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Book Review - A Good Life by Zeyd Ladha

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This book is a collection of 25 short stories that are based on everyday occurrences. The stories, while simple and concise, impart unforgettable life-lessons in the unique way that Zeyd usually writes. It is amazing how the author has transformed simple events and conversations into timeless insights. The stories cover various aspects of the human psyche - the human obsessively focused on the destination and not enjoying the journey, the mountaineer on the edge of giving up and searching for courage, children stuck in a war-ravaged city, the person stuck in the prison of his own mind, the mother refusing to let her son fly off the nest and many other stories that tug at your heart and leave an unforgettable impression. These stories are uplifting, showing both struggle and victory while teaching us that it will always be about staying centered in life and not getting swayed by its ups and downs. It is brilliant the way Zeyd has made abstract concepts as the protagonists in some of the...
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Book Review - The Library Of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina

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Someday we will find out what it is exactly about Japan-based stories that make them so soulful, poignant and heartbreaking all at once.  In an island named Teshima, there is a building that has the recorded heartbeats of people from all over the world. Some visit to listen, some to record theirs. This building is named Heartbeat Archive. (I checked on the internet, and this indeed exists). The Library of Heartbeats is centered around this archive, although it makes a brief yet unforgettable appearance in the whole narrative.  Shuichi is in his forties and is struggling to cope with the death of his mother. As he sorts out her house, stowing away all of her stuff to be disposed, he finds that someone is tampering with the stuff. He installs a camera in the garage where the stuff is stored and finds that the person moving through his mother's items and helping himself to some is none other than a small boy. For reasons unknown to him, Shuichi befriends the boy when he comes to ...
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When We Gatecrashed A Wedding As A Grand Finale To The Tour!

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  Read The Previous Blog Here   I thought my travelogue would end with Guruvayur. But something extraordinary and funny happened on the last day of the trip and deserves a blog of its own.  The morning after, we had breakfast and visited Maamiyur temple.  Some of our group had already visited the temple and got Darshan of Lord Shiva. But when I, my son, my sister, cousin and aunt went to the temple, the sanctum sanctorum was closed due to some renovation and repair work. We spent some time inside the temple and decided to visit ISKCON Guruvayur that I had checked on the internet.  My sister, my son, my nieces and I hired an auto which dropped us off into a remote location where a tall building bearing the name of ISKCON stood proudly. Since there were no other vehicles (or people) to be seen there, we requested the auto driver to wait for a while. He obliged.  We entered the building and removed our chappals, only to be informed that it was the guest house ...
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Guruvayur - Where Grace Met Gratitude

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Read The Previous Blog Here On 6th May, Kerala Restaurant And Hotel Association declared a strike to protest against the LPG crisis. That was the day we left for Guruvayur.  Luckily we could still have our breakfast at the resort in Munnar but we had no idea about how we were going to manage the other meals. There were three children in the group and four senior citizens too.  Help came in the form of Brahmana Samooham Community in Guruvayur. My father called up the community and requested for lunch arrangements for our group of 12 people. The community members told us that lunch would be served until 2.30 and if we could make it on time, our lunch would be ready.  Our driver drove as if possessed. That there were no tea/coffee stalls open enroute only made the journey faster, otherwise we would have stopped for breaks.  We reached Guruvayur at 1.30 and rushed to the community hall, just in time for a fresh batch of food being served. We are with gratitude and relief...
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Munnar Memories!

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Read The Previous Blog Here All the plans of leaving for Munnar 'latest by 8.30' flew out of the window as we found ourselves in an impromptu photo session in Palakkad at 9.30. It was around 10 when we finally left. So much for leaving early! The route, for a while, was pretty uneventful as we drove through the beautiful lanes and roads of Palakkad. The first moment of excitement arrived when we passed by Kaladi, the place where you can still feel the auspicious presence of Shri Adi Shankara, and where my son had his Upanayanam done. We passed by the town searching for familiar roads and reminiscing about our very brief stay here in 2020.  The route started getting interesting and adventurous as we passed through Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and drove through Marayoor, a forest abounding in sandalwood trees. We opened the windows and let in the aroma of sandalwood that wafted around. As we kept driving up, the temperature kept dipping. It was a major relief to experience cool wea...
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Palakkad Days - Epic Stand-offs Between Avians, Red Skies And More!

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Read The Previous Blog Here Before I begin about Munnar, I would like to share some awesome moments from my stay in Palakkad. Obviously the epic stand-off between the peacocks and crows merits mention. Like we always do, my husband and I had stepped out for our morning walk. My sister had joined us too. That morning we decided to take a route hitherto unexplored by us. It was a narrow lane with houses bordering the edges. As we walked, we came across a majestic peacock strutting over the road. Now, peacocks are no strangers to the village. They often roam the streets, perch on the trees surrounding houses and search for food and water amidst the foliage that is an integral part of the village. But that particular day, we didn't see just one peacock. Even as we watched, one more joined the one standing on the road. Another came, yet another and before we knew it, NINE peacocks had suddenly appeared on the road. Nine!! I have uploaded a video of the same below.  While we watched in s...
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Book Review - Rollback by Michael C Grumley

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Mike Mansfield specializes in finding lost people. Not just lost people, but those on whom the whole society has already given up as dead. He is approached by David Bruni who wants to find his daughter who had disappeared four years ago. David would go to any extent to find his daughter, and that would mean creating a supercomputer that could collate pictures circulating all over the world to create a timeline of events. Through coalition of pictures David and his team keep searching for the last place that his daughter must have visited. What starts as a simple investigation turns into something deadly as Mike finds himself always one step behind an invisible enemy who doesn't want him to solve the case.  The story is fast-paced and keeps the reader engaged. The characters have played their part well. I especially liked how Mike is portrayed differently - not your regular good-looking and sturdy dude but someone in his mid-fifties with a hairline and a physique to show it. Mike re...
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