Srisays

“Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language. Why are my sides so sore and achy? It’s from crying, I’m told. I did not know that we cry with our muscles. The pain is not surprising, but its physicality is, my tongue unbearably bitter, as though I ate a loathed meal and forgot to clean my teeth, on my chest a heavy, awful weight, and inside …

I was intrigued about Ma Anand Sheela after watching the documentary ” Wild Wild West” on Netflix. I had heard about Osho but never heard about this feisty individual who was instrumental in building the brand of Osho. Osho had moved to West and he was in the process of building a city for his followers called, ” Rajneeshpuram”. Ma Anand Sheela was endowed with this responsibility. She had taken up this project with all her might and she was ready to tackle any hurdle to make this project a success. She said, ‘I was not looking for enlightenment. I was …

Some books leave a lasting impression on your heart and make you yearn for more. This book was such which I never wanted to get over. This collection of 19 short stories is one of the best work of Das. This collection as usual is bold like any other work of Das and spans unflinchingly over themes like communalism, lust, sex, marriage, family, love, relations, et all. All the stories are extremely well researched and strictly conforms to the structure of a short story. The brevity and the tightness of the stories keep you hooked and the climax of each …

What is marriage about? Is it about companionship? Is it about unwavering trust? Is it about a bond like ’till death do us apart’? Is it about respect? Is it about unconditional love? And does it come with an expiration date? All these thoughts rumbled my mind after I finished reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s epistolary novella ” Evidence of the Affair”. One more question which perturbed me was, can a love relationship be stronger than the bonds of marriage ? Rather can it bloom without any expectations and its fragrance reinstate the faith in the purity of love for eternity? …

Can you spend your entire life loving only one person? Can you embark on a journey in seeking this love life long? Novoneel Chakroborty’s latest romantic thriller Roses are Blood Red spun on the premise of unrequited love and pushing the limits to find it. It was my last read of 2019 and closed the year with a bang. Vanav Thakur, the protagonist of the novel is a romantic, responsible and a caring person who never objectifies women. He is everything a girl yearns. Aarisha Shergill is the love of his life but she is in love with his cousin …

The first thing which struck a chord with me is the word ‘Chaos’ in the title. With the world undergoing rapid changes, the dynamics of relationships are also changing. I have been married for 13 years. When I tell the same to my friends or acquaintances, some admire our bond and there are some who raise their eyebrows with the unsaid question in their eyes, “how can you be married to the same man for so long.”. I have witnessed extremely mushy relations where romance takes a back seat under the pressures of daily chores and responsibilities. A lull sets …

Convenience Store Woman is a Japanese novel revolving around a 36 year woman named Keiko who finds solace in her work at a convenience store, much to the chagrin of her family and friends who worry about her. Keiko started working in the convenience store after university, though her family tried to ‘fix’ her up with better job prospects. The convenience store resonates persona while the store becomes her whole life. It is such that she starts mimicking the speech patterns of her colleagues and identifies that as her reality.  Working for 18 years in the store, Keiko settles in …

Have you ever felt low and have you been ridiculed for saying it out loud ? I had lost my mother when I was 7 years old and my father has practically raised my elder brother and me single handedly.  It has been a long journey of loneliness, struggles and sacrifices. After I moved out from Kolkata to Mumbai my father would often tell me about feeling low and sad. Since, I was too busy in my personal and professional life I HARDLY DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT other than being a patient listener. Things were still normal when he was …

Ruskin Bond can never let you down. He tops my chart as my most favourite writer. Tales of Fosterganj is his latest bestseller. Set in a fictional hamlet near Mussoorie, this book reads like you are in a holiday in a bizarre place yet very happy. Bond has once again shown his creative brilliance in creating a host of characters who are quirky in their own supernatural way yet few characteristics lend association with the real world. The story chronicles the adventure of a of writer from Delhi, who while exploring the beauty and serenity of Mussoorie passes through the quaint …

My first acquaintance with Chitra Banerjee Divakurni’s work was through her novel The Spice Mistress.The film had released by the time I had started reading the novel but I opted not to watch the film, as I believe a film adapted from a novel can never entirely capture the essence of a writer’s emotions.Being a Bengali, any story set in Bengal has always fascinated me. The Oleander Girl is aquest of a young Bengali woman and her journey to find her identity. Korobi orphaned at birth, is brought up in  a traditional household by adring over protective grandparents. She spends seventeen years of …