Book Review : Monkeys on a Fast

Crossposted on : Saffron Tree

Author : Kaushik Vishwanathan
Illustrator : Shilpa Ranade
Publisher : Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd.
Karadi Tales (Will you read with me?)

In the current times of craze for getting a size zero figure and 6/8/10 packs, how can the ancestors of human race be behind? A story on - what happens when a tribe of monkeys think of fasting for a day and then regularly thereafter to lose some excess fat?

A worried monkey chief - Chakrapani (Chakku) is in deep thought trying to find some ways to keep his tribe from eating anything and everything all the time. While pondering over this problem he finds a solution when he hears a temple priest telling the devotees about the “Ekadasi” (eleventh day of the waxing moon) and the benefits of observing a fast that day. Chakku finds it a wonderful idea for the monkeys too. But now he has a difficult task in hand - how to convince the monkeys to abstain from food and worse still from their favourite bananas for a whole day!!! Puzzled monkeys ask questions like - does Ekadasi mean - eka dosa? Eka dasi? Eating one dosa the whole day?

After a long counseling session (loved the tactic the chief uses to convince them - if humans can do it, can't we???), the monkeys finally go on a fast and try to meditate with their minds focused on bananas all the time.

Two little naughty monkeys Bonnet and Macaque keep giving great ideas to the chief Chakku and the whole meditating tribe - how to make it a little easier for all to continue with the fast. But do their ideas help the monkeys to carry on with their fast or do they all give up? You have to read the book to find it. But they come up with really great ideas, this much I can tell.

The zany illustrations by Shilpa Ranade are perfect to accentuate the effect of the whole story.

This book comes with a CD and Sanjay Dutt is narrating the story and has done full justice to the story. The title music is by - Shankar Ehsaan Loy, the songs are really good and I find myself humming them often, not just Raghav and Medha.

On a personal note, I remember when I was very small, our whole family used to observe(we all still do it) a fast every year - last day of the Navratri. During that day we could eat some specific things only - chapati made out of kuttu flour, special kind of rice, potatoes in any form, fruits, nuts etc. but not regular rice, wheat flour and vegetables. But this much I still remember that the whole day we used to just think about food and nothing else and we were always asking our mother - Can we eat this? Can't we eat this? I guess on those "Fasting days" we ate way more than what we ate on regular days.

Similarly in this story we see how monkeys face the challenge of imposing self-restraint.

{Image source : Amar Chitra Katha}

Book Review : Mikey Series

Title : Mikey series

Authors : Amal & santa Simothy, Hitul & Seema Thobani

Illustrator : Anca Delia and Budeanu

Publisher : Kidz4mation

This review written for BookPleasures

Animal stories - a sure way to reach a child's heart. Children just love animal stories and if they are laced with some morals, parents and teachers love them even more.

Kidz4formation has published a series of animal stories each conveying a different life lesson. Stories revolve around Mikey - a little monkey in Happyland. Mikey and his friends study, play and learn indispensable life skills as they are growing up. Tiggle tree is Mikey's confidant and a significant part of Mikey and his friends' adventures. Sometimes Pari - the peacock and Mikey's dear friend Genie help make the learning part easier for Mikey and his friends.

Mikey Takes a Moment (ISBN 978-0-9563260-4-1) - In the current times when parents and teachers are struggling to harness the hyperactivity among children , a simple meditation technique is presented to calm them down a little.

Mikey Says 'I can do it' (ISBN 978-0-9563260-2-7) - Mikey learns how to overcome the mental block to reach higher goal which he thought could never be possible.

Mikey Aces His Test (ISBN 978-0-9563260-3-4) - Mikey discovers the advantage of keeping the energy focused on thinking positive rather than wasting it in worrying about the negative outcomes.

Chik-Chik's cap (ISBN 978-0-9563260-5-8) - A story of how Chik Chik gets comfortable with her not so perfect appearance in an imperfect world. A great skill- to accept things as they are and not letting the self-esteem get affected by anything.

