Namita Das's Blog, page 77

A Curious Incident by Vicki Delany

A friend recommended this book from the series, so I just downloaded the audible…And I loved it.

Gemma is not a detective but helps in the death case of Anna involuntarily because she has been requested by Lauren, the 11-year daughter of the suspect Sheila. The way the story flows with all the twists and turns keeps you hooked till the end. Although the ending is typical and kind of predictable, still how it unfolds is something to take note of.

Kim, the narrator of the audiobook has done a fabulous job. She had given a specific voice to each of the characters as well as made sure that the tone and pitch modulate as per the mood of the situation. It was like listening to a radio show. Absolutely loved it.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition, Audiobook, Hardcover, Paperback and Audio CD.

20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by JULES VERNE

I disliked Moby Dick and was not really sure of this one either considering it is on the same lines as a sea voyage. But a friend recommended it and I thought I should give it a try, and I must say I loved it.

Pierre Arronaux, his servant Conseil and Canadian Harpooner Ned Land are imprisoned in the submarine (Nautilus) led by Captain Nemo. Captain Nemo captures the three when they mistake the submarine for a sea monster and after that is unwilling to let them go. The story goes on about the voyage of the submarine underwater at places. The way life under the sea is described is enthralling. This definitely must have needed a lot of research.

Some episodes were heart-wrenching like the one where they have to leave their dead mate underwater, a funeral of its kind. Also, the fight with the octopuses was nail-biting.

Some words were a bit tough to catch on the audiobook, maybe because it’s old English and written years ago. Still, I would recommend it to be read once if you are interested in life underwater.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition, Audiobook, Hardcover, Paperback and Mass Market Paperback.

11 steps to get your kid to start tracing

Does your kid give you a tough time when you want them to sit and do an activity? Here I have tried to simplify it for you, breaking it down into 11 easy steps. Read on.

Request them to sit in one place.Open the book. The kid might close it, open it again.Look for the pencil and realize that you forgot to bring it.Request the kid to be seated and run for the pencil.Come back to find that the kid has disappeared.Now go find the kid. Once found, request the kid to sit back in their original place.Give the kid the pencil which might be thrown away or poked in your face.Be patient and request the kid to trace. Your tone may change but keep your face straight.The kid is still not tracing. Ok! Now maybe widen your eyes slightly. The kid traced a line? Great. Now say ‘Bravo, Good Job’ and clap.Tell the kid to trace another. The kid may say, “I am hungry”. Poor kid is tired of tracing. Request the kid to remain seated and go bring your kid’s favourite snack.Now repeat steps 5-9 while also requesting the kid to take a bite of the snacks that were demanded.

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Comment if you still have any questions

Moby Dick by HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby Dick is about Captain Ahab’s psychotic and suicidal attempts to find the white whale who had chipped off his leg in past. That is all I could understand.

All the other characters were a bit mixed up and confusing for me. Oh, except Ishmael of course. He wanted to go whaling and had accompanied the mates on Pequod, that is what the ship was constantly referred to as.

It started well, I loved the narration about the night Ishmael shared the bed with another man in the dorm, the guy who sold heads, dinner at the Spouter-Inn. But as it moved towards the whaling expedition it became uninteresting. The whole whale taxonomy was long and endless.

Despite having this one as an audiobook, I think I dozed off into dreams in between only to release minutes have passed with someone going blah blah blah in my ears. It took me close to two months to finish listening to the audiobook. I guess if I had picked it to read it would have never finished.

I still don’t understand all the buzz around this one but to be honest, it was not my cup of tea.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition, Audiobook, Hardcover, Paperback and Mass Market Paperback.

Moving on

It started with writing a caption on Instagram about ‘moving on’ but somehow it now looks like an essay. So here it is. Read at your convenience, comment your thoughts, share if it resonates.

Kids outgrow clothes and shoes as they develop with age and we continue buying new ones that fit their size as they need. Similarly, adults outgrow cognitively and intellectually because of all the learnings they receive in life. Everything changes with time, one’s beliefs, philosophy, conduct, customs, and many other things. One may not feel connected with some people anymore, the same people without whom one couldn’t have done the simplest tasks in the past.

What do to in such cases? Move on, for their and your own good. It simply means you have outgrown their cerebration and it’s essential to accept avant-garde just like getting new clothes and shoes for the kids. Leave on a good note for all the good times spent together. Pay gratitude for all their support and MOVE ON.

Everyone deserves happiness and peace of mind, being stuck will only cause the contrary.

A Cloud Called Bhura by Bijal Vachharajani, Aindri C.

I liked the message conveyed through this book.

It’s high time we correct our steps and build a sustainable lifestyle. Environment conservation is an important topic, not to be neglected or just wait for Bhura to hover over us in a few years.

Although the story felt dragged at a few places. I felt it could be done without the Vidisha-Bidisha rivalry in the plot. Also, the conversations sometimes were stretched and felt disengaging.

