Mr.Monk and the Blue Flu

I picked this book from a "throw away" organized by a moving neighbour. Since I can't stand books being ignored I picked (rather grabbed) this book and it was totally worth it! A very light and fun read. Based on the popular TV series "Monk" this book is written by Lee Goldberg who penned the screen plays for the TV series.

Adrian Monk is an ex-cop and since the death of his wife suffers from an OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) syndrome. He loves nothing better than order and balance in the universe to the extent that he slices his pizza using a compass to measure exact portions! He carries his own cutlery to restaurants and even washes the dishes (his own and the restaurant's dirty dishes) after his meals there. He can't bear to see a speck of dust anywhere and thinks that the duster and the mop are the best inventions of all time and his way of de-stressing is to clean the house and any ones house at that! At time he is even unable to control the urge to set things right at a crime scene. It is this very characteristic that makes him look at angles and clues that other detectives miss out while investigating homicides and solves cases in record time. The San Francisco police department engages him as their consultant to close out on important cases.

Monk is aided by his very efficient and loyal assistant Natalie Teeger who rightfully describes her job as a baby sitter. She is always there to hand him moist wipes when he needs to clean up after touching a messy desk at a crime scene, hand him his mineral water when he needs it and chauffeur him around the city while he investigates his cases. She tries to make him look sane to the rest of the world.

All these details are humorously narrated by Natalie in this book where Monk takes over as the acting captain of the SFPD when the entire police force goes on sick leaves also known as the Blue Flu so that the mayor of the city can understand their needs for decent salaries and medical insurance. In India we would call that a strike! The mayor hires Monk as the acting captain and also assigns to him a team of equally twisted detectives - a conspiracy nut, an officer with anger management issues and a really old detective who forgets his name every few hours! How this team led by Monk, solve 2 high profile cases dealing with serial killers forms the rest of the book!

If you want to laugh a lot, give this book a go - you won't be disappointed

The curious case of the designer bag

Have you ever wondered why you can never find something when you need it the most? You are turning the house upside down to locate that important bill that you need to pay today as it is the last day and you just can’t seem to spot it? How you can’t find your keys or those discount coupons when you need to leave the house in the next few minutes? And surprise, surprise how these objects usually turn up in the most unusual places when you are not looking for them! It seems to be some weird law of nature that states:

a) You shall never get anything when you need it the most!

b) One can never stick to a budget when it comes to gift vouchers! You would always have to spend more than what is on the voucher to make us of it!

I am pretty sure there are Murphy’s laws which states these weird ways of life. If you are wondering why I wrote this post, please keep reading as it describes how both laws came to play in a single day though in different ways:

Yesterday I realized that I had a gift coupon from one of the huge stores in the area. The store carried pretty much everything from clothes, shoes, bags, kitchen electronics, bath and bedding, cosmetics, jewelry and more at affordable costs. It was the last day that I could use the coupon before it expired – so I decided to go and treat myself to all the possibilities that the store offered. I was excited to have found the coupon before it expired and not after! The first law was disproved and I was excited. I made a trip to the store and spent about 1 hour walking through the entire store only to find:

• The jacket that I wanted was not available in my size. They had a size bigger and a size smaller but no stock when it cam to my size.

• The pretty yellow sweater I wanted – they only had the larger sizes

• I didn’t want shoes or jewellery so those sections were out of the running

• No kitchen electronics to interest me and I didn’t care much for kid stuff or make up!

• And the bags – none to catch my interest! I had been looking at the same bags in the store for more than a year now!

What’s a girl to do? The first law was rearing its head again…..Finally I spotted a beautiful handbag in mustard yellow under a mound of dull and boring bags. I have wanted to get a bag in that color for a long time now! So I inspected it and found out that I had to shell out extra cash (apart from the gift voucher) to make it mine! Hello second law!

I walked another half hour throughout the store checking if I could find something else instead. Defeated I finally walked up to the billing counter and parted with the extra cash. The lady at the counter exclaimed – wow you found an amazing deal and all I thought in my head was “Lady, you have no idea!” As I walked out with my new bag, I consoled my self saying that I had got a nice designer bag at an affordable cost. Nature’s laws had struck again but in different ways – I did find the coupon but didn’t really find something worthy of it and per the rule had to spend more to get something worthy. And this is how I ended up buying the mustard yellow color bag which I have wanted for quit some time now.

Book Challenge 2009!

