New York In Pictures: Five Pictures that Still Tug At My Heart

I had expected to fall in love with the city and want to not ever come back from there but surprisingly I did not fall in love with New York….. the rush, the expensiveness, the intimidating heights of skyscrapers, the sheer expanse of the city, the continuous and myriad soundscapes made me withdraw…

But yet some things stayed back in my heart and even after a year now I dive back in the photographs to revisit the memories.

New York Skyline

The tall sky scrapers that make the New York skyline force your head to look upwards and dwarf you. They look like an eye-catching jigsaw puzzle…

New York Skyline from River

2. One World trade Centre

The Freedom Tower that stands tall in place of twin towers of World Trade Centre after the 9/11 attack, piercing the clouds, shows the indomitable spirit of man against the terror…proof of victory of good over evil!

Freedom tower reaching up in the skies…Indomitable Spirit

3.Sailing down the Hudson River

The sail boat was lovely and looked like a pirate ship from the story books yet looked so at home with tall buildings as backdrop. I expected Captain Hook to materialise any time and stop our boat in search of Peter Pan…

Pirate Ship? In middle of New York?

4. Manhattan by Night

We went up the Rockefeller Centre instead of Empire State Building, because view was better from there….why? Because the view from Rockefeller had the Empire State Building in it of course!! We stayed at the deck from five in evening till the city lit up gradually one sky scraper at a time. The lit up New York was definitely worth seeing.

As the city lights up…

5. Statue of Liberty

The Lady with whom world identifies New York stands since 1886…Statue of Liberty is magnificent to look at. Built by Gustave Eiffel and gifted by people of France to United States, it is the icon of freedom and holds a tablet inscribed with date 4th July 11776, the American Declaration of Independence.

And of course the lady… Liberty

Though I have no desire to stay in New York forever but I definitely would love to spend more time in the city and get to know it better…Who knows I might someday fall in love with this maddeningly crowded and always on the move city…A city that never sleeps!!

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2015: A Year of Books and Blogposts

The past year has been very fruitful for me. I loved every bit of the year with lot of travel, lot of blogging and not to forget two wins.

BlogAdda Activities:

Blogadda had announced the World Remade activity in February and I did not get time for many days to write anything for that. But then one fine day inspiration struck and I typed away in a mad frenzy to come up with a poem “World Remade” . For days I waited for the results and as the dates for the India Today conclave neared I lost hopes of making it to the conclave.

I went about my day as usual, went for a walk in evening and all this while did not bother to take a peek at my cell phone. Later in the evening to my surprise there was this mail sitting pretty in the mailbox by Blogadda guys….I was one of the winners and was being asked my willingness to attend the Conclave. Ha! there was no doubt that I would miss such an opportunity even though my daughter had her final exams in March.

Delegate card for Conclave

Reservations to travel to Delhi were made in a hurry, friends informed of my stay with them and I reached the venue finally got my delegate card and made new friends!! Can’t thank BlogAdda enough…

The Conclave was a great experience and I attended sessions of some great personalities that included Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathan Anand, Moni Mohsin, Shobhaa De…

With new friends Arvind Passey and Tennyson Thomas

A To Z Challenge:

April saw me participating in a daily blogging challenge where each day except Sunday was to correspond with each alphabet. I was not confident of seeing the challenge through but I surprised myself with 26 posts from A to Z. Some posts came out good and some were disasters but I realised that if I really tried, I could write at least 500 words everyday. That means that when I decide to pen a book some day, it definitely is possible 🙂

Huffington Post:

I am one staunch supporter of freedom of women and often get into hot discussions if anybody says anything anti-women. I wrote a post for the Independence day and sent it to Huffington Post blog editor Ms Kavita. Now Huffington Post Blogs is one huge platform for any aspiring blogger and i had my fingers crossed…literally.

That evening on 15th August my article was active on Huffington Post and of course I was jubilant.

Three other articles of my travels also were published in 2015 on Happy Trips and WeNomad sites.

