Day 24 - Calaveras Big Trees State Park

Continued from this vacation.

I'd seen the Californian coastal redwoods (Big Basin, Portola Valley) but I hadn't seen the giant sequoias (Which is another type of redwood). And Calaveras Big Trees State Park had two groves of giant sequoia. So off we went.

While the coastal redwoods are slim and tall, the giant sequoia are much wider, and shorter. Though this visit was full of some breathtaking sights, it was also filled with despair at the stupidity of human beings.

Take the Discovery Stump, for instance. In the 1850s, a hunter came across this huge, 1300-year-old-tree and because nobody in the cities believed him when he told them about it, he came back with workmen and cut the tree off in order to take a slice of it to display to them. And then they used the stump as a dance floor.

The Discovery Stump

Soaring into the skies - so mighty!

Just look at that rich, red, colour!

"The screaming mother" or some such  name. This is another tree that suffered from human greed. Humans removed its bark, in order to go and reassemble it at some exhibition, to show how tall and thick these trees are. This tree died.

A grove of young sequoia. Redwoods usually grow in groves and clusters.

The Pioneer Cabin Tree. I've been obsessed with this tree ever since I'd seen a picture in a book. Finally saw it. 4-5 months after this, this tree toppled over in a storm. I was just in time.

The top of the Pioneer Cabin Tree. This giant tree was surviving (until it fell down recently) thanks to that single photosynthesizing branch.

Day 23 - Columbia Historic State Park

The next vacation we went was with another family (Puttachi's BFF and her parents). We stayed in a vacation rental at Arnold, and visited Columbia Historic State Park and Calaveras Big Trees State Park. We booked late and landed up with a vacation rental that didn't look too inviting, but it turned out to be excellent. It was comfortable, had a well-stocked kitchen, and had multiple decks in the back, with hot tubs, and lounge chairs, and evening coffee tables, and a swing, and it was open to the woods. We made good use of everything. It was here that we saw the milky way (I'd never seen it before and it was exquisite.

A school established in 1860

So, first, about Columbia Historic State Park - it is a town from the time of the Californian Gold Rush. It is a quaint town, with old shops, houses, and even horse-driven carriages on the roads.

The classroom

Chores for children!

A school privy was cause for great excitement

This was in a museum, I think. The museum had some good displays, and lots of  information. IT was too dark inside for decent pictures, though

Walked into a bookstore and even this gentleman seemed to be from another era. Loved the whole feeling!

You could pan for gold here, if you bought a gold-panning kit. The kids found some gold flakes and some colourful minerals which they brought back safely.

The marks of desperation. After all the gold ran out, people scratched and dug into rocks in a final, desperate attempt to find gold.

Continued here

Day 22 - The empty page

I've been sitting here with this draft open for the past 15 minutes wondering what to write about and I still haven't zeroed in on a topic. So I decided, Carpe Diem! Let me write about the empty page that I am staring at.

The empty page is both a promise, and a threat. Promise, because it holds so much potential. It could be a fine article, or a bestseller, a modern classic, or your magnum opus. A threat, because it is almost definite that what comes onto the page in black and white is in no way near the multi-coloured explosion of fabulousness that you are seeing in your mind.

I recently read an article that the reason writers procrastinate so much is this. As long as that article, that story, that poem, that novel is not written, there is still hope for it. But the moment you sit down to write, your limitations come into effect, and you are faced with the knowledge that you have a long, long way to go.

That is the reason deadlines are such wonderful things. They force you to just do it. That is why I hold deadlines in such high esteem. And that is why I give myself a deadline even if nobody else does. Because deadlines are sacrosanct, and I stick by them, come what may. Deadlines are the only cure for a writer's procrastination. Deadlines are the only way that the threat of an empty page can be turned into the possibility of a fulfilled promise.

Day 21 - The joys of vacation rentals

Before I go on to the next vacation, I wanted to wax eloquent about the joys of vacation rentals. Previously, I'd been to hotels, resorts, plantation stays, bed-and-breakfasts and the like. But only after coming here did I experience vacation rentals, booked through airbnb, vrbo and such sites.

As opposed to a hotel where you rent a room/rooms, when you book a vacation rental through for instance airbnb, you're booking an entire house, along with everything that comes with a regular house (furniture, linen, kitchen utensils and essentials, electronics, etc). (Of course, airbnb also has options of renting a room in someone's house, etc., but I am not going into that now.)