Yes! I finally did it - completed the book reading challenge. We had to read 20 books in the year 2009... I know I know for some of you this is nothing! You can read 20 books in 20 minutes but then for people like myself it took some discipline though I do read quite a bit. And I am also happy I didn't really cheat - I didn't read books like "Tales of Beedle the Bard" and similar 20 page books for this challenge! I am thrilled about finishing this for the year - I may have not lost my 5 pounds but I did complete the book challenge! I found some friends on the blogosphere thanks to this challenge. Here are the details of the books I completed this year with the links for my take on the books

1. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
2. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
3. The Rozabal Line by Shawn Haigins a.k.a Ashwin Sanghi
4. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
5. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
6. Princess by Jean Sasson
7. Catcher in the Rye by J.D Saligner
8. One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat
9. Ghost Stories of Pennsylvania by Dan Asfar
10. Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking glass by Lewis Caroll
11. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
12. A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
13. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
14. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
15. Son of Witch by Gregory Maguire
16. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
17. Life, Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
18. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
19. 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
20. The Restaurant at the end of the Universe by Douglas Adams

The White Tiger

I know I was a bit late in the game when it came to this book however I picked up this book with great expectations considering it had win a booker prize and stuff! At the end of it have mixed feelings about the book.

First I appreciate the fact that an Indian author like Aravind Adiga was able to command an international prize and people around the world have been able to appreciate his writing abilities. But then why is that people around the world seem to usually appreciate books that show India in a poor light? Or do the authors deliberately write books like this to expose their talents to an otherwise unappreciative international audience?

I don't feel like reviewing this book at all - it has been done by millions around the world already! I am just peeved about the fact that this book describes India and Indians in a very poor light and books like these will ever change the view of what the world thinks of us! It just pits Indians against Indians and the world will continue to think that they can boss over us! India and its mindset is slowly changing - it is a slow process but it is happening and I think we should stop writing best sellers that show us in a poor light! However the book is gutsy and I guess the author was ready to take the flake from what people like me would say. Pick it up if you like thrashing India and fellow Indians or you think India will never change or if you are just interested in a black humor literature! You will either love this book or will hate it..

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

Betrothed at the age of three to the crown Prince of England, Arthur Tudor to strengthen the ties between emerging power England and the super power of Europe -Spain, Catalina of Spain (Queen Katherine of England in the future) was always destined to be Queen. With powerful parents in King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabelle of Castille, Catalina grew up in the midst of a holy war to establish Christianity as the supreme religion of the world and drive away the so called heretic religion of Islam (as it was known in the early 15th century) from the face of the earth. Her journey from a young girl from Spain to the most powerful and beloved Queen that England ever had, is riddled with hardships, intrigue, love and the biggest lie of them all.

At the age of 16 after a grand marriage to Arthur and exploring her new life with her young and brave husband destined to be the next King, Catalina finds herself widowed in a new country and clueless as to what her future maybe. The foundation of her dreams and future which was built upon her destiny to become the Queen of England is shattered as she is caught in a political war between her parents the most powerful and feared monarchs of Europe and her equally cunning and savvy father in law king Henry of England. She soon discovers that she is nothing more that a pawn in the struggle for power and she cannot trust her own parents to rescue her from a savage land to fulfill her destiny to be Queen. Refusing to be controlled like a puppet and having her dreams and future destroyed by those who have no personal interest in and based on her promise to her beloved husband Arthur on his deathbed, she tells the biggest lie of them all and takes control of her own destiny - the lie about the truth of her marriage with Prince Arthur.

After a great struggle she finds herself engaged to Arthur's younger brother Harry (a.k.a Henry the VIII) the next future King. She faces the Kings formidable grandmother and puts all those who shamed her in her place and takes her place as the Queen of England. However this journey is not smooth sailing as she strives to be a good queen along side a king who is just a young boy who was not really destined to be the king, cannot stand to have anything go wrong and is vain and selfish to his needs and desires. Slowly but surely she starts running the country with her knowledge acquired over her lifetime with great parents and her husband comes to depend on her to guide him in making England a powerful country!She comes into her own right when she commands the English army to their greatest victory of all times - against the Scots!

The book very beautifully explores her life from a being a young innocent girl transforming to a regal Queen. The emotional turmoil in her mind and her faith in God is shaken a lot but she never gives up. She also learns that her parents were wrong about just driving people and nations that follow Islam and other religions to establish Christianity as the ultimate faith and begins to understand that success lies in driving away the evil and bad that lies in the world and not a particular religion. Her travails as her women as her honor is questioned and put to the ultimate test when her husband tries to nullify their marriage citing Kathrines inability to have sons, to take on a younger queen after more than 3 decades of marriage is very beautifully etched out.