Book reviews:

I became addicted to books right from school days when in a day I used to finish three Noddy books by Enid Blyton much to my library teacher’s headache. After graduating to Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys, I however skipped Mills and Boon totally and instead got into reading all thrillers with the earliest being the Bourne series which was in my father’s collection. My husband introduced me to Richard Bach and later I simply fell in love with William Dalrymple. I read and read…. But never wrote a review. I never thought anybody would be interested in my opinion!!

This year however, I got into reviewing books with Writers Melon sending me the first book to write review about. Kirtida Gautam too sent me her book #IAm16ICanRape . I have been busy reading few mythological stories these days. The best among them was “Maneka’s Choice” by Kavita Kane.

I have started enjoying airing my views about a particular book now and it feels good when the blog visitors, author and the publication house appreciate the review.

The year ended with another good news, again courtesy BlogAdda. They selected my post Six Steps To Responsible Tourism as one of the entries which won me an early invitation to Outlook Traveller Summit. Though I could not make it to Delhi from Thanjavur at half a day’s notice but it definitely boosted my morale to have been selected!

With such a wonderful year gone by, I have become greedy and hope 2016 brings more joys. Yes, one good news is already in my pocket…my article on Adalaj Vav, with some cuts and fine tuning is now active on Open Road Review… Yay!

Bring it on 2016…am ready for you!!

“I’m sharing my #TalesOf2015 with BlogAdda.”

Book Review: Shakuntala, The Woman Wronged

Book: Shakuntala

Genre: Fiction/Mythology

Publisher: Rupa Publication

Author: Utkarsh Patel

I have been reading a lot of fiction based on mythological stories these days. A few days ago I finished reading about love of the most beautiful celestial nymph Menaka and sage Vishwamitra. Their love came to fruition with the birth of a beautiful daughter Shakuntala. And the love story of this fiery daughter with Dushyant, King of Hastinapur is what that has kept me busy these last few days.

The author, Utkarsh Patel, has astutely observed the different moral yardsticks of our society which still remain unaltered:

“A man was seldom blamed for his sins and if at all he was, it was passed off as an oversight. But a woman was blamed, shamed and made to suffer for the misdemeanours of men around her for no fault of hers”

Because of such double standards, almost all stories revolving around Dushyant have depicted the king as an upright man of high morals who becomes a victim of some strange curse and forgets about his love and marriage. He was hardly ever shown as one pleasure-seeking wily king…

But here in this story, author has dared to call a spade a spade….King Dushyant engaged in a one night stand with the a virgin woman on false promises of marriage and that makes him one of those vain men who consider women an object to play with and discard at convenience. His morals and intentions are questionable and the story does not sugar-coat the character of the mighty, used-to-getting-his-way king.

The demure Shakuntala of Kalidas, the great poet of all times, who pines for her beloved and is dependent on fate for reminding the King of Hastinapur of his marriage and promises to her, is nowhere to be seen in this story. This Shakuntala, based on the original characterization by Sage Vyasa, does not wallow in pain of abandonment but takes matter in her hands and questions the society and its different rules for men and women. She is fierce, fights for the rights of her son and asserts her importance as a wife. She is independent woman who does not need the crutches of wealth and a label of queen to survive in the world.

I loved the book through and through not only because it is very well-knit and to the point but also because author has subtly raised certain issues that still need to be addressed and debated over; the difference of reactions meted out to men and women for craving physical gratifications, the unnecessary emphasis given to virginity of women, freedom of women to choose their partners…

I am quite impressed by Vyasa’s and Utkarsh Patel’s Shakuntala for being brave enough to stand up against an hypocritical society and silence it with her uninhibited logical reasoning. Such strong women who believe in equality of men and women are need of this nation and more so today because men have taken enough advantage of the love which a woman has to offer.

We need more such men too who respect and honour women; who believe that future of such a nation, that does not respect its women, where women shed tears and are treated like objects, is doomed.

The chapter ‘Time’ however seemed little out-of-place because it reminded me of the opening scene from the mega serial “Mahabharat” with voice booming out of the idiot box “Mai Samay hoon….” Story could have been taken forward by prose within the chapters instead of ‘Mr Time’ speaking up suddenly and then keeping quiet during rest of the story!

