No. these are not recently read. These are so old from memory that I had to write them down before they just fizzed away.
It started one lazy afternoon. Starting today. I have actually exhausted my search engines on ipad, iPhone and new Samsung with all such things. something that I am thinking of, searching, reading and promptly forgetting. Some of them food blogs (explains my recent blogs on food??? I thrive on them), some of them movie stories, old actors, some actors who vanished without a trace, home solutions and remedies etc etc...the list goes on. ( see my multi faceted personality?? or rather reading habits).
I was actually reading something...now my brain fails to remember that and I thought of it...all of a ssudden. a book that dada had brought for me way back when I was in first grade. he could obtain such exotic stuff ( didn't know pasta then...we wondered why the fryums didn't fry that well , the chile sauce I spoke of and list will go on) since he worked at churchgate then. churchgate is that part of Mumbai, where way back in 80s, anything exotic could bee obtained. Foreign chocolates being one of them. my kaju vadi habituated mouth tasted Jordan almonds at one such occasion. as usual I am digressing and that too on food...
So on one such occasion he got two books. one for my sister, one for me. I don't know what my sister got. but I got something titled sipsick...I loved the book to the core. the illustrations and stories inside. I heard of pancakes for the first time in that storybook. I read and re read and re re read....the book lost its clothes (read cover) as it was a paperback workbook type of book and I was not a good book user then. Then it lost a few of its limbs ( read pages) dog eared and stained one day it got lost in the monthly newspaper 'raddi' and got lost forever. slowly it faded from the memory as well. the reading world was never found that interesting beyond text books and monthly tinkles till I reached 8th or 9th grade where my 'kaka' (eldest atya's husband)(I prefer to use indian vocabulary...English is just so unsuitable at times) initiated me to the love of reading by giving me my first readers digest. later I started reading Marathi literature in my college days. that's another thing altogether. Sipsick got lost almost perpetually in memory until today. Google again came to my rescue and I put sipsick in the search engine. I saw different results. most of them Estonian books. something however prompted me to see images (I see them mostly when I am completely at loss) and after a few scrolls I saw it. there it was. my memory instantly acknowleged the cover of the book. a painting of a rag doll sitting on the roof, with a striped cat looking at it...there were a few more stories where the rag doll. and the name of the book was "The adventures of SipSik" by Estonian author Eno Raud. the book was published around 1984 and I am sure it is out of print, since amazon is selling a used one for approximately 50$. I so wish I had a worn out version of this book. (I have some real old books. a wren and martin. but nothing would beat this one.)
(one of the stories in SipSik that I remember in which SipSik makes a TV out of cardboard box and presents a programme. my sister has thought but never really replicated the act with the refrigerator box that we got later. it was used as my toy read trash box)
Another book I had got on my birthday by a childhood friend of mine. this book was commented on a lot since this friend gave similar book to every of my friend's birthday. "got in bulk" one of my friends had said conspirationally. This book was a hardback. its name was Bread and dew by Russian author Grigore Vieru.
The same friend had gifted me a book called "Telesik " which was Ukrainian folktale.
I am sure her parents had strange affinity to Russia.
Lastly a Marathi book. Made of thin cheap paper, with a magician flying behind three kids on a flying carpet drawing. a yellow, black , white and orange drawing. The name of the book was " om phat swaha" author unknown. Taken on newspaper stand on the way to long painful bus journey to goa. stained from behind by blue ink splatters. I don't know if I still have it. I hope I do. all the others have either become roast peanut holders or already recycled. Hopefully material for some good book.
I so miss you all. Especially you Sipsik.
It started one lazy afternoon. Starting today. I have actually exhausted my search engines on ipad, iPhone and new Samsung with all such things. something that I am thinking of, searching, reading and promptly forgetting. Some of them food blogs (explains my recent blogs on food??? I thrive on them), some of them movie stories, old actors, some actors who vanished without a trace, home solutions and remedies etc etc...the list goes on. ( see my multi faceted personality?? or rather reading habits).
I was actually reading something...now my brain fails to remember that and I thought of it...all of a ssudden. a book that dada had brought for me way back when I was in first grade. he could obtain such exotic stuff ( didn't know pasta then...we wondered why the fryums didn't fry that well , the chile sauce I spoke of and list will go on) since he worked at churchgate then. churchgate is that part of Mumbai, where way back in 80s, anything exotic could bee obtained. Foreign chocolates being one of them. my kaju vadi habituated mouth tasted Jordan almonds at one such occasion. as usual I am digressing and that too on food...
So on one such occasion he got two books. one for my sister, one for me. I don't know what my sister got. but I got something titled sipsick...I loved the book to the core. the illustrations and stories inside. I heard of pancakes for the first time in that storybook. I read and re read and re re read....the book lost its clothes (read cover) as it was a paperback workbook type of book and I was not a good book user then. Then it lost a few of its limbs ( read pages) dog eared and stained one day it got lost in the monthly newspaper 'raddi' and got lost forever. slowly it faded from the memory as well. the reading world was never found that interesting beyond text books and monthly tinkles till I reached 8th or 9th grade where my 'kaka' (eldest atya's husband)(I prefer to use indian vocabulary...English is just so unsuitable at times) initiated me to the love of reading by giving me my first readers digest. later I started reading Marathi literature in my college days. that's another thing altogether. Sipsick got lost almost perpetually in memory until today. Google again came to my rescue and I put sipsick in the search engine. I saw different results. most of them Estonian books. something however prompted me to see images (I see them mostly when I am completely at loss) and after a few scrolls I saw it. there it was. my memory instantly acknowleged the cover of the book. a painting of a rag doll sitting on the roof, with a striped cat looking at it...there were a few more stories where the rag doll. and the name of the book was "The adventures of SipSik" by Estonian author Eno Raud. the book was published around 1984 and I am sure it is out of print, since amazon is selling a used one for approximately 50$. I so wish I had a worn out version of this book. (I have some real old books. a wren and martin. but nothing would beat this one.)
Another book I had got on my birthday by a childhood friend of mine. this book was commented on a lot since this friend gave similar book to every of my friend's birthday. "got in bulk" one of my friends had said conspirationally. This book was a hardback. its name was Bread and dew by Russian author Grigore Vieru.
The same friend had gifted me a book called "Telesik " which was Ukrainian folktale.
I am sure her parents had strange affinity to Russia.Lastly a Marathi book. Made of thin cheap paper, with a magician flying behind three kids on a flying carpet drawing. a yellow, black , white and orange drawing. The name of the book was " om phat swaha" author unknown. Taken on newspaper stand on the way to long painful bus journey to goa. stained from behind by blue ink splatters. I don't know if I still have it. I hope I do. all the others have either become roast peanut holders or already recycled. Hopefully material for some good book.
I so miss you all. Especially you Sipsik.
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