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L for Louisa May Alcott

It’s back to my childhood and back to a 19th century lady with L. Today it is Louisa May Alcott. If you didn’t read her Little Women series in your childhood it’s not too late to pick up a copy. Make sure you save it for your daughter too. If you do not have daughters well then you can just skip this one for here’s one author who is pretty much a girl thing.

I started reading her in school and they had the right amount of gyan to appeal to the Irish nuns who ran our school and yet had that tiny dash of very ‘propah’ romance to keep me glued.

Louisa Alcott’s life was ‘Little Women’

She was the second of four sisters  born to an educationist father and a social worker mother. She was taught by her father and his intellectual friends who included writers and educators like Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau.
The family went through a rough patch when all the sisters had to take up work to support the family finances. Louisa worked as a teacher, a seamstress, governess, a writer and a domestic helper…  a lot like the girls in Little Women.
She started off writing passionate books for adults that told dramatic stories of revenge (the ones I never got to read). And of course there were her books for kids. Once her kids’ book became popular she never returned to adult writing.
A scene from her book Little Women
Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys formed a perfect series. I also read a set of two – Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom.
A lot of Louisa’s family values spilled into her books. Principles like ‘Plain living high thinking’, inculcating good habits, dignity of labour — all formed a conservatively perfect mix for young girls.

Louisa and Jo

Louisa modeled Jo after herself in Little Women. She had Jo’s rebellious streak. Jo turned writer, just like her. Also, she shared a rivalry with her youngest sister quite like Jo and Amy in the book. However when her sister passed away at childbirth she took in her daughter, also called Louisa, and cared for her till she herself passed away.

Unlike Jo, who gets married, Alcott remained a spinster all her life. Remarking on her spinsterhood she says, “I am more than half persuaded that I am a man’s soul put by some freak of nature into a woman’s body… because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”

Did you have a favourite sister from among Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy?

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And now for tomorrow’s clue. Oh I enjoy this bit tremendously. So tomorrow’s author is a man, a very witty one. His most well know book has a young protagonist who shares his initials with me.. hee hee! Well it’s my blog, I get to behave like a megalomaniac here once in a while.
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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Happiness update week 14 – At Home!

This Sunday I intend to redeem myself and post my happiness post bang on time. I’ve plenty to be happy about. 
I’m home.
No matter where you go, no matter how many years go by, the city of your birth and childhood always remains special. It holds the dearest memories of a million seemingly inconsequential things that gave you immeasurable happiness. That’s what Lucknow is to me. Each year I return during the summer and try to recreat and reach out to all of those things. There’s a special warmth in the smiles, a special welcome in the greetings.

Since the twins came along I love bringing them to this city of my birth to share a bit of my childhood no matter how different it is from there’s. The food I loved, the friends I had, the places I enjoyed going to… All of it.
The happiness list is not easy to make, though, because it’s the scores of intangible things that make me happy here. Nonetheless I’m trying….
Even as we landed the kids were welcomed with that hug from dadu at the airport..

Mercifully my parents’ home and The Husband’s home are just a couple of minutes walk from each other and so the family converged the evening of our arrival. A few hours later we were off to our favourite roadsde pani-puri stall to kick off the home coming.

That kind of set the tone for the coming days. The two sets of parents here believe in the old traditional way of expressing love… Food! The FIL spoils the kids silly with laddoos ensuring there’s always a ready supply at home. Ostensibly they are for the kids but who’s checking to see how many the mum gets away with? Hah!
That’s not to say there’s nothing specially for me. Since the FIL discovered my favourites I don’t have to ask him or remind him either. Nowhere in the world do you get jalebis and khastas like in Lucknow. If you’ve been here earlier you’ll know my Lucknow holiday starts with these pictures, always. Here they are again.

The kids like the jalebis well enough but turn up their noses at the super spicy khasta filling.
The MIL meanwhile is not to be left behind. There are hugs aplenty which H has begun to resist, just a tiny bit. N, though revels in the attention and is often found perched on someone’s lap no matter that she’s a tall 8-year-old!

Despite a sever knee problem, she makes sure the dinner table is laden with all our old favourites. Palak-paneer tops the list. I can never get it perfect like her despite having her go over the recipe a hundred times. It’s the kids favourite too. That’s a bonus because the plates are polished clean even without my constant ‘Eat fast, keep chewing, talk less’.
What the twins like best, however, is goofing around with cousins. It’s a bit of a madhouse in this tiny place with kids getting underfoot no matter which way you turn. They spend the day showing off varied interesting talents like who can do the most summersaults or who can burp the loudest.

