I finally got my hands on Junie aunty's third major writing venture (far as I know) and her second solo effort after her delightful book 'Much Ado About Everything'. This time she comes with 'Once More with Feelings' and though I felt she tackled more serious stuff this time, she retained her child-like enthusiasm, whacky humour and her joy for life.
Her Preface is titled 'The Formality' which says it all. Once she is done with the formality (and fervent advise to read her first book to fill up any gaps) she traipses along gaily on whatever comes to her happy and cheerful mind starting with 'Homes away from Home' (a recent visit to Ram and Priya's house at Gachibowli and ends with naming all the 12 homes away from homes she has across continents), 'Falling Leaves' (a crusade against non-clearance of fallen leaves in her garden and how she finally managed to get rid of the pile), 'Delusions - Death to Birth' (as the title hints is a ponderous piece on old age, death, middle age, children - which goes backwards like Benjamin Button's life), 'Religion and Symbolism' (all about her fav god Shiva and the many symbols associated with him told in her usual jaunty and irreverent manner of course), 'A Touching Doggy Tail' (an adventure involving the rescue of a pup that got caught in a drain and the pain of sending it away).
Onwards to 'Fumigating Families' (about tracing her roots - many she says - and jumps into Sex and the child - child abuse and her own experiences as a child), 'Lighten Up - About Life' (actually about cleaning up her house when everyone was away which is one way to lighten up), 'Friendships and Best Friends' (and a fascinating commentary on Us and Them), 'Travels' (Singapore and Bali, old friends), 'Shining' (a nice recall of a few incidents where she looks at why we need to show we know, and why it feels good to be acknowledged - her 25 year reunion at Roshni), 'Groups and Eggers' (a nice one about the silent ones who egg us on) and so on.
And then we are led into 'Astrology and Past Lives' (her tryst with palm readers - she certainly beat the astrologers prediction that she would live till 68), 'Waalas and Waalis' (all the bais and boys who added spice to her life in the background and made it so fun - from ice fruit walas to kaam wali bais), 'Noises -Rats and Carpenters' (on rats in the shelf and the art of carpentry and Bihari carpenters), 'Ownership vs Possessiveness' (starts with the concept of ownership and ends with enjoying yawning in bed), 'Death' (a piece about Maya Anavarathan, an artist and a relative who passed on recently), 'Family Wedding' (Dhruv's wedding in Goa), 'The Travel Bug' (New Zealand with the Torvi family), 'Politics-Power-Propaganda', 'My Canadian Memories' (another lovely travel piece about her visit to Canada), 'Schools and Schooling' and 'The Endless End' where she says she will be back soon.
As always Junie aunty writes like how she thinks - and its so much fun to read her thoughts. Where does she get so much energy from one wonders - have never heard her complain or look at life with disappointment. The fact that she has retained or regained her child like mind is a tribute to her adaptability. Her resilience at wanting to make a change in the world through her writing or her personal crusades or wanting to get the Foundation going is what I suspect gives her the energy to get up each day with a smile and a list of things to do. Certainly her sense of humour has helped her cope with the world that's changing so fast - much better than most of us. There is a lot of honesty, sometimes brutally so, which is what makes it funny and introspective, many little nuggets from her life that she reveals like thinking of Lord Shiva, Shirdi Sai Baba and MLJ before sleeping at night. With such candour and verve, one cannot help but love reading the book and knowing Junie aunty so much more.
Fabulous reading aunty. Loved it. Reading your book is like taking a walk with you on one of those nice sunny days, stopping her and there - brilliant.
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