When life gives you lemons and you've got no sugar for lemonade!

Life lately seems to be going along a totally different tangent from anything I'd ever expect it to be. It's like I'm being showered with the choicest of lemons and I don't even have sugar or water to make lemonade out of them. Hapless, hapless days.

So right after I wrote here about my sudden craving for world travel and the lack of resources preventing me from doing that, life threw another big rock in my face. The family gossip tree came out with yet another juicy piece of gossip that went traveling through the entire family to reach me today. This very distant cousin of mine, who's a total nerd, and is settled in Saudi Arabia and minting huge money, and of whose very existence we learned only after he got settled in the Gulf and started minting money - surprisingly, this guy has finally tied the knot. To a seemingly pretty girl. And he's going for a Switzerland honeymoon now! Can someone kill me, please.

The Alps, Swiss chocolates, and beautiful watches. That lucky lady is gonna have it all, while I'm doomed to sweat in Delhi's sultry heat and sit for an important exam in 2 days. Why does life have to be so unfair! Yes, yes, I know I'm probably being hormonal and reacting too much, but this is NOT FAIR. I just so wanna get done with all the career-building, educational and responsibility-related exercises of life as soon as possible, so that I can finally be on my own and do whatever I want, wherever I want to. But no. Not so fast dearies. Life isn't all sugar and candy. They'll first grind you, make you clear exams, get jobs, work your butt off, crush your spirit beyond recognition and when you're finally at the height of glory and got lots of money in the pocket and time at hand, you'd have lost that passion that made you wanna do things and see places. So you'll probably just sit in your big house watching TV, gaining weight and reminiscing old times when you used to dream of going to Switzerland.

Okay, I know I've started with the same downward-spiraling thought process all over again. I need to digress from here.

So I dug up some more information on the Saudi cousin's story. Apparently, luck has been shining rather too brightly on the couple lately. Right after they'd decided the dates of the wedding, the wife came across an online contest where a trip to Switzerland was among the top prizes. She registered for the contest flippantly, not expecting to get even a consolation prize, but as destiny would have had it, they actually won themselves a free Swiss trip. And with its dates coming up right after their wedding too. Luck is such a bitch sometimes when it is so kind on others and not the teeniest bit on you.

I wish I could switch places with that couple and scale the snow-clad mountains while they gave my exam. I wish my family aunties did not have to propagate such gossip like wildfire. I wish Delhi's temperature dropped to like 15 degrees Celsius. Ah, wishes. I should probably just get back to my books.

See you guys around after Sunday.

If only I had money...

If only I had money, I'd turn a globetrotter, leaving everything and everyone behind. *sighs*. And no, not that cool-dude-photographer kind who travels around the world with a camera in hand, observing anything and everything through his lens. If I were to travel, I'd keep the camera aside for most of the time, only taking it out once I was sure I'd captured all the magnificence through my eyes and stored it in my heart.

Umm...wondering what's wrong with me? Why the sudden craving for travel and money? *sighs again*

So, coming to the real (less fun) part of the story, I just happened to come across this link on makemytrip.com that lists rates for a round trip to some of the most happening travel destinations across the world. London, New York, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok - it had me drooling all over myself, more so because the rates seemed to be discounted and within reach of a decently earning professional (read: future me). And thus I've been chewing away at mommy dearest's head, thinking aloud, hoping and praying to get professionally settled very soon and earning in lacs, so I could finally realize my dream of traveling around the globe.

Aside from the obvious delight that traveling to a foreign destination offers, airports and airplanes are great fun too. Airports have those awesome duty-free shops where you can get anything and everything, though end up buying nothing because everything's too expensive. Then there are those tiny candies, chocolates and packaged foods that they serve you in flight. Not to forget the air hostesses. Their perpetual forced smiles and monotonous speeches can get really nauseating at times, but it is fun to observe them nevertheless. And at the risk of sounding extremely racist and discriminatory, I maintain that the air hostesses on the middle-eastern and oriental airlines are the most enchanting and beautiful - a treat to look at, even for individuals of the same sex (read: yours truly).