That’s it for now. Today evening we’re off for a movie with the kids – The Bhootnath sequel. They’ve watched the first one countless times so this promises to be a treat. And then it’s a PIZZA PARTY.

Okay, since I said that.. To appease my own conscience, I need to add that I’m off to the gym from Monday!! See you folks tomorrow at the A to Z Challenge with another one of my favourite authors. 
Meanwhile be happy.
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K is for Khaled Hosseini

Born 1965

Each morning as you pick up the paper over your cup of tea you read about the happenings in a far off country. They might disturb you sometimes, but you start your day and it’s all forgotten. Then along comes an author who tells a story so powerful, so stirring he makes the country come alive in a way that you can never get it out of your mind.

That’s what Khaled Hosseini’s books did for me.  Not only does he weave a perfect story, the setting brings alive Afghanistan, his country of birth, in an I-saw-it-happen kind of way.
Hosseini was born in Afghanistan but his father, a diplomat, moved to France when he was 11. He never got back to Kabul until much later when he was 38. However his connection with the country remained strong through his friends and family back home.
A doctor by profession, he gave it up after the success of his debut book ‘The Kite Runner’ to become a full time writer.

His books

Kite Runner
The Kite Runner was born when Hossieni heard the Taliban had banned kite flying. Since he had plenty of happy memories of this childhood sport he found the dictat exceptionally cruel. He did a short story on it but it was rejected. Years later he found the draft and decided to expand it into a novel.
That the book tells the story of a father and a son, a story of friendship, of betrayal and of redemption is what makes it universal. Although the political upheaval in Afghanistan is a story in itself, in the book it is a backdrop that adds beautifully to the heartbreaking narrative.
After getting into a young boy’s mind Hosseini explored the relationship between two women Mariam and Laila bound together by a strange bond in his next A Thousand Splendid Suns.
His third book, And the Mountains Echoed, is yet again about relationships.. between a brother and a sister, a mother and a daughter.

What I like best …

…about his books is the way he explores the connection between people – relationships are central to his tales. I love that his stories allow for redemption. I love that despite the dark narrative they end with a ray of hope, however tiny. And I love the way he weaves in the political background so that it becomes a part of the story.

So what do you love about Khaled Hosseini?
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Tomorrow’s clue will be an easy one if you studied at a conservative Convent school like I did. It’s a lady again… a lady of my childhood who wrote stories about good little girls for good little girls. Come on ladies – come up with the name.
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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J is for JK Rowling

There’s barely anything I can say about this author who’s life has been almost as magical as the protagonist she created. It’s JK Rowling the creator of the wonderful Harry Potter. I’ll confine my post to the author and will not even attempt to talk about her books at all. One, because there’s so much been said already and two, because if I do start I wouldn’t know where to stop. I’ll just say that …
– If you thought the books are just for kids, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong.
– If you watched the films without reading the books and wrote them off – big mistake. The films ONLY add to the book experience. They do not substitute it at all.
– If you haven’t read the books at all, you’ve missed being touched by magic.


Jo, Joanne, JK Rowling

She was born Joanne Rowling in a small family comprising her mum, dad and a younger sister. She called herself Jo and says, “No one called me Joannae unless they were angry.” The K stands for Kathleen, her paternal grandmother’s name, and was added later because the publishers felt a book written by a woman wouldn’t appeal to young boys who they thought would be their primary audience. And so JK Rowling she became. She has also written books like the crime thriller, The Cuckoo’s Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

As for those publishers how wrong were they!! 

The hard times

Her mum passed away early from Multiple Sclerosis and that broke her heart. Later, she got married and moved to Portugal. However when her daughter, Jessica, was just three months old her marriage ended and she moved back to Edinburg… penniless.

She moved into a rat infested tiny home that she painted herself. Friends played a very important role in her life and probably that’s reflected in her novels. They loaned her money to move to a better home and also helped her furnish her house sending her as much furniture as they could spare.

She applied for a PG course that would qualify her to take up a teaching position. That, she thought, was the only way she could improve her life. She had planned on leaving Jessica in the creche for student mums. To her despair the creche had closed down. “That was one of the worst moments,” says she. However, another friend came to her rescue lending her childcare fees.

She took a student loan for her course and toiled for one long hard year barely aware that success awaited her right around the corner. 

