#627 : The Storm (#2 Ponni's Beloved - An English Translation Of Kalki Krishnamurthy's Ponniyin Selvan) By Sumeetha Manikandan : Review

Ponniyin Selvan is a critically acclaimed Tamil Novel. Set in the Chola period, the story revolves around Sundara Cholan, the emperor. Vandiya Devan, the prince of a fallen kingdom, is tasked to be a messenger by Aditya Karikalan to deliver message critical to the empire. This volume follows Vandiya Devan's journey to Sri Lanka where he meets Prince Arul Mozhi Varman who is in the middle of conquering Sri Lanka. 

The original story as such is ridiculously thrilling. The characterisation, the plot points, all of them are intense and complex that one might feel high and dry by the time they finish reading this volume.  Tamil is a very elaborate language. The original writing is known for it's wordplay, and the plot by itself is famous for its complexity and political intensity. To bring in that effect in a language which is quite limited in it's capabilities and is modern is a great feat. The translator, Sumeetha has evidently done justice to Kalki's work. 

I grew up listening to my grandfather and my mother narrating snippets from the original story as my grasp of Tamil was (and continues to be) very basic. To actually read to read the entire story with all the complexity and layering in place feels so great. The cover work needs a special mention. The Chola ship has been visualised and designed perfectly. 

In short, the book is a must read if your can't read Tamil. Beware, it will leave you wanting for more! 

Do buy the book here on Amazon. 

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#626 : Aphrodite's Tears by Hannah Fielding : Review

This was the last book I had read in 2017. One of the best read of that year. Took you an year to review you ask? I had been under the impression that I had written about it, but when I searched for it to recommend this book to a friend, I realised I  hadn't. Better late than never!

Oriel Anderson, the female protagonist, is offered a diving expedition job in the beautiful and elusive Greek island of Helios. She is thrilled at the prospect of it but it is short lived when she finds out that the expedition is headed by Damian Lekkas - The handsome young man with whom she spent one magical night. Damian literally seduces her but his past seem to get in between them. 

Intense, passionate, exquisite - these are the perfect words to describe the story and the writing. Having read this writers books before, I literally anticipated enticing descriptions of beautiful landscape, interesting history, strong-emotional-complex-intense characters all bound by a perfect story line. This story, it's characters, the narration is by far the best by this writer. There were few scenes - the one where Oriel and Damian have dinner in his house, the one where she spends a night in the beach and that when they go for a dive - they were all utterly beautiful to read. Her words transported me to Greece! 

Rich prose, perfect narration and a great story line - A must read book if you love romance. Pure unadulterated romance - not like the instant coffee types of romance that is dished out these days in the name of a romantic novels. 

Do buy this book here on Amazon.

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#625 : A Game of Pawns by Shantheri Mallaya, Shubhra Rishi & Vinay Kumaar : Review

With no blurb to go on from Goodreads or Amazon, this book was a truly blind read of the year. I prefer to know the pulse of the story before I nose dive into reading it, but once in a while it is good to go blind and I decided this book would be my once in a while case for the year. Did I regret or rejoice? Neither. This was that one book I couldn't decide an opinion on. I kept procrastinating the task of penning down my thoughts as I couldn't reach a conclusion.

The story has multiple distinctive shades which tried to amalgamate into one solid form, but wasn't really successful at it. What began as quite a confusing story line in the start, ended up being a read with a solid impact towards the end. There are multiple story lines which eventually converge into the causes and pieces of a bigger game at play, thus justifying it's apt title. 

The characters were quite interesting with their own quirks, but a detailed description with more shades would really have made a difference. The characters felt as though they were written with an intention to be a part of a mini web series. They story by itself felt that way! I personally would have preferred a narration with richer visual imagery but the story by itself doesn't need much of that. 

A good read if you looking for a byte sized thriller. 

PS. I've have never ever written a review without mentioning a character or even a part of the story line. Since the writers have chosen not make the story line public in terms of the blurb, I decided to follow suit to keep it as mysterious as they intend it to be.

You can buy the book from here - Amazon 

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#624 : Roark by Aarti V Raman : Review

Cowboy romance is one sub-genre of romance I have not explored much. Three books is all I managed in 4 years of reading romance. There is this annoying stereotype that this genre is all about brawny hero and damsel in need of rescue - which is such a put off to read about. The last book that I read was quite gloomy and wasn't in spirit with the season that is - The looming New Year. In need of a change in mood and throwing the prejudice outside the window, I picked up this book - a decision I didn't regret one bit.

Brawny hero - check.

Damsel in distress - check.

