The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

I had started The Namesake on sunday but did not really get very far. The book seems real good. The first 30 pages are enough for her to pass on that feeling of distance from one's home. Kind of made me feel homesick..

That apart...it is really amazing when someone tries and expresses something that is so much a part of your life that you have never thought of expressing it in any other language. Read this... the very first line of the book..

"On a sticky august evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima ganguli stands in the kitchen of a Central Square Appartment, combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl. She adds salt, lemon juice, thin slices of green chill pepper, wishing there were mustard oil to pour into the mix."

:) Those from my side of the world know what she is talking about. Made me feel like calling up home and ask for it. Enjoyed so many evenings sitting in the balcony of my study staring at the airfield. So many fond rememberances of watching the rain come out and reach up to you (yes my house has such a location where u can see straight upto 3kms of open fields). So many hot discussions on the puri beach with this simple delicacy so commonly available back home. That reminds me what she has forgot is scrapped/sliced coconut. That completes the recipe .... Waahh...mouth watering really..

Now one of my friend had commented that JL has too much of bengal in her books. Having read so much of books by foreign authors, we have kind of drunk deep into the descriptions of their mundane lives which seem exotic to us here. But there are enough of exotic stuff within india itself. So no doubt my friend from chennai finds bengal exotic.

Kind of started feeling this liking for stories based in India after I read Shantaram. else i guess...the only stories with indian settings for me used to be those of R K Laxman and then came Chetan bhagat and in the enthu I even picked up a book called "A bend in the river sarayu"( I think i have blogged it somewhere).

Whatever lets see how Namesake turns out to be...I have already lined up The Kite runner after this. Need to cut down time on the net i guess....