Ipsita Banerjee's Blog, page 12

M: MAXIM De Winter

Another love story you say? In the end, aren't they all stories of love?
Maxim De Winter appealed to the girl in me. The one who liked mystery and brooding darkness.. Still does.


“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.” 
― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

L: LISBETH

Lisbeth Salander. The girl of the Millenium Series. Who would not want a friend like that?

“Don’t ever fight with Lisbeth Salander. Her attitude towards the rest of the world is that if someone threatens her with a gun, she’ll get a bigger gun.” 
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire

Actually to be honest, when I picked this theme, I was determined to stick to the friends of my youth and childhood. I met Lisbeth much later as the books were written long after I technically 'grew up'. I remember I picked up the first one, (The girl with the dragon tattoo) at the airport on our way to a holiday in Spain in 2010. When it finished I was in Seville and utterly disappointed that I could not find a book shop that sold books in the English language! Needless to say the first thing I did when I landed in New Delhi was buy the other two!!)
So.."L" cannot be anyone but Lisbeth, a friend who I met when I was no child but who has and continues to stir my imagination!

“Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.” 
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

K: KIRA

I never cared for love stories much. All that mushy stuff was not for me! But for Kira I made an exception. Kira and Leo and Andrei. When all my friends were reading 'The Fountainhead' and oohing and aahing about Howard Roark and the famous last speech, my favourite people were in another Ayn Rand book, "We the Living" (which, incidentally, was her debut novel). It's one of those books on my bedside table. One I pick up again and again now and then and lose myself in a harsh and beautiful post-revolutionary Russia.

“It's strange. There's your life. You begin it, feeling that it's something so precious and rare, so beautiful that it's like a sacred treasure. Now it's over, and it doesn't make any difference to anyone, and it isn't that they are indifferent, it's just that they don't know, they don't know what it means, that treasure of mine, and there's something about it that they should understand. I don't understand it myself, but there's something that should be understood by all of us. Only what is it? What?” 
― Ayn Rand, We the Living

J: JAMES Bond

No, no, no, we are not talking about Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and the like. Those movies came into my life much later. This is about the books by Ian Fleming. I used to borrow them from the Saturday Club Library and dream of spies and dashing young special agents racing around to save the world. And me.

“You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face” 
― Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice

I: ICARUS

The most fascinating world that was opened up to me by my grandfather was that of Greek and Roman Mythology. Jason and the Argonauts, Medusa, Hercules, Hector, Achilles... all their worlds were fascinating and I spent hours in them. I did not mind reading the same stories over and over, each time adding to the colours with my own imagination. And yes, for me, it all started one hot sleepless afternoon when my grandfather told me the story of Icarus.

“Never regret thy fall,
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light.”― Oscar Wilde

H: HEIDI

My grandfather, as I was saying, introduced me to many many books. Heidi, by Johanna Spyri was one of them. It was not something I really liked. It was too cute. Too girly, you know? But the book itself was a picture book with amazing illustrations of the beautiful Swiss Alps. I used to read the book when no one was looking...

 “Flowers are made to bloom in the sun and not to be shut up in an apron.” 
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

G: GAGE CREED

I stumbled upon Stephen King while on a short trip to Bombay (there was no Mumbai then!) when I was about 15. I had been introduced to horror movies by a family friends and decidedly enjoyed the genre. Anyway back then in Bombay I discovered a tiny book shop that had stacks of Stephen King books and  I bought one book. Little did I know that that would be the beginning of a long, terrible addiction that continues to run me to this day.
Yes, that book was "Pet Semetary".

“The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis. A man grows what he can, and he tends it. 'Cause what you buy, is what you own. And what you own... always comes home to you.” 
― Stephen King, Pet Sematary

So here's to ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night... You can pretend they do not exist but can you ever be sure?

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

F: FATTY and the Five Find Outers

F is also for the Famous Five, the Magic Faraway Tree and  Fatty and the Five Find Outers! They were the best friends I had. I would read and re-read those books and almost knew them by heart. They were my companions under the quilt with a torchlight, they were the ones I imagined camping with when I was turning lazy somersaults in the pond and the ones by my side when I went exploring new places!

It wasn't a bit of good fighting grown-ups. They could do exactly as they liked.

E: EEYORE

In my teens I was often moody and rebellious. Pointed out the negative in everything. So is it any wonder that, out of all of Winnie The pooh's friends, Eeyore was the  one I loved the most?


"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he."Why, what's the matter?""Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it.""Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.
"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."A.A. Milne

D: DORIAN GRAY

Young, handsome, beautiful Dorian Gray. How I loved to love him. And hated him. Could never ignore him though, could you?  

Dorain Gray “You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.” 
―  Oscar Wilde ,  The Picture of Dorian Gray