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In Search Of A Time Capsule

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  If I could put three things from my childhood into a time capsule, they would definitely be my childhood home, my school and my friends. A Home Like None Other I lived in a 1 BHK flat in a building named Dayanand. We were a large family – my paternal grandmother, my parents, my uncle, myself and my sister. Accommodating all these people in a small flat was no mean feat. Add to it, the numerous relatives, my friends and those of my sister’s - my home was always houseful. And yet, we never felt suffocated or congested. There was always place for everyone. My uncle and my grandmother would sleep in the bedroom. My parents, myself and my sister would sleep in the hall. This room had windows that opened out to the verandah. Being the corner flat in the ground floor, our home was blessed with a large verandah. On summer nights, the windows would be open to let some air in. My favorite memory is that of looking out at the coconut tree that stood behind the wall of the verandah, wh...
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Book Review - Rhododendrons In The Mist by Ruskin Bond

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  You can never go wrong with Ruskin’s books. You will never regret reading them. I have been a fan of this wonderful author since a very long time. I have read many of his books, and many are on my TBR. Nature and the spirit of humanity and not to forget, the essence of India, make Ruskin’s books a sheer delight to read. Like all his books, Rhododendrons In The Mist doesn’t disappoint. It is a collection of both short and long stories. The book is available in Kindle edition. The book is divided into two parts – part 1 being The Dark Side Of Mountains and part 2 being Himalayan Drama. As the name suggests, part 1 deals with some dark stories from mountainous regions. To be honest, I read one and skipped the entire part, not because it wasn’t good, but because I find written horror much more impactful than visual horror. I guess that when you watch a horror movie or scene, you have the horrifying element in front of you to see for yourself and it somewhat limits the impact. B...
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The Quest For A Lost Period Of Time!

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  (Image credited to the respective owner) Come June, and the first thing I do upon waking up is, checking the weather app for any intimation about rains. Since as long as I can remember, June has heralded the arrival of rains. I remember those afternoons of my childhood, especially in the month of May, when the sky would temporarily darken with a passing cloud, only for the sun to shine down seconds later. The wait for rains would begin well early in the month of May itself. All I needed was to see even a single cloud and I would get excited, thinking that it would rain. One of my favorite childhood memories is being woken up by my mother and hear her say excitedly, “It is raining!” Waking up to a rainy morning is nothing short of bliss! My childhood home had a large verandah and many a rainy day was spent in creating paper-boats and launching them on the water. My parents, my sister, my uncle, my grandmother – we all participated in this ‘boat race’ and created memories that ...
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Musings And Reflections

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  I read a lot of books (as if you didn’t know that). Of late I find myself gravitating more towards self-help and non-fiction books that are inspiring and spiritual in their essence. I often jot down some points or quotes that make an impression on my mind. The thing with non-fiction books is, they hold my attention only for a very short while, even though I like to read them. (Weird, right?! I know. What can I say, I am complicated). So I devised an idea to get through non-fiction genre (and more importantly, focus on the content too) by reading three books at a time. I read each book for a designated period of time. This not only helps me to focus but also helps me to remember what I read in that particular book. (I haven’t TM-ed this idea. Feel free to use it if you too struggle to finish non-fiction like me). Today I came across some really wonderful points that I wish to share and elaborate in this blog. These points gave me clarity and also inspired me to write after a...
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Dark The Crime, Darker The Humor, Darkest The Age!

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  The world has never been a stranger to murders. But humanity will never be immune to crime, no matter how many of these we see, hear and read about on a daily basis. The sane and rational human will always, always be appalled by crime. Three of the four souls displayed in the cover picture of this blog were victims of brutal murders while one was disturbed to the extent of taking his own life after being harassed by his wife. Not only do the murders rattle the very soul, the brutality and mindlessness of the culprits shook up the very foundations of our trust in humanity. As in any crime, the questions arise – how can any human have the capability to act so viciously? What drives a human to this point that they lose all distinction between right and wrong, between compassion and extreme detachment, between empathy and antipathy?? What makes such a human what he or she is?? Time and again we have come across such questions. And time and again, we fail at finding suitable answe...
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Book Review - The Dalhousie Murders - Aneeta Sharma

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  A couple honeymooning in Dalhousie stumbles upon a dead body and set things in motion. The victim is identified as the employee of a firm named Grow Green Enterprises co-owned and co-partnered by Lalit Bharucha and his wife Kiyana. Inspector Kanet is tasked with the investigation that keeps taking him back to the firm at every step. To make matters complicated, a detective named Indraneil keeps approaching him with information that the police inspector finds speculative and with no basis. As the number of suspects lines up and as the case takes up many angles, it becomes a race against time for the inspector and the detective to find the culprit before another crime is committed. The plot: I like a good old-fashioned crime mystery/thriller which keeps the reader hooked on to the story, creates intrigue about the same but sans any gory details, unnecessarily heavy violence and harrowing descriptions of crimes/crime scenes that we find in so many thrillers. The plot of Dalhou...
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2025 Vacation Diaries - The End (For Now!)

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  Read Diaries Of Day 5 Here! Day 6 – Trichy Early morning I, my husband and my kid left for the temple of Uchchipulayar. There are around 400 steps to this temple. The steps are placed at a good height from each other, so every step was challenging. We got a good measure of our fitness levels while climbing the steps. First we visited our Kuladev Thaayamaanavar. This is the deity of Lord Shiva in a feminine form. Legend has it that the Lord came to the help of a pregnant lady about to give birth and assisted in her safe delivery as a midwife. Hence the name Thaayamaanavar (The Lord who is a mother). Lord Shiva is in the form of a majestic lingam here. Flower garlands and entire batches of bananas are offered to the Lord. A devotee who had bought bananas offered some to us as Prasad. Tiny gesture of kindness but immense happiness! We climbed some more steps from where we got a beautiful view of the entire city of Trichy.  On one side there was the majestic towering Gopu...
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