Behind the Blog # 5: On Countries

Behind the Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts, Faye, Kathe, and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or other media they find interesting!

Because of the recent Jubilee, a time to celebrate everything British, as well as the upcoming Olympics, we’re looking at countries this week. Where do you live? What is your favorite country and why? In relation to media, what book has described a place you desperately want to visit? What film has showcased an area you someday want to go?

Well, even though I'm bad at geography, I would admit it, I've still read plenty of books to understand and know about some marvelous places I most certainly would want to visit some time in my life! I don't know a lot about many places, still, ironically, I really want to visit, see and explore every beautiful city, town, island in the world! :D

I wouldn't say my country's awesome. India has a rich culture, great history, I love the natural beauty of some places and I especially love the mountains in the north! I don't mind saying mountains are my favorite kind of landscape. I really like the sound of climbing those huge natural structures, gear and all. I don't know when it will be that I get to climb Mt. Everest someday (not exactly in India, it falls in Nepal, but still), but it's definitely on my bucket list of things-to-do-in-my-life! What I don't much like is the corruption that's literally making the country fall apart and making it less appealing to me day-by-day! I mean, I used to be such a my-country-best thinker as a kid, but seeing corrupt, sad, bad, pitiful things happening, stuff that should be illegal (and it is!) happening without any repercussions, is really affecting the way I feel. Living in a city where I can only see cement and brick buildings all around with hardly any open space to enjoy watching the stars doesn't help (which I love watching. One such experience was in Shimla, a hill station in north! It was filled with stars! Awesome!). Sometimes I wish I was in a place better suited to my interests. I would happily swap the present one with one in the mountains or with natural beauty around! I know ultimately I'll be living the life I want for myself, including the places and all, but I can't wait for it! Even then, I wouldn't say I'm not enjoying. I love my friends and we have awesome fun together. I know many great people who share similar thoughts and who're really kind. Whatever the pitfalls, it's still 'my country and my people.' :)

That's me on my first trip to London.
In Trafalgar Square. I was what?
One and a half years old!

Coming to foreign countries, I've actually only ever been to London (thrice, the last time being when I was just 12!), Australia and for a very short while, Singapore. All these trips were before I was 12, so you can guess how very bad I want to go somewhere, now! There's no saying when the next time will be, so I keep myself happy with the 'within-India' trips! I love London, though. With all that I remember, the best thing I would say is the cleanliness, which is bad here. :| It was like a life from a novel, which it would be, I realized, because I've read some with the setting over there! Australia would've been fun too, if the pictures are any indication. I was so small that I don't remember anything more than our family friend's place where we stayed, the pool outside their home, a visit to some park where there were extremely tall men walking on stilts and some fireworks! We were in Brisbane. It has beautiful landscape and I think even back then, I loved it! Dad visited Perth recently and boy, was it bea-uti-full!!! I fell in love with that place just by seeing the pictures! Hills on one side and the sea on the other. In my words, "heaven"! I really want to go there sometime! 

Venice! I want to be here!

Coming to books, I think The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson was one book that's made me really yearn to visit the wondrous city of Vienna, with it's special Spanish Riding School, the Prater (which has a once-upon-a-time world's biggest giant wheel) and the world's greatest musicians like Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss have all lived and composed over there! Then of course, I want to visit Europe and its cluster of wonderful countries too (all of them, especially Venice, the city of waterways, canals and bridges). To think about it, I want to visit every place imaginable! Fiction can give us so much flexibility in our thoughts that nothing seems impossible! Another book by Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea had brilliant descriptions about the Amazon river and life of people who lived around it. In fact, among my top-favorite-things-I-like-about-books, is the extent to which it describes real places and its people. :)

So what do you think? What are your favorite places or those where you want to be?