my top 10 picks

With nothing on my book shelf left unread, i think i can pick my top 10 reads till this date

10: Alice's adventures in wonderland by Lewis Carrol- One of my earliest reads, the book was given a new lease on life, post my horrendous rendezvous with Tim Burton's extravagant on screen translation of the book. The preposterity of the movie prompted me to pick the old book, laden with silverfish ,again.The result, i immediately fell in love with book again, Alice in wonderland is one book anyone can relate to.

9:Animal Farm be George Orwell- This fable, satirizing the events in Russia, is a work of genius. George Orwell wrote it with the purpose of enlightening the masses and bringing to the fore the atrocities that were committed in the stalinist era. But animal farm does a lot more. It delves deep into the human psyche and comments upon the basis and the motives of our civilization. Animal farm will be read and re-read in the ages to come when no one would've heard of Russia. The sheer timelessness of this book is what makes it a classic.

8 Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger: A highly provocative, groundbreaking and moving account of Holden Caulfield's life. The character is an enigma, too simple yet to complex to fathom

7: A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens: Nothing, I mean nothing is comparable to the ingenuity of Charles Dickens, and a tale of two cities may as well be called as his magnum opus. The beauty with which he captures the essence of the French Revolution is breathtaking

6:Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: Although i was never able to lay my hands on the original unabridged book, the abridged version was good enough to make me mention it in this list. Jean Valjean as an ex convict who makes amends in life is a character worth being remembered for centuries to come

5 The Harry Potter collection by J.K Rowling: I don't think that this book needs any introduction, almost everyone would have read it. This book isn't genius or something, its just a book I have grown up with, and hence it shall always find a place in my top picks.

4 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: This book in my opinion has had the most lasting impression on me. Even though its been quite a while I read it, the crispness of the characters fails to wither from my memory. Anna, Vronsky, Karenin and Levin are the four central characters this book focuses upon. each character doesn't fail to enchant you. It is one book in which you can't call any one character as wrong. Each character has been denuded by Tolstoy so as to enable the reader to pass a justified judgement on the character. Each character with his/her own foibles and qualities, leaves a lasting impression and forces the reader to empathise with him/her

3 The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera: This book, has the most perfectly etched characters possible. Each character has its own set of idiosyncrasies and ideologies. The characters are so strong that the reader almost steps into their shoes while going through this book. Also, the way Kundera uses fiction as a medium to put forth his philosophy, that attaches a lightness to the life we live and makes it unbearable precisely because of the lightness or meaninglessness or futility of this life, is commendable.

2 The Stranger by Albert Camus: Albert Camus for me is the father of modern literature. The simplicity with which he writes his books and is able to convey his thoughts is something that no other writer has. What is really appealing about The Stranger is the banality of the entire plot. The book does not have a "wow" moment, but is able to convey the message so beautifully that you are left admiring the writer. The last 8 pages of this book are a testimony to Camus' profound faith in absurdism (the philosophy refuting the claim that a human life needs to have an essence, a meaning, a purpose to achieve)

1 The lord of the rings by J.R.R Tolkien: When it comes to discussing this man, i am wrong in using the word 'man' to describe him. He has to be one of the Valar or even better still, the human incarnation of Eru Iluvatar himself. For no man can possess the skill, the ability to produce something like the lord of the rings. It is the most comprehensive piece of English literature, possessing every element possible. Lord of the rings along with the silmarillion and the Hobbit was, is and will always be the holistically complete collection of books to have been ever created

other books that deserve a mention

the godfather and the last don by mario puzo

The Trial by Franz Kafka

One hundred years of solitude and love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia marquez

The black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Jeeves omnibus by P G Wodehouse

The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

A time to kill By John Grisham

To kill a Mockingbird by Harper lee

A few books that deserve a mention for all the wrong reasons

The fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: they disgust me

Catch 22 by Joseph heller: Either i never understood the book or i failed to find humor in its absurd scenarios

