Book Review: The Diary of a Social Butterfly

If you want a good laughter then The Diary of a Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin is what you should lay your hands on. This is a difficult to keep down book filled with humor and silliness...

The book is a diary of a silly socialite called Butterfly who is completely unfazed by the happenings around her. All she cares about is her parties, get together (GT as she calls them), shopping, trips to London....Each of her diary entry begins with two contrasting headings, a political heading and another one to her own self. The constant misspellings and incorrect pronunciations in her diary are the one's to watch out for. It completely changes the meaning of the sentence and leaves you laughing out loud. I loved the way the conversations go between her and her husband Janoo...poor guy.

This is definitely a light read and will surely lighten up your mood. The book is inspired from the collection of the author’s own columns written for Pakistan’s national weekly, The Friday Times. 

Book Review: Custody by Manju Kapoor

Custody by Manju Kapoor touches the delicate and emotional issue that follows divorce.

Raman and Shagun, a couple with two children have a peaceful life going until Shagun meets Raman's boss Ashok. Raman has to travel constantly being the marketing head and trying to promote his company's products. At the same time his boss and his beautiful wife get involved in a passionate affair leading to Shagun trying to find the meaning of her life. She ask Raman for a divorce and moves out of the house. When Raman refuses a divorce she takes away the only beautiful aspect in his life.....the children.

At the same time somewhere else, Ishita a young divorcee tries to find happiness in her social work. She was divorced and forgotten by her once-so-loving husband because she could not bear a child for the family. She happens to meet Raman and his little daughter and gets attracted towards him to fulfill her desire of having a family and children. She falls in love with his daughter as if she were her own.

Then starts the ugly battle of custody where both the kids are torn apart from each other....their emotional state being confused between two families, two mothers and two countries...

This is one of the best of Manju Kapoor and the way she has handled such a delicate issue is commendable.

Book Review: Intermission & To Live Once Again

Intermission by Nirupama Subramanian is one of the books I read in the last two weeks and I yet dont understand why the title. The rating for this one would be average. Its just another extra marital affair story....nothing great about it and nothing in particular that will make you feel "wow" about it. The story is about a forty four year old man Varun who is a father to a sixteen year old and has fallen for Sweety who is a young mother. They emotionally connect with each other and then get physically involved as well. And then starts the hushed meetings, behaving like a teenager.....everything that a person does when he says he is in love.

The writing style of the author is good. This is her second book the first one being Keep the change which I have not yet read. There is nothing much I would like to say about this book only that I didnt enjoy it much as there was nothing new to it.

The next one I read was To Live Once Again by Jayanti Anubhav which is a cute looking book because of its size. Its just 136 pages and I finished it pretty soon. Its a story about two girls Yamini and Lavanya who have a rather troubled childhood and find solace in each others in the friendship that blossoms between them when they meet at a boarding school. They become best of friends sharing everything..... until one day they find out that they have shared too much.

Though its a book of few pages the author has not failed to describe every character, every emotion and every place with such beautiful detailing and all this packed into that small little book makes the story very convincing. Being a debut novel for the author Jayanti I must say she has done a good job and this is an excellent read!!! And yes, the title is so apt !!!  :)

Book Review: Nick of Time & Ladies Coupe

If you are looking for complete bollywood masala then this is the book you should read. It has everything in it....best friends, love triangle, typical punjabi shaadi.....and of course the masala.

Komal Mehta in her debut novel, Nick of Time, has done her best to give us a fun filled book that you would enjoy reading. I liked the book, being a rom-com fan that I am and I did feel that I was watching a movie.

Its a well written story that revolves around 3 childhood friends Shagun, Alehya and Vicky and I cant really call it a love triangle cause its just a triangle....and why do I call it that, well you will get to know once you have read the book.

The story begins with Alehya quitting her job and getting a call from her best friend Shagun who tells her that she is getting married and wants her to come to Chandigarh asap. Little does she know that this trip would be a life turning point for her.

After reading this fun book I turned to my next pick Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair. The story of a woman's search for strength and independence and very important....the search for an answer to the most asked question, " Can a woman stay alone and yet be happy?"....

