BOOKED

As usual.... I'm very poor at keeping my promise... just like new year's resolutions ...before the first month is out I break every one of them....

I promised to reread AlQuran translation and finish the “Travel of Ibn Jubayr” (trans from Arabic by Roland Broadhurst)...that was on the first of Ramadhan...now it's half way gone and I've not even started any of these yet...the blame this time goes to "Life of Pi" the 2002 Booker prize winner by Yann Martel....

The moment I read the first few pages I got hooked.... the improbable adventure of 16 yr old tamil boy from Pondicherri Piscine Molitor Patel aka 'Pissing Patel' or as he wanted to be called Pi as in 3.014 who professed to three religions (Islam, christianity & hinduism) , ship wrecked in the middle of pacific ocean and bopping on a lifeboat with a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, an Orang utan and finally alone with a ferocious bengal tiger for company is simply irresistible...may be it is not so inappropriate to read this novel in this holy month as the first part of the book is quite introspective and how he came to be muslim christian hindu is downright hilarious....

...and now that I've finished reading this novel i can get back to my original resolution right?...wrong...... for the past few days I 've been reading another travel book "Trans Siberia:Inside the grey area " by Paddy Linehan and the first 20 pages or so of a biography of Artatuk. (Ataturk by Patrick Kinross)....Trans siberia- a travel by trans siberian train which I actually took in Feb this year (Moscow -Beijing) - is not a terribly good book but the subject matter is very interesting whilst Artatuk is a very good book but about a man I despise...

Looks like my original intention is going to fail...but there's another 15 days to go before Ramadhan is gone and i still have time to keep my promise....it's hard but I'll try. It's said that satan is kept on a a leash in this holy month but seems like mine is tied on a very long rope.....