Wednesday, November 10, 2010

THE CHOICES WE MAKE!

A choice of five books lay in front of me!

I had just returned after visiting my daughters, earlier in London and then in Washington DC… an immensely enjoyable and memorable holiday.  As I flipped through the pages…some words caught my attention; Cleveland Park, Georgetown University Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I had driven past these places and these sights were fresh in my memory. I looked at the title: STAY OF EXECUTION. My love for murder mysteries and the familiar settings helped me decide. Now I could tell my daughter the dark secrets these places held!

So it was - The Stay of Execution by Stewart Alsop. I expected the book to be a cloak and dagger thriller, a murder, a false witness, a wronged sentence and the ultimate justice! The book was this and much more. It held me day and night..! I was spell bound.….it was dfficult to put down…It gripped my heart and soul…It opened my eyes! And for the first time in many many years, I sat up to think and decide. I made some life changing choices.

As I started to read, the enormity of the title hit me! It was the Red Blood Cells and Platelets that were being killed, the killer was untraceable, the tests stood as mute witness to the sentence of imminent death. Stewart Alsop had leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia. However, later tests were to reveal that there was no evidence of cancer, doctors remained baffled, his illness remained a mystery. So it was an Alsop diagnosis and an Alsop treatment. And the prognosis was more hopeful, his stable condition might last for years!

Stewart Alsop was a famed columnist  and his book, The Stay of Execution is ‘a sort of memoir’. He writes with both  the pain and pleasure . First, he made a decision – to shun out future thoughts and delve into the past. He recollects the love and friendship of family and friends along with his trips to the hospital for the  tests and the treatment.

At the same time, he presents his views and opinions on every topic of note and significance, some of which are truly inspiring. He writes about the ‘neurotic emotional interdependence between parents and children” and provides examples towards a healthy relationship.

‘Nature is  cruel’ he says and through experience, shares how one ignores this truth  in youth but lives to  realize it, without panic and fear, by coming to terms with death. And finally the golden words…There is a time to live but there is also a time to die. That time has not yet come for me.  But it will. It will come for all of us!

A WALK BY THE SEA!


If I walk down my street, say about fifty steps and look left, I can see the majestic Bay of Bengal, always blue, always breezy! So I walk another fifty steps and I am there,  amidst Nature’s most bountiful and beautiful creation! Thus I begin my solitary sojourn by the sea, with quickening step and  curious glance about me.

There are hundreds of people at the sea shore. Like me, they have converged here, to walk, to take in the fresh air, to meet friends, to spend another hour, before heading home and preparing for another routine day!.

I watch them all...people, of different sizes in different attires, with different features, at different paces! So different they are all from one another, yet so similar, all in a bond which binds them and breaks them.

At the corner, I hear an angry young man, speaking loud into the mobile, unconcerned, for he has so many concerns! Till another young man drives down, gets out and looks into the mirror combing his hair! Waiting for his love! And there she comes, with a contagious smile! There are other couples, walking hand-in-hand, chatting animatedly, munching and blushing in the throes of love! They are in their own world; neither the sea nor the sand bothers them!

The elderly are all there...some have no care in the world, for the others, all the cares rest on their shoulders! The young parents are a happy lot, they joyously watch their child take those unsure steps. They hold them, lead them, guide them, cheer them! For the parents it is a labour of patience and pleasure –remarkable and recurring! But who knows what happens, when years fly by, for time and tide wait for no one!

The waves come in constantly, spreading against the dry sands. They sometimes take the children by surprise and their sudden squeals alerts you to the rushing waves. The walkers and the joggers go about their job swiftly! And I share my thoughts with myself; till I see a young smart girl walking in gay abandon!  What if she were to be my friend! What would we talk about! And I follow her, down 33rd Avenue, across the 5th Main Road  and left through the bus station, only to lose her in the crowd! But I have found a long shady  route all for my self. So with promises to the sea, to return the next morning, I seek  my path home!



Monday, November 1, 2010

BOOKS READ - BOOK REVIEWS

COMEBACK!
by Dick Francis

COMEBACK tells us what happened when the Protagonist - diplomat Peter Darwin, went back to his boyhood country of Gloucestershire after twenty long years. It tells of the bane of small towns and villages, how people and places change, yet remain the same in many ways.

The book provides an insight into the world of horse racing and the underbelly of horse owners, racers, vets and insurers. The death of prize horses baffles everyone and you dont need to be a detective to detect that crime trail. You must be curious to connect cause to effect or vice versa!

We read about how professional reputation maybe everythng to one and how another may tear it apart unintentionally.  And finally how friendship can be a true blessing! You might meet someone and become his friend instantly and know someone from years and yet not be his friend! It is a story of friendship and hope...an interesting, absorbing and well paced book.



DREAM COUNTRY
by Luanne Rice

DREAM COUNTRY is Wyoming....of the ranches, the canyon, the wide open skies! James Tucker and his ex-wife, Daisy, come face-to-face again, when their teenage daughter, elopes. They have already lost her twin brother who tragically disappeared at the age of three and that trauma broke up their charmed  existence.

James and Daisy put aside their differences and wait together for their daughter. The story takes us back to the days of James' father, the old animosity between local clans, and their once idyllc life together.
It begins with great sincerity, but meanders along the way, as small events and little misunderstandings assume monstrous equations! The author is truer to her research than she is to her characters and the plot, and this disconnect is very palpable at times.

Towards the end, James and Daisy  are rewarded-a wish is fulfilled and a dream comes true...yet they could have been at anyplace on Earth!