Random thoughts

... my favourite author of all time would undisputably be pelham grenville Wodehouse. Born over a hundred and twenty years ago, he's written 18 musical comdies, and more than 90 hilaarious books.. his sense of humour and style of writing are truly unique. true, his stories are not gripping ... no lives are endangered every few seconds, no ghosts and ghouls and monsters of the night,. no gun fights and wars and stealthy murders.. no adventures in exotic lands,. no nail-biting suspense.... true, he does include a lot of romance,.. but his are not the type of books that you will sigh and get all moony-eyed over, nor will they reduce you to red-faced sobbing into a wad of tissues.. any tears that do well up will be a result of laughing too much!! .. wodehouse's books are the sort u can pick up at any leisure moment, .. the kind that will brighten the dullest of days and lighten the foulest of moods... his writings are generously laced with irony and effortless wit. his characters are described in exquisite detail,.. each with his/her own peculiarities in speech and manner.. your eyes cannot fail to light up and you'll find yourelf smiling as you read about their antics. irressitible as his books are to me, i find that relatively few in the city recognise his genius. most of my age-group think that the books are boring(?!!) and actually prefer (uggh!) Sidney Sheldon over him ! ah well.. to each their own i suppose..

Wodehouse has written a number of connected books, with similar old favourites... probably his best known characters are Bertie Wooster- affluent, too-helpful a nature, a strong magnet for trouble of any kind, who spends half his time trying to break off engagements with pretty girls intent on improving his mind...- and his good old faithful valet Jeeves,- calm, serene, extremely critical about bertie's wardrobe, super-efficient, with a huge brain (that bertie attributes to fish! ) that provides a solution to every possible predicament, and buckets of the ol' feudal spirit.... some of the best wooster books are "what ho jeeves", "thank you jeeves" , "joy in the morning" ....Another set of favourites are the inahbitants of the spectacularly beautiful Blanding's - owned by the lord Emsworth- a wooly-brained, genial old man, who's life's joy is pottering among his flowers, his prized pig 'the empress of blandings' , and his constant war with his head gardner Angus mcAllister.... his sister Lady Constance- stern and frosty, constantly exasperated by Emsworth's woolly-headedness,.... Sir Gallahad the eternal knight in shining armour, the stately butler Beach, Freddie Threepwood, and the motley crowd of guests always at Blandings. the stories at Balndings usually involve several attempted roberies- diamonds, pigs,- anything thats not nailed down!!, separated young lovers, broken hearts, hilarious schemes, and several false identities.... another favourite is Psmith ( i quote- "the p is silent , as in phthisis, pshrimp and ptharmigan" !!)... the perfect gentleman, and with the most absurd and yet endearing manner of speech.. and best of all is "leave it to Psmith", where wodehouse packs both psmith and blandings castle , resulting in one of the most entertaining fiascos ! :)

apart from these, there are several other hilarious characters, such as monty bodkins, bingo little, uncle fred, sally, urkridge and the rest... wodehouse also writes several stories set in america. he describes in gory detail the life in a motion pictures company, the gang wars, the street fights, the boxing matches,.. in a supremely light-hearted tone.oh well.. i could go on and on about his characters.. but, is shouldn't bore you.. for those who've read his work... well you know all about them yourself ,comrades... and for those who havent yet experienced the delight of listening in to the conversation of 'eggs, beans and crumpets' .. or who've never read an account of jeeves' opinion on bertie's purple socks... all i can say is- hop on board, and learn to look at life funny side up!.. life's not meant to be taken all that seriously... after all.. as the genius himself said - "life's a rum thing.. a rum thing inded!! " :):)