Nostalgia

From left to right: My father, myself, my cousin Woodsmoke, my cousin
Riju Dada, my uncle, my aunt and my mother in Jaipur in October 2001 Woodsmoke and Riju Dada at Chhatri in Jaisalmer

From left to right: Riju Dada,Woodsmoke, My aunt, My father, myself and

My uncle inside Junagadh Fort in Bikaner

Bottom row(left to right): My mother, myself and Woodsmoke

Top row: Riju Dada. Picture was taken on the way to Rajasthan

Kajol, Humanities Aur Hum

“Sometimes, the greatest journey between two people is the distance between them….”

The above is the tagline ( it might be a bit wrong , I don’t know the exact one) of the latest Bollywood movie, ‘U, Me Aur Hum’. But, after watching it, I could not find out any connection between the tagline and the actual story. Not any strong connection, at least. If I describe the movie in one word, I will say that it is boring. Plain and simple, boring! It is also unnecessarily long. In the first half, Ajay Devgan and Kajol spend one and a half hours singing, dancing and talking and thinking rubbish . How can a romantic relationship be possible between a well-to-do passenger on a cruise and a bar maid on the same cruise? According to me, it is one of the most absurd things on Planet Earth. Moreover, the music of the film is very poor. Ajay Devgan irritates you with his role and his direction. The story is not that bad, but it could have been presented much better than this if the length of the film would have been shorter. For watching this film, my parents had to spend 690 bucks (ouch) on the first day of the Bengali New Year! Yes, that’s 230 rupees for one person! We had expected the movie to be good. The only positive point of the movie is Kajol. Her performance stood out and if you ever watch ‘U, Me Aur Hum’, watch it to see Kajol and nothing or no one else.

My school has reopened. I am in the 11th standard now. Since I will not be shifting to a CBSE school, I have taken admission in my own school , which is an ICSE/ ISC one. Besides, I don’t know whether my ICSE result will be good or not. The CBSE schools in Kolkata ( very few of them) only take those students who get at least 85% in their board exam. In some schools, the minimum marks required is 90%. One can never say anything about his/her board exam results with confidence….Anyway, the main reason for which I preferred to remain in an ISC school is that I wanted to pursue Humanities . And, I have done it too. Now, I am very happy and am enjoying myself . English, Bengali, History , Geography….I like all these subjects. I have also started to like the two new subjects, i.e., Economics and Psychology.

Jane Eyre

I just finished reading ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte. Written by Bronte in 1847 under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, ‘Jane Eyre’ is an account of the life of Jane Eyre, as is evident from the name of the book itself. I enjoyed reading it although it was a bit boring in parts. I must also add that it was tougher than Sherlock Holmes and far tougher than Harry Potter. But, the language was very clear and by the time I reached the middle of the novel, I was familiar with certain words that Bronte had used frequently and so, it became considerably easier.

Jane Eyre is an orphan. After the death of her maternal uncle, she is left under the care of her aunt, the arrogant Mrs. Reed. Right from the fourth page, the readers find Jane Eyre being looked down upon by her aunt and cousins. When she is sent to Lowood Institution after that, she feels that she is better off, but she still fails to find the warmth of a home at Lowood. Bronte has described the first ten years of Jane Eyre’s life excellently. Whether it is Jane’s trauma in the ‘red room’ at Gateshead Hall(her aunt’s place) or her confrontation with Mrs. Reed or her affectionate relationship with Helen Burns at Lowood, the author surely engages the readers. In fact, she has been at her best while describing the first ten years of Jane Eyre’s life. At the end of this period, she says, “But this is not to be a regular autobiography: I am only bound to invoke memory where I know her responses will possess some degree of interest; therefore I now pass a period of eight years almost in silence: a few lines only are necessary to keep up the links of connexion.” But, I would have gladly read a more detailed account because I feel that Bronte would have given us more of those wonderful descriptions which she has given in the first ten chapters of the book.

After that, Jane Eyre becomes Adele’s governess at Thornfield Hall and also falls in love with her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. From this point onwards, the novel proceeds in a manner that finally unites Jane and Mr. Rochester with interesting twists and turns. The enigma of Thornfield Hall is the backbone of the novel. It makes the novel very thrilling at times. The worst part of the novel is St. John Rivers, Jane’s cousin, who according to me, talks too much and gives us difficult and long paragraphs to comprehend.

In the end, the credit goes to Charlotte Bronte for completely stepping into the shoes of Jane Eyre and then writing the novel. By ending the novel happily and adding a touch of mystery to the novel, she wipes the impressions of the boring parts off the readers’ minds. She has created a real heroine called Jane Eyre. We have been obliged to love and respect Jane Eyre because of her perseverance, unique attitude and a brave approach to the numerous challenges of her life.