Playing fonts

Monday’s were cursive, Tuesday’s were block.
Each day of the week a new font she’d unlock.

The days she was cursive, she was happy and gay.
On Tuesdays she was more of a lawyer at play.
But when came Wednesdays, she hid in a shell.
Because Thursdays and Fridays never went well.

All through the week she knew she could range, because with each passing font, her personality would change.

Some called this fickle, some called it strange.
But for her lifeless hands, imagination was the only way.

City lanes

I want to walk around at night
When the city comes alive
As moonlight and stardust revive them

I want to feel the wind on my face
As the wide roads make way
For the stories that they have inside them

I want the walls to sing a hymn
The pavements to join in
As I walk through the city all night

Karno’s Daughter

You tend to relate to a book better, when you can visualize yourself in that very ecosystem. With this book I felt exactly that. I’ve spend a considerable amount of time in Kolkata, and when I started reading this book I realized that it was scripted in that very city. Thanks to that picturing everything in the book became so much easier.

Karno’s Daughter was a refreshing read for me after the multiple fictional books I’ve been reading. An abstract from the life of a domestic helper in Kolkata, narrated by one of her many employers. Beautifully written and perfectly captured, this book should definitely be something you should aim to read next because it shows us a side of life we tend to ignore.

Living in a country where having a domestic help is extremely popular, be it a part time or stay at home help, how many of us actually take out the time and talk to them. Have you ever asked them a little more than the necessary questions of how long do they boil the rice, or how much mirchi do they prefer adding to the food. Well, if you haven’t you should read this lovely book and get a glimpse of the hardships that they go through and maybe understand that sometimes talking to their employer is what actually solves a fraction of their problems.

One cannot imagine how for some might be a calk walk, for them is a different ball game altogether. I wouldn’t want to give out too much of the book, but every chapter reflects upon aspects of our lives and how society and we as part of it have somehow drawn this imaginary line that for no fault of theirs pushes them below it.

Empathy is a quality that sets one apart, and maybe, just maybe, reading this book might help us do just that.

Happy reading!

Difficult Women

A collection of bold feminist stories by Roxane Gay

A book close to my heart because it was gifted to me by my best friend on my 25th birthday. The line that gripped me to read the book is quoted below…

“For difficult women, who should be celebrated for their very nature.”

Difficult Women is a collection of 21 bold feminist short stories that make you experience a plethora of emotions, ranging from heartbreak to a chill down your spine. Each story has been put down like a novel of its own, always captivating and sometimes confound.

Every one of these stories in this book carry characters that have complicated personalities: men and women alike, who fight battles and demons not just externally but within themselves as well. Arising from both ends of the rainbow, you’ll read about neighborhoods where people compete and spy on each other, to women fending for themselves through inappropriate over zealous advances made to them. You’ll experience goosebumps as you read about the hart wrenching pain conflicted on someone, to bitter heartbreak as you read about a young woman being manipulated by twins. Some of these stories will haunt you, but, some will enlighten you. It’s your call on how you want to take them on.

21 varying stories that will definitely captivate you. 21 stories that will make you wonder why and 21 stories that will make you see things in a new light altogether.

I won’t say you’ll love all the chapters but, you’ll definitely find a few that will hold on to you forever.

Happy Reading!

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “She was smart enough to want more but tired enough to accept the way things were.”
2. “We were young once and then we weren’t.”
3. “People in town didn’t understand Anna and largely believed her to be godless, a designation she rather enjoyed because she understood that in their community, to be godless was to have a mind of one’s own.”
4. “Silence is the cruelest of cruelties.”
5. “We were young once.”

 

 

 

Three Daughters Of Eve

I broke the shackles of society to weave a story of my own.

Istanbul couldn’t hold me back from my dreams – and so, I fought the societal demons, ventured into the world, and found my new calling at Oxford.

But who would have known that what started out as my search for knowledge, would lead me to come back to the very roots that I tried so hard to disentangle myself from.

Oxford was a dream though – a dream that went by like a blur and all I have left of, is the Polaroid in my handbag. To sum it all in one sentence – we were the sinner, the believer and the confused, all manipulated by a man who thought he was God.

As I stand here today – with my entire life behind me and my only memory of Oxford having been stolen from me, I wonder if I ever will escape my past.

Happy Reading!

 

 

The Hungry Tide

We, who have always thought of joy

as rising . . . feel the emotion

that always amazes us

when a happy thing falls.

I would never let her drown. I jumped in behind her as I saw her fighting for her life in the mucky waters of the river. She was running out of breath. I had to save her.

She decides to continue travelling with us instead of the forest guards, as I could take her to Mashima. I wish we could share a few words more than these sign languages.

We don’t understand a word of what the other is saying, but, I see the way she looks at the water and I just know that she belongs here.

I feel this electric bond forming between us, but, it’s time to leave. I have a family back home and even if the wave holds on to me like the arms of a lover, I turn the boat around.

We stumble paths again, but this time we have company. I see the way he looks at her. He will never understand what we share, just like everyone else doesn’t.

Destiny puts us on the same boat again. We sail through the backwaters to a point where we are faced with something larger than I could imagine.

The tide begins to turn, and so does our destiny.

I see my dream coming true. It’s time to say goodbye.

As seen through the eyes of Fokir.

I’ve read this book for the second time, and it’s absolutely breathtaking. Amitav Ghosh can write about a square piece of land and make it sound like the whole universe itself.

One the best Indian authors I’ve read. For anyone looking for a good read anytime soon, The Hungry Tide is the book for you.

