In Vacant or in Pensive Mood

My professor would often say, "Saying 'I love you' is easy, but staying in love requires hard work." He would also say, "Don't fall in love. Try to rise in love." I've heard these words more than once during my years of study at MCCSWD (the Social Work department at MCC), and the truth in them continues to reverberate in my heart ever so loudly even today. I have a special attachment to these words, perhaps because it is in the very place where these words were spoken that I also met the person I chose to fall, rise and stay in love with. " Rising in Love", shot by Deepu Da Yes, we've fallen. And oh yes, we've risen! And we continue to stay in love today, as promised to each other in our wedding vows. There are times when loving each other is easy, but there are also times when it is hard work. There are times when I've smiled and thought to myself, "Yes - This is why I fell in love with him", and also times when I...

I usually take between three to six days to read a book. But there are exceptions. Some books are so engrossing that I just have to read them at a stretch, from cover to cover, in a single day. On the other extreme, there are books that I begin to read but get bored of along the way, leave behind, and forget about forever! There are also books, like those of Charles Dickens, that use a vocabulary which require too many dictionary references - so I read them in parts. The last book I read was different - it was the book that took me the longest to read. It was the first book I started to read soon after my wedding. I finished reading it a few days ago, eight long months later. Apart from the fact that it was a whopping 447 pages long, and I had no idea that life would be so different after the wedding, the reason I took so long to read this book is because it was...haunting. Here's my review, which has been posted on Goodreads: I had no idea what I was getting into...

Set in the 1600s and revolving around the life of a newly-married couple, this book fits aptly into the genre of "Historical Romance". However, the authors do not limit the story to just that, but have added in delightful elements of suspense, drama, action, feminism, and even a pinch of horror! There are highway robberies, betrayals, disguises, deaths, lovemaking and treasure chests in the same story - so you can guess the expansiveness of the plot. The narrative is always in third person, but the perspective switches consistently between that of the two protagonists, the husband and the wife. The reader, most often, is aware of details that the spouses have not shared with one another, and this gives way for some nail-biting, palm-itching impatience. Trapped in the body of one, despite knowing the mind of the other, powerless to do anything but to be lead by the story-teller; there is definitely some delight in being such a reader. The book strikes a beautiful...

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie searches for answers in places where the lines blur and the world is no longer just black and white. That's me and my selfie skills British or Pakistani? A Home Secretary who is a protector of his country or a destroyer of innocent lives? A girl who is a hijab-clad believer or a make-up clad seductress? A young man who is a devoted lover or a faithful son? A boy who is a ruthless terrorist or a scared soul looking to return home? These are only some of the questions that you will be asking as you read this book and try to understand the characters in Shamsie's story. Dig a little deeper, and you will find yourself pondering over the more important questions. What makes up the identity of a person? How important is the role of one's nationality and religion in making up a person's identity? Does society categorise you based on these factors? How far do these factors determine who a person is? Is it too much to deny y...

This book came to me as part of my personal regimen to get back into the habit of reading - a habit I very much love, but had ceased to become a habit because of, well.... LIFE. But what life is life enough if there is no reading in it, right? So I subscribed to Book-o-Box, a book subscription service, where a book is hand-picked for you and sent home once a month in a box containing a few other bookish goodies! The book arrived in June, but I didn't get around to reading it until the 9th of July This book came to me as part of my personal regimen to get back into the habit of reading - a habit I very much love, but had ceased to become a habit because of, well.... LIFE. But what life is life enough if there is no reading in it, right? So I subscribed to Book-o-Box, a book subscription service, where a book is hand-picked for you and sent home once a month in a box containing a few other bookish goodies! The book arrived in June, but I didn't get around to reading it unt...

This book is truly unique, unlike any other book I’ve ever read. It’s got a dash of innocence and a whole bunch of random, interesting and complicated information (almost like a mini-encyclopaedia). And it’s heart-breaking to realise how such “special” people are usually much wiser and smarter than any of us “normal” people, yet we make life so hard, almost miserable for them. In addition to being a good story, it was an eye-opener and a learning experience. Thank you Christopher, it was such a pleasure knowing you! Rating: 5 stars

Obviously it was the title that led me to the book. As a person who never reads reviews or blurbs of a book before reading it (for fear it would kill any suspense for me), I had no idea what I was going to read about. The only thing I had guessed right was that the book is centred around a female protagonist. Little did I suspect that I was in for a heart-warming, heart-wrenching, heart-breaking story which is very much impregnated by events in the history of the world. A history, I warn you, which is not pretty. The book kept me riveted (not just 'glued' or 'engrossed' - those words are too inadequate!). It unfurls as the story of an elderly woman, Betty, (not a coloured woman, as you would assume!) who narrates her life as she grew up in Edenville, at a time when racial discrimination and violence was at its peak. But then again, the book is not just about the gut-flinching cruelty which prevailed in those times. That is the beauty of this book. The focus of the book...