Now mommy dearest has been to Dubai twice - the only member of our little family to have traveled abroad - and goes on and on about how good it was. And so Dubai, for better or for worse, is one of the destinations I really truly wish to visit once, the others being parts of Europe and Australia (as I've mentioned earlier in my posts). Add to that an obvious penchant for oriental flight attendants, and there, I've already zeroed in on the carrier I'd most likely be flying with - pretty obviously either the Emirates or the Gulf Air, both of which fit the bill perfectly. I wish they'd give me free air tickets in exchange for this mention. I did ask too, but alas they said it wasn't policy, so....I guess I'll just have to get that darned elusive job, to earn in lacs and to buy myself tickets, so as to go about with my original plan of being a globetrotter once I have the money. 

Oh wait. Aren't we back right from where we started? *sighs* So much for wishful thinking - it leads you absolutely nowhere. That's established.

Guess it's a good night then. Keep dreaming folks!

Book Review: Salvation of a Saint - Keigo Higashino

Being a blogger has had more perks than I had ever imagined possible before creating this blog. It was only a means of self expression for me back then. How much it has indeed evolved over these three odd years, with it now being a source of some amazing new literary works for me to read. And trust BlogAdda to come out with the most varied genres of books when it comes to their Book Reviews program. Despite a severe shortage of time that is currently keeping me from reading or writing anything much these days - I am not complaining!

The book today at The Bookworm's Word is Salvation of a Saint - a Japanese murder mystery by Keigo Higashino, translated into English very adeptly by Alexander O. Smith. An uncanny pick, since I don't read much of crime fiction and I have never really read a non-English work before. But it was inescapable, really.

The core of the story is as simple as it gets. A Japanese couple on the verge of a split-up are hosting what could perhaps be their last get-together as man and wife. And then the wife goes over to her parents' for the weekend while the husband is found dead at their house under mysterious circumstances while she's away. The wife as well as her young patchwork apprentice come under the investigative net. Both seem to be deeply involved in the twisted thread that holds the mystery together. Moreover one of the detectives becomes unusually partial to the wife, while another is dead against her from the word go. A genius scientist ultimately has to step in to help unravel what is touted as 'the perfect crime'. How they together arrive at a solution makes for an amazing journey.

Who dies, and how, is no big secret and is revealed quite easily. The 'who' part is somewhat guessable a few chapters into the book, and even though you'd never be sure if your guess is right until almost the end, you can safely assume you know the killer. But it's the 'how' part that sends everyone into a real tizzy. And the end reveals one of the most innovative and unique ways to kill somebody that I've ever come across in literature or on TV. I hope no psychopath gets around to reading this book lest s/he gets any ideas!!

The translation from Japanese to English is particularly exceptional. In sheer defiance of the saying 'lost in translation', the intensity of the writing and the details of daily life within a Japanese household and society are perfectly expressed throughout the volume. It was an insightful read and at the same time really un-put-down-able (yeah I just love that non-word). The details, the characters and the circumstances have been meticulously crafted and students of science like me would find it utterly intriguing to read and make their own conjectures and predictions. Though it was stretched a bit too much at a couple of places, especially towards the end, but a really good read in its entirety. I am given to understand that this book is a part of the author's Detective Galileo series, with the major characters remaining the same throughout the titles. Nevertheless, a first timer will not find anything amiss and will enjoy the book as an individual piece of crime fiction.

The 377-page book, being an international title, is rather steeply priced at Rupees 350. I would give it 3 stars out of 5.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Book Review: Tantra by Adi

There are some books that you'll go to any lengths to lay your hands upon, and then there are those other books which land into your hands on their own, without your ever having wanted to read them. Of the second category, you aren't really sure whether it'll enthrall you, amuse you or just leave you cold and unmoved. And so you don't bother. But life has its own way of playing with you, and that it most religiously does.

Tantra by Adi, strangely as it has been titled, is one of those books that belonged to the second category for me. I had no idea even of its recent highly publicized launch. But it came by in the mail, thanks to BlogAdda as always, and I read it out of obligation. Only to be highly pleased that I did. Because, believe it or not, the book is quite the surprise package!

