Ravali Priya: MEMORIES

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Friday, March 30, 2012

A Letter is a Joy, No doubt!

Well this is going to be weird. For the first time since I started blogging, I felt like sharing something really personal, as a
testimony to a wonderful friend I have! Chinni Chintu! Yeah, she rocks! :D

For this to make any sense, I ll have to fill you in, May 15th 2011, the last day at BITS Pilani,we were bidding farewell to each other when Chinni said, we should write to each other and stay in touch not only through calls and mails, it will be nice to have something to save, in an unconventional way. After 3 months in Bangalore, when I left to Delhi, I started writing to her! Here goes..

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Dear Chinni, 21st March 2012
Wednesday, 19:48

When I first wrote to you,even when I was to write a simple letter I was scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness. I am writing this letter in a very very very very.. yeah, keep that going for 2 days and you ll get to.. right about how happy I am, right now. Well, here it is.. Sometime around Nov 15th last year, I was reading the newspaper and underlining away to glory (yeah, thats what I do now! ;) ), when I saw this headline about a boeing crashing down in Haryana,saying one of the cockpit pilots lost his life, that was also the time around which I started writing letters to you.. I got the details of the guild which he belonged to, and wrote down a condolence.. Well, it was not a war, but I just felt like writing. Today, I got a postcard, I think it would be more appropriate to say, a 'Thank you' note saying that the letter meant something to the family. I am very happy seeing the reply!It is beyond me!I just read it with a grin from ear to ear! I did not expect that a 'postcard' would make me so happy! Walking on air, I must say! I owe this to you, Chinni! You made me take interest in writing to you, whatever it might be about.If memory serves me correctly,today, in the 6 months I have been writing to you, for the first time, I feel like I am writing something that is worth the postage. Elated, I am! This feeling is oddly unsettling! Love you Chinni, you are one person who just brings the best out of me! Love does not come to you only through calls, e-mails, msgs and Facebook,I would love to write something that is worth reading, and if not, something atleast worth the postage.. It is good to know that someone is ready to read what you wrote,even if it is not worth reading and that it is always means a lot to them! Love you Chinni, for not letting me give up my old habits for the new..! :) I know, I ll love reading them even 50 years from now because, Its good to know, someone remembers and treasures your handwriting.. Leaving behind, a value legacy!
Love,
Ravali (Snug as a bug in a rug!)

PS: I ran out of inland covers the other day, and when I went to the post office and asked for 20 of them. I got one of the weirdest stares I ever got!Call me old fashioned,but I am learning to write! It feels good!
Out of ink now,till I next write to you then! Take care..

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To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Happily Ever After...

Let me first tell you how this started.. :D
I was bored and so tried editing my Google account information when there was this question:

"A thing that google can't help you with.."
I did not even pause and think... Don't know how, may be it was deep down there.. And I filled the tab.. 'In finding out a happily ever after!' Though not here to speak about philosophy (That is not me already! May be there is a lot of time for me to write on that! ;) ) What I wanted to tell was.. I was puzzled about the spontaneity with which I could answer that!! No holding back! Most of the stories I read and admired almost always ended with a happy note.. So, may be, I thought, that's where this blog should start.. With a happily ever after..

For the next 15 minutes after I saved my google account information...
My thoughts.. I always anticipated of how it should be.. The happily ever after..

This anticipation must have started when my father read out "... And they lived happily ever after" before kissing me goodnight.. That was a perfect life then, I thought.. 'this' must be the happily ever after... Not long before I realized.. Nothing remained the same.. School, small fights for crayons, tantrums for a Chocolate, that big red plastic ball, sports day at school, the drama I was in, birthdays, piggy banks.. And the thing is that, at every point, I blissfully thought 'Uhh!! This is the happily ever after! :) ' But it was not!! That was not the happily ever after!

Or it might have started at that time when I secretly read those novels with a happy ending before the next day dawned and Everything changed from school.. As it always did, College came and only things that mattered were ranks, marks and grades! And definitely that was not my happily ever after!! The restless mind ranted whenever there was a mishap.. Very few or may be wait.. There were no incidents at all when I thought 'Awww! This is life!!' In those two years!!

