Oh Boy!

That was one sweet book and made me want to write about my childhood too some day - of fishing in the little streams of our fields, of the wild flowers and myriad dragon flies that kept us entertained during our summer vacation and our trips to the tution miss's house every evening among other things. By us, I mean me and my two first cousins as my brother was too young and not in school then.
Well, I should have read Boy first and then gone on to Solo but I did it ulta. Anyway it was a far easier read than Solo.

Ash has a dr appointment today - his Hepatitis A immunisation which was due in Oct 06 and which I forgot. Hope to get some shopping too on the way back, if he feels fine.

Dahl's Solo

I just about managed to finish the book, an autobiography from Roald Dahl's wartime days. I didnt exactly enjoy the part about his war exploits but as an ardent fan, I prodded on. I more enjoyed the first part about his days in East Africa especially Dar es Salaam.

It was good to read another person's account of a place you have lived in - though Dar in 1938 was different from the one we saw in 1982-84. The tryst with snakes and lions made interesting reading. I dont remember seeing any snakes when I was there but Tanzania had that abundance of flora and fauna that the dark continent is famous for. My favorites were the green lizard and the grey lizard with the yellow head, the common lizards in Dar unlike the pale brown and the brown ones in India.

My cousin sister, who had lived most of her life in Africa, kept a collection of butterflies for her school project and they were so beautiful and varied. She also gave me interesting insights into the life and activities of ants living in her garden.

Ash's health is still cause for concern as he throws up food occasionally. He has a follow-up appointment tomorrow with the paed and the gastroenterologist.

Remembering Bhutto

Death by hanging is something that I find terribly inhuman, however heinous the crime committed by the sentenced. Reading through Khushwant Singh's account (Death at my doorstep) of Z.A. Bhutto's tryst with the hangman's noose, I couldnt help feel another bout of grief (the first was while reading about it in Tehmina Durrani's My Feudal Lord) for the flamboyant Prime Minister.
Bhutto was hanged in April 1979. I was pretty young to understand its significance then, but I did sympathise like my family for the dead man. Bhutto's death and the fall of Skylab were two major newspaper headlines from those times that I still remember. People worried that the Skylab would fall over their heads/ houses - it finally fell into the sea. The next major event was the solar eclipse in the early 80s, when we looked at a reflection of the sun in cowdung water - looking at the sun with the naked eye during an eclipse is beleived to blind you for life.
Coming back, I guess Saddam Hussein will be the next to be hanged but of course the repercussions are likely to be greater unlike in Gen. Zia's Pakistan.