They say there is a Novel inside all of us waiting to take birth someday... Everybody dreams
about it through a protagonist (like a mirror to themselves) and look at the world through
their eyes...Everyone writes a story ...a hundred times in their minds..(and only some of
them see the light of the publishers day..but then thats a separate story)

As for me..I have a story too..But I don’t know how old would I be before I could write
it...Someday...Someway..I will...I hope.
Till then I will read..if not write.Thats my promise to myself.
Yes I am a voracious reader...and as my friends will vouch for, I have a very bad habit of
begging, borrowing and stealing books ( I steal only when denied).

But what if I was to select my favorite 5 books? Books which I would give my life for..Books
which will fill my cloudy sundays full of sunshine...tough to think of...but then as Rahul’s
email signature sometime used to say ’’When the going gets tough the tough get going’’..so
here I am ..trying to figure out the best 5 books I ever read -

1) Whats the name of this Book - by Raymond Smullyan - If I have ever got a good thing from
my roommate, its a sneak peak to this wonderfully provocative and insanely intelligent book
on paradoxes and puzzles which can open the brains of a even a certified moron to the zanny
world of Logic. Believe me ..just the first page of the book can hook you for a lifetime.

2) The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Thanks Subbu for introducing me to Mr Douglas
Adams . I have never ever felt like being taken for such a roller coaster ride - thru a
world of imagination and satire...I bet you would never have thought of the universe and our
green planet with such an eye .Pure 22 carat gold. Go for the Omnibus version which contains
5 volumes in 1.

3) The Alchemist - I always wondered how could a 100 page book make you think so much and
feel so much. I have a bad habit of underlining lines in my books and when I ended this
one...almost the whole book had pencil lines below it.I will never ever read any other book
by Paulho Coelho ( It wont satisfy my expectations)

4) India Unbound - Some books change the world ( Das Capital)..some change civilizations
(Arthashastra)..some make heroes ..But there is only one book which can make all the bunch
of pessimistic indians of the universe change themselves and their view of their ’’wretched
’’ country called India and start believing in it .

5) You Must Be Joking Mr Feynman - If you hated the damn physicists you’ll love it....If you
are crazy about physics you’ll love it..If you never knew the difference between physicists
and physicians , you’ll love it...if you were the science topper in school you’ll love
it...need I say more? - Summary : Richard Feynman makes his story the funniest one I have
ever read which involved science...apart from those horrible science projects in school from
which we used to copy every year.

So there they are..Be sure that you have read atleast 3 of them before you die..or else you
won’t get entry pass to heaven

This is the first football World Cup which I won’t be able to watch live on TV and hence I am awashed with thoughts about it. Waking up midnight to start the match…falling asleep midway …only to wake up hearing “GOOOAAAAAAAAAAAL”…..may be that’s why we love Brazil so much…so many chants of GOAAL per match…kept me and my father awake thru the night…compare it to ITALY (ugh….u’ll be lucky if they score more than 1-0…that too the goal will come after the 70^th minute)…next day school/college used to be a hot bed of all analysis….wonderful terms like “insurance goal”, “attacking third”, “in-step”, “banana kick”….enough to impress a mind…specially when u see your friends churning them out. I remember my classmates discussing the skills of reserve bench footballers for teams like Belgium and Cameroon as if they were next door neighbor players…and then you have the Bengali Newspapers…(Anandabazar, Aajkaal etc)…a regular 8 page paper with 1 page for sports used to magically get converted to a 16 pager – starting 1 month before the WC …with 8 pages of football..and with all the spicy news and tidbits which God knows how they got access to….it was FUN…I will miss those…even though I am hell bent on reading every top Bengali Paper in the Net just to get some taste of that… 

I guess many of us have an idea of the craze of football in Bengal. Every family member supports either MB or EB (there is Mohammedan Sporting as the 3rd of the holy Trinity…with their predominant muslim support base). In most cases whom you support is pre-determined before your birth depending on who your parents support. If u’re lucky (like me) your parents will support different teams – and you will get a chance to choose ur team. In my case my mom (who comes from a traditional West Bengal family – popularly called GHOTI) was a MB supporter by lineage and my father (whose family came to West Bengal from Bangladesh some generations back) had a ticket to support EB lifelong….and hence I had a level playing field to choose my team. I chose EB and had a reason for it (but that’s for another time).   