It doesn't necessarily work too well for a couple, or a single family, but when you go in a group, with a bunch of families, then there's nothing like it.

I'll do a quick, informal comparison of a vacation rental with a regular hotel room.

1) The cost - Generally speaking, a vacation rental turns out to be less expensive. Even if you include the cleaning cost that is a part of the total cost of a vacation rental, it is less expensive (all other considerations remaining constant) for three families to book one vacation rental for three days than for three families to book three hotel rooms for three days.

2) The location - One of the biggest advantages of a vacation rental, especially in places of natural beauty is that you can get to live in the heart of nature, or in the natural surrounding of the place.

3) Hanging out together - In hotels, all the families have to book separate rooms, and then meet in each others' rooms if need be. You have to go out for meals, or at least to the dining room of the hotel/resort. But in a vacation rental, you are renting the whole house, and so each family has a room of their own, and you meet and hang out in the common living spaces, the kitchen, etc.

And it is really fun to hang out late into the night, or wake up in the morning and sit in the balcony having communal cups of tea.

4) Food - The obvious disadvantage of a vacation rental is that you have to make arrangements for your own meals. It is not such a big problem if the rental is close to stores/restaurants, but it is a problem if you're away in a secluded spot (Refer to point 2) away from civilization. But there are a lot of ways you can arrange for food if you plan ahead. In our vacations, we've carried store-bought frozen food that we've heated and eaten, we've taken home-made frozen food that we've supplemented with fruits/salads, we've ordered take-out, and we've even carried rice/lentils/spices and prepared food there at the rental. The arrangements we made depended on the kind of vacation, the location, the people we went with, and a host of other things.

I was very sure that whatever I do, I wouldn't cook on a holiday and I was strictly against carrying essentials and cooking at the rental. But in the previous vacation that I just finished documenting, we had to do that, and I realized it wasn't a bad thing at all, especially if you are not tired out after a full day of sight seeing. It is really comforting to come back to some home-made food, especially if it is a longish vacation.

5) Housekeeping activities - another disadvantage is that depending on the rules of the rental, you might need to load the dishwasher/take out the garbage/start the washer before you leave. But once again, it is not such a big deal. Also, you cannot be a slob and leave the kitchen/bathroom/living spaces messy just because you're paying for cleaning, so some time does go in just setting things right. But once again, if everybody joins in, it is not a big deal at all.

6) Risk - Of course it is a risk that your vacation rental will not be as good as you hoped it was. In hotels, you know what you'll get, or at least, it will be close to your expectations, but you can't be so sure about a vacation rental. But then on the other hand, it might surprise you.

I'm sure there are some other points I'm forgetting, and I'll add them later. But if you are reading this trying to decide whether to go for a vacation rental, and if you  need any inputs, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me on the address on this page.

Day 20 - Twenty years ago

Do you also get all those gleeful Facebook posts that almost seem to be chuckling evilly when they say "These songs turn 20 this year"? I see them all the time on my timeline and I listen to/watch the video and all I can think of is "But that movie came out, like, just 4-5 years ago! How can it be 20 years? I remember this song and I wasn't even born 20 years ago!"

Well, the truth is that I was already an adult 20 years ago.

Besides, what makes these 20-year-old-songs more unbearable is that 20 years back is when I joined engineering college. So most of these songs are inextricably linked to memories of my college life (which, as you can by now guess, happened just 4-5 years ago ;))

For example, the songs from the movie Gupt remind me that I wasn't able to watch Gupt due to the king-size ego of a new computer science teacher.

It was a Saturday and our classmates had made plans to take the college bus right up to Cauvery theatre in Sadashivanagar to watch the afternoon show of Gupt. As we finished class, and were packing up, someone told me that this lecturer (whose name I can't recall) wanted to see me immediately. I couldn't think why, but rushed to his room. He was one of those new recruits, fresh out of college, in a lecturer's job before he had the confidence for it.

As soon as I went in, he started lambasting me about my arrogance in computer science lab. I had no idea what he was talking about, and kept asking him repeatedly what it was. He said something garbled, and what I could understand from his words was that during lab, I had asked the lab assistant a query, and had not asked him, the lecturer. How could I ask the assistant for help when a lecturer was present? Did I think he didn't know anything? I tried to tell him that not only did I not have a query, and hadn't asked anybody anything, but that he wasn't even the assigned teacher for my lab class (he just took regular theory classes for us). But he went on and on, and I could feel the seconds ticking away.

