Chez Moi

The UK media has been flooded with images and news reports of four-year old Madeline McCann, who disappeared from the Algarve, Portugal, more than three weeks ago. She was holidaying in Portugal along with her parents and twin younger siblings. On May 3, 2007, she disappeared from the family’s holiday apartment at the Pria de Luz, even as her parents dined at a restaurant right opposite. They had checked in on her barely thirty minutes back.

She hasn’t been seen ever since.

This is every parent’s worst nightmare come to life; being a mum of a toddler myself, I cannot even begin to imagine what the poor McCanns must be going through every single second. Not a day goes by without them seeking some form of sustenance in the form of prayers and visits to sacred churches, to pray for the safe return of their daughter.

They have vowed to find their missing child at all costs. Public funds have been set up to aid in the search and celebrities like J K Rowling and Simon Cowell, amongst others, have contributed to this. The McCanns are hoping the toddler’s distinct right eye, where the iris bleeds into the pupil, would prove to be a valuable tool in the search.

Here’s hoping the child is returned safe and sound to her parents’ soon.

Meanwhile, I came across this poignant blog, set up by friends of a desi in US who has gone missing. This is no helpless toddler; this is a man grown, who went hiking and hasn’t been heard of since. But, he is still is parents’ child and I am sure they are just as desperate for news of Kiran’s whereabouts as the McCanns are of Madeline.

When people go missing, it somehow feels worse than death. At least with death, you get to say goodbye, you grieve for your loss and you try to pick the pieces. When a loved one goes missing, how does one bear it? There is no news of what has happened, a constant state of ‘are they well? how/where/in what condition are they?’ that goes through the family and friends’ minds non-stop.

I once read this novel of Mary Higgins Clark, where a child is abducted and sold to a couple who cannot have children. The childless couple bring her as their own and she lacks nothing. She doesn’t know she isn’t biologically theirs till she is almost thirty and that too, by sheer accident. Meanwhile, her birth family goes through sheer hell - her mother’s mission in life is tracing her lost daughter and she neglects her husband and older son; the parents get divorced and the brother grows up somehow, with the ghost of his missing sister constantly there. I remember reading it and thinking ‘how ghastly’. The mum in me shuddered at the turmoil her family lives through.

I now hope and pray for the well being of these children, and the hundreds of missing loved ones the world over. I hope the parents’ search is over soon and the children find their way back home, safe and sound.

Edited to add: I am really saddened to note that Kiran’s lost his life in a freak accident while trekking in the Yosemite with friends. According to news reports, he slipped and fell into the whitewater. His body was found Tuesday, May 29, ten days after he went missing. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Madeline McCann is still missing.

I was chatting with a blogging mate of mine about the stuff that life’s generally made of - Bill Bryson, DC writers with a penchant for ignoring rules, assorted idiots who cannot read / absorb the clear Comments policy, Bangalore weather v Chennai, relative merits of LinkedIn, Orkut, Tagged etc when the topic arrived, some how, at girls. Well, this isn’t such a shocking concept considering I am a card carrying member of the species but in this instance, it is the lack of eligible bachelorettes that was causing said mate some problems.

Birthdays arriving thick and fast, with no suitable girl sending a gushing Val’s day card has proved to be the bane of his mum’s life and she has recently given up dropping subtle hints in favour of actively jabbing him with the fork during meal times, in an effort to make him get the skates on and get on with the job of getting her a daughter in law, like NOW.

In this enlightened day and age, us being blogoholics and all that, what better way to kick start this modern day head hunt than, well, blog about it? Rather like the matrimonial version of The Apprentice, we are now inviting applicants for the enviable role of a permanent partner of Mr K. Of course, there are a few stipulations: that the applicant must be a girl, is an obvious one. She must also belong to the enviable TamBram community of South India, in order to please the senior cast member.

Interested applicants leave a message in the comments and await our call eagerly.

We all know what an impossible soul dear ole Ams is. She never does anything by halves. So she’s gone and listed an impressive array of tomes in her Indian authors/books. I have as much chance as the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of coming up with one half so impressive. So I decided to go my way and make it short n’ sweet.

So here is my list of Indian authors / books I have read or would love to read:

1. Ashok Banker’s Seige of Mithila - Second book in his very impressive Ramayana series. Can’t wait to lay my hands on it. It was Dee who relentlessly badgered me into reading the first one and like Ams, I wasn’t really hooked onto it from the start. The twins calling one another ‘Shot’ and ‘Luck’ sounded more Hardy Boys-ish than anything. But once I passed those, it was pure heaven. A must-read.

2. Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan - I have read parts of it when it was serialised but for a long time now, have been meaning to read it in its entirety. Mean to get my mitts on my mum’s copy when I visit the folks later in this year. Ooh!

3. Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music - yeah yeah I own up to not having read this till now. I have borrowed it now from the library so should get cracking on it soon!

4. David Davidar’s House of Blue Mangoes - heard / read good things about this one. When I heard he is the Mad Momma’s uncle, I am determined to read it!!! (Call me shallow!)

5. Jawahara Saidulla’s Burden of Foreknowledge - Sujatha Bagal of Blogpourri has said such lovely things about this book that I am compelled to put it on my ‘must read’ list. Added to it, the fact that she is a Desicritic makes her work unmissable!

6. Saavi’s Washingtonil Thirumanam - absolutely hilarious! Made me long for the traditional Tambram weddings of yore. ‘Shhhiver bath’ is a phrase you would not forget!

Phew! Time to pass the baton to Apu, Dee, Suj, Premalatha, Dubukku and my fellow mummy bloggers MM, Tharini, Itchy and Boo.

Big thanks to the Mad Momma and Dubukku for responding to the tag. Their spectacular efforts have made me hang my head in shame to see such impressive lists of Indian authors / books.