Ever so often, I toggle between ‘its great, lets keep it!’ to ‘Too loud, lets go for something cleaner’ thoughts about the background of my blog. It just occured to me that you guys are the best people to give me an honest feedback on this.

Should I keep the background as is? Or opt for something… ummm… less loud (for lack of better word)?

Let me know

Love

 You can find a more detailed analysis of different features below but first things first… As an end user on this side of the world, I look for VFM (Value For Money) in every product I buy. If 90% of the features can be found in a product which is 70% cheaper, I will take it! Thats how the Indian mindset works, we are a breed that is very price conscious.

Keeping that in mind, Kindle Fire is a no-brainer! Simply because it is not only half the price of an iPad, you can practically access amazon’s store from anywhere in the world, without having to pay for the internet. To add to the charm, Fire is so much smaller than the iPad, this making it convenient to carry when traveling. Did I mention Fire runs on Android? That kind of seals the deal, doesnt it?

We have a clear winner here: Amazon Kindle Fire

More reviews on Fire coming up as and when I get the hang of using it.

There were halls full of stalls put up by various publishing houses and big book stores from all over the world. Apart from that, there were country specific set-ups! In the Italia setup, there were a few famous Italian authors floating by, seeing people’s responses to their books. It was all so informal and casual, no hangups, no starry tantrums… a few pictures and autographs here and there…

I have one regret though: I wish I was a little more prepared for the book show. For someone who doesnt know which type of books they want to browse, it can be pretty intimidating and there arent enough signs to guide you to your type of books. This type of fair was more for people who had come down to see all the stalls from A-Z. An undertaking of such a large scale should have better structure with maps handed out so people can find their way through the maze easily.

Another downside was that even though the book fair had inaugurated on 25th Jan, a lot of construction work was still going on, with many stalls not yet ready with books still stacked neatly in carton boxes. A lady at the food stall told us no electricity had been provided to her stall yet and so she could not serve any food.

All in all, I had a good time… Ended up buying something I had been wanting for a long time… My very own Tintin collection

As soon as I have had time to unpack, I will be putting up a picture of my collection

So, anyone else been to the Calcutta Book Fair?

I am a cry baby! I cry at the drop of a hat over anything and everything… Sometimes I cry for the silliest of things (like when my plant died after it was ignored because Noobie and I were travelling)…

Any good movie, book, blog, song or tweet is enough to make my cry.

Sometimes I get annoyed at myself, coz here I am sitting in the office and I read a report on some hungry children in Kenya and there drops a tear!! Now, its awright when at home, but at work, being caught wiping tears with a tissue can get really embarrassing!

If I am not wrong, I must get teary-eyed at least once in 2-3 days! In fact my hubby makes a lot of fun… Sometimes when I cry for no reason at all, he makes his oh-god-what-now face and says ‘Bahut din ho gaye the rone ka weekly quota khatam kar rahi ho?’ (Many days have passed since you last cried. Are you making up for the week’s quota?)

So, you get the point. I basically love to cry…

But I sometimes wonder ‘Is it a bad thing to cry’?

I can almost imagine Amitabh Bachchan roaring on the top of his voice ‘Mard ko dard nahi hota’… Basically crying has always been associated with women. Another stereotype. Reason? Possibly because women arent afraid of being mocked for crying or for that matter afraid of openly expressing their emotions. Men, on the other hand, are! They like to keep everything bottled up. In my honest opinion, it is important to cry some times, to get all the negative energy out… I am sure all will agree that crying definitely makes the head and the heart lighter…

Crying is not a sign of vulnerability nor is it a sign of weakness. Keeping pain bottled up may make you look macho/strong temporarily but eventually the volcano will burst and the lava will come out stronger than never before…

So, my dear friends, cry away!

Take a stand. Today.

http://wordpress.org/news/2012/01/help-stop-sopa-pipa/

[Photo Courtesy: http://lifeebook.blogspot.com/2011/06/swami-vivekanand.html]

To the man who opened the doors of spirituality for a young spirited girl of 19. You are one of my most favorite people and I truly regret not having being born in your era, not having heard you in person!

