-
The English Patient – Book Review
“She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent emotions like sticks in water.” Set in an abandoned villa/hospital in Tuscany, The English Patient is a novel of four people maimed and broken by the war – A badly burnt and disfigured patient who is mistaken to be an English man but later identified as Count Almasy, the naive and simple nurse Hana who remained back in the villa(even when the rest of the staff left after the war) to take care of the English patient with whom she felt a special affinity, an Indian…
-
Distracted Reading
I have been reading the book ‘A beautiful mind’ since a few weeks and I am still on the 78th page. This comes from the person who used to read Famous Five Big edition(3 books) in one night. I cannot read at a stretch like that now….with no distractions. I open a book get in to the groove only to have my Whatsapp tone sound from the corner of the room. I check and reply to the message only to be tempted to take a quick peek onto my Instagram feed. Well, you know the drill. (I try to mute my phone and tab but I am often greeted by…
-
Blog Love
It’s the Day 2 of Festival of Words by Write Tribe and today’s request is to showcase a few blogs I love. I would like to share a few literary and creative writing blogs I enjoy a lot. 1) Writing for Life – Creative Writing, Personal Journals To find beauty in the subtle moments, to find a story in daily events, to appreciate funny moments as they happen and to share it in a few words is a gift some bloggers have. She happens to be one of those prolific writers. I enjoy her Funny Quotes section most ! 2) La Tour De Force – Creative Writing, Baking and…
-
Solitude
Introverts of the world, Unite !
-
Quarter Life Crisis
Quarter-life crisis is Feeling like you have no one to talk to even when you have people by your side. Watching ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ episode after episode, at a stretch. Sleep cycle follows a different time-zone than the one you are in geographically. Living in at your parent’s place after 5 years of college freedom. Unpaid internships and feeling lousy about it. Scary thought of you turning out to be a cat-lady who knits all day. Refreshing Twitter and Instagram page at a rate of million times per second. Tweeting about your every mentally deranged thought. Texting becomes way cooler than actual talking on phone Terrified of the…
-
Optimist or Pessimist ?
(Feb 24th prompt from NaBloPoMo : Do you think you are more of an optimist or a pessimist? ) Thinking long and hard on the answer to the above question. I came to this sad conclusion: I am an optimist when things go my way. When its running downhill, I turn in to a dreadful pessimist. How wrong can I get ?! It is easy to see the silver lining on the cloud when we can gaze at the beautiful sky while standing on a firm ground. What happens when the ground is shaking and there is an earthquake? Our ability to find the silver lining depends on how much we actually…
-
Silence of my home
Growing up, my house did not know the meaning of silence. 2 studious girls who did their daily lessons by reading loudly. 2 hyperactive boys who always had to play football or watch cartoon. Not to forget, the cat and dog fights for everything from the TV remote to the Nutella bottle. However hard my mom tried, it was dearly impossible to wind up for the day before 11 PM. There was one or the other chatter – Crying sessions because the home work assignment was not completed (this was usually me!) or screaming at the other for breaking a favourite toy (usually the boys) or being on the telephone…
-
Weekly Photo Challenge : Threes
Pictures speak more than a thousand words. My lovely cousin sisters giving me hope, not all of childhood innocence and curiosity is devoured by pixels on a screen. May they be blessed and protected. (Weekly Photo Challenge : Threes. Tell a story in three pictures ) Linking it to NaBloPoMo. Phew 21st day.
-
The hijab – My choice
From the time I was 11 or 12, whatever is it that I chose to wear- skirt & top, jeans & kurta, salwar kameez or the abaya – there has been an extra fabric on my head, covering my hair, popularly called as the HIJAB. On doing a quick Google search, you will realize the fact that the Hijab is one of the most controversial topic regarding the Muslim women. The extra fabric hasn’t prevented me from gaining a degree, working in a hospital, travelling alone, outing with my friends or in short, living my life. It is a personal choice after studying and comprehending my religious texts. It is…
-
A city and a village.
Place where I grew up : Doha, Qatar Class gradation and caste differences was something I was not aware of during my childhood days. Everyone had the same Staedtler Pencil and Faber Castell Colour Pencils. It was assumed everyone was from reasonably well-to-do families. Some of our neighbours were from Syria, Egypt or Palestine (besides Indians!) and though we wished each other on New Years and Eid, we were not much in contact otherwise. Outings, community get-together at the local club, Eid meet at the Park – every community mostly socialized with its own kind. Though a cosmopolitan city, cohesive nature and intermingling among st the expatriates and natives are…
-
A cold morning
Seek beauty in the finer details.
-
Word-hu(o)b
(The Daily Prompt from Daily Post today is : If you could wake up tomorrow and be fluent in any language you don’t currently speak, which would it be? Why? What’s the first thing you do with your new linguistic skills?) For me, without a doubt, the answer to the above question is ARABIC. A beautiful Semitic language of poets and writers, Arabic literature is vast and rich in information related to culture and history dating to almost 16 centuries. Closely related to Hebrew, Aramaic and Phoenician, Arabic also has influenced many languages of the world including English. It has been a major vehicle of language to Europe, especially in…
-
Weekly Photo Challenge : Object
A broken heart Nearly 13 years ago, my middle school friend gifted to me this key-chain after she came back from a trip. Though broken at the side, battered and bruised by rough use, this travels with me wherever I go. We live in two countries now, still our laughter and gossip hasn’t changed one bit since those school days. There are some friendships I am grateful for. This is one of them. (Prompt titled Object from Daily Post) Linking it to NaBloPoMo