He demanded that I apologize, and I refused on the grounds that I hadn't done anything. "I won't let you go until you apologize!" he said. But I didn't, though I knew that the college buses would be leaving any moment now. He cursed me for my arrogance again, but he didn't dare follow up on his threat to not let me go, because his own staff bus would leave 5 minutes after the students' buses left. So he left, still saying, "You're going to regret this."

I ran to the bus stop, but the buses had already left. And taking a city bus would mean changing three buses and no way would I get to the movie on time. So I just took another bus (the staff bus) and went home.

That afternoon, I got a call from a girl called Shruthi from another class. I don't know how she had found out what happened, and I don't know how she got my number, but she called to tell me that it was her this man was after, and he had got the wrong Shruthi to go to the staff room. She apologized profusely, but well, it wasn't her fault!

The next Monday, it seemed like everybody had gotten to know about it (by the way, I still don't know why it was such a big deal for it to buzz around the classroom at such speed.) And when this man came into our classroom to take his regular class, he looked around, spotted me, came close to me, not meeting my stare, and mumbled an apology.

I said, "Sir, I won't let you go until you apologize loud enough for the whole class to hear."

And guess what, he did! :D

I've heard that Gupt is not worth watching, and I haven't watched it since, but I'll never forget it as the movie I couldn't go out to watch with my friends, because of a silly man's ego.

And see? I remember such tiny details of this incident. It can't have happened 20 years ago.

Day 19 - Lassen Volcanic National Park

Yes, we're still on that vacation, and if you've noticed, a lot of these places have something to do with volcanic activity. Coincidence. Lassen is another such place, and once again, I'd never seen anything like it before.

Manzanita Lake

A very climb-friendly tree. Puttachi went up quite high.

Had a hearty lunch of packed sandwiches and Trader Joe's salad near this place.

Happened upon patches of snow that hadn't melted since winter. So much fun playing with snow on a summer day. There was enough snow to slide down, in some places. Great delight!

This is Bumpass' Hell. Bumpass is a name, and hell - because of the sulphuric ponds. The place was full of sulphur vapours, and it was not very comfortable to hang around there for too long. 

Another view of Bumpass' Hell. Taken from the walkway you can see in the previous pic. Look at that blue pond, and those hissing vapours.

This is on the hike to Bumpass' Hell - which was great - just the right challenge level, adventurous, dangerous, picturesque. Those two peaks in the mountain was actually one mountain. It blew (volcano) and half of the mountain was ripped off. So if you join the dots (so to say) between the two peaks, that was the original mountain.

There are several mudpots in the area. Basically a pool of bubbling mud, due to gases from underground that escape through these pools of mud. It is like watching a liquid bubble and boil in a huge pot.

More about this vacation

Day 18 - Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay Exploration Park

Considering that I hadn't even heard of a place called Redding before we planned this trip, I was not expecting to see this fabulous park and even more spectacular bridge in this place.

The Sundial Bridge - a cable-stayed bridge (pulls the bridge up to keep it in place.)

Seen from the bottom - quite spectacular.

The bridge is across the Sacramento River

The park itself is beautiful, lots of botanical specimens, and a good place to walk, talk, sit, spend an evening.

A little library, you're free to read books from here and return it. If you want to take a book for yourself, you must replace it with a book of your own.

And of course the kids wanted to read (even though the books were far below her reading level - books are books, and should be read, you see)

We came back to the park two times, once at night, after a leisurely dinner at the vacation rental. We walked under the Sundial bridge this time, and it so happened that the latest Pokémon had just been released that day. We didn't know it, but we saw these massive groups of teenagers gathered there, 10 pm at night, intently looking at their phones. We only understood later on what was happening and we tried to catch some Pokémon too (I hope I've said that right, I'm hopelessly behind the times.)

Anyway, the bridge looked quite beautiful lit at night, viewed from underneath it.

More about this vacation

Day 17 - Shasta Caverns, Lake and Dam

Shasta Caverns are massive caves made entirely of limestone, and there are stalactites, stalagmites and a host of other formations. It is like a fantasy land, and the limestone formations look like all kinds of creatures, both real and fanciful and mythological. It is like Alladin's cave of wonders, and walking through it feels unreal.