Damsel in need of rescue - check again! But this is where the twist really is!

In spite of fitting into all the prejudice I had with this genre, the story was refreshing to read. The damsel in question, KC is an automobile engineer with a turbulent past. Roark, our brawny hero - the almost love of her life is just leagues away from the grease monkey that she is. Will this relationship ever work? Is there a relationship in the first place to begin with?

Having read the writer's previous works, writing wise, I was quite comfortable and loved the characterization every bit. The story was fluid and had quite a bit of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. The characters are sketched out so well that I was taking turns rooting for either of them at one point.

Indian writers, especially the self published ones, often come under a harsh spectrum of attacks on their writing and are accused of trying to ape Americans. Cowboys do belong to America. Never in a point it ever felt like I was reading a book by an Indian. It was as good as the three other cowboy romances I read by people from that country. Undoubtedly, originality sparkles and shines through all the dirt and this story was every bit original!

Pick up a copy of the book from here - Amazon 

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#623 : The Song Peddler of Pont Neuf by Laura Lebow : Review

A well researched and well written historical fiction is always a pleasure to read. This book came highly recommended by my internet pal Emma. Having followed her for years now, I knew I had made the right choice of picking up this book. Set in old age France, the book is such a delight for "Francophiles" and mystery lovers like me.

The protagonist, Paul Gastebois is an inquirer - a profession which is almost unheard of in the times of French Revolution. Apart from being an inquirer, he works for the police department, tailing foreign diplomats and tracking their activities to ensure that there is no international incident. An old man named Montingy visits him to ask him to find his missing friend Gaspard who is a song peddler. As Paul embarks on a journey to tack down Gaspard, he stumbles upon a major plot which could discredit a powerful member of the French police.

What began as a straightforward and simple mystery turned quickly turned into an intricately woven web of events which led to a different ending all together. It is evident that the writer has put in a lot of time researching French politics and aristocracy which was crucial to her plot being quite air tight and interesting till the end. As a matter of fact, I had to carry out my mundane jobs with such difficulty for the plot kept running in my head wanting me to stop whatever I was doing and continue reading the book. In spite of heaving relying on politics and history for the plot line, the pacing never slacked at all. 

In short, this book turned out to be one of the best reads of this year. 

Please do buy the book here on Amazon & know more about it on Goodreads. 

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#622 : Blame it on Paris by Lise McClendon (Bennette Sisters #7) : Review

Looks like I've gone on a spree,devouring books set in France. At the very mention of the word "Paris" I picked up the book without even reading the summary. Thankfully, that's a decision I didn't come to regret. 

Francine Bennett, the fourth of the five super talent Bennette sister goes through an insanely rough patch in the office thanks to office politics and a very  harmful accusation by a colleague. She is petrified by the prospect of taking mandatory leave until the issue is sorted out, all because the iron clad procedures which she herself drafted. To her luck, she is contacted by a friend of Reese Pugh who is having a tough time in Paris jail without  a friendly lawyer. The charges are serious, giving Francine an opportunity to visit Paris in the time she gets off. She ends up navigating the barriers and blockades of the French judicial system along with her sister who lives in France and has a French boy friend. 

Croissants, Cherry Bloom, Espresso - the story is just peppered with all thing typical to Paris. Not that I'm complaining though! The story is well paced out and has the right kind of twists and turns in place to keep it an engaging read. In spite of not having read the previous books in the series I was able to get into that grove and understand the flow. However, there were a couple of threads in the story that didn't make sense as they referred to incidents from previous books - it wasn't really harmful to the flow of the story in general for me. 

The characterization is just perfect. Given that the writer might have introduced all the characters in her previous books, she has to take enough care to not overdo as it might become repetitive for people who have followed the series. She also has to ensure that the new readers won't really feel out of depth because they've not read the other books. The writer has done a splendid job balancing the characterization. 

Do read more about the book and you can buy it here!

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#621 : Madrid - Spain Diaries

Having talked about the food and the people, it's time to focus on the places I got to explore in the very little time that I stayed in Madrid. Work was quite hectic and left us with just some time in the weekends to explore. Since I was put up in a hotel which was a 2 minute walk from the San Cristobal Industrial station, I found it quite easy to explore. In spite of having a car, I preferred to take the train as it was less of hassle and quite a cheaper option too. 

Pro tip here - Finding a parking space in most places in the Madrid city can be daunting. Parking in the wrong slot or not displaying the parking ticket can attract a heavy fine. One of my colleague ended up paying EUR 90 twice for parking in the wrong spot.  More over, if you are used to left hand driving, navigating around with a map can be tricky as Spain follows right hand driving - this means round about and exits which are easy to miss and hard to follow if your navigation skills are poor. Not being withing speed limits and drunk driving are pretty heavy offence too. Ditch the car, take a cab or the metro or the subway trains. 