The book has been written by one 'Adi', apparently 'a graduate from Stanford and Harvard Universities' and author of a 'poetry book and a minor textbook', one who wishes he hadn't published the said poetry book at all. Interesting, but shrouded under an unnecessary veil of mystery, with no specifics, no details. Reading the short summary at the back, in addition to this supposed mystery looming around the writer and the offbeat (read: computer-generated graphics) cover illustration, sort of made me groan at the prospect of having to read a book that didn't seem at all my type. I imagined it to be yet another immature attempt by a fellow Indian at a fantasy/fiction novel to have his 15 seconds of fame. In hindsight, I'm glad I underestimated this book. It made the reading all the more enthralling and full of surprises.

So coming to the story - Tantra by Adi (is that really how one is supposed to refer to it?) follows the journey of Anu, a young, beautiful and fiery girl who fights vampires in the streets of New York by night, while bottling up her emotions and escaping life's realities and difficulties by day. In a cruel twist of fate, she is terribly wronged by a vampire who she soon finds out has moved to New Delhi, and thus that's where she finds herself heading in his pursuit. Once in India, she cannot help but fall into a warp of all the emotions, rituals, love and family ties that she has been guarding herself against all her life, and things get tangled up. Meanwhile she's caught in a nasty war involving power-thirsty Tantric-energy-wielding Baba Senaka, the city's cult of vampires and her own group of guardians, with the entire city and its people at stake. But she finds within herself the determination to take the Baba down, and works towards learning how to do that, albeit in the potent Indian spiritual way. In the process many of her presumptions and beliefs are broken, new ones are made, many a lesson is learned and she emerges as the true modern heroine, if you will.

The plot moves at a slow pace initially, and there are too many loose ends that make it seem like the plot is going to get nowhere with this. One may even feel like abandoning the book a couple of times, but hang on. The fun hasn't yet begun. It gets much faster and action-packed as the pages advance. The build-up may be vague, but as the loose ends get tied, the picture emerges and it is worth all that effort. The book provides, for dummies, a whole lot of knowledge about spirituality, energies and how we as people connect with the world and with other people by threads. I took time reading through the pages, comprehending any new information and absorbing it inside me so as to develop a feel for the story. Worked pretty well, I must say.

The way Delhi has been portrayed in the book is quite realistic, and Anu's character, as all of the others, has been painstakingly carved and described well in words. The characters literally speak out for themselves. Alas, if only more writers went for the no-character-descriptions, let-the-character's-behavior-and-words-speak-for-herself mantra of writing books. It is so much more mature and takes reading to an entirely different level. Tantra by Adi scores in that regard for me.

[Free advice to any aspiring/existing authors reading this: Try this mantra. Let your characters' conduct speak more for them than your words. You'll see the difference. It might cut down your everyday fan-mail inflow by about half, but it'll definitely make every second spent reading your books totally worth it.]

I'll give this book a 3 and a half stars, and would recommend it to those who like action-packed thrillers or a female superhero saving the day in a part-fantasy, part-reality world.

P.S. I went on a stalking spree of my own and unearthed more on the author, including how he looks, what else he does, and the books's launch and official video trailer as well. Check out here.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

From Goldilocks to dreadlocks, and back again!

I've talked about my childhood here a number of times before. I was a happy kid. Happy with life, with school, with the cartoons on TV, and with everything else. But then again, I was a tad too lost as a kid - I knew not the first thing about keeping things around me organized, or presenting myself well, or oiling and caring for my hair or so much as even standing in front of the mirror and analyzing my looks. I was just happy to be. Though kids of today, I tell you - they're smartasses of the smartest kind. We weren't. Or at least I wasn't.

But thanks to the Almighty I was blessed with good health, an innate dressing sense and a mop of smooth and silken soft dark drown hair that I took almost for granted. I remember this time when I was probably 12 or 13 and my beloved mother would tie my medium-length hair up in a plait every morning before school while I was lost in my thoughts. Now on the ride back home on the school bus, this particular senior (one whom I was in awe of despite her patronizing ways), would sometimes sit behind me in the afternoon and taking my plait in her hands, play with it and coo to her friends, "OMG, look how silky her hair is!" And I absolutely do not exaggerate there. They did find my hair awe-inspiring, though I was as far from realizing that as could be. For me they were just, well, hair.

Curly, well oiled (thanks to MOM) but perfectly healthy - the hair that was. 

