KAFKA ON THE SHORE.... A review

What if an old, similarly odd and sickly man walks up to you and confesses murder and to top the oddity he tells you to watch out, for it would rain fishes outside. What if you are a cop? Would you take him in? You would not. You will let him go. What if you realize that it is all true; there has been a gruesome murder in the neighborhood and it does rain fishes.

Kafka on the shore is one such novel packed with surreal happenings till the end. The novel begins with a 15-year-old, Kafka leaving his home to never come back and is followed by his father’s dark prophecy. The novel chases Kafka in the journey of his to escape his father’s prophecy and also the weakly old man Nakata who has this ability to talk to cats is a finder of strayed household felines. In Nakata’s one such search meets Johny Walker who kills cats and traps their souls to make a flute. It is in this very meeting that he forces Nakata to kill him.

The narrative of this 436 page novel is dream-like leaving the reader wonder as to what would happen next. Simply unputdownable. Kafka labors under the weight of an omen laid upon him by his father, a renown Tokyo sculptor who tells Kafka that he is destined to murder his father and sleep with his mother and sister. All this does happen but in such a way that leaves the reader gasping for air and still not being critical and judgmental about the unfolding of surreal oddity in every page.

If you want to start with something that charges your subconscious and leads you to a place so surreal along with a novel that is mobbed with adventure, mystery and love, you should give this Japanese writer, whose works have been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex', and his novels a shot.

If you are looking for something that would take a strong hold on you and get you out of reality. If you want to read something that would just make time stop and you beyond time then I would suggest look no further than this book.

ONE LINE VERDICT: This book would stay with me and so would the characters. Must Read!

The hallucinogenic flat in the opposite building

For once we thought it was a laptop screen but the heads watching over the screen did not move. For probably thirty minutes they just did not move. We got more curious. Curiosity did kill many people but maybe caution wasn't there friend. We were assured of such honest to god friendship from it’s end. However we are not gloating on that. My husband gave up on stressing at what exactly was happening in that flat opposite to mine. I did not give up cause I knew there was something about that flat that was more intriguing. And I loved how they have this green Marijuana wallpaper in their balcony.

Before I would start, I would like to apologize to the three young men who own that flat and assure them that nothing unwanted has been looked into while I looked into your flat every now and then and I have no intentions of stalking anyone. And now to the readers I would excuse myself from being called as a crooked neighbor who loves to have her gander, on the sly watching inside rooms.

But, yes, I must say I am intrigued to an extent that I want to literally enter that unknown flat facing my flat in the building next to mine. Everything about the flat is so wondrously psychedelic.

For evenings as for tube lights they have this purple haze sort of light all across the room. They take their positions in front of that very lap top and the same statue like concentration on the screen and for that very same amount of time. They look at the screen and sometimes over these shiny green beer cans maybe Heineken or over smoke. From a distance it looks hallucinatory. Wish I could just click them.  Have never been able to see any of the guys’ face.

Strangest thing is I have never seen them in the morning only that very time around eight. Sometimes there is no one around only smoke fog from the table or sometimes it is just that huge flat screen next to the door.

I wonder are these guys a different breed altogether or just the regular guys, maybe they are different. As I look at them I do wonder what they think of are they just like the 100 others around them or do they view life in that very purple light?

The look of the room does suggest that there take on life is way different from the common guys. They love to read even if it is over the internet.

Stranger still are the bed-sheets that the maid hangs out every morning. The sheets have this alien spaceships on them and one has these big leaves on it. Everything is so godamn different from the usual. Phew! That whole flat reeks of psychedelia.

The other day I saw their maid dry their clothes every thing hanging on that string was so out of the ordinary. The towel, their boxers, and a few other stuff everything was sap green in color just like the Marijuana color. I wondered it would be so great to meet such people. Meet them over those dense conversations, stare at the very screen motionless just like them.

I wonder about their maid for an instant and think that does she know how different her this set of masters are? Does it even cross her mind?