To the man who taught me what Gyana Yoga and Karma Yoga is all about

Thank you!

I do not know the answer to this question. Who knows why some creeps do the unthinkable! But there is one thing I do know: If all the women in India were to start wearing Sarees instead of salwar (which is the most prominently worn outfit across India), it will definitely not aid in bringing the rapes down as suggested by Seetamma and V Dinesh Reddy (See excerpt below)

Seetamma, in an interview earlier this week, said women needed a dress code “for their own good”. The independence of women, she said, had nothing to do with wearing modern clothes. What, according to Seetamma, might keep women safe from rapists and sundry low-life? “Only a sari,” she declared, “with long-sleeved blouses invokes respect for women, nothing else.”

Seetamma’s remarks represent the nadir of modern Indian thought and are the latest in a series of offensive, unthinking and plain stupid comments by public officials, who in a right-thinking country should have been forced out of office. Instead, many Indians, especially men — probably the majority — likely agree with them.

The latest round of absurd comments began last week when a reporter in Hyderabad asked Andhra Pradesh director general of police V Dinesh Reddy why the police had failed to stem the rising graph of rape (more than three a day in 2011) and murder. This is what the learned Reddy had to say: “When you are taking (sic) food that gives good josh, (my best translation: playful energy), as time goes by you tend to be more naughty… rapes and all cannot be controlled by the police. Even the villagers from coastal Andhra Pradesh, where it used to be more traditional, are wearing salwar kameez. All these things provoke these types of things, which is (sic) not in control of the police. So, rapes per se, increase or decrease, you cannot attribute (this) to the police.”

Are you serious? Do these people really believe wearing a saree is going to command more ‘respect’ for women? On what basis? From a logical, rational standpoint, a saree always gets more attention because it shows a lot more skin than a Salwar, which is covered from top to bottom… I love and respect saree as an outfit but it is irrational to say that a salwar is more provocative than a saree… Despite all the pinnings and caution, all those who have worn sarees at any point of time will agree with me that a saree is essentially a large piece of cloth. The number of mishaps/oops moments possible when wearing a saree far outweigh those when wearing a salwar!

Let us now move out of the realm of which clothing attracts perverts. Because frankly, I whole-heartedly agree with the conclusion of the author in the article – atrocities against women have nothing to do with what she wears. A pervert’s gaze will remain pervert whether you cover her in a burqa or a bikini!

If we go back a little in history… In the land of Ram Rajya, or even in the Mesopotamian era, the description of women’s attires often includes a bikini-top along with an angavastram tied around the waist. And yet, such atrocities against women were unheard of in those times. The whole purdah system came into place when the Mughals invaded India (More on this later).

Alas! Our so-called-leaders fail to fathom this and instead of going to the root of the problem, are busy torturing the victims further! As I prepare to end this piece, the question continues to linger on in my mind…

I was shocked not because this is a story of a woman fighting for her rights to save her twin daughters from her husband and her in-laws. I was shocked because the woman is not one of those countless, helpless women that throng rural India and are subject to unmentionable exploitations every day. The victim here is a doctor, a paediatrician!! Whats even more shocking?? Her monster of a husband is a doctor too!!!!

The story made me angry! And along with it, I was engulfed by immense sadness. I was under a huge misconception that we, as a nation, are progressing. Apparently not! As Dr Mitu pointed out correctly,

With advancement in technology, people are coming up with more advanced ways of killing the girl child.

Not only did her husband and inlaws try poisoning her so as to induce abortion, her mother in law actually threw her 4-month old daughter down the stairs!

The only silver lining in the otherwise devastating story is that all is not lost. We have women who are running orphanages for girl child who are discarded by their family.

In Elizabeth Vargas’ words:

Poor women who cannot afford these services will simply kill or abandon their babies.   Some will take their newborn girls to a drop box, usually in the middle of the night, and leave the baby there.  One drop box is at a place called the Unique Orphanage in Punjab.  We went from the village with no women, to the orphanage with no boys.  There are only girls here…60 of them…all cared for by a wonderful woman who will raise each and every one.  It is striking to see all those little faces, some two days old, others teenagers, all unwanted by their biological families.  They are actually the lucky ones.  Their parents didn’t kill them.  They now have someone who loves them.

