The Writings of Nicholas Sparks!

Nicholas Sparks, I think is the author version of Bollywood film director Yash Chopra, who basically defined romance in India. His books are all about everlasting, undying love, be it for a person, or for the idea of a person. The only difference is that all Nicholas Sparks books don't end with the much awaited 'happily ever-after' that the good old Yash Chopra films never fail to give us! Although his books don't always end with the boy and girl riding off into the sunset with each other (metaphorically, of course!), they always leave you with the hope that love like that exists. Love that exceeds boundaries and time but never ceases. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I love his books!
He fills you up with hope that boys, or shall I say, men like that truly exist. Faithful, loyal, brave, devoted, chivalrous and also incredibly good-looking! Some may say that I've basically described a dog. But aren't dogs one of the best partners to have? What's wrong with wanting all those qualities in a man too? I don't care if they think its degrading or the characters in the books are just plain boring! Maybe a tad bit unrealistic, yeah, but not boring! His books for me are an escape to a world of beautiful, kind people who are madly in love with each other, and who again and again prove to us that love can overcome any obstacle!
That's what Nicholas Sparks' writing represents to me. Guaranteed pleasure, and maybe a few tears thrown in! What's wrong with wanting to live in the world of fantasies a little longer? If anything, it prevents you from becoming disillusioned and cynical? And maybe, even a little happier than the rest of the world!

Facades..

Hello there! I've currently been re-reading 'The Lords of Discipline' by Pat Conroy about a military academy in Charleston, South Carolina. It depicts the lives of four young cadets at the academy. The initial hazing, the debates on war and most of all, the friendship. The friendship that can survive anything. And I realized that no matter how many times you read it, you never fail to laugh and to cry and, in my case at least, learn how to be a better person. It also show the facades maintained at so many levels in society. The hazing is an excuse for the cadets to work off their frustration, find an outlet for their perverted desires.
On a more positive note, he doesn't fail to show us the beauty, that manages to thrive, in spite of such adversity. Also the description of Charleston, South Carolina... my oh my! It sounds like paradise to me! Pat Conroy, through the narrator, Will McLean, described it perfectly. Here goes...

Charleston has a landscape that encourages intimacy and partisanship. I have heard it said that an inoculation to the sights and smells of the Carolina lowcountry is an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes, other alien geographies. You can be moved profoundly by other vistas, by other oceans, by soaring mountain ranges, but you can never be seduced. You can even forsake the lowcountry, renounce it for other climates, but you can never completely escape the sensuous, semitropical pull of Charleston and her marshes.” 

And one quote in particular stood out for me. I don't know why but it just did.

"Observers have described Charlestonians as vainglorious, obstinate, mercurial, verbose, xenophobic, and congenitally gracious. Most of all they elude facile description, but they do possess a municipal character that has a lot to do with two centuries of scriptural belief that they are simply superior to the other people of the earth. If you do not subscribe to this theory, or are even offended by it, well, it simply means you are not a Charlestonian."

What an accurate description of the people from one of the most beautiful parts of the world! The South has such a glorious and even tragic past... Charleston has an old world charm that has somehow been carried away by the wind. Although there is an ugly side to it, it is nice sometimes not to look beyond the facade of a modern day Utopia! The facade that hides the white supremacy. The facade that hides racism that is so prevalent.
The Irish are born storytellers... And the sad part is, that this book is actually telling us the truth. There isn't any sugar coating! None at all. The torture that the freshmen, or as they are called in military academies, plebes, go through? I think of it as a fate worse than death. It's brutal, sadistic, and completely unnecessary! And even sadder, the plebes who get tortured, the next year, they do it to their juniors! What kind of learning is that? It's meant to toughen you up, but honestly all I think it does is that it destroys the human instinct in a person to feel compassion and guilt at the hell that they are putting their fellow comrades... Maybe it works. Maybe it makes them tough enough to fight a war for their country. But is taking away their humanity okay? Is it okay for someone to feel good at seeing someone else's pain? Is that the kind of person these so-called honour-based schools that have the audacity to maintain the facade that they create "REAL MEN"? Where a student is expelled from school by borrowing some fuel from his friend's car? And not only that, he's made to walk out of school in front of everybody.. the so-called Walk of Shame, to degrade him, humiliate him, drive him to suicide because he feels he has committed an unforgivable sin? That is not okay! 
How can it be considered acceptable? They aren't being tortured just physically, but mentally also. What sets us apart from animals? The sheer fact that we have compassion, that we think first of others, then ourselves? Is that what this "Institute" is turning men into? Mere savage animals? All the while  keeping up the pretense one of the strongest men in the world. Strength isn't defined by brawn. It's defined by people who have the courage to face the truth .  The characters of Will McLean, Tradd St. Croix, Dante Pignetti and Mark Santoro, aren't just characters. They are living, breathing people. And their story is one you will never forget.