Overall, I loved the book, especially the ending. It reminded me of Greta Thunberg.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition and Paperback.

Unfair by Rasil Ahuja

I wish there were such books during our school times. It was tough for me to cope with having to bias for my dusky skin colour throughout my growing days. I could relate to every part of the story.

The flow of the book is smooth and keeps you engaged. Absolutely loved the rap song in the end.

Recommended for every growing kid, especially girls. A message to be comfortable in your natural skin. Also a must-read for all the elderlies who have something to comment on the colour shade. I hope they stop after reading this book.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition, Audiobook and Paperback.

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It was a nice short story. The first chapter was quite descriptive about the streets of St. Petersburg but the next ones were only long conversations between Nastenka and the unnamed bachelor who is also the narrator of the story.

This is a beautiful but short-lived love story of the two. I did feel sad for the narrator who was left alone in the end. He longed for companionship and acceptance which he would have found in Nastenka but she decided to leave him on a brotherly note only to go back to her lover.

Nice short read. Recommended.

Some of my favourite lines from the book.

It was a wonderful night, the kind of night, dear reader, which is only possible when we are young.Somehow I can’t help but be reminded of that weak and sickly girl, at whom you sometimes look with pity, sometimes with a compassionate love, and sometimes you simply do not notice her, but then suddenly, for a moment, she somehow, unexpectedly, becomes inexplicably, wonderfully beautiful, and you, startled and intoxicated, unwittingly ask yourself: What power caused those sad, thoughtful eyes to shine with such fire?I was walking and singing, because when I am happy I am sure to hum something to myself, like every other happy man who has neither friends nor good acquaintances and who in a joyful moment has nobody with whom he can share his joy.I’m a dreamer; I have so little real life that I regard such moments as this one, now, to be so rare that I can’t help repeating these moments in my dreams.‘Absolutely without stories of any kind! I lived, as they say, on my own, that is, absolutely alone – alone, completely alone – do you understand what it means to be alone?’Listen: you tell it splendidly, but could you tell it somehow less splendidly?he desires nothing, because he is above desire, because he has everything, because he is sated, because he himself is the artist of his life and he creates it for himself every hour to suit his latest whim.You know, we thank some people for merely living at the same time as we do. I thank you for the fact that I met you, that I will remember you for all my life!’My God! A whole minute of bliss! Is that really so little for the whole of a man’s life?

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition, Audiobook, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback and Audio CD.

Right now – The Affirmation

Right now I feel contented.

Right now I feel grateful that it worked.

Right now I feel it has been better than I imagined.

Right now I feel the future is propitious.

Undertow by Jahnavi Barua

Loved everything about the book except the ending. The story was flowing well until the second last chapter which was just abrupt. But again, even in real life things happen, sudden and abrupt.

I admire the strong-headed attitude of Rukmini but her calmness at the end killed me. I wished she would cry, scream, talk it out but she keeps cool consoling her father. There are broken families and disrupted relationships but putting them in words on paper is not easy. Jahnavi has done a wonderful job in weaving those emotions. While reading the book, at places I lumped in my throat and this rarely happens to me.

This book also reminded me of two of my favourite authors Jhumpa Lahiri for the way Assam was described and Ruskin Bond for nature. Overall a good read, if you have the appetite to accept what happens in the end.

Some of my favourite lines from the book.

Morning broke, but it was a stale one, worn out by the troubles of the night.The river had been her friend. It had always extended to her a sense of purpose, its constant motion—albeit a lazy, languorous one—had encouraged her to keep moving, to forge ahead from one place in time to another. Rukmini was grateful for that, for she knew she could only too easily sink into a despairing absence of movement.Sister, brother, father, mother. Kinship ties were never felt more keenly than on days they were loosened or severed: at weddings when girls left to join another family, on graduation when children left home to study and, most of all, at deaths, when a bond snapped never to be replaced again.Usha submitted to no such mellowing, though. In her eyes, Rukmini remained a traitor, who had betrayed state and race and family.‘Love means many things, but what it really means is doing one’s best for one’s loved ones.’The light was more yellow than in Bangalore; it was warmer and it fell on one’s skin with a familiarity that was, at once, insouciant and endearing, as if it belonged there. Its touch was faintly moist, unlike the dry, polite sunlight of Bangalore. With the wind came other things: whiffs of mustard oil and a dense smell of green matter.But like many whom fortune favoured, they were reckless with the feelings of others.Only when the prison gates open and the prisoner stands in sunlight, in front of the endless horizon, does she realize the full measure of her captivity.
The river looked sleepy in the afternoon sun. Its waters, so much in a hurry, were quiet; they heaved slightly now and then, as if sighing and shifting in sleep, and the few boats that passed by moved slowly as if in deference to the resting water.In a forest, nothing meant more than it should: a birth, a death, all were accepted with equanimity as if there was something larger out there, something more important than the individual.

Available on Amazon Kindle Edition and Hardcover.