Tiggle Takes Off (ISBN 978-0-9563260-1-0)- Gratitude - an important skill to learn and acquire. Mikey and his friends always play on Tiggle tree but never convey their gratitude to the tree. What trick the Tree uses to make Mikey realise his folly?

Mikey helps Toot-Toot -

The authors have come up with an original concept to teach a different developmental value through separate stories and books. The skills that the parents/teachers want to impart to children/students - Positive thinking, gratitude, raising self-esteem, calming down a little, positive affirmation, self-belief. The footnotes for children and parents/teachers are very valuable and reinforce the lesson learnt from the story.

A few observations:
1. Positive thinking and positive affirmation could have been clubbed together. Telling the children different fancy names of moral values is not the goal rather making them understand these values is the focus.

2. Including "Mikey" in all the titles could have helped in maintaining the continuity in the series - easy for the children to remember and follow the character.

3. Separate placements of text and illustrations (instead of superimposing text on illustrations) help in avoiding the clutter on the pages. For 3 to 5 years children, the text could be a little less. But for 4 to 8 years children, text length is fine but nothing beats - text neatly printed on a plain background.

4. The books get a little too preachy for little children. It starts with a small story and then goes on to tell them what to do and what not to do. The books which have a lasting impression on little children are the ones where the storyline is really interesting and a subtle message is conveyed though the story. Preaching in the raw form seldom stays for longer time.

Concept is good but in children's books the handling and presentation make all the difference. These days there is a deluge of books in this space and the challenge for the writers of children's books is how to present the concept in a unique way to children as well as to their caregivers. With so many other interesting options already available, these set of books have to be a little more prepared for the challenge of making a lasting impression on young minds.

Book Review : Nine Lives (In Search of the Sacred in Modern India)

Author : William Dalrymple

Image source: Amazon

If you Believe it, it is God, otherwise it’s just a rock.

Nine lives - nine stories of faith and reliance. William Dalrymple is one of the greatest story tellers and travel writers of his generation. After having explored India for twenty-five years, he has wonderfully compiled extraordinary stories of nine individuals who are following different paths of faith in response to the spiritual calling and have deep conviction in what they follow. For people who have seen only the mainstream lifestyles it is very hard to imagine even the existence of such lives.

Other than India, nowhere else in the world, there is so much diversity in almost anything and everything ranging from the religions, languages, lifestyles, eating habits, dressing sense to almost every aspect of life.

A Jain nun trying hard to come out of the shackles of attachment. The attachment that she feels for her friend nun, who starved herself to death (as a part of final renouncement). Now she is on an apparently very difficult path of being a Sallekhana herself - which starts by first giving up home, then possessions and finally the body itself.

A prison warden, who feels proud to be a Thyyam dancer for two months in a year and keeps looking forward to these two months the rest of the year. During those Thyyam dance performances people take him to be an incarnate of deity and worship him.

The daughters of Goddess Yellamma called Devdasis who think it is destined for them to be a temple prostitute. A life story of one such Devdasi who was forcibly pushed into this profession but now she is doing the same to her daughters as she feels it is the call of their sacred faith.

A Tibetan Buddist monk, who very early in his life saw the true purpose of his life and left everything behind to follow his faith. During the period of Chinese invasion in Tibet, he takes up arms inspite of the non-violence preached by Buddha and now while still in exile in India, he is trying to atone for the sins that he had to commit to save his homeland. Still praying and hoping that he breathes his last in his free homeland.

A woman after having left her family in Calcutta in search of the divine goddess – Tara, now lives as a Tantric in a remote cremation ground. She finds the love and satisfaction of her life in one of the most unexpected places of all.

All unique stories and detailed account of the lives of these individuals, starting from their early years and how they all decided to take up these unconventional paths have been presented by Dalrymple for the readers to enjoy. He very rightly points out that even though majority of parts of India are aggressively running forward in every field keeping pace with the rest of the world but some parts are still deceptively innocent and timeless.