Scarlett O'Hara

I've just finished reading Gone With The Wind. And it is, hands down one of the best books I have read! Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most beautiful and real characters created. You hate her, you sympathise with her and finally, you fall in love with her! She is strong, but at the same time longs for someone to take care of her, to pamper her.. To do the same things she does for everyone! She starts off as an attractive young girl, used to the attention of boys, and loving it! Nothing matters to her more than getting a pretty ball gown, and a bonnet to go with it! She doesn't care for literature, or the war that is around the corner! And her infatuation with Ashley Wilkes! She just couldn't stand the fact that someone wasn't beguiled enough by her charms and was marrying someone far less attractive or interesting than she was! Out of spite, she marries his fiancee's brother just to rub it into his face! I like the fact that she isn't a saint. She's a real person with flaws. And that's what makes her all the more beautiful!
When widowed, she longs for the life she had before! She hated black and the fact that she couldn't dance or participate in the merriment. She was only a girl of sixteen, saddled with a child and a duty to mourn her husband. Of course she resented it! But she geared it with dignity, even though on the inside she was screaming. And what girl wouldn't jump at the offer to dance, when she hasn't been offered in the longest time? I don't think she even cared about who it was with, or the scandal that she was causing!
But behind that pretty, dainty face of hers, was hidden a woman of real steel. She was the only one who kept her family going through the hard times. She worked in the fields till she had calluses on her palms, she took care of her father after her mother passed away. She took care of her sisters, her son, Melanie and her son. She provided for them and she also killed to protect them. She always made sure there was food on the table. But the fact is that she longs to be the person she had been before. She longs to not have a care in the world! Although I don't condone the fact that she married her sister's beau without telling anyone, she did it to save Tara, the place she loved and also the place where her entire family was living. I love the fact that even during the time when all women were supposed to do was look pretty and stand beside their husband, she had the guts to run her own business and she was also a darn sight better at it than her second husband.
She may have had her flaws, but she would never ever allow anyone to mistreat the slaves. In fact, she was almost ready to whip the man who wasn't giving them enough to eat. In my opinion, her marriage to Rhett Butler was one of the best decisions she'd ever made, because, even she'd never admit it, he truly made her happy. And he was practically the only man who saw her for what she was. Not the pretty maiden, but a fiery, spirited young woman with so much courage and strength that she would put a man to shame! She shows so much strength when she has a miscarriage, and when her youngest daughter dies. She may be selfish, but that doesn't erase the fact that she is a true soldier. However bad things got, she always managed to pull everyone up, not for a moment did she give up. Not for a moment, did she put her head in her hands and say she couldn't do anything. That, if you ask me is true grit. She is truly one of my favourite storybook characters after Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Atticus Finch. This is a book that if one reads, one never forgets. Scarlett O'Hara is a person that you envy, love, admire and at times identify with. If you read the book, I'm sure you will love her too!

The Ugly Truth...

Hey! If you're reading this you're reading this, you've lived through doomsday! Sorry! Cliched, I know! Anyway merry Christmas! I know I haven't written in a long time, but I couldn't think of anything to write! Currently, me and my family, are watching the news like crazy people because of the rape case in Delhi. It is such an ugly thing to happen, but as much as I hate to admit it, not an uncommon occurrence in our country! Like my mom repeatedly says, all women in India have been through something unpleasant with men! I just can't believe the gall that most men have! I mean, how dare they think that it's okay to do something like this! And then try to blame it on the women! How is it ever the woman's fault? Is it her fault that she's a woman? Should she not work, wear the clothes she wants to, assert herself, become successful? It's not fair that men act as superior beings! We live in a democratic country, shouldn't all of us have equal rights? I mean our constitution looks great on paper, but when will we actually follow those principles? I was watching a show called 'We The People', where an actor Rahul Bose said that part of the reason this happens is because men  can't deal with the fact that now women are coming up in life, are getting ahead and it infuriates them! How will our country even develop socially, when men can't accept the fact that they have to be equal to women? How can anyone be proud of a country that can't protect it's women? It's a shameful thing and I hope that for once our government does something about this situation!