The orphanage is crowded – I counted three, sometimes four girls in each bed — but also immaculate.  No one knows their real birth date, so once a year they have one giant birthday party for everyone.

 I have always had immense respect for the men in white coats. In a lot of ways, they depict all that is good with our society. They depict technological advancement and man’s victory over the inevitable (or we would like to think). But, when those white coats are put up for sale for a couple of thousand bucks, there is very little nobility left in the ‘noble profession’.

This time, the book that compelled me to put everything aside, is The immortals of Meluha by Amish.

The book talks about my favorite topic: Mythology without making it boring or monotonous! The author has cleverly brought together the Chandravanshis (Clan of King Bharat which ultimately led to Mahabharat), Suryavanshis (Clan of King Ram whose story is the Ramayan) and the man who was their savior, Lord Shiva, all together in a spell-binding story. What I loved about the book was not just the story but the ingenuity with which various mythological characters we revere as Gods today, come alive as believable people – like they truly walked the land we live on… The names of all the characters, main or supporting, have been derived from the names of Gods that we pray to. Their characterisation in the book has been dealt with pain-staking detail, so much so that you feel like you have known them forever… Actually you have!!

The writing shows immense maturity with which the author has dealt with all the issues that plagued our societies in the past – some of them continue to plague us even today. It is surprising that this is the first book written by Amish. Author shows immense promise and I am already half way through the 2nd book of the Shiva Trilogy – The Secret of the Nagas (review coming soon)

This book is for anyone and everyone who has ever had the remotest interest in mythology. I was always asked by my non-Indian friends to tell them any one book which tied all our mythology together. I could never think of one… Shiva Trilogy has successfully emerged as an answer to that!

If Aamir Khan is listening, here is one book that would make a terrific movie!!

Are you guys ready for the Indian answer to ‘Lord of the Rings‘?

She woke up the next morning and narrated this to her husband. He kept a loving hand on her shoulder and told her not to worry.. It was little consolation to Sia, who kept thinking of her Nani (Maternal Grandmother), who hadnt been keeping well for the past 2 years. Sia remembered hurriedly paying her a visit 2.5 years ago. Fragile, yet warm as ever, she could remember Nani gently brushing her hair and asking her “Khush to ho?“. She had been married for 6 months then and she could see the concern in her Nani’s eyes. “Main bahut khush hun, Nani. Mujhe dekh ke nahi pata chala aapko“, Sia chided with her Grandmother gently prodding her to take care of her health and not worry about her. She left the next day with a promise to come back soon. It had been 2 years since and Sia had not had a chance to go visit her Nani. She would write her letters and try to talk to her on the phone, but her heart ached to meet her.

Her heart sank when her mother told her to drop by and visit Nani during her planned Diwali holidays at her in-law’s. Nani’s lungs had started giving up on her. Mama (Maternal Uncle) being a cardiac physician was beginning to get worried. They had already revived Nani a few times. Everytime her lungs gave up on her, she would be plugged onto a dozen machines and brought back… Mama was not willing to give up on her… Nor was she willing to give up on life… Such was the strong-willed Nani…

Sia had just landed in India… all happy that she would be seeing Nani soon… until that fateful call from her sister that promised to tear the world around her.

Nani was no more…

Sia had heard in fables and folk tales that the very pious at heart have the boon of ‘Ichcha Mrityu‘, the ability to leave their body at will. She saw this when her Nani decided to pass on… She chose the best day and time to do the same… Sia was shattered… Not just because Nani was no more… but also because she couldnt meet her fav person… “It was probably the best”, she told herself… her last memory of Nani was the same cheerful, effervescent and strong person she always was… She wouldnt have been able to see her get weak…

Today, almost a month since Nani moved on… Sia always finds her presence around her… She knows her beloved Nani will always be around her… guiding her… protecting her…