The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  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 re...

  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 💛✨🙏🌿📖🌻💛

  Book: The Gallery  Author: Manju Kapur  Pages: 336  Publisher: Penguin India  How Long it Took Me To Read: 4 days  Plot Summary:   THE GALLERY  pursues the question of what it takes for a woman to stand up for herself, through the intertwined lives of Minal and Ellora Sahni, wife and daughter of a successful New Delhi lawyer, and Maitrye and Tashi, wife and daughter of the office peon at the Sahni law practice. In her new novel, Manju Kapur brings together themes of independence, identity and womanhood by focusing on a set of principal characters who are connected through work and physical proximity, yet separated by class and power. As the women navigate their own desires, they are forced to re-examine marriage, as well as to consider the role of art as property, value and self-expression. The titular gallery that Minal opens becomes a powerful symbol of both autonomy and constraint. Set in Delhi and Nepal,  The Gallery  surveys t...

What I am Reading This Weekend:  I bought Manju Kapur's latest book last month, and saved it for January and here we are. I've read most of her books and have enjoyed a majority of them.  So I have high hopes that this will be a winner too.  I am only a little bit in and so far in, it's to ticking all of the boxes. So well-written, sharp and full of astute observations.  This is the first page and a pretty good sample of her writing style.  It's about an older woman, looking back on her life. A pretty unconventional one at that, she wanted to stay single and live life on her own terms.  But the pressures of family and society make her succumb to an arranged marriage...one that she decided on herself. It's about identity, independence, loneliness, love and art.  I am so excited and happy to be reading this.  What My Sister is Reading This Week:  My sister has been on a romance kick since November and it's still going strong. She is finding a l...

  There is no greater joy in my life than my love for my beloved books.  ✨✨✨✨✨✨ This corner full of books makes me happy, even on sad sucky days.  I snapped these pictures earlier this year on my camera and my book stacks look a little different now.  Reminds me to click a new batch of pictures. 

  Hello Loves!  Can you even believe November is here?  November always feels like it's time to wind down and rest and get ready for the slower and brighter months of the year. We prepare for Diwali and get our homes in order and then celebrate the festival of lights.  I am always happy when November rolls around. It's always a month for joy and love. It's my sister's birthday and we try to do little things we enjoy all month long.  Eat good food.  Go to her favourite places.  Watch her favourite films.  Read some good books.  I am so happy November is here again.  This November I am participating in NaNoWriMo. Which is a month long writing challenge, the goal is to write a novel in a month. Now it could be something you are already working on or it could be an entirely new thing. I do have some half-written projects that I could work on but I am choosing to focus something new and flesh out and work on an idea that I've had since 2021. ...

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Indians!  Here's hoping we continue to enshrine the principles on which our Republic was founded and continue to appreciate our diversity!  Sharing a list of recent Indian books that are absolute 5-star reads! Each of these is highly recommended.    1. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is an absolute must-read. Easily the best book we've read in years! Full review here .  2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy is a very relevant book to read about the lives of various characters in present-day India. Highly recommend!  3. Villainy by Upamanyu Chatterjee has been fully reviewed here and is a must-read!  4. The Blind Matriarch by Namita Gokhale is set during the early months of the pandemic in 2020 and is a wonderful, immersive read. Full review can be found here . 5. The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar is a story of a mother-daughter duo and the trials and tribulations faced by them. A ...

 Hello, hello, We are almost halfway down August! Where is the time flying? For us, Indians, the mid-point of August is extra special because it marks our Independence Day. A day that millions of our countrymen and women died for. A day that makes us teary eyed and so proud of how far we have come and have determination and hope for the future.  In the spirit of our Independence Day (and month), I always read only Indian Books in August. This is something I have been doing for a few years now and if you scroll down and check on the tags, you can find hundreds of wonderful books written by Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi authors. I include all subcontinental authors as part of the books this month because the struggle for Independence was a collective one and all three countries will forever be linked by our common struggle and heritage.  This month, as usual, I have been reading some wonderful books written by and based in India and the subcontinent and so, I thought I...