To reach the caverns, we had to take a ferry across the scenic lake Shasta.

Across the lake, buses drove us uphill to the mouth of the caverns. My photographs don't do justice, because my camera is not good enough for photos in the dark, but here are a few just for you to get a feel.

The Cathedral Cave. It is at least 4 floors high, I think

We stepped out back into sunlight, and had this panoramic view of the lake from above.

Lake Shasta

And from the point where I took the above photo, I looked back, and just behind me, were these rocks. And can you see that? That is a fossil of a fish! Yup. At this height. The guide told us that all this was under the ocean millions of years ago. There were other fossils too, in the rock - and I'd never seen real fossils before, in their natural setting. And this wasn't even cordoned off, these were just any other rocks on the wayside. Somehow, it set my head spinning. 

I do wish I had better pictures of the caverns, but you can always look them up if you're interested.

We also went on a tour of Shasta Dam. It is quite remarkable in its history and engineering.

The high point of the tour for Puttachi (ok, even  us) was something totally unconnected to the dam. There was this long corridor, and the guide made us shout/clap and you could actually hear the sound waves going whooooosh and then hear the echo at the other end of the corridor after a sizeable gap of several seconds. I think none of us in the tour (all nationalities, all races, all ages) wanted to leave that corridor, we were having too much fun.

More about this vacation

Day 16 - 2 - Crater Lake

The astonishing Crater Lake at Oregon. The only words you can think of is Big, Blue.

It was originally a mountain. It blew its top. After all the lava had gushed forth, a caldera or crater is formed. That crater fills up with ice and pure water - and voila! Crater Lake is formed.

Try and get your head around this fact - Crater Lake holds holds 5 trillion gallons of water! That's 700 gallons of water for every person in the world! (1 gallon is nearly 4 litres.)

Just look at that blue!

So blue that it looks artificial and hurts your eyes.

More about this vacation

Day 16 - 1 - Lava Beds National Park

I bet none of you missed me yesterday, but yes, I missed a day. Not on purpose. S just came back from a 3-week vacation to India with a suitcase full of books and food, and I was distracted. Really, that's my excuse.

So I'll do two posts today to make up for it. So, to get on with it - Lava Beds National Park. 
which I wrote about for National Geographic Traveller India

So Lava Beds is a volcanic landscape, frozen in time. The most impressive part of this place is the underground Lava tubes, which are formed by the cooling down of flowing lava (explained in my article above.) Walking through these tubes is absolutely surreal and fascinating.

I recommend a visit to this place - highly.

Skull Cave. This has a year-round ice floor in the lower level. Outside, it was nearly a 100 deg F (39 deg C) Inside the cave, we needed jackets.

Absolutely pitch dark inside the caves. It is frightening to think of what will happen if you are lost in there without torches.

The landscape is desolate, with buttes like this scattered all around (these are little hills formed by volcanic eruptions)

Lava flowing down the walls of the cave, frozen in action

An example of pahoehoe - hardening lava dragging itself forward

Lava dripping down from the ceiling, again frozen.

Can you see the rivers of lava (right in the middle of the picture) - the dark grey strips of rock?

The entrance to many of the caves was like this. Even inside, there were these metal staircases to reach the lower levels

The Modocs lived here for hundreds of years, and a few miles from the Lava tube area is the Petroglyph Point, where we can see their rock art.

A lake on the way to Petroglyph point

This rock was an island once. The art is found on the walls of this rock.

More about this vacation

Day 14 - Vacation - North California + Oregon

Last summer, we went on a 5-day trip to a few places in Northern California and South Oregon. (I told you I was behind on my travel stories.) This was a good vacation, in terms of the places we chose to go, the rental car we got, the rental vacation, the company we had, the weather conditions -- basically, everything went our way. I'll write about it in detail in the next couple of days, but here's the itinerary we followed.

Day 1 - Start at 7 30 am from Fremont, reach Lava Beds National Monument, North California, at about 3 30 pm.
See Lava Beds and the nearby Petroglyph Point, a Native American rock art site.
Stay overnight at a hotel in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Day 2 - Drive from Klamath Falls to Crater Lake, Oregon.
In the afternoon, drive from Crater Lake to vacation rental at Redding, California.

Day 3 - Drive to Shasta Lake, boat across the lake to Shasta Caverns, take a tour, back to vacation rental by afternoon.
Evening - Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding.
Back to vacation rental at night.

