Today we launch Book 2 of Good God! You can buy Book 1 here:-
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Mon Dieu ! - Livre 2
Aujourd'hui on commence le deuxième livre de Mon Dieu ! Vous pouvez acheter le premier livre ici
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Chez Blandine - 1
Blandine
me demande souvent, pourquoi je dessine des BD ésotériques sur Dieu et religion
et n'importe quoi. Pourquoi je ne peux pas dessiner des BD sur des chiens et
chats comme des bédéistes normaux? Ben, enfin j'ai cédé. À partir
d’aujourd’hui, chaque mercredi, je vais dessiner une BD normale sur des chiens
et chats. Je l'appelle Chez Blandine. Il s'agit de tous mes amis à quatre
pattes (et un à trois pattes) chez Blandine, dont j'ai fait connaissance
pendant mon séjour en France. Mon BD ésotérique, Mon Dieu, va continuer chaque
démanche, comme d'habitude.
Blandine's Farm - 1
Blandine often ask me why I draw esoteric cartoons about God and religion and whatnot. Why can't I draw cartoons about cats and dogs like regular cartoonists? Finally, I gave in. Starting today, every Wednesday, I'll be drawing a regular cartoon about dogs and cats. I call it Blandine's Farm. It is based on all my four-legged (and one three-legged) friends at Blandine's place, whom I met on my visit to France. My 'esoteric' cartoon, Good God, will continue every Sunday, as usual.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
God God ! - THE END!!!
 |
End of BOOK 1 of Good God !!!Next Week: Start of BOOK 2 !Until then, you can buy Book 1 as eBook or Paperback on Amazon here: |
Mon Dieu ! - FIN !!!!!!
FIN - Livre 1 de Mon Dieu!La semaine prochaine: le deuxième livre se commence !!!Vous pouvez acheter le premier livre sur Amazon comme e-book ou paperback ici: |
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Farewell to France
Last day in France .
The following day I fly out. Packing, rushing all over Vienne
taking last minute photographs. Afternoon, Blandine’s mom has called me over
for a farewell lunch. Blandine has made fish casserole for the sendoff party. A
fishy farewell.
I take a last look at the Rhone .
It has been like a friendly neighbor, all these three months. It is virtually a
hop away from Blandine’s house. I had taken a walk on these banks virtually
every afternoon I was here, to clear the head after I had written 1000 words of
my new novel. The only river I’ll have back home is the endless stream of cars
below my bedroom window, late into the night.
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Friday, September 19, 2014
King of the Hill
Did I tell you Blandine owns a hill? Yup, no kidding:-
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Thursday, September 18, 2014
The best for the last: Vienne
I had chased all over France , looking up fine, historic
sights. But the finest and historicest (is that a word?) was right next door: Vienne . Blandine lives in a little commune right across
the river Rhône from Vienne . We have to pass
through Vienne every time we want to go anywhere,
or shop for groceries for that matter.
Vienne, by the way, is also how the French spell Vienna , but this Vienne is a small town in the middle of France , not far from Lyon .
Today, it is almost a suburb of Lyon – Blandine often finds it more convenient
to say she lives in Lyon, than provide tedious explanation about Vienne , and her commune. Heck, even I have been using
Lyon as shorthand for Vienne in these posts.
But in its Roman summer, Vienne was an even bigger centre
than Lyon . While Lyon was Lugdunum to the
Romans, Vienne was Vienna .
Julius Caesar set it up in 47 BC, taking over an earlier Gallic oppidum (Iron Age fortified settlement)
that had been there at the site since Neolithic times. Vienne
had its own amphitheatre, temples and palaces, on both sides of the Rhône. Many
of these Roman remains can still be seen in the city. On the other side of the
Rhône (Blandine’s side), there is a Gallo-Roman museum that houses the remains
of what had once been an extensive Roman palace complex.
Having said all that, I was nearing the end of my visit, and
I did not have a single picture of Vienne . It
is often that way. You keep thinking you’ll do it ‘One of these days’, until it
is too late. I still don’t have a single picture of Jodhpur ,
my hometown – purportedly one of the most important tourist destinations in India .
Eventually, I did manage to take a few shots of Vienne: on
my very last day in France .
