The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 There is nothing I love better than a Saturday that I spend doing the things I love best~~~ Reading, Making myself breakfast and just Feeling Cozy and Happy.  Here is what my Saturday looked like:  I've been in a total thriller mood for the last few days.  I've read some 5 thrillers in the last couple of days and really enjoyed most of them.  These two books were read today, as in I finished reading What Waits in the Woods by Terri Parlato earlier today and loved it.  Then I quickly read The Summer House by Keri Beevis; this one was OK. More focussed on a romance angle than the thriller aspect but still enjoyable.  Got some stationery in the mail today.  Some cute things I'll haul soon.  Look how cute this faux Lamy looking pencil is?!!!  Bought purely for aesthetic reasons 🐸  Cute 🐻🐤🦆🐥 as can be.  Bookmark of the moment.  Full of cute cats 🐱 this one is from Bookcharms.  Hope your day has been sweet too 🥮

  Book: Ma is Scared and Other Stories  Author: Anjali Kajal  Translator: Kavita Bhanot  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  How Long it Took me to Read: 2 days  Plot Summary:   An anxious mother waits for her daughter to return from work, while deflecting comments from judgmental neighbours. A chance encounter with an old college friend triggers the memory of a cruel trap once set for a young student, just because of her caste. In the middle of a lecture on the legacies of sexual abuse, a woman feels the weight of a whole lifetime suddenly pressing down on her. The stories in Anjali Kajal’s debut collection draw us into the lives of ordinary women in Northern India, making us realise quite how rarely we witness these experiences from Dalit points of view. Whether combating the caste-based disdain of colleagues at work or in the classroom or enduring the new blows that the pandemic landed on Dalit communities, Anjali’s characters find a resilience and a dignity that we can all

  Book: Won't You Stay, Radhika?  Author: Usha Priyamvada  Translation: Daisy Rockwell  Publisher: Speaking Tiger  Pages: 184  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   After her widowed father marries a younger woman, Radhika’s world falls apart. She feels betrayed—the emotional and intellectual bond that she had forged with him since the early death of her mother breaks with that sudden marriage. To escape the unbearable situation at home—the growing rift between her and her father—Radhika moves to Chicago to pursue her master’s in fine arts. She returns to India two years later, burdened by a sense of alienation and homesickness, only to realize that while nothing had changed in her country, everything had. The family that she had longed to be reunited with barely acknowledges her arrival. The sense of belonging is missing, leaving her in ‘an emotional state of in-between-ness, of universal unbelonging’. As days pass, Radhika is paralysed with ennui, which tinge

  Hope you had a lovely Holi.  I haven't actively played Holi in years.  My Holi consisted of eating yum food and gujiyas. And listening to some classic Holi tunes that the building opposite mine was, blasting 😆 Here are some bits of colour from my life lately.  Bookmarks.  A plethora of markers that I love.  New ebooks.  Ice-Cream Sundaes.  Some new summer clothes.  Plushies and Books.  Art in picture books. ❤

  It's only March but summer is here and how!  The days are hot, yet the nights still feel pleasant.  This tall jar of Gadbad (an icecream sundae) is bringing me so much sukoon.  A book I recently read and loved.  Ma is Scared is collection of stirring short stories about women in North India and what life looks like for them and everything they have to overcome and ignore and survive.  There are also quite a few Dalit perspectives in here which were important and nuanced.  Reading as always has been a constant.  Fruits 🍍🍎🍓🍇 are life.  Seen here some prep for Fruit chaat. 💛  A thing of joy.  Flowers 🌸🌺🌻🌹🌷🌼💐 Adding some Spring vibes to my room. 

  Nothing I appreciate more than Quiet Days full of introspection and solitude ✨🌻✨

 Hello Loves ❤ I have already decorated my pages for the coming week and I love how it's turned out.  I randomly picked a red theme and ran with it. For once I've mostly used stickers from my Ink Bucket sticker book.  Here's a look at the weekly spread.  All red and lovely ❤🌹❤

Hello Loves. Today was just a simple and happy day. I spent most of it with my Planners and Journals. It was quiet.  It was good.  Replenished some stickers and stuff in my planner compendium.  Made some lists and wrote some thoughts down in my journal.  It was a good day. Ordinary but good. 

  Happy Women's Day ♀🌹👩♀🌹👩♀🌹👩  All women, everywhere deserve a life with respect and dignity and safety.  Here's what my day looked like today:  Sti reading this book that I'm enjoying quite a bit.  A spot of rest and relaxation.  Some planner catching up.  Praying to Shivji.  Some cute things.  New pouches for my pens and things.  A simple and good day 💛✨🙏🌿📖🌻💛

 Hello Loves.  Time for a little book haul.  I bought three books and had one book sent to me from the publishers.  So let’s jump in.  A Star Named Bibha and Other Stories by Anwesha Sengupta, Supurna Banerjee and Simantini Mukhopadhyay ~ A beautiful book about some incredible Indian women. Perfect to read during Women’s History Month.  There are gorgeous portraits and I am reading excited to jump into this amazing book.  Visitors to the House by Shashank Gupta, this one is a novel told in five parts and five perspectives. About a family and from the voices of members of the family. I love this sort of thing and I am really excited to read this.  Savitribai Phule by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, another biography about a real hero and a woman we (Indian women) owe so much to. I am soooooo excited to read this soon. Another worthy read for Women’s History Month.  The Earthquakes Late Anti-Stories by Subimal Misra, translated by V. Ramaswamy.  This was sent to me from the publisher Harper  Col

 I am totally into totes. The last 3 years has seen me become low key, well high key obsessed with totes. I also use them pretty much every single day.  I have a Planner Tote which holds all of my Planners and Journals.  Then I have a reading tote, that holds my current reads and some annotating supplies.  And I have a tote for my Laptop and iPad and Kindle. So three totes are always in circulation.  I change up said totes once in a while..like today.  Moved into a new Planner and Reading Tote, so thought I’d share.  This yellow gingham quilted tote is a recent find. It’s from the brand Orla that I got via Amazon.  I love the Springy and happy vibe and I’ve always loved gingham. This is spacious enough to hold all of my planners and journals.  And it has a zip which is great and keeps my things dust free and safe.  I filled it up and everything fits in just perfectly. It was some slip pockets inside that are perfect to store some of my stickers.  Cute. Here she is sitting with my Readi