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!

Princess

The first book in the "Princess" trilogy, Princess gives the rest of the world a privy to the life of Saudi Arabian women - royals and non-royals alike. For the rest of the world, Saudi Arabian royal princesses live a privileged life with no dearth of money or luxury. Little do we know that their lives are controlled by the whims and fancies of the men who surround them. Women are treated worse than animals, denied education, married off to men fit to be their grandfathers, divorced if diagnosed with an illness or if their husbands are bored of them and even killed to protect the family honor! The book was described as a "look into an air conditioned nightmare" by the New York times review.

The book describes the various events in the life of Princess Sultana the 7th daughter of a Saudi Royal Family of Al Saud. From a tender age she finds out that her father would never love her or her sisters and that their brother would have preference over everyone in all matters including food and lifestyle! They were just the "unwanted daughters" who had to abide their time until they could get married to serve their duty as a woman by being an obedient wife and giving birth to plenty of children hopefully male. Most marriages were arranged as strategic business alliances or partnerships and it was and probably still is common for a girl as young as 15 to be married to a man as old as 62! Observing how her mother and the rest of the women are treated Sultana learns to rebel and fight for what is her right in male dominated world where the verses of the Koran are twisted to suit men and men alone.

The events in the book have been based on the stories of a actual princess who requested the author that her story and issues that affect the women of Saudi Arabia be published. She hoped that this would be the beginning of bringing some change to the laws and ways of her land. Of course the name of the princess and others in her life has been changed to ensure the safety of the princess. The book is very gripping and most of the women around the world (if not all) will definitely be grateful to have the access to education and a certain amount of independence. I do not want to come across as someone thrashing Saudi Arabia as I am sure it has changed compared to what it was 20 years (which was the timeline for Sultanas stories though women are still not allowed to drive and a women was arrested as early as March 2009 for driving!

The book was very gripping and I didn't want to put it down until I finished it. We Indian women may celebrate the fact that we were not born in a place like Saudi Arabia but we still have a long way to go when it comes to establishing our place in the society. Certain incidents described in the book like female infanticide, domestic violence and mobbing of women by religious groups bring to memory the various incidents that keep happening through out India almost every day. The day has not yet come when a women can roam freely at night on Indian roads without the fear of being attacked, robbed or killed! It just makes me feel we are in a slightly less cruel version of a Saudi Arabian country. This book is a must read for all women.

The Catcher in the Rye

Most folks that I know have have read this book when they were in school or college..many of them who studied outside of India read this book as a part of their school curriculum. But then again, I don't think any Indian school (even today) would allow this interesting book as a part of the school curriculum due to what the Indian education board may regard as bad language and other crude references. Even in the west the book was once on the list of banned books before it was hailed a classic owing to the strong language contained in it.

This book published in the 1950's is like a monologue of a 17 year old school student who gets expelled from school. Apparently he has been expelled from many schools in the past and this one is no different. He flunks every subject other than English one of his favorites. Earlier on in the book it is established that he is a good writer and his brother is also a very famous writer who writes screen plays for Hollywood movies. This book talks about the mixed feelings that goes on in his mind about the people around him and the world in general. It is a potpourri of thoughts that go on in the mind of a rebellious teenager presented very coherently by the author J D Salinger.

Many chapters in this book made me realize that that many of us feel the same way about a lot of issues like the main protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Holden feels that world is full of "phonies" and people only act a certain way to be perceived as cool. Men use each other to get what they want and if people are friendly it is not because they genuinely care but because they need something out of the other person. One of the chapters in the book talks about a movie which only has happy endings. Even the Doberman in the movie has a cute litter of puppies which run around the table around the other happy characters when the movie ends. This chapter reminded me so much about our very own Rajshri film productions where nothing ever seems to go wrong! Its a perfect way of representing how the world in general loves to avoid that brutal truths of so that they have something "nice" to cling on to and move on.

