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Showing posts from July, 2017

Small Servings Of Wellness #BlogChatterEbooks

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New beginnings are tough. You suck at things a lot initially. It takes patience, persistence, and faith to keep going. During this phase, all you need is reassurances, inspiration, and motivation. Daily doses of them. This book ‘Small Servings Of Wellness’ by Vaishali Gandhi has been that daily dose of motivation for me when life is humbling me down and crossroads challenge me out of my comfort zone. After having left the hectic yet comfortable IT job after two years of joining, and starting preparations for competitive exams again was a tough change. And leading a life of a student, career aspirant yet again after two years is intimidating too. Every day when I attend the coaching classes I feel left behind by those fresh out of college, who grasp the concepts much faster than I am able to do. It is indeed humble beginning. A start from scratch. Level 1 yet again. But then, the faith that I gained from all around me, led me to practice it all step by step each day, and I can
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White Noise

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Book Blurb: “There is another city right under our city and it comes up only when you and I are together. Only you and I know about it and only you and I get to experience it. It keeps itself hidden from the rest of the world. And that is where I live.” He said. “And what happens when you’re not with me?” She asked. “I evaporate.” He smiled. The Reading Experience: There have been times when I have devoured a book solely because of its exquisite narrative. I have relished it word by word and the sheer joy of the experience is beyond me to express. This is yet another such book. The narrative is cerebral, mysterious, addictive, and poetic – complete with metaphors, similes, rhymes, and rhythms. I remember two novels by international writers that had overwhelmed me, wowed me, blew my mind by their magical narration- ‘The Debt of Tamar’ by Nicole Dweck, and ‘We were Liars’ by E.Lockhart. This particular book ‘White Noise’ by Shruti Upadhaya is comparable to these b
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#Urdu- A Sufi Celebration Of Life #BlogChatterEbookCarnival

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Book Blurb: "This book is a Sufi celebration — a celebration of love, humanity, and values that seem to be losing their sheen.Simple, relatable and everyday life lessons are woven around equally simple and easy to use Urdu words that can easily become a part of the reader’s day to day lingo.And since Urdu is a language of the poets and a home for some of the finest poetry/couplets ( ghazal , nazm , shayari and so on), these pieces are riddled with her most favorite pieces of Urdu poetry or shayaris , many of which formed the background score of her childhood that echoed with her mother’s favorite Jagjit Singh’s ghazals." My Review: I love untranslatable words. I dig up the internet for them- search nooks and corners of ScoopWhoop, ThoughtCatalog, and Instagram for these. I love the way these words conquer over my being as I get deeply immersed in their meaning. Never thought there were such words in Urdu as well, a language I have grown to love in rec
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Eight Steps To Achieve Your Reading Goals

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Reading habits vary from person to person. Someone likes to read before going to bed while someone prefers reading the first thing in the morning. Someone reads fast, someone reads slowly taking his own sweet time. Someone prefers to listen to a novel being read aloud to him, rather than reading it himself. There are various reading challenges all over the internet - the Goodreads, Epicreads- varying on the basis of the number of books you are committing to read in a year, or the genre of books, or even color coded challenges based on the book covers. Read 101 Classics challenge, LGBT books, Banned Books, Poetry Books, translated books, etc. Weird ones, challenging and interesting ones. Here are a few steps on how you can achieve your reading goals if you tend to lag behind. 1.        Choose a time-slot You need to be dedicated to reading every day. Choosing a particular time of the day to read can help a lot. It can be while traveling to or from your work or institute, i
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Queeristan by Parmesh Sahani

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  Queeristan (Amazon Link) Thanks to Audible Free Trial I listened to this amazing non-fiction on LGBTQ inclusion in Indian workplaces. Author Parmesh Sahani identifies as gay Indian, working closely with Godrej higher management and employees for years to create an inclusive workplace, both legally and in spirit. This book is a result of those years of experience, research, collaboration with individuals from difference spectrum of the society and organizations who has successfully transitioned into a queer friendly one.   Indian history is inclusive. From the Khajuraho temple architectures, to Konark to the Rig Veda, there is existing proofs even 2000 years ago of Indian inclusiveness of queer. It’s the draconian British law that criminalised it, which was scraped in 2009, came into effect once again following a sad judgement in 2013 and eventually was scraped off for good in 2018. I am in awe of the lawyers who fought this legal battle- colleagues and partners – Arundhati Katju
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Empress Ki : A story of an epic scale

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Empress Ki Poster (behance.net) Empress Ki is the most elaborate, gripping, and thrilling series I have watched this year. And at 51 episodes , it is the longest Korean drama series I have ever watched. Even though the number seems daunting and too much, it’s worth it all. If you like period dramas, you won’t want to give this one a miss. It was in 2016 that I first read about Empress Ki, the historical drama that had garnered much praise and accolades from the audience and critics alike. Most Korean dramas are just 16 or 20 episodes long. So 51 seemed never-ending to me then. It wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to at least try the first episode. And I was hooked. But owing to the various circumstances I didn’t continue watching it. It was just last month that I remembered this epic story and watched it to completion within just a few days. Believe it or not, midway through it, I was almost literally pulling my hair out, in anticipation of what would happen next. I wou
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E[x]ploring Odia Literature Through 'Punyatoya'