The travel writings hold the attention of the readers only if they are treated with great enthusiasm by the writer so that readers feel like travelling to that part of the world and experiencing the same joy. I think William Dalrymple has successfully executed this part. I am sure in 25years that he spent travelling around and exploring India, he must have come across a lot more than what has been compiled in the book so he must be appreciated for the filtering that he did to bring the best for the readers.

Inclusion of some pictures of the regions of India from where he has selected the nine lives would have been an icing on the cake, as is rightly said - a picture speaks a thousand words.

Book Review : The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me

Crossposted on : Saffron Tree

Title : The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me
Author : Roald Dahl
Age : 4 to 8 yrs
Image source : Amazon

Has anybody ever imagined what would animals do to earn their living if they happen to come to human world where everything comes with a price tag? How can they use their uniqueness to their benefit ? This story deals with one such case.

The story starts with a small boy Billy longingly looking at an old grubber (sweet-shop) building because he had this cherished dream of owning a unique sweet shop which could house all kinds exotic sweets sourced from different parts of the world. But unfortunately the building gets sold to a new company - Ladderless Window Cleaning Company.

Curious Billy keeps looking at the building when he meets the owners of the new company. A self sufficient trio - a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey coming together to form a window cleaning company, who neither need any ladder to reach any heights nor any buckets to do their job. Quite an innovative method of cleaning windows. They invite Billy to be their business manager.

They are approached by Duke of Hampshire - the richest person in England to get the 677 window glasses of his huge palace cleaned. That was a big project for this new company and they manage to make an impression on the Duke with their display of cleaning feat and also by saving Duke's diamonds worth millions and millions of dollars. How? You have to read it to know how.

The duke is very impressed by how the work is done so efficiently and with minimum paraphernalia. And in return what they all get is unimaginable for them, even for Billy.

Truly, a wonderful piece of imagination. Very funny and exciting and the bonus is getting to know about some peculiar features of these animals. Roald Dahl is one of the famous story tellers of all times and true to his fame, he has weaved a wonderful and interesting story to grip the attention of children from one page to another.

Book Review: Under The Tuscan Sun : At home in Italy

Author: Frances Mayes

Image courtesy : Amazon

Frances Mayes is a well known travel and food writer and a widely published poet. She takes us through her journey to a wonderful new world, thousands of miles away from her home in California. After coming out of a divorce, she buys an abandoned old villa - Bramasole (meaning - to yearn for sun), in picturesque Tuscan countryside by stretching her financial limits too much to pay for that. She then toils with her new partner to restore and renovate the villa to fit their specifications and likings. The arduous process of restoration of the dilapidated villa and then enjoying the art of performing simple tasks like - buying the fresh produce, gardening and cooking make us feel a part of the narrative itself. She validly points out the prominent difference between the American and Italian culture how Americans follow the idea of burning the bridges after they cross it whereas the Italians like to cross and recross the bridges making present and past coexist. The descriptions are so life like that while reading, we actually see those brilliant colours appearing on the sky the way she watches them from the terrace of her villa and smell those unique fragrances of olives and herbs that she grows in her kitchen garden. She very passionately and vividly writes about the tastes and flavours of Itlay. As it becomes a part of their annual routine to spend the summer months in their new acquired villa, during these months she gets all the time to try her culinary skills using all natural and easily available ingredients for wonderful preparations.

Getting recipes of some Italian dishes in the book is an added bonus for the readers.

One thing which I found a little inadequate though, was the depth at which she has tried to explore the Italian lifestyle and the Italian people. Her exposure of that side remained restricted to the people she hires to restore her villa and to the ones from whom she buys things of her daily use. Doesn't look like an account from someone who experiences this life style year after year for a few months on regular basis.

