Just thoughts

     It wasn’t what I expected.      What I expected was a boring trip to museums and science centers, with short visits to some park or beach to pacify the students. What I most definitely didn’t expect was a perfectly well-balanced trip with just the right amount of fun and learning, with a lot of time to spend with friends and socialize.      The trip turned out to be just that.     I am talking about the school trip we were taken on in January to the southernmost place one can go to in the Indian mainland, Kanyakumari, followed by the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.  After a sleepless night in the bus which did nothing to lift my spirits, we reached Kudankulam, a small town a few kilometers northeast of Kanyakumari. The town was nondescript, with nothing to its credit by the looks of it. But soon, we were to enter India’s largest nuclear power plant- Kudankulam Nuclear Power ...

       I discovered an ardent cat lover inside me during the COVID lockdown. I haven’t been a big fan of mammals, but I gradually started liking cats. Here’s how it happened. The lockdown brought a big family of cats to our apartment. I saw them every day during my walk on the grounds, and they stared back. I don’t know what they thought when they looked me straight in the eye- anything ranging from ‘This boy is an interesting human being’ to ‘What is this weird ape doing in my territory.’ Absolutely nothing was discernible from the cats’ expression. But I gradually fell in love with these feline marvels. A few months ago, a gang of guys in my apartment drowned a cat in the swimming pool. I was heartbroken, looking at the heart-wrenching picture of the snow-white furry being, now nothing but a lifeless body. Though I wasn’t very emotionally affected, this was the first time I felt something close to the loss of a loved one, and I can never forget this incident....

       To start things off- This is NOT what I expected. What I was expecting was a cosy, occasionally boring story where I knew what the ending was going to be all along. But this was quite the opposite. Filled with Austen's trademark commentary on the high society of England, and with a plethora of other sarcastic titbits here and there, the book was a box of surprises.       Elinor (the protagonist) was a neverending source of sarcasm and jokes, but not normal jokes-no, high society won't approve of that. These are jokes one must look out for to find out; They are so discretely hidden within the conversation, that many a time even the listener won't detect these when Elinor is talking. This, along with the interesting pursuits of all the young ladies and men, especially Marianne, made this book a memorable read, almost un-put-downable when I reached the last quarter of the book. Not to mention how the sense of Elinor compares with that of the s...