The diary of a social butterfly

I spend 30 minutes everyday writing a diary, ever since I remember. I still have all my diaries with me which were written since I was 16. It is absolute fun to read them now. They mainly talk about who said what, who was in love with whom, girl rivalries in college and all silly details including what I wore to college!

When I read diaries written 5 years ago or so I see a drastic difference, it is amazing to see yourself grow, your thoughts/ life getting matured. And to prove that all is documented!

I just loved the book 'the diary of a social butterfly' by Moni Mohsin, a pakistani writer. It is hilarious. She has used lot of urdu in the book, it is more of a chutneyfication of English language. The story revolves around a female character who has a habit of writing a diary, I could probably relate to the book completely because I know that people who write diaries can have utterly nonsense; mundane; gossip; as well as spicy secrets written in the diary.

What I didn't like about the book is - at the end it starts getting monotonous, the humor becomes predictable. It could have been better if it was shortened by a little.

Three Mistakes Of My Life

How many people in India can read English - ~50% of the population?
How many of them read English novels/ books - ~20% of the English reading population?
and finally how many of them have read the book '5 point someone'? Not more than 3% of the english novel reading population.

Chetan Bhagat - the writer of this book was declared as one of the '100 most influntial people in the world' by Time magazine (out of just 3-4 Indians who made it to the list in the US issue). The reason given in the magazine was India's biggest hit movie ever - 3 Idiots was 'loosely' based on '5 point someone'.
Well, then the director/writer of the movie is the most influential person. Since I am on this topic I would like to write about the director of 3 Idiots - Rajkumar Hirani - I love all his films, they are original, very Indian, he gives some kind of message in all his movies and most of all I love the female characters in all his films; they are so educated, intelligent, simple and decent... That makes them look beatific. Life me decency hona mangata na boss.

5 point someone is one of my favorite books. But what did Chetan Bhagat write after that? One night at call center - Most pathetic book of all times. Still I read it! That was my first mistake.

I didn't learn from my first mistake so I read '3 Mistakes of my Life' - Senseless book of the year! - This is my second mistake.

Its high time I learn from my mistakes and not commit the third mistake of my life
;-) but I am still going to read '2 states' - the latest book by him.

Yes, Hope is the only thing that keeps me going!

The Palace of Illusions

If you were born in the era of Mahabharat (I mean B.R. Chopra's TV series Mahabharat) then you might be able to remember that when the series started in India maximum TV sets were sold.

The roads would be vacant on Sunday mornings. At my house everyone would just drop whatever they were doing and the entire family would be glued to the TV. I was a kid then and enjoyed the arrow fights, magic parts. I watched it again and read few books on it when I was a little older and at that time I could really understand the drama in it.

I don’t know if Mahabharata ever happened as it is told today. If it didn’t occur in real and just happens to be a novel by Vyasa then what an astounding piece of imagination…!

No novel in the world can be compared to Mahabharat. It’s fascinating story, fights, captivating magic and most of all intriguing characters… It has probably the most convoluted character personalities ever written about so far. Mahabharat stories are every Indian’s fascination, something that they hear in their grandmother’s stories. We all are in love with everything about it - anguish, vengeance, covetousness, the supernatural, philosophy, odium, splendor, bravery, heroism…

We love everything about the characters from the bottom of our hearts – they are haughty, kind, egoist, greedy, vindictive and enigmatic. Each character is unique and none is straight forward with all good qualities… they all have shades of grey.

No wonder in India they say each fight’s reason is a female – Biggest war in the history of India (they happened thousands of years ago and now we do not have any proof whatsoever if they really happened) Ramayana and Mahabharata happened because of Sita and Draupadi respectively… I would say they were the stimulating agents.

Palace of Illusions is a book by Chithra Banerjee. It is based on the life of Draupadi – the woman – the epitome of Femininity and Feminism.

I have no words to explain how much I liked it… it is just awesome!

Calvin and Hobbes the complete series

Laugh riot! I would read one strip every day, what a great way to start your day with!
This is probably the greatest comic of all times… rascal Calvin and his trusty Hobbes…
I have seen my nephew growing up and I could completely relate to it and that made it more fun… Loved it!

The curious incident of the dog in the night time: By Mark Haddon

The book is written from a 15 year old autistic boy’s perspective who has extraordinary Math skills.
The story is about how he uncovers a mystery of who killed his neighbor’s dog.
By necessity, the writing is simple and unadorned, but the language of details elevates it from the mundane. Marvelous book!