Book Review: Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vandela Vida

Wow! This book sounds great, it is definately something I would want to read. There are certain elements to it I like:

1.The title is beautiful, but a lie nonetheless, so of course there is drama bound to ensue.

2. Indians in a snowy secluded place like Scandinavia makes my eyes twinkle with excitement.

3. There is a culture here I don't know anything about, like you mentioned.

4. How does the main character's finacee know the secret about her when her mom only told her former husbands and a friend. Or, was her mom's friend her fiancee ?!? drama drama

5. Any suggestions on how to avoid the same kind of fate in my own daughter's life? Oh no, I'm making DC posts personal again, dam me!

Forever the hippy.

Ms. A:

""Oh no, I'm making DC posts personal again, dam me!

Forever the hippy."'

Never a problem on DC! It is a community after all...we scream, we laugh, we turn nasty(speaking for myself here!) but at the end of that day, that's what real communities are all about...unless one has in mind, a genteel tea-party in victorian England...

Ms. A:

""Any suggestions on how to avoid the same kind of fate in my own daughter's life? ""

_On Children_
by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Shantanu,

Thanks for the review. This book reminds me of the Japanese novelist and Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari Kawabata's _Snow Country_. If not the plot, at least the setting, and the haunting imagery.

"Never a problem on DC! It is a community after all...we scream, we laugh, we turn nasty(speaking for myself here!) but at the end of that day, that's what real communities are all about"

At the end of the day, there is no real community.

"He loves also the bow that is stable."

What happens to an arrow when the bow in not stable? That's fine, hopefully I will be able to post something soon in light of this.

"At the end of the day, there is no real community."

There are only "imagined communities" for sure, but still, what we have on DC is different from an airport transit lounge or the line-up at a cashier in a dept. store! So, relatively speaking, there are communities, but yes, I agree, they are never as stable as folks imagine them to be...

"He loves also the bow that is stable."

Hmmm, have not a clue? As an incorrigible non-believer, perhaps the believers on DC can help out??

Anona..

Run, Anona, Run. Run away from your daughter as fast as you can. Dump her. Discard her. She is not yours. Don't be burdened by her. Save your own soul, that is all is yours. Run to Santa Claus Land, that is only thing that is real, rest is all Maya, Illusion. Or better yet. Leave her to santa claus. Let state worry about her welfare. Let feminists fend for her. Let Grand Saviour save her. Let politicians worry about her worries. Let consumerism own her as consumer, government own her as citizen, economy own her as means of production, humanity own her as human. Let all of them vie to claim her body, mind, soul and free will. But You? Who the hell are you? Get lost.

Anona..

Run, Anona, Run. Run away from your daughter as fast as you can. Dump her. Discard her. She is not yours. Don't be burdened by her. Save your own soul, that is all is yours. Run to Santa Claus Land, that is only thing that is real, rest is all Maya, Illusion. Or better yet. Leave her to santa claus. Let state worry about her welfare. Let feminists fend for her. Let Grand Saviour save her. Let politicians worry about her worries. Let consumerism own her as consumer, government own her as citizen, economy own her as means of production, humanity own her as human. Let all of then vie to claim her body, mind, soul and free will. But You? Who the hell are you? Get lost.

Haha. Kerty, I don't know you, but I know you are not nearly as threatening as the tone of your post.
My love for my daughter will always be tarnished by my past. I hope she learns to hate me in her adulthood, that will mean she has not followed my path.
I'm stupid and have done a lot of stupid things, but I can't run from love or I would've been gone a long time ago.

kerty sahab,

hyperventilating at my cut and paste of gibran? well, we can and should do all we can. but at the end of the day, our children do and will live in a different world - social, political, symbolic, material. if we try to make them replicas of ourselves, we will only be disappointed...just commonsense

cs,

If you died today, who on DC would know, or even care? That's a defunct community, interesting, yes, but defunct. You're all wasting our time here.

Yes, I could sense your atheism coming out.

Sure, if I died today, I wouldn't care either! Why would I care if nobody cared? and why should anyone, except my close friends, care? nobody is indispensable. am i an atheist? i don't think so! an agnostic. how can anyone ever know what the fish is going on out there and everywhere? atheists unintentionally acknowledge that somebody called God exists. Because they do not believe in him/her. I have no idea whether god, him, she or it exists, so why do i have to not believe in her/his/its existence? simply irrelevant to my life...unless one is talking of good beer!

but, I like both of you. You guys can stop fighting over me anytime now.

HAHAHAHHAHA

Well, if I can't flatter anyone and no one will flatter me, might as well flatter myself.

That's SERIOUSLY funny!! No need to flatter yourself, or me, or Kerty. Seriously we are who we are and its that acceptance of myself that makes me tick (Ok, i do get self-righteous a lot, but really, it's not due to any mean-bone in my ribs...I just love to argue passionately, and as anyone who has been here long enough, knows, I do apologise profusely and sincerely the next day, after the alcohol has been recycled). Really, on DC, we do like each other a lot, even the folks we pick up assinine and uresolvable arguments with. Especially them. Reminds me: where the FISH is Man Singh?? And Gill? And Kunal? All fair-weather DC community members? But that's how most communities are...

thought you were a work-a-holic, but now you're just drinking all day and night? Thought they had bars for that. I'm sorry, but you're kinda pathetic. Maybe your woman left you lately?

huh? workaholic...alcoholic...semantics?

huh? workaholic...alcoholic...semantics? am i pathetic. of course! and far worse than that! but then again, i is who i is...

huh? workaholic...alcoholic...semantics? am i pathetic? of course I am! and far worse than that! but then again, i is who i is...know thyself?

the readers may not be a complete community (yet), and be connected only through evanescent bonds of comment-trails (com-trails?), the authors, though, are linked somewhat more closely, and the author-reader linkage is also strong, through the articles, and the light touch of the editors.