Perhaps it started when i was happily entering this life, the campus life.. with the craving to find out if that was the happily ever after!! Friends forever, late night chats.. blah blah blah **Don’t want to sound more cliched here!! (It will make me feel nostalgic and I may forget that I have one more semester to let these things entice me like they always did!! :D)
But at the end of it.. Perhaps that was not the happily ever after either.. Coz now I Find myself awaiting yet another phase!!

Or may be it started when I asked my then recently married cousin.. 'Is this your happily ever after ?' and he answered 'No..' Bad move, I know. But I verified it!! Genuine? Check! :D And that was because all the fairy tales I grew up listening to,ended with that note..!! (You may laugh,even I was grinning when I was asking that) ;) :D
But I think I realize that the thing is it took 19 long years for me to understand that.. Everything changes, Forever is too good to be true, and that Change is the essence of life! And that change is good, rather, awesome!
For, in this cycle of life, I now believe that, that innocent thought of 'Aww! This is happily ever after..' Whenever I tasted a candy 16 years back is just true.. Yeah, there must be that happily ever after in everything that makes you truly happy. Because, everything changes, Life is not a fairy tale. It is much n=more beautiful, because the most important things in life remain just the same, come what may! :) Or may be a hope for change is what makes us strong enough to endure what is not meant to be or may be meant to be!

After all, Google can't always help us.. ;)
Some things should be figured out by oneself!!
Moreover, Happiness is not a destination its the journey.. And Memories are bliss!! :)
The savour of bliss.. Never lost!!
Basked them,
Always have.. Ever more!!!

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Recent Library

~ Imagining India- Nandan Nilakeni

A complete neo-liberal approach in introducing the ideas that are being taken up or are making the possibility of of a vibrant country a tad closer.. Mitigating the challenges wile in a convergence to the new India. it really helped me renew the dreams I had.. I am a better optimistic egalitarian now.. I can say without a doubt

~ Fault Lines - G. Ranjan

The best caught spirit of the importance of contemporary economics and how the hidden but intricate and threatening fault lines , contradicting to 'under the sea bed of chaos lies a calm regularity',are to every economy. My new found interest in economics was quenched by the book while giving a silver lining of the recession prediction. Hats off!!

~ Splendour in the grass - Dept of Admin Pub

The most respectable knowledgeable minds of the country have contributed to this book while being in the cutting edge and facing the real problems of policy implementation while taking into view the large ,nope, huge demographics of the country is a well knit policies and the innate and eternal strife towards betterment.Nice one! Did not realize the complications till I read this book. There is always something more than what we can spell out in the texts

~ The immortals of Meluha and The secret of the Nagas - Amish

It was a by chance read (I buy Indian authors' books even without a thorough review)and I was pleasantly surprised to have stumbled upon Indian Mythology in the form of fiction. First off, hatsoff to the mind that brilliantly, vibrantly yet carefully moulded the known mythology into a gripping fiction. I actually fell in love with the name 'Shiva' after reading the introduction paragraph over and over again. As claimed there are some mishaps regarding the relation drawn to the Harappan civilization.. It was a gripping read and eagerly waiting for the next one to be on the stands soon..

~ Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The one thing I loved about the book was that they profoundly made it clear that what is read and what is preached is completely different from what can be experienced. Picking the right choice from a lot and learning to love it grows from within and it is nothing like someone holding your hand and making your way through the dark. Though not initially interested in reading the book, it really got to me by the time the writer started the beautiful illustrations of relating the life to a coursing river.

~ Revolution 2020 - Chetan Bhagat

I was intrigued by the title ‘Love Corruption and Ambition’. By the end of the book also I was left to hold on to three discretely different things tied in a poor knot at one character who is, as always in Chetan Bhagath’s books, the narrator. Nicely put in words the frustrations undergone by a student facing IIT JEE and the other competitive exams. The story was too predictive at most of the places and the theme of the book had a late start and demands a better ending throwing more light on other characters a bit more than they got. I still can’t understand why girls need to be portrayed with a total lack of clarity!