New years'!!

Hmm.. It's less than two weeks to doomsday and no one really seems to care anymore! Everyone is about their own business and planning for the next year! Me? I'm gonna be planning a farewell party for my seniors! And it just so happens that it falls on doomsday!! Ironic, right? That is also the day my sister comes home from college. I just finished my second semester and I'm now heading towards my finals... God! I wonder when I won't have exams?!?
Life is so fast these days! Before you know it the year has come and gone!! It was quite an eventful year for me! What with my board exams and my sister leaving! It's hard to believe that the new year is just around the corner! And my 17th birthday too! Although I'm not interested in celebrating, it still is a milestone! I'm a year away from driving and voting! It's also my first b'day without my sister! That's gonna be very odd!
I also don't have a habit of making resolutions because I rarely stick to it! As a matter if fact I don't think anyone does! But I guess it's tradition for people to make a promise to be different and better human beings in the new year! But according to me, people don't change, just their circumstances do!! I haven't decided what I'm going to do for new years' this time! Not that I do much anyway! I'll probably just end up having a sleepover with my friends! What about you?

Criticism

Criticism. I've been told about a million times that I can't take it! It is true or my mom and sister won't constantly tell me the same thing! It drives me completely mental! I hate being told my work isn't good enough or I have no sense of humour; that I can't laugh at myself... The list goes on and on! I know that I must learn how to take criticism because I want to be a journalist and a novelist and I'm going to face a ton of criticism before achieving any success. I have to learn how to take it in a positive way, to learn how to improve myself and be able to survive any hindrance and look at it as a stepping stone! But what to do? I have a terrible temper that I try so hard to control but to no avail! I know that it isn't an excuse and I should learn from my mistakes, its easier said than done! My mom hopes that I will one day grow out of it and this is just a side effect of me being a teenager. But I know that unless I work at it, I'm never going to change! I mean, who wants to deal with someone who loses her temper every two seconds? I'd honestly run in the opposite direction. No one will want to be friends with such a person. So, today I promise myself that I will become a better person. Cheesy, I know! But I'm me and I always will be!

Shakepeare!

You know who fascinates me? Shakespeare! I think he is the most brilliant man to have ever walked the earth! I know people think he is a complete pain in the butt, and is hard to understand, but actually his writing is very simple! By that I mean to say, what he conveys through his writing is pretty basic! Shakespeare didn't sugar-coat anything. He portrayed people the way they were! He was a man ahead of his times and wasn't afraid to show ugliness, hypocrisy and evil. Because people don't change. The circumstances do. We are currently covering Macbeth in school, and what Shakespeare tries to say through his characters is is so true. Sure, the language is complicated, but that's the way they spoke! Macbeth represents ambition, greed, envy, weakness. He tries to say that his wife coaxed him into murdering his king, but in the end it was his fault! If he truly didn't want to kill King Duncan to seize the throne, he wouldn't have gone ahead with it. Eventually it was his ambition that brought his downfall, not his wife. His wife is, if possible, even more ambitious than Macbeth. And obviously the stronger of the two. She advises him every step of the way and doesn't feel indecision for a second.
That's another thing I love about Shakespeare. He didn't make his women the cliches, the most of the other playwrights did. You know, the weak damsels-in-distress, always needing someone to take care of them. All of them were strong and had a voice and weren't afraid to express themselves. Thye weren't just ladies sitting pretty. They had backbones! Be it Rosalind in As You Like It, Lady Macbeth in 'Macbeth', Cleopatra in 'Antony and Cleopatra' and list goes on and on!
I could talk about Shakespeare all day long, but I'd probably bore you to death! So I'm signing off, till next time!