Tagged by the Mystic ...

Yes, I’ve been tagged by Mystic Margarita (aptly called Mystic since I read this one penned by her) to play the book game.

The rules of this game are as follows:

Pick up the nearest book.

Open to page 123.

Find the fifth sentence.

Post the next three sentences.

Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.

Recently, I just finished re-reading R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days. The author of course needs no introduction & as many of us growing up in the 80s will remember, there was a very popular television series by the same name being aired at that time. S always tells me that the fictional place of Malgudi is actually loosely framed around a place called Malleswaram in Bangalore … a place where I spent the first few years of my marriage. Frankly, today there is no similarity between Narayan’s Malgudi & Malleswaram. To quote Narayan himself …

I am often asked “Where is Malgudi ?” All I can say is, it is imaginary & not to be found on any map. If I explain that Malgudi is a small town in South India, I shall only be expressing a half-truth, for the characteristics of Malgudi seem to me universal. I can detect Malgudi characters even in New York: for instance, West Twenty-third Street, … possess every element of Malgudi.

This novel that I just finished is a collection of short stories based in Malgudi. And by the rules of the game, page 123 contains the 2nd page of a short story titled A Shadow which is the story of a just-deceased actor’s son (Sambhu) who feels like he is interacting with his father every time he watches his father’s latest release in the theatre. Sambhu's mother, on the other hand, completely abhors watching the man, whom she knows is no more & will never come back, looking so alive on the screen. Just a short 4-page story, it pulls at the heart-strings and brings out the anguish of both mother & son.

So here goes lines 6, 7, & 8 from A Shadow …

My father used to read the story to us every night. It’s a very interesting story. He wrote the whole story himself.

Three short lines that don’t tell much about the story but I guess I’ve given that to you.

So now it’s time for me to tag 5 bloggers & I tag Sucharita, Blogpourri, Sayani, Deep and returning the favor to Mystic. :-)