1.
Finished reading book 5 of this year - Tharakan’s Grandhavari (Malayalam, fiction) by Benyamin. I had read three of his books before - Aadujeevitham, Al Arabian Novel Factory and Manjaveyil Maranangal (Jasmine Days). This one is an experimental fiction where the book was originally printed as cards in a box that can be read in any order. Each copy of the book has a unique order, hence they think this can be read in gazillion ways. Be as it may (picked up this phrase from a podcast in the past week), it was a difficult read. There is a story of a murder of youth, suicide of another who is possibly mad and writing two novels himself and there are two stories through that and a secretive lodge. I couldn’t eventually figure out all the stories, it may have been left to the reader's imagination as to what might have happened and my reserve of patience ran out before I could piece it all together. In parts, it was brilliant writing and in parts it felt made me wonder why I put myself through such torture.
2.
Watched two movies. Where the Track Ends (Mexican, Netflix) - good to listen to spanish, could identify at least some words. It is a story of a rundown school in a remote village in Mexico, run by a teacher whose eyesight is failing and who is patiently finding solutions for different learning needs of her students. I love stories of teaching and the disproportionate impact teachers have on kids and their lives ahead. A simple story, likeable characters, well acted.
Forgotten Love (Poland, Netflix) - I am continuing this experiment to watch movies from other countries and languages. But this one is forgettable - a plot that would put Hindi films to shame. A genius surgeon whose wife leaves him taking his darling daughter away from him, getting robbed and beaten on his head, losing his memory and afterwards roaming the country looking for something which he can’t remember.
3.
While listening to something else this week, I was reminded of this resolution to read at least one classic book from as many languages and countries as possible. As they say, the second best way to travel to unknown countries is by reading books from those places. I should make this into a proper list to work through it.
4.
I am keeping track of a lot more of my activities this year - articles read, books, movies, poems, podcasts, songs, learnings. Hope to keep this up till the end of the year at least. I have to make an app for myself some day to make this process smoother.
5.
It was a moody weekend. On my morning walk yesterday, I came up behind a mother and daughter, hurrying somewhere. I was watching the kid - comes up to her mother’s knees, walking fast to keep up with her mother, who I guess was late for work. We were coming up from a steep road. The kid had a bunch of her oiled hair tied up at the top with a love-in-tokyo and remaining hair combed down. She was hanging on to her mothers dress. Chakki says she and her friends watch the first standard students playing, they can’t believe the “little human beings” could be so small. One of her friends commented that she wanted to take one from that group to put it in the showcase. As I was thinking about the cuteness of this, the mother swatted away the kid’s hand from her dress, adjusted the dress, her hair and the handbag and continued walking fast. I somehow felt bad for that kid. She continues to walk/run to keep up, quite resilient, determined.
Some days all I see is the hope, smiles and happiness of the people. But this day I was seeing the struggles everywhere. Many folks working in nearby Margin Free Supermarket going for work in their uniform, another in the uniform of Be-Mart, the corporation workers burning the garbage that people throw at night in deserted roads, people setting up the roadside eatery, many workers from the North. Everyone is trying to make ends meet, in a world which is becoming more unequal as the days pass (as evidenced by the super rich congregating in India for the pre wedding ceremonies for the young uncrowned prince).
6.
We had to let go of people from our team this week, triggered by the unseen hands of the economy and unannounced recession. It is painful each time something like this happens. No one loses their job, still it is difficult to let go of teams we build with some effort. It was time to resolve once again to refocus and recommit.
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