Fact File : 

Madrid (My Spanish colleague insisted on pronouncing it as madhreedh) is roughly 604 km sq in size and has a population of 6.5 million. It is the capital of Spain and is a literal melting pot of people and culture. It's the ninth most densely populated city in Europe. It is home to beautiful churches and elegant boulevards, expansive, manicured parks such as the Buen Retiro. It’s renowned for its rich repositories of European art, including the Prado Museum’s works by Goya, Velázquez and other Spanish masters. The heart of old Hapsburg Madrid is the portico-lined Plaza Mayor, and nearby is the baroque Royal Palace and Armory, displaying historic weaponry.

Places to visit in Madrid : 

La Puerta del Sol - It's the central spot of Madrid. It's the place to be to experience Madrid and shop for anything - Clothes, Food, Fashion, Souvenirs - you name it, it's there. Well connected by trains, you can't possibly miss this place. Beware of your belongings during weekends and festival times as the crowd can be a bit overwhelming. The local cops do a through job of managing the crowd and helping the tourists. Lookout for local performers who do a great job, nothing like witnessing a lovely dance/music performance live. 

Sol Square, Before Christmas

San Miguel Mercado - Must visit place for a food. It's a short and pleasant walk from Sol square. Live music, tapas food (Spanish finger food) and great wine - This place is a dream for a foodie. It's a stunning 20th century building  glass walled building constructed in 1916.

San Miguel on a Sunday

Barrio de La Latina - La Latina has two sides to it - The nigh life side and the flea market side. A detailed post about this place coming up later some time. 

Plaza Mayor - Beautiful square with intense architecture by Juan de Villanueva. The square is home to a thriving antique flea market on weekend. Coins, stamps, old dairies, antiques - you get everything for dirt cheap prices. 

Círculo de Bellas Artes -  This is basically a museum with a rooftop restaurant with breath taking views. I'm not really inclined to art so I skipped the museum and hit the rooftop. You can literally see all of Madrid. There was a photography exhibit on the restaurant when we visited. Good food, breathtaking views - it's slightly crowded though on weekends.

Buen Retiro Park - This is the place to be if you want to escape the daily din. Spread over 350 acres of lush greenery the park is home to a beautiful lake and manicured gardens. 

Royal Palace of Madrid - A beautiful place to be if you are into history. I skipped this and visited the other palace in Aranjuez. The space outside the Palace is really picturesque and is a great place for pictures. This place is almost always crowded and has a lot of street performers doing various things. 

Palacio de Cristal - Remember the beautiful glass palace in the famous Rajinikant movie - Sivaji - that's this place - glory in glass and metal! 

Las Ventas - I didn't get to watch bull fighting as I returned before summer. Mind you, Spanish bull fighting is not for the faint heart. Unlike the Indian version - Jallikattu - the bulls here are killed. Las Vantas is the bull fighting ring in Madrid. 

Museo Nacional Del Prado- I'm not a museum person, but the Prado museum is quite famous and is a place must visit if you love art. 

Almost all the mentioned places are quite well connected via the Spanish Metro/train system. 

Lookout for more posts in the series about shopping and various other places to visit. Read the first post in the series here.

PS. It's my first season with the fantastic blogger campaign #MyFriendAlexa. This post is a part of it! #WriteAway

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#620 : The French Escape By Suzie Tullett : Review

                                                   

This is one of those books whose cover has "pick me up" written all over it and thus I went ahead to pick it up. Thankfully I didn't regret my decision to pick it up without reading the summary. The story, the writing, the setting and the characters - all were so enjoyable. 

The protagonist - Flick aka Felicity is trying to rebuild her life after her husband deserts her on the day of her wedding. Brenda, her mother, tries to help Flick out by dragging her to France to restore and live in a Chateau. The chateau is in a small town and naturally, they end up making friends with the whole town. Enter Nate, the mysterious neighbor who has is own share of problems. 

The story has all the right ingredients in the right proportions to make you go all warm and fuzzy. The pacing and the hooking events were are done to perfection that I hardly noticed the time when I read the book. The characters have the right shades to them. One qualm I have though is with Brenda's character. Her character was all "mother" and less of "Brenda" the person. 

In short, the book was a warm and entertaining read. 