But this hardly anything to hold against because the book has a wonderful prose that is apt to be read even in modern context.

Review also on :

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1484621949

http://www.flipkart.com/reviews/RV3UQVSF3OTMB8F0R

Book Review: The Best Seller She Wrote

Book: The Best Seller She Wrote

Author: Ravi Subramaniyam

Genre: Fiction

Publishers: Westland Books

Having heard about Ravi Subramanian and his financial thrillers I never made an effort to buy his books because once years ago when I picked up a book by John Grisham, my young mind refused to comprehend all legal jargon and the courtroom story after first few pages. Since then I have steered clear of thrillers which deal with subject I barely understand and that implies lawyer talk and finance…..The only financial thriller that I have read is Tom Clancy’s ‘Debt of Honour’ just because it was always there on bookshelf at home.

Since this was the first book by the author that I read so I had not much clue of what to expect and yet the tagline at the book cover ‘soon to be a motion picture’ gave me a fair idea that the story might be ‘one masala mix‘ like our movies!

And sure enough with the story revolving around a banker who also is famous author, a wannabe smooth-talking ambitious B-School graduate beautiful girl and a little detective-story-like twist almost at end, it is one crowd puller. The lead character and some events in his life have a strong resemblance to one certain popular Indian author. I couldn’t help laughing when the protagonist of story agrees to be a judge for dance reality show on TV and his wife comments:

“Don’t be so blinded by the arc-lights that you make a fool of yourself”

Now only the authors concerned would know better whether the comment was just a friendly jibe or not!

The story, basically about love, betrayal of trust between friends, between a husband and wife and coming back to senses of strayed man to reunite with wife is however very predictable; a famous much married banker turned author who falls for a sexual charms of a good-looking girl, his ardent fan and cheats on his wife. How the lead character gets into some sleuthing and resurrects his broken marriage is the little twist. Even though I could guess how the relationship would play out as soon as ‘Shreya’ the attractive fan started interacting with ‘Aditya Kapoor’ the author yet I loved reading the story with the backdrop of publishing world nuggets.

There have been many similar stories and many such movies so I did not find anything fresh except that the character was IIM graduate, banker and author. The few sexual scenes were not enticing enough and at times story dragged a bit. With all the promotions and hype surrounding the book, story is quite ordinary.

There are quite some inputs about the way publishing world functions. Using names of Anurag Kashyap and Nirav Sanghavi of BlogAdda also seems like a very into your face advertisement and again gives a glimpse of behind the scene requirements in the business of book publishing.

In all, the book was a nice package and with some sizzling song dance sequences thrown in would make one mass pleasing movie. With no heavy philosophy and no moral preaching, book is good bedtime read for young readers.

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1472242451

Book Review: Menaka’s Choice

Book: Menaka’s Choice

Author: Kavita Kane

Publishers: Rupa Publications

Among the two other books ‘Karna’s Wife’ and ‘Sita’s Sister’ by Kavita Kane, I have read only ‘Sita’s Sister’ a story of Ramayan from the viewpoint of Urmila, Lakshman’s wife and Sita’s Sister. Ramayan being the story of Ram and Sita, Urmila has only little role to play in the epic yet in author’s story Urmila becomes the protagonist and retells the story from her perspective.

With her stories mostly having mythological women as her subjects, Kavita Kane has done it again….taken one less significant character from the larger than life mythological stories and woven a delicate story bringing the character centre-stage.

From the many bedtime stories narrated by grandparents and many ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ books that I read as a kid, I gathered that Menaka was one of the most beautiful ‘Apsara’ a pawn in Indra’s scheme, sent from heaven to disturb Rishi Vishwamitra’s penance and prevent him from becoming more powerful than the devas in heaven.

