From the Many

Here are a few paragraphs from books i have been reading and loved much over the past two months. lines that have made me think and analyse and be all bowled over and some that i have connected with.

1. The Alchemy of Desire: Tarun Tejpal

"In those years we discovered and did things with each other we had never read or heard of. we kept stripping each other of all the shames that had been draped on us over the years. beneath the shames we found an innocence of response we could have barely imagined. A rare joyousness that took away nothing from anyone and only gave. I discovered to make the earth move you need not just the nakedness of body but also a nakedness of soul.
when lovers bare their bodies they have sex
when lovers bare their souls they taste godhead.

Each time i lay naked on Fizz i was aware we were naked in both body and soul.
we were also chronic adventurers.
we went to place where we felt-like all lovers-that we were the first.
we discovered the body of a lover has secrets that never end.
we discovered that at different times the same secrets reveal different truths.

i ranged over the crevices and folds of Fizz's body and was continually enchanted.
sometimes the intensity was so great we would visibly begin to tremble before the first touch. we were like mine defusers,keyed up at what might happen in the first moment of contact. I would be hard,straining,wanting and postponing the moment. she would be flushed,her lips shivering.And then we would touch, and always there was the explosion, as we became both raw and sublime,animal and angel,flesh and light.Fizz and me.

sometimes the pleasure was so excruciating i wanted to bite a chunk of her body and chew on it.At other times i just wanted to let out a wail that would fill the heavens.

I knew then that nothing two people in love did with each other is ever wrong.
I knew then that noone- no law,no parent,no friend-has any jurisdiction in the land of lovers.
I knew then that those who have truly loved know that the key to the universe lies in the body of the lover.
I had the key and i unlocked the universe every day"

I have absolutely loved this book,no one i have read has written about sex so beautifully and still had a story to say.
and this woman's character fizz continues to go around in my head.

2. The Beggar Maid: Alice Munro

"Even so, even if that were true what would happen someday,some morning?some morning she could wake up and she would know by his breathing that he was awake beside her and not touching her,and that she was not supposed to touch him. so much female touching is asking,women's tenderness is greedy,their sensuality is dishonest. she would lie there wishing she had some plain defect,something her shame could curl around and protect. As it was,she would have to be ashamed of, burdened by, the whole physical fact of herself.Her flesh would seem disastrous,thick and porous,gray and spotty.
His body would not be in question,it never would be;he would be the one who condemned and forgave and how could she know if he would forgive her again?
come here he could tell her or go away.
Never since Patrick had she been the free person,the one with that power,maybe she had used it all up,all that was coming to her"

Her books have a little too much feminism and all the power play equations for my taste but still her stories are amazing. things that she writes makes you think hey i have thought that before.And this book got shortlisted for the booker.

3.The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

"I thought of crawling in between the bed sheets and trying to sleep but that appealed to me about as much as stuffing a dirty,scrawled over letter into a fresh clean envelope. I decided to take a hot bath.
There must be quite a few things that a hot bath wont cure but i dont know many of them. Whenever i am sad i am going to die or so nervous i cant sleep ir in love with somebody i wont be seeing for a week i slump down just so far and then i say: Il go take a hot bath.
I meditate in the bath.The water needs to be very hot,so hot you can barely stand putting your feet in it. Then you lower yourself,inch by inch,till the water is up to your neck.

I remember the ceilings of every bathtub i have stretched out in,i remember the texture of the ceilings and the cracks and the colors and the damp spots and the light fixtures. I remember the tubs too, the antique griffin legged tubs, the modern coffin shaped ones and the fancy pink marble ones and i remember the shapes and sizes of the water taps and the different sorts of soap holders.
I never feel so myself as when i am in a hot bath.
The longer i lay there in the clear hot water the purer i felt and when i stepped out last and wrapped myself in one of the big soft white hotel bath towels i felt pure and sweet as a new baby"

Again loved the book,not quite as depressing as i thought. actually i read it way back but i wanted a copy and thus i ended up reading it again.
and this para is here cos i have thought the exact same things.

4. Steppenwolf- Herman Hesse

" As every strength may become a weakness so on the contrary, may the typical suicide find a srength and support in his apparent weakness. Indeed, he does so more often than not.
The case of Harry,the steppenwolf,is one of these. As thousands of his like do,he found a consolation and support and not merely the melancholy play of youthful fancy,in the idea that the way to death was open to him at any moment.It is true that with him,as with all men of his kind,every shock,every pain every untoward predicament at once called forth the wish to find an escape in death. By degrees however he fashioned for himself out of his tendency a philosophy that was actually serviceable to life. He gained strength through familiarity with the thought that the emergency exit always stood open and became curios too to taste his suffering to the bitter end.
If it went too badly with he could feel sometimes with a grim malicious pleasure "I am curious to see all the same just how much a man can endure.If the limit of what is bearable is reached,I have only to open the door to escape"
There are a great many suicides to whom this thought imparts an uncommon strength"

A slightly hard read but once i got in there was no way out than the whole way in. ok that made no sense. but you know!
After reading Siddhartha i got hold of this one and loved it. The last line is totally an old me. now of course i have solved all my issues with suicide and only worry about impending death in many other forms.
joke.

5. Zorba the Greek: Nikos Kazantzakis

"When i have a longing for something myself' he said,'do you know what i do? i cram myself chockful of it and so i get rid of it and dont think about it any longer.Or if i do,it makes me retch. Once when i was a kid-this'll show you-i was mad on cherries.I had no money and so i couldnt buy many at a time and when i had eaten all i could buy u still wanted more. Day and night i thought of nothing but cherries. I foamed at the mouth,it was torture! But one day i got mad or ashamed i dont know which.Anyway,i felt the cherries were doing what they liked with me and it was ludicrous. so what did i do?
i got up one night and found a silver mejidie and pinched it. I was up early the next morning went to the market and bought a basket of cherries. I settled down in a ditch and began eating. I stuffed and stuffed till i was all swolled out.My stomach began to ache and i was sick. Yes,boss i was thoroughly sick and from that day to this i have never wanted a cherry. I couldnt bear the sight of them. I was saved. I could say to any cherry,I dont need you anymore. and i did the same thing later with wine and tobacco. I still drink and smoke but any second if i want to,whoop! I can cut it out. Im not ruled by passion.Its the same with my country.I thought too much about it,so i stuffed myself up to the neck with it and its never trouble me since'

'what about women?' I asked
'their turn will come, damn them! It'll come.when i am about seventy'
He thought for a moment and it seemed too imminent.
'Eighty" he said correcting himself' "

Yeah and if only everything was that easy, i have quit things too. well only one thing,smoking and i did the hard way. i am sure stuffing me with ciggarattes would have gotten me no where.
and so it is with red meat too. I am going easy on it and i see the end of the red meat tunnel but its a long way.
but love the book. Humor now and then and apparently the movie is a must watch.
not seen yet. so that is the few books,to be updated later in time.