The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad: A Review!

The book :-)! PC: @KanchanOjha

After Pyjamas are Forgiving and Matilda , The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad stands to be the third book I finish this year. Thanks to @TwinkleKhanna who binds with her writes. A continuous three hours of sitting and the book was done. This is what I like about the book;

The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad is a compilation of four different stories from India. There's disparity in all the four stories, with an only similarity that each story ends with a strong message. 

The first story starts with "The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad." This is the story of the vibrant Lakshmi Prasad-a girl who changed the view of the village at how they perceived girls. The metamorphosis of a girl child from burden to celebration is the limelight of the story. The spotlight for me remains the ritual of planting trees under girls name.

Second story is of sixty-eight-year-old Noni Appa in "Salaam Noni Appa" where the author portrays elderly life. The difficulties and challenges of elderly life is versed well in the story. The complications of relations and what matters to us at the end adds to the flavor. 

Independent Elisa in "If the Weather Permits" holds the burden of the societal norms as the keepsake. There's a tussle between absurd norms and a glee life-where Elisa fights for her covets, failing each time. 

Finally Bablu Kewat plays "The Sanitary Man from a Sacred Land". He fights for giving women a hygienic and comfortable life by introducing cheap sanitary pads to the poorest of females. Amidst this fight he was left alone, ostracized and abandoned by family and peers. Yet with a narrow escape he conquered. A story of self-defiance, struggle and victory also based on the true story of Arunachalam Murunganantham.

From fluttering in the paddy fields to driving a dented white fiat and from becoming a carefree young one to an ambitious one, the author binds you to her write with a great visual detail. I give a 3.5 ***  

Happy Reading :-)!

Also find the review @GoodReads

Metta !!

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Mighty Matilda !

Dear Matilda :-* PC: @kanchanojha

The love for books never ceases and when Suman gave me to read the book "Matilda" by @roalddahl my ecstasy soared high. But like I stated in my earlier blog my reading habit has slowed down a lot. So, like always I started reading, loved the read but it remained halfway through. Today as I finish reading couldn't help writing a brisk review. Here's my take:

Matilda; the lead character is a five year old girl. She is a mesmerizing little girl with an appetite for reading. She reads book from Tolstoy to Shakespeare when kids of her age have hardly learnt words. Her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs Wormwood; however are shrewish and detest their own daughter. They least bother about her inborn talents too. 

As the story moves forward it takes you to the voyage of your childhood fantasies and the pictorial illustrations make it more profound. The story revolves around the shrewish parents, village, the library, school, different kind of friends a lovely teacher and a wrathful headmistress. Miss Honey plays the part of the lovely teacher, who is a pleasant and hardworking person. Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress is a shrewish woman. She is loud and wrathful throughout and never misses to bark on the small kids. With divergent group of people and unavoidable circumstances Matilda acts as a hero with aberrant power. The book has unexpected twists and turns, binds you till the end and winds-up on a happy note. I give a 4****

Happy reading :-)!

Find the review also at @Goodreads

Metta !!

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Thoughts and Notes: Pyjamas are Forgiving !!

Before I write the review let me just vent off my feelings at this moment. Once being an ardent reader and then not being able to concentrate on books, it was a U-turn for me. It hurt me most of the times leaving me back imagining- what happened? why am I not being able to complete the books which I always did. Book, my best friends-why are they so far from me? I always picked up one and would end up half way. I still have many books piled up.

Even with this uncaring for book, the best place for me is library and book shops. Solace, I would find in touching the books, talking to the books, turning them pages over pages. My excuses for not reading started with my pregnancy, where I couldn't concentrate properly and later I said the baby. However, during my pregnancy I read Sachin and Hillary skimming through the pages. The skimming continued till late.

Few more books have added in our library after I reached to the bookshop, this June as I could leave the lil one for a longer time. But still the story remain unchanged. Last Friday (7 Dec, 2018) bookshop called me again, as there had to be new addition in the lil ones library and I wanted some books at our end too. With the Doggie and Aladdin book for babu, along came "Pyjamas are Forgiving" by @mrsfunnybones. And it did cease the dry-spell of reads. Here's a swift review for the book;

PC: @KanchanOjha ;-)!

Anshu, who after her divorce has been running a playschool comes to Shanthmaaya twice every year. Fighting with her insomnia and her fallen apart love, she tries hard to overcome with unpleasantness and live a good life. The twist in the story comes in at the point as her regular refuge to Shanthmaaya is strangled by the presence of her ex-husband Jay and his wife Shalini. The story traverses between ripples created by the presence of these two in the calm life of Anshu. There are more characters Jenna, Dr. Mennon, Dr.Pillai, Vivaan, Lalit, Javed, Anil who are all interestingly embedded in the plot. The writer has done justice with all the details and connected the dots so well whether she brings in Mandira, the protagonist's sister or her mother. Twinkle Khanna uses words very artistically and even the sentences are heartfelt, whether she talks of love or maim. At one occasion she writes something like "who can explain why one person becomes more important than the many we meet in our lifetime? I only know I still feel the same way about him that people feel when they bring Ganpati to their house.' At the other she says "Blame is a bullet that the world fires at an already wounded victim.' There are more interesting Mrs funnybones usual sarcasms without which the story would remain dull.

Pyjamas are Forgiving travels to Kerala and to and fro to many other places as Anshu the protagonist travels. I love the details of places as our mind travels along with them. What I find missing in the novel is a concrete ending to the story, unless the writer plans for a sequel. I give a 3.5 ***

Find the Review also at GoodReads :-)!

Happy Reading

Metta !!

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Days !!

Not every thing you think is always true, not every thing you act up-works out to be the best. It's just that you try. Amidst trying though a large part of you vanishes in between but nevertheless you try. You try to preach. You try to tell things in a better way and you try being a better person. But somewhere, sometime you loose a large part of you in doing so.
You fight and then reach nowhere. That's exacerbating a condition. Such Banal days!

Metta !!

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