About the Blog

This blog combines my two passions- reading and writing. I intend to read books and put my thoughts and opinions about them here. Anyway, that's the plan now. Where I end up is a whole different story!

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JAYA - Devdutt Pattanaik

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JAYA An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata There's something about the biggest epic of the world that makes people come back to it time and again. Mahabharata is probably the most retold story in the world; and deservedly so. Of all the stories I've read of the characters of this legendary epic, this version by Devdutt Pattanaik has got to be one of the most detailed and thought-out ones. There's been neither the humanizing of the demigods of the tale, nor any attempt to make the story more realistic. He has presented the same story in all its beauty, keeping all its strengths and flaws alike. Almost everyone is familiar with the story of the Mahabharata. This book is written as a flashback; as Astika, king of the Nagas and Vaisampayana, guardian of Vyasa's great tale, tell Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, the grandson of the Pandava, Arjun, the story of his forefathers just before he was about to perform the Sarpa Sattra, a sacrificial ritual...
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THE SONGSEEKERS -Saswati Sengupta

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With its  subversive feminist thrust and persistent questioning of what constitutes religion, tradition and  culture, Saswati Sengupta's debut novel  The Song Seekers is sure to strike a chord. It is a poignant exploration of the lives of women in Indian society transcending time and space. Weaved around mystery and laced with beautiful poems throughout, this makes for a perfect unputdownable read.  Set in the turbulent 1960s in Bengal, the novel revolves around the life of newly wed Uma, an  English Literature graduate from Miranda House, as she steps into the threshold of her marital home  Kailash, the ancestral mansion of the highly reputed Chattopadhyay family of Calcutta. Even as she  tries to find her footing in a new, unfamiliar world, Uma is intrigued by the shadows that seem to  linger in the sprawling mansion; her husband’s silence about his mother’s death, the presence of the  enigmatic green-eyed Pishi, a few old letters ...
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BORN A CRIME - Trevor Noah

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BORN A CRIME Stories from a South African Childhood Born A Crime is Trevor Noah narrating his own story- about his life in South Africa under apartheid to the country’s lurching entry into a post-apartheid era in the 1990s. In essence, the book is a lesson of the inequities of the past and a warning for what is still possible to happen again in our world. But it isn’t heavy-handed; it’s fun, insightful, and very compelling. Not contrary to his Daily Show monologues, the book is filled with humor and biting social commentary. The title of the book was the first thing that intrigued me. For those also curious, he explains early on in the book-  “On February 20, 1984, my mother checked into Hillbrow Hospital for a scheduled C-section delivery. Estranged from her family, pregnant by a man she could not be seen with in public, she was alone. The doctors took her up to the delivery room, cut open her belly, and reached in and pulled out a half-white, half-black child...
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