Hayao to the rescue

I spent the best part of last month sewing. To be honest, I need some motivation to get on to my felt crafts. Unless I am stitching for somebody, I don’t feel like picking up the needle and thread. But if you look hard enough, opportunity is bound to present itself to you :) For days together, I was trying to come up with a memorable gift for my friend. And I am not at all joking when I say it’s hard to shop for guys. The best way to gift somebody is to round up their interests and hobbies and get them something related to that. He is a big fan of animated movies and the Hayao Miyazaki movies by Studio Ghibli are his favorite. If you haven’t watched these Japanese animated movies, then you must. The characters are simply adorable. This gave me an idea. Why not make felt toys out of the Studio Ghibli characters! :D And that is precisely what I did. Look below!

Can you identify all of them? :P

Starting from the left, I have named the characters along with the movies they star in.

            Totoro – My neighbor Totoro
          Calcifer – Howl’s Moving Castle
                  Jiji – Kiki’s Delivery Service
          No face – Spirited Away
Dust bunnies – My neighbor Totoro (not in the pic)

The last one is not covered in the pic. I bought black pom-poms and added googly eyes to make them look like the soot bunnies. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of everything and this is the only picture I have. You can see that my stitching is not very commendable :P Totoro’s stitches seem too tight and I ran into a knot when I was finishing up Calcifer. Jiji had its own issues with the eyes melting the first time I tried to stick them using Fevi-kwik (Oops). I did not find time to stitch up No face. My sis and I struggled to glue everything on to his face :D I also wish I had kept everything in the same size. But may be Totoro needs to be a bit bigger than the rest? Hmm.. I don’t know. But I do have a chance to correct my mistakes. You know why? My sister loved these so much that she wants a set all for herself :D 

Yayyy! That’s my first order!! Howzzat :D

Book Review: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I finally managed to read ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank. Somehow, I perceived this to be a very serious book and hence never ventured to read it when I was younger. I wish I had. The book is easy to read although some words may have to be looked up. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who went into hiding along with her family in Amsterdam during the Second World War. They hid in the secret annexe of their office along with another family and took in one more man sometime later. After listening to a radio announcement that said diaries and journals maintained during the war will be published as historical documents, Anne made up her mind to record the daily events of her life in a systematic and elaborate manner. The family was in hiding for two years and the book narrates Anne’s experiences in the annexe, her interactions with the others, her thoughts on various subjects and her dreams.

I don’t think it is appropriate to be reviewing someone’s diary. A diary is basically a person on paper. And we have no right to judge a person. A fictional character has traits established by the author. It is easy to criticize when the character doesn’t stay true to its personality. But how do you comment on a real person? Anne’s diary reaches out to us at a personal level. The book may seem to be full of teenage angst. But let me tell you, I had a diary at a similar age and it was no different. There were times when I thought I could have been Anne Frank in my previous birth :) Then again, maybe every other teenager felt so. That’s the reason I think that this book must be read by both adolescents and adults. Anne expected her parents to treat her as an adult but her parents had no clue. These days, it is known as the 'generation gap'. Anne seems bright and mature for her age. She is spunky and has an opinion on everything. I wonder how many kids can cope so well in a restrictive environment. Yet, she is constantly subjected to age bias.

But that does not mean that her parents did not care for her. They ensured that their kids did not miss out on education. They even remembered to bring Anne’s movie poster collection. The only area where they fell short is in understanding their daughter. To be honest, during the first half of the book, even I got tired of listening to Anne’s rants. Then, I imagined myself being cooped up in a small house with several people, not being able to go out, having to eat the same food, listening to the horrifying stories of cruelty being meted out to people and thinking will I be next? I could relate to Anne much better after that. Once I had taken these few steps, the rest of the journey did not take long.

I think the main drawback of the book is incorrect publicity. This book does not describe the holocaust or its atrocities, as often stated. Anne fleetingly touches these topics since she wrote this book when she was in hiding. In fact, I will go to the extent of saying Anne’s family was relatively safe while the diary was being written since they were in the annexe. But it surely affects you when you get to know how these people were denied basic rights. Despite having shelter, the family never felt secure. They had to be on constant vigil. However, Anne’s optimism even in the face of danger is inspiring. You can actually see Anne growing mature and dealing with the situation better.

