There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book while sipping a hot cup of tea.
There was a time when India was a mass of Princely kingdoms who spent their time warring with each other, patronising the arts, looking (or not-looking) after their subjects, and doing other things that Royals are supposed to do.In Maharani, Ruskin Bond narrates the story of an aging former queen Neena or H.H as the … Continue reading Royalty in India: Maharani, and Almond Eyes Lotus Feet
What are we if not an accumulation of our memories?At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick calls Tom and Daisy, Careless People. This is the phrase that came to my mind as I finished S.J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.But first the facts. A woman wakes up to find herself in a strange … Continue reading Careless People: Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
On 23rd March, 1931, the British colonial government in India, executed three young men in the dark of the night. Their crime? They were fighting for that which is everybody's birth-right: Freedom.So many years down the line it is easy to condemn the British for snuffing out three of India's brightest lights: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, … Continue reading 23 March, 1931: Dreams Die Young
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers."Only Oscar Wilde could have come up with something so bleak and so subversive. And so true, as Nuri el- Alfi, would have added in writer Hisham Matar's poignant bildungsroman Anatomy of a Disappearance.Living in Cairo, young Nuri, finds himself unable to fully comprehend his … Continue reading Arriving into Absence: Hisham Matar’s Anatomy of a Disappearance
Sitting in his solitary cell, waiting for the day when the noose would be put round his neck, Indian Revolutionary, Sukhdev wrote an open letter to Gandhi, questioning him about the fate of his fellow-revolutionaries who - unlike those in the Congress - had not been released under the Gandhi-Irwin pact:More than half a dozen conspiracy … Continue reading They Too Fought: Manini Chatterjee’s Do and Die
Good intentions do not always translate into good novels. Manmath Nath Gupt's Shaheed Aur Shohade is a good example of that. The writer, who was imprisoned for his involvement in the Kakori Train Case has written a number of books related to India's struggle for Independence. In this novel, he examines the attitude of the Indian members … Continue reading Review: Shaheed aur Shohade by Manmath Nath Gupt
Ambitious young woman with a brilliant academic record is reduced to being a flight-attendant. [Why? One doesn't know]. The about-to-go-kaput airline is taken over by a business maverick: young, handsome, and charming to boot. The woman makes some suggestions at a board meeting and is singled-out for praise by her new boss, and is given a … Continue reading Review: Play Dirty by Sandra Brown
I hadn't heard of Ellery Queen till I started blogging. Then I got to know that not only is he (actually the pseudonym of two American cousins) a well-known mystery writer but also one of the Big Four. So I went searching for his books and was happy enough to discover that some of his … Continue reading Forgotten Books: The Murderer is a Fox by Ellery Queen
Is Truth something set in stone or something shimmery seen differently in different lights? This is the question that Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya attempts in his novel: The Storyteller of Marrakesh.A young couple - the man an Indian, the woman a westerner - are seen walking round the Jemma on a particular day. Soon afterwards the couple … Continue reading Review: The Stroyteller of Marrakesh by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
In my early school-going days, Sherlock Holmes was THE DETECTIVE. My bhuaji's husband (whom as is wont in our family, we called Jijaji) told us enthusiastically about how as a young boy in Quetta, he and some of his schoolmates, who knew English, would narrate the adventures of Holmes to the village elders. So impressed … Continue reading Sherlock Holmes Deconstructed: Partha Basu’s The Curious Case of 221B
a hot cup of pleasure 