A few months back I had read – “Eat, Pray and Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, found a few similarities in the two stories, the protagonists in both, spend time in Italy after having gone through a divorce in their lives. They both enjoy the Italian food and the flavours and revel in the beauty of the place. But Elizabeth dwelled a litle deeper in the Italian lifestyle and brought out the cultural differences more prominently.

Book Review : Sister, sister...

The review has been cross posted at Saffron Tree

Author : Roopa Pai

Illustrated By : Greystroke
Published By: Pratham Books

Age Group : 4-8 years

A set of 4 books, subtitled as "Fun Conversations about Everyday Science", which I came across by chance while browsing the shelves in Pratham Books office cum sales center.

When we go out on our after-dinner walks (sometimes), my daughter likes pointing out - "Mama, see the moon is walking with us" , and then my son asks, "Why is the moon not staying at one place, how can it be moving with every person who is walking?" These questions amuse me. I think all children have these basic questions in their minds and try to find the logical answers which their innocent minds best understand. In these books, an inquisitive little boy asks his elder sister many questions and the sister encourages him to think first what could be the reason of these things happening a certain way? He tries to think of all possible reasons from his understanding of the world, which is mainly based on the stories he must have heard from here and there.

Sister, Sister Why Is The Sky So Blue? The little brother thinks that one old lady lives on the sky and washes her big blue saree everyday and then spreads it over the sky and puts the cloud stones on top so that the wind does not carry it away(I specifically liked the explanation of clouds on the sky as stones). Or is it a sea - upside down, but how is the water held up in an upside down position? You will have to read it to find the amazing explanation!

Sister, Sister Where Does Thunder Come From? He thinks that the old lady living on the sky does not allow the children of her children to play, so they grumble. But later they start the game of chaupad, which they spread across the whole sky. The clapping of happy children and the rolling of giant dice make all the sounds of thundering. If not this, then angry roaring of Kumbhakarana, whose sleep got disturbed, must be the reason behind the thundering sound or may be the fancy bikers' are responsible for the thunder. But what are these fancy biker's doing high up there?

Sister, Sister Where Does The Sun Go At Night? His imagination makes him see the similarity between his father and the sun. Probably the big sun gets tired by the end of the day as all fathers do and goes to bed where his wife covers him with a heavy stars studded blanket so that his snoring doesn't disturb anybody. (My children think a blanket with these specifications might do the trick to keep their father's snoring a little less audible too.) But if this is not the correct reason then maybe the sun slides down in the ocean, but what will the sun do under the sea?

Sister, Sister Why Don't Things Fall Up? May be the things used to go up earlier but then the old lady in the sky got tired of cleaning the mess up every single day and because of her curse on earth, now everything lands right back on earth. Or could it be that there is a greedy monster in the earth who keeps sucking everything up? May be the delicious laddoos that their mother makes also vanish mysteriously to satisfy the greed of this monster under the earth!

After he has explored all possible flights of his imagination, his sister does tell him whatever she has read in the books, trying to explain the physical phenomena - scattering of light, rotation of earth, gravity and thundering, in a simple way.

While reading these books to my children, I found it a good time to ask them what do they think. A great opportunity to peep into their minds, and to accompany them in their pursuit of finding answers to such queries. While teaching them the routine stuff, we tend to overlook the significance of free flow of thoughts, not bothering about the correctness of the same that much.

On the last page there are simple experiments explained to show the phenomena.

Illustrations are beautiful with bright colours and even the manner in which the text is printed on the pictures is interesting and blends with the pictures very well. Some pages are simply medley of vibrant colours put together by bold strokes of brush - a delight to the eyes.

Book Review : Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths

My first guest post appeared on Saffron Tree.