The book started out slowly and I was wondering if it would be as good as the racy "The Other Boleyn Girl". But I was not disappointed, the book gradually picked up pace and kept me glued after a certain point to know what comes next. The beauty of 15th century Spain and savage England is beautifully described. The contrasts between the old English court commanded by her father-in-law to the young court captained by her young husband is also brought out well. The political pulse of the time, the ambitions of the Kings and their willingness to sacrifice anything or anyone to fulfill their own agenda is quite shocking, not to mention how women were given no place in those times where the Queen job was to give birth to the next male heir without which she means nothing. It is pretty ironic that in spite of Harry's obsession for a son, England finally ended up being ruled by women starting from his daughters with his Queen Katherine. Queen Mary and till today is still being ruled by an English Queen! In fact some of its golden years was when it was ruled by Queen Elizabeth again one of Harry's daughters and step sister to Queen Mary, who was cast aside by the great king when she was young. Does that tell you something? Well I think women have powers that even they are not aware of and if only we could channel these powers in a good way rather than idling in gossip or frivolous activities we would make grand strides in every way!

If you enjoy historical fiction, love hearing about medieval England and Tudor history, this book is definitely a must read.

Perfume and Water

When I go blog hopping I generally notice that most folks write about humorous incidents that have happened in their lives and it just feels so odd that I have never been able to recall anything funny that happened with me while I was growing up. Or maybe it was funny and I just didn't see the humor then! Anyways I have been thinking over such incidents that may seem funny to me now and I remembered this one.

Growing up, my 2 cousins lets call then D and V and myself used to almost always vacation at Bangalore at my aunts place! Being from hot Chennai, it was the 'it' place to spend your summer holidays. Anyhow this aunt had a daughter (she was our cousin too) who was studying medicine. Apparently my aunt and uncle thought their daughter, lets call her S was the best thing that ever existed and there were strict rules about not making too much noise, not disturbing her while she studied blah blah! So naturally most of us were in awe of her as she was destined to be a success story. S had all the nice things a girl could have - fancy clothes, shoes, accessories, perfumes, make up etc., all courtesy my aunt who used to make plenty of trips to the USA to visit her other daughter and son! You see visiting the USA was huge in the 80's...now its like making a trip from Chennai to Bangalore! So getting back to my story, future doctor S had this amazing perfume (again from the great USA) which smelled like a dream!D, V and myself we just wanted to try some - you cant blame kids in the 4th, 5th and 6th standards! So we decided that one day we would definitely try it out!We got our chance one afternoon....

You see D had this habit of sleeping most of the day! She would easily spend about 16 hours sleeping (nights and afternoon combined) so she just missed out on the fun! V and myself went to S's room and opened the perfume bottle. We just wanted to dab a little bit on ourselves and see how it felt. In our efforts to open the bottle and get a little someone (I don't want to point fingers here) ended up tilting the bottle then fell on the carpet spreading perfume all over! None of it was left in the bottle! We panicked not knowing what to do! Then we hit upon a brilliant idea and filled water into the bottle and put it back! Naive as we were it didn't occur to us that the room was smelling like a perfumery! We went about our business for the day and that evening when S got home she got suspicious considering her room was smelling like the perfume department at a fancy store! She discovered the bottle with water and threw a big tantrum and made a huge ruckus! Everyone got so worked up about the perfume and V and me just didn't get why it was so important. It was just perfume! D escaped just because she slept through the whole mischief! Finally we were chided so much and V even tried to blame it on me and tried to take and escape route! I wasn't going to let that go and fought back! She has always been like that - ever since that day I never trust her!We were all so mad at everyone and mentally I thought the future doctor or her parents would not be going places especially when they could be so petty about the tiny perfume bottle and not understand a kids prank! I just remember being mad at everyone and learnt to be wary of everyone since that day!

Today, almost more than 2 decades after that stupid incident I laugh about it. I think it was pretty funny. We wanted something and we went for it - where is that instinct now? I guess I would just have to say that I grew up and these days am concerned about so many other things when it comes to going after something that I really want. This incident did teach me a lot about who you can and cannot trust and that something that may be insignificant to us would be valuable to another - even something like perfume! However I still do resent being called the mischief maker when it was just a childish prank. Well, at least I had fun and the rest of them just wasted a load of their energy trying to think what they could call us kids! Guess I did have the last laugh after all and I sure feel glad that this is now out of my system!