The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello!  This is an odd month to be doing monthly favourites in. I mean, I considered skipping this month altogether but figure even in this not-so-perfect time, there were things and moments that lifted the gloom from my heart.  So here are things that I loved this month.  1. Chai: I am a more dedicated Coffee drinker. But this month I've been drinking and finding a lot of comfort in a well brewed cup of tea. I like mine with ginger and cardamon and with a biscuit to dunk in it. I think it takes me back to my childhood and the comfort of having a little treat now and again.  2. Simple Home Cooked Meals: This quarantine has resulted in a lot of cooking. A lot of simple meals put together and that have resulted in some deliciousness.  In the picture is a roasted pepper and chicken pasta with a cream sauce. This took under half an hour to put together.  3. Kama Ayurveda Rose Jasmine Face Cleanser: My skin has been a hot mess since January, most

Hello!  How are we doing today?  I hope you are safe and sane and keeping yourself happy inspite of this lockdown and the gloom and doom.  Today I want to do what I do best..Talk about BOOKS!  So without much prelude let's just jump into some book recommendations shall we?  Here are 21 incredible books you could read during this lockdown.  I have books from multiple genres and I think there is a little something for everyone on this list. 1. Feluda Vol. I and II by Satyajit Ray: Brilliant short stories featuring a sleuth who solves crimes with his trusty companions Topshe and Jatayu by his side. These stories are comforting, fun, action filled and full of Ray's genius. Great for kids and honestly great for you too. These two volumes on their own are perfect to keep you occupied for 21 days and then some. Also anything else by Ray is a wonderful idea. His short stories and his sci-fi and ghost stories are some of my favourites.  2. Milk Teeth by Amr

Hello!  How are you?  Really, how are you?  We find ourselves in this strange time, this period of uncertainty and fear and I know its hard on all us. Some more than others. But all of us are feeling this wave of anxiety and stress and that is totally normal. I know I've been feeling pretty numb these past few days.  21 days in a long time.  A long time to be home and doing everything by ourselves.  Some of us have never been in for so long. EVER.  And some of us find ourselves doing home chores and cooking for the first time ever...I see people freaking out on my FB and basically nearly dying from ghar ka kaam.  I feel ya!  So I thought, I'd share some tips and trick to make these 21 days a little bit more bearable.  I wanted to share some tips on chores and doing your own household work, I don't know if I've ever talked about it in detail but for nearly 2 years, 2016-2018, my sister and I were without a domestic helper and did everything on our

Hello, hello! I hope all of you are doing well and staying home as much as possible. Tomorrow, March 22nd, has been declared as ' Janta Curfew' (People's Curfew) by our Prime Minister, where we've been urged to stay home between 7 am to 9 pm. I know a lot of us are feeling stir-crazy already, so, I thought I'd share some web series and movies that you can watch/ binge on tomorrow to make the self-imposed curfew easier. Asur: Voot Select's new web series is a contest of wits and will between a deadly serial killer and two CBI Forensic Officers. This mysterious serial killer is on a spree and, for some reason, he is taunting two of CBI's top forensic officers. The series is a mix of mythology and science and is quite interesting. We're still in the process of watching it and are very hooked! Little Fires Everywhere: If you've read the book or not, this is a series that explores complex family dynamics, different styles of mothering and just

Book:  Jwala Kumar and The Gift of Fire Author:  Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar Illustrator: Krishna Bala Shenoi Publisher: Talking Cub Pages: 128 Read On: Paperback Edition How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day Plot Summary:   Is Jwala Kumar a bird? A bat? A chameleon? Or is he something no one has ever seen before? And did he really just fall out of the sky into Champakbagh? Mohan Chandar lives with his wife and three children in the tiny and remote village of Champakbagh. One day, he rescues a strange creature from the storm that is raging outside. When he brings the creature home, the family is astonished. What sort of animal is this? Is he friendly? What does he eat? Where will he sleep? They name him Jwala Kumar, and as the days go by, they discover that Jwala Kumar is no ordinary animal. He has special powers that he uses to help his human family in their times of need. When the days are dark and hope seems to dim, Jwala Kumar lights up their lives in many ways. But

Book: Suralakshmi Villa  Author: Aruna Chakravarti  Pages: 313 Read: Hardcover copy pictured above  Read in: 3-4 hours  Plot Summary:  Suralakshmi Choudhury, a gynaecologist based in Delhi, falls in love at the age of thirty-one, marries and has a son. Suddenly, five years after his birth, she abandons everything including the house gifted to her by her father and her flourishing medical career, to travel to an obscure village in Bengal and open a free clinic for women and children.  She leaves her son behind but takes along a poor Muslim girl, she has adopted. What makes her take this strange decision? Suralakshmi’s actions confound her relatives and it is from their accounts of the incidents, letters, memoirs, and flashbacks – from a more distant past – that the story comes together and the layers and nuances in the enigmatic character of Suralakshmi are brought to light.  In Suralakshmi Villa , Aruna Chakravarti blends the narrative of the novel

