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Gachhar Gochhar

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Gachhar Gochhar Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Author: Vivek Shanbhag  This book has been on my to read list for ever. I even bought it once but lost it in the pocket of my flight seat even before I could start. I finally get to read it when I got a free pdf copy in a Bengaluru book club. Coincidently the town being the setting of the book and the native of the author. There is nothing better than reading about the place you start living in. Thank god for the translations!  Basically, all my attempts to get at it despite it being a snip snap 100 odd page book have been all Gachhar Gochhar, but there is always    a meaning to everything that happens. Just like this book!  Gachhar Gochhar as a term being refered in context of a complete mess. The book talks about how new money corrupts. Especially when it comes too much and too soon and by wrong means. Only you understand what it was to be a ‘Have not’ and then ‘Have it’ all’. A part of you can’t accept that you deserve it but giving up is not an opti
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The Women who forgot to invent Facebook & other stories

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The one link on her blog about these photos that I found after some searching was a single line entry: ‘So that I remember that I was all this.’ The short stories is my fav genre. Small sips of life that connect to a part of my soul. Reminding me of the snippets of my own life. The stories are based around the time social media started amongst the Indian youth. How our lives and behaviors changed with its advent even though the emotions remained the same.  The stories reminded me of the time during my college days when everyone was sleeping with everyone, and I wondered how things would be if there was Facebook or WhatsApp in those days.    The stories are brilliant, some borderline crazy and some as simple as daily routine. The inner minds of urban youth and their daily lives, create an intoxicating set of emotions.  Trinity  reminded me the college fears and the fashion show or dance competitions that kept the girls busy and the boys interested. Where are those batch mates of mine wh
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Club you to death

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Author: Anuja Chauhan Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Full points for entertainment!   Disclaimer: All the characters, thoughts and ideas are hypothetical. These do not relate to any living, dead or to be dead.   Anyone who reads knows, the phase of a reading slump. It could be a readers block or a bad book that’s dragging you and your reading pace. We all need something to get us back, and for me that’s Anuja Chauhan. A complete roller coaster with cheeky gorgeous women, goofy handsome hunks, and Delhi ka lively and laughable Punjabi characters. The mother daughter gentle nudging, the sexy flirting of a budding romance, the father daughter bantering and a good dose of scandals and gossips. All to meet the incidence hunger of her enthu readers. There has to be some ex-army tadka, a backdrop of a brewing political national issue.  As a serious reader, pretentiousness is a must. You can’t simply be reading Chetan Bhagat and call yourself a bibliophile. Book lovers would prescribe you serious literature
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Thoughts of a Bibliophile

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Kabhi kabhi mere dil main khyaal aata hai…  This is what happens when you have a good collection of books and a pretty library. I recently bought a book shelf from Pepperfry delivered by Amazon. Placed right behind my table this pretty thing is inviting me to fill it with books and bookish things. The ray of warm sun falling on it. Isn’t it just gorgeous.  Well I think I am a bibliophile which they talk about. I think it’s a Phile I don’t mind or anyone does.  I was looking at this particular shelf and found that I got 4 gifts of books in past 1 month. My brother, my friend, two from an online book chain where you send books to another person and people send to you. A bibliophile loves a (1) library and (2) gifting/ receiving books.  You can also call us bookworms. There are silent but no so silent communities of books lovers offline and online.  I have been parts of (3) Book clubs, Goodreads social media profile, WhatsApp communities of book lovers. These are the traits and you wish y
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Copenhagen Bibliotek

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Copenhagen has been our home over 2 years. There is a part of us which will always miss our small big home on Slalsgade which I still can’t pronounce. More than that I miss the Copenhagen public library or bibliotek at Oesterbro, our happening area.  The English fiction corner was a small area but their collection was still fabulous. I have discovered such amazing English authors from around the world. Such amazing collection and different subjects. Unfortunately I couldn’t read Danish fiction but English itself kept me quite busy. The process of borrowing is super simple, attached to a resident’s all powerful Yellow card. And I became the girl in a candy shop.  🥰🍭🍬🍫🍪 Check out the read list here:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2327087?shelf=copenhagen-library&sort=date_added&order=d Solo   An Indian English author Rana Dasgupta and his amazing book Solo. I particularly fell in love with the book cover.  Japanese fiction  ‘Hotel on the Center of Bitter and Sweet’ 
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So Long a Letter

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The epistolary love story of female friendship  Author: Mariam Ba  Country: Senegal Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ So long a letter, as the name suggests, so long a book. Not because it’s as long as suitable boy. It’s only a 100 pages. The story goes that it took me long to procure and read this book.  International airports are a culture milieu, you never know who you meet.  On one of my foreign business trips, I was waiting at Istanbul airport for my connecting flight. It wasn’t  the love of my life as Cinema would make you believe. He was waiting at home. Instead I met a Senegalese woman. We exchange a few eye contacts, before one of us smiled and said Hello. I was on an offsite and she was in a tech training and will go back and upgrade local office.  We hardly chatted for 10 minutes, when I asked her. If I had to read one book of your country, what should it be. She said ‘So long a letter’. The one book which showcases the lives and people especially women of her country. I might never travel
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society

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Books are a part of our lives, the good and the tough times.. a pre cursor to the many events of our lives  Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Thank you to my pen friend for gifting me the most delightful book. The epistolary format and the historical world war 2 background gives an exquisite feel to the book. The series of letters between various unique characters makes it like multiple short stories collected into one tale.  While it provides an excellent portrayal of the life and times of London in 1940s, the most interesting story were the happenings in Guernsey. A small channel island under German occupation during the war. I didn’t even know this place existed before I read this book.  The protagonist Juliet is a bright and brave writer who believes in changing the world by telling stories that need to be told. She is a feminist as much as a revolutionary. The guy was not half bad but very different and simple to say. It was odd how she leaves her busy life in London to find true love in a small i
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