Happy Reading.

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “How do you lose a word? Does it vanish into your memory, like an old toy in a cupboard, and lie hidden in the cobwebs and dust, waiting to be cleaned out or rediscovered?”
2. “beauty is nothing but the start of terror we can hardly bear, and we adore it because of the serene scorn it could kill us with”
3. “But here, in the tide country, transformation is the rule of life: rivers stray from week to week, and islands are made and unmade in days. In other places forests take centuries, even millennia, to regenerate; but mangroves can recolonize a denuded island in ten to fifteen years. Could it be the very rhythms of the earth were quickened here so that they unfolded at an accelerated pace?

Sharp Objects

Sharp Objects was the debut novel for Gillian Flynn.

Due to the global success of Gone Girl, Sharp Objects seems to have faded into the background.

On the contrary, the reason I picked up the book was because I loved the writing style of Flynn in the last two books I read, and decided to pick this up as well. I’m glad I did, because this was just as good a book and the guessing game was the strongest.

I personally felt that this book definitely outruns the other two when it comes to the plot. I literally had to control myself from flipping to the last page because there was such an intense need for me to find out who the antagonist was.

Sharp Objects tells the tale of Camille Parker, a Chicago based news reported who is forced to return to her childhood home to cover a series of murders. She is not only taken back to the origin of her self harm, but is also brought face to face with her troubled mother and a step sister she thought she couldn’t stand till things happened otherwise.

The characters in this book has been woven so exquisitely that it compels the reader to subconsciously walk beside Camille, as she sets out to discover who has been extracting the teeth of little girls, and painting their nails before allowing them to be found by the authorities.

The guessing game is very strong in this book, and anyone who has an instinct for guessing the right killer, be ready to face defeat for a change.

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “Problems always start long before you really, really see them.”
2. “I ached once, hard, like a period typed at the end of a sentence.”
3. “To spend a life in dreams, that sounded too lovely.”
4. “Every time people said I was pretty, I thought of everything ugly swarming beneath my clothes.”
5. “I’m here, I said, and it felt shockingly comforting, those words. When I’m panicked, I say them aloud to myself. I’m here.”

The Grownup

First Time Reader. Suspense excites you. I have a book for you.

A short but impactful read.

The Grownup is a 64 page novella by Gillian Flynn. Perfect for people who enjoy suspense and want their first book to be crisp and to the point, but also, with the perfect amount of content.

Our narrator is a con artist who takes pride in her seedy business. She thinks her fortune is about to turn, only to realize that she is entwined in a web spun by one of her most loyal customers.

This intriguing, suspense filled short story rolls out in an eerie Victorian home where our narrator experiences way more than she signed up for.

Writing more about this book wouldn’t be a fair deal, so let’s just leave the rest to you.

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “I’m not really a nerd; I only aspire to be one.”
2. “Millions of dollars later, and neither of them were happy. Money is wasted on the rich.”
3. “inside joke is like a symbol of friendship without having to do the work required of an actual friendship. So”
4. “Insomniacs are exquisitely grateful for people to recognize their weariness.”

 

The Spy

HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN.

In his latest novel, Paulo Coelho brings to life Mata Hari, a legendary dancer who was falsely accused of being a double agent during World War I.

Told through a letter written by Mata Hari to her lawyer, this novel is extremely straightforward for Coelho’s style.

Born to middle- class Dutch parents, Mata Hari’s former name was Margaretha Zelle. She moves out of her family home after her parent’s divorce and soon after gets married to an army man. After being tormented by her husband, she decides to get a divorce and move to Paris.

She started off as a penniless dancer, who went on to become on of the most celebrated women in her era. But, her extravagant lifestyle in a time like that, brought her under suspicion. She was arrested soon after and accused of espionage.

Mata Hari’s story leaves an impact on the reader, but, the book talks more about the societal scenario at that point of time, instead of highlight the brilliance that was Mata Hari.

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “When we don’t know where life is taking us, we are never lost.”
2. “Every moment should be lived with feeling and emotion because if we try to decipher it and understand it, the magic disappears.”
3. “The body tires easily, but the spirit is always free and will help us get out, one day, from this infernal cycle of repeating the same mistakes every generation.”
4. “…it is one thing to get used to something, another to be satisfied.”
5. “Love does not obey anyone and will betray those who try to decipher its mystery.”

The Zahir

I was madly in love.

Love, a word that everyone uses so loosely. But, for me, this love had become an obsession.

One day, without a word my love disappears. But how can something I had yesterday, disappear today.

I had no answers, but, the questions kept piling up.

What I started perceiving as betrayal, slowly lead to me understand what the situation was when we were together, that finally led me to rediscover my love.

At that moment I realised that my love had become an obsession, and the only way I could free myself from it was to start loving myself again. It was only then that I found my way back to love.

This was a glimpse of what the protagonist goes through. Add to this a pinch of jealousy, a spoon full of anger and finally another man, Paulo’s writing can make even the most drab stories seem mesmerising.

It takes a while to get used to his writing style, but once you do, you tend to discover things about yourself you otherwise wouldn’t have.

Take a chance. Read a book. Discover yourself.

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES:

1. “All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step”
2. “The wise are wise only because they love. And the foolish are foolish only because they think they can understand love.”
3. “When someone leaves, its because someone else is about to arrive- I’ll find love again.”
4. “Love is a disease no one wants to get rid of. Those who catch it never try to get better, and those who suffer do not wish to be cured.”
5. “Esther, however, was the only woman who understood one very simple thing: in order to be able to find her, I first had to find myself.”