                                           

Author Bio:

Suzie Tullett is an author of contemporary humorous fiction and romantic comedy. She has a Masters Degree in Television & Radio Scriptwriting and worked as a scriptwriter before becoming a full-time novelist. Her novels include Going Underground, Little White Lies and Butterflies, which was short-listed for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize, The Trouble with Words and The French Escape.

Her motto is to 'live, laugh, love' and when she's not busy creating her own literary masterpieces, she usually has her head in someone else's.

Suzie lives in a tiny hamlet in the middle of the French countryside, along with her husband and two Greek rescue dogs.

Links:

https://suzietullett.com/

https://twitter.com/SuzieTullett

https://www.facebook.com/SuzieTullettAuthor/

PS. It's my first season with the fantastic blogger campaign #MyFriendAlexa. This post is a part of it! #WriteAway

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#619 : Groomnapped by Sundari Venkatraman : Review

                                                  

Groomnapped - What an intriguing title. The protagonist  Ameya - Millionaire, falls in love with Surekha, the eldest daughter of a carpenter. Surekha's family cannot really afford the wedding or the dowry with their measly income. Ameya has no other choice but to resort to extreme means to marry the love of his life. 

The story is quite fast paced and well thought of. However, it just scrapes the outer layer of a very serious issue. Such a story line offers a wide scope to play with some serious emotions, nevertheless, the writer has chosen to keep it a simple read without bringing in the heavy emotional baggage that this story line has to offer.  

To cope up with being a simple story, the writer has ensured to keep the characterization simple and straightforward without adding layers and complexity. 

This book is a perfect read if you are in a reading slump or have just completed reading an emotionally heavy book. 

GROOMNAPPED

(The Groom Series #1)

by

Sundari Venkatraman

BLURB

The lovely and feisty Surekha is the eldest of three daughters of a carpenter from the wrong side of the tracks. She teaches science and maths in the Bihar Public School. 

Ameya is the only son of a millionaire farmer-cum-builder and over and above that, he’s educated too. 

They meet and fall in love quite easily, the drawback being the dowry system prevalent in Bihar. With Ameya’s parents expecting a huge dowry and Surekha’s parents having a tough time eking a living out of their humble income, it seems like the match between the two lovers is one made in hell. 

Ameya isn’t one to take things lying on his back. But when the parents who adore him otherwise are so set against the marriage, will he be able to make Surekha his? 

Grab your copy @

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.in

About the author

Sundari Venkatraman is an indie author who has 31 titles (27 books & 4 collections) to her name, all Top 100 Bestsellers on Amazon India, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada and Amazon Australia in both romance as well as Asian Drama categories. Her latest hot romances have all been on #1 Bestseller slot in Amazon India for over a month.

Even as a kid, Sundari absolutely loved the ‘lived happily ever after’ syndrome as she grew up reading all the fairy tales she could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. 

Soon, into her teens, Sundari switched her attention from fairy tales to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualising what would have happened if there were similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine. Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. 

Then came the writing – a true bolt out of the blue! And Sundari Venkatraman has never looked back.

Click here to check out all the titles by the author...

You can stalk her @

      

        

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PS. It's my first season with the fantastic blogger campaign #MyFriendAlexa. This post is a part of it! #WriteAway

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#618 : Paella - Spain Diaries - The Spanish Food

It's been a while since I got back from Spain and I now intend to finish off the Spanish series which I started back when I was in Spain. I stayed in Madrid for about 120 days before heading back home. One question that I got asked was, as to how I managed food. Every other person pitied me. However,  I never really  felt bad or difficult or worse, starved. It's just that one has to adapt and I realised that I was rather good at adapting.

Food is always a problem for  a Vegetarian. Though the world is becoming more accommodating and inclusive to different food habits, there is still a long road ahead. Being an Indian, it's virtually impossible to handle eating bland food. I realised, the spices we used were literally our lifeline. Imagine eating rice with tomato puree sans pepper or coriander seeds or turmeric. However, that was my lunch for a while. Vegetable Salad, Spinach in Bechamel sauce, Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Veg Hamburgers - that's all I had for lunch apart from a variety of watery soups served with sourdough bread. All of them were so bland that adding heaps and heaps of pepper to any of them really didn't make a difference. Beggars can't be choosers. In a land of meat lovers, I couldn't possibly pick and choose. 

The Spanish love their meat. Every other major super market has varieties of meat stacked neatly that even the meat eaters who travelled with me from India were a bit perplexed as to what to buy. Jamón ibérico (Cured Ham) or just Jamón (Pork), chorizo and salchichón are a few local favourites. They also do love their sea food. The most loved dish being Paella which is something similar to Sea Food Briyani which is served here in India sans the spices of course. 