  Book: The Mistress of Bhatia House Author: Sujata Massey  Pages: 420 Read: The paperback edition pictured above Read in: ~5 hours  Plot Summary:  Bombay, 1920s. At a lavish fundraiser party for the launch of a new women’s hospital, the grandson of Lord Bhatia, an influential aristocrat, is badly burned in an accident—but a young servant, Sunanda, rushes to save him. Instead of being lauded as a hero, Sunanda is dismissed from the household, and simultaneously, suspiciously charged with “child murder”—also known as abortion. Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female solicitor, cannot stand by while this heroine is mistreated and takes her on as a client. Perveen goes as far as inviting Sunanda to live with the Mistrys, as Sunanda’s family has put her out of the house in shame at her supposed crime. The Mistry home is full of tension, as Perveen’s sister-in-law, who has just given birth, is struggling with new motherhood, and Perveen’s father is less than happy to have a ...

Book: The Covenant of Water  Author: Abraham Verghese  Pages: 736  Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~8-9 hours, over two days  Plot Summary:  Spanning the years 1900 to 1977,  The Covenant of Water  follows a family in southern India that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning - and in Kerala, water is everywhere.  At the turn of the century a twelve-year-old girl, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this poignant beginning, the young girl and future matriarch - known as Big Ammachi - will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life, full of the joys and trials of love and the struggles of hardship. A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself,  The Covenant of Water  is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human unde...

  Book: Terminal 3  Author & Illustrator: Debasmita Dasgupta  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 110 How Long it Took Me To Read: Under an Hour Plot Summary:   It's August 2019 and Khwab Nazir is waiting to board the plane at Terminal 3 of New Delhi International Airport. Set to represent India at an international jiu-jitsu tournament, Khwab nervously looks towards her unknown future. She also reflects on her complicated past-of growing up against the insurmountable difficulties of life in Kashmir. Between happiness and emptiness, desire and grief, penance and peace, Khwab has endured. She has a dream that life will be a paradise, one day. Breathing against the backdrop of conflict, Terminal 3, is the story of the everyday people striving to live their dreams in the Valley. Things I Liked:  1. This is a story we really need to hear and hear more of. People living in difficult situations and somehow holding on to hope and dreams and working on turning...

  Book: The Blind Matriarch  Author: Namita Gokhale  Publisher: Penguin India  Pages: 208  Read On: Hardback Edition  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days (with many breaks)  Review: In the time between me buying this book and finally getting around to reading it, I had sort of forgotten what this book was exactly about (major bookish problems!). So I went into this pretty blind (pun not intended at all). And it took me by surprise. I found myself back in time. A time we have all lived through and survived and dealt with in our own ways. The Pandemic.  2020.  Honestly, even reading that gets my heart going.  It's some kind of PTSD to even think about the days of stress, checking yourself for symptoms and washing everything in sight and disinfecting within an inch of your life.  God, I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for making it through those days.  Of course, those of us who were lucky to make it through and...

  Book: The Girl in the Glass Case Author: Devashish Sardana  Pages: 344 Read: The paperback pictured above  Read in: ~3.5 hours  Plot Summary:  Simone Singh is a feisty IPS officer who would rather spend her days locking up criminals than apologizing for her lack of social skills. Freshly back from an unjust suspension, Simone is forced to team up with DSP Zoya Bharucha, an empathetic officer who's as loved in the police force as Simone is shunned.   Tasked with hunting the  Doll Maker -who dresses up her victims as pretty Barbie dolls and displays them in glass cases-both must set aside their differences and work together as one team. But Simone and Zoya know that time is running out to piece together the clues as the Doll Maker has made it clear that she has just begun.  Things I Liked:  1. This book had an interesting premise- two active serial killers in a small town (Bhopal), who have left the local cops overwhelmed. What is not to like...

  Book: Now You See Us Author: Balli Kaur Jaswal  Pages: 320  Read on: Kindle Read in: 4 hours  Plot Summary:  Corazon, Donita, and Angel are Filipina domestic workers—part of the wave of women sent to Singapore to be cleaners, maids, and caregivers. Corazon:  A veteran domestic worker, Cora had retired back to the Philippines for good, but she has returned to Singapore under mysterious circumstances. Now she’s keeping a secret from her wealthy employer, who is planning an extravagant wedding for her socialite daughter. Donita:  Barely out of her teens, this is Donita’s first time in Singapore, and she’s had the bad luck to be hired by the notoriously fussy Mrs. Fann. Brazen and exuberant, Donita’s thrown herself into a love affair with an Indian migrant worker. Angel:  Working as an in-home caregiver for an elderly employer, Angel is feeling blue after a recent breakup with the woman she loves. She’s alarmed when her employer’s son suddenly ...