Author Archives: Gayatri

Santiago the shepherd roamed free, living a life which others would envy,

His life was simple until he saw a dream – of the Egyptian Pyramids which was location of  the hidden treasure,

but he took his mind off it as he doubted if searching for it would give him any pleasure.

This was his mindset until he met an old man, a man who was a king, who told Santiago that following his Personal Legend to its conclusion is a person’s only real obligation in life,

So Santiago embarked on the journey, one which could lead to much strife.

On the way he lost his interest,

in what he had thought to be a great conquest.

Hence he halted and worked at a crystal shop, made a good sum, changed his mind and continued his quest.

Joining a caravan, he crossed the desert, gradually listening to his heart, understanding  the Soul of the world and how in it he fit,

And then in the oasis he found Fatima, his love and he told her all about himself , each and every bit.

She asked him to follow his dream,

she would always look at the oasis and wait for him.

So off he went in search for the treasure,

along the way he had many adventures, heard that “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realize his dream” and learnt lessons for good measure.

He reached the pyramids thinking his journey had come to an end, started to dig for his buried treasure, when a pack of thieves showed up, robbing him off his money,

they asked him to keep digging for the treasure, while one of the thieves told Santiago that he too had a dream- a dream in which he saw the location of the hidden treasure, under the tree where shepherds sit, but he laughed off when Santiago didnt find  anything even after digging for a long time , finding the whole episode funny.

But it was later that Santiago laughed hard, when he thought about what the thief had told him, which he knew was a clue,

The clue to where the treasure actually lay -a place where he used to sit in his shepherd days, under the tree where the gentle wind blew.

After a journey of many days he reached the place from where he began, started to dig under the tree trying to find the treasure, but to his shock found nothing, which made him wonder if he had made a mistake in unravelling the gist,

But what he didnt know was that Fatima had found the treasure before him, afterall, unlike him,

she had read the book “The Alchemist”.

He woke up with a start on hearing the scream,

Wishing and praying for it to be just a bad dream.

He was just a little kid, but the fact wasn’t hidden from him, “Dad beats up mom and I can do nothing to stop him.”

The screams continued but he stayed put on his bed. After a while he heard the door shut, knew dad was out, so went to his mom and saw blood oozing out of her head.

“Why does he beat you so much mom, you don’t even protest or say a word?”

But deep down in his heart, he knew mom was nothing more than a caged bird.

He tended her wounds and gave her a glass of water, but her pain was more than he could see,

she held his hand and said,” son, never resort to violence, be it any situation, promise me.”

Weeks turned to months and months to years. His father stopped the violence, suppressing his worst fears.

He had grown up to be a strong man, in no ways timid, but the childhood memories of his mother’s screams still resided in his mind, oh the memories were so vivid.

One day she turned to him and said, “Walk with me to the store, son. I have many bags to bring back, not just one.”

On the way to the store, a thief snatched her purse and ran, her son didn’t wait, he ran and caught up with the man. He beat him up and thrashed until the thief bled. His mom stopped him,” are you going to hit him till he is dead?”

He looked at her and at that moment she remembered her husband’s eyes,

eyes where the beast lay spitting fire,

she saw the same fire in her son’s eyes.

And then she knew all the good things she had taught him were now in vain,     the beast in their family was awake again.

This was the first Murakami book that I read and was completely smitten by it. It easily blends in surreal and everyday events in such an intricate web that you are forced to stay glued till the very end.

The story is about a man named Toru Okada whose cat has disappeared, and then one day his wife leaves him even though they didn’t have any fight or any conflict. He begins to search for the reasons behind this and in the way meets many people who help him in their own ways to understand the situation that he finds himself in. Along the way, their own story unravels adding many layers to this unique story. A story filled with surreal situations, perplexing at times, yet it doesn’t seem odd and doesn’t obstruct the smooth flow of the narration.

The characters in this book are perfectly etched, be it Okada’s wife Kumiko who is fighting her own inner demons, or her evil brother Noboru Wataya, or our very own Toru – simple suburban guy whose simple uncomplicated life takes a twist, Malta Kano – a sort of a psychic healer, May – Toru’s no fuss young neighbour, a rich lady oddly called Nutmeg who helps him a lot in the latter part of the story and the ‘wind – up’ Bird ofcourse.

The book has quite a bit of flashbacks and in one of those Toru and his wife goes to visit an old wise man named Mr. Honda. The philosophy that he endorses forms the crux of this story. He tells the:

“When you are supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top, when you are going down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom.When there is no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up.”

Simple yet complex story telling with many layers of situations – a must read.

Author: Haruki Murakami

Translated by: Jay Rubin

Originally written in: Japanese

Pages: 607

ISBN :  0-679-77543-9

“Why do you have to come home so late? Whenever I ask you, you never

answer me straight“, she asked as he entered the house.

“Can’t you at least welcome me with a smile or say something nice. You

question my hard work and think of it as some vice” he replied to what she commented,

feeling quite offended.

“Oh so now I can’t even ask you about such little things in your life,

treat me with respect after all I am your wife!” tears rolled down her eyes, he looked at her and thought ‘there she goes! One word I say and she cries“.

Her temper flared, he glared.

She wailed, he acted like he never cared.

He said, “I don’t want any food today, had my fill, I’ll just complete

some work now as unlike you I don’t have any time to kill“.

He went to the room to change, his hand reached his pocket. Ah, the

anniversary gift he had got for her today – a picture of them together , enclosed in a golden locket.

She wiped her tears, sitting in the room alone. She had recorded a

song for him as an anniversary gift on her phone.

Two fools in love, foolish enough to not see the love they have for

each other all this while.

Had either of them behaved in a saner way, the end of this story

would’ve brought a smile.

.

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It all started with a tweet and it scandalized the neo-religion of India – Cricket.

Gayatri illustrates the event that shook the politics, cricket and India.

For Gayatri’s other caricatures click HERE

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Mrs. Parkinson’s Law is one of those books which can’t be read in one go. It takes time to really digest and savor what is said in each chapter and then mull over how interesting the author, C. Northcote Parkinson’s mind works.

He insists that this book is not about his wife or solely her experiences. The book presents a funny view about various things like romance, marriage, hosts and guests, escape, etc. and yes, also about Mrs. Parkinson’s law, which goes like this:

 Heat produced by domestic pressure expands to fill the mind available from which it can pass only to a cooler mind.

And it can be explained by the following equation:

Of course, humor is not the sole aim of this book. There are some good thoughts presented like – ‘What we regard as normal is peculiar, in fact, to our country and our age. Elsewhere and at other times people have had quite different ideas.’  Or that ‘The person who lives for pleasure is like the blind man in the dark room looking for a black cat that is not there. By the very nature of things he is doomed to disappointment.’

All in all, it’s a good Sunday read!

On an aside – he also put forth this theory in one of his previous books “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion” and laws like -  ‘Parkinson’s Law of Delay – Delay is the deadliest form of denial.’

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Sometimes it is nice to see world around in a lighter vein. Gayatri tries to bring out events/news through  sketches. More cartoons can be find in the slideshow below this sketch.

Slideshow of previous works

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P.S > The aim of the series is to bring some of the recent events and news in a comical way. It is not aimed at targeting anyone purposefully.