A book review of "Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths" (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters)

Title : Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters)
Author: Trina Wiebe
Illustrator: Meredith Johnson
Ages : 4-8

Publisher : Lobster Press


To start with, I would love to narrate one interesting anecdote from my childhood. I remember when we were very small, my sister and I used to love eating the meat of the melon seeds. It was a big effort to get those seeds cleaned first, to remove the pulp in which they are encased. Mostly we used to clean the seeds using a couple of vessels and a sieve. But one day we had a brilliant idea - we thought we should use the rough floor of our verandah for spreading the seeds on, it was easier this way as we could just squeeze the seeds and set them free from their pulp. It worked really fine and we were happy that we could accomplish the task sooner than previous times. When we brought the bowl of all clean shining seeds inside to enjoy them, our elder sister pointed out that the place where we kept the seeds on the floor is not a clean one and we walk on that floor all the time, we should not eat these seeds. That made us a little uncomfortable (as we were about to put the seeds in our mouths to pop them open) but we didn't want to lose our seeds, so we decided to wash the same seeds with "Surf" (detergent powder for washing clothes) and then have them. It seemed like the most intelligent idea we had at that time.

Not quite similar but somehow after almost 25 years I was reminded of this incident when I was reading - "Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths" , to my children. Innocent minds just know very simple ways to clean things up or bring some change.

In this book, the unaware Tess decides to give the goldfish a bubble bath by putting Dish Detergent in their tank, to make the goldfish feel better. This book is the first one of the series of - Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters. Two sisters Abby (elder one) and the younger one - Tess are desperate to have a pet of their own, but cannot do so because of the building rules - No pets allowed.

Abby wants to be a Veterinarian when she grows up and loves reading books on different animals. Fortunately she gets a chance to fish-sit Mrs. Wilson's two goldfish, when Mrs. Wilson went out of town for a week. She tries to get as much information on goldfish as possible by reading various books from the library on goldfish. As this is the first "pet-sitting" project that came Abby's way, she wants to prove to her parents that she is responsible enough to take care of the goldfish in the best possible manner. She wants to do it perfectly so that she can request her parents for the permission to start a pet-sitting business of her own.

The whole new experience starts and that is when while accompanying Abby to Mrs. Wilson's apartment to check on the goldfish, Tess does her bit too and it is interesting how Abby rescues the goldfish who seemingly do not like the soapy water. That is when all the information that Abby had gathered from the books comes handy. Obviously very angry at Tess's philanthropic act of making goldfish feel happier, Abby decides to take care of the goldfish all by herself. But later when just two days are left of this job, something terrible happens which can completely ruin all the impression that she wants to build to earn future pet-sitting projects. It is very natural that in the most miserable conditions, we tend to feel bad for what we do wrong, similarly, Abby now feels bad for Tess and talks to her and apologizes to her for her indifference towards her. Then two of them together try to save the situation. Initially Abby thinks of hiding it from her parents but then realizes that taking responsibility means owning the mistakes too and surprisingly for her, her parents understand that everyone makes mistakes and making mistakes is so human. They still decide to give her a chance to pet-sit in future too. The same night Abby gets busy in preparations for her exciting pet-sitting job with Tess as her reliable assistant.

We read this book over a few days, one chapter everyday, keeping the curiosity of kids high. Everyday they used to wait for the designated reading hour. A wonderful way to introduce children to the habitats, eating habits and other characteristic features of different animals along with some messages - working together is always better than working alone, owning the mistakes instead of hiding them. Getting such messages from different sources and in different situations always help in making the values firmer in their impressionable minds.

