this sunday was a rare one...after ages i finally sat down with a book...not to take on anything else till done with the first one...i realized that work and all the other trivialities of a mundane routine have pretty much managed to deprive me of the pure simple joy of reading a good book at length..i am not the sort who can sit in one spot all day and do nothing but read a book..regardless of how captivating or interesting it is...the more i like a book...the more i want to savour it..i need to take pauses between paragraphs, pages and chapters to create my own parallel stories...to chisel my own characters and to complement every climax with an antithesis or vice versa..i need to sit back and contemplate cause and effect...possible or imposed consequence...existent or imagined symbolism.

the book i finally got down to reading this sunday was kartography (by kamila shamsie) . . lately i have been obsessed with hesse, kafka and camus . . i picked up shamsie to change the literary mood . . or may be find refuge from existentialist despair . . it sure gives you a power rush when you start out . . but at times all that's left behind is too few choices and too much uncertainty.

back to shamsie. . .it's a must read. .i hate book descriptions for they ruin the suspense and beauty of a story unravelling all by itself.

there are tiny bits that have stuck to my mind

'the thin line between remembering and reawakening old love '

'when thoughts are left on their own they mutate'

'your moods are contagious, i smile when you smile, i cry when you cry'

and many more that i can vaguely recall but refuse to butcher for i won't be able to do justice . . my memory is selective and moody.