SlishaCrazy

Over the last few years, I have struggled to write, and to keep up my blog. I kept blaming how life took over and that I find no time for myself. And then I had a few weeks to myself and I most certainly had a lot of time on my hands and yet I chose to do origami than write. That is when I realised, it was because I had forgotten the joy of writing. I saw a snapshot of a publication of someone I know, who like me fancied oneself as a writer. That snapshot seemed to be snippet of terrible writing, in my opinion, and it felt like it was a reflection of my own view of myself where I am probably propped up by a select few creating an echo-bubble that praised my writing, but in reality, I am probably a terrible writer. (Update: I feel I should explain a little here. That piece of writing from someone I know isn't objectively terrible. It's obviously good enough to be published. But the style is very different from what that writer projected it to be, which has been endorsed by a

Recently, I've been trying to read books, a few books that I haven't been able to finish. I started Sapiens which I found extremely interesting but lost interest when the book started discussing empires. I started the Great Indian Novel which I continue to read but need to wiki a lot in between. I started Trinity by Leon Uris which is a phenomenal book but it is a slow read and needs to be absorbed in parts. Just to feel good about myself, I wanted to read a page-turner, a pot-boiler, a masala book. I turned to The Luckiest Girl Alive. I came upon it after watching Big Little Lies. Reese Witherspoon picked up three books to turn into movies/series. The first was Gone Girl, the second was Big Little Lies and the third that she is currently working on is this book. I thought, for once let me get ahead of the movie version. The story is about TifAni Fanelli, a small time middle class girl who is trying to transform herself into Ani Harrison, the socialite magazine columnist/ tro

Tokyo is a mishmash of a number of things. It's pretty with lovely gardens. It's busy at all its train stations. It's futuristic with its neon displays and technology. It's weird with its maid cafes and love hotels. It's cute with its pop and cosplay cult. It's warm with people willing to help you even if they have no idea what you are talking about. It's a bit hard to decide whether I like it or not. Most people I know find it very impressive and overwhelming. For some reason, I found it slightly underwhelming. Dare I say this to anyone because you are expected to fall in love with Tokyo almost immediately. May be my expectations were clouded by people who visited many years ago. Tokyo apparently hasn't changed much in the last decade or so. I can imagine visiting it 10 years ago when I would be blown out of my mind by the technology or the subculture. But now, the world is fast catching up. Or may be I just kept upping my expectations of the the

From Kyoto, we wanted to visit the Japanese Alps in Gifu prefecture. We had booked accommodation for one night in Takayama and the next in Matsumoto using them as connectors. Now, the fastest way to get to Takayama using JR pass was to take a Shinkansen half way and a JR rail for the rest, reaching in 2.5 hours (timed correctly). Instead we opted for the longer, more scenic bus route. After all, the fun is in the journey and not the destination. And another similar way of travelling to Matsumoto. Itinerary details: Kyoto -- (train) --> Kanazawa -- (bus) --> Shirakawago -- (bus) --> Takayama (night stay) -- (bus) --> Shinhotaka Ropeway -- (bus) -- Hirayu Onsen (change) -- (bus) --> Kamikochi -- (bus) --> Matsumoto (night stay) -- (train) --> Kofu (change) -- (bus) --> Kawaguchiko for Mt Fuji -- (bus) -- Ostuki (change) -- (train) --> Tokyo Having visited so many places in the 3 days, we only saw the highlights in each of these places. In Kanazawa, we

Kyoto at first seems like a beautiful cute little town. It's actually a sprawling city. But for tourists that cute little town is all that we need. It sits snugly in the valley between many hills. Kyoto is super easy for tourists to navigate as long as you can read and write English. Many restaurants would have menus in many other languages as well. Many tourists rent kimonos and samurai clothes and walk around the city dressed in the gear to make for some nice pictures. For the rest of us, these tourists provide an atmosphere of tradition. The city has an insane number of temples and some shrines and one really needs to decide which ones to visit, otherwise you'll just be lost. We were in Kyoto for three full days and were not very productive on our first day because of jetlag and continuous rain. Just a bit of background: Shrines are temples of the Shinto religion which is the traditional religion before Buddhism came into Japan. Japan saw phases of acceptance of B