In spite of the lack of a variety in vegetarian cuisine, I had a whale of a time trying out different dishes. Special note of thanks to my colleague from Spain who ensured that I knew what to eat when I went exploring. Here is a little guide on surviving Spanish food if you are a vegetarian like me, 

1. Bocadillo/Tortilla Patata - The classic Spanish omelette eaten squeezed between bread. I don't eat eggs as well, but if you do, this might be just perfect as they are known to be quite stomach filling. The speciality being that the eggs are mixed with mashed potatoes. 

2. Gazpacho - I tried this when I went to Cordoba (Andalusia). It's basically cold tomato soup which is typical of Spain. Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Garlic, Green peppers, Onions and Vinegar are mashed and served cold as an appetiser - this ended up being my main course though! This ranked third in my list of most flavorful foods I ate in Spain.  Salmorejo is a similar variation of Gazpacho combining pureed bread, tomatoes, garlic and vinegar – also served cold – with ham or egg slices on top. I took special care to specify not adding Egg or Ham as they always do. 

3. Pisto or Spanish ratatouille - I savoured this dish first on my trip to Aranjuez which is a small town south of Madrid. This dish turned out to be a literal life saver. I'd blindly ask for this every time I ate out as almost all restaurants served Pisto. Pisto is basically a blend of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, onions, garlic, and of course, olive oil. The La Mancha district is known to serve the best Pisto. Just like Gazpacho, this dish is served with a piece of toasted bread and egg on top of it. Yet again, I skipped the egg. This ranked second in my list of most flavourful food I ate in Spain.

4. Patatas Bravas - This was the true savoir. It is a classic potato fry coated in tangy tomato sauce. That sauce was the spiciest dish I ever tasted in Spain. After days of eating bland food, when we chanced upon this, it was like being in food heaven! The number one dish in my list of most flavourful food from Spain.

5. Bean Stews and Salads - Bean stews (or soups) were my staple lunch for a while. The chefs in my work place canteen made such good stews, at times specially for me. It was really heartwarming to see them put in efforts to ensure that the single vegetarian person is fed properly. Some of the best stews I tasted were Fabada Asturiana (White Beans, the pork-less version), Chickpea stew and Red bean stew. 

6. Churros and Porras - One can't possibly not eat Churros when in Spain. Yet again, my Spanish colleague deserves all the credit for showing me the best joints to gorge on yum Churros. Churros is basically an elongated form of donut which is eaten best dunked in hot chocolate. If I could, I'd rather have Churros for breakfast daily. It's just way too sinful to be eaten regularly. A little joint in Madrid serves the best Churros. It's called Chocolatería San Ginés. It's open 24 hours and is crowded to boot all the time. Apparently, you party all the night and eat Churros here in the morning before heading back home to sleep. This is one must visit cafeteria in Madrid. Another place which is a must visit in Madrid for good Tapas (or food) is Mercado San Miguel and the La Latina area. That place is worth a separate post. 

Churros from San Gines

Apart from the above mentioned dishes, I loved drinking Spanish Sangria (the non alcholic version),Mosto (Grape juice sans alcohol) and hot chocolate (Cola Cao). Again, I ought to thank the same Spanish colleague who got me bottles of Mosto and Sangria! Muchas Gracias! 

One point which I almost forgot to mention - the portion sizes vs price. The Spanish sense of portion is confusing. For an Indian who is used to large portion sizes, the Spanish portion size will not be enough and would be over-priced! Think of pay EUR 8 for a small cup of Pisto which would possibly be your lunch. With conversion rates sky rocketing, it's a millimetre short of being a gaping hole on your pocket. 

Above all, to survive being a vegetarian, you just need to learn the Spanish words for meat, fish and 'NO'. 

Sin Carne, Sin Pescado, Sin Pollo, Sin Huevo - will literally help you anywhere in Spain!  

PS. If you are non-vegetarian, you really don't need my help. Unless of course if you don't eat pork and beef. 

PPS. You can read the rest of series here! 

PPPS. I am taking my Alexa rank to the next level with Blogchatter
This is my #Post1 /#Week1 for the #MyFriendAlexa campaign.

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#617 : Cĥxp pîng! Bangkok Trails

Do read the first two parts in the series here - Part 1 & Part 2 

After that relaxing stay in Krabi we boarded a flight to Bangkok. We picked the Thai Lion flight which landed by afternoon in the Don Muang airport. This is point in the trip when we experienced our first major difficulty. Bangkok is rather infamous for it's horrendous traffic jams. We were scheduled for a cruise dinner which was to start by 8PM. Our pick up was scheduled at 5PM and we hadn't reached our hotel only. We learnt about the pickup time from our local contact just as we landed. There was some kind of a mismatch between the final vouchers PickYourTrail sent and the timings on the website that we booked. After frantic calls using the pathetic internet connection we had, we managed to check in and start out by 6PM and make it on time too. 