~ I too had a love story - Ravinder Singh

In a desperate attempt to find some book that didn’t talk about the society and will be a small detour and a light read into a love story I ended up reading this book and I still regret reading it completely due to my weakness of not being able to stop reading a book half way through. Seriously poor narration and a very boring story till the last 20 pages. It vividly reminded me of a poorly narrated south Indian movie which was a hit in Telugu and Tamil, sans illustrations. However, the efforts were great. Better language would have done a lot of good to the book. I hope that goes into ‘Can love happens twice?’

~ JAYA- An illustrated retelling of Mahabharata- Devdutt Pattanaik

This was one book that really got to me in the recent past. I fell in love with every inch of the book, the cover design and everything that added to it from Lorem Ipsum to the very end of the book. For the love of the book, it demands on whole post. It was nothing less than – “AWESOME”. I might not find enough words to describe the feeling after I read this book in less than two days. ;) If you are, even at the slightest, thinking of buying the book, go to the store, turn to page 300 and read the third paragraph on ‘Kaliyuga’. After that I don’t think anything can stop you from buying it.

~ White Tiger -Aravind Adiga

The book was a series of letters written by the protagonist. The novel studies a strong contrast between India’s rise as a modern global economy and the lead character, Balram who comes from crushing rural poverties, and the opening lines of the novel establish this fact. It not only makes you laugh out loud but makes you think. ‘Take whatever comes out of a Prime minister’s speech and exactly the opposite is true about India.’ The way he clearly portrays the widening gap, dysfunctions and how least it bothers a poor man of how many international forums India is a part of really got me to think. Heavily thought provoking and darkly humorous and an honest account of the staggering economic inequality book. I just went wow after the book.

~ Non Stop India- Mark Tully

I must confess, I ended up ordering this book only because of so much written in The Hindu and the fact that I loved the cover page! Seriously, I should stop judging the book from the cover. :D Just two words would do: Simple and Awesome. Everything from a village’s malignant problem to a city’s sophistication beautifully penned down by Mark Tully. India is divided into two distinct classes: the contented and the discontented, the optimists and the pessimists, those who gush about the glorious future and those who anticipate a violent revolt. Tully meets both kinds during his extensive travels and presents objectively the scenarios which are provoking the extreme views. His conclusion at the end of the book is: “I am confident that there won’t be full stops to halt progress over the next twenty years.” I really loved the way the author institutionalised Vote Banks by saying ‘Vote Banking’. The Biblical dictum that "there is no new thing under the sun" in some measure applies to Non-Stop India.

~Playing for Pizza - John Grisham

Charming short novel which enthralls the reader about the culinary, cultural and architectural marvels of Italy through the fall and rise of a loser NFL quarterback. Great pace and perfectly enjoyable.

~The Secret- Rhonda Bryne

The first book of philosophy I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Great Read! Inspires and all.. But then, can't comment too much on philosophy.

~Guerilla Warfare - Che Guevara

How a small band of guerrilla fighters might use specific strategies and tactics to resist and defeat an oppressive state enemy in asymmetrical warfare. A peak into the manifestations of Che's mind and a great insight into his vibrant brilliance.

~ Motorcycle Diaries - Che Guevara

If you're on the bottom end of the social spectrum, you would wish that life were a little bit easier, hoping that the the riches those bourgeoisie enjoy would trickle down to your own plate. That's the hope. Alas, it is easier said than done. That I have seen the film before reading the book,knowing the places helped a lot and got me back the flashes of the film.

~Chanakya's Chant -Ashwin Sanghi

The book runs alternatively between 2300 years ago and the present day. One chapter speaks about the legend chanakya who helped unify India and bring in the golden rule of Chandra Gupta Maurya as the emperor of India, while the other is the present day account about GangaSagar Mishra, Chanakya’s modern avatar, with the same narrative, where his protégé is the oxford educated slum child Chandini, who becomes the eventual prime minister of India. The writing style is great felt like an awesome screenplay and never felt like putting the book down.

Ravali Priya

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Friday, March 30, 2012

A Letter is a Joy, No doubt!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Happily Ever After...

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