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  Ibenbatuta was actually a Moroccan explorer. Someone with wheels on his feet. A wanderer. A nomad. He loved to travel, meet new people, gain new experiences. He did not believe in staying in one place; there was so much to see, know and experience. What is Ibnebatuti got to do with this story? This is a simple story of Shalu Awasthi, who was once a 20 year old girl, studying at Hindu College, doing street shows and enjoying her theatre group, traveling through streets, villages and cities. She was someone who could not remain idle. She was fondly called Ibnebatuti by Alok. Shalu was no longer the wanderer. She now had a government job and had single handedly brought up her son, Raghav. Raghav was on the verge of leaving to University in the US. As he prepared for his departure, Shalu falls ill and Raghav is plagued by fear of his mother's loneliness and how she would manage all by herself in the city of Lucknow. Ibnebatuti is a simple story of mother and son. Their relationship. ...

  "If reincarnation does infact exist, can I please make a special request to come back as Julia Roberts?"  Then I chanced upon the Whatsapp forward: In my next life, I am coming back with money and looks instead of all this sparkling personality bullshit!" It is mid week when I started this review in my notes. I wanted to track all the times I guffawed! Because Mummy said so... is a statement that most mothers have used on their little and not so little ones. The childhood disasters of her children, have made Shari Low a hilarious mom. Moms don't become bitter...we become comedy queens. Sometimes I say a few things to my not so little man, and he says, mom, you're joking! Do you think you're funny!?! I have proof that our comic sense increases as we get older! I can't tell you the fright I got of my life when my son slipped from the stationary bike and landed himself on the corner of my low sofa. He held his eye & forehead and cried for precious minu...

  Mother. A word. A relationship. A pedestal. What is it? Mothers are, most of the times, always responsible for everything. Everything not so good. Nobody sees the good. Because thats just a given. It has to be good. There are no two ways about it. 'What was mine' is a story that hit so many chords in my heart. I wasn't sure who to support. I didn't want to support anyone. I felt deeply for both. Just because of one small mistake, do mothers stop being mothers? Just because of one small slip, do they stop loving their children or love their children lesser? Can one mistake be forgiven? Is one mistake so capable of changing lives? Do mothers get replaced because of mistakes or misgivings? Two mothers. Two women who had lost which left their lives shattered and irreparable. Lucy n her husband had great careers. They had a good life going. But what was not going right or in the direction they wanted was their plans of becoming parents. Many lost pregnancies. Someone had t...

  The good thing of having a subscription like Scribd is that you can listen to umpteen snippets of audio books and then decide which one sounds good enough to your ears. I can't hold my attention with audio books, but then comes along a good one that I finish in about 3 days flat! The Unhoneymooners can be turned into a good Bollywood movie! It's hilarious. Just a good amount of romance. It has a fun plot! Amy and Olive are twins. Amy has always been the lucky one. At everything. She wins all the lotteries or games or tickets, name it and she has won it. She has even won honeymoon tickets to Maui! Which she ends up not going as she and half the wedding party falls ill over the wedding dinner buffet. So, does this opportunity go waste? Obviously not! Amy convinces Olive to go on that holiday along with her brother in law, Ethan. Now, Ethan and Olive don't get along too well. But, what nobody can do, a travel or holiday surely can! Does hate turn into love? Does Olive sudden...

  Lately, we seem to be in a time warp. We are stuck in the now, we have nothing much to look forward to and we are constantly upset that our lives are at a standstill. When we wake up the next day, we are at it again. We are stuck doing the same things, we are just moving from one room to another, have the same set of doubts and inhibitions and are constantly upset and annoyed about the circumstances we are stuck in. We wish we could change it. But, in vain. How many times we have asked ourselves and the Universe, what is it that would make us happy? Or give us an idea of what our choices should be to make up happy? Just imagine if the world was giving you chances to re-live your day or time frame all over again to correct the situation until you achieved what you wanted! Would you like it that way? Would it not get tiring and frustrating? Would you live through your time loop every now and then to correct your life and move on? Well, that pretty much sums up what In a Holidaze by...

