W... is for Writers' Museum, The

This is by far the best museum I have been to. Dedicated to the lives of  Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, the three of the greatest Scottish writers. There are, of course, painting and sculptures, but there's also memorabilia - their desks, their pens, shoes even.
There are tales of how their greatest works came to be, their stories, inspirations, and thoughts. Lives of these men are brought out in a beautiful collection of objects that were related to them. I grew up reading Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Stevenson's poetry, some of my favourite childrens' works ever! And for me to visit this place was like taking a spin in a time machine and coming face-to-face with my ten year old self.
I loved it! And the courtyard in front of it has their immortal words and the works of other famous authors set in stone. How lovely!

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello, Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, Stirling, Tantallon Castle, Urquhart Castle, Venison.

J... is for John o' Groats!

Again, this post comes at a strange time, for it will have to be updated next week!
John o' Groats is famous famous, as being the northernmost point on the UK mainland. It is not. That glory belongs to Dunnet Head, a peninsula that is close by and that actually is the northernmost point! This weekend, I'm going on a trip to hopefully both these places.
John o' Groats is only 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from The North Pole, a thought that is celebratory and humbling at the same time. It is named after Jan de Groote, a Dutchman who obtained a grant for the ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, recently acquired from Norway, from James IV, King of Scots, in 1496.
There is nothing much to do there, what does one want to do at such a place, I wonder. The sheer feeling of being there, of being so far far away from everything else, everyone else must be so overwhelming. Anyway, as I said, wait for the update :)

Courtesy: Reasons to be Cheerful

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye.

G... is for Glasgow!

Glasgow is to Edinburgh what groom is to a bride. He is west to her east, handsome to her pretty, strong to her fragile, imposing to her shy. Glasgow is the most handsome city I know. The gravity of George Square, the somber plaques that say Merchant City, the burnished dark gold of its buildings... they make you take it seriously. They speak to you in a gruff edgy voice.
It is big, busy, important, and fun. It looks like a proper city and it has the steepest streets; they seem vertical to me! I love Glasgow too, in a way different from how I love Edinburgh. I like the bustling-ness, I like how I usually can't understand a word Glaswegians say, I get excited at flyovers! (yep, no flyovers in lil' Edin).
I do not understand the sense of fashion though... if I had the money to spend and the option of shopping at Glasgow stores, I'd look fabulous! I'd look effortlessly chic, is what I think to myself every time I look at the windows of shops there... Scotland's pretty incomplete without good ol' west coast!

Winter evening, George Square

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge.

W

W is for ‘Watson’.

The dear man, who assisted Holmes like an assistant would, cared for him like a friend, and brought him cases like an agent. Dear Dr. Watson, who was forever overwhelmed, like us readers, by Holmes’ extraordinary powers of observation and deduction. ‘Elementary’ that wasn’t elementary at all. He even saved or almost saved Holmes a few times. But for him, we would never have heard of those brilliant tales. I’ll keep this post till here, it’s been a long day.

Holmes and Watson (Sidney Paget)

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca, Scarlett, Tita, Ursula, Valhalla

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

R

R is for 'Rebecca'.
I never, even for a moment, felt that she was dead and gone. I identified with the second Mrs DeWinters, nameless, faceless. I shivered with her, I despaired with her… Du Maurier struck gold with her intense portrayal of Rebecca. Her presence, like an evil charm, hung on the reader’s head throughout the book. She haunted me right through it all. Manderley, oh Manderley, that fell prey to such dark, gothic forms! My heart bled for it.


I sympathized with Mrs Danvers, even when she was being villainous, at least she had a belief and an existence. The rest of us that the author dragged to Manderley, why we didn’t stand a chance against R at all!

She just overpowered all our senses and took over our lives from us. What a woman, what a book!

P

P is for 'Piyali'.
This girl is the heroine of The Hungry Tide, she studies cetaceans. An American of Indian origin, she comes to the Sundarbans to study them Irrawady dolphins. In a haunting tale of love, high and low tides, and shtrrange relationships that follows, the reader is led through a brilliant travelogue. The writer, Amitav Ghosh, has made a brilliant tale out of this one. The novel is well-researched. And the relationship of Piya and Fokir, her boatman, trancends time and space.
Love that has no words, love that has no name or meaning, perhaps it is not even love but a curious feeling that can exist only in the Gangetic swamps... This is the only contemporary Indian author I have true respect for. The way darkness and light have come together is beautiful, yet disturbing, a highly recommended read. I have written more about it here.

Irrawady Dolphin

N

N is for 'Nancy'.
Nancy Drew, who else!? The smart, intelligent, fantabulous young sleuth from River Heights; the epitome of modern girls. The champ driver, swimmer, actor of a girl that gave rise to one of the most widely sold Young Adult books. The hundreds of books, written by different people, were published under the common pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. Nancy, along with her friends Bess and George, sometimes her boyfriend Ned, nabs some pretty obnoxious criminals.
I spent some 3 - 4 years of middle school devouring these books one after another. And I think all little girls should have wonderful girl inspirations. And Nancy was one such... I loved her intelligence and her wavy blond hair; her powers of deduction and the blue convertible. Good days... simple days...

Nancy Drew, from http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...