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Odia is my mother tongue but I had never really focussed on Odia novels, given that I love reading. Of late I realised that I should explore the culture and language of my native land, and see for myself whether it suits my reading sensibilities. I read “Jagyaseni” by Pratibha Ray a few years back, over a span of several months. It is a retelling of Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective, which brings about her inner turmoils, confusions, decisions, desires and dreams, really well. It was the first Odia novel I ever read. Three days back, I completed reading my second novel in Odia, coincidentally it is by the same author. “Punyatoya” - literally it means the river, or ‘as pure as the river’. It is also the name of a revered river in Indian mythology. The book has been translated into Hindi with the same title, with the tagline “the story of a village girl Meghi”. Other translated versions are in Marathi and Malayalam. The story follows a young girl named Barsha,
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The Baztan Trilogy

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The first movie 'The Invisible Guardian' begins with the killings of several teenage girls and elaborate staging of their bodies by the river in the damp valley of Elizondo. Amaia Salazar, our protagonist, returns there, her hometown, as the Chief Investigator for the case. She heads the homicide department. The serial killings seem aimed at young girls who don't uphold the traditional norms and have begun exploring their sexuality. Through the case, Amaia grapples with her own demons, her relationship issues and traumatic memories of abuse from her past. We get to know that her mother had abused her, being seemingly senile herself, and was then admitted to a facility. The setting of the damp valley where it rains all hours of the day, the cloudy scenery, the fog covered thick forest maintain a sinister vibe throughout the movie. It is an apt backdrop for a crime thriller, with supernatural undertones. The mythical beast  basajaun , the big hairy beast of the forest, seems
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Reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

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Reading ‘Norwegian Wood’ by Haruki Murakami is a very revealing experience. I encounter my own thoughts, views, and somewhere somehow suppressed opinions, wishes and teenage dreams. The growth and the development in Naoko and Watanabe’s relation is very memorable, has a nostalgic essence to it. Naoko is Kizuki’s girlfriend, who is Watanabe’s best friend. They are just acquaintances, at first, meeting up in double dates, but with Kizuki’s suicide, they are devastated and broken with only each other to care for as an integral part of their adolescence vanished along with Kizuki. They grow close with time, as years pass by, taking long walks in the meadow, through the streets of Tokyo, riding together in the metro, and discussing everything under the sun except Kizuki’s sudden death. On Naoko’s birthday when Watanabe mentions him, she snaps, crying violently. She leaves the town without notice. The story turns sad and melancholic at this point as Watanabe misses Naoko terribly, w
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Odisha's Handicrafts: A Picture Post

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Papier Mache: Best Waste Paper & Cloth Recycle Product (Pinterest) Sandart in Puri Beach (WikiCommons) Intricate Stone Carvings in Konark (WikiCommons) PattaChitra- Palm Leaf etchings (WikiCommons) Coir Crafts (odialive.com) Applique works in Pipili, Odisha (Flickr) Silver Filigree from Silver City Cuttack (indiamart.com) Ikat- Handloom- Craft- Sarees (strandofsilk.com) Terracotta (odishasuntimes.com) Terracotta Elephants (communityodia.com) I am participating in the #AToZChallenge with #BlogchatterA2Z and I am sharing posts themed around Art for this entire month of April. Share and connect with me on social media. Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram  ************************************************************* If you like to read Magic Moments and the posts here, subscribe to the monthly newsletter below. Would love to have a dialogue, feedback and suggestions. Subscribe to our mailing list
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A Gathering Of Friends By Ruskin Bond

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a gathering of friends is a collection of 21 short stories. The twenty-one stories in the book are the greatest pieces of fiction written by Ruskin Bond. Chosen by the author himself, from a body of work built over fifty years (starting with his award winning first novel, ‘The Room on the Roof’, and ending with ‘Tales of Fosterganj’), this collection includes well-known masterpieces like ‘The Night Train at Deoli’, ‘The Woman on Platform 8’, ‘Rusty Plays Holi’, ‘Angry River’, ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘The Eyes Have It’, ‘Most Beautiful’, ‘Panther’s Moon’, as well as newer stories like ‘An Evening at the Savoy with H.H’ and ‘Dinner with Foster’. Taken together, the stories in A Gathering of Friends show why Ruskin Bond has long been regarded as one of the pillars of Indian Literature. Timeless tales Ruskin Bond's stories have the essence of the hills, the trains through the deodars, uninhibited exploration of childhood and other vagaries of life. They have suc
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Yeh Meri Family : Summer of '98

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I watched TVF's recently released dramedy 'Yeh Meri Family' after reading a tweet about it. Then when I was in the second episode a friend recommended it to me just the moment I was about to recommend the same to her. Just like telepathy. Then, I knew this adorable story of a 12-year-old Harshu and his family in The Summer of '98 was a very special one. Being a 90's kid, I could relate to each and every detail in the series. The siblings' fights were exactly similar down to the very argument on who had to bring the clothes from the terrace and who had to fill up the water bottles and put them in the fridge. How often as kids, we thought our parents are so uncool till that moment when we realized otherwise!  "Papa cool dikhte nahi, Papa cool hain." Planning with friends, being the obedient one when parents fight, and sneaking around the kitchen to find something to eat- this web series took me back to my childhood and relive it all.
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