Friday, February 11, 2011

Of this and that...

Haven't been able to blog in a while. We've been having some tight deadlines at work and after a long strenuous day I didn't really feel like looking at a computer screen all over again!

Some friends were discussing our favorite childhood reading treasures. I have always been a fan of Enid Blyton and I think my best book was "The Valley of Adventure". Summer holidays meant reading "Phantom" comics - anyone remember the purple tights and mask? Devil? Hero? the infamous skull cave and the famous "good" and "bad" rings? A kindly neighbor S used to lend me his set of comics year after year without fail. Wonder if he still has them.

They made a movie way back in 1996 starring Billy Zane and Catherine Zeta-Jones - but that was a miserable flop. I vaguely remember only appreciating the secret entrance through the waterfall as being the only thing they got right.

Also remember reading "Mandrake the Magician" - and the newspaper used to carry a comic strip called "Modesty Blaise" - that we weren't really supposed to read. Nilanjana has written an excellent piece on Modesty in her post.

Used to read a quaint book called "Granny's Wonderful Chair" and another one called "The Cuckoo Clock". A wonderful collection of "Gypsy Folk Tales" - these alone merit a separate blog post.

Talking about S - his father was a renown musician - and that got us discussing veena. I used to play the veena eons ago - but when I started travelling I couldn't cart it around and that was the end of my playing.

I love this song (couldn't find it on Youtube) - it kinda sounds like fusion music doesn't it?



(This site will take you to Music India Online - and that song is from Chitti Babu's
Tribute Volume 2 - song Sara Sara Samraika Soora)

4 comments:

  1. Wondered why you had been quiet for so long! :) I think I liked Enid Blyton's "real" stories best - Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm, Six Cousins Again, The Family at Red-Roofs. I read The Phantom and Mandrake and of course Modesty Blaise too (and even at that age I remember thinking "Modesty? She should be called IMmodesty") :D

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  2. Shammi - LOL - Like that pun!

    Yes - I do recollect the Six Cousins - will try get a hold of these books.

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  3. I love Enid Blyton. Somehow, the fantasy series had me wrapped. Even now, when I read Magic Faraway Tree adventures or Wishing Chair adventures to my daughter, I can't help whistling back in time to that wondrous life of her books and imagination.

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  4. Saumya - Yep. Loved all those lands on top of the tree and Saucepan Man's peculiar songs!

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