Then I changed schools and in the new, seemingly horrid place, we were supposed to tie our hair into two plaits and tie them up with ribbons!! My mother even insisted on oiling my hair before school, to which I protested a lot but had to eventually give in. It all felt like a nightmare. Maybe if I'd known what I was in for, in the future, it'd have felt much less horrible.

Gradually I began to develop a penchant for hair experiments and new hairdos. In ninth grade, I was known throughout the school as 'the girl with the sky-high ponytail'. I would just tie my somewhat-long-by-then hair up on the top of my head and feel it moving from side to side when I moved or talked. It was fun. Only, there was something not quite right. My hair seemed to have reduced in volume and the ends looked terribly jagged and unruly. The ponytail did not look as much fun as it had looked before. My hair would get tangled a lot, breaking in the process and thus thinning my mane. I started disliking my hair with each passing day, coming to a time when I really didn't give a damn about them anymore. And one fine day I went up to the salon and got them cut down to the shortest length possible. So within one year, I went from Little Miss High Ponytail to The Weird Blunt-Hair Girl. And it wasn't a good feeling.

Even when I left school some four years hence, with hair much longer and somewhat repaired, I was still not very proud of my hair. College did not help much, what with all those mean girls making sure to point out how limp your hair looked. And then I went ahead and got my hair streaked. Twice. Within three years, too. So yeah, that just worsened everything further, with my hair looking fantastic now but feeling more like dreadlocks than the silky soft hair I once used to have. My erstwhile happiness - emanating from having healthy, good looking hair - was almost all gone. I missed that time when I was a little kid lost in her thoughts while mother took good care of my beautiful hair. I so wanted my old hair back (without losing those streaks though!)

Damaged and frayed after getting those highlights done.

 
And then a new phase began - the one that I like to call the 'Dove Phase'. I believe my readers know me enough to also know I do not indulge in mindless publicity of stuff that I get for free from companies wanting us bloggers to promote them. I wasn't even a Dove loyalist till about two years ago. I didn't care much about the shampoo I used, and if I did, it was never Dove. But then IndiBlogger and Dove suddenly started flooding my mailbox with frequent Dove haircare hampers, and left me with no choice but to start using Dove on my hair. But I realized soon that my hair was actually getting better and healthier with its usage. One look at my shiny flowing (though not too long) tresses now, and you'd know the huge difference there has been.

Even my mother, who is dead against relying on cosmetic products (read: conditioners and shampoo) to strengthen hair, seems to be convinced now, to a certain extent, of how good my hair has been getting lately. No wonder when the latest Dove Split End Rescue System advertisement came on TV, my mother surprisingly said, "I hope they send you samples of this one too. It looks like you could use some repairing on those ghastly split ends of yours." And she was right, because no matter how great your hair is, it is always being subjected to a lot of wear, tear and damage as you travel and experiment with your hair. Split ends are thus sort of inevitable. And anything to help repair them - a most welcome product! So I was most happy to receive the Dove Split End Rescue system sample and to try it on. And I must say, I have been flaunting my soft and suddenly more manageable hair for the last one week, keeping it open most of the time, even at home (something I NEVER, EVER did before.) And the ends look better than ever!

And that's my plume now - majestic, full of shine and with perfect ends. Sigh.

Dove, as a hair care regimen, has thus grown on me (and my mother and sister) over time. From being a childhood Goldilocks with beautiful braids with the perfect ends, to being an almost-hippie with horrible dreadlocks, I've been there and done that. And I've found Dove, in the end, to be the ultimate hair solution.

Living in a dream

Between all the drudgery and soul-depressing monotony that days seem to have been comprised of lately, life does surprise you at times with such bright days as that make you feel alive again. One such day was the Saturday that passed - the 23rd of March - when thanks to Penguin India's Spring Fever festival at the IHC Delhi, life brought me face to face with the creator of my favorite piece of literature, the much-acclaimed Vikram Seth. The book, after that, is easy enough for my readers to guess.

For someone who dreams of building for herself a writer's future while being caught in the throes of engineering and career-building, meeting such a famous writer, talking to him, listening to him talk and recite his works - it's like a dream come true. And to get one of his greatest books signed by him in your name - priceless. I may sound all drooly and awestruck, but guess what? I am.

