It's Spring!!!

The long hard winter is over. It was a time of chilly mornings, and icicles on the grass, interspersed with some pleasant afternoons, when the warm glow of sun bathed everything in gold. Winter, in a way summarized my mood. Despondent, sullen and cooped up at home with the central heating on. The night time temperatures would often dip down to minus 2. For a tropical creature like me, it has been a difficult time.

It is spring at last. The world around here is splattered with a profusion of flowers. Violets, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, daisies and marigold are in full bloom. The Ginenderra Lake near my house is placid and the trees and strips of grass around it look greener. There is still a nice chill in the air, a distant reminder of the harsh winter. The sun burns bright and there are white wisps of clouds in the sky. The air we breathe is clean and pure. I realize what a beautiful small town this is. There are only 300000 residents and there is a forest in the middle of the city. If it weren’t for noisy automobiles zipping around in tearing hurry, I’d rename it as heaven.
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A few years back the Missus suggested that I read a book called “Foreign Correspondence” by an Australian author, Geraldine Brooks. She had got it from a library. I have hazy memories of the book. It was about the author’s lonely childhood filled with books and penpals. I saw a bit of myself in her. I too passed eventless days in my village walking by the river, staring at the endless greenery of paddy fields and reading whatever I could lay my hands on. An occasional letter from a pen pal in Czeckoslovakia, Morocco or Philippines was a big event and I would look forward to the postman’s arrival everyday. We liked the Geraldine Brooks’ book so much that we wanted to buy it. We couldn’t find a copy in the bookstores so we did something very unusual. We took a photocopy of the book, bound it and kept it with us. It still lies in our Delhi home. I just finished reading another book called “Nine Parts of Desire” by her. She is now a highly successful Pulitzer Prize winning Middle East correspondent of the Wall Street Journal. This book is about her journey to understand women in Islamic lands. She travels through Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and many other countries to discover the women behind the veil. She tops her journey by belly dancing in a Cairo restaurant to an audience of highly appreciative Arabs in head clothes and Egyptians. There are tales of women fighting all odds and spinning tales of success in the most oppressed & liberal countries. There is a chapter on the Prophet’s women, which is a storehouse of information. The book’s name comes from a saying of Ali ibn Abu Taleb (husband of the Muhammad’s daughter Fatima & founder of the Shiite sect) that Almighty God created sexual desire in ten parts and he gave nine parts to women and one to men. Geraldine Brooks has branched off into fiction also; and has written a couple of novels. She is really a writer to watch out for.
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