Here is why you should read

  It has taken me ages to get used to listening to stories than reading it. When I subscribed for Audible, I wasn't sure I would do justice. I haven't regretted it one bit. Audible India has some fantastic enactments part of the listening list. One such was Buri Nazar. Fantastic star cast narration. Usha (Supriya Pathak Kapur) is a typical mummy. Constantly worrying about her daughter Pallavi (Sayani Gupta) who lives in the US of A and is a lecturer at the University. Usha never tires to find suitable grooms for Pallavi, who just wont like anybody and the prospective fellows are either boring or too egoistic or having some flaw or the other. When every prayer to the almighty fails, mothers are convinced that a bad omen has struck the fate of their precious child(ren) and hence things are never falling into place. It wasn't any different with Usha. She was convinced that a dark shadow, a bad omen was ensuring Pallavi's life remained unsettled.  All is taken in good spiri...

  Lot of the books we read give us a picture of their surroundings. The countryside, the blue skies, the long stretch of a road and many more. But, there it is absolutely endearing to read books of a place closer to home. One of the reasons I loved Sujata Massey's books was the Bombay she based her story out of. It brought back wonderful images of my trip to Mumbai many years ago and of course, a lifetime from the storyline.  There is a warmth of a known place. Nowhere else in the world, would there be cows working as traffic controllers. Probably very few places outside our beautiful country, would there be horns blaring, people sitting on road sides and having a garam chai or a getting a shave. There is warmth in the known. That's what is so beautiful in Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. I listened to the dramatized version of the book on Audible and it was an absolute wonderful experience. Amazing cast narration. The play literally happened in front of my mind's eye....

When Byomkesh Bakshi was released in 1993, I was impressed and super influenced. How cool it was to be this dhoti clad detective who could go around solving cases and so easily! I wanted to be him. By the time I finished schooling, I was convinced that I was born to be a Byomkesh! Calcuttans are proud to be who they are - for their culture and language prowess; they are proud about their education system as much as they are proud of their phuchkas and roshogollas. What is difficult to explain is that a bengali is as much a bengali outside Kol as much as they are inside! And then there is this intelligent bengali detective! What more proof did one need to back up the career choice! Much into my undergrad years, when I interned with a famous daily, and had couple of bylines to my name, I had decided I would take up journalism seriously. A newsreader was the ultimate goal. But, when politics and pleasing the colleagues became more important than being a good reporter, I had to choose to n...