Question and Answer!

She looked up at him. 

A question in her eyes. An answer in his. 

A promise of a lifetime. 

A smile creased her lips gently. 

She leaned into him and started playing with his fingers, a favorite past-time of hers. 

He looked at her and thought to himself how much of a joy fatherhood was.


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Another attempt at 55 - fiction!! :-)

Had to do something to revive my blog which is dying a slow death!! ;-)!!

Fun with words... ;-)

So apparently these are the words that I use mainly in my blog posts…

Quite a fun thing this is…

Check it out at www.wordle.net

When a book-worm gets a book tag... :-)

v  Favorite childhood book – The usual Enid Blyton’s, Nancy Drew’s and Hardy Boy’s.. But also Tinkle, Gokulam and Champak .. They used to carry some nice and interesting stories and articles...

v  What are you reading right now – “Maximum City” by Suketu Mehta

v  Bad book habit – Tendency to get completely immersed in what I am reading and become oblivious to whatever is happening around me. Which I know is ok only sometimes. ;-)

v  Do you have an e-reader? Nope. I don’t like to read novels online. I need to feel the book in my hand, inhale the smell of the pages... :-)

v  Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once? One at a time.

v  Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? They have definitely broadened.

v  Least favorite book you read this year (so far)? The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown. It was a major let-down!

v  Favorite book you’ve read this year? The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Divakarunni Banerjee.

v  How often do you read out of your comfort zone?  Whenever something catches my fancy / interest which is not as often as I’d like it to be.

v  What is your reading comfort zone? Definitely Fiction or Indian Mythology

v  Can you read on the bus? Nope. But I can read on the train!! :-)

v  Favorite place to read? Lying down on my bed...

v  What is your policy on book lending? I have no problems in lending my books to people who can take good care of them and that means no dog ears, no scribbling, no damage to the book in any which way. I just try and make sure that I get them back from them. ;-)

v  Do you ever dog-ear books? No. I try not to. I go by using a bookmark or trying to make note of the page number!

v  Do you ever write in the margins of your books? Nope. Only in textbooks!

v  Not even with text books? The margins of my textbooks are filled with illegible scribbles. Notes to myself!!

v  What is your favorite language to read in? English. I have never been a fan of Malayalam or Hindi books simply because I am not comfortable reading them as comfortable as I am with English.

v  What makes you love a book? The story, the language, the characterizations and sometimes the ending!!

v  What will inspire you to recommend a book? The same reasons as above. If I love a book, any book, I will recommend it to all and sundry.

v  Favorite genre? Thrillers.. Put in a couple of psychopaths and some case to solve and I am hooked..

v  Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?) Biographies probably…

v  Favorite biography? Losing my virginity – Sir Richard Branson

v  Have you ever read a self-help book? Nope. I don’t intend to either.

v  Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)? Hmm.. None as yet!! :-)

v  Favorite reading snack? No snacks.. Tea anyday anytime! :-)

v  Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience – The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand. Too many people said too many good things about the book. I started it with great expectations and I have not gotten beyond the first 20 pages.

v  How often do you agree with critics about a book? Only sometimes. I feel some books they are too critical about which I don’t agree with. But then hey, to each his own! :)

v  How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? If a book deserves it, then I would not feel it was wrong to give a bad review!

v  If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose? Hmm.. Maybe French or Spanish!

v  Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? The Godfather!

v  Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? Haven’t come across something like that as yet!

v  Favorite Poet? I like certain poems by certain poets but there’s no favorite poet as such…

v  Favorite fictional character? Michael Corleone

v  Favorite fictional villain? Voldermort.

v  Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? Godfather

v  The longest I’ve gone without reading – None so far! I always make sure I have something on hand to read…

v  Name a book that you could/would not finish – Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. (Could not finish, barely got beyond the first 20 pages!)

v  What distracts you easily when you’re reading? Extremely loud noises.

v  Favorite film adaptation of a novel? Godfather, without a doubt.

v  Most disappointing film adaptation? Most of them are disappointing but one that stands out – Mistress of Spices

v  The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? A lil’ more than Rs.3000/-