The Chao Phraya cruise was the first activity in Bangkok that we choose. The prospect of cruising peacefully enjoying an international meal and admiring the landscape of Bangkok was enticing. However, it turned out to be quite the opposite. The ship was filled with just Indians, with blaring Hindi/Punjabi music being played and Indian food being served. By the time we got back to the hotel, I had a severe headache. I was pretty convinced that the our agency had probably booked us specifically onto to some kind of an Indian special cruise. I have nothing against Hindi Music or Indian food, but at that place and that setting, I wanted to experience something global. The view was the only thing which put me out of my misery that day. 

Day two in Bangkok dawned, after a sumptuous breakfast in our hotel, we headed for the Buddha tour. We managed to visit the famous Buddhist temples in the city. Yet again, not the kind of the experience I was looking forward to. The whole tour seemed slightly commercialized. I was looking to experience Buddhism, but we ended up roaming around the temples like tourists. The temples however were truly beautiful. Simply wished we could understand the culture better. It was a half day trip and we went back to the hotel.

 
We stayed in the famous Sukhumvit area. It was quite a busy place with crowd pulling massage parlors and restaurants. One restaurant worth the mention was a Lebanese one - Nadimos. Unfortunately, the Thai cuisine doesn't have much to offer for vegetarians. Lebanese food came to our rescue!

We decided to visit the famous Rod Fai night market. That trip was one hell of an adventure. It wasn't a part of the package, which meant we had to find our own way to reach the place. Without Google maps and a proper internet connection, we knew that was big risk. The valet in the hotel where we stayed managed to flag down a cab and convince him to use the meter. We reached the place safely and managed to find our way into the market which was safely tucked out view thanks to a mall. Filled with cheap cosmetics, dresses, accessories and street food, that market was the pure Thailand experience for us. The place was a local hang out spot and didn't really pull in the tourist crowd. A couple of guys from my home town who were there in Bangkok for their jobs were the only 'tourist' sort we met. It was such fun to try to communicate and shop for things in that market. Language was a big barrier but it didn't hamper the overall experience. Food was the only thing we really struggled with. With literal non existent vegetarian options, we had to settle for desserts like Pancakes to fill our stomach. 

Our trip back to the hotel was the highlight of the trip. Getting a cab back to the hotel was fast turning into a nightmare until one guy stopped and agreed to take us back while with meter rates. There was girl who was seated in the front seat. Having heard stories about flesh trade and prostitution, my imagination went wild very quickly. We didn't know the language nor did we know our way around, we simply were easy targets to be cheated on. However, that driver and the girl put in so much efforts to make us feel warm and secure as they sensed our fears. In spite of not knowing English, she communicated so well with us using google voice and translate. Technology really came to our help that day. Faith in humanity = restored. 

We woke feeling all warm and fuzzy from our previous night's experience and looked forward for a relaxing day at the zoo. Little did we know that we were in for a rude surprise.  Bangkok Zoo turned out to be a bad idea. Filled with unruly horde of tourists, all from India, it was such a bad experience to move around and get seats in the various shows. I realized that we Indians, lack that discipline to stand in a line and move around as a large group. I vowed never to visit a place which would be possibly flocked by fellow Indians. 

After that hectic time in the zoo, we decided to go shopping to relax. Nothing more relaxing than indulging in some retail therapy! The people in PickYourTrail recommended that we hit the Prutnam Market and the Platinum mall. We shopped for clothes, accessories and cosmetics - all of which were available in dirt cheap rates. Here is a small list of things which are worth indulging in. 

1. Earrings - You can't possibly chance upon better quality and designs anywhere else in the world! 

2. Handmade soap - That smell and that shape! It got me as excited as a 5 year old. 

3. Cosmetics - There is this 99% Aloe-Vera lip balm and strawberry lip scrub which is working wonders to my lips. If you have oily skin like mine, the Srichand

4. Clothes - Dirt chip and are of good quality. 

After that fab shopping session we decided to unwind and experience the world famous Thai Massage. The hotel that we stayed in had an attached massage parlor. We picked Aromatherapy massage. The masseurs were well trained and professional. 

Next day dawned, it was time to leave. We took the Thai airways flight back home. Though the trip wasn't really what one would call perfect, the time off worked magic for us. 

PS. I've not uploaded pictures for personal reasons. If you want to peek into my album, give me a shout out, will share it privately! 

