On Pippi Longstocking and Other Things

Although I am fairly certain that there are others who do the same thing, I've been told that I can get quite obsessive when reading a book. The thing is, I've always preferred reading an entire book at a stretch. Whether it is a fledgling in terms of pages or a massive tome of over a thousand scrolls, I am happiest when I can read uninterrupted, without pausing for life and its requirements.

And that is precisely what I was doing last night. I'd been a little late in catching on to the Millenium bandwagon, but Stieg Larsson's posthumously published trilogy gripped me as much as it has many others. Last night, I managed to steal away the last book from my mother (who wanted to read it before I did. As if!) and had already finished about fifty-odd pages before she noticed what I'd done. Thus, the book lay in my possession for the rest of the night... And I had to make the most of it if I did not want my mother to steal it back during a weak moment of rest!

It was quite a remarkable amalgamation of stimuli! Here I was, sitting by a window late at night, running through the events of the story as they unfolded. And beyond the translucent glass was a performance like no other! Being Navami night, the para puja had to be resplendently raucous. With a few singers, a hired band and a tiny makeshift stage, the people of my locality could find no reason for anything less than "aatmosht aynjoymaint". There was this Lady in a Green Dress (if it could be called a dress in the first place) who had a decent voice. Sadly, it would not have made any difference if she had only trilled to the tune of the song without trying to enunciate the lyrics. There was also a gentleman who sounded like a foghorn and another lady (who I did not care to peep at from the balcony) who had a very healthy pair of lungs. Both of them spent the greater part of the night enthusiastically egging on the crowd with emphatic cries. Not surprisingly, the crowd got egged, repeated chants of "Yeeyh! Yeeeh! Byaaaapoook! Yeeeeeehhhh!" bearing testimony to the fact!

Now I usually find no trouble in noticing these quaint details and carrying on with my work at the same time. So it was quite an enriching experience indeed to follow the trail of a constitutional conspiracy and, at the same time, mull over the anthropological aspect of boisterous behaviour late at night. It was extremely enlightening... Lisbeth Pippi Longstocking Salander as well as wannabe Himesh Reshammiyas both gave me much to think about! (In the latter case it was a case of philosophical resignation... there are people in the world who should not be allowed to open their mouths but no law of Nature can stop them from doing so).

Finally, it was in the wee hours of dawn, (I suppose 6 a.m. does count as early dawn to me) that I turned the last pages of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Thankfully, nine hours of sitting in fairly the same place hadn't been all that uncomfortable and I was able to hobble over to my room and take my lenses off without collapsing into a heap. Following this, I promptly made my bed and slept till twelve noon.

Tonight does not seem to show signs of being any different. It's quite amusing to see how a night-time train journey has happened to give me the symptoms of jet lag. The trip to the hills, however, was well worth it! But that,  again, is another story...