I am reading this very matter-of-fact book by Jonas Jonassan ,’ The hundred year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared’. The prologue reads,’Things are what they are ,and what will be will be’,sounds fatalistic but written almost from a bird’s eye view ,his 100 years old life reads like it. I found myself roaring with laughter and found wisdom in the life hacks he had to share ,not that he did much of that.He just keeps running into circumstances and floats with it. If there were doubts,inner turmoil,second thoughts,regrets and as one of my tutors in fiction writing said,there is none of it.He just keeps it matter of fact and deals with whatever is before him. ‘What finally forms young Allan’s philosophy of life were his mother’s words when they received the news of his father’s death,it took a while before the message seeped into his soul,but once there ,it was there forever’. ‘Things are what they are.....’ she coughs,ruffles Allan’s hair and goes out to cho
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I was to travel back to the heart of India during the pandemic. It didn’t help that the district that I come from in Sikkim had zero cases and in UP , numbers were going up every day. I had to cross Delhi and Bengal which made things sound a little dicey.Apart from the much discomfort and worry my decision cost my family and the police personals in the border who gave me a very thoughtful look, I enjoyed the travel better than any time else because things were a lot more organised and punctual. There were no crowds hovering around the check in point, the flight was much less crowded, waiting time was.naught , the services were not intrusive yet efficient and social distancing suits me. The crowd I was travelling with were mostly migrants I gathered ,travelling back to their place of work. I counted three women in both the jets. The food courts were empty and the food was sound. Even the clouds from the flight looked like ones over Europe.Thanks to the pollution control.
The last but one day or so I have been reading this book, “Tibetan journey“ By George N.Pattison. A Christian missionary doctor, has written a travelogue of sorts ,meandering through the tibetain valley from China onto India via the north-eastern frontiers of Assam in the 50s. It is a travelogue ,period ,none of the saintly bantering of st.Paul. His reference to the gospel is limited to a reference to Daniel’s three friends,the daily choices he makes in his difficult journey and his referance to his reading of the bible and a message he sends across to a friend in Tibet to send an English bible for a host who expresses a desire to learn english.He writes in a matter fact manner describing the tibetain people as filthy ,living under such hard weather conditions . He talks of the evil within and the evil without,promiscuous living and the violence he sees at close quarters sometimes .for his sake. However as he comes over to the Indian side and sees the razzmataz of Calcutta
We had some peculiar sightings these holidays and have learnt to understand nature better. Yesterday I spent most of the morning making some plum jelly and later on in the day worked on some coffee which came forth splendidly. Around afternoon we heard the birds make a cacophony of noise and the first instinct as my brother and my mother who understand nature better was to be alert as to what was disturbing them. Suddenly we saw a crow make plenty of noise . Sailly screamed and almost dropped her plate. She seemed to have spotted a monkey on the second floor of the house. She called all of us and as we gathered to try and take some photographs ,the monkey hobbled down towards the greenhouse and then disappeared. Later on ,my brother while talking to some of the people who live in the upper zone ,came with the news that it was its second visit. Apparently it had made a similar visit yesterday and had hovered around specially targeting the crows nest, and that was the reason why the cr
We had some peculiar sightings these holidays and have learnt to understand nature better. Yesterday I spent most of the morning making some plum jelly and later on in the day worked on some coffee which came forth splendidly. Around afternoon we heard the birds make a cacophony of noise and the first instinct as my brother and my mother who understand nature better was to be alert as to what was disturbing them. Suddenly we saw a crow make plenty of noise . Sailly screamed and almost dropped her plate. She seemed to have spotted a monkey on the second floor of the house. She called all of us and as we gathered to try and take some photographs ,the monkey hobbled down towards the greenhouse and then disappeared. Later on ,my brother while talking to some of the people who live in the upper zone ,came with the news that it was its second visit. Apparently it had made a similar visit yesterday and had hovered around specially targeting the crows nest, and that was the reason why t
The sun was out after almost two weeks of rain.The electricity went in for a sixer because of the rain at night so we were left without charges in our phone.There was just enough charge to send mom’s school work over.I spent the greater part of the morning picking plums and made some sweet and sour pickle. I spent the next part of the morning separating coffee beans when I heard saili excitedly give a shout out to her son to call the youngest mam.She had spotted a leapard cat in one of the caves in the lower part of the compound.,she thought probably with its cubs.I gave a shout out to my brother who ran down with his DSLR. My mom informed us that they have always been spotted in the compound from time to time.To everyone’ surprise it does not harm the domestic animals.My brother spotted it with just its face outside the cave.He tells me that originally apparently these leapard cats were from the area .However the domestic cats which are found in the houses now were originally from