be a writer...". This book is all about the intervening period between that ending and this beginning. A Must read book, to celebrate one's solitude, sans any fanfare, but still...loads of drama!

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Old Books, Old Memoirs - The Fountainhead

and I connect with bloggers at BlogAdda.com 1989 it was, and I was a petite 12 year old, and I along with my classmates, a group of 45 students, in our Seventh Grade. We were part of the Bharathamatha Family, a Christian Missionary Convent, when this young and vivacious teacher took charge of our English Class. Her Name was Sushma Menon and when she entered, the whole of 40 boys were awed by her charm. Little did we know that she was married and not ‘just out of college’ as we had thought when we first saw her. Anyhow, the first class it has been, and as usual she started with introductions, first with herself and then asking us each one to introduce ourselves and then tell her as also the rest of us about our reading habits. So we were to tell our names, and the book that we were currently reading. So we started one by one. Ironically, we were not avid readers then, and even if some of us (including me!) read anything, we just about graduated to...

My First Award for Blogging....

Well... I'm so happy to share with you, my first recognition that came my way. To tell you the truth, this is the first time i have ever tried posting for a contest...and somehow i am lucky enough to feature in the best 'five'.... thanks to all my readers .. as also my friends and my wife who inspire me to write and post.... also, a big thanks to that unknown friend who convinced me to sent an entry to this particular contest.. Thank You all... You can read my entry here : Old Books, Old Memoirs - The Fountainhead

The 3 Mistakes of my Life!!

Last sunday, I was on my usual mall crawling and shoppin spree, and out of my inclination, I stepped into the corner bookshop. My idea was to pick up the new Chetan Bhagat novella, the 3 Mistakes of my life. When I was about to pay up, I discovered to my delight, as his earlier books, this one too..cost very little just 95 bucks...! These days, a movie in a multiplex in delhi costs about 200 bucks, add to that a bucket of popcorn and a mug of cola, and with that money, I could buy all three of his books, still saving me some for my grub! But quite unlike the movie at the multiplex, the book is delighting, fresh and just out of the stable...and as usual, just like in his earlier books, Chetan Bhagat indulges in some preaching too and yes of course on his fav topic.. self-development. if on first time it was the Three IIT'ians, and then it were the five Call Centres', this time it is the turn of three friends from Ahmedabad, who are inturn bonded together with the three things ...

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