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Tag: story

  • The Inheritance of Loss

    I got tagged by a dear StumbleUpon friend, shpongolina. Usually I don’t participate in this type of things, but because it offers something interesting and it comes from a great person, I’ll make an exception. 😉

    The rules are as follows:

    1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
    2. Open the book to page 123.
    3. Find the fifth sentence.
    4. Post the next three sentences.
    5. Post a comment and then tag five more people.

    The Inheritance of Loss

    by Kiran Desai

    Gyan was twenty and Sai sixteen, and at the beginning they had not paid very much attention to the events on the hillside, the new posters in the market referring to old discontents, the slogans scratched and painted on the side of government offices and shops. “We are stateless,” they read. “It is better to die than live as slaves,” “We are constitutionally tortured. Return our land from Bengal.”

    I wrote about this book a while ago. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m still reading it. Worse yet, I’m not even halfway through, even though it’s a great book. My excuse is that I’m an expat in Istanbul and there’s just so much to see and do here. 😉

    I love this book, because it talks about life in India at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the north-eastern Himalayas around the time of the Nepalese independence movement in the mid-80s. This is something I knew nothing about in terms of facts, let alone in terms of experience. That’s the awesome thing about books; they let you experience something like you’re there. It’s the power of writing. It’s a very moving story and has many elements in it. Classes/castes, love, freedom, happiness, travel, work, study, war, conflict, poverty – many things which I either have never been in contact with, or that I have always taken for granted.

    You can read more about the author, Kiran Desai, on Wikipedia. Check out the book, including reviews, at Amazon.

    I would like to tag Dori (From A Yellow House In England), Chris (Beyond Taiwan), PJA64X, Emm (Emm in London) and lala (Coastal Commentaries).

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  • What a music… a recollection

    Miro, a friend I made in Bulgaria, just sent all his friends on Facebook (including me) a dedication via a particular application. Apparently his song “What A Music” is now uploaded in there and while listening to it again, I realized just how much that song reminds me of Bulgaria.

    I met Miro in the middle of November. Asya (sorry if it’s misspelt), a colleague of mine at the National Radio, gave me a call one day that she said she was still going to take me to a party. I had no recollection of this, but then again, when I met her at the Balkan Youth Festival, days were long and nights were drunk. She told me there was a CD presentation of the winner of the Bulgarian Pop Idol in a club in the centre and asked me to come along. I hesitated for a second, then told myself to just say yes. So I did.

    We arrive… free booze! She runs off and starts talking to people and I’m kept busy with people who talk to me because I’m not from Bulgaria (and because they’re just as drunk as me, from the free booze). At some point after the CD presentation, Asya gets us into the ‘artists’ area and I meet some of the people there. They are getting restless and want to have a party somewhere. Asya leaves. I was told to come along, because it was going to be fun. Obviously, I was intimidated, so I went along – I would have rather been responsible and go home of course. Who likes parties anyway?

    So uhhh, the next day I wake up with a massive hangover. Pictures I don’t remember, business cards I vaguely remember, and random entries in my phone. Names with no numbers, just the letter ‘E’ with a number. You know those nights where you’re too drunk to type the name and then in your mind you go “fuck it” and tell yourself you’ll just remember it? Yeah. You won’t. If you’re too drunk to type… you’re too drunk to remember. And also, you might take pictures of the Iranian embassy on your way home.

    I remembered one business card that I got belonged to the producer of the CD of the girl who won. I was a bit intimidated… It’s not every day that I get the contact cards of a ‘celebrity’. If I think back to my thoughts at that time, they’re a bit ridiculous, but make a good story. So I think I emailed him or called him, I don’t remember. Added him to Skype and it turned out his studio was right around the corner from my apartment. Literally, not even 2 minutes from door to door. He invited me and I came over. He showed me his studio and his pride. We maintained our connection and were hanging out about once a week, I guess. One of the songs he let me hear when I first came ’round to his studio (correct me if I’m wrong Miro) is ‘What A Music’, the track I was just sent on Facebook.

    Those times were strange. The Pop Idol party, sitting at the same table as Philip Kotler at a high tea-styled press conference with a panorama view of Sofia, meeting my current girlfriend… but also Sofia getting colder and the weather getting harsher and harsher. It was a moment of highs and lows, which makes the highs even more magical as they already were. And that’s what this song reminds me of. The song has a magical sound to it and reminds me of the magical times I had back in Bulgaria. Therefore, without further adue, I present to you the video of my friend Star Tattooed’s ‘What A Music’. Dedicated to everyone I met in Bulgaria!

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