Review: Custody

Custody by Manju Kapur
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recently, there was a news article in The Times of India regarding fighting of a divorced couple over the custody of their children. Such things have now become commonplace, with increasing number of broken marriages. How the children suffer in broken marriages? How they cope up with the fact of separation of their parents? These questions intrigued me, as I read the newspaper article. It was then that I decided to read this book.

The author, Manju Kapur, has dealt with a very sensitive subject deftly in this book. The emotional trauma of the couples undergoing separation, the tribulations of the children, all are portrayed very convincingly. I particularly loved the end, where a woman, who is not the birth mother of a child, emerges victorious by getting custody of the child. Indeed, parenthood is not just about giving birth to a child, it's about all the love and care that qualify a person to be a parent.

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Review: And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my first book by Agatha Christie. And I am very happy to start reading Agatha Christie.

The story was amazing. It was so gripping that I finished the entire book in just 3 days. Once you have started reading it, you can't put it off without finishing it. The mystery is not resolvable until you have read till the last page. This is a work of sheer intelligence.

Looking forward to read more books by the author.

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Penning the story of my life

If I were the author of my own life, would it have been very different than what it is now? As I am contemplating this idea, the one fact that comes to my mind first is that I was and I am independent, strong-willed, determined to take charge of my own life. I have never let others, not even my parents or my one time partner, determine the course of my life. 

If that is the case, then am I not always the author of my own story?

But then, life has not always turned the way I expected. Whoever be the author, life takes its own course. It is always unpredictable and that's why it is so adventurous. Life is a roller-coaster ride. In one moment, there is so much joy, so much pleasure, the next moment brings excruciating pain. There is peace and calmness in one moment, while the next moment is so much troubing. This, sometimes, makes me so tired that I desparately yearn for some stability in life, whether for good or bad.

If I am the one always, who is the sole author of this story, then why does each twist of the story surprises the author? This is because, I believe, I am not the single author here. Sometimes the flow of events is so beyond my control, that I feel that the god of fate, whom we Hindus call Bidhata-purush, is also writing my story, alongside me. Sometimes the pen is in my hand, but most of the time he snatches it from me and writes as he wants. I feel so powerless, I can't alter his writing.

Take, for instance, the allocation of service after I got selected in West Bengal Civil Service. Just a few more or a few less marks, and I could have easily landed in another person. That means, by now, I would have had a different social circle, met different kind of people, lived in a different place.

Consider the event of my wedding. It could have been with a different person easily. After all, it was an arranged marriage and there were marriage proposals from other guys as well.

But then, destiny takes me where I am today. Where I will be tomorrow will also be determined by the all powerful destiny.

Lastly, I'd like to share a quote from our great epic, the Mahabharata:
"Those who are wise do not feel sorry over fate. Even with the greatest wisdom, that which is ordained will happen. No one can transgress the path that has been laid down."
-The Mahabharata, Anukramanika Parva (Translated by Bibek Debroy)

This post is written in line with the Prompt If you were the writer of your own story - Your Life. How would you have altered it? #choice

Review: Siddhartha

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Heard a lot about this book, saw that the writer Hermann Hesse won Nobel Prize in literature. These motivated me to buy this book and read it with patience. And what a book it is! It's the best book I 've read in 2016 till date and this has the power to inspire you, to transform your life, to make you seek meaning in life! It is all these and more than these.

In very simple, layman's language, this book talks about the deep, spiritual meaning of life, of enlightenment. It's not to finish in a hurry, but to read, to grasp, to contemplate each sentence and the meaning they want to convey.

"Wisdom cannot be passed on. Wishdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness", so says Siddhartha. So read the book to gain some insights into Siddhartha's wisdom.

This is a book which I'd love to read many times over the course of life, just to seek a better understanding of life and it's purpose.

Highly recommended! A must-read for all!

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White: The colour of elegance

What do you associate with the colour white? Do you think it represents simplicity, purity and goodness? Well, it's all that and more than that. To me, white symbolizes elegance. Whenever I wear white, I feel so elegant, with so minimal effort.

