The Elephant Vanishes

Finished reading a marvelous set of stories by Murakami which is titled "The Elephant Vanishes." What gets me is his ability to blend the real and the surreal in a mixture which leaves you thought-provoked. Stray remarks and lines in the stories are pregnant with meaning, and make you introspect about life, love, relationships, 'pragmatism', jobs, and the whole business of being. A similar effect was when I read Zorba The Greek a few months ago.

The stories are also about a variety of things-an amazing variety, from cats to elephants to clocks, to ordinary people and extraordinary people- TV people, in one of the stories, who behave somewhat like aliens visible only to the protagonist. There is a hidden meaning in almost all the stories, and sometimes you don't get it, too.

Also read a book on Kundalini and Tantra by a westerner. Seems quite interesting, though complex.