Chasing Harry Winston By Lauren Weisberger

From the Back Cover:

Meet Emmy, Leigh, and Adriana. Best friends since college, each has seen her share of career foils and romantic foibles over the past decade. Now, as they approach thirty, they’re looking toward their future...and they’re not quite sure they like what they see.

When they are each alone on Valentine’s Day, the trio makes a pact. Within one year, each woman will change the thing that most challenges her. For Emmy, it will be to find romance—or a fling—in every foreign country she visits. For Leigh, a book editor with a dream boyfriend and dream apartment, no change seems necessary—until she starts to notice a brilliant and brooding man named Jesse. And for commitment-phobic, drop-dead-gorgeous Adriana, her goal is to have an engagement ring and a house in Scarsdale. Each woman starts the year with the best of intentions—which is exactly why the pact goes immediately, and exceptionally, awry.

Filled with delicious insider details, Chasing Harry Winston whisks readers into the heart of an elite world, and showcases Weisberger’s best storytelling efforts to date.

***

What I Thought:

Ok, so I picked up this book obviously because of The Devil Wears Prada, which was a witty, fun read.
This book was ok, nothing special really. Three friends and how they deal with their exceptionally rich & fabulous lives! I found Emmy's side of the pact to be pretty strange and nonsensical actually. I mean who does that in real life. I understood Leigh's predicament, that does happen to people. And about Adriana, well I havent really met anyone like her in real life, so reading about her was a nice change.

Overall, I would not read it again, and am happy I did not gt a hard copy of the book!! And about this being Weisberger's best storytelling efforts to date, that IMHO is jsut a whole load of bull!! She covered the best in The Devil Wears Prada. Do not miss that one!

A Desirable Residence By Madeleine Wikham/Sophie Kinsella

From the Back:

Liz and Jonathan Chambers were stuck with two mortgages, mounting debts and a miserable adolescent daughter.  Then Marcus Witherstone came into their lives - and it seemed he would solve all their problems.  He knew the perfect tenants from London who would rent their old house: a glamorous PR girl, Ginny, and  her almost-famous husband, Piers. But soon Liz is lost in blissful dreams of Marcus, Jonathan is left to run their tutorial college, and neither of them has time to notice that their teenage daughter is developing a passion for the tenants, Piers and Ginny. Everyone is entangled with everyone else, in the most awkward possible way. And as events close in, they all begin to realize that some deceptions are just a bit too close to home.

***

What I Thought:
I got this book because of my love for the Shopaholic books, which are my absolute favorite in chick lit! So, picking this one up was a no-brainer. Anyway, it was just not what I expected (These days, not much is going as I expected! *sigh*)!

Whereas the Shopaholic books concentrated on a single character, this book has a whole lot of characters and situations, which are all somehow connected. It actually reminded me of movies like Love Actually, Valentine's Day, etc.

Liz and Marcus's affair, the whole bit with Alice and Piers and Ginny; and off course Jonathan and Anthea, everything was handled so well. It was nice to read of such commonplace situations as affairs, teen angst, job worries, mortgages, etc., dealt with in a very sensible way.

I liked it though, the whole plot was very realistic, with juicy details and no fairytale endings, and beginnings or middles for that matter!
 

***

Memorable Lines:


A rich, easy, expensive voice joined the ensemble.

Right in the base of his stomach, almost hidden underneath the murky layers of unease and guilt, began to thump a small, bright beat of excitement.

Sigree!!!

So, a very good friend recently got engaged, and off course, as usual we had to celebrate it by going out and spending her money on food and drink!! The destination this time was Sigree! 
I'd been wanting to go there for a long time, ever since I mistakenly stepped into it. I was looking for the hotel area, and got off on the wrong floor, and there was this lovely place! It had a really long bar area, with no bar stools though, and the area inside was lit by these tiny yellow fairy lights!

The Bar Area

The Lights

As soon as we entered, my first thoughts were, "Wow! This is not gonna be cheap!". It was a Wednesday, around 8PM, and there were very few people at the restaurant. All that changes soon though, the place was loud and full by about 9.30 PM! Anyway, we decided to opt for the buffet, thinking it would be quicker and cheaper, along with a few drinks.

As soon as we decided and ordered, the waiters started coming in one by one with all the different starters. The fish and prawns were very good. The chicken dishes were ok, not that great, same with the vegetarian dishes. By the time we were done with the starters, we were stuffed!

The chutneys were ok, but the starters tasted better with when dipped in them. There was this one item with the chutneys, it was sweet, and looked like amala or something. A log debate followed wherein everybody disagreed as to what it was. Some said mango pieces, others (me) stuck to amala. This was finally resolved when the waiter told us that it was actually papaya in some sugar syrup type liquid!

Anyway, since we were so full after having the starters, there was hardly any space left for the main course, at least in my stomach! But just went along with the others to see if anything could tempt me. Well, nothing did, except for the butter-garlic crabs and the various colorful salads,most of which were disappointments. The crab on the other hand was very very tasty! I ended up eating all the crabs, even those taken by the others, that they couldn't finish!!

