"You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!!"

More often than not I end up wondering how Life does what it does. Does it have that magician's hat from where it conjures up stuff, some to amaze me, while quite a few just to catch me off guard?

I am sure each one of you feels the same way. It is as if we are all sitting in the same amphitheater watching Life's Magic Show. The acts are not pre-planned, they are intuitive.  There are acts of disappearing, re-appearing that too with a whole gamut of emotions. Just when you think that all the tricks are done, there is this one thing which springs up and each one of us is like "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!"

You just cannot prepare and be ready. You are reduced to a rabbit that has to cross the road each day for the carrot field is on the other side and pray that it doesn't get caught in the headlights of a passing trailer. The surprise comes when the rabbit doesn't get caught in the headlights but rather is hit by lightning as it makes the daily round trip, his last words "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!!??!!!"

As I wade through my life experiences I cannot help but tip my hat to Life and say, "Damn, you sure are a helluva of a player!" It's a peculiar game where you don't lose but learn. You are not knocked down, but helped up -ready and charged up for round 2. Be sure you don't make the same mistakes again because Life is not going to step back and say, "You gotta be kidding me, right!!!??!!" it will just go through you and wait for you to stand back up, again!

Read 2 for 2013: The Book Thief: Mark Zusak

Call it the hangover caused by the 'Room' or the fact that I spent more time on Netflix rather than my Kindle, but I must say that this one took me a long time. My saying this should not reflect on the novel, it was more to do with me than the novel.

The Book Thief is an unusual novel. For starters atleast I haven't heard anybody give voice to 'Death' before. You might imagine that 'Death' talking would be sad, morose and outright cold. But hey, not this 'Death'. This Death has a certain swagger to it. It is just like one of us, not really in love with its job, over-worked and desperately in need for a vacation which it cannot get because there isn't any back-up!

The setup of the novel is Nazi Germany and the timeframe is the Holocaust and the Second World War No doubt Death felt so over-worked! Death narrates the story of one Liesel Meminger. This orphaned girl who travels to Molching to the home of her foster parents – the Hubermanns. The more I think about it the more I am tempted to compare this with the diary of Anne Frank. Even this is a tale of a girl who finds herself faced with adversity and takes help of words to tell her tale.

The life on Himmel Street is painted with such real colors that you start identifying with the characters. There are episodes after episodes which make a mark on you and convey so much symbolically. Death seems to have a heart but has to do the heartless.  

If you ever want to pick a Holocaust novel, I would strongly suggest this one. It is not all that gory or graphic but it sure leaves you wondering as to does Death also have feelings!

The last line of the novel is the most telling. It is where Death says : Humans haunt me!!!

Next read:  American Gods : Neil Gaiman

Wednesday

It resides right in the middle of the work week, hidden away from the 'gloomy' Monday and equally distant from the 'happening' Friday.  But more often than not it is the Wednesday which is the toughest day of the week to get by.  I have always felt that Monday has had its unfair share of disrepute. I agree it being the first day of the week, what after an amazing weekend, but not each and every Monday is like that. I mean there must be occasions where you really want to get to Monday and get that thing started at office or get to Monday so that you can swap some healthy office gossip with your peers, or maybe get to Monday just to get past an otherwise dull weekend. Monday most often has a flavor of excitement to it, for it is a start of something new. Yet pop culture associates it with a half-asleep clerk hanging onto his morning coffee for dear life!!!

Wednesday is the one who got away. It is poised exactly in the middle. It is the day when stuff shifts into high gear more so because the deadlines are to be met by the last day of the week. If there is one day we should absolutely hate then it must be Wednesday. Remember how you had to put in extra hours on Friday to meet the deadline- well blame Wednesday, for I bet that was when you started realistically thinking about the deadline anyways. Wednesday reminds me of that middle portion or the innings in a 50-over ODI, where slower bowlers/spinners are operating on both ends and the motive is not to take wickets but just to stymie the flow of runs. Also the batsmen are in no hurry either, for they have already scored at a healthy rate earlier, when the fielders were in the circle and now they are much content to just get the singles and the doubles wait until the final overs come into play before injecting excitement in the game.

Today is a Wednesday and things are no different.  It is a bigger drag than Monday, and yet no one has anything to say about it. I know it is too little too late for Wednesday to be castigated and Monday to be brought back to its full glory, but let it be known that there is at least somebody who despises Wednesday more than the Monday!!!

The Urban Squirrel

Just when you think that maybe this is the worst it can get and that tomorrow will be a warm sunny day, an overnight blizzard dumps inches of snow curdling any thoughts of enthusiasm. That is what has been happening off late. Not that you will see my frolicking about on the sidewalks of because the sun is out in its full glory, but then atleast I will be cheerful enough to get to office for once. If wishes were horses…

I must give credit to the human body. It sure learns to adapt to what is thrown at it. Looking at the 'weather.com' app has become a daily ritual. Not only because it makes for good conversation, but also because you can be mentally prepared to face the elements. I know this is illogical, but then I have come to believe that temperatures in Fahrenheit are colder than the same in Celsius!!! For once the feelings have gained importance because the 'Feels like' column on the 'weather.com' app is what true feelings are all about.

 It is just amazing to think that in this day and age when I think of my life in Des Moines, I am reminded of a squirrel – The Urban Squirrel. Allow me to explain.

The squirrel as I understand is a hoarder. It comes out when the weather is agreeable and forages, collecting whatever it is it eats and saving it all for a rainy day, in my case a snowy day. Now when I think of it I am no different. I forage for food, collecting items from Walmart or the Indian store and yeah I sure am a hoarder, especially in this weather. Not to mention, only when the weather is agreeable do I plan my journey to Walmart and the Indian store. Items like milk, bread, eggs are hoarded for that snowy day when more often than not I run out of veggies to cook and maybe rotis as well. In all of this my respect for rice and dal and ofcourse the variety of beans has reached sky high!!! There are days when I think I should come up with an elaborate ritual to honor the uncooked pasta which is a savior in its own way, or wear a crown made of eggshells for they serve a much higher purpose than we give them credit for.

All said and done, I do see that it is going to turn warmer over the weekend. Maybe then the squirrel can come out again and do its thing and be ready for the next snowy day!!!!