The relationship that Holden shares with his 10 year old sister Phoebe (whom he refers to as old phoebe) is beautifully etched out. He is able to connect with her and have better conversations with her than any of the other adults in his life. The monologue spans across 2 days of his life in New York City bringing out the grey areas and life in the city earlier in the century in a very subtle way. Holden cannot seem to figure out what he wants to do with his life - all he knows is that he does not want to be a phony. He does not want to be a lawyer just to make a lots of money as he feels that a lawyer should help save people lives and he does not to want to become a writer either as he feels that most writers end up becoming prey to fame and fortune thus giving up their true talent and creativity. Everyone becomes a phony....During one of his conversations with little phoebe he confesses to her that he visualises himself as standing over a cliff overlooking a huge field of rye where little kids play and every time a child gets too near to the cliff he makes that he catches the kid and makes sure that child moves away avoiding a fall that could hurt them. He feels that the only thing he would like to do is protect these little kids. This piece of text was a perfect analogy to protecting young, innocent minds from the cruel ways and bad beings of the word. All that he would like to be is a "Catcher in the Rye".

The relationship that he shared with his late younger brother Allie runs like an invisible thread throughout the book. When Holden feels lonely he speaks to his brother Allie as he finds a lot of solace in thinking about the child with a pure heart. Holden plans to run away to establish a simple life for himself far away from his current world but changes his mind when he understands that Phoebe does not want him to leave her alone. She even packs her little suitcase to join him!The book ends on a note Holden still trying to figure out what he wants to along with help from a psychiatrist. However he is no longer alone and is surrounded by the people who he regards in high esteem - his older brother DB and sister Phoebe.

Good book if you are a serious reader. I felt that I could not have appreciated this book had I read it in school or college but enjoyed it now!

One Night @ The Call Center

I know I am a bit late on the list of readers who have read this book, nevertheless I was finally able to get my hands on this one. The book by Chetan Bhagat is extremely realistic and describes the emotions and confusions that engulfs most Indian youth today as we weave ourselves within the webs of ambition, greed, money and false facades. Everyday thousands of young Indians sit in swanky (sometimes not so swanky) air conditioned offices behind computer terminals taking calls from around the world helping out (and taking abuses) from the good citizens of the Americas and Europe. What exactly drives these men and women working at the call centers to stick to their jobs and do the same thing every day in spite of the fact that it makes some of them unhappy?

This book has it all - a bad boss, an underachiever, a journalist who compromised on his dreams to make some money, a wannabe model who finds it hard to climb up the ladder of the big bad fashion world, a traditional girl stuck with a monster-in-law and a cheating husband and the girl who can't seem to be able to shake off her domineering mother. The pages of the book take us through the hours of a night in their lives and how one phone call changes everything for them.

Most of the present day generation of Indians aged 23 and above will be able to identify themselves with almost all the characters in this book. We may not need to work in a call center to appreciate and sympathesize what the characters go through - its enough even if you work at a software firm! We all struggle to become team leads and project managers just like our main protagonist Shyam. We all have had or still have bosses who tell us we can never be good enough. At some point of time we all feel that we have become a rat while trying to survive the rat race and most of us stuck serving "goras" with lesser iq's all for a few dollars and to keep up with the image of what our society expects to be. Some people are lucky and deal with this well and find their true calling while other are still in limbo wondering what their next move should be or if they should make the next move at all.

For those belonging to the later category, this book will definitely inspire you to take risks and try doing something that you have always wanted to do. At least it made me feel that I should get over me fears and failures and move on. God helps those who help themselves. The book definitely drives the point that bad bosses need to be stood up to and it is extremely important for an individual to hold on to his / her self confidence because once we loose that, it will be struggle to gain it back!

However it bugs me a bit that an author who could pen a wonderful book like this one, is settled in Hongkong and works for a huge investment company. Doesn't that imply that he is also addicted to the world of dollars and comfort? Why would he not settle down in the India he claims he loves and be a better role model for folks like myself and others? Seems that his book only serves to inspire and advice others...

Have any of you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Verdict – Must Read

Rating: *****