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!

Weighty Woes

What is it with women and weight? We never seem to be the right size to make us happy! In order to avoid being generic I am going to make this about me and how my mind works regarding this issue. Me - am never happy about my weight! With great difficulty and lots of sacrifices (call it not eating properly cos I was lazy to cook and clean by myself all 7 days of the week!) I did loose a few extra pounds that I carried on me before I moved away from home. Boy! did that make me happy - loosing the weight I mean. All those days of eating whole grains and brown rice and avoiding ice creams seem to have paid off! And then my parents came to visit and here I am few months later finding out that my clothes are a bit snug! Like most other women who obsess about this issue my first reaction was panic! I was on my mothers case, telling her that it was her cooking that caused it (in a fun way of course) - you see its the effect of food being served with lots of love and affection :-) As long as I did the cooking and groceries and maintained my eating habits I did not have this problem...maybe its true, maybe its not.

Anyways now I am left wondering how to get rid of the extra pounds that have found their on me and am making myself miserable trying to think of ways to shed it off! I have been hitting the gym like a loyal dog and I am definitely not feeling very kindly towards all the skinny dames out there who eat as they please and never gain a single ounce! God is just unfair sometimes!!! Man I do hate the gym! I prefer doing chores around the house and walking everywhere!

And the food, the less said on that topic the better! I am trying to get back to my "healthy" eating habits but it is such a tough job after those months where food was served with love :) I have been trying hard to come up with a list of food I can give up. Well there is no way I am kissing cheese good bye! Hey am only human you know and considering all the crazy stuff that goes on in life, cheese gives me comfort and that can't go! I did manage to get rid of a bag of Hershey kisses.. I dumped it in the common candy bowl at work with a really heavy heart! Yesterday I found myself almost throwing away the biscuits and then I came into my senses and hid them in the tallest shelf in the kitchen! I will probably be too lazy to fetch a stool and stand on it to get access to the shelf! At least I hope so...

As of now I have decided to ignore that weighing scale that lies in my room. Checking my weight is a strict no no. The day will arrive when I shall win that scale, when that magic number appears in pretty red digital print. I wait for that day and until then I bid adieu to chocolates, ice creams and all other evil food! My parting words to the cruel food world - Hasta la vista......I'll be back!

The Rozabal Line

I finished this book at least 4 weeks ago and.....here goes I have mixed feelings about this book. It explores the possibility that Jesus did not die on the cross and once he escaped how he travelled around the world and even came to India. In fact it goes on to state that Jesus lived in India and died there and his tomb exists in Kashmir. All this and more are meshed with the story of a political religious war between the roman catholic church, the free masons and the Islamic war groups. The main protagonists though from different parts of the world are all linked to each other by their actions from their previous births! If this was too much for you to digest the book doesn't stop here...the various religious groups try to plot their terror attacks in a such a way that the final one ends on December 12 2012! Gosh!

The reason I wanted to read this book as it was a historical fiction by an Indian writer! Ashwin Sanghi who actually used his pen name Shawn Haigins for the first few editions! I feel he has a long way to go when compares with historical fiction experts like Dan Brown or Phillipa Gregory. Honestly if this same book were written by Dan Brown it would have been a guaranteed page turner! However this book is rich in its research but its keeps zooming between the present, past and future so quickly that it makes the reader dizzy! I didn't even feel like doing a review about this book because the book is chock full of information and its crazy to remember all that stuff. The book tries to answer the million dollar question..did Jesus really die on the cross? Did his blood line continue? If so what happened to that generation? How different is Islam and Christianity? Does one feed of the other? If you happen to read the book let me know what you thought about it.

Lords and Ladies

Read this book and am feeling too lazy to do a review :-) I wanted to track it here for my reading challenge....Anyways I loved it, like most other Terry Pratchett books..am glad I have his collection!In a nut shell, this book was an extremely funny take on Shakespeare's "A mid-summer nights dream". If you are interested in the Terry Pratchett books, check out my others posts for reviews on books by this author.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I was waiting for this book and thanks to a good friend I received a free copy of it! I am not going to spend too much time reviewing Dan Browns latest - if you have read his previous books this book is not much different. The pace of the book, the narration and story line is almost similar. Just that this time the author moved the wild goose chase from beautiful and historical Europe to architecturally marvelous Washington D.C. The book was pretty interesting, however the last 30-40 pages just dragged and I just wanted to close the book as I found myself yawning - it was a case of too much information and moving in and out of buildings! If you like thrillers filled with a lot of history this book will be enjoyable almost towards the end!