Tagging - A new discovery

Pijush has graciously tagged me and the rule is I need to find interesting titles of book in my name (Lakshmi) or as backpakker (my blog's title) . So I embarked on this personal journey of search through Amazon.com and here is what I found

Lakshmi - 64 results altogther . Mostly dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi (The Hindi Goddess of wealth and prosperity) and biographies of a few famous mortals from history and politics. Neverthess , these are some unusual titles that caught my eye either with a Lakshmi in them or written by a lakshmi

1. Author- Vijaylakshmi Title - Pomegranate Dreams and other stories
This is what Amazon had to say about the book . Would have loved to see the cover but there was no illutration

Vijay Lakshmi's collection of short stories, Pomegranate Dreams & Other Stories, begins with a meditation upon the symbolic meanings of the pomegranate. She notes that across cultures the pomegranate is associated with fertility, prosperity, and abundance. (I didnt know this :) ) Lakshmi's quotation of artist Kathryn Hadley further illustrates the symbolic potency of this fruit: "This small globe carries the power to transform and renew our souls. The seeds of change lie beneath its blood red surface. We need only look within to find all the strength and life we need" ...

2.Author- Devaraj Mudaliar . Title - The cow, lakshmi

No reviews and there is isnt anything unusual about the title, except that it stood out amidst those of Goddesses and pursuit of material wealth . When i was a kid, we had cows at home in Madras (Chennai of today ) and I remeber a calf named Lakshmi ...

3.Author- Mehlli Gobhai Title - Lakshmi, the water buffalo, who wouldnt

Wouldnt what ? Any takers ?

And now for Backpakker..there wasnt a single entry found..so I switched to the right spelling . About 290 results - most of them from the Backpacker magazine, some of them about survival tips and so, there was the usual Backpacker's survival kits to eating well to sleeping well to backpackers of australia to africa . Some of them were fictions like the backpacker, the backpacker's father .. Nothing unusual at all or even remotely funny , but a few tried to be different ..here are they

1.Title -We are in the mountains, Not over the Hill -tales and tips from seasoned women backpackers by Susan Alcorn

This one is inspirational ..maybe I will write a book sometime on these lines

2.Title - Supermarket Backpacker by Harriet Barker

No review ..but I guess its to do with food..I found the title given to the backpacker rather unusual

3.Back to earth - A backpacker's journey into self and soul by Kerry temple

Back to Earth is the powerful, personal journey of a man in his middle years who senses that he has drifted away from the ideals of his youth and who must now search for coherence, belief, and a renewed spirituality following the breakup of his marriage and family. Living alone in a cabin in the woods, Temple searches his past and tells tales of experiences backpacking in the American wilderness. His reflections focus on the spiritual and redemptive qualities of nature, the American character, and the dilemmas of the split between matter and spirit, body and soul, God and creation. As an earnest pilgrim with a short attention span, Temple's story chronicles his journey from an intimacy with the earth to an alienation from it, and the need of all humans to find a redemptive reunion.

- A little heavy maybe , but a guide book of a different kind

A Tale of Two Cities

This is one of my favourite classics ..Of all the books written by Charles Dickens,I cherish this one the most...I am reading it for the nth time again ..The opening sentence is one of the best examples of Dickensian style and coming to think of it, the lines describe my life last year ..The title given to Book 1 is also pretty apt..Its called "Recalled to Life ."

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven,we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received , for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only .

The Rainy Day

Its pouring in Bangalore and the dark spells doom in my mind ...I remembered my favourite lines from Longfellow's The Rainy Day - Hope it will bring some cheer !

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Daffodils

A poem from the good ole school days

Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

If only all days were like this ...

A perfect day, mood, moment -thats how I like to look at this poem

Pippa's Song
By Robert Browning
1812-1889

THE year 's at the spring,
And day 's at the morn;
Morning 's at seven;
The hill-side 's dew-pearl'd;
The lark 's on the wing;
The snail 's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven--
All 's right with the world!

Animal Farm

The creatures outside looked from pig to man and from man to pig and from pig to man again ; but it was already impossible to say which was which.

- George Orwell

The Brook

Men may come and men may go
But I go on forever

- The Brook by Lord Tennyson