Aparna’s Blog

Yes my blog completes 4 years today. Happy Birthday, blog! And a very big thanks to you all for reading this blog for so long!

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Of course, of late, the blog is not updated as frequently as it once used to be. And to think that it is only in the last few months that I have been having free time in excess and I didn’t utilize it even one bit to update my blog! I seem to have given up all attempts at resurrecting the blog. Let me at least do a quick roundup of all that I missed blogging about.

It is only my blog that I have neglected. I have never been as regular in reading others’ blogs as I have been during these months. I hardly have any unread items left on my Google reader.
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I started reading this book sometime last month. But after crossing some 10-11 pages, I never got around to reading it at all. But that’s how it has been for the last few months. I start reading a book, get stuck at some page and after several unsuccessful attempts at trying to continue reading it, on one fine day, I suddenly get the urge to read it and then, finish reading the book within a day or two. In the case of this book, day before yesterday was the fine day when I finally resumed reading it. What a book it was! My liking for P.G.Wodehouse’s writing style seems to increase with every book of his I read. Be it the way he makes the plot more and more hilarious with each page, bringing in unexpected twists or even his description of how the weather is, I love it all.

‘Hot Water’ had the best set of unexpected twists in the story among the dozen or so books of Wodehouse that I have read. The clever way and ease with which Packy goes on weaving lie after lie, the bird’s eye view given by Wodehouse of what each of the more than 10 characters are doing at some point of time and not to forget that climax which totally took me by suprise! Oodles of laughter guaranteed! This book deserves another reading for sure, just for savouring Wodehouse’s brilliant writing once more.

What more can I ask for? I am finally listening to the ‘Blue’ songs now. The songs are all excellent!! I will try to write an elaborate post on it later. For now, I am happy getting lost in the magic of Rahman’s music. I listened to the tracks from ‘Passage’ yesterday and liked those too. I went for a Sanjay’s concert in the evening. Nattakurunji alapana & Begada were the highlights of this concert. I managed to read a book too today - Sudha Murty’s ‘How I Taught My Grandmother to Read & Other Stories’. Today has been a very satisfying day!

P.S.: There seems to be some problem with my blog. Your comments will have to wait till it gets resolved.

Good evening everybody! The day began sans any Monday blues. But as the day progressed, I was down with severe head-ache. It got so worsened that by evening I was in such a grumpy mood. Not even the surprise drizzle cheered me up. Head-ache still continues. And yeah grumpiness continues too.

I am so happy that Federer finally won the French Open! Yay! I know this ‘Yay’ is coming very late. But there was some problem with internet at home yesterday. I watched the historic moment yesterday. Did you watch it?

I watched Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na yesterday and I didn’t like it. To me, the best story ever told about best friends becoming lovers has surely got to be Erich Segal’s ‘Doctors’. It takes the best friends in ‘Doctors’ almost 40 years to realize and accept that they are in love with each other. But when it finally happens, how happy the readers too feel along with the couple!

I had my first guitar class on Saturday and I got a black acoustic guitar. Though I just learnt to play the open strings, still it felt great to hold a guitar in my hand and play it

There are those friends with whom you once spent hours talking over phone/chatting/SMSing. But then comes a point of time when the friend becomes so busy with other things that there’s no time for everyday calls or chats. And after that comes a time when you finally call after a long time and you realize that you have nothing at all to talk. But as there are two sides to any coin, there are those friends whom if you meet even after a long time, you can talk just like old times.

Let me end my rambling right here. Even blogging doesn’t seem to be giving me the diversion from my head-ache. Bye folks!

P.S.: I couldn’t think of any proper title either

Or so it feels like when I see the date of my last post here. So what’s been keeping me away from blogging?

Wanting to try some author I haven’t read before, I borrowed a couple of books of Sudha Murty from the library on the Monday before last. I first started reading ‘The Old Man and His God’ and liked it so much that I finished reading it at a stretch on the same evening. Finding ‘The Wise and Otherwise’ too equally engrossing as the previous book, the next day had me reading it at every possible free moment I could get. I can’t remember the last time I found a book as inspiring as these two! Reading those books made me do some serious thinking about a lot of things.
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Can there be a better way to relax than reading a good book with some good music for company at the end of a day, a major part of which saw me being in an irritated mood? Am now reading P.G.Wodehouse’s ‘Service with a Smile’ (a Blandings story) and listening to a recording of a concert of Sanjay.

It has been really long since I listened to a full-length concert recording of Sanjay and that has made the listening experience even more blissful now! I have already started reminiscing about the Dec Season 2008. Those amazing Darbari Kanada, Madhuvanti, Chayaranjani, Saramati, Chandrakauns, Abheri and Desh RTPs, those fast-paced Aarabhi swarams, Yadukula Kambhoji & the brilliant Todi at Narada Gana Sabha, the brigas-laden (or so I remember it was) Purnachandrika alapana & the Vakulabharanam & Kanada pieces at Kalarasana, Shanmukhapriya at Indian Fine Arts, Ravichandrika Alapana at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Janaranjani alapana at Kartik Fine Arts, Kapi at Krishna Gana Sabha, the Hamsanadam piece at Margazhi Mahotsavam, tunbam nergayil, nijagadasa and that veryyyy beautiful ninnaye rati (in Bhageshri) at Music Academy! I want to listen to it all again!! With a concert of Sanjay on what seemed like every other day and all the concerts turning out to be equally brilliant ones and me spending most of my waking moments listening to just Sanjay’s recordings, what an absolutely blissful and most satisfying month it was!!! I, now, so very badly want to go for a Sanjay’s concert! Somebody please organize a concert of his soon!

P.S.: With the P.G.Wodehouse book providing some laughter in the form of some humorous moments and Sanjay’s awesome singing providing that indescribable and unsurpassed magical experience, I see no signs of my irritated mood anywhere near me.

• Heard that Yaavarum Nalam is really good. I want to watch it. It isn’t often that Madhavan’s movies turn out to be good! The picturization, cinematography and the music too seemed to be nice for two songs a few seconds of which I saw. Have to see how the full song is.

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