Our "White", "Brown" and "Blue" boys

I finished reading Jhumpa Lahiri's "the namesake" today. I'm starting to detect a pattern in my behavior after finishing each of these books. Okay so, so far, I've ended up finishing all of them a little after lunch time at work. This happens probably because I usually leave the last two or three chapters to be read together. Like I never just leave the last chapter to be read later (who does really?). Anyway so I finish the book, which so far have all ended depressingly, then sit in my cubicle for a while and make myself miserable thinking about all the sad things that I can remember (LOL). Then I play spider solitaire to distract myself for a bit sometimes even venturing on to a higher level of difficulty. And true to my track record, I'm yet to win a game at a medium level of difficulty. What can I say? LOL sitting games are just not my forte. I'll refrain from mentioning my abilities at other sports/games in this blog.

I don't really know any Lahiri fans so if I'm offending anyone, I apologize from beforehand. I can't claim to have read a lot of books but from my experience of the ones I have read, "A Suitable Boy" is a much better written, detailed and way more interesting than this one. I only compare Vikram Seth's book to Lahiri's because both are sort of about Calcatian families and put a lot of focus on Western influence on Indian/Bengali culture. Or it could only be because both are South Asian writers, writing about South Asian families/lives. The thing is, I read Seth's book at least 5/6 years back and fell in love with all 1500 pages of it. I remember finishing reading on Eid day (Muslim festival) and not wanting to leave my parents's room in my grandmother's house because I had been upset about the book finishing and my involvement with the characters lives ending. Yes, I was that strange. But over the years, I reverted to reading trashy romance novels (lol yes harlequinn! and just so you all know, this had been one of my biggest secrets until now) about 250/300 pages long which would all end with the couple married happily for ever after. Nevertheless I'm finally making a conscious effort to go back to reading non-trash this summer.

Ironically, I got in to the habit of reading on a holiday in Singapore where I went to visit my Aunt's family. I turned 13 that summer in Singapore and to say the least, it was a life changing summer. I made a best friend and discovered one of my favorite cousins, started to get to know my brother for the first time, started reading books in English also for the first time, discovered I could eat like a pig (I would finish a package of sausages on my own for breakfast) and had my first crush on a non-brown boy. LOL. I think (that really should be "remember") he was half chinese and half white and with our mutual sense of color coding, my cousin and I coded him "white", another dude (15 year old, maybe?) "blue" because of his blue colored eyes and just before the summer ended, I think we even managed to discover "brown" with an accompanying set of brown eyes. We spent EVERYDAY checking out these guys at an arcade on Orchard Road. So "white" we saw at that arcade for the first time wearing his school uniform, "blue" i can't quite remember, but I think my cousin had discovered him on the bus on her school route and finally "brown" on the escalator on the way to the mall where the arcade had been. It was without doubt a memorable summer.

What can I say? We were only 13! :) I will leave the story about the busboy we left my friend's number for (pretending it was mine) on a piece of napkin at a restaurant in Chicago earlier this year, for another day.

Anyway, I promised myself I would keep this entry short so people would actually want to read my blog. I'm still at work now and that was my short break to rouse myself from the depression brought about by the ending of "the namesake" :-). Also my brother just called to let me know that my Bangladeshi passport has been renewed. I've been bugging my family to take a trip to somewhere in India ever since I came back this summer. Their excuse of my expired passport has just ran out, so I'm also cheered at the prospect of maybe being able to bug my parents to the point of them giving in to a quick trip to Darjeeling in India. LOL I just have to refrain from letting the nagging reach the point of annoyance otherwise I might find myself back in Boston instead of India! :-)