Book Review : A Fine Family

Author : Gurcharan Das

Image courtesy : Amazon

After reading "Difficulty of being good" by Gurcharan Das, I had to read some of his other works. So I picked this book up. "A Fine Family" - a story of three generations, set against the backdrop of changing India - physically as well as at the soul level. The story starts from the time when India was trying to stand on her own feet to get the long due freedom from the Britishers. The main character - Bauji, was a successful lawyer in Lyallpur (now in Pakistan) with his extended family enjoying the benefits of being an urban middle class family. It focuses on the thoughts and feelings of the people at that time when the independence of India was being decided by the leaders on both sides of the table. How the negotiations affected the people of those regions, who literally paid the price for independence of India by giving everything which belonged to them - from material things to their lives. A heart wrenching narration of partition incidents and how some lucky few could cross the border to be on the safer lands. Bauji's family was one among those which could reach the new India, with smaller physical map and a bleeding heart. Loosing just one daughter to the mad riots at that time was the minimum damage they could think of. Many concerns have been raised by the author which I am sure lingered ( and still lingering) on in people's minds and memories - were/are we not competent enough to be a leader of ourselves, were we habitual of being led only. Was the partition of 1947 justified, did the leaders failed the common people who were living in denial till the last moments of partition thinking that this senseless communal violence would stop soon. These are the questions which have been raised and been discussed innumerable times but I guess, some questions are destined to remain unanswered.

Then comes the next generation - a generation which mainly got busy filling up the positions which were being vacated by the British people. It is being depicted through the life of Bauji's daughter Tara and her family. The moods, likes and dislikes of Tara and majority of that generation, quite different from her own husband (Seva Ram) though. Inspite of spending the lives together, they both remain unconvinced by the ways which appeal to the other person.

And the third - Tara and Seva Ram's son - Arjun, who wants to achieve more. So he steps out on his own to explore life in a totally different city - Mumbai.

One striking thing which comes out after reading this book is that no matter what times, which generation, humans do have an innate ability of coming out even from worst of situations - triumphant, owing to the grit and determination. It was evident in all three generations - Bauji starting his life afresh after having suffered the perils of partition, Tara having to compromise on marriage front and getting on with the new life which was being chosen for her by her elders and Arjun having left the unpleasant experience of being convicted (wrongly) behind him.

Gurcharan Das is a great story-teller with flawless language and has beautifully portrayed the desires and then adjustments, strengths and weaknesses - of human mind.

Book Review : Difficulty of Being Good

Image source : Flipkart
Author : Gurcharan Das

A book very well written and very informative. It has wonderfully analyzed the subject on hand - Mahabhartha, its main characters and how they handled the situations when their integrity was in question or at stake. I have great appreciation for the author - Gurcharan Das, who has dealt with the issues very objectively without getting biased towards or prejudiced against any particular side in the dharam-yudh. This epic is so vast, great and complicated that it validates the point over and over again- "What is here is found elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere."

The book attempts to define two types of dharma - sadharan dharma and sva dharma. Former being associated to caste or varna or society and the latter is what defines the innte nature of an individual. For the perfect balance, these two need to work in unison but sometimes, they start conflicting with each other as was the case with Yudhishthir. The sadharan-dharma dictated him to function as a king, according to which, fighting/killing becomes part of the duties whereas his sva-dharma guided him to save every single individual no matter what.

I marvelled at one of the many observations of the author - "The epic is obsessed with questions of right and wrong and it analyses human failures constantly". All characters, without any exception, had to stoop down from their own high levels of being ardent dharma followers, when the situations arose.

Krishna - the God (or is he?), has a much larger than life role to play during His whole time on earth. Be it his childhood pranks in Gokul, his encounter with Kansa, his marriage expeditions and then his involvement with his dear friends Pandavas. While being a part of the battle between Kauravas and Pandavas, yet not directly involved as an active warrior, Krishna plots many plans to make Pandavas win the battle. He tries his best, as a peace messenger to avert the battle but when it is not possible, he believes that no matter what type of means are employed - fair or unfair, battle has to be won. The reason that Pandavas' cause is just, is sufficient enough to even use unjust means or tricks to achieve that result.

Other main characters of the epic are also a lot thought provoking - be it,
* Bhishma, who got his name after taking an oath - never to marry and to remain loyal to the throne of Hastinapur without giving it any thought that there may come some time when the king is not capable enough to deserve such loyalty. But he remained true to his words till his last breath.

* Karna, who even after coming to know of the fact that he was the brother of five Pandavas, remained loyal to his friend - Duryodhana and we do not find any flaw in this character except on two occasions when he was a party to the assembly where Draupadi was disgraced and when Abhimanyu was killed in a foul play. He remained "a true giver" all through his life. Our sympathies do go with this character, who had to pay for none of his faults.

