The Pillars of the Earth

Ken Follett's best book is unquestionably the Pillars of the Earth.

I first read it around 10 years ago. I don't know why I ever picked up such a fat book. Guess I was so taken with 'Eye of the Needle' that I thought such a big book would be twice as good.

Well soon after I started I realised that this book was nothing like the other Ken Follett novels. This one had no spies, no cliff hangers, and yet... I kept reading. And when I finished I knew that one day, some day, I would buy the book.

I'd forgotten all about that thought, conceived so many years ago. But a fortuitous chain of incidents made me the owner of this 1076 page classic.

If you enjoy reading please go out and get this book. I thought I could no longer get lost in a book. This book showed me how wrong I was. I was away from my computer this weekend and I had a lot of catching up to do yesterday, BUT... I made the mistake of starting with the book. I didn't put it down till about 3 or 4 am. Today morning I was so engrossed in it I only realised the time when the driver gave me a buzz. I even skipped lunch just so I could focus on the book. And finally, it's finished. I can eat, drink and blog. :) Leave behind the 12th centuary and rejoin this one...

Damn.. now I wish it was twice as big...

Freedom of Religion

I'm sick and tired of religion. And I don't care who knows it. I'm tired of the divisions it has caused, the pain it has brought, the barriers it has built.

Don't get me wrong. Religion has its strong points. It gives people a reason to be good, hope for a life after this one, a better life than this one.

But wait a minute. Is it religion that does all that or just belief in God?

As far as I'm concerned anyone who believes in God, believes in good and evil, and all the consequences that follow. All that religion should be, is the organised worship of that God. Not something that destroys the brotherhood of man.

Unfortunately, today religion has become a shortcut to war. I worship this way. So should you. Because of course God cares how we worship him. Just loving him and being good isn't enough anymore.

You don't believe in my God. And you follow such strange customs. Ofcourse you can't marry into my family. Though all of us are the children of one God, you call God by another name and he's so offended that he's excommunicated you.

I'm not letting my flat to those people. They have such disgusting habits.

I'm not working with that guy, he's a ______

All ______ can't be trusted.

I'm against the multiplicity of religions. And the ease with which new ones are created each day. Take Scientology for instance. Scientology is a way of life, a belief system, NOT a religion. And yet, because of the great privileges "religion" has, Scientology has happily carved itself a home under the umbrella of freedom of religion.

The concept of freedom of religion was created so that people could be FREE. Not forced into one particular mode of worship. And what it has become is something far different. An excuse for rituals and an excuse for rigidity. An excuse for finding fault and an excuse for intolerance.

People commit atrocities in the name of religion. Would the world be a haven of peace without religion? No, not particularly. Wars will always happens, neighbours will often fight. But at least no one would be insulting God by claiming to fight in His name.

Beginning once again...

I started and finished the outlining for the book. I'm hoping that will help me once the blues hit in between. As long as I don't stop in between I think I should finish it in a year or so.

I know thats a long time, but it's better than deciding to finish it in 6 months and then getting disappointed.

Well I wrote one new chapter today so am pretty happy with myself. Hope this blog helps me get some discipline into my writing.

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Just googled "worlds apart" and guess what, it's already being used for, in the authors own words, "an interactive tale of self-discovery, set in an alternate universe."

So for now I'll just tag this as 'alternate universe'.

World's apart

I've been writing a book since 2006.

What's that you say?

You think it's completed and I'm on my first rewrite?

Well you obviously have either a) never attempted writing a novel or b) you're one of those super organised people who puts aside a fixed amount of time to write each day.

My way of writing is to write like crazy when the mood is upon me. Then suddenly I'll relax and rest on my (imaginary) laurels. After a few months the urge will strike me again, I'll read over what I wrote before, and then I'll promptly scrap out most of it and rewrite it.

And the same cycle repeats again and again.

I think I shouldn't leave these long gaps between writing sessions. Too many things change in my head and that forces me to rewrite. If I write more consistently I think the story will grow with me.

And eventually, the story will have a life of its own.

The Conclusion of 'Goan Girl'...

I just stumbled across this blog and it did bring back so many memories...

I'm going to fill in my story over the past 2 yrs...

In my last post I was supposed to attend a conference where my old prof was teaching.

Well I went for it. He was very nice, I was very nice. I introduced my folks to him afterwards and being the warm, nice people they are they renewed my offer to show him around. HE accepted very graciously. We set off, my prof, me, my dad and my sis. We took him to various places in Goa, like Old Goa, Calangute, took him all over Panjim city and wound up with dinner at Sea Pebbles.

The next day we met him again n took him shopping. When we dropped him back he promised to get in touch. And since then... nada. zip. I haven't heard from him since then though I emailed him twice.

Well after that I thought about joining the Asian School of Cyber Laws but I wanted to know if I could also help them out part time on real cases. That didn't seem possible and then on the 13th of November I answered an interview at my college for a KPO in Pune. I wasn't that interested in the interview but I got through n thought I'd give it a shot.

The Pune branch of that KPO started with just about 30 associates, of which I was one.

Now there are more than 400 employees in Pune alone. And my designation is Asst. Manager.

Sometimes things do work out. In Jan I'll complete 2 yrs in Pune. Life is good here and while I do miss Goa sometimes I'm not ready to go back yet.

That being the case I think it's time the name of this blog was changed. From 'Goan Girl' to....

Well I haven't decided that yet.

Wait n see.

What do we do next...