So many people have so many stories about Japan that we were so excited to go there! Especially, because we were going to a traditional Japanese reception of our dear friend's wedding. When we started to plan our itinerary, we had no idea what we wanted to see. It took us a while just to orient ourselves to the culture and geography of the country. Planning can be daunting so I thought I should begin with some basic information that could be useful to another traveller. Here I also have our itinerary as well as alternatives that some of our friends who were there for the reception planned. Generic pic to bright up the blog (and really, I took it on my phone): Travel essentials: Pocket WiFi: the concept is pretty good. It's a WiFi router you can take with you (like JioFi in India) and it doubles as a power bank. You can rent it at the airport when you arrive and return when you leave. We didn't take one because our Airbnbs had one we could use, apart from the

Iceland reminds us that nature is magnificently fascinating! This blogpost, I shall be writing as I experience it rather than after the trip because I realise that sometimes we need to capture our immediate responses to nature. (After writing the entire blogpost, now I have a word to describe Iceland - otherworldly.) I always thought of chasing the sun westwards. For example, my London to Seattle flight would only seem 2 hours long due to timezones, or my Amsterdam to London flight may even travel a few mins back in time. But I never even considered that it is possible to chase the sun northwards. Our flight took off around 9.30pm. Ordinarily, my tropical childhood would suggest that 9.30pm is night. But in June, in London, the sun was nearing the horizon with a 30min journey left before darkness descends. It had taken me a few summers to adjust to that. Our flight continued to chase this setting sun, not allowing it to touch the horizon. We landed in Iceland at 11pm (midnight in

The title is not in reference to the travel card called Hola Barcelona which gives you unlimited public transport travel for a set time period. You might find that useful if you are travelling alone. If you are more than one, you might benefit from buying a 10 metro tickets set that makes it cheaper per ticket as well as that the tickets can be shared by multiple people or consider cabbing it as taxis are reasonably cheap.  I digress.  We spent a weekend in Barcelona. By that I mean, we flew in on Saturday morning and flew out Sunday night. We missed our outbound flight in the early morning by probably 90 seconds. We looked at the departures board for the next flight, and bought tickets online. But we couldn't check in online as it is too close to the departure so we needed to go back to the check-in counter. Exiting the security area at London Luton airport turned out to be a huge hassle. In case you ever need to know, you need to go to Gate 6 which is far from the departur

Homegoing is the history of the tribes of Asante and Fante, spanning centuries and continents, through the stories of the members of one lineage. Maame, taken as a prisoner of war in a Fante village, delivers Effia and escapes the same day leaving her newborn. Back in her Asante village, she gives birth to Esi. The novel follows the two women's progenies as the political and social background transforms. For a debutant author, to cover an entire history of a people is a tremendous task. To make it simpler, Yaa Gyasi broke down the stories into a number of chapters, one for each character that showcases a generation of each women's progeny. Through these characters, the author shows us how the slave trade of the prisoners of war between the two tribes, eventually led to slave trade with the British and then ultimately their subjugation by the British. One chapter showcases the introduction of the cacao crop, and another the slavery in plantations in Americas. Soon we mov

I watched The Network at the National Theatre and give it a 2/5 rating. I give Bryan Cranston a 4/5. I deduct 2 points for poor direction that did not use the actor in a better manner, for costumes/sets that were too modem to worry about television and the overdone plot with little meat in that it barely holds together it's elements. Let me start by reiterating the brilliant acting from Bryan Cranston. He was perfect as a middle-aged man with a monotonous life reading the news in the blandest way possible, even when the news is not so bland. He was perfect in his frustration with the mundane when he decides to end it. He was also perfect in his feverish madness as the messiah of truth. He was however repetitive and lacked any other dimension to his personality which is where I believe the director falls short. Also, I couldn't help but wonder if Rory Kinnear might have done a better job. The sets and costumes did not have anything inherently wrong with them but they just di

I watched the play Oslo at Harold Pinter and give it a 3/5 rating. May be the expectations from all the Tony awards and the publicity set it up to fail for me. The female lead of Mona Juul played by Lydia Leonard was bland with a very "calming" voice and an "earnest" face that get annoying very quickly. The male lead was just about average. The play itself was far too long. Abu Ala of Palestine played by Peter Polycarpou and Uri of Israel played by Philip Arditti stand out, performed by a Greek-Cypriot and a Turkish-Jewish respectively. Nabil Elhouahabi played perfectly the hot-blooded Communist, Hassan. It was indeed historic that I should watch the play based on the Oslo peace process laying the foundation between Israel and Palestine on the day after Trump decides to move the US Embassy of Israel to Jerusalem. The story was a bit drawn out and sometimes at the cost of losing focus. For example when Abu Ala and Uri really connect at a human level, they show us