For a start...

After a self-imposed exile of almost 4 years, I am back on blogger sphere, determined to pursue my love of writing that has taken a back seat to so many other things in my life. Not that I'm prompted by a need to share with other (likely?) readers on the Net. Nor has my life taken on proportions of the epic or spectacular that I should shout it out. Unlikely so. In fact, if anything, it is as mundane as it gets. So, I will write about the everyday in my life - the insignificant, the trivial, the uneventful, the boring... and then some.

On the upside, I have time on my hands - to do exactly as I pleased when I am out of work (translating/editing). Which on some days may manifest into something creative, like painting, writing poems or moving and rearranging furniture; and sometimes, something useful and practical like cooking and cleaning. If nothing else beckons, there is always reading. Give me a book any time!

Like the one I picked up yesterday in Kinokuniya KLCC which wasn't by accident actually. I have a list of 'books to buy' on my Iphone Notes and this was one of them. I can't remember now how it came to be, but there it was. I have a knack of doing Lists/Notes that run the gamut from 'Boutiques/Stores/Places/Hotels to Visit',  'Things to buy/Check out', to 'Words/Phrases' that pique my interest whenever I come across them in magazines, newspapers or TV. The Customer Service girl was nice enough to get it for me from somewhere in the store after my initial disappointment of being told that the first book I asked for was 'out-of-stock'. Mind you, they don't always GET it for you; on many other occasions, I was merely given a piece of paper with the location of the shelf on which you could find the book. Which doesn't always work out. You find the shelf easily enough but not the book in question. Having been a librarian, I know only too well how books can go missing from its designated place on the shelf!

Looking at the book in hand, I think it must have been the title that attracted me - "Behind the beautiful forevers". Doesn't that stir up your imagination? It did mine - enough to buy the book which for RM49.90 and a paperback was not cheap. The cover also says 'Life, death and hope in a Mumbai slum'. Hmmm... India can't be the only country with slums; but somehow the Mumbai slums seem to provide endless fodder for writers, fiction and non-fiction alike. This is Katherine Boo's first book, and judging by the reviews on the back cover will certainly not be her last. So this, hopefully, will take  care of my time for the next couple of days. Or hours, at least.