The birth of Harry Potter

This is the stuff legends are made of. During a delayed train ride from Manchester to London the idea of Harry Potter was born .. fully formed including the ending of book seven. She had the whole thing in her head all the time. How’s that for cool? She started writing six months before her mum passed away and regrets not having shared the book with her.  

Rowling recreates her ‘cafe writing’ for the cameras in 1999. Photo: Austral

The going must have been tough as she struggled for survival. Famously, she would write in cafes while her daughter snoozed by her. “I write in cafe’s because I like other people making my coffees,” said she in an interview.

As she ended her teaching course she had also finished writing the first Harry Potter book – The Philosopher’s Stone. It was a bit of a struggle to find a publisher. But by the time she took up a part time teaching position her novel had been accepted and the rest, as they say, is history. Within five years she turned from a penniless writer surviving on state support, to a multi-millionairess… a rages to riches story!!


Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermionie (Emma Watson), JK Rowling and Ron (Rupert Grinch)

Much later.. she finished her last book in a hotel room over a glass of champagne.. quite a contrast to her ‘sad little apartment’ days. In an interview she says, “I sat in that hotel room drinking champagne, sobbing my heart out.”


One of my favourite quotes from her ..

“I was set free because my greatest fear had been realised, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

Rock bottom ‘a solid foundation’.. positive thinking at it’s best!

So tell me which is your favourite Harry Potter book. Mine would be The Goblet of Fire for it’s sheer scale and the super climax and also a tiny bit because of the gorgeous Twilight hero (Robert Pattinson) who makes an appearance as Cedric Diggory in the film.

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Tomorrow we meet an author from closer home, not quite India, but from a neighbour’s neighbour. Oh and he’s another gentleman. Finally, the men seem to be catching up. Guesses anyone?
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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I is for Ian, Ian Fleming

1908-1964                                                                                   
It’s I-day
today. And I bring out someone not quite a classic yet just as timeless, just
as well loved and way more exciting. He is the one who created the coolest,
hottest hero ever.. and I mean ever. It’s the flamboyant Ian Fleming – the man behind James
Bond. If anything he was at least just as dashing as the hero he created.

A tough
legacy to follow

Ian Fleming
came from a well respected, wealthy English family. His grandfather was a banker
and his father Valentine Fleming, a landowner and Member of Parliament as well
as a war hero who was killed in the War when Ian was about 9. His brother Peter excelled at Eton and Oxford and went on to become a well know travel
writer. Ian had to live up to a towering legacy.

A restless
soul

All of that seemed like a tall order for Fleming. He could
never distinguish himself at academics. He left Eaton before completing his graduation.
At the military academy he left without taking an officer’s commission. He
tried to take the Foreign Services Exam but could not clear that too. Finally,
like his brother, he joined Reuters – the news agency – and became a
journalist.

Ian Fleming

A few years
as a journalist convinced him that his salary would not let him live the kind
of high life he wanted. His own inheritance was out of reach so he took on work as a
banker. A few years later, bored of his banker’s job he quit and joined the
Times.

In 1939 he
joined the naval intelligence. That’s where he seemed to have finally found his
calling. Quite like his hero he planned and carried out dangerous missions. He
also wrote countless reports where his natural flair for writing showed up and
they made for great reading. It was during those days that he went to Jamaica
for a conference and fell in love with the place promising to return.

In Jamaica, Bond
is born

My favourite Bond

And return
he did. He built himself a house called Goldeneye
and every year, for six years, he would go to Jamaica to live the high life he had
always wanted… partying, romancing and having affairs. The turning point came when a married woman, Anne Rothermere, he
was having an affair with, got pregnant and pressured him to marry her. While
waiting for her divorce to come through he started writing his first novel
Casino Royale. After that, each year he used his Jamaican holiday to write a
novel.

At the age of 56 Ian Fleming died of a heart attack. In a very Bond like manner his last words were to the ambulance drivers. Said he, “I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don’t know how you get along so fast with the traffic on the roads these days.”

James Bond..

.. would be
the dullest, most uninteresting man to whom “things happened”, thought Fleming when he first conceived Bond. However, 12 Bond novels later, we know better. Secret
Agent 007, took on a life of his own.

Fleming modeled Bond after many real life characters including his brother and himself. He put to use his real life experiences. His villains too were people he disliked in real life!

Seven actors have played James Bond in 23 films, beginning with Sean Connery in 1962 to Daniel Craig in 2012.. but you already know that. So who’s your favourite Bond? I’d go with Sean Connery.

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I won’t leave a clue for tomorrow. Girls and boys.. wait for the magic to begin!

This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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