The drinks were very cheap here compared to other places in Pune, with mocktails being more expensive than hard drinks, also, there was an offer going; Buy two drinks and get the third one free! So Win-Win-Win!!

I had to take a bit of all the different deserts, including the ice-cream, although I only took the vanilla flavor (there was strawberry & chocolate also). The elongated gulab jamuns (cant remember what they're called) were yummy, and so was the gajar ka halwa. The Jalebis were a little too crispy, and there was nothing special about the mousse/mousse cake.

At the end, we were so full, and drowsy! It was a good meal. I would definitely go there again, but not for the buffet, maybe a few starters and drinks!!

*First two images taken from http://tunnn.com/restaurant/689

The Betrayal

The time had come finally. It had been carefully decided (as usual), the hour when not many people were around, so they would not be disturbed. Nor were there too few people, as this ensured no suspicious stares coming their way. This was a part of their daily routine, but today was going to be different.

As they entered the room, she saw that their usual inconspicuous seats were already occupied by a group of noisy youngsters, her trained eyes quickly scanned the entire area and found a couple of empty seats in the back, which would have to do for today.

She could see the anticipation in his quick movements, as they crossed the room at a quick pace. They settled in immediately and he placed the container he'd been carefully holding in his hands on the table.

He opened it gingerly, as he always did, and gasped audibly. The initial shock and disbelief quickly turned to anger. It was not what had been promised repeatedly to him since the previous evening!
In fact, it was a betrayal of epic proportions, according to him at least! She didn't agree, but thought it wise not to argue with him.

He was angry, really really angry, seething actually! This was totally unacceptable! And all those promises! He now realized they all were false promises, they had to be, there was no other plausible explanation for a betrayal of this multitude.

What a fool he had been!! What a ride he'd been taken for. All because he blindly trusted his mother when she told him she'd packed Rajma Chawal for lunch, whereas in reality it was cooked green peas and rotis!!!!

*Inspired by actual events that took place on 12/11/2013.

High School Reading Lists!

Ok, so I've come to the sad realization that although I've read a lot of books, I've not even skimmed the surface of the milk pan of books classified as classics! Did that even make sense?

In high school, we didn't have reading lists or any compulsory reading, which I now find to be very sad. There were no essays on my interpretation of Shakespeare or Keats or any of the others. We just had text books, with lessons in them, like articles and stories and poems. We had to study these, and answer questions based on them in the exams. That was it.

Well, that's the Goa Board of Education for you! I know I'm complaining now, but I guess I should be happy that I had it easy for English at least. I don't know if I would have been able to cope up with the rest of the subjects like Maths, Bio and all, with all this extra reading and writing. Who knows, I might have only concentrated on English then. Wow! How different would my life be!! I'd probably be a professor or something, that's the only legitimate occupation I can think of right now for a Literature graduate!

Anyway, my point is, I missed out on a lot of important reading, and its time to rectify this, starting today.
So, I've got the list, all I now need is the time and patience to deal with Shakespeare.

I'll just keep adding the titles and checking them as and when I finish them, in this post.

The List:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee
2. Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare   -   WIP
3. The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Lord of the Flies By William Golding
5. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 By Travis Bradberry
6. The Catcher in the Rye By J. D. Salinger
7. The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
8. Macbeth By William Shakespeare
9. Animal Farm By George Orwell
10. Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck
11. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain
12. Hamlet By William Shakespeare
13. The Odyssey By Homer
14. 1984 By George Orwell
15. The Diary of a Young Girl By Anne Frank 
16. Julius Caesar By William Shakespeare
17. Night By Elie Wiesel 
18. Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen
19. Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
20. Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
21. Fahrenheit 451 By  Ray Bradbury
22. The Crucible By Arthur Miller
23. Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
24. The Grapes of Wrath By John Steinbeck
25. A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare
26. Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
27. Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
28. A Tale of Two Cities By Charles Dickens
29. The Giver By Lois Lowry
30. Beowulf By Seamus Heaney
31. The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton
32. Othello By William Shakespeare
33. A Separate Peace By John Knowles
34. The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway
35. The Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chauce
36. The Taming of the Shrew By William Shakespeare
37. Flowers for Algernon By Daniel Keys
38. Mythology By Edith Hamilton
39. The Little Prince By Antoine de Saint-Exupery
40. The Hobbit By J. R. R. Tolkein

Rag-a-Tag Tag!!

A tag I found somewhere in blogosphere:

1.What is your current obsession?
Online shopping!! Been a current obsession for a very long time now.

2. What are you wearing today?
Kurta, Leggings & Sweater.

3. What’s for dinner?
Egg masala and roti! Cant wait, cos its one of the rare times I'll be having non-veg for dinner.

4. What’s the last thing you bought?
Lunch - Chicken Kadhai, Rawa Laddoo & Sugarcane Juice.

5. What are you listening to right now?
Arguments regarding religion at work!

6. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
Non-transparent cotton tops & Jeans.

7. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Leh.