Here they are, taken in a bit of a hurry, in the midst of packing and a dozen
other things:-
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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
A buffalo in Montpellier
Trip to Aude, Hérault:
Day 12
Evening of Day 11, we ended up in Montpellier . Last leg. Next day, it was to be
back home in Lyon . Despite having a history of
some sort, and a few assorted monuments in the city center, Montpellier is for the most part a dreary, featureless
modern industrial city. So why were we visiting it? Ah-ha! That shows you
haven’t read my novels. Because, if you had, dear friends, you would have known
that Montpellier
plays a major role in many of my novels. Of
course I wanted to see it!
When I was still fleshing out the plot of Exploding Buffalo, I wanted a French
location. Any French location. So I
took a map of France
and plonked down my finger on it. It landed on Montpellier . As the novel took shape, and I
turned Faltoo into an illegal immigrant, one who habitually smuggles himself
aboard cargo ships and lives in a grungy, seedy cityscape, Montpellier started to look a less than
optimal choice. Marseilles
would have fitted the story better. But by then, it was too late. As Omar
Khayyam once said: The plonking finger plonks, and having plonked, stays
plonked. Nor all thy Piety nor Wit shall lure it back to unplonk. Nor all thy
Tears make it budge an inch. But still, it wasn’t terribly bad as a choice. Montpellier has a lot of Algerian immigrants, some
allegedly illegal, who live largely in the seedy immigrant banlieue of
Mosson, and it is close to the harbor town of Sète .
Our first move was to the center of it all, the Place de la Comédie
at the heart of Montpellier .
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Minerve, village of blood
Trip to Aude: Day 11
(Evening)
Having heard princess Carcas sound the bells of the cité, we
headed north to Montpellier, taking the scenic route as usual, and trying to
take in a couple of beaux villages
along the way. We were back in Aude, the land of the Cathars, and a scenic
route meant just that: an exhilarating drive through narrow mountain roads
winding past scrubby, wild hills dotted with ruined castles with bloody
histories.
Minerve is not technically in Aude. It is just across the
border in the neighboring region of Hérault. But for all practical purposes,
going by the landscape and history, it could be. It is very much a part of
‘Cathar Country’.
Minerve turned out to be the most spectacular beau village we had seen yet. Seen
merely as a ‘pretty village’, we had seen prettier. But take into account its
savage setting and gruesome history, and it went right to the top of the
charts. Here is our first view of the village, across the gorge of the river
Cesse.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Carcas sounds the bells
Trip to Aude: Day 11
Evening of Day 10 we finally landed up at Carcassonne . We were back in Aude, back with
ruined Cathar castles, and back on my original itinerary. Carcassonne was one of the highlights of my
original Aude plan, before Blandine threw a fit and upturned it. The reason we
were here was simply because it happened to be on the way back home, and
Blandine had recovered from the earlier overdose of Cathar castles, and was in
a position to take one more.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Another church by the wayside.
Trip to Aude/
Midi-Pyrénées: Day 10
Still en route to Carcasonne. We ran into another quaint
little church by the wayside.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Montolieu, village of bookworms
Trip to Aude/
Midi-Pyrénées: Day 10
After a cassoulet lunch at St-Félix-Lauragais, we headed out
to the next step on the itinerary, Carcassonne .
On the way, we ran into the beau village of Montolieu
Friday, September 12, 2014
The Bells of Villefranche
Trip to Aude/
Midi-Pyrénées: Day 10
While on the hunt for the best cassoulet in France (see last post), we passed this
interesting looking structure while zipping through the town of Villefranche , somewhere between Toulouse and Castelnaudary. At that point, we
weren’t so hungry that we wouldn’t stop to investigate.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The best Cassoulet in France
Trip to Aude/
Midi-Pyrénées: Day 10
We can’t leave Toulouse
without eating cassoulet, declared Blandine. Toulouse is the home of cassoulet. I wasn’t
terribly enthusiastic. Cassoulet is this kind of pasty white bean stew with
lots of goose fat, and bits of roast goose and sausage. It is one of those
traditional French dishes, like coq-au-vin, which have a hoary history going
back into the mists of time. In case of cassoulet, it is a peasant dish from
the South of France, used by farm laborers to fuel up in preparation for a
grueling day on the field. First invented, I believe, during a siege of some
sort, when the defenders of some place or the other invented a dish with
whatever was at hand in their beleaguered redoubt. Blandine had sent me a can
of it once. It had tasted pasty, glutinous and bland. A bit like eating a can
of industrial woodworking glue.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Old Toulouse
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 9 (Evening)
The best part of Toulouse
for me was simply walking about the old city, with houses dating back several
centuries.
