She Blogs About This and That!

I have been reading a lot of non-fiction books lately ranging from Biographies to Self-help. I recently hit a plateau however and had a fervent urge to go back to fiction again, and I figured, what better than The God of Small Things to kick-start the genre again. The first two times I'd read the story, they were in shattered-battered copies from libraries. This time, I finally decided to own a copy because I want to start a tradition of reading it once every decade of my life. I was searching for it at a local bookstore, where the books were arranged by the first alphabet of the Author's names. I did locate The God of Small Things easily and I noticed that by its side, lied a glaringly colorful hard-bound book. At first glance, I read the author name as Arundhati Roy so I immediately picked it up to know more. I searched for it on Goodreads wondering why I hadnt heard of " All the lives we never lived " by Arundhati Roy and as I read, I realized it was by a diffe

When Netflix’s recommendation displayed the docu-series “Wild,Wild Country”, I was uninterested. One of my friends had enlightened me about Osho Rajneesh’s teachings when we were still teenagers. The bits and pieces of the cult, she had gathered from one of the neighbour uncles, who at the time I think had no filter as to what to be shared with teenagers and what not, didn’t sound sound to me. According to her information, Osho was a spiritual guru who encouraged people to find happiness via physical means! At the time, I wasn’t sure she even knew what she was talking about! But anyways, that was the picture I had in mind of Osho. As a grown up, I am no longer a prude but the image of Osho hadn’t changed until recently. I started watching the series because it had tons of hippie culture shades. I have been fascinated with hippies and their liberated way of living ever since I watched Woodstock documentary. So, the summary as was on Netflix, got me a bit curious and so I start

This year, I have taken up a challenge on Goodreads to atleast read 40 books. I am at 29/40 now. My 27 th book in the “Read” list was Hillary Clinton’s “ What Happened ”. Coming from one of the most misunderstood women in the history of American politics, it was heart wrenching to read what Hilary went through after the colossal loss. How can using a personal email id mask all the good stuff she had done over the years, how can people conveniently forget how hard she had worked along with Obama to keep the Big brother safe, how can they chose a self-confessing “pussy-grabber” over a person who had education and experience to lead a country that every other country looks up to, how can they sideline this woman’s body of work and entrust the entire political responsibility to a man whose only promise to make America great again was building a big wall? That memoir got a lot of emotion out of me and I chose to go back to reading some graphic novels so I could at least complete the read

I think it was the summer of 2006 that I first read a book that made me realize there is more to a book than just a nice story. I went through the rite of passage in reading cycle by starting the habit with books written  by Sydney Sheldon & John Grisham. One fine day, in the college library, a book with a badly torn jacket caught my eye. The cover had a small pink flower in a pond covered with what look like lotus leaves. It was such a simple picture and yet I was so drawn to it. There was something about this book. I had to explore. And boy ! did I make the best decision. 1. The God of Small Things     Yes, the cover with murky, green leaves & pink flower was The God of Small Things. I don't think I have read another book this beautiful. The way Arundhati Roy describes the intricacies and nuances of her characters, the way she writes about Ammu's love for Velutha, the way she writes about Rahel & Estha's strange relationship, Baby Kochamma's

Its not rare for us to see talent that exists all around us, but its very rare to witness the intensity of passion that goes into the making of their art. You sit in your cubicle, doing a 9-5 jobs, punching numbers and what not into your laptop with pressure mounting, each passing day. What is the only thing that liberates you amongst all the seriousness of life, personal or professional? Art! That's right. It could be a song like Young Man Blues where Keith Moon is destroying your soul or could be an Eric Clapton's duel with the face-filled-with-gazillion-expressions John Mayer or a pleasing wallpaper of a Picasso painting or even a powerful dance video like Mery & Maks' Freestyle Finale for DWTS 2014! You know why it is liberating? Because we all have in us a passion to do something great in life. And this passion, even if its for a blink and miss moment is triggered by the power of these other people's passions. Emma Stone was right when she

What is it about people wanting to move from their herd to become independent these days? Has it always been there? Am I noticing it late or is this a new thing (in which case I am still keeping up, thank god!)? Either ways, I feel fascinated at people trying to move away from a comfortable setting to which they are used to, to find an identity for themselves. And obviously am talking about people like Zayn Malik. Nobody asked the chap to leave 1D, nobody pushed him to pursue a different identity than the one he was tied with, nobody assured him of the security blanket that encapsulated him at his time in 1D to continue protecting him. Despite all the odds stacked against this decision, he broke the protective barrier around him to find himself, the Zayn Malik, independent of his band.  When I was his age, I decided to study more just so I could buy more time before opting for a career carved out of an interest rather than of voicelessness. Even with a life s

We all have this wish. It might arise out of having missed doing something in life or to just experience/re-experience the whole shebang the exact way it was. Either ways, what a wonderful opportunity it would be to go back in time! Sometimes I wonder despite having all kinds of capabilities, why humankind hasnt been able to build two things in particular: Personal wings (we ll worry abt the air traffic later) & Time Machine. Even best of the best minds havent been able to do anything to decipher a possibility like this in space-time continuum. Anyhoo. If it were a possibility of if it becomes a potential possibility, here are somethings I would like to experience -  Iran in all its glory - What a mighty fall this country had had. You could search of how beautiful and culturally advanced Iran was before the war. These guys would listen to punk rock, women had the liberty to wear anything they would want and not cover it with the hijab, academics were in huge numbers and thei