The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

Hello, hello! A new month has rolled around and, like every year, it leaves us wondering, how the heck did we go through 7 months of this year already!? Where is time flying by?!  August is one of my favourite reading months because this is when, for the past several years, I've exclusively been reading books written by Indian (includes the entire subcontinent) authors and also those written about the Indian subcontinent by our diaspora authors.  You can check all my previous reads and recommendations of 'Indian Books in August' by clicking HERE . Some really lovely books have been read and recommended!  Starting off the month by reading a book based in Bengal translated from the original in Bengali- Chronicles of the Lost Daughters by Debarati Mukhopadhyay. The premise sounds lovely and I am very excited to get into it!  Also, did a spot of planning and journaling. A beloved activity that has taken a hit since my left wrist tenosynovitis has gotten worse! Sigh....

 Hello Loves!  2021 is 100 years of Ray. His films.  His writing.  His characters.  Are all so deeply a part and parcel of our collective consciousness especially if, like me, you grew up surrounded by his creations.  A lot of artists have been paying homage to his genius this year and I am so happy to add some of them to my life.  These bookmarks featuring some of Ray's Women are new additions to my Ray paraphernalia.  They are from Debdyuti Creates who has become a new favourite artist.  I love these Women and I love this Art.  Iconic women from Mahanagar, Charulata, Devi and Nayak.  So glad to own a slice of some of my favourite films.  :) 

 Happy Birthday, Satyajit Ray!  Thank you for the films.  For Goopy and Bagha.  For Feluda.  For Topshe.  For the wonderful Jatayu.  For Professor Shankhu.  For bringing some amazing women characters alive in your cinema.  Your genius and creativity has made this world a better place.  And made me so proud to be a Bengali.  Label Maati made these beautiful pieces to commemorate Ray's centennial and I am so glad I got some of  these beautiful pieces to have and cherish forever. Poulomi has really outdone herself. Her work is spectacular in general, but this collection is out of this world.  These beauties are so brilliantly made, light-weight and so wearable.  Plus, look how beautiful this work is!  Look at Goopy and Bagha.  This makes me so happy.  Goopy Gayne Bagha Byne.  The iconic visual from Joy Baba Felunath .  Uff!  These images and his films are such a part of our lives and culture...

 Hello Loves!  & A Shubho Nobo Borsho to You.  Also a Happy Vishu, Ugadi and Gudi Padwa and Baisakhi to everyone. (Albeit belated!) I love this time of year.  All of us have something or the other to celebrate.  New Year.  New Beginnings.  Ramzan.  And we could all do with some joy right about now!  New Year plans are quite sedate this year, which is no surprise.  I mean given how things are...there is no going out or celebrating with people.  I am grateful to be home with the family.  Maa has cooked some delicious food and I'll be making us some dinner.  :)  Now on to what we are reading today.  Well, I have been celebrating Nobo Borsho all month long through my books.  Reading only Bengali Books in April.  Currently I am somehow reading 3 books at once!  Something I never ever do!  Ever!  Here's what I'm Currently Reading:  The Restless Waters of the Icchamati by Bibhutibhushan...

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...

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...

Open roads.  Ashoka trees, home to a lot of birds that come back home every evening.  The ceiling at the Cooch Behar Palace.  Loved the bright shades of blue used in the interiors of the palace.  The Gajoldoba Barrage.  Hello!  This first Monday of the year is rather blue.  I hope the rest of the Mondays in 2020 are brighter and happier. 

Hello!  Today I want to share some sights and scenes from my local Boi Mela,  Boi Melas or Book Fairs are a winter staple in West Bengal. From big cities to small towns, Boi Melas pop up all over. I have always wanted to go to the Book Fair in Kolkata. My cousins have raved about it forever. Sadly, I've never managed make it there during the right time.  I used to be summer visitor in Kolkata.  So I was so happy to find out that my hometown- Jalpaiguri,  also has a Book Fair and this time I was here for it!  Yay!!!  So, on a cold winter evening, Maa, me and my sister walked to the book fair and spent over an hour browsing the many stalls and taking in the scenes and seeing people mulling over books and coming back with bags full of stories.  Most of the books, as expected were in Bengali.  These books were so beautiful. Sadly, I can't read Bengali, so I obviously didn't buy any of those.  People all bundled ...

Hello!  Today I want to share some beautiful things with you guys.  Some recent happy mail that came to me.  I spotted Karubasona on IG and it was love at first sight. Their art was just too cute to pass up. I saw their Tintin in Calcutta series and was smitten and I had to have a little bit of that magic in my life.  So here we are with some absolute beauties I added in my life.  Let's see.. I had to get my favourite lines from my favourite Rabindra Sangeet on either a tote or bookmark.  This was an entirely collaborative effort. I am so happy with how this tote turned out.  We sent a picture from Landour to get the floral pathway and arch and it looks so good.  Plus Tagore's words just make everything good.  Tintin and Snowy .  Like so many others, we grew up with Tintin and his adventures and these stories have had our hearts.  My sister, especially, is a BIG BIG fan of Tintin so we had t...

Hello!  This was one of the prettiest pandals I saw this year during Pujo.  The theme was Chandrayan.  The Moon and and its many moods.  It was blue and beautiful.  It was like stepping inside a dream world.  The moon.  The sleepy moon.  Maa.  :) I can only imagine the work that must have gone into this pandal.  Everything was handmade and gorgeous.