Many of these old buildings have inhabitants who having been
living here several generations. Others have been converted into student
hostels, and you can hear students bawling out to each other across narrow
lanes.
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
The Balconies of Toulouse
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 9
While walking about old Toulouse , I fell in love with the cast-iron
balconies on 18th and 19th century town houses that line
many of the lanes. Here are some of the more interesting ones:
Monday, September 08, 2014
Historic Toulouse
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 8/9
We landed up at Toulouse
around 5 PM. We headed straight for the historic center of Toulouse , the ‘old city’, to track down a
quaint old B&B to stay the night. There were plenty of quaint old red-brick
B&Bs in that lovely old part of town, but they were way beyond our budget.
Finally, we settled for a small and newish business hotel in the new part of
town, just across the river (La Garronne) from old Toulouse . Even if we weren’t in the old town,
we consoled ourselves that we were just a walking distance from it. And we did
walk that distance, once we’d dumped our suitcases. We walked across the lovely
red-brick Pont Neuf (that is French
for New Bridge. It was new. When it was built, back in the
16th Century) to the old city for a stroll and dinner.
Sunday, September 07, 2014
The Lombez Cat
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 8 (Afternoon)
While strolling around the old town square of Lombez
Saturday, September 06, 2014
The Lombez Tower
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 8 (Afternoon)
Having checked out Space
Cattle country, we nosed our steed homewards, towards Lyon, taking a long
arc through Toulouse and Carcassonne .
We were zipping along fast, almost halfway to Toulouse . We had taken
the ‘scenic route’, as usual, but it was still pretty boring. Nothing like the
amazing route from Perpignan to Lourdes . When we were brought up short by
this extraordinary structure peeping over the horizon.
Friday, September 05, 2014
Psychotic Mutant Space Country
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 8
Early next morning, we headed out of Lourdes
for the thing for which I had really
come to Lourdes .
My main interest in Lourdes ,
if you recall, was due to the fact that I had based one of my novels there:
Perl and the Psychotic Mutant Space Cattle (Read about it here). But the town
of Lourdes
itself features very little in the novel: just the final climax scene happens there.
Most of the action takes place in the outskirts of Lourdes ,
in a fictional farm in the foothills of the Pyrenees .
I had written Space Cattle without ever having seen the
Pyrenees, or Lourdes , or even France . Now at
last I was going to get to see in real life the places I had seen so clearly in
my imagination. By the way, you might wonder why I chose to base my novel in a
place I had never seen. Don’t novelists like to base their stories in places
they are familiar with? Nope, not experienced novelists. Only beginners stick
to the tried and true. Once you have written a couple of novels (I have written
six), you like try new things. There is something so incredibly liberating
about writing about people, places and things of which you have no firsthand
knowledge. It sets the imagination free. Like most beginners, in my first novel
I had stuck to locations I knew like the back of my hand: Bangalore ,
Munich , Singapore
If you’ve read Space Cattle, or if you clicked on the above link to read the synopsis, you would know that the novel is about a herd of
Lourdaise cows in a farm in the outskirts of Lourdes , who start singing opera. Perl and
Hari, scientific detectives, are called in to investigate. In Chapter 3, they
land up in the town of Lourdes
to rendezvous with the project manager for the musical cow project.
Right, so here we were, following the route that Perl and
Hari take from Lourdes
to the farm with the singing cows. Perl and Hari take D821 out of Lourdes , heading south towards the Spanish border, and the
Pyrenees . A couple of kilometers out of Lourdes , they take the
first branching road on the left.
Here we are, at the branch.
They then take a narrow country road heading up into the
lower Pyrenees .
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Lourdes by candlelight
Trip to Aude / Midi-Pyrénées:
Day 7 (Evening)
After checking out the Upper Basilica at Lourdes and sampling the holy water at the
Grotto, we were just in time for the Blessed Sacrament Procession in the
Underground Basilica – The Basilica of St. Pius X. The Underground Basilica is
fairly modern, and has been accused of looking like an underground car park.
But I rather liked it. It reminded me of an aircraft hanger.
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