Aaman, good point! commonsense is not my personal jaaagir (property)!

Anona..

At the end of day, love too is an illusion, a phase, a shackle, a burden, a bondage. It demands. it expects. It wants to be near. Love is attachment. It wants to be part of. It wants exclusive rights. It does not want to share. It wants to possess. It wants to own. It wants fidelity. It demands matching sacrifices - from the loved. Love comes with strings. Lots of them.

Self-less love, unconditional love are like mirage - they keep you going but there is nothing at the end of it - like a santa claus. Its a myth, a fiction. Have you ever seen how edible oil is traditionally extracted in small villages in India by using a bull - a bull is tied with a rope to a grinder that rotates with the movement of the bull and as bull walks in circles, the grinder crushes the grains and oil is extracted - small fodder is tied with the bull and dangled in front of the bull. So the bull keeps walking in order to catch the fodder but fodder keeps moving with the bull, thus the bull, like a robot, keeps going in circles for hours on end till the oilman's job is done - stupid Bull keeps walking for a small bite of fodder never realizing that it is being made fool of and it is being used. Humans are no better. Some crafty Oilmen dangle Utopias and Laplands in front of them and watch humans run like robots, never getting there and never realizing that they are being used. Why do you want to give in to illusion? You have given her birth. Your job is done. Now move on. Let her be individual of her own.

Anona..

At the end of day, love too is an illusion, a phase, a shackle, a burden, a bondage. It demands. it expects. It wants to be near. Love is attachment. It wants to be part of. It wants exclusive rights. It does not want to share. It wants to possess. It wants to own. It wants fidelity. It demands matching sacrifices - from the loved. Love comes with strings. Lots of them.

Self-less love, unconditional love are like mirage - they keep you going but there is nothing at the end of it - like a santa claus. Its a myth, a fiction. Have you ever seen how edible oil is traditionally extracted in small villages in India by using a bull - a bull is tied with a rope to a grinder that rotates with the movement of the bull and as bull walks in circles, the grinder crushes the grains and oil is extracted - small fodder is tied with the bull and dangled in front of the bull. So the bull keeps walking in order to catch the fodder but fodder keeps moving with the bull, thus the bull, like a robot, keeps going in circles for hours on end till the oilman's job is done - stupid Bull keeps walking for a small bite of fodder never realizing that it is being made fool of and it is being used. Humans are no better. Some crafty Oilmen dangle Utopias and Laplands in front of them and watch humans run like robots, never getting there and never realizing that they are being used. Why do you want to give in to illusion? You have given her birth. Your job is done. Now move on. Let her be individual of her own, on her own.

"stupid Bull keeps walking for a small bite of fodder never realizing that it is being made fool of and it is being used. Humans are no better."

I like to know early on if ppl are capable of displaying human emotions in the right places or not before I get attached. I do so easily, maybe it is my own stupidity, lack of something, or a curse, but it is me and I 'know thyself' well enough. I'm certainly better than an animal and I demand that you treat me better than that as well, even if this is just some place to s**t our thoughts. My sentiments and emotions, although burdensome, can be used as a shield of armor in a war against you peoples and is as valid a tool as the sword in your mouth that licks me devistatingly.

"You have given her birth. Your job is done. Now move on."

Kerty, you sound even more stupid than cs. I can't believe this kind of dumb statement would ever come out of another parent's mouth. You insult me with your barnage.

Anona..

Nothing personal. I am playing a devil's advocate and gave you glimpse of how cold, relentless, emotion-less, and value-less logic of mathematics, science, philosophies, ideologies and visions can be, where feelings, relationships, consequences are just stupid and dumb and expendable baggage of the irrational minds and retrograde era. It allows votaries guided by their visions and ideologies to dispose of whatever others may love and value without remorse or blinking their eye - be it your loves ones, be it relationships and institutions you may have found solace in - family, community, culture, religion. If it made you feel insulted, feeling of being war upon, needing shield of armor and reduced you to name calling i.e dumb and stupid etc, I think you got the drift. Welcome to REAL desi world.

Ms. A:

""Kerty, you sound even more stupid than cs.""

I wallow in my stupidity!! The more the merrier! Thanks for the back-handed compliment...

"Welcome to REAL desi world."

Not really having solid ground, but having a gripe about everything? Pro-offerring bad advice on every topic, but not actually following it while you maintain your platformed traditional values?

I'm not a tool.

I'm coming to Schaumberg and kicking your butt.

Anona..

That would be my turn to run. Run, kerty, run.

You're revoking my invitation? Indian giver!

Anona.

You are most welcome to enjoy the fine Indian cuisines at Dosti. Its just that you got me bit worried about by butt, as I have a very low threshold for pain and I cry easily.

Awwww, I'll be gentle with you, sweetie. Mostly I chat with a lot of 'lols' and icons, so just insert a smiley face anywhere it feels a little rough for you. It was intended in the lightest of manners.

You might still want to run though if you can. Ever wanted to date a patron? ;)

Hehehehe, just kidding.