The Anne-Liesel Parallel; Divided in history, United by books.

“What do these children do without story books?" Naftali asked. And Reb Zebulun replied: "They have to make do. Storybooks aren't bread. You can live without them.""I couldn't live without them." Naftali said.”

-Isaac Bashevis Singer 

Often there comes a book that stays, stays in way that it crawls under your skin and flows through your veins, you wake up wondering if you had somehow managed to travel back in time and relive a certain part of a not so far away past. I came across Anne Frank's Diary when I was in school and I've read it a few times after. Each time I had a mix of goosebumps, tears, fear and hope. Roll ahead a few more years this brilliant book made it's way to my life; The Book Thief. 

The plot of the book thief is about a little girl Liesel who steals books and reads them, the timing of the occurrence is during world war II, Luckily (and I use this word very loosely) Liesel is German, the possibility of her ending up in a gas chamber are low... The book revolves around various complexities of her life. The book deals with love, relationships, loss, hope and recovery.. more importantly it deals with books. The love she feels for them and how she directs all of her tiny self towards books, how they fill her with happiness. Now there isn't anything about a book that a book lover will not relate to, the excitement, the joy, the hope it gives you, the faith it restores. Why this book makes you want to keep flipping through the pages is not just the love for books but the dire situations that makes you respect this little girl.

I remember when I first read Anne Frank, I was amazed that someone would even consider reading and education when there is such a war outside,I thought the thing to do when a sense of impending doom lurks around the corner was probably to curl up in a tiny corner and wait for death or something. I am not proud that I thought so, but at that time I actually thought it was impossible to imagine something as normal as reading when there was a war at your doorstep. I began to wonder how Frank wrote about such everyday instances, how she brought herself to write about her future, I wonder how she wrote so easily about normal things, the diary is not a war diary, it simply is the diary of a little girl in the times of war. She talks about love too, she talks about her learning, how she hopes to go back.

As I was reading the Book Thief, I swear I had goosebumps, I had tears and I was overwhelmed. I was deeply touched. But throughout I could think of Anne Frank, I could not take the image out of my mind. Two girls, same place, same age, one in hiding, the other one helping someone hide, one had Peter, the other had Rudy, both have parents, both struggling to make ends meet. It gave me chills to think that the only real difference was that one was German, the other was Jew. War has it tough for everyone. Both Liesel and Anne are testament that nothing about a war is pretty. People die. Enemies, friends, families. There is no winning side. 

A deep connection however was in the fact that both Anne and Liesel found comfort in books. When people ask why I read I think this is pretty much why. Of course, I sit in my comfortable little chair when I say I read because ____________ but the point is, when despair strikes like a hammer at a gong what do you do?? Liesel and Anne are little girls who have very little control over anything that is happening around them. What do you do other than trying to be okay about everything? When I think of Liesel going about her business reading books in the middle of the night and Anne gazing up at the sky in the middle of the night, writing in her book hoping to be free soon, what gives them the courage to dream? It was those scraps of paper and printed ink. It gave them some sense of control, it gave them something to hang on to. Their books made them feel normal. When everything else was going to hell, their books were the only 'regular' thing from their previous lives, perhaps. 

I can only think of what must be going on in the minds of these kids. What they must be thinking? But I guess the universal appeal for books in lies in the fact that books give you an alternate reality, the occupy your senses, they take you away, even briefly, away from that attic, away from Mulching, away from death, doom. Books give you a shoulder to lean on. I say this from my personal experience, in world filled with noise, a book is the only steady companion. Books fill a void inside you. You don't read a book because you read a book. You read a book because it lets you leave. Go away.It is not on some whim that books have been around for so long. I can imagine how depressed I would be if I didn't read. We have our lives to deal with; that's not going away. But in our darkest hours when we want to leave, even for a moment, we let books do that for us. 

We need to find normalcy in our scattered living we call life. Of course there is hopelessness, there is injustice, the is anger...  Books contribute to filling us up intellectually, philosophically even but more importantly, books fill us up emotionally.
How nice it would be if we could just forget that. Just for a few minutes.

PS: I think The Book Thief and Anne Frank's Diary are too beautiful to be written about. As for a review, I wouldn't even attempt it. :)

PPS: I know Liesel is a fictional character, but to me she is very real.  

Shaadis and aunties.

I'm of the age where everything I do is under the scanner. My daily schedule is a matter of great curiosity to everyone. Yes, I'm of the "marriageable age" and everyone my age is getting married. While I love the fact that they are getting engaged or married, I am also worried that  I'm constantly measured along with my married friends and family. "Dekho, she got married". "Such a nice boy, roz mandir bhi jaata hai", and I am here, wondering why adults in my life have  become investigating officers who keep track of our lives.  It's like  "big brother" or should I say "big mother".

All the aunties in my life are suggesting, approving and disproving of my choices. "Arre you are a nice girl, you'll find a nice boy". Yes aunty. I know. I'm very nice. Thanks.  "Par beta, you are very headstrong about certain things, marriage means you have to be flexible." again, thanks aunty. I am sure that marriage is a synonym for adjustment. I love how all the aunties faces light up when I do the "Ha, aunty. Koi ladka toh dekho" because I've learned from my experience that there is no point in arguing with the aunties who constantly suggest the lovely men. "Ya, MNC company mei working. He passed from college in 2004. Now works for some American company. Very good boy, tall also. Father is this, mother is this... well settled also" Please note the MNC-Company reference.