Maybe they just dig Floyd, Deep Purple,  Beatles, Mamas and Papas, Jimmi Hendrix, Jethro Tull and maybe they love to read absurd books.

Whatever they do, they are definitely a bunch of psychotropic people one can only meet in their dreams.

March 8, 2013 ( A day after I wrote the above post)

It was 5:30 pm yesterday. I came out of my Kitchen to our balcony and guess what! I see one of them having tea or whatever in a cup. He has a cup green in color exactly similar to my cup. He did look at me. Sigh! He looked so perfectly normal just like any other guy. Anyway one of the psychedel has revealed himself. :)

Change it is to Change us

I am passionate about living, to say the least. I am passionate about waking up every morning and opening my eyes to a wonderful day.

I am passionate about color all kinds, around me. I love my room for it is green in color and has these huge red abstract flowers spread on the creamy curtains covering it's pale white windows. I crib when the maid puts a plain white bed sheet because I love the one with blue space ships on it.

Now, you wonder and question my sanity in this regard as to why am I not blogging or writing about development or social change. What has it got to do with social change? I will try to explain.

It took a whole day and a lot of coffee to understand what 'social change' meant to me or us. The power it held in it. Pondering about this over a cup of coffee I realized that unless an until an intrinsic understanding is attained in this regard nothing, from saving energy to giving donations to NGOs, can bring about this change.

A pretty famous American journalist, P.J. O'Rourke, was once quoted saying that " You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money." It is something similar to that.

I personally am of the opinion that to bring about any change as impactful as being life changing for people involved you need to love what you see around, you need to love it to that extent that you feel for those for whom it's not possible.

As human beings who want to be a part of a society where we call ourselves the socially uplifted we need to understand the 'minutes'. We cannot just say that we strongly feel about energy wastage unless an until we experience the power of energy. We need to love what we believe in.

I see color all around, I love colors and I love it to that very extent that I hate to see how my world drops dead as soon as I close my eyes. This very act has made me feel strongly for those who are not that fortunate enough to see. We call them blind. I am moved at how not much is done for them. There are blind schools that are working towards training these children but they are again in want of funds.

I want to tell my readers that social change is possible only after every person feels that he is an equal and important part of the society and feels responsible and is moved or affected by any act that causes spiritual doom to the society.

Worries and dilemmas have taken a geometric progression and no matter how many of us try to improve society it would only follow an arithmetic progression.

At such a rate sadness and misery would always remain and stay here till the end of days. We need to to go back home and talk to our kids and husbands about how our life has more meaning than to just earning, running around for money, achievement.

We should connect ourselves to any NGOs working towards orphans or any type of disability towards children. We should spend time with them and make them feel that they are part of that big picture where they don't see themselves right now because we all agree that they are an important to a our country's future.

I feel that there is no point having an energy conserved society if you have just hooligans living in it who care nothing for the lesser fortunate. I see no point.

Here I would like to quote Swami Vivekananda, "Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth." This idea and feeling should be so intrinsic and embedded in our veins in such a way that it should be carried or passed down through in genes.

A helping hand is what I feel we should be to bring about change.

Change is possible only when we start looking inside and growing from there. Only after we become more aware as citizens and the power that we hold in bringing about this change, only then change is possible.

For more information on iDiya visit: http://www.isb.edu/idiya/

In my search for good music I came across Ben Howard. Here are my top 5 of his tracks. Play on and live on!

You

I saw you.

Again, today.

There you were

a star in my universe.

The only star in my universe.

You are still in my head.

Am I still in your head?

For I have found you

in my despair, tempers.

In a series of dreams with no exits

you stay.

Take your time,

your springs, summers,autumns,

your winters.

You!

One in a million.

You!

From beyond time and space.

You!

You of all would know,

and once you know;

you would know never to let me go.

Good music. It keeps coming to me just like luck, good or bad.

There is a life that we lead which is way different from that life that we dream, a delusion that we fancy. But we do go all the way with life. It's all a game, this life!

Lana Del Ray a magician musician. Enjoy!