8. What is one thing you want to learn to do?
Ride a bike.

9. What’s your favourite quote?
"Live and let live!"

10. Who do you want to meet right now?
My mom & dad.

11. What is your favorite color?
Red.

12. What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own closet?
A black & white printed dress.

13. What is your dream job?
Travel Host.

14. What’s your favorite magazine?
People!! 

15. If you had $10000 now, what would you spend it on?
Jewellery. I really really want a diamond ring.

*Image: http://www.pricescope.com/forum/show-me-the-ring/my-first-coloured-diamond-thanks-dbl-t176538.html


16. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?
Guys wearing low-waist jeans!

17. Who are your style icons?
Victoria Beckham, Emma Stone.

18. What kind of haircut do you prefer?
I think its called a Feather Cut!

19. What are you going to do after this?
Get back to work.

20. What are your favorite movies?
So many of them. Off the top of my head I'd say the LOTR Trilogy.

21. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can’t live without?
Something on my lips (balm or lipstick), a VS body spray & Nail paint on my toes.

22. What inspires you?
Reading about inspiring people!


23. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)?
Go and shop if there's time, else jeans and a top.

24. Coffee or tea?
Coffee!

25. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
Get a bar of chocolate (Current favorite is Cadbury Silk) & eat it while either watching a chick flick or reading a M&B.

26. What is the meaning of your name?

I used to think it meant April in French, and while that still holds, it is derived from a Latin word that actually means "to open/to blossom". So I guess that is the actual meaning. 

27. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
I'm not partial to any particular dessert/sweet, I love them all equally!

28. Favorite Season?
Winter, without a doubt!
29. If I come to your house now, what would you cook for me?
Egg Bhurji

30. What is one book that you would suggest the whole world reads?
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell.

People, please tag yourself!!!

The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

From the Back Cover:

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.

Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....

***

My Thoughts:

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum." 
Translation:  Don't let the bastards grind you down.

So, I'd heard so much about this book and author from various sources, and finally decided to read it. And it pleasantly surprised me. Its a dystopian novel set in the US, some time in the future. Whenever I heard the words dystopian/utopian I used to think of science fiction and all things strange and unknown; things that I don't really like reading about. But this novel was different.

The whole premise of a society governed by a sexist Christian cult-type regime is incredible and yet very disturbing!. I mean if it was something about aliens ruling the world and such, I wouldn't really care. But this, it could happen! Just imagining such a world gives me the creeps!!

Anyway, back to the book, I loved the way its been written. You feel the narrator's gradual acceptance of her situation, and consequent struggle against insanity, yourself.

What I was a little unsettled about was the ending. I mean, does she reach safety, is it a trap?? Who knows?
I would like to think that she reached safety, and found her daughter eventually. And, to make it a little realistic, her husband would have died long back, but Nick would also got to safety and they lived happily (a tleast as happy as they can be after going through such an ordeal) ever after.
The End.


***

Memorable Lines:

Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.

But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.

Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.

When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.

The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.

But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.

You don't tell a story only to yourself. There's always someone else. Even when there is no one.

We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?

Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.

One and one and one and one doesn't equal four. Each one remains unique, there is no way of joining them together. They cannot be exchanged, one for the other. They cannot replace each other.

I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.

You can't help what you feel, but you can help how you behave.

By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being.

I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.

I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, than at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish t were about love, or about sudden realizations important to one’s life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow. I’m sorry there is so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it.

Sanity is a valuable possession: I hoard it the way people once hoarded money.

The world is full of weapons if you're looking for them.

I wish I was ignorant, so I didn't know how ignorant I am.

I don’t even close my eyes. Out there or inside my head, it’s an equal darkness. 

Perhaps he's reached that state of intoxication which power is said to inspire, the state in which you believe you are indispensable and can therefore do anything, absolutely anything you feel like, anything at all.

This is one of the things I wasn't prepared for - the amount of unfilled time, the long parentheses of nothing.  

Live in the present, make the most of it, it's all you've got.

Happy New Year!!!

So, another new year, new beginnings, yet another fresh start! I always am so optimistic about my resolutions and such, right before a new start, but when it is finally time to act on them, always find excuses not to do so.

And so, I finally decided that this new year would be different, I would actually carry out all my resolutions very strictly, but off course I didn't not take into account my own cunning! I'm still at home on vacation, and work does not start till the 6th of Jan, and so, obviously, that is the day when I start on my resolutions.

 

Anyway, for posterity’s sake I’ve decided to list them down, so below are my resolutions, in no particular order (all are equally important) for 2014:

 

1.       Write at least 10-15 posts per month on this blog, which would make a total of ~150 posts at the end of 2014.

2.       Be nice. Be polite & kind. Be helpful. Do not let lose the inner bitch easily, unless provoked, off course.

3.       Stay fit & healthy. Meds on time, physiotherapy and such.

4.       Learn to waltz and/or other ballroom dances, so as not to disappoint and stamp people’s shoes as I did this year!!

5.       Be patient & understanding at both homes, temporary & permanent.

6.       Brush my teeth every day!! Very important. (Too much time & money has been spent on dental work already!)

7.       Shop & eat responsibly. Lose weight, not money!!!

8.       Learn (to cook), read (more non-fiction), travel (India) & experience more of everything.

 

 

Image Courtesy: http://www.listoffive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/new-year-happy-wallpaper-2014.jpg