There is no doubt that these aunties are thinking "mere acche ke liye hi" but I feel like reminding them that I'm not the same girl they knew from 10 years ago. I'm not even the same girl I was 5 years ago. But whatever it is, these aunties are fun! They have a very twisted sense of humour and man! I love when that comes out. Any girl who has been a part of a wedding ceremony has not escaped 3 things a)Arre, you're looking so nice. Pakka, You're next" and b) that sense of humour that the otherwise not so fun aunties bring out during weddings. Also, c)Koi ladka dekh liya hai kya?

My answers to the first and last question are a demented smile that don't answer or not answer the question. What I do enjoy is the humour part!  It's totally awesome. The way they will comment, talk, laugh, be snide. Oh! The comments. It's like these women lead a parallel lives at comedy circus. My otherwise sober aunt who is very composed and calm suddenly becomes the life of a wedding. and this is all new to me. I've always known my mother, my aunts and everyone else to be really really calm and not-fun. They were people who made me eat vegetables and drink milk. How can they be fun?  But now,  it's like I've been seeing them all wrong, enter my twenties, sudden transformation. I'm the un-fun one. I'm the boring one who sits in the corner and looks bored.

It's quite funny that my marriage has now become the centre for every discussion. Maggie made aloo ki subzi, oh! Shaadi ki umar. Maggi got up at 6 today, oh shaadi ki ummar.Everything I do is because of my shaadi ki umar. It's like everything I'm doing these days is to somehow make my potential husband happy. I like how selective retention works for the aunties and to my good luck. It is lol worthy that Aunties will not remember that I still hoard comic books or that I'm severely addicted to chocolates and things like that. If anyone does point it out, Phat se someone will say,  shaadi ke baad thik ho jayega. I would just like to tell them that those things are not really some kind of illness and my shaadi is not some magical antidote to my craziness, I'm still going to be the same book hoarding, batman loving, facebook crazy, lost writer, late sleeper, not so early riser I always was. :D

Girls Vs Boys and some more anti stereotyping blabber!

Well, yes my anger to stereotyping women and men is unimaginable... people have a passion, one of my passions is to defy these stereotypes. I hate to live upto the standards of the "son of the house", why cant I be the "daughter of the house?" specially since nobody in my house has a problem with it!

I am appalled in the brazen manner in which top professionals look at gender, to quote few statements

 "Women make better PR people than journalists"

"Women cant do marketing"

"Advertising is too challenging and time consuming for women"

"Women want money to buy makeup"

"Intelligent women can work in banks" (yes!)

Then ofcourse the ever present "shaadi ke baad yeh career choice kaise manage karoge?"

And then suddenly in all this mess I see a ray of hope, the propagators of these myths are somehow far off from me... (i.e not of importance). I read this small snippet on a teachers desk..

For every boy who is expected to know everything, there is a  girl who is tired of her intelligence being taken for granted.

For every boy who does not want to be influenced by advertisements, there is a girl tired of having her self esteem lowered

For every girl who is tired of appearing weak, there is a boy who is looking strong even when he is not.

For every girl who wants to throw out her ezee bake oven, there is a boy who wishes he found one.

These lines give me a different perspective, still anti stereotyping but that we  face these difficulties only because of the societal expectation from gender roles.  We are all uncomfortable with how the world wants us to be and yet find it important to comply to them.

Women are tired of liking pink and lavender, hate sports, love gossip and waste their time discussing 'something of less importance'. 

While I cannot comment on men because I would again base it on a stereotype (I do not endorse hypocrisy either). But based on what I have seen, I know men who like to cook, take care of how they look, love a different colour other than blue and have a hobby like classical dance or Hindustani music... Honestly, they are more of a man than anyone who says that men should be butch and careless, not endorse arts, should love the colour blue, should have more guy friends than women, who think grooming is 'gay', how men should not be interested in cooking and should obsess over sports (to that list are -should be perverts and real cheap?)  :P. Sorry but as ridiculous as they are, I have heard them, laughed at them and later come to the understanding that the people who said it, were infact serious. 

As women we enjoy our own jokes, being careless, love what (by atleast by a conventional standard) is called  intellectual.

But most of the times its just not about being either... It's just knowing yourself you could be a "manly woman" or a "feminine man" or neither. In my case it's about being Maggie. The person that I am is a result of my thought and ideas. I am not a product of what people believe I am or I should be.... Frankly speaking in our minds we are free creatures its only in expression that we fail to actually endorse the truth. I have been a victim of this, I have been asked to socialize where i feel alien. I have been asked to "be a girl" and in these contexts,i could not answer back (damn! family events where people I don't know come.)

However, My experience still tells me that if we simply let people be without judging them, they will find comfort in our company. If we tell them what they should do as people and not a a gender or sex they will be more willing and happy to oblige. Our gender roles have evolved over a period of time but have stagnated only recently, I am sure the amazonian women would laugh at the "womenliness" and definition of "feminine" we have now.

Let people be!