PPS. I know this is such a delayed post. My day job had me clamped to the desk. 

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#616 : Bombay Heights by Adite Banerjie: Review

                                               

The title makes it obvious that at least one of the protagonists are not from Bombay and are in the city to seek a livelihood. Moreover, the cover also indicates a romantic liaison.  You don't really need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess this. That was exactly the story line. Protagonists Sanjana and Ashwin have an accidental meeting thanks to Aswin's cute little dog. They end up working together. Then there is the ex-lover and a large family to tackle as they can't help but fall for each other. 

Having read this writer's works earlier, I knew what to expect in terms of language and story flow. The characterisation, just like that in her previous books, is done progressively. The characters start out to be almost immature just adults and move out to become mature proper adults. However, I wished there was a bit more grey to the ex-lover - Chetan's character. In fact, I wished other characters were also a bit more flawed. Most of the characters were way too perfect for my taste. 

The pacing was great thanks to that cute pet, the funky roommate and a large family. In fact, this might as well be a real life story of two people. The story by itself was that realistic. In spite of being fast paced, I felt the lack of a punch that I expected from this story. I'm a fan of happy endings, but not all loose ends need to be tied up. That's my second peeve point with the story as such. 

The cover could have been designed better. I felt it gave too much away about the story. 

In short, the book was an entertaining read. 

Do buy the book here. 

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#615 : Killer Moves by Varsha Dixit : Review

                                                   

Having read almost all of this writer's previous works which were hardcore romance, I was quite curious and eager to read a thriller from her. Aisha's mundane screen-writing life turns topsy turvy when her niece Kiara goes to goa with a rumored killer-photographer for a photoshoot. Kiara's life is threatened and Aisha is forced to empty her closet of secrets to save her life and her life too in the end. 

Most writers often take for granted the importance of solid characterisation while writing a thriller. It is important to build that layer by layer image to derive motive and means which is very vital to keep the readers hooked to a thriller. Given that the writer is experienced in writing romance which highly relies on characterisation, doing the characterisation for this book would have been a piece of cake. All the characters were just perfect and had enough shades to them. All of the characters - be it the primary ones like Aisha, Kiara, Kabir or the secondary ones like Parth had enough value and time on the story. The other highlight was the no fluff approach in the characterisation. Each character had just the shade enough for this book with minor loose ends which hints at a sequel. 

The plot was good, with one slight loophole - I don't wish to elaborate on this as I can't do so without giving away spoilers. It plotting was fast paced and had enough twist points till the end. However, somewhere towards the end when Aisha comes back to Mumbai, I felt the writer literally rushed the story a bit. That part could have been slower. The supernatural twist completely caught me off guard. I really didn't see that coming! Given the story involved grotesque murders, the writer has done a good job of describing the emotions, but again, I felt the romance part of the story was a little bit forced. The chemistry wasn't just somehow right. 

Overall, the book was one hell of a thriller! Killer moves in deed! 

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#614 : 40ft Off the Ground by Shobana Mahadevan : Review

40ft off the ground is the story of a bunch of engineering students and their lives in college. The main protagonists, Sreya and Vishal meet in a bus as they both head to the first day in the same college. Eventually they get to know each other well, fall in love and the rest is their journey through lows and highs.. Of course, there are a bunch of other people - Aadhi, Anand, Priya, Kavya who become friends, fall in and out of love and move on in life. 

Story wise, this is a mildly elaborate account of a college going kid's life. If you have crossed that phase of life, it will take you on a sombre trip down the memory lane. That's just about it though. The story lacks the hook to keep the readers attached to it. The story track between Sreya and Vishal was very predictable. Sreya's reasoning for not accepting Vishal seemed very superficial and lacked the emotional punch that was required for such a background story that Sreya had. Kavya's story was the only part that was actually surprising. The story also seemed very similar to the story line of a bunch of movies - Cheran's Autograph and Highway are a couple of them that I can remember right now. 

The writing, overall was good. The writer seems to know her way around the language well. However, the lack of in depth emotions and superficial characterisation combined with a punchless story made it a rather poor read. A story needs to be shown and not told. This is exactly where the writer slipped. With the kind of the language skill that the writer has, I felt she could have done better. It was like reading a Chetan Bagat's  book albeit a better written one. The similarity stops just with the kind of the story line he writes. The language made the biggest difference! This book is best suited for Young Adult and teenagers. Also well suited for people who have just taken to the habit of reading. 

Note : The writer provided me a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. You can buy your copy here.  