I realized how important it is to channel our emotions and try to do so in a constructive manner as much as possible. Writing helps me gather my thoughts and reflect on them. It is really sad that Anne never got to experience freedom in the end. The after math is too touching. Anne’s family was compromised and they were arrested by the Gestapo. All her loved ones were separated from her and she herself succumbed to Typhus. It is indeed tragic that the concentration camp where she spent her last days was liberated soon after her death. A special mention goes to all the Germans and Christians who helped the Jews, during dark periods of struggle, without caring about their own safety. Every one of you is a brave heart. After living Anne’s life through her diary, I am happy that at least her book got published, thus fulfilling her lifelong wish. I will sign off with a quote which appeals to both Anne and me..

"Paper is more patient than man."

A birthday to remember

Another birthday has passed! I so wanted to write about it but did not find time at all. That’s because there is so much to tell. Ever since I remember, birthdays in our family have always been more of family get-togethers. It changed a bit when my sister started working. To give her full credit, she has always made it a point to make it special for me :) But these couple of years, everybody tried their best to turn the whole day into a big celebration!

I love birthdays and there is nothing better than surprise gifts :D With my sister back from Germany, I knew she would definitely have something up her sleeve. My birthday fell on a working day this year. So, the previous night, I tucked in to bed early only to be woken up by her. She was in full on party mode and got the karaoke set out. I couldn’t resist and there we were belting out songs at midnight. When the clock struck twelve, I was called out into the hall. There was a decorated table holding a pretty cake baked by my sister. I went through the ceremony with much fanfare. I was overjoyed to see that my usually reticent mom went out of her way and indulged in some PDA just for me :D Couldn’t have imagined a better start!

I started to work with a spring in my step (told you birthdays make me unusually happy). My car pool buddy had a little surprise for me. A spinion!! Okay, I made that up :P It’s actually a minion dressed up like spider man. How cute is that! When I finally got into my cube, my white board had a big ‘Happy Birthday’. Of course, I know it was by my all in one neighbor/team-mate/lunch-mate/partner-in-crime - ‘M’, as I will call her from now on because I think she may keep popping up :P It put a big smile on my face. M did not stop at that. A cute little hand-made box rested on my desk. It had the prettiest earrings ever and a custom made ring. M is into quilling and she had gifted me some of her best stuff. Awww.. It feels so good when someone actually takes out time just to brighten up our day. Of course I realize that love doesn’t always have to be expressed explicitly, but a few gestures like these make such a huge impact.

By afternoon I was hungry for cake :P Guess what? There was a beautiful red velvet cake waiting for me and my friends had remembered to make it eggless too (I don’t eat non-veg on Thursdays). Three quarters of the cake had disappeared by the time I was allowed to open my present (I had to hunt for it all the over the place btw). I unwrapped a 50 piece coloring set which had all the colors I could think of! I was always complaining about not finding the right skin tones and they had remembered (that is if I ever let them forget). They are so sweet! When I returned to my desk, there was one more parcel waiting for me. It’s raining gifts, hallelujah! :D The parcel had two coloring books and the pictures were simply magical! That’s not all. I even got ‘Humans of New York’ books. I usually don’t buy coffee table books even though I long for light reading. These books with bright pictures and a short story are just perfect.

I came home loaded with gifts. Like all other days, this one had to end too. The similarity ends right there because this day had not been like any other day of my life. I drifted into my room in a happy daze. What I saw next was totally unexpected! My room was filled with balloons :D I pushed them away to find a small pink bucket. Further examination revealed that my sister had decided to have a go at my bucket list :P She had filled up the bucket substituting my wishes with funny equivalents :D We had such a good laugh. Just when I thought I was done with surprises, I was greeted by my third cake of the day. A yummy strawberry cheesecake made by my mom and sis. Phew! So that’s the story of how I got my cake thrice and ate it too :D

When I look back, I realize how loved I am and how much my family and friends mean to me. I feel silly for having let a certain situation shadow my entire world. Everything is not perfect and we have to deal with disappointments and let go of expectations. That doesn’t mean the end of life though. We have people around us who are constantly working towards bringing a smile on our face. It may be a direct attempt or an unconscious effort, but we owe it to them. With that, I hope to be much more sensible and lead a better life from now on. Thanks for the wonderful birthday everybody! You make this world a beautiful place for me and I hope to do the same for you.

I wish I had arranged my gifts a bit better.. Oh well!