I have bought a lot of white dresses of late. See the salwar suits below. The first one is off-white, with beautiful embroidery at the yoke. I bought this one from ajiolife.

The second one is from Trishaa by Pantaloons, off-white in colour, with an embroidered bodice with embellishment. I bought this from amazon.

The third one is from Biba, white and pink in colour. The kurta is asymmetric, with embroidered button and laces.

Whenever I wear any of these white salwar suits, I wear pearl earrings, white stone embedded bangles, white sunflower hair-clip, with my Yo Jelo black flats to complete the look and amplify my graceful look at any social or official ocassion.

How is this look? Which salwar is the most beautiful among the above three?

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Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw that this book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for the year 2007, that it was The New York Times bestseller, some raving reviews of the book, that the book had an intriguing title and precisely those were the reasons why I bought this book. The unique feature of this book is that it is written in the form of a conversation, where we are presented with what only one of the persons engaged in the conversation said. The author's writing style is lucid and free-flowing, as in a conversation. If you judge it from the point of view of literature, it is not a great piece of fiction, but there is an element of intelligence inherent in the narrative.

What I found worth-mentioning about the novel is that it gives a very realistic account of the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the lives of ordinary Muslims. Another thing I must confess here. Being an Indian myself, I always viewed Pakistan as an enemy nation, one constantly in search of one pretext or another to wage a war against India. I think this kind of thinking is ingrained in the collective Indian consciousness. But I was amazed when the protagonist said:

"But I worried, I felt powerless; I was angry at our weakness, at our vulnerability to intimidation of this sort from our- admittedly much larger- neighbor to the east."

And it describes in detail the journey of the protagonist from an intelligent Princeton graduate to being 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'.

This is the first book that I read not just by Mohsin Hamid, but by a Pakistani author also. I loved the fact that at the end of the novel, it gave me a different perspective to look at our western neighbour. I would like to read more books by this author and by Pakistani authors in general.

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Review: The Dawn at Dusk

The Dawn at Dusk by Sandeep Nayyar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Whats more, the courier service delivered the book on 16th May, my birthday, which made me even more delighted to get the book.

Now coming to the review of the book, this is a historical fiction. The time period is post-Vedic era. A rough sketch-map of India is also given at the last page of the book for reference purpose. The story is very engaging right from the beginning. Two parallel stories go on from the beginning and at the end, the author beautifully merges the two. There's the strong female protagonist of the story, Shatvari, who dares to defy the societal norms of her time and go by her own decision. Readers are bound to fall in love with the character of Shatvari. Then there is Mekal king Neel, a brave warrior, who won the hands of the beautiful princess Pallavi, but then refused to marry her. This character, with his bravery, honesty and intelligence, will surely etch a mark in the readers mind. The novel being a historical fiction, clearly shows the meticulous research done by the author on the socio-political conditions, customs, rituals etc. of that time. All the characters are described vividly. Like when the author describes the scene when princess Pallavi emerges from the boat, the description is so vivid that it seems to be happening right in front of my eyes, in a giant movie screen. The description of the scenes of war has also been done with remarkable clarity. The story is fast-paced and captures readers attention from the very beginning. Though it's a novel of 238 pages, the twists and turns of the plot sustain the curiosity of the readers till the last page. It was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for me. The story is so engrossing that it drifted me away to an era bygone, an era when kings, princes, princesses, sages and warriors inhabited our country.

Lastly, I would like to share some quotes from the book which I found worth-remembering:

"Even gods can't foretell anybody's future. You yourself write your future by your present karma. Whatever you sow in the wide arable land of events today, you will have to reap their harvest tomorrow."

"The Vedic philosophy... ...believes the universe as a manifestation of Brahma. They are one and the same. Hence, the universe is as joyful and ecstatic as the Brahma. Life is like an eternal festival."

"...one has to fill his inner void himself. More we try to fill it with the help of someone else the bigger it becomes, because everyone of us is carrying the same void within. We need to fulfil ourselves by finding our purpose in life and accomplishing it by our own deeds."

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