Much loved friends.

Suma tagged me on this long back, and I remember feeling so very tempted to get down to this tag immediately.
But having two bosses, (one is a sweetheart actually) who want two reports on 10 things every day for the last 3 months is not conducive to doing tags! So I had to wait for some breathing space.

Here goes, Suma...
The tag is to list your top ten literary characters. Oh, yummmmyyyyy.....!


Fatty! I loved ' that fat nuisance' as dear Mr. Goon thought of him. He was almost everything I wanted to be- a boy, smart, adored by his friends, liked by his friends' parents, with a cute dog who was his shadow, and excellent in his studies!Sigh! Enid Blyton sure knew to spin a tale, and how to keep a child hooked. Incidentally, I also loved George who was almost me, except that she was so much pluckier, Snubby (I think I loved Loony more), dear old Mamzelle, (what a pity I never had any such like teacher!)and Susie - that pest of a sister of Jack's. She certainly livened up the Secret Seven meetings.

Captain Haddock! The irascible Captain was a delight to read and see. Perpetually harassed by everybody and everything, I especially loved the pictorial representations. Life was a series of accidents where he was concerned. Tough for him, but delightful for his readers.

Jo! I found in her a mirror of myself. More boy than girl. Impetuous, hasty, strong-willed. Who found boys more fun to be friends with than girls. Who couldn't be bothered to 'dress up'. Who loved to write, and was so proud when one of her works got published. Who was the Man of the family in the absence of the father.Whose mother meant the world to her.

Maggie! I absolutely loved high-spirited, fiercely-loyal-to her-friends Maggie. Ah! The Mill on the Floss so effortlessly brought to life the joys and pains of growing up, and of having a sibling who you were very close to. I loved the way she was her father's pet (reminded me of me)and so wished I had a brother like Tom. She was mad enough to get Tom to cut her hair(!!) and jealous enough to push her cousin Lucy into the pond(!) and sweet enough to love a guy with a bad leg and woman enough to feel attracted to another very attractive man... oh, I loved Maggie!

Jennifer. Another woman I absolutely loved, is Jennifer. Sidney Sheldon's muse in Rage of Angels. Strong, smart, sassy and yet vulnerable, I liked her so much I wrote a review on the book a long while back. Read about it here.

Lord Emsworth! ah! that dreamy vague headed peer. Who lived in fear of his sisters. And in mortal fear of his efficient secretary. Who liked nothing better than to stay draped over the garden fence, admiring his pigs! Who is such a contrast to his brother Galahad. Who was such a trial to his sisters. And such a delight to his readers. I think all Wodehouse fans would join me in my liking for Lord Emsworth. I like him much better than Jeeves or Bertie, tho I like them all.

E.R. Braithwaite! I loved the book and I loved the man. Immensely humane, immensely vulnerable, immensely tolerant, immensely winsome. To Sir, with Love, is a novel that I absolutely relished. And it is one of the very few movies that has been made as well as it was written. Sidney Poitier brought to life beautifully the trials and tribulations of a black professsor. And that song was lovely......

Siva the God. Well, I grew up on a steady diet of ACK. Lots of mythology, to be exact. And among all the Gods, I loved Siva the most. All-powerful, yet simple. The one God who remained faithful to his wife, throughout. The Destroyer, and inspite of that, caring and loving. Who was willing to accept even meat from his devotees, provided it was given with devotion. Who came to the rescue of the faithful and saved them even from Yama. Well, I still love him, but somehow, these days, I no longer have an ishtadeivam. There are a whole family of them to whom I turn now.

Dennis the Menace! A menace alright to Mr. Wilson, but a delight to his readers. His antics are so so cute. So essentially slice-of-life cartoons. Tho" I dread to think of Sonny boy emulating him.

M. Poirot! Miss Marple!The famous egg-headed Belgian detective. Waxing moustaches was a passion with him , as much as solving crime and mysteries was. This gallant gent believed that a foot long clue was as important as a mm long clue, unlike Scotland Yard. Cleanliness was a fetish with him, and an unswept corner would be a major clue, leading to that vital breakthrough. Ah! If I had the grey cells of Porot, where would I be? Certainly not in my current profession...
But I still can hope to be a Miss Marple. ;-)That old lady whose deceptively gentle looks hid a razor sharp (wish wish)brain. That reasoned so nimbly that two and two could be 4, or 5 or even 22!! This indomitable lady shows why it is so important to listen to even gossip. I marvelled at the way these two 'detectives' figured out the real perpetrators of crime in the most hopelss, most tangled, most impossible-to-solve cases and remain hooked to them to this day.


Thanks, Suma, I absolutely loved doing this tag, tho' I did have trouble separating the characters from the authors. And now, I pass this on to anybody who loves to read.

Of Sonny boy's school friends.

Its been 4 months now that he's been going to his new school and he's been lovin it!

From his A ma'am,whose name he drops at the drop of a hat, to his V Ma'am whose name gets dropped less frequently; from his school uniform to his school shoes; from the school buses to the school play area; from kiddo X to kiddo Y who he was fascinated with, he's totally enjoying it all. But all these are things that I put together from whatever I manage to coax out of him in disjointed bits and pieces.
For my son still REFUSES to talk about this school and the happenings inside, just like he refused to do so about his previous school. And I don't even know the names of any of his friends, so that I can ask them what they're up to in school.

For instance- this girl Y who fascinated him ..
Every day he used to come home and let drop little snippets about 'Barbie girl'.
Who apparently sat next to him in the bus every day.
Who he said would call him every day to sit beside her ONLY.
Who he said he liked very much.
Achcha was mighty impressed at this fast work from his son.
And I too found it mighty cute and curious that he called her Barbie Girl inspite of never having had a Barbie. But ok, if he wanted to name his friend Barbie Girl, so be it. Until one day, I asked him who his best friend was, expecting the answer to be Barbie Girl!

Not so.
"Jumbobag!"
Huh??
"Who, Sonny boy?" I asked gently, not wanting to hurt his feelings that I thought his friend's name was a little out of this world.
"Jumbobag, Amma! you know.. Jumbobag!"

I didn't know, but I was going to be enlightened.

"I thought it was Barbie Girl, Sonny boy?" I probed, fearing a break-up THIS early.
"Yeah, but now she's not Barbie Girl anymore." Disinterestedly.
Aah! So it was not the little girl, it was my son who was so fickle.

"Sonny boy, why don't you like Barbie girl any more?"
"Because she bringing Redbag now!"
!!!!

So that dear readers are Sonny boy's friends. Barbie Girl, Jumbobag, Redbag, Ben10bag... All school bags of his friends. I wonder what he does when two kids have the same bag?? And when he'll finally let me know the names of his friends?