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Showing posts from May, 2018

Action Replay + Gratitude List: May 2018

Image Source May has been a pleasant month and I cannot be more happier about it. Five months have already passed since the year started and I have seen myself change as a person month after month. 2018 is going to be a turning point in my life for sure. May has been a month of many learnings, many realizations and many vital decisions. In the end, I have a smile on my face and that's all that matters. Right? Work has been crazy hectic, leaving me with hardly any time for anything else. I learnt many new things at work and explored new areas. As much as I crib about the stress at times, I cannot help but be happy about what I'm doing. Work has always been the topmost priority in my life and I think that I do more than enough justice to it. Because I was busy with work, reading took a hit this month. I could only read five books and most of them have been excellent. I will review some of them later, but for now follow me on Goodreads to be a part of my reading journey.

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing; 1 edition (10 May 2009) Genre: Historical Fiction Price: Rs. 182.07 on Amazon for the Kindle Edition Pages: 257 Let me start with how I came across this book. I had never ever heard of this book until Shailaja shared it on her Instagram story that this book was available on the Kindle for under 100 bucks for a day. Since I trust her choices, I promptly bought it. Later, she tells me that she's not read it, but has heard good things about it. Then Shalini recommended the book on her blog and I knew that I had made the right choice. Soon after, I began reading it. It took me quite a few days to get used to the title of the book. It is almost like a tongue-twister and only half-way through the book I got to say it correctly. This book is a historical novel set in 1946. The best part about this book is that the entire book is in the

The Purpose Of Travel

Image Source " Show me the pictures. I hope you clicked many of them ." " How much did it cost? " " What did you bring from there? " It's been close to two months since we've come back from our vacation and we are still being plagued by these questions. Some people prefer to right away ask these instead of asking how our experience was or what places we visited. It is really annoying, to be honest. Travel to me was something new until I met my husband. Right from when we started dating, we started traveling together and we enjoyed it a lot. As people who can talk non-stop, we were each other's perfect travel companions and since our thoughts and ideologies match, we love traveling together. Initially, it was all the thrill about the travel. I used to take a lot of pictures and check in on Facebook as often as I could. After a couple of vacations, it was all about the place and the person that I'm with. Nothing else mattered aft

#WednesdayVerses | Rain & Steam

Image Source It all started with a drizzle Then formed the spirit for the mood Not taking advantage of this ambiance Would be considered rude I take a step forward You come grab my hand One look into your eyes I know your intentions are grand I watch that lone crystal of rain Hanging on to your lower lip What I'd not do to be that drop But I don't want to easily slip

#FeministMondays | Women In Indian Cinema

Image Source I watched Alia Bhatt's ' Raazi ' yesterday. Although the movie received glowing reviews, it did not work for me. I found the story to be dragged out unnecessarily and somehow it did not hit the right emotional note. While Alia was fantastic in the movie, a brilliant actor like Vicky Kaushal was wasted. The only take away for me from the movie was having a female protagonist who risks her life for her country. But who is behind all this? Yes, men. As much as Alia's Sehmat is brave, the strings behind are pulled by men. She blindly follows her father orders and marries a man she has never seen. From asking for basic help to get her things done, she needs to use code words to reach out to men. Even in the end, the man who trained her doesn't blink twice before issuing orders to have her killed. I know it is all about patriotism, but why weren't there any other women who could help her? What's the point in being brave, when you are a mere pupp

Not A Stranger To The Dark

Image Source The greys in my hair have taught me now That life comes with a share of up and down I've learnt to swim against all tides Braved the flood when others expected me to drown Way too many people have come into my life While some have stayed, most have left Each of them did teach me a lesson It made me more strong and not bereft I celebrate every small high Because I have seen the lowest of lows Each day I emerge stronger Learning to adjust my sails as the wind blows

Reflections: A To Z Challenge 2018 #AToZChallenge

The first time I took up the A to Z challenge was in 2014, and since I was new to it then, I had no theme. I just wrote about what ever I felt like. The posts were decent enough but nothing great, still I managed to complete the challenge successfully. In 2015, I wanted to have good quality posts and went with my strength back then and chose ' Shades Of Love ' as my theme. Most of my posts included fiction and poetry which I seldom write now. Not too sure how and why the transition happened though. This time, the posts were good and I was enjoying the challenge much better. For 2016, I wanted to have more personalized posts, so the theme I went for was ' All About Me ', and although it sounds easier to talk about oneself, I wasn't too sure about what I wanted to share with the world and what to keep private. It wasn't an easy battle, but I managed to complete it successfully. By 2017, my writing had evolved a lot and so had my reading. I was doing quite a

Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Title: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Author: Gail Honeyman Publisher: Harper Collins (30 May 2017) Genre: Contemporary Fiction Price: Rs. 359 on Amazon Pages: 400 I had heard a lot about this book on Social Media and everyone was going gaga over it. But after ' The Fault In Our Stars ' which was one of the most lamest books that I've ever read, I stopped taking Social Media reviews seriously. When many friends started personally recommending this book to me, I was intrigued. Still, not enough to go and buy it. When Shailaja , whose taste in books I immensely trust, pushed me to read it, I knew it was time to give in and pick this one. So, I did. I started reading this on my plane journey and read bits and pieces of it throughout my European sojourn and I completed this on the flight back home.

Action Replay + Gratitude List: March & April 2018

Image Source Let me start with how thrilled I am to be finally writing this post. I didn't do a replay post for March as I was travelling and once I came back, I jumped head first into the A to Z challenge for April and that left me no room to write anything else. As much as I enjoyed the A to Z challenge this year, I felt really constrained as I was sticking to a theme. There was so much I wanted to talk about all the other things under the sun, but with writing a post everyday, I couldn't find time to write other posts apart from the challenge ones. But now, I'm free and I cannot wait to get back to the writing groove and talk about things that matter to me. Before I get to doing that, let's see how March and April fared. March was a pretty chaotic month in terms of work, but I'm not complaining. It kept me busy the way I like it to be. Health and lifestyle took primary focus and I continued to eat healthy and stay fit. However, the highlight of March woul