H2G2 by Douglas Adams: it's repetitive

The time has come, I'm back home

it doesn't feel so all right, I'm chilled to the bone

my wife my earth, aren't like what i had known;

i wish i had never flown

and i wish it would've been a long long time,

till touch down brought me round again to find,

that i am the man they thought i am at home,

oh no no no, i'm a rocket man

the rocket man they thought i'm at home

reference: rocket man-Elton John

the saga of the charlatan derider

With my facebook status update not getting enough notice i think a blog post would do justice to quench the angst against poseurs that recently vexed me to mammoth proportions. I shall first narrate the incident that is responsible to put me in such a morose mood. While chekcing out random profiles of friends of friends i bumped into a guys profile who was supposedly studying at IIM Calcutta(i seriously doubt that though). Seeing the IIM tag attached to it I was bound to get excited like a kid on seeing a lollipop(ya thats the best i can come up with at 2 am) and hence decided to carefully scrutinize the revered profile. On reaching the part where the guy was to describe his favourite books, he had a host of authors mentioned including P G Wodehouse, J.R.R Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, Ayn Rand (i know she sucks) etc etc, which is not so unusual. The unusual part was that all the names were misspelt with the only exception being Chetan Bhagat. Seeing this made me nauseous. I sometimes thought that any decent, well educated person would have brains enough of not bragging to be someone who he isn't. But this is beyond comprehension. I have been coming across a throng of such charlatans recently but all of them did not befit the aforementioned requisites. But someone who belongs one of the best B-Schools in the country was certainly not expected to be a part of the herd. Seeing the kind of people i could bump into, IIM-C is out of my list of "B-Schools i wish to get into"(as if i would've even if i had wanted to).

Anyways, not digressing further,after the initial anger died and i came back to my equable self, i started mulling over this and tried to think of the reasons that makes people pretend. With a myriad thoughts racing through my head, the one that particularly caught my interest suggested it had to be a psychological disorder(no, im not terming them mad), an inferiority complex of sorts. I guess such people have under confidence issues and have a phobia of being laughed upon overtly and hence try and shy away from expressing their true selves and end up ascribing to the herd mentality. What i feel towards such individuals is pity more than anything else as they end up being someone else for the sake of someone else, and that too unwillingly(confusing, isn't it???).

While my conclusion may be termed as lucidly obfuscating(i just said that coz i love oxymora), what it made me realize is that it's not always a charlatan's fault if he is so, but since it isn't mine either, and in spite of knowing i might be forming a wrong opinion even without knowing the person, i shall continue bearing a grudge against anyone who pretends to be who he is not(because that's who i am).

PS: sorry for the masculinity of the article(i'm a male chauvinist at heart :D)

PPS: i had other *interesting* encounters with poseurs as well, but they were close acquaintances and hence i abstained from mentioning those

the enigma that winters are

The advent of the new year brought along with it the mystically enchanting cold, that at times is a nosy intruder, getting inside perniciously and squirming the insides, but mostly is like a harbinger of merriment and solace. Nothing is more peaceful than sitting in the silent warmth of the sun and trying to observe the serenity of the world around. The chirping of sparrows perched on a tree branch, the bitter baritone of crows , the distinct rustle of the whispering wind, the mystique generated by fog, the gradual disappearance of fog during day appeasing the spirit ; winter endows me with an opportunity to clearly perceive the gifts that nature endows upon us. Also for a die hard romantic like me winter is the time to rejoice love. The slow felicity that seeps in with the unobtrusive yet noticeable arrival of the winter teems the heart with emotion and overwhelms me to the hilt during the day . The entire notion of having someone to embrace during the cold to provide you with warmth brings a simper to my face. The yearning period, the melancholy that strikes in the absence of this someone, the drawing of parallels from a million places, all attain a superlative degree during the winters.The ideal setup for a perfect day for me would have to be a winter morning, me with my someone surrounded by nature all around, two large mugs of cappuccino, basking in the winter sun, and listening to Bob Dylan.But then, perfection is hard to attain, and i shall in all probability hanker for such a moment to overwhelm me throughout my lifetime without actually witnessing it(winter pessimism). One more thing that comes along with the winter is a sullen pessimism. While the day fills my heart with merriment and felicity, the sanguinity is engulfed by the dark along with day and a premonition of something calamitous fills the heart and makes a cynic out of me. With so many facets attributable to it, winters to me are enchanting and enigmatic.Enchanting as thy let me experience the peaks and depths of life. enigmatic as i am still not sure about what exactly do i feel towards winters and hence am awed by the enigma. Although i would not be wrong in saying that I prefer summers over winter in spite of their monotony as the troughs and the crests of winters at times are too much to handle, for me, winter is the season to experience the extremities of my thought process and to rediscover myself and my outlook towards life.

As Albert Camus aptly quoted-"in the depth of winter i finally realized ,that within me lay in invincible summer."

and with this post turning out to be as confusing as my thoughts about winter, it would be base treachery to suggest that i am not fairly pleased with the way its turned out to be.