Gestern abend bin ich mit meine Freundinen zum Rathaus gefahren.
You know when you start learning a foreign language they teach you how to say some of the basic places in a city that you might go to like "city centre", "theatre", etc. Well when I started learning German, Rathaus was one of them. It means Town Hall and although I often inserted it in those sentences where you have to talk about where you went when you went to town, I can now say it and it wouldn't be a lie.
Bombay has a Town Hall. And I went there yesterday evening for the book launch of Arundhati Roy's Listening to Grasshoppers.
An evening spent with friends on the edge of my seat listening to Roy who spoke so eloquently with a voice that you want to listen to all night long on issues ranging from Kashmir, Climate Change, Narmada, displacement of tribals, terrorism, etc. to the first sentence she ever wrote (which is hilarious) and her night spent in jail...
I came away ashamed and enlightened. Ashamed because I haven't actually read The God of Small Things yet and also because I know so little about so many things in general. I read a lot but I realised that it's not near enough. There are so many things that I have no idea about, that I ought to know about my own country. Things that might not directly affect me but that's no excuse for ignorance.
And enlightened because I learnt so much and I had to put on my critical thinking cap and you just gotta love an author who can make you think. Widen your horizons. Don't just accept everything at face-value. Question. Test everything, hold on to the good. That sort of thing...
Ahhh! This is definitely going in the "Best of 2009" list :)
3 comments:
take the worst of Othello's sinful jealousy, multiply by 10...and you'll know what i'm feeling right now lol. what was the first sentence she ever wrote?? god, how i wish i lived in India... xxx
@Shaon: Yeah, I thought of you the whole time! Knew you'd be jealous. It was just fabulous, Shaon. What a brilliant woman!
About her first sentence, well apparently back in Kerala she had this mean missionary teacher (I can't remember her name, let's call her Miss X)who used to tell her "I can see Satan in your eyes" so her Roy's first sentence was "I hate Miss X and I think her knickers are torn."
:D
Real happy for your experiences while away from home!! and certainly a bit j for missing this one!! Love you lots.
P.S. Bombay is now "Mumbai" according to the goons brigade??
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