  My museum studies have influenced me positively to be a little more curious of the 1940s. What could have been the state of affairs world wide? What did people feel, do, see, or think? On the tours that I guide, I move from one Gallery to the next saying, the 1940s were troublesome years. While the world was dealing with war at the far end of the Universe, Indians were also fighting for freedom. The CCC talks of close knit families cooking and sharing recipes with each other. What a sweet concept. As a child, I grew up in one such Bangalore neighborhood and this cooking club revived faint memories. This book was obviously a natural choice. It is epistolary in nature. I like this format of writing. They make for quick chapters and quick enough action. It is a super simple book and the inspiration behind it, noteworthy. If a new reader needed a suggestion, this would be a good choice - it's short, sweet and entertaining enough. Saying that, I took so many days to finish it. Travel ...

  Like many of Nadia Hashimi's books, this story also is based out of Afghanistan. Nadia has this fantastic way of praising...sorry that is in an incorrect word, not praising, it's holding women up in high esteem through her storytelling that touches my heart like no other.  Zeba has killed her husband Kamaal, with a hatchet. His blood on her hands. She sits by his body numb and shocked. Maybe even some relief. She refuses to get away from the crie scene. She does nothing to hide what she has done. She does not flee knowing that with the death of her husband, her death was written too. She does not fight with anyone about the truth. She does not want to give any explanation of her deed. She did what she thought was right and fair in her eyes. A man could do just about anything and yet be forgiven but a woman taking matters in her hand needed to be condemned. All she wanted was her children to love and respect her and know that whatever she did, was purely in their interest....

  An emotional book. A book that we will all relate to. A book that stirs the right emotions. It makes us think and be thankful of our situation. The language is almost poetic. Beautiful words.  Very quickly the books moves from the present scene in the preface to the past in the first part of the book, spoken by one person - Fereiba. Half the book is about Fereiba's life and the other half is more the story of her son, Saleem, but also accounts of a mother-son relationship, partnership. Fereiba has a tough childhood. Her mother died giving birth to her and old wives' tales say that a child that has killed the mother is an unlucky one. Unlucky she was. Fereiba was kept away from love and affection. Her father too busy making a living on the orchard they inherited and her step mother giving her the step daughterly treatment. Fereiba's step mom, KokoGul is a mix of good and lukewarm- good for her own children and lukewarm towards Fereiba. But, when a child is desperately seek...

  The perennial joke of how to spread a secret or rumour is: Tel(-)egram Tel(-)ephone Tell(-) a woman And yet, the women codebreakers of Bletchley Park (BP)maintained their secrecy for life. Some jeopardized their relationships to honour the Official Secrets Act. Some code breakers were sent to mental asylums were they were silenced through brain surgeries to stop them from revealing anything that may have happened at BP. Rose Code is just not the story of women codebreakers. It was also a little bit about men who chose to work at BP but got ostracized for not joining the actual battle field and they never got to tell anyone of their contribution. Rose Code is a story where ordinary women found purpose. Women who were considered slow learners or just plain stupid, were decoding highly classified information. Working at BP brought about a sense of equality. Men and women worked alongside and maintained a silence that even the direst of circumstances could not change. Kate Quinn, in ...

  I grew up in the 90s and life was so, so beautiful and simple back in the day! Im sounding 80! But, it is true! My grandmother got me interested in embroidery and knitting and free hand drawing in the summer vacations. Going out was not really an option and getting bored meant that we had to choose between doing something more constructive or just get back to studying! Now who wanted to study again!?! So  choosing a hobby it was. I took to crochet more than any other form of creativity but I was like this jack of all trades. In recent times, when time fell onto my lap and I took up reading with a vengeance, I also started feeling this deep urge to do some embroidery. Go back to learning and learning has no age.  This book is a good insight to the different things you can do with your embroidery skills. It is a wonderful artist's coffee table book. It does give you some pointers of where you can embroider, but I wish it gave me a little more detail. In comparison, there ...