'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again'

This famous opening line is from the novel Rebecca which is a romantic mystery by Daphne Du Maurier. To be frank , the initial few pages didnot appeal to me as much because of the sheer luxurious, richly detailed description by the unnamed narrator. She was describing Manderley with utmost passion that even the garden and all the plants that were once there seemed to have had life. But by the end of the book I realised why it was a timeless classic.It was a rather haunting yet at the same time a mesmeric reading to me.The interesting part of the book is the protagonists constant interesting musings and her transmogrification from a girl to a woman. Contrary to its slow pace, the book is an unputdownable.

Set in the 1930s,this book starts with the narrator ,at present ,having a dream about visiting Manderley again. From the second chapter on, she begins reminiscing her past. Our narrator, an employed companion to Mrs Van Hopper,a wealthy American, was with her in France for a visit when she met a 40 year old widower Maxim de Winter. When Mrs Hopper was down with flu, she had got the chance to court Maxim for a period of two weeks after which he proposed to her. To her surprise, she had agreed to marry him and was on her way with him to Manderley; a place she had adored in postcards when she was a child. But she was to soon find out the limitations of her upbringing, anecdotes of the former Mrs de Winter(Rebecca, who drowned and died) from Mrs Danvers(housekeeper) who had earlier given her a cold introduction. Rebecca, with her thrilling energy and powerful personality was nothing like our narrator at all.She was loved by all and adored for her beauty and grace. We could feel our narrator intimidated by Rebecca to such an extent that she even felt like a guest at Manderley imagining Rebecca to be her hostess.She was consistently plagued by self doubt and struggled to fit in. At one point , she even doubted Maxim's love for her, for she thought he hadnt forgotten Rebecca or any of those memories. They were known to be a star and magnat couple then and Rebecca was termed by Bee (Maxims sister) as a social butterfly ; known for hosting her Manderley parties ; which was quite contrary to our narrator.I could very well understand the trials and tribulations she was going through in Manderley to be The Mrs de Winter . Her only safe haven,where she neednt pretend but be herself was with Frank, the manager. Even the announcement of guests brought her tremendous fright but with the revelation of truth about Rebecca's death, she began maturing into a strong woman;accepting the fact that Rebecca was dead and that she was now the rightful lady of Manderley.Even their romance had a blossoming and maturing from then on.

Its a wonderfully and beautifully written book with passages yearning to be read again and again.And the romance ,though shallow at the beginning , begins to get realised ,deeper,meaningful and beautiful at the end. Its a book that offers you everything you may need with characters like the mysterious and cold Mrs Danver, friendly Frank, tactless Beatrice to complete it and above all the romantic relationship between Maxim and the narrator herself.

Our Little 'Nakshatra'

I know its a little late to write on her birthday celebration which had taken place on 8th March 2012; but I ,for no reason, wanted to post about it now. Exactly a year ago on this date I was gifted with one of the most precious gift I could ever ask for. Its been a year!! Can you believe it? Our fun moments together ,even if at one point I wanted her to stop and go back to sleep, made me realise that I have met my most unique and bestest of friends. Before going into the birthday party details , I must say that ponutti had begun to do a couple of others gestures before her first bday(with amma's timely reminder today!!). Her ammama used to teach her to fold her hands before the lamp that was lit by her achachan that morning before prayer.(This was when she was in dxb at 9 months). And coincidently, after coming down to kerala for the celeberation, ponutti folded her hands after seeing Lord Ganapathy in the front hall at thrissur.Ever since this , shes' been folded hands when she sees any or lit lamp.Why, she even did it today after seeing some trash being burned on the roadside. Guess we have to teach her the difference!! 
 
We had a small celebration of ponutti birthday as per malayalam month and her birth star which fell on 27th feb.We had paid a visit to the kodungallur and family temple after which achan and amma had come to kodungallur to join us . We had sadya in plaintain leaf and ponutti, surprisingly , did go to everyone and was having fun.

Her birthday started off with the usual temple visit and then we came back to begin the decoration work. This time she had her Little  Big Brother to play along.We had planned for the cake-cutting and thereafter party at 7pm. I did have the worry about how well she would handle the crowd especially if things didnt go well for her.And it didnt!! She had her evening sleep at 5:30pm after a lot of struggle and I eventually had to wake her up by 6:15pm which of course wasnt well-appreciated by her. I also had to give her a forced bath with all that crying that I really dreaded the thought of her facing the guests downstairs. But surprisingly ,once we were downstairs, she was so sociable.I was glad that she was coping well with the guests , having a baby blast.She was at her happiest best and I was truly proud of her. The highlight of the cake-cutting was that she folded her hands when she saw the lit candle:) She also had her first bite of chocolate cake.As time went by , she was so super excited and upbeat with the balloons around and the stair-climbing that it was as if she forgot to go to sleep. I had to give her a third bath that day, and amma spluttered mustard seeds, redchilly and salt in a piece of paper to protect her from the evil eye;after ponutti fell asleep.I was so exhauted from the party(not that I did that very much) yet I was so gratified  to the extent of intoxication that I was finding it hard to fall asleep.Do you know what eternal bliss is to watch your baby fast asleep after being truly 'THE LITTLE STAR' of the day. Well; atleast in my eyes, she was. Ever since then, she has been evolving a lot. Her passing phase like shrunk appetite was one that disturbed me for almost a week. She was literally living on air.Another of her tactics is to get me to her when I dont pay her enough attention by climbing the bed and lying waiting there for me. One attention seeker, she is! Guess, all this is the part and parcel of being a parent:)