Book: Good Talk Author: Mira Jacob Publisher: Bloomsbury Pages: 368 Read On: Hardback Edition How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day Plot Summary:  Does Donald Trump hate Muslims?' ' Is that how people really walk on the moon?' 'Is it bad to be brown?' 'Are white people afraid of brown people?' Inspired by her viral  BuzzFeed  piece '37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son', Mira Jacob responds to: her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and increasingly fraught exchanges with her Trump-supporting in-laws. Jacob also investigates her own past, including how it felt to be a brown-skinned New Yorker on 9/11. As earnest and moving as they are laugh-out-loud funny, these are the stories that have shaped one life, but will resonate with many others.

Hey everyone! Wanted to quickly share some lovely art jewellery that we bought from Zola . Zola is a store that uses traditional Indian art forms such as Dokra, Patchitra, Bommalata, Bidri etc. and transforms them into beautiful wearable art. Here's what we got... A quick overview of all the loveliness. It came in this really pretty box, which we plan to re-use to store our stamps or other stationery bits.  Let's start with my utter favourites and something that I've wanted for so long- the Bommalata earrings! Bommalata work is hand-painted art on thin leather. Look at these beauties!  How cute are these fish?! The same art work can be seen on both sides and so, if a strong breeze turns your earrings around, you can see the same art on both sides.  These chubby pink birds are also absolutely adorable!  Next, these Dokra bangles are just so gorgeous! Perfect to pair with other metal or thread bangles!  Last, but no

Hello!  I hope all of you are doing fine and are safe and taking every precaution in the world to protect yourself from this blasted Corona Virus.  Don't Touch Your Face...which is generally such good advice if you want to keep pimples and acne at bay. Wash your hands.  And most importantly stay in if you feel poorly.  Also, stay in, just in case.  If you can avoid stepping out, just don't. Hunker down. Why take the risk?  Now I know it's easier for some of us (Hello fellow Introverts!) to stay in and ride this shit out as compared to those who thrive on being social and being out and feel stir crazy being stuck at home.  I get it...well..I can empathise, so these are 10 things you can do if you have to be stuck at home.  I promise the staying in lifestyle is so fun, a different kind of fun than one you are perhaps used to but still FUN!  So many of us LOVE it.  Seriously, give a shot.  Who knows maybe even once this social distancing is over

Hello!  For today's edition of Friday Favourites I want to share all of my most loved Women Writers.  I've been reading only Female Writers all of this month for #femmemarch and honestly I could do it all year round. Not to say that stories that come from men are not worthy, of course not. But there is something about women telling stories, especially character driven and stories about our lives that just shine so much more.  OK, so here are my favourite Women Writers.  1. Agatha Christie . All hail the Queen of Crime.  2. Jane Austen. My first love.  3. JK Rowling . I will forever be grateful for the magic of Harry Potter and in awe of her genius.  4. Jhumpa Lahiri. Her words just warm my very soul.  5. Enid Blyton . The beginning of my reading journey starts with her.  6. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Her books are familiar and make me homesick for Bengal.  7. Shashi Deshpande . Melancholic and moving and quietly brilliant.  8.

Hello!  Today was a perfectly ordinary day.  A day that will probably blend into a million others just like it.  I will probably not even remember 10 or 20 years from now.  But.. Today was ordinary and happy and quiet in a million little ways.  There was early morning light.  Reading a good book.  Finishing said good book.  2 cups of coffee. Nachos.  Homemade jam.  New pillows! (I can't wait to sleep tonight.)  Lebu cha.  & A dinner cooked over laughs and smiles.  We've made Chicken Stroganoff and Basil Rice and an Omelette with onion, tomatoes and mushrooms.  A little feast.  I am writing this post as the meal waits for us.  A slow, sweet and happy day.  The kind of day that I wish for on most days.  The BIG days, the monumental ones are good. Of course they are.  But there is something entirely magical about the little joys of a day well spent.  Here are some pictures...  Wore my fluffy slippers for the first ti

Book: The Inheritors Author: Aruna Chakravarti Pages: 340 Read: Paperback edition pictured above Read in: 4-5 hours Plot Summary: " There's insanity in our family, It runs in our blood—the blood of the Vaidic Brahmins, one or two of us go mad in every generation."  From the ritual-bound household of an orthodox scholar in a small village in Bengal in 1897 to Germany and Mumbai at the turn of the new millennium, The Inheritors follows the shifting life patterns of a family through a melange of narratives, memories and characters.  The unrelenting puritanism of Nyayaratna Bishnupada Deb Sharma drives his daughter Radharani to insanity and throws into sharp relief his grandson Shibkali's feeble attempt to break free.  Giribala voices her resentment against her circumstances through a lifetime of silence, her destiny finding an echo in her daughter Alo, tragic victim of her husband's sexual perversions. And Pramatha's depraved radicalism is se