Hello!
How has your Saturday been so far?
Have you been reading or going out or staying in and binging a TV show?
I have been chilling and reading for most part.
Here is what my Sister and I are reading this weekend.
MY READING//
1. Once Upon A Curfew by Srishti Chaudhary: Set in Delhi during the Emergency this is a love story/ a story about choices. I am very little bit in, like 12 odd pages and I am enjoying it so far. Mostly, I am keen on reading about a period of time I've only ever read about in history and heard anecdotal stories about from family. I am excited to read about a love story play out against this background.
Also, can we take a moment to appreciate this gorgeous cover?!
So pretty.
Plot Summary: It is 1974. Indu has inherited a flat from her grandmother and wants to turn it into a library for women. Her parents think this will keep her suitably occupied till she marries her fiancé, Rajat, who's away studying in London.
But then she meets Rana, a young lawyer with sparkling wit and a heart of gold. He helps set up the library and their days light up with playful banter and the many Rajesh Khanna movies they watch together.When the Emergency is declared, Indu's life turns upside down. Rana finds himself in trouble, while Rajat decides it's time to visit India and settle down. As the Emergency pervades their lives, Indu must decide not only who but what kind of life she will choose.
2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy: I am finally, tentatively reading this book on my Kindle at the moment. I started reading it two nights ago when I couldn't fall asleep and it surprisingly got me hooked. Surprisingly because I am not usually a Arundhati Roy super fan. Unlike a lot of people, I did not quite LOVE The God of Small Things, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it either. So since then I have maintained a little bit of distance from her work, I don't think I've read any of her non-fiction apart from a stray article here and there. So when this came out, what two year ago? I wasn't that excited. But here we are today. I am around 15% in and so far I really like it. I know this one has a whole lot of mixed reviews so we'll see how I get along with it.
But so far so good.
Plot Summary: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on a journey of many years – the story spooling outwards from the cramped neighbourhoods of Old Delhi into the burgeoning new metropolis and beyond, to the Valley of Kashmir and the forests of Central India, where war is peace and peace is war, and where, from time to time, ‘normalcy’ is declared.
Anjum, who used to be Aftab, unrolls a threadbare carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home. A baby appears quite suddenly on a pavement, a little after midnight, in a crib of litter. The enigmatic S. Tilottama is as much of a presence as she is an absence in the lives of the three men who love her.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is at once an aching love story and a decisive remonstration. It is told in a whisper, in a shout, through tears and sometimes with a laugh. Its heroes are people who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, mended by love – and by hope. For this reason, they are as steely as they are fragile, and they never surrender.
MY SISTER'S READING///
Mehboob Murderer by Nupur Anand: My sister read this book today, she started last night but spent most of today finishing it up.
Plot Summary: On a rainy September night, six people are gunned down mercilessly in an old Parsi café in Mumbai. The mass murder at café Mehboob, located barely a few hundred metres from the police station, and Right next to one of the busiest Railway stations in Mumbai, jolts the city out of its complacence. The media immediately swings into action, while political pressure mounts on the police force to nab the mass murderer. With everyone eager to place the blame of the murders on a madman in a bid to have the case dismissed swiftly, the headstrong Inspector Intekhaab Abbas is determined to get to the bottom of the murders. On probing the lives of the victims, he stumbles upon a heady cocktail of love, lust, jealousy, betrayal, rage, longing, misery and ecstasy.
Review: It's fast paced and has a decent number of red herrings.
It was a largely enjoyable read with a nice little twist in the end.
A police procedural in most part, it does a good job of depicting the police and their style of investigation and their personalities in a very realistic way.
An enjoyable read and a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Rating: 3.5/5
My sister's next read is still being pondered over.
:)
Hope you have a lovely weekend folks!
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