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#613 : Being a Blogger

                             

Ages ago, blogging used to be something precisely what the cartoon describes.  It was the boom of the internet and IT. People began blogging left and right, sharing things which found audience literally in the opposite part of the world. Orkut was a rage back then, but it didn't have the right means to publicize a person or a webpage as much as Facebook or Twitter does today. I personally loved following many blogs back then, most of which are inactive or simply gone today.It made me realize something - Long gone are days when people blogged purely for passion. 

With the advent of SEO - Search Engine Optimization and Digital marketing, the true essence of blogging has been diluted. There used to be a time when a simple write up about my day garnered me 3000 hits, now it has come down to a measly 100 hits in spite of writing about far more interesting topics. I had just posted about my experience in Thailand which would possibly have gotten more a 100 views a couple of years ago as it is quite rich in content has a couple of pictures, but today, that article has just gotten over 39 views in a time span of 12 hours. I've shared it on all social media platforms where I have an average of 300 followers. The numbers simply don't add up. Just as I was pondering about all this, Shrinidhi, a fellow blogger, blogged about 9 disturbing trends a blogger needs to be worried about. Do read it here. 

In his blog post, a couple of points caught my eye. Here is my take on this issue

1. It's not all about metrics - A community I am a part of on Facebook has all "serious" bloggers. Many members of that community offer guest posts majorly only to people who have a decent DA score. What is DA score? I had no idea until I dug around and did some research. Then there is the Moz Score, the Alexa rank and what not. Google Analytics has a beautiful suite of tools which can help you drill down data right from which browsers your audience is using, to the OS that they are on and of course, the most basic metric of which location they blog to.

Does it matter? It ideally should not. However, at the end of the day, it comes back to the big question - Why blog? It is okay to blog for monetary reasons, but that does not give the free rein to mock and create problems for other bloggers who do it purely for passion. Peppering an article with 'top trending' keywords and forcing Google to pick up the article might work, but it doesn't make sense at all. As Shrinidhi mentioned, this eventually leads to poor quality of articles which harms the community of genuine bloggers.

The only way to escape from crutches of metrics is to act as a  community. Commenting and sharing genuine blog posts, inviting people to guest blog without actually looking at their blog's metrics would certainly help. 

2. It's not all about vlogs, pictures, questions and quips - For an average reader, it takes about 7 minutes to read a 1000 word article while it takes around 3 hours to write it. It's the era of Videos and pictures. Then there is this big issue of peppering the article with keywords. The combined effect of these two has literally resulted in lost readership. People don't seem to have the patience to read a 1000 word article. A blog post without a picture is literally of no use today. I agree that videos and picture enrich the experience, but the lack of it should not be the reason for a text blog to be thought of any lesser. 

Twitter, Facebook and Quora together are the prime reason for people getting accustomed to pictures, videos and short answers. Most answers on Quora are like instant soup. They fill the stomach but aren't nutritious in long run. The real art of research is lost. People look for instant gratification and instant answers.  Of course, Quora also has a community of people who work hard to ensure that the answers are sensible, correct and are not just a bunch of links pointing to various websites. 

Moreover, as Shrinidhi pointed out, Google, the biggest search engine seems to be adapted itself to handle the large inflow of blogs which are stuffed with keywords. It has reduced the importance of text blogs in general to make way to media rich and key word rich blogs. 

3. It's not all about positive reviews and marketing always - One piece of advice that I have been given over the years is to find a niche in the blogging-sphere. Why should I? I love to read books, so I write about them. I love to eat, so I write about cooking. Why should I not write about what interests me. Why should I be mocked for doing what I love to do - that is, to write. 

An excellent book group recently shut it's promotional activities. They were into promoting books by the means of blog hops, book blitzes and reviews. Why have they shut? The person who ran the group reasoned out that the bloggers felt pressurized and were no more ready to review books. There are writers who demand stellar 5 star reviews to drive sales. They insist that the blogger write only good things about their book. Is it a fair expectation? It's not just the book-blogger world which faces this issue, food bloggers and product bloggers have a similar set of problems. It is okay to promote to a brand based on it's merit, but it's not okay to be demanded to be promoted over the sake of it. It is a question of ethics over quick money. 

Here is what I'm planning to do immaterial of my readership, hits, likes, shares (Oh whatever!)

I'm going to write my head out - about whatever I like, but as always, I will take care not to hurt the sentiments of  other human being. Free speech is over-rated and subjective. 

I'm going to be as active as  possible in commenting and sharing genuine content by passionate bloggers. 

Somethings are not always about a bunch of metrics and money. For me blogging is one such thing, support if you can, or please show yourself out of my cyber space. 

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