The Moonstruck Mystique...

Its a warm summer morning.. and I'm spending it lazily reading Ruskin Bond. His stories and true life accounts have always been close to heart. It has the innocence of childhood, the inquisitiveness of an adolescent and the simplicity of a young man as he writes during the various stages of his life. His writing always evokes a feeling of nostalgia and romanticism in me. I imagine myself walking in the orchards at Dehradun enjoying life's simplest pleasures. It is like a dream-sequence. Warm outings, walks and bicycle rides in the garden, reading a book under a neem tree, watching the colourful butterflies fluttering over the pretty flowers going back to the bunglow to have lemonade and snacks in the evening. Where people have not a worry in the world.. people who live in tune with nature. It feels as though I've spent my vacations there.  I just love reading Ruskin Bond. I become a dreamer. I reach another world. An unpretentious, pure, austere world. P.S: I guess the ...

I finally finished reading this book a while back.. I unusually took almost a week to finish this book.. The reason I'd suppose is that I am not used to this kind of a book.. which claims to be a story both intricate and intimate, rich with music,art, humour and emotion. Well, I began reading it to learn the style of the author. In the beginning I found it quite difficult to comprehend much of the musical details as I have absolutely no background in European classical music. I hear that Vikram Seth plays a few instruments himself so that would have helped but he has done a lot of work to make this sound perfect. I persisted with this book as I felt there was probably more to it than only the intricacies of music. And yes, it did. The protagonist was but an ordinary man with conflicting thoughts like yours or mine. Maybe that is why I liked the book afterall. He and the woman he loved met after a decade of separation by when she had started a family of her own. Here again her char...