 

The day shall hopefully come when I am an acclaimed writer signing awestruck fans' copies of my own works (aaah...beautiful imagination, that). But as of now, this book has been classified into my list of utmost prized possessions. How I got Vikram Seth to sign my book before any of those 40 odd other fans' who were waiting in line, is a story I shall not tell. But the man is amazing. And he talks a lot when given a chance to. Ask him any question, and whether he directly answers it or simply gives it a clever slip, he shall surely spend the next 5 minutes talking. About anything and everything that his chain of thoughts leads him to. Anecdotes, his trademarked spontaneously rhymed sentences or such an animated recital of his poems - he's a total delight to listen to.


P.S. Since life's been so generous on me, here's earnestly wishing Amitav Ghosh comes to town soon. Preferably on a personal visit to my house. Sounds a bit far-fetched, sure, but hey, why not wish for the stars while you can?

P.P.S. The image quality of the first 3 pictures is bad, I know, despite having taken them from my faithful camera. Apologies!

Ring the Bell - Bring the Change.

So my blog has been in hibernation for some time. My IndiRank has dropped. My readers are probably as far from my blog as I am from finding Neverland. Nevertheless, I am not asleep. I'm alive and well (not always well, but yeah..!) And I'm occupied with so many things in life that I know anything I manage to write amidst all of this would not do justice to my blog. So I've been on a break of sorts - until now.

It was Women's Day yesterday. A day that every literate and well-informed man wishes to every woman he comes across, while also putting it up as his Facebook status and the Tweet of the day. And yet, its significance he knows very little about and is hardly concerned about. What else is a woman for if not to cook for him, grace his house/arm and satisfy his needs? We, women, have all been there and experienced that kind of male chauvinism in one or the other form, no matter how old or young we are (I'm 21 myself). The top of the bureaucrats, politicos, self-appointed religious leaders and the 'Khap' panchayat have, time and time again, enlightened us all with gems of their thoughts on why men are fully justified in raping women and how women are inviting it on themselves. A huge applause for each of them.

But all is not lost yet. It isn't a lost battle. There are people, still, who're working tirelessly towards finding out solutions and implementing them on rising scales to grant women a better living, a safer existence and the dignity they deserve. It was a group of such people (and a HUGE group too) that met at the British Council Division yesterday to promise to make a stand, to pledge their allegiance to the cause and to discuss solutions. Organized by Breakthrough and IndiBlogger, the event took forward the already running 'Ring the Bell' or 'Bell Bajao' campaign that aims at getting one million men to make a promise to act to end violence against women by 8th March 2014. It is a novel idea and has thousands of members already. You see, menfolk aren't all bad. It's just a sizable section of them who are, and who need to be rooted out or changed for good. And that WE WILL.

The evening saw a number of dignitaries from different walks of life come together and voice their opinions on the cause of women - their rights, their objectification, violence against them, their suppression in the patriarchal society - and discuss what all they are doing for the cause and what the youth can do. People of the likes of Rajan Anandan (CEO, Google India), Indira Jaisingh (Addl. Solicitor General of India), Rahul Bose (actor) and Advaita Kala (author of Almost Single, and scriptwriter of 'Kahaani' fame) shared the stage with other professionals from different fields to take the pledge. It was an evening full of promise and infused awareness and energy into many a mind to encourage them to do their bit.

The event saw a number of great performances too. First up was Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, with a recital of some of the Vagina Monologues. Then came the Bangalore-based folk/fusion band Swarathma, who left the entire audience spellbound and desperately wanting the performance to go on forever. As if these were not enough to keep the audience happy, the evening ended with a performance by famed sitarist Anoushka Shankar, taking the ambiance of the place to a whole new level.

Here are a few pictures from the evening.

The open-air venue

The Agenda

Rahul Bose, 'ringing the bell'.

One of the topics for debate.

The turnout - huge!!

Mesmerizing Swarathma!

Take a bow guys - you were spellbindingly amazing.

Hard at debate (l-r): Sonali Khan, Rahul Bose, Ryan Mendonca and Advaita Kala

Anoushka Shankar - LIVE!

Strumming in all seriousness - a picture of beauty.

So there I am - still alive, as I just proved, and raring to write but unable to. No hard feelings, I hope? (That is, if anyone is even reading.) So, until we meet again. Take care folks !