For any True Blooded Bengali…World Cup is the time to rise up from the mundane life to the frenzy of debates, analysis and discussions. Lot of people do not really understand the phenomena or rather dynamics of it. Even the FIFA president is said to be astounded at the amount of excitement over football (I hate to us the word Soccer) in India and West Bengal in specific (specially when we are ranked a lowly 118 among the football playing nations)….but we, the Bengalis do not care if others understand our passion for East Bengal (EB)/Mohun Bagan(MB) or Brazil/Argentina…we still continue to discuss at all the tea stalls (THEK) in all our drawing room debates (ADDA) and even during work (which we love not to do anyway)…World Cup is just the icing on the cake …the pinnacle of the passion and starting today I imagine it’s a mini festival time for Bengalis…for 1 month people will forget all “Reservation”, “Rahul Mahajan” and “Stock Market Panic”…and just live for this….ITS GREAT TO BE A FOOTBALL FAN!!!

This one is from someone called Bridget Walsh (read this somewhere in the www)...for all the aspiring poets (and those who asprired one day and have lost the soul in the forest of life)...a simple primer on the pleasure and pain of writing a poem

Creating a poem is difficult
Like anything worthwhile is
A new mother holds the result of her labour
In her arms as sweat cascades down her face
It is indefinitely worth the work, or so I have heard

Thinking is dangerous
Maybe I should stop
Humans only actively use ten percent of their total brain capacity
But despite the odds curiosity always gets me in the end
Just like the cat (how else did you think it died?)

This collaboration of my thoughts just may
Led to what some consider poetry
No rocket science here
Just three pounds of raw thought
Pensive, perplexed with a changing world

Too many comparisons based on entertainment
Everyone strives to be the social bufferfly
Replacing morals, Nintendo 64 and 275 cable channels become the new standard
Be an individual you say?
But that would require scrapping my pancake mind off the television
Perhaps moulding it into a into something 3-D
Something with substance

No prior recipe for success
No assured blue-print to happiness
I am the path cutter, the trendsetter, the future
I am important; or so they say
Yet what I think about world politics does not matter
Knowing you know that you know, can drive a person to the edge of insanity
When others are blind to everything but color

Stimulating, invigorating, intoxicating
Poetry is the air I drink
Life is the inspiration behind it
Here is my brain, an empty slate
Inspire me!

This is one of my Favorites from Pablo Neruda's poems...Thought it would a good way to start the day

I do not love you...

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Lets see...
Its another sluggish afternoon and the world (much like the Rediff site) is full of BAD NEWS.

1) Resevation (Mandal 2) is ready to grab Indian middle class minds in fire again...now the theory pelted is...Its the Media which is Upper Caste and hence all this brouhaha..
2) Cops catching the son of a dead politician on Drugs (its even less than a month that his father died an unfortunate death)
3) Stock market is plunging to the nadir - even as the "Smart-Brokers" tell the "Smart-Investors" to put their "Smart Money" into the market NOW
4) Even though Supreme Court says - "Show the movie"...our "Moral-Police" (read Multiplex owners) in Gujarat won't show Fanaa..

Not a good time to start a blog...the only sunshine in this gloomy day is that the cricket crazy souls like us are asking the OLD Warhorse KUMBLE to do the magic again...just this once (AGAIN)..and we will forget u again Kumble...in our chants for Chapell (till his next mistakes) and Dravid (till his next mis-step)...

So why do I start now..on such a non-descript nonchalant day...

Simple - When their is darkness...let there be LIGHT....

Hehehehe....forget the last line of C**P. Here's the deal....I just had so much to say for so long and never just had the guts to open all the thoughts...and today I just let go..(thanks to my 20% work load )...

So there you go...my first confession...on day 1 of blogging...thats AWESOME if not AUSPICIOUS...

Till we meet again my dear Iland....here's ciao from Ani (and Ashi)

Wilkommen..Namashkar..Bienvenue...

Here's the e-gate to the world of Ani (and ashi too)...to the small yet eclectic world where everyone has his ideas blossoming and engendering a fusion of minds.

I am a cosmopolitan with an Indian heart and like a true Indian I love to debate and discuss (waters my mind-plants)...and we will cover the landscape...be it movies..music ..politics or sports...(even dastardly topics like RESERVATION or GANGULY-CHAPELL or the SINISTER stock market...nothing is sacred anymore)...

So lets start the ball rolling