But author Kavita Kane has given Menaka a personality. She becomes not just a beautiful sensuous nymphet meant as diversion or for physical gratification but also a woman with a ticking brain; she is aware of circumstances, she thinks and decides her own course of action. It is her story; of how she dares to take a path of love and loyalty, of how a game of deceit becomes her truth, of speaking her mind and standing up against wrong, of how her love is destroyed by the conniving Indra not once but twice, of her decision to sacrifice her happiness for the greater good of her children and her husband, of her desperation to reunite with estranged family, of her silently bearing the pain…

Since forever, men in Indian society have been given a status equal to God…infallible! Rishis like Vishwamitra leading an ascetic life have been revered and depicted as above all mortal insecurities. But the author has shown the human side of Vishwamitra. Known for his volatile quick temper and placing a curse on whoever dared to cause trouble in his prayers, Vishwamitra is absolutely besotted by charms of Menaka and gives in to his carnal desires like any other man and seeks pleasure in the arms of the woman. He finds much satisfaction and comfort in leading a householder till Menaka pushes him away so he could reach a higher goal.

As I read page after page the lucid description of Menaka’s charm and beauty attracted me and I wished I could see this lovely damsel in flesh before my eyes too. Kavita Kane has described the romantic and amorous episodes between the sage and celestial nymph with such artistic beauty that nowhere it seems either out-of-place or vulgar…it gives you goose pimples instead… it is almost delicious to read.

‘All is well that ends well’ and Menaka stands vindicated of her guilt of deviating the great sage from his path of attaining highest wisdom, her children have no ill feeling towards her, her sacrifice is recognised and held honourable by her husband, Vishwamitra and Indra learns a lesson of humility.

This book is as delightful to read as ‘Sita’s Sister’ with easy syrupy language. Read it for that relaxed feeling and easy joy.

Also on :

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1468382584

Book Review: You Are The Best Wife

Book: You Are The Best Wife

Author: Ajay K Pandey

Publishers: Srishti Publishers

One look at the title of the book and a little jealous wife in me wanted to read what this was about…. I mean who really tells his wife that “You Are The Best Wife”?

When WritersMelon sent the book for review, curiosity got the better of me and I finished this 240 page book just in a day.

A tragic true love story, it is a narration straight from heart by Ajay Pandey. As the story gradually advanced page after page, I was taken back to memories of my days at college, the hostel life, helping friends in playing out their love stories, the days of ragging. And having grown up in various town and cities of Uttar Pradesh I could identify the language and tone of the story and could almost imagine the young couple stealing meetings at shops, coaching classes, riding different vehicles to prevent nosey neighbours from opining…. I can understand the caste and community differences that are much prevalent in small towns of Uttar Pradesh, the inhibitions of parents and their emotional preconditions for inter-caste marriages.

The story seems simple about girl meets boy in small town, their struggle of love and acceptance of their relationship by each set of parents but then the story throws a twist where instead of an end that is happily ever after, is the life threatening medical emergency. The struggle of meeting the expenses, unconditional support by friends, the bonding and reliability of family members, the desperation of a husband, his fight to stay calm are easily pictured through the narrative.

I liked the optimistic and positive attitude of the girl, Bhavana, who believes in cherishing and enjoying smallest of event and day-to-day life to the fullest.

“There are two kinds of personalities. There are those who have everything and still complain as if they have nothing. And there are those who lose everything and act like life has given them everything…..”

The desperate husband’s plea to his dying wife “Fight for me Bhavna. Fight for your husband” brought a little tear in my eyes. Every wife would love to hear her husband say that she was the best wife and author gave that happiness to his wife in her last moments.

The story of “You Are The Best Wife” was indeed heart touching but the writing style was quite ordinary. It was more like a person recounting the tragedy to a relative or friend.

I mostly prefer reading romance and tragedy novels by Danielle Steele, Erich Segal and Richard Bach and hence I can only empathize with the author and understand the huge loss he suffered, though I wasn’t much impressed by the quality of story-telling.

The book is okay for a quick read.

The best thing I liked about this personal essay was that the author and his family have created the Charitable Trust where the proceeds from the book will be donated for people in need. A very noble and selfless gesture indeed…

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27778898-you-are-the-best-wife

http://www.writersmelon.com/

Devdutt Patnaik’s “My Gita”

Book: My Gita

Author: Devdutt Patnaik

Publishers: Rupa Publications

Genre: Non fiction/ philosophy

Devdutt Patnaik is a master story-teller no doubt. He narrates mythological stories in easy and simple to understand words with apt and crisp illustrations along with the text. The two books “Jaya” and “Sita” that I read, showcase his amusing takes on mythological stories.