3 points of view

This is the third of a set of four stories I wrote over the past year and a half.

The first two are already up. They aren't connected so you don't need to read the other two, but if you want to, just click on the 'Fiction' label to the left.

Cheers!

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Three Points of View

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He walked slowly across the room. A man who looked twice as old as he actually was. He passed a mirror on the wall and grimaced as he saw his reflection. No wonder people shrank from him. Hollow cheeks, eyes too big for his face, he looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over his frame.

Maybe that’s why she’d killed herself. Tired of being married to a sick man. Tired of watching him die every day. In front of her eyes.

But the cops were so sure she’d been murdered... He shook his head angrily in disbelief. Murdered. Who’d want to murder her? It was ridiculous. He’d seen his fair share of murders when he’d been a young detective all those years ago. Greed, revenge, love. Those were the emotions that powered murders. And all three were absent here. Lydia had been penniless when they’d gotten married. Sure she’d get his money when he died but here he was. Alive and well. Ok, so maybe he wasn’t well, but he still was a long way from the grave.

Revenge? She was 23. Who could she have hurt so badly? Who could have been so angry at her to want to kill her?

That left love. He grimaced. That was probably on the cop’s minds from the moment they’d seen the body and met him. They were probably convinced she’d had a lover who’d killed her. Of course they wouldn’t tell him that. But that’s what they were thinking. He was sure of it. They’d paw through her personal diary and scheduler. Looking for evidence of an affair.

Lucky he’d found her diary and letters last night. Full of her love for him. Full of her sorrow at the lingering illness that would part them one day. He’d burnt them. The diary and every last letter. All her thoughts that she’d never intended to share with the world.

He smiled wistfully. If he’d ever doubted her love, reading the diary would have made him feel ashamed of himself. As it was, it had made him cry. A bitter reminder of all he’d had and all he’d lost.

He sat in his favourite chair and stared out the window.

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Detective Johnson looked across the room at the man in the easy chair looking out the window. A very poor actor. Trying to pretend he was grieving for his wife. Well they’d nail him. He was the only person with access to the apartment. None of the locks had been forced. Nothing was out of place. No unexpected fingerprints had been found. The poor fool had probably found out that she was planning to leave him. That must have been the last straw. Lucky the kid had blurted it out. Funny thing. A man with a 16 year old son marrying a woman of 23. The kid had been glad for his father’s sake until he found out that she was having an affair. He was so worried they’d think his dad did it; he’d gone out of his way to convince them that his father didn’t even know about the affair, not realizing that they themselves hadn’t known anything about it.

Funny the way things worked out. The kid had been trying to save his dad but had actually provided the missing link. The motive. Of course they’d look for a diary or something but he didn’t expect to find anything. She wrote regularly in her diary. That much he’d learnt from her friends and family. That was probably how the old man had found out. But he knew how these things worked. He’d probably burnt the dairy.

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The boy sat and watched the detective. What was he looking at? The boy couldn’t see. What was he thinking? The boy didn’t know.

Lydia was dead. He could hardly believe it. Lydia the bitch was dead. She’d taken his father away from him. His father would never have been as harsh as he’d become if it wasn’t for her. They’d refused to send him to the National academy of Drama. Said he’d be a terrible actor. And now they’d planned to send him away to military school. To instill some discipline into his life! Yeah right.

Well she’d gotten what she deserved. Now all he had to do was wait and watch. Anytime now the warrant would be issued against his old man. Based on his testimony. He would be shocked and horrified. He would run and hug his father and swear that he believed in his innocence. He would swear to do everything he could to free him.

He sat and prepared for the part of a lifetime.

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Dostana sucks!

I didn't intend to write this post until I read this. [I want to find the author of that review. I can't believe those are the views of a real live normal human...]

The only part of that review that I agreed with was that Abhishek Bachchan was fantastic. He was over-the-top and ridiculous and really great!!!

John Abraham is lucky he looks good, cos this movie proved once again that his acting range is limited to roles like Dhoom and Taxi 9211. He's terrible at making a fool of himself.

But that's not the worst by far. Your opinion of John Abraham will rocket sky high once you compare him with Bobby Deol. At least John Abraham has a limited acting range, Bobby Deol doesn't have any range at all. He can't act.

If you don't have to pay much, watch the first half. Don't bother with the second. It's not worth it at any price.

Airtel Broadband

Ok, I'm sick and in bed but just had to post this...

My Airtel Broadband is up and running since yesterday.... the speed is decent so far.

May that continue....

Promotions

I've been promoted. Good news anyone would say. I'm pretty happy about it, don't get me wrong, but the promotion unexpectedly brought home something I'd never realised.

I don't have a single person here in Pune who I'm very very close to and who will be happy for me no matter what.

There were many people who congratulated me and wished me well. But their words didn't mean all that much to me. They seemed to saying the words out of common courtesy and general rules of behaviour. No one here in Pune showed real jubilation. There are some people I'm close to. In particular a guy I'm going to call Axle. I'm sad when Axle is sad and happy when he's happy but I've not got a friend like that. Axle is too preoccupied with his own life and there's no one else.

To be fair I have to mention a guy I'll call Ray. Ray does seem to care. He's concerned, caring and seems truly happy for me. But it doesn't mean as much because it's something new. Time will tell if this concern and friendship will last.

So the day I got promoted I had no one to celebrate with.

While I've always known that it's important to have the people you're close to, with you to share your sorrows, this is the first time I've realised that joys don't count for much when you have no one to share them with.