Rainbow's Landline!

One of the recent books I read is Rainbow Rowell’s best selling novel of 2014, Landline. Adjudged as the Goodreads Best Book of 2014 in the fiction category, Landline marks Rowell’s return to adult fiction after her two best selling young adult novels, Eleanor and Park (2013) and Fangirl (2013). Landline is Rowell’s take on marriage, love and mature relationships.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

               

                  Georgie McCool is a successful scriptwriter who is very much aware that her marriage is in the rocks. Her husband, Neal, is a stay-at home dad who looks after the kids and patiently waits for Georgie to commit her time for them. He has increasingly grown distant from her and is discontent with a sterile conjugal life due to her endless work. She drives the last nail in the coffin when she chooses to soar high in her career and ditches her husband and kids on celebrating Christmas together with Neal’s family at Nebraska. However, just after Neal and the kids depart for Nebraska, Georgie begins to crumble. She worries if her marriage is over, having realised that perhaps this time she has pushed Neal a little too far away from herself. She begins a journey to rediscover herself, her feelings for Neal and to achieve a full understanding of the conjugal relationship she shares with Neal.

                        Rowell explores the themes of travails of marriage, midlife crisis, work and parenthood adroitly through a psychological study of her characters and the deft use of the instrument of magic realism. Georgie attempts to fix her marriage by starting afresh her conjugal relationship with Neal. She attempts to talk to Neal, but the Neal she keeps talking to from her teenage bedroom using the old yellow landline is the young Neal, one that she had fallen in love with. As Christmas draws near, Georgie travels between past and present to understand her own feelings and her relationships. She is left to consider if they should stay together, if they are enough as a couple to make each other happy.

                          Beneath the sparkling narrative lies a subcutaneous tension that Rowell has adroitly captured. Once again Rowell proves herself as a master storyteller in her ability to narrate a heart-warming story that dissects a modern marriage to talk of the problems of modern life and relationships. At the heart of her story lie the imperfect characters - Georgie and Neal.  Georgie is a far cry from a perfect lover, mother or wife. Neal is a quite brooding man whose stolid passivity and resigned acceptance constantly conveys Georgie her inability to make him happy. It is also interesting to note how consummately Rowell has reversed the gender roles in her story. The man patiently waits for his wife’s attention and time as he looks after the house and kids. But Rowell falls back to her young adult strain and gives into that idealist and escapist nerve. What rubs off against me is the forced reconciliation of the story. Somewhere in the end the characters seem to give up their free will to resolve Rowell’s plot. The author manipulates her characters to script a happy ending that is at once affected and fake. However, Rowell’s lucid language and swift narrative, evenly distributed with humour, make Landline a page turner. It is indeed a good read that combines the pleasures of a young adult novel and the plot of an adult fiction. 

10 Situations that People with Small Feet Know Best!

Who do you blame when you grow up to see that your body and mind had developed and grown both in size and matter, but your feet haven't? None, but your genes and indispensable fate! Here's a few curated situations  that only people with short feet will familiar with. 

1. Your feet are so awkwardly small that finding shoes of your size is a rare thing in your life!

 Most shoe brands don't make shoes of your size. You are one of those who believe in couture items!

2. Buying shoes online is a serious joke to you!

Nothing can be more sad than to see your friends buy shoes online. Your is size is just unavailable. You comfort yourself with kids' shoes.

3. You have to live with the shame of buying shoes from the kids' section throughout your life, may be even after you become a mother!

You walk into the kids' section and pretend to nonchalantly look for shoes for your nephew or niece. Be careful to avoid the salesmen before sneaking your feet in the little shoes to check the fit.

4. You follow the latest trends in kids' shoes.

Nothing can be more disappointing than to know that latest trends and styles in foot ware can add no colour to your life. You've got to follow the kids' trends!

5. You have to give every shoe sale a miss!

You can't help! There's hardly anything you will find that will fit you. You can't express your fetish for shoes even if you want to!

6. Insoles are your real friends.

Can't find a size smaller or bigger? Insoles are there to rescue you. You know them best - brands, types, sizes, uses. Just everything about them!

7. As much as you like weddings, you dread the day you will get married. Where will you find stilettos to fit your size?

It's a nightmare every time you think of the day you have to go shopping with your in-laws for your wedding.

8. When normal socks don't fit you, you have to wear baby socks.

When kids' shoes are near at hand, how can baby socks be far away?

