The Alwaye house

I find myself unable to concentrate, watching the news wondering when some camera for some news agency will show me my grand aunt's home in Kerala, and how high the flood waters reached there.

I am in the U.S. We do not stay in touch on Whatsapp. I know they evacuated early because she needs oxygen 16 hours a day. They have an aging German shepherd. What became of him I wonder. In the living room there used to be cassettes of Hindi movie soundtracks from the 90s. My uncle remains a devoted fan of Raveena Tandon. I loved taking a different tape up each night, when we visited, and listening to them while lying on the raised, spare bed, with the windows open. I have an almost paralyzing fear of spiders, and every bathroom in this house had at least one. I suppose they got washed away in the flood.

In the space below the stairs my grand aunt had a little puja room- she would do some hocus pocus things with incense every evening. It never took long and the house always smelt nice afterwards. No one else in the house participated, or was ever required to.

As a child the drive way held the greatest fascination. It was filled with smooth little stones, which must have been brought in from some river bed somewhere. I spent ages selecting the smoothest and prettiest stones, as on every trip I was allowed to take a few back with me to Bangalore. The residents of the house wouldn't have minded letting me go with handfuls, but my grandmother knew I couldn't resist collecting stones, and that if allowed I would have been incredibly greedy.

Jyothi chechi's fridge was the second most exciting thing. She stored her nail polish in the door, and I was allowed to examine all the colours. More often than not there was a strand of jasmine flowers, woven together for the hair, sitting about getting disgusting, as the person it was intended for forgot it and moved on with life. The smell of fridge-aged jasmine will always take me back to being six again. Also they had a Sodastream. This was a big thing in the 90s. No one I knew in Bangalore had that. And there was always Orange crush. 

I am sad that the place of my best childhood memories is gone. Even if the house is structurally sound after the last week, it will need extensive repairs, and will lose its lovely, shabby cosiness.

I hope my grand aunt will be ok.

Sometimes I wonder if I am losing myself.I have not cooked sambar in almost a year.

Bad life decisions

stayed up late to watch An Officer and a Gentleman.
Yea.
I don't know why either.
It was terrible, and I regret everything.

Week 5

29 January - 4 February

Viewing
Turner and Hooch. Which was surprisingly fun. Also a good section of the movie has Tom Hanks slithering around in extremely abbreviated underwear. I approved. Also while I watched the movie Higgs watched me. And I have some great photos.

Nobel. This I enjoyed, though it could have been much better.

Party Down. Now why haven't I seen this before. Never mind. It is delightful now. Lizzy Caplan forever.

Reading
Nothing of note. Need to do better next week.

Week 4: January 23- 28

Viewing
1. Schindler's List
Watched this in many parts. Found the end rather cloying. But Ben Kingsley was wonderful. And the music was lovely. 

2. Suite Française
I enjoyed this very much. The movie does justice to the book I think. Must go watch everything with Michelle Williams. 

3. Loins of Punjab Presents
For the fourth time, and Tanya's first time. This is still one of the funniest things, and I love it so much. 

4. Playing for Time
 Hmm. I don't know about plays that get turned into movies, but Vanessa Redgrave was excellent.

5. Turner and Hooch
I enjoyed this very much. Also Higgs watched me almost the whole time that I watched it, so I have several excellent photos. Also Tom Hanks does a lot of leaping about in his underwear, on account of which I highly recommend this movie.

Reading
1. Cat King of Havana- Tom Crosshill
A sent me this for my kindle and I loved it. I started a series of salsa lessons last week, and had no idea this book was all about learning salsa when I started it. What fun. And such a great primer on how young people can learn to talk about places and things that they do not understand. Shall look for more things by this author. 

Week 3

January 16-22

Viewing
1. The Godfather II
Thank you Netflix.

2. The Godfather III
I didn't think Sofia Coppola was terrible. Does that mean I have bad taste? Also the pasta scene was far too sexy for an encounter between first cousins, but I guess that was the point. I may or may not have watched that more than once.

3. Spotlight
Well worth the watch. Also topical.

4. Alias Grace
I watched this and realised how little of the tv I usually watch has women narrating themselves, and narrating almost without end. I loved it. Also I enjoy an unreliable narrator very much, when there isn't Inception-style dickery.
Also contrast this murder-mystery with the sexism of at least half the European stuff on Netflix. It is possible to write a sexy murder mystery while talking reasonably about women and their bodies. I suppose Atwood would be the object lesson in this.
And the menacing quilt-making was lovely. I nearly took out my long-abandoned embroidery project.
Some Canadian tv shows are so incredibly boring. And others, maybe it's only the period ones, like this one, and Anne with an E, are delightful.

5. Aiyyaa
I'm surprised this got made but it was delightful. How nice to see a woman get exactly what she wants.

Reading
1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness- Arundhati Roy
I need to be able to speak more Urdu. This was lovely. I suspect many people found the sections on Kashmir to be too long drawn out, but I thought it was perfect. Also there is always a cement kangaroo dustbin in a Roy book.

Week 2

Jan 8-15

Viewing
1. La Trêve- The Break.
This had promise for a while but women are hysterical in the end. This is not a spoiler. It is a feature of a lot of French-language viewing.

2. The Dark (Minimal spoilers below- nothing that you won't cover by episode 3)
Admittedly I only sat through the whole season because of the music, and because I was playing bridge while doing so. I cannot say I enjoyed this much. It was like Stranger Things but without any joy, or historical context- no interest in the post-war context of 1953, or Germany of the 80's. Also women don't get to go through the wormhole and try to fix things- the boys get the adventure, and agency. Women get angry and hit people out of turn, lie and sabotage things, or withdraw emotionally, by and large, I imagine this is because the men in town are dicks, and about half of them have this massive time-traveling secret which they aren't sharing.

3. Strictly Ballroom
Goofy Australian fun. Interesting for Spaniards to be the impoverished immigrants. I guess that was the 90's.

4. The Godfather
Went to see this on the big screen, and was happy I did. Had not watched it in one go from beginning to end before. Had forgotten the horrible domestic violence, plate-breaking scene. Also spent the whole movie thinking 'that Dustin Hoffman looks a bit odd'.

5. Salsa shine videos- too many to count.

Week 1

Week 1
Jan 1-7

Viewing
1. La Mante (predictable but acceptable)
2. Some episodes of Dr WHO season 10 (Not terrible)
3. High Road to China  (Sexist, racist, shouty garbage but there are planes and Tom Selleck in a leather jacket)
4. Glacé (also predictable, less acceptable)

Reading
1. Association of Small Bombs
I would read Karan Mahajan's next book. The book made me miss Delhi.