Day 4 - Drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park - visit the Devasted Area, hike to Bumpass' Hell, and see the Mudpots.
Back to vacation rental at Redding.

Day 5 - Leave the vacation rental, go on a Shasta Dam tour, drive back to Fremont.

Photos and details coming up in the next few days, but today, I'll leave you with some photos that we took during the drive, of Mount Shasta.

Mount Shasta

I've always wanted to take a picture like this - an empty road with a mountain backdrop. I wasn't brave (or crazy) enough to stand in the middle of the road for the perfect snap, though.

Day 13 - Conversations with Puttachi

I was feeling lazy today to blog - so looked through my Drafts folder and found this. The first two conversations are from 2014. Don't know why I didn't post it at that time.

Me: Puttachi, you tell me so many stories, why don't you try writing down a few of them in your notebook?

She: Why should I?

Me: You'll forget your wonderful stories.  If you write them down, they can be recorded forever.

She: Don't say "forever."

Me: Why not?

She:  How do you know?  We're evolving, right? So if humans evolve into some other creatures, and if those creatures don't like books, then they'll get rid of books. So don't say forever. You don't know.  Nobody knows.

Me: (Meekly) Ok, I meant to say, you know, you can read them when you grow up.

She:  That's not forever.

Me:  (crumpling into silence)

***

Puttachi: (not able to sleep)  I'm not sleepy!

S: Why, what happened?

She: I'm scared.

S: About what?

She: The sun will become big, and it will burn the earth down.

S:  There are billions of years before that'll happen. You and me won't be around when that happens. Don't worry, go to bed now.

She: Oh ok. Good night!

*****

This one is from Feb 24 2015:

I've been telling Puttachi about people going to Mars. We go through days of questions about where they'll live, what they'll eat, how they'll breathe, etc.

And after that, she goes on to other questions.

Puttachi: Will they divide up the land on Mars into countries?

Me: I should hope not. On Earth, countries evolved over time. Now that people are going there, they will probably identify themselves as "From Earth" and will hopefully not make distinctions based on nationality or religion.

Puttachi: What if they do?

Me: I'm not saying they won't. But I just hope they'll learn from the mistakes we on Earth have made and watch out.

Puttachi: Do you know what I think?

Me: What?

Puttachi: I think nationality will not matter on Mars. But religion might still matter. But there is a way we can stop people from fighting over religion on Mars.

Me: What's that?

Puttachi: Send only those people who don't follow any religion.

Day 12 - We, the Judgmental

For centuries, we've stood at our doorsteps and passed judgment on the goings-on in our streets. Now the whole world is our street, and there is no dearth of subjects for us to pass judgment upon.

Take for instance, the BBC dad video that everybody is talking about. I am pretty sure you would have watched it already, but here it is anyway.



Every bit of this short video is hilarious. The seriousness of the topic. The carefree toddler skipping into the room. The clueless child rolling in. The supermom sliding in. Even if you tried and planned, you couldn't make such a funny video. Truth is definitely stranger (and funnier) than fiction.

Although the video was largely received with laughter and delight (and commiseration for work-from-home-problems) judgment is being passed on the family. That the dad ignored the child, that the mom looked terrified, that the children were mishandled, that this is patriarchy at work, and what have you. [It is also worth noting that many assumed she was the nanny, and not the mom. Care to analyse why?]

Seriously, all of us, sitting at our desks on the other side of the world, what can we possibly glean from this tiny slice of life? How can we possibly know the workings of their family? Even if we did know, why do we think we have the right to pass judgment on them?

I think that we comment and judge other people so as to feel better about our own selves. We are all after all, struggling with our own lives and decisions and the rights and wrongs, and self-doubt, and any bit of looking down upon others probably make us feel temporarily superior and righteous.

This video is one of the funniest things that have come along in a while, and I for one am going to watch it till I squeeze out every bit of laughter from it.

Day 11 - Puttachi asks for more (no, she doesn't)

I write this post at the risk of sounding totally weird. But I do it anyway in the hope that somebody out there will benefit from my stupidity and Puttachi's absentmindedness.

Puttachi is the kind who almost never asks for more food. Ever since she was a child, she just eats what I serve her, and makes it a point to finish everything. But very, very rarely does she say that she's still hungry. And very rarely does she ask for more food, or go ahead and take another helping. My explanation is that she is too lost in her own world to bother about such trivial things as nutrition for her growing body.