9. You have to unquestionably bear forever in your life the wondrous look of people when they say 'You have such small feet!'

You just learn to take it in your stride with a pinch of salt.

10. However, you ace it all when you say,'None of my shoes go missing because none ever fit others!'

Who would dare answer to this? Everyone's had their share of the 'lost shoe' experience.

Four Women and an Ancient City

Our history makes for our present. There's nothing more enriching than taking a trip to a historical city that will help us reconnect with our country's and culture's roots. What’s another popular city, close to Delhi, that is historically and culturally as rich? You're thinking of Agra, right? So for a visit to a historical city, my friends and I did something courageous—we took an an all-women trip.

The best weather to visit Agra is early spring, for it gets a little too hot a little too quick, and also cools down to a chill and makes for very poor visibility. We didn't manage to visit in spring, so we chose early winter. The weather neither gnawed a cold bite nor scorched our skin.

Plenty of buses ply between Delhi and Agra throughout the year. Trains like Shatabdi also makes for a good comfortable travel. However, our last minute plans left us with little choice but to be the adventurous bus travellers. Armed with volvo bus tickets, four of us set out to explore the ancient city of Agra.

We took an early morning bus from Sarai Kale Khan ISBT. Crowd was decent, interior was clean, and most importantly the bus halted at proper stops. Clean washrooms and fresh food were available at the stops, as against our fears. Following a four-hour ride on the highway we reached Agra ISBT. Entering the city we saw nothing of the majestic grandeur that the city boasts of. All that we could see after reaching the city were the jostling crowd and wayward traffic. Perceive the city through time-tinted glasses and you will see the chaotic confluence of heritage, decadence and modernity.

Most of the hotels and resorts are located further away from the city. Tajganj and Fatehbad are the places to look out for, with hotels and resorts lining its sides. We had already booked ours from https://www.booking.com for ease on arrival. It's also advisable to rent a car to travel around the city, however, public transport like auto and electric rickshaw are available in plenty too.

Of the several ancient structures that stand to bear witness the height of Mughal architecture in Agra, the Agra Fort is one of them.

It is a complex of courts, palaces, gardens, pavilions and mosques. The fort is carved mostly in red sandstone, which is perfectly complimented by the marble palaces it houses within its confines.

The Agra Fort also happens to be the fort where Emperor Shah Jahan spent the last days of his life as a prisoner to his son, Aurangzeb. Guides flock the gates of the fort in plenty. The best way to avoid people from duping us for our gender is by taking the services of government appointed guides who have fixed rates for the services provided.

The holy city of Fatehpur is a must visit when in Agra. You will be swept away into the pages of history as you'll step through the grand city gate of Buland Darwaza. 

As the legend goes, it is believed that Emperor Akbar came here on foot to seek the blessings of Sufi mystic, Sheikh Salim Chisti, to have a son. Akbar’s prayers bore fruit and he built the city of Fatehpur to honour the Sufi saint. Within the inner walls of Fatehpur lie the Royal Mosque and the tomb of the Sufi saint. Pilgrims visit all round the year to offer prayers.

 The Taj Mahal has come to be eponymous of Agra. The magnificence of Taj looms large over Agra, to the extent of almost consuming Agra’s individual existence. It's magnificent grandeur is beyond words to describe.

 Vehicles leave you 2 km away from the Taj. Battery cars and camel carts are readily available to take you on pillion. Carry your id cards and buy your tickets if you want to take a closer look of this grand monument. Latticed gardens and pristine blue pools adorn the Taj like a foyer, as the monument rises from a red sandstone base. The double dome, the slender four minarets materialize in front of your eyes. As you enter the dark dome you see Persian verses decorate the walls and a marble inlaid enclosure, within whose vault lies the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal and the casket of Emperor Shah Jahan.

The architecturally exquisite Taj is much more than its twin ‘Bibi-ka-Maqbara’. At the end of it, you leave the Taj with wonder in your eyes and a mesmerising awe of having seen something so beautiful and so grand built to epitomise someone's death!

Now, when in Agra, peetha must not be missed. As word of mouth goes, peetha from Panchhi store is the best that Agra has. It is one of the oldest petha stores of Agra, established in 1926 and selling a large variety of pethas. From Angoori to Kesar, Panchhi petha is popular all over Agra, so much so that its duplicates criss-cross the market.

Agra, like Delhi, was the seat of Mughal governance and eminence. It's indigenous culture, architecture and heritage makes it a perfect city to know more about our royal past.