;-)

v  How often do you skim a book before reading it? No skimmings apart from the gist at the back of the book. I don’t like to do that! :-)

v  What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through? Actually nothing, I try to complete whichever book I pick up.. Don’t like to leave it halfway through… Leaves me with a feeling of something-not-done yet!!

v  Do you like to keep your books organized? Yep!

v  Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? Keep them… Why would someone buy them if they’re planning to give them away!

v  Are there any books you’ve been avoiding? Lol… No!

v  Name a book that made you angry – None so far!

v  A book you didn’t expect to like but did? Godfather… I started reading it with a skeptical outlook and then I fell for it, hard!!

v  A book that you expected to like but didn’t? The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown. I think this is how great expectations and hype ruin a book.

v  Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading? Comics, Enid Blyton’s St.Clare & Malory Towers series, Harry Potter series, Twilight…

I can't think of a title for this now!!!

So I got a new phone. Finally! Yes! :-)

I can hear some sighs of relief… Primarily my own!! ;-)

It’s a Samsung Galaxy S and it’s awesome! Mind-blowingly so!! Except that the screen is a fingerprint and smudge magnet!! (I read that term somewhere and it’s been running through my head since then!) But coming back to the screen, it means that I keep polishing it every now and then and admire the beauty of the screen..!! :-) I am vain like that!! ;-)

Anyways, that’s not the point of this post. I am getting there! In a bit…. Patience they say is a virtue!! I would not know about that… ;-)

So my phone! Yeah! It’s cool, and it’s awesome and I am hooked on to it majorly. And I tried out most of the applications, they work like a charm. Except my contacts which got screwed up. Totally! I synced my contacts with my Gmail account and well, to put it simply…  It’s a mess!  Now my contacts list shows my phone contacts, my sim contacts, and my Gmail contacts and there a whole set of duplicates for a large number of people and more importantly a whole list of them that I do not recognize. Sighhh!!!

And that’s the point of my post.

See I told you we’d be getting there!! ;-)

So well, I was scrolling through my list of contacts… trying to figure out how I ended up with sooooooo many of them! And the list in general had…

      # Family and close friends (people who I am in touch with most of the time!)

      # Not-so-close but good friends who I am still in touch with once in a month sorts

      # Friends who used to be close at one point and who I have lost touch with

      # People I have had a falling-out with

      # Random numbers like restaurants, house agents, Cineplex’s, bowling alleys, gas delivery etc etc… not unnecessary if you know what I mean!!

So I went on a cleansing spree… and that is tough I tell you! Especially in the 3 and 4^th categories I have listed.

For one it brought back a lot of memories of certain times and places and days… and some of them were not good ones. Which led me to feeling a multitude of emotions all at once and now I am like a wreck!! Emotional Wreck that is!! Out-of-mood and all that stuff!

It was easy enough deleting the people I have had a falling out with, there were not too many there ;-) ‘Coz after whatever has happened between us I don’t think either of us would want to get in touch. For all I know, they have already deleted my number off their lists. Yes! I know I should have done that too a long time back, but well… sometimes you don’t feel like doing it… you know what I mean??  :-)

The ones that I have lost touch with for various reasons were the hardest to delete… I mean… what if suddenly I wanted to talk to them again? What if I wanted to catch up? Or what if they wanted to catch up and when they called I did not know who it was and they took offence?? But then I realized that, if we had wanted to stay in touch, we would have! One way or the other!! Simple huh.. Well.. Took me a bit to get there!! Basically because I was still holding onto the fragments of that friendship … Heck! I don’t even know if their numbers are the same because it’s been over 2-3 years since I last talked to them… so I did whatever was the best thing… I figured I could get their numbers from our mutual friends (the ones that both of us are in touch with – hopefully!) when needed… :-)

The cleansing process ain’t over as yet… it has barely started … for in some cases, you just don’t feel like deleting the numbers or the person because of the memories you share!! And in some cases, all it takes is just a click! And then out of phone, out of mind… :-)

In a weird way, I feel both lighter and heavier … clearing of baggage and influx of thoughts are not a good mix…

So yeah! The post started off in a rambly sort of way and then I got all serious… that’s the way I have been today… like a see-saw..!!

And yes, I know it’s a long post… and I am stopping here…

It’s yet another day tomorrow…!!