S and I love our food and so we are at a loss about what to make of this kid who doesn't seem as excited about food as we are. But we console ourselves with the fact that she is not even a little fussy, and eats food even if she doesn't particularly like it because, as she says, "It is good for me."

As a result, S and I just have to hazard a guess as to what quantity of food she will eat and make sure that that quantity is available to her. Thankfully, she does tell us if she is full, and so that way, we know how much she usually eats.

So over weeks and months, we all get used to a certain quantity. But then, all of a sudden, Puttachi starts complaining of headaches, or she says she's tired, or she's suddenly cranky, and we wonder why and worry for a couple of days until, bam! Realization hits us and we increase the quantity of food we put in her lunchbox or serve on her plate - and within a day, she's back to normal. Yes, she'd just outgrown the quantity of food, and was still hungry, and she needed more food. But she didn't know that.

Like I said, I know this is a totally "What are you talking about" post - but then, there you are. All kinds make up this world.

Day 10 - You know spring is here when . . .

9 years ago, I'd done a post, "You know summer is here when . . ."

That was Bangalore summer. This post is about Californian spring.

You know when spring is here when . . . (apart from the usual birdsong and flowers and budding leaves)

- You are walking around without socks after ages, and you look at your toes and say, "Hey, toes! Long time no see!"
- Acquaintances tell you that you've lost weight, and you say, "No, it's just that I'm wearing only one layer of clothes."
- You find yourself drinking water without having to heat it, even early in the morning.
- You find that you're not drinking as many beverages as usual.
- You don't need to close balcony doors and windows after you open them to let fresh air in.
- That crochet project using wool doesn't sound that exciting after all.
- You kick your blankets away in the middle of the night.
- You find yourself planning your walk earlier and earlier in the day, or late in the evening.
- You don't dread taking a shower.
- Cuddling with the kid gets uncomfortable after a few minutes.

What's your sign of spring/summer?

Day 9 - The day I thought on my feet (Keyboard chronicles continued)

Continued from here.

Back in school, I participated in every competition in school. Be it music, art, writing, debate, sport, I was there, entering my name. The only competition I didn't sign up was classical instrumental music, because I didn't know how to play any instrument.

One day, when I was in the ninth standard, the instrumental music competition was on at school, and we were allowed to go to the auditorium and watch. We sat there watching the eighth standard students play their violins and flutes and veenas. And then, the next participant came on to stage with a keyboard. I froze. Keyboards? Seriously, do keyboards count? I had never thought of it. I could have participated! I was so angry and frustrated that I could scream.

Just then, the boy finished playing and stepped down from the stage. Before I knew what I was doing, I got up and went out, and caught hold of him.

"Hey," I said. "My name is Shruthi. What's yours?"

"D," he said.

"Hey, D, can I borrow your keyboard today for the competition?"

"Sure," said D.

So I took the keyboard from him (it was a mini-keyboard) and went to the teachers and asked them to enter my name (the event for our class was to follow.)

But what would I play? I hadn't ever consciously played any classical composition on the keyboard. Yes, I knew quite a few compositions, having learnt to sing them. Yes, I was familiar with the keys on the keyboard, but I had no practice. What do I do? 

But I think, at the back of my mind, I already knew what I would do, even before I went up to D and asked him for the keyboard. Because I knew a little secret. The black keys on the keyboard constitute the notes of the raaga Mohana (called Bhupali in Hindustani). So if I played a composition in Raaga Mohana, using only the black keys, then there would not be a very great chance of my playing the wrong keys.

I took the keyboard a little away from the auditorium, and at a low volume, tried it out. I played a Mohana Varna. It worked. I made next to no mistakes. I was ready.

When they called my name out, I went on to stage and played. And guess what, I got the second prize.

For someone who is not very street smart, and doesn't think too quickly on her feet, this incident stands out, and I'm ridiculously proud of it.

100 Book Pact - 91 to 100

91/100 Tracks in the Snow by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

One of the better children's books I've read in a while. Erin is a persistent young girl who wants to go in search of her babysitter, whom nobody -- except her -- believes is missing. She gets her classmate Tiffany to join her with a ruse that they can study tracks in the snow for a school project. The two girls get caught in a blizzard in the woods, and an ordinary trek in the woods turns into a fight for survival. This is a tale of determination, persistence, friendship, loyalty and identity. The description and details are beautifully worked into the narration so that even while it enriches the book, it doesn't slacken the pace at all. This is the balance I strive for in my own writing. Puttachi loved it as much as I did. I took it along with me to Puttachi's basketball class, and I sat on the side and finished it in one go, in an hour. I couldn't take my eyes off the pages.

