A Book to Cool Us Down

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai My rating: 4 of 5 stars It was hot, way too hot and I wanted some respite. There was no option of going out in the mountains and looking at snow-capped peaks. And then I started reading this book in which the central character is an area called Kalimpong in Lesser Himalayas ranges with a majestic view of Kanchanjunga. Too Misty, severally...

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Food for Love

1 “Are you not afraid of seeing me every weekend? What would your wife think about you if ever she comes to know what you are up to during your working weekends”: she said playing with his thin salt and pepper hair. “Tell me don’t you love me or who else keeps meeting the same girl for such a long time. It’s going to be full three years this 31st December night and...

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Mrs Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna My rating: 3 of 5 stars After reading few articles of hers, I got interested and thought like giving this book a try. It’s a light reading and gives an insider view of the Bollywood family routine life but it is also more than that. This narrates funny affairs and not so funny incidents from the perspective of a modern hands-on working Mom...

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Milkman on a Dating App

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison My rating: 5 of 5 stars A chance introduction to Milkman on a dating app is what brought me to “Song of Solomon”. Now for our regular families, a milkman is one who brings milk to them every day. For me and many like me, it is Mr. Veghese Kurien. And then one who has read this Toni Morrison novel knows Milkman as a character who is so intense...

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Educating the Oppressed

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire My rating: 5 of 5 stars Pedagogy of the Oppressed begins with the process of humanization and dehumanization and in turn humanizes the left ideology fraught with not-so-occasional violent revolutions. Actually, it turns the epistemology of whole education/development/revolution discourse upside down and gives an insight which is more...

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Serious Stuff and Some Gossips

Durbar by Tavleen Singh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tavleen Singh, the writer of Durbar, emerges as a brave journalist with high contacts and privileged access to high profile drawing rooms and she generously used these capabilities to make the book an interesting chronicle of the time when Indira and Rajeev ruled the country and strengthened the root of dynastic politics. Many...

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A Rebellious Heart

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid My rating: 4 of 5 stars “’The reluctant fundamentalist” is everything except about a fundamentalist. I have read first time a book written by a Pakistani about a Pakistani in America. Only reading few pages was sufficient to take it off from the shelf and get it issued on my name and it did keep its promises till the last page....

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