The POTTER Parade

A litte treat for all Potter fans......from a brilliant artist...*MAKANI*

Candy-Coated Literature

Continuing in the vein of yesterday's post........here are a list of "light & frivolous" reads, that I hope to lay my hands on in the near future....

Chick-Lit....a guilty pleasure

The much-maligned “Chick-Lit” genre of books is steadily creeping it’s way into my list of favourite categories.

Sassy heroines.....stylish urban settings.....loving/interfering parents (take your pick!!!).....weight-woes.....office politics.....snotty colleagues.....scummy boyfriends and if things finally decide to look upbeat.....a dashing knight in a Savile-Row suit!! That pretty much sums up your average chick-lit novel.

To all the fans of serious, heavy-duty tomes...chick lit seems shallow and pretentious. The heroines are either scatty blondes, over-worked brunettes or fiery red-heads. They crib about everything under the sun, go on shopping sprees, bag the coveted contract, pull one over their bosses, strike a blow for feminism and in the midst of all that chaos.....manage to end up with Mr.Right!!!

Maybe a little more common-sense and a tighter grip on the purse-strings would help. But at the end of the day it boils down to a blend between escapism and a sense of déjà vu.

Somewhere along the line, we associate with the madness.....the faux-pas.....the search for love or even a pair of killer Jimmy Choos!!! When you have made an absolute fool of yourself.....it soothes the bruised ego to know that there are others like you, treading in the same pile of dung as you have!!

Here are a list of my favourites, which I would recommend for anyone looking out for a breezy, laugh-a-minute read. Enjoy!!

Inspired by BARNES & NOBLE’s Holiday Gift catalog….I decided to make a list of my must-reads for the upcoming months. .....

Accidentally In Love....

I am suffering from "Blogger's Block"....and however ridiculous that sounds, am sticking to my resolution i.e. One post, every day throughout December. It's an exercise in futility, but am trying to break my penchant for procrastination......Once 'n' For All!!!

So here's one of my all-time favourite songs by Counting Crows....with my all-time favourite couple...."Shrek and Fiona"!! Talk about "fairy-tale" honeymoons!!!

The original "Happy Shopper"!!!

Holiday shopping coupled with my uncle's return from Hongkong......I am grinning like a delirious fool!!

Even though the "large" out there seems like an " xtra-small" to me......I am feeling mighty glad with my gorgeous new phone - The Nokia 5610 XPress Music!!

I sincerely, truly hope that I show an equal outpouring of love when my first newborn arrives!!!

Winter Woes!!!

I am dreaming of a white Christmas…..well, in my case…more like a chilly Christmas, with a definite nip in the air!! But as usual, the winter is playing hookey and the only cold wave I get is the icy-glare from my mum when I start cribbing about dinner!

I remember my college years…..getting up at an unearthly hour to reach the first lecture on time. Glazed eyes, chapped lips and still stuck between the land of the living and the undead, we would traipse from one house to another and finally reach our dear college.

Luckily, our makeshift canteen was situated right next to the entrance. And because the Gods watching over nerve-wracked teens were kind and loving, we used to get first dibs on the piping hot samosas and the steaming cups of coffee!

You would think that after the first shot of caffeine in our blood, we would be raring to go….in pursuit of knowledge and all things academic.

Yep, raring to go ofcourse….but in the opposite direction!! Chilly mornings were perfect for incessant chattering and non-stop guff sessions.

In an attempt to recapture the past glory (never a good idea!!!!)…..I got up with the birds, tugged on a buttery soft sweater and decided to go for a good long walk. I was all for communing with nature…taking in the morning sights and enjoying the welcome laziness of a winter morning.

But as all my half-baked plans go…..this one too ended up nowhere. Forget a nip, there wasn’t even a snap or crackle in the wind!! Five minutes into my walk and I was already sweating bullets. The sweater (which was a bad idea to begin with) felt like a dead weight. Pretty soon, I would be lying face down in a pool of my own sweat mixed with a generous helping of humiliation!!

So I lugged myself back to the relative coolness of home and hearth. As for my winter cravings…I indulged in a bunch of holiday movies on HBO….snuggled up under a quilt with the a/c on full blast!!

Passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia)"

A passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia ~~~ C.S.Lewis)" triggered a sense of déjà vu.

Sometimes, somewhere a certain element acts a catalyst.....triggering a long forgotten but fond memory. It infuses you with a warm and comforting feeling. The mention of the word alone can wash away the cobwebs of the mind and cloak you in a blanket of security and comfort.

Just out of grasp, but never too far away......

The children hear Aslan's name for the first time and the following paragraph explains the varied emotions experienced by the four:

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan
was anymore than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words
everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a
dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it
feels as if it has some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns
the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into
words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and
are always wishing that you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At
the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside.
Edmund felt a sense of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of
music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake
up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the
beginning of summer.

My life......in four panels!!!

I am not laughing at me.......I am laughing with me!!!

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Yeah right!!!

J.K.ROWLING - Entertainer of The Year

J.K.Rowling has been declared the Entertainer of the Year by Entertainment Weekly.....and rightly so.

I belong to the formidable legion of J.K.Rowling-fans. I don’t need to launch into an endless litany on her immense talent or her astounding success-story. Reams of newsprint, gazillion sites and a million blogs have already been dedicated to jus’ the thing.

She has been praised and maligned in equal measure. You can love her.....or hate her…but you sure as hell can’t ignore her!!

The original skeptic, I scoffed good-naturedly when a colleague recommended “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. It was a ‘children’s book’ for crying out loud……and there I was, a (debatable) adult.

But I overcame my pig-headedness and gave it a shot. Needless to say, I was hooked, booked and ready to be charted off to the world of magic and fantasy!!!

It was a good solid read and had it all…… the proverbial under-dog…..fantastic characters and astounding creatures…. ……a hidden magical world….and an immensely strong story line. The most bewitching form of escapism!

I fully intend giving my two-bit opinion on each of the Potter books….but not right now. I just felt that I had to start off my trip down Potter-lane by writing a bit ‘bout one of my front-running authors.