Midnight in Paris

This 2011 Woody Allen movie is all about the surreal experience the protagnist goes through during his stay in Paris.The film has the usual elements of fantasy and fiction with a little bit of the light hearted comedy and romance which are characteristics of a Woody Allen movie and is set up in the mileu of 20's bohemian Paris.

The film starts with a beautiful montage presentation of Paris and then sets off to introduce the protagnist,Gil, a Hollywood sceenwriter, who is visiting Paris with his fiancee and in-laws for a business cum pleasure purpose.He talks about his love for Paris( in the 20s in the rain)where he wishes to settle one day and write novels;which his fiancee,Inez,dismisses as a mere daydream. While in a restaurant together, they meet up with Inez's friends, Paul and his fiancee who were both Inez's school matees.

Paul ,'the pedantic man' as the guide rightly calls him, often speaks in a very authoritative nature and Gil does therefore find him to be insufferable. Inez on the otherhand is all over him and is very much impressed on how much he knows about Paris and French ;calling him 'bright and intelligent'.She even goes to the extend of suggesting Gil to show Paul his work so that he could critique it for him. Gil ,on the otherhand, is having a hard time finding some one to judge his novel. The next evening Inez's father invites them for wine tasting, after which Inez and her friends decide to go dancing while Gil decides to stay back and have a walk on his own. While strolling, he comes across an antique vehicle of the 20s and its champagne drunk passengers invite him to join them eventually leading him to a party where he meets his all time literary idols Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald,Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and the likes.He gradually falls for Adriana ,Picasso's mistress;while he visits Steins's salon with Hemingway to get his book reviewed by Stein.The movie lightly treads on the theme of nostalgias and the mental status of Gil was rightly stated by Paul at the beginning of the movie which is ' Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.' In the end, Gil comes to terms with the present world  and even goes to the extent of stopping Adriana from going back to the 1890's (when they coincidently get invited by some couple to join them in a party of the 1890s)which she considers the golden period; by stating that at some other point she'll consider another era the golden period and that life is a little unsatifying at times.Surely, by the end of the movie our love for Paris will be rejuvenated.

Owen Wilson has portryed the character of the bemused,naive,excited Gil with utmost ease and perfection.The cast also includes Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard who have played just right . This movie has been stated as one of the best movies Woody Allen has ever made.

Nakshatra's 12th and 13th month

I know its been a long time since I'd posted something but that is exactly why Im doing so now because there's lots to share or pen down(even virtually). After we were back from dubai, ponutti got into the walking mode rather than her usual crawling.This was when she was 10months. But she did take her first few independent steps a week before leaving for dxb(that was when she was 9months and 1week).That was one milestone I'd badly wanted for her to achieve but soon enough it had dawned on me that there was to be no respite for as long as 3 years inspite of whatever she achieves quickly.She had reached almost all her milestones faster than usual, which she still continues to do so and because of this the expectation was set. Not before long, she had also started to run about and walk well in her new red shoes.

It was at that time when we were in kerala for her first birthday bash that she started dancing rather rocking herself whenever she would listen to music. Gradually yet steadily things began to change. It was more of soft skill development or in other words small motor skill development. She could comprehend what we say to a much larger extent.There was this time when I was getting ready to go somewhere and I told her playfully that I would help her put on her shoes. Hearing me, she started running towards the front hall, climbing up the chair and getting her shoe from the shoe rack. I was stupified. I never ever knew that she  understood what we say to her. I used to sort of train her to get something from someplace or put something back but that was achieved after a little bit of body gesturing. But this incident taught me that she actually analyzed what we said and got it done. Even mimicking us was something that she started doing around 12 months.

Even her language development has improved even if she uses the baby jargon mostly. She would repeat what I say in the exact tune. There are so many thaings to write about that I dont remember some of them.Recently she has started giving herself a bath,washing her face and brushing her teeth. She would even throw the trash(which may be bits of paper or wrapper) into the dustbin. Its been fun playing with her even since she was a baby, even if , I grew more attached to her only after 11/2 months.But it was always wonderful to watch her play when ammama would talk or sing to her.Time does fly really fast.