92/100 Mistakes That Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones

A fun book with a lot of information on 40 accidental discoveries. Some of them were familiar, some new. The illustrations were quirky and surprising in their own right. Puttachi enjoyed them too. She doesn't like non-fiction much (surprise surprise) and wasn't too keen on reading this, but once she started, she couldn't stop.

93/100 Nanny X by Madelyn Rosenberg

A nanny with a difference - what's her secret? That's what the children under her care try to find out. I didn't enjoy it much, but seems like Puttachi did.

94/100 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

A story narrated by a gorilla. If that doesn't get your attention . . . Ivan is an art-loving gorilla confined to a cage in a mall for the entertainment of people, and he seems reconciled with his lot until the arrival of a little elephant. And then Ivan has to come up with a plan to get the little one out of the place. This was recommended by a friend and when I got this home, Puttachi told me that their librarian has been reading this out to them at school, and she is already half way through the book. She said she didn't like the first part, but she'd try reading the whole thing at one go. She did, and says she liked it very much. I liked it too. But it didn't blow me away though it has all the right ingredients for it. And that is one of the things I am not going to bother explaining. It just is!

95/100 Nirmala Bharati or Makkala Mahabharata by AR Krishna Shastri

A concise Mahabharata for children in Kannada. An iconic book in its time, but it is rather dated now, both in its style and illustrations. Actually Puttachi and I had already read Namita Gokhale's Puffin Mahabharata, and I keep telling her stories from here and there - so she knows the Mahabharata pretty well. But I wanted to read out something in Kannada for her, because we never get to read Kannada often, and so I chose this one. I didn't like it at all - neither the style of narration, nor the details. I persisted anyway, just so that Puttachi can hear some written-style Kannada. Now I really need to source some good Kannada books that I can read out to her. Any suggestions?

96/100 The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Reading this book, I had an epiphany. Amitav Ghosh is my favourite Indian writer. Yes, I haven't read all his work yet. Yes, I thought The Calcutta Chromosome was weird. Yes, I couldn't get through even two chapters of The Circle of Reason. However, the Ibis trilogy hurled me into his fandom, and now, The Hungry Tide has made that place pretty secure.

Set in the Sunderbans in West Bengal, the book deals with lives that are intertwined through decades, and the inexplicable relationships that arise between totally dissimilar people. As in his Ibis trilogy, his research leaves nothing to be desired, and plunges the reader (the kind who like such details) into a world that she is doesn't want to leave. And the storm. His description of the storm/cyclone was so effective that I was blown away (in several senses of the word).

97/100 The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

This was recommended to me by someone who knew I enjoyed Downton Abbey. And yes, it has all the same elements in it, and it had mystery and suspense but I didn't enjoy it wholeheartedly. I think I didn't like the way it was structured - an old lady reminiscing about her times, through stories told on tape to her missing grandson - I think a simpler storyline would have worked better. Though I must say that given how easily I abandon books these days, I didn't feel like giving this one up.

98/100 A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto

Interesting thriller about a man whose wife dies when he is away on business. And though the circumstances of the wife's death seem natural, the man is convinced that something is amiss, and he goes after the root of the mystery, with unfortunate consequences. The story is told from the POV of the man, and it is a kind of unusual POV, but if I tell you why, it would be a spoiler.

99/100 The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

A Jewish girl, who is annoyed with Jewish holidays that aim at "remembering", is transported back from the present time to 1942 and is sent to a death camp, and by the time she comes back to the present, she realizes why it is so important to remember. Very disturbing book. Also, I might have appreciated it better if I had been able to get past the question of how she happened to get transported. It is so random and so inexplicable, especially because she doesn't even retain her own identity, that it didn't work for me.

100/100 Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

A boy goes on an adventure to the land where stories come from, trying to get the Gift of the Gab back for his father who seems to have lost it, and meets several unforgettable characters along the way. I read this out to Puttachi, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. The puns and the wordplay are delightful and you can enjoy it at so many levels. We now speak to each other like the characters do, in their style. I think that I would have not enjoyed it as much if I had read it to myself.