With a limited knowledge of Gita and its verses, I wanted to read Devdutt Patnaik’s version. I finally could lay my hands on his recent offering “My Gita”. After reading the first few pages I realised that keeping in mind to not ruffle any feathers of vigilante moral brigade of the country, he has titled the book as “My Gita” and reasoned that it is not the translation of much revered original text but his understanding of the most popular book of Hindus. “Let my Gita inform your Gita” he says.

He has attempted to simplify by not writing it in sequence as the original book but has reorganised it according to themes. The book is divided into eighteen themes like the concept of rebirth (Atma), our deeds and their reaction (Karma), our conduct (Dharma) similar to the eighteen chapters of The Gita. The book also has a brief history to understand the timeline when the original text was written. Citing examples from other beliefs and faiths, namely Jainism and Buddhism, the author has brought out difference in meaning of words like soul and atma, moksha and nirvana.

The Abrahmic and Greek concepts have also been cross-referenced throughout to emphasise on different thought processes like the concept of rebirth and gaining knowledge rather than changing the world and placing one’s value in the achievements of the lifetime.

I, for one, had a peek within. I learnt that my “fear of losing opportunities, fear of achievement, fear of abandonment is all because of lack of conceptual clarity” I need to believe in myself and have more faith and realize that I too make the world meaningful, then I could be free of all worries because lack of faith results in hopelessness and rage…..That I can only control what I do but not other person’s reaction to my action or the outcome of my efforts and I must just act to best of my capabilities without expectations… nishkama karma.

Author has paraphrased the verses in simpler words to let each person understand as per his or her own capacity. So in a way Devdutt Patnaik’s Gita has managed to inform ‘my’ Gita.

Though author has tried best to simplify, but the book is not an ordinary read to breeze through. With lot of philosophy involved, at times I got little confused and my attention was lost and that is the reason that the book needs to be understood in an un-hurried way. Those who have read the original verses of the The Gita may not completely agree with the author’s ideas.

Though I find it easier and faster to read stories in English but somehow for this book I wished it was in native language Hindi to feel closer to and understand the words deha, atma, samvad, vivad, yoga, viyog, dharma etc.

And yet I would read this book again at much slower pace to understand author’s viewpoint properly.

बार बार वही घाव……

बार बार वही घाव,

कभी शब्दों से किया आघात,

लबों को सी कर किये कभी वार…..

#IAm16ICanRape

When the nation was rudely woken up from its slumber by the brutal savage Nirbhaya Rape, I overnight graduated from a worried mother to a paranoid one. I will not deny that I have lost faith in men and look at every man other than my husband and father as potential rapists. With this frame of mind, when I heard about this new book inspired from Nirbhaya, I had decided not to read it assuming it to be another frivolous ‘masala-story’.

Then the author, Kirtida Gautam, asked me if I would be interested in reviewing the book. Honestly, I am honoured that the author placed such faith in me.

Kirtida Gautam, a clinical psychologist and an alumna of FTII, Pune did an extensive research on the rape laws of the country and knows her subject psychology well.

When the courier guy delivered the book, I did not start reading it immediately because the word ‘Rape’ gives me a headache. But once I started reading, I wanted to see where the story led to.

The story revolves around a 16 year old Aarush accused of rape. Each and every person who interacts with Aarush has been given a distinct voice in the story and story inches forward with all the characters of the story contributing in the character sketch and thought process of the accused.