The story is about Akhila a forty-five year old who has never had the liberty to live her OWN life...always the daughter, the sister, the provider....until one day she decides to take on a journey with a one way ticket to Kanyakumari in search of answers to her questions. During her journey in the Ladies Coupe she meets different women who share their life stories with her and she tries to draw her answers whilst she listens to them and slips back and forth into the memories of the incidents of her life.

I completely loved the book and it is a must read....the author Anita Nair has such good sense of putting life into each character. Each story is so intense and finely drawn that it would be difficult to put down the book once you have begun. 

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Oh those childhood days.....

Childhood days the best days in the life of any individual.....those carefree days...the much awaited summer vacation...the thought of visiting Grandma and listening to her fascinating stories. Well who didn't love those days and getting a chance to re-visit them in today's stressful life is simply a bliss.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to re-visit those days...in my thoughts! And you can too, If you happen to pick up Sudha Murthy's latest book Grandma's Bag of Stories.

I have almost read all of her books and Sudha Murthy has a knack of keeping you glued to her books given her simple and straight forward writing style.

Mahashweta, Gently falls the Bakula, The Old man and his god and now Grandma's bag of stories are my favorite among the books written by her.

Grandma's bag of stories has been released at the right time being the summer vacation and most children looking for some fun activity. I would highly recommend this book to all parents who want to keep their kids busy with some good reading and help them enjoy some delightful stories with subtle moral lessons. And this not only pertains to children, even grown up's like me who like short simple stories can read this and re-visit their childhood days :)

Happy Summers and Happy Reading :)

Friends....your spice in life

How much is said and written about relationships. Today when I look around I have so many people who know me who are really good friends but there are just a few of them who really really know me and these are the people who I can really count on whenever I need them. 

In life we meet many a kind but it is always necessary to have someone whom you can share stuff or moreover could just meet and laugh away those sad feelings away that life bestows upon us. Life is not perfect always there are ups and downs and how you look at them is all that matters. You can either see them as a bumpy ride in one of those back breaking vehicles or you can see them as a joy ride which you will enjoy till the end.

I have a wonderful set of friends with whom I can share anything and laugh away till our tummy hurts and we have tears in our eyes. I love these people and cherish them. I have had bad people in my life as well, I say bad is because I hate it when people treat you like you are born for their convenience. They soon forget or rather dont even realise what all you do for them and then they try to take a walk on you. Trust me its better to throw such people out of your life the moment you see such signs. You rather be alone and happy than be with such people and hurt yourself.

I dont like to keep grudges cause people do what they have to do. All I do is forget....yes I forget that such people exist in the world. It is rightly said "Be the change you want to see"...so when I cant change a person its better I change and move on. 

There are many people who have lost friends, people who have walked out of their lives without any rhyme or reason...are such people really worth calling friends? When they can easily forget the time you both spent with each other how wonderful the friendship was then I think its best you too do the same...forget. I know some people say its difficult to forget and saying such things are easy but trust me I have gone through the same and within a few days I was back on track to my smiley self. There is no point in wasting time on such people.

I had been wanting to write this post for sometime cause I consider my blog this great canvas where I can vent my feelings and paint it with all the colours I want. 

Relationships or Friendships are very delicate, if let loose they can slip away or if held tight they will snap and break away. Enjoy your life you have just one after all. 

Book review : Losing my virginity and other dumb ideas...

Losing my virginity and other dumb ideas...that's the book i last read. Written by Madhuri Banerjee this book is a tad different from those typical love-romance stories where the end is too predictable.

It is a good light read, on how a women struggles with her inner voice and changes her thoughts and values to give away something she has been treasuring for so long....her virginity. From being a person who was saving up her virginity to give it away as a wedding gift to her "The Great Love" to being a person who now didnt think twice before connecting with a person and sharing "intimate moments" this book has it all...love, lust and all the masala that it needs.

Falling in love with a married man, being trapped emotionally with him and finally moving out of the relation a stronger person, Kaveri the protagonist finally decides to live her life the way she wants to. She does try to associate every relationship she has since then to LOVE....that is loving herself.

For me the book was just a light read and nothing more, though I was eager to finish it to know what was the climax. If she does find her "The Great Love" or not....well you have to read the book for that and I wont consider that to be a dumb idea :)