*Yudhishthir, son of Dharma himself, who dared tread the path of doing what is expected of him at any given time, was put to tests many times by Dharma. In the end, Indra gave him an exceptional boon as he truly remained a great person and felt for other creatures more than how he felt for himself. We feel the anxiety, remorse and sadness that he finds himself in after the war. Despite having won the war, he considers himself a loser after the battle is over. He comes across as a very strong personality in the epic.

While reading this book, the readers would not be able to avoid getting many doubts and questions themselves. I think, the doubts basically on two planes - about some of the incidents that happened in Mahabharatha and then questions about the current times.

• Is it even feasible to compare the two times and trying to get the answers from the epic? Are not the two situations so mutually exclusive or for that matter, any two situations and times are so disjoint that comparison becomes impossible.
• What are we trying to achieve from this comparison? Fine, even at that time humans found it difficult to remain true to the path of dharma, is it a justification to not take - "being good" part that seriously.
• Is "being good or not good" a function of situation concerned?
• Who decides and on what basis can humans be good or not good at any particular time ?
• How important is the fairness of the means in achieving a fair result? And who decides the fairness of means or of the result?
• Can there be a broad definition of Dharma with which majority of people could relate and try to adhere to or is it too subjective and varied as the humans themselves are? The definition of Dharma was too varied for the characters of Mahabharatha themselves. Some did not think its wrong to sacrifice an individual for the benefit of majority whereas some were not ready to even sacrifice a single individual despite knowing the fact that that particular individual could bring more problems for others.
• The author very nicely puts - "if greed is the vice of capitalism, envy is the flaw of socialism". Is there a possibility of having a stable system for human race, which can atleast aim to do away with these faults?
• Is making the tricks (which Krishna plotted) public during the great battle, a way to convey the message to the world - to err is very much human.

The author has done a lot of research and compared the characters of this epic with many other kings and personalities from the world history. Really a thought provoking piece of writing and offers a lot of substance.

Book Review : Family Matters

Image source : Amazon
Author : Rohinton Mistry

A story about a Parsi family living in Bombay. As the author puts it, the most accepting and giving city of the world as it keeps welcoming people and embrace them in its arms. In return, the city endures for the ones coming into its folds everyday. There is a brief mention of the Shiv Sena people who are trying to control the natural flow of the city by putting their claims on its fabric whether it is in the form of changing the name to Mumbai or not allowing people to celebrate festivals that do not go well with them. The nostaliga that Mr. Kapur feels for his initial period in the city tells us how the author loved the older version of Mumbai.

The story revolves around the head of the family - Nariman Vakeel, family of his married daughter Roxanne and Nariman's two step-children - Coomy and Jal. When the story begins Nariman is living with Coomy and Jal in a 7-rooms flat but Coomy has not fogiven him and she has her heart full of anger for her step-father. Nariman is struggling with Parkinsons and osteoporosis. But the complicated situation arises when Nariman gets a fractured ankle and Coomy and Jal find it too hard to take care of him and dump him at their step-sister's small two-bedroom flat without prior notice. Because of this sudden happening of events Roxanne has to face some problems and unpleasantness with her husband Yezad. But she looks after her father, taking care of his personal needs also, very dearly. Yezad on his end is struggling with the fact that he is not able to provide enough for his family and there is always the financial crunch even more now when there is an addition to the family.

In an attempt to keep her step-father out of that house forever Coomy thinks of an evil plan and gets trapped in it herself.

As far as the writing style of the author is concerned, I think he seriously should edit the story to remove the unimportant parts from the narration. Totally unnecessary details make it a little too long and a drag somtimes. He is successful in making readers see the perils of old age and how with this phase of life comes the feeling of being unwanted for even the dear ones. An average story but should have been a little more crisp.