Tea & Dark Chocolate

I believe that good poems come out of conversations and when you really feel! During one such conversation with friends today, the following stuff came out... On how I am forever penniless, and have to borrow money to fund my holidays... Oh, you cruel Vemu Making me the gruel Vemu Hoarding all the money Never giving me a penny! Separation of duties, he says But look at the bills she pays Yeah, the stocks I make Can't handle the breads I need to bake! Oh yes, I am on a roll Need more for my payroll On and on, I can wax on On how I drudge on! And on how I always underestimate our wealth... Round and round I grow and I count Taking away from my excel Giving you and you excel! At this point am saying that real pain gives birth to good poems *please insert a guffaw here* The anguish and the pain Along with all this rain This, the books and cooks don't help All I can do is yelp! I had a slighly unpleasant exchange with a co-worker when he mispronounc...

Again that time of the year when I try to cram in as much reading as possible in the last week of the year, and still attempt to spend time with my family and friends (I plan my India visits to be in December, mostly). Also the time of the year when I look back at the books I read and plan on the themes for next year's reading.    Per my  Year in Books  stats that Goodreads gives, I've finished reading 71 books in 2019, with an average of 296 pages per book.  Though I am pretty pleased with these stats (let's face it, I love numbers), especially given how often we traveled this year, and the frequent binges on Netflix that I've been on (thank you, Jane The Virgin and Breaking Bad!), the fact is - I read in numbers because I aspire to have at least 10% of my overall books read in an year as takeaways - books I can think of fondly or recommend or re-read. If I have met this goal, I rate the year as a productive one. Turns out, this year...

Off late, most of the conversations or debates I am having with friends fall in familiar patterns - someone in the audience would've said something that I disagree with, and I end up debating it with facts. Well, using facts not sentiments is the best thing to do, but what do you do in the world where every fact you pick might be discredited (either really because of the source of the fact or called as 'fake' news because people do not like this fact)? I have been thinking about this, I have a few options - I could move over from the argument and never touch it again with that same audience, or I could go at it in other ways. I flinch at the moving over bit, because that makes me feel that I am wasting an opportunity, both at learning and at giving it back. I am yet to figure out the right way to bring forth a valid point in a debate, something that will make the other person see the truth and not my face when I am uttering it.  This morning, a distant family member discr...

A few days ago, Hamsini , a friend from Instagram and GoodReads pinged me saying she was doing a profile on readers she knows. I answered the questions she had, and the resulting post on Curious Reader is here , which I liked very much. In the process of answering her questions, I put together quite some info about books that matter to me, and it made sense to record it all here. This post is in a Q&A format because I was answering questions for the profile. What makes a book, 'great'/ an-all-time-favorite/ unforgettable for you? Rather, in GoodReads parlance, what are a couple of those ingredients that make the difference for you between a four-star and five-star book? A quality book is something that stays in my mind - glimpses from the book should keep replaying in my mind, either when I am reading the book or much after. To name a few, I cannot forget - how my stomach squirmed when I was reading the chapter about the books being torn in Thirteenth Tale ; some pane...

‘tis that time of the year, when I sit back and look at the books I’ve read and make lists of the best from that year. I do this, almost diligently at the end of every year, because I want to keep track of the better books I’ve read. I also refer to posts like this to recommend books to friends. 🙂   Turns out, I read 87 books in 2018 , but the no. of pages is almost similar to what I read in 2017 , with a great avg pages per book ( I read 104 books in 2017 , and the avg pages per book was 254).   Also, an interesting read, albeit, quite long, is this post I wrote earlier this year on why I read, and attempting to answer all the questions I get asked about books and reading. Post link, here .   Here are some of the best books I’ve read this year, in no particular order.  I’ve included the GoodReads links to these books, and where applicable, even my notes/review too -   The Open Road by Pico Iyer – Iyer follows the Dalai Lama for...