The typical thoughts prevalent in the society have been brought forward in the story that for every rape committed it is the girl who is blamed and not the perpetrator. The author has identified through victim of the story how the society instead of sympathising and standing by the victim “withdraws emotional and social support making rape a stigma for the victim”

May be it was my wishful thinking or influence of hindi movies which made me hope for a happy ending and triumph of good over bad but the end of the story was closer to the reality of the society. However being a fiction some things have been exaggerated like the stand of grandfather of accused. The grandfather’s attitude towards the whole incident is that of a compassionate and righteous person that is so desirable but again he is not what real society is made of….I would be so happy to see men like Rudransh Kashyap, the grandfather, in real life who believe in standing for what is right. But alas…

Some chapters on psychology are bit too heavy for me but then those are required to understand the complex character of the accused. Again because the work is a fiction, hence the ability of the accused to think through is understood but in real world men indulging in such heinous actions might not be even half as intelligent.

Author has raised the issue that while we instil the fear of rape, of strangers and of going alone somewhere in our daughters but then why we do not scare our sons of the consequences of raping a woman? Why we let our girls express all their emotions but dissuade boys to show emotions of fear and vulnerability thus forcing them to bottle up and in the process become frustrated? We stop our daughters to go out alone at night but why we do not teach our sons to respect and protect women?

By the time I finished the story, I was angry and felt murderous. The recent news of acquittal of the accused juvenile of the Nirbhaya’s case added fuel to the fire and I felt the need to stand against the juvenile rape laws of our country. I felt hatred against those politicians who have so carelessly given opinion that boys make mistake when they are growing up…

Rape is not the fault of women and not some ordinary mistake by men…it is an unforgivable crime and those who violate a woman’s body must be punished with an equal magnitude.

Author has handled the issue very delicately. The book is quite a tough read due to the topic itself along with serious psychology…not for readers who want a quick racy story. A poignant and thought-provoking book.

First Brush On The Canvas

Book: First Brush on Canvas

Publishers: Half Baked Beans

Usually I am not impulsive when buying anything and more so from on-line portals, though my husband has grown very fond and comfortable with the concept of buying on-line. I have to, however, feel the thing first be it a dress, a kitchen gadget, décor accessory and even a book.

Book? What is that I have to feel in a book, to think twice before buying it on-line, someone would ask? Well, I love going to a book store filled with the smell of fresh paper of the books that sit pretty on the shelves showing off their bright coloured covers tempting me to touch them… I don’t however buy a book even if I get attracted to it unless I have read the author earlier or till I have read smallest bit review about it.

This time, however, I bought a book on-line, impulsively…. First Brush on Canvas by WritersMelon….. I wanted to find out what kind of stories had made it to a book….. so that when next time any such opportunity comes up, I could take part too. And honestly I have not regretted buying it!

Outcome of a nationwide contest ‘Melonade’ with stories by aspiring writers that were judged by the likes of Ashwin Sanghi, Preeti Shenoy and Arnab Ray and edited by Priyanka Roy Banerjee, this collection of short stories is a first for authors of stories as well as for WritersMelon.

The book has stories divided into sections ‘Romance’, ‘Comedy’ and ‘Thriller’. Of the five stories in romance genre I loved the story of a gay couple and their yearning for a child in ‘An Adoption’ by Uttiya Ray. It goes on to show that people are accepting gay relationships in our country enough to write stories about it. ‘Popping the cherry’ by Amit Nangia captures the dilemma of ‘how to fit in’ faced by young boys and girls and their willingness to experiment with their physical needs. Shaily Bhargava’s ‘Coffee conversations and you’ brought a smile on my lips because it reminds me of small arguments that me and my husband have even now after fifteen years of marriage.

The Comedy section has three stories and I loved the ‘Godliness’ by Abhishek Mukherjee the most. The ‘Writer’s Block’ by Avishek Basu Mallick is a satire with a twist which came as surprise to me.

I love to read my thrillers….the stories in this section were very dark and sinister. The little girl Tina was the most scary. The troubled housewife killing herself in the story ‘Clue and Cue’ was also quite gripping.

In all I loved the stories much. I hope one of these days I will write as good a story as these talented aspiring writers whose stories have been featured in this first ever attempt by WritersMelon. Kudos to the writers.

A take-me-along-while-travelling kind of book and a good read for all type of readers.

Shoma Abhyankar

Freelance Writer & Journalist

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New York In Pictures: Five Pictures that Still Tug At My Heart

2015: A Year of Books and Blogposts